Chapter 44
Most wyvern knights were backed by noble families. It cost a fortune to raise a single wyvern knight.
And all of the wyvern knights backed by noble families had left the West.
But there were still around two hundred wyvern knights left.
They were men who no longer had to guard the western frontier thanks to the new weapons, yet lacked the political footing to leave for anywhere else.
Most of them had focused solely on silently guarding the frontier.
"What would change if we went to the capital?"
They had taken up their spears to protect people, and they were skeptical about the Empire's current state.
"The Empire is collapsing. The crown prince is incompetent, and the nobles are corrupt. That's already common knowledge."
What would there even be to do if they went to the peaceful center while the Empire was slowly declining?
Of course, with their status as wyvern knights, they wouldn't be treated badly. But from the start, they hadn't become knights for the sake of good treatment.
If they had wanted treatment and wealth, they would have applied to the Western reserves.
"Even if we stay here, isn't there nothing for us to do?"
"That's true..."
The era had changed. No one felt that more keenly than the wyvern knights.
The battlefields of the new era did not welcome knights.
Wyvern knights were powerless before the new era's weapons of war. There was no place for them in the conquest of the western grasslands, the dream they had long cherished.
"Wouldn't it be better to go north instead?"
"The north wouldn't be any different, would it? They say the war with the monsters is over there too, so the atmosphere is pretty peaceful."
Even the north, where fighting was still ongoing, was gradually entering a peaceful era.
From the start, going abroad had never been an option. They were knights of the Empire's citizens, after all.
They knew better than anyone that chivalric honor was an illusion, and that nowhere was more entangled with power than the position of a knight.
But they still wanted to preserve the spirit of knighthood.
"Haa... I'm worried about what will happen to this Empire."
The meeting room of the 23rd Western Knight Order.
The atmosphere in the meeting room where twenty knights had gathered was not merely gloomy, but downright bleak.
Being a fairly intellectual class, they knew all too well how rotten the Empire was, and that they could do nothing but watch its decline.
"At least the West we were trying to protect is still intact, which is something."
In truth, the West was not exactly intact either.
The West, which had been slowly sinking over the past fifty years, was completely broken under Charles Raymond.
The one-week war between the South and the West had also dealt the wyvern knights a huge shock.
At first, they had strongly resisted and even considered intervening...
"In the end, people are living better now."
It had already been a year since the conflict between the West and the South ended.
In that time, many things had happened, and the West had changed completely.
The lives of the people of the West had become much more prosperous.
Once the murderous taxes of the corrupt nobles and the threat of barbarians eyeing the outer estates were gone, the regions came alive.
As if the West alone were an exception to the collapsing Empire.
And everyone knew exactly where that change came from.
"Kyle Leopold. He really does seem to be quite a figure."
The South before and after Kyle Leopold took power looked completely different. That was even more obvious from an outsider's perspective.
Until ten years ago, the South couldn't hide how divided it was.
Company heads, the Southern Grand Ducal House, and the parliament all voiced their opinions however they liked, while the workers were shouting that they were dying.
In those days, the South was notorious for its bad public sentiment.
Whenever people said they were going south to make money, they'd see them off with worried words, telling them to come back alive.
Their voice also carried very little weight.
Because the South had had no power until now.
"A lot really has changed in just ten years."
Power had come to the South, which had once been unable to get its act together.
The suffering workers disappeared, and a clear goal for growth emerged.
Its military power also kept growing stronger day by day. Once the South's inefficient system was put in order, the factories all at once began operating at maximum efficiency, churning out goods and weapons at an unbelievable pace.
"It's completely unlike the collapsing Empire."
"Indeed."
Old nations collapse. Old dynasties know nothing of innovation, and old nobles are only busy protecting their own power.
Cracks slowly spread through the bedrock of that sturdy nation.
Leaders who are too busy patching over the outer walls of the bedrock hand the bomb off to the next generation, and when that passed-down bomb explodes, everything ends.
In the knights' eyes, the current Empire was on the verge of that bomb going off.
By contrast, what about the South?
It was brimming with vitality, like a new dynasty.
So the knights could not shake off their regret.
"If only someone like that had led the Empire..."
Enough to make them think that way.
Then Kyle Leopold himself came to them.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Kyle Leopold, Grand Duke of the South and policy adviser for the West."
***
Before we could prepare an air force, I needed a unit that could wipe out strategic targets from the sky.
So I made time in my busy schedule and came in person.
They were far too valuable to have a subordinate summon them halfheartedly, only for them to refuse.
"Ah, hello. I'm Roen, commander of the 23rd Western Knight Order!"
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Kyle Leopold, Grand Duke of the South and policy adviser for the West."
So I came personally to the Western knight order.
Political rhetoric wouldn't work on knights who had given up politics and remained on the frontier to protect the people.
Nor would the roundabout way of speaking favored by nobles.
Since they were the only ones left in the West who were still sound despite the entire upper class being rotten, I went straight to the point without hesitation.
"What brings you to such a humble place?"
"To give you another chance to fight for the citizens."
"A chance, you say?"
They were knights who had silently protected civilians even as everyone else chased power and knights began to take on the color of political officers.
Naturally, their goal was neither wealth nor honor.
"Yes. We'll probably be starting a conflict with the East soon."
The knightly intellectuals among them could also roughly sense that.
Everyone's expressions hardened slightly.
"Are you saying that means you intend to start a civil war within the Empire?"
"If necessary."
"Then we cannot help you. We are knights who protect citizens, not power-mad men who plunge citizens into suffering."
That was a reaction I had more or less expected.
Without the slightest sign of surprise, I asked back.
"Men who plunge citizens into suffering?"
The ones causing the Empire's citizens the greatest suffering right now, and the ones who would bring even greater suffering later, weren't me.
The incompetent upper echelon that would destroy this Empire.
They were the true enemies of the Empire.
"Yes. There are plenty of people who want to make citizens suffer. Especially those over beyond the Arbel Mountains."
"..."
"You can feel it too, can't you? This Empire already has no hope. It's time for the thousand-year dynasty to come to an end."
In a country where the emperor still openly existed, those were words that could not be tolerated.
But the knights, who felt this truth painfully, could not say anything.
"I've always stood on the side of suffering citizens."
Though the very first reason had been to keep myself from ending up on the gallows.
In any case, I had always stood on the citizens' side.
"This time is no different. I'll fight for the citizens suffering in this collapsing Empire. Haven't you all seen with your own eyes how the West, which had been collapsing, changed?"
"...We have."
After hesitating for a moment, the knights eventually had no choice but to agree with my words.
They were the ones who felt the change in the West more keenly than anyone else.
"That's why I ask."
To make absolutely sure of it, I delivered the decisive blow.
"Who do you fight for?"
"..."
"An incompetent and corrupt nation? Or the common people suffering under such a nation?"
"We..."
There was only one answer left for them.
"...We fought to protect the citizens."
The moment the Western knights made up their minds.
***
Weapons for the new knights of the new era.
In fact, those were already prepared to some extent.
"The Design Bureau reports that all the weapon tests you ordered, Your Grace, are ready."
"Good."
Whoever rules the seas rules the world. That had been the law of the world ever since the Age of Exploration began.
That was why I was deeply interested in weapons that ruled the seas.
Enough to keep developing and testing new weapons even after building battleships.
Submarines for covert surprise attacks.
Torpedoes, the weapons submarines would use.
Depth charges to wipe out the sea monsters.
Mines for naval blockades.
There was only one place where I could use all those weapons at once without any problem.
The pirates—the South's old tumor.
"I approve the experiment."
In accordance with that order, the submarines waiting at the dock all left the harbor at once.
The next day at dawn.
In front of the reef area the pirates used as their base.
THOOM-
Along with the sound of compressed air pushing the torpedo forward, a trail of pure white foam cut through the dawn sea.