"You think you know where she is?"

"Is that true?"

"Really? For real?"

"You're not just saying whatever comes to mind, right? You don’t have to force yourself to prove anything just because you’re a Ten-Thousand Captain. Kyrie isn’t the kind of lord who demands that."

The Blue Knights’ gazes snapped toward her in an instant.

"No, no, no. What kind of image do you all think I have?"

Hari waved her hands with an awkward expression.

"I'm Light Cavalry."

"So?"

"We can move freely, so the Light Cavalry often gets assigned to escorting or monitoring key figures. They said that if something happened, they’d move Sub-patriarch Andromeda—no. Your Grace—to a northern fortress city. We were supposed to be mobilized for that. It ended up not happening because I got drafted into the trio’s expedition, but still."

"A northern fortress city."

"That’s probably why Planetary Seat Magnus came to the capital, too. You can’t just detain a Sub-patriarch with no agreement at all and say, ‘Hey! Keep her locked up!’ That’s not how it works."

"Then you’re saying it’s one of two things: they’ve either already departed for the northern fortress city, or they haven’t departed yet?"

Kyrie organized the point.

"Right. That’s it. That’s what I was trying to say."

Hari clapped and nodded.

"If they haven’t departed yet, where do you think she’d be?"

Nereus pressed impatiently.

"Under the Grand Cathedral. It can’t be anywhere else."

"Why? In a capital this big, it wouldn’t be hard to make one or two secret spaces."

"Because that’s the only place that keeps Sealing Stones on hand as a matter of course?"

Hari answered like it was obvious.

Sealing Stones. Right. I didn’t think of that.

Kyrie secretly marveled at the unexpectedly high-grade information.

"Joi. When we restrained Planetary Seat Magnus, how many Sealing Stones did it take?"

"Six, Kyrie. Honestly, it felt like even that wasn’t enough, but we didn’t have more, and they’re expensive, so we had no choice."

Sealing Stones were difficult to make and expensive.

Top-grade Sealing Stones could only be produced by the direct line of the great earth family Terra and the finest master craftsmen of the Engravers’ Iron Citadel, and they were supplied exclusively to the Manseong Church.

"To bind my elder sister Andromeda, it would take ten top-grade stones at minimum. Yes. Only somewhere like the Grand Cathedral would have that kind of stock."

Kyrie nodded slowly.

"Hari-Bean. You don’t know whether she’s still under the Grand Cathedral, or whether they’ve already set out for the northern fortress, right?"

Frey changed Hari’s name strangely again.

"Yeah! I don’t know that far."

Hari burst into laughter like she found it amusing.

"In the first place, all I heard was that we’d be assigned if something happened. It’s not like I care about power."

"Kyrie."

Nereus smiled with confidence.

"There’s a way to find out where Sub-patriarch Andromeda—Your Grace—is right now."

"Magnus?"

"I’ll do it. If I keep teaching that body the superiority of thunder firsthand, he’ll open his mouth soon enough."

It was a laugh brimming with elation at having captured a powerful rising star from one of the four major rival cadet lines.

Absolutely not. You want to smash our reputation even further when it’s probably getting smashed to pieces every second as it is?

Kyrie was internally aghast and was about to declare that torture was out of the question.

Wait.

Right then, a decent idea came to him.

"Fine. I’ll leave it to you. But I have a better idea."

"Huh?"

Kyrie gave a cold smile.

"Magnes."

Not long after the meeting ended.

Nereus entered the tent where Magnus was being held.

The moment he stepped into the Sealing Stones’ radius—where they froze ambient mana and prevented mana recovery—the air seemed to harden, and his senses felt strange.

"Tonatio."

In the center of the tent, Magnus was on his knees, tightly bound.

Of course, Magnus wasn’t a prisoner who couldn’t resist like Erica.

He hadn’t surrendered of his own accord, and unlike Erica, he didn’t have a bloodline so overwhelming that anyone would treat him the way they treated her.

The severed arm had been wrapped in bandages, and that was it.

His other arm, both legs, and his neck were all connected to thick ship-grade ropes and bound over and over.

Since no one knew what tricks he might pull with Magnetism Techniques, every metal object within a 300-meter radius had been cleared out, and inside this cramped tent, a full four Knights stood by to watch him.

If a Blue Knight can’t use physical reinforcement and nerve acceleration, his body is no different from a Knight’s. Four should be enough, but…

Nereus read something beyond anxiety in the Knights’ faces—fear.

…They don’t seem to believe that themselves.

He clicked his tongue roughly and spoke.

"Tell me where Your Grace Andromeda is."

Emerald-green eyes and cyan-blue eyes ran along parallel lines like the deep sea and the sky.

"Even if you pull every tooth out of my mouth and stab the holes with an awl, not a chance. You know that."

Magnus answered exactly as Nereus—more precisely, Kyrie—expected.

Even Nereus, right now, knew how to sever specific nerves so pain wouldn’t register.

Sealing Stones were magi-devices that blocked mana recovery, but they couldn’t stop someone from moving a little mana inside their own body.

So we do it the way that bastard said.

Nereus cursed under his breath, clicking his tongue.

"I know there was a plan to move her to a northern fortress city."

Magnus’s complexion changed.

"If you put a blade to my throat and take me along, every fortress’s underground prison will open wide."

"It won’t matter if you don’t even depart. You can’t be the first to storm the capital, can you? If you did, you’d be committing outright treason."

"Didn’t you know? Traysan already sent Your Grace Andromeda out. Last night, the escort wagons stretched in a long line."

"Don’t lie, you young thunder. You have no talent for it. If that were true, why did you ask where she is? You could just track her down and raid her convoy."

"It was disguised as a formal support battalion. Like you said, we can’t take on the charge of treason. It’s much better to shove your face in after we reach a fortress."

"If there’s no formal order document, the fortress gates won’t open. Not a chance—not even if my father went."

Magnus spat it out like he was cutting off his own unease.

"Our faces are the order documents. You magnet who hasn’t even had time to get old."

Nereus truly sneered at him.

"In a family that runs on the power of each Blue Knight, do you think there’s anyone who can ignore the face of a Planetary Seat Blue Knight?"

"Sounds like your family’s discipline has rotted away."

"We’ll be departing soon, so brace yourself. The supply wagon will rattle a bit, so we’ll give you a nice thick cushion."

As if there was nothing more to say, he left the tent.

Did they really depart?

Suspicion began to seep up inside Magnus.

No. He’s right. If he shows my face, any fortress will open immediately. I have to turn her back to the Grand Cathedral.

Magnus scanned the Knights around him.

The ropes binding his legs were driven into thick wooden stakes sunk into the ground, and the ropes binding his arm and neck stretched out to the Knights, who held them.

If it’s to this extent…

Magnus explosively drew up his remaining mana.

"Ha!"

Bzzzt!

He hadn’t fainted because he’d spent every last drop of mana in the first place.

He could still manage a final struggle.

"Ugh!"

"Urk!"

"Agh!"

All four watching him were Knights, but a Blue Knight’s physical ability after regaining physical reinforcement and nerve acceleration was staggering.

"Uaaaargh!"

Magnus threw all four Knights in every direction and, dragging the stakes with him, sprinted out of the tent.

The instant he broke free of the Sealing Stones’ influence, he fired a bolt of lightning into the sky.

Since Magnetism Techniques were an Authority learned after sufficiently training lightning arts, Magnus could certainly send a signal.

Bzzzt!

The electric flare that shot up into the clouds drew a military signal.

A signal that they must not send her north.

"You bastard!"

The Knights came running too late, but Magnus didn’t care.

"Hahahaha!"

He was filled only with the satisfaction of having done what he had to do.

"This feels disgusting."

"Huh?"

That satisfaction evaporated the moment he saw Nereus standing beside the tent door.

Why did he let me send the signal?

The question raced through his head.

He could have stopped it.

That question passed through the countless experiences of a Planetary Seat Blue Knight and reached a single conclusion.

Did he bait me into sending it? That idiot thunder family’s eldest son?

Magnus’s thoughts couldn’t continue.

"Now you’ve really used up all your mana, haven’t you."

Nereus extended his left hand and discharged lightning.

Bzzzt!

"Uaaagh!"

With no mana left to counter it, Magnus trembled and collapsed.

The Knights rushed in, seized Magnus, and dragged him back into the tent.

"Good work."

"Not at all."

"We got taken down so fast it barely even hurt. Heh."

Nereus left words of praise for the Knights and turned away.

Just like Kyrie said.

He’d always thought Kyrie was quick-witted.

He’d never once felt threatened by that fact.

Rather than splitting time between tactics and lightning arts, focusing on lightning alone and becoming a powerful lightning caster was unquestionably stronger.

Just bring down lightning a hundred times, a thousand times, and every problem gets solved.

That was House Tonatio’s doctrine.

But now that Kyrie might be able to offer his eyes and bring down the same hundred, the same thousand bolts.

I’m falling behind. I’m definitely falling behind.

Nereus had to clench his fist against the vicious impatience gnawing at him.

He won’t curse me for writing that I deceived a Planetary Seat with this cowardly method, will he? If he betrays me now, I’m truly finished. I fed him all those elixirs, so if he has a conscience… Expect a Blue Knight’s conscience? You’ve lost your mind.

At that moment, Kyrie was worrying whether the Blue Knights might be disappointed in his trickery.

Traysan did not step outside the Senior Adopted Heir’s Palace even once.

Magnus.

By the lightning signal Magnus fired into the sky during the day, he confirmed Andromeda’s route.

You stay loyal to the end. Thank you.

He had already been wary that she might be attacked and taken mid-transfer, but with Magnus taken prisoner, it seemed impossible to bring her north.

"Leave Andromeda where she is for now."

"We failed to recover the Elixir of Sacred Light. The ones we thought would fail could stab us in the back."

A noble official—who always took the role of “the devil’s advocate (Advocatus Diaboli)” no matter the matter—offered the counsel.

"Putting a direct line of a prestigious family before a church tribunal. Even knowing it may fail, we have no choice but to see it through. For them, it’s like fate that rides the rails of their commandments."

Satisfied that this aligned with what he’d already had in mind, Traysan rose from his seat.

"Still, just in case, I should meet her one more time. To the Grand Cathedral."

"Yes."

The Grand Cathedral was made up of dozens of enormous buildings.

From the main sanctuary where any citizen of the capital could come to worship, to the cathedral knights’ quarters and training grounds, the inquisition, administrative offices, and countless other facilities, corridors, and secret doors.

Among those, “under the Grand Cathedral” usually meant the inquisition’s underground.

"Have you arrived?"

Traysan brushed past the inquisitors’ greetings as if they barely existed and went down below.

Memories of coming here long ago resurfaced in his mind.

"Not even one Blue Knight has come from this bloodline, not even a single Retainer-rank, all the way back to your great-great-grandfather’s great-grandfather. Even skipping generations has limits—there’s no doubt you used some wicked trick and stole the blessing of the Seat."

None of the people who had treated the child he was like a criminal were still alive.

None of the people who had pulled out his parents’ fingernails and burned them were still alive, either.

After walking a damp corridor and descending a spiral staircase for a long time.

"Andromeda."

Traysan looked at the captured noble lady.

"Traysan."

Andromeda raised her head.

It was a smile he didn’t like.

Though she was locked behind bars and stripped of freedom, crushed beneath Sealing Stones and stripped of strength, framed with crimes and facing the danger of losing even her name, her eyes were still brimming with leisure and vitality.

Traysan wanted to see those eyes twist.

"There’s something to congratulate and something to mourn. Which would you like to hear first?"

"How pitiful."

Andromeda spat it out as if mocking him.

"What?"

Even knowing she was drawing him in, he asked.

"You can’t beat my little brother."

"…Why?"

A chill, like his inner thoughts had been read, pierced from the crown of his head down to his tailbone.

"Because he doesn’t insist grapes he couldn’t eat were sour."

Andromeda smiled.

They were the eyes of someone who had never once doubted, from the day she was born, that she was special.

Chapter 117

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