I was taken aback.

“You brought five with you?”

“They brought five, didn’t they? If we’re going to win for sure, we’ll need at least seven.”

Nereus had arrived.

Right. I’d thought it would be good if he came and raised hell against those two adopted bastards.

Prochus and Epichus were powerful, but they couldn’t push around Nereus—the direct heir of the prestigious branch house Tonatio.

If I had to choose between working with a brutal man like Nereus and being harassed by the adopted brothers, I’d take the former and just scatter the rest of the Blue Knights around.

The two would keep trying to keep me in check, but that much I could endure.

“At first, I couldn’t believe it. You, of all people, asking me for help? But then I thought it through. You’re planning to bury those bastards for good, aren’t you?”

Nereus looked ready to take the brothers head-on.

“As expected of you, Kyrie. When you hate someone, you don’t care if they’re adopted or blood—you just blow them away.”

I had no idea how this misunderstanding had even started.

“You can’t fight with enemies at your back.”

“Right. If we’re doing this, we do it properly. But you sure about this? You call me here, deal with those two, and then what—fight me next?”

Correction: he looked ready to go to war with the brothers first, and then with me right after.

I chose my words carefully, feeling dizzy already.

“That’s how it’s always been, hasn’t it?”

“And?”

“Losing to you wouldn’t bother me. Unlike losing to those bastards.”

Not my best line.

“Ha!”

Nereus laughed hard.

“So, it wouldn’t bother you, huh?”

He seemed delighted.

Why are you happy about that?

It felt like randomly pressing levers on some complex machine and somehow ending up with a working result.

“Let’s go inside. All of us. I’ve got intel on the mutant beasts.”

We still had a few hours before the Blue Knight assembly.

Nereus, I, and the other knights dropped our packs in a high-class inn that doubled as a restaurant and dug into a heavy meal.

“...A mutant beast can be identified by the dark red veins rising under its skin, its misshapen, asymmetrical body, and, most notably, a strange roar.”

I shared everything I knew about the creatures.

“A roar? Like a subsonic wave or a breath attack?”

“No. It’s different. Fundamentally different. It affects both mind and body. It’s less a sound than a pulse—like a wavefield that distorts reality itself.”

“This guy must’ve gone soft in the heat and started hearing things. Aren’t you embarrassed to call yourself a Blue Knight?”

Nereus was about to mock me—

“When it roared, a hundred men lost control at once. Outbreaks, seizures, hallucinations, delirium. The spasms lasted over ten minutes. Thirty of them suffered fever and nightmares afterward, the veins and rashes persisting. We had to summon priests from the Church for a cleansing blessing.”

“Cleansing?”

At the mention of priests, his tone flipped completely.

“Then it’s no trivial matter.”

“If the spasms lasted ten minutes, even a few goblins with daggers could’ve wiped the unit out. That’s near annihilation.”

The knights who’d come with him leaned in, hanging on my every word.

“And you? You were fine?”

“I saw hallucinations, too. But for knights of our level, it’s manageable. The key is to prevent that roar from going off—target the lungs, throat, anything that can produce it.”

“Good to know. You’ve saved us a disaster. I’ll call it even for dragging me here.”

Nereus actually thanked me.

In personal matters he’d rather die than say those words—but as a Blue Knight, he gave credit where it was due.

A few hours later.

We entered the luxury inn where Prochus and Epichus were staying.

“Huh?”

“What the—?”

“The hell?”

The brothers’ expressions were priceless when they saw I’d brought six Blue Knights with me.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“Who exactly did you bring here?”

“Knights for the knightly assembly. Any issue with that?”

“Without prior notice? That’s beyond rude. You should’ve submitted a list!”

“Indeed. If I’d known Sirs Tangen, Daniel, and Hensonia would be attending, I would’ve brought even more.”

“You dare—!”

Epichus opened his mouth to shout—

Vmm. Vmm. Vmm.

He tried to unleash Oppression again.

He failed.

Thud!

A water glass hit him square in the mouth.

“Ghk!”

“My hand slipped. My apologies.”

Nereus.

“You bastard—!”

Epichus sputtered, stunned.

Nereus calmly picked up the next knight’s glass and hurled that, too.

Crash!

Epichus caught it this time.

“If it’s a duel you want, I’ll oblige.”

Blue lightning flickered in his eyes.

“A duel? With a man rude enough to ask why we came after summoning us all the way out here?”

Nereus snorted.

He tore off a piece of the table with one hand and flung it.

Thwack!

It hit Epichus square on the brow ridge and bounced up to the ceiling.

“Don’t talk big about accepting duels. You don’t even deserve one.”

Nereus drew out the attendance order I’d enclosed with my letter and tossed it onto Prochus’s lap.

My letter’s attachment—an invitation in form, an order in function.

“You dare threaten blood heirs of the main house? Treason!”

“Adopted bastards talking about treason? That’s slower than thunder trying to outrun lightning.”

Epichus shot to his feet, sparks crackling through his hair.

“Hold it.”

Prochus grabbed his brother’s wrist and pulled him back.

“Brother!”

“We called them. That’s how it went. In this jungle, if you summon people and then ask why they came, a cup to the face is the least you deserve.”

Apparently he had more brains than his sibling.

Seven to five.

And of their three supposed allies, none were guaranteed loyal.
Pushing further now would only hurt them.

Nereus, meanwhile, had full command over his five.
He had many enemies, but plenty of friends too—
brutal and impulsive, yet bold and magnetic.

Among Astreios’s bloodlines, that kind of personality never failed to earn followers.

“No point in making this uglier. Let’s vote on the search procedure.”

I interjected to calm things down.

“Kyrie.”

“Those who believe each Blue Knight should retain independent operational command and proceed with separate unit searches—raise your hands.”

“We risk being defeated piecemeal by the mutants! And if conflict with Rykenta arises, the adopted heirs must be present to negotiate!”

Epichus shouted, his Oppression spilling out like a background hum.

Vmm. Vmm. Vmm.

I raised my own electromagnetic field to meet it.

“You—!?”

“I lost an eye. The least I can do is compensate for it.”

Oppression worked much like a biological radar.
I hadn’t used it because it was inefficient for my mana reserves, not because I couldn’t.
Now, with my Thunderflesh enhanced by seventy-five percent, nullifying his waves was easy.

The knights around us looked between us in disbelief—
as if ripples spreading across water had met an equal counterwave and stilled completely.

“...!”

Epichus was the first to break it off.

“Scared?”

“What?”

“If you’re that afraid of fighting alone, go home. You drag thousands around to protect you, prepare peace talks ‘cause you’re scared of a Rykenta spat—why call yourself a Blue Knight? Cut off your balls and go embroider something.”

Nereus laughed.

“All in favor, raise your hands.”

I repeated.

Seven hands went up.

After the meeting, on the way back—

“Wait.”

“Hmm?”

I followed after Sirs Tangen, Daniel, and Hensonia.

“Greetings.”

“Ah, Sir Kyrie.”

They were veterans of the border-patrol division—minor branch knights with average mana, but survivors who had long held the line.

“Apologies for the disturbance. I wanted to ask—
you’ll still proceed with the mutant-beast search as planned?”

“We have to. Orders are orders. And if those things cross the border, it’s a disaster.”

“I’ve compiled everything I know about the mutants. Please, take it.”

If I wanted to control the field, I needed their support.

“Truly? That’s… incredibly helpful.”

“We’re in your debt.”

“Ah—sorry about earlier. We should’ve backed you up instead of watching.”

“Not at all. With the ‘One Who Begins Bullying’ and ‘One Who Ends Lives’ around, what could ordinary centurions do? And technically, it’s not wrong that adopted heirs oversee border operations.”

I handed them the same briefing I’d given Nereus and his men.

“To be honest, I had a bad impression of you. Heard you defied the patriarch’s order and took the Oath of Bodily Loss—I figured you were some brat drunk on your own lightning.”

“And now?”

“Now I know better. When you countered Epichus’s Oppression, I saw it. You know exactly when to be clear—when to draw your line. Unlike me, who’s been circling in clouds till all my strength’s gone.”

“Don’t say that. It’s thanks to knights like you that these border towns are safe.”

“Even hearing that helps. If I make any achievements this campaign, it’ll be because of you. You’ve made my heart beat again. I’ll repay this debt.”

“I’ll look forward to it. Haha.”

The three left with bright, moved expressions.

Now the brothers can’t accuse me of hiding intel for personal gain. I’ve got political cover too.

They’d be witnesses to how much I’d contributed to the mission’s success.

Then began the real preparation for the search.
What had been administration till now turned into operations.

Prochus and Epichus relocated from the barony’s castle-town to a frontline village, readying for the crossing.

“Sir Kyrie, which point are you planning to cross from?”

Naturally, they still tried to stick to me.

“From Point C—the closest to my village.”

“Point C? But by heading that way, your village will actually be farther than ours, strategically.”

“For success, the unit that must strike deeper and faster after the crossing should take the nearer point.”

In other words, I told them outright to go somewhere else.

Surprisingly, to these two, that level of insult was just breathing.

They didn’t even realize it counted as harassment unless it involved making me carry them across the river on my shoulders.

“That’s inconvenient. I’d have to redo my entire march plan.”

“Come now, a battlefield always changes. Don’t be so stiff.”

“Remember, operational command may be yours, but field oversight is ours.”

“If you insist, fine. I’ll take Point A. I’ll have the ropes I ordered for the crossing delivered to you—send me the reimbursement.”

“Don’t be absurd. You ordered them, you pay for them. Handle it yourself.”

I made a show of pushing back, then reluctantly gave way.

Days later.

A moonless night.

Across several sectors of the Astreios–Rykenta border, countless Satellite Seats cut through the dark.

“Jo. Move to Point A and stand by.”

“Yes.”

I sent Jo and the troops ahead and stayed alone near Point C.

“Aaaargh!”

“Graaah!”

“Drake! Run!”

“Cowards! Come back here!”

“Anyone who retreats loses his head!”

From afar came splashes and screams.

Each flash of lightning-born power in the dark lit the silhouette of a massive reptile—ten meters long or more.

“There?”

“Yeah. That’s Point C.”

A figure approached at my side—Nereus, his ruggedly handsome face twisted into a vicious grin.

Even in the dark, his long fangs gleamed.

“Idiots.”

“I told them to buy ropes. You have to swing from tree to tree there, not wade the river.”

“They won’t die… will they?”

“If a Blue Knight dies to a drake, even the Thundering Star would fling him into the Black-Bronze Abyss.”

Together we moved toward Point A.

Nereus’s adjutant and my adjutant Jo waited there with the troops.

“Cross.”

We forded the black river’s tributary and advanced into the jungle.

That dawn—

“Those bastards, right?”

We found the mutant greenskin colony.

Chapter 32

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