**Side: Prim**
I took Leonas’s provocation head-on, and my strike was parried by his sword. Then, he pressed a slave magic tool he had hidden in his left hand against me.
“I did it! I finally did it! Now, Prim, you’re mine!”
Leonas cried out in joy, but the Beast Knights and the Anti-Beast King Organization members turned pale.
It’s no wonder.
I don’t think Reine would hesitate to use a slave magic tool now, but for the Anti-Beast King Organization and the Beast Knights, it’s an absolute taboo.
Yet, the former prince, who is also the leader of the Anti-Beast King Organization, used this forbidden magic tool without hesitation.
Reine probably intended to use it to abduct His Holiness the Pope.
“Prim, you’re mine! Now, accept me as proof!”
Leonas, who wouldn’t hesitate to lay hands on a married woman, saw no issue with my marital status.
However, since he wasn’t confident he could defeat me head-on, he prepared a slave magic tool, I suppose.
Well, it didn’t work on me.
“Gah!”
As Leonas brought his lecherous face closer, I punched him with my left fist.
It was utterly disgusting.
“Wh-why!?”
“You didn’t know, did you? Ancient Classes are immune to slave magic tools.”
This has been a proven fact for nearly 200 years.
Although Solemne, who tried to enslave an Ancient Class, had his army annihilated by Shinichi of Bacion, an Ancient Class, and almost perished.
Since then, Solemne has not dared to interfere with Ancient Classes.
Furthermore, Solemne, who cannot use Innate Magic, cannot even create magic tools. This slave magic tool is likely a relic from the past or a shoddy item obtained from Retisencia.
“Huh? Ancient Class? Wait, Prim, are you one?”
“I figured you’d have at least some kind of slave magic tool. That’s why I was holding back earlier. And don’t call my name so casually… it makes me sick.”
He really didn’t know I was Ancient Foxy.
For Leonas, even the Anti-Beast King Organization might have just been a tool for him to satisfy his lust for women.
But none of that matters.
The fact that he used a slave magic tool on me without hesitation means he won’t hesitate in the future either, and it’s highly possible he has used one before.
In short, I can definitively say this man has become a menace not only to me but to the world.
“Wh-what… what is that absurd magic power…!”
“Didn’t I tell you? What I want is your life.”
It’s a waste on someone like Leonas, but I’ll burn him to ashes with these Blazing Wings.
“D-defend Lord Leonas! If anything happens to Lord Leonas, we are ruined!”
At Reine’s confused command, the Beast Knights and the Anti-Beast King Organization drew their weapons and advanced towards us.
But they were stopped by a massive slash.
“I won’t let you interfere.”
The Sterling Divider of Mana carved a large gash into the ground.
The sudden appearance of a huge gash in front of them made the Beast Knights and the Anti-Beast King Organization halt, and Reine wore an expression of shock.
“Wh-wha….”
“Farewell, Leonas. I won’t leave a corpse, so you can’t go to the underworld.”
Taking advantage of the opening, I channeled magic into my Blazing Wings and unleashed the Seraphim Striker.
The Seraphim Striker, which shoots only the flames of the Seraphim Penetrator, was amplified by the wind and cloaked in lightning as it assailed Leonas.
It struck Leonas, pierced him, and simultaneously erupted into a colossal pillar of flame, a column of lightning rising from the ground to incinerate his body and erase him from this world.
“Wh-what….”
“Now, Reine. It’s your turn. You betrayed your people and your country for your own ambitions, and you even betrayed my father. You will pay for your sins.”
My father’s execution was not Gumnos’s arbitrary decision.
The Prime Minister and Central Baron Streihait, Southern Baron Gilfa Trial, and Eastern Baron Reine Estait sold my father to Gumnos for their own ambitions, and my father was reluctantly executed. That was the truth.
That’s why Gumnos readily accepted my and Mother’s asylum and even apologized.
Although I haven’t confirmed it with my own eyes yet, Reine is here with the Beast Knights, coordinating with the Anti-Beast King Organization to abduct Pope Bacion, so her involvement is beyond doubt.
“Reine Estait, I have something to tell you. Amister is preparing to incorporate Bacion back into Amister’s territory to protect the Bacion Papal State. His Holiness the Pope has already agreed to this. At the same time, we demand the cession of the Estait Baronial territory from Valentia as compensation for this recent mishap. You understand what this means, don’t you?”
“Wh-what!?”
Reine was speechless at Mana’s words.
Brother Rai had already informed His Holiness the Pope about Bacion’s incorporation into Amister.
The upper echelons of Bacion had long wished for incorporation into Amister, so they readily agreed.
The Bacion Papal State will cease to exist soon and will be treated as a direct territory of the Amister Royal Family, although it hasn’t been officially announced yet.
The cession of the Estait Baronial territory is news to me as well, but since Reine has already become a living menace, her downfall is a foregone conclusion.
However, Estait will undoubtedly fall into disarray without a lord.
Therefore, Amister intends to incorporate it to prevent the deterioration of public order and to erode Solemne’s influence.
“To the Beast Knights: If you turn back now, your crimes will not be investigated. As per the lord’s orders, you proud Beast Knights who have sworn loyalty cannot disobey. However, that lord has betrayed the country, betrayed the people, and even betrayed you. There is no need for proud Beast Knights to serve such a foolish lord.”
Furthermore, Mana appealed to the pride of the Beast Knights.
If the Beast Knights were to follow Reine, we wouldn’t hesitate to act, but if not, we want them to return to Estait and work for its people.
As I thought that, one Beast Knight stepped forward.
“Your Highness Manalease, is what you said earlier true?”
“Yes, it is true. The annexation of the Estait Baronial territory needs to be communicated to His Majesty the Beast King, but Amister cannot overlook this matter. In the first place, that woman is colluding with Solemne solely to gain the throne. There’s no guarantee Solemne will keep such a promise, and above all, if Valentia is annexed or becomes a subordinate country to Solemne, Amister cannot simply stand by.”
As Mana said, if the entire Valentia falls under Solemne’s control, it’s likely that all Guilds will be expelled, similar to Solemne’s home country.
If that happens, Valentia will surely fall into chaos, and rebellions will break out everywhere.
If it becomes a subordinate country, the situation will be even worse, and the people of Valentia will be no different from slaves supplying magic tools to Solemne.
I don’t wish for such a state of affairs, so I’d rather be annexed by Amister than let that happen.
“…Understood. Your Highness Manalease, I will believe your words.”
“D-Captain!? Are you saying you will surrender to Amister!?”
“Are you going to betray Lady Reine!?”
“If you think so, then do as you please. I have no intention of siding with Solemne. I chose the path of a Beast Knight to protect the people, and to continue betraying those people would be a disgrace for a Beast Knight.”
It seems the captain of the Beast Knights is a proper individual.
There are some Beast Knights arguing with the captain, but they seem like Reine’s private soldiers.
“Thank you. I will make every effort. Ah, we will annihilate the Anti-Beast King Organization here, so please stay away and avoid getting caught.”
“Understood.”
With that, the captain and the Beast Knights who followed him withdrew from the frontline.
What remained were about 20 Beast Knights who appeared to be Reine’s private soldiers and the Anti-Beast King Organization.
But our Orders are ready as well.
“Notification to the Orders! Annihilate the remaining Beast Knights and the Anti-Beast King Organization! By allying with Solemne, they are a great enemy to us as well!”
“Everyone, follow Your Highness Manalease and Lady Primrose!”
“““Ooooooh!”””
Following Mana and Miranda’s commands, the Orders advanced with a war cry.
The subsequent battle was one-sided.
All the Royal Orders were High Class, and Lydia and Ludia were nearly Ancient Class.
Moreover, Mana and I were Ancient Class. With the main force of Beast Knights gone, the Anti-Beast King Organization was no match for us.
However, having lost Leonas, the Anti-Beast King Organization had nothing left to lose, so they fought desperately.
As a result, the Normal Orders suffered considerable casualties.
“H-let go! Let go, you disrespectful wretch!”
Reine, whom we succeeded in capturing, cried out, but she should be grateful to be alive.
“There’s something I want to ask you. To what extent was Solemne involved in this incident, who else was involved, and what was Solemne trying to do? Tell me everything you know.”
Since she is one of the people responsible for my father’s death, I wanted to take revenge here.
However, I couldn’t afford to discard the information Reine possessed, and more importantly, since I had annihilated Leonas, I couldn’t act recklessly anymore.
“Miranda, what’s the casualty report?”
“Yes. 32 injured, 6 dead. All from the Normal Orders.”
“…I see. Overall casualties can be considered minimal, but we forced them into a reckless battle.”
The Third Squad consists of 43 Normal Class and 7 High Class members. This means all the Normal Class members, except for the archers, were either killed or injured.
The High Class members are unharmed. This is largely due to the fact that there were no more than 20 High Class members on the enemy side.
They were probably counting on the High Class Beast Knights, but with Mana’s declaration, most of the Beast Knights withdrew from the front lines, so we managed to keep our casualties this low.
Still, there were casualties, so I hesitate to call this “low damage.”
“After being taken to Bacion, Reine will be made to use slave magic. Until then, she will be bound and strictly monitored on deck.”
“Yes!”
Well, we didn’t build any cells, and I didn’t bring the slave magic tool, so we have no choice but to keep a close watch.
However, if we put her inside the Beast Carriage, there’s a risk she could use magic from within, so we can only leave her on deck.
“What, it’s already over?”
“It was quite fast.”
At that moment, Yamato and Mako arrived on Jade.
I remember they said they’d come here after the Steam Battleship battle was over.
“Well, yes. The Anti-Beast King Organization was larger than we expected, but considering their objective was to abduct His Holiness the Pope, it’s not surprising they deployed their entire force.”
“I see someone tied up like a pretzel on top of a Beast Carriage, is that perhaps Baron Reine?”
“Yes. Leonas was also here, but Prim completely incinerated him without leaving a trace.”
“She’s High Class, and she even used a slave magic tool, so capturing her was difficult.”
“A slave magic tool? Was it on Prim?”
A look of anxiety and anger flashed across Yamato’s face.
Yamato knows that slave magic tools don’t work on Ancient Classes, but he probably thinks this is a different matter.
For my part, I’m very pleased.
“Yeah. But Prim also maneuvered him into using the slave magic tool, even though she knew it wouldn’t work. Normally, one wouldn’t do that, would they?”
I know it sounds bad, but it was necessary to corner Leonas.
No, come to think of it, I could have probably just burned him to a crisp without doing something like that.
“A-are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m alright.”
“I see. Still, to think she had something like that… I should have come over here myself.”
“Yamato, you are a General Order, so you can’t just do that.”
That’s right.
Having been appointed a General Order in this battle, Yamato was absolutely needed to deal with Solemne.
Mina, who was appointed a Secondary Order, also had to be here. We didn’t know if she would come for sure, and she was our insurance. It was unthinkable for a General Order or Secondary Order to not be present.
After hearing Yamato’s report on the Steam Battleship battle, it seems we had a decisive victory.
Not a single casualty or even injured among the High Class. Rather than a decisive victory, it was a complete victory.
However, this proves that we can counter Steam Battleships, so I should be able to report favorably to Torencia.
