“All right.”

I answered without hesitation.

“Going?”

Frey rose from one side of the first-floor hall, hefting his greatsword.

“Remain, escort knight. We will speak not of secular law but of the Myriad’s canon. Cathedral knights, who received the guardian power from the night sky, will protect Kyrie, so you may rest assured.”

Saint Deneve waved his hand with a friendly smile.

In a manner unlike the Blue Knights, he had the talent for saying outrageous things with perfect composure.

“Kyrie?”

“Yes.”

“Kiri-kiri.”

“Do not worry. Remember your engagement with Joe tonight.”

I left a hint for Frey and stepped out of the palace.

Frey nodded as if he had understood something.

There was no engagement with Joe and Frey tonight.

We rode in a carriage away from the main estate for a long time.

“Where are we going?”

We had already been riding outside Astreion’s outer walls for several hours.

“Almost there. It’s that place.”

Far ahead, a rocky fortress rose between dense trees.

It was said to be an old bastion protecting Astreion, now used as one of the Myriad Star Church’s monasteries.

I did not know whether that monastery was an armed monastery.

“There are many inquisitors.”

We entered the monastery grounds.

I sneered and scanned the surroundings.

Because it had once been a fortress, its walls exceeded ten meters and watchtowers rose on every side.

Clack, clack, clack.

Inquisitors in surcoats bearing inverted crosses approached the carriage.

Myriad Star inquisitors were chosen from among cathedral knights and combat priests — especially formidable men.

“You need not be nervous. Trials between noble houses are our specialty. They are all recipients of the Myriad’s blessing and thus are beyond ordinary noble judgment, are they not?”

Saint Deneve chuckled.

“Contrary to prejudice, inquisitors are often fair. For example, the Rikenta custom ‘Sati’ — our inquisitors revealed that barbaric rite violated the Free Storm’s will.”

Despite his dubious expression, his words were not wrong.

Inquisitors did not primarily hunt witches; they reined in the madmen who burned people in the name of witch-hunting.

“I do not deny your competence. I only find it ridiculous that you came this far merely to ask a few questions. To stand before that grand cathedral and endure this trouble—what a bother.”

“You Blue Knights may find it hard to empathize, but organizations require order. As an envoy of Archbishop Astreion, I would be embarrassed to simply work at his cathedral—wouldn’t I?”

Screech.

The carriage stopped.

“Will you dismount?”

Deneve opened the door.

I followed him into the monastery.

The building was not ordinary brick but large stones carved the size of human bodies stacked together; it looked as if it would not easily collapse even under a Thunderstep.

At the entrance—

“Please loosen your sword.”

A cathedral knight blocked my path.

“Are you mad?!”

I slapped the man’s cheek.

With a thud, he sank to the floor.

“Dare to take a sword from a Blue Knight of Astreos? Do you think I will stand for such humiliation?”

“Your Grace!”

Deneve, just having entered, sprang back out in alarm and tried to restrain me.

Of course.

“Apologies. I will apologize afterward. But procedure is procedure. Under the Myriad’s heaven watching, how can you enter with metal? Please.”

“Just because I pity your face I shall comply.”

I relented and loosened my belt.

I laid out the crystal Star-Sword, the thunder-forged longsword, and a few throwing daggers.

I entered the monastery with Deneve.

The monastery’s structure recalled the old governorship of Spiramentaon.

A stone complex in a square shape forming outer walls and a broad cloister.

A familiar face stood in that cloister.

“Sister?”

Her bangs trimmed straight above the brows and ponytail tied tight.

A woman with a foxish, sharp impression like lightning.

It was Andromeda.

“Why are you here, sister…?”

“What a surprise.”

Deneve glanced at me.

“You are no good at acting. Stop.”

As his tone dropped to familiar speech, a heavy iron grate slammed down across the corridor I had just entered.

Thud!

“Even the oblivious should be starting to notice by now.”

We were trapped in the cloister.

“You are too dangerous. To all of us.”

Rumble! Rumble!

Storm clouds gathered in the sky.

A humid wind sent loose hair flying.

Just as I had thought that morning — the sky looked like it would pour.

Swoosh.

“Ah, to defile my cousin. I, her brother, shall repay you.”

One of the men in the courtyard declaimed his lament like an actor and pulled back his hood.

Curly blond hair, green eyes, a face oddly resembling Erica’s.

He was clearly a pure-blood Rikenta navigator.

“A familiar face.”

Another man removed his hood.

A hulking man with short blond hair and blue eyes.

He was Betelgeuse, an Oathbearer of the Royal Family.

Behind each of them a dozen figures waited with hoods drawn.

Rikenta navigators and royal Oathbearers.

The party that had smuggled them to the monastery was obvious.

Because only one power could do such a thing, it was not truly secret.

“I have not done anything that would earn the Church’s hatred, have I?”

I glared at Deneve in front of me.

“The Myriad’s light shines on paupers and princes, sinners and saints alike; the Church takes no enemies. Yet those who have gathered too much scorn must, in the Myriad’s name, be made to restore peace among mortals.”

He smiled thinly.

“You were blessed by the Thunderbolt with lightning arts, yet unlike other lightning users, you have always chosen practical paths.”

As if pleased, his tone shifted back to polite speech.

“You have no Blue Knight as entangled with noble houses as you are, no Blue Knight as involved with mutated beasts as you are, no Blue Knight as pioneering as you are. But that is our duty.”

“You did nothing.”

“You could have fulfilled your duty by eliminating bandit gangs and the like within your holdings. Instead you crossed boundaries — abducting Princess Erica of Rikenta, bringing down Traisan the senior adopted heir of Astreos, aligning with the Flammerios twins, crawling outside the house.”

“Do you think I raged on purpose? I only struggled to survive.”

“The Myriad’s will is inscrutable; even ancient tyrants ruled for millennia, so we infer intent from results. Inter-house conflicts breed inter-house influence. No one desires that.”

“They don’t desire it?”

I looked at him and those behind him.

Rikenta navigators.

Royal Oathbearers.

Even Andromeda.

All of them glared at me.

“Mutated beasts are a peripheral issue. The important thing is this order. The Myriad saved the world from the ancient empire’s tyrant, and blessed six noble houses and the Royal Family and the Church to rule. The eight-piece puzzle is already complete.”

Deneve continued.

“You tried to insert the ‘piece’ called ‘Kyrie’ into that puzzle. You might not be satisfied with insertion — you might melt the entire puzzle with your lightning and fuse it together. Like Peleus once did to Astreos.”

Whether by chance or design, his words perfectly understood my objective.

“Fortunately, the next Head of House Astreos thinks differently. Rikenta and the Royal Family agree as well. Yes.”

Deneve drew the massive war-hammer he carried on his back.

A war-hammer is typically strapped to the belt, twohand length and under two kilos.

Thud.

Just setting the head of Deneve’s hammer on the ground caused the earth to tremble.

“The six houses, the Royal Family, and our Church do not need tyrant-like warlords. The bonds you trusted have scattered like sand.”

Deneve raised the two-handed hammer.

Woom. Woom. Woom.

Translucent black rings rose along the hammer’s long handle and gathered at the head.

I knew that power.

One of the Myriad Church’s Authorities: Gravity Wave.

A grotesque power that could increase or decrease gravity or even invert it.

Deneve strode toward me with the hammer raised.

“Hear me! Though not a party to the conflict, this house deliberately schemed, fomented, and commanded a third-party military clash — we call that the crime of war incitement!”

He recited the Myriad Church’s statute.

A halo appeared behind his head and began to rotate.

“When a third house’s noble line or army is supplied arms, munitions, or stratagems leading to war! When false rumors and contrived disasters spread blood across diplomacy’s wheels! When leaders and captains are enticed by gold, land, or resources to the path of war! When sealed letters or hidden paths encourage and command initiation of hostility! None can escape this charge!”

The Myriad Church’s “Halo Prayer.”

A supreme augmentation that boosted both physical and magical power.

“Kyrie of Astreion Astreos! Though you liberated Princess Erica of Rikenta, you used the authority of a de facto guardian to pit Royal Family Stellite and the subordinate house Rikenta’s blades against one another! For the crime of war incitement, we expel you, strip you of all Astreos offices, and annul your adopted-heir registration!”

With each word his halo swelled and shone ever more brightly.

The entire cloister had turned white with the light.

Deneve’s voice rang louder than the impact that would follow the hammer’s fall.

“I present this crime and judgment to the Myriad Church; let all the constellations of the night sky bear witness to this verdict!”

He fixed his blazing eyes on me.

“All the night-sky constellations will witness this judgment.”

I smiled bitterly and looked up.

The sky was not the one from my dreams; thick clouds hid even the day’s sun, let alone stars.

“But it seems the nearest constellation to this place does not think so.”

A flicker crossed Deneve’s face.

Andromeda, standing behind him, smiled faintly.

Storm clouds so heavy they seemed ready to burst filled the sky.

In such conditions I could call down a lightning strike in 0.1 seconds.

Andromeda had called down lightning even while hunting Whitebone Lords across barren wastes.

Flash!

A light far brighter than Deneve’s halo filled my vision.

Gak!

Andromeda’s lightning struck Deneve’s two-handed hammer.

Using my Bio-radar to perceive the environment with my one good eye, I began to marshal the Authority I had just learned.

Tsutsutsutsu!

Gather with Wide-area Imbuement, shape with attraction and repulsion, and swing.

Do not try to control each piece — follow the flow.

“Perhaps it has scattered like grains of sand.”

Sacheol blades.

“But the thing that can bind those grains is my power.”

I swung my hand toward Deneve’s throat.

Shaaah!

A Sacheol blade shot out like a keen whip.

“Hey! How could you escort another woman without telling sister?”

“You went in with someone else! You know what the monastery says! Are you trying to make me into Traisan?”

“Had I known Silvanus would behave like that I would have thrown duty aside and gone to you. How embarrassing!”

Last night.

The secret passage between the Sub-patriarch’s palace and the senior heir’s wing.

“Sorry. She did not give trust. Above must trust below first. And it must be shown repeatedly.”

“They will surely be after both of us.”

“Yeah, I thought so.”

“I told Joe already… timing is everything.”

“You and I both move in sync, right? You know that?”

That was the conversation.

Chapter 160

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