It turned out that whether they were grafted nobles, Omen ogres, or any other kind of weird monster, none of them stood a chance against a troublesome little girl who liked doing whatever she pleased!
The only reason that troublesome little girl hadn't used her overwhelming power to force her way straight to the deepest part of Stormveil Castle and twist the head off the demigod known as the Grafted was simply that she was still playing around.
That's right!
Annie was just playing. She hadn't been serious at all!
Otherwise, those hundreds of soldiers in the fortress courtyard outside—the one that looked like a barbican—wouldn't have merely been shut out beyond the inner wall.
See?
"..."
"..."
After she'd gotten just a tiny bit serious, it had taken only a few minutes after she kicked over that Banished Knight for the Giant who'd tried to stop her and the ugly Abomination who'd sicced dogs on her to both be burned into a pair of smoldering piles of human-shaped ash. They lay on the ground, motionless.
As for the lion-like Beast, forced into service through cruel treatment by Stormveil Castle's guards and with a huge blade strapped to one leg, Annie had spared it and tamed it.
"Stupid dog!"
(｀^′)
"Lie down. Don't move!"
(?˙o˙)?
"Woof..."
At the troublesome little girl's fierce scolding, the lion first felt its neck grow hot. Then it took one look at the miserable fate of the two "companions" nearby and, with a whimper, wisely flopped onto the ground like a dog, pressing all four limbs and its head flat against the dirt, too afraid to move.
It didn't want to be so pathetic, either, but it had no choice. If it didn't act pathetic, it would turn to ash. It could tell the difference.