To the Imperial Palace – 7

It’s strange.

Something is strange.

This was the thought that came to Rakshia, the 4th Vice-Captain of the Golden Twilight Knights, as she swung her sword.

At first, she had no time to think properly due to anxiety, and then due to anger, but after those emotions gradually subsided, all she could think was that it was strange.

She had attacked dozens, hundreds of times by now, but not a single attack had succeeded. It didn’t mean she couldn’t land an effective blow; it literally meant she couldn’t even graze that man’s body.

She swung her sword to shake off the unsettling feeling. A standard diagonal slash, cutting from the lower right to the upper left.

However, the trajectory of Rakshia’s sword, upon colliding with the precarious blade of the opponent’s sword-which looked like it would break any moment with all its teeth missing-was greatly twisted, and it bounced off in an odd direction.

She couldn’t understand it at all. Rakshia’s own sword was polished daily, made of much better metal than that one, and dozens of times more expensive than that sword which looked like it was about to break.

‘But why, for heaven’s sake?!’

Rakshia gritted her teeth and swung her sword again. Clang! With a sharp metallic sound, the sword’s trajectory changed without fail once more. In response, Rakshia’s body also swayed greatly.

She retreated far back to prepare for the next attack. She pulled her arm back, then used her legs like a bowstring to launch herself forward. Her body floated into the air, and just before reaching the apex, she extended her sword straight out.

After confirming the direction her opponent was evading, she prepared to twist her body in mid-air to change the trajectory. Completely altering the angle was impossible, but slightly shifting the trajectory was somehow manageable.

Adjusting her trajectory while airborne was an incredibly difficult feat, proving her swordsmanship skills were worthy of the title of the 4th Vice-Captain of the Golden Twilight Knights.

Her posture, angle, and position. Everything was perfectly flawless.

-Thud!

Except for the fact that she failed.

The man in front of her seemed to be slowly moving left to evade, but as soon as Rakshia changed direction towards him, instead of widening the distance, he abruptly rolled towards her, charging in.

Because of that, the tip of Rakshia’s sword plunged into the innocent ground without even grazing the man.

-Smack!

“Kyaang!”

“Ah, my mistake. I didn’t hit you on purpose.”

Taking advantage of the moment she was correcting her posture, the broken straight sword smacked her left buttock with a loud sound as it passed. Her plump buttock flesh quivered. A tingling pain spread throughout her entire body.

Rakshia let out an odd scream without realizing it. In fact, it was fortunate that it only ended with a scream. If that hadn’t been a broken sword but a weapon used in real combat, her buttock flesh would have been sliced off.

The thought, ‘If only I had worn armor,’ flashed through her mind. It would have been much better to be given a real sword and wear armor. At least then she wouldn’t have let out such an unsightly scream.

At first, Rakshia had no intention of fighting without her armor. The thought that she might lose every match if things continued like this made her determined to secure at least one victory, no matter what.

However, as Rakshia herself had said, her opponent was just a new knight, and he was even wielding such a weapon, so it was said that fighting him while wearing armor would be too excessive.

‘Could it be that he intentionally aimed for this and used that broken straight sword?’

Rakshia thought that again, letting out another odd scream as she was hit near her armpit.

The truth was, the person wielding the broken straight sword had said it was fine for her to wear armor, and Rakshia had taken it off out of unnecessary pride-a fact that had already vanished somewhere in her memory.

Along with the fact that it was already too late to uphold such pride.

“Hey! Delta! You’re intentionally hitting only those spots, aren’t you?! Before it was my butt, and now it’s my armpit!”

“No, I told you it was a mistake! What am I supposed to do when those are the only places that open up in that situation?”

“If it’s butts, then later you can hit mine all you want-Mmph?!”

“Are you crazy, unnie? This is the training ground! Everyone else is here, you know! Please stop spouting such vulgarities!”

What made her even more furious was that while Rakshia was fighting desperately with no leisure at all, the other side was so relaxed that they were chatting with the Silver Dawn Knights sitting in the waiting area.

The murmurs of the knights watching the spar were audible even from here. Rakshia gritted her teeth. If she lost this, it would be the ultimate humiliation.

She absolutely had to win, no matter what.

‘…Was the shock too great?’

Watching the Vice-Captain being dragged away, her limbs held one by one, with a dazed expression, I scratched my head for no particular reason.

‘See, I told her to fight in armor.’

True to its name, ‘broken straight sword,’ this was less a sword and more like a switch. It barely caused any wounds, but it hurt like hell, which was why she kept screaming.

And odd, peculiar screams at that.

I don’t know what the problem was, but every time she was hit, a sound closer to a moan than a scream burst out, to the point where I, the one doing the hitting, was more flustered. Thanks to that, I even got a strange misunderstanding from Rije.

If she had fought in armor, she wouldn’t have let out such odd screams, nor would she have been dragged away in such a pathetic state.

I don’t know why she insisted on her pointless pride, making things awkward for both the hitter and the hittee.

“…”

The faces of the Golden Twilight Knights who looked at me were all filled with astonishment. Especially the face of another Vice-Captain who had come in during the spar, wondering what was going on, was even more so.

It was understandable. How could they not be surprised when someone called a ‘newbie’ had played with their Vice-Captain in a spar and won? They probably received quite a shock.

Though what I was actually concerned about was something else.

‘Their uniforms are really something else…’

If the Silver Dawn Knights’ uniform was tight white sleeveless tops and dolphin shorts, then the Golden Twilight Knights’ uniform seemed to be sports bras and leggings that clung tightly to the body, revealing every curve.

Moreover, for some reason, even with sports bras on, their chests bounced tremendously. I thought sports bras were underwear designed to prevent breasts from bouncing during exercise.

As if they weren’t wearing panties, there were no underwear lines visible even though the leggings clung to their lower bodies as if vacuum-sealed, which was an added bonus.

“You really did well, Delta. You see their expressions, right? Completely out of their minds?”

After I put the broken straight sword back in its original place and returned to the spectator seats, Claudia greeted me with a cackle. She looked absolutely delighted, as if she had quite a lot of pent-up feelings.

“Are you that happy?”

“Of course. She won’t be able to show her face now, will she? Oh, wait. It might not matter since their commanders also challenged you and got beaten.”

At her voice, which echoed loudly through the training ground, all the Golden Twilight Knights froze as if struck by lightning. It seemed that guy really hadn’t told them the fact that he had been beaten by me.

Seeing that, Claudia wore a smug expression, as if to say, ‘Serves them right.’ Iris also smiled slightly and nodded, and Erica was no different.

“Did you enjoy hitting another woman’s butt and playing around to your heart’s content?”

Only Rije had a pouting face, puffing out one cheek. Though the absurd reason for her expression was that I had hit another woman’s butt instead of hers.

“I told you it was a mistake. And someone might misunderstand if they hear you.”

“For a mistake, you looked pretty happy while hitting her, didn’t you? I’ll offer my butt now, so do you want to hit it to feel even better?”

“…That’s a real misunderstanding.”

The reason I ended the spar with the Vice-Captain with a smile was simply because I could have a relaxed fight after a long time.

After facing utterly vicious DLC bosses like Luciana, whom I fought as the boss before last, and the God-forsaken creature I fought as the last boss, encountering something like this felt like my mind and body were being healed.

Of course, compared to vanilla, the recent battle also had a greatly increased difficulty, but it was a meaningless comparison right now. All difficulties are relative, after all.

Well, for me, whether it’s a final DLC boss or the mid-boss I just faced, it’s the same: I die if I’m even grazed by an attack.

‘…Is this also because of the black magic cast on my head?’

Once doubt began to creep in, whenever I felt even a little less fear, it all seemed to be the fault of that black magic. It seemed I should find that witch as soon as possible and hear the truth.

“So? Do you want to try more?”

“…”

At Iris’s question, all the Golden Twilight Knights subtly avoided my gaze. Wherever my eyes landed, they would flinch, cast their eyes downward, or awkwardly turn their heads away.

It was an atmosphere where they had completely lost their will to fight. It was only natural, given that their Vice-Captain had just been overwhelmingly defeated in a spar, and they had heard that even their Captain had challenged me and been beaten.

As I looked at them, a sudden question came to mind, and I turned my head.

“Erica.”

“Yes, Delta-ssi. What is it?”

When I spoke to Erica, who was beaming with a bright smile, a cheerful voice, completely unlike her usual one, replied.

“You said they picked a fight first. What did they say?”

“That Vice-Captain who fought you and lost, she asked us why we, who were banished to the outskirts, dared to enter this noble space. The other knights had a similar attitude.”

Ah, so she was the cause.

No wonder the Captains kept pushing me to accept the spar challenge; it was because that woman was the culprit who started the current situation. They must have wanted her to pay the price somehow.

And her fidgety reaction was probably because she had picked the fight and started the spar herself, but couldn’t win even once, making the situation impossible to resolve.

‘No, where did she get the confidence to challenge the Captains with that lineup?’

The forces in the training ground were just herself, a Vice-Captain level, and the rest were all regular members. I thought, ‘How could she even think of picking a fight with that combination?’

It was a mystery what gave her such confidence.

“If you have no intention of challenging us further, we will leave. Our business here is concluded.”

Iris stood up. Her words were true. Their business here was now finished. The Captains left the training ground as they were, walking boldly towards somewhere.

Everyone except me, including Rije, seemed to know the next destination.

Rije, in particular, initially had the same bewildered expression as me, but then seemed to immediately figure out where they were going after seeing the expressions of the other three.

“Where are we going now, Iris? Is there anywhere else we need to stop by?”

“Yes, there is. To be precise, it’s where we were originally supposed to go. We stopped by the training ground first, thinking you might be somewhere else, and then got caught up in that situation.”

“The place we were originally supposed to go?”

Iris paused for a moment, then resumed walking and spoke.

“It’s the place where the knights under our command… no, where the knights who *were* under our command are.”