It seems that the villain is targeting me.

"Well, I understand that," Xiao Niao said. "After all, this is a knight duel. Both sides have to take risks. This is Gwen's own life. She needs to decide her own future."

"You want to train her?" the system muttered, then quickly let it go. "Yes, you'll leave this world sooner or later."

Xiao Niao didn't respond to the system's words, but simply said, "...Gwen seized this opportunity herself. Before this, I never thought she would perform so well."

Now it depends on her choice, Xiaoniao thought, whether to take a step closer, or give such an opportunity and honor to her brother or other generals.

In fact, for Gwyneth now, both options are acceptable.

She was almost escaping her original fate of marrying the eldest prince, and she was about to stop and rest.

Xiao Niao unconsciously turned his head towards Gwyneth, wanting to know what choice she would make.

But the moment he turned his head, Xiao Niao was stunned.

Her gaze inadvertently met Gwyneth Tudor's. After a few seconds of staring at each other, the other party did not look away.

There was stubbornness in the girl's eyes. Her eyes were so bright, as if they contained gold. At a certain moment, the bird seemed to have seen the strong emotions hidden in those eyes, which seemed to be about to boil over, but it could not understand a word of them.

Xiao Niao's mind went blank for a moment: Has she been looking at me just now?

Gwyneth was riding on a horse, looking towards the bird and smiling.

The girl lowered her head slightly, as if she had made up her mind.

Gwyneth said to Banur, "Father, I am willing to fight in your place."

Chapter 50: Hard Fight

General Banur, along with Gwen, Xiaoniao and his party, walked slowly forward under the escort of the general's guards.

King Jialan chose a good place for this duel: it was right on the mountainside, with a large flat open space in the middle. Some weeds and gravel had been cleared away in advance, leaving no obstructions.

General Banur was still on guard against King Jialan, and before he went too far, he asked the people around him to stop.

On the contrary, King Jialan seemed very calm and composed. He was alone and took the initiative to walk towards the direction of the imperial army, and walked into the range of the archers' preparation.

At this distance, what he said could already be heard by the general himself.

"Banur Tudor," King Jaran asked loudly, "will you agree to a fair one-on-one duel with me?"

King Jialan personally repeated his conditions: if they won, the imperial army would voluntarily retreat ten miles; if they lost, his soldiers would surrender.

The man's voice was full of energy and echoed majestically in the valley. Not only did the general and his entourage hear it, but even the infantry phalanxes that were quite far away were also filled with the sound.

The general did not reply immediately.

At this moment, General Banur's two children were following him, and the elite longbowmen behind him were also preparing - he still had one last chance to regret.

The general was still hesitating, while the eldest prince, who was hanging on the old crooked tree, couldn't help shivering.

Charles didn't care about his face anymore. He wailed, and his trembling voice was filled with

She cried, "General, General, save me!"

He was swinging miserably on the tree, like a sheep with a broken spine, looking extremely miserable.

General Banur frowned deeply. He stepped forward and shouted to the other side, "I agree to your terms! Release the man first!"

King Jialan nodded with satisfaction and did not dwell on the matter any further.

He waved his hand happily, and immediately several Jialan soldiers came to the tree, hurriedly untied the ropes, and let Prince Charles down.

Charles had been hanging for too long, his hands and feet were numb, and not surprisingly, he fell just as he was about to hit the ground.

After being put down, Charles was like a frightened bird, afraid that he would be caught by the surrounding Galan people again. He forced himself to run towards the phalanx of the Imperial Army with his legs as thin as cooked noodles, in a panic.

In almost the blink of an eye, he rushed into the nearest general's guard and placed himself under the protection of the army.

Even so, Charles still looked frightened, clinging tightly to the strongest-looking bodyguard, his calves shaking.

"General," Charles looked at Banur with a pale face, his voice hoarse and weak, "I was wrong. I shouldn't have overestimated my own abilities. Those people, those people are dead. I..."

The eyes of the surrounding guards all fell on Charles. They were all silent, and no one knew what they were thinking.

General Banur, considering Prince Charles's status, patiently said to him, "Well, that's enough. You don't have to say anything. Just come back."

Banur saw that Charles was frightened out of his wits, and he didn't intend to make things difficult for this guy - he would wait until he returned and listen to his father, the emperor, to decide the matter.

The general then waved his hand and said, "Send a few people to escort His Royal Highness the Crown Prince back to the camp."

Charles felt very uncomfortable and ashamed under the gazes of several guards. After hearing what General Banur said, he breathed a sigh of relief, nodded hurriedly, lowered his head, and hid among the soldiers.

After Banur gave the order, he ignored him and turned his serious gaze towards the open space used for the duel competition.

King Jialan was already waiting there.

"Gwen," General Banur looked at his child, his heart uneasy, "Are you ready?"

Gwyneth didn't say anything, but answered her father's question with a firm look in her eyes.

Her armor was fully equipped and her weapons were unsheathed.

Okay, no more questions.

Then go for it!

After a while, King Jialan saw a blond knight in armor walking out from the general's guard and walking straight towards him.

As the blond knight came closer, he could see clearly that it was a girl: her long, light-blond hair was braided and tied tightly behind her head, and she held a slender sword in her hand.

This person is Gwyneth Tudor.

When King Jialan saw Gwen's eyes, which were exactly the same as those of the imperial general Banur, he basically guessed the other party's identity.

Before this, King Jialan had learned from his soldiers that the person who led the light cavalry to raid his rear was General Banur's eldest daughter.

Therefore, King Jialan did not look down on Gwen because of her youth: nomadic people respect the strong the most, and what they believe in most is to win people over with martial virtues.

Gwyneth took a defensive stance and approached him cautiously, while King Galan stared at her with a pair of ferocious eyes like a hunting falcon. Both sides entered the attack radius of the other and confronted each other for a while.

Suddenly, a gleam of light flashed in King Galan's eyes, and he slashed at Gwen with a smooth movement like a hot knife cutting butter.

He used all his strength at once, and the sharp scimitar in his hand made a subtle hum as it cut through the air.

This move was fierce and fast, without any unnecessary movements or fancy elements. It was a sword technique that was born purely for killing. The opponent would often have his throat cut by the suddenly approaching blade before he could even react.

It seems that King Jialan is also a person who believes that "the only way to defeat martial arts in the world is to be faster". Unlike traditional swordsmen, he will not hold back at the beginning of the competition. Instead, he will burst out with all his martial arts in an instant, trying to kill with one blow!

When King Jialan was young, he had killed countless opponents with this ferocious opening move, and he was ready to end the battle with this knife.

But his blade missed, and he did not feel the familiar feeling of a sharp blade cutting through flesh in his palm.

King Jialan saw a flash of cold light from the corner of his eye, but he did not panic. Instead, he quickly retreated half a step and barely avoided the sword that Gwyneth was about to stab into his eyes.

Immediately afterwards, King Jialan twisted his wrist and slashed out the next blow without stopping for a moment.

He cleverly used the potential energy of his body's rotation, so this blow was faster and more fierce than the previous one - very few people could dodge King Jialan's combo.

Gwyneth was inexperienced and was almost hit directly. When she dodged, a few strands of her light golden hair were cut off by the scimitar and floated away in the air.

She broke out in a cold sweat, realizing that she had unintentionally underestimated the enemy: King Jialan used a scimitar commonly used by nomadic people, but his movements were not as clumsy as she had imagined.

On the contrary, King Jialan is a master with a knife.

He could even use a machete as long as an adult man's arm to peel an apple.

But Gwyneth was still faster than him, so she barely avoided the murderous knife.

From the beginning of the battle, Gwen was very clear that she could never beat King Jialan in terms of strength. Her advantage lay in speed.

In order to reduce the weight, Gwyneth abandoned the full set of armor with a larger protective area and only wore the most basic chain mail forged from snow steel.

This allowed her to maximize her speed advantage, but it also left her with almost no room for error - as long as King Jialan hit her just once, the duel would be over.

On the other side, King Galan, who had failed to hurt Gwen in two consecutive moves, seemed to have realized this.

He no longer used such brutal and lethal swordsmanship, but instead adopted a calm stance and slashed at Gwyneth with one blow after another with overwhelming momentum - he no longer sought to kill her with one blow, but used continuous attacks to leave the opponent with no chance to breathe and exhausted from defending.

Sure enough, faced with such an intensive attack, Gwyneth had to be extremely alert and respond nervously.

On the surface, Gwyneth was like a light leaf, nimbly moving under King Galan's blade. Although each blow was dangerous, it could not hurt the girl at all. However, anyone with a little experience could see that Gwyneth had been suppressed by King Galan and had no power to fight back.

Xiao Niao, who was far away, also saw this scene. She looked at the girl dodging the scimitar nimbly, and her heart couldn't help but tighten, and she secretly worried for her.

After several consecutive moves, Gwyneth didn't find any chance to attack and could only dodge under the blade.

For a moment, King Jialan had the upper hand, and the situation seemed to be turning in his favor.

Chapter 51: The story started by you

Let's move forward in time a little.

After Gwyneth made the decision, Xiao Niao was dazed for a moment.

She suddenly felt a little hesitant, an emotion she had rarely experienced since Kotori became the Prime Minister of the Empire.

The more people a person meets and the more things he experiences, the less hesitant he will be. This is because when you have rich experience, the judgments you make will be relatively accurate.

But now, Xiao Niao has become hesitant.

She vaguely felt that she seemed to have accidentally planted a seed, which was sprouting at an astonishing speed and growing wildly in places beyond her expectations - and Xiao Niao had no idea what impact this would have on her.

But no matter what, the seed had been planted, and she was powerless to stop the plant from growing.

Many years later, when Xiao Niao recalled this day, she could only choose to silently swallow the bitterness in her heart: because everything that happened afterwards was her own fault.

She started this story herself.

They are standing at this node in time. Both of them have made their own choices. Everything ahead is unknown, and fate is rolling the dice for them.

Driven by some magical omen, Xiaoniao slowly walked to Gwyneth.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but felt the inadequacy of words.

She was hesitant, she didn't know if what she was doing was right.

Xiao Niao does not believe in God, but at this moment she prays to some mysterious existence: pray that a young girl's life will not be ruined because of her willful decision.

If it weren't for me, perhaps she shouldn't have lived such a life.

"...You have to win, Gwen," Xiao Niao's lips trembled. She could hear the hesitation in her voice. "Can you win?"

Xiao Niao no longer used words like "Your Highness". Perhaps she was too nervous to remember these things, or perhaps she subconsciously felt that this was the right way to address him.

Gwyneth looked towards the enemy with clear eyes, looking much more relaxed than the nervous little bird.

The girl's eyelashes were very long, fluttering gently like butterfly wings.

Gwyneth didn't say 'I can win' or 'I'm not sure'.

She hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

"if……"

Gwyneth lowered her head and fiddled with the weapon in her hand, looking a little nonchalant.

"If I win, can you grant me a request?"

------

-

Another heavy blow forced her into a corner and she could no longer dodge it.

Gwyneth had no choice but to raise her sword to block.

Her sword was very thin and had double-edged edges. Her father had the best blacksmith make it for her based on the width of her palm and the length of her arm. It was much lighter than a standard knight's longsword, and even a girl could use it easily.

Such a thin sword is actually not suitable for parrying, because a slightly heavier weapon will shatter it, but Gwen shook her wrist and used a little strength, and the curved scimitar happened to be stuck in the blood groove of the sword spine, and she pushed it out with a little effort.

King Jialan felt like he was chopping at cotton, and he had the depressing feeling of a brave punch that suddenly missed.

He was a little angry.

The continuous high-intensity attacks had consumed a considerable amount of King Jialan's physical strength, and he was gradually losing his patience.

He originally set

The idea was to kill the generals sent by the Imperial Army as quickly as possible - only in this way could the morale be boosted to the greatest extent.

But no matter how he chopped, or at what dangerous angle he swung his sword, the opponent was always a moment faster than him.

King Jia Lan knew that the more times like this, the more he couldn't be anxious. His opponent was a young man, and he only needed to keep his stance steady and maintain his advantage at the moment. His opponent would soon reveal flaws due to lack of combat experience.

Just one cut is enough, just one cut is enough.

He could use one knife to make the opponent lose the ability to fight again, and then use another knife to end the girl's life.