Chapter 16: Dueling an original vampire!

Selena let out an annoyed sigh as she saw the esteemed Caro Silva approaching her. He always seemed to be wherever she was coincidently and it was starting to irk her out as she didn’t want any unnecessary trouble. It was obvious that her half sister had an eye for him, and she didn’t want to get into any unnecessary drama.

Caro narrowed his eyes at her as she practiced her sword skills. The first princess had recovered from her paralysis quite quickly for having spent decades trying to overcome it. Being a military strategist, he had always been suspicious of people and he knew for a fact that whoever this person was, she wasn’t the first princess and since she looked exactly like her, Caro could only conclude on one possibility, they were twins. If they only shared some similarities, he would have wrote her of as a fake, but since they were exactly alike, it was obvious that they were twins by birth.

After dealing with palace politics for centuries, he wasn’t the least bit surprised at this turn of events. The Queen didn’t keep all her eggs in one basket. She kept one in open sight while she kept her real ace hidden and only unveiled her when she had no other option left.

After watching the princess’s rehabilitation exercises in the first few weeks, he had quickly realized that she was only pretending to be paralyzed, but she did a good job of fooling the others.

Caro had found it weird that the timid first princess could survive an assassination attempt and crawl back into the palace as if it was nothing, turns out it was her twin who came back in place of her.

Caro being one of the original vampires had connections everywhere and seeing her move the sword with such ease, he figured out instantly that she was trained since childhood so Caro narrowed his search to find her origin to warrior clans and bingo, he found out that she had been raised in the General’s clan since childhood under special instructions from the Queen, but her existence wasn’t known to any other royal members.

“Selena”, he muttered to himself…..

He had finally found out her real name and he like they way it sounded, rolling off the tip of his tongue. He frowned as he saw the bright blonde standing in the arena with a sword in her hand. He was told that Selena was born a red head and he had received several pictures from his spy as proof. She was beautiful now, but she was breathtaking in her original hair.
Caro found himself chuckling. Yes! She did look like a red head….fearless….untamed….It is a pity that she dyed it blonde.

Caro being a strategist himself, couldn’t help but admire the Queen for her shrewdness.
Being personally trained by the General itself from childhood, she was a rather formidable warrior and Caro felt himself being more and more drawn to her.

“Need some help, princess?”, Caro asked, keeping an eye on the arm wielding the sword.

Everything from the look in her eyes to her stance while carrying the sword had a warrior written all over it. Only a fool would believe that she had spent the entirety of her life paralyzed. After fighting in countless battles for centuries, he knew a warrior when he saw one. That was put him off at their first meeting in the throne room. Her eyes……her fearless, arrogant eyes.

She raised an eyebrow challengingly at Caro and scoffed at him and asked, “Are you challenging me for a duel, Your Highness?”
Now that the fact that she had recovered and could walk was out in the public, she didn’t have to hide her skills anymore and pretend to be a weakling. She was dying for a real fight as she normally spend her day back at the General’s fighting his men.
She had looked for Demetri everywhere to get a dueling partner but to her surprise, Demetri was nowhere to be found.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw that several of the citizens had gathered as usual to see her train.
Caro bowed deeply and took a sword from the stand and she returned his bow, acknowledging his challenge.

Caro smiled subtly as he saw that her eyes had changed like a vulture locking on its target.
She had a gleam in her eyes and Caro found himself being mesmerized by it. The onlookers however didn’t share his concern as they were genuinely worried for their newly recovered first princess. They didn’t want her to fight an ancient vampire like him.
Being an original vampire and also a military strategist, he clearly had the upper hand even though Selena had been well trained since childhood, she lacks the experience of real battles.

Whereas Caro being an original vampire was stronger and faster than her. After all, he was one of three original vampires, brother of Count Dracula. He was the last surviving original vampire and also the grand uncle of Dominic Vanhuesan.

Minute by minute , the onlooker’s number increased and unknown to either Selena or Caro, even the king himself was watching every thing form the crowd.

Being curious about his daughter’s recovery and training sessions, he had personally visited the site wearing normal pheasant clothes so as not to gain too much attention.
He had always hated Mia as he thought that she was a black mark on his reputation. He was disappointed in her but news had reached him about Mia’s new stance and he had come personally to take a look. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw his daughter accept the challenge with an original vampire fearlessly. He was left wondering if she really was the same person.

Caro attacked first, but Selena defended against every single of his attacks, gracefully sliding through the ground. She was almost dancing while wielding a sword.
The king as well as the crowd surrounding him watched in astonishment as they saw the first princess dodge and block every single blow of Caro’s.

The crowd started cheering wildly as they realized that their princess was not in danger at all and it was more of an even fight than they had originally thought.
The King watched his daughter with new eyes. He gleamed proudly as he watched his daughter holding her own in a fight against the undefeatable Caro Silva. The King, himself had lost a duel against him and he still bore a grudge against him for that.

He found himself hoping….Caro had an undefeated title to his name as he never was defeated by anyone. He had even went along to claim that he would only marry a woman who could defeat him in a fight which made several of women pick up their swords. He was constantly challenged by several optimistic women but none of them even survived a few seconds in a duel with him and they had all gradually gave up on the idea.

The humiliation the King had suffered could be reprised if his daughter were to defeat him in a duel.
Though it was a very feeble chance, he found himself hoping like never before.