Victory by Bare Hands, Death's!
A victory in bare-knuckle combat for Death!
THUD!
I hurled the miserably 'crumpled' axe down in front of Volgar. The heavy axe head struck the stone floor with a resounding crash.
Silence fell over the square. I turned to Volgar and declared, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Volgar. Cormac is a member of the Eisenfels guard, and my subject. You may not take his head without my leave.
So then…… will you duel me, with his life on the line?"
No sooner had my declaration ended than the square erupted into uproar. First to react was Woldin, captain of the Royal Guard, who came scrambling to my side. His face was pale, cold sweat beading on his brow.
"M-My lady! Absolutely not!"
he cried out desperately.
"This is my responsibility. If anyone must step forward, let it be me!"
Fear showed in Woldin's eyes, and his hands were trembling. He was likely already worrying over how he would explain things to my father and mother.
"My apologies, Captain Woldin, but neither you nor any of the soldiers gathered here could stand against that man."
I turned my head to survey the guardsmen tending to Cormac and Mikhail.
At first, their faces had been plain with shame and fury — shame at their comrade's defeat, rage at their own failure to protect him. But from the moment I crushed Volgar's axe in my hand, their expressions had begun to change.
"If it's the young lady's strength……"
"……then perhaps even that Sergen savage could be beaten."
One guardsman murmured under his breath, and another answered with hope blooming in his voice.
Among the citizens ringing the square, excited whispers spread like wildfire. They no longer bothered to hide their naked anticipation.
"That's our lady — the one who felled a bison with a single punch!"
"At last, I'll see the young lady's power with my own eyes!"
"Our lady is the strongest of them all!"
Their whispers rolled across the entire square. Even as I felt the weight of their expectations pressing down on me, I sensed Katerina's blood surging through my veins. The heat of battle was rising in my chest.
If I have the right to rule this land, then I must be able to protect my own people.
And I refuse — I absolutely refuse — to stand by and watch that savage kill my subordinate on my own soil.
Eliza, who had handed me the gauntlets, had stepped back a pace, yet on her elegant face there was no worry at all — only serenity.
Bielka, on the other hand, was gazing at me with eyes shining bright.
"Lady Katerina, show that giant the might of Lady Katerina!"
There wasn't a flicker of doubt on her face. To her, my victory was simply a given — and that unconditional faith warmed my heart.
Volgar was still staring at the mangled axe. The surprise that had flashed across his face had, by now, all but settled.
"You…… destroyed my axe. What in the world is that strength of yours? Did you have help from magic, or some such thing?"
"Hardly. Your Sergen-made weapon was simply too soft, that's all."
Volgar rose to his feet and squared his broad shoulders. He stood a full head taller than me, his muscular frame unmistakable even beneath two layers of fur. But now a wariness had crept into his eyes.
"So be it. The daughter of Eisenmark faces me, is that it?
Hah. How amusing."
The moment Volgar finished speaking, a warrior from the Sergen delegation stepped forward. He knelt and presented Volgar with a fresh axe.
It looked even larger and heavier than the last. The edge of its blade was jagged with teeth like a saw, and the haft was adorned with red leather cords and the fangs of some beast.
Volgar gripped the new haft and swung it a few times. The axe hummed as it cleaved the air. He gave it a few more experimental sweeps, then settled back into his ready stance.
Then, abruptly, a puzzled look crossed his face. Seeing me standing there empty-handed, he furrowed his brow as if he could not comprehend it.
"Daughter of the Grand Duke. Do you not wield a weapon?"
At Volgar's question, the surrounding crowd turned to look at me with wonder in their eyes as well. It was true — no weapon hung at my side. Only the steel gauntlets wrapped around my two hands.
I raised my fists toward him and flashed a provocative smile.
"My body is my weapon."
Aghast gasps rippled through the square at my declaration. Surprise flickered across Volgar's face too — but it quickly twisted into an expression of sheer disbelief.
"A madwoman."
he muttered. Yet soon the resolve of a warrior returned to his eyes. He grinned and tightened his grip on the axe.
"I won't go easy on you for being a woman, or for having no weapon. You made your choice — live with it!"
With Volgar's declaration, the air in the square drew taut as a bowstring. The faces of the crowd ringing us were a tangle of awe, fear, and barely concealed anticipation.
I could feel the guardsmen's eyes on me. They watched with expressions split evenly between worry and hope.
Woldin, whose duty as captain of the Royal Guard demanded he intervene, was no doubt anxious beyond all telling — his hand resting on his sword hilt, his face a portrait of barely contained panic.
Now then, how shall I do this?
I felt the granite of the square through the soles of my shoes as I sized up the situation.
This duel was nothing like my sparring matches with Natasha or Milena. They had both fought with proper courtesy, and I had taken care that neither lost face.
But Volgar? He had tramped onto our territory with dirt-caked feet and tried to execute my subordinate. Two brave soldiers had already been brutally felled by his hand.
This cannot stand. These people are far too cowed by the Sergen.
Fear spreads like a plague. What would have happened if I hadn't intervened, if the affair had simply run its course?
The people of Eisenfels would have come to believe that Sergen warriors were far stronger than themselves. And if real war ever broke out, Eisenmark's soldiers would take the field already defeated in their hearts.
I have to win overwhelmingly. In one stroke, decisively, beyond a shadow of doubt.
The eyes of the Sergen delegation brimmed with confidence. They had been genuinely startled when I crushed the axe, and yet they wore the look of men for whom Volgar's victory was already a settled fact.
Suddenly, Volgar moved. Astonishingly fast for a man of his bulk, his first motion came like a lightning strike. Axe raised high above his head, he came charging straight at me.
"HYAAAAAH—!"
With a roar, he brought the axe down toward my skull. I heard the blade whistle through the air.
I simply stepped sideways. The edge grazed a few strands of my hair before slamming into the stone floor of the square. With a metallic clang!, sparks flew, and the granite cracked.
"Wha—!?"
Volgar's eyes went wide. He stared at the spot where I stood as if he couldn't believe it.
"My, my. You seem slower than I expected."
When I gave him the textbook sneer of a villainess, Volgar's face contorted with rage. He roared again and swung the axe in a horizontal arc — but I leaned back out of range and let that blow slide past me as lightly as the last.
Let's settle this with techniques this world has never seen.
Volgar brought the axe down once more with everything he had. This time, too, I sidestepped — but unlike before, I slipped past along the line of his arm, flowing in an instant to his flank.
In the split second his balance broke, I moved around behind Volgar and climbed onto his back. Katerina's body was as nimble as it was mighty, following my intent to the letter.
"What…… is…… this?!"
Volgar cried out in alarm. He twisted his body and flailed his arms to shake me off, but I had already locked my arm around his throat.
My right arm crossed in front of his neck toward his left shoulder; my left hand pressed against the back of his skull. A flawless rear naked choke.
It's over now.
Against a grappling technique you don't know, you have no choice but to lose. Better still, Volgar's axe was so large and unwieldy that he couldn't even strike at me clinging to his neck. If his weapon had been a dagger, I would never have dared attempt a rear naked choke like this — and while wearing no armor at all, no less.
Volgar thrashed and struggled to throw me off. But the pressure of my arm only tightened, and the blood flow to his carotid arteries began to choke off.
"Ugh…… nngh…… guh……"
The giant Sergen warrior's resistance grew weaker and weaker. His face flushed red, then drained slowly to ash-pale.
At last the axe slipped from Volgar's fingers and clattered to the floor of the square, and his heavy frame went limp. He crumpled to the ground, utterly unconscious.
My duel with Volgar ended even faster than his duel with Mikhail had. It was, in effect, a one-hit kill.
Absolute silence reigned over the square. The Sergen delegation stood gaping, paralyzed by shock. Even the citizens of Eisenfels wore expressions of disbelief at what had just transpired.
A heartbeat later, the square exploded.
"Long live the Grand Duke's daughter!"
"Long live Katerina!"
"Long live Eisenmark!"
The cheers pierced the sky. Bielka looked at me with tears welling in her eyes, while Eliza bowed her head in respect.
Woldin, overcome with relief, clasped his face in both hands — then his expression brightened, and he began barking orders to the guardsmen. Soon Cormac and Mikhail were carried off on stretchers.
I looked down at the fallen Volgar. He wasn't dead. He would regain consciousness soon enough.