Two sacred artifacts collide.
Aghan’s granite sword.
The moon’s pupil possessed by Judas.
Red and ivory clash, sending sparks flying.
At that moment, one side shattered.
The granite sword.
The notoriously sturdy blade breaks and soars through the sky.
As surprised as Aghan was, Judas was also taken aback.
He just didn’t show it on the surface.
‘What the hell is this?’
He was confident he could win.
He had already calculated several flows in his mind.
None of those scenarios included a broken sword.
Judas instinctively caught on.
‘It’s the power of the shattered moon attribute.’
Originally, the moon’s pupil wasn’t strong enough to break Aghan’s granite sword.
He was startled, but he didn’t stop his attack.
He couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.
In the instant the granite sword broke,
All of Judas’s judgments were made, and he moved.
He took a step toward the hesitating Aghan and raised his sword to strike.
The clean trajectory barely grazed the armor.
Kiiing-!
With the sound of iron grinding together, Aghan’s breastplate ripped.
‘This armor is supposed to be cut… It’s much stronger than the moon’s pupil I knew!’
The armor tore grotesquely, as if someone had clawed it apart.
“Kugh-!”
Aghan didn’t retreat.
Instead, he charged at Judas.
‘Is he trying to have a strength contest with bare hands?’
If he struck while charging, he could surely kill Aghan.
Aghan seemed convinced he wouldn’t be killed.
Judas just chuckled.
‘This is working out well.’
Judas’s goal wasn’t just simple victory.
It was a humiliating overwhelm.
He decided to respond to Aghan’s tactic.
He tossed aside his sword.
He clutched hands with the charging Aghan.
Bang!
As they collided, a wave burst forth like a burst of wind.
They seemed to be in a struggle like two rams but quickly lost balance.
“Ahhh—!”
Aghan began to scream.
The clasped hands of Judas and Aghan twisted at an unnatural angle.
Judas was overpowering Aghan purely with sheer strength.
He didn’t need technique.
Just the sheer difference in power.
“Ah, argh…! Augh…!”
Aghan writhed like a squid over a fire.
He struggled to escape.
The more he tried, the tighter the large grip became.
With his hands pinned, his knees gradually buckled.
While Aghan knelt on the floor, Judas remained composed.
Standing tall, he pressed down firmly.
Thud.
Finally, Aghan’s knees touched the ground.
A high noble kneeling before a knight.
The sight was humiliating enough for anyone to feel shame.
The spectators gasped lowly.
No one had anticipated this scene.
Everyone thought they would fight fairly, and that Judas would lose.
That was the tradition and etiquette of the noble social circle.
However, Judas’s momentum was anything but that.
Even Eliya, his master, didn’t seem inclined to intervene.
“Kugh…!”
Aghan gritted his teeth and glared up at Judas.
He didn’t have the luxury of feeling anything as he looked up at the kneeling knight.
The pressure on his hand felt like being crushed under a rock.
Yet Judas’s expression was completely calm.
As if he wasn’t exerting any effort at all.
“Kugh…!”
Trying to escape, Aghan strained back, but Judas’s hand didn’t budge.
Judas didn’t say a word.
No provocation, no taunting.
He simply gazed down.
His demeanor conveyed that Aghan wasn’t worth a response.
The onlookers felt a mix of curiosity.
Only his hands were subdued.
His legs seemed still capable of rising or doing something.
But unless they experienced it, they wouldn’t know.
One wrong move here could shatter his wrist.
Aghan sensed this instinctively and couldn’t move.
‘Is this human strength…?’
He felt ashamed and humiliated.
That feeling quickly morphed into fear.
The power of one individual was excessive.
It felt almost irrational.
Moreover, the opponent wasn’t even using all his strength.
‘How could this be happening…?’
In the face of incomprehensible power, willpower was useless.
Aghan gave up on resisting.
The strength left his body.
He submitted to Judas’s dominance.
He wouldn’t be able to wield a sword for a while.
If he let this go on, he might never be able to use his hands again.
He was terrified, but he couldn’t muster the courage to resist.
If he dared to challenge him, his arm would be ripped off.
As a noble, he felt ‘daring’ toward a knight.
He couldn’t even utter the word surrender.
It was his last remaining pride.
The sight of him trying to keep even that pitiful pride was even more pathetic.
Judas looked down at Aghan, who humbly bowed his head.
To him, overwhelming a noble wasn’t just about victory.
It was about shattering his pride and self-esteem.
It was making him give up on the match himself.
And that humiliation would be completed by the next action.
Judas slowly released his grip.
He could easily make Aghan unable to use his arms for life if he chose to.
But he didn’t.
That was mercy.
Mercy originally flows from the top to the bottom.
The higher person bestows it on the lower.
Now, Judas showed grace to Aghan, who was placed below him.
Aghan, freed, realized that this situation was mercy.
It was humiliating and contemptuous mercy.
“……”
The watching nobles all zipped their mouths shut.
A high noble had been defeated by a knight.
Devastatingly and overwhelmingly.
No one declared the outcome.
Neither Judas nor Aghan, the two parties involved in the duel, spoke of victory or defeat.
It didn’t need to be said; the result was clear.
After dusting off his hands, Judas approached Eliya.
She greeted him with a smile.
“You did well. Much more satisfying than I expected.”
Aghan watched the scene with dead eyes.
Amid all those people, Eliya and Judas whispered to each other, loud enough only for themselves to hear.
Eliya’s smiling face.
Rare.
A true smile, not one hidden behind a mask.
Aghan recognized it.
That expression, shown only to Judas, was Eliya’s true face.
Having tormented her from childhood and forced her to smile, he knew it better than anyone.
Now a full-grown, beautiful woman – a filthy bastard.
The past, where she cried as he bullied her and looked up in despair, was gone.
Now….
“Aghan oppa—!”
Sara rushed over in a panic.
Jezebel stood beside her, glaring at Eliya.
“Are you alright, oppa?”
“Eliya, what the hell are you doing? How dare you, a high noble…?”
“Enough.”
Eliya cut her off.
“If you’ve lost in a duel, you must properly pay the price, right?”
“What, what do you mean?”
Aghan had lost.
A deeply humiliating loss.
The nobles already considered that enough punishment for the duel.
Asking for more was harsh.
However, Eliya didn’t think so.
“This, this is…! This is about Aghan and Judas! Why drag me into this?”
“Sister. You’re quite impressive.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Showing the multitude of ways to flaunt ignorance. I never would have imagined this.”
“……”
“A mere duel between Aghan and Judas? You truly don’t believe that, do you? Aghan stepped in for you and Sara. He couldn’t throw the glove at me, so he aimed at Judas instead. Therefore, I should bear the responsibility for the duel… Did you really need me to point out this obvious fact?”
It was Eliya who insulted Sara and Jezebel, not Judas.
He merely fought for his lord.
Eliya’s critique was valid.
In reality, Aghan’s provocation of Judas was ultimately aimed at holding Eliya responsible and humiliating her.
Jezebel had no justification to argue and shifted her stance.
“How can you say that after seeing what happened to your brother?”
“Do not appeal to meaningless relationships. Brothers hold no value beyond sharing the same father. After all, I never considered you a brother, did I?”
“You…!”
“Kneel.”
“……”
“Kneel and apologize to me and my knight. And to Sister Sara, too.”
“……”
The two young ladies trembled.
Their anxious eyes scanned the crowd.
They tried to find Balak.
The one who could mediate this situation.
But he was nowhere to be seen.
They looked for a fallback.
The eldest son, Cain.
And the second son, Levi.
They subtly gestured for help, but those two seemed unwilling to intervene.
Damn the eldest and second sons.
Once, as kids, they tormented Eliya together and now they pretended as if nothing was wrong?
Jezebel suppressed her anger and stood before Eliya.
Her body trembled.
The other nobles dared not step in.
They thought Eliya’s treatment was excessive but didn’t want to get involved.
Besides, it was an internal family matter.
Outside interference was unwarranted.
“Surely you wouldn’t be so foolish as to reject the rightful demands of the victor, right?”
“I can’t…”
Jezebel clenched her teeth and grabbed her long skirt.
She slowly lowered herself.
Her trembling knees touched the cold ground.
Seeing this, Sara looked around, then, with a whimper, followed Jezebel to kneel.
“I… Jezebel de Bevel, as the loser of this just and sacred duel… kneel before the victor Eliya de Bevel and apologize…”
Sara tried to follow with similar words, but her pronunciation muddled as she sobbed.
Eliya looked at her nails and indifferently remarked.
“Did Aghan die or something? He’s not even visible.”
“……”
Aghan, who had been lying at a distance, crawled closer.
Unable to stand due to the lack of strength in his arms.
As he apologized similarly to the two, Eliya sighed.
“How on earth was Aghan educated in the Bevel family? Words don’t guarantee actions. Saying sorry doesn’t show true regret. Shouldn’t you rather express it with actions?”
“What more should I do…?”
“Bury your head into the floor? Wouldn’t that show enough sincerity?”
“……”
The three turned pale.
Eliya’s command to bow their heads to a high noble was delivered nonchalantly.
The onlookers gasped in surprise but dared not intervene.
If Balak were present, he’d have stopped it, but he wasn’t here.
Eliya cast a glance at Cain and Levi.
They too seemed hesitant to intervene, simply watching the situation.
What were they scheming?
However, Eliya was now showcasing something.
What the Bevel family truly was.
And what consequences awaited those who touched her and her knight.
Finally, the three pressed their foreheads to the ground.
They clenched their teeth in resentment, while Sara sobbed.
Eliya looked down at them with her arms crossed.
Her indifferent gaze swept over their heads.
She lingered on Aghan a little longer.
The loser.
A nobleman whose spirit had been crushed. No, a noble who had crushed his spring of hope himself.
Pitiful.
He barely resembled the figure she once feared.
Had she begged this much in front of such a person?
It was merely that feeling.
No thrill or pleasure surged through her.
She didn’t feel like laughing.
Yet the scene was worth watching.
Her three siblings, helplessly kneeling, faces pressed to the ground.
‘Well, not so bad.’
She would continue to see this.
The ones who had tormented her, hid her mother’s death, and later used and mocked that death.
Only two remained.
Levi and Cain.
And her father, Balak.
Ah, eventually even Narcissi.
Eliya lost interest in those three.
But the disgusting losers would always try something to evade their shame.
She couldn’t let her guard down and needed to keep an eye on them.
Eliya smiled brightly.
“Well then, I hope you all will be careful moving forward.”
It wasn’t just directed at the three losers.
It was also a warning to Levi and Cain, and potentially anyone who might be her enemy.
If they touched her, it wouldn’t end ordinary.
As she turned away, Eliya faced Judas, who stood right behind her.
He seemed worried that things might have been a bit excessive.
But Eliya wasn’t concerned.
Just moments ago, she had been watching her siblings.
Disgusting creatures whose very existence revolted her.
It felt as if she had stepped into a grimy alley, filled with foul odors, just from seeing them.
But the moment she turned around, a completely different world unfolded.
The surroundings hadn’t changed at all, really.
It was merely the difference of whether Judas was there or not.
She felt a sense of comfort and satisfaction, like having washed away from the dirty swamp and lying on a clean, fluffy bed.
‘As long as this child is by my side….’
She believed she could overcome anything.
She was not alone.
In truth, it didn’t matter whether she was alone or not.
She had always felt that way.
Life had always been something she had to bear alone anyway.
As her previously grim expression vanished like a lie, a warm smile appeared the moment she saw Judas.
The sharp, unpleasant feelings had washed away.
Eliya thought it wasn’t dependency but mere frequency of use, as she gently held the tips of his fingers.
Enjoying the cool stream of air, she suddenly thought.
‘…Aghan.’
Aghan had intertwined hands with Judas during their fight.
And she had never held hands with him.
Just that once during childhood.
Eliya pondered nervously as she looked at Judas’s serious face.
Should she intertwine their hands? Or not?
As she noticed the coldness spreading across her face, Judas worriedly asked,
“Ah, um, Miss? What’s wrong…?”
Eliya regained her reason.
Why did she suddenly wish to intertwine their hands?
She realized that it held no significance.
“…It’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
She shook off the thoughts that were hard to understand and analyze.
In truth.
For some time, she had been afraid to even try to understand those thoughts.
She pretended not to know that fear.
She simply smiled and said.
“You did well. Judas.”
Judas scratched his neck awkwardly.
“No, it’s nothing…”
Behind his sharp appearance, he seemed a bit out of it only when it was just the two of them.
Something that no one else could see.
Something she would want to hide away from the world.
Judging Judas’s external aesthetics was just a habit of an aristocrat evaluating and judging others.
She had never cared about such things.
Just for now, having Judas there was enough to worry about anything else.
The necklace around his neck looked beautiful as well.
So maybe, it was okay to close her eyes for a moment.
Eliya thought so.
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