Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Royal Rumble – Part 3

However, King Magnus wasn’t just strong. He was also a shrewd person. Decades of experience of ruling a Kingdom gave him intelligence to think strategically.

He looked back at Adonis’ eyes and said,

“It is not my intention to disrespect your origin. This King merely wishes to know more about your Draconic bloodline. From what I can perceive, it is definitely above Noble Grade, something only select dragons possess. So how did you come to obtain it?”

Adonis softened his expression and replied, “It is not only I who have dragon blood. Your daughter also has dragon blood, which you all failed to notice.”

“What!”

Shocked, Magnus looked at his daughter.

“Is this true, Mariana? You have a dragon bloodline?” he asked.

All the other nobles also seemed eager to hear her answer.

After all, who did not know what kind of devastating powers Dragon kin possessed? Each Dragon was an epitome of elemental calamity itself.

If their Princess also possessed a Noble Grade bloodline, this would easily call for celebration.

Under their intense stares, Mariana could only nod.

“Yes, Father, I do. But it was Adonis who gave me a part of his bloodline to make me stronger. His love for me is as boundless as the stars.”

Most of the nobles fell silent after her confirmation.

Even King Magnus seemed contemplative, though on a much deeper level.

After a while, when the chatter died down, King Magnus raised his head.

“Very well, Adonis. We have noted your sacrifice and love for our precious daughter. However, there is still one remaining test you must pass to prove you are worthy enough to replace the Crown Prince of Gratis Kingdom and risk our decades old alliance.”

“What is this test?” Adonis asked after exchanging a glace with Mariana.

King Magnus replied,

“The test is simple. You will face our Royal Executioner in a duel within our grand arena.”

“But fear not. We know the level disparity between you two. Thy we decided to be kind. You will not be required to defeat her. You will not be required to draw blood or claim victory.”

“You need only survive for two minutes. That is all.”

Only 2 minutes.

The words rippled through the court in hushed, disbelieving whispers.

Because anyone who knew the name Royal Executioner understood with bone deep certainty that two minutes against her was not a simple thing. It was not a formality or a courtesy. It was a sentence dressed up as a condition.

The Royal Executioner of Fernis Kingdom was not a title given to a administrator or a ceremonial figure. It belonged to a woman who had earned it the hard way, through blood and battle and the particular ruthlessness that separated those who fought to perform from those who fought to end.

She was a Swordmaster of unfathomable rank that placed her comfortably among the most dangerous individuals in the entire kingdom.

Ministers had watched her work once before in this very hall, during a particularly grim affair involving a traitorous Duke, and none of them had forgotten it.

Two minutes against her, without dying, was the test.

For a commoner barely past his Academy years, it was absurd.

The doors at the far end of the hall opened.

She entered without announcement, without ceremony, without any of the theatrical flourishes that lesser Swordmasters sometimes used to compensate for uncertainty.

She simply walked in, and the room felt it immediately, that particular change in atmosphere that accompanied the arrival of someone genuinely, professionally dangerous.

She was tall for a woman, lean and precise in her build, with close cropped silver hair that framed a face that was strikingly beautiful in the severe, unsentimental way of someone who had long since stopped caring about such things.

Her executioner’s armor was deep black, fitted and unadorned, with a single crimson stripe running along the left pauldron, the only color she wore. At her hip rested a blade that had not been drawn for show in a very long time.

Her charming but deadly eyes found Adonis immediately and stayed there, calm and professional and entirely without malice.

This was simply work.

She stopped at a respectful distance and bowed to the King in a practiced motion, then straightened and looked back at Adonis without further preamble.

She was dangerous, Adonis could feel it.

Mariana stepped close to Adonis’s side, close enough that her shoulder brushed his arm.

“Adonis, you don’t have to do this. We can find other way.”

She was genuinely worried.

He glanced down at her.

Her pink eyes met his golden ones and held them for a moment.

She did not say anything more as he gave her a small reassuring look, and then looked back at the woman waiting for him in the center of the hall.

Claudia appeared at his other side, her

“Adonis, do not underestimate her because she is giving you a favorable condition. Two minutes against a woman like that is not a gift. It is an insurmountable barrier.”

“I understand. Thank you for worrying about me,” he said with a faint smile. Not a shred of fear was found on his face.

And this made Claudia’s heart skipped a beat a again.

Adonis was quiet for a moment, looking at the cleared space, at the Royal Executioner standing in it with that perfectly still, perfectly patient posture of hers.

He thought about everything that hung on the next two minutes. The alliance. Mariana.

The King waiting to crush this relationship with the faintest weakness in their bond.

He thought about all of it.

And then he thought, if this was the price of peace, if surviving 2 minutes against a high ran blade meant that everything after it could be settled without further bloodshed, without more running, without more ash and ruin trailing behind him wherever he went, then there was truly nothing to hesitate over.

He was not a man who sought conflict.

He was simply a man that conflict could not seem to leave alone.

After a moment of silence, he exhaled slowly through his nose and rolled one shoulder back.

“Two minutes,” he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else.

Then he took one step toward the Executioner.

“I accept,” he said.

The Royal Executioner lips curved.

“Brave. I like it.”

The duel for peace was about to begin.

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