IQBTMLR ✔

Chapter 145

As Annabelle finished her words, great cheers filled the stadium dizzyingly.

Ian gasped in confusion until the Emperor declared Annabelle's victory.

It was the first defeat he had ever experienced since he was very young when he was just learning swordsmanship.

"Ah."

Ian muttered involuntarily.

"...This is what it feels like to lose."

The tip of the sword felt at his neck was cool. It was the first time he had felt oppressed.

Annabelle was the only person in the world who could make him feel this way.

He slowly lowered the sword he was holding, and looked back at Annabelle.

She was so beautiful that he gasped for breath and with his cheeks burning hot, he felt the urge to get down on his knees and kiss the back of her hand.

Annabelle, who met her eyes with him, said something very similar to him.

"This is how it feels..."

Her voice trembled with emotion.

Ian also did his best, and they both knew after eight years of dealing with each other.

The past years when she was fighting to win over Ian passed by like a lantern. Tears were dripping down.

"To beat Ian Wade..."

This overwhelming emotion was not because of the victory or the title.

If she had to say the reason, it was because of the time that seemed like an evil barrage to those eight years.

"Even when I lost more than two thousand times, I never cried, so why are you crying?"

Ian wiped his tears and whispered.

"I want to hug you here."

Fireworks went off over the stadium. Ian and Annabelle faced each other with courtesy, not to mention who came first.

Annabelle held out her hand to Ian and spoke in a trembling voice.

"It was a good match, Ian."

Ian looked at Annabelle's outstretched hand for a moment, then grinned and held it tight.

"It was a good match, Annabelle."

It was a warm picture that did not appear in the finals of the last two swordsmanship competitions.

Over the heads of the two holding hands, thunderous cheers echoed in the stadium once more.

Of course, there were those who applauded harder than the others.

"I will have to recover all the money lost to the Duke of Wade."

The Emperor was rolling to his feet in excitement, clutching his sweat-soaked handkerchief.

"After all, investment tastes like this!"

It seemed that the blood of the previous emperor, who had invested heavily in mines, had not stopped at all.

Robert, who was watching from the side, secretly made up his mind to keep the Imperial finances tighter.

And in order to prolong the life of the emperor, he only hoped that he would not secretly copy the current Emperor.

"Wow, that's how it ended."

In a different sense from the Emperor, there was a person who was exhausted and exulted. It was Nick.