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“I haven’t been assaulted ever since I retired… Well, it’s no wonder. I would say someone wasn’t very pleased that I was against the attack on Venefique.”
“Father, wouldn’t that mean…?!”
“Sitting at a desk is not all the political world is about.”
“Milady! I shall go and intercept them. May I entrust the Duke’s safety in your hands?!”
“Yes, please do!”
“Please take care of him!”

The moment Liselotte gave her answer, Ryza already kicked open the carriage door and rushed outside. Much like Liselotte, her Artifact was a halberd, and her Rune was High Grade. While the nature of their Gifts was different, in terms of purely martial arts, Ryza was the perfect instructor for Liselotte.

“Father, we must go somewhere safe. Your hand, please!”
“Sure…!”

Liselotte took her father’s hand and activated her Gift the moment they stepped outside. Her pure white wings flapped vigorously, carrying both Liselotte and Duke Althea into the sky.

There wouldn’t be any direct attack once they were in the air. All they had to do was to be cautious of any projectile from below. This was much safer than staying in the carriage.

Liselotte turned her attention to the battle below. There were around six or seven assailants. All dressed in black hooded cloaks. They surrounded the carriage, some in front of the carriage, some in the back.

Including Ryza, there were three escort Knights, one of whom was injured. With those odds, Ryza would take care of them just fine.

“You villains…! You won’t find mercy at the end of my blade!”

With a sharp and brilliant technique, Ryza dove into the enemies in front of the carriage, piercing and slashing at them. It was a brilliant performance in itself, and as Liselotte had expected, the disadvantage in numbers was not a problem.

However, after a long time, Ryza’s battle was a little different from what Liselotte remembered. Before entering the knight academy, Liselotte felt that she was nowhere near her master’s level, even though they were both halberd users with the same High Grade Rune, which was also the case when they met in hand-to-hand combat.

Yet now, seeing the battle in front of her, if she were to describe it in a few words, she would say… Not as good as Inglis. That’s all there is to it.

Maybe Liselotte wasn’t as good as Inglis, who was enjoying the unusual training with a smiling face, or Leone, who was training with a stern look as if she had nothing else to do but train, but Lieselotte had also trained considerably in her own way.

Perhaps this feeling she had now was the result of that training.

“Fufu…”

A chuckle escaped her lips.

“? What’s the matter, Liselotte?”
“A-, ah…! It’s nothing.”

She would ask Ryza to see the result of her training later when she was free. That was when a movement was detected in the battle below. On the opposite side of where Ryza was, the assailants on the back of the carriage all turned to Liselotte and Duke Althea in the sky.

They were aiming at them with small crossbows, not the Artifact kind. Against a normal human being, they didn’t need Artifacts nor Runes to kill.

The assailants Ryza was fighting against were also using ordinary weapons. They were probably a group of assassins not equipped to fight Magic Stone Beasts. Organizing that kind of group was indeed easier, both in terms of manpower and weaponry.

“However, that is no reason to throw away their lives easily…!”

The assailants on the front of the carriage were about to be annihilated by Ryza. And yet, the assailants on the back paid them no mind and focused on Liselotte and Duke Althea, even though they could have surrounded Ryza if they had chosen to back up their comrades instead.

Rather than helping each other win the battle and return home safely, they were single-mindedly trying to kill their targets. It looked as if they didn’t value their own lives.

“Get away, Liselotte…!”

As Liselotte watched the assailants from the air, the Duke called out to her. Liselotte’s Gift was the ability to fly with her pure white wings. If an arrow was flying at her, all she could do was move away to avoid getting hit. That was what her father had thought. If this was the Liselotte from a few months ago, she would have tried to evade the arrows too.

But she wasn’t the same as before. Since her opponents had to stop to aim at her, that meant her targets were stationary.

“Fret not, Father! I’m okay!”

Liselotte pointed the tip of her halberd, shaped like a dragon’s jaw, towards the assassins.

A cold, glittering, furious snowstorm was unleashed from the tip of the halberd. The force of the snowstorm knocked down the arrows her assailants had fired, as well as hitting the assailants themselves.

“Ooh…!”
“See? I am all right!”

Liselotte reassured him, confidently sweeping her halberd left and right, scattering the snowstorm. The blizzard froze the assailants one after another, hindering their movements.

Mere arrows were no match for the blizzard’s might. The power of a Dragon Breath of the almighty Dragon God resided in her halberd. And since her opponents had stopped to aim, they were easy targets for Liselotte.

She was careful not to overdo the Dragon Breath and shatter her enemies, as she still needed to find out who sent the assassins.

“Well done, milady!”

Ryza, having dealt with the group of assailants at the front, rushed towards the rear of the carriage. With Liselotte’s blizzard hindering the assassins’ movement, it was easy for the Knight Commander to defeat them. The situation was now settled. It was safe for Liselotte and her father to land.

“She’s right. You sure have grown a lot in the short time I didn’t see you, Liselotte.”
“It’s not me, it’s this Artifact. However, since this is Mother’s memento…and it is part of me, perhaps I should consider it as my growth as well.”

Liselotte responded with a smile, and her father nodded.

“I am sure Charlotte would be happy to hear that.”

That was the name of her mother, who died when she was a child. Liselotte’s halberd Artifact was inherited from her mother, a Knight who favored this very halberd as her weapon.