“As a mage and escort knight, I would like to request a one-on-one match with Captain Douglas.”

I could confirm that Captain Douglas’ eyes changed significantly after hearing my words.

“Whoa… .”

At the same time, a smile crept across his lips. He also seemed to be expecting a lot of sparring with me.

Of course, if there are people who expect it, there will be people who don’t want it.

“Now, wait a minute, Mr. Conrad?! Are you insane now?!”

As expected, I objected, pretending to be nonchalant, and asked the girl who came in between me and the captain.

“Why are you like this, Saint Clare?”

“Mr. Conrad, is it because you don’t know how strong the leader is?! Captain Douglas is one of the emperor’s three swords, said to be the strongest in the empire among sword masters… .”

“… Holy Lady, this is a conversation between me and Prince Conrad, so please keep your face.”

“… … Yeah.”

Saint Claire was a little intimidated by Captain Douglas’ low voice, and withdrew.

“By the way, sparring, did I ever say something that offended Prince Conrad?”

“There is absolutely no need to worry about that. I just want to get a chance to see the skills of Commander Douglas Pomwell, no, knight.”

“Then may I ask why you are asking for sparring instead of just showing off your skills?”

“For it is better to see than to hear, and to suffer than to see.”

Of course, that wasn’t the only real intention.

It was true that he applied for a sparring with Captain Douglas to find out the level of the Holy Knights, but there was a purpose more important than that in this sparring.

To show my skills to sword expert paladins so that they can’t be ignored.

If I won against him, it would be a little easier to move in later activities.

At least I’ll be able to control the members of the Eurem Paladins who don’t listen because of pride to some extent. Or even if it’s not me, Captain Douglas will take care of it.

Or even if I could only get a draw, the way they look at me would be quite different, so that alone was enough harvest.

If he was defeated, he was worth as much as he was defeated.

It meant that if the opponent was strong enough to beat me in Dalian, on the contrary, I could understand the circumstances of the incident in the forgotten village to some extent.

In a word, it was an unconditional benefit to me no matter which outcome came out of this sparring.

“… … The saintess has found a really good escort knight after Willia.”

I could feel his eyes completely change as he looked at me.

Up until now, he had been polite to customers, but now he looked like he was really facing a single knight.

Captain Douglas moved his steps to the outside of the arena and moved back to the center of the large arena.

“… Guys, stay far enough out of the way.”

“””Yeah!!!”””

The members of the Order of the Holy Knights, who were sitting in a neutral position, neither resting nor nervous, hurriedly retreated to the corner of the arena.

I stood face-to-face at an appropriate distance from each other after they had disappeared.

“You don’t intend to actually risk your life in a fight, so let’s win by breaking the other person’s heavenly shield first.”

“Hmm, I don’t really care if I risk my life, but… .”

“No!!!”

“Heh, it seems that the saintess cares for you a lot. Then do as you wish.”

“Thank you for your understanding, Captain Douglas.”

In reality, it must have been the attitude he showed because he had the possibility of overwhelming victory in mind.

Although I had won against Dyke and Stella twice at the Academy, it was the established theory that a wizard could not win against a swordsman.

Underneath his relaxed expression, he might think that he would teach the wizard who asked him to practice the reality.

Captain Douglas, who was facing me in the arena, asked me as if he had suddenly remembered.

“Come to think of it, can you also use the sex law? From the outside, I don’t feel any divine power at all.”

“Could that be? Of course, we should seek help from Saint Clare. Would you mind allowing that much?”

“Yes, it is.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God, but living a faithful life enough to use the sex law was a separate issue.

I briefly approached St. Claire to receive the heavenly shield.

“If you keep asking for heavenly protection over trivial things like this, I will be really angry next time.”

“Thank you always, Saint Clare.”

Seeing as he grumbled and didn’t say that he wouldn’t cover it in the end, it probably meant that he could get it next time if he needed it again.

After confirming that a golden glow was forming around me, I immediately continued talking to Saint Clare.

“I would also like to request a heavenly shield from Captain Douglas.”

“No, it’s fine. I can use it myself.”

“Yeah?”

Having said that, Captain Douglas expressed divine power around his body, and like me, a golden halo wrapped around his body.

“If you’re the leader of the Order of the Holy Knights, you should be able to use this level of skill. Even though it’s not as high as the saintess’s, I can’t give it to someone else.”

“Isn’t it proof that you are a high ranking paladin just by being able to use Heaven’s Shield already? It is an honor enough to be able to compete with such a person.”

“You are good at saying good things. Of course, I wouldn’t look at it like that.”

After receiving the heavenly shield and returning to my seat, Captain Douglas once again mentioned the rules.

“Finally, check the conditions again. The condition of victory is that the first to break the heavenly shield surrounding each body loses, is this right?”

“Yes, that is enough.”

“Since it was Dalian that you applied for first, I will take the right to go first. It may seem harsh, but these are the rules of the Order of the Holy Knights.”

“Of course he agrees too.”

“… He is a man full of confidence.”

After answering that, I also walked to the other side of Captain Douglas and took my stance.

Immediately, vice-captain Allen gave the signal to start fighting between the two.

“… start!”

Before vice-captain Allen’s lips could even run dry, the image of vice-captain Douglas holding a longsword disappeared in front of him.

Right after that, a heavy sword attack continued right in front of the chest. The distance of 20 meters that had been opened when they first started Dalian was virtually meaningless.

If I hadn’t expected the attack aimed at the stomach from the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have received it.

kang. Along with the sound, there was the sound of a staff containing magic and a long sword colliding once.

As expected, the staff made of the world tree didn’t even have a small dent even after blocking that speed of the sword.

As soon as I blocked the first attack, Captain Douglas showed a slight admiration.

“I was going to finish it with that blow, but he’s a learned man, so he’s quite smart.”

“I just took two good choices between the head and the heart.”

“How do you know that it would not have gone by an arm or a leg?”

“Well, Captain Douglas must have thought of ending it with a ‘one blow’.”

“… Ohh.”

Due to the nature of the celestial shield that only blocks damage up to fatal wounds, it is not easily broken by wounds inflicted on arms or legs.

There was a calculation of his own that he would not inflict unnecessary pain on the opponent who acknowledged his honor.

“That’s why the first move was unconditionally the head or the stomach. And normal people always cover their heads. That’s why it seemed that a person with skill like the captain would aim for the stomach instead of the head, which is usually defended.”

“… I ate this one. It seems I underestimated you too much.”

“It is overrated. ”

“The first move was blocked nicely, so from now on, let’s deal with it properly.”

As soon as those words were finished, Douglas’s sword attack continued one after another.

Most of the attacks were blows aimed at the head or torso.

Thanks to that, it wasn’t too difficult to choose which part to block in each situation, but in the first place it was impossible to block that ridiculously fast sword attack just by swinging a staff.

The mana barriers and explosive magic that were quickly replenished at that time prevented several sword attacks, but they were only desperate to buy time and did not lead to sufficient time to continue the attack.

As soon as I blocked the sword attack with the staff, I had to prepare for the next attack. The lack of movement had to be countered with small-scale magic created by high-speed chanting.

Anticipating this to happen, the auxiliary magics that were ‘fixed’ from the carriage had already been consumed seven times.

While the three spells remained, I had to somehow decide.

three forward.

“You are using a strange weapon. Could it be something made of the world tree?”

“… … .”

I didn’t have time to answer. It didn’t seem like the other side was asking for that anyway.

Since the magical power bestowed on the staff of the World Tree was almost depleted, the next attack had to use the fixed magic barrier.

two forward.

“Furthermore, even the method of activating magic that is said to have been abandoned more than 300 years ago. Did you learn Or did you wake up on your own?”

If I had to ask, it would have been learned from the future. Now it has become a thing of the past.

This time, after giving the answer only in my heart, the explosion magic contained in the penultimate finger was manifested.

A moderate explosion momentarily opened up Douglas’s gap.

one forward.

And, the only gap.

“glare.”

“What… .”

The last magic fixed on his finger was manifested, and an intense light that burned his eyes was manifested in the arena.

What was created was a very slight gap, but that minute gap was enough.

To prepare for the final blow that would mortally wound him.

“The leftovers… !”

chin. With a sound, the staff in the right hand was thrown out of the arena.

If you thought I was going to do something between the gaps, you would of course think it was magic, so as soon as you blinded, you hit it with your intuition and blew it away.

That was the most basic way to deal with mages.

Also, that was the only bad judgment he made in this couple.

Immediately after the staff fell from my hand and flew away, the sound of two heavenly shields breaking in succession overlapped.

The two heavenly shields worn by Captain Douglas and me.

mine by his longsword. and his by my broadsword.

The fact that I, as a wizard, handled a sword itself must have been an unexpected situation for him.

Even when he sparred with his father, the trick that almost worked once was clearly working in this sparring.

“What, what? What happened?”

“Could the captain die?”

“No, I think it broke almost at the same time… .”

I heard the members of the Holy Knights who were watching the confrontation with Douglas from one side of the arena.

I made eye contact with Director Douglas and insisted cautiously.

“It looks like I broke it first, narrowly, the heavenly shield.”

Looking down at me, Captain Douglas smiled and nodded happily.

“Yeah, that seems right.”

“It was a good match, Captain Douglas.”

“At least on this journey, your powers will never get in the way. The saintess has a really great article, not a gossip.”

In the middle of thinking that the sparring was meaningful enough in that I was able to grasp the power of the Holy Knights and at the same time confirm my skills to the other members.

Suddenly, there was a clicking sound in the back, followed by a fairly strong pain.

“Ah!”

“… Please don’t worry.”

“Still, didn’t it end safely in the end?”

Maybe he didn’t like my excuse, so he got another slap on the back before going to the restaurant.