I stood at the railing and looked at the lightning flashing far away.

It was lightning striking from the Patriarch’s Hall at the top of Astrion’s main fortress.

If I could see it from here, we were truly almost there.

We would probably be able to prepare for landing by tomorrow morning.

“Kraaak!”

Three courier drakes flew in one after another from the sky.

“Lady Andromeda?”

This time, too, a letter and Elixirs of Sacred Light were tied to their ankles.

As always, the letter contained a greeting, the situation in the capital, and the progress of the Elixir of Sacred Light research.

“I used up all the liquid you sent me. I made more than a hundred bottles, so you just have to come and drink them. The effect was good. But you can’t drink too much in a short period of time. Thundercloud and White Lightning just lose efficiency if you drink a lot, and there aren’t really side effects, right? This one isn’t like that.”

From the look of it, the improvements were completely finished.

“……In cases of excessive intake, side effects may occur, including internal bleeding, neural overheating and collapse of cardiovascular vessel walls, delirium, ocular hemorrhage, increased intracranial pressure, and vascular luminescence.”

I was about to bring all the Elixirs of Sacred Light into my cabin, then stopped.

I had no intention of using my own body to test how many bottles I could drink.

“Joi.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Call Nereus and Frey, Peijin and Shen. Those four.”

No matter what, Nereus was the most powerful force in my faction right now, and Frey was my guard Blue Knight.

Peijin and Shen weren’t Blue Knights, just Knights, but they led the most troops in the faction.

As for the other Blue Knights, I had been regularly distributing the Thundercloud I’d brought back from Spiramentaon, so they wouldn’t think this was favoritism.

“Why are you ordering me around from the morning?”

Nereus came into my cabin and shot me a look.

“Lady Andromeda sent elixirs. If you don’t want them, leave.”

“Long live Lady Andromeda, the Sub-patriarch.”

His attitude did a complete one-eighty.

“Kyrie, Kyrie, thank you. I’ll drink it well! Hehe.”

“Thank you. Sir Kyrie. I get to taste something this precious again.”

Frey, Peijin, and Shen also expressed their deepest gratitude, then tipped back their elixirs.

“Joi.”

I opened the bottle of elixir set before me, then handed it to Joi, who was standing to the side watching us.

“M-my lord. Should someone like me really be shoveling this down?”

Joi made a face like something impossible had just happened.

“I heard you went into the water wearing the greaves I Area-Imbued, got electrocuted, and collapsed. I’m worried you’ll just die and leave this army behind, so shut your mouth and drink it already.”

“Your grace is boundless, my lord.”

The Blue Knights and Knights nearby wore the exact same expression.

“Joi, Joi. Wouldn’t that be a lot if you drink it all? How about you trade it for my Smile?”

“Ahem. I just tried it, and it held a heat more powerful than I expected. It’s not that I’m looking down on you, but with a Retainer’s body, it seems difficult to absorb.”

Frey and Shen looked like they might outright snatch it away, and even Peijin smacked his lips, unable to hide his regret.

“Hmph. Even if your mouth is crooked, say it straight. If I shut my mouth, how am I supposed to drink it?”

The only one who didn’t covet it was, unexpectedly, Nereus.

“Just get the gist. Stop picking fights over nonsense.”

“Then one day you’ll meet an adjutant who takes everything literally, and you’ll see him shut his mouth, tilt his head back, and suck the liquid in through his nose.”

“Why does that sound like experience?”

“Because it is.”

“You lunatic.”

“You heard that, Adjutant. Your Blue Knight said to drink it, not to drink it through your nose, so pour it properly into your mouth.”

Even in this situation, he only wanted to scratch at me.

It almost felt like he was quietly looking out for Joi, but that had to be my imagination.

There was no way this savage bastard was capable of the act of looking out for someone.

“I’ll take my leave.”

“Thank you. I drank well.”

Nereus, Peijin, and Shen returned to the ships they had been assigned.

Frey also went out to the deck with Joi.

Just as I was thinking I should drink an elixir too, a voice came from the side.

“You look close.”

“This?”

Erica sat on a sofa a little way off, watching us.

She had been doing that for a while.

“That’s fairly close, you know. An adopted son, the eldest son of a major cadet branch, a guard Blue Knight, other Knights, even an adjutant, all gathered in one place to share a gift.”

I was so used to it by now that I didn’t even notice.

Originally, her place was the wider cabin below, but she complained it was stifling, came up to my cabin with the windows, and now it had become routine.

“Because there’s something we have to get together. Don’t you also join forces when you have a common objective?”

“Joining forces and exchanging human warmth are completely different things.”

To be honest, I didn’t go out of my way to refuse either.

“If you’re that competitive, does your house even hold together?”

We had to meet often anyway to refresh the Glide blessing on the sky-shard cloak.

“You can see it.”

“No. It’s strange. We have a relatively high rate of Navigator titles among blood relatives, yet we can’t even fill all the Myriarch seats. If it’s easier for an Astreos blood relative to become a Blue Knight than for a Rykenta blood relative to become a Navigator, then you have even fewer superhuman troops than we do.”

“That’s right.”

“Then you’re saying you have to control tens of millions up to a hundred million people with a handful of troops. That can’t work.”

“You studied hard.”

“My grades were good.”

With the right distance between us, there was more I could say.

“Rykenta’s social structure is different from Astreos. Do you know this? The most important ability for a Navigator isn’t combat.”

“What are you talking about? The most important virtue for a superhuman noble warrior isn’t combat?”

Erica refreshed the Glide blessing placed on the sky-shard cloak and went back down.

It wasn’t proper to stay alone for long with an unmarried lady, so our conversation about Rykenta’s social structure was postponed for next time.

I took the metal fragments I had gathered and practiced Area Imbuement.

Crackle, crackle!

When I Area-Imbued the table with current, metal fragments and metal dust twitched as they spat electric sparks.

It felt as if there were elastic threads like a spiderweb connecting the Area-Imbued metal to my hand.

I closed my eyes and exerted dominion, as if raising a lightning bolt inside storm clouds.

The metal fragments and metal dust on the table twitched this way and that.

“Haa.”

I continued the practice right up to the brink of my nerves overheating.

Area Imbuement felt like it had immense room to develop.

It also seemed connected to magnetism-craft.

If magnetism-craft was, in the end, moving metal through my electromagnetic power, then I would have to handle my lightning not as an attack, but as something I infused.

Of course, that was after I could properly use Area Imbuement in the first place.

I pulled out all the Elixirs of Sacred Light I had left, from one side of the cabin.

【“Left?”】

“Aren’t ‘left behind’ and ‘left over’ only a word or two apart?”

【“You remind me of a child who resembles you.”】

“What happened? No. Don’t tell me. I’m afraid.”

The Stigma shone, and the Constellation’s voice rang inside my head.

It had been happening more often lately, so I wasn’t particularly startled.

When I spoke first, it consumed a lot of mana, but when the Constellation spoke first, there was hardly any burden.

It was like mail where the sender paid.

I emptied one bottle, then another, of Elixir of Sacred Light.

Each time I drank a bottle, my entire body grew hotter, and the amount of mana pooling in my heart increased.

“Urgh.”

Even as I groaned at the sensation of my muscles physically tearing, I didn’t stop unsealing new bottles.

Less than a year ago, I couldn’t even use Guided Lightning because I lacked a mere handful of mana.

I couldn’t give in to this luxurious pain.

【Massive increase in mana reserves!】

【The value of ‘Deepening Perk: True-Energy Guidance’ increases accordingly!】

【True-Energy Guidance: 5% ‣ 10%】

“Huh?”

At that moment, the Stigma flashed in front of my right eye.

【Whispered Transmission Stage 3: Aura-Carried Voice Transmission】

【The Dreaming Thunder Star assists your use of Authority.】

【‘True-Energy Guidance’ mana assistance is independently executed. You may now accumulate the assisted mana, then release it all at once when you use the Authority you want. Beware neural overload.】

A smile rose on its own.

Most of the time, I had sighed when I saw lines like this, but now I only smiled.

Accumulated assistance.

I understood it as meaning that if I used Heavenstrike ten times, I got to use Heavenstrike one more time for free.

Up to now, there were many times when victory and defeat hinged on whether I could step one pace beyond my limit.

It was truly a tremendous Authority.

A few good applications also came to mind.

“Thank you.”

【“No, it is I who should be grateful.”】

“Come to think of it, that’s true. How many Blue Knights can survive a journey like this? So I almost said, ‘Please treat me a little better.’”

【“So you did say it. You remind me again of that child who resembles you.”】

With a broad smile, I spoke with the Constellation.

Knock, knock.

“My lord.”

“Joi?”

Joi knocked on the door.

“We’ve arrived at the last large port city before Astrion. In Astrion, it seems we will have to conduct a landing operation in earnest, so we will secure water, food, and other minor supplies here.”

“Do so. I’ll disembark with you.”

I put on my armor, wrapped myself in my cloak, and got off the ship.

I wanted to step on land again.

“Sir Kyrie is here.”

“He really came.”

“It’s the Lightning Blade.”

The moment I set foot in the port, merchants and passersby split left and right and opened a path.

I smiled for a moment to reassure them.

Then—

“But is it really okay for Sir Kyrie to go to the capital right now?”

“Is there any reason he shouldn’t go to the capital? If he doesn’t go, who’s going to bring that criminal Erica?”

“No, it’s just… Lady Andromeda, the Sub-patriarch, got taken away for high treason. I heard the two of them are very close.”

Words I could never ignore drilled into my ears.

“What are you talking about!”

I snapped around like a drake struck by a blade.

My good mood from the Deepening Perk, Aura-Carried Voice Transmission, plunged straight down.

Near the capital.

Traysan looked out over the plain that “had been a low mountain ridge.”

It was the result created by a single person.

“Your Highness.”

A Blue Knight called to Traysan.

He was a one-armed Blue Knight wrapped in bloodstained bandages.

“Losses?”

Traysan turned to him with an unbearably weary face.

Traysan wasn’t whole, either.

Half the proud mustache had been burned away, and the skin that had just finished being stitched and healed was blotched like a chimera golem.

“All twenty-one Sealing Stones burst.”

“And?”

The one-armed Blue Knight continued his report.

“Of the royal Vow-takers, out of forty-eight, around thirty are dead. The rest are severely wounded.”

“And.”

“Eight bishop-grade battle priests of the Manseong Church and twenty-one cathedral knights are also wiped out.”

“And.”

“Fifteen Myriarch-class mercenary companies. Annihilated.”

“And.”

Traysan was not a man who startled easily.

This result was enough to make even Traysan recoil in shock.

To the point where, for a moment, his resolve to stand at the pinnacle of this house wavered.

“Your adopted siblings… no, your younger siblings. All eight of them, and sixty Blue Knights, have fallen into critical condition. They say they will need at least three months of recuperation.”

“So.”

“We captured Lady Andromeda, the Sub-patriarch, alive.”

But if he considered what he had gained, perhaps this was a small price.

“Captured her alive?”

“We deployed ten additional Sealing Stones to prevent mana recovery, and drove spellbound iron spikes into every joint to prevent the body from healing. No matter how pure the direct bloodline is, she cannot escape.”

“The other direct bloodline members?”

“The cousins are standing by. The blood brothers are in disarray.”

Traysan clenched his fist hard.

Not yet.

He had been a commoner boy without even a family name.

It’s too early to cheer.

He became a Blue Knight through the training camp and the academy, and became an adopted son.

See it through to the end.

The next Patriarch was right in front of him.

The Empire’s caste system was so tight it felt like you couldn’t even breathe.

Even commoners discriminated against each other by countless standards.

By where they lived: the capital of a great house, a great house’s direct territories, cadet-branch lands, free cities, small cities.

By their own classes: from serf, to independent farmer, to rich farmer, to citizen, to bourgeois.

By occupation: farmer, merchant, artisan, clerk.

Traysan began at the bottom of that empire, split into countless tiers, and in the end climbed to the top.

“I will report to Patriarch Pellaeus. Prepare.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The next day.

Traysan, together with countless adopted sons who shared his intent, Blue Knights, elders from cadet branches, and Constellations of the Stellar Seats, spoke in the Patriarch’s Hall.

“Lady Andromeda, the Sub-patriarch, colluded with Erica of Rykenta and spread mutant beasts.”

“This was a plot to produce a pseudo-elixir through bodily fluids extracted from mutant beasts, and it is high treason that violated both the solemn laws of the house and the noble will of Manseong.”

“Strip Andromeda of the title of Sub-patriarch!”

It was logic that even Pellaeus could not ignore.

Because of the platinum mask, it was impossible to know what expression he made.

“Bring the evidence before me.”

At least his voice did not tremble in the slightest.

You intend to push it to the end!

Traysan grit his teeth and withdrew.

“Find it! Find it!”

He mobilized every hand he could reach and searched for the Elixirs of Sacred Light.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing here either!”

They were nowhere to be seen anywhere in the main fortress.

“Andromeda!”

They were nowhere to be seen anywhere in the Inner City.

Chapter 108

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