If You Take the Enemy Prince as Your Knight Chapter 124

Even to Shumel, who knew nothing about combat, it was clear. This was a battle with no hope. Even if Ciel somehow miraculously won this round, he would still have to face six more challengers. There were only two possible futures: lose quickly or lose slowly and painfully.

 

Wooo. The imperial guard’s mana-infused sword came crashing down on Ciel with fierce force. Ciel barely managed to block it by raising his blade horizontally. Had he been even a moment slower, his body would have been reduced to something unrecognizable.

 

Shumel could no longer endure it. “Then…!” Tears fell in drops from her wide, green eyes. “Then just forfeit!”

 

The two knights locked in confrontation flinched. They had reacted to the princess’s voice.

 

Realizing he could hear her, Shumel raised her voice even more. “Marquis Osbond said it! Even if you forfeit, you can live! So just forfeit!”

 

“…”

 

“Forfeit! Hurry and forfeit, I’m telling you!”

 

“…”

 

“You’re my knight! You’ve been imprinted by me! Then listen to me!” She shouted even those cowardly words. Though it wasn’t a command, it was a plea. “Please, please listen to me…”

 

Ciel’s arm holding the sword trembled violently, as if in convulsions. The blades pressed against each other, screeching as if groaning in pain in his place. Anyone watching could tell at a glance that Ciel had reached his limit. And yet, squeezing out his last strength, Ciel shouted. “I will not forfeit! I will die as Your Highness’s knight!”

 

“Ciel! Please!”

 

Ciel no longer responded to Shumel’s voice. So she turned her pleas elsewhere.

 

“Please! Please stop! Don’t kill Ciel!”

 

To the imperial guard knight aiming his blade at Ciel.

 

“I’ll take you as my personal knight! I’ll give you anything you want! Please…!”

 

“…”

 

“Spare Ciel…! Hngggg…!” The youngest princess’s crying, having forgotten all dignity and decorum, echoed pitifully through the arena.

 

Marquis Osbond declared, like a final ultimatum. “The battle will continue until the personal knight declares forfeiture. Under no circumstances will it be stopped.”

 

Ciel would not forfeit. Then the match would only end when he died.

 

“No! Please, no!” The youngest princess screamed. Her voice, already hoarse, cracked more and more toward the end. And finally, when no proper sound came from her throat, even her crying began to subside. With hollow eyes shedding tears, she murmured. “Help… please, help… Please save Ciel…” She prayed desperately in her heart. “Anyone, please…” Whether it was a goddess or a demon, it didn’t matter anymore. Truly, just anyone!

 

It was at that moment.

 

“Shushu.”

 

A clear, beautiful voice, like the chime of a glass filled with ice water, pierced her mind. As if entranced, Shumel turned her head.

 

“How far are you willing to go?”

 

She met cold, light sky-blue eyes. Her older sister stood there, beautiful like a goddess, yet also like a demon.

 

“Sister Sasha…?”

 

The question came again. “If you can save Sir Ciel, how far are you willing to go?”

 

“…!”

 

In that instant, Shumel felt her mind clear.

 

“Anything…!”

 

“…”

 

“I’ll do anything!” There was not a shred of falsehood in that resolve. Focus returned to Shumel’s eyes as she desperately grabbed her sister’s hand.

 

“Anything? Truly?”

 

“Yes!”

 

But Sasha tested her resolve again. “Even if you lose all your authority?”

 

“…”

 

“Even if everyone points at you and calls you a coward?”

 

“…”

 

Shumel didn’t waver yet.

 

“Even if you trample his honor?”

 

“…”

 

But now, she wavered.

 

“And even if your personal knight comes to hate you forever?”

 

“…”

 

Here, Shumel had to stop to catch her breath. Even so, it didn’t take her long to decide.

 

“Yes. Even if he hates me.” It was a firm nod, spoken with force. She willingly chose to lose everything and be left with only hatred.

 

“Then…” Sasha whispered a method into Shumel’s ear. After hearing it all, Shumel’s round green eyes stared blankly at her. Smiling gently, Sasha reached out her hand. “Shushu, the greatest weapon we possess is not our authority of domination.”

 

“…”

 

“It’s the dreadful fact that we are daughters of a tyrant.” Wiping away her lukewarm tears, she instructed her youngest sister. “Become cruel, Shushu.”

 

✦

With his senses numbed, his arm trembling nonstop no longer felt like his own. Once his strength gave out, the imperial guard’s sword would descend from above and split him open. Ciel sensed his end. It wasn’t as frightening as he had expected. Ever since becoming a prisoner of war, the time he lived had felt like a bonus. It was simply the realization of a death he had long prepared for.

 

Though it was somewhat miserable, Ciel thought the form of his end was not bad. Even if it was due to imprinting, he had met the lovable youngest princess. He was even able to die fighting as her knight. That was honorable enough. At least, that was what he thought.

 

“Anyone!”

 

Until the princess’s voice rang out.

 

“Anyone who kills Ciel will become my personal knight!”

 

“…!”

 

The sudden declaration shifted everyone’s attention, from Ciel to Shumel. Both Ciel and the imperial guard flinched in their standoff and turned their heads.

 

“Your Highness?”

 

The Shumel reflected in Ciel’s eyes felt unfamiliar. The gaze in her ever-tearful green eyes had changed. With fiercely widened eyes, Shumel spoke more like a ‘princess’ than ever before.

 

“Whoever kills Ciel and becomes my knight will receive my reward. You will have your loyalty tested in the cruelest way in the world, and be forced to offer devotion in the most humiliating way.”

 

“If you kill Ciel and become my direct knight, you will receive my reward. You will have your loyalty tested in the cruelest way in the world, and be forced to offer devotion in the most humiliating way.”

 

“Your… Highness?”

 

Ciel could not believe it. He thought it must be some other being wearing the shell of his beloved princess.

 

“I, Shumel Sabrina Magnarod, swear upon my name here and now!”

 

But the pattern of light swirling above her green eyes proved she was truly Princess Shumel.

 

“A-A covenant!”

 

“She made a covenant!”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“She’s staking her authority on it!”

 

For the imperial family members other than the mad emperor, a covenant was absolute. Since this covenant was made before tens of thousands of witnesses, its weight was immense.

 

The murmurs of the crowd subsided. In that silence, she threatened with the authority of imperial family members. “Do not forget. I am the daughter of the emperor!”

 

A tyrant’s daughter could be as cruel as she wished. Therefore…

 

“So go ahead, try killing Ciel!”

 

✦

Silence fell over the circular arena. After a moment, Ciel felt the strength drain from his arm. The resistance he had been pouring out against his opponent, pressing him down, was no longer necessary.

 

The imperial guard’s sword sank into the ground. “I forfeit.”

 

Woooh. Waaaah. Sounds that could not be distinguished as cheers or boos poured over Ciel from all sides. When his trembling blue eyes looked up at his opponent in disbelief, the verdict came down like a final confirmation.

 

“Sir Ciel, victory!” But it didn’t end there. Marquis Osbond announced the situation. “The six imperial guards who were next in line have all declared forfeiture as well! Thus, I declare Sir Ciel the final victor of the fourth knight wheel battle!”

 

Boooo. This time, the sound was unmistakably jeering.

 

Ciel let his arms fall limply. The sword hilt he had gripped as if to crush it slipped helplessly from his hand. The sound of metal hitting the ground rang loudly.

 

“…”

 

He then thought to himself. Is this right? Ciel slowly swept his gaze across the surrounding stands. His neck moved so stiffly it creaked like a broken ball-jointed doll. The deafening jeers continued. They pressed down on him just as heavily as the strength he had used to endure moments ago.

 

Ciel was a knight. A being meant to hold a sword without shame, aspiring to an honor as vast as the blue sky. Even if the rules were unjust, he himself must not be unjust. What he had left was his honor and his beloved princess. But now… it felt as though he had lost both.