Ch.103Confrontation

The brilliant golden hair tied at the back of her neck reflected the orange sunset light pouring from the setting sun, making it shine even more intensely.

The royal emblem of the Gargantua dynasty, positioned at the heart of her armor, melted into dark shadows as Serena stood with her back to the sun.

Whether the shadow cast on her face was simply from having her back to the sun or from her fierce aura, I couldn’t tell.

But this was definitely not a situation that could be dismissed as ordinary.

In Serena’s right hand was the World Eater, drawn from its scabbard. Blue mana rippled along the blade, indicating she was fully prepared for battle.

Her left hand, tightly clenched and trembling, clearly showed just how furious she was right now.

Her sapphire-like eyes were fixed directly on me, not sparing even a glance at anything else.

Those eyes were filled with a mixture of emotions: joy, loyalty, happiness, delight, sadness, anger, hatred, and more.

The positive emotions were directed at me, while the negative ones were aimed at Charlotte.

With each step Serena took, the stone pavement cracked as if she were walking on thin ice. People nearby were scrambling to escape at the sight.

Since Charlotte had isolated the space around herself, no one except Serena, who could read mana flows in detail, could see Charlotte and me.

But those people could still see Serena.

They could also recognize the royal emblem on her armor.

This place was firmly part of the underworld, a gathering spot for shady characters and those who casually committed various crimes.

The lord had formed a strange symbiotic relationship with it, seeing no need to uproot it completely, but it was clear that if someone decided to clean it up, dirt would fly everywhere.

Just a few days ago, five people who had clumsily picked a fight with me ended up dead from my counterattack.

This was a district where five people could die without much fuss, and where those who died were even ridiculed for not knowing their place.

That’s the kind of place this was.

So, the mere fact that a royal knight had arrived in this rotten place was enough to throw everyone into panic.

Especially when that knight was visibly furious to the core.

People here had plenty to feel guilty about, and now a royal knight who looked ready to explode had appeared. More than enough reason to flee.

Not knowing that she had come looking for me and had flipped out after finding Charlotte and me together, they probably thought she was here to arrest someone.

Someone who had angered the Royal Knights Order to such an extent.

People on the street scattered in panic, and the once-bustling avenue quickly emptied.

All that remained were two women glaring at each other with hostile expressions, and a boy caught between them, pondering how to defuse this awkward situation.

“My lord.”

Serena was the first to break the silence. Those two clean, simple syllables echoed through the empty street.

It was clear which of us—Charlotte or me—she was addressing with the term “my lord,” but there were two things Serena hadn’t considered when she spoke.

First, that Charlotte and I were together, and second, that Charlotte was quietly fuming about having her time with me interrupted.

Enough to say anything that would irritate Serena.

Before I could even respond, Charlotte quickly cut in.

My tongue felt stiff, suggesting she had used magic to prevent me from speaking. I froze in the very position I had been in when trying to answer.

“Your Queen is listening. I grant you permission to speak, Serena Elizabeth, First Captain of the Royal Knights.”

Serena’s eyebrows twitched violently at those words.

Despite knowing perfectly well whom Serena meant by “my lord,” Charlotte’s deliberate emphasis on the Royal Knights position and answering in my place carried a clear message.

She was trying to provoke Serena any way she could.

The effect of Charlotte’s provocation was immensely powerful. The mana swirling around Serena seemed to double in volume.

Her hair fluttered despite the absence of wind, and now not just her clenched left fist but even the tip of the World Eater was visibly trembling.

She appeared to be barely containing her rage.

“What did you just say?”

“I said that your ‘lord,’ Charlotte de Gargantua, is listening and has granted permission for Serena Elizabeth, First Captain of the Royal Knights, to speak. Were you not calling for your ‘lord’?”

Charlotte deliberately emphasized the word “lord,” pronouncing it distinctly. Twice, even.

That was the final straw.

Before I could move my newly loosened tongue to tell Serena to calm down, in the instant I blinked, my body was flying through the air.

It took me a moment to understand why I was suddenly airborne. Only just before hitting the ground did I realize what had happened.

‘My body was flung sideways.’

Where Serena had been standing moments ago, fragments of the avenue’s tiles scattered in the direction of the setting sun.

The ground was cratered as if hit by an explosion spell, and the pavement was cracked like broken glass, with pieces grinding against each other and jutting upward.

It was the trace of Serena launching herself toward Charlotte.

For Serena, who had the skill to fight on water without creating a single ripple, to deliberately tear up the ground like this meant she was truly enraged.

Or perhaps she simply didn’t care whether this place was destroyed or not.

By the time I finished this thought, my right shoulder was the first part of me to hit the ground. My body had been flipped awkwardly in mid-air.

As soon as my shoulder touched down, it shattered with a crunch, unable to bear the weight of my entire body crashing into the ground.

With my shoulder giving way, my chin slammed into the pavement, and I felt half my face cave in. The vision in my right eye went dark.

Teeth ripped from my gums pierced the roof of my mouth. A piece of my tongue, caught between my teeth, was severed and flew out. I tasted the metallic tang of blood in my mouth.

After rolling backward two or three times, my head caught on something protruding, bringing me to an abrupt halt.

With a dull crack, something hard drove into my skull, stirring my brain. The impact nearly popped my eyeballs out.

But my body wasn’t done moving, and the rotational momentum continued to act on me.

My neck vertebrae twisted clockwise, stretching the skin around my neck uncomfortably. In my one-eyed vision, I caught a glimpse of my own back.

‘When the neck twists like this, recovery feels weird later.’

Whether clockwise or counterclockwise, if the neck rotates about three times, the head spins during recovery, which feels quite strange.

Still, thanks to my head getting caught on something, I could see what had just happened.

In the distance, Serena and Charlotte were locked in a power struggle, magic circle against sword.

The space Charlotte had isolated for us had shattered like blue glass when Serena broke through it, scattering fragments everywhere.

Serena was half-floating in the air. The World Eater, held diagonally in both hands, was slowly penetrating the magic circle blocking her path.

Charlotte had one hand extended forward, creating a defensive magic circle nearly as tall as herself to protect her body.

Judging by the complex patterns on the inner rim of the magic circle, it was likely a top-tier defensive spell.

Serena had broken through the isolated space and was now gradually penetrating a magic circle capable of defending against meteor impact spells, while Charlotte had cast a top-tier defensive magic circle without even chanting, at near-instantaneous speed.

The result of their collision was predictable.

The shockwave alone sent every object within a radius of easily over 10 meters flying. Of course, I was included among those objects.

I could see the building next to Serena and Charlotte twisting and creaking from the shockwave created by the World Eater and the defensive magic circle.

Cracks formed in the building’s exterior walls, and only sharp glass shards remained in the window frames where the windows had shattered.

Only now did time seem to flow normally again.

In the face of Serena’s full-power charge and Charlotte’s defense, seconds crawled by like sluggish insects.

Just as I tried to move my half-severed tongue and fallen teeth to shout at them both to stop, something large fell on top of my head.

With the sound of my upper body being crushed, my vision went black.

Well, I’m fucked.

Who’s going to stop them now?