One of the Twelve Knights of Charlemagne and a half-human, half-vampire.
“Not long ago, you asked me to kill Sir Roland with my own hands, and now you send your knight as a champion to face me in a duel?”
Like Roselia Charles, Sir Theresia was not an easy knight to read. Chivalry did not occupy her mind, nor was it filled with flowery thoughts.
At the same time, she was a top-tier powerhouse within the Twelve Knights, vying for second or third place in the rankings right after Roland.
She was the Pale Lily, Sir Theresia.
“Did you come to kill me under the pretext of a duel?”
Rather, her identity was closer to that of an assassin, just as Roselia had said.
Imagine the strongest knights in the kingdom acting as assassins instead of knights.
Sien shook his head after giving it some thought.
“I see. So that was it,” Sien replied after a moment. “I accept the duel, Sir Theresia.”
It was an immediate answer without a shred of hesitation.
His opponent was one of the strongest knights on the continent. Even with Sien’s current strength, victory was not something he could easily guarantee.
Nevertheless, Theresia blinked in surprise at Sien’s prompt acceptance. However, her confusion did not last long.
“**[BLOOD ECLIPSE]**.”
Theresia murmured. Simultaneously, the sunlight pouring down from above vanished, and darkness descended. Neither the crowd’s murmurs nor their forms could be seen or heard anymore.
“A barrier spell…”
A knight using magic — this, too, was far from the norm. It was only natural, as she was no ordinary knight, nor was she an ordinary human.
A half-breed of human and vampire — a half-vampire.
“You don’t seem shaken.”
“Why should I be?” Sien asked back calmly from within the barrier.
“True,” Theresia said with a bitter smile. “After all, I came here to lose this duel.”
“I suppose your plan is to politically destroy the Third Prince.”
There was no way Sien wouldn’t know.
Losing a duel after being so stubborn was an act of extreme disgrace and shame, especially in a country that valued chivalry and honor. Once that happened, being excluded from the succession struggle was unavoidable.
At the point where one competitor was removed, Roselia Charles’s path to the throne would draw much closer.
“The Prince does not doubt my victory.”
“I suppose he can’t imagine one of the world-famous Twelve Knights losing to a brat like me.”
Theresia smiled coldly.
“So, from the beginning, the Third Prince was tricked by Roselia’s coaxing and was just being stubborn?”
“Well, that isn’t everything.”
“Then?”
“I came here to teach you.”
“…Teach me?” Sien asked back, baffled by her words.
“That is correct, Sien Nightwalker,” the Pale Lily, Sir Theresia, replied. “You haven’t forgotten your promise to Princess Roselia, have you?”
*Please kill Sir Roland.*
Roselia’s plot was to bring an end to the era of chivalry and transform the country into a land of assassins.
“Well, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t particularly need to know.”
Sien feigned ignorance, and Theresia continued without pressing further.
“I am simply here to help the tip of your blade get even a little closer to him.”
The most noble and righteous knight in the world — the Sword Saint, Roland.
“Of course, with your current skill, it would be impossible.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of that,” Sien said. “But why me?”
Just as she said, the gap between Sien and Sir Roland was immense — to the point where it was like comparing Sien and Laila. That gap was not something that could be bridged overnight.
“Because it has to be you.”
Despite that, Roselia Charles wanted him to die by the hands of Sien Nightwalker and no one else.
“The Princess has no doubts.”
“About what?”
“The fact that a new spirit of the age will be born by your hands.”
“The new possibilities that Sien Nightwalker will bring to this world.”
Sien did not respond. He simply felt a sense of awe at her chilling insight.
And when that time came — when the era of chivalry ended and the assassin replaced the seat of the new era’s spirit — the assassins of the Nightwalker family would no longer be special existences.
It had been the same in the past. Ironically, the new era Sien had opened with his own hands was exactly what brought about the end of his family.
“It won’t go according to your plan.”
Sien smiled sweetly while hiding a blade in his heart.
“Hmm, that is quite… an overwhelming thing to say.”
“You can thank me later,” Theresia said as she adjusted her grip on her sword in response to Sien’s words. “As I said, this is merely a possibility.”
She added a blood-colored sharpness along the edge of her blade.
“If you fail to meet expectations, it is also my role to put an end to that possibility.”
The Pale Lily of the Twelve Knights spoke with a terrifying killing intent that held no falsehood.
A golden sharpness coated the tip of her blade — the will of the Human Anthem that only humans could use… Aura.
“A flower that fails to bloom is merely crushed.”
“Your personality is quite twisted.”
A golden Aura Blade. It was undeniable proof of her humanity.
“Come at me with the intent to kill.”
“I won’t be responsible if you die.”
Sien whispered softly.
“**[POSE OF THE WRAITH]**.”
The identity of the Nightwalkers that allowed their assassins to remain assassins.
Sien’s form, which seemed to be right there, blurred like the moon’s reflection on a lake and vanished into an afterimage.
*Clang!*
However, Theresia swung her sword behind her back and parried the strike without even looking.
‘She’s strong.’
The Twelve Knights of Charlemagne.
They were an organization counted among the strongest knightly forces on the continent, alongside the Knights of the Round Table and the Iron Cross Knights. Moreover, the knight before Sien’s eyes was one of the top two within those twelve, second only to Roland.
“**[INNOCENT STANCE]**.”
She wasn’t just refusing to look at Sien.
*Clang!*
Every time Sien kicked off the ground and swung his sword, Theresia stood her ground without budging, parrying his blade.
She did it with her eyes completely closed.
“Do you know of this stance?”
“Who knows.”
*Clang!*
“It is the basic sword style that children in the Charlemagne Kingdom learn when they first begin their knightly training.”
She continued calmly, parrying Sien’s assassination sword — which boasted the mastery of the First Form — without even opening her eyes.
“Strictly speaking, it can’t even be called a stance. It only has three movements: slash, thrust, and block. It is literally an educational stance meant to teach the basics of swordsmanship.”
Sien was well aware of this.
The three movements consisting of slashing, thrusting, and blocking were the foundation and minimum units that made up swordsmanship. Even if the names differed, they could easily be found anywhere on the continent.
Even the founder, Kasan, had left behind a legacy in the Eastern Continent under the name of the Three Talents Sword Style.
“Only after mastering the movements of thrusting, slashing, and blocking from morning until night for several years do they finally begin to teach ‘real swordsmanship.'”
*Clang!*
Sien’s blade, swung from a blind spot, was deflected once again. He soon realized the truth.
The movements she was performing were exactly those three.
Horizontal and vertical slashes and thrusts that drew perfect straight lines.
“However, Sir Roland…”
It was at that moment.
*Rip!*
Behind Sir Theresia, who was blocking Sien’s attacks using only the three basic movements, a large wound deep enough to expose bone was carved into her flesh.
It was a strike from Sien that even one of the Twelve Knights could not avoid.
“Became the strongest knight in the kingdom using only the ‘Innocent Stance.'”
“Exactly.”
It was a fatal wound that would cause an ordinary person to die instantly. However, the female knight before him didn’t even blink.
“So, what do you want me to do?”
“To defeat an enemy, you must first know them.”
*Drip, drip.*
Theresia replied, ignoring the blood flowing from her back.
In an instant, the atmosphere changed. It was accompanied by a pressure so blatant that even Sien could feel it.
“Humans have their ways, and monsters have theirs.”
Simultaneously, the gold wrapped around the tip of her blade took on a bloody hue, forging a new edge.
A blood-colored Aura Blade —.
However, it was slightly strange.
It was crude and incomplete to an incomparable degree when compared to the aura she had shown just moments ago. It was hard to believe it was an Aura Blade manifested by someone belonging to the kingdom’s strongest knightly organization.
“Then what is ‘our’ way?”
“Our way?”
Before Sien could wait for an answer, Theresia rushed forward, gripping the incomplete blood-colored blade.
*Clang!*
Simultaneously, there was another incompleteness that filled that void.
A half-vampire.
He recalled the lesser vampire he had faced as a child. An unimaginable strength that erupted from an old, dying body.
To a monster, the physical body was never something to be overcome.
It was the same for the incomplete vampire body before him.
“**[DUSK TILL DAWN STANCE]**.”
Thus, the incomplete human and incomplete vampire — the Pale Lily, Sir Theresia, murmured.
*Clang!*
With her murmur, the blood-sword, coated in a crimson edge, surged forward.
A blood-colored Aura Blade. It was undeniable proof of humanity.
At the same time, the undeniable monstrous strength of a vampire erupted from her body.
“We are incomplete beings.”
The humans of the Nightwalker family who had completed their baptism were no exception.
“Whether it’s me or you, we are far from being pure and complete humans like Roland.”
“You’re even treating a dazed person like a monster.”
“Because that is what an assassin of the Nightwalker family is.”
Theresia, the half-human, half-vampire, spoke with a cold smile.
“And this is the way of incomplete beings…”
She spoke toward the being who, like her, hung precariously on the boundary between human and monster.
“The beauty that our incompleteness possesses.”
It didn’t take long to realize that those murmured words were Theresia’s enlightenment and her sword mantra.
“Secret Art: **[TURNING SWALLOW]**.”
And the ‘Secret Art’ that fully embodied that enlightenment unfolded before Sien’s eyes.
“What in the world is this…”
It was a sight that even Sien could not hide his horror from.
The will to overcome the human body, Aura, was there.
At the same time, the unique Blood Magic — a blessing of the vampires — erupted from that body! Blood Frenzy was unleashed.
The demonic power could never coexist with Aura.
Yet, the coexisting Aura and mana were giving Theresia’s body not just additive power, but exponential strength.
That wasn’t all.
“**[BLOOD SPEAR]**.”
*Swoosh!*
A blood-colored javelin erupted from the blood-colored Aura Blade she held. It was a mid-to-low tier Blood Magic that was not particularly noteworthy in itself.
The problem was the fact that it originated from Aura — a power that was contradictory and could not coexist.
Magic was being pulled out from an Aura Blade, and the body reinforced by a vampire’s mana erupted with the explosive power of Aura once again.
The fact that two powers that could not coexist were living together was materializing infinite possibilities that were theoretically impossible.
Not in the form of addition, but in the form of squares.