From her previous attacks, I already knew that even if she used all her strength. Then, she wouldn’t be able to leave a scratch on me. Well, unless she had been acting until, but it didn’t seem that way, at least.

“Just how are you so powerful… you’re just a human,” she muttered under her breath.

I knew that elves were somewhat “racist” toward other races, especially humans since we were deemed as the least powerful. After all, humans were special. We had access to an energy that had the “potential” to become much stronger than all the other races.

However, the amount of people who reached such a stage was limited. It was different from the elves, who could simply call upon Mother Nature to help them fight. It was hard to nurture such a power. That’s why they spent most of their time training their sword and bow techniques.

“Why aren’t you calling upon Mother Nature?” I smirked. “I told you to use everything at your disposition.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need her to make you bleed!”

“Are you sure about that? You haven’t even managed to make me sweat for the time being.”

The reason why I wanted to see her summon Mother Nature was because I knew that it was impossible for a demon to do so. Mother Nature despised demons, and that was also one of the reasons why I could also call upon her; she knew of my hatred of them and desired to help me in my harsh path.

But since she was refusing to do so, I thought it was weird. She should know better than anyone that she could not beat me if things stayed this way.

“Don’t mock me in front of my kind!” She continued to shout.

She launched another attack.

I gracefully blocked it without any problems.

“There’s only thirty seconds left, either summon Mother Nature or lose.”

She clenched her jaw. “I didn’t want to use this against you, but I guess I have no choice.”

Laura closed her eyes as I felt a lot of energy starting to form all around her body. She was clearly calling for Mother Nature, or at least, that’s what I had thought.

Suddenly, her eyes opened wide, and she disappeared from my field of view. However, it wasn’t like before. I truly couldn’t see her. She wasn’t in slow motion before me, trying to attack me. I could not see her.

Then, I felt the cold feeling of a sword pressing against my neck.

She had managed to break through my defenses, and the worst thing about all this was that I ignored how she had done it. She hadn’t even called upon Mother Nature. She had just summoned a strange internal energy.

“See? I told you I didn’t her. I, alone, am enough to kill you,” she whispered in my ears, her sword slightly brushing against my neck, a little blood dripping onto her sword.

The crowd started cheering as soon as they noticed that she had managed to beat me.

“Laura!”

“Laura!”

“Laura!”

However, while I could hear her name inside the arena, I couldn’t help but frown.

I didn’t understand how she had gotten behind me. I had no idea. I needed to find out what she did.

Ignoring my surroundings, I analyzed her movements from the moment she closed her eyes to the moment she had her sword against my neck. If we had been in a real fight, I would also most likely have died to her sword… even if I had used all of my powers, I wouldn’t have been able to block this sword. I was certain of it.

I turned toward Laura, who strangely still had her sword against my neck.

“You. How did you do that at the end? What energy did you use to move so fast that even I lost sight of your movements?”

“Secret… you’ll have to figure it out on your own. Otherwise, you might die if we were to fight again,” she said with a knowing smirk. Experience more tales on empire

Those comments of hers were definitely strange. She kept talking as if she wanted to kill me right now… or maybe she wanted to show me that she could kill me at any moment she wished.

“Hm. A secret…”

“Yeah, aren’t you the master of secrets? Your whole existence is shrouded in mystery,” she replied with the same annoying smirk as before.

She looked as if she knew everything about me, which made no sense, considering that she said she had learned of me with those articles. She was hiding something. I just knew it. I was sure of it.

“You. Just who are you?” I asked as the crowd continued to cheer, unable to hear this little conversation between the two of us.

“I told you that much already, I’m Laura Virdi.”

“No, I’m not talking about that. Who are you really? Just what are you hiding behind that innocent smile of yours.”

She shrugged. “I think you’re starting to hallucinate. You should get some sleep, I’m just a perfectly normal elven princess.”

With those words, she looked away and bowed toward the crowd as a way to thank everyone who had come here.

***

POV Laura

Thirty minutes after the sparring ended.

“Huh…I wanted to kill him so bad. If only Father had allowed it…” I clenched my teeth and my fists. “AHH! I would cut off his head in front of all the elves, and I would have shown everyone that Caedrel Stuart was nothing. Someone that I could with the flick of my pinky.”

I tried to calm down by going to kill off a few humans I had captured a while ago. But killing them didn’t change my mood at all. I still remember the feeling of having my sword against his neck. With a single movement, I could have ended his life.

However, the words of my father still resounded in my mind. “Don’t touch Caedrel Stuart, no matter what you do. He is too dangerous. If we kill him, then someone much more dangerous than him will appear, and he’s not someone that any of you can deal with.”

I just didn’t understand those words… why would my father be afraid of him or that hidden person that I had never heard of in my entire life?

I could have killed him just now. All of our worries would have vanished, and no one would have been able to stop us, no matter what they did. My father, the demon king, didn’t even say anything when I asked why. He only said that it would be best if we let Caedrel Stuart alone.

Maybe he had a plan for him… maybe he wanted to recruit him. I had no clue. However, for some reason, he didn’t want us to take revenge for our brother’s death.

It was true that we were close to taking over the elven territory as my father had finally gotten in contact with the king. If we were to get an ally such as the elves, then the war would practically be won. We would no longer need to hide everywhere, and we would be able to use this place as our base. After all, out of all the races, the elves are the most corrupt.

The king doesn’t care about the other noble families. He doesn’t even care that a lot of elves are being captured and sold off as slaves.

It makes me laugh that the elven king has this mentality and still acts as if he’s better than everyone. He has no beliefs, he’s a fucking loser who only has influence.

At least, I respect Caedrel since he can actually fight himself, and he doesn’t rely on others to do what he wants to do. He has his beliefs, and he will do everything in his power to respect them. That’s one thing that I can respect about him.

Still, he’s a dick, and all he deserves is to die.

Honestly, the fact that he pushed me far enough to use that energy says a lot about his strength. He is probably one of, if not the strongest, human that is still alive to this day.

“Ugh… just who is his backer, though, and why did Father seem so scared of him as if he could kill us all if that individual just desired it.”

I shook my head at those thoughts. There was no use in thinking about it any further. The orders were simple. Act just as you were before, and do not cause problems.

‘Still, I heard that we captured the girl with who he had been traveling. Caedrel will definitely go looking for her… he’s not one to abandon his friends like that.’

Then, just as I was about to head out of my room, there was a man before my door.

It wasn’t someone that I had been expecting. It was the Elven King.

“We have to talk.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep