Chapter 83

Imperial Capital Fracture

“All preparations are complete.”

“……”

“We’ve supplied weapons to all the personnel you requested, and the related drugs have been distributed. The only thing left is the assault. All we need is your signal.”

“……”

“The Puppeteer guy did make his exit in a weird spot… but if he revives later, I’d love to hear the story. Can’t believe the lowest-ranked bastard dumped his work on someone else.”

“……”

The prince, who had been silently listening, slowly opened his closed eyes and looked at the speaker.

Reading the emotion in his gaze, the woman let out a small chuckle.

“What’s that look for now? Don’t tell me you’re doubting us.”

“If I trusted you too easily, that would be the real problem. Keep your promise.”

The woman scoffed, almost incredulous.

“Oh please, Prince. Isn’t breaking promises something only humans do?”

“……”

“We’re offering you the Empire and its subjects. In return, you offer us a ‘sacrifice.’ That’s the deal. We’re shady, dangerous, and love schemes and intrigue… but we’ve never broken a promise. Unlike your kind, it’s a code bound to our entire species.”

“……”

“No matter what you say about us, that one truth remains unchanged. That’s why we even brought something like this to prove our commitment.”

With those words, she dropped something in front of the prince.

A vial.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the Beastification Potion the Puppeteer made. The same one you gave to the humans you’ve been gathering. But this one’s special—set aside just for you.”

“…Such touching consideration.”

“That Aiden Kellermain.”

Unfazed by the prince’s sarcasm, the woman met his gaze and continued.

“He’ll get in your way again.”

“I know.”

“That’s why we’re giving you this—so you finally succeed this time. The effects are guaranteed. After all, you’ve never beaten him even once, have you?”

“……”

The prince snorted and tucked the vial into his coat.

Then, something else was handed to him. A flare.

“When you fire this, it begins. Good luck.”

As the woman vanished like black smoke, the prince watched the spot she disappeared from for a moment before looking down at the vial she left behind.

Though the liquid inside was transparent, the prince could see the sinister aura swirling within it.

…If he drank this.

There would be no return.

He would cross the final line Aiden Kellermain once warned him about—the last boundary of being human.

“……”

So, not yet.

Not just yet.

Thinking that, the prince stepped out onto the terrace.

“…Haa.”

The resolve came quickly. The action, even quicker.

It wasn’t long before—

The flare that would plunge the Imperial Capital into utter chaos arched through the air, released from the prince’s hand.

▣

Wallace was on duty today as part of the Imperial Capital’s law enforcement force.

He wasn’t someone who lived a particularly notable life, nor did he seek to. He was the kind of person content with a modest place in the world but he still knew how to harbor rage toward those who disrupted that peace.

If one were to sum up Wallace, that would be the way to put it.

In other words.

For Wallace to be seriously contemplating biting off the head of the subordinate reporting to him—alive—meant this was no ordinary situation.

“What did you just say?”

“M-Magical beasts, sir! Beasts have appeared!”

“……”

What the hell did that mean—beasts that only showed up once a year in the Aslan territory were now being spotted inside the Imperial Capital?

That alone was enough to make one feel like their mind was slipping, but the next part of the report was even more absurd.

“Then contact the knight order! Tell them to mobilize and suppress them!”

“A-All communications within the capital are down! Even the military facilities have been hit!”

“…They’ve been hit?”

“Bombs and heavy weapons, the whole arsenal has been deployed! Damn it, did another Allied War break out or something?!”

If it were just a magical beast incident, then no matter how they showed up or why, they could still somehow mobilize personnel and stop the situation.

But with this level of calculated, precise attacks happening all at once and taking out critical infrastructure across the board, there wasn’t even a way to get the knight order moving. They couldn’t even begin to grasp the situation properly!

“……”

His first thought was a very petty, civilian-like one: why did this have to happen on his shift?

His head spun. Even now, the screams and explosions outside confirmed that the report he’d just heard was no lie.

And then came the second thought—naturally.

‘Something’s not right…!’

The beast appearances, the coordinated terrorist attacks that practically mimicked warfare—this was clearly a plan someone had been laying out for a very long time.

There was no way something like this could happen out of nowhere.

Then came the third thought.

“…Shit, shit, shit!”

Wallace cursed repeatedly under his breath as he grit his teeth and violently threw open a cabinet.

Inside were pieces of equipment he would never normally wear, not even when on duty.

Helmets, light armor—various defensive gear. As he started to put them on, a subordinate stared and asked, bewildered,

“Squad Leader, what are you doing?”

“You said comms are dead, didn’t you, you bastard?! That means we have to run it ourselves!”

“…What?!”

The subordinate, stunned, turned to look out the window.

The Imperial Capital Command really was within running distance, just like Wallace said.

That is—if the outside world wasn’t a literal hellscape of bombs and gunfire flying wild, magical beasts rampaging, and every corner collapsing into ruin!

“I-It’s impossible! We’ll die the second we step out!”

Wallace glared fiercely at the subordinate who cried out in fear.

“Then what? We just sit here and let those bastards tear down the entire capital?”

“But, Squad Leader!”

As the subordinate tried to stop him, he froze mid-sentence.

There was something about Wallace’s bloodshot eyes and his trembling hands.

The first thing that came across was clear:

Wallace himself probably wanted to go out there the least. No one wants to die. That fear was universal.

Even so—

“…We don’t get paid to run in times like this, do we, you bastard?”

“……”

“You got a girlfriend? You’re not quite at marrying age, I’d guess.”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“I’ve got a wife. And a kid too. Right about now, she’s probably just picking him up from school.”

“……”

“So what do you think I’m supposed to do?”

Leaving his stunned subordinate behind, Wallace descended the stairs to the building’s first floor. Even waiting for the elevator felt like a waste of precious time.

“……”

If he went out, he’d probably die.

Even so, doing something was better than sitting here doing nothing.

He had to protect the capital. He had to do his job.

With that thought in mind, as soon as he opened the door to the outside—

“Impressive.”

“……”

“To be honest, I didn’t get why someone like me had to stand by in a place like this. But if it’s to protect someone like you, I don’t mind.”

…And there stood a man, giving him a thumbs-up for some reason.

Wallace blinked, scanning the stranger up and down.

“…Are you from the knight order?”

“Don’t lump us in with those low-grade Imperial Knights. It’s insulting. Want me to stop just short of killing you?”

“……”

Didn’t this guy just call him impressive a second ago?

…What was his deal?

“M-More importantly, move! I need to get to the knight order right now and request backup!”

“Why bother with them? High-level personnel like me are already right here.”

Completely dismissing Wallace’s urgency, the knight sauntered inside and picked something up.

…A water bottle.

He took off his visor and downed the whole thing in one long gulp.

“Nothing like this before starting a job.”

“……”

What the hell was this guy?

‘…No time for this!’

More than anything, he had to get to the Capital Command. Only then could they begin to bring this chaos under control—

--!!!!!

That thought vanished from his mind in a blinding flash of white.

Through the open door, Wallace saw a beast charging straight in.

Even a lowest-grade magical beast was still an inhuman monster that required a knight to handle. There was no way someone like Wallace, an ordinary soldier at best, could deal with it.

He saw death. His life flashed before his eyes.

No escape. He was going to die.

“Man, that thing’s ugly as hell.”

If it hadn’t been for the voice dropping casually from behind him—as if it had been waiting for something like this to show up—he really would have died right then.

“Perfect chance to see if I’ve still got the touch.”

As the beast lunged into the building, a lightning-quick flash of a blade slashed across Wallace’s vision.

The massive bat-shaped beast was cleaved clean in two, spraying green fluid everywhere.

“…Huh?”

Soaked in the mess, Wallace let out a dumbfounded sound without realizing it.

He wasn’t a knight, but he had received formal combat training. He didn’t need anyone to explain just how advanced the technique he’d just witnessed was.

No supernatural ability. And yet this person had one-shotted a magical beast that could deflect large-caliber rounds?

That wasn’t ordinary skill!

“W-Who… Who exactly are you, sir?”

“We’re hunters. We exist to kill things like that.”

The knight scoffed and calmly slid their sword back into its sheath.

“If it’s a name you want, you can call me Liza Aslan.”

The moment he heard that name, a chill ran down Wallace’s spine.

‘The Aslan Ducal House!’

The Shield of the Continent, specialists of the Empire who hunted magical beasts in the Void Zone.

No wonder this person snapped when he was compared to the knight order. When it came to beast warfare, few on the continent could match their skill.

If this person was from that house, then this monstrous power made sense!

“Y-You’re truly experts in beast warfare! You must’ve predicted something like this and—”

“Nope. I’m just here on orders.”

“…Excuse me?”

“No one in the Aslan Ducal House had any idea an attack like this would happen in the capital. Our house didn’t even handle the troop deployments.”

“…What?”

“There’s this weird guy, you see.”

Liza gave a short laugh and glanced out the window.

The sounds of beasts rampaging still echoed, but now they were mixed with other noises.

Swords clashing. Gunfire. The sounds of counterattack.

“A guy who ordered us to stay on standby, saying something like this would happen soon.”

Everything—down to the attack routes, troop positioning, and countermeasures—had been planned and arranged based on the predictions of that person.

Efficient, thorough, with the goal of minimizing casualties.

Like a knight on a chessboard who could see every move his opponent would make.

‘…What?’

Wallace, listening in stunned silence, grew more and more bewildered.

So basically—

There was someone out there who had predicted this absurdly detailed and well-coordinated terrorist attack with beast invasions across the capital—an attack that crippled the entire defense network.

And there was also someone who had anticipated that plan, and arranged defensive units from top to bottom to launch an immediate counterattack.

“……”

Wallace was an ordinary man who cherished his ordinary life.

‘I want to keep it that way.’

And this situation only made that desire even stronger.

…Because he had absolutely zero intention of getting involved with people like this.

Then—

While Wallace chewed on that unsettling thought, Liza lifted her helmet slightly and looked out the window.

‘…If someone could come up with a plan like this—’

Someone who could read their opponent’s every move and prepare for each one in advance—there was a specific kind of person who could do that.

‘They wouldn’t stop at just defending.’

In real combat, it was the same. A true expert didn’t just block attacks.

They blocked and hit back even harder.

As the sound of dozens of footsteps echoed from beyond the window, Liza smiled.

It was the next phase of Aiden Kellermain’s plan unfolding.

“…It’s gonna be one hell of a night.”

Tonight,

the capital would burn bright.