Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: The Banquet, and the Duel (4)
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Paolo smirked at the sight of me.
"A weak-ass mercenary blocking my sword."
"You're swinging it diligently enough, but there's barely any power behind it. I thought a fly had landed on the blade."
I said that, but even if that bastard's personality was filthier than a used rag, he was undeniably skilled enough to live up to the title of Expert.
I bluffed about it feeling as light as a fly landing, but blocking his sword was seriously taxing.
"Hup!"
Still, rather than acknowledging this trash's ability and praising him, I'd sooner bite my tongue and die.
"I guess I'll have to shove a sword in your mouth instead of a skewer!"
Paolo took a step back and leveled his sword at me again.
Judging by where he was aiming—right near my heart—he planned to stab straight through my chest.
A lot of guys die because they obsess over blocking armor gaps like the neck or under the armpits...
"You think that'll work, you pervert?"
"Die, you lowly mercenary scum!"
Paolo charged toward me like a bullet.
His gaze was still locked on my chest, so yeah—he really planned to drive it right into my heart like that?
As my focus shifted there, my sword naturally moved to guard my chest.
The moment I thrust out my sword to parry the stab and took a step forward, he kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.
My sword missed its mark and sliced futilely through empty space.
"Shit."
When I tilted my head back to look up, what I saw was him bringing his sword down toward my neck.
"Die!"
If I die, Karin becomes your woman—and that's not happening.
That's one reason I can't die easily.
No, if anyone's dying, it should be that NTR bastard, not me.
"You think I'll die for you?"
It was too late to dodge by stepping back.
I poured every ounce of strength and Aura into my lower body, then raised my sword and swung it toward his incoming attack.
The clash of our blades rang out like thunder.
"Ugh... shit..."
My arm that took the hit—his weight, the Aura-infused power of his swing, the speed from dropping from above—went numb like pins and needles.
Soon after, pain like torn muscles and ligaments ripped through my arm.
The last Expert I fought wasn't on this level...
This single exchange made it crystal clear: there was an insurmountable wall between Paolo and me.
Rationally speaking, I should tuck tail and run...
'But I can't give up.'
Right on cue, voices from my mercenary comrades rang out, worrying over me.
"Don't lose to that horny wild boar sniffing around another guy's woman!"
"Shit, Martin Platoon Leader! Turn that arrogant young master who thinks skill makes him invincible into a eunuch!"
"Don't lose! Martin, you bastard!"
With my resolve hardened, I gripped my sword with both hands and blocked his follow-up attacks.
After three—no, four exchanges—he readjusted his stance.
He flipped up the visor on his helmet, his lip twitching in a sneer.
"What a romantic knight we have here. A guy with no skill, status, or honor getting cheered on by his fellow mercenaries. Truly impressive. So does that make me the villain in some play put on by clowns or actors?"
Does he have the brains to admit out loud that he's the villain?
No, if he had that kind of judgment, even if he fell head over heels for Karin at first sight, he wouldn't have come at her like that.
Paolo pretended to gag, wrinkling his nose.
"I can't stand seeing a lowly, talentless wretch strutting around like he's the protagonist of this world."
Fuck, seeing a highborn guy with real skill roll around in his shitty personality like it's country soup makes me furious enough to kill him on the spot.
Then he ground his teeth on his own and jabbed an accusing finger at me.
"If you're born low, know your place and just bow your head through life. How dare you try to crawl up to a noble like me? Know your station and die quietly right now, you inferior, subhuman cockroach of a mercenary crawling in the dirt!"
After catching my breath, I shot back.
"Is that why a noble like you was acting like a dog in heat, desperate to steal a lowly mercenary's woman?"
"You bastard! I, Paolo Schwaben, simply love the beautiful lady Karin—that's all! The one losing his mind in lust and doing ugly things is you!"
If I do it, it's romance. If someone else does, it's adultery.
That's exactly his level of thinking. A dirty, repulsive bastard.
Whether it was his genuine anger and resolve, a solemn aura unlike anything before began emanating from Paolo's body.
The blue mist-like Aura only grew denser.
"Guess I'll have to brace myself."
Unlike before, Paolo was advancing toward me slowly now.
I even considered charging first and overwhelming him with speed...
'I have to wait for his opening. That's my only shot at winning.'
Counting silently inside, picturing every possible scenario, I waited purely for his attack.
"I'll fight you with my full power, you lowly cur."
Once I entered his sword's range, Paolo stomped the ground hard.
Then he swung in a perfectly textbook stance, straight out of a manual.
The form was textbook perfect, so blocking it came to mind easily—but the skill and effort Paolo poured into it were on another level.
The sword's weight, the sound slicing through the air, the sheer intensity of the Aura packed inside—it all felt utterly foreign, like the first time.
'This won't be easy.'
Tension had cold sweat pouring down my body; strength flooded into my hands on the hilt and my entire frame.
The instant Paolo's sword met mine, a hammer-blow shock coursed through my hands into the rest of my body.
"Crazy, shit..."
Is this the true power of Paolo Schwaben, an Expert at the pinnacle?
The wall between him and me—already towering—shot up even higher in an instant.
'I might actually die here.'
The weak thought flashed through my mind for a moment, but I shook it off, refusing to let it take hold.
"Lowly trash!"
Paolo didn't limit himself to overhead strikes; he pressured me from every angle.
Horizontal slash from the right, diagonal chop from upper left, thrusts at my chest or throat whenever an opening appeared—moves like that.
Switching between so many techniques should create at least a small gap by normal standards...
But there were no openings in his attacks.
The more I blocked, the more I endured, the heavier the strain on my body grew.
Paolo kept sneering, as if he were enjoying it.
"You idiot—no matter how much you thrash around, that's your limit!"
I couldn't give up.
So I gritted my teeth, clung to my sword, and fought on somehow, blocking to the end.
After dozens more exchanges, my vision began to blur.
Whenever I tried to muster strength through my body, a tiny bit would come, only to fade immediately; my drained frame swayed, ready to collapse at any second.
My instincts were already whispering to me.
'Give up now. Just give up. With your current skill, you can't beat him. Be a smart mercenary and admit what you have to. Build your strength and challenge him again later—that's when you'll win.'
But after coming this far, I couldn't just give up here...
My heart was all in, but my body couldn't keep up—a truly heartbreaking situation.
"Die! You son of a bitch!"
Paolo swung down fiercely, as if this were his final attack, loaded with killing intent.
His strike carried the roar of a massive car barreling through the wind, along with crushing wind pressure and weight.
I gathered every last scrap of strength and Aura to block it.
I managed to block, but one knee buckled involuntarily to the ground.
'Am I dying like this?'
As the thought hit me, Karin's voice rang out from behind.
"You promised you'd stay by my side!"
At those words, the smoldering will deep in my chest—to kill that son of a bitch—exploded into a raging inferno.
'If I die now, that damn pervert takes Karin's virginity.'
Imagining that catastrophe unleashed a profound fury I didn't even know I possessed.
My beloved woman's first time, stolen by that rotten bastard?
Just the thought made me gag—no, my stomach was already churning like I was about to puke.
My clenched fists felt sticky, not with sweat, but blood; my teeth ground together on their own.
'Shit, if only I awaken here. I could beat this trash trying to steal another man's woman.'
I wished—even if I died right here, please let me kill that bastard—and squeezed out my remaining Aura with everything I had.
Pulling the life-force power beyond its limits crashed even greater fatigue onto my already spent body.
'Even if I die here, I'll kill that bastard no matter what.'
A moment passed, and suddenly it felt like a wall shattered in my mind.
"Ah..."
Before I knew it, a faint blue mist was seeping from my body.
Paolo saw the blue Aura mist—the mark of an Aura Expert—rising from me, scowled fiercely, and swung his sword right away.
"Die! You lowly scum!"
I blocked that sword just like all his previous strikes.
But this time, unlike before, his blade felt light.
I snorted, my honest reaction slipping out.
"Light, that sword of yours."