Chapter 47: Professional Players are Forbidden from Competing!

Hall stared at the tall young woman.

Her height was similar to Himan’s, her hair was a white characteristic of noble women from the Kingdom of Cateline, and her eyes were a dark blue—all traits of the noblewomen from that northern country.

Her proud and ruthless face, enough to inspire a man’s desire to conquer, looked somewhat familiar, and her attire—a beige trench coat and long boots—was also very familiar to Hall from his gaming days.

If nothing unexpected happened, this person should be named Tarasha.

In the game, she was an important supporting character who followed the Northern Empress of Cateline. However, she wasn’t responsible for the empress’s safety, as the empress herself was the Eternal Winter Saintess, armed with the holy sword Fimbul.

In wars between nations, the Empress of Cateline would usually appear on the front lines.

And this was the reason why the people of Cateline had firmly believed in their empress for thousands of years.

The Church and the gods did not necessarily bring blessings, but the empress would personally stain her holy sword with blood, expelling all who brought suffering to the people of Cateline.

So Tarasha’s role was a bit different from Moyel’s. She was an assassin, a burst damage character, who in the game usually wouldn’t stay on the battlefield for long periods of team fights.

It wasn’t impossible for her to stay on the field; high proficiency and good equipment could make up for the character’s shortcomings.

But Tarasha had almost no AOE skills. Her agility growth was top-tier in the game, and her unique talent gave her a damage bonus in one-on-one situations.

Players who recruited her basically used her for duels, like in the black market arena, or for hunting a specific target within a time limit to earn extra money.

This was really screwed up.

Because wasn’t this swordsmanship exchange competition, in other words, a one-on-one arena?

How could Cateline be so unscrupulous? For a friendly exchange between national delegations, you bring an assassin who specializes in covert work for the empress?

Professional players are forbidden from competing!

However, according to the timeline, Tarasha had not yet undergone the Eternal Winter Baptism.

Her level should not be seventy yet, at most around seventy?

This person’s level cap was basically the same as most heroines. What if she had already undergone the Eternal Winter Baptism at this point?

In a while, Young Master Andrei or Himan would have no choice but to be brutally beaten.

Although, it was very likely they were going to be brutally beaten anyway.

It was over.

Hall thought that if Tarasha made a move, she would just randomly pick a lucky person to be虐.

Then even if the other person won the next match, they would still need to win one more.

He couldn’t fulfill the promises he had made to Himan.

What was even more fatal was that if it was Tarasha against Himan, and Himan lost, it would count as a defeat for the heroine.

Although this kind of defeat wouldn’t lead to a bad ending in the game, the possibility of him being pushed to the forefront in the game’s setting would increase.

Why?

He didn’t understand.

In the game, when playing the Northern Empress’s route, even if a delegation was sent to the Papal State in the diplomatic choices, Tarasha wouldn’t go.

What the hell was this?

Was the Northern Empress a sore loser?

“Young Master Hall, it seems you are interested in our Duchess Tarasha?”

Marquis Chekhov noticed Hall’s gaze.

In the delegation’s list, Tarasha’s identity was of course falsified. This secret operative who was originally directly loyal to the empress had now been transformed into the only daughter of a down-and-out marquis. Her father was dead, and she had inherited the title.

As a young female marquis participating in the delegation’s swordsmanship exchange, it was certainly not a loss of face for the two ducal children of the Papal State.

And the reason Tarasha had come was, of course, at the personal instruction of the empress, and the reason for the instruction was still because of Hall.

Now that Hall was observing Tarasha first, it made it easier for Marquis Chekhov to introduce this opponent who had been specially prepared for him to the black-haired young man.

“Ah, I’ve always had a thing for beautiful women with long legs, as everyone here knows.”

To conceal his true purpose, Hall also simply struck a pose consistent with his established persona.

“Hmph, glib-tongued.”

Tarasha gave Hall a cold glance. She had been observing him secretly from behind the scenes of the swordsmanship arena, through a gap in the curtain.

This young man, who had been recommended to the empress’s attention by the Salvation Church, had indeed become the most eye-catching person after entering the arena.

His foundation didn’t seem weak either; his stance was very stable.

He looked lazy, but Hall also seemed to be observing everyone in the entire venue. This kind of anti-reconnaissance awareness was something Tarasha had trained as an assassin since she was a child, so she was very sensitive to people who also possessed this awareness.

She subconsciously judged that Hall was not a simple young nobleman, and also directly crossed out the impressions of “profligate son” and “playboy young master” she had gotten from reading Hall’s information earlier.

But that was all. Hall was a person the empress paid attention to, and for a person the empress paid attention to, being excellent was just an entry ticket.

He had to be very excellent to live up to the evaluation of “Hall is to Her Majesty as the Hero is to the Eternal Winter Saintess.”

In Tarasha’s eyes, those charlatans from the Salvation Church were completely irresponsible in their words, just to get the support and funding of the Kingdom of Cateline.

They were good at making empty promises, and their jargon, like “path dependence,” “current market,” “logical closed loop,” “matrix,” “synergy,” “link,” “interaction,” was also quite a lot.

As the empress’s eyes, she had to carefully observe how much Hall was worth this time and act as a gatekeeper for Her Majesty.

“Hall, say less.”

Himan hurried over.

She understood Hall’s charm now, but the customs and culture of Cateline were different from those of the Papal State. Among the many countries in the Western Continent, it was considered a less open society.

A more classic and ancient Western Continent rumor was that after the men of Cateline went to war, the women of Cateline could fight black bears when their children were in danger.

In other words, a man who was popular in the Papal State, and even in the countries of the Western Continent, might not be able to charm a woman from Cateline.

Of course, Himan also secretly hoped that Hall would suffer a setback at the hands of a woman, otherwise, what would he do if he flirted with every woman he saw?

“Love of beauty is common to all. Himan, you are not a man, you don’t understand.”

Hall continued to maintain his persona.

He had to.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Tarasha’s appearance here, plus the fact that the delegation from the Kingdom of Cateline had specifically requested his participation, very likely meant that the Empress of Cateline had already noticed him.

Although he didn’t know what setback Her Majesty the Empress had suffered to cause her to start paying attention to him.

But now that they hadn’t met yet, it was definitely the right move to leave an unreliable impression on the other party.

How could the empress’s pride tolerate a man who had not yet achieved any great accomplishments being more self-important than her?

“Huh?”

Himan wondered what was wrong with Hall. He didn’t seem like the same person who had just told her, “You are the only daughter of the Faxtius family.”

But then she thought again, it was indeed normal for men to like beautiful women. When they were little, she and her sisters had treated this as a great truth, and had even boasted that they would make all the men in Saint Louis bow at their feet in the future.

“But I am a female marquis of the Kingdom of Cateline, Young Master Hall. You have not yet inherited your family’s estate, please pay attention to your words.”

Tarasha thought for a moment and decided to end this boring topic.

But her proud and arrogant words, meant to draw a clear line with Hall, happened to fall into the ears of a certain young lady who was drinking red tea.

“A female marquis of the Kingdom of Cateline… huh?”

The other party just repeated it in a low voice.

But Earl Lied, a seasoned veteran of human affairs, heard two parts of jealousy, five parts of hostility, and three parts of unhappiness in those words.