Creeeak.

Kyrie pushed open the doors of Rebellion Cathedral and entered.

Starlight flowed down beyond the stained glass.

“You have returned?”

Saint Deneb finished his prayer before the altar, then turned his head to greet him.

“I cut down the King Among Flowers while it was marching toward Rebellion.”

Kyrie bowed his head briefly.

It was courtesy toward a cleric of the Empire of Stars, beyond rank.

As if rendering that courtesy meaningless, Saint Deneb’s eyes shook for an instant.

“I can only marvel at the devotion shown by the Protector of the Church.”

“You overpraise me. I am only glad I caught it before the Elector Princes Council opened.”

Kyrie likewise lowered his eye and muttered inwardly.

If I am found out, it is over. I spared her because there was too much to gain, but now I am nervous again.

He knew that Blue Hydrangea had spared Golden Rose.

He also knew that she had taken in every cadet once eroded, without taking a single life.

By Myriad Star Church doctrine, it was impossible.

At the very least, they should have been interrogated for months in an underground Inquisition chamber beneath the cathedral, and even afterward they should have suffered long surveillance.

If it became known that Kyrie had released them, even as Grand Duke of Wind, he would be excommunicated immediately.

Naturally, he would not be able to aim for the emperor’s seat either.

Of course, there were also things Kyrie did not know.

It seems it somehow passed.

Saint Deneb, too, was inwardly carrying chains of similar weight.

The Myriad Star Church had deliberately left alone the Hall of Purity spy who had penetrated the marksman school.

So that after the marksman school became a den of the Hall of Purity, it could intervene under the pretext of monitoring and correction.

It was moral negligence that could not be tolerated in a cleric.

If it became known to the great houses, it would be enough that the Pope would have to step down.

He is not easy. Truly not easy. He is a man worthy of having risen that far in an organization ruled by precepts.

Kyrie smiled devoutly.

Unlike an Astreos, he is skilled at intrigue too. I must stay wary of him from now on as well.

Saint Deneb smiled clearly.

The two treated each other with courtesy, exchanged handshakes, exchanged words of blessing, and embraced like brothers, patting each other’s shoulders.

“I will see you again soon.”

“Yes. I will be waiting.”

They did not lose their politeness until the final moment.

Creeeak.

And the moment the cathedral’s great doors closed again, the two men each took their own secrets and moved their steps toward their own paths.

Until then, it seemed everything had ended well.

It was so until the next morning, when Joi came.

“Loyalty! May the blessing of the Myriad Star dwell upon His Excellency Saint Deneb the Inquisitor.”

He was a handsome officer, flashing bright yellow eyes beneath a kettle helm and wearing a little-devil-like smile.

In the regimental commander’s hand was a sealed parchment.

The priests murmured, and Saint Deneb narrowed his eyes for a moment.

“Who are you?”

Joi lifted her chin straight.

“I am the regimental commander of His Highness Kyrie, Comet Rank of Astreos, royal brother of the Grand Prince Regent, Grand Duke of Wind of Rikenta, and ‘Defender of the Faith.’ Joi of Equitaras, sir. By His Highness’s command, I have come to purchase holy water from this church, sir.”

Rustle!

The moment that parchment unfolded, the lips of Saint Deneb and all the priests stiffened.

“Huh?”

“Mm.”

“Ha, haha.”

The written quantity did not exceed common sense.

But it was an amount that all the clergy of Rebellion Cathedral would barely be able to fill if they stayed up all night for a week.

“This is…… impossible.”

“The price will be paid immediately in gold coins, sir.”

“No, no. It is not a question of the amount.”

The bishop shook his head.

“Holy water is not an object sold for money to begin with, but a gift according to donation. Also, we clergy have a duty to leave divine power in reserve for emergencies……”

“The ‘Defender of the Faith’ has the right to receive due recompense from the church according to that devotion, sir.”

Joi cut him off firmly.

Clack.

The parchment was thrust before his eyes again.

Saint Deneb nodded, feeling as if his heart were sinking.

“Understood.”

From that day on, the clergy’s faces turned pale.

An ascetic ordeal continued day and night as they wrung out divine power to make holy water.

After only a few days, the bishop coughed, and the young priests’ eyes grew hollow beneath them.

Saint Deneb, too, repeatedly bent over before the glass bottles, wiping cold sweat from his forehead.

“Brother Inquisitor! Is this truly the will of the Myriad Star?”

The bishop asked.

Saint Deneb merely remained silent.

Kyrie, Kyrie!

The priests’ resentful gazes dug into his back.

The encampment where the marksman school mercenaries stayed was crowded with people for the first time in a while.

“Sister!”

“It has been a long time!”

The six hundred of the vanguard who had headed to Rikenta with Blue Hydrangea and the eight hundred of the detachment who had gone out with Golden Rose had all returned.

It was a day filled with vitality like a great feast day of the Myriad Star Church.

The visit of an honored guest completed the festival.

“He has come!”

Kyrie of Peleusnata Astreion Astreos.

At the appearance of the Blue Knight who was building the most dazzling reputation in the present Empire, the cadets’ gazes all gathered at once.

“May we be beautiful until we fall!”

“May I, too, be beautiful until I fall.”

The man born as a bastard of Astreos and become Grand Duke of Wind of Rikenta returned the marksman school’s salute in the same way and headed toward the training ground.

The marksmen, dressed in red coats and holding muskets, swallowed their breath as they looked at the one-eyed Blue Knight.

No matter how much they were told to keep their mouths shut, rumors spread.

They themselves knew better than anyone what grace he had bestowed upon them.

The fact that he had rehired Blue Hydrangea and the vanguard.

The fact that he had saved the cadets who had fallen to Golden Rose.

The fact that he had hidden all of it from the Myriad Star Church.

Each and every one of those was a grace that had protected the lives and futures of countless sisters.

“Present arms!”

Clack!

At Blue Hydrangea’s command, two thousand cadets raised a military salute at once.

The ranks split left and right, and bayoneted muskets rose along the path Kyrie would pass through.

Bam-ba-ba-bam! Ba-bam, ba-ba-ba-bam!

The bayonet tips shone dazzlingly in the sunlight, and trumpets and drums burst out powerfully as if announcing the beginning of a festival.

Step. Step. Step.

Kyrie walked leisurely along that path and stood before Blue Hydrangea on the reviewing stand.

“Because Your Excellency has proven the will of the White Flower Star through life by walking a beautiful course, ‘like flame, like flower,’ the maxim of the marksman school……”

Blue Hydrangea held out a bouquet of blue hydrangeas symbolizing herself as the bestower, a bouquet mixed with white roses and red roses symbolizing the marksman school, and a graduation certificate into which each letter had been inscribed in golden ink on splendid parchment.

“……I appoint you an honorary graduate of the main school.”

Kyrie accepted the graduation certificate.

Then he showed a bright smile that did not suit his reputation as a mad Blue Knight of Astreos.

A fuss burst out among the cadets.

“Waaaaaa!”

“Long live Senior!”

“You are handsome!”

The tension and anxiety up to the day before vanished like a lie, and the encampment boiled with cheers like a festival day at an academy.

An honorary graduate.

Kyrie had reason to react that way.

The marksman school took the form of a school, but in reality, it was a superlarge mercenary corps.

[We appoint you as an (honorary) graduate of the marksman school.]

[1. Once a marksman, forever a marksman. Graduates have the right to receive help from alumni juniors anytime, anywhere.]

[2. Once a flower, forever a flower. Graduates have the right to use the marksman school’s campus facilities even after graduation.]

[3. Once a flame, forever a flame. Graduates have the right to purchase the marksman school’s school supplies even after graduation.]

Thus, that graduation certificate, which seemed somewhat playful, had to be interpreted differently even in its written words.

The right to hire the Empire’s foremost mercenary corps at a greatly discounted price, the right to receive help in territories ruled by the marksman school, even the right to purchase sacred objects of the White Flower Star.

In effect, it was no different from being appointed an elder of a great house.

It was understandable that Kyrie could not possibly stop smiling.

“Next, I will bestow the secondary prize. With the wish that the White Flower Star will shine unchangingly upon the path of a marksman leaving school and beginning a new journey, I present the sacred object ‘Balsam Shot.’”

When Blue Hydrangea held out the secondary prize, he finally even let his voice out.

“You are giving me a sacred object? Are you not overdoing it?”

“Do you not no longer need my support? I included that value as well.”

“Thank you. I have nothing to say besides that.”

“As it is a sacred object, please do not worry about durability. Unless it flies away and cannot be found, recovery and reuse should also be possible.”

Blue Hydrangea readily handed over that sacred object.

Kyrie received the Balsam Shot with both hands.

Balsam flowers were delicately engraved in intaglio on a crystalline skewer a little longer than a handspan.

It is a real star-body.

Kyrie had seen a similar crystal before.

The crystal pillar he had touched during the constellation oath ceremony felt exactly like this.

If I fire Electromagnetic Railgun with this, I really should be able to kill anything.

No matter how much Blue Hydrangea was a third-year student council member, in other words, stellar constellation class of a great house, it could not have been an easy decision.

It was compensation sufficient to overlook Golden Rose’s survival.

[“Now that I have become a graduate, it is only proper that I look after my juniors’ path.”]

Kyrie unfolded Lion’s Roar and began speaking to the marksman school cadets.

This story had been coordinated in advance with Blue Hydrangea and Joi.

“I will hire all two thousand cadets present here. The term is until the Elector Princes Council ends, and the mission is my escort and the subjugation of mutant demonic beasts.”

A thunderous cheer burst out.

“Long live Senior!”

“Long live His Highness Senior Kyrie!”

Since they had not received the remaining payment from Ortupios, this expedition had nearly resulted in a major deficit.

If Kyrie took over the employment of all two thousand of them, it was something they could only be grateful for.

Seen from a crooked perspective, it could also be called a discount event through a sacred object.

Or that, in return for overlooking various weaknesses, he had made a life-risking contract at a low price.

And both Kyrie and Blue Hydrangea had worked hard not to see their own lives through that kind of gaze.

If there were limits to changing reality, then seizing happiness within that reality was precisely the virtue of a realist.

The festival continued until that night.

The marksman school cadets gathered around a large campfire, clinked cups, and sang songs.

The scent of wine spread thickly, and cheese, smoked ham, and arugula pizza passed from hand to hand all night.

Someone unfolded Explosive technique and floated fireworks into the sky, while someone else shouted with spirit, saying she would make an even larger explosion.

Laughter and cheers did not stop, and the sight seemed as if the daytime festival had been moved there intact.

“……”

Inside the large tent at the center of the encampment, it was the exact opposite.

A silence opposed to the cheers outside.

Kyrie sat facing Blue Hydrangea with Erica beside him.

Before the three of them were cups still untouched.

“Are you all right not playing more?”

Kyrie asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

“I am the host, not a participant. I have become too old to be an evening primrose.”

Blue Hydrangea nodded calmly.

“A desirable attitude. Though it must be lonely.”

Erica added lightly, turning her cup.

After a brief joke passed between them, the air grew heavy again.

Kyrie pushed his cup aside and continued at once.

“You said the ones who created the mutant demonic beasts were the Hall of Purity, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me in more detail.”

Blue Hydrangea adjusted her posture and opened her mouth.

“The Hall of Purity is a group that split from the church hundreds of years ago. They studied the ruins of the Ancient Empire remaining in the corpse-waste plains, and after discovering something, they converted, saying they would pursue purity.”

The magic-tool lamp inside the tent flickered once.

“They extracted essence from command entities of the corpse army. Based on that essence, they repeated experiments and bred mutant demonic beasts.”

“They were not discovered for hundreds of years?”

“They joined hands with direct-line blood relatives pushed out of internal power struggles within great houses.”

At Blue Hydrangea’s words, Erica coughed lightly.

“At times, they also approached large military groups kept in check by the church, like us.”

“……Then it seems you would know where their headquarters are.”

Kyrie let out a low groan.

“The corpse-waste plains, is it.”

Outside, the sound of bursting fireworks and the cadets’ cheers came like a faint echo.

Chapter 208

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