“Her Highness Erica the Viceroy and ten navigators, enter through Postern Four in the northeast. Proceed straight for 1.8 kilometers, then turn left and continue straight again!”

“Your Highness Prince Valherios. Four blocks ahead, the road is blocked by a collapsed stone building. Behind it, one Hall of Purity entity presumed to be Master-level and seven Hall of Purity entities presumed to be Bachelor-level are waiting. A thousand-man unit of Terra’s army is currently breaking through the adjacent district, so circle around to the rear and deal with them.”

“Young Lord Severic. Enter the main avenue directly ahead as you are. Run in a straight line toward the imperial palace. Once you break through three graduate students, the imperial palace will be right there. Sir Vicher and Sir Vichera will support you with heat rays.”

Kyrie poured out Telephone Conversations like a storm.

The Elector Princes of the great houses, the head of the Myriad Star Church’s sacred affairs, and the young prince felt something close to a shudder.

Can war function like this?

All of them were rulers who had stood on multiple battlefields, both during this expedition and before it.

This was the first time they had ever seen a war function like this.

This lady would lose no matter how many times we fought now. Though this lady wins in the sense that there will no longer be any reason to fight.

Marveling at Kyrie’s command ability, Erica entered through a postern with only a dozen or so navigators and several dozen knights, racing through side streets toward the imperial palace.

Tududududu!

Thanks to Wind King Armor, she could break through walls as she passed, allowing her to infiltrate faster than anyone else, and Kyrie made full use of that speed.

“You will encounter a swarm of corpse moths in thirty seconds! Enter the building beside you.”

“Understood.”

Frrrflutter!

Just then, thousands of corpse moths the size of people flew into the sky.

[“----! --!”]

It was a swarm controlled by a Bachelor spreading moth wings and using mental waves.

Erica shuddered at the realization that she would have encountered that if she had flown carelessly, then waited for the next instruction.

Taang!

Then she saw a bullet fired from atop that city wall burst the Bachelor’s head open.

“You may fly now. Fly straight through.”

“Good.”

She smiled with satisfaction and called the wind.

“This lady will see you soon.”

It was the wind Kyrie had brought.

Ahead, the imperial palace of the Ancient Empire came into view.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

“Forward! Forward!”

“Deploy the Star-Soul Confusion Formation!”

“Rock giants to the front! Move forward!”

The units led by Tyren of Terra and Saint Sirius of the Myriad Star Church were each thousand-man units numbering over a thousand.

With everyone else infiltrating with only a small elite force, they might have harbored resentment, wondering whether they alone had been made to lead large armies as bait meant to draw attention.

“Only medium-type graduate students are on that route right now. Masters and Bachelors using mental waves are being handled by His Highness Valherios, the Guardians of the Realm of Flammerios, and the superhuman knights of the other houses. Advance! Advance!”

Kyrie’s command prevented even such thoughts from forming.

Mental waves tried to erupt from alleys in every direction, only to fade before fully breaking out.

Kyrie was issuing orders to countless small units, opening a path for the great army to advance.

A smooth road.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

“In the end, victory comes only when infantry occupy the city! It seems Duke Kyrie understands that very well!”

Tyren, transformed into a rock giant twenty-five meters tall, burst into hearty laughter.

Crunch!

He had just crushed the head of a graduate student wrapped in bone armor and similar in size beneath his foot.

“Everyone knows it. There are merely few who can put it into practice.”

Saint Sirius looked up at that stone face and extended his hand forward.

The sunlight shining down on the earth from the sky seemed to ripple as though passing through a strange spectrum, and then, without any warning, flames of the stars shot forth.

Chiiiiik!

[“---?!”]

A pitch-black, supermassive slime graduate student, which had spread its sticky body as if to block the entire main avenue, burst into flames.

“Blue Hydrangea. Climb onto the wall.”

“Yes.”

Blue Hydrangea entered Soletaraon’s main gate with her sisters.

“Girls! Let’s go earn money with your senior!”

Because Terra’s army had just passed through the southern main gate, all the encroachers in the area had already been cleared.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

Two thousand students of the marksman school, dressed in red uniforms and carrying the emblem of a hundred flowers, climbed onto the seventy-meter wall with muskets slung over their shoulders.

“Continue sniping by your own judgment, but if I specifically point out an enemy, kill that enemy first.”

The order given to Blue Hydrangea was simple.

He means I should shoot everything dead so he never needs to point out a specific enemy.

Blue Hydrangea knew how to interpret that order even more simply.

Every employer fundamentally wanted to buy reassurance, not force of arms.

The feeling that if they paid and entrusted the matter to someone, that person would take care of everything properly, instinctively, cleanly, and without needing further direction.

“One thousand move west, one thousand move east! Teams of three, five-meter intervals! Once in position, fire by volley! Make bright red flowers bloom on the bodies of those bastards in white coats!”

“Yes, big sister!”

“Yes, senior!”

Blue Hydrangea granted Kyrie that feeling.

[“Penetration technique!”]

[“Rapid-Fire technique!”]

[“Division technique!”]

[“Explosion technique!”]

[“Acceleration technique!”]

Taang! Taang! Taang!

Cross-shaped sacred light flashed from the muzzles of the students’ muskets.

Down below in the city, Hall of Purity entities hiding between buildings and waiting only for a chance to ambush collapsed, spraying blood.

[“Signature Skill, Camellia Cannonball!”]

[“Signature Skill, Violet Flame!”]

[“Signature Skill, Magnolia Blade-Wind!”]

Some excited third-year students even unleashed signature skills.

They were authorities like Blue Hydrangea’s Hydrangea Scattershot.

Massive cannon fire flew in as though camellia blossoms were dropping heavily. Violet flames like violets erupted outward, and dozens of white blades that grew larger and larger whirled through the air.

Blue Hydrangea understood why they were so excited.

They were mercenaries.

No matter what fight they entered, they were ultimately outsiders.

Because they did not need to become entangled in the grudges and debts of that city, that territory, or that region, they could spend their lives fighting beautifully.

At the same time, because they had no grudges or debts there, dying in battle would feel unbearably unfair.

Because then they really would have died for money.

Today, Kyrie was different.

This great suppression campaign was not a fight taken on the side of some lord or great house.

It was a fight on the side of the Empire—and further, on the side of humanity—against the enemies of humanity.

Kyrie had given them meaning.

Not a few gold coins, but the overwhelming feeling of fighting for something greater.

[“Signature Skill, Hydrangea Scattershot!”]

Following her classmates, Blue Hydrangea unleashed Hydrangea Scattershot.

Boooooom!

White petals scattered, and pale blue flames shot out brilliantly.

The marksman school.

Valherios ran toward the next alley, his sword shimmering with sword aura reinforcement hanging low at his side.

Even they, at least, are truly under the protection of the stars.

A bitter smile briefly touched his lips and vanished.

Soletaraon’s towering stone buildings and the complicated terrain unique to an old city were nothing short of a nightmare for the attackers.

If Hall of Purity students hid in groups of three or five throughout this place, shrieking mental waves, striking, retreating, and forcing isolated combat, the casualties would have been truly enormous.

“Your Highness Prince Valherios. Three thousand troops led by His Highness Prince Narji will soon enter through a medium-sized postern five hundred meters ahead. There are two Masters and twelve Bachelors seven hundred meters ahead, so eliminate them by ambush. One Red Knight lance and one Blue Knight lance will join you shortly, so you will not lack strength.”

But thanks to Kyrie’s continuing instructions, there had still been almost no casualties.

“Your Highness Prince.”

“We were ordered to follow Your Highness’s command.”

A Red Knight in red full plate armor and a Blue Knight in light blue armor soon arrived.

Both wore ivory cloaks, and each led dozens of knights, squires, and attendants who also wore identical ivory cloaks.

“They are ahead.”

Valherios and the royal family’s sworn warriors were also wearing ivory cloaks.

Valherios thought this appearance made it seem as if they all belonged to one house, one faction.

Is that not what we were originally?

Then he realized that all of them were, even now, people of the same “Empire of Stars.”

Because they had effectively lived like different countries divided by great house, he had unconsciously thought of them as people from other nations.

It would not be an exaggeration to say he was unqualified as royalty.

Then who was now doing what the royal family should originally have done?

The answer came immediately.

He looked toward the command tower atop the southern outer wall, visible even from here.

A figure stood there alone, protected by two Blue Knights.

Because Bio-radar and Telephone Conversation were both electric arts, deploying them at this density made electrical sparks flicker around his head.

Kyrie’s sparks were a pale white, and from this distance, they looked ivory.

At a glance, he almost seemed to be wearing a shining imperial crown.

“Two thousand Astreos troops and two thousand Rikenta troops have successfully entered from the eastern main gate!”

“The Flammerios main force has also successfully entered through the northern city gate!”

“Duke Vicher! Coordinate with Saint Sirius’s subordinates and enter the inner wall!”

Telephone Conversations came every moment.

The Elector Princes moved according to the Telephone Conversations.

As the future Patriarch of Stellite, Valherios knew better than anyone that a title in name only held no meaning.

But you actually do it.

When Kyrie issued orders to the Empire’s great houses, the Empire’s royal family, and the Empire’s Church, those orders were actually carried out.

Who was capable of issuing orders to the great houses, the royal family, and the Church?

Valherios recalled a word that had become an honorary title long ago.

The city in which they now stood had been built when that word had not been an honorary title, but meant the ruler who governed the continent.

Kyrie was now the being standing closest to that word.

Doctor Karl of the Hall of Purity felt as if he were going insane.

“The Masters stationed at the eastern gate have been annihilated!”

“The graduate students on Southern Third Street report that all experiments have failed!”

“Give them an F! They’re retaking the course!”

“Not yet! The semester isn’t over. We can’t execute the retake protocol already!”

He had known the Elector Princes would eventually break through.

Since they needed to draw them in deeply at least once in order to create an escape route, a fool might have believed things were currently going well.

Doctor Karl was too intelligent a Doctor to believe that.

“Why can’t we eliminate them? Isn’t this urban warfare, where we hold the advantage?”

He struck the heart of the matter.

“They’re all wearing similar cloaks, so we can’t identify rank or troop type.”

“This keeps repeating: we ambush them thinking they’re a small elite unit, but they turn out to be ordinary soldiers, so we only expose our position for nothing. Then we’re hit by high-firepower authorities and the whole district is blown away.”

“Then how are they commanding them?”

“Pardon?”

“How can an army of tens of thousands with no ranks or troop types attack this uniformly? Even if they attached markings only they could recognize, those would never work on a chaotic battlefield.”

It was an insight worthy of a Doctor.

“But they are advancing all at once like this. A command center definitely exists.”

Karl muttered to himself and headed toward the southern terrace.

Tzzzzzt!

A third eye opened on his forehead.

“Kyrie.”

Karl saw the Blue Knight standing atop the southern wall.

The Blue Knight facing the imperial palace, with pale electrical sparks around his head like a crown of thorns.

In that instant, through a chain of logic even he could not immediately explain, Karl realized why they were being pushed back so miserably.

“A single Blue Knight is sweeping the entire city with Bio-radar!”

“Th-that’s possible?”

“Do you know how wide this place is?”

“Send the graduate students! Release the corpse army too! If we catch that bastard, this attack is over!”

His insight was precisely correct.

But people in reality did not avoid doing something because they did not know it was correct.

“They’re coming! Looks like they noticed!”

“Let them come.”

“No. Could you perhaps tell them not to come?”

Frey, Nereus, and Joi, who were protecting Kyrie, each took up their weapons.

Frey wrapped his greatsword in lightning reinforcement, Nereus made vermilion lightning crackle from storm clouds, and Joi looked back at five hundred ballistae that had been disassembled, carried up, and reassembled there, along with the soldiers who would fire them.

Chapter 241

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