I stumbled to my feet as I fell to the ground.

 

How many times did the sloppy knight attack me because he couldn’t control himself when I hadn’t Teven landed a single proper attack?

 

I’m sure it was at least ten times.

 

I had counted until then.

 

After that, I stopped counting because it was too much trouble.

 

I took a deep breath, brushed the dirt off my face, and raised my head.

 

The knight standing opposite me couldn’t hide his frown.

 

No matter how angry he was, shouldn’t he control his expression in front of the young lady?

 

He really was a sloppy knight.

 

Is that the only way he could turn his life around like Cinderella?

 

“Give up, young lady.”

 

“Try giving up, you sloppy knight.”

 

“You’ll get hurt if you keep doing this.”

 

“It’s hard to subdue a girl without getting a scratch. You’re really sloppy”

 

The knight bit his lips at my provocation.

 

Ahaha.

 

I’m going to hit you seriously.

 

Huh?

 

What kind of noble knight is that guy?

 

The only person who suits that guy is a knight of eunuchs.

 

I let out a laugh and took a deep breath.

 

It had been quite some time since I had started sparring with this sloppy knight.

 

I don’t know exactly how long it had been.

 

However, judging by the increasing number of onlookers, including knights, soldiers, and maids, it must not have been a short time.

 

“Shouldn’t you stop him?”

 

“I would, but the young lady ordered me not to touch them.”

 

“But.”

 

“Just wait, the knight commander is…”

 

I had never been more grateful for Lucy’s notoriety than today.

 

She had been acting so viciously that those who should have stopped her from getting hurt were hesitating.

 

If Lucy had been just an ordinary girl, others would have stopped us before things got too heated.

 

If that had been the case, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve my goal of dealing a blow to the sloppy knight.

 

My breathing had calmed down somewhat.

 

My body was still heavy, but thanks to the physical training I had done not long ago, it wasn’t so heavy that I couldn’t move.

 

Even now, I could swing my mace.

 

I gritted my teeth and ran forward.

 

The knight was sloppy in many ways, but he was still a knight.

 

Even though he was incredibly angry because he was provoked, he taught me how to fight as if he was trying to fulfill his duty.

 

You must not stop moving your feet.

 

You must always think about what your opponent will do.

 

Look at your arms and body instead of your opponent’s hands.

 

You must never miss your opponent’s movements.

 

You must keep watching your opponent.

 

Etc.

 

He taught me many things that I absolutely had to follow, even though I knew nothing about actual combat.

 

His methods were by no means mild, but it was true that my skills improved a lot thanks to him.

 

If you compare me now to the me who swung my mace recklessly this morning, I would be no different.

 

Even so, I was still useless to this damn sloppy knight.

 

The sloppy knight was strong.

 

He pressed me without giving me a chance to attack, and even when I swung my mace frantically, I responded lightly as if I had known in advance.

 

I don’t want to admit it, but the sloppy knight was an overwhelming opponent that I could never win against now.

 

Even though I kept provoking the sloppy knight in the ongoing duel and raised my stats by a lot, it was still like that.

 

How great would it have been if this was in the game?

 

If so, I would have defeated this sloppy knight with the techniques typical of veterans.

 

Even though I reached the sloppy knight, the sloppy knight didn’t move his sword.

 

It had been like this since some time ago.

 

The sloppy knight was intentionally holding back his attacks.

 

Maybe he was worried that he would fail to control his emotions and make mistakes.

 

That’s why I could swing my mace freely, unlike before.

 

The sloppy knight silently accepted the mace I swung.

 

Sometimes he dodged, sometimes he parried, his movements were so refined that he was perfectly blocking my attacks.

 

If I kept going like this, I would continue to attack like before and fall on my own.

 

That’s why I had to create an opening.

 

And I had already thought of a way to create an opening.

 

“What! Sloppy knight, are you just going to block?!”

 

“Yes, I will.”

 

“Ha, you’re in a hurry to block the attack. You’ve become weak❤”

 

The sloppy knight’s eyebrows slightly tense up, and the speed of the wooden sword he was swinging increases.

 

Even if there is a lot of provocation in the Mesugaki skill, isn’t it too easy to get through?!

 

The knight’s offensive begins.

 

The continuous strikes that I can barely endure because my stats have increased a lot continue to strike the shield.

 

Are you really showing no mercy?!

 

The middle of the shield is dented!

 

How much strength did you use?!

 

I was blocking the knight’s attacks as the Iron Wall skill said, and I seized my opportunity.

 

The moment the angry knight swung his sword with more strength than usual.

 

The moment he moved his sword assuming that I would block it.

 

I was certain that I would not be able to stop that sword easily, so I lowered the shield that had been protecting me.

 

Then I saw the knight’s bewildered face.

 

He swung his sword, assuming that I would block it naturally.

 

Even though he adjusted his strength, he struck hard enough to make my defence difficult.

 

In that situation, I suddenly lowered my shield.

 

He was the guy who never let his sword touch me even when he was attacking me before.

 

He was the guy who held back from attacking me out of fear of making a mistake.

 

So, if I was going to get hit by his sword, he would somehow stop it.

 

It was clear.

 

This was a gamble.

 

A gamble I took, believing in the knight’s skills and that he could still control his emotions.

 

A gamble that would definitely hurt me if I failed.

 

At that moment, I could hear the people around me holding their breath, but I wasn’t scared.

 

Look.

 

Just as you had hoped, I’m not closing my eyes even though the sword is right in front of me.

 

It’s your achievement.

 

You should be happy.

 

A sloppy knight.

 

While the knight stopped swinging his sword, I raised my mace.

 

Crushing heads.

 

A move I had repeated thousands of times over the past few days.

 

A move I had even repeated in my dreams yesterday.

 

The knight, who was desperate to stop the sword, couldn’t dodge even as he saw me swinging the mace.

 

Bam! It was very satisfying.

 

The knight who had been hit by the mace frowned and stepped back.

 

It was a success.

 

Finally, I succeeded.

 

I succeeded in landing a blow!

 

As I looked at the scowling face of the sloppy knight, I covered my mouth with my hand holding my shield and let out a sort of declaration of victory.

 

‘I landed a blow.’

 

“Sloppy trash who got toyed by a girl♡”

 

As soon as he heard the sarcasm, the sloppy knight suddenly rushed towards me.

 

I couldn’t keep up with my eyes.

 

The moment he lifted his feet off the ground, I had already lost sight of the knight’s new form.

 

What the?

 

While I was feeling embarrassed, the Iron Wall skill was blaring at me.

 

I shouted to raise my shield.

 

My instincts, which had been sharp from the battle just a moment ago, followed the Iron Wall skill’s orders.

 

Kwaaaaang!

 

The knight’s fist pierced the spot where the shield was.

 

My body floated into the air.

 

It wasn’t a matter of blocking or not.

 

The power contained in the knight’s fist was not something I could withstand.

 

As I was pushed away by the punch, I looked into the knight’s eyes.

 

I saw those eyes that were so rage-filled that they couldn’t think of anything.

 

It’s dangerous.

 

I flew straight up and rolled on the ground several times, but I quickly got up while feeling severe pain in my arm that had blocked the attack.

 

My instincts were telling me that I would die if I didn’t move.

 

My instincts were not wrong.

 

The moment I raised my head, the knight was right in front of me.

 

He lost his mind and raised his fist.

 

What would happen if I got hit here?

 

I don’t know.

 

But it would hurt.

 

It would really hurt like hell.

 

Maybe even more than when I took the elixir.

 

The moment I had that thought, Overcoming Fear stole the fear that was in my heart.

 

Ha.

 

The skill is doing its job well.

 

Okay.

 

I’ll let you hit me once.

 

I was the one who provoked you and created this situation with my stubbornness to hit you once.

 

So, the result of Mesugaki’s provocation was a real lesson in the end?

 

As I was quietly waiting for the knight to open his eyes and throw his punch, someone suddenly came between me and the knight.

 

A middle-aged man with a body comparable to Benedict blocked the knight’s punch with one hand.

 

“Why on earth did you do that, Karl?”

 

At the words of Possell, the knight commander of the Allen family, Karl looked up at the handcuffs on his wrists.

 

Possell frowned and kept his mouth shut.

 

The atmosphere he gave off was so fierce that anyone could tell he was very angry.

 

“I stopped it, so it ended in an attempt. If not the young lady would have been seriously injured.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“So, let me ask, why did you do that? It’s not like she’s been using harsh language for a day or two.”

 

Instead of answering, Karl lowered his head.

 

“Karl.”

 

“…I don’t know either.”

 

Possell bit his lips at the absurd answer and struck the iron bars that were blocking Karl and him with his fist.

 

Then, the iron bars that didn’t even budge even when dozens of knights rushed at him bent.

 

“It was your doing, and if you didn’t know, who would know?”

 

“I’m sorry but I really don’t know.”

 

Despite Possell’s murderous voice, Karl couldn’t answer.

 

Even he himself couldn’t understand why he did that.

 

Karl was born and raised in a family of knights.

 

He had heard from his father since he was young what a great knight was, and he had decided that he would become a great knight like his father.

 

That’s why he trained without missing a single day, and he graduated from Soul Academy with excellent grades while competing with many high-ranking nobles in the academy.

 

Thanks to that achievement, he was able to become a knight of the Allen family, which many knights admired.

 

Even after becoming a knight, Karl never forgot what his father had said when he was young.

 

He had worked hard to become the ideal knight he dreamed of.

 

The reason he first approached Lucy was to become a noble knight.

 

Even though he knew of Lucy’s previous atrocities.

 

Even though his colleagues warned him that people don’t change easily.

 

Even though he was hurt by Lucy’s sarcastic words, he approached Lucy because he believed that if someone from the family he served tried to become a better person, he should help them as a knight under them.

 

However, what started out as a favour has now led to a disaster.

 

How could he swing his fist at someone he was supposed to protect!

 

No matter how much Miss Lucy kept saying bad things, how could he not control his emotions!

 

After the incident, many people got angry at Karl for doing that, but Karl could not answer them.

 

The person who could not understand Karl more than anyone else was Karl himself.

 

“Master, you may not believe me, but I do not get angry easily.”

 

“I know.”

 

“I endured insults from many nobles during my time at the Academy, I never made a mistake because of my emotions when I went out to battle and fought other mercenaries and knights.”

 

“I know.”

 

“But I couldn’t stand her sarcastic remarks.”

 

Lucy’s sarcastic remarks were not that harsh.

 

Compared to the many insults he had heard on the battlefield, that sarcasm was mild.

 

It wasn’t even that dark compared to the criticism he had heard from the nobles of the Academy.

 

Nevertheless, Lucy’s sarcasm easily blew away Karl’s reason.

 

He couldn’t figure out why.

 

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out why it had become like this.

 

That’s why he was writhing in self- loathing.