Chương 116: Book 2 Chapter 68 - Kane's Master Plan

The commoners in Easton likely had no idea who Kane Vondeer was, but the excitement coming from the groups of nobles told them all they needed to know. The arena shook from the thunderous noise of the crowd's roars as Kane made his way to the center of the arena. He was wearing black pants and a long sleeve black shirt. His clan badge was pinned to the shirt for all to see. He wore a shortsword sheathed on his waist, the same one she had seen him wear before. It looked more decorative than functional.

His hair was slicked back to stay out of his face. Kiara found that the ideal amount of stubble decorating his chin was more repulsive to her now than it had been previously, now that she knew who he really was. It looked prickly and rough, mirroring his character. He looked confused by Kiara's presence, but the look of concern she had grown accustomed to seeing before their previous falling out was no longer there. Instead, his face settled into a mask of resolve.

Kiara's danger sense pinged him as extremely dangerous, someone she did not want to cross. Too late for that now. The moderator's voice no longer echoed through the stadium as he asked each of them in turn.

"Are you prepared for the duel?" They both nodded yes, and he instructed them to retreat to their starting positions, near each of their doors on opposite sides of the stadium. The long-distance start ensured that a close-range fighter wouldn't have an automatic advantage in bypassing a long-range mage's defenses. Kiara pulled her two enchanted swords from her soul storage, holding Victor's gifted sword in her right hand. Kane didn't pull any weapons out, and just stood there, watching her.

She was too far away to know if he had his aura active or not, she couldn't feel anything from here. The moderator retreated from the arena altogether, moving up to an official judge's chair behind the protective wards of the arena. His voice boomed once more through the arena, announcing for the duel to begin. Kiara paused for just a moment to see what Kane would do, but he just stood there for a bit. Eventually, he began walking forward toward the center of the arena, slowly.

She cautiously made her own way forward, meeting him there. She didn't know what his game was, but getting up close was ideal for her, since she fought with her swords. He stopped ten feet away from her and gave her a curious look. * Kane was surprised and confused. His plan had played out perfectly, up to a certain point. He had indeed left for Portish, and hired one of the two largest gangs there to attack House Yountal.

He had even provided them with some of the sketches Lord Goren had drawn up of Shian so they would know who to look for. Then, he'd returned to Easton. He knew which night the gang in Portish would carry out the attack, so he had instructed Baron Norshod to send a troop of guards to her estate the following night to demand her arrest. His success with the noble families here in Easton had earned him the baron's implicit trust, and James had followed his directions to the letter.

When Elsa had paid the same gang to attack House Yountal a while back, Shian had gone personally to Portish to look into it, so he had assumed she would do so again. He had instructed James that Shian likely wouldn't be at her estate when the guards showed up, and they should instead arrest whoever she had left in charge. When she came back, he knew she would likely come to rescue them, out of a sense of duty to her people, something that seemed important to her.

He had expected her to return after a week, rather than after a day, but then he realized that Dustin must have gone on ahead by himself. He wasn't sure what had prompted her to come back when she did, but it was fine, it just accelerated the timeline of Kane's plan. He had told James what words and phrases to use to imply that Shian should challenge him to a duel, and assured him that Kane himself would stand in his place for the duel. Kane would kill whatever house retainer she chose for the fight.

The baron would have his revenge on Shian, and House Yountal would be severely weakened by losing one of their tier 3s. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Kane had assumed it would be Zoey here today, and had been surprised to see Jaden here instead. Jaden wasn't as strong as Zoey, and Kane had been looking forward to fighting her, especially after all the nasty looks she'd thrown his way over the months.

She wouldn't have been a real challenge, of course, but would've been more so than Jaden. This had been Kane's master plan. In the off chance that Elsa discovered House Yountal had some powerful backing in another duchy or kingdom, the Silver Serpent Clan wouldn't be in anyone's mind for revenge. With Shian being the one who initiated the duel, any fallout would be her own fault, and even if it weren't, the clan could hide behind Baron Norshod, as he was the recipient of the duel challenge.

He'd even made sure to have a gang in Portish attack House Yountal's business, rather than doing it himself. Everything had worked perfectly until Shian had offered to be in the duel herself. His logic still held true, even if he killed Shian herself, so he wasn't worried about endangering the clan. He just couldn't figure out why she would participate herself, even after the moderator reminded her that the duel was to the death.

She must have some misguided sense of loyalty to her employees, something that distinguished her from Kane. She saw his way of life as repulsive, while he saw hers as weak and foolish. If she wanted to die here today, he would oblige. First, though, he was mostly curious to know if he had read the situation properly. He tilted his head in curiosity and asked, "Why not use a stand-in?" * Lord Goren couldn't believe his eyes and ears. Shian Yountal was doing the duel herself?

At first he thought he had misheard what she said, but the moderator confirmed it for everyone to hear. He had wanted to teach her a lesson, but he didn't want to see her killed. She wasn't a bad sort of person, she had just annoyed him with her antics the other day, challenging his authority and even completely ignoring his demands that she stay out of his business in the Benson district.

He hadn't really hired Ugor to bully House Yountal, that was just a nice perk he had thought of once he paid for the tier 4 to come to Easton for the week. No, he had hired him to finish the house feud that was tearing the city apart. After a single fight where Ugor decimated their forces, the other two houses would no doubt concede, and the baron could step in to help everyone without any more deaths. It was a difficult, and very expensive decision that Lord Goren's faction had come to a few days ago to hire Ugor.

The four main houses leading the faction had pooled their money to cover the cost. It was almost a year's worth of income for each of them, but if the fighting here in Easton went on much longer, they would lose more than that, so it was worth it. The last three or four days had been brutal for all three sides. Just in Lord Goren's faction, they had lost two of their tier 3s, and over a dozen tier 2s. Similar casualties were happening to all three factions, and it was decimating the noble families.

Lord Goren wasn't sure what the baron's angle was, but it was time to put a stop to the fighting. So they had hired Ugor to strike the final blow. He had only introduced him to Shian today to shake her up a bit, make her nervous. It hadn't seemed to work, and he had initially laughed at her bravado. Now, he realized her replies had been the talk of a dead woman walking. Of course she hadn't been scared of Ugor, she knew she would be dead within the hour. He tsked in annoyance.

It was frustrating to watch an up and coming scion of a wealthy house throw away their life like this. * Ron Venton watched the scene play out from the stands. He had just finished that day's intermediate sword class when news reached his ears of a duel in the city arena in a few hours. Curious, he'd stayed to watch. He didn't live in Easton, but traveled here each day to participate in Handel's Sword Academy. Shian Yountal had apparently dropped out, since he hadn't seen her after that last semester ended.

That had been a shame, she had been a good friend and an incredible swordswoman. A lot of other people had dropped out recently as well, due to the tensions in Easton, but Ron continued attending since Handel hadn't closed the academy or anything. Imagine his surprise when the duel moderator announced that Shian Yountal would be one of the contestants in the duel. Ron's heart had nearly skipped a beat. He had sparred against her plenty of times, and knew that she was good, but he had never seen her go all out.

The dueling collars prevented anyone from really showing their true strength, even during the end-of-semester tournament mock duels. He didn't know who Kane Vondeer was, so he had leaned over to his nephew, Marcus Tanner, to ask. He knew that Marcus had a crush on Shian, and had been taking a chance to dance with her at each party they both attended. Ron was married with three kids of his own, so he simply saw Shian as a friend and colleague.

Marcus's face had gone white when Kane appeared, and he leaned in to reply over the noise of the crowd.

"That's Kane Vondeer, a tier 4 that Baron Norshod hired." A tier 4? That was unexpected. Ron was a tier 3 himself, and while his magic sense always pinged Shian as a mortal, he knew that wasn't true. He had sparred against her with their dueling collars set to both tier 1 and tier 2, so she had to be at least that strong. She must have some kind of artifact that masked her power level, although Ron had never heard of such a thing. Either way, he desperately wanted his friend to make it out alive.

Now that he was personally invested in the outcome of the fight, he abandoned the sandwich he had been eating and leaned forward expectantly to see how it played out.