12. Reet's True Strength

“I concede defeat.”

It was Ursu who uttered those words.

The crowd’s shock was immediate.

Reet’s blade had been knocked aside. To any observer, Reet appeared to have lost.

Yet Ursu, the strongest palace guard knight, acknowledged his own defeat.

Slowly, Ursu explained his reasoning.

“I used a Skill just now.”

“Eh?”

Voices rose in astonishment.

The match had been declared under a no-Skill restriction rule.

And yet Ursu had used a Skill.

Everyone knew Ursu was not a man to cheat in competition.

That is why his words shocked them so.

“More precisely, I had no choice but to use one.”

Ursu continued, his gaze never wavering from Reet.

“That final strike of yours—it would have killed me. I intuited I couldn’t defend against it. So I used my Skill.”

The implication was clear.

Reet’s final strike possessed the power to shatter Ursu’s iron defense.

“That can’t be… breaking Commander Ursu’s iron defense…?”

Larg’s words spoke for the shock gripping all the knights present.

Ursu’s defensive prowess was said to be the finest among the palace guard.

Yet a boy, newly dubbed a knight, had torn through it.

Even wielding Holy Knight Skills, it was almost unbelievable.

“He is undoubtedly strong. The princess’s judgment was sound.”

With that declaration from the strongest knight in the palace guard, all present had no choice but to accept the truth.

The true strength of the young man named Reet.

After Reet and Iris left the training grounds, Larg approached Ursu with a question.

“Commander, you held back, didn’t you?”

Even though it was a practice duel without Skills, Larg struggled to accept that Ursu—said to be the strongest palace guard knight—had lost to a newcomer.

But Ursu accepted the facts with a cool head.

“It’s true I was feeling him out. If I’d acted first, I could have fought evenly. But the fact remains—I couldn’t have blocked all his attacks. He nearly broke through my full defensive power.”

“But… surely with Skills enabled, you’d win, Commander?”

Larg asked the question like a lifeline.

Larg respected Ursu’s strength more than anyone else’s.

He knew Ursu was a man vastly stronger than himself.

Yet that very respect made accepting Reet’s victory difficult. The newcomer had defeated Ursu—someone far stronger than Larg himself.

That meant Larg fell far short of Reet’s level.

So Larg desperately wanted proof that Ursu, whom he respected most, was still stronger than this upstart.

“With Skills? I’d probably win—for now, at least.”

“For… now?”

“Our capacity is different. His and mine.”

Larg trembled at those words—words spoken by the strongest knight of the palace guard, Ursu himself.