Chapter 15

Um? What’s that s’posed to mean? What kinda punishment’d they give you, Bou?

Fufu. It’s nothing like being defeated here and having people the world over deride me, claim that Knights has become weaker ever since Suou Tsukasa took the throne—

No, it’s much, much worse than such ridicule.

That is why I will never make that choice. And I take pride in that.

…?

I must apologize, my senpais… If I am allowed to be selfish, then we—then Knights will face defeat.

It will be a great dishonor, a black stain on the history of Knights, which we inherited from our predecessors.

So what?

Huh…?

Your loss is my loss, Suu~chan. Actually, if you think about it, I’m the one who’s most responsible for not being able to see through our enemy’s—Crazy:B’s strategy.

So if anyone should apologize, it’s me. Sorry about that, Suu~chan.

Pretty pathetic, huh, acting like some military strategist then getting us into this mess.

But even still, Knights respects the opinions of its individuals. So if that’s what you want to do, then go for it.

It’s not because you’re the King, but because you’re you, Suu~chan—And we’re us, and we respect your opinions.

We’ve always made light of what you had to say without really listening to you.

And it’s not like we’ve made and about-face at the last second, but every once in a while—this time, at least…

We’ll sacrifice ourselves for your goals. No matter how it ends up, even if we lose or embarrass ourselves, we’ll all bear that burden, together.

So don’t give us that face. You haven’t done anything wrong in our eyes, Suu~chan.

He’s right, y’know. This whole thing is just you doing what we always do, Tsukasa-chan.

Thinking for yourself, making decisions on your own, and doing whatever you want to do.

That’s what Knights is.

And even if we trip and fall because of it, even if we lose… It’s still so much better than someone forcing you to ignore your feelings and become a good child living for their sake.

So at the very least, we’ll be able to retain our self-respect.

We’ll still be able to love ourselves.

That’s how we’ve been living all our lives, isn’t it? So what if we lose? So what if we fall down and make a fool of ourselves?

We’ve always been able to bounce back from all the things that got us down and keep moving forward.

Yep yep. Even if we end up at the very bottom, we’ll just work our way backwards again.

We’ve gone down this same path before, so this time we know how to get back to where we were more quickly and more efficiently.

If it’s us, if it’s Knights, it’ll be fine.

Yeah. That just shows how strong we’ve gotten.

No matter how much they try to pick us apart, they can’t take away the beauty and self-respect we’ve polished and shined.

You two—

So? You’ve made your decision, then?

In that case, let’s get on with it and do what we gotta do. We’re already in the final stages of the SS Qualifiers—We can’t afford to stand here and twiddle our thumbs.

—I, Amagi Rinne, Chief of Crazy:B, challenge Suou Tsukasa, Chief of Knights, to a duel. A live showdown.

…I reject your proposal.

Your rejection has been noted. Now once again, I challenge you to a duel.

I refuse…

I acknowledge your rejection, and challenge you again.

I–I refuse…

Duel.

No.

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