Chapter 12: Capture Target Viktor

Even though he’s holding me in his arms, he doesn’t seem to have any difficulty running, but rather, he’s running very fast and Viktor is desperately holding on to me as we finally arrive at the arena.

It was a circular building with no ceiling and a series of spectator’s seats along the perimeter of the arena.

We didn’t go out from the bleachers but through a passage to the square and came out to a large open square.

There were two male knights in red uniforms standing in the center of the square facing each other.

One was a sweet-faced man with light-colored blonde hair and red eyes with a slender physique, and the other was a large man with dark brown hair and black eyes with a sturdy, stern face.

Each of these two men held their unholstered swords and stared at each other with a grim expression, seemingly completely oblivious to our presence.

Victor looked at these two people and clicked a small tongue, and he politely lowered me, who was being held in his arms.

“Take care of Cecilia-sama.”

“Yes!”

So Viktor instructed the knight who followed him and hurriedly ran towards them.

But at that moment the two who had been staring at each other let out a loud yell and started running to close the gap at once.

Oh no!!!

I gulped at the sight of the two men and the dire situation that would follow went through my mind.

But Viktor lowered his posture and increased his running speed, then unsheathed his sword from his waist and pulled it from its sheath.

Then he quickly stepped in between the two men, who were about to slash at each other, and Viktor caught each sword with his drawn sword and scabbard at the same time as he crouched.

Whoa, whoa! Cool!!!!!

The sight of Viktor made my eyes widen and I couldn’t help but look at him with excitement.

Sure, there were stills of him fighting and stuff in the game, but it’s so much cooler to see him moving than that!!!

As expected of a flesh-and-blood powerhouse, I was watching the proceedings intently, when the two men who were dueling saw Viktor, who had a startled look on his face as he entered to stop them.

“Captain Viktor!”

“How did you get here?”

“…Did you guys forget that dueling is against the rules of the Order?”

“Ugh, that’s…”

“But, sir! It’s this guy’s fault!”

“What? What the hell? It’s your fault!”

“What are you talking about? It’s only because you bit me in the first place that this happened!”

“That’s because you made fun of my ideas!”

“Because you were talking crazy!”

The two of them had initially shrunk back at Viktor’s words, but then they started arguing again and the two of them stared at each other while Viktor was stopping them with his sword.

“…Theo, Douglas, come on!”

“Wow!”

“Ugh.”

Viktor’s brow wrinkled as they bickered, he yelled in a low voice, and then he swung his sword and scabbard upward and flicked their swords back.

The two men were staggered by the force from below and each of them fell backwards and out of their positions.

And Viktor, who seemed to be emitting a black aura from his back, stared at them.

“Ca…captain…”

“If you want to wield a sword so badly, I’ll be the one to take you on!”

“No, no, that’s not… and didn’t the captain just say no to a duel?”

“Theo, who said anything about dueling? I said I’d put a special training program on you guys.”

“What?”

“I don’t have to answer that question.

“Ugh, yes…”

The pale blonde knight called Theo who nodded in reply.

Then Viktor turned his gaze to the dark brown haired knight called Douglas, who was slowly retreating next, and with settled eyes, Viktor said,

“…Douglas, you too…”

“I….Yes.”

And so, when the two of them were lined up in front of Viktor, Viktor threw down the scabbard he was holding and held up his sword with one hand.

“Come on! But do your best!”

Viktor told them so, but they didn’t move as they held their swords fearfully at the ready.

Then Viktor looked at them and let out a loud sigh and looked at them with the hand that wasn’t holding the sword on his hip.

“You guys… you know that your punishment for breaking the rules is cleaning the toilets in the boarding house for a month, right? But… if you take a swing at me, I will absolve you of that punishment.”

“What?”

They looked at each other in surprise when Viktor grinned at them and their eyes changed color.

“Captain, you don’t have two words for that word, do you? I’m serious about this, okay?”

“Yeah, sure, Theo. Go ahead and get serious.”

“…if a single sword is enough for you, I could have a chance!”

“Well, don’t expect it to work out that way, Douglas.”

The seriousness of the two men made Viktor grin and reassert his sword.

Then the two of them changed from their fearful stance and became full of fighting spirit.

The two men ran out in unison and swung their swords at Viktor.

Huh? Huh? How come Viktor and those two guys who were trying to stop it are supposed to fight!? He said he was going to train for something, but… Now you do it! And that’s not a sword with a crushed blade for training, that’s a serious sword that can be cut with certainty! Watch out!!!!

I was bewildered by the sudden onset of battle in front of me and on the edge of my seat, wondering if anyone would get hurt.

Then a knight standing next to me shouted in disbelief.

“Ahhhh, the captain who became that way won’t stop now.”

“What?”

“…Captain Viktor is usually a calm and collected person, but when someone is extremely disruptive to the group like them, he starts training, which is called lashing out. Besides, those two were often scolded by the captain for their frequent fights…so it seems that he had run out of patience indeed. But don’t worry. Even if that happens, he still has some sense left in him, so he won’t kill them or seriously injure them! Besides, I’m avoiding those two attacks with plenty of time to spare, so Captain Viktor won’t get hurt.”

At the knight’s words, I looked at Viktor again, and although his face was smiling, his eyes looked like he was in complete trouble.

Ah, it’s true…Ahh, I remember in the game, there was a scene where the heroine was almost attacked by a wildling thief, and Viktor got blown up and went on a rampage~. Yeah, I’m pretty sure a still of Viktor at that time had a look like that too.

Remembering that, I just stared at the training that was going on in front of me with a dumbfounded expression on my face.

“But it’s unusual…”

“What’s that?”

“The captain who became that way should have already given those two men minor cuts in several places by now, but they don’t look like that at all. Well, he kicked their legs and punched them with their handles, so they may have been bruised… but it’s rare that they didn’t have a single cut.”

“Oh, really…”

I ministered to the knight who was looking at me curiously, my cheeks twitching at his words.

What kind of a high bar do you usually have!?

With that in mind, I watched Viktor as he dodged the two swords while dodging them at the verge, who was kicking and striking with the hilt so as not to miss his opponent’s opening and slam into it.

When it was obvious that they were at their physical limit, Viktor kicked Theo in the gut with all his might, blowing his body off and made him roll to the ground, and then slammed the hilt into Douglas’ side to make him crouch.

After confirming that the two of them had stopped moving from that spot, Viktor finally lowered his sword.

“Ah, but it sure took long this time…Well, I guess I had it coming.”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t mind, but…are those guys okay?”

“The only problem is that it’s not a problem. It’s a common occurrence in normal training, and since we are knights, we’ve been training our bodies. You can get better after a day’s sleep.”

“Oh, really? That’s great…”

“And since we want to become as strong as Captain Viktor as soon as possible, we won’t dwell on things like this. To prove it, look at Theo’s face.”

Then he pointed to Theo’s face and I turned my gaze to the indicated one and my face twitched.

Wow! What that ecstatic expression after being beaten up like that…scary!!!!

I had pulled back to see Theo lying on his back on the ground with that satisfied look on his face.

“Well then, Cecilia-sama, I’m going to go for a moment.”

“Yeah, yeah, have a good day.”

Then I looked away from the knight who was walking away from me and turned my gaze to Viktor, who had his back to Douglas to get the scabbard lying on the ground.

Then, Douglas, whose face was still full of fighting spirit, stood up at once and swung his sword towards Viktor’s back.

“Watch out!”

A few seconds earlier than I involuntarily shouted, Viktor flipped his entire body in one motion and hit Douglas’ sword with the sword he was holding to calm it down.

“Sweet!!!”

As soon as Viktor said that, there was a loud crack and the sword Douglas was holding broke and the tip of the blade was blown off.

Keh, how powerful is he to break a sword, Viktor!!! I mean, what? It’s like that broken blade is coming at me…and it’s coming!!

I couldn’t move at all as my eyes followed the broken sword blade, which flew through the air and fell straight toward me, shining in the sunshine, and my legs were too much.

No way, I… I didn’t wait until I was seventeen years old to lose my life with a sword already!

Despair hit me at that moment and I involuntarily closed my eyes and covered my head with the arm I managed to move.

“Cecilia-sama!”

The next moment when he thought he heard Viktor’s impatient voice, his body was wrapped in something big and warm and pulled hard.

“Ugh…”

For some reason I heard Viktor’s painful voice from very close and I opened my eyes in surprise.

Then I slowly raised my face in confusion as I saw a black military uniform in front of me, and there was Viktor’s face up close, biting his lip and seemingly enduring something.

“Viktor!”

“…Miss Cecilia, are you hurt?”

“Yes, I’m fine! More importantly, Viktor, who covered for me, must have been injured!”

“…It’s just a scratch.”

With that, Viktor wouldn’t let go of me in his embrace, so I wriggled around and managed to get out of his arms.

“Just let me see it!”

“But to show Lady Cecilia blood…”

“Now is not the time to talk about that!”

I said so forcefully and slipped out of Viktor’s arms, taking advantage of my tiny six-year-old body to dive underneath.

Then I forcefully grabbed his left hand, which was hidden from my eyes, and pulled him toward me.

It’s was just a matter of time before I was able to see e a broken sword sticking deep into the ground, and I trembled, but I suppressed my fear and turned my eyes to the big Victor’s hand.

There was a big cut on the back of his hand, and blood was flowing from there.

“Huh!”

“After all, Cecilia-sama, you don’t want to see…”

“Just shut up, please!”

I couldn’t help but frown at how painful it looked, but I grabbed Viktor’s hand, which was about to be pulled back in a hurry, and pulled out a neatly embroidered white handkerchief with a rose from my dress pocket.

I immediately unfolded the handkerchief and tried to wrap it around Viktor’s hand.

“No, Cecilia-sama! I can’t believe you would use such a fine handkerchief!”

“Never mind that, a handkerchief can be used in this way!”

When I said that, I ignored Viktor, who tried to stop me, and quickly tied it tightly to hold the wound.

“It’s not as deep as I thought, and if you do this for a while, the bleeding will stop. Just make sure you give it the proper treatment later.”

“…Thank you very much. This has been stained with my blood and I will definitely send you a replacement handkerchief later.”

“Don’t worry about it. I still have plenty of handkerchiefs at home. And besides, I’m the one who was saved by you…Thank you for saving me, Viktor.”

“I’m so glad I made it. If I hadn’t gotten to you in time, from that angle, I’m pretty sure it would’ve left some kind of scar on your face…”

“Oh, yeah…”

It seems that I didn’t die, but I still felt a cold sweat run down my back when I thought that I might have been badly hurt.

But seeing Viktor’s face more shocked than I was, I smiled and joked with him, trying to distract myself.

“Fufu, if I had a scar on my face, would you have taken responsibility for it?”

“At that time I would be ready to take you as my wife, and I’d be ready to take you in as my responsibility! Of course, I’d have to wait until you come of age.”

“…what?”

“You are indeed Prince Kaiser’s fiancée…but still, I’ll take responsibility for the wounds I’ve caused you and welcome you in at all costs!”

I was violently upset by Viktor, who stared at me with such a serious expression and said, 

“You’re too serious!”

Well, that’s too serious!!!!!

I didn’t expect that something I said in jest would be taken with such seriousness.

“Um, Viktor, well…I’m glad to hear you say something very responsible, but the truth is, thanks to Viktor’s help, I wasn’t injured or anything, so please don’t think too much about it! And besides…maybe in the future Viktor will have a love interest (the heroine), and for that reason, you don’t have to worry about me anymore!”

“…”

When I desperately pleaded, Viktor for some reason remained still and silent, staring at me.

“…Princess.”

“…Princess!?”

“I have decided that you are the one I must risk my life to protect. And for that reason, I will henceforth refer to you as ‘Princess.’”

“What? No, I’m not one to be called a princess…”

“Since the princess is the daughter of a duke, she is related to the royal family, and since she has royal blood in her veins, I don’t think it’s wrong to call her the princess.”

“Ugh, well, yes, but…”

“Then I will continue to call you Princess.”

“I…Yes.”

I reluctantly broke with Viktor’s push and agreed to be called Princess.

Then Theo, walking up to us with an apologetic look on his face and a knight carrying him on his shoulders with Douglas and me below us, Viktor stood up quickly on the spot and stared at them.

And when Douglas came in front of me, he bowed his head vigorously while bending his waist at a right angle.

“I’m sorry, Cecilia-sama, I’m sorry!”

“…It’s fine because it’s already done. Besides, it was a force majeure and…I’d rather you apologize to Viktor for the injury…”

“It was! Captain Viktor, I’m sorry!”

“No, that was my fault, too. You don’t have to worry about these injuries.”

“But…”

“More importantly, this is not an injury that was put on you, you know. So that doesn’t absolve you of your punishment; you’re going to have to clean the toilets thoroughly for a month!”

“Ha! We’ll clean every inch of it!”

“I’ll do my best!”

I was relieved that the conversation seemed to be settled in the round, and I suddenly had a question that arose in my mind and spoke to Douglas.

“Let me ask you something…what was the cause of the fight between the two of you?”

“Oh, that’s…”

“It’s because Douglas said the egg rolls had to be sweet or something.”

“What…?”

“Theo! You’re making fun of me again! Your egg rolls would be crazy to be a salt person!”

“What do you mean? I’ve never wanted to eat a sweet egg roll in my life! How could you possibly like sweetness with your stern face in the first place!”

“It’s not about your face! You’d be crazy to tell me that salt is good for you with such a sweet look on your face if you say that! Salty egg rolls are the ones I never wanted to eat once!”

“What?”

When the two men said that to each other, they stared at each other again, and it looked as if a fistfight was about to happen at any moment.

Theo’s shoulder knight was smiling bitterly.

But I looked at their argument with a pouty face and muttered to myself,

“This is ridiculous…”

“Now!”

“Do you guys have girlfriends?”

“I…no.”

“Huh, I suppose. You’ll never be able to do it while you’re arguing about it. What would you guys do if your lover, who you love dearly, made an omelet with the exact opposite flavor to your taste?”

“I think I should eat it.”

“Me too.”

“Oh good. I thought I couldn’t help it if I was told you wouldn’t eat it. So if you have the heart to compromise for the sake of the other person, why don’t you just compromise?”

“Me with Douglas?”

“With Theo here?”

“So maybe next time you can try each other’s favorite flavored eggs. I’m sure you’ll find something good in each of them.”

I smiled at that and they fell silent and looked at each other.

“Well…since Cecilia-sama said so, I’ll try it for once.”

“…I’m gonna try one myself.”

“That’s good to hear! A man who can think of each other in that way will surely make a ‘wonderful lover’ one day!”

I emphasized the phrase ‘wonderful lover,’ and they got a not-so-full look on their faces.

Alright, alright! I hope this is the first time they stop fighting…well, I guess the rest is up to them.

I was smiling as I watched them happily discussing when to eat the egg rolls, when I felt a glance and looked up to see Viktor staring at me.

“Viktor?”

“The princess is still a wonderful person.”

Viktor smiled at me, but I had no idea what he meant by calling me a wonderful person, so I just looked at him with a strange face.

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