“Name’s Caim.”
“Well, Caim! I’m warning you—this is only a spar. Yeah, we’ll use real weapons, but killing the opponent is prohibited! However”—Audy pointed at Caim—“we have a hundred soldiers on our side! So, if something unexpected happens and you end up dying, well... You were the one who asked to fight everyone together! Got it? It’d just be an unfortunate accident, so don’t blame us!”
“He’s totally serious about killing me...” Caim wasn’t sure about the other soldiers, but at the very least, Audy seemed to be feeling something more than just loyalty and adoration for Millicia. If that was the case, then Caim couldn’t lose here. Millicia was his woman, and he didn’t like to be told he wasn’t worthy of her by people he had only just met. “I’m gonna make you beg me to let you say I’m worthy of her. Enough talk, though—bring it on!”
Audy clicked his tongue. “Can’t shut up until the very end, huh? Well, I’ll at least admit you’ve got guts!” Audy raised his arm. The soldiers behind him all readied their weapons, full of murderous intent. “Get ready, everyone! Time to kill him!”
“I’m ready too. Send the signal.”
“Fine.” Ildana, who would be serving as the referee, nodded. “Well then, may the mock battle...commence!”
“Chaaaaaaaaaaarge!” Audy ordered, and the soldiers obeyed, rushing forward all at once.
“Diiiiiiiieeeeeee!” they shouted in unison, thrusting their spears at Caim.
“Jeez... Obsessed fans are terrifying...” Caim muttered. True, they had been stirred up by Audy, but it was clear that the knights’ rage was genuine.
Unbeknownst to Caim, while Millicia was serving as a nun, she had been in charge of treating injured soldiers. For the commoner knights, Millicia, who had treated them with kindness and tended their wounds with great care despite being a princess, was basically a saint. The morale of the soldiers had gone through the roof when it had been announced that Millicia would be joining Lance.
“Oh well, not that I care...” Caim smiled savagely and placed his palm on the ground. “Ouryuu!” With that, he drove a shock wave of condensed mana into the earth below.
The next instant, the ground exploded, forming a sandstorm that blew away the soldiers in the front and obscured the vision of those behind them with a curtain of brown dirt. Screams echoed everywhere as the men fell into disarray.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you want to kill me?!” Caim provoked them with a sneer as he jumped into the cloud of sand. Just like the soldiers, his vision was obstructed, so he had to rely on his other senses to find his targets. “Kirin!”
Caim released a spiraling shock wave of compressed mana, incapacitating several men. If he had been serious, he could have easily pulverized their skulls, but he had held back, only knocking the soldiers down instead.
The knights were bewildered by the unexpected cloud of dust and the sudden attacks, so Caim continued to defeat them one after another. Opponent after opponent screamed in pain as he punched them in the face, struck them in the stomach, or kicked them away. It was almost comical how easily these robust soldiers were defeated. Only a minute had passed since the beginning of the battle, and yet, more than half of the knights had already been knocked down.
“I see there was a reason Princess Millicia chose you! You’re not just some weakling with a pretty face!” As his subordinates had either been defeated already or were losing their will to fight, Audy Iscow valiantly thrust his spear at Caim, proving he wasn’t the vice captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf for nothing.
“Oh? You’re not half bad. You’re pretty strong and agile.” Caim was rather impressed as he avoided Audy’s strike.
That didn’t stop Audy from trying again, however. He pulled back his spear and thrust it repeatedly at great speed. An ordinary person would have been unable to dodge such an attack and ended up with a body full of holes.
“I guess you deserve a little praise. No wonder you became vice captain at your age.”
“Who do you think you are to patronize me like that?! Die for defiling our goddess, you thieving scuuuuuum!” Completely forgetting about the mock battle’s no-killing rule, Audy charged at Caim, fully intent on murdering him.
Then, finally, after countless failed attempts, Audy’s spear managed to strike Caim’s head. However...
“Genbu.”
“What?!”
The tip of Audy’s spear was repelled easily, not even scratching Caim’s skin.
Genbu was a basic technique of the Toukishin Style that protected the user by focusing condensed mana on a small area. Audy’s spear was a good weapon, and it had even been reinforced with mana, but...
“Unfortunately for you, it seems my body is harder than your spear.”
Audy gasped, his eyes widening in shock. He couldn’t believe that his deadly attack had been so easily deflected—and that created the perfect opening for Caim to counterattack.
“Hebi.” Caim used the technique that was commonly paired with Genbu, creating a whip made out of compressed mana to strike at Audy’s neck.
“Gah!”
“You tried to kill me, so you won’t mind getting a little hurt, right?” As Audy fell forward from the unexpected counterattack, Caim mercilessly kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying all the way to the edge of the training ground with a loud scream.
“Well then... I defeated your leader. Still wanna continue?” Caim asked the thirty or so soldiers left standing.
No one answered. Silence reigned for a few seconds until finally, the knights dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. They all had lost their will to fight, their spirits broken by Caim’s overwhelming power.
“And that’s that. It’s my win!” Caim declared his victory with triumph.
✦ ✦ ✦
The duel was over—Caim had defeated the hundred soldiers and the vice captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf. Faced with such an unexpected result, Ildana, who had been watching a short distance away, was left speechless.
What strength... To think that not only the soldiers, but even Audy wouldn’t be able to strike back! Ildana thought.
Ildana was the captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf, and Audy, as the vice captain, was his direct subordinate. Audy was in his early twenties and was the hot-blooded type, which made him lose his cool easily. Still, his spear skills were the real deal, and he was pretty popular with the soldiers, both of which made him a good fit to be vice captain.
And yet, Audy lost... And it wasn’t just a defeat either—Audy was knocked down before he could even manage to wound his opponent...
“So, what do you think? He’s the man the princess has chosen—our Sir Caim.”
“Lady Lenka...”
“Sir Caim is a peerless fighter. He’s in no way inferior to Prince Arthur, Ser Gawain, Dame Merlin, or even the captain of the Knights of the Golden Lion. Your men aren’t weak, Ser Ildana—it’s just that Sir Caim is so strong there is no way he could possibly lose to a paltry few hundred soldiers!” Lenka boasted, proudly throwing out her abundant chest.
Ildana was genuinely surprised by the complete faith he could hear in Lenka’s words. He had known about Lenka for years. She had a reputation for being fierce as a lioness, and she had managed to enter the Knights of the Golden Lion—the order under the direct control of the imperial family—and become Princess Millicia’s guard despite only being a girl in her teens. While she was still young and inexperienced, there was no doubt that she would one day become an important force that would support the future of the empire. Moreover, her beauty had stolen the hearts of many young men, but because she had refused them all, it was rumored that she hated men. And yet, here she was, showing complete devotion to Caim.
“He was introduced as Princess Millicia’s fiancé, but could it be that you are in a relationship with him too, Lady Lenka?” Ildana asked. Lenka didn’t answer, though her cheeks reddened slightly. “I see... Indeed, as you said, he seems to be quite the man.”
Caim had not only managed to win the heart of Millicia, who had devoted herself entirely to her faith, but also Lenka, who had been a stoic female knight with no interest in men. Only someone truly great could accomplish all that.
They do say that great men tend to be womanizers. To not be satisfied with Princess Millicia and still want more bewitching beauties by his side... He must be a very great man indeed...
In this world, there existed warriors who were a match for a thousand men, such as Gawain and Merlin, Arthur’s Twin Wings. Ildana himself was a strong knight who could easily deal with one or two hundred soldiers. But Caim? Ildana couldn’t gauge his strength. And so, he couldn’t help but think that, just maybe, Caim might be capable of defeating Arthur.
“Well, I’ll rely on the man you and the princess chose, then,” Ildana said to Lenka as they watched Audy kneel before Caim.
“Our defeat is absolute! Please allow me to call you Sir Caim from now on!” Audy was a hot-blooded man with simple reasoning—Caim had defeated him, which meant that he was worth respecting, and he could entrust Millicia to him. “Please take care of Princess Millicia!”
“U-Uhh... Okay...?” While dumbfounded by the sudden change in Audy’s behavior, Caim accepted his handshake.