Helios Orb Chronicle – Chapter 291

Thanks to Sister Hilde’s command, I was able to defeat Luther Ruin Solemn, the second prince of the Solemn Empire, who was my true enemy.

From the interrogation of Reine, who was about to invade Esperanza, we knew that high-ranking officials of Solemn had been in contact with Leonas and Reine, but we didn’t know who those officials were.
However, we did learn that those officials were involved in my father’s assassination.
I hadn’t expected that high-ranking official to be Luther, but I am truly grateful to Sister Hilde for letting me defeat him with my own hands.
Camellia felt the same, so I thought I’d at least let her get one strike in, but Camellia didn’t draw her sword and chose to use Fire Lance instead.
Later, she told me that taking Luther’s life would cause problems later on, so she wanted to infuse her feelings into it by using magic of the same type as mine.
I never expected her to think that far ahead, but I can appreciate her excellent decision.

Right after that, Brother Rai and his group arrived.

“We’re late. How’s it going here?”
“More importantly, who are these people?”
“They are the Queen and Princesses.”

I had no choice but to explain that there was a prince, and since I had burned everything from the neck down, I cut in before Sister Hilde could continue.

“I see. So Prince Airgaitz was superior in military power, and Prince Luther was superior in intelligence.”
“That would be the case. However, it doesn’t change the fact that both of them were utter scums.”
“I agree.”

Just being royalty of Solemn is enough to confirm they are worthless.
Well, even Airgaitz, who was thought to be superior in military power, didn’t evolve into a high-class being.

“I understand. I’ll leave the handling of the Queen and Princesses to Hilde.”
“Is that alright?”
“Wasn’t that the plan all along?”
“Understood. Then, after everything is over, we shall have them publicly executed.”

The Queen and Princesses turned pale and began to cry at Sister Hilde’s pronouncement.
Whether they would actually be executed or not would likely depend on the results of the investigation.

At Sister Hilde’s instruction, Saber, who had captured the Queen and Princesses, led them out of the Audience Chamber.
They said they would use Hearsay for interrogation, but since it would look bad to throw them into the dungeons, they would be confined to their respective private rooms, and the Order would also be present during the interrogations.

“How are things in the city?”
“We’ve deployed the Order for public order and information gathering, but it’s still too early to say.”

I thought so.
However, in other cities, the soldiers had too much power and did whatever they pleased, so there was no public order to speak of.
Therefore, I thought that Deseo, the heart of the Empire, would be similar.

“What about the slums?”
“According to Snow Blossom, there was a formidable woman who was like the queen of the slums. I haven’t heard the details yet, but it seems she’s welcoming the Allied Forces.”

Lady Maruca, my sister-in-law, answered, but doesn’t that simply mean that the Solemn army treated civilians roughly?

“I’ve only heard bits and pieces, but that seems to be the case. Especially for the children, they sometimes struggled to find food for the day. So, Lily Wish, who heard about it, is currently providing food.”

Children were starving in Solemn, a place that should have had no trouble with food?
That’s pretty bad, isn’t it?

“It’s not just the Emperor, but for the nobles of Solemn, the slum dwellers are not considered their people.”
“They drove them off their land for their own convenience, but there was no compensation or support. How selfish.”

That’s a rather selfish thing to say.

As in any country, the power of royalty and nobles is strong.
However, there are many fools who misunderstand this and act lawlessly.
There are few nobles who do such things in Amister or Torencia, and if there are, they are punished quickly, but it’s not uncommon in Valiente, Valentia, or Libertà.
From what I’ve heard, it seems like all the nobles of Solemn are like that, so post-war governance is going to be quite difficult.

“Excuse me.”

As I was about to ask more about the situation in the slums, Saber and Hunter brought in one man.

“Your Majesty, I have a report. We have captured the Emperor of the Solemn Empire, Osckred Ruin Solemn. There were about 30 followers and soldiers accompanying him, so we had no choice but to defeat them.”
“Thank you for your efforts. Are there any injured?”
“None.”
“That’s good. As for the escorts, we notified you beforehand, so there’s no problem. Well done capturing the Emperor.”
“Your words are too kind.”

Emperor Osckred Ruin Solemn was a human man in his early fifties.

The Philia Continent had united to repel the invasions of Abaricia, which had occurred several times over the past 200 years. However, since then, successive emperors had been launching wars against neighboring countries under the pretext of confronting Abaricia.
Several small countries at the time were occupied and placed under their rule.
Moreover, despite claiming to be confronting Abaricia, records show that during the personal campaign of the Abyssal Emperor, they were busy invading neighboring countries and did not send a single troop for reinforcements.
That Divine Emperor was repelled by five Ancient Class individuals at the time, but it is said that it was all they could do to drive him back, as the Divine Emperor was an Engraver and Creator, like Yamato and Mako.
As a result of not dispatching troops during the Divine Emperor’s personal campaign, the Emperor at the time eased his invasions of other countries, but this plunged the Philia Continent into war, and the Valentia United Kingdom, the Libertarian Federation, and the Retysentia Empire were founded.

While Solemn was not pleased, large-scale damage began to occur within Solemn due to the birth of the Antlion Empress, the Labyrinth Flood, and the Labyrinth Exile, and they repeatedly asked Torencia for help, dispatching Master Kazushi and Lady Eliel multiple times to save them from their national crisis.
At the same time that Master Kazushi and Lady Eliel died, they declared war on Torencia, and it was this man before us, Osckred Ruin Solemn, who did it.

“Finally, we meet, Emperor Osckred Ruin Solemn. I am Hildegard Minato Torencia, Queen of the Torencia Phantom Kingdom.”
“I am Reinhardt Rei Amister, King of the Amister Kingdom.”

The Emperor Osckred’s face, muzzled, showed surprise as Sister Hilde and Brother Rai introduced themselves.
Furthermore, Sister Hilde instructed Saber to remove Osckred’s muzzle.

“You insolent fools! Take it off at once!”
“Who is the insolent one here? Wasn’t it Solemn that attacked other countries with arbitrary claims and disrupted the peace of the Philia Continent?”
“It was all to defeat Abaricia! That’s why we obtained the blueprints for the Steam Battleship, Abaricia’s most important secret, and succeeded in mass-producing them!”

Osckred roars, but he seriously believes that with such scrap metal he can outwit Abaricia.
Earlier, Yamato and Sayuri had suggested that Abaricia might have intentionally leaked information about the Steam Battleship to Solemn. Could this confirm it?

“Indeed, looking at the Rod Piece of Valiente, Ovest, and the bridge city of Libertà, one can say that the Steam Battleship is a formidable weapon. However, countermeasures have already been taken, and more importantly, my Amister has developed ships that are far more powerful than the Steam Battleship. They are not equipped with useless things like cannons, but their speed is more than twice that of the Steam Battleship.”

The ships Brother Rai is referring to are the Hydro-Engine powered ships developed by Yamato based on knowledge from Earth.
It has the advantage of being usable with existing ships, so there’s no need to build new ones from scratch, but it’s also thought that they might be more fragile.

However, our Tenju Manufacturing Beast Carriages are also mounted on ships with hulls made of full Jade Silver, which are designed to incorporate Hydro-Engines, and during trial runs in Alka, they reached speeds of 60 kilometers per hour.

“W-what do you say?”
“Fundamentally, Steam Battleships are too wasteful. Moreover, such defects would be obsolete even for Abaricia. Yamato.”

Prompted by Brother Rai, Yamato stood before a stunned Osckred.

“I am Yamato Hydrangea Mikami. I am an O-Rank Order of Amister, and also a guest.”
“A-a guest!?”
“Yes. In my world, Steam Battleships are extremely old models, so there’s no way the Abyssal Emperor, also a guest, wouldn’t know that. Furthermore, Abaricia is also the origin of Divine Metal. In other words, the battleships, cannons, and shells are all made of Divine Metal. You cannot possibly win against something as outdated as a Steam Battleship, no matter how hard you try.”

If Abaricia’s ships were made of Divine Metal, equipped with the Hydro-Engines we use, and fired Divine Metal cannons and shells, Solemn’s iron Steam Battleships would not even be a match.
It’s likely that Abaricia intended to unify the Philia Continent by intentionally leaking information about the Steam Battleship to Solemn, and then defeat Solemn to achieve the unification of the Helios Orb.

“W-what do you say?”
“To not even understand such a thing, you are truly an idiot.”

Yamato looked at Osckred with pity, and Osckred’s face turned red with anger.

“You! To me, who will rule the Philia Continent, no, the Helios Orb, and become the new god, how can you be so arrogant and presumptuous!”
“Are you really fit to be god? You abandoned your family and fled when the Allied Forces arrived in Deseo.”

I completely agree.
A coward who runs away to save his own life becomes a god; that’s a pipe dream.

“A coward who flees to save himself claiming to be a god is absurd.”
“Indeed.”

Saying so, Sister Hilde took out the Snowhill Crescent from storage.

For this personal campaign, Sister Hilde had given Queen’s Sickle, the scythe used by Lady Eliel, to her younger sister, Hilde.
As Queen’s Sickle is also a symbol of the Queen of Torencia, it would be passed to the next queen, Hilde, first.
Normally, the Divine Metal Queen’s Sickle would be Sister Hilde’s primary weapon, but now that she has the Lapis Lazuli Snowhill Crescent, there’s no need to cling to Divine Metal so much.

“I have no intention of speaking with you any further. All we desire is your head. You, who were saved from numerous national crises by our founding king Master Kazushi and Lady Eliel, declared war on our Torencia the moment they died, and without realizing you were being manipulated by Abaricia, joyfully disturbed the peace of the Philia Continent, are no king.”
“Your country, not even the city at your doorstep, is being governed properly. It is truly pitiable for the people to have such an incompetent as their king.”
“W-wait! I promise I will never advance on Torencia again!”

Osckred, trembling before Sister Hilde holding the Snowhill Crescent, begged for his life.
How pathetic.

“Your father had promised Master Kazushi and Lady Eliel that he would not invade our country or any other country. Yet, the moment those two died, you broke that promise and declared war on our country, was that not you? Do you really think such lies are believable?”

That’s also a well-known story.
Master Shinichi could not help Solemn because his friends were held hostage, but Master Kazushi and Lady Eliel often visited, as they were neighboring countries separated by sea.
Even though they helped with the Labyrinth Flood, Abnormal Species, and Catastrophe Species, the moment they died, you turned your back on them, declared war on Torencia, and have been sending troops every year. There is no element of trust.

“Emperor Osckred Ruin Solemn, this war will end with your head. I do not believe you, an infidel, will be able to go to the afterlife, but as a small mercy, I will grant you a painless death.”

Saying so, Sister Hilde swung the Snowhill Crescent diagonally across her body.

“I am… a god of… the Helios Orb…”

As his left arm was severed and his body was about to be split in two, Osckred uttered his nonsense.
However, Sister Hilde did not hesitate and swept the Snowhill Crescent horizontally.
Osckred’s head flew through the air, and his body collapsed weakly.

“The long war with Solemn is now concluded. Well done, everyone.”

Without even looking at Osckred’s head rolling in the Audience Chamber, Sister Hilde declared the end of the war, and cheers erupted from the Hunters, Order members, and Sabers present in the Audience Chamber.

There are still many minor issues, but with this, the country of Solemn has fallen.
The territory of Solemn will be jointly governed by Amister and Torencia, but for the time being, Sister Hilde will be the representative.
However, she cannot govern alone, and the arrogant nobles in the territory are unlikely to obey, so we intend to help her.