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"Hey, why don't you take off that hood of yours and let others see your appearance? What's there to hide?"
'The nerve…!'
The crimson-haired woman calm herself down as she slightly turned around at her side to see whose impertinent b*stard dared to approach her and act all friendly and nice.
Upon checking, Scarlette raised an eyebrow when she recognized who it was.
'Marquis Jeffrey Zenon Middleton. Never expected to see the revered Marquis joining the competition.'
Scarlette thought as she set her gaze at the revered Marquis of their Empire.
The crimson-haired woman didn't expect for this noble person to participate and if no one knew him better, just looking at his appearance right now, this Marquis would be mistaken for a teenager because of his youthful appearance, even though he is already in his mid-20s.
Also, Scarlette had watched the Marquis' other matches from earlier, and most of the challengers who were supposed to be his opponents had backed out the moment they learned that the person they would fight is none other than the Marquis himself.
'Geez! This person didn't even bother to hide his identity at least.'
Scarlette thought as she ignored him and didn't bother with him as she waited for the announcement for the final round of this event.
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'This is quite boring! Tsk!'
Jeffrey sighed as he put away his scabbard and left the stage after he defeated his opponent in this event.
He wasn't supposed to join this kind of event since it wouldn't benefit him either as he is a Swordmaster and these people who participated were either Knights or apprentices and a few commoners who knows how to wield a sword.
'That carrot b*stard of a Crown Prince…!'
He cursed mentally as he remembered that ridiculous bet from the Crown Prince and Jeffrey just became the unwilling participant and just happened to be the ones who fell into the prank by a certain Crown Prince.
However, when the competition starts, most of his opponents withdraw from the fight when they learn that Jeffrey is their opponent, and the Marquis could tell why but he didn't bother with it.
There are others who took this as an opportunity to have a spar with him and learned from him as well as the fact that he is a renowned Swordmaster of his generation.
As the event went on, Jeffrey wanted to withdraw from the fight since he's just wasting his time here and wanted to be somewhere else.
However, those thoughts of his about leaving the event halted when the Marquis watched the mysterious black-hooded woman's battle on the stage.
He didn't know what kind of expression he was making right now but the Marquis was fascinated by the woman's battle prowess, and from that moment, Jeffrey had an adrenaline rush that he wanted to fight her to test her strength.
'That woman… I could tell that she is a Swordmaster as well…'
That's the only thought that came to him as he watched how that mysterious black-hooded woman fought on the stage.
Although both of them are Swordmasters in their own right, the Marquis could feel that there is a huge gap between the two of them.
'I could feel that immeasurable force that she keeps on hiding underneath her, but I could still feel the faint sense of Aura that seeping through within her.'
He thought as he made a grin while thinking about that mysterious woman who seems like she is playing around on the stage because she only use her physical force rather than putting her Aura through the wooden sword that the organizers had provided for the event.
He only used his sword's scabbard for this event since he didn't to accidentally hurt others while sparring on the stage and even though he wanted to use the wooden sword but when he touches them, the wooden sword immediately breaks without a sweat so that's why he decided to use his sword's scabbard instead.
Maybe because of his Aura that couldn't stand the immense force coming from a Swordmaster's power.
However, as he noticed about that mysterious woman, she also wield the wooden sword, and yet that sword didn't even break, and the Marquis only concluded that she might have grasp on how to properly control her Aura and it feels like he wanted to learn something from her.
The spectators, on the other hand, had long recognized the revered Marquis, saw his grin and for those who had known him that well are now sweating and nervously gulping themselves as they knew what that meant.
From the high platform where the Royal family were seated, they also noticed that expression from the revered Marquis and they could only sigh because they could tell that something had caught his attention.
Especially, His Majesty, the Emperor could only shake off his head in fascination because he already knew the attitude of the Marquis and he is the type of person who would seek someone stronger than him, whether they were a commoner or noble alike, that doesn't matter to him.
'Just who is the lucky person who managed to catch his attention, anyway?'
As the Emperor thought about that, he followed the direction where the Marquis was looking, and the Emperor raised his eyebrow upon looking at the mysterious woman's battle at the center stage.
'Hmmm… those movements are quite familiar… don't tell me…. Ha! It looks like this is some kind of fate or something for these two to finally meet…'
The Emperor thought as he chuckled as he watched the event and waited for the main event that would happen.
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Back to where Scarlette and Jeffrey are, the semi-final round is about to begin, and Scarlette just ignores the Marquis and Jeffrey knew that he is being ignored by this mysterious woman, but he doesn't mind about it.
"Since you're not willing to remove your hood then, I'll respect that."
He said and at that moment, silence had reign between the two of them for a minute but afterwards, the crimson-haired woman sighed and said; "Thank you for understanding, Marquis Middleton."
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