280: Fight for love?

Chapter 280

The infectious laughter went on for quite some time. I’d laugh too if I were in her place. Hence, I wasn’t even annoyed by her laughter.

“Hahaha. You are an expert at jesting too, grandmaster.” She laughed and said, not taking note that no one else was laughing along with her.

Elara and Valeria were aware of my strength, or at least had an idea. Elara did mostly, and Valeria simply believed what her mistress told her.

While Elizabeth still didn’t agree with my strength, she did have an idea of mine, and George’s battle and the fact that I was able to hold him back alone was testament enough that I could defeat Galliard easily.

Teresa was still laughing, but she was slowly laughing in a way that sounded unsure until it got to a point where she was mechanically chuckling and asked, “You are jesting, right, grandmaster?”

“No.” Elara simply replied without any other word or emotion, keeping the same tone as before.

Teresa looked at me, now unsure, her eyes as soft as her mother’s but golden like her father's, not chestnut like Elizabeth’s.

She scrutinized me differently now. Her gaze held uncertainty before she turned back to Elara and asked, “How can I be certain?”

“That is very simple,” Elara replied, no smile on her face, but everyone felt the chill even still.

And that was how we ended up in a training yard. It was a few paces away from the room we were just in, and it was Elizabeth’s private training area. The knights from before were there too, along with a few maids and servants. I was a little worried about the knights, but Elara made no effort to remove them, so I guess that was a part of her plan.

Teresa stood in golden armor before me, a wooden sword in her hand, while I stood in the plain butler clothes I had, since I was supposed to be a mage.

“My lady.” I turned to Elara and spoke respectfully, still not sure how far I should take it, so I made sure to ask, “To what extent am I allowed to be disrespectful?”

No telling what would happen. What if Teresa and Elizabeth were offended by my moves and I ended up at the top of the beheading list today?

“There are no limits,” Elara replied simply, her tone still sharp and at the same volume as before, but everyone had enough strength to pick up every word.

Great. No problem now.

“Are you certain you do not need protective gear, mage?” Teresa asked, not even bothering to use my name.

“I am moved by Your Highness’s concern for me.” I simply replied without giving an answer to her question.

Teresa narrowed her eyes and, without a word, charged at me, putting her full three-star aura into her feet and launching herself at me with full speed.

Slow and unrefined. That was all I could say. I could see she had gotten proper training, and her aura quality was fine too, probably because of the various elixirs and herbs she could have gotten thanks to her status.

But as Elara said. Her talent was limited. She couldn’t even make proper use of half of her techniques.

Her movements were too linear for me to dodge even without putting mana in my eyes. I sidestepped to let her pass me, but before she could get out of my range, I grabbed her by the back of her collar and, against her will, flipped her around easily, doing a full back somersault and slamming her on her back on the ground.

The air was knocked out of her, and perhaps I was mistaken, but I heard a proper crunch. I didn’t hold back after all, and she wasn’t covered in a protective aura either, making it double lethal for her. I just hoped the crunch was from her armor, and not her bone.

I didn’t wait to find out; I got on top of her, turned her around, and held her arm around, while supporting myself by placing my hand on her metal-covered left ass cheek.

Damn. Couldn’t tell if it was soft or not. But it sure as hell was big. Still, fifteen years old. Had to hold myself back.

“Do you give, Your Highness?” I asked without sounding out of breath while the princess beneath me still hadn’t come out of her shock to struggle.

Once she did, she did her best to get out from beneath me, grunting and putting pressure in her limbs with all her might, but she couldn’t free the arm in my hand, and the other arm couldn’t move enough to facilitate her freedom.

Finally, seeing her not willing to give up even after thirty seconds, when I had put enough pressure on her arm to almost break it, I decided to be a mage and cast a spell on her.

[Sleep]

And she went out like a kite. Her mental strength was quite weak. She probably didn’t have any experience other than controlled sparring. Her talent was a bit of a limit, but she had potential to become at least 7 stars easily before thirty with my help, or even without me, she’d be at that stage before sixty, which was considered a lot in this world.

Anyway…

I stood up with a passed-out princess at my feet and a shocked audience. Sure, everyone had expected me to win because they were aware of Teresa’s limits, but no one was aware that I could defeat her in less than forty seconds, and even thirty seconds of that were her struggling to free herself.

Ahh, that would be cycle in their language.

Anyway, Elara calmly announced my win: “Winner. Jack.”

She didn’t use my full name, linking me to Valeria’s house name, which was my cover, but she didn’t need to. My actions spoke for themselves. Strength was law. Royal or not, nothing mattered.

Of course, only in her presence. Had I done this without permission, I’d be waiting for a blade coming down on the back of my head and staring at a basket that would store it.

Elara waved her hand, and Teresa was lifted in the air and flew to her and then came to a stop. Elara cast a spell on her, which covered her in a warm glow, in case there were any injuries, and she also woke up with that.

“Huh?” She was confused for a while, then, like a feral cat, she started to flail and call it an unfair fight. How she couldn’t use her full strength and show the full set of her skills and whatever.

Elara once again waved her hand, and she went to sleep while Elizabeth shook her head out of shame.

Elara still made sure to give her a side glance, which conveyed nothing as usual, but Elizabeth caught the dissatisfaction in it and lowered her head in even more shame.

“You did good, Jack.” Elara turned to me and replied.

She then said out loud, “We’ll rest for the night. We cannot be late for the meeting tomorrow.”

It was for everyone, but mainly it was for the assassins, as Elara said next, “Elizabeth, arrange a chamber for Jack to rest.”

One of the maids did just that, leading me to my chambers while the knights followed me with their eyes.

Yeah, resting would be the last thing I’d be doing tonight.

I was planning my night with so much focus that I didn’t even moles—I mean, appreciate the maid who brought me to a guest room. She left with a bow, and I was left alone to prepare.

First things first.

I purchased various items from the shop. Alarm arrays, noise-blocking arrays, sight-blocking arrays, and such.

The yellow papers with sigils on them tore up and covered the room’s walls.

It took a while for all the preparations to be done, lighting up debuff arrays and casting spells of various poisons while preparing antidotes so I would be unaffected, and to keep those who come after me alive.

Wouldn’t want them dead before I extract a few pieces of information from them.

And finally…

[Doppelganger]

[Grade: A]

[Description: You need a description? Isn’t the name enough?]

[Effect: Make a weaker version of yourself]

[Cost: 10000 MP]

[The created doppelganger cannot use your skills and cannot speak]

[The created object can be controlled by the user’s mind]

[A certain distance is a must for the skill to remain active]

[Duration: 1 hour]

[Cooldown: 3 hours]

[Warning: The doppelganger retains only 50% of the user’s skills, and 50 % of all damage taken by the doppelganger is transferred to the caster]

While it wasn’t as great as the [Clone] skill, at my level, this would do. Besides, I didn’t have enough mana to use that skill.

Now, all preparations on my side were done, and I put the doppelganger in the bed, covered under the sheets.

Just in time too, because…

Click.