A few minutes later the pair entered a side room, and the moment the door closed behind them, Lyra pinned Klein against the wall in a rather questionable manner. As if that were not shocking enough, she immediately asked whether she could touch him. Klein was caught completely off guard. The sudden wall-pinning was startling on its own, and her bizarre request left him even more unsettled.
Lyra was the eldest daughter of the Paulwevern family, one of the three great ducal houses alongside the Rheinland family, and she was very good with the spear. Thanks to that, she had been made captain of the Blue Holy Spear Knights. Because of how talented she was, she had a whole pile of records to back it up. She had once wiped out an entire horde of monsters single-handedly while protecting civilians at the same time.
She had sounded tough enough when she ordered Klein to follow her quickly, though in Klein's defence, he pointed out that he was obviously right behind her. Lyra then told him not to think that they were family, because they were nowhere close to it.
Klein's father had previously told him that his aunt was the second wife of the Duke of Paulwevern, which would make Lyra his cousin. That was what Klein had heard from his father, but it turned out that Lyra was the daughter of the first wife, so they shared no bond at all, which made them total strangers. Then Lyra told Klein that she had something personal to check.
That was the moment she pushed him against the wall. She leaned in close and asked whether she could touch him.
A thousand questions ran through Klein's head as he tried to work out what her plan was. He was still trying to understand her when she grabbed his arm to investigate, pressing along his skin to test its texture. She confirmed that there was not a single scar or blister on his hands, and compared them to a baby's. Lyra admitted that master swordsmen did not have calluses all over their hands, but there were at least specific areas that grew tough.
After she finished her inspection, she looked Klein dead in the face and told him that she could clearly see he had never touched a sword before, because his hands showed no trace of swordsmanship whatsoever. With that, Lyra expressed her confusion about how he had been able to defeat Dalton, a trained knight, along with twenty mercenaries.
Then she jumped straight to the big question and asked Klein whether he was hiding another power. Klein pushed her away. He scoffed and asked whether she was suggesting that he was Archmond.
From their short interaction, Klein could already see how dangerous Lyra was, because she was not merely curious. She was actively looking for a reaction, not an answer. In his current position, silence would be an admission, and any attempt to hesitate would only confirm her suspicion. Klein realized that the only way out was to be more aggressive and more confident than she was.
Klein spoke up with confidence, asking Lyra what the issue would be if he really were Archmond, but before he could finish the statement, she laughed at him.
Lyra called him a little brat who could never be Archmond, and her words shattered him emotionally. He opened his mouth in shock before asking whether she had just called him a brat, and Lyra confirmed it before rubbing salt in the wound. She explicitly told him that he was far too small to be Archmond, because his proportions were all wrong, and his voice and his build both suffered from a serious deficit of presence. In conclusion, she informed him that he was nothing but a brat, and a little one at that.
Klein lost the power of speech thanks to the overwhelming emotional damage, and he dropped his head in shame. Lyra told him that he was not Archmond and that he also could not use a sword, so she wondered aloud how someone as worthless as him had managed to beat a knight.
Then Lyra told Klein that she was going to give him a kiss, but he was too damaged upstairs to even understand what she was saying. He asked whether she was trying to bribe him with something, but Lyra suggested that they head back inside, because they were going to be late.
Moments later, Klein and Lyra returned to the council room, and deep down Klein admitted to himself that he was just the useless second son who had been stuck in a monastery for seven years. He understood why they would not believe him if he claimed that he had killed Dalton in self-defence.
The Duke was still asking Lyra what they had talked about when Klein suddenly seized everyone's attention by stamping his sword into the floor. Once every eye was on him, he pointed the sword at Dalton's father, Delkin, and told him that he would like to settle the issue the northern way.
Klein shocked the entire hall by demanding a trial by combat, and the whole room began to talk at once. It was an ancient northern judicial tradition, used when a dispute could not be easily resolved. There were no limits on the weapons or techniques that could be used, and the outcome of the duel became the final verdict. Two sides fought it out, and the winner became the one who was right.
Delkin expressed his shock and started asking Klein why he would pick something like this, and Klein let him know that there were a hundred reasons. He reminded Delkin that despite the evidence that his son had attempted to kill Klein first, he had still tried to frame him. As if that were not enough, he had also insulted Klein and his mother in the process, though deep down Klein knew he had no real affection for the mother he was talking about, since his true identity was Archmond.
Delkin started stuttering, and Klein urged him to be quick with his decision so as not to keep the nobles waiting. Delkin looked around and realized that the nobles were already excited about the idea of a trial by combat.
Klein's father also stepped in, telling everyone that the outcome of the duel would be guaranteed as final. He declared all previous evidence null and void, and the moment Delkin heard that, he realized he could use it to his advantage. He asked Klein whether he was really sure about his decision, since he had no mana, and when he received no counter from Klein, Delkin announced that he would like to choose a knight to fight in his place.
Delkin was already dreaming about how he was going to kill Klein, but unknown to him, Klein had the very same plan for him.
Once the two had agreed to the duel, the Duke declared that it would take place in four days. Unknown to them, Klein had not escalated the situation for nothing. This was only the beginning of what he wanted to do. He planned to use Delkin as a stepping stone, to show the other branch families exactly how he intended to tear the family down and rebuild it.