The palace became uproar with the noises of screams and fights soon after Cleo burst into the room.

With her blade, she cut the blanket tied to her waist and freed herself. She pointed the tip of the blade to Lord Hammock the chancellor of state and declared him a traitor publicly.

"Your end has come! You shall pay for what you did to my father. My father, King James, gave his best to free the people of Midland from the false ways of Mordu'. He trusted his men as his friends and so did the others serve him loyally; except you. You cowered in fear and betrayed your liege. The punishment for your crime is none other than death."

All eyes fell to the Chancellor who was sitting at the dining table across the retainer.

The fiddlers stopped fiddling, the servers stopped serving, and the dancers stopped dancing. All were halted in their tracks with their confusing faces. The most shocked one was Ben Hammock, the youngest idiotic son of the chancellor who had a crush on Cleo. Never did he think a depressed harmless girl who always wears black dresses and sits in the corner at the party be such a daring ambitious person. Liquor drooled down from the corner of his mouth as he forgot to close his mouth.

Lord Hammock stood from his chair, half embarrassed half angry, he threw his wine glass to the floor shattering it. Unfazed by the ruckus, the Duke's retainer watched the drama unfolding as if he were at the front row of the theatre.

"Y-you dare point a blade at me, kid. Just because I let you live doesn't mean I can't kill you. You should have stayed like a cockroach in that dark corner of the tower like you used to. You shouldn't act out. Your father is a heretic. If you are too eager to go down his path, you shall follow the same fate as him. I will serve my Lord by giving your head on a platter. Get her!!"

Upon Hammock's command, the two purple cloaks standing behind him attacked Cleo while the captain of the guard ordered a guard at the door to shut it so that Cleo would not escape.

Cleo threw a dagger at the guard reaching for the door. It went right into the neck, instantly obliterating him. With another hand, she parried the attack of the guard charging toward her. She, then, gave him a strong knee right to his nuts, incapacitating him. The other guard instinctively covered his groin for a second making him defenseless. Cleo took the chance and punched straight in his face. At that moment, she was pushed forward by a strong kick to her back. It was a golden cloak.

While Cleo was focusing on her front, the golden cloaks joined the fight from her back. They had no desire to give Cleo a chance to rest. Another one dashed and stabbed Cleo. By an inch, Cleo masterfully dodged his blade with a spin, causing the pointy end to enter the body of his ally.

Just as her enemies didn't give her a break, Cleo didn't need it either. She took out her second blade and with dual swords, she slashed both golden cloaks at the same time.

"Divination!"

The enchanted blades cut through the thick steel armour as well as the flesh and the guts, spewing blood over the space.

After seeing the gush of blood, the people in the room finally panicked. They thought one attacker would be dealt with quickly. They were wrong. They worried that they would be sucked into the fight of the two whales. They dropped whatever they were doing and ran for their lives.

At the same time Cleo was fighting, Igüan and Luther also started their fight. Igüan rode his long shield down the spiral stairs like a skateboard and knocked both of the standing guards out with his spiky maces. Luther followed him close behind and attacked the patrol unit. He appeared from behind Igüan and leapt onto his enemies with his great sword. He cut the guard diagonally. The last guard lost the will to fight after witnessing his men taken out in an instant. He dropped his sword and begged Luther for mercy. "Please don't kill me, commander. You know that my wife gave birth last year, right?" The man begged hugging Luther's knee. As well as being a captain of the king's guard, Luther was also the commander of the palace guard in the past so he personally knew all those purple cloaks. He let go of the man. But Igüan didn't. He knocked the man out with his shield.

"Don't worry. He isn't dead. He will wake up in a few hours." Igüan told Luther with a smile.

Even though they took out four guards within a minute, their fight was far from over. From the opposite side came six more guards, all wearing golden cloaks. It eased Luther's heart. He didn't have to hold back anymore.

Both Igüan and Luther charged dashing at full speed toward the enemies. Just when they were about to clash, Igüan raised his long shield horizontally at eye level. It blocked the enemy's sights for a moment and it was all Luther needed. Luther crouched at the last second and, using his velocity from the dash, swung his great sword. The powerful attack cut all six pairs of enemies' feet from the knee, splattering the pieces of bones and blood. Igüan didn't stop either. He bashed his enemies with the shield. With no feet left to withstand against Igüan, the golden cloaks faltered completely.

"The floor is cleared. I will go and see if Her Highness needs help. Watch the hallway. I will come back soon." Luther instructed Igüan and went inside. Before he opened the door, it opened from inside and several people came out running, pushing each other. Among the people was Ben Hammock. Even though his father was still inside, Ben ran away to save his own neck foremost. But Luther could recognise him even if Ben hid in the crowd. Luther had never liked him, especially when Ben tried to court Cleo several times at the balls.

"Where do you think you are going?" Luther blocked Ben at the front and gave him a good jab. Luther had been meaning to punch that disgusting face for a long time. So, when he saw several teeth fly away from Ben's mouth, he was satisfied. He then pulled the crying snob away by the collar and pushed him against the wall. Luther threatened the coward Hammock to sit still, "Stay here while I am dealing with those yellow bastards. If I see you running away, the next time won't be a punch."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He checked inside. Cleo was fighting two captains by herself. While the retainer was calmly sipping on his wine at the top of the table, Hammes Hammock was anxiously standing at the corner near the door cheering his men from afar. Luther prepared to help Cleo, but then he saw a dozen guards coming up from the west stairs and trying to pin down Igüan. Another dozen were also coming from the east, too.

"Fu*k those traitors," Luther swore at the purple cloaks who were once his colleagues. He called Igüan to fall back to him. He planned to hide inside the room with the hostages. The steel door would take a long time even for the soldiers to break. As soon as both of them got inside, Luther told Igüan to bar the door while he rushed to Cleo's aid.

Even without Luther's help, Cleo was fine dealing with two captains on her own. As skilful as the captains might be, they were nowhere powerful enough to fight a spellcaster like Cleo. Her divine enchanted twin blades embedded deep into the bodies of her enemies. Then, she saw Hammes trying to run away so she threw a bowl of hot lamb bone soup at him. The soup got inside Hammes' clothes and burnt him, stopping him on his track before Igüan and Luther came inside and closed the door.

"You are late, Luther. I have finished already." Cleo welcomed her friends confidently. Then, she turned to Lord Hammock. "Chancellor Hammes Hammock, you betrayed your liege. As the Crown Princess of Midland, I sentence you to death." Cleo slowly dipped the pointy end of her blade inside Hammes' chest.

Everything happened right in front of him, yet the retainer was unfazed. He drank a fine glass of red wine to cleanse his palate then let out a sigh. "Now that I see some blood, this doesn't taste good anymore." The retainer mumbled alone as he cleaned his mouth thoroughly with a towel. He sucked the food out of his teeth and calmly stood up while shaking his head. "What a mess. Don't you have any manners? Killing a man without letting him finish his meal. AHH...what a headache. Why are you women always giving me a headache? Just yesterday, a bitch broke out from the chain and ran away. I haven't taken care of it yet, and another one comes. What a headache." The retainer yammered.

The ridiculous behaviour of the retainer perplexed Igüan. Did something hit his head accidentally during the fight, he wondered. The retainer also managed to piss off Luther since he looked down on Cleo as if she wasn't a threat. But Cleo remained calm. Unlike the chancellor whom she had a grudge personally, the retainer was just a target so there was no raging emotion in her anymore.

She returned with a mocking humour. "Well, let me help you then. I can cut it off for you."

It made the retainer laugh heartily. So did Cleo. They were laughing but the atmosphere was tense. Both Luther and Igüan could feel the tremendous pressure.

"I am afraid that it won't be easy to help me, your highness. I ain't just a regular clerk."

"Neither am I an average princess. You saw it up close."

"I see you are confident. You should be. You see, your fame proceeds you. I have heard your endeavours in Revenant regularly even from the north. And I have had this severe urge to spar with you since then. I am glad you come right to me by your own feet."

"No, you are wrong. You are the one putting your filthy feet on my floor."

After the chit-chat was over, the intense fight started. Spells flew across the battlefield right from the start.

Cleo threw a quick fireball at the retainer to which he responded with a windblast. A gush of wind fed the fireball into a giant comet which was blown back to Cleo by the strong force of wind. A regular spellcaster would use an ice shield which would block his sight to the enemy. The use of wind to counterfire highlighted how experienced a fighter the retainer was. But Cleo wasn't any new to a fight either. She pulled the tablecloth up, letting it burn in her stead as she crouched under the table and threw a dagger at her enemy's feet.

However, the retainer wasn't standing still to wait for her sneak attack to land on him. He windstepped away. Cleo lifted the long table and threw it at him to block his track. But he pushed it back with a blast.

"Windcarrian!" The retainer chanted. Immediately the plates, forks, knives, and utensils lying around the floor floated in the air as if someone was carrying them. Then, he blasted them toward Cleo like missiles. The missiles also flew toward the door so Luther had to cover behind Igüan's shield.

Cleo could have used the long table as a shield if she didn't throw it at him. She was in the open without a cover. She quickly lay down on the floor and made herself a smaller target. As she lay down, she stumbled upon a pool of honey leaked from a broken jar. An idea came to her immediately. She froze the pool and created an ice shield. The frozen honey shield was small but dense enough to stop any flying projectiles from coming to her.

"Not bad, princess." Praised the retainer.

"I don't take praise from a dead man." Responded Cleo cheekily.

Cleo spun up from the floor like a break dancer and threw the honey disc. The retainer dodged it with the windsteps but he never thought the disc would act like a frisbee, glided in the air and followed him. As a last resort, he quickly hardened his body with divine blessing and managed to lessen the damage with just a deep cut near his elbow.

However, that one second was enough for Cleo to set him up on fire with a fireball. The flame from the fireball lit the spirit-soaked clothes of the retainer. When Cleo throws the table at him at the start of the fight, a jar of spirit on the table spills on him.

The flame quickly spread throughout his clothes and engulfed him. His expensive silk clothes made it worse. The divine blessing wasn't enough to withstand the burn. He tried to take his clothes off but before he finished, a cold steel blade had penetrated his flesh and reached his heart. Then, he felt a twist.

"Oh, sorry. I promised you to help with your headache, didn't I? Hope this works the same."