Chapter 87

Neutral Country Negotiations (7)

Changseong Quiden stood opposite Ashel and recalled the events of that day.

A single member of the Baegwol clan he had let slip due to a momentary lapse in concentration.

That tiny mistake had been like a splinter embedded in his flesh, irking him ever since.

'Who would have thought we’d meet like this.'

That was why the current situation was more than welcome to him. A truly fortuitous opportunity that had come by chance.

This time, he would eliminate the last remaining one and tie up all loose ends.

Changseong lightly swung the spear in his hand and spoke.

"I'll let you make the first move."

"......"

Ashel's entire body turned stark white once more.

The aura she emitted was as menacing as ever, but unlike before, she had regained a degree of composure.

Changseong of Sainthea.

In his memory, the man who had massacred his clan in the mountains ten years ago was nothing short of a monster.

Even the powerful warriors of the clan, who were so strong, were swept away without putting up much of a fight.

Still, Ashel did not think of defeat.

No, she refused to think of it.

Hadn't she, too, become stronger over the past ten years, breaking through barriers and growing stronger?

She didn't think about the gap between her and the man. For now, she just believed in herself and mustered her fighting spirit.

Swoosh.

The mana, purified to its limit by her unique ability, accelerated and circulated through Ashel's body.

There was no reason to test his strength. From the start, Ashel had unleashed her full power.

Her sword glowed with a pure white light, and faint rings of white mana appeared around her body.

Changseong stood calmly, watching her. It seemed as if he was willing to wait no matter what she did. A blue aura formed on his spear.

In the next moment, Ashel's figure shot towards Changseong like a bolt of lightning.

Boom!

The sound of clashing sword and spear.

Without taking a single step back, Changseong easily blocked the attack and swung the spear upwards. Ashel tilted her head back.

She dodged the attack aimed at her neck and swung her sword again. A strike aimed at his lower body. Changseong once again deflected it with a simple twist of his spear.

The intense battle continued.

The sword and spear clashed repeatedly, sometimes slicing through the air. White and blue lines crisscrossed and intertwined.

Each collision sent powerful shockwaves, and a sharp aura that could cut through anything surrounded the two.

Those watching who were not of high enough caliber could not follow their movements at all.

They could only pale and retreat further from the boundary line, overwhelmed by the mana clashes and shockwaves spreading in all directions.

The flow of the battle was one-sided, with Ashel attacking and Changseong defending.

Changseong occasionally counterattacked, but it generally seemed that Ashel was pressing him.

'...More than I thought!'

A faint sense of pleasure rose in Ashel's heart.

Changseong was undoubtedly strong.

But he wasn't as overwhelming as she had expected. It seemed that there were gradually gaps appearing in his defense.

Ashel poured even more power and speed into her relentless attacks.

Just a little more, just a little more, and she could reach him. It felt like her sword could really touch his neck. But...

"......"

The longer the battle went on, the more Ashel's expression hardened.

She gradually realized something.

No matter how many times she swung her sword, the distance never closed. It was as if it was an unreachable mirage from the start.

Clang!

The sword and spear clashed, and the brief exchange of blows came to a halt.

Ashel met Changseong's eyes. His gaze was as cold and expressionless as when the duel began.

'Have you finally realized?'

...It seemed as if he was saying that.

Only then did Ashel realize that she had been toyed with from the start, playing in the palm of his hand.

The gap between her and Changseong, the Fifth of Sainthea, was not smaller than she had thought, but rather, it was far greater than she could imagine.

Swish!

A powerful strike was launched at Ashel, who was trying to retreat. It was a speed far beyond anything she had faced so far.

Blood spurted from Ashel's cheek. She barely turned her head to avoid it and had to block the continuous attacks without a moment's rest.

Swinging, thrusting, the spear strikes came relentlessly. The battle intensified.

The energy in Changseong's spear was similar to Ashel's sword energy. But in each strike, there was a level of insight she had yet to reach.

He gave her no room to breathe. Yet, he didn't deliver the final blow to end the duel.

As Ashel barely parried the chaotic attacks, she understood his thoughts.

'...He really intends to kill me.'

Though she had accepted the duel with Changseong in a moment of madness, Ashel was not foolish and had a vague idea of his intentions.

What was the point of provoking her and leading the situation to this point?

It was to take her life legitimately through the duel.

But since he couldn't win by an overwhelming skill difference, he was adjusting his level.

By making the intense battle seem real, he could claim that he had no choice but to kill her during the duel.

Even if she surrendered, Changseong would have to end the duel.

Surrendering would clearly determine the winner, and he couldn't play any tricks in front of everyone.

But she had no intention of doing so.

Even if she were to die fighting here, she didn't want to.

She knew it was an irrational choice, a meaningless death.

The words of Changseong, deeply embedded in her heart, had erased the option of retreat.

Ashel clenched her teeth.

She would never run.

If her sword couldn't reach his neck, at least one of his arms.

The white rings surrounding Ashel's body glowed even brighter.

The mana manipulation technique of dividing her mana into three cores and amplifying it through resonance. The secret technique of her clan.

A technique so incomplete that no one in the history of the Baegwol clan, except the founder, had fully mastered it.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ashel activated all three cores to their maximum.

If her previous efforts were her full power, this was beyond her limits. The cost was a backlash she couldn't predict.

Boom!

Changseong's eyes narrowed slightly at the sudden surge of energy as he blocked her sword strike.

He poured more energy into his spear and deflected her attack.

Even as she raged like a madwoman, her eyes darted around, observing the path of Changseong's spear.

Her physical abilities and senses, pushed beyond their limits, allowed her to more clearly imprint the chaotic lines of his spear, which she had previously been unable to understand.

The strain on her body from the unstable mana began to show after just a few seconds. She ignored it.

In the battle where she had staked her life, a fleeting moment of enlightenment came to her.

She clung tenaciously to that faint, elusive insight.

'Just a little more...'

Despite Ashel's awakening, Changseong still had the upper hand. He had never used his full power from the start.

Changseong's spear grazed Ashel's side. Next, her leg and shoulder. Blood spurted. Her sword still didn't reach him.

Her body was on the verge of losing balance due to the rampant mana, and her consciousness was held by a moment of superhuman focus.

The unpredictable spear of Changseong. The insight she had gained while teaching Rigen, but couldn't fully grasp.

The small pieces in her mind connected in an instant.

Squish.

Blood spurted from Changseong's face.

Ashel, who had thrust her sword, realized what she had done a beat later. A fine line of blood was drawn on his cheek.

'...Ah.'

In the end, she didn't reach him.

But she had grazed him.

After delivering her final, all-out strike, Ashel felt her energy drain from her body, and she staggered.

"......!"

Changseong's face twisted like a demon's.

The spear was immediately thrust at the collapsing Ashel. It was a powerful strike that could turn her body into a puddle of blood. And...

Boom!

The spear stopped in mid-air.

The blade seemed to be blocked by an invisible force, unable to advance further.

Changseong, startled by the sudden appearance of a man, retracted his spear and stepped back. It was the Seventh Prince.

He caught the collapsing Ashel and, after a moment of silence, looked at her unconscious form, then at Changseong, and spoke.

"The duel is over. You win."

Changseong's eyelids trembled with the rage rising inside him.

Victory, it was a given.

The fact that he had bled even a little in that obvious outcome filled him with indescribable shame.

"Seventh Prince... Didn't you swear not to interfere in the duel?"

"Indeed."

The Seventh Prince said with a haughty look.

"So what?"

"......"

As if saying, 'What can you do if I break my promise?' His tone was like that.

Speechless for a moment, Changseong glared at the Seventh Prince. That was all he could do.

***

I ignored Changseong's glare and checked Ashel's condition.

Her mana was a bit unstable, but she seemed to have fainted from exhaustion.

'But...'

I looked at her level.

【Lv. 85】

After the sudden surge of energy, her level had surprisingly risen sharply during the battle.

From level 82, it had jumped three levels to 85.

'Did she break through a barrier during the battle?'

Given the intense nature of the fight, it wasn't surprising.

Gaining insights and growing while fighting a powerful enemy is a classic cliché, after all. Of course, this was reality, but...

Regardless, it was a significant achievement to have even grazed the level 90 Changseong.

I looked at Changseong again and traced a line on my cheek with my finger.

"Too bad. If it had been a little deeper, your mouth would have split open."

The man ground his teeth and spat out the words.

"......It was just a moment of carelessness. If I had used my full power from the start..."

"True, but this is the last time you can make such excuses."

Though not intentional, this had accelerated Ashel's growth far beyond the main story of the game.

I alternated my gaze between the man and the Emperor and said in a low voice.

"I promise. The day of reckoning is not far off. For you, and for the Emperor."

Changseong forced a laugh.

"It was just a one-in-a-million fluke. That Baegwol woman's sword will never reach me again."

"Even so, it won't change anything. When the time comes, you will die by my hand."

The Emperor and Changseong, villains in the game's main story, would eventually pay for their sins. It was just a matter of time.

His expression hardened at my words.

"What do you mean...?"

"Make sure you hold on to your life, which won't last much longer."

The duel was over.

Under the watchful eyes of the gathered crowd, I turned with a smirk, supporting Ashel.

***

"......"

When she opened her eyes, she saw the ceiling.

Ashel sat up, her body aching, and looked around blankly. It was her quarters.

"Oh, you're awake?"

A woman was sitting by the bed, and a few maids stood behind her. The woman sitting there was Sera, the princess of Earth Hill.

Ashel, recognizing her, was taken aback.

Sera explained with a slightly awkward smile.

"You fainted during the duel. I thought you would wake up when the day broke, but you woke up earlier than expected."

Looking out the window, it was still twilight, not fully dawn.

Ashel tried to recall the events. The final strike that failed, the attack from Changseong, and... the Seventh Prince.

She remembered the Seventh Prince stopping Changseong's attack and ending the duel, and closed her eyes tightly.

'Again...'

Was it because she had poured everything into the duel with Changseong?

The intense emotions that had burned like a wildfire before she lost consciousness now seemed to have subsided, leaving only embers.

More than that, the guilt of causing trouble for the Seventh Prince again weighed heavily on her. How could she face him?

Ashel examined her body.

The wounds from the spear had almost healed, likely treated with a potion.

More than that, the strain on her body from using the secret technique to its limit was more significant. Her entire body felt creaky.

She thought about the duel for a moment, then suddenly came to her senses and apologized to Sera with a guilty expression.

"I'm really sorry. I completely ruined the banquet."

"It's fine, don't worry about it, Lady. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, but... why is the princess here?"

Why was the princess personally tending to her?

Seemingly reading her confusion, Sera smiled and said.

"Don't worry about it. I just wanted to be here when you woke up."

"Thank you. I caused a lot of trouble. Moving me here and treating me..."

It would have been a hassle to move her from the training ground outside the palace to here.

But Sera shook her head.

"No, we didn't move you. The Seventh Prince did."

"......?"

Sera, with a mischievous look, stood up and stretched her arms down and then up.

"So, he picked you up like this from the training ground."

Then she made a gesture of gently lowering her arms.

"And brought you here, laid you on the bed, and left. The Seventh Prince did it himself."

"......Yes, yes?"

Ashel's face turned red as she stammered, flustered.