Lord of Rot

KNOCK KNOCK. There was a gentle knock on the door.

"Come in," Lewis said.

A male servant from the castle pushed the door open and entered.

"Stacy and Leech, how are they?" Lewis asked.

He had told the servant to keep an eye on them. If the two of them had quietly gone off to sleep together, Lewis, despite being both an uncle and a father and quite angry about it, would have forced himself to turn a blind eye.

It was no different from standing guard outside his nephew’s and daughter’s door while they had a tryst.

The male servant looked at the three generations of the family in the study, swallowed nervously, and said, "Miss Stacy and Lord Leech went to the training grounds. They’ve changed their clothes and are going to have a duel."

"What!"

"Was it Stacy’s idea?" Lewis demanded angrily. He felt she deserved a beating, even if she was a grown woman of nearly twenty.

"No," the servant said, his head bowed. "It was Lord Leech. He invited Miss Stacy himself."

SLAP! Lewis smacked himself across the face. "Leech seemed so normal! How can he be even more unreliable than that Lieder fellow!"

Back when Lieder married his sister, they certainly didn’t have a fight first.

"I’ll go have a look," Bode said, his interest piqued.

"You will not!" his grandfather ordered. "Let them figure it out themselves."

He seemed to have aged a great deal in that moment.

He waved his hand, dismissing the servant.

Only long sighs remained in the study, one after another.

...

「Green Forest Castle Training Grounds」

The torchlight flickered, greatly affecting a normal person’s vision, but that clearly didn’t include Leech and Stacy.

Stacy had taken off her long dress and changed into protective armor. The armor only covered vital areas to prevent any accidents. She had simply tied her hair up in a bun at the back of her head; women seem to have an innate talent for making hair buns.

She grabbed a blunted iron training sword and looked at Leech opposite her.

"This training ground is way more lavish than the one in Porcupine Territory," said Leech, also clad in armor, as he looked at the weapons on the racks. He then grabbed two one-handed swords.

He swung them lightly in his hands, performing a few flourishes.

The swords whistled through the air.

"You specialize in dual-wielding?" Stacy asked in surprise.

Dual-wielding was more complex than using a single sword, requiring one to coordinate both left and right hands. Of course, if mastered, the results were certainly impressive.

"Just warming up," Leech said, shaking his head. "What I’m actually best at is throwing. I never miss."

Recalling how he had skewered three Fishmen with a single spear, Stacy nodded. She believed he wasn’t lying.

The fight began. Leech rushed toward Stacy, his right-hand sword thrusting preemptively at her wrist to prevent her from raising her weapon, but he failed. Stacy’s reaction speed was just as fast. The moment she perceived his intent, she spun around, using her body’s momentum to swing her sword into a reverse grip behind her back.

CLANG!

Leech’s thrust was blocked by Stacy, who held her sword in a reverse grip with both hands. Used skillfully, a wide blade could also serve as a shield.

But he was dual-wielding; his left-hand sword struck at Stacy like a snake.

Stacy sidestepped to dodge, creating distance and finally raising her sword into a ready stance.

Her one-handed sword clashed against his two. The difference in strength nearly made Leech lose his grip. He used the flexibility of his blades to dodge, avoiding a direct confrontation of strength. Instead, he used one sword to harass her while the other waited for an opening.

The training grounds were instantly filled with the CLANG CLANG CLANG of colliding steel.

Wielding two swords, Leech seemed to be dancing, his attacks like a sudden storm. Opposite him, Stacy stood firm as a mountain with her Longsword, blocking every one of his assaults.

The Soldiers watching from the sidelines were slack-jawed. They had never expected to see a young nobleman actually hold his own against Miss Stacy. Those other young nobles, who prided themselves on their superior Swordsmanship, often wanted to best Stacy on the training grounds to show off their prowess and gentlemanly style, but most of them ended up face-down on the ground with their asses in the air within ten moves.

For the sake of their own reputations, they would secretly slander Stacy afterward. Losing to a woman was embarrassing, but losing to a female monster was a different story.

Only the Soldiers knew just how strong Miss Stacy was.

Leech retreated quickly to create distance, breathing heavily. "Cousin Stacy, it looks like it won’t be easy to beat you with two swords."

Stacy didn’t pursue. In contrast to Leech’s panting, her breathing was steady. "Your Swordsmanship is already quite good, but you might be better suited to specializing in a single sword."

"Like I said, that was just a warm-up." To Stacy’s surprise, Leech picked up a two-handed greatsword.

He took a deep breath, calming his heart rate.

The combination of his many skills allowed his Swordsmanship to far surpass that of his teacher, the Warg Slayer.

The Warg Slayer’s Swordsmanship had been impressive enough for Lieder to take notice and even hire him as a teacher, which spoke volumes about his skill. He was a reputable swordsman on the Lu Leiyi Continent, at least in the upper-middle tier.

Leech was confident that, as long as he wasn’t compared to an Extraordinary Knight, his Swordsmanship surpassed that of most young noble Knights.

"Here I come!" he shouted, gripping the sword with both hands and charging at Stacy.

Their sword tips tapped lightly. Leech raised his sword high and brought it down in a two-handed chop toward Stacy. Stacy smiled. ’Looks like my cousin’s skill with a two-handed sword is also pretty average, maybe even worse than his dual-wielding. He’s probably just using it because he refuses to admit defeat.’

’Still, he’s much stronger than the other young nobles. At least he can exchange a few moves with me.’

She raised her sword with both hands to block, and the blow failed to break through her defense.

Stacy now held her sword above her head. All she had to do was change direction and strike down, and Leech would be unable to block it.

Leech, on the other hand, had just committed to a downward chop. He wouldn’t be fast enough to raise his sword to block her counterattack.

Just as she was about to do so, she saw Leech suddenly twist his wrist, turning the vertical blade horizontal, and then kick the flat of his own sword.

The falling sword immediately flew upward with even greater speed, following the momentum of Stacy’s own rising blade to knock her sword aside.

Her shoulder dipped slightly.

His sword was already resting on it.

"I’ve never seen such a strange move. You even used your feet," Stacy said. "I’ll count this round as your win, but you might not be so lucky in the next one."

"I only dared to kick it because the blade wasn’t sharp," Leech said, admitting he had used an unorthodox move.

The two stepped back, created some distance, and then charged at each other again.

After more than twenty moves, Leech’s sword hovered just above Stacy’s head. He stopped it just in time; otherwise, even a blunt sword would have been enough to crack her skull open.

"Again?" Leech asked, retracting his sword.

"Again!"

This time, it only took a dozen or so moves.

Stacy was astounded. She felt that Leech was using her to hone his sword techniques.

It was true. Leech possessed many skills, but he’d never had an evenly matched opponent to help him practice his moves. His abilities had influenced each other, but not significantly. It wasn’t until this fight that he finally broke down all his techniques and fully integrated them.

When the blunt edge of the sword once again stopped at her throat, Stacy admitted that she had lost.

"Cousin Stacy, this can’t be your true strength, can it?" Leech said.

His goal for this duel hadn’t been achieved yet; how could he let it end here?

"You want to see it?" Stacy asked with a smile.

"That’s right!" Leech nodded.

"Then watch closely."

She took a deep breath, and her aura exploded outward. She stomped on the ground, dragging her sword as she crossed a dozen paces in an instant.

In Leech’s eyes, Stacy was like a roaring beast, pushing a gale-force wind that smashed into his face.

He quickly raised his two-handed sword.

He was unavoidably swept up in her ferocious, tide-like assault. There was no escape; he could only defend!

In that moment, Leech recalled the Iron Ox Hoof Knight who had been taken down in a single move.

’So this is the despair of facing an Extraordinary Knight. In the face of such a disparity in strength, all skill and technique are meaningless.’

Their swords met. A terrifying force transferred through the blade. Leech couldn’t even hold onto his sword; he could only watch as Stacy’s power forced his own training sword to cut into him.

Fortunately, his iron armor protected him, preventing the blade from cutting into his flesh.

But the force hadn’t dissipated. The sword sent him flying, his body soaring backward a great distance as if riding on clouds.

THUD!

He crashed heavily onto the ground.

His body felt like it was about to fall apart.

He had been defeated in a single blow!