“You! I’ll never forgive you! You kidnapper! Pedophile!”

The Chief of Staff, having lost his reason, began hurling insults at Sir Dominic without restraint.

For Sir Dominic, this was maddening, but he thought it best to clear up the misunderstanding first.

Yes. Until the glove came flying from the Chief of Staff.

Clang!

Sir Dominic was pushed back about ten steps while standing from the tremendous impact.

“You scoundrel…! For the honor of the Demon Lord, I challenge you to a duel!”

Magical Engineering Gauntlet MK.3.

That was the name of the heavy gauntlet thrown by the Chief of Staff.

Soon, the mechanical gauntlet flew up on its own and attached itself to the Chief of Staff’s left hand.

The cunning beard on the Chief of Staff’s aged face twitched.

Perhaps he was desperately trying to manage his expression to avoid revealing a mocking smile at Sir Dominic.

It would be amusing to see Sir Dominic retreat ten steps despite his duel challenge.

Why on earth did the Chief of Staff’s attack penetrate Sir Dominic’s Newbie Protection System?

Sir Dominic was confused but remembered that it had been over a month since he came to Gachaland.

That’s right. The Newbie Protection System had expired.

Sir Dominic, from his faltering stance, properly raised his sword and shield like a knight.

And straightening his posture, he glared at the Chief of Staff.

“Hmph.”

Sir Dominic smiled faintly.

For a knight, a duel is like a double-edged sword.

Honor.

Win and gain it, lose and forfeit it.

Losing honor would be fortunate. In real combat, losing one’s life was commonplace.

But Sir Dominic smiled.

Because he was happy.

The adrenaline and dopamine released instinctively in life-threatening situations made him happy.

And as he became accustomed to that situation, he became happy in similar situations.

Because if he wasn’t happy, he felt like he would die.

“Hmph.”

Sir Dominic glared at the arrogant old man standing before him.

His single pupil contracted, turning eerie.

After a long time, an opponent with whom he could be happy.

“Hmph.”

Sir Dominic was a commoner, and he received many arrogant duel challenges from knights of noble birth.

However, Sir Dominic rose to his current position by utterly crushing such nobles without technique or skill.

The arrogant Chief of Staff before him would end up like them too.

This tense atmosphere.

What Sir Dominic had forgotten during the past month.

The Demon Lord began eating cotton candy with excitement as she watched the standoff between Sir Dominic and the Chief of Staff.

She doesn’t seem to have any intention of stopping them.

Because she was raised as a cruel Demon Lord.

Sir Dominic, happy even in this standoff.

Thud. A flag falls in front of Sir Dominic.

A brown flag with the emblem of Feralant.

Sir Dominic’s battle instinct had awakened once again.

“Vile kidnapper. Seems you have some skill.”

The Chief of Staff adjusted his gauntlet once and took a stance.

Sir Dominic didn’t know what that stance meant, but it reminded him of a knight who was good with his fists.

Instinctively, he tilted his shield slightly outward. Remembering that duel.

The tense standoff between the two began with Sir Dominic’s first attack.

Too happy with the fight after a long time, Sir Dominic couldn’t hold back and lunged forward.

The Chief of Staff, who had been in a stance with his left fist forward while bending his lower body, moved horizontally in an instant.

He was trying to escape Sir Dominic’s path.

The Chief of Staff, who had dug into Sir Dominic’s left side, headed toward Sir Dominic’s back to attack his back.

However, Sir Dominic instinctively pulled his shield and rotated half a turn to the left, meeting the Chief of Staff’s fist with the back edge of his shield.

The pointed part of the edge could neutralize the power of a swinging fist when it collided with it.

But the Chief of Staff was no ordinary opponent.

The Chief of Staff, who caught the edge by opening his right fist that he had been swinging, pushed the shield down with surprising strength and swung the gauntlet on his left toward Sir Dominic’s nose beyond the shield.

From the beginning, the Chief of Staff had been thinking several moves ahead.

If Sir Dominic had not responded to the first move, he would have been disappointed.

Sir Dominic handled the first move admirably.

However, the Chief of Staff had anticipated even the case where Sir Dominic would counter.

Honestly, the Chief of Staff thought this follow-up attack would be the decisive blow.

Until Sir Dominic dropped his shield and stepped back.

“He dropped his shield…?”

The Chief of Staff couldn’t understand.

Generally, shield-bearing tankers treat their shields like their own bodies.

Because others despise shields, they praise shields even more in reaction.

For such a tanker to abandon his shield?

The Chief of Staff, accustomed to duels in Gachaland, thought it was impossible.

But Sir Dominic was still an outsider in Gachaland.

Sir Dominic, familiar with Feralant-style dueling, knew painfully well that both shields and swords were consumables.

The Chief of Staff, who had pulled the shield and thrust his left fist, had his posture slightly twisted due to the shield floating in the air.

Sir Dominic seized that opportunity and struck with the back part of his sword handle.

It was a way to strike faster than swinging the sword given the distance.

Before he could respond, Sir Dominic’s sword handle struck the Chief of Staff’s cheek.

As if not wanting to miss this chance, Sir Dominic grabbed the Chief of Staff’s collar and struck him several more times.

However, the Chief of Staff had formidable experience.

Sir Dominic’s attack momentarily confused him, making it difficult to assess the situation, but the experienced Chief of Staff’s unconscious reflexes succeeded in grabbing Sir Dominic’s right arm.

The fight after that was a mess.

Having grabbed each other’s means of attack, they eventually entered a test of strength.

Overall, the Chief of Staff had higher specs, but Sir Dominic’s experience and the fact that he was younger compared to the Chief of Staff combined to make the strength they felt similar.

The Chief of Staff cowardly struck Sir Dominic’s left ankle bone with his right foot.

And Sir Dominic wisely raised his right foot to target the Chief of Staff’s left ankle bone.

Because their tactics worked too perfectly against each other, they began rolling on the ground while holding onto each other.

“Let go…!”

“Hmph.”

“I said let go!”

“Hmph.”

The Chief of Staff had reached mastery in standing strikes, but because he had stuck too much to standing strikes, he was weak in this kind of ground fighting where they rolled around and checked each other.

Sir Dominic, who instinctively realized this fact, even threw away his sword and attacked between the joints and tendons to prevent the Chief of Staff from getting up, to the point of being disgustingly persistent.

“Stop it!”

The Demon Lord was watching this fight with excitement.

She was watching this honorable duel while eating the last bite of melted cotton candy on her rice cake-like fingertips.

“I said stop…!”

Now the Chief of Staff looked like he was about to cry.

Not because he was about to lose.

Because he hated showing such an unsightly appearance in front of the Demon Lord.

As a noble demon, who started as an aide to the Demon Lord family and rose to the position of Chief of Staff who served the Demon Lords most closely, he could hardly bear such humiliation.

In the end, this old man, despite being able to endure this situation even if it was ugly, and despite being able to overwhelm Sir Dominic, began to cry like a child.

“Don’t… I said don’t… Don’t make me look any uglier…”

Sir Dominic came back to his senses at the sound of this old man’s sad crying.

What he wanted was a desperate fight.

A fight where his head spins, his vision narrows, and he only recognizes the enemy and himself.

Not to torment a messy old man like this.

Sir Dominic got up and looked at the Chief of Staff, who had become unsightly with dirt and tears.

The Chief of Staff, having been in shock for a while, lay there crying.

Not wanting to show tears to the Demon Lord, he covered his eyes with the back of his hand and cried silently.

Soon, the somewhat calmed Chief of Staff raised his upper body and faced Sir Dominic.

His eyes revealed anger towards Sir Dominic, a sense of defeat, and sadness and regret that the Demon Lord was disappointed.

[The winner of the duel is Sir Dominic! Woo~ Loser, get lost!]

The system window that popped up at this timing even seemed to mock the Chief of Staff.

“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go this far…”

“Tanker is overpowered! Honey sucker! Cheater! Hacker!”

The enraged Chief of Staff brought out all kinds of praises he could think of.

Of course, it’s irony.

“How pathetically the Demon Lord must see me. It’s all because of you. Because of you! You villain! Demon! Villain!”

Sir Dominic wanted to say that those words could be fully applied to the Chief of Staff, but he didn’t want to go that far with this tantrum-throwing old man.

The Demon Lord was watching all of this.

In fact, she only moved after secretly eating one more candy without the Chief of Staff and Sir Dominic knowing.

“!”

“Ah, my Demon Lord. I have disappointed you.”

The Chief of Staff prostrated himself at the Demon Lord’s feet to plead for forgiveness.

Yet, how small the Demon Lord was, the back of the prostrated Chief of Staff was higher than the Demon Lord’s crown.

“?”

The Chief of Staff expected the Demon Lord to be disappointed, but the Demon Lord didn’t seem to care much.

Suddenly the Chief of Staff appeared and picking a fight with the nice mister was a bad thing, but for demons, isn’t a bad thing something to be praised for?

Above all, the Demon Lord was still young and liked animation.

And she preferred it when the champion of justice won.

Since the nice mister won, isn’t it the same as the champion of justice winning!

The innocent and whimsical logic of a child saved the Chief of Staff.

The Demon Lord patted the head of the Chief of Staff, who had his head buried in the ground in prostration, saying he fought well too.

“!”

“Ah, my Demon Lord… How can you be so merciful…”

The Chief of Staff began to shed tears of gratitude.

Where did so many tears come from after crying so much just now.

Having received enough pats from the Demon Lord and recovered, the Chief of Staff jumped up from his spot and pointed at Sir Dominic.

“I lost this time, but next time evil will surely win! …If there’s enough time and budget!”

“!”

The Demon Lord, finding the Chief of Staff’s behavior amusing, imitated his expression and pointed at Sir Dominic in the same way.

“Let’s go now, my Demon Lord. Just for today, you can eat that candy as much as you want.”

“!”

The Demon Lord was surprised at the Chief of Staff’s words and followed behind the Chief of Staff, who had started walking briskly ahead.

Sir Dominic, not understanding what was suddenly happening, stared blankly at the two who had left.

The Demon Lord, seemingly concerned about the nice mister, kept looking back and waving.

Unconsciously, Sir Dominic also waved at the Demon Lord.

When the Demon Lord and the Chief of Staff finally disappeared from sight, Sir Dominic sighed.

“What was all that about.”

What was it really all about?

At that moment when Sir Dominic was sighing.

Two women watching this situation from behind a utility pole showed different reactions.

“So she wasn’t his daughter… No, why am I relieved?”

The kunoichi, relieved by the fact that Sir Dominic doesn’t have a daughter yet.

“That fighting style… it’s similar…”

The woman with fluffy, sheep-like long hair thinking of someone while looking at Sir Dominic.

“I think I need to find out more.”

The mysterious woman’s eyes gleamed as she looked at Sir Dominic.