Chapter 29
**CHAPTER TITLE: The Duel Outside the Citadel Gates**
The knights of the Second Knight Order were all on edge, desperate to be the ones to step forward first.
But the weight of the name “Grand Battle” and the calm eloquence with which Jeanne had addressed the Divine made even them yield.
Some looked at her with worry, others with suspicion.
“Why do you intend to keep waiting? Are there no cowards in Bluisol?”
Nicholas’s voice rang out from beyond the city walls.
Not only the words, but the tone brimmed with contempt for the knights of Bluisol.
“Whoa, really!”
Nael, who had been ready to leap out the moment he heard it, was barely restrained by Ethan, who sighed and glanced at Fabian.
Fabian suppressed the deep worry in his eyes as he looked at Jeanne, but he did not say the word “no.” Ethan found this odd.
Did Fabian truly believe Jeanne could defeat the enemy commander?
Still clutching the restless Nael, he turned his gaze toward Jeanne.
Even amid the torrent of concern, Jeanne maintained her poker face.
She equipped herself and strode out of the city.
Her heart pounded.
In her previous life she had faced her opponent countless times, yet this was the first time she would clash with him blade to blade in this life. Her fists clenched tight.
In a one-on-one duel, the only thing she could rely on was the single sword at her hip.
Jeanne could not possibly be unaware of the worry and anxiety directed at her. Aside from the words she had spoken to the Divine, there was another reason she had to fight Nicholas.
*I will definitely kill him with my own hands.*
If someone else stepped forward, Nicholas might escape death.
Even assuming victory for our side, he was still a formidable opponent, and killing him would not be easy. If he reached a desperate state, Nicholas might simply withdraw. That was why her own challenge was necessary. If she provoked him, he would charge in with fury, giving her a clear opportunity to end him. Jeanne was filled with the conviction that she would cut him down. Only by doing so could she save Ines of the Second Knight Order.
Without sacrifice, there could be no victory. If someone had to offer themselves up, it should be her.
If someone must risk their life, it was better to be that person.
As long as she could save the precious ones, her own life was of no consequence.
The distance between Jeanne and Nicholas shrank. The boiling rage inside her grew sharper. Jeanne took a deep breath.
She had to stay cold until the very end. Calmness would serve as her greatest weapon against Nicholas, whose temperament was the exact opposite of hers.
Nicholas’s face was full of confidence that he would win no matter who came out.
When Jeanne stepped forward, Nicholas sneered.
“Are there only brats in Bluisol? A girl like you showing up.”
“The knights of Rotinzel sure talk big. If you really have the skill, why not settle it here and now?”
Jeanne raised Joyeuse, the legendary holy sword.
“Oh? Your bearing still has some merit.”
Instead of answering, Jeanne assumed a stance as if she would charge at any moment.
Neither side bothered with formality.
*Whoosh.*
Nicholas swung his sword first.
Jeanne avoided a direct clash, deflecting the blade with a glancing strike.
Joyeuse was, as always, a peerless blade. It maintained its sharpness even as it clashed with Nicholas’s aurora-laced sword.
“You can’t even use aura? How disappointing. I knew the standard of Bluisol knights was low, but sending someone like this as your representative?”
Even as Nicholas mocked her, Jeanne felt no anger. On the contrary, she hoped he would underestimate her and grow careless.
Nicholas swung his sword again, the blow aimed to split her in two.
Jeanne deflected the descending blade with a slanted cut.
Once, twice. As their sword strikes exchanged, the smile faded from Nicholas’s face.
A true knight would recognize another true knight.
*Why does she have such skill…*
Her swordsmanship was so exceptional that the claim she could not use aura seemed laughable.
In defense she executed textbook-perfect movements, yet the openings she exploited with sudden, razor-sharp attacks were as predatory as a hawk’s sudden lift of its head.
Through real combat, Jeanne’s blade had grown even sharper.
Victory against a strong opponent was the surest stepping stone for growth.
*What is this?*
Nicholas grew increasingly bewildered as Jeanne’s skill intensified with every clash.
Jeanne was using the fight with Nicholas as a platform for her own growth.
Her experience and technique were already sufficient. She only needed to awaken the instincts she had mastered beyond a certain threshold.
The sound of their swords clashing grew fiercer. Blue light began to gather on Jeanne’s blade as well.
Their exchanges lengthened. It was the moment when Jeanne, who could not hope to match his stamina, would have to seize the opportunity.
She decided to provoke him.
“Is that all you’ve got? Calling yourself the knight’s kingdom, yet your swordsmanship is pathetic.”
“Hah, relying on weapon sharpness yet daring to mouth such words?”
“This sword was obtained with my own power. If you’re dissatisfied, why didn’t you bring Excalibur? Ah, doesn’t your King Arthur have time to play by the lake?”
“What—?!”
“How can you call such a indecisive man, who toys with women and subordinates, a great king?”
In Rotinzel, the knightly kingdom, King Arthur was revered as the greatest.
In that land, Arthur’s stature was comparable to Charles’s in Bluisol. To mock him was to insult the entire nation.
Instead of insulting her, Nicholas’s fury erupted as he charged at Jeanne’s words against Arthur.
*As expected. He’s coming in easily.*
The offensive grew fiercer, yet the openings widened in proportion.
Jeanne’s goal was not merely victory, but his life. With her slightly inferior strength, the best chance to achieve it was to exploit the opening and finish him with a single strike.
Nicholas charged forward.
Jeanne recalled the duel against Diego right after her regression, when she had challenged him for the position of leader of the Second Knight Order.
Diego had hesitated because he feared wounding a royal, the princess. Jeanne had seized that opening and won.
Nicholas would not hesitate, but giving up a small thing to gain a great one was still a good bargain.
With their swords crossed, Nicholas exerted his strength. Jeanne braced with all her might in her legs, yet the ground beneath her feet cracked deeply, leaving marks.
Jeanne gripped the sword’s handle tightly.
In raw power she was clearly at a disadvantage. In skill, it was hard to claim superiority.
Yet she possessed experience gained on the battlefield—rolling through the mud, assassinating, fighting enemies. She boasted that her practical technique and adaptability surpassed his.
If this was a bet, now was the time.
Only once. Only once. With the resolve to end it in a single blow by exploiting an opening, Jeanne took her stance.
Her sword hand extended forward, the other hanging naturally at her side. Her legs, slightly apart, were coiled as if ready to spring into the earth.
Her eyes, sharper than a predator’s hunting gaze, locked solely on Nicholas.
Nicholas, sensing that this blow would decide everything, charged at her with a grave expression.
“Haaah!”
With a shout no one could claim ownership of, Jeanne and Nicholas’s bodies crossed.
“Guh—!”
A pain as if an arm were being torn off flooded in.
Had Ines felt something similar?
The knight known as the Mirror Knight was a master of defense.
She stood shield in hand, protecting her comrades.
In her previous life, Ines had met a miserable end.
Even after her right arm was severed, she fought with the shield until the last moment.
When her left arm was also cut off, she thrashed with nothing left but her body.
The man who had once humiliated her, Nicholas, finally ended her life.
She could not repeat that reality. Therefore, she must kill Nicholas.
Nicholas’s sword plunged deep into Jeanne’s shoulder. With the resolve to offer her arm, she endured the pain and thrust her sword forward.
Only now did Nicholas realize that the sword embedded in Jeanne’s shoulder was too deep to pull out and block.
His eyes wavered.
*Thud.*
Jeanne’s sword pierced deep into Nicholas’s abdomen.
The reason Joyeuse was called a peerless blade was that its power could pierce an aura with a single strike.
Armor was useless before it.
“This… what…?”
A single streak of blood flowed from Nicholas’s lips.
Nicholas stared at the sword stuck in him and the one in Jeanne’s hand with disbelief.
Jeanne pulled her sword free.
*Gurgle.*
Nicholas vomited blood again.
“Impossible… I… I…”
Jeanne staggered backward.
Her clear eyes, unwavering, held a strange madness.
Nicholas had ultimately lost.
For one who had prepared to die, the one who feared death lost as was only right.
*Thud.*
Nicholas dropped to his knees.
Blood seeped from his chest, pooling on the ground.
“Guh—uuu…”
He pressed his head onto the blood, a painful groan escaping him. The twitching of his body finally stopped.
“Hah—!”
Jeanne finally relaxed. Her legs gave out beneath her and she collapsed without realizing.
The forgotten pain surged back. The shoulder sliced by the blade burned as if seared by fire.
Bullets flew toward the fallen Jeanne.
Interfering in a one-on-one duel was a tremendous breach of the honor code for duels. In wartime, etiquette meant little, and for Rotinzel it was no different from a duel for honor.
Yet someone among the Rotinzel forces had fired anyway, willing to lose honor to save their comrade.
With no strength left to dodge, in the moment his eyes closed, a clear *clang* rang out as metal struck metal.
Jeanne opened her eyes. Golden hair longer than any ordinary woman’s swayed before her.
“I’m too cowardly to accept help from others.”
The one standing guard before her was Nael.
The two crossed swords, each of which boasted flawless defense, stood like an iron wall.
In an instant Ines stepped beside her, shield raised. Her back was unshakeably solid.
Then Fabian, Diego, Ethan, and the other knights of the Second Knight Order formed a protective line in front of her.
Soldiers from the Rotinzel camp burst out, weapons drawn. If the Rotinzel forces, leaderless and enraged, charged, a chaotic melee would erupt.
Because so much blood had been shed, dizziness struck.
Nevertheless, Jeanne gathered her senses and looked toward the direction the bullets had come from. He could not be an ordinary soldier. No common soldier would act so recklessly.
Their eyes met—bright red irises.
A face she had never seen before.
Because he had turned away quickly, his expression was blurred, but the gaze aimed at her remained etched clearly in her memory.