novelraw Chapter 52 : Chapter 52
Chapter 52 : Chapter 52
Chapter 52. The Ultimate Showdown Between Mages and Knights
Logaris had just been about to argue back when Sylvia had already put down the bottle, wiped the corner of her mouth, and raised a brow at him.
“Can you do it?”
Gritting his teeth, Logaris grabbed the bottle and copied her, pouring it straight into his mouth.
The liquor went down his windpipe, and he broke into violent coughing, his whole body trembling.
Sylvia laughed so hard she nearly doubled over, then pointed at him.
“See? You cannot even do that!”
Fury flared in Logaris’s eyes.
He could not lose.
He absolutely could not lose to her.
“A mage’s combat relies more on intelligence.” He stared fixedly at Sylvia. “Knights only know how to swing swords and hack at people. They are stupid to the core!”
Sylvia’s expression changed, and she shot to her feet.
“Who are you calling stupid?!”
“You.” Logaris also stood up, and the tips of their noses were nearly touching. “Knights are nothing but piles of brute force with no technical sophistication at all.”
“Technical sophistication?” Sylvia let out a cold laugh. “Do mages not just hide in the back and chant spells? When real blades come out, you run faster than anyone!”
“That is tactics! Do you understand tactics?”
“That is cowardice! Do you understand cowardice?”
The two argued more and more fiercely, their voices growing louder and louder.
Everyone around them was dumbfounded.
General Victor froze with his wine glass suspended in midair, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
Grayson’s face was filled with the expression of someone wondering whether he had drunk too much and started hallucinating.
The young mage Aaron stared blankly at the scene before him, feeling as though his entire worldview were collapsing.
Professor West, that wise and profound scholar, and Her Highness the Princess, that calm and self-controlled ruler, were now arguing at the top of their lungs over a childish question fit for a nursery: whether mages or knights were stronger.
Logaris kept pressing his argument.
“Mages can turn invisible!”
“Knights can charge!”
“Mages can control the elements!”
“Knights can ignore the elements!”
The two spoke faster and faster until, in the end, it simply became this:
“Knights are stronger than mages!”
“Mages are stronger than knights!”
“Knights are stronger!”
“Mages are stronger!”
This argument had now completely lost any trace of reason.
Sitting in the corner, Lilith quietly took out a Memory Crystal and aimed it at the two of them.
Her eyes gleamed with excitement. This recording would definitely sell for a huge price someday.
No, it was more than just money.
This was a perfect opportunity to gain leverage over two major figures.
The more she thought about it, the happier she became, until the corners of her mouth nearly stretched to her ears.
Just then, a groggy voice came from the sofa.
“Stop arguing already…”
Alice struggled to prop herself halfway up. Her face was deathly pale, and her eyes were unfocused.
Looking at the two who were still trading insults, she said weakly, “Logaris, your arm cannot overpower her… but her brain is not as good as yours… so it balances out…”
The accuracy of that statement was terrifying.
Logaris and Sylvia both stopped at the same time and turned their heads in perfect unison to stare at Alice.
Locked under two murderous gazes, Alice sobered up a little instantly.
Alectos reacted with astonishing speed and immediately rushed over to cover Alice’s mouth.
“She drank too much! She is talking nonsense! Please do not mind her!”
However, neither of them paid the slightest attention to Alectos’s explanation.
They exchanged a glance, then turned back toward each other in perfect synchrony, and their argument became even fiercer.
“See? Even an outsider knows your brain does not work!”
“She said your arm cannot overpower me!”
“That is still better than you!”
“You are the one who is worse than me!”
“I am obviously stronger than you!”
“I am stronger than you too!”
At last, General Victor could not endure it any longer.
He stood up, intending to stop the two of them.
Yet after only getting halfway there, he stopped.
He suddenly realized that this argument was already completely out of control.
Neither Logaris nor Sylvia could hear any advice anymore. Their eyes held only each other, and each seemed ready to grind the other into the floor.
This intense argument, combined with the continuous heavy drinking, finally drowned the last of their rationality completely.
Logaris’s speech became more and more slurred.
“You… you…”
Sylvia’s eyelids also began to droop.
“I… I…”
Before either of them could finish, they nearly lost consciousness at the same moment.
Thunk.
Thunk.
Logaris’s consciousness finally snapped under the flood of alcohol, and his whole body pitched forward, collapsing onto the long table.
Almost at the exact same moment, Sylvia also lost all support, her body going limp as she likewise slumped onto the tabletop.
The uproar that had filled the banquet hall all night came to an abrupt stop at that moment.
The air froze.
General Victor felt as though he had just survived a long and bizarre campaign. He let out a heavy breath, yet his chest still felt tight.
He was just about to wave for the attendants to come forward and escort the two thoroughly drunk dignitaries back to their respective rooms.
At that exact moment, a strange change occurred in the ground beneath Sylvia.
The patch of shadow behind her chair began to twist, gather, and deepen into a darkness richer than any other darkness in the room.
That darkness seemed to come alive. It slowly rose from a flat two-dimensional surface and outlined a solid three-dimensional form.
The shape of a woman stepped out from that pure darkness.
She wore black leather armor that clung tightly to the curves of her body. Her long purple hair fell casually over her shoulders, and every movement carried an air of lazy ease.
Her appearance came without the slightest warning. General Victor’s entire body tensed instantly. Before his mind had even caught up, his hand had already slammed down onto the hilt of the sword at his waist.
The demi-human prince Alectos also sprang from his seat, every muscle in his body tightening as he shielded Alice behind him.
They had not sensed her presence at all before this. When exactly had this woman appeared here?
Faced with the wary stares of everyone present, the woman paid them no mind whatsoever. She raised one finger gracefully and placed it before her lips.
“Shh.”
It was only a simple syllable, yet it carried a strange magic. All the remaining noise in the hall vanished at once.
Her eyes shifted gently as she gave the crowd a charming smile.
“A pleasure to meet you all for the first time. I am Esmeralda, captain of Her Highness’s Shadow Guard.”
General Victor’s eyelid twitched.
“You… you were here the entire time?”
“Of course.” Esmeralda’s smile deepened. “If the Shadow Guard were always noticed by all of you, that would make us terribly incompetent, would it not, General?”
General Victor’s expression turned complicated.
He suddenly realized that every word he had spoken and every action he had taken at this banquet had been seen by this woman.
That feeling of being watched made him deeply uncomfortable.
Esmeralda walked to the table and gently lifted the already sound-asleep Sylvia into her arms.
Carrying Sylvia, she headed toward the bedroom and said to the others as she walked, “All right, the farce is over. You should all get some rest as well.”
General Victor nodded, just about to finally relax.
Yet when Esmeralda reached the doorway, she turned back and glanced at Logaris, who was still sprawled over the table.
She smiled, and there was a hint of mischief in that smile.
“Well, I may as well finish the good deed and see it through to the end.”
With her free hand, she made a grasping motion toward Logaris from a distance.
A black shadow tentacle extended from the floor, wrapped directly around Logaris, and dragged him behind her without the slightest courtesy.
Just then, her gaze swept across the corner and landed on Lilith, who was secretly putting away the Memory Crystal.
Her smile deepened further.
“Oh, right.”
Esmeralda’s figure flashed and instantly appeared behind Lilith.
Before Lilith could even react, the Memory Crystal in her hand had already vanished.
Esmeralda toyed with the clear crystal in her fingers and gave Lilith a wink.
“You cannot just record things like this whenever you please.”
She tucked the crystal into her clothes and said with a bright smile, “If Her Highness were to find out you recorded all that… well, you can imagine the consequences for yourself.”
Lilith’s mouth twitched, and she waved her hands repeatedly.
“I did nothing! I know nothing!”
Esmeralda nodded in satisfaction and flashed back to the doorway once again.
Under the astonished gazes of everyone present, she disappeared down the corridor just like that, carrying the princess in one arm while dragging the professor behind her with a shadow.
General Victor stared at the direction in which she had vanished and remained silent for a long time.
After a while, he turned around and said to the still-dazed crowd, “What happened today stays buried in your stomachs.”
Everyone nodded in perfect unison.
Lilith sat back down in the corner, on the verge of tears, and mournfully touched her now-empty pocket.
Her precious treasure…
…
Esmeralda skillfully opened the door to Sylvia’s bedroom.
She placed Sylvia securely onto the bed, carefully helped her remove her coat, and tucked the blanket properly around her.
Then she looked back at Logaris, who was still being dragged behind her by the shadows.
She smiled.
There was a trace of wicked amusement in that smile.
“Ah, I am just too kind. I cannot bear to see someone sleeping on the floor.”
As she spoke, she casually flicked her hand.
Logaris was thrown directly onto the bed, landing right beside Sylvia.
Esmeralda admired her handiwork for a moment, and her smile grew even wider.
“Tomorrow morning is definitely going to be interesting.”
Murmuring that softly, her figure gradually merged into the shadows in the corner of the wall and disappeared.