After having a butler give Helios a room, Kyrie immediately went to the Sub-patriarch’s Palace.

"I want to see Lady Andromeda. It’s urgent."

It was an impossible level of rudeness.

And it was even more so now, when there had recently been an attempt by a Senior Adopted Heir to seize the position of Sub-patriarch.

But Andromeda’s head maid, Sepeia, knew what her mistress thought of Kyrie.

Andromeda didn’t see herself and Kyrie as an adopted heir and a Sub-patriarch—she truly saw them like an older sister and a younger brother.

So even in the worst case, she was likely to take this as nothing more than her little brother being a nuisance late at night.

"Please wait a moment."

Sepeia headed to Andromeda’s room.

Kyrie was left alone in the reception room to wait.

What is this?

For a moment, the sound of a quarrel drifted down from upstairs, and then, in less than ten minutes, Sepeia came back down looking like she had aged ten years.

"Please come up."

After letting out a deep sigh, she called for Kyrie.

Kyrie followed Sepeia up the stairs.

Where are we going? Is there a separate private chamber? Don’t tell me it’s Andromeda’s room.

A ridiculous hypothesis occurred to him, but it was so ridiculous that he dismissed it at once.

No matter how much they were like siblings, going to a noble lady’s room at this hour was impossible.

Unless you were going to bed together from the start, showing up at this hour was rude even between lovers.

Creeeak.

"You’re here!"

"Sister?"

If there was one thing Kyrie had forgotten, it was that Andromeda was the eldest daughter of the man who had thrown around impossible power and done impossible things.

The door opened, and Andromeda showed her face.

Slightly messy hair, a pale face marked by pillow creases.

"Lady Andromeda of Astrion Astreos, Sub-patriarch. I beg you to forgive my rudeness."

The instant Kyrie saw that, he realized he’d moved far too urgently.

"I came because I had something to convey regarding House Flammerios, but I failed to consider that it is far too late an hour."

He immediately dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

"What’s wrong with you? Come in. What is it?"

But House Astreos were the sort who would say it was already too late even if you shocked their heads awake with lightning.

And for Andromeda at their summit, there was no such thing as “too late” for something important.

"I’ll come back tomorrow—"

"After you wake me up, you sit there talking about tomorrow. Talk here and sleep over. You’ve got a room downstairs too."

Andromeda grabbed Kyrie with one hand and pulled him into the room.

"Sit on that chair. I’m sitting on the bed."

Kyrie didn’t know where to look, so he lowered his eyes.

I didn’t expect this.

He even dismissed his always-active Bio-radar to prevent himself from seeing something he shouldn’t.

As he stared at the floor, something in the corner caught his eye—a strange piece of clothing rolled up.

From the material, it looked like sleepwear, but it was fluffy, with fox ears, a tail, and whiskers attached like a doll.

It didn’t look like something worn by people with weird tastes—it looked like the kind of cute outfit you might wear at a pajama party in adolescence.

"So then—ah!"

As if she’d noticed Kyrie’s gaze, Andromeda flinched in the exact posture she’d been sitting in on the bed.

"Sister?"

"It’s nothing."

She stood up, picked up the outfit, and tossed it into the wardrobe.

Her clear, proud face was flushed bright red.

"It’s a secret until you die."

"What is? I didn’t see anything."

Kyrie gave the answer that would keep him from being struck by lightning in his sleep.

That can happen. Sure. That can happen.

But the image of Andromeda wearing that fox sleepwear wouldn’t leave his head.

Kyrie thought that if he kept imagining it, ten necks wouldn’t be enough.

Direct line of Rikenta, governor of a great city, survived against a Senior Adopted Heir—there’s no way I’m dying because I laughed at animal sleepwear.

Only then did he remember why he’d come.

"Sister. Just now—"

Kyrie finished a long explanation.

"...A child who’s probably one of Flammerios’s succession candidates came, and we should strengthen the alliance by returning him this time. That makes sense."

"We probably can’t avoid a fight with the royal family and Rikenta. We won’t go to all-out war with the royal family, but we will go to all-out war with Rikenta, and the royal family will support Rikenta from behind."

"The Red Knights of Flammerios are overwhelmingly strong on a large battlefield. If they pressure from our side, the royal family will have to pull together precious elite resources and send them west."

Andromeda nodded gravely.

The drowsiness that had lingered at the corners of her eyes was gone without a trace.

"You did well coming. Yeah. For something like this, you should wake me even if you have to drop lightning into the Sub-patriarch’s Palace garden."

"No, that’s a bit—"

"Father said to depart within a month, right?"

"Should we pull it forward?"

"Yes."

"One week, you say?"

"Will that work? If it’s too much, Sister—no. If I speak to Lady Sub-patriarch, I might be able to stretch it to ten days."

"I think three days, at most four, will do."

"What?"

Kyrie raised an eyebrow.

"Aren’t we at five thousand now?"

"Yes, sir. We have five thousand three hundred combat troops, and around two thousand support personnel attached, so about seven thousand total, sir."

Joi felt pleased.

"But you’re saying we can be ready to depart in three days?"

"Yes, sir. We’ve prepared things so we can leave at any time, sir."

As she rose, she stepped out of the tent.

While Kyrie did an adopted heir’s work, she did a regiment commander’s work.

"First, we bought more old cannons that are smaller and lighter, and we bought several horses too, sir. They originally came out shamelessly saying they couldn’t sell, but after Princess Erica’s verdict, the dealers’ attitude changed, so we acquired them easily, sir."

They kept reshaping the unit’s nature—from a Border Patrol Corps that roamed one region to a Mounted Patrol that had to keep moving.

"What about weapons, armor, equipment?"

"There are many things the soldiers from Sir Nereus’s side left behind in rotation. We bought them cheaply or received them outright, so we’re quite well stocked, sir."

They saved where they had to, securing war funds.

"You can’t prearrange food contracts like that."

"We already have the minimum, and we can buy the rest on the way. We’re not marching through a jungle with no roads and no people right now, are we?"

With the war funds they’d gathered, they bought the most important thing on a battlefield: time.

Kyrie smiled in satisfaction.

He understood what Joi was getting at.

Mounted Patrol is different from Border Patrol Corps.

Since they would be traveling from large city to large city, there was no need to carry every supply and ration along.

Requisition wasn’t an act of stripping everything like plunder—it could be collected systematically by local powerholders under prior notice, essentially like regular taxes.

"You’ve prepared everything."

"Heh-heh, whose adjutant am I? I should be able to do at least this much, sir."

"Thank you. I feel secure."

"It’s an honor, sir."

Joi had thought through what Kyrie would need.

Just as Kyrie had thought through what the Patriarch and Andromeda would need.

Yes. I really am grateful.

For an orphan like Kyrie, the feeling of being cared for by someone was profoundly unfamiliar.

He gave her a smile far gentler than the ambitious one he’d shown Helios last night.

"Then may I leave this to you and go take care of something else? There’s someone I need to look after."

"Yes. Leave it all to me, sir."

"Good. Then just one more thing."

"Yes, sir."

"The place we’re going this time is the Corpse Wasteland. Tell anyone who’s afraid of dying to an undead and becoming undead that they don’t have to participate in this expedition. It’s better to take only three thousand from the start than mobilize five thousand and end up with only three thousand left—there’s no embarrassment like that."

"I will convey your merciful consideration without omitting a single letter, sir."

Of course, what Kyrie trusted was Joi, not the soldiers.

It’s an important expedition. A very important one. I should avoid variables as much as possible.

For Kyrie, who couldn’t even trust himself at times, trust toward an unspecified multitude couldn’t exist.

Filter out all the riffraff and gather only the elite who won’t quit unless it’s truly hopeless.

That’s a provocation worthy of Sir Kyrie. If they hear that, anyone who earns their bread with a blade has no choice but to bite, sir.

To Joi, that 모습 was exactly what a lofty Blue Knight should be.

Lightning does not fear being alone.

It simply goes where it must.

Only those who wish to follow should follow.

Either way, I will go to the end.

He will be traveling with Lady Andromeda, and other houses are involved too, sir. For Sir Kyrie’s prestige as well, we must prepare a large-scale expedition, sir.

Joi gathered famous knights.

"Sir Feijin, Sir Shen, Sir Augusta. We will prepare additional recruitment, sir. If any of you wish to increase your subordinate forces further, please tell me, sir."

Feijin had thought they were coming alone, and when they saw Shen and Augusta, along with several other mercenary captains, they looked slightly disappointed.

"Additional recruitment?"

"Sir Kyrie says he’s going on a grand expedition, so how the fX are we supposed to go with just five thousand? The civil war’s over, there are plenty of idle mercenaries, so let’s sweep them all up at bargain prices."

Of course, Joi—buoyed to the heights by Kyrie’s praise—did not notice.

"Reinforcements."

The knights’ gazes grew subtle.

Neither Feijin nor Augusta had originally been mercenary knights who operated large forces.

Often, they thought war was simply showing off one’s unmatched valor, and ordinary soldiers only got in the way.

But the past few years of war had also let them taste the enjoyment of commanding countless people.

They also remembered that in the decisive battle against the terrifying Gracus, the decisive strike had been Joi and the infantry’s flanking ambush.

"Adjutant, if we’re doing it anyway, prioritize Navigator-ranks and Retainer-ranks. The more of them, the better."

Feijin had always led superhuman troops who fought under Kyrie’s Area Imbuement.

If they could be reinforced, it was common sense to reinforce them without hesitation.

"I’ve led a repeating crossbow unit so far, and now I’m even in charge of the old cannon unit, so frankly, command is already a bit heavy—however... if we’re recruiting anyway, reinforce artisans and engineer units."

Shen, originally a mercenary captain from Rikenta, would take charge of projectile and engineer-related units, drawing on their experience leading repeating crossbow troops.

"True, there were plenty of times I wanted even a cat’s paw. Reinforce spearmen, net-throwers, and sword-and-shield infantry evenly."

Augusta originally had two epithets: "All-Rounder" and "Divine Spear."

They were confident in both personal martial skill and command.

"Another adventure begins."

"I don’t even know what we’ll be fighting. Undead, the royal family, other adopted heirs, Rikenta... there are too many enemies."

"That just means you’ll fight a lot and win a lot. Isn’t that the life of a hero?"

"Then we will become the heroes’ vanguard."

The mercenary knight-captains spoke of Kyrie with shining eyes.

Feijin smiled with a different kind of expectation than before.

The tremor of lightning never left their body.

If they stayed by Kyrie’s side, it felt like they could extend that tremor into something vast.

"Hng."

Feijin clenched their teeth and looked at Joi.

And perhaps, just perhaps, they might gain another kind of tremor as well.

When I heard that Joi had reinforced the army, I almost threw up my heart.

"Why?"

"Little brother? Is there a problem?"

"No. It’s nothing."

Surely Joi wasn’t planning to offer ten thousand men as sacrifices to the undead and perform some wicked art of gender change.

With the war funds taken from Erica and the newly allotted budget, I couldn’t even say we were short on money.

"Then... shall we go?"

"Yeah."

Andromeda mobilized several dozen of the Royal Guard, three thousand Mounted Patrol troops under the adopted heir Scipio, and a few personal retainers.

It was deeply strange to see Scipio’s troops—who had been targeting Andromeda until recently—now being used by Andromeda’s hand.

"Ah, hello?"

Among the personal retainers was a scrawny man with glasses and a shaggy beard.

"It’s Hippogras. Don’t bully him just because he looks like that. He’s very smart. He makes the Elixir of Sacred Light best too."

He didn’t look reliable, but he was skilled enough that Andromeda introduced him personally.

"It would be nice if we could make the Elixir of Sacred Light from undead and mutated manbeasts as well. I look forward to working with you."

"..."

Gaveng stared at him oddly, but that bastard stared at me sometimes too, so I let it go.

"Everyone you’re bringing is already here, right?"

"Of course. I called them long ago."

"Who is it? It’s not a lover, is it? That Erica bastard is not allowed."

"It’s a man."

Andromeda’s eyes lit up as she asked about my companion, then her shoulders drooped at the answer that it was a man.

"Greet her. It’s Lady Sub-patriarch."

"I know."

Creeeak.

A man stepped down from a carriage that had just stopped beside us.

"Magnus?"

Andromeda, rarely, wore a startled expression.

Chapter 136

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