"What changed?"
The duel was over. For Tomoe, there was only one question left to answer.
Gawain loosened the strap on his shield. The veins on his hands were in immense pain.
"I can't give you an answer."
She couldn't accept that.
"My master told me that you disrespected him. Defeating you was an objective for me."
She looked at the longsword in her hand.
"I can't face my master like this. Please, answer this one question, and I will be indebted to you."
Desperation and respect. Gawain raised his head and looked into her eyes.
"You wanted to avenge your master's injured pride."
He raised his voice so that everyone in the stands could hear him.
"I wanted to move forward because I was lost."
The trident and the giant. A dream that was an enigma to him before the fight.
"Both of us were motivated by a selfish reason."
She couldn't refute that.
"But in the end, I guess that we both didn't find what we were looking for."
He extended his hand.
"It was an honor to fight against you."
For an awkward amount of time, she didn't return his gesture. People started to think that she was being rude.
"Miss Yoshinaka?"
She wasn't listening. He sighed and withdrew his hand.
"No worries. We'll save this for the future."
Not fazed by her rejection, he looked toward the officiator.
"Thank you, sir."
Laurent smiled.
"Good job. I am looking forward to your next match."
He was the officiator for the day. Naturally, he was responsible for the finals as well.
"Now go on, and get some rest."
"I'll go and do that."
He turned around to leave. A voice interrupted him after the first step.
"Wait."
He turned around. The rays of sunlight reflected and shone on the tears that were being forcefully held back in her eyes.
"Are you all right?"
He asked out of concern.
"I am sorry."
She had made a grave error.
"For what?"
Gawain was just as confused.
"I was in the wrong for questioning your ability. This was a fair fight, and you won it with your strength."
Asking for a reason regarding his comeback was done in poor taste. His words had helped her reach a proper conclusion.
'He is a better knight than me.'
Her arrogance had been washed away in a single conversation.
"Just by admitting that, you have embraced the spirit of chivalry."
He gave her a thumbs up. She closed her eyes, which helped one of the restrained tears find a way out.
"Both of you, enough chatter. There is one more match left."
Laurent had no choice. He had to cut this moment short.
"I'll see you around."
He walked back to his side of the entrance. She followed his lead and did the same.
Both of them left, leaving a lot of material behind for the audience to gossip about.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"You wanted him to lose?"
Godwin exaggerated his delivery per his anger.
'Smack!'
A hit to his head. Regina was quick to put him in place.
"Shut up."
Joan sighed at their antics and continued.
"I didn't explicitly want him to lose. But I would have preferred it over a victory."
There was a lot of politics involved.
"I am looking for a proper explanation, Joan. Don't use ambiguous terms with me."
She was her master. There had to be a pretty strong reason for her to wish for his defeat.
Celia started to massage her forehead. This didn't make any sense.
Joan found herself backed into a corner. Pissing Regina off could cause a rift between herself and Gawain. Unable to find any other way out of this, she said,
"Offers of nobility. That was the reason that I wished for his failure."
Skipping over the part that she was the one responsible for his fight against Tomoe, she went directly to the point.
Celia stopped rubbing her head.
"Don't tell me-"
"Exactly. If his potential catches the eye of an influential noble, they would offer you to join their house, only to employ his services."
"Then why did you let him fight in the first place?"
Regina brought up another valid question.
"We had no other choice. He was the only junior fighter this year from our house."
If they failed to provide a fighter, the house of Perseus would become a joke in everyone's eyes.
"Why is becoming a noble so bad?"
Amidst the back and forth, Godwin asked a question. Joan looked at him and said,
"You would only be a noble in name, not in blood, which is considered to be an exploitable commodity. And every other generation that comes after him will be forced to follow that path."
She wasn't kidding.
"Is there a solution?"
Regina wasn't going to wait for the worst-case scenario to happen. Joan said that she didn't explicitly want him to lose, which probably meant that there had to be an answer.
"He would have to swear his allegiance to the council."
The only way. If a black knight or a council member recommends him based on his potential, he could spend the rest of his life working for the council.
"Is that good?"
"First of all, winning doesn't guarantee this. And working for the council can be good, but it can also be very awful depending on who you ask."
None of this was guaranteed. But to ignore the ramifications would be foolish.
"What about your family?"
A bright idea popped into Regina's mind.
"Pardon?"
Joan felt as if she had misheard something.
"You are noble. Can't you adopt him into your family if it comes to that?"
"That is another worst-case scenario, mam."
Celia interjected. Joan agreed with her sister.
"Our family is not a good place to be a part of. Dragging you all into it will only make matters worse."
She looked at the Aegis replica hanging on the wall. She could only hope that no one would be interested in him.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"Gawain."
Elizabeth memorized his name.
"He is a commoner, right?"
"Yes."
Cedric answered.
"I'll have to recommend him to father's corps."
She had just lost 1000 gold coins because of him. But instead of anger, there was intrigue in her eyes.
Cedric gulped, and nodded his head in pity,
'Boy. You and I, both share the same luck. '