The table mountains of Rikenta stood higher than the low clouds of the southeastern Empire.

Thanks to that, starlight as bright as what one saw from Astreos Prime poured down without any obstruction.

With that starlight at my back, I turned around.

"Jacobin III. A strange name."

"It is the name of revolutionary heroes. It means I inherited, together with the name, the will of the great comrades who went before me."

Step. Step. Step.

The man in the black robe walked forward calmly.

"So you are living someone else's life."

"It is the same naming method you nobles enjoy using, like Peleus the Third. Ours is merely our own version."

The robe was a cheap one woven from coarse cloth, but the man himself was tall enough to be only a little shorter than me, who was taller than most men.

Even in his gait there was the balance peculiar to one who had professionally learned martial arts.

"How did you get up here?"

"By climbing."

The answer was absurdly matter-of-fact.

But the passion like lingering embers in that voice carried the peculiar sincerity of one who was not lying.

"All the way here?"

"All the way here."

Then again, no matter how tall the table mountain was, its cliffs were not truly smooth as though sanded down.

If even ordinary soldiers could make the climb with the right tools and resolve, then someone with physical ability beyond that could certainly come up.

At least it confirmed that the soldiers below had not been standing watch like complete trash.

"Alone?"

"Alone."

That answer too felt like the truth.

Hum. Hum. Hum.

From the moment he had appeared on my Bio-radar, I had been sweeping the surrounding several hundred meters thoroughly, yet no suspicious figures were caught.

"May I ask one question now?"

Jacobin III asked.

"Go ahead."

I answered readily.

Even if he was a knight, he could not defeat me.

If he was merely a nighttime guest who posed no threat at all, there was enough romance in me to indulge him until he showed his true colors.

"How long do you intend to rule this land?"

"I have no intention of ruling it personally. All internal governance belongs to Erica."

"As expected. No. Even worse than expected."

"Expected?"

"I thought you might be a little different, but if that is so, then nothing will change at all."

The lips visible beneath Jacobin III's hood twisted crookedly.

"We cannot accept another oppressor, not after preparing for revolution with such difficulty."

"What?"

I let out a snort.

I could now roughly guess what he was.

"I think I have heard of it before. You said the Dawn Council, right? Republicanists from the free cities?"

"Yes. They are our revolutionary comrades."

Jacobin III's hand slowly moved inside the robe.

"Allow me to introduce myself once more. I am of the revolutionary warrior corps of the Dawn Council. A warrior of the scythe that cuts through the veil of deception. Jacobin III. An end to false faith, liberation from the oppression of the great houses!"

A longsword, plain and unadorned, yet made of good steel, came out.

"A warrior of the scythe, hm."

I repeated it a beat late as I brought my hand to my waist.

Crackle!

At the same moment I drew the Crystal Holy Sword, I applied lightning imbuement.

A pale current of ultra-high voltage raced along the translucent blade.

It was power that would kill anyone below the level of a knight in a single blow, and even if he were a Blue Knight like me, one stab would be enough to send his nerves into overload.

No matter what bizarre magic tool he might have, I was confident I could break him within a few exchanges.

But his jaw did not waver.

Nor did his sword.

Saaaaaah!

It felt as though the air of the corridor were boiling and splitting apart.

Sword aura spreading like starlight, no, like sunlight.

A dazzling brilliance flickered from his blade.

"You insane..."

I could not understand how in the world he was able to use that.

Within Rapid Thought, a thousand thoughts raced.

Was it the Myriad Star Church's Myriad Arts?

Or sword aura bestowed by the royal family's Constellation, the Infinite Twin Stars of Fate?

Surely he could not have come from one of those two places?

Had the Dawn Council itself been a puppet agency of one of them from the beginning?

Jacobin III drew sunlight into his whole body.

A light clearly stronger than that of Betelgeuse, the royal cadet branch.

I had let my guard down.

Whoosh!

He rushed in with a thrust like sunlight.

I hastily deployed bodily enhancement and ground my teeth.

A longsword holding a gentle orange sunlight and a one-handed sword holding sharp blue-gray lightning collided.

Krrrraaaack!

My lightning, amplified through the Crystal Holy Sword, was lethal even to another Blue Knight, but the sunlight resting on his sword gently absorbed that sharpness.

The very moment we traded that first exchange, I realized it.

He was strong.

Truly strong.

I could not understand why someone like this was living such a life underground.

If he came to our house, he was talented enough that even the Patriarch of Nubesta, head of the counterintelligence line, would personally wipe away his entire past and make him lord of some territory.

Clang! Clang! Claaang!

Ten more exchanges passed.

In that span, I was stabbed and cut once each at the wrist, armpit, shoulder, and thigh.

"Is it Myriad Arts? Or the Infinite Twin Stars of Fate?"

I asked, pretending calm as I caught my breath.

"What Constellation gave republican bastards like you this kind of power?"

"Do not speak to me of illusions! Blue Knight who spends his whole life drunk on the dream of night!"

Jacobin's face twisted violently.

"There is no such thing as the blessing of starlight. Only when humans swing the sword and humans shed blood does the world change. You are nothing but a slave, tied forever like a dog on a leash, clinging to that illusion!"

A far more violent reaction than I had expected.

As a Blue Knight of Astreos, there was much I could have said in reply.

But the words slave tied like a dog scratched at me.

"You are wagging your tongue too carelessly."

I swallowed a breath and drove out Linked Thunder.

Papapapapapapak!

Twenty-one consecutive thrusts, no. With the strengthened Thunderbolt Body and the Elixir of Holy Light, it was now twenty-four thrusts in succession.

Tat-tat-tang!

Jacobin III faltered in surprise and took a step back.

"How can a mere Blue Knight do this!"

"A mere Blue Knight?!"

Apparently he had judged my swordsmanship to be on the same level as other Blue Knights.

That did not mean I could say I had gained the upper hand.

Even now I had not drawn a single drop of his blood, while he had drawn blood from me in several places.

"Mere indeed! Mere Blue Knights who cling only to power!"

Jacobin III swung his sword like a ghost of revolution.

It seemed romance would have to end here.

Rumble!

I stepped backward with Thunderstep.

A thunderous sound rang out, the distance between us widened to more than ten meters, and I fired two Magnetic Railshots into the sky.

Thung! Thung!

The first shot collapsed the stone ceiling, and the second shot soared into the night sky, leaving behind a sharp cry like an opening signal.

"It is the residence of Prince Kyrie!"

"Assemble! Assemble!"

"My lord!"

"Senior! I will go!"

Shouts rose from every direction.

"...!"

The tip of Jacobin III's sword wavered once.

"A Blue Knight gives up the duel?!"

"You call Blue Knights mere things, yet expected me to fight you by Blue Knight rules?"

At my answer, he ground his teeth.

"The revolution does not compromise!"

Whoosh!

Jacobin III charged once more.

It was an attitude closer to stubborn force than to resolve.

The moment he passed beneath the collapsed ceiling, I called down Lightning Strike.

Flash!

A brilliance more intense than the sunlight wrapped around his sword erased every shadow throughout the corridor.

Thud.

He dropped to his knees just like that.

Beneath the burned-away robe, his scorched skin sizzled and burned.

"You who have received false blessings. No matter how much you wield your powers... the freedom and will of us humans shall not break. Our numbers shall continue forever."

Inwardly, I lamented.

In my tension, I had called Lightning Strike down too strongly.

Even if I subdued him right now, he would die before a priest arrived.

"Even if I die, the revolution will continue. The fourth, the fifth, the tenth Jacobin will come."

He lifted his head and looked into my eyes.

The last sunlight lingering in those eyes scattered away.

"And they will be driven back again, so long as they call our contracts false."

I shrugged.

To me, Jacobin III's words were worth less than breathing in and out.

"Thunderbolt Constellation."

["Did you call?"]

"If that republican revolution of theirs were to succeed, what would happen to Hero's Journey?"

["Why would you ask something like that? Of course it would fail."]

Jacobin III's actions felt no more than the breath of a lizard.

If the republicans rose to power, the imperial throne would disappear?

What a damned nightmare.

It became hard to breathe.

It felt as though I had been thrown out of reality and into a nightmare.

"Your Excellency!"

"Senior!"

"Kiri-Kiri! Sorry, really sorry. I've been too focused lately on nothing but being a battalion commander..."

"We will reinforce your guard at once, sir!"

I had both hands over my face until the Blue Knights came rushing in.

"He was stronger than expected."

"Sir?"

"And more organized than expected. He did not know how far I could use my power, but he still chose the tactic that gave him the highest chance of winning."

I steadied my breathing and pretended I was only reviewing the attack itself.

"Because of the thick stone pillars and walls, it was hard to target him with any ordinary Lightning Strike. If I had not had Magnetic Railshot, I would have been in real danger. He also endured lightning well because of a power similar to Myriad Arts or the Twin Stars' blessing. On top of that, he traveled alone to preserve stealth. He was a remarkable man."

Fortunately, the Blue Knights seemed to have accepted that explanation.

I raised my head fully and changed the subject.

"Does anyone know anything about the Dawn Council?"

It was a question I asked without expectation.

It was enough as long as attention did not focus too much on my condition.

I had no desire to live close by and end up having what lay beyond the eyepatch exposed.

"I know a little."

At that moment, someone I had not expected at all raised a hand.

"Gaben?"

It was Gaben, the evaluator with the severe face.

The temple-style palace of Orcail.

Logs burned in the fireplace, and beside it Gaben stood in a rigid posture, waiting for questions.

I had half forgotten about him, and I had not expected that fellow to know this sort of information.

I wanted to ask where he had worked before becoming an evaluator, but that was not what mattered right now.

"What sort of group is the Dawn Council?"

Gaben answered in a voice shaped by formal discipline.

"They are insolent republicans. They deny the Constellations and claim that the Myriad Star Church deceives the subjects."

"They deny the Constellations?"

I frowned.

"Then how do they explain powers?"

"They say that in truth such things can be achieved by human strength alone. Not by relying on the grace of starlight, but by building it up through specific breathing, movements, swordsmanship, and will."

I snapped my fingers.

Crackle.

Electric sparks scattered in empty air.

"And how do they explain this? Even while watching sparks of electricity fly before their very eyes, do they still deny it? How does a doctrine like that gather subjects?"

"You have asked two questions, so I will answer them in two parts."

"Go on."

"First, they claim that the powers of the great houses and the Church are a deception. They say it is power anyone could obtain through training, but that the methods of training are being monopolized."

It was nonsense.

Anyone could see that if they visited a lightning arts training ground.

One person fainted the moment the device's electrodes touched his body, another endured, and another absorbed that lightning force and was reborn as a Blue Knight.

Innate differences certainly existed.

"And in truth, most subjects will never directly witness power in their entire lives."

"What?"

"Lord Kyrie, no. Prince, do you usually have occasion to use power in front of ordinary subjects? Ah, please exclude the sky-lightning rites."

But I also understood what Gaben meant.

"I see."

"You understand?"

"You mean that while they acknowledge a few special people like the Patriarch or me, they can still easily deny the superior of that tax collector bastard right in front of their eyes."

"On top of that, they themselves wield power. Despite neither contracting nor being devout."

"If they say that in truth neither the grace of the Constellations nor the Myriad faith is necessary, and that one could gain it simply by working according to the correct method... people would fall for it. All the more so in a place like Rikenta."

In any case, I had seen with my own eyes that they wielded powers similar to Myriad Arts or to those of the royal family.

A realist does not deny something just because it is astonishing.

However, I did not think I would ever be taken in by their logic.

I touched the eyepatch covering my right eye, where the stigma was engraved.

"You know quite a bit."

Unusually, Gaben's shoulders stiffened.

His eyes, reflecting the firelight, wavered once to either side.

"I was once someone who handled information in my own way. If you ask more, I will answer."

They were eyes recalling the past.

I considered it for a moment, then decided not to ask.

"That will do."

Curiosity kills the cat.

"Go back and rest. We will march again as soon as supplies are replenished. This is no place to stay long."

"I obey."

Gaben offered his greeting in a tone carrying unmistakably sincere gratitude.

Three days later.

We departed for Rikentrion, the capital of Rikenta.

Chapter 177

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