TOPWL 199

Edmond desperately blocked the man’s sword. Every time their swords clashed, the soft ground caved in with deep dents. He grew frightened. Even if it was only a wooden sword, if struck with that much force his bones could break. Finally, terrified, Edmond shouted.

“F-fine, I’ll just give it to you. Take it!”

“That won’t do.”

Barely keeping his stance, Edmond struggled as he crossed swords with him and then noticed Garen drawing near. Earlier, he had laughed at that cheap trick with the cloth, but now he wished for it desperately. He darted his eyes, urging him to hurry, and Garen began creeping closer. Edmond mustered every bit of strength left in him to face the man.

“You’ve suddenly found some strength? I wonder why.”

“Haah, haah….”

He wanted to reply, but deflecting the strikes took everything, leaving him unable to answer. The wooden sword came down vertically, then shifted to the side, and when that failed it slashed diagonally.

“Urgh!”

Struck square in the side, Edmond screamed. Hit on the unarmored body with a wooden sword, the pain burst like stars before his eyes. The man tilted his head and said,

“How could you come to the battlefield without armor? Even if it’s a mock battle.”

By then Garen had come right up close to the man. Garen was large-bodied but carried little presence, so he had yet to be noticed. Edmond squeezed out his last strength and swung for the man’s thigh. When the man’s sword dipped down, Edmond grinned in triumph. But something unexpected happened. Seeing Edmond’s grin, the man twisted his body aside and turned back.

Thwack! Edmond’s wooden sword struck the man’s calf at the same time Garen’s strike missed. Off balance, Garen stumbled, and the man seized the chance to snatch away the cloth on Garen’s head. Edmond faltered, and perhaps thinking it time to end things, the man smacked Edmond’s waist with the wooden sword and kicked his opposite thigh, knocking him down. After taking the cloth from Edmond’s head, the man leaned to his ear and whispered.

“Go drink more of your mother’s milk, brat.”

His mocking voice made Edmond rise to his feet. He charged toward the man, who was already turning to find his next opponent.

“I grew up without it, you bastard!”

The man, just crossing swords with another, could not avoid Edmond rushing in from behind.

Smaaack!

With a sharp sound the man collapsed. Having won in the most cowardly way, Edmond wore a confident grin. Beside him Garen let out a quiet sigh.

***

“What are you going to do about this now!”

Yudit stood in place, silently enduring the barrage of scolding.

“The battle hadn’t even started, and there are already more than a hundred injured! How can this make sense!”

Far from stopping, the others added their own complaints.

“Just sparring would have been enough, why hold a mock battle at all… tch.”

“What did he know, charging ahead like that. If the Omega had just stayed quietly in the back, this wouldn’t have happened….”

Every whispered voice pierced him. Yudit bit his lip and lowered his head. At that moment, Noban and the knight commander came in carrying documents.

“What is all this commotion.”

At Noban’s voice, the hall fell silent at once. One of those who had been openly complaining at the front hesitated, then stepped forward.

“We were demanding correction for what happened today.”

“Correction? What correction do you mean?”

“As you know, the mock battle was carried out on His Highness’s suggestion, and more than a hundred soldiers were injured. If it had been a one-on-one tournament-style duel, such numbers would never have happened. Therefore, someone must be held responsible.”

“So, you mean the one to take responsibility should be the commander?”

“That is what I am saying.”

“Fools. This mock battle was agreed upon by all the knight captains. Why should only the commander bear responsibility? And strictly speaking, the accident was not caused by the mock battle rules. It was the fault of the soldiers who lost their tempers even after their cloths were taken. The commander was the first to know of the accident and the one who oversaw its resolution to the end. You, who were too busy brawling to even notice your cloths were gone, dare to hold the commander accountable?”

At Noban’s rare display of anger, the soldiers shut their mouths. Yet their dissatisfied expressions did not vanish.

The incident was this: after his cloth was taken, one soldier could not control his anger and attacked another who still had his cloth. Worse, he joined forces with another whose cloth had been taken to beat that knight so he could not rise again. Seeing two without cloths ganging up on one, other soldiers rushed in, and the fight grew larger.

The officers who realized what was happening tried to halt the mock battle, but the excited soldiers would not listen. The chaotic melee looked like a swarm of ants packed tightly around a giant candy.

Then one of them slipped on the hillside, and the others rolled down together like a wheel. Fortunately, there was plenty of soft grass, so the fall itself did not cause major injuries, but many soldiers were stabbed with wooden swords or crushed beneath others, ending up with broken ribs. In the end, the mock battle ended in the worst possible way.

Everyone was desperate to find the two who had started the fight, but bizarrely, as if swallowed up by ghosts, they could not be found anywhere. The people needed someone to bear the mark of responsibility, and that became Yudit, who had first proposed the mock battle.

Noban too had thought the mock battle was a good idea, as had the other knight captains. Noban looked at Yudit as if telling him to say something. With all eyes on him, Yudit opened his mouth wide and yawned, as though this matter bored him. The soldiers staring at him froze with dumbfounded faces.

“Ah, sorry. I just found all this petty talk too dull.”

The man who had spoken up at the front flushed red.

“Over a hundred soldiers are injured. Do you think this is a petty matter, Your Highness?”

“I never said the matter was petty. I said the petty talk was dull.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“Lucius!”

Noban raised his voice. The man who had kept snapping at Yudit seemed to be from the 9th knight order.

“Even if you shout like this, nothing changes. Tomorrow the mock battle will continue, and if injuries occur, they will be treated. If you dislike it, then…”

Yudit suddenly drew his sword and leveled it at the man’s throat. The swiftness of it froze everyone in place.

“Settle it with me in a duel.”

The man stepped back, looking at Yudit with suspicion.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. If I lose, not only will tomorrow’s mock battle be canceled, I will also resign as commander and fight as an ordinary soldier. But if you lose… hmm. What shall it be?”

Yudit looked at the man from across the sharp tip of his sword.

“Yes. Charging you with lèse-majesté would be best.”

At Yudit’s words, the people froze unexpectedly. They had forgotten, because he endured insults in silence, but he was someone who at any time could charge them with lèse-majesté and have most executed. Even Noban, who had been trying to calm things, fell silent, forgetting his words. Lucius blinked, flustered, then after a pause spoke.

“If I win, will you cancel the charge of lèse-majesté as well?”

“Well now, should I… or should I not?”

Lucius bit his lip. He felt like he was being toyed with in the prince’s grasp, the one he had been picking at until now. Relishing Lucius’s humiliation, Yudit mocked him.

“Fine. Since we’re at it, I’ll cancel the charge as well.”

“You must keep that promise.”

“I said I would. Then shall we start right away instead of wasting time. Where’s the training ground here?”

Yudit asked the Devlin knight commander. The commander gave him a somewhat doubtful look, then spoke.

“I… will guide you.”

Yudit quietly followed behind the knight commander. The soldier called Lucius did the same. In their absence, the soldiers glanced at one another and murmured.

“Can we go too?”

“Probably not…”

Even so, since the officers themselves were all heading to the training ground, no one was there to stop them.

“But don’t you want to see? Who’ll win…”

“It’s not who’ll win you’re curious about, it’s how badly he’ll get beaten.”

“Shh. You’ll be dragged off for lèse-majesté.”

Even at a glance, the size difference between Lucius and Yudit was more than double. Everyone knew the young commander would lose. Even as they predicted the outcome, the soldiers, eager to see the small and young Omega superior beaten, began moving one by one toward the training ground.