Valkian-Style Duel (2)
“Fuck, why the hell is this bastard fighting so well? Is he really a 2-star knight?”
“I don’t know, he’s fucked. Hey Evan, this guy’s a fucking trash.”
“Ah, we’re done for. How the hell are we supposed to win this?”
“Valkian-style duel, if we forfeit, we have to pay the price immediately.”
Evan Crane heard the voices of his peers buzzing like flies.
Wrist broken, two testicles burst, unconscious Goi Svenna.
He was one of the better knights in the order, not the best, but good enough.
So he had challenged first, thinking it would be easy.
But he lost so miserably?
And even the escort was gone because he left for extermination?
How long do we have to wait in this state?
Whether he dies or not doesn’t matter to me, but if I break…
A string of question marks.
Even the remaining eight were whispering, losing morale.
Evan trembled with fear as he looked at Neville.
Eh?
His wrists and ankles were loosening as if sore.
“Ahaha, you son of a bitch.”
“What the hell, suddenly.”
“Hey, this bastard’s wrists and ankles are all fucked up. He couldn’t move, but suddenly he starts moving, that’s why. He can’t move like before.”
The others scanned Neville’s whole body.
Looking closely, he was loosening his body while frowning.
“Ahaha…”
All eyes gleamed greedily.
“I’ll do it this time.”
“No, I’ll do it.”
“The bastards who were scared just now.”
“You’re fucked when you lose.”
Suddenly, the guys were laughing again, finding their composure.
Evan also smiled greedily.
In the end, the one with the best skill among the remaining was the 2-star knight.
Nine Levein stepped forward.
“I am Nine Levein, a 2-star knight. Your body looks a bit stiff? Hahaha.”
“Ah, Neville de Valkian.”
Neville frowned as he watched them go pale, then sinister, then step forward, as if they were cursing.
It was automatic because he didn’t want to see their faces.
He had reinforced his vitality, so no strain on his body.
These low-class bastards ruined the Valkian family by giving him information? No way.
The problem was elsewhere too.
He couldn’t touch it yet.
The round one next was the long one.
Why do the knights in this rofan novel look like a mix of vegetables and fruits?
“Oi, you bastard. Was that cousin a watermelon? Your face is like it was stretched upward.”
“This crazy prince—!!!”
Nine started rotating his rings in anger.
Thick black aura poured out, supplying vitality.
But Neville didn’t wait.
This time, he rushed in bare-handed without even rotating rings.
“As expected, your strength is all gone—!!”
Nine shouted excitedly at the sight.
Bare-handed without aura flowing through vitality is slow.
If it was the body trained before Neville died, different, but after 4 years, it’s not weak muscles without muscles.
Everyone watching the duel thought Neville’s skull would split.
“You really sent me a brainless fool.”
A sword heading downward at tremendous speed.
Neville rotated backward based on his right foot.
Simple dodge.
“Correct, you low-class prince bastard!!”
Of course, the combo didn’t end there.
Nine didn’t pull back the sword and slashed upward in a diagonal.
Seter Swordsmanship taught in the 2nd Knight Order.
One-style tooth.
Named after the sword strike like a dog’s fang.
Not bad skill, having practiced quite a bit.
Neville leaned his upper body back to dodge the sword aiming at his jaw and strongly kicked with his leg.
Crack—
Something burst again.
“Kuek—”
Nine grabbed between the legs and retreated backward.
Blood rushed to his face, veins bulging, turning red.
“No matter how much aura you wrap around vitality, there are weak points.”
Neville slowly rotated his rings.
This time, at an optimal speed without excess.
Wood clack—
“Kueeeaaak—”
Exactly to the point of shattering the elbow.
Nine fell backward from the pain felt from above and below.
Neville, watching this pitifully, looked at the others.
“Next, come out a vegetable or a fruit. Don’t faint like this bastard quickly.”
“Kuek— Haa, haa— Wup.”
“Shut up. You also stink from your mouth.”
Evan Crane knelt shabbily.
The knights watching the duel agreed with Evan’s feelings and felt respect for Neville.
“So, the fact that you’ve been throwing away your swords all this time is all a lie, right?”
“Yeah, otherwise you couldn’t move like that. Did you see just now? You dodged all attacks with just one simple step and broke the leg bones just like that—!!”
“Hey, more than that, the third one. You waited until he calmed down after seeing him stumble in steps from fear, then broke his ankle.”
Evan’s anger and fear intensified from the whispering around him.
These trash bastards… they didn’t even think about their own business…!
Anger was not at Neville but at the knights.
Fear was entirely at Neville.
Typical strong-weak-weak-strong mentality.
Watching such Evan, Neville approached and squatted down.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes.”
“Are you giving up?”
“T-that’s right. I’ll break my rings and leave the family.”
“Why?”
“…What?”
“Why are you giving up, you big-ass trash?”
Neville was genuinely angry.
Veins on his forehead bulging with anger, a yakuza face on his fine features.
Evan, head bowed, didn’t see it.
“It’s… I don’t have the guts to challenge you, Prince Neville…”
“Haa—”
Even if it’s the 2nd Knight Order, trash with such low-class mindset?
On top of that, betraying and doing such things to the corpses of my sister and Helena?
Neville looked at Evan, who was fawning pitifully, and recalled his past life.
After learning about the incident where the corpses disappeared, he went to find the traitors.
After breaking their limbs and subduing them, he asked about the location of the corpses and what they did.
Neville shed tears of blood at the truths he spat out one by one.
They had abused the corpses with preservation magic until the magic wore off, then mutilated them at the end and left them.
Neville crushed each of their bones to powder and, when unconscious, fed them medicine to torture repeatedly.
Then, unable to endure the pain, he threw the dead corpses to monsters.
After finding the scattered corpse locations, he gathered small bone fragments and made a grave.
Neville’s anger didn’t subside even in revenge.
Since they had already been humiliated to the point of no return.
So?
Even after bursting the nine balls and cutting them today, it doesn’t calm down.
The anger from that day hasn’t left his chest.
But to dare to back out?
“Hey. Listen up. If you even graze me in this duel, I’ll grant your wish. When you lose, it’s just breaking your rings. How about it?”
“R-really?”
The stupid bastards run hope circuits perfectly.
Even in moments when fear paralyzes thought.
Evan seemed not to remember his colleagues whose testicles burst and limbs broke in the duel.
Or perhaps because he saw Helena’s face flushed, eyes unfocused from afar.
Color… fuck…
In his head, instead of a brain, a huge mushroom was placed.
“Yeah. So, let’s fight. You will, right?”
“Y-yes. I will. You must keep your promise.”
He even grinned.
Neville nodded his head and stood up, taking a stance.
Evan glanced at Helena’s flushed face and rotated his rings.
Fuck, if I just graze, that woman—
The moment he glanced again at Helena.
Bam— Pow—
“Eek—?”
The rings, the longer they rotate, the shorter the time to rotate again.
So-called preheating.
Therefore, the fighter who fought for a long time and then rested for a while is more dangerous than the fresh fighter who just joined.
Neville rotated two rings at tremendous speed.
Descent of reason due to fear and lust.
Evan didn’t even notice Neville approaching in an instant and crushing his jaw with a fist.
Too much pain felt as no pain.
But when the descended reason returned, Evan tried to open his mouth and shout.
“Hyaah—”
His jaw turned, and he couldn’t speak properly.
“You have to speak properly.”
Wood clack—
Neville swung his sword quickly.
The knights saw him swing his sword largely.
Except Helena.
Valkian Sword Style 1, Black Teeth…
A technique that swings quickly out of sight to target multiple directions at once.
In an instant, Evan’s wrists and ankles were all broken.
Even the small thing between the legs.
Evan collapsed like a broken marionette.
The knights who saw this sight.
The Valkian, symbol of strength and brutality.
Joy at revealing what Neville, whom they thought was trash, had hidden.
And respect for the blood of the Valkian surged.
“Waaaaaaaah—!!!”
They were also knights of the Valkian.
Neville muttered softly while looking at Evan foaming at the mouth and unconscious.
“This won’t end here. I’ll kill you for sure.”
His voice couldn’t be heard by anyone due to the cheering around.
A wide study room with dark wood elegantly mixed with red.
The one who appeared from the darkness bowed one knee to the person looking out the window.
“I report to the head.”
Kaiser de Valkian.
Neville’s father, an individual evaluated as the strongest among past heads.
He declared abandoning Neville due to his son’s pathetic behavior, but inwardly not so.
The Valkian Shadow Unit.
He ordered surveillance of Neville to those active in the darkness.
For the past 4 years, only disappointment.
“Today, Prince Neville de Valkian suppressed ten people with poor evaluations among the 2nd Knight Order using a Valkian-style duel. All of them had their testicles ruptured and at least one limb broken.”
Kaiser looked at the sky.
Clear sky with not a single cloud.
Strong people react to the surrounding mana with just their mood.
The captain of the Shadow Unit, Won, swallowed saliva at the strong trembling around him.
“Continue reporting.”
A soft, low voice echoed.
Won regained his composure and started reporting again.
“Yes, Prince Neville de Valkian woke up the unconscious ones and destroyed their rings himself. The sight made the entire 2nd Knight Order have fear and awe towards Prince Neville de Valkian.”
“Continuing, comprehensively confirmed: Despite being a wooden sword without aura, he crushed bones like powder. And absurd mana and aura control not matching a 2-star knight. He showed a cold and brutal temperament befitting the honorable Valkian family.”
“Accordingly, I, the captain of the Shadow Unit, Won, report that I dare to predict that Prince Neville de Valkian did not stop in his own room without surveillance and trained in inspection and mana manipulation.”
Mana was humming and trembling in the room without stopping.
Kaiser swept his chin once and turned to Won.
Young appearance that didn’t seem believable for his age and red eyes that seemed to fall blood.
Won swallowed saliva once more and waited for the command.
“Bring Neville. I’ll check.”
“Yes, sir.”
Won disappeared into the darkness again.
Alone, Kaiser looked at Neville, who was rubbing Helena with arms crossed, his expression not yet calmed, and the window.
“If he has regained his senses, I suppose I can give him some leeway.”
With a very faint smile.