In retrospect, despite that lightning-like family tradition, Astreos had, at least in its architecture and culture, an aspect that softly embraced people like dark clouds.

Even a single ornament filling a drawing room, even a single pattern embroidered onto a sofa cushion, bore the touch of meticulous hands.

The Rikenta where I was now was different.

As free and dissipated as its family tradition was, its architecture too gave off a hollow, empty feeling.

The drawing room was enclosed only by a few stone pillars, and at its center stood only a single stone table.

The silk banners fluttered in the wind, but they did not shield one from that wind.

It was grand and detached, yet it lacked the feeling of being carefully attended to.

Perhaps this majestic emptiness itself was what made it resemble the wicked Ancient Empire.

“You.”

“You? Did you just call me, an inquisitor of the Papal See, ‘you,’ Brother?”

Looking at the man before me, I thought that.

An inquisitor directly attached to the Papal See.

Saint Deneb.

A man with moist silver hair falling over his forehead and a face that glittered as though gold dust had been scattered across it.

One who wore a surcoat embroidered with sacred fire over thick plate armor, and carried a two-handed war hammer on his back.

“Yes. You.”

I remembered the bastard.

The one who had tried to kill me.

The one who had driven a wedge between me and Andromeda.

The one who had even tried to kill His Highness Father.

“You came looking for me?”

Thump, thump, thump!

My heart pounded like thunder.

“You failed to kill me that time.”

“As expected of Astreos. But calm yourself and hear me out. Just for a moment.”

Deneb raised one hand.

“Yes. Even if I cut off your arms and legs, as long as your tongue stays attached, you can still talk. Do not worry about bleeding to death. Our battle priests are astonishingly good at staunching blood. Besides, if I cut while searing the flesh with lightning, there will not be much blood anyway.”

I kicked away from my seat and drew the crystalline holy sword.

Pajijijijik!

Current ran down along the blade.

High-speed thought, neural acceleration, bodily enhancement, electric imbuement.

I completed the full “Astreos combat posture.”

Cooperation, the Elector Princes Council, all of that could be dealt with later.

The calculations and plans in my head were wiped away in an instant.

I was now a Blue Knight who no longer needed to endure any humiliation, and I was blood of a great house living in a world where one who could not exact revenge was despised.

If I simply endured this insult, I would not even be able to stand upon the diplomatic stage.

“I will chop you into pieces and pickle you in salt.”

I had heard enough bastard talk when I was young.

Deneb also sprang back from his seat and seized the war hammer hanging on his back.

Bwoong!

The massive lump of iron split the wind with a howl.

A five-colored sword aura erupted like flame, wrapping his head, armor, surcoat, and hammer alike.

“Brother. Are you confident?”

Instead of answering, I raised the tip of my sword high.

“Should we not stop them?”

Gaben muttered, clenching his hand tightly.

“Then why does Assessor Gaben not go stop them himself, sir?”

Joi laughed mockingly.

Frey and Vane stood beside her as well, but not one of them moved easily.

“Senior Frey.”

Vane whispered lowly.

“If it looks like Senior Kyrie is in danger, then we will step in.”

“Yes. We will. We will, but….”

Frey laughed awkwardly and scratched his head.

“…I am not sure how much help we would be.”

Boom!

The drawing room shook.

The battle between the Lightning Blade and the inquisitor unfolded on a timescale too fast for even retainers such as them to follow properly with their eyes.

If the two of them had spent time casting, they might have unleashed great authorities like Gathered Clouds or Supernova, ones that could evaporate a fortress.

But in a chaotic close fight where sword and hammer collided dozens of times per second, such authorities were meaningless.

Only enhanced nerves and body, and decisions made in an instant, ruled this battlefield.

Rumble!

Kyrie stepped with Thunderstep and unleashed Heat Wave.

Bang!

Clutching a sword clad in pure white current, he charged and fell upon Saint Deneb head-on.

Deneb’s body was flung away like a kicked ball.

Rumble!

Kyrie pursued faster even than the speed at which Deneb was flying away.

Linked Thunder.

Pabababababak!

Twenty-seven thrusts clad in pale blue current poured out in a single breath.

A continuous sword assault like storm clouds shaking down lightning as though it were rain.

Bang!

Saint Deneb seized the war hammer with both hands and exploded his sword aura.

The ground boomed, and every strike of Linked Thunder was knocked away like arrows striking rock.

“Ugh, ha!”

The moment he exhaled and tried to raise the hammer once more, Kyrie lowered his waist and dove in.

“Kyrie! Right now!”

Frey shouted without thinking.

Saint Deneb counterattacked even faster.

He used his right foot as an axis and spun his whole body in a great arc.

A spinning back kick clad in sword aura over steel military boots.

Its power was no different from that war hammer from before.

“Kh!”

Kyrie leaped high straight up from where he stood.

In midair, he spun once like a feline predator, kicked off Saint Deneb’s ankle, and sprang again.

Pajijijijik!

Lightning crackled from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet.

He raised the crystalline holy sword, heated to the utmost, above his head and drove it down.

Bang!

The ceiling of the drawing room shook, and lightning burst in every direction.

It was the strike that had made him be called the Lightning Blade.

“Kh!”

The war hammer fell from Saint Deneb’s hand.

He clicked his tongue once.

“I intend to tell you the truth about the mutant demonic beasts.”

Rather than reach for the auxiliary one-handed hammer at his waist, he opened his mouth.

“What?”

Into Kyrie’s eyes, which had been wreathed in pale blue lightning, the light of reason returned.

I caught my breath and sat down again.

Since neither of us had used authorities and had clashed only with swordsmanship, neither of us had sustained serious injury.

All we had lost was the stamina of a brief all-out sprint.

“…You say you will tell me the truth about the mutant demonic beasts?”

I went straight to the point.

“Yes.”

Saint Deneb nodded, his face as calm as ever, not even breathing hard.

It was lucid to the point of futility.

According to the original plan, after Erica’s regime had stabilized sufficiently, we were supposed to identify the elders of Rikenta one by one.

I had thought it would take years.

And now I was to obtain the answer this easily?

“I trust Your Highness knows of the organization called the Dawn Council.”

Saint Deneb laughed lowly.

“What, are you going to threaten me with excommunication? Like a proper inquisitor?”

I narrowed my eyes.

I admit it.

That did sting a little.

At the time, I had joined hands with the Dawn Council with the attitude that tomorrow’s problems could be thought about tomorrow, and now that tomorrow had come.

“They created the mutant demonic beasts.”

Saint Deneb said something entirely different.

“What?”

The word slipped out of me before I knew it.

I had not expected that at all.

That those republicans had created the mutant demonic beasts.

“To be precise, it was an organization called the Hall of Purity, which has long enjoyed an intimate relationship with the Dawn Council. Both are apostates of our Myriad Star Church. Even among those apostates centuries ago, factions split and they divided into two, but their roots are the same. They delved into the same forbidden learning, and the result is the mutant demonic beasts of today.”

Saint Deneb continued speaking.

I looked into Saint Deneb’s eyes.

Boundlessly straight blue eyes.

A color as clear as water, like aquamarine.

They were not the eyes of a man speaking lies.

Grab.

I seized his hand.

“Your Highness?!”

Saint Deneb flinched, but he did not pull his hand away.

Which meant he had not noticed my authority.

【Advanced Perk】

【Electromagnetic Railgun (available)】

【Electrocardiogram (23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds)】

Pajik!

A very faint current flowed into Saint Deneb’s body along his arm.

I focused on the minute tremors carried by that current.

The beating of the heart and the electrical signals in the brain.

【Truth / Falsehood】

【Truth】

A string of words appeared over my stigma.

Truth.

At the very least, Saint Deneb truly believed what he had just said.

The Dawn Council and the Hall of Purity. A den of apostates.

I let go of his hand and exhaled quietly.

“Then those two are your principal enemies. The Dawn Council denies the constellations, and the Hall of Purity will be no different. No, if they manufacture mutant demonic beasts, then that side is likely even more deeply involved.”

I lifted my head.

The power of those called the warriors of the sickle and the warriors of the banner resembled not demonic beasts, but rather the church’s sword aura.

The doctrinal enemy was the Dawn Council, the physical enemy the Hall of Purity.

That was how it had to be arranged.

“But are not those two also enemies of us great houses? The Dawn Council denies our rule, and the Hall of Purity massacres our subjects. If so, you should have been helping us, so why did you obstruct us?”

As I said it, anger surged up once more.

Saint Deneb neither affirmed nor denied it.

He closed his eyes briefly as though offering a prayer, then opened his mouth.

“When you call it obstruction, my heart is heavy as well. Brother—no, Your Highness. I do not deny the pain you felt. However, our true intention was different.”

At once I wanted to draw my sword and cut off the bastard’s head.

“You tried to kill me, and you tried to kill His Highness Father!”

“Ah, my apologies. It is only natural that you would think so. But please hear me. The light of the Myriad Star does not raise the sword in vain. What we aimed at was not Your Highness’s life, but the shadow binding you and your house.”

“Say it plainly. Plainly!”

Deneb drew a deep breath.

“The true strength of the Dawn Council is not its false sword aura, nor its bloody rebellion. The true danger of the Hall of Purity is not the brutal workshop arts that pour forth demonic beasts. Their power lies in a secret poison: the way they spread the doctrine of heresy like a plague, staining the hearts of men.”

He spoke with the solemn weight of a sermon from a pulpit.

“If exposed completely, the knights of any great house would be more than capable of crushing them. But the moment they burrow into hiding, their power becomes more deadly than the sword, more deadly than lightning. They are strong not because of their own strength, but because they use weakness and cowardice as weapons.”

Grinding my teeth, I still admitted it.

There was reason in it.

“His Highness Peleus of Astreos, that radiant one, possessed a might none could approach. On the lands of Astreion, where he stood, neither the Dawn Council nor the Hall of Purity could do more than crawl like insects beneath the earth. Yet precisely because of that, he could not cut out their roots. With light so brilliant that it burned away the leaves and stems of every weed at every moment, he felt no need to uproot them. And that same power became a blade that checked even our church. When the light is strong, the shadow grows deep as well. Thus it was that even an apostle of the constellations could not put an end to those heretics.”

Deneb lowered his voice further.

It was a painful thing to hear.

It was also true.

“The elders of Rikenta were the same. Mad with lust for power, they dragged in the Dawn Council and the Hall of Purity to feed the fires of civil war. That is why the cathedral knights of Rikentrion did not aid Ortupios when Sky Castle fell. Because the elders had enlarged the board by colluding with apostates, and the church judged that only Her Highness Erica could exterminate them. The church always lends strength to the hand of the one who pursues the light.”

Deneb solemnly traced a cross-shaped radiance with his finger.

“So.”

I asked shortly.

“Yes. Therefore, all great houses must accept the precepts of the Myriad Star. Only if we hold the justification, only if we lead the extermination, can these loathsome swarms of rats be swept away. This is not the authority of the church, but the providence granted by the stars.”

Deneb, now truly made “Saint” within me as well, answered.

I understood what he meant.

All blood of the great houses were contractors of the constellations.

The doctrinal legitimacy was with us.

Father Peleus was little different from a living myth.

And so the Myriad Star Church could not, “by doctrine,” restrain the blood of great houses when they tried to use heretical forces.

Since doctrine could not stop them, the sword had to.

And that was why they had aimed the sword at me and at Andromeda.

“I cannot agree with those words, but I understand what you mean by them.”

“We too do not harbor the irreverent thought of raising only the whip against the blood of the great houses. Soon, the Elector Princes Council will be convened. There, the truth will be revealed, and by the authority of the Myriad Star, the cooperation of the entire Empire will be gathered.”

I frowned.

“The Elector Princes Council?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Saint Deneb clasped both hands together.

“The Elector Princes Council is precisely the altar upon which the Empire’s fate shall be decided. At the moment when the six great houses, the royal house, and the church gather in one place and resolve the matter, the conclusion is already fixed, like the constellations in the heavens.”

At the words that followed, I nearly burst into loud laughter.

“Brother—no, Your Highness as well must prepare to stand in that place. Without the cooperation of the Myriad Star, no great house can open the road to the throne of Emperor.”

So this is how it unravels.

Chapter 190

Comments