The King sat down on a chair in the room.
"Just those terms?"
The four knights didn't like the idea of the King letting them duel, especially since it involved them, but at no point did they oppose the idea.
"Yes, just that, I don't think I have anything else to ask."
"So be it, it'll be in the arena, after the last fight the four of you will face each other. Is that all right?"
"Yes, I have no problem when it will be or if there will be an audience."
She lied, she wanted to humiliate the King in front of people.
"I just want to ask you one question, what's the point of all this? I've never done anything against the Kingdom, but I was followed by an assassin, then I was called here."
"You defeated a knight who protects the Second Princess, it's rather bad for the image of security to have someone weak in security. I just wanted to know about your strength and whether or not you could be a threat."
"That makes sense, but those four, whose security guards are they?"
"Mine, they protect the Crown."
"So if they're defeated easily your situation would only get worse, wouldn't it?"
"Indeed, rumors about the weakness of the security would spread, and even attacks could occur. Since the non-aggression treaty hasn't happened yet."
"That would be a very sad situation indeed."
The narrator decreed the last winner.
"I'll give the warning, go to the arena."
As Kaly left, the man next to the King gave the four of them a status-boosting potion to drink.
"I want you to win quickly and humiliate that woman. Don't kill her, but leave her begging for mercy."
The four went into the arena and the narrator was told about the duel, she asked people to stay in their seats and the details of the duel were explained, but few details were given.
Julian was in the room listening to this.
"She's gone mad, they're the Kingdom's elite force, and she'll be massacred."
This frightened Darius, but he remembered how strong she was and how she had managed to defeat several hordes of monsters in the forest.
Kaly was standing, she had taken out a rusty sword from her bag, the metal was detonated and it looked like it was going to break at any moment.
"Have you given up on beating us?"
"No, I think it's a waste for me to use an expensive sword on you. This one is more than enough."
The knight of clubs got angry, but held back.
The King went to the narrator's room and greeted everyone present, he began to make a speech praising his knights and said that he felt sorry for Kaly's foolishness. He started the duel.
The four of them attacked her at the same time, their movements coordinated and precise, but Kaly only moved a few centimeters and cut off the two legs of the knight of clubs. Then she leapt into the air and when she came down she cut off half the shoulder of the knight of spades. She threw her sword at the heart knight and pierced her belly. The diamond knight went for it from behind, but Kaly caught his sword with her hand and broke it.
He ran out of swords, she removed the sword from the heart knight's belly and approached the diamond knight. He remained on the ground, she pierced his arm, then continued to deliver several blows, until one of his arms fell off.
"That's enough!" Shouted the King.
"Nobody asked me to stop, so by the rules I haven't won yet," Kaly shouted in the middle of the arena.
"I said that's enough, I decree you the winner. They're your servants."
"I accept being the winner, but it would be a shame to have such weak people serving House Lestor. I refuse their services."
The King became angry, you could see a vein popping out in his neck, the people in the audience started talking, they were disagreeing about the strength and ability of the four, that's what Kaly wanted.
The King saw the people talking and became even angrier.
People started to leave the arena and Kaly was laughing.
"You caused some trouble, but it was fun to see the King furious."
"I did what I could, he sent an assassin to follow me while I was with Darius, I did some damage to him and the King didn't like it."
"But why would the King do that?"
"He said he didn't like that someone had easily beaten a knight who protects the Princess."
"That makes sense, but at the same time it's childish. I liked that you put those four in their place, they're knights who think they're more important than the other nobles."
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Depending on what it is, yes."
"I'll ask the question at dinner."
They returned to the mansion, the carriage was waiting at the entrance.
Kaly took out the mana plate and asked Darius to put his hand on it, his mana was higher, it now showed 21,352. He was up 874 points.
"Before dinner I want you to spend all your mana again, it's necessary and I want to check it tomorrow."
It was getting dark, but he obeyed, shooting several arrows, switching arms as soon as he got tired. But his mana took a while to run out. Kaly approached him and held his head with both hands.
"This spell will spend more mana, use it."
The spell was for protection, it created domes of energy that defended against magical and physical attacks. He managed to generate several domes in the garden, then more and more. Until he reached his limit. Kaly checked his mana, it was only 14 points.
"Now let's have dinner."
In the dining room, Kaly was waiting for a moment to say what he wanted.
"You look different, has something happened?"
"Yes, I don't know how to talk."
"Just say it," said Lucian.
"I simulated the conditions of a dungeon and managed to create a mana crystal. It turned out that Darius swallowed the crystal, I tried to recover it, but it was fused to his body and then absorbed. In other people it would be fatal, but he has the blessing of the goddess of life. That, or he's really very resistant."
"But will it kill him?" Orphelia was nervous.
"No, but his mana has increased a lot, he's stronger than an adult..."
"How much mana does he have?" Lucian interrupted.
"Yesterday he had 20,478 points, today he has 21,352."
"But that's incredible," Lucian said excitedly, more excitedly than usual. "If he gets stronger, our family will be even more influential. We've had low production this year, so him getting stronger has come at a good time."
"Low production?"
"We're having some problems with the harvest, some crops have died, others have given less wheat and some haven't even been able to grow."
"I can sort it out, don't worry." She paused, "Actually, Darius will sort it out, he's capable. It'll be good for building an image."
"You're not taking this too seriously? He's just a child," Orphelia worried as they seemed to put a strain on Darius.
"Don't worry, I understand the whole situation, if they consider it should be like this, then I don't see a problem with it," Darius said.
"You said you wanted to ask me a question, what would it be?"
"It's personal, I ask you to ask the employees to leave."
Lucian signaled and the employees left the room.
"I found the King's behavior strange, he seemed very concerned about the incident. But than anyone would care. So I thought of two situations, the first is a political game, where someone wants to remove him from the Throne. The second situation is a war, he might want to invade some country, and having a loss of credibility would be bad. Both situations seem plausible to me."
"You're right, you've got both situations right. The King is going through a coup attempt, he must have found out that his brother wants the Throne. That's why we're going to war. We'll attack Sarcosia, more as a way of showing the Kingdom's power."
"That's risky, but I can help, not in combat, unless it's necessary. But I'm good with potions."
"Potions?"
"You and your soldiers will be fighting, there's nothing safer than having potions so you don't have to rely on healers or die."
"You're right, that will be very useful."
"Now I'll ask you, do you want the King to fall? If there's a civil war, would you side with him?"