I had more than enough confidence. After all, I had crossed swords with the archduke himself more than two hundred times during my daily training.
“Enough! Hugo Grenville wins!”
“Wheeze… Koff…!”
Again, Sir Portland, the referee, named me the victor. I had finally made it halfway through… But there was still a long way to go.
As was to be expected of the archduke’s elite troops, these soldiers were truly formidable. Every last one of them put up an exceptional fight. They couldn’t quite measure up to the archduke himself, however.
“…I must admit, I’m impressed,” Sir Portland murmured. “I never would have expected to find such strength in a man as young as you…”
“Ah-ha-ha. Thank you.”
My next opponent stepped forward.
…?!
“Come, now! It’ll be sundown soon if we keep this up! Instead, how about you face me—the empire’s strongest fighter?”
To my surprise, it was the archduke himself with a wooden practice blade.
Uh-oh… I’ve already faced one hundred foes, and here he is bursting with energy…
“Grandfather! Can’t you see Hugh is exhausted?! This isn’t fair!” Melza, who had been watching in silence until now, raised her voice in protest.
“It’s okay, Melza,” I replied. “On the battlefield, the enemy won’t go easy on you just because you’ve already fought a hundred other foes.”
“B-but—”
“Indeed, my boy,” the archduke declared with a jovial nod. “You may well find yourself in just that sort of situation one day. When it happens, it’s up to you to decide whether you’re going to whine and go down without a fight or find new vigor in the face of death.”
He was right, of course… Besides, he hadn’t trained me to run away as soon as things got tough. I had to keep going.
“…I understand,” said Melza. Accepting her grandfather’s argument, she fixed me with a soft smile. “Hugh… Do your best, okay?”
Yes… With her in the audience, I have to win. Even if my opponent is the archduke himself.
Because I love Melza more than anyone else in the world.
“Begin!”
The second Sir Portland’s signal rang out, I crouched low, adopting a defensive posture.
The archduke appeared to be standing casually, but there were no openings in his stance. As always, he was ridiculously strong…
Even so, I couldn’t just sit on my hands doing nothing. Making up my mind not to resort to any cheap tricks, I pointed my sword in his direction and poured all my strength into a full-bodied thrust.
“That’s the spirit! But you won’t break me!” the archduke declared, raising his own sword up high and bringing it down in one swift stroke.
Perhaps he meant to crush me mid attack from above. But I wasn’t going down so easily.
“Aaauuugggggh!”
Stepping forward, I released my left hand from my sword’s hilt and extended my right, stretching my body as far as it would go. This way, perhaps I could reach him before he got to me!
“…Ha-ha… I yield.”
“Gah…!”
The force of the archduke’s strike threw me hard into the ground. And yet…the tip of my blade had reached his chest first.
“…We have a winner! Hugo Grenville!”
“…Hugh! Hugh!”
As Sir Portland enthusiastically declared my victory and Melza desperately called out my name, my senses faded to black.
“Ngh…”
Regaining consciousness, I slowly opened my eyes.
“Oh… Hugh…”
Melza peered down at me, her face awash with worry.
She really is a goddess, so gracious and beautiful…
“Melza… How long was I out for?”
“It’s only been fifteen minutes. But Hugh…”
“Ah-ha-ha. Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I declared, moving my body a little to reassure her. “I’ve been training with your grandfather for more than a year.”
“Please… You don’t need to act tough for my sake, you know?”
“Oh… R-right.”
Of course, she can see straight through my lies…
“B-but I mean it, I am okay. Sure, it hurts a little, but it’s nothing I can’t take!”
“…I can see you aren’t lying, so I suppose I’ll leave it at that,” she said at last.
“Oh, I am sorry, my boy,” said the archduke, scratching his head. “…If I had stepped in sooner, you would have had a better time of it. But I can’t have the men thinking I’m going easy on you because you’re engaged to my granddaughter.”
“Ah-ha-ha. There wouldn’t have been any point if you had given me special treatment. But it’s clear I’ve still got a long way to go.” I smiled wryly.
…I won the bout against the archduke, but I ended up losing the contest.
I had to become even stronger.
“…Grandfather,” said Melza, “I have a feeling Hugh has misunderstood the situation.”
“Mmm… Hugo, you seem to have forgotten that we were fighting with wooden practice swords. If we had been properly armed, I wonder what your attack would have done to me…?”
The two of them stared back in veiled amusement. Oh.
“So you’re saying I’ve earned the soldiers’ respect…?” I asked.
“…I have no objections,” sounded a third voice—Sir Portland, flashing me a wry grin. He then called out to the others, “How about it, everyone? Do you all agree Hugo Grenville is worthy of your loyalty?”
“Of course!” they answered as one, raising their swords above their heads.
“And that’s that, my boy.” The archduke patted me on the head with a burly hand. “You’re now part of our elite forces.”
“Reporting for duty!” I said with a grin.
“Ah, to be young! You have my blessing!”
“I appreciate it!”
Having earned the soldiers’ confidence, I bowed to each of them in turn and asked their permission to use the portal to visit Melza during our expedition to Sailbridge. Fortunately, they readily agreed to my request now that they had seen my skill firsthand.
W-well, they did tease me about Melza, but…
“Thank you again, everyone!”
“N-not at all! With a beautiful fiancée like that, I reckon I’d feel the same way!”
Yes, Melza had come around with me to ask permission. I would have been fine approaching the soldiers by myself, but she had insisted on joining me.
“This is about the both of us,” she’d said. Truth be told, I couldn’t have been happier to hear those words.
“Anyway, Oliver sure did a good job stirring you up.” The archduke grinned as he stroked his beard.
“…How do you mean?” I asked uncertainly.
“I made it clear to him from the get-go that your skills are on par with my own. There shouldn’t have been any need for you to go to such lengths, my boy. He’d already acknowledged you.”
“R-really?!”
“Mmm. He orchestrated the whole thing so you could demonstrate your abilities.”
“I—I see…”
Thanks to him, the soldiers had accepted me as one of their own. It seemed I owed him.
“Ha-ha! Now all that’s left is to give those bandits a good whack!” the archduke declared with a hearty guffaw. “We’ll show them what happens when you set up shop inside the empire’s borders!”
“Yes!” I answered him with a firm nod.