The Frost Flower Knight

Chapter 8

Chris was under the impression that Yulia only made captain because of her family’s reputation. He could not accept that.

Yulia pointed her sword in the knights’ direction and flicked it lightly.

“If you so desire, I will prove myself with a display of my skills,” she said.

There was silence.

“Follow me, everyone.”

***

Thwack! Thud!

Yulia looked down coolly at the knight sprawled on the ground. He had introduced himself as Marvin and was in his mid-twenties. She pointed her sword at his throat.

“I surrender,” he said.

Yulia withdrew her sword and shouted at the knights standing by.

“Next!”

How many had she taken down? Out of the twenty knights in the order, close to half had already been brought to their knees by a single swing of her sword—literally, just the one. Her feet hadn’t moved from where she’d stood since the start. So far, the knights who had challenged her hadn’t been able to make her move a step. How was it possible that she was still only eighteen years old?

What a monster, thought the knights as they watched.

“Next! Is there no one else?”

Resting her sword on her shoulder, Yulia looked at the knights who had yet to fight against her. Then one of the knights, whose pride couldn’t bear her condescending provocation any longer, stepped up to the platform.

“I will challenge you.”

Yulia motioned with her sword, telling him to charge at her. He gritted his teeth and rushed at her, but just like all who had gone before him, he was brought to the ground as quickly as he had rushed in. As he swung his sword with confidence, Yulia simply twisted her body to evade it, then smacked the back of his neck with the flat of her blade. After fearlessly charging in, the knight was out cold. He had to be carried off by his fellow knights.

A few more challenged her after that, but none of them made it past one attack from her. She even yawned, tired of this whole affair.

“So this is what the Winter Guard is made of. What a disappointment,” she said, then pointed her sword at Chris. “I’m hoping you will be an improvement from them. How about it?”

The knights all looked at their vice-captain. Feeling the pressure, he clenched his fists. She really was proving herself worthy.

“Fine,” Chris said, stepping onto the dueling platform.

Yulia’s lips curled into a smirk.

***

A group of knights wearing black uniforms were in training when one of their fellow knights came rushing in and yelled, “Hey! Get a load of this!”

Their armor had a lion’s face in red engraved on the left chest to identify them as the Black Lion Guard, the other order of knights who fought on the front lines with the Winter Guard.

“Calm down. What’s all the fuss, Aiden?”

“Th-there’s something big going on at the Winter Guard’s training hall.”

“Huh?”

All the knights stopped their training and gathered to listen.

“What’s happening?”

Aiden proceeded to describe everything he had witnessed.

“Seriously?”

“I’m telling you, I saw it with my own eyes!”

“You better not be making up a story as an excuse for lounging around and being late.”

“I’m serious! You’ve got to believe me! If you all go and check it out, you’ll know I’m telling the truth!”

Without further ado, all the black-armored knights hurried over to the Winter Guard’s training hall. They weren’t the only ones—having heard what was going on, many members of the Griffin Guard, Shadow Guard, and Imperial Guard were already there to watch. Their eyes were all fixated on something happening inside the training hall.

When they got closer, they saw a beautiful, goddess-like woman basically toying with a brown-haired man. The man was pushing his limits, but to everyone watching, it was a completely one-sided affair.

“See? I told you!” Aiden yelled at his fellow knights, puffing his chest.

“I don’t believe it… that beautiful goddess… Is it really Lady Yulia…?”

Yulia von Rosenthal—she was famous for her grotesque, orc-like looks due to the curse on her family. But having received knighthood at the imperial palace just yesterday, she had also been given the role of captain of the Winter Guard by the emperor himself.

Not a single person present could hide the shock on their faces as they watched Chris struggling massively against Yulia. The way he drew his sword and charged at her valiantly was nice and all, but she parried all of his attacks too easily. He wasn’t able to move her from her spot, either.

It was perplexing. He was a man, and she was a woman. It didn’t make sense to him. Although Yulia’s physique had greatly changed, she had retained her strength. She was a powerful female warrior of the great House of Rosenthal. The strength she inherited synergized with her genius-level talents and had given birth to this formidable warrior.

“You make too many unnecessary movements. You won’t be able to scratch me at this rate,” Yulia said as she deflected another one of Chris’ attacks.

His pride went down in flames. He was struggling against a girl. And why were so many people gathered around to watch?

Thwack! Yulia slammed Chris’ back with the flat of her sword.

“Allowing yourself to get distracted during a spar, huh? In a real fight, it would have cost you your life.”

Chris was infuriated. He decided that this was an all-or-nothing situation. He gathered what mana he had and poured it all into his sword, forming the Mana Sword, a technique that could only be attained at the level of a sword expert. The mana shrouded his blade in a white light. He then swung it as hard as he could at Yulia.

At that moment, Yulia sensed something different from him. The energy from Chris’ sword was highly unusual. The sword was speeding toward Yulia with lethal intent, as if it were trying to cut down a mortal enemy.

For the first time, Yulia moved her feet. She knew that Yverre could handle Chris’ Mana Sword, but now that it had come to this, she decided she needed to properly display her true powers. As she focused her mana, it rode up the blue blade of Yverre and turned into Aura Blade. The blue of the blade shone more vibrantly, enveloped in the aura.

Stunned gasps could be heard from the large crowd of knights watching intently.

“I-is that Aura Blade?”

“A swordmaster? At that age? And she’s a woman…!”

Everyone was in deep shock, including Chris. Yulia’s Aura Blade caused Chris’ Mana Sword to completely disintegrate. Devastated, he stared blankly at his now-bladeless sword. Yulia pointed her glowing sword at Chris. Her gaze was unwavering and cold. He could do nothing but drop the hilt of his destroyed sword and declare surrender.

“I’ve lost,” he said.

Finally, Yulia withdrew her sword and looked at the members of the Winter Guard standing around them.

“Any objections?”

For obvious reasons, there were none. None of them could outduel a true swordmaster.

“No, ma’am…” they muttered.

They had no choice but to acknowledge and accept Yulia as their captain. She had shown her tremendous abilities as a knight despite her young age.

“A swordmaster… and an absolute goddess of beauty…”

“Life really isn’t fair, is it.”

She sheathed her sword with disciplined movements. Even that looked captivating to the knights watching.

There were female knights here and there, but none were as unparalleled in every way possible as Yulia was. No one had the combination of skills, beauty, and a prestigious family name like she did. All of these things made her an object of envy.

That concluded the spectacular arrival of Yulia, and everyone returned to their posts. Soon after, she became a hot topic of discussion for them.

***

In the Black Lion Guard’s captain’s office, Vice Captain Alec was making a fuss.

“Captain, did you hear?”

“Hear what?”

“Lady Yulia had her knighting ceremony yesterday.”

“So?”

“Apparently, she made a very grand entrance today, and they are saying they’ve never seen a goddess like her. On top of that, she’s a swordmaster! It’s a shame I wasn’t there to witness it.”

“Not much of a shame, really.”

“Aren’t you curious though, Captain?”

The captain was familiar with the name Yulia. She was the only lady and the heiress to the House of Rosenthal, commonly referred to as the guardian sword of the empire. Apparently, the infamously ugly Lady Yulia had been ordained a knight yesterday and had a bit of an eventful initiation at the training hall today.

If even Alec is this excited, the rumors of her being ugly are false, and she must really be beautiful.

“Swordmaster, huh…”

He was also a swordmaster, but he had never heard of a female swordmaster in all the empire’s history.

“I’m really looking forward to the meeting tomorrow.”

Alec was in high spirits, thinking about meeting her tomorrow.

Kyrant looked at his vice-captain with reproach and said, “If I were you, I’d stop making such a stupid face and start training.”

***

In the captain’s office that was now hers, Yulia went over the clashes she had with the Winter Guard knights. All of them were sword experts, but in her eyes, they were slightly weaker than the Rosenthal knights. They won’t survive the way they are now. The Winter Guard was supposed to be the elite.

Vice Captain Chris was supposed to become the captain. In her past life, she had been the captain of the Griffin Guard, serving only the emperor, and Chris had been the captain of the Winter Guard. That meant he would have made captain if it hadn’t been for her. She had inadvertently snatched away his promotion.

I guess I do feel bad for him. She could still see the fury on Chris’ face. He had run off somewhere after declaring his defeat to Yulia at the training hall.

Lost in these thoughts, she put her feet up on the desk and crossed her arms. It was an arrogant pose that was only possible because she was alone in the office.

At this rate, the Winter Guard will be wiped out first, just like in the past. The elderly emperor will also die soon. Then the crown prince would be seated on the emperor’s throne and begin a series of conquests to carve his place in history.

The Winter Guard knights had lost their lives in the first war he waged. Although the Winter Guard is supposed to be a group of elites, these knights are weak compared to the Black Lion Guard. The Black Lion Guard was the real deal. It was curious how all those genius swordsmen ended up in that order, but one thing was for sure: They all followed their captain, Kyrant, with their lives.

Kyrant was the empire’s greatest swordmaster. He was the main reason the Black Lion Guard was as strong as it was, achieving victory after victory in each battle he led them to. With a leader like that, it was no wonder their members respected and looked up to him. They were the true elites of the empire.

The Winter Guard has a long way to go to catch up to their level.

And that concluded her train of thought, as she heard a knock on the office door.

“Captain, may I come in?”

“Sure.”

The door opened, and a knight named Gren entered.

“Yes, Gren?”

“His Majesty, the Emperor, wishes to see you.”

“The emperor?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay, I’ll be right out.”

Yulia left her office and headed to the Sun Palace, where the emperor was.

When she was guided to the drawing room, the emperor and crown prince were enjoying teatime. Yulia courteously greeted them.

“Yulia von Rosenthal at your service, Your Majesty, the great sun of the empire.”

“Please rise.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Emperor Barron II offered her a seat. After greeting the crown prince as well, Yulia sat down. The emperor himself poured tea for her, and she politely received it with both hands.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Mmm. So how was your first day on the job, Dame Yulia? Or I suppose I should call you Captain Yulia now,” the emperor said, breaking into a wide smile. “I hear you made quite an entrance this morning. It seems that there was some opposition to your appointment.”