S rank.

In the entire human continent of Novaria, that word carried a weight that most people spent their whole lives chasing and never reached.

To put it simply, S rank adventurers were rare. Not "hard to find" rare. More like, you could count them on two hands and still have fingers left over. A single S rank was enough to shift the balance of power in any city. Guilds fought over them. Nations courted them. Nobles threw obscene amounts of money just to get one in their corner.

And a new generation S rank? A child born with that potential?

That was practically a national event.

So when word quietly spread through the inner circles of Everett’s nobility that the new generation had produced not one, not two, but three potential S ranks in the Capital, people paid attention. Very close attention.

Three.

One of them was Lena Silford. Leon’s twin.

As expected of the Hero’s descendant, It truly runs in the blood, No one was really shocked due to her background.

The other two belonged to other houses.

And that was exactly why Arlott Silford was sitting in the back of his car on a quiet morning, being driven across the city to a mansion that wasn’t his.

The Vorn estate sat on the eastern side of Silford, the capital. Unlike the Silfords whose name was built entirely on combat legacy, the Vorn family had always been two things at once. Warriors in their own right, producing fighters capable enough to hold real respect in the adventuring world, and merchants with the kind of trade networks that kept half the noble houses in Everett well supplied and quietly indebted. Both sides of that coin were genuine. That was what made them dangerous in a way that was harder to read than a family that was simply strong.

Their influence was the kind that moved quietly and stuck around longer than most.

Arlott’s car rolled through the front gate.

Reaching the entrance, the guards didn’t obstruct him, instead what came was a bow.

Selene was waiting in the sitting room when he arrived.

She rose when he entered, composed as always, and offered him the kind of smile that was warm enough to be genuine and measured enough to mean business.

"Arlott," she said. "It’s good to see you. Please, sit."

"Skip it Selene," Arlott said, settling into the chair across from her without ceremony. "We’ve known each other too long for that."

She paused for just a moment. Then she sat back down, the formal hostess routine dropping off her shoulders like a coat she hadn’t needed in the first place.

Fair enough. She had run with Arlott’s party for three years before she met Edric. Before any of them had estates or titles or children whose futures needed protecting. She knew this man. He knew her.

There wasn’t much point pretending otherwise.

"Fine," she said. "Then I’ll also skip to it."

"Please," Arlott said.

She folded her hands in her lap and looked at him directly. Not unkindly. Just clearly.

"I know why you’re here," she said. "And my answer hasn’t changed."

"You haven’t heard what I have to say yet."

"Arlott." She said his name with the particular patience of someone who had thought about this conversation many times before having it. "I respect you. I genuinely do. And I have nothing against your son personally. But you’re asking me to engage my daughter to a boy the entire continent has already made a judgment about. An E rank. From the Silford main branch of all places." She paused. "Do you understand how that looks?"

"I understand exactly how it looks," Arlott said.

"Then you understand my position."

"I understand it," he said. "I’m not here to tell you you’re wrong."

That seemed to catch her slightly off guard. She studied him for a moment.

"Then what are you here for?"

Arlott was quiet for a second. He looked at the window. The courtyard fountain was visible from here, still catching the light in that deliberate way.

"He’s my son," he said simply. "I’m setting a future for him. That’s what I’m here for."

Selene’s expression didn’t harden. If anything it did the opposite, something behind it shifting slightly, the way it does when someone understands something they wish they didn’t.

"Arlott—"

"I know about the prince," he said.

The room went quiet.

Selene looked at him steadily. "Then you know the king himself brought the proposal."

"I heard."

"The youngest prince," she continued, her voice measured. "Same generation. And unlike—" she stopped herself. Chose her next words carefully. "The gap in potential alone makes this impossible. My daughter is one of three S ranks in this entire continent. The prince is also an S rank. Your son is..." She didn’t finish it.

She didn’t need to.

"E rank," Arlott said, finishing it for her. Flat. Unbothered. Like the word had no particular power over him.

Selene watched him say it like that and something in her expression shifted again.

"The king’s proposal is serious," she said. "I can’t ignore that. Edric can’t ignore that. And honestly Arlott, even setting the rank aside, the optics alone—"

"Since when did you care about optics," Arlott said. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

She stopped.

He looked at her.

"The woman who took a C rank quest with a broken arm because she said the guild was being dramatic," he said. "That woman is sitting here talking to me about optics."

Selene opened her mouth.

Closed it.

Pressed her lips together.

For a moment, just a moment, something that might have been a reluctant almost-smile crossed her face before she brought it back under control.

"That was different," she said.

"Was it ?," Arlott said.

The sitting room was quiet. Outside the fountain ran on, indifferent to both of them.

Selene looked at her hands. Then at Arlott. Then somewhere past him, at something that wasn’t in the room.

"He’s your son," she said finally. Quietly. "I know that."

"He is," Arlott said.

Another silence. Longer this time.

Forget her daughter or anyone accepting, He had to convince his son first, after all he had done all this without his knowledge, knowing fully well how Leon might react, he figured this was the best for him, any how no matter how this later turns out, it will all work in his favor... probably.

She hadn’t said yes. She hadn’t said no either, not again. Not with that same finality as before.

The Royal family cannot be taken lightly, However

if Arlott insists that her daughter be betrothed to his son, then there was only one way for the two sons to settle it, and that is...

A Duel.