Chapter 314 - Duel

When Cecil and his wives went out for a meal, Quinn had excused himself from joining them. He was going to head back to their accommodations and wait for the King and everyone else.

Right after their meal, Quinn had come back to inform the group that Kaiser and everyone from Silvaria was invited by King Nemus to stay at the castle. Cecil declined from joining them. He would rather not stay under the same roof as the person who had tried to assault his wife.

"I knew you weren't going to accept it," Fatima said as she walked into the diner that Cecil and his group were eating at.

"Oh, sis, is something wrong?"

"Not really, except for the fact that you disrespectfully walked out earlier, nothing is wrong."

"Heh, you think they deserve my respect? They should be happy that I didn't cleave their castle in two," Cecil smirked back.

"Yeah, yeah, I know you're strong, but don't go around recklessly using your power!"

"I know at least that much sis! Look at me, I'm here minding my own business and not looking for trouble!"

Fatima walked over and began to roughly rub Cecil's head and mess up his already messy hair. Rowan walked in a little bit later and sat at their table and immediately apologized to Cecil.

"I'm sorry about before..."

"Don't worry, Rowan, I won't hold you against it. It wasn't you that was being an asshole."

"Thank you...this may be a little shameless, but my father would still like you to spare him..."

Cecil only let out a mocking grin and said, "He had his chance."

"..."

"I'll only say this... his death won't be a pleasant one. If an animal tried to touch my wife, I'll naturally put it down."

"A-Animal... that's a little harsh," Rowan replied with a strained smile.

"Was my brother always so foul-mouthed?" Fatima said with a glare.

Cecil shrugged in reply to her words.

"By the way, that woman who came with that...what's his name, is that your mother as well Rowan?"

"Which woman—oh, you must mean the Royal Concubine, Helda, she Armano's mother, not mine," Rowan replied.

"I see... now that I think about it, I don't think I saw the Queen earlier."

"The Queen, my mother, passed away while giving birth to me..."

"Oh... my condolences, Rowan, well at least now I know why that second prince is so stupid while you're not. Is the first prince also from the queen?"

"Yes, Albert and I are brothers while Armano is our half-brother."

Cecil nodded in understanding. After paying the bill, he walked out of the diner with everyone.

"I won't promise anything Rowan, but you should just wait for the outcome in 3 days."

Rowan only nodded, but he was no longer hoping for Cecil to spare his brother's life. Rowan himself felt ashamed for asking because if it was him in Cecil's position and someone tried to do something to Fatima, he was certain that he'd do whatever it took to kill the culprit.

"Since you're not going to be staying at the castle, we'll separate here."

Rowan brought Fatima away towards the castle while Cecil's group continued towards their inn.

3 days passed quickly and it was finally the day when Cecil would pass judgment onto the second prince of Regulus.

During the past 3 days, the duel was advertised throughout the entire kingdom and it had somehow transformed into an exhibition match of sorts. Even Cecil was flabbergasted when he heard this.

His public 'execution' had somehow transformed into a public match between the prince and some challenger. Many in the kingdom already knew about Armano's lecherous ways and duels like this were commonplace, but they weren't advertised like right now.

When Cecil's group arrived at the coliseum which would be the place where the duel would take place, he immediately had Quinn escort his wives to the VIP section where his family was waiting. Cecil had persuaded Lucia and Serilla to not come with him to the waiting rooms because he didn't want them to accidentally run into Armano.

Once Cecil was left alone, he roamed around for a bit a saw that the seats inside the coliseum were full of people.

"Hahaha, they expect me to be lenient since I'm in front of a live audience... that's smart alright."

A coliseum staff member spotted him and immediately recognized Cecil as Armano's challenger. He then led Cecil into the participants' waiting room and another staff member brought Cecil some refreshments.

Once he was left alone inside the room, Cecil eyed the refreshments and smirked derisively. 'Poisoning my food with paralyzing agents... are these people stupid or something?'

He couldn't understand these people. Did they think that stuff like this wouldn't go unnoticed? Any mage worth his salt would be able to use a tracing spell and figure out that there was something wrong with the food in front of him.

'...they probably don't know much about me and assumed that I wouldn't pick up anything wrong from the food.'

He spread his Mana Sense and saw that the staff member who had brought in his food was secretly using a spell to spy on him. Cecil waited for a bit before he began eating the food slowly. He wasn't worried about the poisons and extras added into his refreshments.

With his body's constitution, no ordinary poison would work on him. The wait for the beginning of the duel was long and he felt extremely bored. He could already tell that this was a tactic to force him to eat all the food in front of him.

"Haaahhh...so boring..." Cecil mumbled as continued to slowly eat the poisoned food. Once he finished the last of the refreshments, Cecil slyly eyed the door to his room. The little rat that was spying on him had already stopped his spell and was already moving away.

"Wasn't he at least a little bit bored from just watching me eat?"

Inside a waiting room on the opposite end of the coliseum, Armano had just received the report from his subordinate who he had sent to spy on Cecil. When he heard that the poisoned food was thoroughly finished off by the boy, Armano started laughing in delight.

"Fool! Stupid f.u.c.k.i.n.g fool! After I kill you, I'm going to take your wives! Hahaha, actually no! I'll cripple you and then **** your wives right in front of you! Then I'll castrate you and that f.u.c.k.i.n.g butler!" Armano venomously said.

"Just some squirt who thinks he's powerful just because he knows how to swing a sword! I'll show you later what it means to truly hold power!"

The duel started a few moments later. Cecil's name was announced and he leisurely walked onto the coliseum's arena. The spectators began cheering, but they felt a little sorry for the young lad who had just walked in.

Most of Armano's opponents in the past were strong-looking fellows and Cecil, who had a delicate build, was judged as a reckless youngster who was out for revenge against the second prince who had probably stolen away his loved one. The announcer didn't specify his name or status because Cecil hadn't given the coliseum staff any of his personal information other than his adventurer title, Silent Sword.

Armano's name was soon announced and he walked into the arena with a whole lot of fanfare accompanying him. Cecil only yawned when he saw him. Right now, Cecil wasn't even wearing his proper fighting attire.

All he had on was a loose shirt and his leather combat pants. On his waist was the coliseum's sword which was tampered by Armano. He looked so sloppy and unprepared that the crowd began to pity him even more.

Cecil yawned once again and waited for Armano's self-important entrance to finish. By the time everything was finished, Cecil was drowsily sitting on the floor of the arena nodding off from time to time.

"What's that boy doing?" Kaiser asked lowly. He was a little angry at Cecil because it looked like his son was thoroughly underestimating his opponent.

Fatima was also frowning and didn't take kindly to Cecil's attitude. No matter what, he should still be alert and at the ready. Lucia and Serilla were also puzzled as to why Cecil was acting this way.

When it came to battles, normally, their husband would treat it with utmost seriousness no matter how weak the opponent he was fighting. While they were puzzled, Armano was inwardly delighted when he saw Cecil acting this way. He attributed it all to his successful poisoning tactic.

He turned to look up at the audience and eyed the VIP section. He lecherously licked his lips once he saw Lucia and Serilla. It was only after the announcer called out to Cecil that he woke up.

Cecil stood up and stretched. He then eyed the bug in front of him and followed his eyes. When he noticed that Armano was staring lecherously at his wives, Cecil smiled and said, "If you look away, you might just die."

"Hm?" Armano's attention turned back towards Cecil when he heard his opponents' words.

"Heh, the only one dying today would be you. Just wait, after this battle, your wives will be mine and I'll violate them every day!"

"Hahaha, I thought you lost your manhood? How are you going to do that?"

"F.u.c.k you! Do you think that it can't be healed?! I'll have you know that I've fully recovered from your butler's treacherous attack!"

"I see... but who're you again?"

"...You won't be mocking me after I'm through with you!"

Cecil lazily smiled and taunted his opponent, "Come on..."

The announcer hadn't even announced the start of the match, but Armano had already dashed towards Cecil after enhancing his body with all kinds of spells and combat techniques.

'This guy is slow! It looks like the poison is working!' Armano inwardly thought and smirked. He thought that Cecil was slow because his opponent hadn't enhanced his body with any sort of spell yet.

Armano soon arrived in front of Cecil and swung his sword down. Cecil leaned his body a little and narrowly avoided the attack. Armano was a little surprised but he continued to slash away at Cecil.

Cecil only lazily dodged his attacks and after a bit, he pulled out the sword strapped to his waist and started parrying Armano's attacks. The battle had suddenly started and when the audience saw it, they immediately started cheering in excitement.

Kaiser already noticed that Cecil's sword had been tampered with. One fine strike on the sword's body and it would snap in two. Cecil already knew this, but continued parrying Armano's attacks.

Armano was a little vexed that even after a while he still wasn't able to land an attack on Cecil. He upped his speed and began mixing in a few magic spells to attack Cecil, but his opponent only dodged his spells and continued parrying his sword blows.

Armano tried striking the weak point of Cecil's blade, but whenever it seemed like his attack was about to connect with the sword's weak point, it missed and struck a different part. Throughout the entire match, Cecil had a leisure smile plastered on his face as if to mock Armano.

"Is this all you can do?"

"What?!"

"You're weak... your brother was a much better match than you..."

"F.U.C.K YOU!"

Armano charged at Cecil in a frenzy, but every one of his attacks were parried, blocked, or evaded.

Cecil looked up at the VIP seating area and smiled at Serilla. He was copying what Serilla had done all those years ago when she had defeated Fina and Elizabeth. Serilla started blushing with shame because it wasn't the most honorable way to win a fight.

"Darling still remembers that?"

"What is it Seri?"

"N-nothing... look, Armano's being an idiot and attacking darling recklessly. He's just going to exhaust himself and soon it'll be darling's turn to attack."

"...I don't see why Cel doesn't just end the fight right now... this is boring!" Lucia grumbled. All she saw was an unskilled man chasing after and attacking her husband on the arena.

"Cel's just leading that fool around by the nose! Do you find this entertaining Seri?"

"Not entertaining, but satisfying! Darling is going to humiliate that bastard and I'm happy!"

"So Cel's only doing this for you, huh? Well, I guess it can't be helped. It'd be a little boring if that idiot died right away anyways."

"Right~? Isn't this much more amusing?"

The girls were having a dangerous conversation which was heard by everyone around them. Kaiser, Fatima, and Rowan were wondering why Cecil didn't just end the fight already, but it turns out he was just trying to amuse his wives a little bit.