The chaos that began in Astreion spread beyond the territory of Astreos and across the entire Empire.

“They say a death squad from the Myriad Star Church killed Peleus.”

“I heard he has entered convalescence, though?”

“They say Sub-patriarch Andromeda has started handling the house’s affairs as regent as well.”

Everyone with a mouth talked about the circumstances according to their own interpretation.

“The Patriarch of Astreos, Peleus, went mad like a rabid dog just because he trusted in that one stigma. I even doubt whether that stigma is real. Recently he even sent Kyrie and Andromeda to launch a preemptive strike on Rikenta and violate the royal family itself, so of course the Myriad Star Church could not just stand by and watch any longer. Whether he is dead or alive? What does that matter? Once the announcement said he had entered convalescence, that is the same as being dead.”

“They say Pope Soleil XIII completely lost his mind and launched a preemptive strike on Astreion. For the head of the Myriad Star Church, who claims to serve the Myriad, to attack the Patriarch of a great house who received a stigma, that makes him a total apostate, does it not? Thankfully, Heir Kyrie and Sub-patriarch Andromeda drove them back with all their might, so it is a blessing upon the Empire.”

“They say there is going to be war with Rikenta. I heard Navigators were running wild near Astreion.”

“I heard it is war with the royal family.”

“I heard it is war with the Papal See.”

That confusion was only settled a month later, after Andromeda made an official announcement.

“His Grace the Patriarch was attacked by a vile group of enemies and has entered convalescence. His Grace personally entrusted the regency to me, so I will merely fulfill my duty until he recovers. All Constellation-rank Blue Knights, governors, and lords of House Astreos must, in order to guide us through this troubled time...”

At the very least, the rumors that Astreos had gone mad, declared war simultaneously on the royal family, Rikenta, and the Myriad Star Church, and sent hundreds of Blue Knights marching out at the head of tens of thousands of troops finally died down.

“I, Kyrie of Astreion Astreos, solemnly swear to take Erica of Rikentrion Rikenta as my wife, and to love and honor her until the day I someday return to the night sky...”

But Kyrie’s announcement on that very same day stirred up even greater confusion than the rumors had.

“What did I tell you! Did I not say the lightning sword carried out every depraved torture forbidden by the Myriad Star Church on the Princess of Rikenta after taking her captive? Agh! Aaagh! Please stop hitting me!”

Those who chose that moment to babble such nonsense were beaten and dragged away by the guards of each city.

“A marriage, was it? No. They said it was not a marriage, but an engagement ceremony?”

“It is obvious what is going to happen.”

“Perhaps the rumor that Astreos has gone mad and declared war on every side is not just a rumor after all.”

The engagement of the lightning sword and the Princess of Rikenta.

“For that lowborn bastard to get his hands on a direct descendant of a great house.”

“The new release, Trampled Flower of the Wind, is now available!”

“The play Song of Lightning and Wind opens tonight! No minors allowed!”

Those who imagined a scandalous story between a Blue Knight from the red-light district and a captured princess were third-rate.

“So in the end, the adopted-heir faction of Astreos was crushed.”

“When there is an external enemy, everyone always rallies around the main line.”

“Is Astreos still Astreos? Then the Myriad Star Church failed. At least for now. They are still holding together.”

Those who thought Kyrie had lost the competition for the Sub-patriarch seat and fled south to find his own way to survive were second-rate.

“This was all Kyrie’s plan! Do you not understand what I am saying?”

“It was from the very beginning. From the very beginning. Ever since he captured Erica, he had been dreaming of this day.”

“He moved back and forth between the adopted heirs and the main line, raising his own standing, and then vanished gracefully at the very moment everyone most wanted him gone, leaving behind only greater fame. Perfect. All that remains now is victory, is it?”

Those who believed that everything had been Kyrie’s plan from the start were first-rate.

“A lightning artist able to fire the Electromagnetic Railgun at the age of twenty-five or twenty-six. An extraordinary monster truly is an extraordinary monster. At that level, would he not rank within the top ten even in Astreos?”

“They say the Patriarch valued him enough to protect him with his own body. If he had not taken that last attack in his place, the Patriarch would never have entered convalescence. But Heir Kyrie gave up his right of succession for the sake of his older sister Andromeda, and now he departs with grace.”

The rumors spread in every direction.

“How splendid.”

Flammerios.

The twin siblings Vicher and Vichera laughed, their entire bodies wrapped in leather clothes studded with metal and masks shaped like the faces of monster beasts.

“The engagement is obviously a political marriage. Once Rikenta has been conquered, they will probably part ways.”

“Yes. What matters is that the conflict has risen to the surface. We cannot sit still forever either.”

Rustle.

“Young master, young lady.”

A swordsman in black revealed himself as though rising out of the shadows.

“A message from Sub-patriarch Volcanus. The pressure asking when you intend to hand over young master Helios is only growing stronger.”

“Is that so?”

The twins turned their reptilian eyes around the room.

A great many empty bottles of Starlight Elixir sat on the table beside them.

Outside the window, red-armored Red Knights were drilling in formation and raising waves of flame in the training yard.

“It seems we will soon have to go return him. No, deliver him.”

“Of course, whether we hand over the young master or hand over a sword instead is something we can decide later.”

The twin brother and sister cackled.

They would keep their promise.

Just wait a little longer.

Because Kyrie had kept his promise first.

The encampment outside the outer fortress of Astreion.

“My lord. They have arrived, sirs.”

“Good.”

I started walking to meet the Blue Knights assigned to the Eighth Regiment.

Many Blue Knights had come under my command until now, but most of them had either joined like Daniel, as seasoned Blue Knights already rooted in the field, or had been taken from other units like Hari, who had originally been a centurion.

Just thinking that I was about to meet new recruits who had entered my unit from the very beginning made my steps feel light enough to fly.

My thoughts also kept branching into thoughts of how I ought to treat them.

Unlike other units, I had no intention whatsoever of putting them through absurd initiation rituals.

Stealing the underclothes of the opposite sex, procuring huge quantities of supplies without being given even a single coin, tying them to lightning-training devices and forcing them to train until they passed out.

There would be none of that irrational hazing in my unit.

Naturally, I also intended to operate the unit with complete realism.

You had to provide proper military funds, proper adjutants, and proper soldiers, and only then demand proper results from them.

Just looking at the Blue Knights who would live sensible lives after meeting me made me smile on its own.

“Like lightning forever! Satellite Rank who follows the orbit, Vane. I pay my respects to His Excellency Kyrie of Astreion Astreos, Comet Rank who left the orbit!”

“Huh?”

That smile vanished completely the instant I saw the limbs of the Blue Knights lined up in front of the tent.

I looked at the man standing at the far right.

Neatly brushed platinum-blond hair, bright blue eyes, a handsome face with many freckles, and a tall figure.

And his left arm, which had been replaced entirely with a prosthetic arm.

He was that bastard who, I had heard, signed a bodily mutilation vow out of admiration for me around the time I came back from the Corpse Wasteland.

And he was not the only one.

“Satellite Rank who follows the orbit, Bonley, sir.”

“Satellite Rank who follows...”

One with an artificial eye, one with a leather mask, one with a prosthetic arm, another artificial eye, another prosthetic arm...

It was full of lunatics who had signed bodily mutilation vows because they wanted to become stronger.

Father?

I seriously considered whether the Patriarch had done this just to screw me over.

They were not talented children. They were lunatics.

Should I send them away to another unit and have them reassigned?

But I could not simply return them.

I needed a justification.

“Sir Vane.”

“Yes, sir.”

“As you must already know, I will soon march south into Rikenta. Up to now, our unit has mostly fought stupid monster beasts of the sort you have likely hunted many times, but from now on we will be facing Rikenta’s elite repeating-crossbow units and its powerful Navigators. I cannot allow promising and loyal Blue Knights like you gentlemen to be spent away in the jungles of the south. Why seek out a place to die? Surely you gentlemen also have the vivid lives you dream of.”

I tried using the logic of I am saying this because you are too valuable.

“I have admired Your Excellency for a long time! You are our goal and our ideal. I too wish to live a life as vivid and unbound as yours.”

“I have wanted to fight Rikenta for a long time! My father also died fighting the bastards of Rikenta. The moment I heard the rumor that Your Excellency would march south, I offered up my eye and volunteered.”

“To die on the battlefield is the death of a Blue Knight! Once one has stood by the sword, one is a life that will one day die by the sword. Rather than wrestle endlessly with wretched monster beasts and get trampled to death by an ogre, I want to follow Your Excellency into a great war that will decide the fate of the house and win immortal glory there.”

It did not work at all.

If anything, they seemed even more excited.

I had to humbly admit that I had said entirely the wrong things for dealing with madmen who had gouged out their own eyes and cut off their own arms.

That Vane bastard was the worst of the lot.

His eyes were too clear.

Not like the model student Nereus. This was congenital madness.

The sort of person a normal, sensible man like me absolutely should not get involved with.

“Adjutant.”

“Yes.”

“Hire more armorers. Since more Blue Knights have joined us, adjust the organization a little while we are at it. We should be able to operate the unit with much more flexibility now.”

I had to retreat here.

I dumped everything on Joi and ran.

“Yes. I will prepare a new organization, sirs.”

I should not have done that.

A few days later.

“...and so I intend to place Sir Vane and Sir Frey in Your Excellency’s personal guard as close escorts.”

“What did you say?”

I heard words that seemed to turn my vision yellow.

“Ah, yes. I will explain again, sirs. My explanation must have been lacking. I drafted a new organization using our previous operational structure in the Corpse Wasteland as reference. At present, our force of a little over ten thousand men is basically divided into ten battalions of one thousand each.”

Perhaps Joi misunderstood something, because she started explaining again from the beginning.

“The combat arms are divided into six total categories: sword-and-shield infantry, net-throwers, spear infantry, field gunners, light cavalry, and elite cavalry made up of retainers and above. I will explain the non-combat roles such as armorers and cooks separately afterward.”

I did not even have the energy to stop her, so I listened for the time being.

“Each branch nominally belongs to its respective battalion of one thousand, but in large-scale field battles they have all been trained so they can regroup by branch and form larger battle formations, sirs.”

I liked the unit structure itself.

The appealing part was that it could be run in smaller thousand-man formations, yet if necessary could immediately be turned into a battle line on the scale of ten thousand.

“And I separated the Blue Knights, captains, and free knights into a personal guard and a superhuman corps, sirs. The superhuman corps is made up of Blue Knights such as Sir Daniel, Sir Hari, Sir Peijin, Sir Shen, and Sir Augusta, who move between roles as superhuman combatants and as commanders, as well as knights and retainers. They can stay at Your Excellency’s side, receive wide-area imbuement, and charge, or they can move to a battalion of one thousand and command the troops there, sirs.”

The way she divided up the superhuman fighters was efficient too.

“Conversely, in the personal guard I gathered only the Blue Knights, as well as free knights and retainers who traveled around in small groups without mercenary bands under their command. If you think of the newly joined Blue Knights and Sir Frey, that will make it clear, sirs.”

By dividing them according to whether or not they had soldiers under their own command, she had made it possible to draw out both their capabilities as commanders and their capabilities as superhuman fighters.

“So Frey and Vane are my close bodyguards?”

The result was a little strange, but the overall structure was too efficient to tear apart just because of that.

“Sir Frey has stayed by your side for a long time, my lord, no, Your Excellency. And Sir Vane seemed to admire Your Excellency greatly, sirs. In the end, loyalty matters more than raw skill.”

I nodded, swearing to myself that I would never again let go of the unit organization with my own hands.

“You worked hard.”

Can dust get into an eye covered by an eyepatch?

I felt as though I was about to cry.

“Kyrie likes this much distance the best.”

“I will remember that. Perhaps engraving it into my prosthetic arm would be best.”

Frey and Vane followed me around all day long.

Because we were in the middle of preparing to march south, I could not even flee to the prime seat, and so I had to remain in the encampment the whole day.

“I am going to practice lightning arts, so get out. It is dangerous.”

“No can do, Kyrie. What if you collapse from neural overload?”

“That is correct. Protecting Your Excellency, the hero who saved the nation, is the same as protecting the house itself. We absolutely cannot take our eyes off you.”

They even came into my personal tent and stared at me so intently it became a burden.

I did my best to ignore them and began practicing magnetism arts.

At that time, I had unleashed the mana stored through Aura Transmission and triggered the Sacheol Storm, but now that I was trying to do it again, it would not come properly.

For days now, all I had done was fail over and over again.

“See? His grit is unbelievable, right? Kyrie did not just give up an eye and then suddenly, snap, become strong.”

“The sight of rising a hundred and one times after falling a hundred times. I shall remember it as the lesson of a lifetime.”

If not for those voices, I might have succeeded today.

“May I come in?”

At that moment, Erica’s voice came from outside the tent.

It was the first time that voice had ever sounded this welcome.

“Yes.”

Chapter 166

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