CHAPTER 109: GREED & ENVY VS (FORMER) ROYAL KNIGHTS

The tension flickered in the air as the Knights and students stared at one another, while the elf and Mel stood back, watching what would unfold.

As the Knight with the messy hair struggled to clear the ice, the less experienced Knight sprinted toward the Heiress.

Through the Cult’s influence, he had managed to sneak into the ranks of the Royal Knights after his exile in the North.

Yet his grudge remained, clouding his judgment as he swung at the Heiress, driven by pure irrationality.

But before the blade could reach her, the Heiress caught the sword between her fingertips.

Rosana clicked her tongue. "It’s humiliating that I’ve to waste my cleaning garbage."

Letting go of her waraxe, she wove a glove onto her hand with Creation Magic before driving her fist into his helmet.

The helmet cracked from the impact, sending the Knight airborne before he crashed onto the grasslands in a grunting heap.

"I commend that stubbornness, at the very least."

With a tinge of disgust, Rosana eyed the Knight’s sword, still clutched in his metal gauntlets as he struggled to rise.

"Never learning from defeat is stupidity incarnate, especially when you blame everyone but yourself."

"Shut up!"

The Knight lifted his gaze, and the one crack over the visor mirrored the scar on his corrupted soul.

"You were merely gifted." As he straightened with his sword sunk to the ground, he pounded the vest of his chestplate.

"Anyone can do better with that Dragon Heiritage of yours!"

Rosana tilted her head, her red eyes narrowing as if asking, ’that’s your retort?’

The anger boiled and slipped from the young Knight, as he bolted again.

Mana surged through him, coating his sword in blue light as he launched his final strike.

As an Adept ranked Knight, this Power Strike was the height of his strength that he gathered for thirty years of training.

Yet with a sigh, Rosana stepped back and raised her gloved fist to her waist.

Then she punched, shattering his sword and scattering the metal across the spring breeze.

The effortless denial of his efforts elicited a gasp from the Knight, just before Rosana’s boot crashed into his helmet.

Mel watched as he rolled backward, his helmet and armor catching on the grass before his limp form finally stilled.

"Not an improvement since we kicked you out five years ago, what a waste."

She tossed the glove aside, ashamed she’d had to touch the embodiment of trash from her homeland.

"The exile was meant to be your wake-up call," the Heiress sneered. "If not for that, you’d have died in the Northern War five years ago."

Her gaze flicked between the unconscious Young Knight to the disheveled Senior Knight, her expression a mask.

Already free from the ice, the Senior Knight fixed Rosana and Lila with a venomous glare.

With a roar, he raised his sword into a battle-hardened stance.

A sudden gust swirled around him, his blade shimmering with Wind Magic as he swung-

A razor-edged arc of air shot toward the ice Mage who had dared interfere, stealing his chance at redemption.

Lila gazed at the arc that neared her, indifferent.

And with a flick, the wind arc froze, literally.

Mel’s brows lifted as the wind arc hung frozen, a jagged, crystalline curve sculped and suspended mid-flight, right before Lila’s unimpressed emerald gaze.

And with a single tap of Lila’s finger, it melted into a puddle beneath her boot.

"What..." The Knight’s jaw hung open. "No incantation... not even a circle... how?"

Lila tilted her head, extending her arm as glacial mana coalesced in her open palm.

The air itself crystallized into ice, while the icicles above her spun with frenzied intensity.

Only then did Mel understand - Lila’s power had already surpassed Adept rank.

Icicles lanced forward as the Knight’s wind-imbued blade flashed in desperate arcs.

His first strike shattered ice. His second cracked the steel. The third froze the blade solid, frost crawling up his armored sleeve.

"Grr..." The Knight gritted his teeth against the ice biting at his hands, before staring forward.

Meeting the indifferent gaze, his eyes widened in a horrific realisation.

Those emerald eyes never saw him as an enemy and had never wasted a tinge of hatred upon him.

"Ice storm."

With a chant, glacial wind tore through the air, freezing the grasslands as the swirling orb trudged through.

The senior Knight’s knees buckled, before springing sideways in a desperate evasion-

Only for his legs to seize mid-air, frozen solid as the orb plowed through the treeline.

Lila’s arm loosened to the side, squinting.

Her lips curled up at the iced wasteland she’d carved, reminiscent of the attack when Mel revealed her Witch Form unto her.

Another memory to cherish, a proof that her strength neared Mel’s, even just a little.

The Knight gritted his teeth, the taste of failure bitter on his tongue.

His hand scrambled for his trouser pocket, where the cult’s result should have been.

The entire purpose of this experimental site. The culmination of all the cult’s research.

"Looking for this?"

As Mel’s voice boomed across the battlefield, the Knight’s gaze snapped to her - or more precisely, to the twin lizards crawling on her shoulders.

The creatures’ teeth clamped down on glowing orange crystals, their pulsing light perfectly mirroring the molten veins of lava flowing beneath the earth.

Amplifying Crystal.

"Forget that my magic controlled others, Mr Spy?"

Mel sent a mocking glance at the shocked Knight before the lizards released the crystals onto her palm.

With a flick of her wrist, she tossed them skyward, the glowing orbs dancing between her fingers like a small party trick.

"It was quite easy to sneak the lizards to steal the crystals off from you earlier when we walked." Mel grinned. "Anything more to say?"

The Knight’s lips quivered, his dazed stare still locked on Mel even as Rosana’s footsteps crunched closer.

And with a bump of her axe’s hilt, the Knight fell with a plop, ending the entire scuffle in an instant.

Rosana’s eyes traced the frozen wasteland before her. A sharp inhale of the glacial air turned her lungs to stone.

That creeping frost wasn’t just cold; it was lethal. One full blast would’ve flash-frozen the Knight’s organs solid, leaving him dead before he hit the ground.

Even she would barely survive; her First Life would have been snuffed out in an instant.

"Mel."

Lila’s whisper broke Rosana’s thoughts, as the Snow Witch turned back around.

Mel blinked; the smile on Lila’s face was too natural, too robotic from the cute Lila she used to recognise.

"What’s next?"

Lila clasped her hands to her chest, smile never wavering as her motion was practiced like a doll’s gesture.

"Please lead the way."

[ Envy Awakening Progression: 87% - 91% ]

With a glance of Lila’s strangeness, Mel merely smiled softly.

Even as she was a little afraid of Lila’s earlier Awakening than she expected, Mel stretched her hand towards Lila.

The Witch of Envy’s smile crept back to a frown, her gaze lingering at Mel’s request to hold hand.

Then, her hand overlapped with hers again, a gesture repeated too many times for her reassurance.

Something warm and sickly swelled in Lila’s chest, an affection laced with a venom she couldn’t name.

Recalling the Knights that betrayed Rosana, then back to the fruit basket the villagers gave to them, or rather Mel...

Lila’s grip turned vise-like around Mel’s fingers.

Mine.

Not gratitude. Not trust.

Hers.

Frost crept outward from her boots, matching the crystalline shimmer crawling up her fingers.

[ Envy Awakening Progression: 91% - 93% ]