"A shocking revelation! An apocalyptic truth! Miki Zotelo and Zanderfon Calculis! Engaged! What shall become of the fate of this Kingdom of Toth?!"

"Oi. Larissa. Get down from there."

"T'is mine box, son of Calculis!"

"You stole it though…"

"Wherefore thou oppress me, too, daughter of Ley?! Have I no ally?!"

"…n…"

"A shock! House Zotelo joins the rebellion!"

The three gagged her with a handkerchief and took down the agitator from her box—which was actually a cash box stolen from a nearby golem. Casa apologetically returned the cash box to the pursuing golem. It merely paused, eyed Larissa, received the box, and walked away. Nobody knew why a golem was in charge of a cash box, but then again, neither did anyone know why the magical space's environment was hell-themed.

"Hey, that golem—there was some spite in its eyes just now…"

"Hahaha~ silly Casa, golems can't actually feel spite, you know~" Larissa said, tapping away at Casa's shoulder.

"…Incidentally, in Laurea Arazon's Braincast #209 featuring Master Zurin, Master Zurin mentioned experimenting with pseudo-emotive gestures to allow golems to communicate at a paralinguistic level…"

"Hahaha~ Zandyboi, you're scaring me~"

Unbeknownst to the carefree youth, there was a man in the shadows of the crowd who was grinding his teeth. His dream was awfully and blatantly stained right in front of him.

"How can this be…"

He was happy enough to watch Miki (break-)dancing like an angel. That passion, that sincerity, expressed in her unflinching grace that couldn't be touched even by the Final Cycle of the Evasion Aptitude Test, it was something that he silently watched over, but could not reach for—at least, not until his secret training had been completed.

But, what was all of that secret training for, when Miki herself had been taken away?

"Calculis and Miki… No way, a political marriage?"

He trained so that he could be worthy of Miki Zotelo's true and genuine love. To have a child of a Family take her away only for their Family name was to take away the very existence of that true and genuine love.

If Miki Zotelo was not allowed to love a pure love, the offending obstacles must be removed.

Destroyed. Annihilated. Existentially invalidated.

As Casa and the others were finally starting to move to the next station, a young man sprinted towards them. It looked as if he was about to crash into them, but he skidded and slid to a stop, pushing up a cloud of dust around him. The way his school robes fluttered with the hellscape's warm wind, and the way the dust cloud wafted around his fluttering robes, almost transformed the atmopshere into a western showdown at high noon. Even his long, red hair fluttered as if being one of the flames that decorated this hellscape.

His face reflected an austere, self-disciplined temperament, and his standing posture exuded noble confidence. It was such a person's gaze that pierced Zanderfon. Such a person placed a cowboy hat on his head before pointing at Zanderfon.

"That's why… Zanderfon Calculis, I challenge you!—"

"Huh? Me? 'That's why'? That's why what?"

"…to a duel!"

"For what?!"

"For the sake of Ms. Zotelo's love!"

"Because?!"

"Now prepare yourself!"

"Context! Where is it!"

"…a…"

Miki lightly clapped her hands as she realized what was going on. Zanderfon noticed this.

"Huh? Miki?"

"Admirer pr—"

"Ah."

""Woooohh!""

Somehow, not a second after this revelation, Casa and Larissa had gone and found the golem with the cash box, bought popcorn from it, and come back. There was just no way they wouldn't consume this drama. Zanderfon rolled his eyes with a slight sigh. Miki had turned around to sulk for a moment because Zanderfon-dear cut her off before she could finish what she was trying to say.

"…and so, admirer," Zanderfon arrogantly called. His eyes sharpened to meet the new opponent's gaze, and his robes, too, fluttered with the wind. "Are you ready to hear the truth?"

"…the truth?"

—No, don't tell me, he's going to openly denounce their engagement as politically-motivated? That's political suicide!

"Yes, the truth is…"

The onlookers held their breaths.

"…duels are illegal, you know? And what's with this suddenly challenging someone's fiancee, anyway? Do you even realize how many levels of relationship development you're up against? Even if you win against me, it doesn't actually prove anything, you know? And if you're gonna challenge someone, introduce yourself, damn. Anyway, duels are illegal, so even if we both wanted to, we'll both get arrested at the end of it, anyway."

—What… What are these incomprehensible things this guy's saying? Duels are illegal? Really? Relationship development? Is that something that people who eye political marriages do?

"Oi, don't space out there. Are you coming in here or not?"

He had been locked in thought when Zanderfon called out to him. He looked up, and the object of his confused ire was already waiting in a square arena. A fence of ropes surrounded it on all four sides. Golems were positioned on opposite corners, and on one corner, they were already tending to Zanderfon, carrying towels and glass water bottles. There was a golem with a black- and white-striped body patrolling the perimeter.

No matter how anyone looked at it, it was a huge boxing ring.

But, there was a catch.

After all, it was the second of the Terror Three aptitude tests: the Silence Observance Aptitude Test.

The ring simulated "fighting in a cramped library environment." Of course, this begged the question of "What are Librarians even fighting?" but the answer was something sworn to secrecy.

"Keep quiet about the library," so they say—in both meanings.

For this test, the rules were simple: defeat the opponent while making the least noise as possible, with the least collateral damage.

Books outlasted the Librarians which tended to them. Librarians must respect this fact, even if they had to spill blood over it.

Not over the books, of course. The Restorers would appreciate it.

As such, should Librarians have to fight, they must be able to show not only the power to subjugate threats to the library, but also demonstrate the control to prevent damaging the library itself; Librarians were much unlike certain barbarians who would intentionally topple the bookshelves themselves over as a sort of weapon! What desecration! Defilement!

Anyway—The opponents in the test were fellow students. Points were awarded for winning by pushing the opponent out through indicated exits or for neutralizing the opponent outright. Deductions were imposed for any collateral damage incurred by yourself, but more so, for damage incurred by your opponent; catching one's opponent's attacks was also the duty of a Librarian! And of course, because this was the Silence Observance Aptitude Test, too much noise would also be a point deduction.

Fighters used magically-simulated weapons. These weapons reacted to each other, the simulated library environment, and each fighter's training armor; in the form of chainmail, these magically-modified suits restricted the fighter's movements appropriate to the damage they received; for example, a deep slash across the chest near the shoulder could impair arm movement, while a wound in the leg that would have hit an artery would cause the fighter's movement to "fade out" until they could not move anymore and collapse. For the sake of simplicity, any hits towards the head would count as an insta-kill and the whole armor would freeze up.

They could've gone the whole way on the technology, but the development went over budget.

Of course, besides falling on one's face, the fighters themselves were safe. Other than that, the weapons themselves felt ultra-realistic to use, complete with "getting stuck between ribs". Some parents protested this feature, but certain military Families had much louder voices, so the sigil-scribes ended up keeping it in.

Miki's noble admirer stepped into the ring, and the golems outfitted him with training armor. The much-hated enemy, Zanderfon, got up from his seat in the opposite corner of the ring—a gesture which he mirrored so as not to lose. They met in the middle to greet each other, all according to custom.

"Then, once again, I am Zanderfon Calculis."

"And I—haven't yet introduced myself, have I? I am Ryan Zotelo."

"…wait, Zotelo?"

"Fuh, the mysterious protector makes his entrance—"

"Wait, I have questions—"

"Be ready for me, Zanderfon Calculis…"

"Hey, wait!—"

Ryan already had his back turned and his ears shut. Not even military genius could defeat selective hearing.

The two fighters prepared themselves on either side of the ring. Their weapons materialized in their hands, first glowing green before solidifying. Ryan held a short fighting staff only slightly longer than his height, while Zanderfon held two letterknives—or in more euphemistic usage, high-spec letter openers—one in each hand.

Hah, this fool—so thought the fool, thinking that with his staff's reach, Zanderfon couldn't possibly even approach him.

Wait, Zanderfon took out another letterknife, sliding it into one of several holsters on his armlet; he had three letterknives—

No, four—

…

That's a lot of letterknives. Zanderfon held one in each hand, and had innumerable knives in his armlets and elsewhere across his body.

Shortly after, the boxing ring glowed green, digitally constructing various pieces of furniture from the ground-up, and finally filling them to the brim with books. There was a rectangular reading area in the middle and a check-out/returns desk to one side. The whole thing was surrounded by tall bookshelves that could probably be easily toppled over with a strong enough whisper. The exit area was right behind the check-out desk, where Zanderfon stood.

—I see. The check-out desk is a well-defensible position, but if someone chooses to fight here, they would also have the exit area right behind them. If they make the wrong move, they could easily get backed into it and lose that way, or if they stay put, they could get bombarded with ranged attacks since there weren't any books here, as far as I could observe. In any other situation, I could make ranged attacks from here and suppress my opponent's movements, but I could easily miss and hit the books surrounding the reading area…

With Zanderfon placed behind the check-out desk, Ryan found himself starting on the other end of the reading area.

—Luck is on my side. At this distance, Zanderfon's letterknife attacks would most likely be ranged in nature. However, he will have to subdue himself, as all it would take is for me to dodge and he would get deductions from hitting the books. Wait—rather, wouldn't that actually be a bigger deduction for me, as I'm obligated to catch his attacks to prevent damage towards the books? Damn it! Being a Librarian's more difficult than I thought. I can't believe Miki dearest chose this path… Yes, Miki is amazing. All praise Miki!

While they were thinking, a game-changing element was constructed between them. Occupying the empty aisle between the reading tables, exactly between them, was an empty book cart, just tall enough for a person to crouch behind.

""No way?!"" thought the two. The simulation was all too happy to force them to fight.

With this, the simulated library combat environment was complete.

"Round one—BEGIN!"

Immediately, Ryan dashed for the book cart. Instead of aiming for the moving Ryan, Zanderfon did his best to jam the cart's wheels with thrown letterknives, but they just bounced off the cart's oddly-armored wheels. Ryan, having successfully hidden himself behind the cart, began pushing it along. Without a direct line of attack, Zanderfon shouldn't be able to flush him out. However, against his hopes, he would have to show himself sooner rather than later.

A letterknife ricocheted off a nearby table's leg and grazed his arm. There wasn't any physical sting, but the green magical spark visually announced that damage had been inflicted. Damn it!

Zanderfon had never seriously considered attempting trick shots before, but it was the only way for him right now to try and circumvent the book cart. He was sure the combat simulation placed it there to give Ryan a way to approach and force him out of the check-out area, ultimately to bring the fight elsewhere.

And so, bring the fight elsewhere, he did.

He vaulted over the check-out desk and ran over the reading desks. As soon as Ryan recognized the odd footsteps, he rolled to the side, just barely dodging a letterknife that bounced off the floor right where he was.

Now on the high ground, standing on a desk, there was little risk for Zanderfon to hit books with his downward-angled attacks. He would have to be careful of ricocheting knives, but adjusting the power of his throws came naturally.

Ryan was just 5 meters away, but it was a distance too far for the staff user, and just right for the knife thrower. Zanderfon showered him with those dart-like letterknives, and he could do little but to back away to try and gain some distance. At least with the extra distance, his reflexes could catch up to the incoming knives. If he were to close in too much, he would be too easy to trick with a sleight-of-hand, especially with those damned-thin letterknives that could almost vanish into blurred streaks! If he were to back away too far, some of Zanderfon's knives might hit the books, which would hurt him more than it'd hurt Zanderfon.

Seizing the momentum, Zanderfon used Ryan's wariness against him, throwing knives at him with every step, pushing his back towards the bookshelves.

Ryan realized his strategy too late.

As soon as he was funneled between two bookshelves, Zanderfon unleashed his full talent.

Four-fingered knife throwing.

He held two knives in each hand, each knife pinched between two fingers. With dextrous movement and fluidity, each in- and out-flick of a wrist would send a knife downrange, doubling his overall attack speed. Such a shower of projectiles streamed towards Ryan, who, despite his excellent efforts to deflect each and every knife of the first two seconds of Zanderfon's attack, even going so far as perfectly manipulating his deflections so that the knives would never reach the books, his control slipped, and he started taking damage.

Limb by limb, his training armor paralyzed him, until finally, all his armor seized up. It was, overwhelmingly, Zanderfon's victory.

Despite his loss, Ryan was still considered to have aptitude just given this one round alone. He was awarded bonus points for preventing any attack from reaching any book, and even more bonus points for deflecting attacks towards himself rather than allowing them to reach the books. Overall, he earned an amazing 80 points.

For reference, 100 points was considered the gold standard.

Meanwhile, Zanderfon received about 150 points, but after deductions for the fact that metal-bladed knives were incredibly noisy—especially when they hit hard surfaces—he ended up with a total of only 90 points.

Such a drastic deduction was only a matter of course with Zanderfon's attack speed, and when one loud noise corresponded to a one-point deduction.