Small particles of light rose up from the dust cloud, then disappeared. Not even the players with perception-based skills could find the remains of Edward under the rubble. His avatar would now be inside Glasgobara UDX Workshop, sans all equipment and inventory items.

“The winner, Ichiro Tsuwabuki!” the system announcer proclaimed triumphantly, as if everybody didn’t already know.

A second later, earth-shattering applause ripped through the air around them. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter to the spectators which of them was in the right. Rubberneckers were, in most situations, essentially neutral. But because of that, they were happy to give their wholehearted applause to Ichiro, even though he had started out as the unabashed heel.

They had enjoyed it. It had been a good duel.

Ichiro didn’t respond to the adulation directed at him by the crowd. He seemed to just let it roll off his back, and just kept walking towards Iris and Kirschwasser (and Ed’s guild companion, but never mind him).

“See?” he asked Iris.

“R-Right...” she said.

He had settled the duel just like that, as if he’d never been on the losing end at all. In the end, the young heir had only attacked once, with that one final punch. It was a true one-hit KO.

“Now...” Ichiro said.

At this point, the eyes of all players on-site were focused on Ichiro. After checking to make he had their attention, he activated the wind attribute support spell Art “Speaker Voice.”

“Ahem. I am Ichiro Tsuwabuki. Long introductions are nonsense, so I’ll keep it short.”

There was a stir within the crowd. What was this man saying now?

As if ignoring their question — or perhaps, answering it — Ichiro continued. “I think you may now appreciate the sort of armor that I am wearing. Thus, I now officially declare the clothing guild Iris Brand open for business.”

“Huh?!” Iris exclaimed. How many times had she made that sound since she’d first met Ichiro? “H-Hang on, young heir...”

“This girl is the designer,” he said. “She’s the one who made my armor. Isn’t she incredible?”

“Hang on!”

He had pointed to her when he spoke, so naturally, all eyes had focused on her, too. She heard a few comments, like “Hey, a cute girl!” and similar. Her face turned red from embarrassment.

It’s an avatar, so of course it’s cute! You’re all unspeakably handsome men, too!

But the voices among the crowd spread. The reaction was bigger from the medium users who occupied the bulk of the player base rather than from the achievement-focused top players. It was true that his armor was very fashionable.

It was a game, so Ichiro’s ability to endure all of Edward’s attacks uninjured couldn’t have been thanks entirely to the armor. It was just that the cool way he’d fought had been well-accented by the formal suit design he was wearing. If that duel itself had been a side show for the fashion show display, then it was quite an impressive scam.

“If you have the money, bring the components and recipes you want to us,” Ichiro said. “Of course, I’ll handle any real money needed to have original designs created, so don’t worry about that. I think that’s everything. Iris, is there something you want to say?”

“Let me go home,” she muttered.

“As I cannot imagine anyone will have custom order requests right away, we will now return to our guild house.”

With those final words, the man known as Ichiro Tsuwabuki escorted Iris back to their safe haven. Once the two passed through the crowd and disappeared into the house, Sir Kirschwasser thanked the spectators for their attention, and followed his guild mates inside.

The departure left a curious sort of atmosphere hanging over main street of Glasgobara Merchant Town. It seemed an all-too-casual end to a duel with such electric build-up.

◆　◆　◆

“And that’s about how it went,” Ichiro finished.

“Awful,” Felicia responded.

“Yeah, he’s awful,” Iris agreed.

“Awful and wicked,” Sir Kirschwasser concurred.

“I think it’s fine, personally,” King Kirihito commented, rounding out the reactions.

“But maybe it’s less awful and more stupid...” Iris added.

“You realize that every time you call me stupid, you’re lowering humanity’s average...” Ichiro responded, playing out their usual exchange once more.

The video of Ichiro and Edward’s duel had been recorded using in-game software and uploaded to multiple video sites. Ichiro, who had taken an overwhelming victory over the powerful Edward, had served as good advertising for Iris Brand. Of course, that always came with the criticism that a crafting class couldn’t beat a combat class anyway, which was in turn countered by the point that Edward’s fighting ability was on par with your standard combat classes. And so the arguments repeated over and over in the comment section of the videos.

Naturally, Iris was firmly opposed to Ichiro’s advertisement of Iris Brand. How could you do that without asking me? I always knew you were selfish, but now you’re just stupid!

Ichiro’s response had been thus: “I am not stupid.”

And then, very reasonably, Iris had pointed out that that wasn’t the point.

But it was Iris who had eventually given ground. It was true that she was interested in designing armor, and (though Ichiro didn’t know this) she wanted to be an apparel designer at some point in the future. In the end, she couldn’t fight the appeal of the idea of establishing herself, here in this fictional world.

“So, um, did it change anything?” Felicia asked.

“Nope!” Iris shouted back. “Plenty of people thought it was funny and came by to window-shop, but not one of them actually requested a design. It’s been humiliating!”

“I-I see...” Felicia couldn’t hide her wince.

“Well, I suppose, even if they’re original designs, you can’t beat the ones invented by professionals,” King murmured.

Iris froze. He was right. No matter how passionate she was, at the end of the day, she was still a rank amateur. It was just that her designs had happened to appeal to the young heir, which had resulted in her major exposure. Which meant...

“Heh... heh heh...”

“Well, I like it, though,” Ichiro said.

“That’s right, thank you!” Iris responded with sudden anger to Ichiro’s attempt at comfort. “I am grateful to you, young heir. You let me do what I wanted to do. And I’ve actually had a lot of fun.”

Then she continued...

“But the things you say and do make me sick! Next time, I’m going to come up with a clothing design that will make not just you, but the whole world, howl! I know I’ve said that before, but still!”

“Hmm, good.” The young hair gave a satisfied nod, and sipped his tea once more.