Chapter 16:

|The perfect victory

That time I got reincarnated in the middle of a royal wedding..


The battle had taken an interesting turn. Quite fitting for a royal duel. The one most in shock was none other than the Prince himself.

"Your arms are shaking Marcus, you scared?"
"Impossible. Another multi elemental. How many do you possess?"
"I wonder. All I know is at this moment, these are the elements I'll use to defeat you. Ice is my specialty so I’m quite confident in that."

“Lightning is my specialty.”

“That makes things even better.”
"You wench."
"It's not the time for insults."
She looked at him with lonely eyes. She said it multiple times but now, it was clearer than ever. She was not losing this fight.


"You made me use this. You better take responsibility and fight me properly."
"That much is a given."
"Good."
"Being a multi elemental really is a big deal. If anything, my respect for you has increased. We've gone off track for too long. There's only one reason we're here, after all."
"Says the guy who keeps talking."
"SHUT IT!!! Rumi Leopold. I will defeat you."
"Good luck."

Now that magic had been thrown in, the battlefield was on a whole different scale compared to before. With two slashes, multiple moon shaped masses of ice were thrown at him. He destroyed them with his two swords. Unknown to him, his opponent was already behind him. She went for a high kick, which was blocked by his right sword that stung her quite a bit. She leaped back while the prince chuckled endlessly.

"Hmmph."
He plunged his ice sword into the ground and suddenly the whole battlefield turned into ice. At such rapid speed, dodging would have been difficult. Assuming it could even be done in time, he already had a counter attack lined up. What was Rumi going to do??

"It's too cold for this."
She hit the ground with her sword and the ice that was approaching cracked on the way and stopped.
"How?"
"My lightning magic is opposing your ice magic. It's as simple as that. "
"Don't give me that crap. That nonchalant attitude of yours. You're looking down on me, aren't you?"
"You think so?"
"My lack of killing intent is the reason for this. It’s my fault.That's why a woman is patronizing me. This will be my final move. You better be ready."
"Come."


His ice sword faced the ground and in mere seconds, all the ice went in one direction, under his feet.
{crackle}
As he pointed his second sword up to the sky, lightning struck the center of the battlefield, where he stood. The bolt of lightning enveloped the sword and it grew in size, around threefold.
"That's dangerous."
"Don't say I didn't warn you, Rumi."
He dashed towards her with even greater speed. With every step he took, ice surrounded that particular area. His sword crackled intensely as he swung it around, creating mighty fragments of lightning bolts approaching her at different angles. She casually dodged the first and slashed another with her sword. However, there were four more approaching her. Fast attacks like that could be dodged by making slight, precise adjustments to one’s position but that mostly worked for single attacks. The most logical choice was..

“Annoying.”

She leaped to the side in an unpredictable manner, trying to escape the bolts that were locked on her. It was quite a tedious task due to their amazing speed. As long as she always had the option of hitting them, she didn’t consider herself in grave danger. She took special care to avoid getting close to the crowd.

“Running, are we?”

“You should thank me. I’m merely extending the time until your defeat. Entertainment, as you call it.”

“I ought to shut that mouth of yours.”

As she tried dodging the last one, the prince ran towards her with his two weapons. The plan was the same as earlier. Trap her within the bounds of the ice prison on the ground and electrocute her thoroughly to the point that she can’t pick up her weapon, or do anything else for a while. Dodging the last bolt was a close call as she dodged it by a hair’s breadth. She leaped back, making a backflip.He used that opportunity to strike.

“It’s all over” he said as his face spawned an evil smile. After several moments of embarrassment in this fight, he was finally about to turn the tables on her…. or so he thought.

“Hmm. Solid plan, if I do say so myself.”

As she landed on her feet, she took the hit head on. Their blades clashing, but the one being overwhelmed was the one that initiated the attack in the first place. Everywhere fell silent. I mean, the cheering was gone a while ago but no sound could be heard at this point, nothing but the clashing of blades.

“H--”

“Don’t ask me how. I’m tired of explaining my attacks to you.”

She threw his sword away and kicked him to the ground. Water, Ice and even lightning were all useless against her. With her sword pointed to the man on the ground, the battle was over. His face grew pale and disbelief latched onto every word he uttered.

“How?? How did you do it?”

“Look, I just t--”

“ANSWER ME!!!”

{sigh}

“You underestimated me and my sword, Galatine. You believed I could only deal with your annoying ice technique by using my sword, right? Of course, I can use ice without my sword. That much has to be a necessity. But the image of me using my sword against your ice was planted successfully into your mind so I anticipated you taking advantage of it. However, you losing to me had nothing to do with that. Martial Lionheart, you are a fool.”

“What?”

“You have magical capacity unlike anything I’ve seen before. I’m sure you must have worked hard to get there. But you squander it in battle. If you were resourceful with it, you might have been able to do some damage.”

“So, I fought a losing battle.”

“I warned you from the start, but instead of taking my advice, you gave me a warning of your own. ‘Violate me’ you said. If I were petty, I would proceed to violate you instead. I’m sure the ladies will love that type of entertainment.”

“The perfect victory.”

Those were the only words I could utter. Nothing else could explain this match. I always thought highly of Rumi and her battle capability, but this??? How overpowered was she?? Martial was boss level in his own right but was effectively dismantled like some no name NPC.

“W-What did I just witness? That was one of the most elegant battles I have seen. Is she human??”

“Hehe, that’s my wife for you.”

Elaine was left gazing with astonishment that could be heard from her voice but her expression was back to default mode. Same could be said for Lez who was at the side and still didn’t approach us. After clearing her throat, Elaine stood up.

“The duel has come to an end. Everyone leave the arena this instant.”

The crowd reached for the exits, multiple voices could be heard. This fight was going to be the talk of the academy for quite a while. It was to be expected. So this is why Elaine was asked to come. I stood up, too, but of course, I was headed for the center of the arena to congratulate my wife. Elaine and I walked there together.

“Great job, Elaine.”

“I should be telling you that. You did a great..no.. an amazing job.”

“I appreciate the compliment.”

“Rumi.”

“Voyan. How did I do?”

“It was like a witnessed a goddess on the battlefield.”

“Haa, is that so?”

She snickered and crossed her arms. The prince who still remained on the ground refused to look me in the eye. Honestly, I had no words for him so it was no problem.

“This sure was a long day. Let’s head home, Rumi.”

“I’ll love that.”

“Wait!!!!”

His pathetic voice rung out from behind us. All his pride was crushed and this was what was left.

“What is it, Martial??”

“You….You too…Did you know how this battle was going to turn out??”

“Unfortunately, I can’t predict any battle with absolute certainty but my confidence was not unfounded and neither was hers.”

“I…I see.”

I didn’t want to say anything. Perhaps I shouldn’t have. Seeing him in such a pathetic state filled me with joy but at the same time, he wasn’t that terrible of a human. I wanted him to bear the shame of defeat but doing so with his head held high. That much was impossible for this arrogant, royal punk, but I tried anyway.

“You lost. That much is true. But nothing says you have to look so pathetic. You can respectfully claim your defeat. Not act like a kid whose favourite toy was broken. Cheer up, you stupid Lionheart.”

He looked at me, gritting his teeth like he had words of his own to throw at me, but he calmed himself.

{smack}

With both his cheeks red, he picked himself up, dusted his behind and picked up his swords, placing them in their scabbards. He then sighed and looked up to the sky, before staring at Rumi.

“Rumi Leopold.”

“What?”

He walked towards her and extended his right hand.

“Despite that crushing defeat, I have to admit, it was a great fight.”

“Seems like I knocked some sense into you.”

“Don’t push it, you wench.”

“Martin received an epiphany.”

Before they could shake hands, I busted open with laughter. It was certainly a sight to see. The arrogant prince that I met today was humbled and became somewhat less arrogant, admitting a ‘crushing defeat’ of all things?? In just a single day??? I couldn’t help myself. Even Elaine was about to explode.

“Let it out, Elaine.”

“No, your highness. Please do not put me in trouble.”

“HAHAHA!”

“IT’S NOT FUNNY!!!”

Martial cut me short with his remarks.

“My grudge with Rumi is officially over.”

He really did get an epiphany.

“It was a by product of something much greater to begin with so don’t be surprised. Voyan.”

“Yes??”

“My grudge started with your sister but it will end with you.”

“Huh??”

He’s referring to Viesta?? What did that girl do now?? Why must she be the bane of my existence?? What did I ever to do to her?

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Stop joking.” Rumi cut in.

“If you can’t beat me, then you can’t dream of beating my husband.”

“I’m aware of how weak I am compared to you, so all I need to do is get stronger. Look forward to it.”

“Whatever.”

“By the way, why did you let her stay?”

He pointed to Elaine who was the odd one out of all of us, not being royalty.

“She’s the student council president so she has every right to be here. In case you do anything reckless after your defeat.”

“I’m not that shameless. The worst I can do is leave the academy immediately. But, of course I’m not doing that. It won’t only bring shame to me but to my family. I’ll leave in six weeks like everyone else that’s graduating.”

“That’s good. We must take our leave now.”

I grabbed Rumi’s hand and left the mini coliseum. My first day of school was now over. We were met with even more gazes compared to earlier but that was just the result of some gossip spreading. Rumi was now the star of Brittanica. She excused herself for a moment, claiming she had some unfinished business to attend to and called it ‘a girl’s secret’. After a couple of minutes of waiting, Rumi appeared and so did Schnitzel. He appeared panting and speaking at the same time. Apparently, he was busy reading up on weapon forgery in the library when he heard of the battle that was taking place. He asked multiple questions on the way home but we were too tired to answer most of them.

Home sweet home. Never thought I would say those words. That was when it hit me. Rumi really won the bet. That meant my dream of a harem was officially over, huh? No way. All I could do now was beg my way out of this tragedy. The most important thing was how I did it. I could even pull out the dogeza in hopes that she reconsiders. 

Anyway, the royal castle was nothing like I remembered yesterday. My exhaustion to blame. It did look pretty plain, though. With its grey walls, I could say it was the standard castle for royalty but that aside, the whole scenery was charming. I walked through the hallway with only one thing on my mind, Rona. I didn’t explain thoroughly what happened with her to Rumi but I don’t think she cares all that much. I left Rumi in the hallway, she could do anything she wanted. All I had to do was find Rona, now!!!

It was a tall order because I still didn’t know the layout of this castle. Everything was still new to me. I remembered where she went in the morning to change her clothes. We went there together, after all. I hoped I was headed in the right direction. I saw a door that didn’t do me any favours in terms of uniqueness. The doors all looked the same so I couldn’t tell them apart. I stared at it intently, hoping she was there.

“Your highness?”

I looked beside me and my messy state finally got put to rest. Because the person I saw beside me was the one I was searching for. Without a moment’s hesitation, I grabbed her and went in the room. I couldn’t allow our conversation to be out in the open like that. The mistake I made this morning will not be repeated,

“Y-Your highness?”

“Whew. Wait, huh??”

Suddenly, Rona pulled up her skirt to the point that I could nearly see what was beneath them. I swiftly grabbed them. Due to my fast reflexes, they stopped at a point I could not see anything. In other words, I lost the battle but won the war. What the hell was she thinking, though??

“What the hell??”

“I-I-I’m so sorry, your highness. I simply assumed after dragging me to this room, you wanted to---”

“Gosh no. Do you do this with everyone??”

“No, your highness. None of the members of the royal family have shown any interest in me so I have had no reason to do so. I was prepared for it before taking on the job so I do not mind.”

I felt the urge to argue against that but now was not the time.

“It’s really good to see you. I was worried.”

“Your highness.”

“Viesta didn’t do anything to you, did she??”

“No, today has been fairly normal.”

“Nothing unusual??”

“Nothing.”

“Phew. I’ll have to talk to her sooner or later. This is stupid.”

“Princess Viesta is currently out. She left her room not too long ago.”

“Did she talk to you?”

“Yes, she approached me and asked me If I was scared.”

“If you were scared?”

“Yes. I told her I was and she smiled, then left me alone.”

I really have to settle this fast before we end up doing things we’ll regret.

“Your highness, if I may speak.”

“What is it?”

“Queen Vivian has been waiting for you since this morning but you never showed up.”

“Oh. I’m on my way there now. I have to be careful, entering your room like this.”

“Umm, your highness, this is not my room.”

“Oh….”

We both left the room and I was on my way to my “mother’s” room with the help of Rona who I told to help me out as I was too tired to locate it by myself. Bullshit but she ate it up without a second thought. Finally, we got to the door in which she stayed. I dismissed Rona and took a couple of deep breaths before entering. Why, you might ask??? Well, she can be considered the final boss of this story. You can never deceive a mother when it comes to her child. Even minor details she could see through, so in a way, this was my greatest trial as an actor. Will she see through me or will she accept me?

Veekeeki
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