Fortunately, the cathedral knight was a realist who valued his own life.

“I spoke out of turn. Imperator Kyrie.”

He stepped aside and opened the way, and we flooded into the cathedral grounds.

Inside the cathedral lined with large and small bell towers.

The main hall with its massive doors half-open.

And within it, a confrontation far beyond the one I had just faced with the cathedral knight was unfolding.

“I have come to take custody of the Masters of the Hall of Purity. Those men are apostates who defiled the vows of the ancestors by standing against the Myriad Star, and irreverent heretics who corrupted doctrine. Their crimes are not something secular courts can bear judgment over. Only our Myriad Star Church possesses the authority to judge them beneath the Myriad Star, and therefore they must be condemned by the hands of the clergy.”

Brilliant silver hair.
A two-handed hammer slung across his back.

I recognized him without even seeing his face.

It was Saint Deneb.

“Therefore, I ask that you surrender them without delay. This is for the preservation of the order of heaven and earth.”

Standing before him was Andromeda.

Saint Deneb was saying something similar to what that cathedral knight had said earlier, only far more direct.

So Andromeda answered with something similar to what I had said earlier, only far more direct.

“Hey. You wanna die?”

Not exactly the sort of wording one expected from a direct descendant of a great house, the Grand Prince Regent, one of the ten highest nobles in the Empire.

Even I felt the back of my neck tense at how thoroughly Astreos-like it sounded.

“Pardon?”

Saint Deneb’s voice trembled.

“The last time we saw each other was at that blockaded monastery outside Astreion, right? That’s where you tried to split Kyrie and me apart and kill us. Nice timing, you bastard.”

Blue electrical sparks burst above Andromeda’s black hair.

[“Back during the Elector Princes Council, I let it slide even though I knew you were in Rebellion because Cardinal Sirius was involved.”]

Her voice growled in a double chorus.

[“And now you show up in front of me on your own?”]

The fury of one of the strongest among the direct lines of the great houses was overwhelming.

All the more so because she had filled the void left behind by Father, His Highness Peleus.

“H-ha, haha.”

“Don’t even think about drawing that hammer. I still haven’t dispersed the thunderclouds I gathered earlier. I can drop lightning faster than you can gather starlight.”

Even Saint Deneb was sweating coldly.

But although he sweated, he did not flee.

“Valherios.”

Instead, he looked toward one corner of the cathedral and called a name.

The instant that name was spoken, I moved.

“Sister!”

Valherios was dangerous.

Boom!

I kicked off the cathedral doors, crystalline holy sword already thrust forward in my hand, while throwing daggers floated through the air around me, wrapped in ionized gas.

The turquoise-flamed daggers stood ready to launch at three times the speed of sound at any moment.

“Lord Kyrie.”

Valherios too had already assumed a combat stance.

Fwoosh! Crackle!

His eyes already burned with five-colored starlight, and golden flames billowed from his sword.

Of course I knew why Valherios was together with Saint Deneb.

The royal family and the Church had been allies for a very long time.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince. The Masters must be secured.”

Saint Deneb smiled slyly toward Valherios.

“How unfortunate.”

Valherios looked genuinely shocked by my appearance, then let out a sigh.

“That is correct, Lord Kyrie. I too believe the Masters of the Hall of Purity should be brought before the courts of the Myriad Star Church, interrogated, and condemned. Just as it is natural for you, as Imperator, to command military operations on the battlefield, it is equally natural for the Myriad Star Church to oversee postwar processing and judgment.”

The Crown Prince spoke at length.

“That is not something we secular powers should dare interfere with. Such matters must remain beneath the authority of the Church consecrated to the Holy Seat. I ask that this distinction, at the very least, be respected.”

Meaning he was embarrassed.

“We fought side by side, if only briefly. I did not wish for matters to turn out this way, but as a lifelong believer and descendant of the royal family, I cannot refuse the request of Inquisitor Saint Deneb.”

He leveled a sword wreathed in sword aura reinforcement toward me.

I was about to tell those royal-family bastards that by calling themselves “secular,” they were lumping the great houses together under the same label and stripping us of the right to interpret the will of the Holy Seat.

I was about to ask how we could possibly be called secular when we too heard the voices of the constellations and even possessed fragments of their bodies.

Hum—

I quickly counted the numbers.

On our side were Andromeda and four Blue Knights, myself, Joi, Frey, Vane, Blue Hydrangea, and several cadets.

On their side were more than a dozen cathedral knights brought by Saint Deneb and nearly twenty sworn warriors accompanying Valherios.

Of course, if this turned into a ranged bombardment battle out on an open plain, I had no doubt Andromeda could wipe them all out even if I stood on their side.

But this was inside a cathedral, and less than ten steps separated us.

After a brief moment of thought, I looked outside the window.

The sun was setting beyond the stained glass.

The evening glow passed through the colored panes, spreading calming hues of light.

“Take them.”

I lowered the crystalline holy sword.

“Kyrie!”

Andromeda trembled with betrayal.

Her expression screamed, How could you do this?

“Sister. Trust me.”

I clung to her until the very end.

“You’d better remember you survived thanks to me.”

Fortunately, she yielded to me.

The electrical sparks around Andromeda subsided.

I immediately unfolded a Telephone Conversation toward the underground section of the cathedral.

Hum.

My Bio-radar caught the silhouettes of three people.

Already drugged senseless, they connected mind to mind without any resistance.

“I’ll save you.”

‘……, ……!’

The reply was brief, but important.

That was enough.

I immediately turned toward Valherios and unleashed a torrent of words.

I packed emotion into every syllable so he would not have time to think about what I had just done.

“Everything you said was wrong. As Imperator, I have the authority to intervene in all spoils of war and all postwar processing. As one contracted to the thunderous star, I am not secular—I possess the right to interpret matters of faith as well. Stop babbling about ‘secular’ while trying to lump together and diminish our spiritual authority.”

“I thought you were humble.”

“But I am a Blue Knight. Blue Knights do not fight their comrades. Take them and get out.”

“……!?”

Valherios looked far more shocked by my words than he had when I rushed him with my sword drawn.

“Truly… worthy of a Blue Knight.”

He muttered in a voice filled with countless emotions before lowering his sword as well.

The cathedral knights and sworn warriors descended beneath the cathedral and dragged the three Masters back up.

All three were completely drugged, their eyes utterly unfocused.

Yet even then, they grinned stupidly at me with expressions full of anticipation.

It was revolting.

Saint Deneb shoved the three Masters into an armored transport carriage.

The thing was reinforced with all kinds of engravings and blessings.

That single carriage was probably sturdier than most fortresses and more expensive too.

“Then excuse us. Enjoy your evening.”

The bastard climbed into another carriage with that infuriatingly cheerful smile of his and departed the cathedral.

Valherios and the sworn warriors left as well.

Saint Deneb’s forces receded like the tide.

The transport carriage rolled all the way toward the city’s outermost gate in the distance.

“Are preparations for our withdrawal complete as well?”

“We can depart at any moment, sir.”

I confirmed the retreat preparations with Joi, Blue Hydrangea, and Sepeia, Andromeda’s head maid.

“Sister.”

I turned toward Andromeda.

“Right.”

As though she had been waiting for it, she raised her hand.

Flash!

Lightning descended from a clear sky and incinerated the transport carriage so completely not even a scrap of metal remained.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“W-what happened?”

“Huh? Huhhh?”

In the distance, cathedral knights and battle priests pointed toward us before charging over furiously.

“That felt satisfying, but what’s the plan now?”

Andromeda asked as though she hadn’t a single thought in her head.

“I just found the location of the Hall of Purity’s headquarters. Let’s run too. Those Church bastards are probably furious.”

Chuckling, I grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

It was fine even if Andromeda didn’t think.

I could do the thinking.

For someone burdened with too many thoughts, a person quick to act was far more valuable.

“What? When? No—how?”

Andromeda stared at me wide-eyed as she asked.

“……By now, Kyrie has probably learned the location of the Hall of Purity headquarters.”

The Papal See.

The Holy Seat beneath the dome shaped like a celestial sphere.

“That is correct.”

Blue Martial Star Commander Saint Sirius prostrated himself before Saint Soleil.

“Deneb will understand.”

“He is a clever child. He will do his best in his own position.”

Soleil had lived for many years, but Sirius was an ancient monster who had already been a cardinal when Soleil himself was still an academy seminarian.

Their conversation carried trust beyond that of superior and subordinate.

“Since it is a secret they uncovered from us through force, they will insist on conquering it themselves with great fanfare. If they fail, the pride they treasure more than life itself will be dragged through the dirt.”

Saint Soleil let out a mysterious smile.

This entire scheme had been prepared solely for this moment.

They had deliberately prolonged the suppression campaign to infuriate Kyrie and his allies, then naturally leaked information through captured prisoners.

In the process, they induced friction between the Church and the great houses, ensuring the great houses would assault the Hall of Purity headquarters using only their own strength.

They had identified the Hall of Purity headquarters long ago.

They simply wanted the headquarters and the great houses’ forces to annihilate one another spectacularly.

“Flammerios still has unstable succession issues. And those two are merely Guardians of the Realm, not even minor house heads.”

“Rikenta is the same. House Astreos still has collateral branches remaining, and Andromeda’s younger siblings are still alive.”

“Septentrios will remain indifferent and follow along as always. Terra is not on good terms with us.”

“As for Crosel, they would never leave the desert no matter what happened in the Empire.”

At that point, there would no longer remain a single force capable of restraining the Myriad Star Church.

“We need only bring down Kyrie.”

“The traitors of the Dawn Council are insignificant. We shall save all subjects under the principle that all are equal beneath the Myriad Star. What can those laughable fools accomplish by shouting only about equality?”

The administrative and financial networks already spread throughout the Empire were as dense as a spiderweb.

Every house and every apostate shall kneel before us.

Saint Soleil leaned back against the Holy Seat.

“It took too long.”

“Yes.”

“Far too many years to return the world to the form it ought to possess.”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever think you would live to see such a day?”

“After passing two hundred years of age, I had already given up. I intended to enter the seminary and spend the rest of my life as a professor. Until I discovered one unusually brilliant child among the 3,581 freshmen.”

Saint Soleil smiled as he met Saint Sirius’s eyes.

The Myriad Star saved the world from the Ancient Empire of Evil.

This was the task of restoring the world to the form it rightfully ought to take.

All should naturally kneel and bow their heads, receiving only that grace! Yet those who receive dare try to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who bestow!

It was Saint Soleil’s mission.

The Pope and the cardinal basked in satisfaction, believing everything was finally returning to its proper place.

“……What did Kyrie announce?”

“He claims the Hall of Purity possesses the Falling-Star Meteoric Iron Demon Sword!”

“That’s impossible!”

That satisfaction lasted only until news arrived that forced the Church to take command of the suppression campaign no matter the cost.

For the first time in a long while, I rode in the same carriage as Andromeda.

“So? You calmed me down, then used Telephone Conversation on the Masters, right? What did you do after that?”

Andromeda pressed close, firing impatient questions at me.

“Relax, relax! I’m not going anywhere.”

“Answer me already!”

I explained quickly.

“……That cathedral knight actually listened to me and stepped aside. That was when I realized something was strange. Those bastards would never make a realistic decision.”

Those people gained authority through faith and precepts.

They would rather die than act against doctrine and faith.

“Saint Sirius also knows I can use Telephone Conversation. It wouldn’t be hard for him to infer that I’d question those drugged-up idiots who’d answer anything.”

“They intentionally let you learn where their headquarters was? That’s what you mean?”

“Exactly. But the important thing is that the process had to involve conflict with the Church. That way we couldn’t demand the Church’s cooperation since we obtained the information by fighting them. They wanted us to conduct the assault entirely with our own strength. To exhaust our armies.”

Andromeda let out a sigh so deep it seemed the earth might cave in.

“So I almost did something stupid?”

“No.”

I cut her off firmly.

What if Andromeda had simply killed the Masters there?

The Myriad Star Church would have criticized her lack of decisiveness for losing the opportunity to discover the headquarters, then seized leadership of the suppression campaign from us.

“Actually, this is even better.”

“How is this better when we walked straight into a trap? I appreciate you trying to comfort me, but this—”

“Even in this situation, we can still create something the Church must personally handle.”

“What?”

“The Falling-Star Meteoric Iron Demon Sword.”

And so I could say it sincerely.

Chapter 225

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