Enraged, Elfons unleashed a magical breath as cold as ice to demonstrate his defiance.

"You... how dare you defy the king's order!"

The bishop hid behind the royal knight army, with several royal knights protecting him. He pointed at the pure white knight, straightened his trembling body, and shouted curses.

Alphonse retorted, "I was also following the king's decree to prepare for the southern expedition! I received my appointment personally before the king. I have more faith in the king's appointment that I heard myself than in the so-called royal decree brought by the bishop."

"Bullshit! What are you all standing there for! Arrest him!"

Three royal warriors stood menacingly in front of Elfons, armed and ready for battle.

Among the eagles behind him, one of them—the burly man who usually only carried a wine jug—now stepped forward shoulder to shoulder, carrying a pair of giant hammers, wanting to help Alphonse, but was stopped by him.

Seeing that the three royal knights were charging towards him, Alphonse quickly sheathed his longsword and kicked up a wooden stick on the ground with his toe, intending to use it to meet the enemy.

"careful!"

It's unclear who among the Fierce Eagles shouted at Elfons.

At the same time, several silent arrows were shot out from the top of the Eagle Palace.

Without turning his head, Alphonse quickly stepped back with his right foot and flicked his right hand backward. A cold wind billowed up behind his armor as his cloak billowed, and this powerful magical force rushed towards the arrows, causing all the dark arrows that were about to touch Olivier to break and fall to the ground.

Oliver was terrified and gasped.

"Magic...it's magic!" The bishop realized that the leader of the Fierce Eagles was a magic practitioner, and he also felt the air suddenly turn cold.

After making this move, Alphonse faced three swords from the Royal Knights.

The weapon in his left hand—a wooden stick—was not disturbed by the previous attack and stood ready to strike with his sword at the opportune moment.

Olivier was still reeling from the near-attack when he vaguely saw the Royal Knights begin to fight.

In mid-air, an arc of white light was unleashed by the wooden sword that delivered a horizontal slash, cleaving the attacking Royal Knight to the ground.

If the swordsmanship had been performed with a real sword in its sheath instead of a wooden stick, this magically enhanced and sharp sword strike would have already cut the royal knights who recklessly charged forward in half.

Then several more warriors fell to Alphonse's "wooden sword".

Seeing this, every member of the Royal Knights hesitated to advance. Even if the entire squad charged forward with their swords drawn, they might not be able to easily take down the palace. Moreover, it seemed that Elphons hadn't made a serious move yet, and the Fierce Eagles hadn't made their move either.

Alphonse took out a silver mask and put it on his face.

These were items that Finchley had given to Alphonse in the stable not long ago.

The eagle mask is the symbolic emblem of the commander of the Fierce Eagle Knights.

The bishop thought to himself that the newly appointed commander of the Fierce Eagles was not only no weaker than the former commander, but seemed even more troublesome.

"How dare you defy the king's orders, Alphonse! Your end has come!"

Seeing the bishop, who was protected by several warriors and had a timid appearance but a very arrogant tone, Alphonse dropped the wooden stick and slowly drew the longsword from his waist.

Seeing this, the Fierce Eagles also stepped forward. The burly man shouted the battle cry, and Finchley stood shoulder to shoulder with the captain, their twin swords reflecting the blazing sun.

The Royal Knights had never witnessed such intense fighting spirit from the Fierce Eagles, the Kingdom's Second Knight Order, in the past five years.

"Royal Knights, retreat! Alphonse, your end is near! Just you wait and see."

The bishop left behind this harsh remark and angrily led the Royal Knights detachment to withdraw from the Eagle's base.

-

"So, that brat Alphonse disobeyed my orders today?"

Wang paused in mid-air, holding the chess piece in surprise, and turned to look at the bishop who had reported, saying in disbelief.

The bishop nodded repeatedly.

Wang then looked at his opponent, Van Rexor, sitting on the same chessboard in the same row, no longer paying attention to the bishop's report.

Although the outcome of the game was still undecided, the king, as if he had already won, declared to Van Rexor:

"Fan...it seems I've won this game. Look, the white 'rook'—I knew I hadn't misjudged you."

Looking at the overall situation on the chessboard—the white "chariot" held by the king moves from its original position and unexpectedly passes straight through the black pieces' net, reaching the bottom line of the black pieces' territory.

The straight line connects the trapped black emperor and the white rook—this is a cross-shaped killer move.

Fan tried his best to find a way to save the white car or protect the king from their predicament.

Soon after, he gave up the game, smiled in defeat, and said, "I am still inexperienced and my chess skills are not good enough to see the intricacies of the chess formation that Your Majesty has carefully laid out. It seems that the problem of the Southern Border no longer needs Your Majesty to worry too much about, with the Fierce Eagle, which can spread its wings and fly again, by your side."

"Wait a minute, I have someone else to worry about..."

-

That evening, outside the door, Oliver helped move the weapons and provisions to the carriages parked nearby;

Inside the gate, Alphonse was enjoying a rare moment of drinking and merrymaking with the Falcons.

"In fact, if Alphonse hadn't stopped me, I would have rushed forward and beaten the Royal Knights to a pulp!"

The burly man took another sip of wine and, emboldened by the alcohol, boasted to the soldiers.

“Ha, isn’t that you, Douglas, the one holding the hammer, standing still, just shouting ‘Charge!’?” Finchley teased his companion without any politeness, while munching on a pear and skillfully throwing a dagger in one hand, hitting the bullseye accurately.

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