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Start Normally, Finally Be Extraordinary (1)
The mood was volatile. The Templar Knights were outrightly hostile as if they would explode if a spark was thrown to them.
It was a mood too disrespectful to show a prince.
But I didn’t find it odd at all.
Knights of the past were judges, poets, and adventurers. They walked the hard path to transcendence. They were absolutely free, and the only thing that could bind them was their own will.
But not the knights of the present.
They were not free, and they lived for the monarchs first rather than reaching self-completion and transcendence.
They have been educated to stiffen their necks and not to pay tribute to anyone but their masters. Because they were such people, their disrespectful attitude was to be expected.
They would not honor me, much less be loyal to me.
Their brief homage to the royal flag was just a formality.
If not for it, perhaps, they would have drawn their swords already.
I knew it; Uncle and the court knights knew it. There was no one here who could not feel that animosity.
I felt a fire burning my back.
“Huh?”
I looked back and found Adelia staring at me.
Her eyes were burning. It seemed that the Templar Knights’ attitude stimulated her evil side.
[Slaughterer]
[War Maniac]
“Adelia,” I soothed her, trying to calm her down.
Fortunately, it seems that the characteristic of [Servility], which I devoted to growing from the moment I trained her, was superior to those of her other characteristics.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
Her voice returned to normal. The fire in her eyes suddenly died down.
Whoo.
I sighed with relief and turned to Uncle.
“Then, see you later at dinner.”
Without taking his eyes of Count York Willowden, Uncle nodded.
It was permission to go inside the castle to my heart’s content.
I smiled and called out.
“Arwen.”
The beautiful woman stepped forward and knelt on one knee in front of me.
“I waited for the day to see Your Highness once more.”
Her words seemed to infuriate the knights further.
In fact, her voice seemed to be full of pride and self-esteem, as if she had achieved the state where she was worthy of being called my knight.
“I have also waited,” I told her.
I deliberately approached her and offered my hand to lift her.
She was puzzled by my kindness but took my hand nevertheless.
It must have looked very sweet to others.
The Templar Knights looked on eagerly, salivating like hungry predators.
Of course, I intended for that reaction.
“Then, let’s go to a quiet place and talk,” I said, loud enough for the Templar Knights to hear.
Their blood boiled again.
They were really simple and easy to manipulate.
* * *
“Your Highness?”
After walking for a while to find a quiet place, Arwen looked at me with a puzzled face.
I ignored her and turned around.
As expected, there were knights of the Templar Knights that followed us.
“Do you have anything to say to me?” I asked them.
At my words, some of the knights trembled. It seems that they didn’t expect that I would ask that brazenly.
“If you have anything to say, say it.”
There was no answer. That was good. They might not have anything to say, but I do.
“I would like to see the swords of the Templar Knights, the first in the kingdom.”
I stated my business directly. There was no more time to waste. We have been delayed in coming here.
“Who will show me the famous swordsmanship of the Templar Knights?” I yelled at them.
They exchanged glances, but no answer came back. I went on to promise that I would not use the Leonberger’s name and retaliate and that they would not take responsibility for whatever that happened.
Still, no one dared to step forward.
“Is there no one? The Templar Knights were weaker than I thought.”
I clicked my tongue and shook my head exaggeratedly.
“Is this how you represent your famous name? It’s a disgrace.”
Finally, one person stepped forward at my provocation.
“If you allow me, I would dare stand in front of Your Highness.”
He was a young man who seemed to be an apprentice.
“There is nothing that needs my permission. I was asking for it,” I assured him.
Then, I reached out, and Adelia handed me a sword.
It was Twilight, crafted by the master swordsmith.
“No, not this,” I told her.
I did not intend to make a simple sparring match turn into a bloodbath.
Adelia then gave me a wooden sword.
“I am Dale from the Denant family. I have not yet received a formal oath.”
Like me, Dale held a wooden sword in his hand.
As he glanced at Arwen while he spoke, I could see the ambition in his mind to break me and show off to her.
She seemed to be more than a colleague in his eyes.
“Then, I will start. Please be careful.”
He rushed in, with more force than was necessary.
“Tsu.”
I felt somewhat sorry for the apprentice knight.
The embarrassment waiting for him, right in front of the woman he admired…
“Huh!”
With a swing, Dale was thrown back. When he fell to the ground, his tongue was hanging out, and his eyes were white.
It ended up uglier than I thought. I felt even more sorry.
But in the first place, my business wasn’t for trainees like Dale.
“Next.”
As I clapped my hands, the crowd of knights buzzed. They glanced at each other once more; then, a large man stepped forward.
“This is Paul Rothheim. Third-year apprentice.”
He seemed proud talking about the number of years, so I had an idea that he had been training longer than Dale, who failed so badly.
But what does it all mean? The results would be the same anyway.
“Hiya!”
Paul was hit with the training sword on his crown and passed out in an instant.
“… … is. Fourth-year apprentice. Take good care of me.”
“… … Fifth-year apprentice.”
Men stepped out one after another, and each one had more years in training than the previous one. As if that would matter to me.
“Your Highness, this is Mueller Hard. 8th-year apprentice.”
He was a man who looked more composed than the others. He seemed to be on a different level than the trainees who had come out so far.
It will be a little different this time.
Mueller actually blocked my sword to prove his skill.
He seemed to be at Arwen’s previous level.
But that was all. I have defeated Arwen at that level.
He lasted five seconds before he rolled over the floor in pain.
As I glanced at Muller, who was writhing in pain, some of the knights caught my eyes.
They were some who looked at me with deep, longing looks. Official knights, not trainees. However, they seem to think that it was not at their level to compete with me.
Arrogant bastards.
“Are the Templar Knights only good for words? Is this the sword you are proud of?”
I blatantly provoked them. The official knights’ brows crossed, but they still seemed unwilling to step forward.
I turned my head.
“Arwen.”
She looked surprised that I have beaten an eight-year apprentice without much difficulty.
She was amazed by my growth, but quickly, she composed herself. She looked confident that she had grown as much as I did.
“When I leave this place, you return with me to the palace,” I told her.
“If that’s what Your Highness wants.”
The knights roared at her answer.
It was the reaction I was waiting for.
“Your Highness.”
I turned around in the direction of the deep voice. It was one of the guys who was staring at me intensely.
“I heard that Your Highness likes to bet.”
What?
“Why don’t we place a small bet to boost entertainment?”
His gaze turned to Arwen. Even if he didn’t say it, I knew exactly what he was trying to say.
“Impossible.”
I told him. His eyes widened with surprise at being cut off before he even finished stating his conditions.
“She is not a tournament prize.”
“Your Highness…” Arwen’s expression was strange. It seemed that she didn’t know what the knight was asking, and when she realized it, she looked moved by my words.
“I’ll bet something else instead,” I told the Templar Knight.
Carls approached me as if he had been waiting. He brought the sword that was given to me by the eldest son of Count Ellen.
“If you win,” I stared at the Templar Knight. “I will give you this sword.”
I watched as greed came into the man’s eyes.
Arwen quickly recognized the value of the sword and tried to hold me back.
“But Your Highness, I’d rather…”
“No. You are a thousand times more valuable than this sword.”
The value of a Sword Master could not be compared to this mid-level flashy sword.
Besides, I’m not going to lose.
“But what are you going to bet?” I asked him.
“I have a treasure. It may not reach the value of the sword, but I will bet it.”
I readily accepted it.
“Dunham from Fahrenheit. As an official knight of the Templar Knights, I am on the verge of the triple chain.”
His attitude was too confident and arrogant, but it was expected of someone who was approaching the triple-chain status.
But I wouldn’t be shaken by status like that.
“Double chain,” I answered.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“You have to say it the right way. The achievement you are on the verge of is not an achievement you have accomplished.”
At my words, Dunham’s face turned red, and he started coughing. But soon after, he composed himself and showed a casual expression.
A shameless person.
“Then, Sir Dunham, a Double Chain Knight. Does the Prince prefer a training sword or a true sword?”
“Whatever you are comfortable with,” I told him.
Dunham acted as if he didn’t want to use a real sword without me saying it.
“Let’s use the real thing,” I announced.
He smirked, then held out his sword.
Only
The sword looked excellent, with a colorful and practical hilt.
“This is the 17th sword made by a craftsman who was declared a ‘Master Swordsmith’ by His Majesty. It is considered a luxury product. If Your Highness wins, then this sword will belong to you.”
“What a coincidence!”
I can’t help but laugh.
“Does it have a name?”
“No,” Dunham mumbled. “The master’s works were only given numbers.”
“Then, this is the same master’s 100th work.”
Twilight, the sword that the master poured his soul onto, was in my hands.