Bribed by the Demon Lord Right Before the Ending

■ Follow me to the training ground! □

However, it seemed that my staff didn’t look very reliable as a weapon to him.

“I’ll be using a real sword. Are you sure you’re okay with that? It might be better to at least pick up that iron rod over there.”

“Even if it looks weak, if I wrap it with mana, it should be usable enough. If it seems dangerous, I’ll let you know in advance, so don’t worry.”

When I firmly refused, Ozma eventually nodded and stepped back, perhaps because it became awkward to insist further.

After that, we exchanged opinions and coordinated our thoughts.

As a result, Barnett was to act as the judge, and we decided that the first to land a valid hit would win, for the sake of both our safety.

If we fought recklessly like the Death Knights, it would be perfect for someone to get seriously hurt.

Ozma, standing opposite me, drew his sword from its sheath and said,

“Don’t think too hard about it. Just fight as if it’s a real battle.”

‘As if it’s that easy.’

“I’ll ask you to go easy on me.”

Hiding my true thoughts, I bowed my head and then took a stance, just like him.

It was the basic stance of the royal army’s staff technique, which I had learned during my brief time as a war mage five years ago.

With both of us ready to fight, a strange tension filled the training ground.

There was no official signal to start, but it was clear to everyone that the sparring had begun.

While we were both counting down, Ozma was the first to move.

Tap!

As if folding space, Ozma closed the 5-meter distance in an instant, pulling his rapier horizontally towards his chest.

“Huup!”

What followed was a triple thrust as fast as lightning.

The speed was so fast that I couldn’t dodge it with just my reflexes, so I predicted the path of the sword and blocked Ozma’s attacks by pushing my staff into each trajectory.

Although his surprise attack failed, Ozma didn’t care and continued with a dazzling step.

A slash from the upper left, a thrust from the lower right.

After delivering a series of attacks as if dancing, he spun around and used centrifugal force to kick towards my abdomen.

Of course, I wasn’t going to just sit there and take it.

I quickly raised my knee to block the high kick aimed at my abdomen, then gripped my staff with both hands and flicked the end towards Ozma’s chin.

But as if he had anticipated my movement by seeing my shoulder move, Ozma tilted his head back just enough to avoid the tip of the staff and then leaped back to create distance.

The back-and-forth offense and defense lasted less than three minutes.

With his upper body slightly bent and his rapier extended forward, his eyes gleamed like a cat targeting a fish.

“People often say mages are weak in close combat, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.”

I shook my staff, which I held like a long pole, and replied,

“If you don’t want to get stabbed by some random guy on the battlefield and die, you have no choice, right?”

Ozma curled the corner of his mouth as if he had heard something very interesting.

“That’s… true!”

Between breaths.

Ozma’s rapier, like the claw of a swift beast, lunged towards my neck.

I hurriedly tilted my head to the side to avoid the blade.

The rapier, brushing past my ear, cut a few strands of my short hair.

Without a moment to catch my breath, I swung my staff at Ozma’s side to fend him off as he closed in.

“Not so fast!”

Clang!!

The dissonant sound of staff and rapier clashing.

He managed to react.

“Tch.”

Knowing that fighting with a long weapon like a staff at close range was disadvantageous, I clicked my tongue and immediately unleashed a flurry of attacks.

Since the sparring would end with just one valid hit, both of us were equally focused on blocking attacks.

Ozma, who had been pushing me back at first, seemed surprised by my sudden barrage of attacks and blocked them with a flustered expression.

But unlike a typical staff, my staff had its weight concentrated more towards the head, making the strikes heavier.

The thin blade of the rapier couldn’t fully absorb the impact, so it was clear that his wrist would gradually suffer.

“Kuh!”

As expected, Ozma, who had been blocking the attacks, winced in pain as his wrist bent further back, and he had no choice but to retreat.

With the battle temporarily at a standstill, I finally had a chance to catch my breath.

‘How long have we been fighting?’

It felt like we had been fighting for about 30 minutes, but the shadow at my feet hadn’t moved at all.

It meant that only about 10 minutes had passed since the sparring began.

Without even thinking to wipe the sweat beads on my forehead, I checked the condition of the staff in my hand.

It was already covered with countless blade marks.

Despite reinforcing the staff’s strength with mana, it seemed like it wouldn’t last much longer.

Ozma, who was standing opposite me, breathing heavily, seemed to have similar thoughts and said, extending his rapier,

“How about changing your weapon now? It doesn’t seem like that will last much longer.”

But I calmly shook my head.

“As I said before, I’m really fine. I have ways to handle it. But more importantly, when are you planning to use the magic embedded in that sword?”

“…How did you know?”

“With such a clear mana circuit drawn along the blade, it’s hard not to notice.”

I didn’t know exactly what kind of magic was embedded in that rapier, but it must be something useful in battle.

Realizing that there was no point in hiding it anymore, he suddenly gripped the rapier with both hands and took a stance.

Then, the sapphire embedded in the sword’s pommel began to emit a cold light, and frost soon spread along the blade.

‘Judging by the mana pattern, it’s at least 4th-tier magic.’

Probably a high-level magic sword.

With that level of sharpness, it could easily cut my cheap staff in half.

Ozma pointed the blue rapier, now completely covered in frost and icicles, at me and said,

“Since it’s come to this, there’s no point in dragging it out any longer. How about we decide the match with the next strike?”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

Our physical skills seemed about equal.

So, it made sense to compete with something other than physical skills.

After accepting his proposal, we both took a moment to catch our breath, and the sparring resumed.

Ozma always made the first move, but this time, I moved first.

“Hup!”

Since the staff’s lifespan as a weapon was over, I threw it like a javelin with all my might.

Caught completely off guard, Ozma flinched momentarily but quickly lowered his body to dodge the staff.

“Foolish!”

The staff, which didn’t even graze him, made a loud noise as it hit the ground.

Ozma, who had stomped the ground, charged straight into my now unarmed self, aiming to thrust a sharp ice spike into me.

“Gotcha.”

Hearing my mutter, Ozma’s face showed belated confusion, but it was too late to stop his extended arm.

I spread my arms.

Left hand clockwise, right hand counterclockwise.

The wind element generated within my body spun in opposite directions, creating a small typhoon.

Quadra Spell—

‘Whirlwind Blade.’

The tornado that instantly wrapped around my arms swallowed the frost-covered magic sword that had come within reach.

Crack crack crack!

As the blade was instantly shredded as if caught in a blender, Ozma’s expression turned blank for a moment.

I didn’t take advantage of that opening but instead drove my wind-element-wrapped fist into the armor before me.

Boom boom boom!!

Ozma’s body, hit by the wind blast, was sent flying like a cannonball and crashed hard into the wall surrounding the training ground.

The short sparring match was over.

“Ozma!”

Barnett, who had been watching the match, rushed towards the fallen Ozma.

Not only was the sword broken, but the chest armor that had protected him was torn to shreds by the wind blast.

“Ozma! Snap out of it!”

Barnett held Ozma, who had been knocked unconscious by the impact, and shook his shoulders urgently.

“I thought I was controlling my strength.”

Thinking I might have gone too far, I immediately approached to apologize, but at that moment, I realized something was off.

The chest revealed through the broken armor was tightly wrapped with a compression bandage, which seemed out of place.

‘No way.’

At that very moment, Ozma, lying in Barnett’s arms, opened his eyes wide.

“…Was I knocked out?”

He tried to sit up awkwardly in Barnett’s arms, then realized that his chest was exposed due to the broken armor and torn clothing, and quickly looked around.

When his eyes met mine, he blushed and hastily hunched over.

“D-don’t look!”

So it was.

As it turned out, Ozma, the child of the Demon King Nero, was not a prince but a princess.