Chapter 139 – My Uppercut for Your Sake (7)I didn"t care about boxing style anymore.
I just thrust my right arm straight out, with all my might.
I was leaning forward with a posture as if I was throwing a baseball.
At the signal to start the second round, I released my . The prince was bewildered and took a defensive posture with his pure white wings.
Guard?
I don"t give a d.a.m.n! I"ll blow you away with it!
“Guh!”
My fist, with the added momentum of my run-up, dug deep into the prince"s wing.
“Haa!”
At the same time, I let out a yell of enthusiasm and put all my weight behind my fist and swung.
The prince"s body floated slightly, and it was unlikely that he would be able to immediately turn to attack from his guard position.
“Kunpei-san!”
“Kunpei-kun!”
I clenched my left fist tightly, as if responding to his father"s encouragement and Aoi and Mik.u.ma"s cheers.
An effective attack? Boxing theories?
I don"t care! All I can do is punch this guy as hard as I can!
If I make it too hard, I"ll get a flat tire! My brain!
“Your Highness!”
“Whoa! Kunpei-kun, that was intense!”
Just before the impact of my left fist, I hear Kayone"s worried voice and Utai"s loud voice.
It"s a shame, though.
I know better than most that it"s not working at all!
This is not a cross-arm block, but a cross-wing block.
My fist blew the prince away with his folded wings.
Prince Atol retreated slightly from the ring, but the damage was probably minimal.
But.
I knew that from the beginning.
For the time being, I didn"t think about anything and just mindlessly hit him with all my strength and pent-up frustration.
You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
“If it goes to the third round, you"ve lost! Go with the intention of finishing him!”
I know! Even if you don"t tell me, that"s what I planned to do!
Full power with my left, super full power with my right!
I hit the prince with all the energy I had saved in the first round, or rather the energy I hadn"t even been allowed to use, and use it up.
With the momentum of bringing back the right arm that I swung down, I shook off the wings that formed a solid guard.
I gave him a straight left with all my might, over the top of a defense that was one layer thinner.
“Guh!”
The prince"s torso bent slightly.
Taking advantage of this momentum. Don"t stop your legs, don"t stop your arms, don"t stop!
Straight for the face!
A sharp angle towards the body!
You"re about to use a kick, but you hold it back and hit, hit, hit, hit, hit!
“Fuhn! Fuu! Haaaa!”
I"ve been clenching my teeth and frantically attacking, so my breathing was rough.
I"m forcing myself to set the pace, as if I"m trying to exchange the stress simmering in the pit of my stomach for motivation and high spirits.
“Guh! Ngh!”
With each blow, Prince Atol squeezed out a painful sound from the back of his throat as he endured my onslaught.
Just by the looks of it, the situation was completely reversed from the first round.
I"m overwhelming, and the prince was at a disadvantage.
That"s what everyone would say if they were an onlooker.
However.
It was different.
I"m beginning to understand.
The source of the discomfort I"ve been feeling is now clearly outlined, and I can already clearly see its silhouette.
It was almost three minutes into the second round.
I have the upper hand those three minutes.
No, I was given the upper hand.
This b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
“Hold it right there! Both of you, in the corner!”
The heavy sound of gongs echoed as Nanairo-san announced the end of the round.
I stopped my swinging arm and couldn"t hide my mental discomfort as much as my sweat-stained skin.
I glared at Prince Atol in front of me.
The prince spread his stiffened wings in front of his body and lowered his arm, which has turned red from the constant beating, as he slowly walked back to the corner where Kayone and Utai were waiting.
As for me, breathing heavily, I lowered my arms and continued to watch Prince Atol"s back from the center of the ring.
My whole body began to shake.
The stress that had built up over the past few days had turned to red rage in the past three minutes, and I couldn"t take it anymore.
“Kunpei! You did well! Come back and rest!”
Without reacting to my father"s voice coming from behind me, I raised my arms and grabbed my headgear.
“Hey, Kazamachi. It"s interval time, okay?
Gasara, who was outside the ring with a mallet on his shoulder, spoke to me.
I didn"t respond to his voice and forcibly took off my headgear.
The headgear, which was tightly secured to the back of my head with a string, did not come off easily and was slowly removed from my head with some pain.
“K-Kunpei-san?
“Kunpei-kun? What"s wrong?”
Aoi and Mik.u.ma were watching at ringside.
I still didn"t reply to their words, but finally put one arm through the headgear that"s been removed from my head, and then…
“I can"t do this! This son of a b.i.t.c.h!”
I slammed it into the ring with great force.
A throat-wrenching scream, the frustration that had been building up, erupted vigorously from the pit of my stomach.
“Hah! What a duel! "Sea Dragon"s Servant"! What kind of strong person are you? ! Don"t you dare make fun of me!”
My body was asking for oxygen, which was in short supply because of the amount of energy I spent in the last two rounds.
There was an imbalance between the supply and demand of the air I was exhaling and the air I was seeking.
Heat began to gather on my face from the blood that has begun to climb.
A blood vessel that was on the verge of bursting from too much anger twitched and quivered at my temple.
“K-Kazamachi-sama?”
“Oh, oh? What"s wrong, Kazamachi-kun?”
As I glared at the prince, Kayone and Utai, standing behind the corner post, looked at me with eyes wide with surprise.
The prince, unconcerned, took the mouthpiece out of his mouth and started drinking water from a plastic bottle.
“H-hey. What"s the matter, Kunpei?”
“I don"t give a s.h.i.t about this! You made me be a part of this stupid farce! That"s enough, you stupid prince!”
I replied angrily to my father"s confused voice.
I untied the laces of my right glove with my mouth.
The difficulty of unraveling it frustrated me again, and I pulled the string roughly, biting the glove itself and pulling my arm out.
“I knew something was wrong! I"ve finally figured it out! What are you going to do about it? Haaa?”
In a fit of rage, I slammed the glove into the ring and then removed the glove from my left hand.
I was able to remove it somewhat more smoothly than with my right hand, and threw it as hard as I could at Prince Atol.
“… What are you talking about?”
He lightly brushed off the flying glove with his hand, and without even making eye contact with me, Prince Atol feigned ignorance.
You"ve got to be kidding me.
You know best what I"m talking about!
“You don"t want to win this duel at all, you idiot!”
Yes, the prince was not interested in the duel from the beginning.
The relationship with Kayone, the prince"s childhood, his current situation, and what Kayone and Utai have to say about the true character of Prince Atol.
All of which had led to the answer from the beginning.
Unbalanced behavior and a reckless att.i.tude.
His irreverent manner and his usual quiet demeanor.
There was something wrong with all of it.
This was what was bothering me.
“You"ve got to be kidding me! I think I know what you"re up to now! How sad!”
Yes, maybe it was because it was me, that"s why I was able to understand.
The rumors surrounding me and the inferiority complex that I couldn"t shake.
The complex that grows in the depths of your heart and the ideals you"ve sought. And the glory that you could not obtain.
That"s why the prince and I were so much alike.
The more we hated each other, the more the prince and I understood each other.
“I don"t…”
I know where people who say things like that are bound to end up.
“… Nonsense. Put your gloves back on. I"m going to beat the c.r.a.p out of you, commoner!”
“Stop with those s.h.i.tty provocations! I haven"t fallen so low as to fight a duel I"m treated to!”
The prince, flinched at my words as he ground his molars and glared at me.
“What do you mean? You"re saying that the prince challenged you to a duel with the intention of losing?”
Perhaps scared by my menacing behavior, Mik.u.ma timidly expressed her suspicion.
Ah, I messed up. I didn"t mean to scare you at all.
“… Ah but it"s nothing more than a nuisance to us, though! Isn"t that right, Your Highness!?”
When I called him that with sarcasm and irony, Prince Atol clicked his tongue in plain sight.
What kind of att.i.tude is that after all this time?
“But why? Why would the prince engage in a duel that he has no intention of winning, after even offering rat-ojisama a condition…”
Aoi was so confused that she almost had a question mark floating on top of her head.
“… I"m not sure what the details are, but most likely, it has something to do with Kayone.”
Look, bull"s-eye.
You can"t be so blatant about it, prince.
You"re not cut out for poker.
“M-me?”
“Kayo-san?”
The person in question looked puzzled.
If you don"t mind my speculation, I"ll give you an explanation.
“Kayone said that the prince in the past didn"t have a big att.i.tude like he does now, and he was an honest man who never neglected his efforts.”
“Y-yes, the reason why he gave up on everything is because his father, His Majesty the King…”
“Kayone! What did you tell this guy?”
The prince raised his voice unusually and interrupted Kayone"s words.
“I"ll give you a guess, Prince Atol. I"ll tell you what you"re up to and why you"ve decided to involve me and my daughters in this farce.”
“Guh! Shut up, you"re flapping your gums during a duel! Shut up and put your fists up!”
Don"t be fl.u.s.tered. Your intentions will become transparent.
It"s because you"re like that, that"s why I sensed it.
How fragile. People who force themselves to do everything in their lives are really fragile.
“You"re so sneaky, you know that?!”
“Shut up! What do you think you know? You don"t know anything about me!”
I know.
I can"t help it, I just know it.
I glanced at my father.
My dad, who didn"t know what was going on, tilted his head when he noticed me looking at him.
It"s something that someone as experienced and straightforward as my father would never understand.
It"s a kind of disease that affects people like me and the prince, who are just kids. It"s a horrible disease that affects not only you, but everyone around you as well.
Just like I once did to my mother when I was a child.
“Prince.”
“W-what!”
As soon as I looked back at him, I looked straight into Prince Atol"s eyes.
The prince was so upset by the look that he couldn"t help but look away from me.
“To Dailan, being "Sea Dragon"s Servant" is an honor, right?”
“W-what about it!”
The one who overcame three years of grueling rituals and won it was a "royal failure" who the people once had great expectations for and became disillusioned on his own.
Then what is that honor?
“And as the "Sea dragon"s servant", it"s your duty to fight the strong, fair and square, right?”
“Ah, yes! Honorable! I represent the warriors of Dailan!”
You"re not going to fight a one-sided battle in an unofficial setting like this with a person who can"t even use magic and is in a disadvantageous position, are you?
“Why are you secretly having this duel without telling your brothers?”
“That"s!”
Why would the representative of Dailan, the honorable "Sea Dragon"s Servant", be trying to hide his achievements?
“What will happen to you if your brother found out that you were defeated in such a sneaky duel?”
“Ggh, guh!”
One step at a time, I cornered the prince.
The prince, who was stuck due to the corner post behind him, struggled to get as far away from me as possible by turning his upper body away from me.
You"re not getting away. I"m not going to let you get away with this.
“This is completely my guess, but I"m 100 percent sure it"s right. Prince Atol, your goal is…”
“S-stop… don"t say it!”
No, that"s no good.
You brought me and my daughters into this.
You took away the card of traveling to the sphere continent, which was a matter of life and death for Jaja and Nana, and then you made fun of it.
Even if you were to come begging for forgiveness, I would never forgive you for that.
Jaja and Nana.
Jaja and Nana, you must know that the crime of making the lives of my precious daughters the object of a bet.
“You"ll quit the royal family and give up Kayone, right?”
“You bastaaaard!”
The light disappeared from Kayone"s eyes as she stood behind the pathetically shouting prince.