Chapter -013.
Chapter -13.
Even though she still had three years left to graduate from the academy, her determination to become a knight of the empire remained unwavering.
She understood that in order to achieve that rank, she would need to shed blood, whether it be her own or that of an enemy. She was aware that without significant accomplishments, attaining knighthood was impossible, as even the third prince of the empire had failed in his attempt to become a knight by relying on connections, a rumor that was prevalent throughout the empire.
If her father and uncle both insist on treating her like a delicate girl who could get hurt by the smallest things, she must demonstrate with her own actions that she is at least as talented as her brothers, if not better.
"Young miss, this wasn't our agreement when I brought you here against your father's wishes," Herald murmured as he gazed at Daphne, frustrated that she once again did as she pleased. Despite his attempts to get her attention, all he could do was sigh in the end.
Herald, who had no children of his own, treated Daphne as if she were his own daughter. Because of this, he had even begun teaching her a thing or two about swordplay from a young age. When she learned to express both anger and sadness simultaneously, little did he know that these moments from the past would come back to haunt him.
Sighing and shaking his head, he could only wait to see if anyone would dare to duel the family head's daughter. At the same time, he hoped that someone would accept her challenge so he could assess her strength and prepare himself before taking her on the hunt.
The soldiers on the small podium stood in silence while they looked at each other. It was a rare occurrence for a female swordsman to join the hunt, but it was unheard of for a female swordsman to challenge others to a duel. As a result, all of them were lost in thought. Most importantly, if this arrogant woman wasn't the daughter of the Crowfiled family's sword monster, they would have already pounced on her to teach her a lesson.
If they were to act up despite knowing she's a member of the Crowfield family, their heads would surely roll on the ground.
Just when everyone thought nobody would step forward to accept the challenge, Abraham whose attention was on Effie.
She was stealing glances at Lucian, who was standing at the back of the group, despite her husband being right next to him. Abraham decided not to keep his feelings for Effie bottled up and to prevent her from falling into the hands of an unworthy person. He the little wench on the podium as an opportunity and decided to take advantage of it.
The young woman on the podium appeared to be around twenty years old, the same age as Dorian, who had disappointed him greatly earlier. There was a high chance she was just a level-1 swordsman. Even if she were a level-2, there was no way she would be stronger than him, as he was at the peak level-2 of swordsmanship. All he had to do at the moment was to accept the woman's offer, overpower her in the first round, and then willingly get defeated.
He felt certain that rescuing her from facing humiliation in front of such a large audience would surely elicit her gratitude. He knew exactly what he needed to do by leveraging that sense of gratitude.
"I apologize for my rudeness, battalion commander. However, since no one here seems willing to show the young miss the respect she deserves, I am willing to accept her challenge and engage in a sword fight with her." Manipulating his words, Abrham finally appeared in front of the audience, casually pushing back his long hair.
While observing the audience, as the young miss's safety was entrusted to his wife, a former warrior. Adam suddenly noticed Abraham, once his subordinate, now in his rebellious phase, marching forward to challenge the young miss. so obviously Adam wanted to intervene, "Abraham, you? fuc.." but before he could, his wife, standing beside him, raised her hand to stop him and warned, "Don't interfere unless you want to anger the young miss."
Abraham, who clearly observed Adam attempting to prevent him, nevertheless saw Effie intervening and couldn't help but smile. "You're absolutely right, Miss Effie. That disgrace of a man is not worthy of you. Just you wait, I'll demonstrate what a real man is," he muttered under his breath with his mind filled with delusions, as he finally reached the front.
Daphne, noticing the hefty man arriving in front and then stealing a glance at Miss Effie, felt offended. Not because she wanted him to look at her, but because his gaze was filled with lust, and Miss Effie was someone she considered as her mother figure. So, how dare a scoundrel look at her mother figure with those lustful eyes.
"So you want to fight me. huh?" Daphne, with her voice tinged with anger muttered; hearing which battalion commander and Effie both looked at simultanosly thinking what was wrong with all of sudden, that made her mad.
"how can I dare the courage to do so? I just want to show my worth to the young miss and help her earn what she desire from everyone." Abraham detected the anger in Daphne's voice and felt a bit perplexed, but he was determined not to retreat after taking action. Therefore, he attempted to make headway once more using his cunning words.
"Uncle Herald, this is great, isn't it? Should we have a sword exchange on this podium just then?" Daphne asked, gazing at the Battalion commander. who could only nod in response, knowing that he couldn't refuse her request at this stage.
Upon seeing the battalion commander nod his head, the previously silent crowd erupted into an uproar. Simultaneously, they started jostling each other to get to the front and witness the outcome. Even Lucian, who had been standing at the back of the crowd all this time, exerted great effort to finally reach the front, coming just a short distance away from Effie, whose attention was now completely fixed on Daphne.