Chapter 28 - Duel

"Grand Duke Belphegor."

Someone muttered and that mutter confirmed the identity of the man who just walked in. He was a tall man with short gray hair, his face looked as if he was in his fifties however even multiplying that by five hundred would not be up to quarter his true age. He had visible wrinkles on his hollow face, which made him seem gentle in appearance, but his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.

He wore a traditional butler uniform and looked graceful as he slowly stepped in to the room, he disregarded Layla's presence and that of those who bowed to him in respect and walked up to the boy who seemed like he wanted to hide. Staring at the boy, he spoke one word,

"Explanation."

His gaze was fierce and many looked away for fear of meeting his eyes, the person he spoke to however, just laughed and replied.

"Uncle Bel!, nice to see you, what brings you here?"

His words shocked the onlookers, the boy who looked no less than the average kid on the street was speaking so friendly with a Grand Duke. For Layla, she was even more shocked than they were.

''Uncle Bel'? I've heard that before, there was only one person who dared call him that, but she's a woman, that means this boy is-!'

As her thoughts reached that point, she instantly became scared, his earlier words now made sense to her, it also made sense why he was not scared of her status earlier, he didn't need to as he possessed a higher status than she had.

When the boy removed his hood, dispelling the inhibition magic on himself, her suspicions were confirmed.

The boy had short hair that looked like a mix between silver and platinum blonde. His facial features were highly handsome and he had deep dark eyes. His pupils were a vertical rectangular shape and they made him seem even more attractive. His face was nothing short of a work of art, as he smiled, multiple females of all ages, Layla included, were captivated by him.

Layla blushed slightly as she realized she was enamored by his beauty, however she immediately came back to her senses.

'There's no doubt, it's him, mother has shown me his pictures so many times when talking about an engagement, I've even met him before, I can't possibly forget his face.'

She immediately curtsied and spoke, her words shocked most of those present.

"Grand Duke Eryrth's daughter greets your Highness Arthur; forgive me for not recognizing you earlier."

As she spoke her guards, Galleu included were surprised, however they did not hesitate to bow their heads. Galleu was screaming internally to himself as he did not expect the one he called plebian to actually be the Devildom's prince.

Following this, all the people in the store also showed no hesitation in bowing their heads, some even got on their knees.

Arthur laughed as he saw this and spoke to Layla.

"Layla, was it? Raise your head, I never expected you to recognize me, that's what this is for isn't it?"

As he spoke, he gestured to his hood, he then turned to Belphegor and spoke,

"So Uncle Bel, I really wanted to add these to my collection you see, however the release time clashed with my lesson time, I was quite torn between the two, but in the end I decided to follow my heart and here I am."

After speaking he turned to the shop attendant and said,

"Pack – It – Up!"

Hearing his voice, the attendant woke up from his stupor and immediately packed the guns before presenting them to Arthur. Just as Arthur was about to collect them, a hand covered in gloves stretched out and snatched the package.

"First of all Prince Arthur, my name is Belphegor, not Bel, Secondly, I have been given authority by your mother to confiscate these."

As Belphegor spoke, Arthur's face became down cast, however after hearing Belphegor's next words, he smiled happily.

"It shall be returned provided you complete the assessments you left undone."

Arthur made a small guts pose at this and replied,

"Why are we still here then, let's get going already, I have assessments to finish."

He then proceeded to walk out of the store, however as he reached the door he turned around and said,

"Huh? Y'all are still bowing, I thought I told you to raise your heads? Oh well, shop attendant and foolish guard over there, Galleu, was it? I don't wish to hear of you being in the capital or any of the surrounding territories by tonight."

Hearing his words, many were shocked, however when they remembered that Galleu had called the prince a 'plebian', they felt their prince was quite benevolent. Arthur ignored all the murmurs of the others and walked up to Layla.

"We've met before at an official occasion but this is our first unofficial meeting, you left quite the impression both times. If you really want those guns then you'd have to prove you're worthy of them."

He pulled out his magi-tech smartphone and gave it to her before saying,

"Contact information, I'd contact you about my conditions tonight."

Layla did as he requested and watched Arthur leaving, after Arthur left, she spoke up breaking the silence in the store.

"We're returning, and Galleu, don't forget the prince's words."

The other guards looked at Galleu with pity, but they could not say or do anything, only shaking their heads in disappointment.

Looking at Arthur who was conversing seriously with Belphegor on the road back to the private teleportation gate halls, Layla wondered what they could make him have such a serious face. All the time's she had met Arthur, he always acted carefree, she wondered what could make look so serious.

'It's probably an important matter I shouldn't be concerned with. For now, I should concern myself with how I'd escape mom's nagging.'

She thought to herself as she walked away, unfortunately she could not be further from the truth. Arthur was currently staring at his phone weirdly as he spoke.

"How on Aeturn is such a small device capable of so many things? This is one of that Boffin dude's inventions right, I heard he improved the originals the humans invented and added more features with magi-tech."

"Yes Prince, the current smartphones are the upgraded versions of the originals created by the humans of Earth."

Arthur pondered on Belphegor's reply while still staring at the phone, he then looked at the ground and said,

"Where is 'Earth' anyway? It's a strange world, having the same name as the earth attribute yet the humans from there claim there was no sort of magic or supernatural energies there."

"Unfortunately, it's exact location remains unknown till today. Other 'Earths' have been discovered but they were not as technologically advanced as the original, the first one known."

Arthur sighed and put his phone back in his pocket as he thought of what conditions to give Layla, when he arrived at conclusion he grinned evilly as he walked into the teleportation gate. Seeing this Belphegor sighed and said to himself.

'He has the same look on his face as the princess when she is about to play a prank on someone, they are so alike in the wrong ways. I should probably send my condolences to the poor young lady for being caught up in his antics.'

Meanwhile, Layla who just finished narrating the events of the day to her mother suddenly sneezed.

'Who's talking about me?'

She rubbed her nose and decided to think about what conditions the Arthur could possibly give her concerning the guns.

The next day Layla made her way to the private training center not far from the weapon market she was in the day before. Upon arriving, she was welcomed and led to the personal training room that was reserved for her.

As she walked there with her guards, she remembered the phone call she received the night before,

◇　◇　◇

After having her dinner with her parents, Layla was about to leave the dining hall when her phone rang, she usually didn't care to silence it as most of the noble's children she interacted with frequently all knew she disliked being called at late hours.

Upon hearing the ringtone, her father frowned and spoke,

"Layla, you are not associating yourself with unscrupulous people who engage in late night activities are you?"

Her father was usually nice and doted on her a lot, however when it came to matters concerning the reputation of the House of Eryrth, he became strict. He was proud of his house's reputation and did not tolerate anything that besmirched it. Hearing his question, she glanced at the phone, after seeing it was an unknown number, she cursed at whoever called her before replying,

"No father."

She ignored her mother's cold stare and picked up the phone, putting it on loudspeaker she spoke politely,

"Good evening, who is this please?"

"Huh? Why so polite? Well I could not care less, remember what I said this afternoon, I've decided, if you want those all you have to do is beat me in a duel tomorrow, I'll send you the location details later.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow."

Upon hearing the voice on the phone, both Layla and her father recognized it instantly, it was Arthur's. Before her father cold speak up, Arthur continued,

"Why aren't you replying? You shy or something? Or is your dad there? If he is say hello to him for me, tell him I'd like him to come see the duel too. See ya!"

And after that he cut the call without giving her a chance to reply. Her father shook his head while sighing, she could faintly hear him muttering,

"The prince and his whims again."

◇　◇　◇

And that's how she ended up coming to the Odger Training center with her dad in tow. The training center was a place where various nobles of all ages came for various activities, ranging from light exercises in the gymnasuims to training spars.

The place had various training rooms equipped with barriers for light spars and duels, after she changed into a more suitable attire, they were lead to a training room that had six other figures inside. Upon seeing them, she nearly cried out in shock, the Crown Prince, Princess and two of the Grands, Grand Duke Belphegor and Grand Duchess Inglis were there.

The one who called her into this place was playing on his phone, upon her entrance he dropped the phone and moved towards her while waving.

"Layla over here! Oh, Morning Grand Duke, didn't expect you to actually come though."

Without waiting for a reply he pulled Layla to the center of the room and said,

"Don't bother with the greetings, it's not like they'd kill you if you don't greet just once, Let's begin already, choose your weapon."

He fired a continuous barrage of words as he dragged her over to the weapons section, they were all real weapons arranged there. As she was concerned on safety, the attendant explained that they would be using sacrificial artifacts that took the hits for them.

The first one to have all three sacrificial artifacts broken loses the duel, she heaved a sigh of relief after this and picked up a set of twin pistols before going to face Arthur who had similar weapons on him, his however were tucked in their hostlers.

Creuserey spoke out loud,

"Better win Arthur, or I'd increase your training."

"Of course I'd win, I don't want any more training, I wanna go play like other kids my age do."

Arthur shot back at Creusery's words which made Cattleya and her Inglis sitting beside him chuckle lightly.

Arthur and Layla faced each other in the middle of the ring and equipped their sacrificial artifacts. She then heard her father's voice in her head saying,

"Do your best."

She smiled, feeling more motivated. Looking at Arthur, she decided to try out her normal skills without using her guns first so she put them in their hostlers. Then a buzzer sounded signifying the beginning of the duel.

Arthur kicked the ground and rushed straight ahead with her his fist out. No petty tricks, no ace up his sleeve, a head-to-head contest.

"That's some punch!"

**Ker-chaank!!

When Layla's open palm caught Arthur's fist, a high-pitched sound reverberated. It was as though air vibrated and trembled with that alone.

"It's fast and heavy!"

Layla curled her other hand into a fist and sent it straight to Arthur. Another high-pitched sound reverberated across the room.

"You too, your punch is heavy, who's the one who said that bullshit that girls have weaker physical strength? That's a lie."

This time, Arthur caught Layla's fist. They stayed in that position in lieu of a contest of strength.

'We're still testing the waters, but that's a grand duke's daughter for you, she's been trained for years, no way she'd go down easily.'

Their strengths were even as they were locked at a standstill.

Layla chuckled. She decided to reveal one of her abilities, her eyes green eyes glowed and Arthur felt his body stiffen.

"!!"

Arthur's body reflexively twitched and drew back. The moment he slackened his strength, Layla had already twisted her body and amassed potential force.

"You're wide open!"

Before Arthur could regain his stance, a whip-like high kick was already right in front of his eyes.

'Tch. Didn't think she had paralyzing magic eyes.'

"Release!"

He gave a command and the strength-sealing artifact on his feet unlocked and fell off. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his body. By releasing the artifact, he could respond to things he could not before! With instantaneous speed, Arthur moved to outside the range of that kick.

"What the!?"

Layla was astonished as she thought her kick would connect. Without a moment's delay, Arthur rushed forward again. This time, he unleashed a series of fist blows.

**KAABOOOOMMM!!!!

Arthur and Layla's fists collided with each other, raising a thunderous roar that shook the air.

"Oy, are these kids really in the master realm?"

Surprised, such words leaked out from Inglis' mouth.

"But, this is still nothing. They're still fighting hand-to-hand." Cattleya remarked in response.

In the high-speed fistfight, Arthur who was free of his strength seal was gradually overpowering his opponent.

"Tch!"

With Layla's arm-guard growing flaccid, Arthur pushed it aside and delivered a blow to her clavicle.

"Ah——hggh!"

Being shoved to her backside, Layla's body was blown back. However, she soon regained her stance and stood up excitedly as though she would hop up and down.

"You're quite good, your highness."

"So are you."

Arthur's hidden battle junkie was slowly showing itself, there was numbness lingering in his fist, which was a testament that Layla's defenses were anything but ordinary.

"Then——about time I do what I'm supposed to do! I'm not much of a hand-to-hand combatant, you see?"

Layla quickly reached her hand towards Arthur. In her palm, the gun that was supposed to be in her hostler appeared.

"I see, a reequip artifact huh?"

Layla smiled smugly.. Arthur laughed and removed one of the rings on his hands, at that action, some of the spectators let out surprised voices.