"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate."
"Love comforts like sunshine after rain, but Lust’s effect is tempest after sun!"
"But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, all losses are restored and sorrows end."
"But my reason and senses cannot persuade this foolish heart to serve you."
"..."
"..."
It had to be said—Selena's voice was very pleasant to the ear. Whether singing or reciting, it was crisp, clear, beautiful, and moving.
As for Faust, he was quite impressive himself, being able to listen to his own proposal letter with a completely straight face!
Selena stopped after reciting only about a third of it.
It wasn't that she felt continuing the public execution was too cruel; she was simply thirsty from the recitation.
Faust's proposal letter was simply too long, filled with poems praising beauty and expressing adoration from beginning to end.
"Gulp, gulp..."
"..."
Taking the lemonade handed to her by the frost-walker, the Snow White quenched her thirst before looking down at the prince of Qingxi with a bright, teasing smile. "Faust, dear Faust, lovely Faust, my prince who sincerely professes his love... if you truly have seen a woman as beautiful as me, how could you pour out such absolute praise to me?"
The Midwinter princess carefully folded the proposal letter and tucked it into her bosom. Then, with her hands behind her back, she leaned forward and said, "Even if you claim it was a fake letter written for political purposes, the words on it do not lie. I am quite curious about this so-called childhood friend of yours."
"Since she possesses such beauty, could you let me meet her?"
"..."
"..."
At the time, Faust had thrown together every love poem he knew to show how 'profound' his sincerity was, hoping to deceive the wheel of destiny so he could escape the Qingxi Kingdom.
How was he to know that Selena was a narcissist? An ordinary person would have been mortified by such sappy words, tearing the outrageous thing to shreds and burning it to ash.
Yet, Selena treated it like a treasure, taking it out to appreciate it whenever she felt like it.
It would be one thing if she appreciated it in private, but she even recited it aloud from time to time.
No, seriously—what did I ever do to you by plagiarizing some Shakespearean love poems?
He had been careless! It was an oversight! One moment of inattention had left him with such a weakness.
Fortunately, there were no other humans present at this public execution, and the frost-walker was tight-lipped. Otherwise, to save the prince of Qingxi's reputation, he might have had to resort to some dark methods.
Faust could only admit his mistake. He stood up and coughed twice, saying, "In any case, the fact remains that I am not lying. You will understand when you see Viviana."
"Hmph, still being stubborn? Even that... is quite cute."
Selena gracefully covered her mouth with her hand, convinced that Faust was just acting tough.
Feeling like she had won a round in her contest with the man, the princess's exquisitely beautiful face carried a hint of a smile. "Since you were the victor today, I won't argue with you. I'll just pretend I didn't hear those words questioning my peerless beauty."
She suddenly stood on her tiptoes and gave Faust a quick peck on the cheek. "This is the reward for your victory."
Under the guise of a 'reward,' she could rightfully satisfy her own desires. Selena felt she was a genius!
Faust didn't bother to expose the Midwinter princess's little scheme and returned to the main topic. "We haven't won yet. We've only temporarily repelled the invading grail knights. The fortress is still besieged, and most importantly, we haven't found a way to break the curse."
The prince of Qingxi stroked the surface of the Neural Link Pod and said, "I will continue to pilot the titan mech until the enemy's encirclement breaks or until I buy enough time for Viviana to lead her troops to our rescue. There are still a few months left."
"As long as Viviana launches the offensive, everything will be fine!"
....
On the other side, in the coalition camp.
After the defeat of the grail knight, the knight order, primarily composed of the Golden Eagle Kingdom regular army, was very quiet.
There was no clamor, no noise; they returned to camp with their heads hung low.
The ordinary soldiers hadn't heard the conversation between the two, so they didn't know Dathrohan had been broken by psychological tactics.
All they saw was two paragons fighting to the edge of the world, and in the end, their invincible Lord grail knight was stepped on by the enemy!
Even if it was just once, the negative impact on the members of the grail knight order was immeasurable!
Although a grail knight was far from invincible and had faced temporary setbacks before, every time he was thwarted, Lord Dathrohan would boost morale and eventually wash away the disgrace.
The key point this time was that Lord Dathrohan seemed to have been beaten so badly he lost his soul. He had slipped away without even offering a word of encouragement to the brothers, likely intending to adjust his state of mind.
Was the situation truly that dire?
By the lake in the nearby forest, Dathrohan summoned the Azure Maiden once more.
"Lady... my deepest apologies. I have failed you..."
The grail knight knelt on one knee, clutching a handkerchief tightly as his whole body trembled, seeking forgiveness from the Azure Maiden. "I lost. I lost utterly... losing to a foreign junior decades younger than me. For any warrior, this is a supreme humiliation, let alone failing my Lady's trust."
He wished he could strip himself of his title of grail knight!
"I saw. The opponent used styles and tactics from the Golden Age, which are indeed difficult to deal with. But you... your performance was abnormal. That shouldn't have been your true strength."
The Azure Maiden's bare feet lightly stepped on the water's surface as she soothed Dathrohan in a soft, calm voice.
Under the Lady of the Lake's gentle gaze, Dathrohan could not help but tear up, his voice trembling as he said, "My Lady, it was him... he disturbed my mind with rumors. Those poisonous words... I want to forget them, but they haunt my heart like a nightmare!"
The Azure Maiden's eyes lit up as she asked curiously, "Oh? What words could he have said to make you lose your composure? Why don't you tell me about it?"
A grail knight's will was nothing to sneeze at; each was a person as resilient as steel. To have his defenses broken by mere trash talk?
She had to sit up and pay attention to this.
Dathrohan was shocked. "La... Lady! I simply cannot utter those blasphemous words; they would soil your holy mind!"
The Azure Maiden placed her delicate hand on the grail knight's head and said, "No matter. Just tell me exactly what happened. With my broad-mindedness, why would I care about a little slander?"
Draped in classical white gauze robes, the Azure Maiden radiated the aura of a holy mother.
So sacred, so merciful.
Having received the Lady's permission, Dathrohan took a deep breath and began to carefully repeat the "foul language" he had heard.
Perhaps in Dathrohan's heart, he was also looking forward to the Lady of the Lake's reaction to judge whether there was any truth to it.
Rate on N.U.
