Valenciaunos, Tenitia, Hadrian, and Barbatos were sitting in a spacious conference room of the main palace, overlooking the capital, Silentalouon, with their legs shaking.
Administrative officers and constables came and went through the threshold, reporting the peculiar situation in the capital, and Valenciaunos organized the circumstances right there through smooth coordination.
“The grain fleet has been sent north for now.”
“Good job. The Great Lords might plunder it.”
“Some merchant thugs have started a riot in the market.”
“Lady Trentia, go crush them.”
“A large chimera has appeared in the west!”
“Sorelazie, no, summon His Grace the Duke here. It seems we’ll need to strike fear. This is better than just calling for him repeatedly.”
“In the red-light district…”
“Do nothing for now! I’ll handle it myself.”
They couldn’t let their guard down all day, as they had no idea when the Great Lords would arrive.
Valenciaunos sipped coffee to keep his wits about him and asked, “My lady, have you heard anything from Marquis Asenorta?”
Tenitia quenched her thirst with a sangria made from wine and fruit.
“I have. It’s said the strongest magic swordsman is marching north with 5,000 guards. Isn’t that practically a declaration of war?”
“For now, His Majesty has gathered all the barons and knights from the central region, and their combined forces amount to around 30,000.”
“That’s why tents are lined up outside the city walls.”
While they were having that conversation, Hadrian suddenly interjected.
“The food support going out to them amounts to 80 gold coins a day.”
Valenciaunos, rather than being surprised by that amount, praised the stability of prices maintained by the royal administrative officers.
“Good work. You’ve secured the supplies.”
Hadrian, who was about to say they needed to quickly get a pledge and send them back, blinked his blue eyes beyond his glasses and sank back down, as if the earlier momentum had fizzled.
Hadrian was a genius in administration, but Valenciaunos was a seasoned expert with 40 years of experience in wartime administration.
It’s most important to count what’s measurable, but he remembered what they aimed to achieve with those numbers.
‘To prevent the Great Lords from causing chaos in the capital, I need to keep soldiers employed even through conscription.’
“Sir Barbatos, is the Black Iron Knight Order also out there?”
In response to Valenciaunos’s inquiry, Barbatos nodded.
“Yes, Your Grace. All four knight orders have deployed.”
‘The Blue’ was monitoring this place, where the Great Nobles gathered as they roamed hundreds of kilometers daily, ensuring no crazed individuals would interrupt.
‘The Brass’ led elite troops and integrated the barons and knights of the central region into a makeshift command structure.
This was a preparation for the insane situation where the guards of the Great Nobles would directly turn into a siege.
‘The Black Iron’ operated alongside the Brass, while ‘the Platinum’ led the palace guards to defend the imperial palace.
“Our Black Iron knights are also fulfilling their duties of maintaining order in the capital together with the constables. While the Platinum knights are standing in the corridor, sharing jokes.”
Barbatos smirked at Tenitia.
The Black Iron and the Platinum had been enemies for generations, with Barbatos being the leader of the Black Iron, and Tenitia being the sanctity of the Platinum.
Tenitia replied without flinching.
“The fact that they have the leisure to share jokes indicates they’ve trained their palace guards well to have that ease. I’ve heard that the constables under the Black Iron are daily overburdened due to the poor command of the Black Iron knights. I express my condolences as a knight.”
“Haha, thank you, Lady Tenitia. But wouldn’t the situation be more pitiable for you, being in a setting where you must protect His Majesty the Emperor?”
Tenitia had pricked Barbatos with words, and Barbatos swung back like a verbal hammer.
It was, by common sense, disgraceful for a guard to be weaker than their charge, and the Platinum Knights, who were tasked with protecting the royal family at the pinnacle of bloodlines, had long suffered ridicule over who was safeguarding whom.
Moreover, the 47th Solletarass Jeilliris was among the strongest figures in human history, and naturally, the intensity of ridicule directed at the Platinum Knights was ranked among the highest in history.
Valenciaunos didn’t bother to stop the two knights from growling at each other.
Hadrian, wearing an awkward expression, asked, “Can we leave it like that?”
Valenciaunos laughed heartily and took a sip of the sangria poured by Rudi.
“They need to relax somehow. Let it be.”
“No, not them, but that thing floating in the sky.”
“Eh?”
Valenciaunos looked out the window.
A huge aerial vessel was flying in from the western sky.
“Good heavens!”
Whether employing wind magic or the destructive arts, flight was quite a difficult form of magic, and the magic tools that enabled flight were always classified among the highest quality.
The “Anima Lamentum” I wore was a gift sent by two count families as a token of gratitude that ended a long war lasting thirty years.
Such magic tools, which could hardly remain airborne for long or merely lifted a body temporarily, were used as heartfelt gifts from the Great Nobles to the imperial family.
Flight was a skill worth that much.
Thus, everyone felt fear toward Jeilliris before the return.
Soaring freely in the sky while pouring out powerful magic, whenever someone managed to counterattack, she disappeared beyond the horizon.
If it was remarkable for a person to fly, how astounding would it be if a machine could soar into the heavens?
Especially if that machine was a massive aerial vessel equivalent to a flagship?
“Your Grace Valenciaunos, what is that?”
Both Lady Tenitia and Sir Barbatos wore bewildered expressions as they stared up at the sky.
Rudi dropped the bottle of sangria he was holding, and Hadrian was cleaning his glasses for the fifth time.
I had seen that before the return.
The aerial battleship Nibelungen.
A 150-meter-long war vessel modified to enable landings, outfitted with eight anti-gravity fields and four magic-engineering propellers.
It was a testament to a genius who inherited the craftsmanship of dwarves, the magical prowess of elves, and the madness of humans—Marcus, leader of the Ironblood Party.
It was said that the cost of operating ‘one’ of those surpassed the expense of maintaining a ‘fleet.’
Owning the Nibelungen would trigger an economic phenomenon akin to being attacked by the Nibelungen.
As I watched that aerial vessel gracefully traverse the capital’s skies, I struggled to hold onto my senses.
I couldn’t allow myself to be intimidated as well.
“Everyone, stay focused!”
“Your Grace, that…”
“How do you think the citizens in the capital are reacting, given our state?”
I looked at Sir Barbatos, who in turn looked toward the Chief of Police, who was gazing down at the city.
The streets were packed with people rushing out of their homes, loaded with belongings.
And it was the Chief of Police’s job to ensure these people return to their homes safely and to inform them to resume their lives peacefully, while it was my duty to welcome the marquis who brought that aerial vessel.
“Good heavens!”
I dashed out with Lady Tenitia and the Platinum Knights toward the duke and the imperial palace.
“Run!”
“What is that?”
“The Ironblood Party has started a revolt!”
The 400,000 citizens of the capital rushed outdoors, filling the streets to the brim, leaving not even a rat’s chance to squeeze through.
The issue wasn’t merely facing them; the bigger problem lay in approaching them.
“Your Grace, what should we do?”
“Valen, any good ideas?”
Hadrian and Lady Tenitia asked simultaneously.
I glanced at the rooftops and canals.
“It seems the aerial vessel intends to land outside the eastern gate, so let’s head that way. We’ll move through the underground waterway.”
“Oh, that method works.”
“And tell Sorelazie to summon storm clouds. Other magicians can join forces to bring down hail and torrential rain. That should make people want to return home!”
Lady Tenitia looked uncertain, seeming displeased, while Hadrian nodded, realizing that method could work.
One of the administrative officers dashed back to the imperial palace while I searched for a building with access to the underground waterway.
I, along with Lady Tenitia, Hadrian, Rudi, and the Platinum Knights, came out through the east gate via the waterway.
Kugugugu-.
Ahead, a 150-meter-long aerial vessel was in the process of landing on the plain.
After warning the central knights, barons, and Brass knights to stay put, I kicked the shin of a foolish man who said we should first contain it, being careful not to lose my composure as I stood in front of the aerial vessel’s entrance.
Cheee!
The door opened while releasing steam from beneath.
The door, opening downwards, formed a wide plank, a kind of gangway, and a group stepped down from within the hull.
At the forefront stood a tall man with long limbs, dressed in a suit of black adorned with white stripes and wearing a tall top hat.
He wore gold-framed monocles on his right eye, and his gentle gaze, devoid of a beard, gave him a neat overall appearance.
He had an unexpectedly human-like appearance and demeanor for a half-blood of heterogeneous races.
Outwardly, he resembled a court noble or bourgeois of the capital.
In fact, I heard Lady Tenitia’s voice from behind me, exclaiming, “How can a Great Lord dress so delicately?”
However, I was drenched in cold sweat to the point that my shirt was thoroughly wet.
“You must be Duke Valenciaunos. I’ve heard many rumors about you.”
“Were you comfortable on your journey?”
I felt tense even at his mild-mannered greeting and politely greeted him in return.
The marquis was known as the ‘Ironblood Party leader’ and ‘the most dangerous Great Noble in the West.’
Marcus Debothio Instrumentum.
There were marquis families with larger territories than him, those with stronger armies, and those with longer histories.
“Of course! I cut through the winds as I flew; who could inconvenience me?”
But there was no more dangerous Great Noble than him.
…I extended my hand first as a member of the imperial family, and he clasped my hand while wearing thin white silk gloves.
As expected, I felt the hard touch of a prosthetic arm.
We don’t call a person normal who had to cut off their own arm to use a prosthetic they developed.
Nor do we consider someone normal who removes their own eye to wear an artificial eye they designed.
“Oh, you’re not surprised. Everyone else flinched, though.”
He appeared genuinely amused, a smile on his face.
Unlike Mattheus’s pitch-black eyes, the ordinary dark brown eyes appearing so terrifying was a first for me.
I forced myself to speak nonchalantly.
“It’s not me who flinched; it’s the citizens of the capital seeing that aerial vessel. Someone might think His Majesty’s loyal vassal has come to demonstrate power.”
“Haha, that wouldn’t be the case, would it?”
“Please, have some refreshments. I’ve prepared accommodations and dinner.”
Marcus raised his eyebrows, pretending to be uninterested, and looked out at the rainy city walls.
As if a good excuse had come to mind, he chuckled.
“Well, I intend to stay aboard my aerial vessel until the oath is sworn. My prosthetic arm is sensitive to moisture, you see. Apologies, but I’ll politely decline the dinner due to motion sickness.”
Hadrian, Lady Tenitia, and Rudi simultaneously gasped.
In noble society, refusing an invitation for entrance and dinner meant one did not want to receive hospitality, and it implied an unwillingness to adhere to the courtesies owed to a host.
I felt my head grow cold as I realized how wildly that could spiral.
“Is that so?”
This could signify distrust in the capital’s security, hinting at rumors that the Emperor issued a summons, or it might be a move to generate stories that the Emperor treated him poorly.
I didn’t care which it was.
“Don’t mutter nonsensically; come inside calmly when called. I’d be curious if your notable aerial vessel could withstand a Sword Master’s Aura Blast?”
The most dangerous Great Noble in the West grinned.
“That’s how Solletarass must come forth.”
He dramatically directed a hand gesture toward a knight standing behind him.
The knight covered in a black cloak with white stripes was as big as Sir Barbatos.
I nodded at Lady Tenitia.
She stepped forward as she lowered her veil.
Marcus said, “Now, please take him away.”
I raised my chin in response.
“Prepare to live in a tent in the imperial garden for a month. Make sure to get drenched in the night dew!”
