"Hoo... One hundred!"

In a spacious room, a girl dressed in training attire stood silently in the center, gripping a long sword.

Taking a deep breath, the ice-blue flames flowed along her body, compressing and solidifying into a layer of flowing ice crystal on the sword. This was the form Chi had achieved after countless forging and tempering.

After completing all the preliminary steps, Tiran twisted her body and swung the sword, unleashing a perfect round slash like playing golf. A large amount of low-temperature cold air erupted after extreme compression, causing the temperature in the room to plummet like a high dive. Frost covered the floor and walls, and ice flowers and ice spikes started growing erratically.

"Your Highness, you've worked hard. Here's your hot coffee."

Mimi, sitting on a chair nearby, held Chirp and didn't move, but Chirp wiggled its furry animal ears a bit. Its small hands aimed at the coffee on the table, which Mimi had kept warm with a subtle flame.

The porcelain cup shook twice, then floated steadily in front of Tiran.

"Although it's not the first time I've seen it, I still think Chirp is amazing. Well, Li, you've worked hard too."

Tiran held the sword with one hand and sipped the coffee through the straw with the other.

In fact, her practice with the sword here and Chirp's ability to manipulate objects remotely were mostly the research results of Liecho Raether.

Chirp, as a magical creation left behind by some ancient civilization, was equivalent to an infinite magic source called Yuan. This itself far exceeded the understanding of magic in the present world. Naturally, Liecho was very interested.

But due to Tiran's repeated emphasis and Mimi's strict guard, Li hadn't had a chance to study it thoroughly. However, even in routine physical examinations, Li only taught Chirp briefly how to tap into the mental sea of human magic users, and it easily mastered the ability to control mental power, with the limit of lifting weight reaching several hundred kilograms.

This speed would definitely make countless people who were stuck as magic apprentices due to lack of talent and unable to become true magic users cough blood in envy.

Facing such amazing abilities of little Chirp, the princess was pleasantly surprised, and then...

"Chirp, fetch the magazine over there for Daddy~"

"Um, and bring that small cake over there too~"

"Chirp, you're so great, let me pat your head~"

— That's probably how it went. Even Mimi, who was dedicated to the princess, couldn't help but feel that Chirp was being used for convenience.

But Chirp was happy, and as it increasingly used its mental power to manipulate various objects, its control in this area became more and more adept. A powerful mental power at least allowed Chirp to have some self-protection abilities.

As for Tiran's empty swing practice, it was a means of strengthening her strength. Based on her physical condition and her memories of the battle in Milt, Liecho's initial judgment was that Chi's excessive activation exceeded the burden that her body could handle, resulting in her body automatically suppressing the upper limit of Chi activation.

If she forcefully used Holy Rank rules to unleash an extremely powerful "Heaven Piercer" like she did in the battle against Hermes in the city of magitech, she would have died on the spot, just like Tiran, if she wasn't physically stronger due to her deal with the divine beings.

Of course, the solution is simple: if the limit is too low, then raise the limit. Most people would continuously activate the Chi cycle to increase their Chi reserves and raise the limit of their physical endurance. And since Tiran's body strength originally allows him to withstand such power, there is no harm in using a more violent method to increase efficiency.

Hence, he chose this practice of swinging the sword. Swinging it a hundred times is nothing, but it's not so simple when each time you have to fully release and compress Chi to its limits -- especially the final 360-degree strike that explodes in all directions, a move that would be incredibly wasteful in actual combat.

After a hundred empty swings, each room has a layer of frost, and if Mimi didn't raise the temperature using the Flame Demon's fire, the walls and ceiling of the room would probably be covered in thick ice.

And Chirp also caught a cold...

Tiran rubbed Chirp, who was sitting obediently on Mimi's lap, and couldn't help but think.

Temporarily disabling the "infinite blue bar" cheat, even with Tiran's solid foundation in Chi, swinging a hundred fully-charged empty swings is exhausting. That's equivalent to exerting full power a hundred times in battle, and compressing and releasing it fully may even be more tiring than using a powerful move once.

No, it's absolutely impossible.

Sitting on the ground without any grace, one hand resting on his knee and the other supporting the floor, the princess had no doubt in her mind as she rested her head on the maid's lap.

"Your Highness!?"

Miss Mimi was overwhelmed by the sudden feeling of happiness. Her pretty eyes turned into hearts. This knee pillow... and the princess leaning on my leg? Ah... I have no regrets in this life.

Click.

Just then, the door of the room was forcefully pushed open and then quickly closed. The intruder who appeared out of nowhere leaned against the door, gasping for breath and continuously slapping their own cheeks. The bikini they hadn't had time to change out of revealed two half-spheres that rose and fell with each breath.

"Shuma...?!"

"Eh... Eh? Lord Tiran? And Miss Mimi and Chirp? Why are you all here?"

The knight-like lady who suddenly intruded didn't seem to expect anyone to be in the room – in fact, she simply picked a random empty room in her rush, and coincidentally, Tiran also picked an empty room as a temporary training ground.

The three of them silently looked at each other for a moment. Shuma slightly covered her chest with her hand, while the princess quietly lowered her head, feeling a bit embarrassed by the maid.

"Um... Shuma, weren't you supposed to go swimming with Li?"

After observing the ups and downs of Shuma's chest for a half-second in silence, Tiran subconsciously asked. Immediately after asking, he regretted it and wanted to slap himself. Why did he ask like he caught his father cheating!

- Of course, his Majesty Granzon loves the queen deeply and would never do something like cheating.

This was stated by Delua, the head female attendant whom War King His Majesty trusted the most, and Tiran believed her.

"Well... there was a little accident..." However, Shuma seemed even more flustered than Tiran. Her gaze was flickering, and her movements were unnatural, like a child being questioned by their parents after doing something wrong.

What could make a normally calm and efficient member of the secret knight order react like this? Tiran suddenly became curious.

"Your Highness?"

With a surprised look in Shuma's eyes, Tiran quickly walked up to her, slapped his right hand on the door panel beside her, and leaned over, assuming a posture of a domineering CEO walling in his secretary.

Although the initial wall-dong had a lot of momentum, Princess Shuma soon realized with disappointment that Shuma was just as tall as her, so the height advantage was gone. She decided to resort to a different kind of threat.

"Nervous... Tell me, what were you doing just now? Otherwise, I'll tickle you as punishment!" Tiran threatened with a toothy grin, making a fearsome expression.

Facing Tiran's threat, Shuma couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Princess Tiran, I am a knight of the dark division. If threats like this were effective, many kingdom secrets would have already been compromised. Let's just drop this, shall we?"

"Oh? Are you challenging me?" Princess Shuma narrowed her eyes slightly and gave an ominous smirk.

"Huh?" Yuan's sharp intuition, honed from many life-or-death struggles, made Shuma sense danger.

But maybe... it was a bit too late.

...

About five minutes later.

"Haha... I-I'm sorry, Your Highness. It was my fault. P-Please stop... Ahh!"

The once proud female knight now had no strength left except to beg on the floor, her face flushed red.

Unfortunately, whether it was due to the design or the consideration of possible restrictions, her seemingly fragile swimsuit remained faithfully in place, even after such intense movements, protecting Shuma's vital areas.

Please don't misunderstand, Princess Shuma definitely didn't do anything inappropriate. It really was just as she said, tickling.

"To achieve such a provocative scene with just tickling... Truly befitting of a princess," Mimi sat in the corner, holding Chirp to cover her ears and shield her eyes, so the child wouldn't be influenced negatively. Mimi silently took over the role of complaining that Aya had left behind.

"Of course, this tickling technique was developed on Aya. Even dragons can't resist it..." Tiran's voice stalled for a moment, but quickly resumed, "Now, confess your sins to this princess... No, tell me honestly what mischief you've done."

"Well... Actually..."

...

Standing on the top deck of the East Star, Shuma stood by the railing near the front deck, pointing below. Her face still slightly flushed.

"Below? What's going on... Wait, don't tell me it's because of that guy?!"

Tiran widened her eyes and looked in the direction Shuma was pointing.

The front deck provided a full view of the swimming pool. The shallow end was filled with passengers playing in the water, but Shuma was pointing towards the deep end, where only two people were seen, one in front and one behind, swimming across the deep end at an incredible speed, as if in a race.

The person in the lead was far ahead, swimming butterfly style with powerful strokes. Every time they surfaced, one could clearly see their perfectly sculpted, explosive muscles, water droplets trickling down their contours before plunging back into the pool.

"Muscles honed without an ounce of fat... Truly amazing! Your Highness, don't you want to feel them yourself--uh!" The knight miss almost let her enthusiasm get the better of her, but she quickly realized her words were starting to sound inappropriate and covered her mouth, holding back the rest of her statement.

Did that just give away everything? What was the purpose of rushing back here just now?

And the princess too, she's dumbfounded. You're the Zouliu Institute?! Being a muscle enthusiast, you're way too brutal!

...

In the swimming pool below, Beinrich, who had just climbed out of the water, suddenly sneezed.

If it were any other time, Beinrich would have immediately sensed the chill of being targeted by someone. However, the expression on the Captain's face was somewhat uncertain.

"So tired... exhausted... Truly worthy of being a former mercenary, swimming too fast..."

Behind him, it took a while for Moyi to finally pull himself up by the edge of the pool and lie on the ground panting.

What exactly have I done!

Clearly there were beautiful women, but I ended up competing in a swimming race with a man?

Beinrich fell into deep self-doubt.