The 30 minutes flew by like an arrow, and finally, I stood face to face with Arcadia.
Arcadia is the strongest knight in the North, aside from Duke Zion Belphast, whose superiority is unknown. Based on the sensation from our sword fight in my previous life, I judged that in a year or two, this man would become the strongest swordsman in the empire.
Facing Arcadia, a swordsman who hadn’t inhaled sleep gas, an indescribable tension spread from my fingertips throughout my body.
There’s a different level.
There are things you can tell just from the atmosphere. I felt it when I fought the Black Worm, but Arcadia’s sword, like his appearance, resembled a pure and cold blizzard.
Of course, I could overpower him in a few exchanges if only I could reveal my swordsmanship.
After much thought, I concluded that it’s pointless to ponder over ‘how to lose’ in a situation where I don’t know how Arcadia will act. So, I’ll just defend. While doing so, I’ll read his attack pattern and adjust to it, and lose.
That was the first trick I chose.
Arcadia spoke without moving from his position.
“Why do you keep hiding?”
“Excuse me?”
I felt like I’d been hit in the head.
“Pretending to be tired when you’re not. That’s not being respectful to your opponent.”
Annoying Arcadia. Suddenly, he seemed exasperating.
I know, even if you don’t say it.
But Arcadia, I’m not in a position to care about such courtesies. I’m too anxious and desperate just thinking about the future I already know.
I think every night about how to save the North and utterly destroy that woman in the South.
So I don’t have the capacity to think about anything related to me, whether it’s courtesy or my future. Not right now.
I looked straight at him.
‘You might not know anything, but still, you’re annoying.’
Whether he knew what I was thinking or not, he said,
“It’s hard to fight while thinking, this time.”
Then, suddenly, without warning, he charged at me.
Fast.
But in my eyes, I could see all of his movements.
And yet.
When we were just inches apart, he suddenly pulled out another sword from his bosom. It happened in an instant.
Dodging his right sword that came from the side, at the same moment, his left sword attacked from below.
‘I could die.’
Instinctively, I held my sword vertically. I blocked the lower attack with the tip of my sword and fended off his other sword with the upper part of my blade.
Then I quickly spun around, sticking close to his shoulder, and rolled behind his back.
Simultaneously, he also turned and slashed his sword towards my neck. I leaned back to dodge his sword and then wrapped my sword around to strike down his other sword coming from below.
Then I leaped away from him.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
The knights started murmuring and standing up.
Damn, damn.
What Arcadia said just before the start, about it being difficult to think, meant this. He was going to attack in a way that I could only respond with reflexes, not thought.
Arcadia’s one corner of the mouth lifted up slightly. He seemed to be enjoying it.
What should I do? Should I pretend to be shocked and collapse now? And then surrender?
But… I don’t want to. I have my pride too.
Alright, if that’s what you want, I’ll stop pretending.
But I can’t win against Arcadia now.
I found a way to lose.
“That was great. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such fun.”
He said.
I thought again. You really are like a blizzard.
“Please start.”
I said.
Then he charged at me again. This time, he discarded the sword in his left hand and attacked with only one sword.
Every attack was deadly.
Even if I tried to take a hit and dodge properly, I couldn’t because if I did get hit, I might die.
Arcadia’s sword and mine clashed in the air like butterflies. I was fleeing, and he was pursuing.
About five exchanges in, his sword spun towards my neck. I quickly ducked and instinctively jabbed the hilt of my sword into his abdomen.
Instantly, I regretted it.
But surely, he wouldn’t notice.
Fortunately, he leaped over my sword, spinning in the air before landing and attacking again. I leaned back to dodge and saw his unarmed arm bending backwards.
His elbow was flying towards my chest.
There it was, an opportunity to lose.
It would hurt, but it wouldn’t kill me. I decided to take the hit.
This was my second trick.
I didn’t defend.
Thud – suddenly, everything went dark.
The pain felt like my ribs had broken. I was thrown into the air, crashing onto the ground.
Thud – my body crumpled from the impact.
Ouch… It really hurts.
I couldn’t move.
I was an assassin skilled with a sword, not a muscle-bound mercenary impervious to physical attacks.
As I lay there unable to open my eyes, I heard many murmurs gathering around me.
Suddenly, someone rushed to my side.
“Arcadia! Are you trying to kill her?!”
It was Duke Belphast’s thunderous roar.
When I opened my eyes, blue irises, boiling like lava, were staring at me. His normally expressionless face was now in disarray.
Duke?
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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