Tale of Discovery

Chapter 154: Marshal Gramont ; Duel ; Gandalfr

As I lean back against the sofa, the middle-aged man, who I assume is Guiche's father, walks to the sofa opposite mine and sits down.

As for Guiche himself, he stands at where he is without uttering a single word.

Not comfortable with the way things are, I say in a forceful tone,

"Guiche, come over and take a seat."

Hearing this, his father doesn't react much but just watches him as Guiche slowly moves closer before sitting near me.

Satisfied, I nod my head once before shifting my attention to his father and say in a friendly manner,

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Count de Gramont. I'm the Crown Prince of Albion, Wales Tudor."

Without even a slight change in his expression, the man responds,

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Sir Wales. You may refer to me as Marshal Gramont, and as you know already, I'm the count of the Gramont family."

So far, I don't find his attitude problematic. Even so, I still have the urge to chop his head off.

"I hope were satisfied with the reception you received upon reaching here," Gramont says impassively.

"Ah, yes. It was fine, I suppose," I reply vaguely.

One thing that someone must keep in mind when speaking with a 'noble' is to never let your intentions be known clearly.

For all they know, the 'noble' will take advantage of their words and force an agenda upon them.

So, to prevent that, I will be keeping everything about myself hidden apart from the fact that I'm here for the Grimoire of Truth.

"Do you happen to be aware of the battle that occurred between Guiche and me?" I casually ask.

"Yes," he responds, "The one where he bet my family's Grimoire of Truth, right?"

Squinting my eyes, I beam a smile and say,

"It's good to know that you're aware of the fact that he bet using the Grimoire. This saves me a lot of trouble."

Having said that, I wipe the smile off my face and say in a serene tone,

"I hope you hand it over without any trouble."

Unfazed, Gramont says in a nonchalant tone,

"Sure, however, you must first prove that you have the qualifications to possess it."

"Oh? And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Beat me in a duel," he bluntly replies.

---

"Are you sure about this?" I say once we're face to face in a room that seems to specifically designed for duels.

On the walls, there is various weaponry ranging from short wooden daggers to large metallic hatchets.

These guys do not fool around.

"Say, does all of your family practice with what's available over there?" I ask while pointing at the arsenal.

"That was supposed to be the plan," Gramont replies, "However, my sons all turned out to be much weaker than expected, not being able to wield the more heavy pieces."

Guiche's face turns a little red as he says,

"Father, we're a family of magicians!"

As a response to his words, Bullet's complexion changes before he says,

"Don't you dare throw that excuse at me again."

This results in Guiche to bow before quickly leaving the room.

"Every single one of them useless. Especially that little witch," Bullet mutters to himself.

I assume that the 'little witch' he referred to is none other than Laura.

Yeah, that's about it. I am very tempted to obliterate this man and get this done with.

Unfortunately, I can't kill him and then bring him back, as I have yet to figure out the effects that come with a body I produce using Creation.

Nevertheless, I have a special ability that's essentially my saving grace in such a situation.

Gift:

-Immortality.

"So, what are the rules of this duel?" I ask.

"No magic," he simply replies.

"That's all?" I ask doubtfully.

"What's wrong, Sir Wales? Were you expecting more restrictions?"

Huh? Is he suspecting me of something? Whatever, he's practically asking for a beating.

"So be it," I say before walking toward the arsenal and grabbing a battleaxe.

I then examine it to see if there are any problems, and once I found nothing, I walked back to the 'starting position'.

Gramont has chosen his weapon already, which is a long sword.

This duel is pretty much set in stone. First, there is a wide gap between our strengths. Second, he simply can't do much to me as long as I have Absolute Evasion and Vector Manipulation.

However, I feel like I've been depending on these abilities a little too much, so it's about time that I tried something new out.

Naturally, whatever I try out should be not seen as something related to magic, lest I want Gramont to call the duel off.

On a serious note, the only reason I accepted this duel is that I wasn't able to find anything remotely close to the image of "Grimoire of Truth" in my head.

Every book that I found in the room where I found the letters was nothing out of the ordinary.

So, the problem is, what ability should I use?

Suddenly, realization dawns upon me; I have yet to use Gandalfr.

Speaking of which, how do I activate it?

{Father needs to simply think of the ability once for it to enter a passive state of activeness.}

So, you're saying that thinking of it is something akin to a switch?

{Affirmative.}

How neat. If there was such a thing available for Vector Manipulation, I could've had a barrier around me every moment, rendering every attack meaningless.

Fortunately, I have Absolute Evasion for that case, allowing me to form a barrier even if I was attacked too abruptly.

Damn it! I am thinking of those abilities again, despite resolving myself to not do so a moment ago.

"Are you ready, Sir Wales?" a rough voice interrupts my thoughts.

Focusing back on reality, I find Gramont in a battle stance with a serious expression on his face.

I take a moment to deliberate on something before taking a deep breath and looking into Gramont's eyes before stating,

"I believe that this duel is unfair."

Not allowing him to misunderstand me, I proclaim,

"To make this battle fairer, I've decided that the moment that I take a hit is my loss."

Surprised by my words Gramont's brows rise before they gradually turn into a frown as he asks threateningly,

"Are you mocking me, Crown Prince of Albion?"

Shaking my head, I say in a confident tone,

"That's not it. I put it in simple terms, but you seem to not understand the meaning behind my words."

Setting the battleaxe on the ground, I lean on it before saying in a serene tone,

"Your strength can't be compared to mine, so I had to give you this handicap, or else you would never have been able to win."

He seems to find my words insulting as his frown grows and his stance seems to get more proper.

Acha~ it seems like he has finally decided to face me off properly.

Be it due to his pride or his wits, this works out for me, as it practically increases the prospects of Gandalfr I can figure out.

The more serious the opponent, the better they'll fight, which allows me to try out different aspects of my abilities in both offense and defense.

"Right," I say as if I just remembered something, "The only way to surrender is to kneel and beg for forgiveness."

This seems to be the last straw as Gramont's expression turns for the worst while he exclaims,

"You better not forget what you just said, because I want to hear your voice loud and clear later on if you want to live!"

Not minding his attitude, I state,

"Let's start!"

Holding the battleaxe I think of the ability I received from a certain girl and activate it.

The moment I do so, my arms seem to move on their own at a speed that is faster compared to my usual enhanced speed.

What's unexpected is the reason my arms moved in such a manner is to block an upcoming blow from Gramont who's already in front of me.

As soon as Gramont's long sword makes contact with my battleaxe, a gust of wind disrupts the place as cracks begin spreading across the wooden tiles underneath me.

Once again, my body moves on its own as I kick Gramont's leg with just enough force to destabilize him before I swiftly rotate the battleaxe and chop his right leg off.

In response to this, Gramont just groans as he moves back on his only left foot.

Gramont then coughs once before he says,

"It seems like those words of yours earlier weren't just a bluff."

"Of course," I reply as his leg slowly begins to regrow, "Especially the part about you begging for forgiveness."

As if just realizing something is wrong, Gramont's expression changes as looks down, only to find his leg half regrown.

Seeing the horrified look on his face, I slowly shake my head and clean the blood on my battleaxe off.

"Let's have fun," I say in a friendly manner while raising the now-clean battleaxe, "Shall we?"