Anning heard an outburst from the noble young ladies nearby.
They must have all been shocked by Christina's act of ignoring Reginald and directly greeting Anning.
In this era, the nobles were the privileged class, while commoners were just subjects; there was an invisible chasm between the two classes.
Although the spread of Enlightenment ideas and the development of society blurred this chasm, it was not until the great revolution that it would completely disappear.
Christina trotted over and took Anning's hand: "It's all on you later, don't die, okay?"
Anning: "Uh... do you also think I'm most likely going to lose?"
Christina looked away: "Well... at first, I thought you could definitely beat those robbers, but after talking to Vanni last night, I'm not so sure anymore..."
What did you do, Vanni?
Anning glanced at the maid beside him.
The Maid looked away.
At this moment, Reginald stepped between Anning and the maid, blocking his line of sight.
Reginald: "They say something happened between you and Christina on the way escaping back to France, I didn't believe it before..."
Anning: "Indeed nothing happened, after all, I always thought she was a man. Aside from camaraderie, nothing else develops between two men."
Reginald: "Hmph, who knows. I don't care, because you're going to die today. Mr. Priest, I propose we can start now!"
Christina, looking at Anning, whispered: "I was looking forward to going to the military academy in Briena with you, survive this!"
With that, she let go of Anning's hand and walked towards a good spot arranged by the servants of the Duke's mansion, glancing back every three steps.
Mirabeau: "If the Duke weren't my patron, I might be considering how to write about your story already."
After speaking, Mirabeau slapped Anning's shoulder and walked towards the noble young ladies under the nearby umbrellas, greeting the girls familiarly. It was clear that Mirabeau had also mixed with them at the salons.
Mabuli nodded to Anning and stepped back a few paces.
As a witness, he had to oversee the entire process from up close.
Reginald's cronies also came up one after another to wish him good luck.
After a short while, only Anning and Reginald stood facing each other, with Sais standing beside them as the main third-party witness, looking like a referee in a boxing match.
Sais: "Alright, gentlemen, please draw your swords and pay Courtesy to each other!"
Reginald drew his sword and bowed to Anning in the Knight's courtesy.
Anning imitated him.
At this time, there was a burst of laughter from the noble Misses: "Look, he doesn't even know how to pay courtesy!"
"He is, after all, the son of a Leatherworker!"
"Regi, kill him!"
At this moment, Christina's voice overpowered the sounds of Reginald's friends and family: "Andy! I believe in you! Fight to live!"
This roar seemed to stack anger on Reginald as he glared fiercely at Anning, his sword dancing beautifully: "What a pity, very soon Christina will be sorely disappointed!"
Anning, watching him twirl his sword, immediately thought of the classic scene from "Indiana Jones," feeling the urge to pull out a gun and tell him the times had changed.
But in this duel, they had to use the weapons agreed upon by both parties.
Reginald stepped forward, thrusting his sword toward Anning!
Anning's hand moved automatically—yes, just like he had predicted.
Anning's sword parried Reginald's attack, and during the opening, he aimed straight for his opponent's chest.
Reginald was shocked and immediately stepped back to distance himself.
Anning did not follow up but stood in place with his sword at the ready.
It wasn't that Anning didn't want to pursue; he had initially left everything to the system, waiting to win, but the system did not pursue, allowing Reginald to create distance.
In fact, Anning was even more surprised than Reginald; he realized his system wasn't a guaranteed anti-rebound win, but only automatic defense against close combat and counterattack.
This discovery caused Anning to start breaking out in cold sweat.
He had thought the system would handle everything, but now realizing the system only managed defense, not offense—
Damn it, Anning didn't know swordsmanship at all; he had no idea how to attack!
How the hell was he supposed to handle this?
System, do something!
But the system remained motionless.
Reginald, intimidated by Anning's counter just now, also changed his attitude, becoming serious.
He began to carefully adjust his positioning.
Anning thought about it and decided to provoke—he could only counter when Reginald attacked, so he had no choice but to lure the enemy with some taunting.
Anning: "Hey, do you know why Christina doesn't like you?"
Anning was a little cautious with his volume; after all, it wouldn't be good if Christina actually heard it.
However, Sais and Mabuli, standing beside as witnesses, could hear it loud and clear.
They all looked at Anning with strange expressions, and Mabuli even glanced at Christina under the distant umbrella.
Reginald's mouth twitched, clearly affected by Anning's taunt.
So Anning kept up the pressure: "You, are you from the dwarf country or something? Do you know Gulliver's Travels, that nation of little people..."
Reginald shouted loudly and lunged at Anning!
After the clear sound of blades clashing, Anning twisted his wrist and parried the incoming blade, stabbing towards the assailant's chest!
Reginald retreated once again, but this time Anning pressed on!
This proactive follow-up was Anning's own action, not the system's.
He wanted to resolve the issue once and for all.
However, a smug smile appeared on Reginald's face.
In the instant he saw that smile, Anning thought to himself, not good!
Reginald blocked Anning's sword, then struck directly at Anning's neck—
In that moment, cold sweat poured down Anning's back, and he instinctively leaned his upper body to the side, the cool sensation grazing his neck.
—It's over, my life is done...
Just as Anning had that thought, the system took control of his hand and drove the sword into Reginald's heart.
The next moment, both Anning and Reginald's bodies came to a standstill.
Then Reginald spat out a mouthful of blood, clutching his chest in pain as he fell.
The onlookers erupted into a gasp of surprise, and several of Reginald's entourage of friends rose to their feet, wanting to rush over.
Sais exclaimed, "Wait a minute! The duel is not over yet!"
The few young nobles stopped in their tracks.
Sais walked toward Reginald, bent down to check his condition.
On Anning's side, the cold sensation left his throat, and he immediately felt his neck, resulting in a hand full of blood...
—Wait, something's not right, a severed carotid artery should gush blood like a burst pipe, shouldn't it?
This thought crossed Anning's mind.
Could it be that, because he moved to the side, Reginald's strike hadn't pierced the carotid artery?
He looked down at the hand that had touched his neck, seeing it covered in blood.
At that moment, Sais stood up: "Earl Reginald has breathed his last, I declare Mr. Andy Frost the winner of the duel!"
Anning raised his right hand: "I won!"
—Wait a minute, I'm still bleeding, shouldn't I bandage it up first?
Vanni ran over, tore off a piece of cloth from her dress, and without another word began to bandage Anning's neck.
Meanwhile, Reginald's circle of friends had rushed over, working together to flip the Earl over.
Reginald's entire shirt was saturated with blood, clearly Anning's heart-stab had caused a major bleed.
"No, no!" one of Reginald's friends held his head and yelled, "This is impossible! Regi had the best swordsmanship among us! How could he be taken down by a leatherworker's son! You must have cheated!"
Just as Anning was about to reply, he saw the man pull out a pistol, take a powder horn to pour gunpowder into the pistol's pan, and then aim the gun at Anning: "Die, commoner! Let me correct the outcome of the duel!"
Anning was alarmed, at this distance even with the poor accuracy of the bullets at this period, there was an eight or nine out of ten chance of getting hit!
In a moment of desperation, Anning yanked Vanni behind him to shield her—
Then the gun fired.
The pungent smell of gunpowder drilled into Anning's nostrils.
Anning did not feel hit, and looking down, he could not see anywhere on his body where he was shot.
Good lord, I'm only five steps away from the shooter, and he missed?
The young man who had fired exclaimed, "Impossible! How could you..."
He lowered his head, his gaze sweeping across the ground.
Anning also looked down and then saw a shiny bullet on the ground, not far from Reginald's body.
It seemed the man had lost the bullet from his pistol when he drew it from his pocket.
In those days, flintlock guns were muzzle-loaded; the bullet had to be rammed down from the muzzle and secured with wadding.
The man had been too vigorous pulling out his gun, spilling out both the wadding and the bullet, probably losing a good bit of powder as well.
At that moment, Sais stepped forward and snatched the young man's gun: "Enough! The duel is over! This Mr. Frost has won the victory! Shooting him now would be murder, do you understand!"
Anning: "So, can I cheer for victory now?"
Vanni: "Cheer my foot, you still have a wound on your neck! Just stay put!"
As soon as Vanni finished speaking, Christina came running over and gave Anning a firm hug: "Andy! Wonderful, I knew you could do it!"
Anning had wanted to hug the girl, but he suddenly remembered he was holding a long sword in one hand and blood in the other; hugging her would likely transfer the blood to her body, so he refrained.
Christina herself disengaged from the hug and then pulling on Anning's sleeve, said: "Come, let me introduce you to a few of my good sisters..."
At that moment, Vanni interrupted Christina's words: "Are you sure you want him to meet those ladies with both his hands covered in blood?"
Christina was taken aback, only then noticing Anning's condition: "Oh, this... alright, you clean up first..."
Vanni: "I think you should go home first, and introduce him to your sisters at the salon tomorrow."
Christina thought about it and nodded: "Alright, that's better. You should go get bandaged up quickly; are you sure there's no problem with so much blood on your neck..."
Anning: "No problem, just a little break in the skin."
Just as he spoke, Mirabeau came up with a hug: "My God, I can't believe you actually won over that guy with three consecutive duel victories. When I saw you bleeding from the neck, I thought you were done for."
Anning: "You wouldn't believe it, but I thought the same thing too..."
Mirabeau laughed heartily, then pulled Anning along: "Come on, I know a very good doctor, I'll take you to see him! Miss Tolleson, you don't mind if we excuse ourselves for now, do you?"
Christina nodded: "Not at all. Mr. Mirabeau, please take him to get properly bandaged."