At Iris’s unusual reply, Cedric’s eyes widened in surprise before the corners softened into a gentle curve.
“As you command.”
With a poised bow befitting a noble lady, Cedric stepped to the center to begin the duel.
“I swear by my sacred name and honor, I shall commence this duel, respecting the honor of my opponent...”
The oath of the sacred duel flowed solemnly from the lips of the Valentine knight.
Excited murmurs rippled through the gathered nobles witnessing the legendary battle.
Amid the clamor, Orchid struggled to maintain his calm.
He’s not someone to be underestimated.
Having lost the momentum back at the banquet, Orchid felt the weight of the situation grow heavier.
I must take the initiative and end this quickly.
A faint trace of sword qi flickered at the grasp of Orchid’s sword.
With such a skill gap, it was best to finish the battle before their true strength could be revealed.
The adjudicator’s voice rang out sharply:
“Duel start!”
At that moment, Orchid lunged at the unguarded Cedric, blade flashing.
Clang!
In the blink of an eye, a sword soared through the air and slammed into the ground.
What just happened?
What was that?
The nobles stared in disbelief at the sword embedded in the floor—the blade of the famed prodigy Orchid.
The duel was over in less than a second.
Not a single person blinking fast enough saw Cedric even move his sword.
The most stunned was Orchid himself, staring blankly at his empty hands.
Impossible.
He had already unleashed sword qi, there was no way he could have lost it so easily.
And yet… just like that?
A clash of sword qi never ends this fast.
Even Orchid couldn’t comprehend what had just transpired.
“My apologies. I made a mistake,” Cedric said, shaking his head with a faint smile.
“If I wipe away my opponent’s blade in one stroke, it’s hardly a proper duel.”
An indescribable pressure radiated from Cedric’s calm stance, leaving the crowd unnerved.
Cedric was a genius unlike any other—a prodigy so great that no other genius could compare.
He slowly surveyed the audience with ease, a subtle smile creeping to his lips.
“Go retrieve your sword again.”
Orchid bit his lip.
“I’ll do it as many times as it takes, so no one says I was careless. That way it’ll feel less unfair.”
Cedric leveled his sword at Orchid’s neck.
“Be careful this time—if I make a mistake, I might accidentally take your head off.”
The sound of blades clashing and flying through the air ripped once more through the silent void.
Chaeng!
The crushing clang echoed relentlessly, so frequent it was almost meaningless to count.
The crowd no longer kept silent, whispering among themselves.
Orchid clenched his teeth, gripping his throbbing right wrist with his other hand.
His wrist twisted grotesquely, perhaps broken, sweat pouring down his strained face.
A monster.
Orchid looked up at Cedric with a horrified expression.
...I can’t win.
For Orchid, swordsmanship had always been a blessed, easy path.
Raised in an environment perfect for cultivation, his talent for sword qi mastery as a Valentine was undeniable.
That made the overwhelming gap he now felt all the heavier.
“Again?”
Cedric’s lips curled into a cold smile, expressionless otherwise.
“S-Stop…”
Orchid’s voice cracked, admitting defeat. He could no longer wield his sword.
“Is that all? You give up so easily? You must keep your word, right?”
Cedric mocked him, forcing Orchid to pick up his sword again and resume the duel repeatedly.
Though the adjudicator tried to call the match, it was useless.
Orchid’s pride wouldn’t allow him to accept defeat first.
At first, Orchid stubbornly gripped his sword, unwilling to back down after years of being praised and protected.
But as time passed, reality sank in.
I will never win.
Now was not the time to defend pride.
Cedric shattered Orchid’s blade with flawless precision every time.
Each defeat came in a single strike—no wasted movements, no errors.
It was as if Cedric intended to engrave the difference in their cultivation into everyone’s minds with perfect clarity.
All Orchid could do was grasp his sword desperately, only to be trampled underfoot for it.
All he wanted was for this humiliating duel witnessed by countless nobles to finally end.
“I… I concede. Now…”
“Don’t end it on your own terms,” Cedric said flatly.
“You can’t just give up so easily. You’ll have more chances, so keep trying.”
Unlike Orchid, Cedric remained impeccably composed, not a bead of sweat to be seen.
“Who knows? Maybe with endless challenges, you’ll find victory someday.”
“Why... to this extent?”
“I made a promise.”
Cedric’s voice rang light but deadly.
“To overwhelmingly crush you with utter humiliation and claim victory.”
Orchid clenched his teeth so hard that blood spilled from his mouth. Gasping for breath, he struggled to speak.
“All for such a trivial reason...”
“Trivial?”
Cedric’s gaze sharpened like a wild beast’s, chilling and unforgiving.
“It seems this duel is far from over. Should I personally retrieve my sword for you?”
Orchid’s vision blurred. Pain clawed at his throat, and a scream was about to escape.
“N-No...”
“No. Rise.”
With the pommel of his blade, Cedric struck the nearly unconscious Orchid.
“The duel isn’t finished yet. As a genius swordsman, you should push harder.”
Orchid groaned, briefly awakening, his voice weak and strangled.
“P-Please...”
There was no trace left of the arrogant genius swordsman famed across the empire. The crowd watched in stunned silence.
“Even Sir Orchid Valentine cannot reach the Duke of Leontheim’s level.”
“Do you think the Valentine Count fares any better?”
“Seems the prestigious name of the Valentine swordmaster family is now meaningless.”
After today, the Valentine family’s reputation would surely fall into the mud. None would forget this humiliating spectacle.
“Enough.”
Kaidrich stepped forward to stop Cedric from kicking Orchid.
“The outcome has already been decided.”
Kaidrich’s shoulder, wounded by the emperor’s blade, was still bandaged.
“Torturing a fallen man is not the way of a true swordsman.”
“Does a man who breaks his own word deserve to be called a swordsman?”
Cedric shrugged lazily at Kaidrich’s provocation.
“And when did I ever claim to be a swordsman? Sorry, but the code of the sword doesn’t suit my taste.”
“How long do you intend to torment my son?”
“Well...”
Cedric tilted his head toward Kaidrich.
“If you want this to end, wouldn’t the Count have a task to fulfill first?”
“What do you mean...”
Cedric smiled, surprised by Kaidrich’s confusion.
“Have you already forgotten? Seems your memory’s starting to fade.”
Cedric’s meaning was clear: to free his son, Kaidrich must pay the price of the duel. In other words, kneel before Iris and offer an apology to end this.
Kaidrich’s gray eyes blazed with fury upon grasping the truth.
“Is that truly necessary?”
“The Count should uphold the code of the sword himself.”
Cedric’s expression hardened for the first time, his crimson eyes glowing with icy intent as he glared at Kaidrich.
“Or have I not been mad enough for you to understand by now?”
Cedric’s gaze shifted toward Liliana standing beside Kaidrich.
‘W-What?’
The crowd’s attention naturally turned to the elegantly adorned Liliana. Suddenly overwhelmed by all the gazes, her face turned pale.
“L-Liliana won’t participate.”
She looked around, her voice full of injustice.
“I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Of course, the duel wasn’t her choice. But it was inappropriate to speak that way after Orchid had fainted trying to defend her.
Feeling the worsening stares, Liliana’s expression darkened.
‘I am to become the Empress.’
Though momentarily shocked by the Emperor’s cruelty, Liliana began to find even that terrifying image strangely captivating. It was proof that only the beautiful and beloved could become Empress.
‘I need to protect my reputation more carefully...’
Why did her family always end up hindering her? No wonder His Majesty looked unfavorably on Liliana.
“Orchid brother has nothing to do with me. I’ll sit this out.”
Liliana neither wished to apologize nor face the embarrassment of Orchid.
In the end, she turned her back on the collapsed Orchid and fled the training grounds.
“Lili—!”
“If Orchid brother had done better, none of this would have happened.”
Kaidrich tried to stop her, but Liliana was already gone.
One son lay defeated, humiliatingly unconscious. Another had fled.
Alone, Kaidrich stared vacantly at the spot where Liliana had vanished.
Cedric, standing beside him, remarked with a hint of amusement,
“Now I see the Valentine Count not only follows the code of the sword but also the code of parenthood quite well.”
“...Duke of Leontheim.”
Kaidrich glared sharply at Cedric’s blatant mockery, but Cedric remained completely unfazed.
“You should be apologizing not to me, but to my wife. Wife?”
Kaidrich’s gaze shifted to Iris standing calmly behind him.
Iris faced Kaidrich with an indifferent expression, composed and steady.
Is there truly no way out?
To break the oath of the duel was a dishonor worse than defeat itself.
Perhaps...
His Majesty might strip Kaidrich of his position as Commander of the Knights for such disgraceful behavior.
Kaidrich would rather die than step down from the imperial commander seat.
But...
Kneeling before his own daughter, the very one he had once disowned, was not something he could do lightly.
Kaidrich clenched and unclenched his fists, agonizing over it, before finally grinding his teeth and kneeling before Iris.
A knee that had never bowed to anyone but the emperor in his lifetime.
The rage at having to lower himself before a daughter much younger—and one he had cast away—was enough to make his blood boil.
But there was no other choice.
“Iris. I offer you my apology.”
With all the nobles watching, it was the utmost humiliation.
Kaidrich could barely raise his head, avoiding Iris’s gaze.
“Orchid and Liliana acted recklessly toward you. That is my fault.”
He seemed intent on just fulfilling the formality of apology and ending it there.
But even that faltered; Kaidrich paused, caught for words, then finally added with a breath:
“...Please forgive me.”
Iris watched the scene with a strange, almost unfamiliar feeling.
I never thought a day like this would come.
Her arrogant father’s kneel was lighter than she expected.
Could a simple shift in the height of one’s gaze really change so much?
The towering father she had always looked up to now seemed pitiful beneath her.
She had struggled so hard for the affection of a man like this.
“So this is the extent of Father Kaidrich’s Valentine.”
Chapter 65