Chapter 72

The strong are slow to move. Because they understand better than anyone the power and weight their very existence carries.

However, in the empire following the Unification War, ‘Saintly Maiden Aurelia’ launched an independence war, overcoming a fourfold numerical disadvantage and annihilating a large imperial force.

The establishment of the New Britannia Kingdom.

Even for the Empire, this was no longer a situation where they could afford to hesitate or show restraint. Therefore, the Purifier Corps, led by the Empire’s proud executor of the spirit of the age, the high elder of the Crimson Tower, ‘Lady Scarlet’, was deployed en masse.

Additionally, alongside them came the ‘White Mages’ of the White Tower of Magic, led by Nikolai, a White Tower Elder and Cardinal of the Sistina Goddess Cult, who sought to verify the authenticity of the revelations claimed by the Holy Maiden.

Count Brandenburg, one of the Seven Swords of the Continent and an extraordinary powerhouse, also led his Order of Saint Magdalena into battle. Alongside him was his son, the eldest heir to the count’s house, the lecherous Philip.

Finally, the ‘Black Prince’ joined the imperial command. He had engraved the ‘Gias of Absolute Obedience’ into Cardinal Nikolai’s heart, captured the Count’s prodigal son Philip during the Black-White Turmoil, and only released him after demanding a hefty ransom.

He commanded five hundred heavily armored infantry from the Black Armor Company, and furthermore, the Saxon House’s Knights of the Night Raven.

The prodigy of the Duke’s house, possessing the empire’s foremost talent. The mercenary captain of the Black Armor Company, whose endless fame echoes across the continent.

And none other than the very ‘Black Prince’ renowned for his boundless cruelty and infamy.

The wind carried the scent of salt. Seagulls cried out in their characteristic squawks. Sunlight shattered like fine gold across the undulating horizon.

Dover, the port city on the island of Britannia. The landing point for the Imperial Army’s large force facing the continent across the Strait of Dover.

At the fortress in the port city of Dover, the imperial commanders gathered after completing the final landings on the island of Britannia.

“Ah, Prince Philip.”

“……”

“And Cardinal Nikolai.”

“……!”

Dale, the eldest son of House Saxon, was also present. Alongside him stood Sepia, his aide-de-camp and a Sixth Circle elf mage. Facing the powerful figures of the Empire he loathed so deeply.

“You, you, you bastard, how dare you think this is the place to…!”

Seeing this, Philip, the spoiled brat of the Count’s family standing beside the Holy Knight, raised his voice.

The historical battle whispered about by connoisseurs… The defeated in the ‘Black and White Reversal’. A sacrifice for Dale’s fame.

That day, he recalls the bitter defeat on the battlefield. He recalls the days spent captive to the House of Saxony, enduring an unforgettable humiliation and degradation.

“Heh heh, the world is truly unfair, isn’t it?”

It was at that very moment. Lady Scarlet glanced at Philip and chuckled delightedly.

“……!”

For a moment, Philip’s lecherous gaze fixated blatantly on her cleavage. Lady Scarlet, as if to flaunt it further, loosened her clothing and continued speaking.

“In one war, there are sacrificial lambs who experience unforgettable humiliation and crushing defeat…”

Winking with an utterly bewitching smile.

“And then there’s the splendid man who, based on that victory and his exploits, spreads his fame throughout the entire empire.”

Not to Philip, but solely directed at Saxony’s Dale.

“That… that battle was nothing but a cunning and cowardly trick…!”

Just as Philip was about to raise his voice in refusal at Scarlet’s words.

“You worthless loser.”

The Holy Knight’s roar, devoid of even a shred of emotion, echoed back.

“You worthless fool, what makes you so arrogant as to dare speak ill of Saxony’s ‘Black Prince’?”

“Ah, Father…!”

“Please forgive your son’s rudeness.”

The Holy Knight bowed his head stoically toward Dale.

“Forgiveness?”

At those words, Dale sneered coldly.

“On the contrary, I feel an unparalleled gratitude toward Prince Philip.”

Recalling the victory that day, which had sent Dale’s stock soaring.

“Even the title ‘Black Prince’ I bear… would never have been an honor I could have earned without Prince Philip’s valiant struggle.”

Philip’s foolishness in clamoring for the jade seal until the very end of the Black and White Rotation. It was precisely that foolishness that transformed Dale into the very epitome of unparalleled malice and cruelty. As the ‘Black Prince,’ a military strategist par excellence who showed not a shred of mercy to his enemies.

“Ha! Don’t make me laugh…! That battle was never my defeat!”

Philip raised his voice as if he could not accept defeat.

“I… I absolutely did not lose to you!”

As if it were absolutely not his fault.

“It was all those incompetent subordinates disobeying my orders on a whim….”

They are shifting the blame onto the knights who were slaughtered to the last man for the sin of having an incompetent commander.

“Indeed, those knights were clearly inadequate to bear the ‘burden of Prince Philip’s vessel’.”

“Yes! That’s exactly right!”

Philip nodded vigorously at Dale’s words and raised his voice.

“Those worthless knights! How dare they defy my orders without knowing their place…!”

Blaming the knights of Fort Magdalene, slaughtered due to their incompetent commander, Philip raised his voice. It was truly an unspeakable spectacle.

“Shut your mouth.”

Unable to bear witness to his wayward son’s disgraceful behavior any longer, the Holy Knight finally broke his silence. Quietly, yet desperately suppressing rage boiling like magma.

“Shut your mouth this instant.”

The incompetent fool, oblivious to the mockery directed at him, desperately echoed Dale’s words. Suppressing the urge to beat his own son senseless right then and there, the Knight continued.

“If you utter another word of nonsense to my knights, I’ll throw you straight into the sea out there.”

“Heh, heh!”

At least the Count of Brandenburg was no fool. And in that crushing defeat, he recalled ‘his knights’ who had piled up mountains of corpses.

The eldest son of the House of Saxony was a monster that even a dullard like Philip could never hope to match, even if he devoted his entire life to the pursuit.

That made the humiliation and self-loathing squeeze his heart even tighter. Seeing his incompetent, trash-like son babbling away without a clue in front of that monster, for whom even the word ‘genius’ felt inadequate.

How could such an incompetent, worthless creature have been born from his own blood?

That is correct. It must be because the blood of the untalented is mixed in. That is why the daughter of the Divine Sword, Charlotte of Orhart, was needed. He believed that by mixing his own blood with hers, the blood of the Divine Sword, he could produce the ‘greatest swordsman’.

To truly produce the finest vessel worthy of the sacred sword.

But he failed. Because the sword before him now, the Prince, indeed the Duke of Saxony, had beaten him to it.

Moreover, when he heard intelligence that the very daughter of that Divine Sword was serving as a knight under the Saxon House, and then learned she had become a knight assisting the Saxon House’s eldest son, displaying her swordsmanship daily—the Holy Knight’s fury was beyond words.

Yet Count Brandenburg paid no heed to this.

For the daughter of the Divine Sword—or perhaps the ‘greatest vessel’ destined for something even greater—had appeared.

Right here, on the island of Britannia.

‘The Holy Maiden Aurelia…’

Upon hearing the full account of the events that unfolded on the island of Britannia, the Holy Knight did not hesitate.

The knight hailed as the goddess incarnate. The savior of the nation who reached the pinnacle of knighthood, the Avatar state.

‘I shall impregnate that woman with my seed and create the finest vessel worthy of the Holy Sword.’

Whenever he heard tales of her sword, Count Brandenburg could not contain his desire.

The twisted, distorted desire of a man toward eugenics. The desire to plant his seed within the womb of a virgin. And he was by no means the only one harboring such sinister intentions.

Though their individual targets may differ, this was the true substance of the ‘greater cause’ gathered under the banner of the empire.

Each concealing their own purpose, a bond that was nothing but a hollow facade. That ‘bond of mere pretense’ was ultimately the empire itself, and it was precisely for this reason that the empire could not rashly deploy the ‘non-standard powerhouse’ residing in the imperial capital.

‘It’s nothing but a complete mess of an organization.’

Dale was no exception to this.

“…Then let us begin the operational briefing.”

Gathering his thoughts, Dale opened his mouth softly. Or rather, he tried to.

“Yes, what gives you the right to issue orders to the proud Imperial Army, you worthless scum!”

Philip raised his voice at Dale, who was trying to take control of the situation. It was an inferiority complex so desperate it bordered on pathetic.

“Ah, then I shall kindly keep my mouth shut.”

Dale shrugged his shoulders and fell silent.

“Heh heh, Philip.”

Lady Scarlet opened her lips softly, her voice dripping with the seductive charm and allure that could make the lecherous Philip lose his mind.

“Le, Lady Scarlet?”

At Scarlet’s meaningful smile, Philip looked at her with a flicker of hope.

“Would you kindly shut that disgusting, pig-smelling mouth of yours?”

Immediately afterward, a cold reply devoid of even a shred of emotion came back.

“A worthless, useless boar that can’t even hold a candle to the tip of Lord Dale’s toe.”

“……!”

“How pathetic—wallowing in inferiority, grunting like a pig without a clue.”

Her expression was as cold as if she were looking at a bug. It was a chill that couldn’t even be compared to the attitude she had shown before in Dale’s presence. Yet, the malice that flickered across her face was but a fleeting moment.

“Heh heh, compared to that, what a shining example Young Master Dale is!”

Scarlet turns her head toward Dale.

“Oh my, I can hardly wait to see what Prince Dale will do next!”

Scarlet’s blatant coquetry, dripping with blatant flirtation and unable to contain her rapture, caused Sepia’s expression to freeze. Dale paid no heed and simply turned his head away.

“Eeeeeek…!”

There, trembling violently under the deluge of humiliation pouring in from all sides, was the lecherous Philip.

‘That bastard, he’s going to cause a real mess if he keeps that up.’

Two rival factions coexisted on the island of Britannia.

The Empire’s Governor… The imperial territory ruling over the island of Britannia under the governance of the ‘Governor of Burgundy’. And the new territory of the ‘New Kingdom of Britannia’, reclaimed by the Britannian Independence Army under the command of the Holy Maiden Aurelia.

Around that time, it was not difficult to anticipate the Holy Maiden’s objective as she began advancing at the head of the independence army.

The heart of the former Kingdom of Britannia, still beyond their grasp. The city where generations of Britannian royal heirs held their coronations, and which served as the kingdom’s capital.

It was Reims.

Therefore, the Imperial forces that had landed on the island of Britannia also began their maneuvers in step with the independence army’s movements. To achieve a swift and decisive conclusion, and furthermore, to intertwine their respective objectives and interests.

Leaving behind the dark desires stirring in every direction, the curtain of war finally began to rise.