Not allowed?

Not allowed to use the Bishop of the Manseong Church to make the Mutated Beast issue public?

I felt like an idiot.

I blinked blankly.

I did not know whether I had heard correctly, or whether the aftereffects of the battle had left me with some permanent auditory damage.

Frankly, the latter seemed more likely.

【“No.”】

【The Dreaming Thunder Star denies your assumption.】

But the same prim, divine voice I had heard that day whispered at my ear.

A clear golden string of characters glowed from the stigma in my right eye.

“May I ask why?”

I forgot that Bishop Saturn was standing right before me.

“Star?”

But the constellation did not answer.

“Dreaming Thunder Star?”

“Sir?”

To make matters worse, Bishop Saturn looked at me as if something were wrong.

“Have you not fully recovered yet? No, that cannot be. I personally confirmed every nerve had returned to its proper function, offered a blessing of healing, even gave you holy water…”

He muttered while counting his fingers.

“Well, after such a battle, even if the body is recovered, the mind may still be unsettled. Yes. As if my healing would ever be lacking.”

He shrugged and looped his arm around mine, half-supporting me.

“Come now. Let us return to your tent. Hand over the evidence and rest well.”

I tried to say I was fine.

But my legs betrayed me and played along with the act.

“Your body is still unwell? Impossible. You received my healing!”

Saturn practically proclaimed it to the entire camp.

“What’s happening?”

“Your Excellency, is something wrong with Kyrie?”

“He mentioned some evidence earlier?”

Knights and Censer-Bearers approached.

Even Blue Knights walking at a distance started paying attention.

Damn it.

I wanted to sew Saturn’s mouth shut.

“Come, Kyrie. Quickly hand over the evidence. I shall organize everything and report it to the headquarters. I will expose the sins of House Rykenta to the world. Do not worry about a thing.”

“……”

He spoke heedlessly, simply because his mouth was open.

Meanwhile, though my mouth was open, I could say nothing.

“Your Excellency. I will return to you again,” I forced out.

“Why? You came to beg me for help, did you not? Just hand it over.”

“Upon reconsideration, I believe the evidence requires reinforcement. I do not wish to cause trouble for Your Excellency.”

“Oh, nonsense. Do you think I have not handled documents before? And I know how meticulous your administrative officer is. Would he ever treat the papers carelessly? If there is a problem, I shall return them to you. Just hand them over.”

I was on the verge of losing my mind.

I would rather fight enemies.

“Kyrie~ Kyrie?”

“What is it?”

Even the Blue Knights had turned.

Prey tilted her innocent face, Nereus lifted his heavy brows.

Procus, supporting his prosthetic-legged brother Epicus, turned his head toward us.

I wanted to ascend to the sky or sink into the earth.

“Do you have a reason not to give it?”

Bishop Saturn narrowed his eyes.

His deeply lined face carried the authority of decades spent as clergyman, administrator, and judge.

“A reason not to give it? What are you implying?”

“Well, otherwise there is no reason for this behavior, is there?”

“I simply find the organization too lacking.”

“Kyr— Kyrie?”

“I will organize it neatly and return.”

“Brother!”

Bishop Saturn shouted, calling the cathedral knights.

“I shall return tomorrow.”

I did something I did not even do in front of Erica.

I ran away without looking back.

Damn it all.

What humiliation.

“Why is it not allowed?”

I returned to my tent.

I pushed my biological radar to maximum output.

Within several hundred meters, I could detect even an ant.

“Please tell me something. I have done everything asked. Why is the secret transmission technique not rising in proficiency?”

I confirmed every moment that no one was approaching my tent and pleaded.

“No — I will only ask about this matter.”

Anyone overhearing would think I had gone mad.

“It is clear from the Cross Constellation’s rosary that the sacred energy of Manseong is the natural counter to Mutated Beasts. So of course the Manseong Church should be a partner in learning to fight them. Why did you say no?”

Perhaps I was mad.

I was already half mad.

“Say something! I know you are right—!”

I ended up shouting.

“I know… I know… isn’t knowing enough?”

Like cold water on red-hot metal, my mind cleared.

Yes. Knowing is enough.

Logically, the constellation was likely correct. I was likely wrong.

“Hah.”

I breathed deeply.

The reason did not matter.

More precisely — any reason I could understand did not matter.

I was a child nobody wanted.

I grew up in a brothel orphanage.

The headmaster beat us and spent support funds on whores.

The Blue Knight training institute was the same.

To survive and be acknowledged, I had to endure pain I could not understand.

Sparring that was just disguised beatings, weighted bags and a river, being baked in the thundercraft machine.

Had I understood any of that?

Even if I do not understand, the answer is still the answer.

Dreaming Thunder Star blessed me. The Celestial Lightning Body is nearing 1,000%. A boy with nothing now calls down lightning.

Understanding was irrelevant.

At times, how mattered more than why.

Between my judgment and the constellation’s, the choice for survival was obvious.

In any case, the Manseong Church is forbidden.

So I considered the solution.

Then I must report loyally to the head of house.
Andromeda must be able to explain this matter’s weight and my accomplishment without the Church’s support.

The thought was short.

Include the details that will bury Traysan and Gracus in that report. Difficult, but not impossible.

That was the conclusion.

【“Good.”】

The stigma pulsed, as if waiting.

【The Dreaming Thunder Star is greatly pleased with your course.】

【It is proud to have chosen you.】

I stared as the bright string of characters rippled.

【“You always knew what to do. Why were you anxious?”】

The voice chimed, light and fragrant like old parchment.

A clear image rose:

Rykenta can produce tens of thousands of Mutated Beasts. If exposed, they might launch them openly.

If they rise everywhere at once, could we stop them?

Not certain.

At present, the noble houses surpassed them greatly — but their vigilance was low.

Traysan and Gracus were currently struggling to dismiss my victory as trivial.

If the enemy launched an open assault on the capital with Mutated Beasts now, the Empire could suffer a fatal blow.

That might be one of the futures I saw.

【“Ninety points.”】

The constellation laughed softly.

【“Secret Transmission.”】

I trembled at its authority.

【“Not long now.”】

Its final words lingered like a hum of lightning.

【“I am waiting too. Very much.”】

“……”

I stood in the center of the tent for a long time, then exhaled deeply.

For now, I should just think of what to say to the Blue Knights at tomorrow’s luncheon.

There was one thing Kyrie misunderstood.

“It felt refreshing.”

“My thought exactly. Did you see his expression after Kyrie left? Like he had been slapped.”

“I truly wanted to hit him. Kyrie politely came personally to ask. And the man shamelessly demanded it like charity, throwing Kyrie into trouble?”

“That is what happens when you drag a bishop into the field. What good is healing power if he uses it at the wrong time, meddles in command, pries into soldiers’ private affairs, and just builds anxiety?”

The Blue Knights, Knights, and officers did not think Kyrie had needed to make excuses.

This is a matter between great houses. Between the seven houses blessed by the guardian constellations. Who does he think he is, a beggar who borrows power from nameless stars, trying to put his spoon on someone else’s feast?

Nereus disliked that Kyrie had not been more severe.

Kyrie was a formally appointed Blue Knight and a recognized adopted son.

Even if Saturn was a bishop, he should not have embarrassed Kyrie before the soldiers.

If this becomes public now, Kyrie is as good as dead. That senile old man who spends his life praying has no idea whose future he is ruining.

Joy felt similarly.

The opponent was Rykenta, a wind-power great house.

If the matter escalates before the real war even begins, only our lord loses.

In her mind, the future unfolded:

The Rykenta Patriarch would purge the involved members, erase the evidence, reduce tariffs for a few free border cities to show goodwill.

Then demand punishment for Kyrie, who “spread baseless slander and harmed the harmony between houses.”

The Foreign Minister of Astreos might well accept.

Gabeng, Prey, Procus, Epicus, Daniel, Hensonia — all the Blue Knights thought the same.

Feijin and the Knights as well.

Above all, Kyrie was Kyrie.

“That old man dared trouble Kyrie?”

“He charged alone into ten thousand Rykenta troops today at noon. He granted us Wide-Area Imbuement not even ten hours ago.”

He was the ambitious one who sacrificed an eye for advancement.

A prodigy who became an adopted son before thirty, a swordsman who fought Mutated Beasts at the risk of his life.

He was the man who entered a formal contract other Blue Knights scorned, the man who argued with merchants yet never let a soldier starve.

Above all, he was the hero who defeated Erica of Rykentrion Rykenta one-on-one.

A brothel-born orphan defeating one of the highest-born of the Empire.

It was enough to set fire in every swordsman’s heart.

No one thought Kyrie had anything to explain.

“……”

Naturally, the cathedral knights under Saturn sensed the atmosphere.

Thus, the fact that their hands very discreetly released messenger drakes was only natural.

Chapter 76

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