Piaget had accepted the truth long ago.

We are not human.

The intermarriage with now-vanished other races, which had continued since the earliest days of the Ancient Empire, had turned the aristocracy and the commoners into half-different races.

And the elixir of eternity that had spread in the final days of the Ancient Empire had turned all humans into monsters mixed with the ancient evil gods known as old things.

The Holy Seat contracts the great houses worshiped, and even the sword aura reinforcement of those cheerful friends crying out for Revolution, were nothing but deception.

No matter how solemn a Holy Seat contract might be, what meaning did it have if the contractor was not even human?

No matter how equal sword aura reinforcement might be, what meaning did that have if the practitioner was not even human?

Someone might ask why that mattered.

If everyone was the same, then how was it any different from no one being that way at all?

And Piaget was the sort of man who said there was a difference, even if everyone was that way.

That was the conscience of a scholar.

And his pride.

How could he possibly accept the fact that something like a parasite, impossible to erase by any means, was crawling through his blood?

Then he would rather swallow that parasite whole and become the king of worms.

Several centuries had passed since he made that decision.

He had lived nearly as long as Saint Sirius standing far away.

“Department Dean.”

“……”

Piaget looked at Saint Sirius.

A young old man with inorganic green eyes.

Do you mean to say the Holy Seats truly saved us? From what, exactly?

……

He remembered the days when they had studied together.

Have the nobles vanished? Have the great houses vanished? Have the old things vanished? From what, exactly, did they save us?

……

A monster is growing in our blood.

I doubt that monster exists because of the elixir of eternity.

Saint Sirius had learned the truth and still not lost his faith.

Piaget had learned the truth and abandoned his faith at once.

And after several hundred years, the two met again.

“Department Dean. You truly must retreat now.”

The Doctors pulled at Piaget.

“Was it my error not to assume enough variables?”

“With that incarnation’s mental wave, we could have blocked even a personal descent of the Holy Seats.”

“But it could not block Kyrie.”

“No observation report anywhere stated that he could use Blue Radiance Lion’s Roar.”

“Then the problem must have begun at the stage of data collection and hypothesis formation.”

“We have no excuse.”

Piaget watched the battlefield for a moment, then nodded.

The incarnation-class graduate student and the other graduate students, who had seemed ready to annihilate the Elector Princes only moments ago, were being driven back miserably.

["■■■■■■!"]

BWOOOOOOOM!

["■■■■■■!"]

Fwoooooosh!

No matter how many mental waves the incarnation-class graduate student unleashed, Kyrie canceled them with Blue Radiance Lion’s Roar.

It could not stop the powerful authorities the Elector Princes unleashed one after another.

“Well. Asking you to account for even a variable like that would be far too cruel.”

Piaget smiled bitterly and began to move.

["----!"]

Just then, three graduate students charged toward Kyrie.

Is it fate? A miracle? Coincidence? If it is a miracle, who created it?

Rumble...!

Piaget fled out of the imperial palace’s main palace through the collapsing passage.

Blue Radiance Lion’s Roar.

Yet his mind remained in the audience chamber where he had fought Kyrie.

If it canceled the mental wave, then it is an authority of the same nature as the mental wave. It is not pure human power.

For the first time in a very, very long while, Piaget felt a question in the truest sense.

If you think of yourself as human, you cannot use that power. But if you have admitted that you are not human, if you have accepted the truth, then there is no need to fight us. What self-deception lets you maintain such hostility toward us?

Unanswered curiosity trailed into more curiosity.

What self-deception... no. Is it not self-deception, but certainty?

Piaget suddenly raised his head.

Impossible.

He tried to deny the thought he had just heard.

That is certainty?

His pride as a scholar would not allow it.

Then does that mean we became monsters only because we could not believe in our own humanity?

Piaget clenched his fist until his nails dug into his palm.

Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie.

That one eye would not leave his mind.

“Department Dean.”

“What is it?”

“We cannot get out!”

At that moment, a battered Bachelor came running breathlessly from the direction outside the imperial palace.

“What do you mean?”

“You cannot get out?”

The Masters and Doctors glared, and the Bachelor stammered on.

“The Elector Princes’ armies have surrounded the inner wall and are solidifying the encirclement. There is no way out.”

“They surrounded the inner wall?”

“Without pushing into the imperial palace?”

“What about the secret passages? What happened to the passages?”

“None of them reach beyond the inner wall.”

“The underground waterway?”

“It was completely destroyed during the fighting... and the Black Knights of Terra have already sent golems inside.”

The Doctors’ faces hardened.

“Then are you saying we are truly trapped inside?”

The inner wall of Astreion.

“We dry them out slowly, sir.”

Joi formed the command center together with the generals, officers, and adjutants of each Elector Prince army.

“We’ve already completed the encirclement, sir. We’ve taken control of the underground waterway too, and our soldiers are positioned above and below the inner wall and throughout the alleys, sir. Fuck. There is not one speck of reason to shove our children into that place full of waves that turn people into monsters, sir.”

Her command was natural.

“……”

“……”

“……”

Not a single general or adjutant could argue with Joi’s orders.

Because every order she gave was correct.

["-----!"]

["--, --!"]

Soldiers from armies that had failed to retreat in time turned into encroachers and came swarming across the inner wall’s main avenue.

Horribly fused monsters with five, six, seven, or even more limbs.

“Ballista fire!”

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

The encroachers were struck by volleys of ballista bolts from above and ahead, shedding tears of blood in joy as their bodies writhed.

Drawing on long experience, Joi divided the ballista units in two.

“Heavy fire above, light fire below! Move, sir!”

The medium and small ballistae, which had comparatively higher rates of fire, were arranged in long horizontal lines across the main avenue, forming a fire net to halt the encroachers charging in at high speed.

Thud!

Even if one or two shots could not kill them, tying their feet down for the moment was easy enough.

Then the large anti-demonic-beast ballistae placed atop the walls fired and blew off their heads.

“Grrrrrr!”

Of course, some still managed to reach the foot of the wall in the end.

Monsters dragging their intestines, limping, yet glaring with vicious eyes.

“Sir Paisen! Please handle them, sir.”

“Leave them to me.”

That was when the knights stepped forward with pikemen and shield soldiers.

“Pikes forward!”

First, the pikemen thrust all at once.

Thud-thud-thud!

“Drive them deep! Deep!”

“You’re getting dragged in! Careful!”

“Push! Push them! Push with the blades still buried!”

Some stabbed the neck to prevent them from unleashing mental waves, while others stabbed the knees to hinder their movement.

“Blaaaargh!”

The encroacher opened its mouth wide and vomited green blood.

Whoosh!

Its thorn-covered tails whipped wildly, firing poisonous spines in every direction.

“Raise shields!”

“Aaaaaagh!”

Clack!

The shield soldiers lifted their shields, protecting the pikemen from poisonous needles and acidic saliva.

Hissssss!

The multilayered shields slowly melted.

That was when Paisen and the other knights moved in.

“A pity. If your commander had issued the retreat order just a little faster, we would not have had to meet like this.”

In truth, someone of Paisen’s level was excessive force.

No matter how powerful an encroacher was, after being struck by ballistae and having its chest and knees pierced by pikes, it was usually on the brink of death.

“Offer your neck!”

“For the glory of Tyren!”

“We shall go toward the Polar Star!”

Even retainer-class warriors were enough to finish them off.

Slice!

And Paisen was now a true superhuman who handled lightning reinforcement.

Her blade drew a crescent moon.

The encroacher’s head fell.

Of course, Paisen herself knew very well that she was excessive force.

She was there both to prepare for any contingency and to show off the majesty of Kyrie’s army to the other Elector Prince armies.

“Who is that knight?”

“Isn’t that sword aura reinforcement? She must be a royal family oathbearer.”

“No. She came from Kyrie’s army. The Blue Knights are all inside the imperial palace right now. That woman is definitely a knight.”

“Were the rumors true?”

“What rumors?”

“They say His Highness Kyrie combined the elixir of sacred radiance and electric arts to create something like sword aura reinforcement. They say anyone can learn it, and that it’s extremely strong.”

That attempt worked almost too well.

“Anyone can learn it?”

“Oh, Myriad Stars.”

“Should we go over there and ask them to hire us when our contracts end?”

Countless soldiers from the various Elector Prince armies turned sparkling eyes toward Kyrie’s army.

“Sir Joi. Who is that knight?”

“Her martial valor is truly extraordinary. I would like to meet her!”

“How do you have an oathbearer under your command? This must be explained!”

The command center was the same.

The officer from the royal family flew into a rage, but the other officers and adjutants’ eyes shone.

“Explained? What do you mean? Why should Regiment Commander Joi have to explain that a knight trained her martial skill?”

“If every shining sword belongs to an oathbearer, then perhaps you should start by saying that to the cathedral knights.”

If that was a trainable technique, they had to learn it somehow.

It was not only a matter of strengthening their forces.

They themselves were swordsmen.

They were men who had carved their way upward through the Empire’s sealed-shut class order with a single blade.

Before an authority they might be able to learn, it was only natural for their eyes to go wild.

My lord.

Joi closed her eyes briefly, then opened them.

I’m an uneducated bastard, so I don’t know where you’re trying to go or how you plan to get there, sir.

She remembered Kyrie’s Blue Radiance Lion’s Roar thundering from the center of the battlefield.

But whenever you have something good, you don’t just hide it away. You give it out boldly, make people owe you, and that’s how you came this far, sir.

She carefully chose her words.

“Since it is a training method created by His Highness Kyrie, I cannot speak first, sir.”

“That is true.”

“I understand.”

“But I will tell my lord that the generals showed great interest. And if my lord grants permission, then while we are stationed together, we may be able to train together, sir.”

“Ooooooh!”

The officers of Flammerios, Rikenta, and Astreos rejoiced the most.

As allies, they were the most likely to learn it first.

“Sir Joi! Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll buy you anything!”

The officers of Terra, who had marched together with them, quickly drew close with friendly smiles.

“……!”

In contrast, the royal family officer’s face turned dirt-gray.

And the Church army general’s face turned ash-gray.

["■■■■■■!"]

The Elector Princes drove the incarnation-class graduate student back again and again.

["■■■■■■!"]

As long as Kyrie canceled its mental waves with Blue Radiance Lion’s Roar, even the incarnation class was merely a large target.

“I shall seal that mouth, yes indeed!”

Erica folded her fan as she flew into the sky.

She shot Andromeda a sidelong glance as she rose, then deployed Grasp of Destruction.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

That gaze contained a strange mixture of mockery that said, Your little brother is mine now, and dismay that it might not be so easy after all.

In any case, the translucent Grasp of Destruction covered the trumpet-like mouth with its broad palm.

Then it seized the thin middle section and squeezed.

Crack-crack-crack!

As the carapace shattered, the incarnation-class graduate student writhed violently.

["---, -!"]

“Return to Mother Earth! I refuse your refusal! That, too, is everyone’s fate!”

Tyren created a swamp and sank the graduate student’s six legs into it, while Vicher and Vichera fired heat rays through the area around its vocal cords.

After a long casting, Saint Sirius called down a meteor made of light.

Booooom!

Five-colored flames burst brilliantly, and the mutant demonic beast’s body tilted.

I can stop canceling them now.

By then, I was already running toward the passage Piaget had fled through.

I have to kill him.

I cannot let him spread the secret of the elixir of sacred radiance.

Wooooong!

I spread my Bio-radar as far as it would go.

I caught Piaget’s white coat.

Chapter 246

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