The Blind Knight's Vengeance
The three knights from the romance fantasy novel's male lead's faction burst into mocking laughter.
"Hah."
The knight who had been struck by the gauntlet was the first to break the silence. He wore a blatant sneer.
"Hahahahat!"
It was a laugh dripping with disbelief. His name was Cox. The two knights beside him, Ged and Kent, also let out derisive chuckles.
"A blind man dares to challenge us to a duel?"
"My, my. Seems losing his sight also cost him his sense of fear."
"A crippled retiree who doesn't even know his place anymore?"
The three knights' open ridicule was unmistakable. They found the very idea of a blind man formally challenging all three of them at once utterly absurd.
'A blind man formally challenging three knights to a duel?'
Caron Hartvalt, who had been watching from a step back, narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. He stared at Wulfran in silence.
'No sign of tension at all.'
It almost looked as if the man was confident of victory. Caron's personality was extremely cautious. After all, he could not afford a single mistake if he wished to gain the power needed to protect Elena.
'I can't judge rashly, but the information is lacking.'
He knew that Wulfran had been a knight of the Blue Tiger Knights who had roamed the battlefield until two years ago. But Caron himself had only joined this Northern Frontline half a year prior.
'I don't know this man called Wulfran at all.'
How skilled Wulfran had been before suffering those severe injuries two years ago and retiring. What kind of person he was. Caron had no precise knowledge of any of it. All he could tell right now was that the man was a broken retiree who had crawled under that scoundrel Kyle.
It was then that one of the veteran knights of the frontline stepped forward. It was Sir Curtis. The old knight who had been about to draw his sword just moments ago. The one who had moved first when Caron's young knights crossed the line with their words.
Curtis looked down at the gauntlet lying on the ground. Then he turned his gaze to Cox, Ged, and Kent in turn.
"Pick up the gauntlet."
His voice was colder than a blizzard.
"A knight has uttered insults, and the opponent has rightfully thrown down the gauntlet. Accept the challenge."
The faces of Cox, Ged, and Kent hardened. They glanced nervously toward Caron. Curtis did not stop there.
"If you avoid this legitimate duel, I will consider it an insult to a knight's honor."
His gaze bore down on the three men.
"You were the ones who ran your mouths first. And you have received a formal challenge. Then answering with your swords is what a knight does."
The other veteran knights also stepped forward one by one, as if in agreement with Curtis.
"Sir Curtis is right."
"If you call yourselves knights, then face the duel with honor!"
"If you refuse, we will consider your very existence an insult to knighthood."
Their eyes were icy. The aura of these old veterans who had shed blood and held the line on the frontier pressed heavily on Caron's young knights.
"Damn it."
"Ah, shit!"
Ged, Cox, and Kent realized they had no choice. As knights belonging to Caron's faction, they were obsessively concerned with others' opinions, their own flashy appearances, and the honor they projected to the world.
If they earned the label of having refused a blind man's challenge in such a public place, they would undoubtedly become the laughingstock of noble society and the knight orders.
'There is a justification for refusal, though.'
Of course, they could manufacture one. Their opponent was blind. A crippled retired knight. The fact that a cripple could not fight was quite a strong justification for a knight.
But that very point only fueled their arrogance.
'He's just a blind bastard anyway.'
'A retired cripple can't be much.'
'He's that damn scoundrel's subordinate. Why not just crush him here?'
'Yeah, let's teach him a lesson right here.'
They looked down on Wulfran. Therefore, they judged there was no reason to avoid the duel.
Cox picked up the gauntlet from the ground. The three men then turned and bowed politely to their lord, Caron.
"My lord."
Cox raised his voice as if making a solemn vow.
"That arrogant scoundrel's subordinate dares to tarnish a knight's honor. We shall go and punish his insolence."
They acted as if they were righteous judges.
Caron watched their oath in silence. Then he gave a light nod and issued a short command.
"Crush him."
"Yes!"
The three knights answered Caron's order with vigor. Exaggerated determination was written across their faces.
They turned back toward Wulfran. Cox placed his hand on his sword hilt and asked with a sneer.
"Very well, blind man. I accept your duel. How shall we decide the location and time?"
The corner of his mouth twisted.
"Since you can't see, I could specially choose a time when the sunlight is nice and bright for you."
Wulfran let out a light, hollow laugh at the shallow mockery.
"Heh heh."
His unfocused eyes turned toward Cox.
"I've just had my lord and comrades greatly insulted. Is there really any need to change locations or postpone the time?"
He placed his hand on his scabbard.
"Let's just do it right here, right now."
At that bold reply, the three knights' eyebrows twitched. Ged snorted and asked.
"Then what about the order?"
Wulfran drew the longsword made of Black Ice Iron that hung at his waist.
Srrrng—
Wulfran's blade was pitch black. Naturally, it was not flashy. But it was a weapon that radiated a crude, practical lethality.
"No need to drag this out."
Wulfran lightly lowered the tip of his sword.
"It's bothersome, so all three of you come at me at once."
For a moment, derisive laughter erupted among Caron's faction knights. Ged, Cox, and Kent flushed red with displeasure.
"For three formal knights to attack one man at the same time is not honorable!"
"You think we're some street gang of thugs?!"
"You're just swinging wildly because you can't see anyway!"
They spoke of knightly pride while refusing a three-on-one fight. Then Cox stepped forward arrogantly.
"I'll go first. After all, I was the one who got hit by the gauntlet."
He lightly cracked his neck from side to side.
Crack!
"Does a blind retired knight still think he's actually a knight?"
His plan was to defeat Wulfran alone, earn merit, and score points with Caron. If he showed Caron the sight of him trampling the scoundrel Kyle's subordinate, he expected Caron to praise him highly.
Wulfran nodded.
"It doesn't matter who goes first."
Sir Curtis walked to the center between the two men. He raised one hand high to declare himself the referee.
"I shall officiate this duel. It ends when one side surrenders, becomes unable to fight, or when I declare it over."
Curtis's gaze alternated between the two.
"Fight with a knight's honor on the line."
His hand dropped.
"Begin!"
The moment the declaration to start the duel fell, Cox drew his sword. He then spat open mockery toward Wulfran.
"Now that I think about it, I heard two years ago that your lower rod got cut off."
A vile smile spread across Cox's lips.
"A man who can't even perform his duty as a male—do you still have the strength to grip a sword hilt tight?"
Cox continued to taunt Wulfran. It wasn't even an attempt to disturb his opponent; it was simply his nature.
However, Wulfran did not reply.
Taat—!
The instant the words ended, Wulfran's form shot forward. It was speed and precision impossible to believe from a man who could not see.
"Huh?"
Cox widened his eyes belatedly. Just as he hurriedly tried to raise his sword—
Shuuu—
A bloody aura spread across the blade of Wulfran's Black Ice Iron sword. It was not blue aura. The color was completely different from the energy seen in the Blue Tiger Knights' swordsmanship. It was a thick, ferocious, blood-red energy.
It was the power granted by the Blood Source Mind Image Scripture, the Blood Cult mental technique that Kyle had implanted in him. It manifested as red aura on Wulfran's blade.
Slice—!
With a horrifying cutting sound, Cox's right arm was severed clean from above the elbow.
"…Huh?"
Cox didn't immediately understand what had happened to his body. His arm fell with a dull thud onto the snow. Then, belatedly, a fountain of blood erupted from the stump.
Splaaash—!
"Aaaaaaaaagh!"
Blood scattered everywhere as Cox rolled across the snowfield. The single strike that had occurred in an instant froze the surroundings as if cold water had been poured over them.
"C-crazy!"
"Cox!"
Ged and Kent, who had been watching from behind, cried out in shock and hurriedly drew their swords. Having lost their reason at the sight of their comrade's gruesome state, they split to both sides and charged at Wulfran.
"Die, you blind bastard!"
"Drop dead!"
The two swords, wrapped in blue aura, aimed for Wulfran's blind spots on both sides.
But to Wulfran, their movements were already captured with perfect clarity. The tiny vibrations when their feet pressed into the snow. Their ragged breathing fueled by rage. The sound of their swords and the flow of aura clinging to them. He felt it all.
On top of that, even their shapes were drawn like lines within the sensory map of the Blood Source Mind Image Scripture. It felt almost exactly like seeing with his own eyes.
Wulfran swung his sword and deflected both strikes. Then he twisted his waist and swept his blade horizontally.
Whoosh—!
The blood-red energy drew a perfect half-circle.
Slice—!
"……."
"……."
Ged and Kent's movements stopped as if by magic. Across the center of both men's faces, a long red line of blood was drawn from nose to both cheeks.
"……."
A brief silence fell.
Splaaash—!
The cut lines split open and blood gushed out. Their severed faces peeled slightly apart all the way to the bone.
Ged and Kent couldn't even scream. There was no time for treatment. Their bodies simply toppled backward onto the snow.
Thud.
Thud.
Their lives had already been severed. Instant death.
With only three swings of the sword, two formal knights were killed instantly and one lost an arm.
Wulfran lightly flicked the blood off his blade into the air and spoke in a sly tone.
"Oh dear."
A smile was etched on his lips.
"Since I cannot see, it seems I misjudged the distance. I must have cut too deeply."
He was using the excuse of a blind man's mistake.
"Still, it was a fair duel waged with honor on the line, so that is truly fortunate."
At those words, Caron's knights fell into shock.
"H-he killed them?"
"He actually killed knights!"
"C-crazy bastard!"
They had been dispatched to the battlefield. But in reality, they had always stayed in the rear. After the veteran knights and soldiers risked their lives to fight at the front and broke the enemy's momentum, they would rush out in their flashy uniforms and stylishly cut down the remnants. That was the war they knew.
A real duel where blood and flesh flew, where life could vanish by a hair's breadth, and death followed the moment one lost. To Caron's knights, it was like an unreal nightmare.
"Aaaaaagh! My arm! Medic! Medic!"
Cox, collapsed on the ground, writhed in the agony of losing his arm and tried to crawl away in a desperate bid to survive. Wulfran slowly walked toward him.
Crunch. Crunch.
The sound of footsteps on snow sounded like the approach of the grim reaper.
Wulfran muttered indifferently.
"Because I cannot see with my eyes and my function as a man has been destroyed, my temperament has become quite timid."
The blood-red energy flickered once more at the tip of his sword.
"I'm such a coward that I get greatly startled by even small things. So I can only feel at ease when I completely crush my opponent with full power."
"W-wait—!"
Cox screamed with a blood-soaked face. But his words could not continue.
Slice—!
Wulfran's sword took off Cox's head.
Roll, roll.
Cox's head tumbled across the snowfield.
Having slaughtered three knights in the blink of an eye, Wulfran stood still and tightened his grip on the sword hilt. The heavy sensation transmitted through the blade. The hot scent of blood scattered in all directions. And the strange heat of battle boiling up from deep within his chest.
'Hmm.'
Wulfran felt the blood-red energy circulating through every vessel in his body.
'It seems the power my lord gave me ignites a warrior's will to fight.'
Strangely, it was not unpleasant. Rather, the hand that had swung the sword still felt hot. If anything, he wanted to cut more.
Having realized this fact, a faint smile rose once more to Wulfran's lips.
"Duel over!"
The one who broke the silence was Sir Curtis, who had served as referee.
"The winner of this duel is… Sir Wulfran Gecht!"
The moment that declaration fell, a cold chill radiated from Caron Hartvalt's body. Caron remained standing in silence. His hand had already come to rest on the hilt of his ornate sword. He showed no sign of drawing it.
Yet the blue eyes glaring at Wulfran were so cold and murderous they looked ready to tear the blind man's throat apart at any moment.
That silence immediately led to the rampage of Caron's faction knights.
"This crazy murderous bastard!"
"How dare you kill our comrade?!"
"Cut that bastard's head off right now!"
"Let's kill him!"
Dozens of Caron's knights drew their swords in unison. They looked ready to charge at Wulfran, radiating killing intent. It was a disgraceful display of being unable to accept even the result of a fair duel.
It was then—
"Sheathe your swords, you greenhorns!"
Sir Curtis's thunderous roar rang out.
Clang—!
Sir Curtis drew his own sword and stepped in front of Wulfran. At the same time, veteran knights in armor from all directions drew their weapons in unison. They issued a warning toward Caron's knights.
"This fight was a legitimate duel agreed upon by both sides with a knight's honor on the line!"
Flames sparked in Sir Curtis's eyes.
"I was the referee of this duel. Anyone who refuses to accept the result and raises their sword will be forgiven by neither the military law of this Northern army nor my blade!"
Before the veteran knight's fierce killing intent and the pressure from the other veterans, Caron's knights—who had been rampaging about killing their comrade—flinched and had no choice but to stop in their tracks.
'Interesting.'
And Caron, who had been watching the entire scene, looked at Wulfran.
'He's quite useful.'