This chapter is meant to show what would have happened if Mamoru and Julius had fought at the beginning of the Royal Selection.
Obviously this isn't canon to the actual story and it's also obviously not an "If" story like Wrath if or Sloth if.
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Mamoru was walking through the tunnel towards the sparring arena with a smug smile on his face, that is until he heard a voice running towards him.
Subaru: What the hell are you doing?!
The young boy sighed as he turned around and faced his father, Natsuki Subaru.
Before the black haired male could continue talking though, Mamoru bowed down with his head low in an apologetic manner. This simple act stunned the black haired male into silence.
Mamoru: Forgive me for not listening to you. As much as I wanted to make you trust me again...I simply cannot allow that guy to walk out scot free without a lesson on manners.
Subaru stood silent for a moment as he thought about his next words and how he should say them.
Subaru: Mamoru. He can't even remember it, and even if he did, you don't have to everything in my name-
Mamoru: This...This isn't just for you.
Subaru's words got caught in his throat as he heard Mamoru's words. The white haired Mabeast then slowly stood up from his bowing position and looked at Subaru with an apologetic smile.
Mamoru: This is a selfish wish of mine. Even if that event never happened...That fucker needs to be humbled.
The young boy then bit his lip.
Mamoru: Please, let me do this. I know this is selfish and I don't deserve your kindness after what happened back then...But please let me do this...
Subaru didn't move for a few seconds, letting the tension rise between them. He then put a hand over his face as he gave a deep sigh of defeat. He didn't bother taking his hand of as he spoke.
Subaru: Just...Just don't do anything fatal...Okay?
Mamoru smile widened as he nodded and turned around and made his way over to the arena while Subaru just sat against the wall of the tunnel and sighed in frustration.
Once Mamoru stepped onto the arena, the first thing he saw was Reinhard trying to stop Julius from doing this with arguments like "he's just a child". Frankly, it is a decent argument if you don't know Mamoru and just judge him off of appearance, but that is the exact reason as to why Mamoru had used the worst possible insults back in the throne room. Insults against the knights so bad that they cannot be overlooked, even if he was a child.
Mamoru then glanced to both of his sides and noticed the knights around them in the arena. For a bunch of "calm" and "diligent" knights they seemed fairly eager for a child to be beat up infront of them.
Oh, if only they knew.
Julius finally noticed Mamoru and lightly pushed Reinhard away as the Sword Saint finally gave up on stopping the fight.
Julius had two wooden swords in his hand, but quickly threw one of them at Mamoru who easily caught the wooden sword.
Julius: Natsuki Mamoru, for insulting the knights of this kingdom, I-
Mamoru: Can we fight now and skip this formal bullshit?
The knight inhaled sharply in annoyance as he held the wooden sword infront of himself.
Julius: Very well.
The knight charged at Mamoru, although Mamoru quickly noticed there was a lack of...Intent in his movement, if Mamoru had to guess Julius was probably thinking that he's going to give Mamoru one half hearted smack on the head and then he'll start crying on the ground while apologizing.
Mamoru's left eye twitched as he saw just how much Julius underestimated him.
Once Julius was close enough to him, he raised his wooden sword and tried to hit it against Mamoru's head, although with clear intention to hold back.
Mamoru rolled his eyes as he threw his own sword to the side while easily grabbing the incoming sword in his left hand. He then raised his right fist and hit it against Julius's chest as he could feel a rib or two break and the knight was sent flying a couple of meters back.
The previously loud knights were all now silent as Julius slowly got up from the ground while clutching his chest with his left hand.
Mamoru casually walked towards the injured knight with a cocky expression as he started speaking.
Mamoru: Surprised? Upset? Don't be, these are simply the consequences of your own actions.
Julius scoffed as his yellow eyes stared at Mamoru.
Julius: I'll admit it. I didn't expect that, forgive me for not taking you seriously before. I shall fight with everything i've got now.
The young Mabeast yawned while boredly waving his left hand around with his eyes closed.
Mamoru: Uhuh. Sure, whatever you say.
Julius charged at him with a lot more speed this time, however Mamoru kept his eyes closed, even when Julius's wooden sword traveled towards his face. And right when it was about to make contact with Mamoru's face...It stopped.
Julius's eyes widen as he couldn't move his wooden blade anymore, he even tried pulling it back but it seemed to be stuck. He let go of it and...Indeed, it was stuck there floating in mid air.
The knights around them were whispering among eachother as they saw the strange magic before them, some even whispered that it may be a Divine Protection.
Mamoru scoffed at such a statement, a mere Divine Protection could never compete with an Authority after all.
Julius tried to step back and attempt to assess the situation, however he suddenly felt something at the back of his head that sent chills down his spine.
It felt like a hand wrapped around the back of his head, before he could comprehend what happened though, Julius was suddenly forced head first towards Mamoru.
Julius couldn't do anything as his own wooden sword was swung by whatever invisible force was holding it and slammed against his face a total of three times.
He then felt the same invisible force wrap around his body and throw him across the arena like a used towel.
The young boy chuckled to himself as he saw Julius struggling to get up.
Mamoru: Ouch. I think you lost a tooth there. Welp, atleast you might get some cash from the tooth fairy, atleast if you know what that is of course.
The knight ignored his words as he glared at the young boy.
Julius: To use such underhanded tactics...That's cheating.
Mamoru's smirk slowly disappeared off of his face as it was replaced by a neutral expression. He stared at Julius for a good few seconds without even blinking, it was utterly impossible to read his expression.
Then, the mood changed completely. The tension in the room skyrocketed as the arena was filled with nothing but bloodlust. Julius suddenly felt like he was being stared at by a Great Mabeast with that amount of bloodlust.
Mamoru gritted his teeth and the veins all over his body like in the forehead, arms, hands and legs buldged as Mamoru's anger skyrocketed.
Suddenly, the room started to shake as multiple hand inprints were suddenly made in the walls of the arena out of nothing. The sand that they were standing on rumbled as Mamoru's wrath grew and grew.
Mamoru: How dare you?! To consider their gifts as cheating?!
If someone didn't stop him, then the roof of the arena might just collapse on everyone currently present, including the people in the audian-
......
In the blink of an eye, all of the bloodlust disappeared and the room stopped shaking. Everyone was silent as Mamoru blankly stared at Julius who had sweat rolling down his head.
Then, the young Mabeast pointed his finger at Julius and said this...
Mamoru: If you blame your weakness on me again, I'll kill you.
The young boy then took a deep sigh to calm himself as he slowly started to approach Julius.
Julius snapped out of his shocked state and called out to one of the knights to throw him another wooden sword.
However, the moment he had glanced away from Mamoru was his mistake.
When his eyes glanced back to Mamoru, he was no longer slowly approaching. Rather, he was right infront of him.
Before the knight could do anything. Mamoru slammed his fist into his stomach. Julius could only cough out blood as he could barely catch his breath. It was unbelieveble to the knight how heavy Mamoru's punches were.
Mamoru was of course holding back as he might accidentally kill him otherwise, but Julius wasn't aware of this fact.
Before Julius could even get a chance to recover, he was uppercutted on the chin and was sent a couple of meters back.
He didn't even get the chance to land on the ground as Mamoru had jumped and landed on Julius's chest, breaking another rib or two.
And then he was kicked, kicked, kicked and kicked and kicked over and over again, in the face, to his side, on his chin, even in his crotch.
With one final kick, he layed on the ground defeated, but somehow still concious.
Mamoru smiled creeply as he approached the knight and put his right foot right above Julius's right hand.
Mamoru: He said nothing fatal...Losing a couple of fingers isn't fatal...
Then Mamoru's smiled like the devil, with the edges of his smile almost reaching both of his eyes.
Mamoru: Right?
Before he could slam his foot into Julius's hand though, Mamoru felt a sword aimed at his neck, his smile disappeared as he glanced to the side as to who it was that stopped him.
His creepy smile returned though as he saw the person who held the sword to his neck.
Mamoru: Would you look at that. So I am worthy~ That's rare, isn't it? Sword Saint?
The person that stopped him from breaking Julius's fingers was none other than Reinhard Van Astrea. With the Dragon Sword drawn as the knights around them gasped in shock at the reveal of the weapon.
Mamoru: But, you're interrupting the duel. Go away.
Reinhard: The duel is done. You've won.
As he said that, Emilia entered the room with a worried look on her face along with a smug Anastasia, Felt, Crusch and Priscilla.
However Anastasia's smug look turned into one of horror as she saw Julius beaten and bloodied on the ground, barely moving.
Emilia didn't even seem to know what to say.
Felt was just smugly looking at the scene, but raised her eyebrow as she saw Reinhard with his sword drawn.
Priscilla hid her expression behind her fan, although the smug smile was difficult to hide.
Crusch looked more focused on the Dragon Sword itself. It was the first time she had seen it drawn, that meant that Mamoru was a worthy opponent.
Mamoru however didn't seem happy to have his fun abruptly stopped like that.
Mamoru: You wanna go next, Sword Saint?
The tension in the room rose and rose as everyone breathlessly watched to see what would unfold next.
But, the tension disappeared as Mamoru boredly walked away from Julius with both of his hands lazily in the air.
Mamoru: As fun as that sounds. I'm not stupid enough to think that I can win against you.
As he walked away though, he glanced back at Reinhard as he winked at him.
Mamoru: For now anyway~
About 2000 words.