“It’d be a bloodbath,” Zelos sighed. “Ado could cut the guy in half with a swipe of his sword, blast him to pieces with a single spell... Point is, he wouldn’t survive a duel. Taking on Ado would be a very bad decision.”
Once again, Uru came face-to-face with harsh reality.
Despite how intense his love for Yui was, she hadn’t even noticed his feelings. And now that she had found out, there was no way she was going to reciprocate them.
But as furious as he was, Uru wasn’t about to be swayed by the others’ logic. It was all just white noise to him.
“Hmph—are you scared? Worried I’ll beat you?” he taunted.
“Look, dude...” Ado said. “Were you even listening?”
“Yes, I was listening—listening to you four spout any nonsense you could think of to get out of this duel. I’ve never even heard of a mage as preposterously strong as what you’re claiming.”
Suddenly, Zelos’s sixth sense activated. He could feel the similarity between Uru and his sister, Sharanla, who was obsessed with money and refused to do anything but leech off the rich. Like Sharanla, Uru seemed incapable of believing he could be in the wrong.
“Mmm... Okay, Ado, this guy’s not going to listen. I think you’ll just have to accept the duel,” Zelos said. “People like this won’t back down until you actually show them how much stronger you are. They’re impossible to convince.”
Perhaps Uru’s self-confidence—his belief he could never lose—was a factor too. But whatever the case, he was failing to understand that what he was asking for was suicidal.
Sure, it did show how strongly he felt about Yui, but his intensity was taking him down a dangerous path.
What was more, Uru was the type who refused to let go of anything he’d grown attached to. Once he got started on something, there was no stopping him. And eventually, it would turn into a stubborn fixation.
“Seriously?” Ado said. “Urgh, this is gonna be a pain...”
“Honestly, this should be a decision between you and Yui—you shouldn’t have to convince this guy of anything—but I’d recommend nipping the issue in the bud before he gets any more worked up,” Zelos said. “He probably intends to steal her from you. Just think of him as a stalker or something.”
“Wait—so he’s the same as Yui?! Jeez... Give me a break already!”
“Remember, I’m pretty sure he sees you as some asshole playboy. He’s not going to back down and let you have Yui unless you show him he’s got no chance.”
“Uh... Is that how he sees me, or is that you being bitter?”
“What? N-No, uh... Of course not. Not at all.”
“Look me in the face, dammit!”
Despite his fooling around, Zelos did have a real concern in mind. Ado and Yui might’ve been engaged, but they weren’t married—and it didn’t seem like an engagement was enough to dissuade someone as persistent as Uru.
There was even the risk he’d drift into that ‘let’s just die and be together in heaven’ sort of thinking.
In fact, Yui—with her similar stalker tendencies—had tried to pull the same thing only yesterday. It didn’t seem out of the question for Uru to try it himself.
The fact that it might happen a second time in two days made Zelos curse his bad luck for getting caught up with such troublesome individuals.
Though, technically, Ado was the one who had to deal with it all...
“Your only option’s to crush him with everything you’ve got,” Zelos said. “Going easy on him would only backfire, by the way. He won’t stop unless you leave him terrified of you. I’m confident.”
“Are you nuts?! You know he’s no match for me, right? You may as well be telling a dragon to go all out against an ant. I don’t wanna be that brutal...”
Zelos just chuckled. “And what’s your alternative? You expect a stalker to be convinced by reason? What chance do you think you’d have of talking down Yui if she were this jealous and this mad?”
“Okay—damn, you’re convincing! ’Cause yeah, no way. No chance. She doesn’t listen to a word I say when she gets like that...”
“Well, then—there you have it. A toast to the young man and his obsessive future wife!”
Zelos had planned to stay out of what was a matter between husband and wife.
As childhood friends, Ado and Yui understood each other, and it was clear that they cared a lot for one another. It was the kind of relationship that could blow up spectacularly if an outsider—especially a woman—got between them, but everything would be smooth sailing as long as everyone else kept that in mind.
Unfortunately, though, another man had gotten close to Yui.
Yesterday, Yui had chased Ado around for what felt like forever after seeing him arrive with Shakti and Lisa. Today, it was the opposite.
If Ado had had the same personality as Yui and Uru, things would’ve devolved into complete chaos by now.
“Am I really that stubborn? That bad at listening?” Yui pouted.
“Have you already forgotten about your rampage yesterday?” Zelos said. “Uru’s just like you, Yui. In fact, this could be a good chance for self-reflection. You know what they say: ‘One man’s failure is another’s lesson.’”
“Zelos?” Ado glared at him. “Have you forgotten how you egged her on? You fanned the flames! You tried to have her kill me!”
“Whoops...” Zelos laughed. “I suppose I did! What can I say? My emotions got the better of me. I guess I’m still an emotional young man myself, eh?”
“When someone your age acts like that, it’s just called immaturity!”
“I prefer ‘young at heart,’ my dear Ado. I may be middle-aged, but I’ll have you know I’ve got a reputation among my neighbors for my youthfulness. Lately, people my own age have been telling me how spry I look!”
“I don’t give a shit!”
While Zelos and Ado went at it, Lisa and Shakti did their best to distance themselves and not get involved. They didn’t want to end up as collateral damage.
Seeing everyone act so casually only infuriated Uru all the more.
Through great effort, Uru had become a top student at the Istol Academy of Magic, an achievement he was quite fond of. The academy had later invited him to work as a lecturer, and he prided himself on being more capable than even the court mages. He had a fair amount of combat experience too.
He’d expected, at the very least, that his foe wouldn’t completely write him off—yet it seemed like Ado and Zelos weren’t even aware Uru was still in the room with them. He wondered why they were completely ignoring a graduate of a renowned magic academy—and why everyone seemed to agree that he didn’t stand a chance.
His ego more bruised than ever, Uru took Ado and Zelos’s attempts to warn him as a provocation.
“So? Will you accept my duel or not?” he said.
“I really don’t want to,” Ado said, “but if I don’t, you’re never going to get off my back, are you? You’re not giving me much of a choice, so whatever. Let’s do it.”
“You certainly seem calm,” Uru spat. “You’re underestimating me, aren’t you?”
“No. I know for a fact you won’t stand a chance. I know your answer, but I’ll ask anyway: Are you sure you wanna go through with this?”
“Of course. You don’t deserve her.”
“Who we ‘deserve’ is for us to decide, not some outsider. Look, I feel awkward about all this. You did help her out, after all. But if we’re really gonna fight...don’t expect me to take it easy on you, okay?”
“I wouldn’t want you to!”
Uru’s fate had been set in stone.
Zelos took an amulet out of his inventory, figuring it might just come in handy. It was one of the prototypes he’d given Zweit, Croesus, and Celestina before the academy’s trip to the Ramaf Woods.
“Do you mind putting this on, Yui? Just in case.”
“Um... What is it?”
“A little something I’d like you to equip before we move on, just in case things go south. I’m getting a bad feeling about this, that’s all.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, just let it do its thing later on, if you need to.”
While Yui was hesitant to take anything from a man who wasn’t Ado, she figured Zelos was trustworthy enough. After all, he’d kept his word and brought Ado back to her. She wasn’t about to let down her guard around Shakti or Lisa, but she couldn’t ignore the advice of someone who’d kept a promise like that. In the end, she decided to equip the amulet.
In the meantime, Uru continued to glare daggers at Ado—who yawned in return, entirely disinterested.
“Guess we start once you’re ready?” Ado sighed. “Actually, wait—where are we doing this?”
“Hmm... How about that open field outside the village?” Zelos suggested. “There’s plenty of room there, and if we’re that far out, there shouldn’t be too many casualties if everything gets blown up.”
“You know, Zelos, you’re awfully familiar with the area for someone who’s only been here once...” Ado said.
“Ah, that’s because I took out a faerie rose in the countryside last time,” he explained. “I happened to pass that field on my way out to it.”
“Shit... So there was one here too, huh? Yeah, guess we really do need to wipe out every last one of those little faerie bastards...”
And so Zelos made his way to the countryside, Ado plodding along begrudgingly in his wake.