CHAPTER 187: I CHALLENGE YOU

Gasps rippled across the watching crowd. Some students covered their mouths, eyes wide. Others leaned forward, eager to see how the prince would take such a barb.

Sun’s scowl deepened, his fingers tightening on the hilt of one of his twin blades. The metal caught the light, gleaming faintly. Fin shifted subtly at his side, electricity sparking across his palm, ready to act at the smallest cue.

The air thickened. Even Byun hesitated, his usual bravado muted in the tension that had settled over the field. The smell of smoke from Jae’s earlier fire still clung to the air, mixing with the ozone tang of Fin’s lightning.

Jae stepped forward, closing the gap by a single pace. His red eyes locked onto Sun’s without wavering. "If you think I’m just dirt," he said, his voice steady, sharp, and utterly clear, "prove it. Right here. Right now."

The words rang across the training ground, silencing the last traces of whispering. They carried too much weight to be ignored, too much challenge to be brushed aside.

For a moment, no one moved. The silence was thick enough to feel. Students leaned forward instinctively, caught between fear and thrill, waiting for the crown prince’s answer.

The training field should have quieted after Jae and Byun’s spar, but instead, it boiled with tension. The crowd of students that had gathered pressed closer, whispers rising and falling like waves.

Dust still hung faintly in the air, stirred by the earlier clash, but now it carried a new weight? anticipation, heavy and sharp enough to make even the air feel tight.

Mrs. Lira stood frozen at the edge, her chalkboard composure cracked, her expression pinched between worry and disbelief.

She looked like she might step forward at any second, but the sheer gravity of the two figures in the arena held her in place.

Jae and Sun faced each other across the beaten earth, their stares locked, fire and steel crossing long before their blades did.

Sun’s gaze was sharp enough to cut on its own, cold and heavy, the kind of look that expected the other to bow. Jae’s eyes burned back in quiet defiance, red irises steady and unreadable.

Byun edged closer, jaw tight, his voice just low enough for Jae to hear. "Ignore him. You don’t need to prove anything here." He tugged at Jae’s sleeve like an anchor, but his grip met only heat.

Jae’s smirk, the easy one that always got him through, was gone. What replaced it was calm, but not the kind that smoothed things down. It was sharp, thin, like a drawn blade. "He opened his mouth," he said flatly. "Now he can back it up."

Across the arena, Fin placed a careful hand on Sun’s arm, voice pitched low but urgent. "Your Highness, let this go. A fight here won’t end cleanly." His eyes darted to the crowd, then to Mrs. Lira, then back to Sun. Even he seemed to understand that the line between a spar and a scandal was razor-thin.

But Sun shook him off with an irritated flick, his mouth twisting as though the touch itself was insult enough. "I don’t need advice from you." His eyes never once left Jae.

The murmurs in the crowd sharpened.

"Are they really...?"

"They wouldn’t dare."

"Crown prince against... him?"

Mrs. Lira finally broke. Her heels clicked sharply against the earth as she stepped forward, her voice carrying across the grounds with a command that brooked no argument. "Enough!

Heads turned. The students fell into uneasy silence at once, but the tension still hung thick as smoke.

"This isn’t a duel you can take lightly," she said, her gaze darting between the two boys. Her face was pale, but her voice stayed firm. "The crown prince and the academy’s... hero," she hesitated just briefly on the word, "drawing blades against each other, do you understand what that means?"

Her warning should have cooled the air, but instead, it only seemed to underline the moment, to make it feel heavier.

The weight of her words reminded everyone just how wrong this duel would be, how much it would ripple outside the academy walls.

Some of the noble-born students couldn’t hold their tongues, their tones caught between fear and curiosity.

"She’s right. If something happens to Sun..."

"...the King himself will have to hear of it."

But neither boy moved.

The silence that followed stretched taut, until even breathing felt loud. Jae’s hand twitched at his side, fire sparking faintly at his fingertips.

The flames gathered with a hungry, living heat, coiling upward until they shaped themselves into the familiar edge of the Dragonfire Blade. Its glow lit his face in shifting reds and golds, its heat radiating across the field.

Sun’s jaw tightened, and in response, the faint shimmer of his Sovereign Veil flickered across his body. The air around him seemed to warp, light bending just slightly, a translucent shield clinging to his skin.

To those watching, it was subtle, hard to grasp with the naked eye, but to Jae, standing in its path, the pressure was undeniable.

The crowd felt it too. The hairs on their arms prickled, their chests tightened. The Sovereign Veil wasn’t loud, wasn’t flashy. It was suffocating, quiet, inevitable

The crowd reacted as one.

"They’re really doing it."

"He’s actually... calling out the prince?"

"Are they really going to fight?"

The words tumbled over each other, caught between awe and dread.

Byun hissed under his breath, low and frustrated. "Damn it, Jae..." His shadows stirred faintly at his fingertips, but even he didn’t dare move between them.

Then, with no warning, Jae moved.

One step, and the ground cracked. His body blurred forward, fire trailing in his wake, heat distorting the air around him.

His blade carved the air with a whistle, the flames along its edge leaving streaks of light in his path.

Sun met him instantly. There was no hesitation, no faltering. His twin swords flashed free in a single, fluid motion, silver arcs of steel cutting through the morning sun.