For a knight, the greatest humiliation is having their sword taken from their hand…
This woman knew that well, yet she kept doing the same thing over and over again!
Waletidina was especially furious because of it.
She stopped attacking with her sword, instead kicking Iyue back to create distance, then began chanting an incantation.
“Burn—burst—bloom.”
It was an incredibly brief incantation… compressing lengthy prayers and spells down to only a few simple words that could be made out.
The moment the chant finished, she threw a straight punch at Iyue with her free hand—
“—!”
Crimson flames exploded against Iyue’s breastplate, the surging fire blooming like a lotus.
She was sent flying by the blow, crashing directly into the ruins of a building beside the street.
“Cough…!”
Iyue’s breastplate caved in with a large dent—even the Guard Knight armor, renowned for its excellent physical and magical resistance, shattered and melted under that strike.
Normally, a spell with this kind of power required lengthy construction and incantation… but Waletidina’s casting process was clearly not like that.
Being able to complete such a spell in so short a time proved that her Magic Power capacity and manipulation precision were nearly on par with High Demonkind, who could cast spells without incantation.
“Get up, Iyue Nairfu Mei. If you still have even a shred of a knight’s pride and dignity left, then face me properly with our swords and settle this.”
Waletidina did not pursue. She pointed her sword toward the ruins.
“…”
She watched as Iyue slowly rose to her feet, leaning on her sword. Then, amid the dust, several emerald magic circles lit up.
“You woman…!”
Iyue’s chanting was mixed into the cries of battle and the roar of cannon fire.
But the emerald wind blades launched from the circles tore through the air, howling as they flew.
Those blades were still aimed directly at Waletidina’s sword arm, coming with exceptional speed and density.
She deflected some with her sword, but the ones that slammed into her gauntlet afterward left her hand numb, causing the longsword to slip from her grip and fall.
Iyue did not let that opening slip by.
The spells she had chanted in the ruins were not only wind blades, but also a spell that enhanced her movement speed with the blessing of wind.
She shot toward Waletidina like an arrow, bursting through the air, striking her abdomen with the pommel of her sword.
From start to finish, her attacks were meant to subdue her opponent rather than take her life—and that fact burned Waletidina’s anger to its peak.
She sidestepped the incoming pommel strike, and while chanting, threw a punch at Iyue’s blade.
The longswords of the Guard Knights were weapons capable of containing immense Magic Power… but under that blow from Waletidina, the blade directly crumbled and snapped, bursting apart with a loud explosion.
To avoid being caught in that tremendous force, Iyue released her sword the moment the blade shattered.
Then she stepped forward into Waletidina’s embrace, grabbing her by the waist and pinning her to the ground.
As they tumbled, Waletidina kept attacking Iyue’s back… simply driving elbow strikes into it. At this point in the fight, now that it had devolved into close-quarters grappling, she no longer had room to chant those explosive spells.
Even though her attacks were heavy and powerful, they could not deal much damage to Iyue, who had breastplate protection.
In this position, the two fell into a ground struggle.
The one on top, Iyue, locked Waletidina’s shoulder, trying to dislocate it… but Waletidina immediately drove her knee up into Iyue’s body, knocking her off balance.
As she staggered, Waletidina swung her other, free arm in a punch aimed at Iyue’s chin.
An attack to the chin could send violent shockwaves through an enemy’s brain—as experts in close-quarters combat, both of them knew this well.
So even though she couldn’t launch a powerful strike from that position, Iyue abandoned the joint lock to block her fist.
And that gave Waletidina a chance to overturn from the disadvantageous position.
Using Iyue’s brief loss of balance, her hips coiled up like a slingshot and snapped forward, knocking Iyue tumbling to the right.
And in the scramble for the top position, their limbs tangled together, pushing the grappling match into its most heated stage.
“Let go…! This kind of ugly, despicable fighting… is not what a knight does!”
Waletidina had the edge in raw strength, but Iyue’s advantage in technique kept the struggle locked in a stalemate.
In that brief yet seemingly endless contest of strength, Waletidina roared in frustration and fury.
“Waletidina… you’re right. I am no longer a knight.”
“…What did you say?!”
Even while they spoke, neither relaxed their struggle for even a moment.
Iyue’s arms trembled continuously… but her eyes were calmer than they had ever been.
“I’m not a knight. I am an Oathbreaker who abandoned her master and betrayed her duties… I have no complaints against your accusations.”
“Then accept my judgment…! As Her Majesty the Queen’s blade, I will sever the head of one who has cast aside their oath—”
“I will not accept it. Because I have not yet reached the end of my journey… on this path of broken oaths.”
“How could you have fallen so low…!”
“If you would call this falling… then I was always like this.”
“‘My sword exists only to guard the honor of the Royal Court and the safety of the people. Should treachery threaten the throne or foes invade, even if my body shatters and my bones turn to dust, I shall build a wall of flesh and blood, and fight with my very life’… Have you forgotten all of that?!”
“I haven’t forgotten. But I never truly understood the weight of that oath… Or rather, at the moment I swore it, I only treated it as something like the rules and regulations of the Knights Order, not an oath that would bind my very soul.”
“You shameless, despicable woman…!”
“We are not the same kind of person, Waletidina. Her Majesty the Queen is everything to you… but not to me.”
“I came to Fenglin City to find my mother, who was confined by our Family. I struggled with everything I had to gain renown, status, and ability… all so that one day I could earn the Family’s recognition and bring my mother back to my father.”
“To me, becoming Her Majesty’s knight was merely a means… a way to gain the Family’s acknowledgment. I never intended to devote my entire life to it.”
“I care more about my Family than I do about Her Majesty. So once I realized that, I left that letter behind, and departed from Fenglin City.”
“Shut up!”
Waletidina roared nearly mad with rage… but Iyue answered with her own shout:
“Protecting my Family, staying by their side… that is the path I will walk even if I must break my oath and stain my soul with filth! If I could live my life over again, I would still make the same choice!”
Waletidina was stunned for a moment. Looking into Iyue’s eyes, she did not see the bravado of someone inferior, nor the escape of a coward… but a determination so clear and pure it was transparent to the very bottom.
And that moment of hesitation cost her strength in the struggle, allowing Iyue to once again secure a dominant mounted position.
“But… for not being able to die together with my brothers and sisters that day, for not being able to stand by your side and fight alongside you… I’m sorry.”
Iyue’s fist, together with the tears slipping from her eyes, struck Waletidina’s cheek and sank deep into the dirt.