Skyra clicked her tongue.

Mercedes’ mana quantity was unbelievable. Opening the gates by casually scanning the walls surrounding the entire capital with a detection spell? And so easily at that.

Using such a spell would have drained more than half of Skyra’s mana and left her collapsed.

But she said she could do that level easily and was indeed standing proudly.

Of course. The thousands, no, tens of thousands of lives Carlos had taken since childhood, even in conquest wars, were all accumulated into Mercedes’ power at once.

In fact, it occurred to her that Mercedes’ magic alone might be able to end this entire situation without the emperor and knights.

Nevertheless, for Carlos who worried about her, for the knights who wanted to personally punish the treason, she took a step back.

Instead, she firmly insisted on opening the gates herself. Because forcibly breaking through with people would inevitably cause casualties.

The high watchtowers visible all around made it difficult for the army to infiltrate. To use magic, they had to get close, and it took even more time to spread detection magic throughout the entire wall and open the gates.

It was even harder to divert power underground to hide the white light that appeared when using magic.

So Mercedes decided to put on a show by stepping forward with Skyra to provide a barrier while she unleashed her power.

Becoming bait to draw the empress dowager’s attention while making dying noises.

“Isn’t that an impossible amount of power?”

“It’s the power Carlos gave me.”

Mercedes smiled.

“I’m glad I can use it for a good cause.”

“I… suppose. Yes.”

“What, what is this…!”

The empress dowager’s scream could be heard from the watchtower.

Mercedes casually wiped away the tears she had forced out for the act and stood up. Skyra also stood up following her.

Now the two of them had to pass through the cleared paths of the capital towards the imperial palace. The palace gates were quite sturdy too, so Mercedes’ power would be needed to open them.

Of course, they planned to help civilians along the way.

Skyra had recovered quite a bit of mana too, so she could use defensive or healing magic.

Of course, she couldn’t cast big spells over and over like Mercedes.

It was obvious that attacking from above would be dangerous, so the watchtowers needed to be cleared too. That was…

“Where do you think you’re messing around, you damned bastard! Ahaha!”

The foul-mouthed captain of the emperor’s knights was taking care of it. True to his claim that he had never lost to anyone but the emperor in swordsmanship, he easily took down archers and soldiers with just a few knights. He even seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Geez… He really loves fighting so much.”

Skyra, who had inevitably spent quite a long time with him, shook her head watching Gregory like that.

The top of the watchtower was in utter chaos.

“It seems everyone has entered now.”

After briefly observing the confused walls, the two women walked in steadily.

They could be safe thanks to Mercedes’ protective magic and barrier.

As they entered, a soldier came out leading a horse at just the right time.

“Your Majesty the Empress, Lady Skyra.”

They had planned to ride horses kept in the barracks and soldiers’ quarters near the gates set up to watch the watchtowers to head to the imperial palace. But they thought it would take longer.

It was obvious the other side would have occupied it.

But it seemed they had cleaned up very quickly.

“This is really… quite fast.”

“Did these guys get possessed by the ghosts of those who died unable to fight?”

“Please don’t misunderstand. There weren’t many enemy soldiers in the barracks. As Lord Gregory cleared the top of the watchtower, we quickly cleaned up below and helped evacuate civilians.”

Despite the soldier’s explanation, the disgruntled look on Skyra’s face didn’t disappear.

“Right, right… Impressive, impressive.”

Even so, how could they handle things this quickly? Entering through the gates, they could feel that even civilian evacuation had been done in an instant.

The streets were dead silent.

“Good work, go on. You must be itching to fight-”

“Thank you!”

The soldier grinned broadly, thrust the reins into their hands, and drew his sword. Then he ran off with a loud yell.

“…Please don’t misunderstand. They just love swordsmanship itself, not killing people. They don’t commit unnecessary murders.”

“Is that… right?”

Mercedes asked with a slightly bewildered face.

“Yes. They’re just guys obsessed with swords. Go to the training grounds later. You’ll see men rolling around with Lord Gregory every day, crazy about training even when there’s no imminent expedition.”

“…I see. So His Majesty isn’t the only one who likes training.”

“Like master, like servant, right? Anyway, we can’t ignore the experience from conquest wars, so don’t worry about here. Let’s go. While we go to open the imperial palace, they’ll clean up on their own and even capture all the prisoners and put them in jail. They’ll do it very easily since it’s what they’ve been doing for years.”

Skyra thought it was funny how she had been tense while making plans earlier.

Seeing these guys who had just come back from war not long ago going crazy for a chance to test their practical swordsmanship.

Of course, the remnants on the other side weren’t pushovers either. But perhaps because they weren’t taught by such great experts, they kept getting pushed back.

Or maybe this side was just all crazy. The emperor’s army, whether in small units or large, was crazily dealing with the empress dowager’s private soldiers.

“Well, it’s good we can ride horses right away. I thought we’d have to wait a bit.”

“That’s… true.”

“Shall we go, Your Majesty?”

“Yes, Lady Skyra.”

The two mounted one horse. Since the horseback riding Mercedes had learned was ladylike equestrian riding, she had to ride the same horse as Skyra.

Mercedes got on behind Skyra and tightly hugged her waist. Skyra rode the horse as fast as the wind. Her breath control was perfect too.

Watching her, a tiny bit of jealousy bloomed in Mercedes. She resolved to definitely learn horseback riding when all this was over.

She kept wanting to master everything she hadn’t learned or known while living.

Was this a good thing?

‘Yes, it’s good.’

Though she would probably develop quite intense hobbies compared to the ones Mrs. Fisher had recommended… Well, so what?

Mercedes smiled and enjoyed the wind created by the galloping horse.

* * *

Meanwhile, Carlos, who had leisurely entered the capital, rushed towards the imperial palace, leaving behind the rampaging Gregory.

Though he should wait for Mercedes and Skyra to arrive…

‘I can use aura.’

Even if he uses aura and cuts people down, if Mercedes has her absorption ability, he won’t return to how he was before. The curse is as good as gone.

Then.

He took off the knight’s uniform he had worn so the empress dowager wouldn’t recognize him and approached the walls of the imperial palace.

As arranged beforehand, soldiers who had finished clearing the capital’s civilians gathered one by one. There were quite a lot of them.

“Is the civilian evacuation complete?” Carlos asked his soldiers standing at attention in a loud voice.

From head to toe, he was lightly dressed except for leather armor.

The soldiers answered resoundingly.

“Yes! It’s complete!”

“If there are any civilian casualties, it’s my responsibility and yours. Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

“Good. We’ll enter the imperial palace according to the pre-divided numbers.”

“Lady Skyra and Her Majesty the Empress haven’t arrived yet!”

“The imperial palace walls were built quite a while ago. Some parts seem to need repairs.”

“Pardon?”

“Charging in through the main gate isn’t a good strategy either, is it? It’s better to attack from the side.”

Though he said he would trust Mercedes and Skyra, Carlos didn’t want to see Mercedes overexerting herself.

He didn’t want to bring her into this dangerous battlefield either.

Of course, he knew she was extremely strong, but.

‘I can deal with these guys before that.’

“But Your Majesty, our plan-”

“I know. But haven’t you always followed when I was confident? This is just an extension of that.”

Overflowing confidence could be seen from the emperor.

That fact inspired morale in all the soldiers. For their lord had never been defeated even once.

Carlos immediately wiped the smile from his expression and drew his greatsword.

The soldiers quickly looked straight ahead and hastily stepped back.

Carlos raised his sword high infused with aura, unleashed two sword energies, and then thrust it into the wall with force.

Kwaaaang!

An enormous sound that didn’t seem like it could come from a sword rang out.

“There’s no reason to wait, is there? Not when I’m here.”

And a huge hole opened in the wall as if it had been hit by a cannon.

Carlos grinned and rested the greatsword on his shoulder.

“I feel better than ever.”

Things that had become dull and imperceptible at some point were now tangible one by one. Even the wind brushing his fingertips felt keenly.

When the massive sound came from the wall, private soldiers stationed inside the imperial palace began to swarm in an instant.

“Let’s go.”

Carlos kicked his horse’s flank.

The cavalry followed behind, and the infantry ran.

With a tremendous roar, the emperor and soldiers entered through the wall.

Soon horn trumpets sounded everywhere. It was the sound of calling other soldiers besides those stationed here.

Tens of thousands of private soldiers the empress dowager had stationed in the imperial palace came running with bloodshot eyes.

Only for Carlos.

To deal with the monstrous emperor who had defeated them.

It was the beginning of a battle where the scent of blood would spread thickly.