CHAPTER 4

The Sword Brings War and Calamity
Sword_of_Mercy.

1

Midnight.

As the date changed, it happened.

For example:

Cities all over Northern Ireland, like Belfast, Enniskillen, and Londonderry, found their main facilities, like city hospitals and police stations, blockaded by leagues of police officers and soldiers. They were Knights and Royal Family groups backed by the second princess’s faction. The unusual atmosphere caused the citizens to either remain in their houses out of fear or be arrested by the police if they let their curiosity get the better of them.

For example:

Mints that manufactured Scotland’s own currency and religious bases like the Holyrood Palace were seized by the very security officers and knights who were supposed to be protecting them. Agnes’s unit, as it did its investigation at the yacht harbor in Edinburgh, was eventually surrounded by a group of knights who outnumbered them.

For example:

Castles of every sort in Wales—Cardiff Castle, Swansea Castle, Oystermouth Castle, Conwy Castle, Penrhyn Castle, Beaumaris Castle, Caernarfon Castle—fell one after another into the hands of the Knight Faction. Along with local governments and courts, needless to say.

For example:

The Knight Faction’s hands reached to the center of England, to London and its outskirts as well. In fact, the Knights were most numerous in England. They captured religious bases like St. George’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey and set foot into one key political point after another like Buckingham Palace and the Parliament building.

Of course, the Puritan Faction’s sorcerers—including the members of Necessarius—hadn’t simply rolled over at the invasion.

Wales.

There were many castles and forts in this region. Military installations built out of stone, constructed for various purposes for various people, some as bases of operations to attack the land or as important locations to defend it. And now they’d all been commandeered by a single faction—

The Knights.

“Hff, hff…Blast!!”

A nun ran through the night, her breathing shallow. She had been placed in charge of caring for the chapel installed in the castle by the Knights. The first ones to find themselves in desperate straits after the second princess, Carissa, had begun her invasion with the Curtana Original in hand were the nuns like her, on official business for the Puritan Faction and assigned to castles and forts. Everyone had basically pointed a weapon at her all at once and from all directions.

How dare they threaten me with their blades? What’s happened to the Knights?!

She was at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage. She’d have to assemble enough manpower for “organized combat” in order to overturn the situation.

Blast! she swore as she ran. One at a time, I might have been able to manage, but this…!! She wasn’t thinking about killing any fully equipped knights; there wasn’t even the slightest intention of fighting knights who borrowed the Curtana Original’s power—despite it only working in the United Kingdom—and wielded partially angelic powers.

But if she had used all the sorcery at her disposal, she should have been able to buy some time. She should have at least been able to distract them—had she only one opponent.

Stalling for time was a tactic for stopping an enemy’s movements and only for a short while. If a newcomer appeared from somewhere else while she had one tied down, and then while she was dealing with the second, the first was restored to action…It would be pointless to keep repeating that.

For now, I’ll join the sisters stationed at the other castles! After we assemble our forces, we can drag them into a battle between groups! Or at the very least, use our organized combat to give ourselves an effective retreat…!!

That was when it happened.

Suddenly, silver armor appeared beside her.

It was a pursuer from the Knights. It seemed they’d been ordered to capture and not kill, but there was no guarantee what would be awaiting her after that.

“!!” The nun removed a compass from her sleeve. Cardinal directions heavily influenced her spellcasting; she threw a card north, as defined by the device. From it, she tried to draw a bundle of light…

Nothing’s…coming out…?!

She grimaced. Her spell had failed…When she thought about why, she realized the power that made the compass needle work—magnetism itself—had been interfered with from elsewhere.

In other words, her compass hadn’t been pointing north.

Without knowing that, she’d thrown the card in the direction the needle was aiming at, so of course the spell didn’t go off.

“Oh n—”

Taking advantage of the time lost from her misfire, arms clad in silver steel reached for the nun.

Near the island of Islay in the Atlantic.

A fortress came out of the black midnight seas and floated about twenty meters into the air.

Dubbed the Coven Compass, the mobile fortress was a giant stone disc, the outline of which measured approximately two hundred meters in radius and ten meters in thickness. On the disc’s surface, as implied from its name, were sharp lines running from the middle to each cardinal direction—but that wasn’t the essence of the place.

The essence lay on the underside.

There, dozens—no, hundreds—of loose ropes hung about the disc. And on each of those ropes sat a witch bearing a broomstick. They looked like migratory birds perched for a few moments’ rest, but they were all ready for battle.

The women had painted their old broomsticks with a kind of herbal medicine.

Witches didn’t ride brooms; they rode around on any item imbued with flight by their herbs. As long as they had the plants, they could manipulate tools other than broomsticks as well.

…Well, call them a witch’s drug, but all we do is combine a variety of magical herbs. We obviously don’t do anything like boiling unbaptized infants in cauldrons.

One of the witches waiting on a rope, Smartveri, let out a breath. The same type of “witch’s drug” was painted on her skin under her clothes, too, and the slimy sensation felt a little disgusting.

An operator’s voice echoed from the small dome in the middle of the fortress’s underside—a communicator Soul Arm. “Numbers three through twenty, thirty through thirty-five, and forty-three through fifty-two, ejection preparations complete! All designated witches, please accelerate sequentially and intercept the incoming knights!!”

After hearing those words, Smartveri reaffirmed her one-handed grip on her broom, then cast a spell with her other hand and sliced cleanly through the rope she was sitting on.

Immediately, she began a gravity-fueled descent.

Smartveri grabbed a cut rope end with one hand. Her body, now transformed into a giant, twenty-meter pendulum, swayed like a midair trapeze and accelerated. Then, at its lowest point, once she’d brought her energy to its maximum, she let go. The witch straddled her broom and soared, skimming just above the black sea surface.

Modern witches didn’t fly through the skies.

Peter, one of the Twelve Apostles, had defeated Simon Magus, said to be a sorcerer who borrowed evil powers to fly, merely by praying to the Lord. Spells based on that legend to bring things out of the air had advanced in the Crossist world, so while it was easy to fly using any unorthodox or “heretical” flight spell that still fell into a category explainable by Crossist teachings, it was also easy to be shot down—an annoying dilemma.

Thus, modern witches didn’t fly through the skies. The short and small witches didn’t have enough load capacity to equip giant ramparts that could protect against those anti-air spells like the mobile fortress Coven Compass did; instead, they deceived those spells by “traveling along the ground” rather than flying through the sky. By moving at a low altitude and a high speed, they would evade spells in the Peter family. It was common practice.

Thanks to those circumstances, several of the witch’s colleagues flew parallel to her as she and her broomstick roared inches over the water’s surface. Over a hundred of them were already advancing out over the sea.

They used Soul Arms to communicate at high speeds.

“What’s the plan, Smartveri?! We have higher mobility, but in terms of overall combat capabilities, the Knights have us beat! They’re already monsters with such strong life force that they can’t strengthen their own armor as Soul Arms because the magical mechanisms would destroy them!! But if our information is correct, they’re also using the Curtana Original to supply themselves with Telesma! Even if our attacks make direct hits, we don’t know if they’ll be fatal!!”

“That Curtana Original or whatever operates at maximum power inside Britain, right? …Well, considering they’re going to ‘invade’ Europe, it must have another secret, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be used here. Which makes things simple. We’ve got this big mobile fortress, so if we flee outside the country, that’ll cut the Knights’ strength in half, you see?”

Smartveri’s words were recklessly optimistic as she urged her colleagues onward.

“So I guess we’re just going to hold out for the Coven Compass to leave the country’s borders? I mean, the whole top surface is an irradiator for a large-scale light-flashing spell. We fight the Knights, however, and lure them outside the borders. Then we might be able to burn the whole lot of those idiots to a crisp.”

“So we’re the bait, huh? I swear. Looks like it doesn’t matter what age you live in—knights always love chasing after witches’ asses.”

“That’s the theory anyway. It might also be fun to intercept them with seawater manipulation spells, you know?”

“Hey, wait a second. Which one are we going with, then?!”

Just then, the surface of the water in front of the witches shook, as if to block their path.

From out of the black water squirmed several eerily glowing, eyeball-like lights.

“Here they come!!”

Right after Smartveri shouted to her comrades, a whole host of somethings burst out of the water like missiles.

It was the silver armor of the Knights.

Lightning-like, aggressive-looking flashes of light danced on the tips of their spears.

In response, the witches lit fiery glows on the ends of their broomsticks.

One hundred vs. one hundred.

As countless rays of light intersected, the battle between witches and knights began.

Edinburgh, Scotland.

Agnes’s unit, which had formerly been conducting investigations into New Light at the yacht harbor, was a middling-sized conglomeration of over 250 people.

And at the moment, they were on the verge of being surrounded by an even larger group of people from the Knight Faction.

“…Their total in all directions is over seven hundred,” said Agnes in a low voice, readying her silver Lotus Wand. “Normally, the police all like to rush to unauthorized demonstrations. I thought they were nasty before, but I can’t believe they’d start acting this haughty.”

Standing with her back to Agnes and gripping a giant wooden wheel in both hands was Lucia. “They don’t seem to be using any spells to ward off people. In fact, they don’t need to care…Which means the Knights’ invasion is proceeding over a large area, as we thought.”

“I-I’m worried about London, too. We lost contact with them,” said the hunched-over Angeline in a subdued voice, four money pouches floating around her.

As the nuns stood ready for combat, one person stepped out from among the knights.

He spoke.

“Our orders are to kill as few as possible, but if we clash with such large numbers, I cannot guarantee our ability to uphold those orders. We cannot deny the risk that people may easily be trampled to death even if we have no intent to kill.”

“You want us to surrender before anyone gets hurt?” retorted Agnes. “How nice of you.”

“…People will die. Is that all right with you?”

As the knight brought his sword back to the ready, Agnes smiled fearlessly.

Smiling, she planted the Lotus Wand into the ground at her feet.

Unconsciously focusing on that was the knights’ mistake.

After all, an explosive flash of light burst from it.

Pop!! The sheer white light probably only stole their vision for five seconds, if that.

But when the light faded, the nuns were nowhere to be found.

All two hundred fifty of the sisters had vanished, leaving nobody behind.

“Wh…what…?”

The knight, blinking his eyes inside his helmet, looked around, but he couldn’t spot anything that looked like them. Eventually, after the men signaled to one another, they began an area-wide search for the escaped sisters.

“Wow, I’m surprised they didn’t figure it out…,” Agnes muttered to herself. Around her echoed a drip-drop sound.

“…Still, I will admit the environment allowed the color black to protect us.”

“D-did we—? Did we really have to jump into the ocean like that…?”

Despite being in a late-October ocean, Lucia was relatively calm, but Angeline’s teeth were chattering. They were the only three in the water; the other sisters had all fled to wherever they liked.

Agnes put a hand on a concrete levee and slowly crawled out of the water. The outside air hitting her water-soaked habit made her a lot colder.

“If the Knight Faction is acting so brazenly, we should assume Edinburgh is already in their hands,” she said.

“Wh-what should—? What should we do now?” asked the round-shouldered Angeline as Agnes grabbed her hand from the levee and pulled her out of the water.

Lucia was the one to answer, crawling up next to them under her own power. “We can’t contact London, either, so we’re on our own. Sister Agnes, by your calculations, how usable do you think the people in our unit are?”

“…Well, we all fled in different directions, so the knights will probably catch over half of them.”

“Oh no!!” cried Angeline before Agnes put her index finger to the girl’s lips.

“Their leader,” said Agnes, “the second princess, Carissa, should be in England. It’s highly likely the captured nuns will be brought there. Which also means that even though they’ll get captured, they’ll be safe until they reach England.”

“The important thing is that we can simply rescue the sisters again while they’re in transit. They did what they could so we could move freely, so we should pay them back to the utmost of our abilities.”

Agnes, Lucia, and Angeline quietly nodded to one another in the midnight yacht harbor.

And then, they quietly moved forward.

“…As a start…why don’t we do something about these soaking-wet clothes?”

The uprising of Second Princess Carissa and the Knight Faction spread throughout all the United Kingdom.

As a result, for Necessarius, the fight didn’t involve the Puritans and the Knights clashing face-first and fighting aggressively until one side went down.

The Puritans had been caught off guard by the surprise attack, so instead of devoting unnecessary energy to trying to scrape their forces back together, they had decided to withdraw for the moment, conserve their strength, and give themselves a higher chance at a turnabout.

Knowing they’d lose in a pure test of strength, the Puritans had settled on the option of taking only what they really needed from the churches and cathedrals, then swiftly retreating as a whole while fighting local battles.

The Knights and the Puritans were each one of the three factions. Inside England, however, the Knights were higher on the pecking order. In this country, the king or queen was thought of as the angelic leader and the knights who served them as the angels.

If the Puritans, who were merely sorcerers, and the Knights, with angelic powers added to their might, were to clash head-on, it would exhaust them both. They couldn’t deny the possibility that in the worst case, everyone in the Puritan faction would be defeated.

In accordance with their true essence, the sorcerers blended in with the darkness, waiting for their chance.

And then.

In Windsor Castle, a magical fortress on the outskirts of London, languished the queen and the archbishop. Elizard was drinking black tea; Laura Stuart’s glass was filled with mineral water.

They were the only two here.

The double-doored entrance to the room was locked magically. It was a super-first-class lock worth protecting the royal family.

However…

…Well, it shall be less than thirty seconds until they bust it down from without.

Laura Stuart’s thoughts were dangerous, but she had enough reason to think that way.

Outside the window, she could see several torches.

She had started to hear heavy, quick footsteps from inside the castle, too.

All of them were removed from the queen’s command. It didn’t matter how sturdily her defenses were built—if all the knights who worked for her betrayed her at once, she couldn’t do anything about it. The only people in the castle at the moment who swore fealty to her were probably the gardeners and servants who weren’t involved with either the Royal Family or the Knights.

Elizard and Laura had noticed the abnormality as the date changed, but their escape route was already gone. They’d barely managed to lock the door to the room, but even that wouldn’t buy them much time.

“…I swear.” Laura sighed, shaking the glass with clear liquid in it. “We summoned the Index in advance to try to root up whoever of the three princesses was the troublemaker, planning to analyze their actions. If she hath so many of the Knight Faction hereth now, it must be the militaristic second princess. She moved more quickly than we mused.”

“Indeed. Though she is my daughter, so I must say that her swift strategy is fabulous. It seems she really has been blessed with tactical prowess.”

“There’s your doting habit. We are about to be hanged by our necks—what, exactly, are we to do? Does your boastful Curtana Second still retain its power?”

“About twenty percent of it. The rest was taken away by the Curtana Original.” The queen glanced at the bladeless, tipless sword next to her. “If it came to a clash, both I and the Curtana Second would be cleaved in two. It was originally only made to be just enough so it could fill in the gap from losing the original. It hasn’t so much been stolen as it’s gone back to its rightful place. It was more unusual that any power remained in my sword at all.”

She rapped her index finger against the blade’s surface.

Somehow, Elizard’s tone of voice made it seem like she was having fun. “I have to say, I’m surprised they dug out the original. After we lost it to the revolution, centuries of kings have carried out projects to find it, but none of them even got a hint…Come to think of it, New Light specialized in Scandinavian magic, didn’t they? They may have used some kind of vein-searching spell, maybe one from the dvergr, for their excavation. In any case, now that the Curtana Original is out in the open, we don’t have a chance of winning by smacking swords together.”

“Ha-ha-ha. Damn you.”

As Laura considered throwing a bucket of water on the queen, the giant doors flung open without a knock. Actually, they were destroyed magically along with the lock. The dozen or so fully armed knights already had their swords unsheathed. This was beyond ill-mannered—it was like a robbery.

One of them spoke. “We, the Knight Faction, have already taken over essential facilities in not only London but all four cultural zones—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In other words, we have taken most Royal Family and Puritan bases and successfully sealed away their functionality.”

“I see,” replied Elizard. “And now you’re painting the whole United Kingdom in the Knights’ colors under Carissa. The only reason this hasn’t devolved into a storm of beheadings and bloodshed is that if you carried out executions before using the Curtana Original to establish a new system, you would risk provoking the three factions and four countries of the United Kingdom into all-out resistance, which could cause the entire framework of the nation to collapse.”

The knight nodded curtly. He didn’t try to kill her without a word—perhaps he still had some respect, even for an enemy. “If you don’t resist, we will not hurt you unnecessarily. Please make a wise decision so that no needless blood is shed tonight.”

“You must have it rough.” Queen Elizard had blades pointed at her but still sighed as though appalled at all this. “That’s not how Carissa works. The second princess will be displeased if you don’t relay her message accurately.”

“…”

“If I were my daughter, I’d order you to do this: to give the queen an extremely businesslike request to surrender and, if she doesn’t comply, kill her without question. Aside from that…Yes—if you’re going to kill her, show no mercy. And you can get the civilian gardeners and servants nearby involved if you must—just swiftly cut the queen down…I’m sure she said all that, at least.”

The knight’s glove made a soft creaking noise. His hand gripped the sword ever more tightly. The assassin spoke, his voice hushed. “…Give us the Curtana Second and submit to our surveillance…You too—Puritan.”

“Feh-heh. I lead one of the three factions all the same as our queen, and yet my treatment seemeth quite different.”

“We could cut you down right now and it wouldn’t matter. Know that we are merciful.”

Laura’s face remained steady against the knight’s intimidation. Her eyes, which watched the queen as she put the Curtana Second into a sheath the knight prepared, seemed somehow relaxed.

She smiled, then turned to her old friend Elizard and said, “So, what should we do?”

2

Index was underneath the Dover Strait, at the explosion site in the Eurotunnel.

At her feet were the tracks.

The giant terminal, the entrance to the Eurotunnel, was in a town somewhat distant from Dover called Folkestone. Many train lines gathered there to be redistributed into the three seafloor tunnels.

Index set foot in one of those three tunnels.

There were some kilometers before the tunnel actually entered the ocean, but Index stopped about twenty meters down the slope from the entrance. The iron- and concrete-enclosed hill ended abruptly. The place where the tunnel had actually broken was distant, but since it was lower than the ground, seawater had gradually risen until it flowed up here.

The two explosions had split the Eurotunnel into three neat portions.

Because of the seawater, which had absorbed the darkness to become black, she couldn’t get near the actual explosion point.

But after staring at the seawater blocking off the tunnel in front of her, Index said, “They used a Roman Orthodox spell based on the legend of the House of Loreto as a symbol of destruction.”

There was a house in a certain town of Italy said to be the residence of the Virgin Mary. It was famous for disappearing on its own and reappearing on its own; the legends said that in the past, it had instantly moved approximately twice.

“…But it looks like the only effect they added to this tunnel was the plain old ‘building-moving’ one. When one part of it ‘moved’ unnaturally, it probably fractured the tunnel.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“The original House of Loreto is famous for the French king, Louis the Ninth, visiting it. He probably analyzed fragments of it at the time and brought it back to France to use as the theory for a Soul Arm, and now someone used it to blow up the tunnel—I can sense that they altered parts of the spell to make it move into France.”

“I see. Then it’s nearly certain that the French Roman Orthodox faction was involved in this,” said Second Princess Carissa, smiling slightly.

Smiling as she looked down, her eyes pregnant with meaning.

“…Not only is it a French-made spell—it’s one a member of royalty, of all people, was involved in the analysis of. No random sorcerer would be able to use it. We should assume a team directly under their leaders has acted.”

“I don’t think we can be sure. The French monarchy ended a long time ago, and just because a past king was involved with the spell, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily connected to their current government.”

“The brains behind the current government ruling that place is an aggregation of strategists and tacticians with the knowledge of kings past. If it were an unorganized think tank, it wouldn’t be surprising for them to have treasures from the royal palace in their possession.

“Still,” said Carissa, pausing. She looked at Index again. “This really was fortunate.”

“?”

“In my case, the only issue was finding out whether France was involved. As long as you didn’t tell me France wasn’t involved in this case…Well, I’ll say it again. This was really fortunate—if you hadn’t given me the answer I wanted, I would have had to cut you down.”

“…?!”

Index saw Carissa’s smile up close as it widened and unconsciously braced herself.

But behind her was only the flooded tunnel. There was nowhere for her to run.

And then the head of the Knight Faction, the Knight Leader, arrived.

The man who was supposedly an escort to the two women came with a worn-out, rectangular bag in his hands.

“I will release the Skithblathnir. We should confirm the sword’s status before joining the fight in earnest.”

When the second princess held out her hand, the Knight Leader undid the lock on the duffel bag.

The mosaic structure on the bag’s surface squirmed in a complex way, expanding and transforming into a giant canoe. And inside the boat lay a sheathed sword.

Carissa grabbed the sheath and sneered as she pulled the bladeless, tipless sword from it. “The Curtana Original…,” she said, swinging it lightly like a baton as Index looked on, not comprehending the situation. “It should be the first thing we break if we hate British tradition, but I’ll use it for our purposes while I can.”

“We’ve established control over the entire United Kingdom. Your words have already come to represent the will of the nation itself, but what declaration shall we make to France?”

“Tell them what the Index just reported and then deliver an ultimatum: It took time and effort for Britain to compile these 103,000 volumes. It only makes sense that we should use them for our national interests.”

Index returned Carissa’s grin with a glare.

The second princess ignored her and said to her knight, “…We can have our forces move with indirect pressure from the Royal Family and Knight Factions, yes? Deploy our cruisers in the Strait of Dover. Make sure they’re ready to fire missiles at Versailles at any time, depending on their answer.”

“We can have our forces move, but what arrangements shall we make regarding the science side—Academy City?”

“Ignore them,” said Carissa simply, rejecting the idea. “Our country should be the one with its hands on the reins of our military might. Having foreign influence on the military would be strange.”

“Understood.”

The decision carried the risk of breaking the precarious tightrope act between Academy City and the English Puritan Church, but Carissa didn’t seem concerned, nor did the Knight Leader make any particular remark.

“Is it wise, however, to make that palace our target?” he asked instead. “The strategists controlling the current French administration from the shadows don’t have a specific base of operations. We have reports that they consciously avoid organizing.”

“But we also know the strategists are sheltering that woman who is their greatest mind. If we get rid of her, the others will realize their city is about to be destroyed along with their nonsensical hideouts.”

“What shall we do about the warheads?”

“Use the bunker clusters the UK independently developed. The ones that scatter about two hundred special rounds designed to penetrate into shelters up to fifty meters underground. We’ll make a bee’s nest out of the palace along with an entire city block.”

“…This would infringe upon the treaty that categorically bans cluster bombs.”

“Heh,” Carissa snorted. “The British military never intended to sign that treaty. We were forced to agree out of pressure from the EU’s member states, France first and foremost. Still…This is a good opportunity. We can go back over all the treaties we have with foreign powers and get rid of everything we don’t need. Starting with these bunker clusters. Everyone in the current EU has the personal support of the Roman Orthodox Church anyway. This is a good chance to cut ties with them.”

“…”

“Apart from that, cut our dollar support from the U.S., too. Return the entire dialogue my mother has had with them to a blank slate.”

After saying all that, she fell quiet for a moment.

“English Puritan–Academy City vs. Roman Orthodox–Russian Catholic war, my ass…,” she spat quietly. “Whether the magic side wins or the science side wins, Britain sinks. If the Roman Orthodox side wins, they’ll simply destroy Britain. And even if the Academy City side wins, when the world is painted over in the singular color of science, the magical nation of Britain is sure to be isolated…What meaning is there in a war where we have to depend on others?”

“Is that the reason for your declaration of intent?”

“Yeah. If we want to avoid a future where we’re a dependent nation, it’ll be too late to act after the war is over. We’ll banish the fury of the Roman and Russian Churches, of course, and we also have to cut ties with Academy City. Unless we make this war into a three-way contest where Britain is isolated instead of a conflict between two factions, Britain will have no future. That was the reason for this proclamation. We will use our destroyers to sever our line to Academy City, then use our bunker clusters to prevent interference from Europe, the EU most of all. Isolation is the only method of saving Britain.”

“…Isolation from the EU may lead to depletion of our economy and resources. What do you think of the possibility that it could bring about a graver situation than either the Eurotunnel bombing or the transport route blockade from the hijacking?”

“I’m sure there will be temporary chaos.” Carissa didn’t deny the possibility and, unfazed, continued, “But by our winning this world-shaking war, the map of the world will change drastically. By driving Roman Orthodox control from the European region and establishing a world with Britain as its center, we can solve the economic and resource problems…What? It’s simple, really. It’s just like what the U.S. went for by becoming the ‘international police’ and how Academy City succeeded in secret—if we create a society in which the world needs Britain, we can’t possibly dry up.”

That was no empty dream. The scale of this “war” slowly corroding the world had already reached such levels. In other words, the world would yield its reins to the victors.

“…I can acknowledge my mother’s pacifism, but that doesn’t work unless the world is in a peaceful age. She should have realized that the problems in front of her only looked that way on the surface and that, in reality, they had blossomed into a planet-wide war,” spat Carissa. She hefted the Curtana Original onto her shoulder. “Either way, for the sake of this country’s future, we need to win this war without cooperation or interference from anyone else. Putting bunker-cluster-loaded destroyers into the Dover Strait is part of that plan.”

“Understood. I will give the order to equip our destroyers in military ports with them.”

“Would have been nice to have nukes, too. Maybe we should develop them once things are in order domestically.”

“…With all due respect, I would appreciate it if you gave some consideration to the ones who might have to set foot inside the palace after impact, if worse comes to worst.”

“Ha-ha. With your body, it would take a lot more than radiation to kill you. You’re concerned for the citizens of an enemy nation. We will send a warning before firing…In either case, that woman can’t leave Versailles. I don’t mind a few concessions.”

The Knight Leader gave a pained grin. “Now then,” he said, glancing at the confused Index. “What shall we do about the Library of Grimoires?”

“We need her to survive, at least until she makes nearby nations acknowledge the ultimatum we send France as valid.”

“What if they officially reverse their stance afterward?”

“Her perfect memory ability should be accurately recording their own statements, too. If we have her read them out, there should be no room to doubt their trustworthiness.”

With the topic now her, Index inched back a little, knowing it was futile. Sure enough, her shoes and habit skirt hem were already starting to soak up seawater.

The Knight Leader spoke curtly. “We will go with that in the long term. What of the short term?”

“Mm,” said Carissa with a snort. “Put her to sleep.”

Index didn’t have time to resist.

The Knight Leader buried his fist in her solar plexus.

3

As though the sniping of Lesser before Touma Kamijou’s eyes was the signal, the city of London began to change.

A band of people clad in silver armor proceeded down a thoroughfare.

Intermittent flashes of light and explosions had been continuing intermittently in the night, centered around London’s scattered English Puritan establishments. Armored knights were probably skirmishing with priests and sisters at this very moment.

How would the normal folk, who knew nothing of sorcery or supernatural powers, mentally process the sight?

At the very least, they wouldn’t be rubbernecking.

Police officers had used patrol cars to set up barricades on the roads, unnaturally blocking the way, and they were repelling any citizens who tried to get close to the scene. If anyone continued to resist, the police would show them no mercy—they’d have them on the ground and arrest them.

“…We can’t fool everyone just with an Opila rune,” groaned Oriana, hiding behind a corner of the building. “Sorcery incidents happen in Britain a lot. There should be all sorts of large-scale cover-up schemes to hide them—have they all been saturated over capacity…?”

The meaning indicated by the pro sorcerer’s words was extremely simple.

The Knight Faction had already nearly completed their coup d’état. Like in other major cities, the British capital of London’s functions had also fallen completely into the hands of the “enemy.”

“Shit. Is the chaos keeping ambulances from getting here?” said Kamijou bitterly, holding the unconscious Lesser. “Looks like the only thing to do is to meet up with Necessarius. I’m sure they’ve got sorcerers who can use healing magic.”

“Yes. However…” Oriana’s words faltered for a moment.

Index, who had been with Kamijou before now, was currently on an investigation at the Eurotunnel bombing site in Folkestone with Second Princess Carissa and the Knight Leader, the latter two believed to be the ones who orchestrated the coup.

Something had to have happened.

Index was a point of concern as well.

“…We have to get her medical attention quickly.” Kamijou looked at Lesser in his arms, then listened to the rattle of a distant explosion. “Since it looks like we’ve got more than one problem.”

“Yes…”

Kamijou and Oriana nodded to each other, then left their hiding spot behind the building.

They headed for the English Puritan women’s dormitory, located in Lambeth.

According to Oriana, after the commotion, most of the Puritan Faction’s sorcerers were beginning a retreat, crossing blades here and there to buy time, taking only the really important documents and Soul Arms from the churches and other religious establishments. If they went to a Puritan church, the likelihood of sorcerers being there was low.

And the issue was that Oriana was currently both powerful and a criminal, and they were just using her temporarily as part of a deal.

In other words, they didn’t trust her enough to tell her what their emergency escape route was.

“…But the rear guard should still be at that dorm to buy time to hide important materials and Soul Arms. If we’re going to get in touch, we’ll have to ask them for help.”

Unfortunately, something was blocking their way—a giant river.

There was a large river over two hundred meters wide that snaked from north to south in London. They’d have to cross the nearby bridge to get to the safe zone, but…

“Crap, that silver armor…Are they with the Knights?!”

A truck was parked near the base of the bridge. About eight people wearing heavy armor were in the trunk. Was the truck in the middle of letting them off, or were they trying to inspect it? In any case, unless Kamijou and Oriana did something about them, they couldn’t cross the bridge.

Then, as she observed the knights, Oriana wordlessly removed her flashcards. “As far as I can tell, we don’t have the time to stay here for long.”

For just a moment, she glanced at the unconscious Lesser, then turned her gaze back onto the knights.

“I’ll get rid of them.”

“…You can do that?”

“I would have preferred a ‘will you do that,’” answered Oriana with a smile, but he could see a little bit of tension in her face.

Oriana Thomson was a courier—an expert at fleeing. She was great at befuddling opponents to get them to drop out of the chase, but she couldn’t have been used to head-on clashes with eight knights in full equipment like that.

But Oriana still said she’d get rid of them.

In order to let Kamijou, carrying the wounded Lesser, get across the bridge as soon as possible.

“Once you get her to the women’s dorm, head for Waterloo Station. It’s in Lambeth, too.”

“What?”

“The line named Eurostar connects directly to France. It passes through the Eurotunnel, which goes through the Strait of Dover. You can’t use the tunnel right now because of the bombing, but it should still be connected to Folkestone, the tunnel’s entrance.”

“You’re not…”

“It’s a straight shot of one hundred kilometers from London to Folkestone. If you want to save the Index, you won’t be able to run there…The same goes for the Knights. If they have control of all of Britain, they’ll need to exchange personnel and goods next. You’ll need to cleverly blend in on the Knight-operated Eurostar train.”

Kamijou nodded, then looked back to the bridge.

Even if he could bust through there, that didn’t mean everything would be peachy. There were probably Knight Faction assassins near the women’s dorm, too, and besides, after solving the Lesser problem, he’d have to rescue Index—and that would involve getting right up to the second princess, the mastermind behind the coup d’état who had taken control of the entire United Kingdom. It seemed like no matter how many lives he had, it wouldn’t be enough.

But…

I don’t have any other choice, he thought, looking at the unconscious Lesser in his arms. It’s a hopeless situation—and that’s why I can’t afford to stop!!

That was when it happened.

Kamijou’s ears and body simultaneously sensed a low thump. Oriana seemed to feel it, too. She looked around, expression dubious.

And then another tremor came.

This one was clearer than before. Kamijou looked over in that direction—

And in spite of himself, he groaned.

“This can’t be…”

4

“The problems now are my mother and sisters,” Carissa stated as she left the Eurotunnel exit onto the surface. “We’ll have to kill them. Only members of the royal bloodline can use the Curtana, so we would probably be better off limiting the right to use it.”

There were no lights this night—it was dark everywhere.

“Reports say we’ve confined my mother to Windsor Castle, but I wonder where my older sister Limeia could be. Her distrust of people is a gifted survival instinct. She probably didn’t come to the Eurotunnel because she could smell the blood, and I don’t think she’s about to reveal her own hideout to others.”

“…In addition,” the Knight Leader began, “she has hidden her identity and gone into town in the past. She may have secured a certain number of potential people who would shelter her without realizing she’s the first princess.”

“Still, it’s ten to one she’s in London or its outskirts.” The second princess looked around. Her eyebrow arched in displeasure. “The great and competent first princess aside, where did the incompetent third princess go?”

“Regarding that…” The Knight Leader pointed at the cluster of carriages, a group consisting of the one for the royal family and the others that escorted or served it, lined up in rows.

And one of them had disappeared.

Considering the situation, it was appropriate to assume the third princess, Vilian, was in it. But despite coming to an answer, Carissa’s expression remained dubious.

“…How did my little sister sense the danger? I thought she was much better at trusting people than doubting them.”

“” The Knight Leader hesitated for a moment before answering.

But before he could open his mouth, Carissa said, “I get it; I get it. My older sister is the brains; I’m the military; and she’s the virtuousness. She may be incompetent, but she merely has to gather talented people around her to solve the problem.”

As she spoke, she walked over to a different spot from where the carriages were parked. Already, several servants thought to have perpetrated Vilian’s escape were surrounded by fully armed knights.

“Doesn’t look like there are any Guards Maids or otherwise armed aides to intercept us. If that saint Sylvia were here, we might have had some trouble, too.”

“…Lady Vilian has always had a special dislike for possessing military force. Most of the people here are civilian servants of common descent.”

“Hmph. Is that why her mood was suddenly so foul? Whatever their social or work positions may be, it’s no reason for us to forgive them for sensing the danger and letting her escape.”

“However—”

“I mean, you already ‘asked’ them where Vilian went, didn’t you? And they didn’t tell you anything. If they had, the report that her destination was unknown wouldn’t have bubbled up.”

As the servants looked on, huddling together, Carissa drew her sword from her sheath.

It was a special sword, without blade or tip.

“It’s called the sword of mercy because of its shape, but…Is that the truth, I wonder? It seems to me that its inability to kill instantly is cruel.”

Someone gasped as they saw the sword swing up.

A gulp rang out in the heavy darkness.

The second princess never wanted to question them.

All she planned to do was kill them.

And then…

The Knight Leader stood in her way, in front of the frightened servants.

Without a word, Carissa looked at the man who stood before her and paused a moment.

Almost without moving her lips, she said, “What is this?”

“I would advise that you withdraw your sword.”

“I don’t need to listen to you.”

“Then you may cut me in two as well.”

The words came without hesitation. Carissa’s shoulders moved.

“Oh ho,” she laughed.

Nevertheless, several of the servants who saw her grin from behind the Knight Leader yelped in spite of themselves. The way she grinned had taught them that smiles were how people conferred terror unto others.

“…You’re far from faithful,” said the second princess, sounding truly amused as she peered into the Knight Leader’s darkness. “I’m sure you calculated things this way. That you’re still necessary for me to have around. That even if you were to suppress my freedoms as second princess—no, as the head of state—that you’re still a trump card I need to protect. That’s why you could stand up for those servants…You’ve got some good negotiation skills. And you’re right—at the moment, I can’t take your life just to take the lives of some commoners.”

“…”

“But remember this.”

The second princess widened her smile as far as it would go.

With a face like a torn bag, her sword glowing in the moonlight, she gave her warning.

“Things are different when it comes to my mother and sisters. If you interrupt their executions like this, I will cut you in two without a second thought. Their deaths are more important than your life.”

“…Understood,” said the Knight Leader, not letting emotion into his tone of voice. “I simply advise that you refrain from passing unnecessary judgment…I have no reason to stop you from doing what you really need to do.”

“I sure hope not.”

The second princess sheathed the Curtana Original, shrugged, and left. At a glance from the Knight Leader, the knights surrounding the servants also broke apart, slowly leaving spaces in their ranks.

Without looking at the faces of the servants, now standing alone, the Knight Leader said, “Go.”

“…Sir Knight Leader, sir. We care not for ourselves. But please, we beg of you. See to it that Lady Vilian is—”

“Now!!” he roared.

The servants quieted, unsure of what to do. Nevertheless, after bowing their heads once, they withdrew into the dark forest.

None of the knights spoke to the Knight Leader, who alone remained.

Without watching to see where the servants ultimately went, he growled.

“…If you want to kill me to stop me, then bring him here.”

5

Touma Kamijou and Oriana saw something in front of the giant stone bridge.

It was a giant, over four meters tall and made of stone. Or, more accurately, it was a hodgepodge collection of concrete and asphalt.

Kamijou knew what it was.

He knew the golem, which used anything and everything as its materials, and he knew the sorcerer in gothic Lolita dress who controlled it.

“Ellis the golem…?! Is Sherry doing something?!”

As if in response, a roar bellowed.

It didn’t belong to Ellis. Ellis didn’t have vocal cords.

The roar had come directly from the mouth of the lionlike sorcerer controlling it.

“​G​o​o​o​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​!​!​”

As Sherry roared, drowning herself in anger, Ellis made a big move.

Its large body rushed at the knights, hastily moving at the base of the bridge. In one strike, it caused the truck with their silver armor on board to explode, sending both orange flames and knights flying in all directions. Of course, they were seasoned veterans, and that wasn’t enough to beat them, but…

“…”

Ellis swung its foot up toward one of the knights lying on the asphalt.

Ignoring the mace he used to try to defend himself, the golem dropped its foot with all the force of a hammer slamming a nail.

Ga-thud!! Despite how far away they were, the impact threatened to take even Kamijou’s and Oriana’s feet out from underneath them.

Another of Sherry’s angry shouts rang out.

Oh right, she’s…!! Touma Kamijou remembered Sherry Cromwell’s magic name—and her reason for it.

About twenty years ago, she’d lost a close friend by the name of Ellis. The reason for it was exceedingly political, but the group who had done the job was directly affiliated with the Knight Faction.

After a long time and with at least some of her wounds healed, the Knights had appeared before her once again. Strangely enough, just like before, the British Knights were wielding violence for political reasons.

She had barely managed to forgive it the first time. But could she forgive it a second time?

The answer to that question was Sherry herself.

“Shit, she’s completely off the rails! It looks like she’s driving them back by having Ellis charge, but if they go after Sherry, things will turn around in an instant!!”

“…This isn’t good,” agreed Oriana.

Kamijou’s gaze fell to Lesser in his arms. “What now? Help her?! At this rate, Sherry will—”

“You’ve got it backward, stupid!!” interrupted Oriana with a shout, preventing him from continuing. “That sorcerer isn’t thinking about anything except killing as many enemies as she can! Even if they kill her!! If we leave her be, it won’t stop at the Knights—the entire street could be destroyed!!”

Kamijou’s body tensed.

Oriana’s face showed nervousness that was stronger than before. “You use the chaos to get over the bridge and go to the women’s dorm…And I’ll use the commotion to interrupt the Knights. I’ll knock out all the ones preoccupied with the golem and look for a chance to get that sorcerer to snap out of it!!”

“Can you even do that?! You’d be by yourself!!”

“Would you abandon the girl you saved to come with me?”

Oriana glanced at the “package” in Kamijou’s arms.

Then she looked him straight in the eye. “It’s simple division of labor. Things will go smoother if you, someone they trust a little, go to ask for healing magic instead of a sinner like me bringing an ‘enemy’ sorcerer to the women’s dorm. Besides, your right hand doesn’t seem too good for group battles, does it?”

“Damn,” he swore. He wanted to stop Oriana from going, but she was right—he couldn’t abandon Lesser for it. “Can I leave it to you, Oriana?”

“You can trust me.”

Kamijou and Oriana nodded to each other, then jumped out from their hiding spot.

Ellis the golem’s intrusion had chased the knights a short distance away from the stone bridge. Carrying Lesser, Kamijou ran past them and headed for the bridge. A few people noticed him, but Ellis and Oriana were on the knights before they could do anything about it.

Clenching his teeth at the explosions behind him and their vibrations, Kamijou ran at full speed.

The bridge was over two hundred meters long.

Lesser felt very heavy in his hands, but he managed to get over the bridge somehow.

But then something strange happened.

On the opposite riverbank, Ellis swung its giant arm. Several silver suits of armor were struck by the force and blasted away. At the same time, their swords and spears broke and shattered in the air.

A professional sorcerer may have realized something then.

One of the broken spears had been a Soul Arm called Brionac.

The two pieces of the spear whirled through the air. And from its tip surged a flash of lightning.

There was no sound.

Only blinding lights popped out. Five rays of light shot out like a beam cannon. The cluster of white flashes crossed the river in an instant, some of them directly, others refracting, plunging into the district of Lambeth.

A low rumble jarred both Kamijou’s feet and his mind.

The city…!!

Without meaning to, he stopped and tried to look into the distance. He couldn’t make out the details from here, but at the very least, it seemed like no buildings collapsed or huge dust clouds went up.

He breathed a little sigh of relief, but he froze mid-breath.

He’d noticed it.

Far off in the distance, the land bridge for the train had crumbled. The bridge’s structure had broken, and now it was leaning against the ground. The torn-up rails gave off crackling sparks.

“Crap…”

The Eurostar.

The train rail connecting to Folkestone one hundred kilometers away, where Index was waiting.

“What am I supposed do now, damn it?!”

6

The operation to pursue the third princess, Vilian, began immediately.

The carriages were originally for use by the royal family and their escorts, but in order to prevent several kinds of trouble, they came standard-equipped with systems that detected locational information. The Knight Leader crouched on the asphalt road, held out his palm, and muttered something. When he did, several lines ran through the road like someone had spread luminous paint on it.

They were the trails of the carriage wheels.

“Distance is approximately two thousand meters. Speed is fifty kilometers per hour. Given their direction, they seem to be heading for Canterbury through Dover in order to detour around the mountains.”

“I see. The Puritans’ main public headquarters is there, isn’t it? She decided to go running into their base now that she knows she can’t rely on the Royal Family or the Knights.” Carissa smiled a little. “Such absurdly shallow thinking.”

“Shall we pursue?”

“First, I want to verify something. Wouldn’t the servants who supplied the carriage know a thing or two about these detection systems? Is it possible the carriage is being used as a dummy?”

“They’ve seen magic before but never used it. The reports said they were of common birth.”

“Then if this is a dummy, I’ll have your head,” said the second princess lightly.

Thrusting the knights aside using only her glare, she headed for where all the carriages were parked. But not to her own extravagant carriage meant for the royal family’s use; she went to a war horse trained to carry veteran knights.

“Let’s go. We don’t have time to play with my incompetent sister anyway. Let’s kill her and solidify our new system’s foundation. I don’t think France will move swiftly, but it would still be bothersome if they took advantage of this.”

But the Knight Leader didn’t respond. Like a fox who’d heard a small sound, he looked up sharply.

“What is it?”

“An aircraft,” the Knight Leader answered shortly.

She looked around but didn’t see any planes. Without a word, the Knight Leader pointed to his ear. He really did seem to recognize it by sound.

“But it’s strange,” he said. “We’ve seized nearly all the means of transportation. We’ve closed off all airports in England, both civilian and military, so nobody should be able to use the runways right now.”

The second princess extended her right hand from the horse; the Knight Leader tossed her the binoculars. Carissa caught them with one hand, then looked around again before stopping on a single point.

“There it is. A low-flying aircraft. Just above the ground…Are they trying to get under our radar?”

Through her narrow field of vision in the binoculars, she spied a giant aircraft flying at an altitude of five meters above the asphalt. It looked like a transport plane; its main wings had four propellers on them.

Carissa took the binoculars from her eyes and smiled. “If it’s not reinforcements, then it’s been hijacked.”

“But all the runways should be sealed off!” shouted the Knight Leader. “Even if someone broke through, there should have been some sort of report!!”

“Confirm the status of our communication Soul Arms. They might actually be cutting off only important transmissions and jamming us,” muttered Carissa, throwing the binoculars back to him. “As for the runways, well—just look at that. Floats attached to the bottom of the plane. It’s a hydroplane. It can use rivers or oceans as a substitute for runways for takeoff and landing…Come to think of it, there was a water rescue craft anchored in the lake at Hyde Park in London for an aircraft enthusiast event, wasn’t there?”

“I’ll bring it down,” said the Knight Leader shortly.

From the top of her war steed, Carissa responded in a bored tone. “It’s too late. It’s already here.”

Vwooh!! A gust of wind rattled through the dark forest.

The rescue craft wasn’t so much flying through the sky as it was hovering and using its propellers to move. Like a bullet, it shot right across the ground at a breakneck pace, passing straight by the group of knights.

However, the slide-out door on its side was open.

And a figure jumped down from it, landing without mercy in the middle of the knights.

With a speed of over five hundred kilometers per hour, the rescue craft’s output, it wasn’t a fall from above so much as a projectile landing from the side.

Any normal human would have been splattered all over the road. Actually, they might have made a crater meters wide, too.

But this person landed softly in the middle of enemy lines.

Floating.

Almost like a feather.

It wasn’t an easily understood close-combat performance like a martial arts demonstration. But anyone who had above-average skill in martial arts would have naturally known the incredible level of skill shown by each one of the little motions making up the phenomenon before their eyes. That was the kind of movement it was.

The knights around the person hastily drew their swords on the unexpected assailant, but the figure in their center ignored them and glared at Carissa.

“The saint?” said Carissa quietly, meeting her gaze. “Which means Amakusa remnants were flying the plane.”

“…The time for words will be later.”

Surrounded by many a knight, Kaori Kanzaki reached for her katana sheath.

“I don’t think this will easily quell all the chaos, but I’ll start by defeating the mastermind.”

Carissa’s response was disinterested. “I don’t have time for this.”

At those words, the Knight Leader took a step forward, as if to protect his horsebound princess. “Allow me to take care of her.”

Carissa snorted, then regripped the war steed’s reins. Slowly, she turned it around, then ran off in pursuit of the third princess. Kanzaki watched her go, her eyes growing more severe.

But the Knight Leader took a step to the side to block her.

With her hand on her katana sheath, Kanzaki exhaled slowly and with almost unnatural calmness. “Were you so stubborn in your invitations because you knew how things would turn out?”

“I was not lying when I said I wanted you to spend some time as a noblewoman.”

Darkly colored emotions swirled in the Knight Leader’s eyes.

“But it seems like I was too late for that. Now that you’ve stood before me as an enemy, I will beat you down without mercy.”

7

Kaori Kanzaki was a saint.

Saints possessed talents or physical characteristics shared by less than twenty people in the world. Because they had similar magical signals to the Son of God when they were born, they received a part of that power and could use it freely.

For most enemies, she would never have to even draw her katana.

She also had a mid- to long-range combat technique called Seven Glints, which was based on wires, and just swinging the Seven Heavens Sword’s long sheath was enough to blow most sorcerers away.

…My opponent is the head of the Knight Faction, the Knight Leader. I won’t be able to defeat him that easily.

Attentive to the Knight Leader’s demeanor, Kanzaki tightened her fingers around the grip.

It looks like I have no choice but to go all out, but if I can end this without killing him…I’ll knock him out with the sheath, then swiftly apprehend the second princess!! That’s the only way to quickly settle this nonsensical rebellion!!

However…

Shudder.

Suddenly, something she couldn’t see was released from the Knight Leader’s body.

The man disappeared from Kaori Kanzaki’s sight.

She needed a moment to realize he’d moved outside her vision with incredible speed.

By that time, the whooshing of wind was already roaring right behind her.

“?!”

She immediately turned around and brought her katana sheath up to defend.

The Knight Leader’s attack was a simple kick.

Nevertheless, it rocked Kanzaki’s body along with the sheath that blocked it. As she bent over backward and lost her balance, the man simply threw a punch.

Whabaaaam!! An enormous roar thundered.

Kanzaki’s body flew ten meters through the air and rammed into one of the escort carriages. Supposedly protected by several Soul Arms, the carriage shattered into pieces, and Kanzaki’s body slid farther, down to the ground. The horse attached to the carriage began to go crazy.

“Gah…wh…what…?!”

I knew he’d be hard to deal with…but what is this power…?!

Physically, humans—saints included—were supposed to have an upper limit on the amount of power they could use. This man was clearly above that.

Could he be like Acqua…? The high-speed stabilizing line…?!

As she struggled for breath, questions arose in her mind, but she had no time to calmly consider them.

The Knight Leader had already jumped five meters high, his soles ready to crush her.

“?!”

Kanzaki immediately rolled aside.

But even with the physical abilities of a saint, she couldn’t flee to a safety zone.

She avoided a direct hit, but the asphalt fragments that exploded around her pelted her body. Blood spurted from her as she lay on the ground, and the Knight Leader looked down at her quietly from his landing point. He wasn’t cautiously observing her—his expression said he had no need for haste in a follow-up.

“Why the surprised face?”

As her entire body warned her of the danger and her mind focused on her very fingertips and the tips of her hair, the Knight Leader gently spread his arms. It wasn’t composure he showed. It was closer to disappointment.

“I am the leader of the Knights, one of the three factions. You may be a saint, but you’re nothing more than one member of the Puritans. Did you think you could fight me on equal terms?”

“!!” Without answering, Kanzaki unleashed her seven wires.

Seven Glints.

“…Long ago, I suffered a terrible surprise attack from an old friend in Dover.”

But the Knight Leader wasn’t moved. He brought a hand up into the air, grabbed all the wires she’d physically released, and ripped them apart. He didn’t use any tools to do it—he didn’t even use both hands.

“Even since then, one way or another, I’ve begun to be cautious of such surprise attacks.”

After speaking, the Knight Leader “threw” the torn wires. They were sharp, but common sense said they were just strings. They shouldn’t have had any power—but when they directly struck Kanzaki’s body, she rocketed backward like a cannonball.

“Guh…boh…!!”

This time, Kanzaki only stopped after crashing into one of the forest’s trees.

Torn wires weren’t wires anymore. He had used his incredible gripping power to crush them, squeezing the metal strings into a single mass, then fired them like a bullet from a handgun.

“The one who is to stand before me should, at the very least, be an equal—the leader of the Puritan Faction.”

The Knight Leader cracked his knuckles and spoke quietly.

“No—in terms of abilities, the Puritan Faction wouldn’t be enough. The Royal Family Faction is worthy of respect, but I am their better when it comes to brute force. I’ll be honest with you. You’re not good enough to play the part.”

An earsplitting thud!! rang out.

By the time the Knight Leader’s body had vanished, he was already directly in front of Kanzaki. She jumped to the side, and a moment later, the Knight Leader’s foot knocked away a large tree trunk in one strike. It didn’t break it—it sent it flying. Kanzaki’s hand, trembling at the power, moved unconsciously—and reached for her katana sheath.

Oh no…?!

The cause of the chill down Kanzaki’s spine wasn’t a threat to her own life.

Her hand had moved immediately.

By the time she realized it, her right hand had already whipped the katana from its sheath. The true teaching, Single Glint. A single strike, certain to kill even angels of monotheism, raged toward the Knight Leader’s neck with perfect aim.

He was unarmed. He had no actual weapons, and his suit didn’t have any Soul Arm effects.

But…

With an earsplitting grrrkkkk…

…the Knight Leader grabbed hold of Kanzaki’s katana with one hand.

This time, it was confusion that enveloped her entire being, not fear.

With the blade stopped, the Knight Leader began speaking. “Do you know why, when we gained control over Britain, the old-timers in Necessarius chose not to offer any large-scale, organized resistance but instead decided to swiftly blend in with the night and watch for a chance?”

Still gripping the katana’s blade, he brought one foot off the ground.

“It’s because they knew. They knew that as long as they were in Britain, if they fought us on equal terms, they would never be able to defeat the Knights.”

Kaboom!! A huge explosion ripped through the air.

It was the sound of the Knight Leader kicking Kanzaki. The immense power forced Kanzaki to let go of the Seven Heavens Sword and knocked her far, far away.

“Constructed by the Curtana and four different cultures, our nation—no, the British Continent—is itself bound by specific Crossist rules. In its domain, the sovereign is the angelic leader, and the knights are angels…As long as we are in this country, the simple sum of our strength is different. If you wished to kill me, you should have dragged me outside British borders.”

“…Urgh…”

Kanzaki, mind hazy, saw the Knight Leader toss her Seven Heavens Sword to the side.

“And for the Knights, the English Puritan Church, which Henry the Eighth separated from political matters, is not something to trust—it is merely something to use. Our essence is to combine every path to knighthood, be it Scandinavian, Celtic, Charlemagnian, or Germanic, and make them into one ideal…Your attack just now seemed like one that detours around several spells to wound angels, but such a route cannot even be called a detour.”

Kanzaki tried to stand.

But her legs had no energy.

Despite the unique environment and situation, he was more unfair than any enemy she’d fought before. The archangel known as the POWER OF GOD, which manifested in an incomplete state—Acqua of the Back, who used that angel as his symbol. She’d fought such strong enemies before, but she had at least been able to exchange blows with them.

But the Knight Leader wouldn’t even allow her that.

And he didn’t even take pride in that strength.

“Still willing?”

The Knight Leader’s eyes narrowed.

His expression seemed unamused.

“Either way, a mere saint cannot kill me when I am at my best.”

As Kanzaki tried to rally her strength, the Knight Leader casually walked up to her.

While he did, he said:

“And I haven’t even drawn my ‘sword’ yet.”

Thud!! He kicked away Kanzaki’s body.

It wasn’t any kind of martial arts move—it was like kicking a soccer ball.

Kanzaki’s body floated up into the air, then tumbled back down to the ground.

Without bothering to look her way, the Knight Leader began giving signaled instructions to his nearby subordinates. They each mounted their carriages and war horses, then pointed them in the direction that the second princess went.

From atop his own horse, the Knight Leader spared just one glance at Kanzaki.

Seeing her completely unconscious, he muttered to himself.

“Is this all there is to a saint?”

8

The third princess, Vilian, was in a carriage.

It wasn’t the royal family’s carriage she’d been riding in before now. But there was no doubt the carriage was extravagant, and it was covered with multitudes of practical little functions. It was meant for escort.

There was no driver.

This carriage had integrated magical devices. All you had to do was set your destination, and it would automatically send commands to the two horses, which meant you could make them run by themselves.

In any case, she’d been in a hurry and feeling more impatient than she’d needed to be, so Vilian hadn’t even had the time to light a lantern. Only the faint lights from the autopilot Soul Arms illuminated the dark carriage interior.

To the Canterbury Cathedral…Vilian thought about the majestic cathedral about ten kilometers away from her location. For now, I have to escape there. If there are still Puritans left, I need to at least have them rescue the servants who let me escape…!!

But such wishes couldn’t be granted.

Suddenly, the two horses pulling the carriage began to act up. They each tried to go in the wrong direction, violently twisting the carriage on its path and toppling it over. With a loud craaaaash, the third princess nearly lost consciousness.

“Ugh…”

At the weak neighing of one of the horses, Vilian managed to open her eyes.

Inside the sideways carriage, the autopilot Soul Arms had scattered. Unlike before, red warning lights were dancing.

Then she heard a voice from the communicator Soul Arm fixed to the inside of the carriage.

“Oh, give up already. Come out like a good girl or hide in there. I don’t care—you’ll die either way. If you still have regrets, then get rid of them yourself. If you want to pray, be my guest.”

“…!!”

Vilian’s spine froze at the familiar voice of her sister.

The only sounds she could hear from the communicator Soul Arm were Carissa’s cruel words.

“Three.”

It was a countdown.

But she wasn’t trying to get anything out of Vilian.

“Two.”

She’d kill her either way.

In other words, it was just to scare her little sister and make her suffer.

“One.”

Vilian was pressed for a decision.

Logically, the carriage may have been on its side, but it was still protected by some of its Soul Arms, so staying in it would be safer. After all, unlike her older sister, Vilian couldn’t use any offensive magic.

“Zero.”

But Vilian immediately reached for the door.

From inside the flipped carriage, she threw open the door above her like a submarine hatch and used all the strength she had to lean out of it.

Just then, some kind of magnificent power grew from outside the carriage.

The destructive force mercilessly tore the carriage apart along with its defensive Soul Arms. The third princess, who had barely gotten her body up out of it, fell to the ground. She didn’t even have time to make sure she was safe and sound.

“It’s no use relying on the Canterbury Cathedral. You know that, right?”

Carissa’s voice.

When she looked, she saw a war steed right next to her. Carissa looked down at Vilian, sunken into the ground, from atop it.

In her hand was a sword.

Upon seeing the bladeless, tipless sword, Vilian’s expression took on the color of doubt.

…That isn’t…the Curtana Second…?

“That escort carriage didn’t lose its autopilot control because of anything we did. Your destination in Canterbury jammed you to make you lose their position…You understand why, right? You’ve been abandoned.”

“…?! That’s…That can’t…!!”

“The Royal Family and the Knights are in my hands. The Puritans don’t seem to have any plans to protect you, either. It looks like this wraps things up. You no longer have any allies. Not one.”

Several light sources drew near the second princess from behind. Carriages and war horses with lanterns on them. A dozen or so knights who had been protecting Vilian before. All of them were no more than “power” the second princess controlled.

Crumpled on the ground, unable to move out of terror, the third princess was immediately surrounded.

One of them, the Knight Leader, gave a report. “The saint has been dealt with. No obstacles are present.”

“I see. Then can I get you to do something else for me?”

At Carissa’s words, the third princess’s shoulders gave a jolt of surprise.

The Knight Leader returned Carissa’s gaze, his expression seeming to question her true intent.

The second princess said, “I told you before. I won’t listen to any selfish requests when it comes to the third princess.”

“…Understood,” answered the Knight Leader, dismounting.

Vilian couldn’t believe it.

He may have been assigned directly to the second princess. His decision was appropriate—if he was simply accepting an order. But the Knight Leader wasn’t someone Vilian had just met yesterday. She’d known him for over ten years, more or less.

She couldn’t count all the times she’d trusted him with something.

He’d always protected her from the shadows at evening parties. The fact that all those political marriages had ended in the planning phase and never come about was probably because he’d been doing his best for her from a place history would never see.

She couldn’t think he’d kill her that easily. Because the third princess was neither the brains nor the military might but the paragon of virtuosity, she found herself strongly believing that fact.

It could be that the Knight Leader was only putting on an act.

Maybe his plan was to make it look like he killed her to deceive the second princess and let her escape.

The fact that she thought this way was less optimism and more escapism.

That was when an undeniable hopelessness instantaneously shattered any ideas she had.

“…If I behead her with a sword, it will crush the cut section. Bring the ax used for executing royalty. Preferably the heaviest, cleanest-cutting one. A princess remains a princess in death. We cannot show anything sloppy when we display her head to the masses, or it would shame her in front of the people.”

When the Knight Leader made that request of a subordinate, Vilian felt her throat dry up.

“…Hee……ah…”

She couldn’t form words anymore.

The inside of her mouth was stuck, so no real sounds came out.

A fully armed knight brought an ax. It was about one meter long and had a blade on only one side. It didn’t seem like mere iron—she could sense something graver in it: that it was no simple decoration, that it had really drawn the blood of many people before.

The Knight Leader took the ax without a word, then for some reason, he looked around.

To either side of the dark path was forest. There was nothing bright anywhere. After making sure they were the only ones present, the Knight Leader quietly closed his eyes and exhaled.

His face looked like he was expecting something.

His face looked like he had lost hope in something.

“I’m starting,” said the Knight Leader, opening his eyes.

Thud…!! A dull sound rang out. The Knight Leader had hefted the ax onto his shoulder once, then swung it even farther up in a wide arc.

“​W​-​w​a​h​h​…​U​w​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​h​?​!”

Vilian could only scream, wordlessly, unable to get up.

Even then, the Knight Leader’s expression did not waver.

The execution ax he’d raised had its sights set on Vilian’s neck. With his skills, he wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of holding her down. He could behead her just fine regardless.

Only Carissa sounded annoyed. “You can scream for help if you want. I’m sure someone would hear you. But don’t think any of them would listen.”

Those words pierced Vilian’s heart the deepest.

There were so many people in this world. There were plenty of people with amazing strength—but none of them would stand up for her. Surrounded by knights wielding weapons of all kinds, the third princess was in solitude. An overwhelming loneliness seemed to tell her that this was the end for fallen royalty.

Tears began to well up and fall.

They came from fear, or sorrow, or perhaps humiliation.

The Knight Leader’s eyebrow twitched for a moment as if to indicate his feelings.

But he was still the second princess’s tool.

“…This is good-bye. I will promise you one last thing. I will personally take care of your head once I sever it. I will correct the muscles, the skin, and make you the same—no, even more beautiful than you were in life, so that all who gaze upon it will remember you.”

His last words to her had been spoken.

The Knight Leader, without a hint of hesitation, brought the execution ax down on her with both hands.

Down on the third princess’s neck.

As if to tell her he would not make her suffer needlessly by hesitating.

At the same time…

Gapaaaaaa!! An enormous impact assailed the knights surrounding them.

It mowed down their lines and shattered the execution ax held by the Knight Leader.

That very moment.

Several of the knights who had been blown away muttered to themselves, shocked:

“…He’s returned?”

That very moment.

The second princess, from atop her horse, Curtana Original in hand, said, without letting her relaxed attitude dissipate:

“You’re back?”

That very moment.

Throwing away the broken ax hilt and glaring straight in front of him, the Knight Leader bellowed at the opponent who had appeared there, with a smile on his face:

“You’ve returned!”

Then, several mouths moved at once.

Someone—or perhaps everyone—said his name.

“““William Orwell!!”””

The third princess, Vilian, couldn’t grasp what had happened to her.

She had just been slumped on the ground, and now she was floating. No, she was in a certain man’s arms. He held her, powerfully, with a single arm and gripped a giant sword in the other. An absurdly large sword, quite easily boasting a length of over three meters.

The letters engraved on the great sword’s surface spelled Ascalon.

And there was something attached to the base.

It was a crest.

The emblem that was supposed to have decorated the hallway in Buckingham Palace, and the only emblem that was never supposed to see the light of day. A certain mercenary’s emblem, with green laid atop blue, depicting a dragon, unicorn, and silkie in a three-sided struggle.

Vilian knew him.

She knew the man’s name.

“Are you safe, princess of the kingdom?”

They were short words with only the minimum of courtesy. The words of a mercenary who disliked speaking too much. When she heard the curt question, the third princess finally realized what had happened.

The owner of this warm arm had stood up for Vilian’s sake.

Casting away the Royal Family, the Knights, and the Puritans alike.

The mercenary alone had dashed to her aid.

“…You’re…late…”

Faced with reality, Vilian’s eyes overflowed with tears.

They were clearly different from the ones she’d shed before.

The reason for her tears had changed.

Changed enough that she was surprised there existed tears she so wanted to shed.

Without resisting the feelings welling up inside her, tears falling in large drops, she shouted, at the top of her lungs:

“You’re late, you failure of a mercenary!!”

And so the princess was brought to the evil dragon’s lair along with the sheep.

The princess knew her fate was dire.

But then a wandering knight came to her on a horse.

A knight among knights, bearing a lance and a holy sword.

They say his name was St. George.