The change in Victor Shieldman's expression was clear for anyone to sense after the Ardann knight provoked him.
Victor narrowed his eyes and this time it was he who took the lead in the battle. With one thrust, Victor reduced all the distance between him and Ardann, and the knight hardly had a chance to think about what to do against his opponent.
At the last moment, Ardann managed to raise his sword to defend himself, and the force of the clash of the blades was intense. Despite this, only Victor came out of the clash in vain.
Ardann was thrown back a few meters, and part of the crowd of spectators had to scatter to get out of the collision course, so Ardann collided with one of the thick pillars of the throne room. The thud of his body colliding with the stone pillar echoed, and the room shook for a few seconds.
While the curtain of dust was still lowering around Ardann, Victor stepped forward again, grabbed this fallen knight's neck and lifted him up with one hand without any difficulty, even though Ardann was a man weighing over eighty kilos and with the added weight of steel armor.
Soon, all the dust settled, and everyone saw Victor with his sword in his right hand and Ardann's neck in his left.
Ardann was not yet unconscious, but his eyes were only slightly open and he seemed to be very dizzy, struggling to understand what was going on around him.
Victor moved his sword, but before he could take any action, a voice came across the room.
"Enough!"
Everyone looked the other way from where Victor was standing and at the back of the hall they saw Duke Olyno standing, staring angrily at the scene before him. The young man stretched an arm forward and said:
"You can't kill this man!"
The white-haired hunter glared at the duke. "In a deadly duel between two men, only one can come out alive to guarantee the demands of the other." Victor said coldly.
Councillor Steegar approached Olyno and whispered in his ear:
"Ardann has a wife and children to care for, and he has saved your life more than a dozen times, Your Grace. It's not fair that she has to die for some hunter. It doesn't matter if he's the father of an S-Rank or not."
Victor had excellent hearing, especially when he was using Den, so he could perfectly hear what Steegar whispered to try to persuade Olyno.
"Do you really want to talk about children, Steegar?" Victor looked directly at the counselor. "My daughter is at least thirty meters underground now, but this man's children here must be sleeping in warm beds in spacious rooms. That doesn't seem quite fair."
The counselor seemed quite surprised that Victor had managed to hear him and gritted his teeth. "Shut up! You're just a filthy trespasser, who in a normal context would never have the opportunity in your entire life to speak to such a high ranking member of the nobility as our duke!" He shouted.
The way Steeger dealt with this situation began to change and, for some reason, it irritated Victor much more than just seeing him whispering things in Olyno's ear. Until now, Steegar seemed intent on overpowering everything with raw power, but when he saw his champion lose, he went back to using words to influence Olyno's thoughts.
Victor realized at that moment that the whole duel plan had been useless, so he dropped Ardann to the ground and turned completely around to look towards the throne.
"Boy, do you want to know why I challenged your counselor as opposed to anyone else in this room?" asked Victor.
"Don't refer to the duke like that, hunter!" Steegar shouted.
"No, Steegar. It's all right, we don't fight the dogs for barking, after all that's all they can know," said Olyno.
As the nature of a warrior demanded, Olyno was calm, even with all the commotion from the soldiers and the counselor himself. He also looked into Victor's eyes without fear.
"Victor, you're a fine warrior, you're honorable in your own way, but, as my counselor said, in normal situations you wouldn't be talking to me. However, I respect the law of dueling more than anything. Therefore, your daughter is free to leave the city without any problems."
Steegar didn't like this outcome at all, and tried to approach Olyno, but he hadn't finished speaking.
"Despite this, you are still a criminal who escaped from prison and broke into my castle. So, from now on, nothing but that matters, because, you know, I can't let my city get a bad reputation for poor security." Olyno said and started down the stairs from the throne. "If all the hunters by chance start coming here to commit crimes knowing that they're going to be set free, there'll be no order and soon even no city to govern."
The soldiers seemed to understand what was about to happen and began to retreat against the walls, opening up even more space in the room.
"In any case, Ardann is widely recognized for his strength throughout the kingdom, and the news that he has been defeated will spread. I was thinking of ways to promote my name for the king, for people to start getting to know me even in the most distant villages, and to me this whole chaotic situation seems perfect for that.
"Promote?" Victor asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Come on, think about it. You're the father of a Rank-S hunter, and in most cities you could even get a few privileges and be respected for that alone, but people will know that it's different in Kozáni. It will also be impossible to hide the fact that you have defeated the one who is known as the strongest warrior in my city, and a security gap could perhaps remain vacant, but once they know that I, the Duke of Kozáni himself, have defeated you, nothing will change here in the city. In fact, you might even have a reputation for even more security."
As he spoke, Olyno removed the red cape that had fallen from his shoulder blades, and the soldiers of his personal guard began to dress him in steel plate armor. A smile curved his lips as the metallic clang of the breastplate closing echoed through the throne room.
"Now, of course, you must already know what's going to happen here. After all, you're clearly not an idiot. But don't be confused. Although I'm going to win something after it's all over, this won't be a duel, but an execution closed to a select audience." Olyno declared and at that moment they brought out his sword, a large golden sword. "Now, boys, learn how an authority figure really practices the famous and diplomatic 'conflict resolution'."