Carlos was in better shape than ever before.

Becoming one with the sword, he could freely wield all trajectories.

The soldiers who had been following him were momentarily bewildered. Even though they knew their lord was almost divine with a sword, it was still surprising.

The greatsword was sharp and heavy at the same time, making it good for facing multiple opponents. As a result, he swung the sword broadly horizontally and vertically, almost appearing to dance.

Carlos flexibly bent his waist to avoid enemy attacks and cut down several with a single strike.

Soon more rebels arrived, and he approached the frontmost soldier at full speed on horseback, leaping off in one breath to plunge his sword into the opponent.

The greatsword, made with the most precious iron by the empire’s master craftsman, was unblemished, but the opponent’s iron shield was scratched.

Not just the sword, but aura was also being fired almost like a cannon.

The aura fired like a cannon at one person also affected the rebels running behind with shields. Groans and screams like “Ugh, gah-” overflowed as blood splattered everywhere.

‘Is he human…?’

He had been an ally and was thought of as the “God of Swords” before, but this was on a different level. What kind of training had the emperor done…!

Greed filled everyone’s hearts. To reach his level! Yes, Carlos’s soldiers were truly all sword-obsessed men.

“His Majesty leads the charge. Let’s go!”

As a result, the soldiers kept watching Carlos’s sword, absentmindedly cramming the sword’s trajectory into their minds.

A battalion commander who had been doing the same forcibly gathered his wits and raised everyone’s morale.

“Ah, yes!”

“Yes!”

“Uaah! Your opponents are not only His Majesty, you traitors!”

Despite the desire to engrave the emperor’s movements in their eyes rising up, the soldiers did their duty. On the battlefield, even a slight glance away could be disastrous.

So they stabbed, slashed, kicked… At times, there were even brawls that didn’t feel like swordsmanship. That was what war was.

Though their side had quite a few men, the other side was so numerous that it seemed they would need to request help from the personnel left to organize the capital.

Just as the battalion commander was about to give orders to a swift soldier for that purpose.

“What’s this……”

Mercedes and Skylar arrived.

“I told them to wait until we arrived, but they couldn’t wait that long.”

Skylar was holding his forehead while Mercedes smiled looking at the castle wall Carlos had broken through.

“Wow, is this possible for a human? Isn’t this a cannon?”

“That man is no different from a human cannon.”

“It’s amazing!”

“…Lady Mercedes, it’s possible with your magic too.”

The two entered the battlefield very amicably, as if it were nothing, in a peaceful state.

“Really? Well, it seems like most things are possible if I visualize them. The search magic Skylar taught me was a bit complicated. But I figured out one thing from that.”

“What… what is it?”

“If I twist my power thinly and designate it like search magic, I think I can tie the feet of the enemy except for our side.”

“…Would you like to enter the magic tower? Just for one month. If you go there and read some books, you’ll soon become the best magician-”

“My power will quickly disappear. Skylar is more amazing than me.”

The two entered slowly as if entering a tea party venue, and Mercedes, after sweeping her gaze around, sighed looking at Carlos.

“He’s overdoing it again.”

“Indeed.”

Perhaps wanting to help him, Mercedes willingly knelt on the ground.

And based on the search magic she learned from Skylar, she began analyzing people.

Since she could use magic as it came to mind, her limits were endless if ideas were added.

And when her light spread to all the ground touched by those fighting.

“Ugh, urk…!”

Thanks to her skillful deployment, only the feet of the rebels were caught in the light.

It was quite a draining spell, but Mercedes could look at them smiling as if it were nothing.

Seeing the two, the battalion commander blankly exchanged glances with the soldier on horseback.

“Commander. Is it right to… go request reinforcements?”

“That’s… right. Ah, no. We can’t rely entirely on His Majesty and Her Highness the Empress.”

The battalion commander barely gathered his wits.

“Anyway, Lord Gregory is in charge of the capital side, and we can pull some men from the civilian protection forces. Go report the situation and bring an appropriate number.”

“Yes, understood sir!”

The soldier and battalion commander wondered if reinforcements were really needed, but they left to make the request anyway.

And the enemy soldiers whose feet were bound by Mercedes’s power fell face-first when they tried to move.

Carlos, who had been dancing with his sword almost in a trance, paused briefly to look at Mercedes exerting her power.

The gaze of trust from his beloved woman was reaching him.

“I started first telling her not to come to the battlefield……”

In the end, he receives help again.

I must talk about this later. Carlos leapt at the rebels with bound feet, already naturally thinking and imagining a future with her.

The momentum of the soldiers who had been struggling a bit due to the large number of enemies also changed.

“Lady Mercedes. How long can you maintain that?”

“About 30 minutes.”

“You’ll be out of mana after that, right?”

“No, I still have some left.”

“This is crazy. I know that person’s curse is extraordinary, but using it as power… No, the sense of deprivation…”

Skylar muttered.

“Actually, I’m more comfortable with wide-area magic, but using that here would be a big problem. It’s better to give the minimum help for our allies to subdue the rebels. So this minimum help is… it’s only 30 minutes because it’s precise magic that requires concentration.”

“No, this doesn’t make sense in the first place… Okay, fine. I’ll just put up a barrier and pull in the wounded to cast light healing magic. To think a genius like me would feel such exhaustion.”

Skylar sighed and cast a solid protective magic on Mercedes and himself.

Even while concentrating, Mercedes observed the appearance of the protective magic Skylar used. Unlike her deflecting weapons, the spherical power that seemed safe from anything had magic circles engraved very intricately.

I should focus on attacking now and ask Skylar for books later to learn various types of magic. There must be limits to magic done by visualization. She was curious about the knowledge that magicians had concretized through long periods of research.

She closed her eyes and focused more on pushing her power into the ground. Filtering out allies required considerable concentration.

“Hey, you, come here! How can you swing a sword when you’re injured?”

“I can still-”

“Your arm’s going to fall off, you madman!”

Beside them, Skylar was tending to the wounded.

At this rate, the tide of battle didn’t seem bad.

As soon as the rebels’ feet were bound, Carlos rampaged even more frantically.

Cold sweat slowly trickled down Mercedes’ forehead, cheeks, and chin. Magic is still difficult every time it’s used. It was unavoidable.

Also, Carlos, who glanced at her while cutting down the rebels in front, inevitably worried about his lover.

When Mercedes maintained the magic for about 30 minutes and retreated, the rebels right in front of them were roughly dealt with.

But that wasn’t the end.

The number of rebels staying in the imperial palace was very large, and as if they had lost their minds at the news of two magicians, they started blowing up various parts of the palace and driving the battle into more danger.

Tens of thousands of rebels poured in, and reinforcements from the army guarding the capital rushed in.

So they fought, and fought, and fought again…

Mercedes, who was looking for what she could do on the battlefield, quickly jumped into the center of the battle.

Thanks to the firmness of Skylar’s protective magic and the multiple layers of barriers she cast herself, she received no damage.

There was only one reason she came to the center.

“Carlos, give me your hand!”

She could see the earthly power accumulating in Carlos. Moreover, he was overusing his aura too.

At first he rampaged like a madman, but now she could see him gradually becoming dull.

“I’m still fine!”

“I’m running out of magic to use? Quickly, give me your power!”

She lied while urging Carlos’s hand.

In the middle of the battlefield, Carlos swung his greatsword to protect the area around Mercedes, and Mercedes created a circle of flames centered on the two of them for defense.

“You really!”

Carlos growled as he stabbed his greatsword into a soldier and pulled it out.

“Doing such dangerous things!”

“I hate it more when only you’re in danger.”

Mercedes said firmly.

“Leave your back to me. Can you do that?”

“I’ve never done that before.”

“Then I’ll be the first and only one. The person guarding your back.”

“…You really…”

Carlos smiled wryly.

“Then I shall protect everything of yours.”

And he vowed.

Carlos didn’t stop fighting, holding Mercedes in his arms while cleaving the surrounding enemies.

Mercedes delicately extracted the cursed power inside Carlos. Since it was fundamentally the same power, the curses returned to her and became life force and magic.

In the process, Carlos felt rejuvenated again and so did Mercedes.

“Whew… How much is left?”

“They haven’t set fire to the imperial palace yet… It seems our numbers are about even now.”

“What if I bind the enemy’s feet here like before?”

“…Then, it would really be over.”

“What about the empress dowager?”

“Gregory will capture and bring her. What we need to catch now is…”

Carlos quietly looked at the palace that should be his.

“The foolish one sitting in that seat, wrapped in his mother’s skirts.”

The former crown prince and empress dowager.

Even in this chaotic battle, Carlos’s purpose was clear. So Mercedes held his hand.

“For now, we’ll enter the imperial palace while clearing out the remaining rebels. Mercedes, please. Take the rear with Skylar.”

“…Hmm. I think it would be better to stay by your side.”

She really doesn’t listen at all.

Carlos’s brow furrowed involuntarily.

But he couldn’t overcome her stubbornness.

It was the first time in his life seeing someone truly step up to guard his back, and that person was so…

“I’m confident.”

Wonderful and lovable.