Chapter 7: 7.
'No way...! Is this guy trolling me?! What the hell!' My mind stopped processing for a few more seconds as they rebooted.
'I just shat myself in the foot haven't I? In the previous run, I dropped the engagement without even knowing who it was. No one's going to be happy being engaged to a duke who only had few resources, was what I thought. That's why I asked Uncle Wilhelm to drop it. No wonder why he had that amusing smile.' I thought before regaining my composure.
"Uncle Wilhelm, why haven't I heard of this before?" I asked with a bitter smile.
"Well... I forgot." Wilhelm looked away.
I sighed and looked at the Emperor, with an aggrieved face, for some explanation. He chuckled lightly after seeing my face.
"That's what you get for being a smartass." Gilltian laughed which made me feel bitter. I didn't even have to work hard because Uncle Gilltian is looking out for me. It is indeed a price I had to pay for being a smartass.
"Who's he, father, and what's a fiancée?" Asked the innocent Adjest.
"He's your fiancé, meaning you'll marry him in the future." Gilltian said and she looked at me with puzzled eyes.
"He doesn't look like strong?" She said innocently.
'What's the point of looking strong in marriage?' I rolled my eyes at the thought.
'If I had to guess the reason, they must've promised each other that if both their child is a boy, they'll be brothers, if girls, then sisters, then if they are of opposite genders, they'll marry.' I thought with a sigh.
"That's not it. His father and I are friends and we promised..." Gilltian explained while I just rolled my eyes at him.
'Classic.' I thought and I can't help but curse.
"Then I have to marry him when I grow up?" Asked Adjest.
"Yes." Gilltian said as he stroked her daughter's hair.
"T-then I challenge him to a duel. I'll marry him if he's stronger than me." Adjest said as she pointed her sword at me.
I looked at Gilltian and our eyes are transmitting message at each other.
'Are you sure about this?' I asked him.
'Do your best.' Gilltian said, encouraging me.
I sighed deeply and thought for a second before opening my eyes as I stared at Adjest.
"Fine." I raised my hands in submission.
I then looked around for a weapon rack but found nothing.
"Is there a polearm here?" I asked Gilltian and he signaled a servant and ordered him to fetch a training polearm for me. An elongated wooden monk staff.
'This could work, I don't want to injure anyone after all.' I thought before looking at Gilltian with a nod.
We moved to a training space since Gilltian knew that her daughter is a magic swordsman of the ice element and he didn't want his garden to be destroyed.
We both stood up on the arena, facing each other while Wilhelm and Gilltian acts as the judge. Gilltian is confident that her daughter will win while Wilhelm just shook his head.
'Although we're engaged according to the promise that my father and Gilltian made, once I got a firm hold of the Dukedom, I will still break the engagement. I do not want to force anyone to marry me.' I thought as I started by removing my suit, leaving me with a light blue shirt on, and handed my suit to Wilhelm. I stretched my body to warm me up.
I held the monk staff in my hand and weighed it.
'It feels nice to the touch, it'll do.' I thought as Gilltian explained the rules. Its simple, you either knockout, throw the opponent out of the ring, or if your opponent surrenders.
"Are you ready? Fight!" Gilltian stepped aside and Adjest is just staring at me.
I just rested the staff at my shoulders and waited for her to make a move. Seeing that I'm not planning to make a move, she started chanting a spell. I didn't use my specialty and wanted to see her progress at a young age.
<Icicle Spears!>
Adjest recited the spell after chanting and a bunch of sharp ice surrounded me.
'Thinking about it, isn't it weird to see two kids fighting with magic and weapon?' I thought to myself, not minding the threat of the spell.
She pointed her finger at me and the sharp ice started rushing toward me. I narrowed my eyes and started using a footwork I specially created for fighting enemy mages.
<8 Steps> I muttered.
Its a skill I created by applying wind magic onto my lower body. Why 8 steps? The footwork has 8 levels and each level differs in speed, the first step doubles my speed, second step, I will become 4 times faster, third step, I become 8 times faster and so on and so forth. But to fully utilise this movement skill, you're body must be able to withhold the stress of your lower body and attach a stronger wind magic onto my body.
I only used the first step to avoid all of icicles being thrown at me. Gilltian was surprised to see me avoiding the icicles with ease.
Seeing me avoiding her spell easily, she casted it one more time before rushing at me at the same time intending to strike me down while I avoid the icicles.
The moment I saw her charge at me, I changed my tactics and used my staff and struck the icicles coming at me.
Gilltian's eyes went wide and looked at Wilhelm.
"Is he also...?" Gilltian asked.
"This is the first time I've seen him use magic but the way he use the mana... it is weird. But I can assure you that he practiced using the spear really hard." Wilhelm said as he continued to spectate the match.
"Indeed the way he use his mana is indeed a little weird. Usually a magician use the mana inside their body to cast spells... but he seems to break that rule." Gilltian said as he watched me and Adjest clash.
My staff clashed with her sword and I used my experience to keep my range from her. A sword is a close-combat weapon while a spear is a mid-ranged weapon because of the length of the spear. My strikes made her uncomfortable as she can't move her sword the way she wanted to.
My body control is sub par and I'm already suppressing someone using a sword by striking at weird angles making her defend the weird angled strikes with awkward defense, making her uncomfortable in wielding her sword. What more if I had perfect control of my body? That's why I wanted to train my body and perfectly control it muscle by muscle.
'I could see that Adjest was still unable to use magic and fighting at close range at the same time.' I thought as she got cornered by my attacks.
Since I've seen everything I needed, I decided to finish it. With my staff parrying her attack, I immediately sent a counter attack to push her off the edge of the stage. Adjest raised her off hand to block my attack but her hand subconsciously casted <Icicle spears>.
'Me and my damn mouth.' I cursed and I was forced to use the magic that made me the bane of a magician.
<Nullification>
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If there are something confusing let me know and I'll try to explain or edit the chap to simpler words if I can.
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