Chapter 50: Duel Against Morgana [2]

“Well? What are you waiting for, Morgana? Are you in need of a little break?”

“Shut up… shut up!” She shrieked, her crimson eyes gleaming with unshed tears of pain and humiliation as she launched herself at me once more.

Her movements had grown crude now, trading the elegant finesse of her earlier strikes for raw strength. She had completely abandoned her technique in a futile bid to rival my physical power.

I easily parried her initial strike, immediately feeling the heavy surge in her exertion. Yet, whatever raw power she had gained came at the cost of the breathtaking skill and beauty she had displayed only moments ago.

Perhaps she mistook my calm observation for a moment of vulnerability. Believing she had caught me off guard, she lunged a step forward, sweeping her blade in an horizontal arc aimed squarely at my head.

I simply leaned back, arching my spine just enough to evade the strike, watching calmly as the wooden edge whistled mere inches above my eyes.

Before she could recover her stance, my hand shot forward, latching onto her forearm in an iron grip. I yanked her toward me, weaponizing her own forward momentum against her. And naturally, I was not opening my arms to offer her a warm embrace.

I drove my knee upward with brutal precision, burying it deeply into her solar plexus.

“Aghhnnh!” Morgana gasped out a strangled, breathless sound. The blow forcefully expelled every ounce of air from her lungs, her body folding over my knee, suspended in mid-air for a fleeting second.

The moment I released her, she collapsed onto her knees. Her arm, which I still held securely in my grasp, had gone completely limp, robbed of all its fighting vigor by the ruthless blow.

She clutched her free hand painfully against her stomach, a thin trail of saliva trickling down her jaw as she wretched, painting the green grass beneath us.

“What a truly sorry sight you are making of yourself in front of this entire court, Morgana,” I said, staring down at her crumpled form with icy disdain. “Especially in front of your father, the very man whose pride you are so desperately trying to win.”

She managed to lift her head, fixing me with a venomous glare, but my closed fist immediately met her cheek in a swift, merciless strike.

“Nguh!” She choked out a pained cry as the force of the blow sent her tumbling across the courtyard, the crisp white fabric of her tunic staining heavily with the crushed green grass.

I released a disappointed sigh, glancing down at my left hand. Unwittingly, she had surrendered her weapon to me during her fall.

“Never relinquish the grip on your blade. It is the most important rule among the knighthood, regardless of the agony you are enduring,” I said coldly. “A knight without their weapon is no different from a corpse on the battlefield.”

With a careless flick of my wrist, I tossed the wooden sword onto the dirt before her.

“Pick it up, Morgana. The entire court is watching. Your father is watching, and here you are, groveling and drooling in the dirt. How utterly pathetic,” I sneered.

Trembling, Morgana planted a hand against the ground, her fingers curling weakly around the hilt of her sword as she forced herself back up onto her knees.

“I will allow the use of Essence,” I said loud enough for the yard to hear.

“W—What?” Arges stuttered. He, who had been watching his daughter’s brutal humiliation with a pained expression, now stared at me dumbfounded.

“I said, Essence is permitted,” I repeated, my gaze locked onto Morgana’s battered form.

The moment she noticed the slight, mocking curl of my lips, a scarlet aura erupted around her entirety. She moved before Arges could even attempt to intervene, her speed blurring into a red streak of pure desperation.

“Ahhh!!” She screamed, pouring all her rage into a singular swing.

Instantly, my own body ignited with a blinding, golden radiance. I met her assault with a swing of my own.

CRACK!!

The collision of our Essences shattered her blade instantly, the severed upper half of the wood sent spiraling helplessly into the sky.

Morgana’s expression froze in shock as she realized the futility of her attack. Without missing a beat, my hand shot forward like a striking viper, my fingers wrapping tightly around her throat.

“Hnngh!” She gagged, the sudden loss of air forcing her to drop the ruined hilt of her sword as both her hands clawed at my arm.

“Lumiel!” The panicked cry of my mother echoed from behind, but I ignored it entirely, keeping my cold, merciless stare anchored on Morgana’s suffocating face.

“You may play the part of a valiant knight all you wish,” I whispered, my voice meant only for her ears. “But I am not playing the part of a King.”

With a surge of strength, I hurled her backward toward the courtyard’s decorative fountain.

“I am the King.”

Crashh!

She collided against the stone structure, the impact cracking the masonry beneath her spine.

A cough wracked her body, spattering dark blood over her lips, yet her crimson Essence stubbornly continued to glow, albeit flickering weakly like a dying ember.

Moving, I closed the distance between us, towering over her fallen form once more.

“What did you expect to happen today, Morgana?” I asked, my voice deadly calm.

She weakly raised her face toward me, a thin trail of crimson blood trickling down her forehead.

“Did you truly believe you would come out victorious? That I would be left humiliated on my knees, while you basked in the proud praises of your father?”

She panted heavily, her ragged breath echoing in the quiet courtyard as she stared up at me.

“You dare act with such arrogance in front of me,” I continued, narrowing my eyes. I leveled a gaze at her, one fraught with the same frigid, dangerous coldness I had reserved in my past life for the lowest scum who dared lay hands on the defenseless women. “I am the King of this realm. You eat the food grown in my soil, you live within my borders, and you pathetically swing your sword under my sky. I rule here. And yet, you stood in my capital, strode into my castle, and had the audacity to raise your voice and cast threatening glares at me within my own throne hall and corridors?”

She tried to push herself up, using her hand to pull her battered body from the dirt, but I brought my boot down, crushing her right hand flat against the grass.

“Aghannn!” She grunted in sudden pain as I pinned it firmly, giving her no room to escape.

She writhed beneath my heel.

“No.”

I turned my gaze toward Arges, who was already rushing toward me from the sidelines. I shot him a freezing, warning stare. He stopped dead in his tracks, his expression twisted.

“Y—Your Majesty—”

“Shut up, Arges,” I said, returning my attention to the squirming Morgana beneath me.

All her previous fierceness, that blazing rebellious flame, had been entirely extinguished.

“By what privilege did you believe you could speak to me in such a manner?” I asked, questioning her. “Have you ever done anything remotely useful for this Kingdom? Anything at all, aside from squandering your father’s precious time and making a mockery of the knights you challenge?”

I leaned down closer to her face.

“You have accomplished absolutely nothing. You are worth even less than the cheapest whore found rotting in the slums. At least they serve a purpose in their unchosen miserable lives, providing relief for their clients, sometimes even for my own knights. But what do you do, Morgana, besides piling endless stress upon your father’s shoulders? Besides wasting my invaluable time? Do you truly believe I have the patience for a rude, insolent woman who does not even know how to bow before her King?”

She offered no answer, merely using her free hand to grip my leg, fruitlessly attempting to shove my boot off her crushed palm.

“You wish to become a Knight of the realm, Morgana?” I asked, a dark smile curling my lips as I looked down at her. “What a terrible shame. I am the King here, and I decree that I shall never permit you to bear the title of Knight within my Kingdom. You will have to find some other profession that better suits you and your displeasing temper. I don’t keep useless and weak people by my side and you are both.”

My gaze turned as cold as ice as I stomped down harder, my heel grinding brutally into her wrist.

Craack!!

“Nghuhhnn!!!!” A bloodcurdling scream tore from her throat, ringing loudly across the courtyard as the bones in her right hand gave way and shattered beneath my boot.

“Morgana!”

I finally took a step back, allowing the horrified Arges to rush in. He fell heavily to his knees beside her, frantically inspecting his daughter’s broken hand before raising his gaze to me, his eyes a chaotic swirl of disbelief, anger, and shock.

“Go treat her, Arges,” I said dismissively, rolling my eyes.

I turned around to face the gathered audience. Every single noble and onlooker stood frozen, staring at me with their jaws completely dropped.

I casually stabbed the wooden practice sword into the grass and began to walk away.

“To come before me, speaking with such grand arrogance, only to be so thoroughly broken…” I paused, offering a gentle smile as I glanced back at the trembling nobles. “Let us hope she is the last in this court to make such a mistake. Because, I assure you… I have been especially merciful toward my dear Morgana today.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep