The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess

Chapter 212: An Anticipated Fight

The match between Cedric and Seth wasn’t a long one.

Seth might be a genius in his own right, but Cedric was even more so, a fact that had been established within the first few moves of their exchange.

Having been tasked with clearing a naturally formed dungeon by the academy as his final test, Cedric had spent the better part of a year fighting things considerably more dangerous than a plant spirit mage.

All he had to do was freeze the vines, avoid getting tagged with Seth’s parasites, and trap him in an ice cage, one made by his own vines, but frozen.

He then looked at Cedric standing outside it with his hands in his pockets before letting out a sigh and saying.

"I surrender."

"CEDRIC ARDENT WINS!"

The two other matches after that ended in a similar manner, with Darius winning against Linda and Orion winning against Gerald.

Neither match lasted long enough to be remarkable.

Linda had already spent everything against Noelle and Darius, despite his bruises, still had enough dragon flames left to make the gap between them clear within the first few exchanges.

She was left with no choice but to surrender.

The Church’s representatives seemed to be considerably suppressing their abilities for whatever reason, so Conan had a much easier match with Fidelis than with Seth.

But for some reason, it felt as if he was suppressing something, though Conan found nothing when he tried scanning the representative.

After that fight, the crowd suddenly grew excited, especially the survivors.

And it was for good reason, after all, the next fight was between.

"REPRESENTING THE NORTH, LADY RENELLE ARDENT. "

The herald made a dramatic pause as he looked at the eagerly waiting crowd before adding.

"AND HER OPPONENT, REPRESENTING THE ROYAL FAMILY," He paused again, "SAINTESS NOELLE!"

The crowd immediately exploded in a wave of cheers, the survivors even more so.

They had always wondered who the strongest of their saviors was, and most believed it was the ice empress.

Others believed that the Saintess was stronger, and now, they were presented with a chance to find out.

***

Meanwhile, inside the preparation area, the prince lightly squeezed Noelle’s hand in reassurance before letting go.

It was all the luck she needed, and although she knew how strong Renelle was, she was going to give this fight her all.

Adrian, meanwhile, was watching the door Renelle had walked through.

"Who do you think wins?" Darius asked him, and without hesitation, he answered, "My lady."

Darius just nodded as he focused on the screen that showed the two representatives in the arena.

The crowd was cheering quite loudly as the two stood opposite each other.

To most, this was simply a fight to determine who was stronger.

But to others, especially those who had attended the ball where the prince had annulled his engagement to Lady Renelle, it was far more than that.

To them, this was a chance to see whether or not the prince had truly made a correct decision or not.

Which was, frankly, none of their business.

But crowds rarely concerned themselves with what was their business.

Lucian, watching from the preparation area, was aware of this undercurrent in the crowd’s energy.

Noelle was also aware of this, and she felt as if she needed to prove something to everyone else.

Renelle, on the other hand, was completely indifferent to this.

After all, she now had her Adrian, and it was almost as if the prince hadn’t existed in the first place.

"I’ll be giving this my all," Noelle said, meeting Renelle’s gaze, "after all, I have to win."

"Is that so?" Renelle muttered, but added nothing else.

"I suggest you give it your all," Noelle added, seeing not a single change in her opponent’s expression.

Her reason for wanting to win wasn’t solely to prove to herself that she truly deserved the prince.

There was another.

She figured that if she managed to win, perhaps Renelle would allow the prince a chance to discuss with the butler.

After all, she had noticed that the prince wanted to talk to Adrian but seemed unsure of how to approach it.

Whether that logic actually made sense was a separate question.

But Noelle had decided it did, and that was enough.

The herald’s voice was suddenly heard as he gave the signal,

"BEGIN!"

A moment after his words, Noelle made the first move.

She used wind to quickly close the distance and fire for her first attack.

Since fire was the natural counter to Ice, she chose to go this route.

The flames completely consumed her opponent, but Noelle wasn’t certain that Renelle was unharmed.

A few seconds later, when she withdrew the flames, she was proved right.

Between her and Renelle was a large wall made of ice, and even that didn’t seem to have taken any damage.

Noelle slightly clicked her tongue at that, already aware that this fight was going to be a hard one.

Switching to lightning, she launched a large bolt at the wall that was also stopped, though she had already expected that.

Her plan was simply to weaken the wall, and it seemed to be working, judging by the cracks appearing on the surface.

But Noelle soon learnt that the cracks on it were caused by Renelle dismissing the ice wall.

Noelle looked at Renelle, who seemed to have no intention of giving this fight her all.

Or perhaps, it was because the opponent hadn’t pushed her far enough.

Noelle was certain that it was the latter, so she put her hands down, let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

Renelle curiously looked at her, wondering what she was up to, but she soon found out when the Saintess reopened her eyes.

They had changed from their former brown to a glowing golden.

But that wasn’t the only change that Renelle noticed, because the next second, she felt every type of mana in their surroundings moving towards the Saintess.

In the preparation arena, Adrian looked at this with a frown before muttering in question,

"Origin?"