Helix Barony — study.

I sat in the chair and squeezed my eyes shut.

【Hero’s Journey Stage 2: Lord】

【Form your warlord domain.】

【Failure penalty: Death】

【Success reward: Area Imbuement】

【Hero’s Journey Stage 3: (Locked)】

...

【‘Subobjective 3: HOME SWEET HOME’ completed.】

【You have established de facto control over a city with a population exceeding 100,000, creating the foundation to operate a sustained warlord domain.】

【Heaven-Thunder Body value increases by 50%.】

【By ‘Additional Reward 1: +10% Heaven-Thunder Body per 10,000 population’, Heaven-Thunder Body increases by an additional 20%.】

Uhn.

A shudder washed over me incomparable to drunkenness, bingeing, deep sleep, or intercourse.

The ecstasy of nerves sharpening like a spiderweb.

The pleasure of muscle fibers hardening like wire.

The exhilaration as the heart’s mana capacity expanded.

Perfect.

【‘Additional Reward 2: On surpassing 50,000 population, Calling Down Lightning cooldown selection criteria change.’】

【12 hours ×1 ‣ 24 hours ×2】

The following string was equally gratifying.

If I push myself now I can probably call down lightning one more time. When the cooldown was 12 hours it was a power I could use only twice per engagement, but now I can use it up to three times.

Twelve hours once and twenty-four hours twice were entirely different.

Clear a path with one bolt, aim at the enemy commander with the next, and use the final bolt to check any sudden contingencies.

Satisfying.

I won’t be dying a miserable death anytime soon.

Besides, my Heaven-Thunder Body stat had risen to nearly a total of seventy-percent, so the aftereffects of Calling Down Lightning would not be as bad as last time.

Eventually, when I become accustomed, I’ll be able to handle Calling Down Lightning on my own without borrowing the Deepening perk. Then that perk’s power will be converted into Heaven-Thunder Body and absorbed.

I had drawn the curtains and locked the door to the study.

Star of Thunderclap.

I stood before the mirror and carefully removed the blindfold.

Even after almost a year of living effectively with one eye, there was nothing wrong with my right eye.

Anyway, thank you. I have dared to resent you many times and will dare to resent you in the future, but the glory I have now is thanks to your protection, Star of Thunderclap.

Across the white of my eye, a golden stigmata glowed like a thunderlight.

How long had I stood staring blankly?

Knock, knock.

“Master?”

“Ah, wait a moment.”

Someone knocked at the door.

Creak.

“Did you eat lunch well?”

“I feasted. Did you all eat well?”

“Yes-yes. Thanks to your kindness, even the soldiers were fed properly.”

Joy entered with the knights who had done excellent work in the last battle.

There was the silver-haired Peijin I knew well, Melik who excelled with sword, spear and bow, Viten the bulwark, and Augusta of the divine spear.

All were outstanding knights who had managed outposts of various houses and had frontier patrol experience as centurions of the border detachment.

They could be considered the representatives of the knights under my command.

“I hope you can keep doing what you’ve been doing.”

“Yes?”

“The Andromeda Heir-Apparent entrusted me with the governance of Helix Barony. But I cannot stay in the south forever, can I?”

Joy meant they were people I had to keep close if I was to control my warlord domain in the future.

Especially Peijin. As Joy’s swordsmanship teacher, Peijin would be awkward to treat purely as a subordinate.

I had to take measures.

“I have no intention of becoming a permanent lord yet, and Nereus feels the same. I don’t know what Frey wants, but even if he wants to become lord I won’t permit it, so I won’t ask.”

A short laugh ran among the knights.

“When I go back to the capital someday, I’ll recommend one of you as the next Baron of Helix.”

That was only for a moment.

Thud.

“It’s an honor, Kyrie.”

Peijin dropped to one knee before me.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Viten, Augusta, and Melik followed, kneeling.

Good. I can keep using them.

I laughed inwardly.

Make them chase a future reward without paying a single coin.

That talent was essential for a new warlord like me.

After discussing a few operational points with them, I dismissed them from the study.

“This one needs more thought.”

I read the postscript that had been appended to a letter.

[…They say that from the marrow of mutated beasts, a liquid can be extracted and used to make a potion similar to an elixir. I don’t fully understand it either, but they say it’s far more stable than expected. Anyway, send whatever you obtain.]

I burned it as soon as I finished reading.

Elixir.

It sounded like Calling Down Lightning.

You can increase mana with that?

Dangerous, but immensely tempting.

Helix Barony — training grounds.

“Your skill has improved a great deal.”

“Hua! Thank you.”

Peijin handed Joy a towel after he’d been rolling on the ground.

Truly diligent.

On the surface Joy was a frivolous, lecherous sort of man.

Given a roguish, handsome face and the authority lent by being associated with Kyrie, I had expected him to behave arrogantly.

Moreover, Joy knew that by instructing him Peijin would receive electrification baptisms from Kyrie as part of his training.

I thought he would take advantage and mock his pupil even if it brought shame.

I was completely mistaken.

Once they crossed blades, it became clear.

Joy had a conscientiousness like a droplet wearing through rock, and an ambition that required such diligence.

Crushed daily by the strength and technique of knights, he never shrank.

“You might become a calendared officer soon,” Peijin said.

“Really?!”

Joy wiped sweat and looked up, startled.

As with soldiers and attendants, there was an impenetrable wall between attendants and calendared officers.

In physical ability they were practically different castes.

The moment one crossed that wall hit like a bolt from a clear sky.

“Yes. So take care of your body. Endure until that moment comes.”

It usually arrived at the very end of one’s life, and that was the problem.

“Understood. Then I’ll slack off for a while.”

Joy laughed.

Unlike usual, he wasn’t fierce.

His smile was simple and brimming with vigor.

“That won’t be so bad. As long as you handle Kyrie’s orders properly, who’s to say?”

“But his orders can’t be handled half-heartedly.”

“Is that so?”

“Isn’t that true of knights as well?”

“Well…”

Peijin and Joy moved to sit in the shade of a tree beside the training ground.

“Yes. Well. There’s that unique atmosphere, right? The distant, lofty air of someone who lives looking very far ahead. I have no idea how huge his dreams must be.”

“And he is extremely diligent. Isn’t he preparing to exterminate the mutated beasts across the region even now?”

“As acting Baron of Helix he could rest more, but he doesn’t.”

She spoke honestly, then continued.

“Between us, I thought Kyrie would kill the Helix baron’s family.”

“I wouldn’t have been surprised.”

This was not the head of a tiny hamlet or a village with a single priest.

This was the owner of a significant city of over 100,000 people and the countless knightly domains and hamlets across this territory.

No one could blame one for taking it quickly.

“But he cares about honor. And he still has big dreams. Haha. Sometimes I wonder whether such straightforward means can achieve them.”

“You mean sometimes?”

“Yes! Watching Master swing a sword and throw lightning, it seems that with that kind of power the means won’t matter.”

“Ah, that’s what you meant. Yes. I think so too.”

Kyrie’s growth astonished even the knight Peijin.

Because he was periodically receiving electrification baptisms, he could feel it in his body.

It’s getting ever more delicate.

Kyrie’s control over electro techniques climbed day by day.

Even believing it was ridiculous, it was happening.

The world called those who calmly accomplished such absurd feats heroes.

How ridiculous. Nearly forty years old and yet fluttering like a novice knight who just gripped a sword.

Thump, thump.

Are you trying to be a heroic vanguard now? At a time when you should be taking land and settling?

Thump, thump, thump.

No. No matter my age, perhaps he became a knight because he wanted to follow a hero.

Peijin smiled, full of excitement.

Chivalric romance.

He was a knight.

“Sir Peijin!”

“Let’s spread the map. Time to make marching plans!”

From a distance Viten, Melik, and Augusta approached.

Peijin rose from the shaded chair.

As soon as Kyrie stabilized control inside Helix Barony, he launched sweeps to exterminate mutated beasts across the southern borderlands.

He personally took the lead, striking at larger and smaller mutated beast nests.

“Nereus will go east; you two take the southeast. Break up all the encampments lining that tributary of the Black River. Frey will go south with me. Verify the Rykenta scout reports and return. Hensonia and….”

“Daniel. The villages there have significant populations and several fortified hamlets nearby. The local knights once owed me a favor, so they’ll cooperate. Gather militias, command the knights, and eliminate the mutated beast pack that Epicus couldn’t catch.”

“Nereus, the Rykenta navigators are retreating using a tributary of the Black River. I’ll send a map; find a suitable point and sink them.”

Taking advantage of the confusion, small bandit groups, kobold nests, and drake families that had mushroomed were all hunted down.

The south stabilized quickly.

Of course, Kyrie knew that could reverse at any moment.

Operation.

No excessive hope, no excessive despair.

“Rykenta’s forces have retreated beyond the border. It looks like they dug up the spore marsh and carried it off.”

“We have multiple testimonies of strange flute sounds heard among hunters, herbalists, and slash-and-burn farmers.”

“The Rykenta border patrol sent a delegation to protest to the baron. Insolent.”

Kyrie remained pragmatic.

It’s a maneuver.

“Are you saying it’s all a maneuver?”

“Study strategy even a little, Nereus. You make good tactical judgments, so why this?”

“Say it.”

“I’m inexperienced. How many troops could a rookie Blue Knight run unofficially without borrowing the family name?”

“Are you going to draw them in deep then smash them in one blow?”

Before the tactical map in the barracks, Kyrie nodded his head to the Blue Knights, knights, and adjutants.

A sharp smile creased his blindfolded face.

“Yes. I think a proclamation will come soon. A rather brazen one.”

That prediction proved fairly accurate.

Three days later.

[From Erika of Rykentra Rykenta, noble direct line of the wind-blessed house Rykenta.]

A glider flew in, dropped a letter, and left.

[Astreos’s bastard, Kyrie of Astreion Astreos. I ask: why did you invade the house’s territory? Why did you plunder the villages and kill the navigators who sought to defend them? I come to hear that answer.]

Nereus launched a Guided Bolt, but there was no one in the glider to begin with.

[If you surrender you will be treated as prisoners; if you resist you will be swept away by the storm.]

“What shall we do? You must decide.” Joy and Nereus asked in turn.

“If she’s a direct line, she’ll summon at least a rising gale. Confident?”

Joy and Nereus competed to speak.

“We’ll drop a Calling Down Lightning or two as well.”

I flashed my external eye and answered.

Just capture that one.

I gave myself hope.

Chapter 66

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