【Sub-Objective 2: Hunt the Demon King】

【A hero is one who defeats evil. Cut down Traysan, the senior foster heir you have designated as the root of all evil, and become a symbol of hope to the people.】

【Failure Penalty: Celestial Lightning Body synchronization −100%】

【Success Reward: Celestial Lightning Body synchronization +100%】

A string of text rose on my Stigma.

Here it is.

I let out a long sigh.

Alone in the pavilion—only then could I show it.

As expected.

These objectives were, after all, influenced by reality.

And if they were influenced, it meant I could interfere with them by influencing reality.

Gracus had already made one failed attempt on my life, and with Traysan marked as the hand behind it, neither Andromeda nor Traysan could sit still.

They would move.

So must I.

If it was a fight I had to have anyway, I might as well grow the reward.

Damn it.

If I were my old self, I would never have conceived of fighting Traysan.

He had reigned for over a decade as Astreos’s official number two—the senior foster heir.

No measuring the depth of the relations he had extended, openly and in shadow, while executing every manner of public duty.

He represented all foster heirs and cadets; he acted for them.

That symbolism was his greatest weapon.

Now I was going to fight him.

I did not weigh the chance of victory.

Because, before a task that must be done, playing number games about possibilities is the unreal thing.

【Your Celestial Lightning Body synchronization has surpassed 1,000%.】

As I thought that, another string climbed my Stigma.

【Base Perk: Stage 2 of ‘Whispered Transmission’ is unlocked.】

“What?”

I saw the text and spoke my doubt aloud.

There were stages?

So that’s why the Constellation had said nothing till now.

【Whispered Transmission Stage 1: Whispered Transmission】

【You can hold limited conversation with the Constellation.】

【NEW! Whispered Transmission Stage 2: True-Energy Guidance】

【The Constellation will provide limited assistance to your use of Authorities.】

【True-Energy Guidance gauge: 5%】

The line said something I had never imagined possible.

“O Constellation.”

【“Why so surprised?”】

My right eye warmed faintly, and the Dreaming Thunder Star answered.

“When I use an Authority—you mean you’ll shoulder some of the mana cost in my place?”

【“It isn’t so hard to dip a bucket from a river for a child dying of thirst.”】

Passing mana across distance.

I gaped for a long moment before I managed to accept it.

“I am overwhelmed by your grace.”

【“No—you’ve made things easier for me at last. Until now, it’s been hard to get even a word in.”】

I wasn’t in any state to be picky about stale or fresh bread.

At the same time, I thought about how hard it would be—becoming emperor and warding off the oncoming ruin.

Even a Constellation who wielded such power required a world-engine like me.

Tssssss—

“Gh!”

Keeping the link alive, my Stigma grew hotter and hotter.

A fair bit of mana drained with it.

【“Ah. You’re still not in a fully stable state, are you.”】

Perhaps the silence until now had been for my sake, not the Constellation’s.

Enduring the pain like searing iron, I thought.

Three questions more.

Any further and my nerves would overheat.

I fired off the three I most wanted answered.

“Was the dream you showed me a future in which you didn’t come to me?”

One.

“If I become emperor, can I change that future?”

Two.

“Did a heretical faction within the Manseong Church create the Mutated Beasts?”

Three.

The answers to all three were the same.

【“Yes.”】

That was the limit.

“—Aaaugh!”

I screamed and frothed.

“…My lord, my lord! I’m coming in.”

I didn’t know how much time had passed.

“D—do it.”

I rose at Joi’s voice calling me.

“When you didn’t answer after several calls, I wondered if you’d summoned a woman.”

“In this mess, a man who thinks of that doesn’t deserve the name.”

“Oh, they say men and women think of it more when anxious.”

She tossed off a silly line, watching my face.

Maybe because she rolled with the soldiers every day, her talk ran to rough camp banter—women, drink, war.

“Don’t you have something to report?”

Fond as the Academy days were to recall, this wasn’t the time to trade jokes; I cut to it.

“Ah—my apologies. You looked that unwell…”

Joi bowed her head in a fluster.

“My mood?”

I picked up the hand mirror on the table.

My eyes were bloodshot; veins stood from temples to neck.

Even to me, I looked enraged.

Seemed it had hit my subordinate harder than I thought.

“Side effect of thundercraft training. Pay it no mind.”

I fobbed it off and focused.

“Then—later, please take a bottle of Holy Water. As for the report… first, we’ve finished sorting the magi-devices and battle gear taken off those Royal Stellite bastards.”

Joi began.

“No time to tally credit, and a fight seems near. Rather than sell anything, we thought you should claim first and we’d portion the rest appropriately.”

“Good.”

I followed her out.

A great cloth had been spread in the yard; on it lay full plate harnesses, blades large and small, and other magi-devices in ranks.

Blue Knights, Knights, Navigators, and Retainers were gathered as if they’d been waiting.

Feeling a little sorry, I scanned the arms quickly.

“…”

The armor and swords were all fine work, but few matched Blue Knight issue.

The magi-devices lacked “Discharge” treatment; a Blue Knight would burn them out in short order.

“Hm?”

Then I spotted a pair of army boots.

Good make—could be over-plated with steel fittings; and the faint feel of mana said several engravings were on them.

“Appraise those?”

“Y—yes!”

The Engravers’ Iron Citadel artisan Nereus had summoned took them, trembling.

“‘Waterproof’ and ‘Ventilation’ are baseline. Being army issue, they also carry ‘Sturdy,’ so they’ll hold up even for a Blue Knight, sir. It’s not ‘Discharge,’ but ‘Sturdy’ is a fine engraving. And…”

“And?”

“‘Leg-Strength Enhancement’? Yes. It appears to be engraved.”

In that instant a devil named Greed walked into my heart.

“Leg-Strength Enhancement?!”

“Y—yes. Leg-Strength Enhancement.”

Holy hell.

We Blue Knights were heavy users of Thunder-Step as it was.

With a cloak carrying the Blessing of Glide draped on me now, the synergy would be even better.

Engraving both ‘Leg-Strength Enhancement’ and ‘Sturdy’ together was difficult—this wouldn’t be cheap.

Whoever had worn them, the thought that they’d brought me such a magi-device almost made me forgive the dagger they’d stuck in me.

I took only that pair of boots, one magi-device cuirass, and a single sword.

The Knights wore the faces of lions set before meat.

“These are spoils you won with your exertions. Don’t haggle by price; pick what will help me and your comrades now.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Understood!”

Having said this much, surely they wouldn’t start dueling.

I turned my back, and the Blue Knights and Knights sprang like hungry lions at a haunch.

“Gah!”

Even as an adjutant, Joi was still only a Retainer; she couldn’t wedge in—only watch for a gap.

Borrowing a superior’s aura to preen—there was no graver insult an adjutant could hear.

“Joi.”

“Yes?”

I went to her—masking a sulky look—and handed over the cuirass and the sword.

“This plate cuirass has room inside. They kept the curves, to shed an opponent’s weapon. So a fat man or a slim woman will look about the same build in it.”

“…!”

She was quick. Her bright yellow irises pin-needled.

“From the sound of it, it carries ‘Lightness’ and a few more—get it appraised later.”

“M—my lord.”

“The sword—I just grabbed one that looked right. It belonged to a Knight; it won’t get chopped in one stroke when it clashes with another Knight’s blade.”

“Thank you.”

I patted her shoulder a couple of times and turned.

Joi was no longer a centurion’s adjutant. She was a myriarch’s adjutant.

Even on cold calculus, she’d earned at least this much.

Apportionment ended quickly.

Unexpectedly, without bloodshed.

Had there been, I’d planned to seize on it—‘I’ll distribute these one by one’—and tighten control over the free Knights. Pity.

“…Sir Kyrie truly does trust us. Walking off with only a pair of boots—that’s the model of a man at the top.”

“I’ll be honest—I was ready to pay the penalty and tear my contract after that night. Today changed my mind. I can’t betray a man who trusts we’ll fight as one—as Knights—before he betrays us.”

Odd lines drifted between the pavilions.

I figured they knew I was coming and meant me to hear.

Objectively, I hadn’t behaved in any way worthy of such praise.

Truly.

“This way.”

“Right.”

I followed Nereus toward an Insula.

Guns and spotters on the roof; Navigators in the basement.

“I don’t doubt those men’s loyalty to Erica. From what I hear, they followed the princess even after she became a beggar.”

Step.

Nereus halted at the basement entrance.

“But with no guarantee Erica would follow you, how did you plan to use them?”

I saw only the back of his head, but his voice shook; I knew the light in his eyes must be wavering.

“Pressing prisoners into service. Using superhuman troops of a hostile house. Either can become a pretext.”

I did not say that a heretical faction inside the Manseong Church had set its sights on Erica.

I did not say that I, who needed the testimony of a living witness, and she, who needed political protection, were already tied in one bundle; that they would have no choice but to follow me to keep their princess alive.

“I’ll use everything I can to win. If it makes us win, I’ll use everything I can use.”

It wasn’t a Blue Knight’s answer.

“One day I may take that as my own pretext.”

“Do it. We’ll fight again then.”

“Ha!”

Nereus faced forward and walked.

Right. Go as far as we can.

For the future waiting ahead.

Astrion—Senior Heir’s Palace.

“The Royal Stellite Line!”

Traysan’s cry cracked with shock.

“Yes. Rumors are spreading that Governor Gracus attempted to assassinate Young Master Kyrie using Royal Stellite Knights and Musketeer School mercenaries.”

It was the truth.

Within House Astreos, it didn’t matter how they boiled and stewed.

That arrogant Pellaeus merely observed everything, certain he could flip the scale-pan any time he wished.

But the Royal Stellite Line was different.

“Also, locally, doubts are being cast on Your Excellency as one who maintained close relations with the governor.”

If the Royals had intervened, even the Patriarch could no longer keep his arrogant neutrality.

“Gather all letters exchanged with Gracus. Fit the drawers with a device so they can be burned at once.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

Traysan had enjoyed immense power as senior foster heir.

But that power was fundamentally like the moon.

The foster heir’s office—delegating the Patriarch’s authority—grew pitiably small before matters the Patriarch did not need delegated.

With things like this, it’s awkward to send the Three.

If he killed Kyrie without the Royals in the frame, the issue would be whether Kyrie had done something to deserve death.

But if he killed him with the Royals now onstage, the issue would be whether Traysan shared interests with the Royals.

That much would give Andromeda ample circumstantial ground to paint Traysan as the Royals’ hidden bastard.

Traysan, for the moment, ordered the Three to postpone their sortie and stand by.

And he sent a letter to Gracus.

Chapter 88

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