Seeing over 30 weapons pointed at him, Tilleyle spoke up without any particular panic.

「What is this?」

「As I said before, Viscount Bugle is currently facing charges of sedition. I apologise for the inconvenience, but I would like to ask you to accopany me.」

「How dare you be so rude to Tilleyle-sama!」

One of the knights with Tilleyle shouted out, but the knight guarding the gate didn’t seem to care as he spoke.

「This is a direct order from His Highness Kabajid. You all behind him shouldn’t move carelessly. I don’t want to shed blood or let someone from the same empire shed blood.」

Tilleyle frowned slightly as the knight politely told the knights behind him to calm down without any change in his expression.

(Did they find out we were planning to enter the castle on the day of the tournament finals? Considering the information from Rhodes, they seemed aware that we were moving, but didn’t know how we were going to move. I’m sure they don’t know. If that’s the case, it’s unavoidable to cause a commotion here as a diversion.)

Thinking to himself, Tilleyle turned to Vihera, who had come back out through the gate.

Then, Vihera spoke up with a smile on her face.

……Yes. It was a very charming smile, and combined with her revealing clothes, Vihera seemed very out of place in front of the castle.

Of course, most of the knights knew about Vihera’s personality.

Some had become knights after Vihera had run away, but they had heard about her from their superiors and colleagues.

That was why, not matter how beautiful her smile was and how charming she was, the knights didn’t relax.

「I’m sorry, but Tilleyle and the others came with me on an errand. You don’t mind them entering the castle, right?」

Those words were an ultimatum. Even though the knight was half aware of that, he still shook his head on behalf of the knights behind him.

「I’m sorry. As I said earlier, I have received a direct order from His Highness Kabajid regarding this matter. No matter how important you are, I cannot listen to your words.」

「……I’ll ask one last time. You won’t let them pass?」

「Correct, unfortunately. However, I have not received any orders regarding Her Highness Vihera.」

「……I see.」

With the knight’s words, Vihera made up her mind. Turning to Tillyle, she received a faint nod in response.

Seeing that, Vihera approached a knight pointing his spear towards Tilleyle as if it were nothing……and gently extended her hand towards the knight’s armoured torso.

The reason why the knight didn’t respond at this point was probably because Vihera hadn’t moved with force or extended the claws from her gauntlet.

Vihera touched the knight’s torso lightly……

「Huh-!」

With a light voice, she sent a shock wave directly through the knight’s armour and into their body with magic power.

This technique was something Vihera had been training on for a while. She didn’t know it, but it was basically the same technique as the one used by Noiz.

「……Eh?」

The knight gave a brief murmur as he experienced the first sensation of a shock coming from within his body before losing consciousness and collapsing to the ground.

The surrounding knights were unable to understand what had happened for a moment.

And, for Vihera, that moment was enough to take her next action.

「Hah-!」

Just like that, she dashed forward, exposing her white thighs.

The knights were distracted by her legs for a moment, due to their instincts as a man, or maybe because they had yet to fully process what was happening as they tried to escape reality.

In either case, another knight in full plate mail had their armour destroyed by a kick from Vihera and blown away, taking out another knight that was behind him as he lost consciousness.

As elite knights who had been allowed to work in the castle, their bodies were naturally well trained. Including the weight of their full plate, they weighed well over 100kg. As such, there was nothing the knight could do as they were crushed by the weight of the knight that had been sent flying. ……By the time they had recovered, things had gotten well out of hand.

「Your Highness Vihera! What are you doing!」

「This is what I’m doing!」

As one of the knights shouted out, Vihera dashed forward, stepping into the space between her opponent’s spear and lightly touching his body as she fired off another attack.

Just like before, the knight lost consciousness from the shock within his body.

The reason why she didn’t materialise the claws on her gauntlet, which had the power to cut through full plate mail, was because she still considered them to be from the same country.

The attacks she made were enough to knock them out or break bones, but not to kill them.

Still, it was true that they were now fighting and about half the knights……no, about 60% of them were still conscious and pointing their weapons at Vihera.

This was despite the presence of Tilleyle and his 10 knights.

Part of this had to with the fact that Vihera was a princess and because they understood her strength.

「Your Highness Vihera, what do you mean by this? Even if you are a member of the royal family, this is no joke.」

At the knight’s words, Vihera spoke with a smile.

「Oh, since I brought Tilleyle with me, you should already know, right? Then what are you going to do? Are you going to talk things out with me? Or will you fulfill your duties?」

「……The latter, I suppose.」

「That’s right. Thanks to you, I don’t feel disappointed in my homeland. Then, there’s no need to exchange any more words, is there? Come one. I’m telling you……I’m strong, you know? Don’t go easy on me. If you’re planning to capture me unharmed, you’ll regret it from the ground. If you don’t want to do that……be prepared to kill.」

Those words were too radical for a princess to say.

They didn’t even need to think to know what would happen if they killed a member of the royal family.

However……the knights were still momentarily shaken.

In the end though, the knights understood that they were the last bastion protecting the castle and immediately recollected themselves as they attacked Vihera.

A spear was thrust out, clearly aimed at Vihera’s body. If it pierced her, it would certainly be a fatal blow.

There was no hesitation on the knight’s face. Since he had already determined that Vihera was the enemy, he simply had to defeat her, regardless of whether she was a princess or not.

It was with those thoughts that the spear tip was thrust out.

「That’s too naive of you.」

Befitting her outfit, Vihera dodged the spear with a dance like motion as magic power flowed into her gauntlets, creating claws.

Her claws moved lightly, avoiding the spear thrust towards her and cutting off the spear tip.

The knight’s eyes were drawn to the spear tip flying through the air……for just a moment.

「I’m just warming up.」

By the time those murmurs reached the knight’s ears, Vihera was already within the spear’s range. Like the ones who had been knocked out before, Vihera stretched her hand out……and the knight lost consciousness from the shock within his body.

When the other knights saw their comrades lose consciousness and collapse to the ground in the blink of an eye, they tried to swing their own weapons at Vihera.

「UAAAAAAAAH-!」

With a shout like that, one of the knights rushed towards Vihera.

They hurried evaded as a large man wearing full plate mail flew through the air towards them. They would definitely have suffered heavy injuries if they had been hit.

「That was the wrong decision. If you didn’t want to give me an opening, you should have knocked them away instead of dodging.」

The knight heard such a voice in their ear as they tried to turn towards it……and just like that, he received a strong impact to his back as he collapsed to the ground.

「Well, you normally don’t expect your friends to fly towards you, so I guess it can’t be helped.」

Vihera glanced over at Tilleyle as the remaining conscious knights tried to surround her.

Tilleyle and his knights were fighting the rest of the knights trying to get to her.

「That’s perfect.」

Judging that the knight from before had been the only one to slip through, she turned to look towards the castle.

There, she saw more knights coming out……and even a mage.

Since they were causing such a big commotion at the castle gates, it was easy for the knights still inside the castle to know about it. And, that being the case, it was only natural for them to provide reinforcements.

「Vihera-sama, with reinforcements coming, there is no chance of victory. Please surrender quietly……」

Vihera shrugged her shoulders slightly a the knight who told her that.

At the same time, her huge breasts swayed, attracting the gazes of the knights.

Facing the knights admiring her body, Vihera spoke up teasingly.

「Oh, I wonder what’s going on? Weren’t you trying to arrest me? Or……are you satisfied just watching me like this?」

The sound of someone gulping could be heard as the knights looked at her with a hint of lust.

But, that was only for a moment. They quickly came to their senses as they shouted at the knights coming out to reinforce them.

「The enemies are Her Highness Vihera and Viscount Bugle!」

The knights coming out looked over in shock at those words.

Putting Tilleyle aside, their eyes widened at the sight of Vihera, but they all immediately started taking action without any response in particular.

「Your Highness Vihera, please be quiet!」

Among the knights who had come out to reinforce, the one at the front shouted as he swung the long sword in his hands.

However, the long sword remained sheathed and it was clear that the knight had no intention of seriously hurting Vihera.

「…….You’re an idiot, too naive.」

Dodging the attack with dancing steps, she dived directly under the knight’s guard.

What followed next was the same action that had already been done many times before. The knight groaned once from the shock within his body before falling to the ground.

The knights who had rushed out as reinforcements were knocked unconscious with attacks from her fists, palms, or feet, one after the other.

Similarly, Tilleyle and his men attacked the remaining knights and, before they knew it, there were only five people still standing.

「Hi-…..Hiiii-!.」

One of them was a mage. A male mage in his late teens, wearing a robe and carrying a cane. Compared to the knights, he felt a great sense of fear at the current situation……and started an incantation as if guided by that fear.

『Fire, by your power, grand fiery punishment to my enemies, by your power, burn everything down.』

Along with his incantation, a ball of fire, 30cm in diameter, appeared at the tip of his staff.

However, for Vihera, who had experienced Rei’s magic, it wasn’t particularly suprising.

Furthermore, the mage must have been extremely confused. The fire ball shot out, not towards Tilleyle or his knights……and not towards Vihera either. For some reason, it flew towards the castle gate.

「What-!?」

Rather than Vihera and the others, it was the knights beside the mage that were most surprised.

Several of their comrades were lying unconscious near the castle gate.

What would happen if some sort of magic explosion were to occur there?

Even if they weren’t injured by the magic iteself, there was still a chance than a piece of stone or metal destroyed by the magic would hit them.

The castle gate itself was a sort of magic item that had been specially processed by an alchemist ot make it highly resistant to magic. The same was true of the castle walls. However, there was no doubt that if the ground was blown up, large pieces of dirt and rocks would be scattered everywhere.

The unfortunate circumstance of it was was that the mage who had cast the magic was still a rookie.

In the first place, this whole commotion had occured while the mage, who had been introduced to serve the empire by a noble, was being guided through the castle.

As a result, the mage, and the knights guiding them, had all gone in the direction of the commotion, joining up with other knights and coming face to face with the beautiful yet terrifying Vihera.

The rather weak minded mage was overwhelmed by the sight before his eyes……resulting in him using a magic that was almost out of his control.

The magic flew straight for the castle gate……causing an explosion with a loud roar.

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