“If you cross the boundary stone, surrender, or throw your sword, it’s over.”
It was a simple explanation, meaning, “Just do well and figure it out.”
For the knights would fight in earnest, it was almost impossible in the confined space of the ceremony hall.
In the end, it was a message to perform a graceful sword dance, almost like an elegant fencing match, for the esteemed audience.
So, hitting each other’s swords a few times and finishing it roughly was something both she and Lucia were well aware of.
However, looking at the prepared Ilysha on the other side, Lucia’s eyes narrowed.
Elvish inscriptions engraved on the entire sword, a subtle magical aura lingering.
‘That’s an Elven sword…’
Even the indifferent Lucia had one thing she was interested in, and that was cursed swords.
After retiring, she had collected cursed swords as a hobby, at least for a short time.
What she couldn’t possess were the state-owned swords, and the Elven sword was one of them.
Ilysha saw that Lucia’s eyes were fixed on the sword she was holding.
‘…She noticed it, after all.’
The Elven sword could lessen the force of gravity, allowing for swift movements that could achieve extraordinary agility.
In fact, she had expected that Lucia, even if the king gave her a special sword, would never have the opportunity to use it.
For Lucia, who had taken countless lives as a monster, she had thought of herself as no more than a lucky rookie who had become a sword master only half a year ago.
However,
‘This is definitely humiliating…’
The moment she accidentally saw the aura of her sword yesterday, there was no room for leisure.
Even compared to the continent’s strongest swordsman, Helbert, it was a real monster-like aura of purity.
Thus, the stage for their performance began.
[Dashing] Kang! Kang, Kang!
At first, they faced each other with swords like a casual greeting.
Naturally, the speed of their exchanges was accelerating, as if defying gravity.
As a result, the wind blew around the sparring area, and the hazy dust obscured the view.
Such swift movements were indeed thanks to the Elven sword.
“Ooooh!”
The knights who didn’t know this enthusiastically cheered for their movements, but in reality, Ilysha, who was bewildered, knew that the opponent who blocked those movements was an incredibly skilled swordsman.
And now, from Lucia’s perspective, she was somewhat surprised by Ilysha’s genuinely charging attacks.
‘Is it because the weight has been lightened uncontrollably? Or…’
…Is she really trying to see blood?
If Lucia hadn’t casually blocked those attacks, this sparring could not be called a friendly match but a serious fight.
Lucia, to convey the meaning of slowing down a bit to the persistently chasing Ilysha, started forcefully parrying and pushing away the sword that was only blocking.
As a result, Ilysha was gradually pushed backward.
Perhaps the opponent also knew that intent well, so every time Lucia looked at her, she met her eyes, but strangely, Ilysha’s eyes showed no hesitation.
Unrelenting indiscriminate attacks continued.
In the fierce attacks, the tips of her loosely tied long hair were slightly cut and fluttered in the wind.
Then,
‘…This won’t work.’
Lucia, realizing that the situation might lead to a real fight, eventually made up her mind.
‘Now.’
Since it was a friendly match, Lucia pushed her into a corner.
And in the best gentlemanly way she could,
[Dashing]Puck.“……Ugh!”
Suddenly, Lucia’s hand appeared and struck Ilysha’s ribs.
As the dull pain spread, just as her vision blurred, she suddenly remembered the princess’s command.
‘Surely! Bring blood!’
When the rising body crossed the boundary stone, she threw her sword towards Lucia.
So the black sword started flying towards Lucia’s cheek.
Then,
[Dashing]Kaduk.It was the sound of Lucia’s grimacing molars colliding.
What she hated the most.
That was when she couldn’t accept defeat as a knight and resorted to dirty tricks.
[Dashing]Fasus!In an instant, a bloody aura rose from Lucia’s body, where the sacred sword and the cursed sword merged.
And in the rough shockwave, the sacred sword was fiercely knocked away, landing somewhere.
“Kyaah!!!”
Stuck in the glamorous stage, the princess was pinned down.
But was it fortunate?
Perhaps because she had vacated the seat for a moment or because she was nearby, the Farendel princess was unharmed.
“Waaaaah!!! Black Knights of Eldarian!! Lucia!”
The noble princess’s scream was also drowned out by the knights’ cheers.
The dust settled, and the Farendel knights were pushed out of the boundary stone area, sitting down in a daze.
So, Eldarian’s victory.
“That… Grand Sword Master…?”
Lucia didn’t extend her hand to the astonished defeated opponent.
It was because,
“A sword that doesn’t suit a barbarian.”
“……!”
She believed she didn’t deserve it.
The glory of facing a legendary swordsman for the first time.
And immediately, criticisms poured out of her mouth.
Nevertheless, she remained silent.
After the match, a ceremony began where the exchanged gloves in front of the excited emperor for some reason.
However, Lucia’s eyebrows slightly furrowed with a tingling feeling.
Upon closer inspection, a pin was stuck diagonally near her glove’s finger.
‘Did they use it to secure the glove?’
Without much thought, she casually discarded the pin on the ground.
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
