Raising the Princess to Overcome Death

Chapter 196: Engagement - Clueless Woman

196: Engagement - Clueless Woman

Blood was boiling.

The moment Lena was kicked and Deros's sword descended toward her legs, fire sparked in Leo's eyes.

Katrina. What should I do about this woman? ─ That thought vanished as quickly as a droplet of water on a hot skillet.

- Whoosh!

Leo swung his sword with all his might. His muscles bulged like summer earthworms, and Katrina's sword was effortlessly sent flying by the force.

Spinning around, Leo released his grip. The flying sword narrowly saved Lena.

Lena's legs were... safe.

But the heat that had rushed to his head refused to dissipate. Leo felt his reason teeter on the brink as he clenched his fists.

"You need to die first."- Hiccup.

Deros hiccupped.

He realized the knight before him was about to unleash unspeakable violence and raised his sword defensively.

Intimidating, but that guy was unarmed. Deros judged he had to seize the advantage before the knight picked up his sword and before the fallen junior knight got up. Without hesitation, he slashed diagonally.

- Whoosh!

It wasn't the sound of the sword cutting through the air. Deros instinctively jerked his head back, stunned.

He had just swung his sword, but the large knight had reached out his arm.

With his thick left arm, Leo pushed aside the descending blade and stepped in. A hefty fist grazed Deros’s cheek.

'This crazy...!'

Deflecting a two-handed sword with one arm.

It was merely adjusting the trajectory by pushing the foible (the upper part of the blade near the tip), but it was an absurd feat.

The strength in that arm was more than twice the force of Deros's two-handed downward strike, causing Deros's confidence, which had been regained while fighting the junior knight, to shrink back to nothing.

[Leo, you blocked the sword of someone who has honed their swordsmanship to the limit. For this achievement, you gain the ability {Swordsmanship.3v: Bart Style}.]

[Achievement: Knight '24' – You become stronger when facing knights. min(1)]

[Achievement: Expert - Leo’s physique becomes stronger.]

"Monster..."

Before he could finish muttering, a kick flew in. Leo aimed to kick away the sword, and Deros quickly retreated out of range.

"L-Leo."

"Are you okay? Hold on a moment."

But that was a mistake. While Deros stepped back, Leo retrieved his sword embedded in the ground. Despite being buried nearly halfway, Leo pulled it out effortlessly.

At that moment, Katrina, who had retrieved her own sword, shouted.

"What are you standing there for? Attack!"

"Y-Yes!"

The two knights, senior and junior, charged simultaneously. Leo clicked his tongue and struck Deros first with a lightning-fast downward slash.

- Clang!

All I needed to do was hold on. If I could withstand just one blow, my senior would have attacked this guy’s back.

Deros couldn’t even withstand that single blow. He blocked with his sword, but his knees buckled, and the force knocked his blade into his shoulder. His clavicle felt like it was shattering.

"Die!"

Katrina aimed for Leo's back. However, Leo, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, spun around without even looking.

Deflecting Katrina’s sword, he delivered a back kick to the kneeling Deros.

"Argh!"

Kicked in the face, Deros was sent sprawling backwards.

As Deros struggled to get up and rejoin the fight, Katrina, exchanging a few more blows with Leo, felt a strange sense of unease.

This incredible strength and overwhelming swordsmanship skill of this monster...

‘Is he going easy on me?’

He only blocked or deflected her attacks, making no significant counterattacks.

Feeling deeply insulted, Katrina decided to test her suspicion.

“Hup!”

Taking a short breath, Katrina lunged with all her strength in a straight thrust. If this guy wasn’t holding back, he would definitely dodge and counterattack.

- Clang!

Katrina’s suspicion was confirmed. He merely deflected her thrust, treating it as an equal exchange.

“You bastard...!”

She cursed, but knew that without this monster’s slight leniency, she had no chance of winning. Let him regret it after he's dead!

Grinding her teeth in anger, Katrina swung her sword in a wide horizontal arc. She spun, and as her sword met resistance, she leaped back, kicking at Leo’s chin. However, this annoying bastard neither got hit nor counterattacked.

"Senpai!"

Deros rejoined the fight.

He focused on defense, waiting for an opening in Leo's guard. Katrina launched bold, even reckless attacks.

From an outsider's perspective, it seemed like Leo was being overwhelmed. Lena, catching her breath after stepping back, gripped her sword again. She approached to help Leo but...

“Lena! I don’t need your help, stay back!”

His harsh words stung.

Lena flinched, freezing in place. She held her sword tightly, neither retreating nor advancing.

She understood that he was just short with her because of the urgent situation. Leo, who was always kind to her, wouldn’t say something like that unless he was truly concerned for her.

He was just worried about her...

But it made her chest tighten painfully. It felt like her heart was filled with shattered stones, making it hard to breathe. Lena clutched her chest, finally able to take a breath.

Her rainbow-colored world was collapsing.

The realization that she was of no help to her betrothed in danger and the overwhelming sense of powerlessness started to drain the color from Lena’s eyes.

Gasping for air, Lena bit her tongue. She felt that if she backed down now, she might never recover. She charged at the red-haired female knight.

“Lena! Get ba...!”

“Stop telling me what to do! Please!”

Katrina’s eyes gleamed.

Perfect. She thrust her sword, aiming to skewer both Leo and Lena together.

- Thud!

But a sword fell like lightning, striking her head.

The flat side of the blade struck Katrina's forehead, and Leo rolled on the ground, holding Lena by the waist. Katrina’s thrust nicked Leo’s side.

“Die!”

“Deros! No!”

Perhaps thinking he had an opportunity, or maybe panicking thinking his senior was dead, Deros leaped forward. Katrina, clutching her throbbing head, shouted, but it was too late.

“Urgh...!”

The massive knight, lying on the ground, thrust his sword upward.

It pierced Deros’s solar plexus, and the sword he had been swinging flew from his grasp.

“Deros!”

“Senpai... you...”

Deros, whose vision had become blurry, collapsed. He fell onto the junior knight in front of him, but then, bang! Leo Dexter kicked him in the head.

“You, you bastard!”

Katrina, her eyes wild with rage, shouted as she rushed at him. Her head throbbed from the hit, but her anger numbed the pain.

Leo pulled Lena, who was trying to stand, by the waist. He pulled her back and then, clang! Blocked Katrina’s sword.

At the moment the swords clashed, he twisted his wrist 'once again.' Moving his arm slightly, he caused a crack in his opponent’s sword.

Weapon Destruction Technique.

It was the swordsmanship of Count Jacob. Leo had been using {Swordsmanship.4v: Jacob Style} to send shocks into Katrina’s weapon, and the result came with a crunching sound as the sword cracked.

Katrina stared blankly at the broken sword. The shards cut her face, but she didn’t have time to care.

‘...Deros, I’m sorry. It seems this is the end for me too.’

She thought her head would be cut off next. She closed her eyes, expecting death... but it didn’t come.

“Lena, are you alright?”

When she opened her eyes, the giant knight was tending to his squire.

“...What are you doing?”

She asked, but the knight did not turn around. Feeling ignored, Katrina trembled and shouted.

“Kill me! I lost, so kill me! What kind of nonsense is this?”

Only then did the knight turn to look at her. After a long hesitation, he mumbled something nonsensical.

“...I’ll spare you. Collect your knight’s body and return.”

This was the first time she had been so humiliated.

Even when she had wrongly recommended the unknown traitor ‘Noel’ as a royal guard and was demoted to the 3rd Knight Order, it wasn’t this humiliating. She had blamed her eyes for seeing people wrong.

“I am a knight! If you are a knight, then kill me! As a fellow knight, uphold my honor!”

Katrina screamed. It was a legitimate request that a defeated knight could make to an enemy, but the opponent did not seem willing. Seeing a look of conflicted emotions in his eyes, Katrina had a ridiculous thought.

“Why? You killed Deros, so why would you spare me? Is it because... I’m a woman?”

There was no response. Katrina’s blood boiled.

- Grab!

Katrina threw away the broken sword handle. Picking up Deros’s fallen sword, she started attacking Leo wildly.

But, frustratingly, none of her attacks worked. Mixing in feints was useless, and even when she ignored defense, he didn’t try to kill her. He calmly aimed only to break Deros’s sword.

Realizing there was no way, Katrina stopped. Trembling with rage, she suddenly pointed at Lena.

“What about her?”

There was a reaction. Remembering how this knight had been caring for that junior knight, she mocked.

“Is she your personal plaything?”

“What, what did you say?”

“She’s just about that skilled. Follows you around, opens her legs when you tell her to. Must be convenient during breaks, huh? Oh, and Deros approached the bush earlier, but she didn’t notice. Must have been busy with something else, huh?”

“Shut up!”

Leo Dexter’s face twisted with rage.

Earlier, Lena had been confiding her troubles. She found it difficult to understand Leo’s sword movements during battles, which was due to the {Swordsmanship.5v: Forte Style} ability.

Swordsmanship that hides its movements.

Lena couldn’t recognize Leo’s movements. Each of his moves was skillfully concealed, and even though Lena had the insight to see through other sword techniques, there was a huge gap between them.

So Lena... had been struggling alone all this time. Why has her growth been so slow this round? Leo realized, it was because of him.

In the bushes, Leo felt devastated.

“Teach me...” Recognizing how deeply Lena’s spirit had fallen, he had carefully explained the essence of his swordsmanship to her.

And now she was mocking that?

Leo felt his reason slipping away. He pointed his sword at Katrina, his face red with anger, but she calmly kept talking.

“No matter how much you sleep with that girl, she must not be very good if you’re still hitting on me? Haha. Yeah, what can a junior knight do right? Probably can’t even understand your commands in bed...”

“I told you to shut your mouth!!”

Leo charged at her, and Katrina smiled grimly. Now, that’s more like it, she thought, satisfied as she faced him.

- Boom!

His sword strikes were completely different. The fierce blows came one after another, and Katrina staggered with each hit.

No regrets.

Dying honorably on the battlefield was enough for her.

But...

‘Ellen, I’m sorry.’

A crimson tassel was attached to Deros’s sword. Looking at the carefully braided petals, Katrina thought of her lover, Ellen.

She had promised to come back alive, but her damned temper...

- Slash!

Katrina’s head flew off. Blood spurted from her neck, staining the surrounding bushes red.

And then, a message appeared before Leo’s eyes.

[ Quest: Duelist 1000/1000 - {Swordsmanship} skill level has increased. ]

[ Achievement: Sword Master ]

An aura blade erupted from Leo’s sword. Lena, frozen by Katrina’s harsh words, collapsed to the ground.

“Le, Lena. So, this is...”

Leo spoke, but she didn’t hear. In the confusion, the only thing that stood out was the blazing aura blade.

I can never catch up.

All this time, I haven’t even reached Leo’s feet.

Lena couldn’t move. Even when Leo tried to lift her, she collapsed again, unable to stand.