...Agento, Prime Minister of Balkania.
Once a stage actor, he had a talent for performing. He knew how to make people love him.
He naturally became a leading actor in his company. But when an economic crisis forced the theater to close, his anger at the assembly drove him into politics.
Three or four people attended his first speech. Thirty or forty came to the next. At some point, his speeches began drawing larger crowds than his performances ever had.
Then the Western War broke out, and Agento served as an officer.
He appeared in newspaper photographs more often than he saw combat, but he used that experience to return home calling himself a war hero.
Some called Agento's talent charisma. Others dismissed it as empty boasting. He himself believed it meant he had been chosen.
The chosen one.
Agento despised the class system, yet insisted on his own destiny. He condemned the Empire's nobles and royalty, yet wanted to be treated like them.
Balkania had once rivaled the Empire. Even in decline, it remained a great power equal to Prozen and Hailand.
Agento became prime minister on a promise to restore its "glorious past," then refused to give up his position for decades.
His close associates became Balkania's assembly. The sentences he wanted were written into its laws.
Conquering Mekerel had long been Agento's cherished goal.
Reclaiming ancestral land occupied by the black-skinned people of Mekerel. The first step in Balkania's plan for the next hundred years.
The damned Empire's schemes had ruined it.
He had lost face. The whole continent had laughed.
Agento redirected the people's distrust of him under the banner of opposition to the Empire.
He joined the united front against the Empire and became the first to speak, with the loudest voice...
"Your speech in Prozen was wonderful."
Returning to the prime minister's residence, Agento smiled and embraced Clara, who had come to greet him.
"Did it reach all the way here?"
"I heard it on the radio..."
She was his beloved lover. Many officials suspected she was Izenheim, but he didn't care. If anything, he was proud.
Her wise advice had helped him reform Balkania's military.
Replacing the officer corps, expanding the fleet, purging those responsible for the defeat in Mekerel.
All of it had begun with words she whispered in bed.
"Look forward to tonight. Everything I've held back for so long, I'll give to you..."
Just as Clara smiled and nestled against his chest, his chief of staff spoke in a grave voice.
"Prime Minister. Maximilian of the Empire is apparently about to make a radio broadcast."
* * *
In the broadcasting studio of the Empire's Ministry of Propaganda, where my voice would be sent to radios across the country, Johann Georg handed me a script.
"Ahem. Hm. Aheeeem."
I cleared my throat in front of the microphone.
"Let's see. Will this voice do?"
"Yes. Your tone is just right."
I skimmed the script and put it down. There was no need to memorize it.
"..."
When I raised a finger, the red light came on. A silence without the slightest crackle settled over the room.
Only Johann signaled to me with his eyes.
"This is the imperial capital."
I spoke as if letting out a breath.
"I speak to you from a city built on stone foundations with a thousand years of history, from this place where the ancestors of Aran first settled."
It was the day I would let all the Empire's people, and everyone across the continent, hear my voice for the first time.
"The master bloodline. As descendants of Aran, we have inherited the duty and the right to maintain order on this continent, to separate what has been mixed, and to restore the worth of our people."
Slowly, I recited words shaped by Johann's talent.
"That is our calling."
A measured voice that would reach factory speakers, farmhouse living rooms, barracks on the front lines, and even enemy countries beyond our borders.
"However."
I lowered my voice a little.
"There are those who have already been deceived time and again by heterogeneous bloodlines. They insult, provoke, and defile the Empire, spewing words too foul to repeat."
A voice that would reach everyone in the Empire.
"The Empire understands their fear. Perhaps the more frightened and afraid they become, the more they feel the urge to shout."
Johann Georg's lips curved into a smile.
"This is a message to Agento, Prime Minister of Balkania."
I paused. Silence, too, had meaning. For those few seconds, everyone would be listening closely.
"You called the Empire a nation of beasts."
Words meant to set the subjects' anger ablaze...
To make the war even larger.
"You will have to bear the weight of the words you have spoken."
Anger bred anger, and war bred war.
It still wasn't enough to wipe out the Izenheim across the continent.
"And this is a message to all those who insult and mock the Empire, then hide in the background and applaud."
I had already made up my mind. I had chosen what I must do.
If humanity, if everyone as a whole, could only survive through the sacrifice of tens of millions, or even more.
If I had to kill my father to save someone else's son.
If I had to kill my friend to save hundreds of people whose faces I didn't even know.
"Now, the Empire is coming to see you."
Click.
The radio's red light went out.
...
One day, after that broadcast, which would have reached the entire continent, I was preparing for the operation against Balkania.
"They say he's had a nervous breakdown! A nervous breakdown!"
Leutern had come to my mansion and was chattering away with a snickering laugh.
"Is that so?"
"Yes! After you went on the radio, Max, Agento stopped showing his face!"
I didn't know whether it was true, but apparently Agento had shut himself away.
"How do you know?"
I operated several spy networks, including a multinational intelligence network entrusted to Schatz Heizen and the facility agents under her command.
Even they hadn't received that information yet.
"You know I have plenty of connections~"
It seemed Leutern regularly received information from people at the top.
"They say he got so scared he issued some kind of mobilization order."
Balkania's military had indeed almost gone into convulsions.
"Ah~ That was brilliant. Really brilliant. 'You will have to bear the weight of the words you have spoken.'"
Leutern put on a serious face and attempted an imitation that sounded nothing like me.
"Max. I'm telling you, that line's going down in history~"
I smiled faintly.
Even during a war, Leutern was this carefree. The description of an utterly ordinary villain suited him so well.
"But what are you going to do about Balkania? How will you do it?"
He looked curious.
"It's a secret."
"Oh, come on..."
"But we will reach them. That much is certain."
Having said those words, I couldn't simply fail to go.
"If I don't keep my word, I'll be a fraud."
I had to live up to what I'd said.
"Oh~ Just as I'd expect..."
Leutern grinned, a strange look in his eyes.
"Oh, right. And, Max. That thing you mentioned last time. You know, what you said before."
His usual innocent expression returned as he leaned toward me.
"I completely agree."
As he said it, his face took on a hint of seriousness.
"They say those Izenheim have loads of water in their hearts?"
He meant our discussion about the Izenheim. I had given Leutern documents containing various statistics and quietly explained the matter to him.
"Yes. That's right."
"Honestly, I was shocked when I saw it!"
Leutern believed my claims.
The Izenheim's hearts. Evidence of their inferiority, rooted in a physical defect.
Of course, the source of his belief was different from mine.
"People really need to know about this. What's the most important part of a human being? The heart!"
Leutern didn't know what I had seen. He didn't know what I had experienced.
He was merely repeating a fashionable hatred. As a member of royalty, noble and precious, he simply found a lowly, inferior breed filthy and unclean.
"I'll back you! At every lecture, I'll do that, uh... What was it again? Anyway, I'll use all of it and tell everyone exactly what's wrong with the Izenheim!"
Yet that very Leutern was useful to me now.
Leutern, who spoke of racial hatred out of blind belief, and the future war criminals who would shoot Izenheim dead without a second thought were proving immensely useful to humanity as it was now.
"Thank you."
I would gladly thank them.
"What for? We're friends!"
Even at the word "friends," I would simply smile.
All of this was so I would not look back.
So we would not lose to the "otherworldly species" that sought to destroy the continent.
Above all, so that we, as humanity, could win.
* * *
Southern Balkania.
Sailors aboard the newly built destroyer Trion are patrolling the deck. An emergency alert has been issued after the radio broadcast by Maximilian of the Empire.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, an officer looked into the distance with a slight frown.
"What's that over there?"
A small light sways over the dark water.
"Where, sir?"
The sailors came over and looked in the same direction. Soon, a searchlight shone on it.
Their eyes narrowed.
"What is it?"
"Hmm..."
It was a small boat. Seven or eight meters long, with a wooden hull and a triangular sail. A fishing boat, with a kerosene lamp hanging from its bow and rolled-up nets stacked aboard.
"Looks like a fishing boat."
An old man and a young man, like father and son. Fishermen of the sort found everywhere along this coast.
"I heard they're catching plenty of greater amberjack these days."
They looked at one another. They'd been eating nothing but canned food for three days.
"Shall we ask to buy some?"
"Call them over."
A sailor waved a light. The fishing boat drew up alongside the destroyer.
The old man held up a basket first. Inside were gleaming silver amberjack and a few squid.
"Here! Put them in this!"
A sailor tied a basket to a rope and lowered it. The old man transferred the fish into it, then held up his fingers.
The sailor put in the corresponding number of coins and a pack of cigarettes, then sent the basket back down.
The old man took off his hat in thanks. His son looked up at the destroyer's gun turrets and whistled.
The fishing boat disappeared into the darkness again.
"Whoa. Look how fat they are."
"Shall we grill them?"
"...Wait."
While the sailors were discussing how to grill the amberjack...
Wheeeee!
Suddenly, a siren shook the entire southern harbor. The amberjack were tossed aside. The officer hurried off to find out what was happening.
"What's going on?!"
A radio message came through.
"The Imperial fleet has sortied. A formation of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers from Hermes Harbor is heading south along the boundary of Balkanian territorial waters."
Harbor headquarters sent radio messages to every ship. Signal lamps flashed from the rooftop, and the fleet prepared to sail.
Sailors climbed into the turrets and turned the guns north. Searchlights swept the horizon.
And...
* * *
──.
A knight's drop is very different from an airborne soldier's.
Unlike troops who rely on parachutes, knights can move like aircraft and reach the heart of an enemy position with precision.
──.
I gently meet the wind.
Gliding in silence, I look down at the scene below.
──.
I can see the Balkanian destroyers and cruisers that have left port.
They are turning their guns north to face the Imperial warships.
───.
We assigned every destination in advance.
Hanna and Royce would take the mana stone depot on the hill north of the harbor.
Dare Tan and Zionne would take the harbor's sluice gates.
Raynel and Ruin would take the communications tower at harbor headquarters.
───.
We will also make precision drops onto the Balkanian capital ships now out at sea and strike them.
Knights including Leon, Tiana, and Cliff will each take one ship. I will seize and destroy the battleship carrying the fleet command.
Shhhhh.
Thus, my target is a battleship moving across the sea.
I fly toward it, then judge the distance and grip my longsword in both hands.
───.
A knight is strongest just before landing. At that moment, they can mix their kinetic and potential energy with mana and release it all at once.
For that brief instant, a single sword strike can carry enough power to cut away even part of a battleship.
───.
I adjust my launch angle.
I deploy Spherical Aura Guard.
With my sword in hand, I cross the sky above the flagship.
────.
Silently, I gather mana, draw silver light onto the flat of my blade, and release a slash.
It takes the shape of a half moon, as though a crescent were drawing a line across the sky...
──────!
I cut away the flagship's towering bridge in its entirety.
Crack-crrrrunch!
Steel beams split apart, and everyone inside the bridge slides into the sea.
Tap.
Then I landed on the deck. I immediately moved on to my next action.
Swish!
I swept my longsword out, slicing through the sailors ahead. I swung at those trying to fire a machine gun.
Mere sailors cannot stop a knight who has already landed at close range.
──!
I unleashed the Ebenholtz sword style. It was Link (連), cutting through their torsos one by one.
─. ──. ─. ───.
The sensation of killing them was dull. I couldn't hear their voices, either. It was as dry as the beat of a metronome.
Probably thanks to the helmet.
──. ──. ──.
I kill them.
Kill, and kill, and do nothing but kill.
─. ─. ──.
Murder like meaningless Morse code.
───. ─. ─. ───.
But the helmet shows me only what I need to see and lets me hear only what I need to hear.
─. ──.
Through the visor, blood becomes nothing more than red stains. Their expressions blur into vague outlines.
A design that erases any room for guilt from the very beginning.
Screams fade into the background like ambient noise. Inside the knight's helmet, there is only silence.
"Mana stone depot. Complete."
Then the knights' radio reports flow into my ears.
"Sluice gates. Complete."
Short reports announcing their victories.
But among them comes another.
"...Requesting support."
A request for support.
My feet stopped at once.
"..."
No matter how thoroughly one prepares for battle, unexpected things happen.
But we cannot allow a knight to be lost.
Adjusting my grip on my longsword, I stepped onto the deck railing. I gathered mana in my military boots and spoke over the radio.
"Give me your exact location."
Saving a comrade is worth more than sinking this battleship.
Because we are Sentinel, and I am Maximilian.