By the time dawn broke, everything was over.
On the deck of the Einhorn, I watched the sunrise while talking with Finn, who was drinking coffee.
"Why coffee?"
"Because it's morning."
"There's tea, too."
"I'm a coffee person in the morning."
"Tch! Coffee people are the enemy."
"What an attitude!"
Why were we, who had pulled an all-nighter, out on the deck?
The reason was the surroundings.
We had gathered our friends from the same group and were heading for the Fraser family territory.
The reason was to show the people of the Rachel Holy Kingdom who I was.
To give them a greeting along the lines of, "You people of the Holy Kingdom, you've really done it now, you bastards!"
As for why Finn had come along, it was because of the magic armor fragments that had rampaged in the royal capital.
If the same thing was deployed at the border, he apparently wanted to recover them.
"You could have stayed in the capital."
"I could help with the cleanup, but I'm curious about this too. More importantly, are you all right?"
"...What do you mean?"
Finn, still drinking his coffee, looked at the sun.
"The mental thing."
Had this guy noticed too?
"This time the burden was light, so... Well, I couldn't save Lyutoart, but that was his own doing."
"Even when you think that, the heart is a troublesome thing."
"What about you?"
Finn had probably been through a lot too, but he didn't seem as cornered as I was.
"Fortunately, I haven't participated in a war. Most of the medals I've earned are from exterminating rampaging magic armor fragments. I know the users can't be saved, so I've decided to just be ruthless about it."
Once used, there's no saving them.
Magic armor fragments are truly troublesome things.
"If I could be ruthless, it would be easier for me too..."
"Who knows? If you get weirdly callous and start enjoying it, you'll be done as a human being."
I've heard that before in my previous life.
The story of how one's senses go numb on the battlefield, and you become able to do cruel things without flinching.
"...I'd hate that."
War easily drives people insane.
I thought that while looking at the sunrise.
◇
The royal capital.
In the palace, Angie was issuing one order after another.
"Cleare, what about reserve personnel?"
'There aren't any mo~re! ...Why not honestly rely on the feudal lords?'
"We can't show weakness. Leon said he'd do it alone. If we ask for help, some will laugh at him."
'That would be a problem. Because then I'd want to burn the laughing ones, so shall I change the priorities?'
When dawn broke, all the coup ringleaders had been captured.
The betraying nobles had also been caught, and the Holy Kingdom's special forces were restrained.
In just one night, they'd cleaned up a huge mess.
'Yeah, perfect!'
Angie turned a tired face toward the delighted Cleare.
"This isn't over yet."
'I know. If we go too far, then we'll have to deal with the wary nobles next, right?'
"That's right."
We've done this much already.
Like it or not, Leon will be watched with caution.
They'll think he's still hiding his true strength, and the nobles will make their moves.
Livia, not well-versed in such matters, asked Angie for a detailed explanation.
"Um, what's going to happen from now on?"
"From now on, various countries will try to undermine the feudal lords. The current royal family has no cohesive power. To unite them, we have no choice but to show our strength, but—"
Julius, who was drinking tea, answered the rest.
"We can't show a force greater than Bartfort. In other words, for the royals to display military might, they need to bring Bartfort into the fold. However, Bartfort hates marriage."
Angie looked slightly pleased.
"If even Lady Erica is no good, then the kingdom has no princess to offer. Pushing an infant onto Leon as a bride won't work either."
They wanted a child from Leon and a royal princess as soon as possible.
That would be the strongest proof of the bond between the two families.
Perhaps that child could inherit the Lost Item.
If that happened, the royal family could obtain Luxion as the "second royal ship."
—But that was out too.
Because Leon wouldn't allow it.
"U-Um—so, in other words, it's still unclear, right?"
Julius drained his tea and turned his gaze back to the map.
"It would actually be easier if Bartfort seriously aimed for the throne."
Hearing that, Angie's cheek twitched.
"Your Highness, are you serious?"
"Huh? I think it's a brilliant idea."
"No, that's not what I meant—as a prince, how can you think like that?"
Julius, as if he'd just remembered he was a prince, went "Ah... yeah, you're right," and Livia was completely put off by his attitude.
◇
Roland's bedroom.
Yawning, Roland was eating meat from the morning.
The court physician watched him with concern.
"Your Majesty, please don't eat meat as soon as you wake up."
Roland looked well and was heartily eating steak.
"I'm hungry. But your medicine works well."
Watching Roland laugh heartily, the physician's shoulders drooped.
"It's not funny to fake a poisoning. And moreover, to fabricate even my hobbies."
"That girl believed it, didn't she? But did she seriously think she could seduce me with a girl of that level? I was half-worried my scheme might get exposed partway through."
Merce was so terrible that even the Forest of Ladies would be concerned.
"If you intended to prevent rebellion by feeding false information, shouldn't the medicine have been harmless?"
Roland put on a serious expression.
"Then I wouldn't have been able to deceive everyone. And I didn't know the boy's true abilities. So, how did it go?"
When Roland asked, the physician began a detailed report.
"It was resolved overnight. The Holy Kingdom's special forces were also restrained."
Hearing how Leon had efficiently suppressed the rebellion, Roland folded his arms and pondered.
(Without being told, he made good use of the forces I prepared—he's better than I imagined.)
He'd never doubted Leon's ability from the start.
That's why he'd faked a critical condition with medicine.
He knew that if he dumped the trouble on Leon, it would be resolved.
However, he was curious about the level of damage.
The result exceeded expectations.
"My instincts were right."
"Don't do weird things based on instincts! I couldn't stop sweating cold sweat!"
"Don't get so angry. But now that it's come to this, Mylene is a problem."
"You mean the Queen? Well, she'll be furious when she learns the truth."
"No. I'll keep quiet about the poison, so that's fine. The problem is the boy's ability. Right now, she's probably trembling at the fact that he's beyond her imagination. She's excellent, but that's precisely why she tries to predict an opponent's strength. She has a bad habit of panicking when something unexpected happens. Well, with ordinary opponents it wouldn't matter—but this time, it's impossible."
Roland said he didn't know how Mylene would move.
But, still.
"That boy will suffer. — Serves him right."
Roland decided to enjoy watching from the sidelines how things would unfold between Mylene and Leon.
◇
Mylene, in her room, held her head as she listened to the report.
"Resolved in just one night."
And an almost perfect outcome at that.
The rebellion in the capital was settled overnight, and now they were even sending reinforcements to the Fraser family.
They'd secured evidence that the Holy Kingdom had been pulling the strings, a result that couldn't be better.
Moreover, the damage to the capital was far less than expected.
"This... there's nothing I can do, is there?"
Leon hadn't shown mere military might; he'd demonstrated the ability to perfectly overcome this troublesome situation.
Information gathering, communication—and various other capabilities had surpassed Mylene's imagination.
She collapsed on the spot.
"The things I was trying to protect... to him, they must have been of little value."
She had misjudged Leon.
She didn't think it was a mistake to try to force a marriage and draw him to the royal family's side.
But at this rate, what was meant to absorb him would end up being taken over.
Mylene felt as if she'd been toyed with in the palm of Leon's hand.
"What a really cruel child."
So saying, Mylene laughed and shed tears.
◇
The border that the Fraser family defended.
There, the Kingdom army and the Holy Kingdom army faced off.
Amidst that, I was...
"Why don't you come forward more! I'll invite you all the way to the Kingdom!"
—laughing as I used Arroganz to push the enemy flagship toward the Kingdom's side on the battlefield.
Arroganz was forcibly pushing the flying ship.
The surrounding enemy ships could only watch, unable to fire on the flagship.
Occasionally, enemy knights tried to peel me off, but they were shot down by the drones.
'It's being pushed!'
'It's impossible! We can't resist!'
'We're entering the Kingdom army's range!'
I could hear voices from inside the enemy ship.
When I pulled the control stick, Arroganz increased its power and kept pushing.
The enemy flagship ended up right in the middle of both armies.
Our allies weren't firing either.
"Welcome, people of the Holy Kingdom! I'll serve you some delicious tea!"
The magic armor resembling Lyutoart that had appeared on the battlefield was destroyed by Finn.
The enemy commander, having witnessed that, was barking orders in a rage.
'Don't let them steal the magic armor!'
'Impossible! The Kingdom army is advancing toward us!'
'Damn you!'
The Rachel Holy Kingdom.
Its trump card seemed to be magic armor that was made to rampage using drugs.
Like the old black knight, they'd thrown them onto the battlefield as lumps of flesh unable to maintain their armor form.
"No wonder Mylene's family has it tough."
Luxion gave a prediction.
'Deploying them could temporarily deal heavy damage to the enemy, but the issue is their operating time. They soon become unusable, and moreover, securing pilots seems difficult.'
Was it loyalty, or some kind of brainwashing?
The pilots tried to attack the Kingdom army.
"...It's disgusting. Have Finn recover all of them."
'He seems to intend to do just that.'
When I looked at Finn, he was going around destroying the rampaging magic armor together with Blacky.
'That makes three!'
Finn called out to the excited Blacky.
'Blacky. It's over already. We'll pull back for now.'
'Alrighty!'
Then, knights from the Holy Kingdom attacked Finn.
'Get the heretic knight!'
Suddenly called a heretic knight, Finn was bewildered.
'Hey, hold on! What's a heretic knight?!'
I said to the flustered Finn,
"Ah, that's my nickname."
'...What a terrible nickname.'
Having all their magic armor destroyed and their flagship captured, the Holy Kingdom army began to retreat.
But the Kingdom army wouldn't let them go.
'The flagship of the Redgrave family will advance.'
When Luxion said that and I looked, the nobles had begun a pursuit battle.
As I watched them go, Fraser family flying ships gathered around the Holy Kingdom flagship.
"...What will happen to the enemy?"
'From the way things have gone, the pursuit will likely be fierce. With this, the Kingdom can keep this troublesome enemy quiet for a while.'
Allied armor gathered around me.
Amidst that, I covered my face with both hands.
"I see. ...I'm pulling back."
'A wise decision.'
"Anyway, give me some medicine. I want to sleep a little."
'...Administering.'
A needle pierced from the backpack on my pilot suit, and the medicine was administered.
Luxion, who usually nagged me not to overuse it, used it without a word.
Did I look more at my limit to others than I thought?
"I'll leave the rest to you."
'Good night, Master.'
◇
Reports of victory arrived at the royal palace from various places three days later.
It seemed the enemy, not expecting the Kingdom army to deploy its forces so quickly and massively, was thrown into confusion.
Angie, after hearing the report, compiled it into documents and came to report to Mylene.
Mylene, reading the report in her office, didn't have a prickly atmosphere.
But to Angie, Mylene now seemed frightening.
"A splendid victory. Now my family can rest easy. Thank you, Angelica."
"...No, it's all thanks to Leon."
"Truly amazing. It's beyond imagination. So now, is it just a matter of sending us to the execution block?"
Angie shook her head.
"Lady Mylene, Leon does not wish for such a thing."
Mylene's expression didn't change.
Smiling, she told Angie.
"You're naive. Even if you don't desire it, those around you will seek a stronger king. From now on, they'll do everything to win over Duke Bartfort. The Redgrave family has good judgment. I truly envy you."
"Lady Mylene!"
"...Angelica, prepare yourself. The path you've chosen is that kind of path."
"I won't let Leon do such a thing!"
"Even if he doesn't, someone else will do it in his stead. And—that is right. This country needs a new royal family."
If they didn't want an era of warring states, Mylene was saying to kill them and take the throne.
"That is the path that will leave the fewest people dead."
Mylene wore a face that had given up on many things.
"...Only, if you'll forgive one thing, please save Erica. Julius will be beyond saving, but that child will marry into the Fraser family, so I hope for leniency."
"If only you had consulted us sooner!"
"Consulting wouldn't have changed anything. Ever since the war with the Principality, it was already decided that this would happen."
In the end, even if Leon declared he would stand by the royal family, those around would see a chance to exploit.
Vince is a son-in-law, so he would try to persuade too.
The reason they tried to marry Erica to him was that they sought an unshakable bond.
—To formally take the Lost Item from Leon, having it passed on to his children or grandchildren is the easiest way.
"There's nothing more to say. Leave the room now."
Angie went outside.
And there, waiting, was Clarice.