Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 261

Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 261

260: Engagement - Divorce
On this pitch-black night, the campfires scattered throughout the military camp cast their light on the faces of the soldiers from various angles. Some soldiers had their mouths agape, others had their eyes widened in shock, nostrils flaring, and bodies frozen in place.
Leo burst into laughter as he took charge.
"Hahahahaha! So, even a Swordmaster isn't that special! Attack them all!"
There was something in Leo's shout that a soldier could not disobey—{Leadership}. Though many soldiers had crossed the river to repel the enemy, those who remained let out a loud battle cry, breaking free from their commanders' control.
"W-Wait a moment...!"
The prince's plea was in vain. As the soldiers charged bravely toward Count Forte and his knights, the camp quickly descended into chaos. Count Forte shouted back.
"Proceed according to the original plan! The 2nd Division, secure our retreat! The rest, follow me! We'll capture the prince!"
Forty knights made for an overwhelming force.
These weren't just any knights but those from the 1st Knight Order of Bellita, the most powerful nation on the continent, all trained under Count Herman Forte himself.
They were superhumans, beyond mere soldiers, whose prowess could hardly be described by the term "one-man army." These forty knights created a storm of bloodshed. The soldiers of the Astin Kingdom, who had cried out so boldly, now fell in droves, utterly devastated.
Count Forte looked down at the swordsman who dared to block his path, his eyes blazing.
To think he blocked my Aura Blade... I was surprised, but in this world, the mysterious is plentiful. The Count let out a short snort, this time striking with the intent to kill.
-
Clang!!
"Leo!"
The white-hot Aura Blade clashed against the dull brown of an ancient-looking sword. A deafening roar echoed, and Leo's knee buckled slightly under the immense pressure.
The sword’s force was overwhelming. Even though Leo was considered large by most standards, Count Forte's size was on a different scale.
Standing at 9
cheok
(about 2.13 meters), with shoulders wide enough to fit five human heads side by side, his limbs were as thick as a horse’s. Leo gritted his teeth and forced himself back up.
"You're blocking it again?"
Count Forte leaned his weight into the attack. As Leo's body began to give way under the pressure, the Count cast a puzzled glance beyond the clashing swords.
Yes, it must seem strange.
Count Herman Forte's swordsmanship was specialized in concealing his intentions. He masked the minute movements of his muscles, changes in his center of gravity, his gaze, and his footwork, making it nearly impossible to predict his next move.
Against a swordsman of lesser skill, he was unmatched. While it was natural for the less skilled to be outclassed, his technique left opponents incapable of even mounting a decent resistance.
-
Creak.
Leo tensed, angling his sword. Though a part of him yearned to test his mettle by unleashing his own Aura Blade, there was no need for that right now. Leo's sword scraped along the surface of Count Forte's blade, where the Aura Blade flickered.
"Leo! Be careful! Prince, please, you must escape!"
Once could be considered a coincidence, but twice was not. A warning bell rang in Count Herman Forte's mind.
He decided to no longer consider his opponent as just a young, inexperienced man.
What one sees isn’t always the full truth. The eyes can deceive, and no one knew this better than the Count, who had mastered the art of hidden swordsmanship. Moreover, he didn’t have time to waste sparring with this young man.
Count Forte forcefully knocked Leo's sword into the air and kicked out. Leo, using the momentum, flipped backward to avoid the kick, while the Count took that opportunity to survey his surroundings.
Soldiers were closing in. Behind him, the 2nd Division was securing the retreat, and ahead, twenty knights from the 1st Division were in pursuit of the prince. The prince's guards, as well as the centurions, junior knights, and soldiers, tried to hold them off, but they were no match.
Aside from the royal guards, most of them couldn't withstand more than five or six exchanges before falling. The knights of the 1st Division seemed on the verge of capturing the fleeing prince. However, just as one knight reached out to grab the prince's cloak,
"Qualm!"
A red-robed mage pointed at the knight. The knight's fist clutched at empty air, and in that brief moment, the prince managed to put some distance between them.
"Mage!"
The knights began to stagger, dizzy, as though their heads were spinning. Count Forte steadied his breathing, exhaling to release his impatience, and inhaling to focus, unifying his mind.
The atmosphere changed.
Leo felt a shiver of excitement running through his body. Had he felt this way when he first faced the Old Fire Tiger? The Count seemed even larger than he was in reality.
His legs, grounded in the earth, were brimming with explosive power, and the longsword in his grip felt ice-cold. The Count's eyes were calm, revealing nothing of what he felt.
Though he had hidden his Aura Blade, Leo tensed his muscles, readying himself for the battle.
A duel between masters begins with the slightest movement.
It started with a subtle sway from the big toe. With his toes raised, Leo shifted his weight from his ankles to his knees, moving cautiously, like a man walking on thorns, taking half steps to ensure his legs never crossed.
But if he swayed too much, his reaction would slow down, making him vulnerable to attack. Even the greatest of masters sometimes make this mistake. However, if he remained still and did not sway, the opponent would find the perfect angle to strike.
Count Forte clicked his tongue, realizing he was in a disadvantageous position. He couldn't afford to waste time being overly cautious, so he made the first move.
As his torso swayed backward, he took a step back. Feigning an intention to widen the distance, he suddenly slammed his foot forward.
His center of gravity was low. As he lunged forward, he put power into his upper body, which had lagged behind his lower body.
A short, sharp slash.
But it was more than powerful enough. The hilt barely moved five
chi
(approximately 15 cm), but the tip of the sword swung widely, cutting down toward Leo at an angle.
Leo raised his sword horizontally to block it.
Leo’s sword connected at a slightly lower position than expected. Count Forte instantly understood his opponent’s intent and stepped to the right.
Surely, he wasn't foolish enough to think he could match strength with me, Count Forte, by clashing with the
forte
(the lower, stronger part of the blade). And given that the young man’s sword lacked a proper crossguard, he wasn’t likely to try rotating the blade around the point of contact.
As expected, the young man attempted to slip low to the right (from the Count’s perspective). However, because the Count had anticipated this move, their swords screeched in a grating noise, preventing Leo’s attack from following through.
Both fighters had expended a breath.
Neither had gained an advantage, but with the swords locked, the physically larger Count Forte had more leverage. The Count pressed down with all his might, and Leo, unable to withstand the force, grabbed the
foible
(the upper, weaker part of the blade) with his other hand. He braced the flat of the blade against his palm to avoid being cut, successfully blocking the Count’s sword.
This maneuver could have bent or even broken a lesser sword.
But Leo’s sword was no ordinary weapon. The description of it being “unbreakable” in past achievements meant it would never break, not even in death. The chance of it bending was also nonexistent.
There’s no way the Count could overpower Leo in this position, holding the sword as if it were a bar with both arms outstretched.
Leo steadied himself, spreading his legs and taking a deep breath, then pushed the Count’s sword away with a rotating motion.
-
Vwoom! Thwack!
Leo’s sword spun in a diagonal arc. As the blade, now fueled by his entire body’s momentum, came down, this time, it was the Count who had to block by laying his sword horizontally.
In the midst of this fierce back-and-forth, Lena had approached the scene.
Having barely fended off a knight with the help of other junior knights, she had been torn between aiding another guard or rushing to help the prince. In the end, she chose to assist Leo.
But when she arrived, she stood frozen, watching the duel unfold between Leo and the Swordmaster. Leo seemed slightly on the defensive, yet each exchange between the two was like watching a masterpiece.
Every strike was delivered with utmost precision. Every step held a purpose, with layers of feints and subtle intentions.
Perhaps there were even more layers than she could grasp. Only after each move was made did she begin to understand, Ah! So that's what they were doing. The two fighters, now fully immersed in the battle, must have been exchanging even more at a level beyond her comprehension.
She felt envious.
I... I want to...
Lena, almost as if bewitched, moved closer. Leo's {Synergy} had intuitively guided her to the optimal position, and Count Forte only noticed her presence when she adopted a stance for a precise thrust.
"Damn."
It wasn’t as if others hadn’t tried to intervene in their fight before. Occasionally, some foolhardy soldier would attempt to join, only to be effortlessly cut down by the Count’s blade.
Most soldiers simply weren’t skilled enough to participate in such a high-level duel. This time, the Count had assumed it was another unworthy opponent attempting to interfere, and he had prepared to sweep away both Leo and the intruder with his next move. But something felt off about this new presence.
Moreover, there was something unsettling about the way Leo adjusted his blade slightly to the left, allowing the figure behind him to lower her sword in response.
He couldn’t find an angle to eliminate both of them.
It was then that Count Forte snapped out of his trance. He sidestepped to get a clearer view of his surroundings and... let out a sigh.
The prince had escaped. The knights of the 1st Division were still fighting valiantly, but they were being toyed with by the enemy's mage, who was relentlessly throwing soldiers at them while casting a barrage of spells.
The mission had failed. Whether persuading the prince or capturing him swiftly, one of these objectives should have been accomplished, but everything had gone awry.
Even now, he could still rush over and kill that insolent mage, perhaps even capture the prince. But if that were possible, he would have done it already... Count Forte, now filled with frustration, turned his gaze back to the strange young man before him.
This brat ruined everything.
Yet, despite his fury, the Count maintained his composure and offered respect to the young man, who was clearly destined to become a great swordsman. Though Leo had not yet fully mastered the Aura Blade, it was only a matter of time before he did.
"You are remarkable. I’m genuinely impressed."
Count Herman Forte rarely addressed anyone with such respect. Those who received this honor were few—individuals like those born into royal blood or exceptionally talented figures like Marquis Benar Tatian. Only a select few merited such words from him.
Receiving such recognition from Count Forte was a great honor, a testament to one's worth...
"It’s a pity we met as enemies. I would have liked to cross swords with you more, but the situation doesn’t permit it. When this war is over, I hope we can..."
"Why are you still yapping?"
The response was a string of insults.
"What, you think you’re gonna talk your way out of this because you can’t win? Hah! That’s hilarious. If you charge into enemy territory, you should be ready to die. You coward."
Count Herman Forte’s eye twitched.
In his forty-seven years of life, when had anyone ever spoken to him like this? And from such a young man at that.
He had been born as the heir to a distinguished family and had walked the path of royalty without faltering. He held a sword at the age of five, defeated knights by thirteen.
At sixteen, when he became an adult, no one in the Forte family, aside from his father, could teach him anything. Bored, Herman Forte joined the kingdom’s knight order.
At seventeen, he became the captain of the 1st Knight Division. The world remembered him not just as the youngest knight of the Bellita Kingdom, but as the youngest knight captain. At twenty-five, he became the commander of the 1st Knight Order. He achieved the rank of Swordmaster at thirty, around the time King Kumaean de Tatalia ascended to the throne.
It was also around then that Herman Forte entered the political arena.
He rented a private office within the royal palace and spent every day there, meeting nobles and proving himself adept at politics. He began competing with Marquis Benar Tatian, the leader of the royalist faction, establishing himself as a formidable force.
Truly, he had succeeded in everything except raising his son. Even though he was now in a rather comical situation, he was still a man who deserved respect, even from his enemies.
Sigh.
Count Forte took a deep breath, calming his agitation.
What an ill-mannered young man. Well, he is an enemy, and there’s no need to show courtesy to an enemy.
He decided to focus solely on finding a way out of this mess. But before he could finalize his thoughts, Leo spoke again.
"That’s why you divorced your wife, huh? Isn’t your wife a princess of the Aisel Kingdom? What was the problem that made you divorce the mother of your child? If it were me..."
Count Forte’s patience snapped. He turned coldly toward Leo, his eyes no longer blinking. His face, now icy and resolute, locked onto Leo with a steely gaze.
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Chapter 261