[Detailed Objective 2: Sky Castle]

[Establish effective control over Sky Castle, the symbol of the Rikenta Viceroyal House.]

[Penalty for failure: Thunderbolt Body value -100%]

[Reward for success 1: Thunderbolt Body value +100%]

I looked at the words rising above the stigma.

Blink.

I closed and opened my eye once, erased the words, and focused on my left eye again.

"So that is Sky Castle."

"Indeed it is. My homeland."

Before our eyes lay the full view of Rikentrion, the capital of Rikenta.

Upon the land embracing the brackish estuary where river and sea met rose a table mountain more magnificent than any table mountain I had seen thus far in the Rikenta region.

Clouds hung midway up the mountain and poured down a gentle rain.

It was taller than Astreos Prime, and its bulk could not even be compared.

"It will not be easy."

Nereus let out a low breath.

"Yeah. It really will not be easy."

Even the eyes of that fellow wavered.

The sight of that fortress made everything go dark before my eyes too when I thought of attacking it, but I did not bother to show it.

Anxiety did not vanish just because one spoke it aloud.

For all my numerical inferiority, I held out in that castle for a year.

Erica added those words.

Her expression was sharp as a cutting wind, but her fingertips trembled faintly.

But I could tell that mixed into that trembling was not only fear, but longing as well.

"Ugh, just looking at it makes it hard to breathe, sir. Just thinking about climbing that cliff is enough to drive me mad, sir. The troop losses, the expenditure of holy water, the Navigators' bombardment... aaaargh!"

Joi was already twisting her body around in distress.

It was only natural for the person who effectively bore responsibility for more than 10,000 troops.

"Yeah. It really is an elegant and mighty fortress."

I gave words that would satisfy both of them.

"Doesn't it feel good when you think about it becoming ours?"

It was not sweet but hollow talk.

It was because I truly intended to make it so.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

Down below, our soldiers marched across the pontoon bridge Hari had built.

"Go, go, go!"

"Senior has granted us the honor of being the first to cross those walls!"

"We are the Blue Knights who will conquer Rikentrion first in the history of Astreos!"

"Long live Kyrie! Long live Andromeda!"

"For His Excellency Nereus!"

"Forever like lightning!"

The Blue Knights under my command such as Vane, Frey, and Daniel, the countless knights such as Augusta and Peijin, and Nereus's soldiers.

"For Princess Erica!"

"For Viceroy Erica!"

"Let us return the coronet to our liege!"

"Freedom, honor, and wind!"

The Navigators who had surrendered to Erica, and the Rikenta knights and soldiers who had joined us along the way.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

Our army crossed the river and advanced.

The superhuman soldiers, whether Blue Knights or Navigators, each waved their own banners, and behind them followed thousands upon thousands of soldiers.

"Erica."

"I am listening."

"Let's go reclaim your home."

Thinking of the Thunderbolt Body value tied to this detailed objective, I muttered boldly.

My home? It is our home now.

Erica's answer was even bolder than mine.

It was enough to make me suspect she too had made some kind of vow.

"It is an honor."

I lifted my eyes once more toward Sky Castle.

The fortress said never to have fallen to a foreign enemy even once in the thousands of years of the Empire of the Stars' history.

A heaven so dizzyingly elegant and luxurious that anyone would have to look endlessly upward at it.

["For a very long time, I gazed up at the sky!"]

I unleashed Lion's Roar.

Erica and Nereus both curled the corners of their mouths upward at my words.

Do not smile.

It is burdensome.

["Today, together with all of you, I intend to reach that sky!"]

And yet I too was smiling as I thought that.

["Forever like lightning! Let this be a battle worth remembering!"]

Yeah.

Maybe I really was just another Blue Knight after all.

Seeing how excited I was by the honor of being the first in Astreos to attack Rikenta's Sky Castle.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

Thousands of feet moved.

The assault on Sky Castle had begun.

Rikentrion Sky Castle remained tranquil, as though the flames of war below belonged to another world.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

The bells of the Grand Cathedral announced noon.

The deep peal always cleared the minds of those who heard it.

"Aaaaargh!"

"Y-Your Highness. Compose yourself!"

"Your Highness!"

But Ortupios's mind was every bit as much of a mess as his office at that moment.

"That idiot bastard Orcail handed over the army, the transport ships, and the provisions exactly as they were?!"

The map had been crumpled, and the wargame pieces rolled across the floor.

"Those bastards have already come right up beneath the castle! That madwoman who still calls herself a princess, and that filthy blood from the red-light district, dare to attack my castle!"

The Patriarch of Rikenta paced the room with a flushed face.

"Where is the marksman school, where is the marksman school?"

The officer knight by the door answered while struggling to remain calm.

"A third-year cadet of the marksman school and a student council officer. Blue Hydrangea is waiting in the audience chamber."

"Waiting, my ass! Tell her to come to me."

Ortupios had clearly taken the throne by claiming he would stabilize the house in place of his young niece.

It did not seem that he had brought much in the way of stability.

"You called for me?"

Step.

The woman who came to see Ortupios carried an air that was cold yet brilliant, as though standing in contrast to him.

Her water-colored hair was neatly tied back and arranged beneath a triangular military cap, while the red uniform of a third-year marksman school cadet and the black shoulder cape embroidered with blue hydrangeas sharing her name were sharply pressed.

The armband engraved with Hundred Flowers, symbol of the marksman school's student council, matched strangely well with the mole beneath her eye.

"I am Blue Hydrangea, third-year of the marksman school. Thirty third-year cadets, including myself, and six hundred second-year cadets are prepared to obey the orders of His Highness Ortupios."

The officer knight had expected the lust-famous Ortupios to reach out toward her.

The thighs and garter belt visible beneath that sharply pressed skirt, and the peculiar fantasies stirred by words like orders and obedience.

Fortunately, Ortupios's anger overcame his lust.

"Thirty third-years and six hundred second-years? I hired three times that number!"

"I beg forgiveness. However, we could not structure our marching schedule in anticipation that Your Highness would advance the hiring date by threefold."

"How long will it take for the remaining cadets to join up?"

"We estimate about three weeks."

"Good. Until then, focus on delaying action. If you pour your powers out while holding this castle, you should be able to endure that much."

"Yes. We will focus on delaying action."

"Go down to the gunports at once!"

Ortupios gave the order in fury.

Blue Hydrangea descended after saluting.

Ortupios turned toward the officer knight with a weary look.

"The supplies? The grain warehouses of the surrounding cities?"

"We are gathering every last one of them. The fleets possessed by the Navigators under Your Highness are all in operation transporting them."

"Good! Bring more! Leave not a single thing behind!"

"If that happens, then there will be nothing to distribute to the subjects... yes. It shall be done."

His eyes were already unfocused.

"This is external pressure from Astreos! That lowborn one-eyed bastard Kyrie of Astreos is using my mad niece as a front to attack us!"

"That is correct, Your Excellency."

"We will receive proper reinforcements from the Myriad Star Church. Yes. Send someone at once!"

"It shall be done, Your Excellency."

The officer knight fled toward Rikentrion Grand Cathedral as though escaping.

"The situation is urgent, Your Excellency the Archbishop. Have not the Six Great Houses, the royal family, and the Myriad Star Church ruled in balance for thousands of years? Please, grant us the Cathedral Knights."

"But, sir."

Unlike Saint Deimos, Archbishop of Astreion, the Archbishop of Rikentrion was a figure sent by the Papal See.

He did not stand in a vertical relationship like Peleus and Saint Deimos.

"Princess Erica herself is commanding thousands of troops in battle. Prince Kyrie too is acting in a manner that can be justified as that of a betrothed."

"Your Excellency!"

"Above all, Ortupios has yet to clear himself of the suspicions related to the mutated beasts."

"That is only because Princess Erica acted however she pleased...!"

"It means that Astreos has the right to demand evidence and declare war."

The Archbishop of Rikenta concluded in an icy tone.

"At this hour, it would be better to bring down even one more enemy."

The officer knight had no choice but to return.

A few minutes after the officer knight left the audience chamber.

"I do not know whether this was wise."

The Archbishop of Rikenta turned toward the rear and let out a low sigh.

"Ortupios is not incompetently weak. He may send Windspout toward the Grand Cathedral."

Step. Step. Step.

"He will not be able to do that."

A man of astonishing beauty walked out from behind the throne.

"Rikenta does not possess cohesion as strong as Astreos."

A man with jewel-like white hair covering his forehead and gorgeous holy robes over armor.

Inquisitor Saint Deneve was there.

His previous mission had not been an outright failure.

Even if he had lost four Apostles, Peleus's retirement had been successfully achieved in the end.

"As the Patriarch who rose with our support, he will also know that he may be pulled down by our refusal."

"That too is true."

"Let us take our time and consider."

Saint Deneve's eyes glittered as they held starlight.

"Leaving Kyrie aside, which of the two, Erica or Ortupios, will better exterminate those wicked apostate bastards."

Roughly 10,000 troops under my command.

Roughly 20,000 troops under Nereus's command, with the follow-up force having joined him.

Roughly 7,000 troops under Erica's command, reinforced along the road here.

In total, it was a great army nearing 40,000.

The ratio of ordinary soldiers to superhuman soldiers such as Blue Knights, Navigators, and knights was about 100 to 1 as well, which was not bad.

"Climb! Climb!"

"There are too many enemies!"

"Field gun batteries! Shoot down the gliders first, sir!"

Perhaps because Ortupios too had not expected us to come this quickly, he did not appear to have gathered all the repeating-crossbow soldiers yet.

Even taking into account that this was a siege, it was a fight worth trying.

"Lightning Strike!"

Flash! Flash! Flash!

I called down lightning in succession as I climbed the rocky mountain.

Even if it was a table mountain, it was not some ninety-degree cliff sanded smooth, and there were small stairways here and there used by servants going up and down, so it was entirely possible to climb.

Flash!

"Aaaaargh!"

"Many casualties!"

"Retreat, retreat and regroup!"

Several of the repeating-crossbow units above that had been aiming at me were smashed apart.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Counterfire came immediately.

From the gunports all over the table mountain and from the gliders in the sky above, the Navigators poured down Air Cannons in an attempt to blast me off the stairs along with the whole stepway.

There was no need for me to be the one to deal with that.

Krrrroooom!

"Receive House Tonatio's Heavenly Thunderbolt!"

Nereus climbed another stairway over there at the same time, unleashing Heavenly Thunderbolt linked with Gathered Clouds.

Kwaaah!

The pillar of lightning swept through the gunports, and Heavenly Thunderbolt tore through the gliders.

Even the deep gunports that had endured Lightning Strike burned away before the lightning pillar, and the gliders too were shattered by Heavenly Thunderbolt and came crashing down.

"Vacate my home at once!"

Erica too soared upward wrapped in Wind King Armor.

With her long sword drawn, she directly took on the powerful Navigators who came to attack.

As a fellow Navigator, her superiority in technique and magical power was absolute.

"Lady Erica?"

"Your Highness the Princess."

There were even some who recognized Erica and pulled back their attacks, or even defected outright.

This really was worth trying.

Thinking that, I ran up the stairs.

The stairs were smaller than those at Astreion Prime, so climbing them was manageable.

"Kiri-Kiri! Keep running!"

"Senior! We will handle the sides!"

At both my flanks, Frey and Vane faithfully carried out their duties as my personal guards.

Behind them followed knights such as Peijin, then retainers and retainers, and behind them soldiers, all forming something like a single triangular pyramid as they climbed this Sky Castle.

We passed the midpoint.

"Good."

I grasped the battlefield across the area through Bio-radar.

The triangular formations led respectively by me, Nereus, and Erica had all passed the midpoint.

Now if we climbed just a little farther, we would reach the gunports connected to the internal passages.

Of course, since those bastards possessed intelligence too, they would break them and flee, but with Sacheol Blade it would not be hard to open them again.

Flash!

At that moment, a cross-shaped radiance I had seen somewhere before flashed from above.

"The marksman school?"

The next instant I raised my gauntlet to cover my face.

Baaang!

A gunshot rang out violently.

Krrrraaaack!

A scraping sound rang out.

I had survived.

Chapter 178

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