Chapter 32 - Honorable Duel (2)

The blood of nobles is a pale blue.

Because there are responsibilities, duties, and sins that cannot be borne by warm red.

"..."

But Alicia was not yet ready to grow cold.

Countless gazes directed at her.

And even Endre's fierce glare, fixed on her from ahead.

'It's hard to breathe.'

No matter how firmly she had steeled herself, Alicia was still a maiden not yet twenty, and it was difficult for her to withstand the force of Endre, who had been through all manner of hardships.

That was why she turned her head.

To avoid his gaze as naturally as she could.

And what was waiting for her where she turned was the pair of blue eyes she had seen that day.

"...?"

A blond boy with a foolish expression, as if asking what was going on.

The moment that boy entered her sight, Alicia found herself able to steady her unfocused gaze.

Her pounding heart calmed, her dizzy vision returned, and the cold sweat that had been flowing without pause began to stop.

The comfort she had felt on the hill where her father and mother rested was there now, inside the blue eyes of the boy she was looking at.

Within them, she could finally breathe out.

※※※※

Vlad was smacking his lips as he looked at the knight standing beside Jager.

'So he was on our side.'

He was the unidentified man who had spied on the opposing knights with him yesterday.

Jubert, the knight sent by the Shazad Family.

Seeing Jubert send him a mischievous look, Vlad found himself about to slip into a crooked posture without realizing it.

'No wonder he knew me.'

The man had subdued him, acted familiar without permission, and in the end had abandoned him and left without the slightest regret.

["That woman Alicia certainly brought in some good cards. It seems likely she'll win."]

'I suppose so.'

Since there were many people present, he could not answer aloud, but Vlad also thought there was a high chance Alicia would be the winner of this duel.

Though he had not been able to examine the knight standing close beside Endre, the knights named Colin and Pablo were not people on the level of Jager and Jubert, no matter how highly one rated them.

After all, Jubert, the knight sent by the Shazad Family, had reached a level where even the voice could not easily read his energy.

Considering the rules of this duel, which would be decided by best two out of three, it was a result that could be predicted well enough.

Even if they gave up one match.

※※※※

"Stop! Please stop! I surrender!"

Along with Alicia's urgent request, the priest intervened.

"Stop! The duel is over!"

"... Not yet!"

"Sir Duncan. Your lord has waved the handkerchief. Admit defeat."

"..."

It had been a fierce duel, but also a sorrowful one.

Duncan, the old knight.

He had protected the Heinal Family for a long time, and though he was over sixty, he had still maintained his skill, but in the end, the passage of time could not be helped.

He had fought with all his might, but the world was a place that accepted only results in the end.

"It was a good match, Captain."

"... Am I still your Captain?"

Duncan clenched his teeth as he looked at the young knight holding a hand out toward him.

Chard, a knight of the Heinal Family who had offered his sword to Endre.

"... I don't need it."

He had raised him, believing he would surely become the future of the Heinal Family, yet now he had returned as a sword that cut down its master.

It had been his own misjudgment, and that had returned as poison to Alicia, so Duncan's wretched feelings were beyond words.

Though he staggered from his wounds, Duncan struck away his hand with the last of his pride, then lowered his head toward Alicia while carrying a guilt he could not bear to hide.

"..."

Though her expression did not waver, deep ripples were rising in Alicia's eyes.

The old knight, in a ruined state, asking her forgiveness.

Because to Alicia, he was like the last pillar left to her.

The blood Duncan shed returned to Alicia as tears.

"This duel is the victory of Sir Chard, knight of Lord Endre!"

At the priest's declaration, those with Endre let out a great cheer.

Just as Endre had staked everything to obtain the Heinal Family, they too must have staked much for Endre.

The winner takes everything, and the loser loses everything.

Under the law of the world that applied everywhere, those who had taken their first step toward victory were certainly people who had the right to cheer.

"The next representatives, come forward!"

Hearing the priest call for the next duelists to come out, Vlad swallowed hard.

A duel decided by best two out of three.

Among them, the person carrying out the most important duty was probably the one taking the second position.

Because if the first person won, he could decide the match, and if the first person lost, he was tasked with handing the duel to the third person while ensuring certain victory.

"The second knight on Lady Alicia's side, come forward!"

And the knight entrusted with that important duty was none other than Jager of the Bayezid Family.

One-eyed Jager.

Though he was not a knight with a flamboyant title, Duncan and Jubert had unanimously decided to place Jager in the second position.

Because the weight carried by the name Bayezid guaranteed that much trust.

"Jager."

"Colin."

For a knight, the command of his lord came first, and his own honor second.

A place called an honorable duel, watched by many people, was a fight where one could not retreat, staking both the command of one's lord and one's own honor.

That was why, though they were meeting for the first time, their edges naturally had no choice but to sharpen.

With the floor scattered with drops of red blood between them, the two knights began to glare at each other.

"Where did you sell off one of your eyes?"

"I ate it because I was hungry."

"Kh!"

Colin was so large that there was nearly a head's difference between them, but Jager did not back down at all.

Rather than not backing down, it also seemed as though he was simply ignoring him because he found it bothersome.

"Then it must've all come out the bottom. Guess you'll never find it again."

"That's right."

"You two, move to your designated positions!"

It seemed Colin had tried in his own way to provoke him, but Jager was not the sort of person to be moved by that much.

Rather, at Jager's attitude of ignoring him like a dog, a thick vein carved itself deeply into Colin's forehead.

"I shall tell you once more. The match ends when the representative or the person in question expresses intent to surrender, or when one suffers an injury so severe that the duel cannot continue. And aura is forbidden."

"Understood."

"I'll gouge out your other eye too, one-eye."

"... Please do not forget that this is an honorable duel."

Colin's growling momentum was far from ordinary, but the priest stepped back for the start of the duel.

After all, even if it was an honorable duel with rules, they were fighting with swords in hand, so sometimes situations that could not be controlled occurred.

"Under today's sun, God has granted permission!"

"Graaah!"

The moment the priest gave the signal, Colin let out a monstrous roar and charged toward Jager.

It was a speed hard to believe had come from such a huge body, but the strike was a powerful one worthy of that body.

Indeed, with a single movement of his sword, he was showing skill worthy of being called the mud boar in the central region.

But Jager, who was receiving that force head-on, was merely standing there with an indifferent expression.

BOOM!

Colin's sword smashed the floor of the hall with a massive roar.

Fragments of the floor flew out in every direction.

"Ohhh!"

"Just as they say, his strength is incredible!"

At Colin's blow, which shook the hall greatly, Alicia clutched her chest, and Vlad pulled out a piece of dried fruit Jubert had given him yesterday and put it in his mouth.

Because this was where it began.

"..."

Seeing Jager avoid the blow by the width of a single step, Colin judged that he had enough chance of victory.

He only needed to be a little faster.

He only needed to bring it down a little harder.

Then he would be able to catch up to that precarious single step.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Having smelled victory, Colin, his morale soaring, began to hammer his sword after Jager's afterimage.

With every downward strike, the hall shook, and the exclamations and cheers of the people rang out.

"... This is not good."

However, the knights standing on Endre's side had noticed that the momentum of the fight was twisting in a strange way.

And by the time Colin himself, the person involved, felt that something was wrong.

"Olé."

"You bastard..."

Only now, facing Jager's face, could Colin realize that all his efforts until then had been in vain.

Because unlike himself, who was out of breath, Jager had a clean face and not a single thing about him was out of place.

"..."

Vlad, who was watching the duel, felt Jager meet his eyes.

He was pointing with his finger at his right eye, the one not covered by the eyepatch, and sending Vlad a signal.

Watch closely.

You brat who is trying to run when you cannot even walk properly.

"You son of a bitch!"

Colin, thoroughly provoked, adjusted his grip on his sword and swung it at Jager, but his sword could not find its target and was only cutting through empty air.

"...!"

Colin's eyes flew wide in shock.

Because Jager's form was splitting in a strange way.

His footwork was neither fast nor slow, but within it were countless possibilities.

Was he going right or left?

Was he dodging backward or stepping forward?

It could not be judged.

"Rrgh!"

With his eyes wide open, Colin desperately ignored Jager's movements that were bewitching him and swung his sword without pause.

It was not a clever move, but depending on how one looked at it, it was also the best choice.

Because when one could not establish a definite alternative, one had to do the best thing one could.

And Colin was not the only one watching Jager's movements with eyes wide open.

["Watch closely. He is doing that to show you."]

'...'

Last night, Jager had warned his anxious squire with a sharp rebuke.

Before thinking of running, think first about walking properly.

At the same time, he had shown one of his own techniques and put a piece of candy in the mouth of the whining Vlad.

'You need to have proper fundamentals to use a technique like that.'

"Graaah!"

Colin let out a roar and hammered down with his greatsword without pause.

The thick veins engraved on his shoulders and forearms showed how powerful the force contained in his sword was.

CLANG!

But with a powerless sound, it was lightly knocked away.

CLANG! CLANG! CLAAANG!

Colin's attacks continued without end, but Jager was parrying them without the slightest error.

No, he was cutting them off.

["That's it. A gap appears, doesn't it?"]

Every time Jager parried a sword strike, Colin's momentum subtly faltered.

It was a gap that could not help but appear as the point of impact was forcibly thrown off.

["It's a counterattack technique."]

A counterattack technique.

A technique that launches the later move through the gap created while blocking the first attack.

It was an advanced technique that read the move the opponent sent and responded accordingly, and a technique created by the strange approach of suppressing the first attack with the later move.

It was difficult to attempt, but if it succeeded, it was also a technique that promised certain death.

"...!"

Vlad stared with wide eyes at the divine skill Jager was showing.

Tears flowed from his eyes, forced open so hard, but the boy who thirsted for everything was greedily devouring the sight before him with his eyes.

Without even breathing.

Meeting Jager had been luck.

Though he was rough and twisted, he was a man who did what he had to do without fail.

Today's lesson was the counterattack technique.

The teaching material was the mud boar of the central region.

※※※※

"It's over."

Jager toyed with his eyepatch and stared blankly at the priest.

"The w-winner is Sir Jager, knight and representative of Lady Alicia!"

Jager's victory had clearly been declared, but Alicia's people were as silent as mice, let alone cheering.

Only silence filled the dueling ground.

At the strange atmosphere Jager gave off, the people on Endre's side lost their nerve, and the people on Alicia's side were left speechless.

"..."

But the one with an even deeper silence than them was Colin, who was now kneeling with a dazed expression.

Today, he had met a wall.

And he had felt a difference in class.

It was something enormous, something that seemed impossible to overcome.

"Well done."

"Did you watch properly?"

Looking at Jager, who had deliberately staged even the scene for his sake, Vlad could only be grateful.

Though he did not show it.

"Thank you. Sir Jager."

"I merely followed Lord Joseph's command."

Duncan expressed his sincere gratitude toward Jager, who had returned with victory.

His appearance, wrapped in bandages stained red, was quite pitiful, but Jager treated him with as much courtesy as he could.

"The next duelists, come forward!"

Duncan had lost, and Jager had won.

The vanguard match and the middle match were over, so now only the final match remained.

"Is it my turn?"

At the priest's call, Jubert was entering the dueling ground while stroking his well-kept Kaiser mustache.

This duel would do it.

If they won only this, Alicia would become the rightful Baroness of Heinal, recognized under the name of God.

The desperate gazes of Alicia, Duncan, and the people who followed them gathered on Jubert's back.

But Jubert himself, the person involved, merely wore an inscrutable smile as if nothing were wrong.

Walking through the silence Jager had created, two knights entered the dueling ground.

"Pablo of Arnstein."

"Now, now. We've met before, haven't we?"

"Pablo of Arnstein."

"... Jubert of Shazad."

Jubert gave an awkward smile at an opponent who did not understand jokes.

He turned his head and bowed toward Alicia.

It was a splendid bow, properly learned.

"Hm?"

But Joseph, seated in the distinguished section and watching the duel, noticed that something was wrong from the bow Jubert had just shown.

Because it was not a bow that would be used in the current situation.

"I shall tell you once more. The match ends when the representative expresses intent to surrender, and when one suffers an injury so severe that the duel cannot..."

The priest was diligently explaining the rules of the duel, but Jubert was merely standing there indifferently.

"I forfeit."

"... An injury so severe. What did you just say?"

The priest could not understand the words that came from Jubert's mouth all at once.

He had heard them with his ears, but his mind could not comprehend them.

Because they were words that should not come out now, and words that must not come out.

"I forfeit."

As if he were an actor who had stepped onto a stage, Jubert looked around with exaggerated gestures and shouted.

"I, Jubert, the representative sent by the Shazad Family, forfeit this duel."

"..."

"..."

Jubert, who had actually spoken the words, looked completely unconcerned, but for those who had to accept those words, it was a declaration like thunder.

A terrible silence was settling over the hall.

"Th-this... this..."

Only now coming to his senses, Duncan flailed his injured hand as if this could not be happening.

"...!"

Alicia, the person directly involved in the duel, rose from her seat with her lips trembling.

Her white skin was being stained a pale blue.

While everyone was flustered, unable to understand the situation that had just occurred.

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

Into the silent hall, the sound of someone's applause quietly rang out.

"A forfeit!"

Endre Heinal.

"Then the duel is over!"

The man who was the second heir of the Heinal Family finally revealed the teeth he had been hiding.

"Is that not so!"

Amid everyone's silence, there was one man who shouted proudly alone.

He was an accuser and a usurper.

And also a man who had been holding four cards before he ever stepped into the dueling ground.

"... Damn it."

Realizing he had been dragged into a nasty situation, Joseph quickly signaled to Vordan with a gesture.

"Now acknowledge it before God, Priest!"

The exaggerated bow Jubert had given Alicia.

It had been a farewell.

"That I alone am the one and rightful Heinal!"

This duel had been rigged from the very beginning.

By those who knew no honor.