---

196. Engagement – A Clumsy Woman

My blood was boiling.

The moment Lena was kicked and Deros’s sword fell to her leg, sparks flew from Leo’s eyes.

Katrina. What should I do about this woman? — Such thoughts vanished faster than droplets on a hot lid.

– Vwooooo!

Leo swung his sword with all his might. Muscles as hard as rock bulged under the strain, and as he collided with Katrina’s sword, it went flying away uselessly.

As Leo spun around and let go, the sword that flew off barely missed Lena.

Lena’s leg… is safe.

But the heat pooling in my head wouldn’t subside. Leo clenched his fists, feeling as if he might lose his sanity.

“First, you need to die.”

– Hiccup.

Deros hiccupped.

Realizing that the knight before him was about to unleash indescribable violence, he quickly raised his sword.

It was dreadful, but that guy was unarmed. Deros decided he had to seize the moment before that fallen squire got up and didn’t hesitate. He slashed his sword diagonally.

– Hwhoosh!

That didn’t sound like a sword being swung. In an instant, Deros jerked his head back in disbelief.

I had just swung my sword, yet the Large Knight extended his arm.

Pushing the sword’s edge away with his thick forearm, he stepped in and closed the distance. A massive fist grazed my cheek.

‘This crazy…!’

He pushed my two-handed sword away with one arm.

It was merely a slight adjustment of the trajectory by shoving the foible, but this was ridiculous.

The strength in that forearm was several times greater than my own downward force, causing Deros, who had found stability while facing the squire, to shrink away in fear.

[ Leo, you have blocked the sword of one who has mastered swordsmanship to its limits. You have gained the ability {Swordsmanship.3v: Bart-style (流)} for this achievement. ]

[ Achievement: Knight ’24’ – You become stronger when facing knights. min(1) ]

[ Achievement: Expert – Leo’s physique becomes robust. ]

“Mon, monster…”

Before I could mutter more, a kick came flying in. As I went to kick the descending sword away, Deros quickly retreated to avoid the strike.

“Leo.”

“Are you okay? Wait a moment.”

But that was a mistake. While Deros backed away, Leo drew his sword from the ground. Despite it being nearly half-embedded, he pulled it out with ease.

At that moment, Katrina, who had retrieved her flying sword, shouted.

“What are you doing standing around? Strike quickly!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The two knights charged forward. Leo clicked his tongue and quickly brought his sword down onto Deros.

– Clang-!

All I had to do was hold out. If I could just endure one exchange, my senior would have struck that guy’s back.

Deros couldn’t last even that one exchange. Although he tried to block with his sword, he fell to his knees as the blow hit his shoulder. The pain in his collarbone felt as if it would shatter.

“Die!”

Katrina aimed for Leo’s back. However, Leo, as if he had eyes on his back, spun without even looking.

He knocked away Katrina’s sword and jumped-kicked the kneeling Deros.

“Ow!”

Deros, struck in the face, toppled backward.

As Deros got up to rejoin the fray, Katrina felt a strange sense of unreality after exchanging a few more strikes.

This monster, with immense strength and overwhelming swordsmanship…

‘Is he going easy on me?’

He merely blocked or deflected my strikes, never delivering any meaningful attack.

Feeling increasingly annoyed, Katrina decided to test her limits.

“Whoosh!”

Taking a short breath, Katrina charged forward. She thrust with all her strength in a straight line; if that guy wasn’t letting me strike, he would definitely dodge. After dodging, he would likely counterattack.

– Clang!

Katrina’s suspicions turned into certainty. He dropped his sword to equalize the exchange.

“You bastard…!”

I cursed, but if a monster like him didn’t show even a minor flaw, there was no way to win. Just wait for him to die before regretting this!

Crack! Swallowing her anger, Katrina swung her sword wide. It spun beautifully, and as the sword met resistance, she pivoted and kicked up to hit his chin. But that infuriating bastard neither struck back nor defended himself.

“Senior!”

Deros joined up.

He focused on defense as he waited for his chance against Leo. Katrina thought, bring it on if you dare to kill me! Her attacks were fearless, to the point of recklessness.

At first glance, it seemed Leo was being thoroughly overwhelmed. As Lena took a moment to catch her breath, she grabbed her sword again to rush in to help Leo…

“Lena! You’re not needed, stay back!”

Those harsh words cut deep.

Lena flinched and shrunk back at the spot. Grasping her sword timidly, she couldn’t step forward or retreat.

I know my words were short due to the urgent situation at hand. Leo, who was always kind to me, surely didn’t mean it when he said I wasn’t needed.

He was probably just… worried about me.

But it felt suffocating. It crunched within me like shards of stone, and Lena clutched her front to ease her breathing. Finally, she could exhale.

The rainbow-colored world was crumbling.

The fact that she couldn’t help her fiancé in peril and the hollow sense of helplessness threatened to steal all color from Lena’s eyes.

Huff.

Gasping for air, Lena bit her lip. If I back down from here, I might never have the chance to turn back, so she rushed towards the red-haired female knight.

“Lena! Move out of the way—!”

“Don’t tell me what to do! Please!”

A glint sparked in Katrina’s eyes.

Gotcha. With the intent to pierce both of them at once, she lunged her sword forward!

– Thwack!

However, her head was struck by the lightning-fast descending sword.

The flat sword face hit Katrina’s forehead, and Leo, still holding onto Lena’s waist from behind, rolled over. Katrina’s thrust barely grazed Leo’s side.

“Died!”

“Deros! No!”

Had he thought he found an opportunity, or was he in a rush believing his senior was dead? Deros leapt into action. Although Katrina cradled her spinning head and yelled, she was a moment too late.

“Guh…!”

The fallen Large Knight thrust his sword forward.

The sword pierced through Deros’s gut, and the sword he was about to strike down flew from his grip.

“Deros!”

“Senior… You…”

As Deros’s vision blurred, he collapsed forward, crashing onto the squire in front of him, when—bam! Leo Dexter kicked his head clean off.

“You, you bastard!”

Katrina, her eyes wild with rage, charged in. Though her head throbbed from the recent hit, her anger numbed the pain.

Leo seized Lena by her waist as she attempted to get up. Pulling her back, clang! He blocked Katrina’s sword.

The moment their swords met, he twisted his wrist again. Moving lightly, he caused cracks in the opponent’s blade.

Weapon destruction technique.

It was the swordsmanship of Count Jacob Modred. Up until now, Leo had been channeling the ability {Swordsmanship.4v: Jacob-style (流)}, pumping shock into Katrina’s weapon, and the results rippled in a loud crack.

Katrina stared blankly at her broken sword. Despite her face getting scratched from flying shards, she had no time to care.

‘…Deros, I’m sorry. It seems this is where I end up.’

Soon, my head would follow suit. Thinking that, Katrina prepared for her impending death. Closing her eyes, she recalled her beloved, Ellen… but death didn’t come.

“Lena, are you okay?”

Opening her eyes, she saw the Large Knight gathering his belongings.

“…What are you doing?”

I asked, but the knight didn’t respond. Feeling ignored, Katrina shouted while shaking.

“Kill me! I lost, so kill me! What kind of joke is this!!”

Only then did the knight look back at her. After a moment of hesitation, he muttered some nonsensical words.

“…I’ll spare you. Go back and collect the corpse of that knight.”

This was an unprecedented humiliation.

Even when I mistakenly recommended the unidentified traitor ‘Noel’ as a royal knight and was demoted to the Third Knights Order, it wasn’t as bitter as this. I had blamed my own poor judgment.

“I am a knight! If you’re a knight, then kill me! I ask that you honor my title as a fellow knight!”

Katrina yelled in defiance. It was a rightful demand for a defeated knight, but the opponent seemed unwilling.

Somehow, he even looked somewhat disheartened, and in that moment, Katrina thought of something absurd.

“Why? You killed Deros, so why let me live? Could it be… because I’m a woman?”

He didn’t say a word. Katrina’s blood ran cold.

– Snatch!

Katrina discarded the sword with only the hilt left. She grabbed Deros’s fallen sword and began striking at Leo indiscriminately.

However, lamentably, none of her attacks seemed effective. Even mixing in feints proved futile; she wouldn’t even harm him. Calmly, he sought only to break Deros’s sword.

Realizing she had no moves left, Katrina stopped. Trembling with fury, she suddenly pointed a finger at Lena.

“What’s that girl doing here?”

There was a response. She remembered how this knight had taken care of that squire all along and taunted.

“Is she the one you’re using to satisfy your desires?”

“What, what are you saying?”

“Seems like her skills are about as good as a speck of dust, following you around and waiting to spread her legs. I guess it was pretty dull during the breaks—oh, by the way, I noticed Deros approaching the bushes earlier, but I guess that was a disturbance when you were in the middle of it?”

“Shut your mouth!”

Leo Dexter’s face twisted with fury.

Earlier, Lena had confided her worries. She had found it hard to grasp the sword techniques Leo had shown while capturing the knights; it had to have been because of the ability {Swordsmanship.5v: Forte-style (流)}.

Swordsmanship that hides its intent.

Lena couldn’t discern Leo’s movements. Every single one of his actions was deftly concealed, and no matter how insightful Lena was about others’ swordsmanship, the gap between them was insurmountable.

So, Lena… had been struggling all this time without anything to reference. Wondering why her growth was so slow this round, the reason lay with Leo, with herself.

In the bushes, Leo felt despair.

“Teach me…” Realizing how far Lena’s spirits were down, he cautiously began explaining the essence of his swordsmanship.

But what could she even do with that?

Leo felt as if he might lose his reason. With an enraged, flushed face, he aimed his sword at Katrina threateningly, but she calmly continued her taunts.

“Sounds like that girl isn’t worth much? Considering how you act around her? Ha ha. Yeah, what could a squire possibly do right? But I’d bet she doesn’t even understand commands in bed…”

“Shut your damn mouth!!”

Leo charged forward, and Katrina grinned grotesquely. This was the response she’d been waiting for; she too faced him head-on.

– Crack!

The clash of swords was completely different. As if the previous fight had been a joke, a torrent of fierce blows rained down, and with each strike Katrina took, she staggered backward.

There was no regret.

To die honorably on the battlefield was enough.

However…

‘Ellen, I’m sorry.’

Deros’s sword was adorned with red threads. Each stitch was carefully woven like petals, and it reminded Katrina of her beloved, Ellen.

She had told him to return safe and sound, and yet this temper of hers…

– Swoosh!

Katrina’s head flew off. Blood gushed from the neck, staining the surrounding bushes red.

And before Leo’s eyes, a message appeared.

[ Quest: Duelist 1000/1000 – {Swordsmanship} ability increases by one level. ]

[ Achievement: Swordmaster ]

The Oblivion Blade soared from Leo’s sword. Lena, frozen by Katrina’s outburst, collapsed weakly.

“Lena, so, this is…”

Leo began, but the words didn’t reach her. In her daze, only the pure white radiance of the Oblivion Blade stood out vividly.

She could never catch up.

All this time, she hadn’t even reached Leo’s toes.

Lena could not move. Leo forced her to stand, but she sank back down; the clumsy woman could not rise again.