Free Web NovelChapter 197: The Queen’s Test
"What’s going on, Tija?"
"Yeah! Why is everyone making a ruckus?"
Tija crouched down to her two siblings and whispered into their ears.
"I just told everyone on behalf of Mother that no one is allowed to enter the throne room, no matter what happens."
"Then, can you tell us what’s going on?" Yarjak asked in a quiet tone.
Tija sighed.
"The truth is that Mother challenged Mika to a fight."
"What?!" Sara yelled.
"Keep it down, Sara!"
She pressed her hand against Sara’s mouth to silence her after noticing everyone’s gazes.
"Excuse me, but have you seen Mika...?"
"?"
Yarjak turned his head to the entrance, where Lisa appeared.
"Huh? What’s going on here?" she wondered immediately after seeing the people’s faces.
In the meantime, Mika and Cylia kept on exchanging sword strikes, which they both parried.
[1 minute and 54 seconds left.]
They did not fight long yet but Mika realized that she was a formidable opponent as her swordsmanship was resembling Sara’s. But compared to her, her way of using magic and her relic were far better.
In the throne room, multiple puddles appeared, which in turn, rose up explosively like geysers.
But using Excalibur, Mika cut through those attacks and made his way to Cylia, who was waiting for him with another attack.
Like Sara, Cylia applied water magic on her sword, changing the water’s color to black. However, instead of one water slash, Cylia threw multiple slashes at Mika.
"..."
But like always, he was unfazed and negated them.
"!"
He was only lightly surprised when she jumped at him, striking from above. And just in time, he blocked her strike.
Even though Cylia showed signs of exhaustion, she still grinned.
She pulled back from Mika.
And in a zigzag-like manner, she approached Mika with her sword scratching the floor slightly.
"..."
With his hands tightly on Excalibur, Mika’s gaze followed Cylia, who was running in circles around him.
"?"
Again, she launched black water slashes, which either scratched the roof and walls or were negated by Mika.
Then, she suddenly closed the distance.
It sparked between them as they engaged in a fierce sword battle. Mika was mainly on the defensive end as Cylia quickly launched one strike after the other.
"Tch..."
Mika neglected his focus on her legs, leading to him getting his feet swept by a kick.
Cylia was about to follow with a stab from above but Mika managed to push himself off the ground and rolled away from her.
However, he could not catch a break yet as Cylia fired off small but sharp water shots from her finger, which hit Mika.
"Ugh!"
Blood leaked out of the holes, where he was pierced. That was why it was stinging in his thighs, his waist and left shoulder.
Mika switched to the Holy Spear.
"Enlarge..."
Jumping to the side, Cylia avoided the spear, which was increasing its length.
He could not hear it but she was quietly giggling.
"Shrink. Enlarge."
"Shrink. Enlarge."
"Shrink. Enlarge."
Monotonically, Mika repeated those commands, drilling holes in the walls behind Cylia, who nimbly dodged each attack.
"You’re getting pretty wild, huh...?"
Still grinning, Cylia retracted her arm and charged her sword with black water once more.
And with one swing, she created a water ring around her, which was getting larger and spread out, hitting the walls in the throne room.
[1 minute left.]
The Holy Spear dispersed in bright light and instead, Mika raised his arms. And with one finger, he lowered his hand again, pointing at Cylia.
"What else can you do...?" she wondered in anticipation.
But that expression quickly turned into a panicked one as she was caught off guard by the arrows of light piercing through the roof.
"Keh...!" she lightly groaned when one of those arrows grazed her arm.
[10.]
Not letting her take a breath, Mika, who charged himself up with lightning, appeared right in front of her with Excalibur pointing at her neck.
"It’s over." he announced sharply at the sitting Cylia.
[5 seconds left until the effect of Time Manipulation wears off.]
"Really~?" she replied with a confident grin.
"?"
Mika did not pay much attention to his surroundings but the scratches on the walls, the floor and the roof turned into large cracks.
The throne room was rumbling.
"Enlarge."
[0.]
Before the roof could crash in on them, Mika quickly changed back to the spear and enlarged it. And as it was stuck in the ground diagonally, Mika and Cylia were unscratched, however, the throne room, or rather, the palace was destroyed as the Holy Spear blew away at least one-half of the building.
"Shrink."
[43 seconds left.]
Mika undid his transformation.
"Haha... Hahaha!" Cylia broke into laughter.
The walls also crumbled down, revealing the two to the people, who were in the palace.
"Y-your Highness!" ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"W-what happened here?!"
"Who is that boy?!"
Obviously, the guards were about to rush in first but Cylia signaled them with her hand that it was alright.
She got up while Mika put back his sword.
"Thank you for giving me the chance to test you." she said with a gentle smile.
The guards also pulled away.
"It was just a test...?" Mika responded taken aback.
"I just couldn’t believe that you were declining the fact that you’re the promised person. Thus, I had to feel your power for myself."
"..."
While the two were talking surrounded by rubble and under the moonlight, the guards evacuated everyone in the palace, including the Tiam siblings.
However, one person slipped away from them.
"You are indeed the promised person. You may not reached your full potential yet but you’re really the person the man was talking about."
"..."
Mika narrowed his gaze in caution.
"But can I ask you another thing, Mika?"
The person, who coincidentally evaded the guards, noticed the two and instinctively hid behind a pile of rubble.
"In exchange for those powers, wasn’t there anything you had to pay? Weren’t you forced to do something in order to obtain them?" she asked sternly.
"..."
Mika remained silent for a moment.
"No, not really..." he answered with a shy smile.
"It was thanks to the system that I could become strong. Without it, I may have died a long time ago." he added, thinking back on the day he got into contact with the system for the first time.
His eyes drooped a little.
"However... I guess there was a side effect..." he stated.
"?"
"It may have been my fault for slacking off and being too weak but..."
He looked at Cylia. His attitude was relaxed and he spoke out the next words casually.
"I have only about two years to live."
No one knew about that yet. But Mika thought that he could tell her considering her knowledge about him and his powers.
"Wha..."
Cylia was shocked to her core.
She found it cruel to hear a young man with so much potential saying that he was dying soon. And even more so as he was the promised person, whom she was excited to meet.
Her mouth did not close nor did she blinked her wide-open eyes.
However, her shock was not as great as the shock Lisa, the person who escaped the guards’ eyes, was feeling.
"?"
Mika sensed that a person was nearby and turned his head in the direction of Lisa, who ran away from there.
"It pains me to hear that..." Cylia showed her empathy.
"There’s no need to console me, your Highness... I’ve already come to terms with it." Mika answered, turning back to her and smiling hopelessly.
He lifted his head and stared at the full moon.
"It’s late. If your Highness doesn’t have anything to say anymore, may I excuse myself then?"
"W-wait...!"
She stretched her hand to him nervously.
"Yes?"
But it seemed like she was hesitating.
"I’m repeating myself but as the queen of Grat, I can’t gather a troupe of elites only to send them to their death... However, if you’re leading them, then I think that we have a chance against Leviathan...!" she stated sternly and nervously at the same time.
She clenched her chest.
"And if I may voice out my feelings, then there’s nothing more I want than its head..."
Her eyes were full of killing intent and coldness.
"Maybe I am strong but I don’t consider myself as a deciding factor for a fight against Leviathan yet." Mika replied earnestly.
It did not matter if he was able to be on equal footing with members of the Grand Order or if he was stronger than them. It was enough anymore to use humans as a measure to gauge his own strength against beings, who were at least on the semi-transcendental level.
But in the eyes of Cylia, Mika was someone, who had already reached a level a human could not reach normally. In addition, she did not witness Leviathan’s power in person, making her believe that Mika could be the one to lead the humans to a win over it.
"Is your answer final...?"
Mika took a deep breath with his eyes being immersed with the moon.
"May we have this talk again once the exchange program ends?"
The ends of Cylia’s mouth slightly moved up.
"But of course." she answered.
Then, Mika smiled back and left.
