Chapter 26: The Knight’s Jealousy
TL: Potato-tan
Proofreader: Asianpotato
As the sun began its descent, casting golden rays across the land, the hustle and bustle of the marketplace reached its peak.
Merchants hawked their wares at discounted prices, eager to close their shops early, while customers bartered and haggled over the goods on display.
It was hard to imagine that just yesterday, this peaceful scene had been transformed into a battleground. The city’s everyday rhythm seemed to suggest that today would be just like any other and that tomorrow would be no different.
Lord Frederick and Albert led the procession out of the castle gates and soon reached the main road. Not long after, they arrived at the grand entrance of the Rephilia Swordsmanship Guild.
The afternoon guards stationed at the guild’s entrance were lazily yawning. One of them stood at the door, clad in a martial arts uniform and armed with a sword at his waist, while the other sat at a makeshift desk and chair, propping his chin on his arm and looking bored.
However, as they noticed the approaching party led by Russell, the guards straightened their backs and stood at attention. Their faces, which had been expressionless moments before, lit up with recognition as they realized it was the Lord himself.
“Well met, My Lord!”
“At ease. Is the guildmaster present? I would have a word with her.”
“Yes, my lord!”
The man sitting at the desk went inside alone. The remaining guard, nervous at the presence of such high-ranking individuals, tried his best to maintain a respectful expression. However, despite his efforts, his weary face betrayed his true feelings.
The time seemed endless to the members of Russell’s party, yet it seemed like an eternity to the lone guard remaining outside. Finally, the door opened again, and the Guildmaster emerged with a bewildered expression on her face.
She was a woman with striking black hair tied in a ponytail, piercing blue eyes, and an athletic build. She stood around 175 centimeters tall. Her appearance suggested a hint of foreign blood, possibly from the northern tribes. However, the harmonious blend of her features gave her an exotic beauty.
She was dressed in a martial arts uniform, suggesting that she had just been instructing a swordsmanship class, and she held a wooden sword in one hand. Her age appeared to be mid- to late-twenties, which seemed young for a Guildmaster, but the fact that cultivating magical energy slowed down the aging process meant that it was unwise to make hasty judgments.
Her gaze swept over the group standing before the entrance: Lord Frederick, the princess’s party, and Russell’s party. Her eyes lingered briefly on Russell.
Given that he was the tallest and most imposing figure among them, it was not surprising that she would gravitate towards him. However, Karen saw something else in him first. His black hair, like hers, and unusual purple eyes. Narrowing her eyes, she addressed them.
“I am Karen Rephilia, Guildmaster of the Rephilia Swordsmanship Guild. I was aware of Lord Frederick and Lady Zeona’s visit, but. . .”
Albert stepped forward.
“Karen, a knight of Her Highness’s and a warrior who rescued our city are preparing for a duel. Could we use your training grounds for a brief period?”
“. . .What?”
“It’s come to this, Karen. Please excuse our intrusion.”
“Whaat?”
“I apologize. . . Master.”
“. . . . . .”
Albert and Lord Frederick passed by Karen, and Zeona bowed deeply before her as she stood there, still trying to process what was happening. Karen placed a hand on her forehead, over the eye that did not hold a wooden sword.
“Haa. . . For now, please come inside.”
Princess Zeona and her knights, who shared a similar expression with Karen, entered first. Russell’s party followed behind. The door slammed shut behind them.
The Rephilia Swordsmanship Hall was a fairly large guild. The low-rise buildings were arranged symmetrically.
The center was a three-story wooden building where Karen Rephilia resided and conducted her business, while the men’s and women’s dormitories stood on either side.
A large training ground was located towards the back. Instructors with black belts tied around their heads and waists stood on a platform, instructing the trainees below. Men and women wearing colored belts from blue and below, tied around their heads or waists, swung their swords in unison to the barked commands.
“Halt!”
At the sound of a returning instructor raising his hand, the trainees moved in unison, standing at attention. Russell was impressed. They were not an army, after all.
Karen approached the instructors and gave them some instructions. The instructors nodded and shouted to the trainees in a loud voice.
“Everyone, gather in four horizontal rows and sit outside the training grounds! You are on the left, and you are on the right. It doesn’t matter what color your belt is.”
At the instructor’s command, the trainees sheathed their swords and left the training grounds to sit down. Karen turned to Lord Frederick.
“I have cleared it for now. Could you please explain in more detail? A duel, you say?”
“Hmm. I think it would be better to hear it from Her Highness.”
“Wha—?”
“Um, um. Your Highness?”
Lord Frederick naturally gave way, and the Princess glared at him. He averted his gaze. Finally, the princess spoke.
“I’m Julia Hyperion. I am the princess of the empire.”
“Ah, yes. It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness. I am Karen Rephilia.”
Surprisingly, Karen did not flinch at the princess’s presence or her authority. Her demeanor was simply calm. The princess seemed intrigued by Karen’s composure, but she did not forget what she had to say.
“A knight in my service and a mercenary named Russell are preparing for a duel. They had a minor disagreement yesterday, and they hope to settle it today. We decided to join your swordsmanship guild out of necessity. I apologize for the sudden visit. If you desire any compensation, I will grant it.”
“There is no need, Your Highness.”
Once Karen gave her consent, things proceeded quickly. After receiving her word, the instructors shouted loudly, as they had done before, to explain that a duel between Russell and Lyos was about to take place. The trainees’ eyes sparkled with anticipation.
They quickly located the two combatants, Russell and Lyos. Russell was easy to spot; he was the tallest and most muscular of them all, with a claymore strapped to his back. Someone recognized Russell as the mercenary who had recently saved the city and earned the nickname “Lightning Warrior,” and a buzz of excitement spread through the crowd.
Lyos was a knight who wore a conspicuous lion’s head helmet and carried a menacing longsword around his waist. The trainees looked at the knights with envious eyes, knowing that Lyos was one of the members of the princess’s Dawn Knights.
They may have yearned to awaken their magical energy and become knights themselves, like the trainees who looked up to the working professionals with apprentice hearts.
Albert said to Karen,
“I suppose it’s a bit anticlimactic, like this. Would it be possible to set up a stage of some sort?”
“A stage? Oh, very well. Do as you please.”
Karen waved her hand and stepped back. Albert chuckled and raised his staff. As he began to mutter an incantation, the flow of magical energy surged.
Albert slammed the staff down onto the ground, and the center of the training grounds rose with a roar. The onlookers gasped in surprise and stared at the sight before them.
The flagstone floor soon transformed into a square dueling arena, with steps leading up to it from the north, south, east, and west. This was starting to look serious.
Russell stepped into the arena. Lyos stood before him, his lion’s head helmet restored to its original state, and his only weapon a longsword. He had not seen the war hammer he had used the previous day.
“You’re not carrying your hammer today?”
“A sword is more than enough for the likes of you.”
Russell chuckled. Lyos drew his sword from his waist with a swish. Lyos slowly raised his sword, held it at the top, and took a stance. He then said,
“Lyos Veilron. I am the second knight of the Veilron Viscountcy and the Dawn Knights, serving under Her Highness the Princess. State your name.”
The Veilron Viscounty Russell seemed to recall hearing in passing that it was one of the influential noble families in the Empire.
Indeed, as befitting a descendant of a prestigious family, Lyos had a flawless physique.
His stance also demonstrated that he had received proper swordsmanship training, with his legs firmly planted on the ground, his waist and upper body stable, and his arms unwavering.
He was also quite tall, around 170 centimeters(5.5ft), which was considered quite tall even when taking into account men’s average height. His build was also thick, thanks to the heavy armor that covered his thick gloves.
Russell raised his right hand and gripped the claymore. His large frame and slow movements made each of his actions look as graceful as a male peacock spreading its wings.
“Russell.”
Russell replied curtly, without adding any other titles.
Elenora and Albert stepped into the arena. The elf wizard looked at Russell and Lyos and gave them instructions.
“You may use magical energy, but you must not kill your opponent. Your own voice or my assessment of your incapacitating state will signal your surrender or defeat. You become incapacitated when you drop your weapon or sever one of your limbs. Rest assured that I have healing potions, and Priestess Elenora will also treat your wounds directly. When this pebble drops, the duel will begin.”
The two nodded. Albert picked up a pebble from somewhere and tossed it into the air, sending it high into the sky. The pebble rocketed into the void.
Everyone’s gaze, except for Russell and Lyos, followed the pebble. The two men stared at each other. Lyos’s brown eyes glared at Russell’s purple eyes. Russell simply stared back with an impassive face.
The sky was clear. At that moment, a large cloud passed in front of the sun, and the shadow of the massive cloud slowly drifted across the training grounds.
From outside, the city’s noise drifted faintly into the training grounds. There were the clattering hooves of horses pulling carriages, the sizzling sound of meat cooking on iron plates, someone calling out a name, laughter, and boisterous noises. The training grounds created an artificial silence that spread and expanded its territory, enveloping all those noises.
The two duelists stood in silence, maintaining their unwavering stances, each probing the other. Their tensed muscles were ready to spring into action at any signal.
The pebble, which seemed like it would continue to rise forever, reached a peak and then fell rapidly. The heads that had been looking up followed a parabolic trajectory.
There was a thud. It was a small sound, but to all those who had been holding their breath, it was as loud as thunder. Russell and Lyos’s gazes shot towards each other.
CLANG!
In an instant, the blades of the great sword and the long sword clashed with a screech, and sparks flew.
“Hiss!”
Lyos widened his eyes inside his helmet to see Russell’s strength, which far exceeded his expectations. Unlike Lyos’s eyes, which flashed with magical energy, Russell’s were as calm as a lake. Did that mean this was simply his own physical ability?
Furthermore, he was holding the longsword with both hands, while Russell was using only one. His other hand was on his waist, as if he were holding something back. Lyos let out a roar.
“You insolent fool!”
With a shout, Lyos used Russell’s strength to his advantage, lowered his center of gravity, and swung his sword again. The sharp blade lunged at his left arm, but the greatsword immediately blocked it again. Russell had simply turned his wrist to raise the greatsword.
After exchanging two sword strikes, Lyos stepped back with his right foot and kicked it out with all his might. Under his kick’s force, the smooth flagstone floor cracked. Russell remained standing with the claymore in his hand, his pose unchanged, one hand on his waist.
BAM! BAM! BOOM!
Steel clashed against steel, creating a deafening sound. It was not the usual sound of metal hitting metal; rather, it was the sound of rocks and boulders crashing and shattering. Each time, the flagstones that made up the arena floor trembled. The clash of their strength and power tore apart some of the areas where the two stood.
Lyos, who was slightly smaller than Russell, took full advantage of his smaller frame and moved quickly despite being clad in armor. His own magical energy and the special artifact armor the princess had given him, both lightweight and imbued with special powers, made this possible.
The armor, called the Silver Lion’s Fang, had a variety of abilities. In addition to making the wearer feel almost weightless, it also possessed magical abilities that dispersed the impact it received.
However, Russell had no trouble catching Lyos’s movements. Despite his large size, he had many places to slash or stab, and Russell dodged or deflected Lyos’s sword strikes with only the slightest of differences.
The duel between the two swordsmen continued this way. The smaller swordsman fought fiercely, while the larger one stood stolidly, blocking what needed blocking and deflecting what needed deflecting. Like the lion on his helmet, Lyos charged forward, transforming into a lion himself.
“Tch! Fight properly!”
“If I fight properly, you’ll die.”
“W, What?”
Russell responded blandly to Lyos’s shout. Russell swung up his claymore from below before Lyos could become angry. Lyos countered with his longsword, held in both hands, and brought it down from above.
A loud clang and a flash of light pushed Lyos back with a screech. Russell had only taken half a step back from his original position.
“Ugh!”
At that clear difference, Lyos gritted his teeth and activated his magical energy. The flow of magical energy, which had felt static until now, coursed through his body like an explosion, reaching every limb and extremity.
He held his longsword horizontally with both hands and lowered it to his knees. It was like a fierce beast crouching down. He even wore a helmet shaped like a lion’s head, giving him the appearance of the king of beasts himself.
Russell’s eyes flashed for a moment. A tremendous amount of magical energy was swirling around Lyos. It seemed that he was about to unleash a powerful blow, having held his pose for so long.
Russell also released the hand that had been held back and gripped the claymore’s wide handle. He held the greatsword vertically in the center, taking a stable stance with his left foot forward and his right foot back.
Russell thought to himself. In truth, this was not the first time he had fought a knight, a superhuman who wielded magical energy.
He was born into a noble family with great authority and vast territory, but because of its location, it was constantly under threat.
Dealing with the monsters that came over the Awnhilnar Mountains from the north during the winter was necessary, and the weak could not survive in the vanguard.
Naturally, those who survived had strong minds and bodies, and even those who were not became that way.
Their bonds with each other grew stronger. Unlike the nobles in central politics who bared their fangs at each other, the noble families facing the frontier treated each other as comrades who had fought monsters together for many years.
To help each other grow, there were frequent duels between the knights and the seeds. It was also common for them to marry their daughters or sons to each other. Among them, Russell stood out even more, a warrior who had defeated all the knights he had faced.
The foundation of his strength lay not only in the unusual talent for physicality and magical eyes that people whispered about behind his back but also in the flexible thinking he had developed in his previous life, which he believed had helped him more than anything.
Unlike the northern knights, who focused on strengthening their bodies with magical energy and aimed only to obtain a body comparable to a monster, Russell wanted to delve more fundamentally into magical energy.
The mysterious power known as qi or mana appeared in martial arts novels and fantasy novels. In the East, it was known as internal energy, and here it was known as magical energy, a supernatural ability that made the impossible possible.
When Russell’s flexible thinking and his body’s talent for supporting that thinking came together, truly magical things became possible. It was not a mouth-uttered spell or a hand-sealed law, but a bodily magic. His pupils were filled with magical energy, trailing tails of light.
The thought was fleeting, and Russell and Lyos’ gazes crossed in a flash.
A sword light flashed.
CHAANG!
With a clear clang, the two stood in opposite positions from where they had been. Russell and Lyos, who had been standing with their backs to each other, slowly turned around. The onlookers gasped.
Russell’s leather armor breastplate broke open. However, Russell appeared to be uninjured.
Lyos’s armor was intact. There were large dents on the breastplate and side, but they were literally just dents and had not caused any damage.
Lyos gasped for breath and recalled the moment when they had crossed paths. His blade had definitely pierced Russell’s chest. However, the moment it was about to cut into his flesh, magical energy materialized beyond his skin and blocked the blade like a wizard’s shield. He had not cast a spell or formed a hand seal, but the arrangement was definitely similar to a shield.
Russell grabbed the leather armor with his hand, which was not holding the sword, and tore it off, throwing it outside the arena. His upper body was now devoid of any armor. He was just wearing a white shirt.
Lyos’s skill was better than he had expected. Even though he could not match his strength, his swordsmanship seemed to have reached a high level. He was close to entering the realm of flash.
A gust of wind blew from somewhere and hit Russell’s body, causing his hair to flutter and outlining the bulging lines in his muscles. The female trainees’ eyes glazed over.
The two men took their stances again and raised their swords. Russell checked the blade. The blade, though reinforced with magical energy, bore a slight nick. Lyos, on the other hand, was intact.
“Brat, you’re pretty tough.”
“Heh, tough?”
“Yeah, tough. That armor of yours.”
“Her Highness personally bestowed it upon me. Hmph, it is an armor that you, a lowly wretch, could never even dream of possessing.”
Lyos was visibly panting. Russell remained as calm as ever. From the outside, it appeared that Lyos had the advantage with his armor intact, but for some reason, those watching felt the opposite.
Lord Frederick, Zeona, Karen, and her party were sitting on chairs, watching the duel from a slightly higher position than the arena that Albert had created.
Lord Frederick was excited to see Russell’s swordsmanship once again, while Albert was filled with anticipation, wondering if he would use his magical eyes.
Zeona had a worried expression, while Elenora was expressionless. Evelyn, like Albert, was watching Russell’s eyes intently, and Lexi was eating cookies that she had brought from somewhere. They appeared to have come from the reception area.
Karen, along with the instructors, watched the duel with shining eyes. She whispered something, which seemed to tell them to watch carefully. The instructors who heard her words frowned for no reason.
The princess was frowning. The other Dawn Knights were watching the duel with their arms crossed or hanging down.
The clouds in the sky were still moving from west to east. It was as if it didn’t care about the humans on the ground. And as the clouds drifted, the shadow’s radius also shifted. The clouds hid the sun, causing it to shine down with dazzling sunlight.
The trainees initially shielded themselves from the sunlight by raising their hands. The sunlight gradually spread, reaching the arena and Lyos. In an instant, his silver armor gleamed in the sunlight, and Russell squinted slightly. And Lyos, who had been waiting for this moment, did not miss his chance.
“Hmph!”
Without a loud battle cry, Lyos kicked the ground and charged forward. At that moment, the only thing on his mind was the victory he would dedicate to Her Highness the Princess.
With his highly concentrated focus, his magical energy took on a different vibrancy than before. The flow, which had been rough until now, moved like a torrential river, bending and turning without losing any of its power. Then, Lyos briefly entered another world.
As he ran, the soles of his feet shattered the hard flagstones on the floor. His body was like the wind, and the sword in his hand was as light as a feather. He knew that he had taken a step into a new realm at this very moment.
A strong sense of exhilaration that he could do anything surged through his mind. And of course, the first thing he would do was to pierce the heart of that impudent mercenary. The rule that they should not expose their lives to such an extent has long since disappeared somewhere far away.
As she had said, this man named Russell had defeated a dragonkin, or a black giant, in the form of a manifestation of the thunder god. Lyos did not doubt the princess’s words.
Her words were absolute. It had been that way ever since he first met her eyes and gaze. Lyos’s heart belonged to the princess. And if he were to kill such a warrior in this place, wouldn’t he become a knight who had truly defeated a god?
If that were to happen, the princess would withdraw the disappointed gaze she had directed at him yesterday. She would withdraw her thoughts of disappointment. His pounding heart rapidly pumped blood in and out of his body.
All these thoughts and actions took place in an instant. Lyos’s sword thrust straight forward. Faster than an arrow, its tip aimed for Russell’s heart. It possessed sufficient force to penetrate even the strongest steel armor.
PUFF!
To the onlookers’ eyes, it appeared as if Lyos had taken a stance and then blurred, only to reappear right in front of Russell. Russell’s sword blade protruded from behind his back.
Screams erupted. Lord Frederick and Albert’s expressions froze, and Zeona covered her mouth with her hand. Elenora, Evelyn, and Lexi stood up abruptly.
“Lyos! That fool—!”
The Dawn Knights also stood up in shock and were about to charge into the arena when the princess remained still. Her eyes, which had captured the moment, narrowed.
“Everyone, stand down.”
At her absolute command, the Dawn Knights stopped in their tracks, as if they had been lying.
Karen and the instructors remained the same. No, the instructors were about to stand up without realizing it, but when they saw that she was still sitting, they sat back down. Karen also looked down with a hardened face.
The screams soon subsided. Someone muttered in a stunned voice,
“There’s no blood?”
He stated that the arena floor was devoid of hot blood. Only broken pieces of stone scattered and shattered by the two men’s powerful forces remained.
Uncomprehending faces stared at Russell and Lyos. The two were standing so close together, and the sunlight was reflected off Lyos’s armor, making it difficult to identify them.
Just then, another cloud drifted in from somewhere and gradually covered the sun. Only then were the people able to see the two of them properly.
Russell was holding Lyos’s sword in his left armpit. The delusions of the next realm and the boundless flight of his imagination gradually clouded Lyos, bringing him to his senses. He pondered the reason for his longsword becoming lodged between Russell’s armpit and arm.
“W, What? What’s this?”
“You.”
━You.
Russell’s low voice and an unidentified, distorted voice sounded at the same time.
Lyos slowly raised his head. A pair of purple eyes were burning there. He felt as if he could see someone else’s gaze in those purple eyes beside Russell’s.
“You tried to kill me.”
━Did you try to kill my ■■?
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