Chapter 40
Chapter 40: The Duke’s Guidance (First Part)
***
I frowned immediately upon hearing this.
Guarding at the door? Wasn’t he supposed to be on duty at the city wall?
What a nutcase, not sleeping in the middle of the night, what’s he doing guarding the door?
I held onto these doubts until I had almost finished the food on the table, when I suddenly remembered that I was the one who had told him to go guard the door last night because I found him annoying.
My mood immediately became somewhat peculiar.
Originally, I thought he would guard for a while and then run into Carlos returning from the orphanage, and then the two would get into a fight… no, more like Parsifal would get beaten up one-sidedly by Carlos, return to the Duke with a bruised face to complain, and make Carlos lose face.
Or else he would guard for a while without seeing anyone and then obediently go back to sleep, who knew he would actually guard for the entire night, is he really that honest?
How adorable.
However, since he’s still guarding over there, that means Carlos hasn’t returned since last night.
Hmm…
Because I don’t really understand these things, I just feel that this guguo grass should be similar to the drugs in my original world, like heroin, meth, those kinds of things. Although the nature is very vicious, it’s actually quite common, many children from wealthy families use these things as frequently and simply as ordinary people smoke.
These people are certainly detestable, but isn’t this something for the Church Knights to handle? If worse comes to worst, with the Duke’s influence, having the hunters assist in the investigation, catching a few drug dealers shouldn’t be that difficult, right?
But Carlos hasn’t returned all night… Although with his strength, he certainly won’t run into any trouble, but is the situation at the orphanage really that serious?
And those heretics, they look truly frightening, just like what’s written in the books, sacrificing their own blood to demons… they give me the impression of being completely crazy people who harm others without benefiting themselves, how did a place like the orphanage that takes in unfortunate children get involved with such people?
“Miss Sylvia, how is it? If you’re done eating, shall we go?”
The Duke’s words pulled me back from my wandering thoughts, and I nodded somewhat dazedly.
Then quickly stuffed the remaining half piece of sweet bread into my mouth and drank the last sip of soup.
“Mm hmm.”
In my heart, I was already somewhat impatient.
“You two really…” Madam Catherine shook her head helplessly, “Why must you do this kind of thing, can’t you just stay at home properly?”
“Ha, how could that work.” The Duke laughed, “Don’t forget, Miss Sylvia is a Pontifical Knight, the youngest Pontifical Knight in history, meeting an old Pontifical Knight like me, we must have a proper exchange.”
I also nodded with a smile.
This was something we had agreed upon yesterday. The Duke said he would make weapons for me without charging money, but I had to agree to one condition.
The condition was simple, from today until I leave Winter City, I must train with him every morning.
As for how to train… when strong people face equally strong people, and both possess the Frost Order, how can they understand without first crossing hands?
Face-to-face confrontation is a man’s romance.
However, obviously, Madam Catherine couldn’t understand the passion burning in our chests.
“What’s so special about being a Pontifical Knight? Your time as a Pontifical Knight almost cost you your life, what use is such empty fame?”
“How can this be empty fame, two years ago if it wasn’t for… never mind, let’s not talk about this.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I know you’re all great heroes, but what if something goes wrong and someone gets hurt?”
“I will be careful.”
“Careful, what can you be careful about? Once you start fighting, how easy is it to hold back… hmph, forget it. I know I can’t stop you, but I’m going to follow and watch, and you can’t stop me. If I see you carelessly hurting Miss Sylvia, I won’t let you off easily.”
“Haha, then you better stand far away…”
………….
There was a large courtyard behind Shanter Castle.
Walking along the courtyard’s corridor and further in, there was a bare piece of land about the size of two football fields.
This was normally the training ground for the elite hunters of the Shanter army, and occasionally the Duke would come here to exercise. Therefore, various targets and wooden dummies wearing heavy armor were placed on one side of the open space.
Last night’s snow wasn’t heavy, and the already sparse snow on the ground had clearly been cleared away.
The sky was gradually clearing, and sunlight poured down.
On the vast open ground, more than ten hunters had already put down their weapons and were sitting in small groups at the edge of the ground, staring intently at two figures in the distance, one large and one small.
Bang——
Crack crack crack——
The sound of ice breaking continuously came from the field.
Madam Catherine, standing in the middle of the crowd, looked tense and unconsciously clenched her fists.
In her eyes, the petite girl took light steps, constantly weaving between the breaking ice blocks with an extremely agile figure.
The rhythm of their battle was quite fast, and every dangerous moment made her feel anxious.
Although her face remained calm at the moment, that was of course because there were many hunters present, and she couldn’t show any signs of losing composure.
In her heart, however, she had already cursed the Duke thoroughly.
Really. What kind of father would fight with his own daughter like this… did he think this was child’s play? Like the dueling knights in stories, where swords would always stop steadily at the opponent’s neck at the last moment?
What a joke, even when children play fight with each other there are examples of accidents, let alone a scene like this that scared her just by watching.
Isn’t this gambling with lives? Even when training those workshop hunters, it wouldn’t go to this extent, right?
What made her angriest was that the two seemed to be having more and more fun fighting, and the hunters on the side were watching with great interest, leaving only her worried sick.
What kind of situation is this.
Fortunately, neither of them was using weapons, otherwise she wouldn’t have agreed to this no matter what.
Crack——
The sound of ice breaking came again, and Madam Catherine’s shoulders slightly shrank. She quickly threw away those messy thoughts in her mind and concentrated on looking at the figures in the field.
“Huff, huff——”
My chest rose and fell slightly with my breathing.
This battle had been going on for who knows how long, and I was starting to feel tired.
But at this moment, I could only vigilantly observe the movements around me, constantly making dodging movements with my feet, not daring to relax in the slightest.
The next moment, a black shadow appeared overhead.
“Here——!”
A huge ice hammer smashed down from above, my heart jumped, and I quickly side-stepped to dodge.
Bang——
Ice shards shattered and scattered in the air, the sight was stunning.
But now was not the time to appreciate it. Before the Duke could adjust his posture, I immediately turned and swept out with a whip kick.
The pant leg cut through the air creating a series of explosive sounds.
The Duke’s reaction was very quick, he decisively dropped the ice hammer in his hand and raised both arms to block his side.
Bang!
The kick landed.
Swoosh——
This kick directly sent the Duke sliding back four or five meters, his Martin boots scraping against the ground making a teeth-grinding sound.
“Haha! Such great strength!”
He laughed twice, and after stabilizing his posture, he shook his arms.
“Not bad, not bad. When Thirteenth Moon is in your hands, I’m afraid even I will have to give way.”
You mean I’m not qualified to make you give way now? Don’t underestimate me!
Cold light gathered in both palms, I lifted my foot wanting to launch a new round of attack, but saw the Duke suddenly change his steps, his right foot lightly tapping the ground. Although the movement looked quite casual and elegant, his figure was as fast as an arrow leaving the string, reaching in front of me in an instant.
So fast!
My heart suddenly jumped, isn’t this the strange footwork that masked person used?
There was no time to think carefully, the Duke’s fist had already struck over carrying the sound of wind.
Whoosh!
The fist wind brushed past my ear, carrying strands of hair.
I slightly tilted my head, dodging the attack by a hair’s breadth, then immediately clenched my right fist, took an archery stance with my feet, and swung a punch towards the Duke’s abdomen.
Clang——
There wasn’t the expected feeling, this hit landed on the Duke’s metal arm, the shock made me stagger back half a step, my arm feeling numb.
It hurts a bit.
But the Duke retreated several steps back with “thud thud” sounds.
“Impressive! No wonder that kid Carlos said you have extreme combat talent, this is practically like instinct.” He cast an admiring look at me, “Being able to quickly judge the situation and seize gaps for counterattacks in time, you didn’t think about any of those movements just now, did you?”
“No. When you rushed over, I just moved.”
I nodded to the Duke, while speaking I condensed an ice stone the size of a fist and threw it at him.
“Haha, it seems I’d better not engage in close combat with you, otherwise I’ll eventually suffer.”
The Duke dodged the ice block with a side step, blue light flashing in his hand.
I saw the sharp light in his eyes and a bad feeling rose in my heart.
Bang bang bang——
The next moment, countless ice pillars rose from under my feet, crisscrossing around me like an ice crystal prison, so dense there was almost no room to move, instantly locking down my movement, leaving me trapped inside unable to move.
“How about it, want to continue?”
The Duke walked towards me slowly, once again condensing a large ice hammer in his hand, swinging it back to rest on his shoulder.
Continue or not?
Why does it sound like you’ve already decided I’m going to lose?
But I feel the outcome is still far from decided…
I took a deep breath.
The air temperature began to plummet, and fine frost appeared on the ground.
“Be careful.”
Whoosh whoosh——
The ice mist was like a low-temperature bomb, raising a freezing storm with me at the center, its concentration so high it obscured vision.
The surroundings immediately became foggy.
Where is he!
I squinted my eyes looking forward, trying to find the Duke’s figure in it.
“…Let me teach you something.”
The sudden voice made my pupils contract violently.
“When Frost Order faces Frost Order, unless there’s too big a gap between the two sides, otherwise, the ice’s property of ‘low temperature’ won’t have any effect.”
As soon as the words fell, something broke through the ice mist and struck towards me.