Chapter 84
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“Get up right now!”
Lucas, who had his face buried in a pillow, raised his head in surprise at the shrill shout.
When he rubbed his dry eyes and looked back, he saw his hateful younger sister standing firmly beside his bed.
He held his throbbing forehead and grumbled.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to enter my bedroom as you please?”
“This isn’t the time to care about manners! Get up quickly! It’s an emergency!”
Raina shook his shoulders mercilessly and shrieked.
Lucas pushed his sister away and pressed down on his tingling temples.
Since early dawn, he had spent the entire day roaming the hunting grounds with riders his age from the Wolfram Lancers, then stopped by a tavern and drank a great deal of ale before returning.
His head already hurt enough to kill him, so why was she making such a fuss again?
He glared at his sister with half-open eyes.
“What is it? Are the Zram people invading Raedgo Castle or something?”
“Stop talking nonsense and get up right now!”
Raina pulled his arm roughly and stamped her feet.
“I’m telling you, this is serious! The ‘Black Bear of the South’ is going to duel our brother!”
Lucas felt his drowsiness vanish in an instant and sprang upright.
He looked at his sister with dumbfounded eyes.
“Who is fighting whom?”
“Oh, damn it, really!”
As if her already limited patience had instantly run out, Raina threw his arm away and strode toward the door.
Lucas stared blankly at her back, then hurriedly jumped out of bed and grabbed the khal he had carelessly thrown over the chair.
He put it over his bare upper body and urgently followed his sister outside.
Just then, servants carrying lamps in one hand were rushing out of the corridor in a crowd.
He looked around with a confused expression, then caught up with his sister, who was already descending the stairs, in long strides.
“Are you saying Brother is really going to duel?”
“I said he is!”
Raina snapped irritably as she ran down two stairs at a time.
Lucas frowned.
He, too, knew that guests had come to Raedgo Castle.
However, he had no idea how the lord representing the southeastern region and the heir of House Siar had ended up dueling.
Holding his aching head from the hangover, he asked,
“Why are they suddenly dueling in the middle of the night?”
“Why else? The incarnation of discord finally caused trouble!”
Raina ground her teeth.
“That woman barged into the banquet hall, poured wine over Sir Gutvan, and even slapped him!”
Lucas’s mouth fell open.
“By that woman… do you mean the Second Princess?”
“Who else would it be!”
Raina struck her chest as if frustrated.
“Because of that woman, an argument broke out between the Black Bear and Brother, and now they’re even dueling!”
Raina crossed the hall in one breath, rushed out of the building, and fumed loudly.
“See! I told you over and over that woman would become a disaster! In the end, I was right!”
Lucas fastened the front of his wide-open coat and rolled his eyes.
Strictly speaking, what his sister had predicted was a cunning villainess who pretended to be weak in front of Brother while plotting schemes behind his back, not an insane woman who struck the strongest lancer of the East in front of everyone.
In any case, he could not deny that she had become a problem.
He swept back his messy hair and quickly crossed the wide courtyard.
On the stairs leading to the training ground, hundreds of people were already gathered in a crowd, each holding torches and lamps.
Pushing through the crowd, Lucas moved inside the wide training ground.
There were nobles who had attended as witnesses to the duel and elite knights of Wolfram gathered there.
Finding a familiar face among them, Lucas immediately moved his feet.
“Tyrone!”
The lancer, who had been talking with his subordinates, turned his head toward him.
He, too, seemed to have rushed out while resting.
The man, wearing only one loose coat over his bare chest, looked back and forth between him and Raina and let out a deep sigh.
“How can you walk around without escorts at this hour?”
“Cut the nagging. What on earth happened?”
“I just arrived too, so I do not know the exact details.”
Tyrone shrugged and replied as if it was no big deal.
“One thing is clear: our future leader has a much more belligerent temperament than he appears.”
Then he gestured with his chin toward one side of the vast cavalry training ground.
There stood Varkas, heavily armed in black iron armor, waiting with a sturdy gray stallion.
Lucas looked him over with blank eyes.
Among men with mountain-like builds, he looked like a delicately sculpted statue.
His agile body wrapped in armor was by no means small or frail, but neither was it as massive or enormous as the other lancers, and the way he tightened the joints of his armor looked closer to a dancer than a warrior.
By contrast, his opponent was no different from a beast wearing human skin.
Lucas moved his gaze to the opposite side of the training ground and swallowed dryly.
The man’s height looked close to seven cubits, and his weight seemed to be well over five rants and nearly close to six rants.
If the weight of the steel armor wrapped around his body was added, he probably weighed even more.
The man led a muscular giant horse suited to his own build and walked toward the center of the training ground.
The light of the blazing bonfires fully revealed the man’s terrifying majesty.
At the sight, exclamations of admiration, excitement, and awe burst one after another from the mouths of the people.
Lucas let out a low groan.
“This is insane.”
Soon after, four soldiers who seemed to be the man’s subordinates brought over an enormous halberd, nearly like a lump of iron, while groaning with effort.
When the man grasped the pole with one hand and lifted the enormous axe blade high, the cheers flowing through the grounds grew even fiercer.
Raina, who was looking at the scene with a stunned face, grabbed Tyrone by the collar.
“What are you doing not stopping this right now!”
“That person over there has been trying hard to stop him since earlier, but he is not even pretending to listen.”
Tyrone pointed with his thumb to a figure standing beside Varkas and let out a sigh.
Following his fingertip with his gaze, Lucas widened his eyes when he found a small figure shouting something sharply at his brother.
The woman seemed extremely angry and was waving her fists wildly.
Unable to overcome his curiosity, Lucas approached them, then frowned at the sharp, high, beautiful voice ringing out.
The woman was fearlessly shouting at a man more than a head taller than herself.
“Are you stupid? Are you an idiot? You could just crush a man like that with power! Why are you foolishly trying to compete with strength?”
Lucas let out a hollow laugh.
He had not known that, besides Raina, there existed another woman who poured out harsh words like that.
And to talk back to his brother in such a way…
Lucas glanced at Varkas’s expression.
He was checking the condition of his horse with a calm face.
The woman struck his brother’s back with her fist.
“Did you sleep during math class? That man looks three times heavier than you! Don’t you even know weight and strength are proportional?”
“Bring me my helmet.”
Varkas ignored her existence and gave an order to the squire.
As if angered by that, the woman rolled up her sleeves.
At the sight that suggested she might slap him, Daren hurriedly grabbed her shoulder.
“Your Highness, you do not need to worry that much. This is something that commonly happens among warriors. Neither of them will do anything that crosses the line…”
“Who said I’m worried about that man!”
She roughly shook off the man’s hand and shouted sharply.
“I’m worried about myself! If I become a widow as soon as I get married, my future will be in danger too!”
As if appalled by the woman’s poisonous words, Daren took one step back.
However, his brother showed no particular reaction even to the woman’s malice.
He pressed the helmet onto his head and lightly mounted the saddle.
“Give me the weapon.”
The squire immediately held out a halberd with a crescent-shaped silver axe blade.
Varkas took it and, before anyone could stop him, rode his horse toward the middle of the training ground.
The woman hurriedly chased after him.
Lucas, who had been watching from a slight distance, rushed out without realizing it and caught her.
Then a cold gaze flew at him like a dagger.
Lucas stopped breathing.
For an instant, his mind seemed to go blank.
As he looked down at the strangely beautiful face with stunned eyes, the loud trumpet announcing the start of the duel rang out.
Lucas snapped his head up and groaned when he saw Alek Gutvan slowly circling around the audience seats while spinning the enormous halberd with one hand.
The axe blade, closer to a mace, carved a large circle through the air, and a sound like a whip being swung rang out.
He felt the woman’s body trembling as if she might collapse at any moment.
But he had no room to check her condition.
The beast, who had been slowly riding along the audience seats as if showing off his power, spurred his horse.
The heavy sound of horse hooves shook the ground.
Amid the thick rising dust, the man mounted on the giant horse charged at Varkas at terrifying speed while spinning his halberd.
At that sight, screams burst from the mouths of the people.
It was understandable.
Was it not like an enraged buffalo charging at a deer?
Lucas clenched his fists.
It seemed as though the giant forged from iron would crush his brother in one stroke.
However, what Lucas faced was a sight he could hardly believe even after seeing it with his own eyes.
The axe blade, nearly the size of a person’s body, was helplessly deflected by a spear blade that flew in as gracefully as a bird’s wingbeat.
Lucas opened his eyes wide.
The miraculous sight did not end there.
When Varkas spurred his horse, the man’s massive body tilted backward as if colliding with a solid castle wall.
Varkas did not miss that opening.
Kicking the stallion’s side, Varkas immediately thrust his spear forward.
The sharp spear point, flying in like a flash of light, pierced the thick breastplate and passed through the man’s chest.
All of it happened in the blink of an eye.
With the spear still embedded in the man’s chest, he spurred his horse.
As he raised the spear point, the man’s body rose high into the air.
Screams burst out everywhere at the grotesque sight.
Riding along the wide open ground, Varkas swung the shaft in one large circle and soon drove the halberd down toward the ground.
The man’s enormous body crashed into the dirt, and a heavy vibration rang out in all directions.
A breathless silence settled.
While everyone was dazed by the duel that had ended in an instant, Varkas rode his horse beside the nearly crushed corpse, removed his helmet, and threw it onto the ground.
Then, with a cool face that did not show the slightest disorder, he gave an order toward the waiting seats.
“Call a priest and hold the funeral.”
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