Jerome lifted his spear from the earth, directing its point at him.
“Can you do it? With no ambition, no courage, and no spine!?”
“...I-I’ll admit, I don’t believe in myself. I have no confidence. But there is someone who said she believed in me. As long as she believes, I want to give it a shot.”
After he had been shown such resolve, Regis wasn’t brazen enough to give some excuse and decline. He hadn’t spoken up with the intention of spurring the princess on—no, his desire to aid her on the path she had chosen came from the heart.
“...I will be her tactician. And I must remind you, Sir Jerome, that should the princess win, you promised you would serve under her. The command structure below that development won’t change, so the competency of this fort shouldn’t diminish at all, should it?”
“Mh... All talk, as usual. I understand your point. Now get lost! The duel isn’t settled.”
“Very well.”
Regis slowly parted from the two and returned to the circle.
Jerome readied his stance once more.
“Hmph. Break time’s over, little lady.”
“What’s with that? I wasn’t buying time, nor did I ask for a rest. You’re the one who hesitated, going on about command and such.”
“You’re right. I didn’t expect this development... I tried one of those peaceful resolution things for once, but... the time for words is over. The little lady has the will and the resolve, and a freebie staff officer to boot. I recognize that you have the caliber to command this regiment. But that doesn’t mean I’ll lose here!”
“This duel wasn’t to show my will or resolve... it was to show my strength!”
“I’ll crush you!”
Both sides screamed, the atmosphere quivering under their pressure.
The conversation had afforded it a little rest, but Altina’s left arm was still dangling powerlessly.
She used her right alone to raise the sword...
And launched the first strike.
“HYAAAAAAAAH!!”
An ear-rending battle cry.
She converted the momentum of the falling sword into a horizontal slash. She stepped in deep, keeping the attack at waist height. A strike that was hard to parry and hard to dodge.
Jerome nodded.
“I knew it, that’s all you can do. You don’t have the strength left to handle that blade more nimbly.”
The slash was aimed to cleave his torso.
But the margrave leaped into the air with inhuman dexterity, easily clearing the blade.
Had he ducked to avoid, perhaps she could have used the sword’s weight to arc the swipe downward. But this way, that weight would work against her.
Carried by the empty swing, Altina’s body was pulled into a half-turn. She had opened her defenseless back to the enemy.
That’s the match over, a majority surely thought. Not only the soldiers, but Jerome as well. A thrust to her nape, and he would be the victor.
He prepared to land, ready to strike, when his plan was suddenly complicated by something he hadn’t anticipated—
Altina continued to turn.
“Aaaaaaaaah!!”
“There’s more...!?”
In one revolution, the empty swing came at him again as another horizontal slash. It was even faster than before.
With great acceleration, the sword encroached on his flank.
Jerome grit his teeth.
“Tssk!!”
He readied his spear at an incline to divert the attack.
The metallic clang that followed was louder than any other before it. The blade scraped along the spear, its trajectory turned aside from its intended path.
Altina’s right arm creaked painfully as she put all her might into twisting the swipe into Jerome’s weapon.
“Shatter!!”
But the greatsword proved unable to break the spear down the middle, instead sliding down its length. A conspicuously loud chime rang out as the blade collided with the spear’s tip, shearing it from the shaft. An inconvenience, no doubt, but not enough to class the weapon as unusable.
This time, Altina’s balance crumbled as she collapsed onto the ground. She smacked face first into the field of disturbed snow, scattering white in every direction. It was unsightly, but no one laughed at this display.
The soldiers gulped and watched closely as Jerome raised the spear shaft in both hands.
All he had to do was swing it down and stop it right over her head. That was it. There was no need to strike the already collapsed little girl.
Regis had forgotten to breathe.
The short spear came down, let off a dry sound...
...and snapped.
Right in Jerome’s hand, it broke like the dead branch of a withered tree.
“What...!?”
Jerome was at a loss for words, and he wasn’t the only one. Everyone watching had lost their voices.
All that remained in the man’s hands was a stick around the size of a dagger. There was nothing preventing him from continuing the fight, but his spear had broken.
Altina remained collapsed in the snow.
“Fuu... Fuu... Uuu...”
She tried her hardest to pick herself up, but her left arm wouldn’t move, and her right no longer had the strength to support her weight.
Her legs and shoulders trembled; there was no way she could continue to hold her weapon.
The soldiers watched, unblinking.
Jerome took his broken spear, and in one clean movement...
...he tossed it aside.
“Hmph... My weapon broke in a fair duel. Is there any worse way to lose?”
The soldiers began to clamor over those words—his admission of loss.
The general lost?
The princess won?
Shock and excitement rippled through the crowd.
Was Altina, her face still in the snow, able to understand the situation?
Everard asked, just to make sure.
“Then, Sir Jerome... you accept this as the princess’s victory?”
“Are you deaf?”
His sharp retort made the knight captain deeply lower his head. The soldiers raised screams and jeers at this final act no one had anticipated. Some even cheered.
It was an uproar great enough to shake the entire fort.
Regis hurried over to Altina.
“Princess, you won. Please, stand up... This is the important part!”
“Uurrghh...”
She nodded.
Her stamina had been expended well beyond its limit.
The blood from her left shoulder continued to trickle onto the now-pink patch of snow below.
Even so, if she collapsed here, the duel would lose all meaning.
Altina propped herself up.
“Hah... Hah... Right... The loser, Jerome, standing... kuh... while the victor is down... What a laughingstock I’d be.”
“......”
Regis silently nodded. Her strong will and relentless efforts had caused a peculiar heat to rise in his chest.
The declaration had come late, but his expression of sentiment in the midst of the duel had been no mistake. He would believe in this girl. He would continue to believe.
Regis wiped the now warm corners of his eyes.
Altina stood. She spread out her slender, white fingers and lifted them up toward the heavens. It was a quiet, beautiful proclamation of victory.
The surrounding noise grew even louder.
In the intense turmoil, Altina spoke only to Regis, who stood right beside her.
“Hey...”
“Yes?”
She reached her quivering right hand to grasp Regis’s shoulder.