Chapter 152: Duels Begin
And for the very first time, Adrian actually saw her looking extremely serious. Until now, she only ever showed her pouty, cute side whenever she was upset. He had seed her acting childish and innocent, but he had never seen her looking this pissed off. freewebnøvel.com
He could tell how angry she was.
"No, Papa." Aria said firmly. "Please let me watch. I want to see her lose every single thing today. Exactly the way she made us lose everything we had."
Aria pointed at the mansion.
"We were left with nothing except ourselves when we were sent here. I only had you and you only had me..." Aria said. "Oresfall was nothing but a barren wasteland and you worked hard to change it. You brought it to its current state. But she was just handed everything from her father and I want to see her lose it all. This is payback for all the rumours and lies she spread about us."
Hearing something this personal made Adrian feel incredibly guilty. He actually felt a little sad that he allowed her to develop these feelings.
He wanted her to grow up in a peaceful and positive environment where she never had to see the brutal side of the world. But somehow she got exposed to it anyway. And she had her own dark thoughts about the mother who fucked everything up.
’Well, what is done is done.’ Adrian thought. ’I cannot really go around and pull out her memories to change things. I wanted to keep her innocent. But since she already knows the truth, I need to make her wishes come true as her father.’
Because it was her birthday and he refused to fail her today.
His expression turned dead serious as he turned to look at Vaneira.
"Who is your first representative?" Adrian asked again.
Vaneira looked at her men and pointed at the young knight.
Jordan walked forward.
"Why did you pick her side?" Adrian asked him.
"She is a Marchioness, of course I would pick her side." Jordan said proudly. "You are nothing but a Baron. I am not trying to disrespect you here, but as someone who grew up in a knight family, we are taught to work under powerful nobles. It is only the talentless ones who go under Viscounts or Barons."
"Okay, fair point." Adrian said calmly. "I hope you do not regret it."
He looked over at Burke who was standing nearby.
"Get things ready to dispose of a body." Adrian ordered. "At least we need to send this guy back home so he can be buried properly."
This comment completely unnerved the young knight. Jordan felt a little nervous because he couldn’t tell if Adrian was just bluffing to intimidate him or not. But looking straight into Adrian’s cold red eyes, Jordan felt like this guy was not bluffing at all.
"Are you ready?" Adrian asked.
Jordan nodded.
"What rank are you?" Adrian asked directly.
"I am a D rank knight." Jordan said. "And I am only twenty years old."
"Okay, fair." Adrian sighed. "So much potential... you really should have made a better choice."
Adrian raised his bare fists and took a standard fighting stance.
"Aren’t you going to use a sword?" Jordan asked in surprise.
"I can’t, so yeah."
"Well, if you are not using a sword, then there’s no rule stopping me to." Jordan said.
He looked at the servants standing nearby. "Can someone provide me a sword?"
Burke nodded. The bald guy looked pretty nervous because he did not really know how strong Adrian was in a real fight. But he complied and ran to the weapon racks when Adrian gave him a nod.
He did not just bring one sword. He grabbed multiple of them and returned a few minutes later, holding them all out for the opponent.
At first glance when Jordan looked at them, they were all completely identical. He figured they were just low quality trash weapons.
But when he gripped the handle and tested the weight, his eyes went wide. The balance was perfect. He could instantly tell that this sword was exactly like the premium blades his own father used back home. It was not a cheap tool for those regular soldiers. It was a high tier weapon meant for actual veteran knights.
"These swords are used by our regular soldiers." Burke apologized. "So I am sorry for not bringing a better one. These are the only swords we have."
Jordan was incredibly surprised.
’These are the swords the regular foot soldiers use?’ Jordan thought. ’Damn... maybe I did choose the wrong side.’
But he had already made his decision in front of everyone. As a knight, he could not go back on his word now.
He got ready to fight. He figured he just needed to injure this Baron enough to make him admit defeat.
"I am ready." Jordan said.
"Okay, you can start first."
Jordan took the advice. He did not say no and he made the first move. He lunged forward and swung the sword.
Adrian lifted his hand up. He pushed his telekinesis out to try and stop the guy in place.
He knew he could lift three kilogram iron balls easily. But stopping an eighty kilogram D rank knight mid sprint was way too hard. He could not completely paralyze him.
But the invisible telekinetic pressure did slow Jordan down massively.
Adrian decided to just drop the spell because it was not doing enough to end the fight. On top of that, his own speed was more than enough for him to fight the guy so Adrian didn’t really see a reason to use it anymore. He sidestepped the sword slash effortlessly and reached out to grabbed Jordan’s wrist right above the sword hilt.
He squeezed his fingers and directly crushed the bones.
Even Adrian was surprised by the nasty crunching sound. He did not think he actually put that much force into the grip.
He glanced back at Aria standing nearby and realised what caused it.
’Right, Dad Strength.’ Adrian thought. ’I forgot I had this skill.’
Because she was in range, the passive strength multiplier activated whether he wanted it to or not.
Jordan dropped his sword and fell to his knees. He clutched his broken hand and screamed in agony.
"Well, I guess this is done." Adrian said casually. "Do you accept defeat?"