It wasnât because Kelmory was skilled, but rather Juan was having a difficult time, trying to make Kelmoryâs attacks look close to hitting.
While Kelmoryâs sword could be described as for decoration purposes, it still looked as if it could kill if stabbed with authority. Juanâs on the other hand was literally for ornament use.
Of course these factors didnât matter in the grand scheme of the fight as Juan didnât even have to lift his sword.
âOoooh! That was close!â
âI canât watch more of this.â
Shrieks and gasps cried out every time Kelmoryâs sword scraped past Juan.
In their eyes, it looked as if Juan was outmatched, focusing only on dodging.
Kelmory was fuming to the top of his head.
He wanted to grab the bastard and shed blood, but Juan kept running away like a scared mouse.
âDoes this bastard know only how to dodge!â
Juan stopped and bent his waist, ramming himself into Kelmory.
Kelmory, who had been attacking this whole time, fell over at Juanâs unexpected movement. A laughter erupted from the crowd, seeing Kelmory fall over in an amusing way.
Their interpretation was that Juan had bent over in fear, and Kelmory had tripped over him unexpectedly.
Kelmoryâs face turned red then almost white. His eyes noticed his fiance with her hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh. He gritted his teeth.
âIâm going to kill you.â
Long time had passed since he was thinking about repercussions. At worst, he would need to pay back a standard price of a slave, back to the owner.
Juan sighed seeing Kelmoryâs agitated face.
If he knew anything about fights, the first punch would have let him know, it was foolish to continue this fight.
Considering he was a trained knight, his skills were disappointing.
âLucky that thereâs no one in the crowd that knows anything about swordsmanship huh.â
As he turned his head thinking this, Juan focused onto a particular individual. A large man wearing thick armor and a sword.
He wasnât a guard.
The man whoâd just come out from the building, looked towards the garden with a curious set of eyes. Juan felt a bit of his own mana in him.
âPaladin.â
He saw a mark of a White crow.
Then at that moment, Kelmoryâs sword grazed past Juanâs face. With his attention fixated on the Paladin, Juan wasnât able to react on time.
A few strands of Juanâs hair was cut, and Kelmory smiled as if heâd just beheaded him.
âHah! Running out of steam, are we.â
Juan felt sorry for Kelmory who appeared to be happy after cutting a few strands of Juanâs hair.
Juan whistepred.
âYou shouldâve aimed for my throat.â
âWhat?â
Juan didnât reply.
Kelmory again swung his sword at Juan. Instantly, the relaxed expression on Juanâs face disappeared and he rolled to the ground, dodging Kelmoryâs strike.
The strikes continued and Kelmoryâs sword reached Juan, making him bleed.
The crowd loudly gasped. It looked to them as if tragedy would stroke upon Juan at any moment.
Many were wondering if they needed to stop the fight, but their curiosity held them back from acting.
âAh, commander Ethan. Looks like youâve finished your talk. How was it?â
âHuh? Ahh. As expected, bastard Hannbon is a fat oiled pig. My offer was refused.â
âI see. Should we ready the horses then?â
Even as he answered the questions from his senior officer, Ethanâs gaze was fixated on the fight at the garden. The officer gave a quick glance towards where his gaze was and turned his head back.
âOne of the nobles started quarrelling with a child. The way he was using his sword was almost disgraceful, so I didnât see the point in intervening. What a pitiful fight. And they call that dueling.â
âHmmm. I thought I saw something different.â
âSir?â
Ethan was looking closely at the fight between Kelmory and the child.
Kelmoryâs skills were subpar but that was in the eyes of a Paladin. To a normal spectator, he would be considered an above average knight.
And on the other hand, his opponent looked like a child that wasnât even ready for school.
However, the first feeling he got was that he was dominating Kelmory.
As Juan continued to dodge Kelmoryâs attacks, Ethan watched Juanâs foot.
The movement belonged to someone who was skilled in swordsmanship.
The fact he was dodging every attack and yet not sweating a bit.
A fight took an immense amount of concentration and tension. It was natural that not only physically but mentally, one would tire very quickly.
The fact he wasnât tiring, suggested that this fight wasnât affecting him mentally at all.
This was true beforeâŚ..but now, this didnât look the case. The kid was only barely dodging attacks, and clearly he was being pressured.
ââŚâŚ..Maybe I was mistaken.â
Ethan mumbled something as if he was disappointed that he was mistaken.
He thought Juan was hiding his true strength. It was more difficult to fight while hiding their strength, rather than going at full power from the start.
If he was hiding his skill, even knight Sina Solbein would be miles below what he could potentially be.
It was highly unlikely that heâd meet so many talents in such a short period of time.
âLetâs go back. I need to clean my eyes.â
âYes. Iâll fetch the horsesâŚ..â
Then an uproar was heard from the mansion.
âIntruder!â
A disturbance spread amongst the shouts. Kelmory was too obsessed with the fight to have heard it, so Juan quickly right footed Kelmoryâs thighs while the crowdâs attention had turned towards the shouts.
With the sound of a crack, Kelmory grasped his thigh, as he fell down.
âKuaahh-Arghhh!â
âOh no, did you fall over. Well, that will do it for todayâs fight then.â
More so than any other bone, a broken femur brought about the most pain.
Only then realising then their master had gone down, Kelmoryâs servants quickly rushed across to help him.
Kelmory clutched his thigh and rolled on the ground unable to stay still.
He would be lying on a bed at least for a couple of months.
Juan hid himself into the crowd. Ethan tried looking for him but couldnât find him.
Juan didnât want to make things complicated for Heretia by getting involved with a Paladin.
Soon after, several knights smashed through the door and rushed in. The knights looked around with fierce looks.
âWhereâs that kid that was with Lady Helwin?â
As soon as he heard this, Juan knew that things werenât going to plan.
Hearing the knights, everyone looked around for Juan, but it was already long past since Juan had squeezed past the crowd and left the area.
The moment he had no one around him, Juan used blink to get onto the second floor.
âNeed to find Heretia.â
He couldnât see any of the guards and servants, as they had made their way down to the first floor.
Juan closed his eyes and concentrated his sense to cover a wider area.
Finding Heretia was not easy, as there were alot of people with similar feel. But eventually he sensed two people inside the room across him.
One of them was a woman.
Juan quickly rushed over.
Instead of going through the main door, he used the terrace. Beyond a glass window, he recognised two figures. Heretia and Hannbon.
It looked like Heretia was still in talks, so instead of barging in, Juan decided to listen in to their conversation.
âConfining the Helwin familyâs head just because of your speculation. As I thought, you donât seem to be afraid of the consequences.â
âOh I donât know about that. Request for the indeterminate polyhedron through a deal but revert to extortion if talks donât go smoothlyâŚ.. Isnât this your plan? Iâve just heard from a knight below that your cute servant is missing. Donât tell me this is all coincidence?â
Heretiaâs eyes shook at hearing that Juan had disappeared.
The silhouette of the thief that took the indeterminate polyhedron didnât seem liek Juan, but she wasnât certain as it was dark.
Heretia showed no sign of agitation and looked squarely up at Hannbon.
âItâs simply a coincidence. Instead of threatening a young lady, shouldnât you be threatening your servants who couldnât fulfill their duty? It would make more sense to send out more servants to search rather than use them for confinement.â
âI donât think you understand your situation here. Iâve already sent out plenty of servants to search and the guards have been alerted as well. Soon, not a single bastard will be able to leave Hiveden.â
If that is the case Heretia was about to ask, why are you doing this, but then realised.
Hannbon wanted to have insurance.
In the case where he wouldnât be able to retrieve his stolen Indeterminate polyhedron, then he would get Heretia to fulfill her end of the proposal.
Basically forcing her to accept that the thief was her accomplice.
Without clear evidence, this was blackmailing.
And this extortion was quite unfavourable for Heretia as it put her in danger.
It wasnât too different from when gangs beat up the rich, to get what they wanted.
ââŚâŚ..This is tiresome.â
âExcuse me?â
âI said, the Helwin familyâs reputation mustâve fallen so low for an irrelevant municipality to threaten the family head. Just because youâve draped yourself with expensive crap over your body doesnât mean youâre a noble. What would it take for you to know your place? Do I need to rip off your external shell thatâs covering your vile demeanor?â
âWh, whatâŚ.? You! Do you even know the position youâre in right now! Do I need to break one of your fingers for you to understand?!â
âFrom your mouth, Iâll start cutting down vertically from there. Maybe your intestines could be turned into usable leaether. If youâre intending to hurt a member of the Helwin family, this is the least that you should expect.â
Hannbonâs face turned pale. He had never encountered a person that would spit such remarks back, when their backs were against the wall. It was different to the curses that he frequently heard from those who wildly retorted back in panic.â
Heretia was calm and coldhearted.
Hannbon briefly recalled the rumours about Helwinâs silent backers, then shook his head. Hannbon who had slightly backed off, bit his lip and drew out his dagger.
âYouâre bluffing! How dare you act impudently when you look like a bitch whoâs never even been scolded by your dad.â
âBluff?â
Heretia grinned.
âThen you do what you need to do. However, the day you lay your hands on me, Iâll make sure you know what itâs like to have your face skinned and turned into a leather carpet. A carpet that will be put in a market for everyone to walk on. Along with your testicles.â
Hannbon couldnât move. Heretia used the opportunity to grab his left pinky and sharply turn in outwards.
Hannbonâs expression turned pale.
The moment his mouth widened to scream, Juan broke through the terrace window and jumped through.
âAughh ahhhh!â
Hannbon knees dropped to the floor at Juanâs sudden appearance.
He realised itâs the same kid that he saw on the first floor, but his aura was completely different.
Hannbon was distraught at his violent energy that compassed the room.
Heretia pointed at Hannbon.
âHe tried to knife me. Skin him.â
âAh, no no no! HUK!â
The moment Juan took out his dagger, Hannbon made a weird noise and toppled to the floor clutching his chest.
For a brief moment, his body shuddered and then it stopped.
Juan looked down at him, unable to comprehend what had happened. He murmured something.
âHeart Attack.â
ââŚâŚâŚ.I did hear he had some heart problems.â
Juan couldnât hide his dejected emotion. While he was intending to kill, he didnât expect that he would die in such absurd fashion.
âHe wasnât even worth getting your knife dirtied. All is well.â
âPity. Iâm not someone thatâs picky about who I use my dagger on. ButâŚ.there wouldnât be any point in cutting up a corpseâŚ.. Anyways, how did you know that I was just outside?â
âI didnât.â
Heretia shrugged her shoulders and replied.
âEven now, my heart is beating hard. Our family has a knack of being skilled in bluffing, lying and trickery.â
âYour ancestors would be really proud.â
Heretia dragged the dead Hannbon out to the corridor. The mansion was silent as the guards had left to join the search. The banquet appeared to have ended.
Heretia and Juan quickly fled the area before they could be seen.
âDid you get the item you wanted? I believe you called it, indeterminate polyhedron.â
âSomeone else got to it before me.â
âSomeone else?â
Heretia glanced at Juan and replied in a spiteful manner.
âIâm not sure, but i think itâs the Hugin knights. Iâll have to look for their trace.â
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