If you don’t finish a job cleanly, people will curse you even after you’ve done it.

“Throw it!”

“One, two, three!”

The soldiers heaped the goblin corpses together and set them ablaze.

“Split that one down the back.”

“That one’s guts burst—leave it.”

The relatively intact orc bodies were skinned first, then burned.
Orc hide was thin yet tough; properly tanned, it became excellent parchment, or material for bags and leather garments.

Ogre hide was too thick to make much of anything—
but its heart alone was worth ten gold coins.
It was an essential reagent for all manner of magical concoctions at the engraving workshops.

“Sir, the heart’s been removed.”

Jo smiled ear to ear as he pointed respectfully to a flat slab of stone.

Resting there was a heart the size of a small child’s torso.

“Salt it down and pack it in a sack. We’ll drop it at the engraving guild branch on the way back.”

“Wouldn’t we get a higher price selling it in the capital?”

“The Holy Church wouldn’t like that. And if I’m going to make sure you men get at least a silver coin each, it’s better to handle it outside the city.”

Officially, spoils gained during operations were to be turned in as government assets.
But any commander who actually followed that rule wouldn’t have loyal subordinates for long.

Regular soldiers are paid poorly. If they don’t get their cut, they’ll start robbing civilians instead. That can’t happen.

The ogre’s carcass was shoved into the flames.
Time to clear the cave.

Jo fashioned several torches and handed them out to the men.

“Ugh!”

“Gods, the stench!”

“F—fuck!”

The first soldiers inside spat curses.

Yeah. Even I can’t get used to this sight.

Kyrie took a slow breath and followed them in.

Greenskins had no sexes—only spores.
Their reproduction happened in the tribe’s spore marsh.
And that marsh looked and smelled like a lake of vomit the size of a house.

The carcasses of beasts, livestock, and humans floated there in chunks, dissolving slowly into nutrients.

“Sir, I don’t think this stuff can be cut or speared.”

Half-formed goblins, orcs, and ogres drifted about inside translucent sacs.

“We’ll burn the whole thing, don’t worry. I won’t tell you to dig through it. Just look for the gold they stashed.”

There were probably coins sunk at the bottom too, but he had no wish to rummage through that for a few extra pieces.

“Found some!”

“More over here!”

Soon the soldiers turned up several pouches of treasure hidden around the cave—
not just trinkets, but a good haul of silver and gold. The goblins must’ve already killed a few mercenaries.

This should do.

Crackle.

He even used Neural Acceleration to run the math.

Money from selling the wagon, the cash I took back from that ship captain, the ogre heart… plus whatever we pick up on the return trip—barely enough.

To get the Elixir of Hundred Thunders, he’d have to keep the ogre heart for himself.
Once he made full knight rank, his Heavenly Lightning Conduction rate would reach 175%.
With that elixir, his mana reserves would rival even the major cadet branches.

If I’d been willing to risk neural burnout earlier, I could’ve taken the ogre’s head alone.
Once I drink the Hundred Thunders Elixir, I might be able to bring one down with lightning alone.

Feeling his own growth made the hunger for strength worse.
To keep the ogre heart to himself, he needed to show generosity here.

“All silver and gold you just found—split it among yourselves.”

“Sir?”

“You’ve followed a reckless youngster into an ogre hunt without artillery.
Call it hazard pay.”

“No, sir!”

Jo looked scandalized, as if he’d heard blasphemy.

“None of us thought that way!”

“Truly, are you sure we can keep it all?”

“Sir should take half at least. You slew the orc warriors and the goblin shaman yourself!”

The soldiers looked genuinely alarmed.

“Take it before I change my mind and keep it all.”

Kyrie forced a hearty laugh and personally opened the pouches, handing out silver coins.

“I’ll sell the jewelry and silver rings in the city and divide that later.”

With nearly a hundred men sharing, it wasn’t a fortune, but a tidy bonus all the same.

This way, when I sell the orc hides and ogre heart later, no one will complain.
And really, this is a legal chance to bribe the examiners a little.

The thought only made him more certain.

“Thank you, sir! Thank you!”

“I’ve eaten soldier’s rations fifteen years, never met a Blue Knight like Sir Kyrie!”

“Hey, when we reach town, anything the villagers give us—pass it all to the Sir. From now on, every side profit’s his.”

“Right! He deserves it.”

Jo and the men talked like they could hardly believe their luck—
and maybe, just to make sure he wouldn’t take the money back, they exaggerated their awe.

“Humans! Humans came! Blue Knight! Our tribe is doomed! You should all run—!”

A goblin burst from the brush.

“Kirrk?!”

It was covered head to toe in gold necklaces and bracelets, clutching a leather pouch so full of coins it jingled.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Kyrie threw a javelin.

The goblin dropped.

“A gold goblin?”

“The Lord of Thunder must truly favor Sir Kyrie!”

Jo and the men burst into laughter.
Kyrie laughed with them.

He said ‘our tribe.’ A fugitive from another nest.

But part of his mind kept turning.

That means another knight’s operation failed. Those survivors will scatter,
and somewhere along the way, they’ll raid a village for livestock—or people—to replenish themselves.

“Company!”

“Sir?”

“Return to the village! Now!”

Kyrie’s hunch was more than ninety percent right.

“Advance! Advance!”

Cadet Knight Karl’s operation, on paper, was textbook.

He’d massed his troops to compensate for low morale, putting himself and the heavy infantry in front for maximum breakthrough force.

The problem was that his assigned goblin nest lay deep in dense forest.

“Chrrrk! Run! The Blue Knight’s too strong!”

With the trees packed so tightly, no formation could keep its cohesion.

Karl’s valor at the front was genuine enough.
Even a lower-rank Blue Knight was still a Blue Knight.

The goblin shaman’s head came off in seconds; the orc warriors followed soon after.
A few villagers, enslaved as shields, died in the crossfire, but the heavy infantry kept losses light.

But once you charge as a single lump, encirclement is off the table.

The goblins and orcs abandoned their spore marsh, grabbed what loot they could, and fled in every direction.

“No! Catch them! Don’t let them—!”

Karl could only watch hundreds of greenskins scatter before his eyes.

Then came the self-justification.

At least I drove them west. Kyrie’s bound to take a hit. Hah. Maybe I’ll get to swoop in and save him like a hero.

Reality, however, cared little for his fantasies.

“Sir Nereus! Orcs and goblins approaching!”

“Ogre sighted at the rear! Advancing with them!”

“What? Rear—what do you mean rear?!”

If Karl’s tactics were somewhat by the book,
Nereus’s were perfectly by the book.

He’d conscripted everything he could, creating a broad encirclement and sweeping the forest methodically, ready to burn it to the ground.
Unlike Karl, he’d even armed the conscripts with spears—maximum cost efficiency.

It all fell apart because of one variable: Kyrie.

Kyrie finished his hunt far faster than Karl expected and had already withdrawn.
Thus the beasts Karl had driven out poured through Kyrie’s now-empty sector straight into Nereus’s lines.

“Chrrrk! Skull-Crusher tribe brothers!”

“Blue Knight behind us!”

“Blue Knight ahead!”

“Then fight to the death! Break through!”

The goblins and orcs, true to their nature, charged straight into Nereus’s encirclement.

His textbook strategy met a textbook catastrophe.

“Damn it all!”

And Nereus crushed that catastrophe by the textbook as well.

“Kill them all! Then kill more!”

“Artillery ready—fire!”

“Raise spears!”

Rumble!

Each time he stepped with Thunder Step, his blade carved orc warriors clean in half.
The ballistae he’d dragged through the forest finally earned their keep—
massive iron bows launching bolts thick as stakes.

“Graaah!”

Even an ogre couldn’t ignore that.

“Examiner! Examiner! Find out which idiot was in charge of that nest!
If he won’t face me, tell his adjutant I’ll cut his damn head off!”

Whenever the ogre staggered from a bolt, Nereus dashed in.

Crackle!

Like Kyrie before him, he unleashed Discharge, locking up the creature’s muscles.
The torrent of orange lightning made the beast spasm violently.

Rumble!

Then he launched himself with Thunder Step—
soaring up to the ogre’s five-meter head.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Shraaaak!

Spinning in midair, he kicked off, drawing a blazing orange arc with his sword.

“If I don’t get bonus points for this, I’m filing a complaint!”

The ogre’s neck was almost cleaved in half.

The monsters Karl had driven out mostly perished in Nereus’s encirclement.

Nothing?

None had headed toward Kyrie’s village.

So Kyrie kept his troops on alert for hours without seeing a single shadow of the enemy.

It made sense.
After seeing two Blue Knights, the greenskins had lost any will to raid human settlements nearby.
Until this generation was wiped out, they wouldn’t dare come close again.

All I did was tire the men for nothing.

Kyrie clicked his tongue.

“Operation complete. Rest.”

He worried that the goodwill bought with silver might fade.

People forget kindness quickly but remember resentment forever.
If I keep them on guard duty even now, they might start holding grudges—
and that could complicate me taking the ogre heart later.

“Sir.”

“What is it?”

So when Jo approached, Kyrie was half-expecting trouble.

“The village chief wishes to host a feast in your honor.”

“A feast?”

“He said he never expected you’d keep the watch for hours even after the hunt ended,
guarding against a counterattack.
He invites us to eat well and rest; with that, we can depart by nightfall. What do you think?”

Of course, Jo and the soldiers saw it differently.

For them, it was another chance to serve.
For the villagers, it was comfort and gratitude.
Our knight fights like lightning itself but shows mercy and thoughtfulness off the field.

The villagers were equally sincere.

“Did you see the ogre’s heart? They say he wiped out that entire nest in under an hour!”

“He even recovered Hans’s belongings. Truly a noble man.”

To Kyrie, though, the word feast sounded more like a trap.

I need to return fast.
And that goblin—the other knight set it up to target me.
Staying longer is dangerous. I can’t let the men get drunk.

“I’ll be leaving early. Eat and enjoy yourselves.”

He rose from the feast table, taking an unopened bottle of strong liquor with him.

If they have any sense, they’ll drink moderately and follow my lead.

He’s even leaving us the table—to spare us the burden of formality!

Naturally, Jo and the men were moved all over again.

Chapter 13

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