The woman’s condition was worse than it appeared.

She hadn’t been stabbed or cut, but the signs of malnutrition and deep bruising over her body made it clear she could barely stand.

Whrrr.

No metallic signature on the Bio-Radar. Doesn’t look like a human-shaped mimic beast either. Those things are weak and wouldn’t dare come near a hundred armed men.

After confirming her state with my authority, I signaled to Jo.

“Yes, my lord.”

Jo deftly helped the woman up and brought her before me.

He offered her a bowl of warm water, even took a moment to smooth out her tangled hair.

“Tell me why you asked to be spared.”

I set aside the unworthy thoughts crowding my mind and spoke.

“My name is Yulia. I live in the frontier settlement No. 47, under the patronage of His Excellency the Margrave of Custodia and his vassal, Baron Helix.”

Her tone was calm.

“I’ve suffered an unjust wrong that I cannot resolve as a woman alone, so I’ve come to petition the Blue Knight.”

She was far more composed than I expected.

“What injustice are you speaking of?”

“My husband died a month ago.”

“My condolences. The Ever-Star must have taken him.”

“It’s all right. Life and death belong to the Ever-Star’s order; what can humans do? But the injustice I suffer is not his death, but the evil custom his elder brother forced upon me.”

“An evil custom?”

“Do you know of a practice called Sati, which persists in parts of Rykenta lands?”

Sati?

I turned to Jo instinctively.

“What kind of practice is that?”

“When a husband dies, the wife throws herself to her death,” Jo said, his jaw tight with shock.

“It was brought from the Eastern Continent, where Rykenta has many exchanges. Originally it was self-immolation, but it was corrupted by their storm-god cult.”

“What kind of monstrous custom is that?”

Even I was taken aback. From the ruler’s view, the moral view, or the religious—none could justify it.

“The Ever-Star Church would never permit such a thing.”

“In these parts every settlement has fewer than a thousand people. A circuit priest visits once every couple of months, at best.”

“What of the village chief? What’s he doing?”

“The elder brother is the chief’s eldest son.”

“You have relatives, don’t you? None of them speak out?”

“If I die, my property goes to my relatives.”

Hearing that, I understood how it was possible.

A place beyond the Church’s gaze lets customs ossify according to the local lord’s whims.

And with monsters roaming that even attack a hundred armed men in daylight, escape must be nearly impossible.

In the end, it was about money—and everyone involved kept their mouths shut.

“I ask for nothing else, Blue Knight. Only let me live.”

Yulia bowed low before me, tears spilling down her face.

I hesitated, wondering whether I should intervene at all.

It was, after all, a settlement of a few hundred souls.

Even without me, Jo alone could easily beat that lunatic brother-in-law senseless for trying to hurl his sister-in-law off a cliff.

But should we? That was another question entirely.

By ducal law, Custodia’s Margrave and Baron Helix hold legislative, judicial, and administrative authority here. As a mere Blue Knight, I cannot act first and report later outside operational matters.

I did possess the right to requisition resources for an operation, and authority to punish those who obstructed it.

If insulted, I could challenge anyone to a duel.

But I had no right to hold court in another lord’s domain.

Not even Andromeda herself could have changed that.

“Sir Knight, you must reach Sector 19 by the scheduled date. Even if you lose a few days on your first patrol, the penalty won’t be too—”

Gaven’s prattling made me want to knock his teeth out.

“My lord, you may go,” Jo cut in.

“A Staff Officer interrupting a Squire—”

“As adjutant, I’m offering counsel relevant to the Captain’s mission. Do you have something more pressing to say?”

Gaven glared, but Jo didn’t even blink.

Yulia looked at him with eyes that held a faint glimmer of hope.

“By the treaty between the Border Patrol Corps and the Margrave of Custodia, judicial authority at the settlement level is delegated to the Patrol. If my lord wishes, you may conduct a trial yourself.”

Jo pronounced each word with deliberate weight.

“So it is,” I said. “Lead me to that village where this idiotic custom is practiced.”

If I know such a thing exists, and have the authority to stop it, yet do nothing—then when the Ever-Star Church learns of it, they might excommunicate me. That would end everything: the adoption, the inheritance, all of it.

Yulia broke into tears and rose to her feet.

“Thank you, my lord.”

The settlement where Yulia had lived was far larger than I expected.

There were plenty of cattle in the pastures, the wooden palisade around the village was tall, and watchtowers stood at intervals.

Judging by the number of houses, the population was near a thousand.

Perhaps the chief inflated the numbers to block the Church from sending a resident priest.

Jo urged his horse forward to the gate.

“Open up! Make way for the Blue Knight, Kyrie of Astreios!”

His sharp voice rang clear.

The two watchmen atop the tower turned pale at the sight of a hundred soldiers and ran down the ladder.

The gate flew open in an instant.

“Sir Knight! What brings you to this humble village?”

The chief came running as if his life depended on it.

“I heard that an evil heretical custom, defying the Ever-Star Church, the Thundering Star, and His Grace the Duke of Astreios, is practiced here. I came to verify it.”

His face stiffened; he already knew.

“Shall I loose my soldiers to drag out those involved, or will you summon them yourself?”

“I—I’ll call them.”

Before long, the people gathered.

The chief’s eldest son and his family, Yulia’s young children, and other relatives filled the street before the chief’s house.

“What’s going on?”

“I think a Blue Knight’s come.”

“Wait—that’s Yulia, isn’t it?”

The villagers crowded closer, swelling to hundreds.

“Chief.”

“Yes?”

I spoke without dismounting.

“Is it true your eldest son tried to force your younger son’s widow into that heretical rite?”

“It is.”

The old man’s voice trembled with fear.

The crowd, hearing the words heretical rite, seemed to grasp the situation at once.

“See? I told you—get labeled heretics and we’re all dead!”

“The priest said not to do it in the first place! Why kill the mother just because the father’s gone?”

“Sir Knight, please stop this madness!”

But others showed open defiance.

“My lord, when a husband dies, the wife should of course follow him. Only by becoming free in the wind together can they meet again in heaven. It’s our duty and blessing.”

“No one was forced. My older sister and cousin both chose it of their own will. Following one’s husband is the purest act of love.”

Their accents were faintly different—clearly migrants from Rykenta.

“Sir Knight, may I speak?”

The chief’s eldest son slowly raised his head.

“I understand that a knight of Astrion would despise Sati. But from childhood we were taught that Sati means to rest in the Storm Star’s embrace. To be reborn as a wind-mage in the next life, one must live and die together within the wind—”

A servile smile crept across his face.

Thud!

I struck him across the head with my scabbard.

“Did I give you leave to raise your head?”

“Gh—!”

He collapsed face-first into the mud, trembling.

Damn it.

The Star-seats and their blessings were real.

That was what made eradicating such customs so difficult when they became entangled with a Star’s faith.

No matter how many official interpretations the Ever-Star Church proclaimed, suspicious and fearful humans always whispered, but what if the truth is different … and heresy spread.

To root it out, I would need another Star’s authority to outweigh it.

I turned to Yulia.

She was gripping Jo’s hand tightly, trembling.

“I won’t speak of what the Storm Star may or may not have said,” I declared.

Lightning gathered around my left arm as I raised it to the sky.

Crack-crack-crackle!

White arcs of power flashed.

“But this land belongs to House Astreios! You dwell not under Rykenta but under Astreios’s protection—and it is not the Storm Star who guards you, but the Thundering Star!”

The villagers screamed and threw themselves to the ground.

“Oh!”

“Aaaah!”

“O Thundering Star!”

Among the noble houses, the Blue Knights of Astreios were infamous for their ferocity; even other knights feared their power.

All bowed and obeyed.

“The Thundering Star never spoke of Sati. The Thundering Star commands the living to live on brightly! If you hold the Storm Star’s rites on this soil, you will be cursed by thunder and fall into the obsidian abyss!”

As in the Sky-Lightning ceremony, I discharged the bolt skyward.

Boom!

White lightning speared the heavens like a crown of thorns.

The chief’s eldest son dared not lift his head, his face buried in the mud.

“Adjutant! Round up the traitors who defy the Thundering Star’s will—beat them senseless and cast them out naked!”

“Yes, Blue Knight!”

Jo drew his sword and barked orders to the soldiers.

“My lord—please, just once more—”

“Silence!”

The chief’s son tried to clutch my leg but was kicked in the face by Jo’s boot and dropped unconscious.

The soldiers seized him and the other supporters of Sati.

Amid the chaos, the chief’s expression flickered strangely—and to my surprise, he lowered his head ever so slightly toward me.

Unexpected.

In my judgment, the real reason this custom spread across the border was inheritance.

Kill the man, follow with the woman, and you can devour the entire estate.

Under the name of protection, they could even take the children—why would they ever stop?

So I needed to teach them that following such a custom would make them beggars.

Having invoked the Thundering Star’s authority with lightning to deliver a religious shock, I now gave them an economic one.

Those who had supported Sati were beaten and driven naked from the village.

Half their property went to Yulia; the other half was returned to the community.

“From this day, anyone who attempts Sati will find his estate unprotected by Astreios. Cattle, chickens, silver—whoever takes them, they’re his.”

I also planted the idea that stopping Sati would profit them.

“Remember—you are children of the Thundering Star, not the Storm Star.”

With the hardliners expelled and a sensible chief remaining, I could hope the village would correct itself.

We stayed there for the night.

“Sir Kyrie.”

“Jo?”

“May I come in for a moment?”

I was resting in an empty house when he knocked.

“What is it?”

Jo stood at the door with Yulia beside him.

He looked uncomfortable; she clutched his arm, holding two bags.

“Thank you for saving me.”

One sack was half-filled with silver coins and jewelry; the other with precious herbs and spices, neatly sorted.

“You said the property of those who attempted Sati was ownerless,” she said. “I only wished to return it to its rightful owner.”

Clever woman.

If Yulia was this intelligent, I could expect at least half her wits among the rest of these villages.

“The rightful owners aren’t me, but my soldiers. It was they who decided to help you—and the one who stood by your side was my adjutant, not I. But since you can’t go to each soldier in person, I’ll gladly act as your proxy.”

I smiled faintly to myself.

I now understood how to balance mercy toward those below and courtesy toward those above.

Chapter 23

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