The Imperial Palace of the Empire's garden was so wide that one could easily get lost wandering blindly because it was a magical space so immense that it might take a week to complete even after a week's walk, and within it, all four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—coexisted, while in the winter garden, its owner, Sophien, was sparring with a knight.0

Boom, boom, boom!0

Blades clashed with a roar like mortars, and though the dispersing mana was as dazzling as the sun, threatening to tear her eyes, Ria stared with her eyes wide open, persistently following the sparring match, wasting not a single moment of this precious scene.0

Boom—!0

Of course not. The two people engaged in this ferocious swordplay right now are Empress Sophien and Keiron. A duel between the world’s strongest—you couldn’t buy a ticket to see this, Ria thought.0

Zzzzzzzzzaaaaaap—!0

The Empress’s blade and the knight’s blade met and dragged against each other, mana erupted like a thunderbolt, and the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.0

"... Your Majesty, you grow stronger at a steep pace," Keiron said, looking at the Empress beyond his sword.0

Sophien gave a chuckle and then, with great force, pushed Keiron's blade.0

Claaaaang—!0

The reverberation of metal shattering echoed, and steel scattered like fragments.0

Pufffffff...0

The fragments of what had been a striking blade scattered to the ground, and Keiron looked at the blade in his hand, which now consisted only of its hilt.0

"Growing...0