[BL] The Darling Villain

Chapter 22. What Gave You the Courage to...

A whole month had passed.

It was the day of the swordsmanship tournament. The school was overflowing with swarms of people, mostly noblemen however. "Isn't this a little bit too much?" The corners of Azalea's mouth had twitched. He was standing in the seats surrounding the arena, with his legs wobbling.

The arena was a large plain of ground. Meanwhile, the seats were all the way up in the air, surrounding to look down at the arena.

To Azalea, it felt as if the noblemen were watching a bunch of cattle from their high chair, trying to choose which cattle befitted their tastes.

It is way too intimidating...! He tried his best to calm down. Azalea breathed in and out, trying to calm the waves that his heart had trembled out.

"There's nothing to worry about, is there?" Lucilline looked at him with skepticism.

His long eyelashes fluttered along to the wind, "I'm confident that you have superb swordsmanship skills. After all, you're almost on par with Willow."

Sitting beside him was Willow.

The maidservant nodded encouragingly. "Have confidence."

Meanwhile, Daphnne sat beside her. "Az is great at swordsmanship! I believe that you have the talent to surpass the others! Do your best out there!"

Percival nodded with a smile.

Hearing all of his companions' compliments, Azalea regained some of his original confidence. He nodded, with his white hair bouncing up and down like a feather riding on the high winds. "I will for sure do my best!" His amethyst purple eyes held a strong determination.

Soon enough, the referee called for all the contestants to meet at the arena. Azalea quickly ran off to meet with all the other contestants. They had drawn lots to determine their opponent.

The tournament was beginning.

Cheers and clapping had resounded through the arena. Lucilline sat beside Percival, Willow, Daphnne, and Augustine. The atmosphere became quite heated, as many eventful fights began to aspire.

Azalea fought against many noblemen.

Even though his legs shook before, when he was facing his opponent, he did not shudder even a slight bit. His amethyst purple eyes remained unmoved. Azalea moved his sword thrice, then easily deflected all attacks of his opponent. Unfazed, he managed to force the opponent into surrendering by pointing his sword at their neck.

The audience watched how everything transpired.

Willow nodded, satisfied. "He's surely made an improvement."

Even Augustine; a trained assassin; couldn't help but admit that the male lead was an expert at swordsmanship.

"Az is really cool! Right, Lucilline?" Daphnne squealed.

Lucilline looked at her gently, "Yes." He agreed.

Meanwhile, Percival was busy taking notes down in his mind. So this is the type of guy that Lucilline thinks is cool. A handsome man who knows swordsmanship. It seems like I might also have to take classes from Willow... His lips thinned to a firm line.

"Agh, I lost... how could I possibly go back to M like this?" Gilg was wailing in the back corner.

Beside him, Tetra just sneered, "I could always bring your corpse back if you'd like."

Gilg immediately stood up from his squat, looking quite petrified. "I thought that we were on the same team?"

Tetra stuck out his tongue, "It's a joke?"