The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

Following the furious tide of flames, the already broken training ground shook as if having taken another heavy blow.

The strong looking knight shot back from the flames like a bullet, cutting through the air, like he was blasted away. His feet dug into the already ruined ground as he slide back some distance before finally stopping.

The completely unscathed knight raised up his greatsword and stared intently into the center of the flames.

There, Shien swept away the flames with a swing of his Holy Sword and walked out.

At the same time, the kingly looking man had reached Lucy's side.

"Are you alright? Lucy?"

The man's voice with filled with worry and concern. He seemed very concerned over Lucy's safety.

"Father?" Lucy only then realized what was happening. She looked at the King beside her before looking back Shien and the knight facing off, had a realization, and hurriedly yelled out, "Wait! He's not someone suspicious!"

It seems like Lucy had instantly figured out what the two men who have just arrived were thinking.

The two of them must have thought that Lucy was under attack, and that Shien was the attacker.

Now, having heard Lucy's shout, the man who brought up his greatsword froze for a moment and stopped getting in his ready stance.

Then, the moment the man stopped, he showed a slight change in his expression.

That was because the figure before him had flashed forward like a bolt of lightning and, like it was returning the favor, mercilessly swung down the Holy Sword in his hands.

"Clang!"

The clear sound of an impact rang out. This time the man had brought up his greatsword and blocked the oncoming slash. The Holy Sword had landed on the greatsword, shooting sparks everywhere in the clash.

"You…"

The man looked forward solemnly.

There, Shien showed a mirthless smile.

"There's no need to show manners to intruders, right?"

In response, the man's expressions sank and magic power rose up from him.

Seeing that, Shien naturally didn't show any weakness. His own magic power started blazing up like a flame again as well.

The might of that magic power not only shocked the man, but even the King.

Seeing that Shien and that man were like they were about to fight to the death, Lucy hurriedly stopped them.

"Wait! Shien! Teacher!"

Hearing that shout from Lucy, both Shien and the man hesitated.

"Shien?" Both the man and the King looked at Shien.

"Teacher?"

Shien showed a surprised expression and scanned the solid looking knight before him as well as the regal looking man beside Lucy. His mind whirled and he had a guess on who those two were.

Thus, Shien and that knight both separated further and entered a rather strange face off.

At that moment, hordes of knights had finally arrived from outside the training grounds.

The knights surrounded the entire training ground. They took one look at Lucy, the King, the knight, and Shien, instantly understood who they should be against, and got ready to surround Shien.

"Stand Down!"

But the King spoke up then, so the knights who were getting ready to surround Shien all stopped, not daring to make a move.

Not long after, Vivian and her group had also arrived.

"This…"

Seeing the scene before her, Vivian was stunned.

"W-Why is this place so destroyed?"

"Isn't this too scary?"

Lumia and Melika looked upon the shattered training ground in shock.

As for Diere, she was originally at the front of the group, but the moment she saw the knight that was facing off against Shien, she froze. Then, she instantly turned moody and silently gave off an aura of unhappiness.

The knight just happened to notice them as well. When he saw Diere in her black cloak, his eyes flashed and he went silent.

Then entire training ground had suddenly turned noisy.

Only, Lucy was being protected by the King and the knight. Vivian and her group subtly gathered toward Shien, and the rest of the knights were still surrounding the grounds without any idea just what had happened.

Actually, beside Shien and Lucy, no one else knew what had happened.

"Just what happened?"

After the King had confirmed that Lucy was fine, he seemed to have finally relaxed. Only then did he finally look about the training grounds as well as Shien before asking that question.

Vivian and the rest all also looked toward Shien with questioning gazes.

But Shien wasn't in a very good mood. He just completely ignored everyone and instead tossed an annoyed statement toward Vivian and her group.

"Don't ask me. Ask that princess."

Those words made everyone's gazes move to Lucy.

Lucy, facing everyone's stares and realizing that they had gone overboard, shot Shien an apologetic glance before explaining.

"He's my friend, not someone suspicious. We were just sparing. I'm very sorry to have disturbed everyone."

Lucy had entered princess mode and lowered her head to everyone there with a sincere apology.

However, Lucy didn't realize just how much of a shock her words were to everyone there.

"Sparring?"

The King, the knight, Vivian, Diere, Lumia, and Melika, all looked over the shattered remains of the training field with a shocked expression.

It was like they were trying to say something like "you call this a spar?"

Murmurs started popping up from the knights in the surroundings.

"Friend?"

"Her highness's friend?"

"T-this is the first time we've seen the princess have a friend of the opposite gender, right?"

"Who is he?"

Those knights' attention was completely drawn to Shien.

Unfortunately for them, Shien no longer wants to stay here anymore.

"Everything fine now?" Shien spoke, annoyed, "If so, then I'm leaving."

With that, Shien turned to leave.

However, at that moment, the King spoke.

"Wait a moment for now." The King stopped Shien, looked him over, and spoke, "Your name is Shien, right? Would you have some time to chat now?"

Shien wanted to respond with a single word ———— "no".

After having been treated like the bad guy without any real reason, Shien really didn't want to show them any consideration.

However, before he could, Vivian grabbed Shien's hand.

"Don't be impulsive." Vivian had some understanding of Shien's personality by now and saw through his thoughts, so she shook her head at him and gave a bitter smile, "That is his majesty, the King of the Mitra Kingdom."

Shien wasn't particularly surprised by that statement.

After all, he had already about guessed it.

The King looked toward Shien and smiled at him.

"I'm Ancilford Mitra, the current king of this Mitra Kingdom, as well as Lucy's father. Most people I know call me Ancil."

Ancil spoke cheerfully at Shien.

"Could you have a chat with me?"

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