The Demon Queen's Royal Consort

"I am Thadeus Ferrox Umbra," he declared, not even extending a hand for a greeting. "And you don't have the qualities necessary to stand by Her Majesty's side."

'I knew it. The moment of chaos. A member of one of the three noble families stationed here in the north of the empire.'

I frowned in displeasure at his argument.

"Is that so? And what would those necessary qualities be, that you speak so highly of, which would be enough for anyone on this planet to stand by Selene's side?"

My words surprised Thadeus. A clever play of arguments, and I was just waiting for him to fall into the trap.

"Agh... Agh... It takes more than just having affinities. Someone who stands by the queen's side should come from a good lineage and be the support she so desperately needs!" he said exasperatedly, trying to organize his thoughts.

"Then why has none of the great geniuses of this generation from the twelve families ever become her consort? Or why has none of the leaders of the great families taken that position?" I asked venomously.

The art of dialogue is a cunning battlefield. From the moment he chose to counter my questions, all that awaited him were situations that devalued people far above his level, like the leaders of the great families themselves.

"No... that's not what I meant. What I wanted to say was..."

"And what about the queen's own judgment? Shouldn't that be taken into account?" I cut his argument short.

"No... I just think that..."

"If everything were reduced to what everyone sees, I'm sure the thousands of Selene's candidates would have already achieved this position," I said, emphasizing our closeness by not using honorifics, after all, she herself said it wasn't necessary.

"You... are very rude. You don't know how to have a civilized conversation and listen to the other side's arguments," he shouted exasperatedly, realizing the conversation had taken an unsustainable turn.

"Troglodytes like you only understand the difference in status when you're begging for your lives under our feet!" he advanced, putting his red face of anger close to mine.

'Here it is, the inevitable duel!'

"Let's see if it's just your words that are sharp or if you have the strength to back up your position. I challenge you to a mage duel."

My blood boiled, my heart raced, and adrenaline erupted in my body.

"Thadeus, don't be rude to our guests. Young Glenn has only been awakened for seven days. While you've been training for years," Silas reprimanded vehemently, stepping in before the situation got out of hand.

"No, grandpa, I can't accept someone of this caliber standing by our queen's side!!!"

'What the hell, this idiot still has hero syndrome!'

So be it, this is a test. I would be much more confident if it were a hand-to-hand fight, but a magic duel brought me concerns.

"Phew..." I sighed at the inevitable. "Very well, show the way, mage Thadeus," I said, accepting the fight.

Thadeus hurriedly walked to the exterior of the laboratory, and I followed behind, with Selene and Silas by my side.

Analyzing their faces, I tried to figure out how much of this was staged and how much had gone off-script. Selene remained as impassive as ever, but in our quick exchange of glances, the intention was clear: no room for defeat.

"Phew..." I sighed worriedly.

Silas showed grave concern, even trying to convince Selene to reschedule the match, giving me more time to prepare.

"My queen, it's not wise to hold a duel in a few days," he said carefully.

There was no response from Selene.

'Maybe that was the original plan. Find some spoiled rich kid, set up a duel in the name of the queen's honor, draw the attention of the capital's public, and start building a reputation,' I analyzed.

'I don't think they were prepared for my immediate acceptance.'

I hadn't accepted unprepared either. At every moment, I was weighing the pros and cons.

And in every way, the scales always tipped against me if the duel were postponed.

I didn't know who Elian was in full, but one thing was certain: he wasn't an ordinary mage. That would be the initial argument used if I won in the future.

'Trained by a legendary mage, studying the enemy's weaknesses, all the palace's resources available, and so many other clichés from these fantasy stories.'

And lastly, these battles always started with the stronger side acting arrogantly.

I was sure Thadeus was a talented mage, whatever his affinity was. But he would never go all out from the start. His intention would be to humiliate the queen's royal consort, drag my name through the mud to the point where no one could give me credit to maintain my status.

And that's where the Earth's thinking comes in.

I, on the other hand, would use the characteristic Elian praised me most for in my three days of training: casting speed.

From day one, it was something Elian emphasized as the superior part of my qualities. And of course, I refused to believe that this spoiled mage was insanely fast and resilient like my magic master.

The second certainty was potency.

I didn't know how strong the spells of an initial awakened were, but I was sure mine were much more potent. The main reason was the precision of conversion between the leakage flow of prana and mana becoming magic.

"Almost 80% conversion," Elian praised.

**

A well-built arena, hundreds of meters wide, appeared in the back of the laboratory. Thadeus asked one of the guards to prepare the defensive barriers, which caught the attention of many people in the mansion, who quickly gathered to see who he would face.

And to the surprise of many, it was an unknown young man who had appeared by the queen's side.

We positioned ourselves about thirty meters apart. The golden lines began to shimmer, and the shields were raised, isolating part of the sound from inside to outside.

"Try not to lose too quickly, you trash!" said Thadeus.

'Seriously, where did this cliché aberration come from?' I thought.

The arena's energy rose to the highest level, indicating an imminent start to the combat.

A chill of fear ran through my stomach, and I had to force myself to control my breathing to not show my nervousness.

'You can do this, you can do this,' I told myself.

Senior Silas slowly entered the arena, positioning himself as the judge of the match.

"The match ends when one side admits defeat, becomes unconscious, or exhausts all their prana," he established the rules.

We both nodded.

My internal energy accelerated through my energy channels.

It was the advantage of being a Warlord. My energy channels were now overloading my body, but clearly, I wouldn't use hand-to-hand combat. On the contrary.

The accelerated flow in my channels made it even easier for my energy to be released from my body. It was one of the main advantages of being a Warlord.

I focused on the thin layer of gravity on my skin; it was unstable, consumed a lot of mana, but it was the only way I could fight.

With prana, I prepared a strike focused on speed and destruction.

Time slowed down, and my mind visualized everything I would do.

I would spread electricity through my body, move at high speed with gravity reducing my weight, and unleash a burst of lightning from my fists at point-blank range.

"Begin!"

"BOOOOOOOOOM!"

"WHAT!!!!????" everyone in the stands shouted.

A flash covered the arena, making it impossible for people to discern what had happened.

**

The moment the match began, Glenn's body trembled and accelerated to hallucinogenic speeds. His two hands began to radiate electricity along the way, creating a huge flash.

The thirty meters were covered in less than a second.

At point-blank range, Glenn noticed blue flames igniting in Thadeus's palms, but it was slow. So he judged, not understanding that he himself was an aberration in terms of casting speed.

His palms met. A resounding TAP echoed in the arena before a storm of lightning grew from his hands like spider webs.

The lightning hit Thadeus, the arena floor, and even the side shields.

The poor guy didn't even have a chance to blink, let alone react. A powerful electric discharge threw his body, extinguishing his flames toward the shields. The arena floor was destroyed where Glenn performed the attack.

Thadeus hit the arena's protective shield and fell to the ground with his clothes completely destroyed. His skin turned black on over 70% of his body. Blood flowed from his eyes, mouth, and nose.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH..." a horrifying scream of pain echoed through the arena before he fell to the ground unconscious. "PAH..."

Glenn had a troubled expression on his face. Although he expected to surprise the enemy, not even in his wildest thoughts did he imagine he would defeat him in a single attack.

'I didn't even use my maximum speed to make him think I was at my limit.'

From the arena, sounds of concern arose as some people ran toward the fallen Thadeus.

"Victory to young master Glenn," Silas said stoically.

Not knowing how to react, I bowed to the senior and walked back toward Selene.

Approaching her, I said:

"I hope it was to your liking!" I said mockingly, trying to shake off my inner surprise.

A small, shy smile appeared on her face, but it didn't spare me from her sharp words.

"You could have been faster. Don't make me wait so long next time!" she corrected me.

'Wait, what? Next time?'

"Next time?" I asked incredulously.

Selene responded with her famous expression of indifference.

"Let's go, the affinity stones are already with me."

Her arm wrapped around my torso as we catapulted upward, flying toward some unknown place.

**

Late that night, Silas was sitting in his chair, in his usual spot in the laboratory. A large cauldron with shimmering green liquid bubbled in front of him, but he wasn't focused on the alchemy happening.

"Defeating someone at the full awakened level while still being an initial awakened is not surprising. What's truly surprising is doing it with three days of training."

"Hahahahahaa," his old, hoarse laugh filled the laboratory.

"Where the hell did you find this monster, Selene? And how did he manage to cast two spells at the same time? Gravity and electricity?"

"That should only be possible from the Champion rank onward. Intriguing!"