Chapter 524 Blood Night
The hall erupted in chaos. Wooden tables were overturned, and dishes of food shattered with sharp cracks, the soup flowing everywhere through the stone floor's cracks.
The two sons sitting next to the Duke witnessed a life-or-death struggle at such close range for the first time. The elder, Cole, drew his sword and stood in front of his father, but his stance was stiff, completely lacking the ease he usually displayed during training. Seventeen-year-old Lance simply shrank behind his chair.
Calvin sighed inwardly. Without Edith, these two might not seem so inadequate, but compared to the Pearl of the North, the gap was immense. Perhaps they had resigned themselves to this fate, losing the courage to catch up.
The Duke looked towards the center of the banquet hall. His eldest daughter had already targeted Ed. Hoss, the strongest in the room.
She started by grabbing a bottle of ale and smashing it at him, forcing him to turn around. Then, she leaped onto a long wooden table, looking down at him, swinging her sword. Her quick movements were like a snow leopard. Ed hastily parried, sparks flying from the point where the blades met.
In just a few breaths, Edith had swung five or six times, the clanging sounds stringing together like the footsteps of approaching death. In this critical moment, Ed burst out with surprising momentum, deflecting all the attacks. The two fought fiercely around the long table. Several Hoss family knights had already fallen, wounded by swords, but he did not retreat. Instead, he fought even harder.
Calvin couldn't help but worry.
Edith had already been through a major battle. The bloodstains on her armor were proof. Even if she wasn't injured, her stamina must be significantly depleted. Adding the fact that women were naturally weaker in terms of strength, this prolonged fight was clearly disadvantageous to her.
But Edith's face showed no fear.
Her eyes were fixed on her opponent. Her bright pupils were like twinkling stars. Each sword strike showed the sweat rising from her hair. Although her strength gradually weakened, she still chose to suppress her opponent with airtight attacks.
Ed seemed to notice this as well. He roared loudly, risking mutual injury to swing his sword upwards. The Pearl of the North was obviously unwilling to trade blood for blood and retracted her sword to block. The difference in strength finally showed results. Edith's longsword was knocked aside, and her body lost balance, causing her to fall off the long table!
The Duke's heart jumped to his throat. "Damn it! Help her—"
But even the nearest guard couldn't offer help — everything happened too fast.
After landing, Edith didn't get up immediately. Instead, she chopped at the table leg, cutting it clean off. At this moment, Ed. Hoss was jumping onto the table, raising his hands high, trying to finish off his opponent with a powerful strike. He didn't notice that the place where she fell was right at the edge of the table.
A scene that left Calvin dumbfounded appeared. The table losing a leg caused the knight to lose his balance completely. If it was just the table tipping over, he might have easily jumped away. But at that moment, all his strength was concentrated on his arms, his feet were fixed on the table like nails, and his body leaned forward, executing a standard chopping motion! Ed fell down on the ground face-first, his head hitting the floor heavily. The dull thud was clear to everyone.
There would be no chance for a comeback.
Edith jumped onto Ed's back, pulled out a bishou from her waist, and thrust it straight into Ed's neck. With a twist of both hands, the knight's body convulsed as if he had a stroke.
Was this… a coincidence?
No… the Duke realized that he had fallen into Edith's trap the moment he jumped onto the table. From being at a disadvantage at the start, to taking back the higher ground, he had seen the hope of turning the tables. The advantages accumulated in each strength contest made him think that a fierce attack was the best way to determine the outcome. His opponent's increasingly weak resistance boosted Ed's confidence, so the final blow was a full-force strike. If it was a normal contest, there was no way Edith could block this.
But this also made him completely lose the chance to adjust his balance.
Faced with a numerical disadvantage of three to one, the resistance of the two noble families did not last long. Half a
Quarter of an hour later, the banquet hall was silent again. The fire in the fireplace was still burning quietly, but there was a bloody smell mixed in with the flowing alcohol.
The Duke walked down from the main seat and looked around. The lesser nobles all lowered their heads, no one daring to meet his gaze.
"Earl Lister and Earl Hoss intended to rebel against King Wimbledon and have been sanctioned. Now, you have a choice: obey these two corpses on the ground, or pledge allegiance to the new king?"
This time, the answer was uniform, and no other noises could be heard.
……
"Is that all?" Calvin wiped the blood from his daughter's forehead with a handkerchief in the room. "Will Roland Wimbledon accept us?"
"You were calling him a rebel king yesterday," Edith joked. "Are you so quick to decide to pledge allegiance to him?"
"Isn't that what you said?" The Duke glared at her. "Anyway, it's better to surrender early if you can't win. If we can't gain the trust of His Majesty, we'll become enemies of the nobility!"
To execute two great nobles directly without a tribunal, this had already broken the basic bottom line of noble warfare. If it weren't for the frequent wars in Graycastle in the past two years, with lords in various regions being replaced one after another, and with Tyferko as an example, he would never dare to follow Edith's instructions and strike a deadly blow.
"I don't know."
"Wh… what?" The Duke's heart trembled, and he almost dropped the handkerchief on the ground. "You don't know?"
"Yes, we can only try our best to show our sincerity. But the ultimate decision about the fate of the North is still in the hands of the Fourth Prince himself. Don't get that wrong, Father." Edith said casually. "He may still send his own confidants to take over the North, and your title may be cut off. This is not something to be surprised about. All I know is that if we don't try, the Kant family will have no chance at all. Compared to certain destruction, we at least have the possibility of continuing now."
Calvin was stunned for a long time before sitting heavily in a chair, dejected. He knew his daughter was right, but such an answer was still hard for him to accept.
He didn't want to lose the title of Duke.
Edith suddenly laughed, "Don't be discouraged, Father. You have to seize the opportunity and pursue the attack early tomorrow morning to recover the two earls' mansions and territories. Besides, what will happen in the end largely depends on how much ability the joiners can show." She paused. "Sincerity is our ticket to negotiation, but ability determines the outcome of the negotiation."
Calvin frowned, "You mean…"
"I will escort these two heads to the royal capital, Father," she smiled charmingly. "Please let me be your envoy."