We followed the owner of the voice and entered a shop whose door had been closed.

"Come down this way. You need to hide for now."

The man who had called us was covered head to toe in blood, yet even in that state he flipped up the carpet, opened a secret door in the floor, and led us into an underground passage.

"Kyrie-Kyrie. This is suspicious."

Frey grabbed my wrist.

"I think so too. Wouldn’t it be better to fight instead?"

Nereus frowned as well, showing reluctance.

Retreat, ambush, and concealment were not considered virtues of a Blue Knight.

"If we could win by fighting, I would’ve fought too. But if we go out now, it’ll just be pointless noise."

I wanted to smack some sense into these idiots.

Woom.

I looked down the stairs and spread my bio-radar’s electromagnetic waves.

I could see a fairly long corridor.

A door was closed at the far end, so I couldn’t tell beyond that, but it was probably a secret hideout for those thug bastards.

"Let’s go."

"Yes."

I took the lead and went down the stairs.

"How embarrassing."

"Father. Please forgive me. I never thought I’d end up running away in front of the enemy."

Frey and Nereus followed, grumbling complaints.

"Whew."

Knight Eugene let out a sigh of relief.

So there’s at least one sane person here.

"I didn’t expect Sir Kyrie to retreat before even fighting."

No. Cancel that.

We crossed the corridor and advanced up to the closed door.

It was a single-piece iron door, thick enough that it looked hard to break even with most Authorities.

"Please wait a moment."

The blood-soaked man knocked on the door in a fixed rhythm, repeatedly inserted several keys into a small hole, and turned them.

Clack.

The door opened from the inside.

A large underground space and countless figures came into view.

I swept quickly with bio-radar—there seemed to be hundreds.

"Coleju."

"Big brother. I brought the sirs."

"Good work."

A giant of a man in an expensive coat came out to meet the blood-soaked man.

"Huh?"

"Coleos?"

"A thug boss?"

Frey and Nereus frowned.

"Why are you here?"

I raised my eyebrows too, expressing doubt.

"Uaahahaha! As expected of Sir Kyrie! No. I suppose I should call you young master now."

Coleos the “Hard Drinker.”

If you graduated from the Academy, everyone knew him.

Coleos was a thug who made a fortune supplying moonshine and milk to bars and restaurants near the Academy.

The quality of his moonshine and milk was higher than what the tavern guild and milk guild supplied, so it became popular among cadets.

I, too, used to drink nothing but beer like horse piss, and then I tried the cold beer that started being sold at a tavern he ran, and my eyes rolled back.

He was a guy with a knack for survival, so he would’ve avoided crackdowns most of the time.

"Did you know we were coming?"

The brief warmth of running into an old connection from my school days vanished.

Wariness lifted its head.

"Everyone knows Sir Kyrie is coming."

"What?"

"Rumors are everywhere in the capital. The rumor that the returned Lightning Blade will arm himself with the treasure the Sub-patriarch left behind, then punish the Senior Adopted Heir."

"In this huge capital, you waited for me right here?"

"Even now, soldiers can’t enter the Academy, and until just the other day, even this place was safe. We figured Young Master Kyrie would naturally come this way."

"……."

That wariness lowered its head before a reasonably logical answer.

I had barely started a bitter smile at the fact that I’d heard the most reasonable answer I’d heard in years not from the family’s finest elites, but from a thug bastard—

"So."

"Yes."

"Why did you look for me?"

I stared into Coleos’s eyes.

He wouldn’t be thinking of grabbing us and turning us in.

No matter what anyone called him, thug boss or whatever, at best he’d only be Navigator-rank.

Even if the several hundred here all jumped us at once, Knight Eugene alone could carve through most of them.

"Because we can help you, young master."

Coleos answered with force packed into his voice, as if he knew that too.

"Cut the bullshit. Do you think you can beat even one Knight?"

Nereus growled like a manticore.

Coleos and the thugs around him all retreated a step in unison.

"Yes. We can’t beat you. But we can run."

"Run?"

"If all several hundred of us put on robes like you four and scatter in every direction, what do you think happens? If we add the other nearby organizations, it’s thousands."

"Thousands?"

"I believe that’s enough people for misdirection."

"Hm."

Nereus’s eyebrow twitched.

"Kyrie."

"Yeah."

"That sounds like it’ll help."

Fast acceptance, just like him.

"I don’t like borrowing a thug’s hands, but if you have to hide a leaf, you hide it in the forest. I’m worried it might draw attention for no reason, but… there isn’t a better way to reach the research buildings right now."

He was right.

"Coleos."

"Yes."

I deliberately pointed out what Nereus had intentionally not said.

"What do you want?"

"Well, Lady Andromeda, the rightful successor of great House Astreos—"

Coleos’s face turned even paler.

"Let’s not start with some ridiculous line about swearing loyalty to my sister—no. Damn it. To Lady Andromeda. We aren’t that kind of relationship. Tell me what you want from me. Don’t try to deceive me."

"Acto is! Nearby."

He blurted it out like a scream.

"Acto? The adopted son of the Goldcoin Brigade?"

"Yes. That bastard is personally running the purge operation."

"Personally? Isn’t he the type who never steps onto the scene unless he’s being entertained?"

"If they came out to crack down on us, since we haven’t lived a life you can shake dust out of, we’d accept it. But to make us hand over the Sub-patriarch’s treasure—something we don’t even know what it is—they beat our people and even kill them. We can’t endure it."

"You want me to kill him?"

"Yes?! How could I lay a hand on an adopted son—no, on the patriarch’s son? I’d be cursed by the Dreaming Thunder Star and fall into the Bottomless Abyss."

At my offhand remark, Coleos jumped.

"Just block him one or two times when Acto uses Authority."

Even among Blue Knights, a powerful bloodline was an object of awe.

To commoners, he was probably a descendant of the stars to whom even hatred was not permitted.

Meanwhile, what we were doing right now was no different from a fight over commoners’ property.

"It’s not hard."

I gave a bitter smile at that fact.

"Thank you, young master. Please wait a moment. I’ll pass word to the other bosses nearby."

Coleos sent his men to pass word to the bosses of nearby safehouses.

"Fine. Let’s thrash around once."

"We can’t sit and die. Somehow, we break through the encirclement."

"They’ve been squeezing money out of us all this time, and now they screw us like this!"

Every boss came to an agreement.

Late afternoon, with the sun slanting down.

"Waaaaaah!"

"Uwaaaah!"

"Aaaaargh!"

From every safehouse in the bustling district beside the Academy, countless thugs burst out.

From underground, from chimneys, from hidden floors—thugs in black robes, holding swords and axes, poured out like watching an army of soldier ants marching.

"Suppress them!"

"They’re out!"

"Fire the ballistae!"

Of course, the Goldcoin Brigade soldiers hadn’t been idle during those hours.

They brought in powerful superhuman troops—Retainer-rank fighters, Navigators, Knights—and for emergencies, they even prepared to call the Blue Knights immediately.

Screee—! Screee—! Screeeee—!

Ballista bolts that could pierce plate armor lightly tore through mere thug cloth, sending dozens flying one after another.

Shraaaak!

Retainer-rank fighters who could wrestle strength with an orc warrior leapt alone into the middle of the thugs and cut several down.

"This way."

"Yeah."

Kyrie ran toward the Academy research buildings following Eugene, watching that spectacle through bio-radar.

They can never win.

Rules were rules, but the gap between superhuman troops and thugs was too vast.

With the swords and axes the thugs carried, they couldn’t even scratch the thick armor the Retainer-rank fighters wore.

On the other hand, the Retainer-rank fighters, even in that thick armor, could jump several meters in a single bound while holding two-handed swords and cut thugs down.

I’m the idiot for trusting those bastards!

The Goldcoin Brigade soldiers shouted.

"We got a tip that Blue Knights are mixed in!"

"If you report Kyrie, we’ll forgive all your crimes!"

"He’s a traitor who colluded with Rykenta! Don’t shelter him!"

Kyrie ground his teeth at the shouts.

Stellar Seat.

Woooooooom!

He focused his mana into his right eye.

Pajijijijik!

He unleashed one of the two daily uses of Area Imbuement right now.

A pale blue current spread out in a circle, washing over countless thugs.

"Uh, uhh?"

"It’s a Blue Knight!"

"Aaagh! Huh? Why doesn’t it hurt?"

"Imbuement! Imbuement! It’s a Blue Knight’s blessing!"

At first they panicked, thinking it was an Authority attack, but when they saw electric sparks burning along the hatchets and swords they held, their reaction changed.

"Kyrie!"

"Keep running!"

Kyrie kept running, and every time he passed through where thugs were gathered, he spread Area Imbuement.

Pajijijijik!

The first was the Deepening Perk, and from the second onward it was his own Authority.

They’re all dressed the same and all holding blades that throw lightning, so they won’t be able to tell who the Blue Knight is.

It was an arrangement to make the thugs buy a little more time, and a disguise to hide the identities of the three of us.

【True-Energy Guidance: 10%】

【Aura-Carried Voice Transmission: Activated】

And while he was at it, he stored a bit of mana as well.

Kyrie’s calculations landed exactly on target.

"Several hundred Blue Knights have appeared!"

"What kind of nonsense are you saying?!"

"Area Imbuement! Area Imbuement! The thug bastards are counterattacking with imbued weapons! Casualties are skyrocketing!"

"Sir Captain! They’re attacking! We’re getting pushed back!"

At the same time, it also produced a result far beyond what Kyrie expected.

Fight?

Coleos thought as he gripped a blade burning with electric sparks.

The weapon’s tingling stimulation in his palm stirred a certain emotion.

It was an emotion any human had.

I’m allowed to fight?

If they cracked down on him for selling liquor and milk without joining the guild, fine.

If they dragged him away for being the Sub-patriarch’s hands and feet and hiding her arrangements, fine.

But if the standard for who got dragged away wasn’t the designation of the Dreaming Thunder Star or some similar authority, but how much money they’d usually paid to Acto—

He couldn’t accept that.

I can point a sword at an adopted son and not be cursed by the Dreaming Thunder Star?

The authority of a prestigious family chosen by the Stellar Seat was enormous.

With only a handful of Blue Knights, they could keep order in this megacity.

Even Coleos, a thug boss, had never once even thought of defying an adopted son.

But the Goldcoin Brigade bastards trying to beat Coleos to death right now did not look, no matter how he looked at them, like they were acting as the will of the Stellar Seat.

If the Goldcoin Brigade truly acted as the will of the Stellar Seat, wouldn’t the Stellar Seat have blocked Kyrie from deploying the Authority of Area Imbuement?

Then there was no reason to take these beatings.

Whether Coleos had actually done something worth getting beaten for didn’t matter.

When someone you think has the right to hit you hits you, even if you’re actually innocent, you start doubting yourself.

When someone you think doesn’t have the right hits you, even if you’re guilty, you feel wronged.

Right now, adopted son Acto and the Goldcoin Brigade did not look like they even had the right to beat down thugs.

"Kill every one of those sons of bitches!"

"Is money that good? Take it with you as road money to the underworld!"

"The Dreaming Thunder Star has blessed us!"

Coleos and the thug bosses led their men and began a massive counterattack.

Kyrie had taught them.

Right now, those people had no will of the Dreaming Thunder Star.

"The apostle of the Stellar Seat said we’re allowed to fight! Anyone who dies in this struggle will sleep under Manseong!"

To Coleos, in this moment the only one acting as the Dreaming Thunder Star’s representative was Kyrie.

Why are these thug bastards suddenly fighting so hard? They can’t win a full-on fight, can they? Well, it’s good for me.

To Kyrie, it was puzzling.

Flash!

Just then, far away, lightning struck down.

"It’s from the research buildings!"

Knight Eugene screamed.

["You bastards—are you insane?!"]

Lion’s Roar echoed all the way here.

It was Acto.

Chapter 112

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