A war omen drifted over Astrion.

Lightning clouds summoned by the Blue Knights—electric storm clouds—spiraled through the sky, preparing to strike the ground.

Among them, the masters of two clouds were facing each other in the training ground they had built inside the encampment.

Clang!

Just then, Kyrie stepped on Nereus’s wooden practice sword and pressed his own wooden blade to Nereus’s throat.

"Three wins, two losses! You’re buying dinner tonight."

"Damn it."

Nereus trembled as he stared at the wooden blade held to his throat.

Soon, the two of them sat on a nearby tree stump, gasping for breath.

"…Ballista and supplies went in through the north gate on the other side."

They naturally shared the information each had gathered by sending out their soldiers.

"They’ll come out within a few days. Traders say they’re replacing horseshoes in bulk."

"The heavy armored cavalry won’t move. It’ll be the Mounted Patrol or the Light Cavalry. Or it could be both."

"Between those two, the Light Cavalry will be the main force. No matter how much he’s Traysan, he won’t be able to move the unit that patrols the capital area carelessly."

"Then it’ll be three units hitting us: Light Cavalry, Outer City Guard, and the Goldcoin Brigade. The Stellar Seats won’t step in, so we won’t be facing the entire army, but it’s still at least fifteen thousand."

"More than that. Using the excuse that the adopted heirs are moving in force, he can mobilize the Royal Guard as well. And he’ll have scraped together at least a handful of the Mounted Patrol, too."

"Looks like a whole bunch of your half-brothers are coming."

There was no fear on either face.

Light Cavalry’s Nicolaos and Chermidon, Royal Guard’s Urmes, Outer City Guard’s Bataos and Sirmines, Mounted Patrol’s Scipio… If I beat all of them down, then for appearances’ sake I become an adopted heir too. I can finally get out from under Kyrie.

Nereus truly wasn’t afraid.

If I lose, I die. I win. No matter what, I win.

Kyrie wasn’t afraid because he knew fear wouldn’t change anything.

To do that…

Kyrie glanced sideways so slightly that Nereus wouldn’t notice, then spoke.

"Nereus."

"Hm?"

"Do you remember the Authority you used when we fought Magnus back then?"

"Pillar Cloud?"

"Teach me. I’ll teach you Area Imbuement."

Thump, thump.

His heart pounded violently.

It was a line he’d thrown out prepared to be challenged to a duel.

Among Blue Knights, asking first to be taught someone else’s Authority was a tremendous insult.

"Fine."

But Nereus didn’t throw his glove in Kyrie’s face.

Did he read my mind?

He’d been planning to make the same offer.

Pillar Cloud is powerful, but the casting time is long and the accuracy is low. Area Imbuement, on the other hand, perfectly counters Sacheol-type Authorities and can massively boost the soldiers’ strength as well.

Nereus was brutal, but he wasn’t stupid.

Like a Blue Knight, he valued individual martial might above all, but if both sides were the same kind of superhuman knights, he naturally acknowledged that the quality of soldiers mattered.

Above all, he was also competing with Kyrie as a warlord.

If one side could use Area Imbuement and the other couldn’t, there was no need to say which commander the soldiers would consider superior.

Area Imbuement doesn’t really matter in a Blue Knight fight anyway. Pillar Cloud, on the other hand—if we fire it properly now, it’ll work against a Planetary Seat. No. Even beyond that. We need a single decisive blow. Accuracy can be covered with Bio-radar.

Of course, Kyrie thought the exact opposite.

"…You’re saying yes?"

"…Yeah. Fine."

They exchanged wary glances, then stood.

"The core of Pillar Cloud is…"

"The core of Area Imbuement is…"

After listening to each other’s words without missing a single syllable, they began to practice like their lives depended on it.

A few days later.

At dawn, when the day brightened dimly.

"I think it’ll be today."

From the air of the battlefield that no third party could perceive, Joi sensed that day would be the day of fate.

It was the result of a composite analysis: the grain stories she’d heard by questioning merchants coming and going, the fodder the Light Cavalry and Mounted Patrol—who had only been entering the outer city these past weeks—would consume, Traysan’s psychology of wanting to end the battle before the sowing season arrived, and every other factor.

Thump, thump.

As always, her heart pounded.

"Adjutant Joi? What did you say?"

"Oh, Sir Feijin."

Feijin, who had just finished morning training with her, asked.

"I think the battle will begin around lunchtime today."

"You can tell things like that? I’ve lived on battlefields for over thirty years, and I can’t tell anything like that at all."

Feijin’s exotic face showed a look of amazement.

"W-Well, you could call it intuition, or you could call it calculation, but anyway, there’s something like that."

The world really is unfair.

Joi stumbled over her words as she newly realized that Feijin looked so young that she wouldn’t believe it even if someone said he was thirty, let alone that he’d spent thirty years on a battlefield.

"Are you nervous?"

Feijin seemed to interpret it differently.

"I should be nervous."

"Your swordsmanship already doesn’t fall behind any Knight’s, and as for your nervous system—your instantaneous reaction speed has already reached Navigator-rank."

Feijin drew a long downward stroke with his slender sword.

"Thank you."

Joi realized that the blade—something she couldn’t even see in the past—now entered her eyes clearly.

"If there’s just one decisive event, your tendons and bones will change to match."

"A decisive event?"

"Awakening. Haven’t you experienced it?"

Joi recalled the moment in the Blue Knight training camp when she had nearly died.

Back then, she’d fainted along with a bizarre sensation of her whole body freezing down to the marrow and then melting away completely—and when she woke, she’d been unbelievably hungry.

After eating an absurd amount of food for about a week, her intake returned to normal, and after that, she no longer lost in contests of strength no matter how large a man was.

Bone strength, muscle density, even organ and nerve function.

Her body itself had changed completely.

"Yes. I’ve experienced it. It hurt like hell."

"You’ll have to go through it again."

"You mean I have to pass through the brink of death again?"

"It means you only have to pass through the brink of death one more time."

Joi felt fresh astonishment for the third time that morning alone.

This person really is a Knight.

Even though a battle was coming, he wasn’t worried about dying—he only talked about whether Joi might reach Navigator-rank in this battle.

Knights weren’t invincible, but only those who believed without doubt that they were invincible could become Knights.

"Heh. I’ll keep it in mind."

Reaffirming that, Joi rose from her seat.

Slip.

"Sir?"

"Even though I’m not the one who’ll stand on the very front line…"

Feijin caught her sleeve.

"…Don’t die. I like diligent men."

After blurting that out, he stood first and strode away.

"S-Sir?"

Joi blinked, dumbfounded like a virgin.

Among rough soldiers, she had done many things to prove she was the same kind of man.

One of the lightest of those was going to the red-light district with the surviving members and throwing money around to pair up male and female courtesans to their tastes.

Sir Knight.

Joi sighed to herself as if the ground would cave in.

As always, before a battle, you ended up learning several things you didn’t want to know.

That morning.

Screeeeech!

"Kyrie of Astrion Astreos, appear at the Grand Cathedral together with Erica of Rikentrion Rikenta!"

Astrion’s southern gate opened, and a detachment advanced.

One thousand Light Cavalry led by the adopted heirs Nicolaos and Chermidon.

Three hundred Royal Guard led by the adopted heir Urmes.

Twenty-one thousand Outer City Guard led by the adopted heirs Bataos and Sirmines.

One thousand Mounted Patrol led by the adopted heir Scipio.

One thousand Goldcoin Brigade led by the adopted heir Silvanus.

It was a massive force totaling nearly twenty-three thousand.

Of these, twenty thousand of the Outer City Guard were filled mostly with mercenary bands that had been gathered up over that time.

In other words, out of twenty-four thousand, four thousand were elite troops who had originally served House Astreos.

The mercenaries were also soldiers hardened by mutant-beast subjugations and large and small territory wars.

The decisive difference between them and House Astreos’s private troops was only whether they had ever faced Blue Knights before.

Facing them, Kyrie’s force was about eight thousand.

Five hundred elites made up of Knights, Navigators, and Retainer-ranks led by Feijin.

About five thousand under Kyrie.

About three thousand five hundred under Nereus.

Numerically, they were hopelessly outmatched.

The only consolation was that their proportion of ballista troops was extremely high, and that they had repeating-crossbow units.

Right. A consolation. Anyway, it has to be a consolation.

Whispering that even to himself, Kyrie stepped out to the end of the ridge.

He looked at the wide-open gate and the endless line of soldiers.

He confirmed the Senior Adopted Heir’s flag visible at the very center.

He pictured Andromeda’s face beyond that.

If things go according to plan, we have a chance. I’ve verified the Authority enough by sparring with Nereus. Over three hundred percent won’t be a problem.

It made him tremble to stake his life on something uncertain, but life was uncertain to begin with.

So he pursued efficiency and reason to reduce that uncertainty.

【Sub-Objective 2: Demon King Hunt】

【A hero is one who defeats evil. Cut down the root of all evil you designated—Senior Adopted Heir Traysan—and become a symbol of hope to the people.】

【Penalty for failure: Celestial Lightning Body decreases by 100%】

【Reward for success: Celestial Lightning Body increases by 100%】

After reading the string of text shining over his stigma one more time, he turned around.

["Today is a glorious day."]

He saw his army.

Joi, Nereus, Frey, Epicus, Daniel, Hensonia, Hari, Feijin, Augusta, Shen… He saw every bond he had built up.

["Today, we will become heroes who rescue Sub-patriarch Andromeda—Your Grace—from the traitor Traysan!"]

He saw Erica and the Rikenta Navigators, whose lives hung on this victory or defeat, and he saw Gluttony’s supply goods, with an entire fortune staked on this victory or defeat.

["This is a battle to save the successor of House Astreos, a great family beloved by the sublime Seat, the Dreaming Thunder Star! All who die in this battle will be embraced in Manseong’s arms!"]

In that moment, Kyrie wished his words were true.

If I could, I’d like that too.

He turned his horse’s head, drew the Star-Sword, and pointed it ahead.

["Forever like lightning! A lifetime to be remembered!"]

He prepared to unleash the arts he had built up over his lifetime.

Elder Racul climbed to the lord’s audience hall at the top of the main fortress.

"You’ve come?"

Pellaeus was sprawled back on a reception-room sofa, watching the image floating on a large crystal panel.

As always, he wore an elaborate ceremonial robe and a mysterious platinum mask.

On the crystal panel, Kyrie’s army and Traysan’s army were just beginning to move.

Both sides had their ballista units to the rear, with the Blue Knights and cavalry standing in front.

On Kyrie’s side, cavalry and infantry were strangely mixed, but it likely wouldn’t be visible from the front.

Elder Racul knew that this was a magi-device that no craftsman of this era could produce.

"I came to report that it has begun, but it seems that won’t be necessary."

That crystal panel was a magi-device used by the imperial family of an ancient empire of evil.

If the Manseong Church found out, everyone from the lowest deacon to the archbishop would have thrown themselves down in the courtyard of the lord’s hall and howled for judgment.

"In this place, the thunder, lightning, and rain never stop. Without something like this, I think I’d go mad."

"Are you truly only going to watch?"

Racul smacked his lips a few times, then finally spoke.

"He’s a child too precious to lose like this."

"Who is?"

"Anyone. No… Everyone."

"Yes. They are precious. Of course they are."

Pellaeus didn’t deny it.

"But you know as well."

He raised the back of his hand—engraved with a stigma—over the table.

"A bond forged by miraculous power can only be protected by miraculous power. If even one of them shows a miracle, then nothing is too precious to lose."

Racul fell silent before that hand.

There was a reason the Manseong Church, the Dawn Council, the Hall of Purity, the Officers’ Academy, and countless other forces lurked within House Astreos.

There was a reason they only lurked.

"Oh! Come take a look as well! This is interesting."

Pellaeus beckoned urgently.

On the crystal panel, Kyrie’s army had just begun to move in a strange way.

Chapter 118

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