No Battle No Life Chapter 18

Paris, Palais de l’Élysée

“… After this battle, we, France, once again proclaim to the world that we have the power to completely decimate any enemy that dares to threaten our sovereignty and will meet any attack with full force!…”

Every newspaper and tabloid in Paris sent representatives to [Tu]’s speech, which was interrupted multiple times with raucous applause, so much so he had to gesture for those present to be quiet several times so he could finish it.

The fantasy-like victory had enraptured all citizens of France, and the announcement room was filled to the brim with reporters. There were no such thing as cameras so artists were present to sketch the dignified appearance of the Prime Minister as he delivered his uplifting speech.

“Really, there were simply too many people.” [Tu] said as he finally extricated himself from the surrounding reporters.

The northern feudal lords had proclaimed their fealty, as did the western feudal lords. The governmental representatives he had sent were already on the way too. Everything was progressing so fast, even he found it hard to cope.

“Your excellency, his majesty wishes you to do something personally.”

Just as he was about to enter his office, [Tu] was stopped by a military personnel– His military uniform had a dragon motif on it, so he should be part of the king’s personal guard.

“What is it?”

Because of the beautiful new addition to his personal guard, Tu was extremely busy.

He had taken out 3,000 cavalry from his original personal guard and placed them under Justice’s command, and formed the old guard from the 1,000 troops which had been trained in mountain warfare and other troops taken from the reserves.

Apart from overseeing the training of the new recruits, Tu also went down to the defence ministry to see what the other generals were up to.

Justice, however, was bored as her cavalry troops were the elite amongst the elite in all of France and apart from maintenance training, she had nothing much else to do with them.

“I’m really bored… When is your majesty fighting a war again?”

Every time Tu met this beautiful girl, she would complain to him and Tu would try and avoid her. He had no plans for battle presently after all, and the training of new recruits would take some time. Personally, he hoped that there would be nothing to surprise him in the near term.

“Ah… You want to fight that much?”

“That’s right. Apart from seeing flowers, all I do is browse the shops at Avenue des Champs-Élysées. If this goes on, I’ll become a slothful person.” Justice said as she looked straight ahead with her deep blue eyes– Straight at her superior.

“Eh, you’ve braided your hair, and in a ponytail too.”

Justice had tied up her long golden hair in a braided ponytail. Her original coldness and distance was gone now, and she felt more refres.h.i.+ng, innocent and energetic– Though she was a general that walked the perilous battlefield.

“Does it look good? I changed my hair to suit my mood.”

— If you’re asking that, I can’t possibly say anything negative right?

“It suits your style.”

“Oh, what style am I?”

Tu felt awkward as he had said it on a whim, not expecting this trouble to come.

“A, umm, cute style, yes.”

Though the king had easily dominated the battlefield, he struggled to find the right adjectives in his head.

“Ha… Hahaha.” Justice couldn’t help but to laugh when she saw Tu’s helpless face.

“Never mind. Why don’t I be your sparring partner? My swordsmans.h.i.+p is fairly good.”

“You said something really fun now huh… Alright, your majesty, I’ll go prepare at once. Don’t say I’m bullying you later.”

“Don’t underestimate my swordsmans.h.i.+p too.”

— That said, Tu knew that Justice, the only woman amongst the 3 knights of Austro-Hungary, was not well-known in the Empire for nothing. The ones who could match her in swordsmans.h.i.+p could only be counted on 1 hand even if you looked at it on a global level.

And Tu himself only concentrated on training his marksmans.h.i.+p for bows and guns in the closed beta so if he was to engage in a sword spar with this beautiful lady, he really hoped she would show him mercy.

Palais des Tuileries Training Grounds

“Since I asked you to risk your life for me, then using my body for your training is something I ought to do. I don’t want to be come the kind of foolish king who thinks that he can gain the loyalty of all just by sitting on his throne.” Tu said as he picked up a bamboo sword at the side. By his feet lay a long bamboo stick as well. These were for training purposes and could only inflict flesh wounds no matter how hard the attack was.

“Your majesty really knows how to joke huh.” Justice said as she moved her hand, which felt cold to the touch, across Tu’s chest, neck and face.

“See it with your own eyes then. I’ll prove it to your majesty, my will… My loyalty to your majesty.”

“You still can’t trust yourself fully so you’ll leave yourself to me and you want me to trust you right?”

Justice nodded and retracted her hand. She then reached out and tightly held a bamboo sword that was lying against a target board.

“It’s time. Ladies first, please.” Tu was ready as well and looked at the girl opposite him seriously.

They were currently standing in the center of a human wall of soldiers who surrounded them with about 10 paces separating them. Justice was now still fixing the knee and arm guards as well as her clothing and when she was ready, “Begin!”

As though signalling the start of the duel, the bell in the nearby church and the clock in the training grounds began ringing.

“Hu!” The one who attacked first was the girl and her golden ponytail floated in the air as she closed the gap between them in 1 lunge and stabbed her sword out at which Tu did not make any move in response.

“What is his majesty doing?” All the troops asked in shock.

“This attack…”

Tu exhaled and swung out swiftly with his bamboo sword and deflected her with one move. The sound from the smash between bamboo swords made it clear that the attack wasn’t friendly in the least.

The sword that was deflected slashed down across Tu’s shoulder.

“Hu…”

After stopping the attack, Tu drew back his sword to regain his stance but Justice had stepped forward.

“Guu…”

A strong kick landed on Tu’s knees.

Tu had no choice but to take a few steps back and he began to look seriously at his opponent– The commander of his personal guard.

“Fight me seriously, your majesty!” Justice exclaimed as her battlel.u.s.t was ignited. She swept out with her bamboo sword, lifting up the dust from the ground with the wind from the attack.

As he frantically blocked the attack, a smile floated up on Tu’s face, “It’s only just begun!”

Both sides closed the distance at the same time, and Justice stabbed continuously while Tu parried and defended.

The bamboo sword, which was thicker than Justice’s slender arms, moved so unbelievably swiftly in her hands that it seemed more like a thin rapier.

“Is the king being suppressed!?” A shout came from the soldiers.

“Is this the level of the 3 knights huh? Hu… I can’t find any openings at all, should I use that?” Tu said as he blocked Justice’s attacks and looked at the long spear on the ground.

— I prepared this for special circ.u.mstances, should I lose to her? I haven’t planned for it, but alright, I’ll just let myself be wilful for once with this sword then!

Tu kicked away the long spear and concentrated on defending. He seemed distracted, perhaps because his opponent was not one he could go all out on.

But the problem now was that Tu could not put in too much strength into swinging his sword to deflect the incoming attacks as it would splinter. At the same time, the only way to defend was to deflect and parry.

— Since he has chosen to defend and counterattack, whether he is attacking or defending now, he must take care of his sword so the girl is the on with the advantage.

As the duel progressed on, soon the tables were turned and it was now Tu who was attacking and Justice who was defending.

Tu was still energetic and would even twirl his sword from time to time as a show of his remaining stamina. On the other hand, Justice was panting.

“You need more physical training, my princess!” Tu said mockingly as he lowered his attack frequency.

Justice’s skirt was sliced earlier on 1 side and revealed her long white legs.

“Haa… Haa… I won’t be surrendering, just because my breathing is a little ragged, your majesty!”

“Then come! Hu…”

“Is that so… I see… Then I won’t surrender!”

Both of their wills to fight were ignited and Justice kicked off the ground and lunged forward as she slashed down with all her strength.

“Iyaaaa,” Tu raised his sword to block,

“I’ll destroy that sword!”

*Gachi*…

Tu’s sword was broken, and was unable to block’s Justice’s attack. In his hands was a mere broken stick.

It might have been intentional, but Justice had been striking at the same spot all this while, and thus, the sword had completely broken from that attack.

“Wh…!?” Not just Tu, everyone else was shocked at this.

— All that was left in Tu’s hands was a stick that was only the length of a shortsword, though that could still be used for combat.

— But since the sword was broken, the attack was not successfully blocked.

“Ah…” Even though the broken sword did absorb some of the shock, it still hurt considerably.

“I really lost to you…” Tu said as he fell, and smiled at the panting Justice, whose red puffed-up cheeks made her look even cuter than she usually was.

Cheers, sighs and shouts came from the surrounding crowd that was so raucous that it seemed like the entire palace shook.

Justice hurriedly threw away her sword and rushed up to Tu.

“My princess, you’ve won. Now will you please bring me to the infirmary, haha…” Tu laughed, hoping to alleviate the tense atmosphere.

“Uuuuu…”

Justice nodded and helped Tu up.

“You really put a lot of strength into that, I’m going to have to… Take a nap first…”

And so the duel ended in a win for the new commander Justice. Tu had thus achieved his aim of helping the new girl gain the trust of the troops.