A Gentlemen's Duel [Alfred]

Gilbert let out a cross between a sigh and a groan as soon as he was able to exit the classroom.

He had been invited, by a history teacher who he had worked with in the past, to the private school near the apartment block as a guest lecturer on the history of the German Empire. He had been very excited about it in the beginning, but after going through three of out five sessions with no breaks in between, he was pretty tired and his throat was raw from all the talking he had done. Why the fuck are there so many history classes here? He wondered, though really he was glad and relieved that it seemed like the study of history won’t become...well...history any time soon.

There were three hours to kill before the next class he had to be at, and Gilbert decided to use it to explore the campus. Because there was no way he was going to spend it in a faculty room filled with stuffed shirts.

His first stop was the physical education building. A whole building for a minor subject? Man, this place is excessive. Upon further inspection though, Gilbert learned that while the ground floor of the building served as the gymnasium, the upper floors were actually for the school’s extra-curricular classes as well as for club rooms. Letting out an impressed whistle as he walked through the hall and looked at various club names on many doors, he decided to approach a random one and stepped inside.

There was no one there, and while Gilbert had forgotten to check the sign on the door, it was obvious from the familiar weapons and protective gear neatly arranged at a corner that he was in the fencing club’s room.

At this discovery, Gilbert grinned and immediately went to grab a sword from a bundle of them that was labeled 'épée'. Falling into a random stance which he deemed professional-looking enough, he brandished the sword, then took a step forward and began swiping at an invisible enemy.

^{(( Because (kind-of)sword fights are awesome. y/y? ))}

This was the first and last time he was doing this. Hiding in the locker rooms, that is. Alfred peaked out from behind the last locker, satisfied that the room was finally deserted. God, this locker next to him smelled awful. Like overcooked cabbage and 5 year old sweat. Not that surprising, actually, people usually stored clothes in a locker after all, but he thought Brits were tidy enough to occasionally clean them. Or maybe it was too smelly even for the cleaning lady to go anywhere near.

You see, Alfred was skipping class and needed a good hiding place. Getting caught by a teacher would have resulted in detention and being brought back to class. No, being in the locker rooms and then going to the upper floors of the gym to find something fun to do was much better than English Lit. Not to mention double English Lit. The thought of the class was enough to make him sleepy.

Now that the coast was clear, Alfred left his smelly little locker room and made his way towards the upper floors. None of his extracurricular activities were held in here, so he rarely wandered anywhere near this part of the gym.

He regretted that now. He had no idea there were so many clubs in the school! He bounced from door to door, reading all the labels, finding many of them exciting. Maybe he would join a new club.

One room in particular caught his attention. Fencing Club.

He was always told that fencing was for sissies and snobs, not truly cool people, but Alfred had always wanted to try sword fighting. In video games sword fights were always awesome and he couldn't help wondering if they were just as exciting in reality.

One peek couldn't hurt, right? Alfred opened the door cautiously and was surprised that someone was actually there. Didn't they have class? Maybe they were skipping like hi-

Whoa, this guy knew what he was doing. He wanted to try that too! "Hi! Are you a club member? Can I try it too?" He sure hoped it wasn't the fencing instructor. He might get in some trouble then. Oh well, he should have thought of that before he made his presence known. There wasn't much he could do now.