61
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 61
Joseph was trembling with genuine anger, while Tina laughed in disbelief.
"So you're saying they did this to take Sir Caesar's assets?"
"That's right."
"How can anyone do such a thing?!"
"Isn't that why I left the family?"
Caesar took a sip of tea before speaking.
"I was looking for a witness anyway. Sir Joseph, would you honor me by being the witness?"
"Of course! I'll do my absolute best to ensure Sir Caesar's reputation and dignity are not harmed! This matter cannot be overlooked!"
"Thank you."
Tina also spoke up.
"The Royder Order's help will be needed if there are any injuries. I think I can help with that matter, if that's alright?"
"I would be very grateful for the Order's help."
"Then Sir Joseph and I will discuss the details."
"Thank you."
Well, this has grown quite considerably.
After this duel is over, the Sylvatil family probably won't bother me anymore.
They'll find out just how crazy I am.
***
Caesar stood in the largest dueling ground in the Wizard Province.
Originally used for disputes between mages rather than knights, it was bigger than most soccer fields.
A thousand people had gathered to watch the duel.
The problem was those 1,000 people.
Every single one were people with quite a reputation in the Wizard Province.
Starting with the state governor, there were Sapientia board members, Homigraph committee members, nobles and their children whom he'd met at the party, holy knights, and priests from the Royder Order.
Of course, not everyone gathered here was here for Caesar.
The protagonist of this duel was Gloria Bellum.
All the important figures connected to Viscount Bellum had gathered and were glaring daggers at Aldo and Gideon.
"Wow, Gloria. Your father's connections are impressive."
"...This many people weren't supposed to come."
Viscount Bellum approached after talking with the spectators.
"Father, how did this happen?"
"Sir Joseph said that considering my and Sir Caesar's dignity, at least this many should gather. So I sent out letters, and many people came."
Viscount Bellum spoke to Caesar.
"Sir Caesar. You don't need to fight directly. I've arranged for a champion, just in case."
"That would cause more talk. Originally, only a master, disciple, blood relative, or a champion designated at least half a year in advance can participate in a duel."
"I brought some knights from distant relatives. There shouldn't be a problem."
"This occasion is also about severing ties with my tiresome family. And it's not entirely unrelated to me. So I'd like to conclude this matter with my own hands."
Viscount Bellum nodded in understanding.
"If that's the case, it can't be helped. But be careful. I did some research on Gideon, and he's a knight well-versed in duels. You mustn't let your guard down."
"I'm well aware of that. I wouldn't have accepted the duel if I had no chance of winning."
Caesar knows Gideon quite well.
Not personally, of course, but through the game.
Gideon was a renowned 'specialist' in dueling even in the game.
Though he's elderly, when taken as a champion, he could handle most A-rank knights easily.
So while Caesar was a bit tense, he wasn't too concerned.
All of that man's techniques were already in Caesar's head, and Caesar had 'Psychometry'.
"I suppose you're right."
Joseph approached.
"It's time to begin the duel. Are you ready?"
Gloria nodded.
"Yes, I am."
Gloria took a deep breath before stepping confidently into the center of the dueling ground.
In contrast, Aldo approached while watching his surroundings nervously.
"...Did you have to make this such a big affair?"
"Did you challenge me to a duel without being prepared for this much? Everyone gathered here has received help from Sir Caesar. He saved Homigraph and Sapientia from demons twice, after all."
"Ugh."
Aldo's lips trembled.
The Silvatil Baron family's reputation was already at rock bottom due to an absurd duel challenge, and now it seemed about to sink even lower.
Joseph opened his mouth.
"State what each of you wants from winning this duel."
Gloria spoke first.
"If I win, I want Aldo Silvatil to forfeit all rights to Lord Caesar Sylvatil's personal assets."
Aldo clenched his fist and said.
"If I win, I want Gloria Bellum to forfeit all rights to Caesar Sylvatil's personal assets."
"Booooo!"
The audience showered Aldo with criticism at his words.
Some people even became so agitated they started cursing.
Aldo's shoulders involuntarily hunched under the wave of criticism.
"Now please state your preferred method of dueling."
Gloria spoke first.
"I'll name a champion. My champion is Lord Caesar Silvatil, and the victory condition is bodily injury."
Aldo also spoke.
"I too will name a champion. My champion is Lord Gideon, and the victory condition is..."
Aldo glanced sideways at Gideon.
Gideon nodded.
"The death of the opponent."
Not just Joseph, but all the surrounding spectators were shocked.
Gloria was extremely agitated.
"A duel to the death?! Are you really proposing a duel to the death?"
"That's right."
"Are you not ashamed? Do you want to take all of Lord Caesar's assets so badly that you'd go this far?!"
"Then you can simply name another champion. Do you perhaps have another champion?"
Curses flew from all directions.
Garbage was even thrown into the dueling grounds.
Joseph suppressed his anger and spoke.
"Are you truly serious about wanting a duel to the death?"
"I am. I understand that in a duel, the highest victory condition demanded by either party is chosen. I will absolutely choose a duel to the death, so don't try to persuade me otherwise."
Joseph was fighting the urge to split this dog-like fellow's head open right then and there.
Who was Caesar?
He was the hero who had saved Homigraph from the mafia and saved innocent citizens from demons three times.
His anger boiled at this human trash's greed, trying to take a hero's life just to steal his wealth.
At that moment, Caesar approached.
"I accept."
"Lord Caesar!"
"This is cleaner. I was a bit uncomfortable with bodily injury anyway."
Gideon also approached silently.
Caesar smiled while looking at Gideon.
"But I don't understand. This doesn't seem like Elder Brother Aldo acting out of wounded pride in the heat of the moment, and it seems you and Lord Gideon had discussed this beforehand. Were we on such bad terms that we need to kill each other?"
"Our relationship was neither bad nor good."
"Then why go this far?"
Caesar took another step closer, narrowing the distance with Gideon to within 3 meters.
Then he used psychometry.
"Because my lord wishes it."
-Because he is my son.
Caesar looked back and forth between Gideon's green hair and Aldo's green hair.
Ah...
Now he understood.
He had thought they looked somewhat alike, and this was the reason.
'This family was completely messed up.'
Caesar lifted his axe.
"Well, that's reason enough to die right now."
Gideon had lived his entire life as a champion.
A champion is one who resolves difficult problems for their lord with a sword.
He had fought in honorable duels and in dishonorable ones that earned everyone's jeers due to lords' foolish decisions.
But whether honorable or dishonorable, in the end, the victor takes all the practical benefits.
"Gideon. Can you really win?"
"Of course, young master."
Aldo Silvatil.
Gideon's mistake and...
Lily's mistake.
Though born from a mistake, Aldo would continue to live as an honorable noble.
Not a life like Gideon's, constantly facing death while caught up in others' battles, but a noble bloodline who fights the battles he wants on the battlefields he chooses.
After today's fight ends, Aldo would live such a life.
"The fight will be fierce. Please watch from a safe place."
With those final words, Gideon headed to the center of the dueling grounds.
There was a red dot in the arena as red as a pool of blood.
It was Caesar Silvatil.
Caesar said
"You're wearing extremely lightweight armor. Was there really a need for that, being a technique type?"
"I did some research on Lord Caesar. They say that although you wield an axe, you fight more like a technique type knight than a classic type knight. If that's the case, heavy armor would only be poison to me."
"I'm just a novice who became a knight only 8 years ago. Is there really a need to take it this seriously?"
"If Lord Caesar were a novice, you wouldn't have built such a high reputation. I personally respect you."
"How do you feel about having to kill such an honorable knight?"
"The sword does not think. If Lord Caesar served a lord, you would understand."
Gideon drew his sword.
"Though of course, you'll never get the chance to understand."
"Such sophisticated provocation."
Joseph held up a coin.
"Then shall we begin the duel?"
Caesar and Gideon silently nodded.
Gideon took a deep breath to sharpen his senses.
From his research on Caesar, he was a tanker type knight whose skin couldn't even be pierced by bullets.
A knight who mixed technique type abilities to create sharp winds with his axe.
Moreover, a knight who held an axe in each hand.
This was a type Gideon had never seen in his 30 years living as a knight.
There are only two ways to deal with a completely unfamiliar type like this.
One is to attack first.
The other is to defend slowly while analyzing the opponent.
Which would be better to choose?
Reason says to defend first, while instinct says to attack.
Ting!
The coin flew up into the air and Joseph stepped back.
Gideon's aura raced through his magic circuits, swelling the muscles in both legs.
However, Gideon chose to trust his instinct.
As he always had.
Thud!
When the coin hit the dueling ground floor, Gideon and Caesar charged at each other simultaneously.
Meeting in the center of the arena, they swung their weapons at each other.
CLAAANG!
The screech of steel and wind reached the spectator stands.
At this magnificent sight, everyone stopped their jeering and watched the two knights' duel in stunned silence.
"Is, isn't that sword energy?"
"Was Lord Gideon an advanced knight who could use sword energy?"
"I've never heard of that?"
Blue sword energy rippled along Gideon's sword, leaving a scratch on Caesar's axe.
"That's no ordinary axe. Steel that won't cut even to sword energy."
"Given what I paid for this axe, it should at least block sword energy."
CLANG! CLANG!
Sharp winds emanating from Caesar's axe flew toward Gideon's body.
Gideon scattered all those wind blades with elegant and swift swordsmanship.
Simultaneously, he thrust his sword at Caesar.
CLANG! CLANG!
The difference between axe and sword was stark.
The sword was fast, and the axe was slow.
Gideon was even experienced.
Rather than going for an instant kill to the heart or neck, he persistently targeted areas difficult to focus on during intense combat, like fingers, toes, and thighs.
Nick.
Indeed, one sword path that Caesar missed barely grazed his thigh.
'Impossibly tough.'
He certainly seemed to be a tanker type knight.
Originally intending to cut through muscle, but only managing to scratch the skin.
The tactile sensation at the sword's tip felt like touching tough rubber.
He must regularly take some excellent potions.
But he had learned several things from their exchanges.
That bizarre wind-raising axe technique Caesar constantly used might be suitable for defending against projectiles like arrows or bullets, but it wasn't enough to destroy Gideon's armor.
And Caesar wasn't used to fighting knights.
Perhaps because he mainly faced demons during wars.
And Caesar's axe counter-attacks were fixed on either the head or vital points.
Typical of a knight who fought on battlefields where he needed to deliver lethal attacks in one blow.
Lastly, in a duel, an axe could only make cutting attacks, making it inflexible and slow.
Despite carrying these potentially fatal disadvantages in a duel, the reason he could fight almost evenly with Gideon was just one thing.
'His reaction speed is impossible.'
He was avoiding all of Gideon's psychological warfare with beast-like nimble movements.
Clearly, the world Caesar saw and felt must be more distinct than Gideon's.
Was it the power of youth?
Or talent?
Or both?
THUNK!
As Gideon's sword brushed past the wind, a sharp gust scratched his armor.
Not just a scratch, but it crashed into him strongly enough to disrupt his balance.
'...What?'
The type of wind itself had changed.
Not a sharp, thin wind, but a wind heavy like a fist.
As Gideon swung his sword to scatter the wind, Caesar's axe flew in, targeting that opening.
'Again, for vital points...?'
The lightning-flashing axe seemed to aim for a vital point.
But suddenly the axe in the left hand disappeared from view.
Gideon reacted instinctively.
Whoosh!
Instead of blocking the thunderous strike, Gideon dodged it.
Then the vanished left-hand axe grazed Gideon's side as it passed.
Caesar cracked his neck and smiled.
"Excellent judgment."
Gideon swallowed hard.
Caesar Sylvatil's attack pattern had suddenly changed.
***
Caesar stuck close to Gideon while using psychometry.
-This has become too difficult to handle.
-The attack pattern isn't consistent.
-The weaknesses are rapidly disappearing.
He could fully sense how flustered the fellow was in his mind.
Caesar was quite enjoying the duel with Gideon.
As a veteran, Gideon had clearly grasped Caesar's strengths and weaknesses, and was conducting the duel by suppressing the strengths and targeting the weaknesses.
-The pattern of swirling winds is consistent.
-Don't block, dodge instead.
Caesar hadn't even known his wind attack patterns were consistent.
He thought he was using them randomly.
But in this brief duel, Gideon had penetrated habits and patterns that Caesar himself wasn't aware of, and...
Whoosh!
He wedged through that gap to counter-attack Caesar.
'This one's a genius too.'
Caesar barely blocked Gideon's sword.
It was an angle that would have been impossible to block without reading his attack direction and timing through psychometry.
-How?!
Caesar swung his axe again.
Then the wind patterns switched.
The wind paths that originally headed for the sides, head, and vital points started flying toward detailed areas like ankles and wrists.
CLANG!
Unable to react, Gideon exposed his right thigh to Caesar's left axe.
Focused on avoiding the winds, he hadn't seen the left axe riding the wind paths.
As the armor crumpled, the left axe flew skyward.
Simultaneously, Gideon's body collapsed.
-An opening.
Just as Caesar was about to bring down his axe, Gideon thrust his sword through an unprecedented counter-attack path.
As he fell, Gideon slashed both ankle and the back of the knee twice, and Caesar deflected that sword.
'Not going down easily.'
Caesar smiled as he watched Gideon get back up again.
'That's what makes it more fun.'
Caesar charged in like a tiger.