I pushed myself upright, startled.

Nereus smirked.

“You went and did all the fun parts, and I had to clean up the rest. Of course it’s the worst.”

So that’s all he meant.

I let out a deep sigh and lay back down again.

“We culled more than seventy percent of the Mutated Beasts, and the Rykenta army surrendered. We also took heavy losses, but the result is victory.”

Nereus declared with his usual pride.

“Though I’ve no idea why I’m reporting all this to you like some adjutant. Have your lieutenant brief you herself.”

He grimaced and stood.

As expected.

He left the tent.

“You seem intact.”

Bishop Saturn entered as if changing guard.

“As expected of Bishop Saturn. Even I can see the healing was superb.”

He came close and pressed his fingers along parts of my body.

“The bones have set. Tendons and nerves recovered cleanly.”

Then he held two fingers in front of my face.

“Turn off Biological Radar. Use only your eyes. How many do you see?”

“Two.”

“Good. No brain damage.”

“There was brain damage?”

“You Blue Knights fry your own brains every time you use neural acceleration. Without a knight’s regeneration, you’d become a drooling fool each time. Of course, without a knight’s regeneration, you couldn’t train thundercraft in the first place, so the point is academic—but ease up. When the Supreme Commander collapses like a sack, who’s supposed to stabilize the battlefield afterward?”

He covered his face with those same fingers and sighed.

I simply laughed.

“As long as I win, do I also have to clean up after?”

“Stop talking like a Blue Knight. At least look dignified on horseback afterward.”

“Nereus is here.”

“Watch your tone with the one who serves the Eternal Church, boy.”

He barked the last part.

“Anyway, the body is fine. Get up. There is a mountain of work only you can do. I’ll send your lieutenant in.”

He left, and Joy entered.

“Nari! You are alive! You have no idea how worried I was. I was about to order the entire Rykenta army boiled alive in sewage.”

Joy had not even had time to change clothing.

Under her dented kettle helm, her light-brown hair was matted with blood, sweat, and mud. Tears had streaked through the smudged face paint. I knew her real face, so even that had its charm—but the torn mail and warped breastplate visible between rough bandages was deeply concerning.

“There weren’t any… executions of Knights or Navigators, right?”

Of course, there were other concerns.

This is why I came here, damn it!

I needed a Rykenta superhuman noble to testify that Rykenta was responsible for the Mutated Beast incident—not to massacre everyone.

“Just words, Nari. How could a mere Retainer give execution orders for Knights? Ah—but if you didn’t wake up, I really would have killed them all.”

“We almost started another war.”

Her last line, however, I appreciated.

No point falling into the abyss alone.

“Since I’m awake, go rest. Change clothes. Wash. If you can’t, at least wipe down with a damp cloth.”

“Yes, Nari. Actually, I only came to report a few urgent matters before sneaking off to slack a bit.”

She tried to sound playful.

“First—the strange fluid from the Mutated Beasts’ nasal cavities—we secured several hundred vials. All relevant letters and items are already in your tent.”

“Well done.”

“Second—we acquired enough supplies to maintain the army for six months and… one hundred thousand gold in military funds. Looks like they squeezed their coffers dry to field this force.”

“One hundred thousand!?”

So that was the faint smile on her face earlier.

With that amount, we can do anything.

Freedom.

No more begging that bastard Gracus for bread.

“And third—the prisoner’s identity has been formally verified.”

“Erica?”

“Yes. Erica Ortu-Pheosnata of Rykentrion Rykenta. The current Rykenta Patriarch’s true-born daughter. Direct lineage.”

Joy’s voice grew heavy.

As it should.

So it really was her.

Her power already implied as much.

A direct heir tied to the Mutated Beast crisis—this changes everything.

“She’s not resisting, but there’s nothing more we can do on our end. You need to meet her yourself.”

Kyrie left to meet Erica.

The shadows were lengthening in late afternoon.

Everywhere, soldiers spoke cheerfully.

The battlefield’s exhaustion, mixed with victory’s warmth, smoldered like glowing embers.

“Kyrie, Nari!”

“Nari is safe!”

“Kyrie! Kyrie! Kyrie!”

Those embers became wildfire the moment they saw him.

“He led us to victory!”

“Hail Kyrie, the Star of Victory!”

“Hail the Lightning Blade! Blessings of the Thunder Star!”

Soldiers repairing gear, setting tents, driving stakes—

“Through His Constellation, the Apostle led us to triumph!”

Retainers separating prisoners, distributing rations, shouting orders—

“Hail the Lightning Blade Kyrie! The one who sees through the battlefield!”

Censer-Bearers processing high-ranking prisoners, Knights tallying the dead—

“Kyrie, sir!”

“You’re unharmed?!”

“Thank the stars!”

Knights resting anywhere they could find space leapt up, raising fists and weapons.

We won.

Kyrie raised one hand in acknowledgment.

But the cheers were not just for victory.

“Remember the Wide-Area Imbuement?”

“Remember it? I’ll remember it until the day I die.”

“How could you forget? The lightning on the blade—the flare, the heat, the way it crawled up the grip—”

Knights spoke with reverent awe.

“There have been many Blue Knights who charged with soldiers. But have you ever heard of one who shared his power with them? Who made them the weight that tipped the battlefield?”

“Kyrie made us the protagonists of the battlefield.”

“Unprecedented. A title made for him.”

The breakthrough had only succeeded because Kyrie committed the 300 reserve alongside their original 200.

Yet no elite unit, no matter how strong, could normally defeat an army of ten thousand.

“Even if we Retainers and Knights charged together—how would we have beaten them? They had as many Knights and Censer-Bearers as we did.”

Rykenta had elites too.

“Then what changed? Kyrie’s Wide-Area Imbuement.”

“For a moment, it felt like we had more Blue Knights than they did.”

A mass illusion—born of lightning.

And it broke Rykenta’s will.

It made them believe they had already lost.

It made ordinary warriors believe they could win.

Kyrie did not just fight as a hero.

He made others heroes.

“Ki-ri-e! Ki-ri-e! Ki-ri-e!”

Yes. Louder. Louder. Louder.

He himself would never have imagined something like this.

I used it because Erica might snipe me with a wind blast. If they couldn’t tell which one of us was the real Blue Knight, that was enough. It worked well—use it again next time.

I stopped in front of Erica’s tent.

The soldiers had slowed me down with too many cheers.

“You’re here.”

Joy had washed, changed clothes, and prepared a gift box.

“Yes, yes. I brought this too.”

She lifted an expensive confection box from Spiramentaon’s premier patisserie.

In the Empire of Stars, status came before everything.

We really have to do this…

For someone of direct lineage, even as a prisoner, one had to bring gifts each time.

Even as a noble myself, I found it absurd.

Joy clearly did too.

“You don’t like it?”

“She tried to kill all of us. She killed how many of our Knights, Censer-Bearers, and Retainers? And she’s the one who unleashed the Mutated Beasts. And now we bring treats?”

She was restrained only out of respect for me. Her face was storming.

I tapped Joy’s back lightly.

“Think of it as procedure. So they don’t raise an army of a hundred thousand claiming we insulted their bloodline.”

Emotion was emotion. Reality was reality.

If I didn’t master my emotions, they would master me.

“Yes, Nari. I will… rationalize.”

She muttered dark complaints, then raised her voice sharply.

“Introducing His Highness Pellaeus’s son, Blue Knight of the Border Patrol, Kyrie of Astrion Astreos! May we enter?”

“Enter.”

Two of Erica’s attendants opened the tent flap.

I entered with Joy.

Erica had simply moved her own command tent here.

High ceiling, soft carpets, richly upholstered sofas and lamps—it resembled a noble salon more than a war tent.

“Honored to be received. I am Kyrie of Astrion Astreos.”

“Thank you for the proper courtesy. I am Erica of Rykentrion Rykenta. Please, sit.”

She guided me to the sofa, Joy to a side chair.

She opened the cookie box and placed it elegantly on the table.

The entire sequence was so flawless it nearly erased the memory of the battlefield.

“I heard you did not resist.”

“I swore to the Free Storm God upon my own will—to yield to a fair outcome.”

“Your hair, clothes, and blade—also part of that oath?”

Indeed—Erica wore her hair long and loose, impractical for combat, her white dress and red shawl suited to a ballroom, her high-heeled stilettos absurd for marching.

Combined with her elegant, imperious features, she looked more like nobility attending a soirée than the commander of ten thousand soldiers.

Do not be deceived.

If not for the clouds, if she had not wasted mana clearing the sky, I would have lost.

“We Apostles of the Free Storm differ from you who serve the Thunder Star. Well—perhaps not you and your blond Blue Knight.”

“‘Half-bloods’?”

Erica explained.

“We call those with blood too thin to function as true superhuman warriors—who lean entirely on thundercraft’s killing powers—‘half-bloods.’”

“And you are different?”

“Wind alone lacks killing force. So to wield it, we must pay with great oaths—or be born truly noble, like me.”

“You’ll spend eternity burning in the abyss. Quite a lot of oaths, then.”

“Why do you look like you understand? It’s irritating.”

“I really do.”

He would understand.
Not I.
He.

High control, insufficient mana, requiring compensating pacts. Even a direct heir has constraints.

Astreos thundercraft fit war perfectly.

Body reinforcement and neural acceleration alone made a superhuman warrior.

Few oaths required.

Rykenta is the opposite. Their blood alone is not enough to become superhuman. So they draw as much mana as they can through oaths.

Erica blinked, her eyes green like summer forests.

She broke a cookie to check the nuts, then chose a different one.

“You truly did understand. That is even more irritating.”

“Whatever. I have questions.”

I reached for the cookie she had rejected.

“Most Blue Knights would have slapped me by now.”

She blinked again in faint surprise.

“A prisoner should be treated as befits a prisoner.”

I motioned to Joy.

If her obedience is tied to her oath, the moment we strike her first, she can claim self-defense. We will not survive a second fight. No one is to touch her.

Joy handed me a glass vial of the Mutated Beast fluid.

“How did you make this?”

Erica answered.

Chapter 74

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