“Lord Odin, I have a matter to consult with you regarding the conflict zone in the town of Finn in the southern region…”

“Ah, they still haven’t surrendered?”

“Yes. What should we do? If you entrust it to me…”

Odin leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands together.

This was Odin’s office.

In other words, the chamber of the supreme military commander. The first prince sat with his hands clasped in contemplation, the light streaming in from behind him.

“No. Ever since Father took ill, the resistance has grown far too active. I need to remind them once more… who rules this world, and what your position is.”

Odin pondered the query from his beautiful secretary.

She was stunningly gorgeous, yet her allure carried an air of subtle malice—a bewitching beauty.

Her name was Catherine.

“Then…”

And the conclusion he reached was…

…

“‘Kill everyone in that region except the Earthguard citizens.’ That’s the order.”

“!? …Why! There’s no need for that!”

“No… it’s an order, so even I don’t know the true intent…”

Kenya was speaking with Nez over a private channel.

This exchange wasn’t audible to Jin and Rillbelt, who stood nearby.

Immediately after, Rillbelt and Jin raised their KOGs’ guns.

Kenya caught the motion in the corner of his eye.

He glanced at their target.

“Hey… what are you two doing?”

Ahead of them, resistance fighters had their hands raised in surrender. Children were visible behind them.

Their eyes shook with terror as they huddled together, staring this way.

The two KOGs placed fingers on the triggers of their massive guns.

And slowly applied pressure.

“Stop it!!”

“!? …Sword?”

“Sword-kun!?”

Kenya slashed both guns clean off.

“What are you two doing!”

“That’s our line, Sword. You got the order from Lord Odin, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, Sword-kun. What are you doing all of a sudden?”

There was no hint of remorse, no inner conflict, not even any emotion.

It was as if they’d simply fired because asked—like, what’s the problem?

That’s what their voices implied.

“You two, why… were you about to kill people just now? Unarmed, unresisting people!”

Kenya stepped in front of the pair as they drew backup guns.

At his back stood the presumed resistance members.

“Obviously. We’re soldiers, aren’t we? We have to follow orders. Get out of the way, Sword. What you just did is an order violation—you can’t complain if you’re punished for it.”

“Sword-kun, why go that far? They’re inferior species, you know? They didn’t obey, so of course they deserve to die. It’s not pleasant, but…”

“No way… you’re serious…?”

Kenya was speechless at Jin and Rillbelt’s words.

The always-kind Rillbelt-san, calling anyone not Earthguard an inferior species and saying it was natural to kill them.

The always cool, supposedly principled powerhouse Jin-san, declaring that killing on orders was just how it was.

Their mindsets were clearly worlds apart.

He never imagined such words coming from their mouths.

Kenya couldn’t comprehend it.

These were the two he’d been so close to, the ones he’d thought were upstanding people.

All because of different races…

“They’re humans too! Don’t kill them!”

Jin sidled up beside Kenya and patted his shoulder through their KOGs, then opened a direct comm.

“You’re worn out. Take the day off, Sword. We’ll handle the rest. We’ll pretend that didn’t happen. I’ll issue a gag order with my authority later.”

He brushed past the motionless Kenya, raising his sword.

The blade’s target: the trembling resistance fighters behind Kenya.

The sword came swinging down.

But what flew through the air was not blood, but a giant’s iron arm.

Who had launched it was obvious.

“Sword!!”

The arm of Jin’s KOG went flying.

Cleaved off in one stroke from Kenya’s KOG.

The scene was witnessed by the soldiers behind them, Nez on the comms, Rillbelt…

And many other soldiers on that battlefield.

In other words…

“Sword-kun! Th-that’s rebellion! Against Lord Odin!”

A clear-cut violation of military protocol.

Orders from the imperial family were absolute—an ironclad rule of total obedience in the military.

“Yeah, I’ve learned that well over the past six months. But I can’t. I can’t just stand by and watch.”

With the resistance at his back, shielding them.

Kenya systematically disabled every surrounding KOG, one after another.

The sheer ferocity sent Earthguard soldiers—including infantry—scattering in panic.

“Sword!! Stop! Stop it!!”

Neither Jin’s desperate pleas nor Rillbelt’s cries reached him.

To Kenya, such voices fell on deaf ears. All he heard were the pleas for help.

The voices from that day—hands desperately outstretched, yet unable to grasp them.

The trembling people behind him now overlapped perfectly with those from back then.

With Azusa, with Midori, with defenseless civilians, with the resistance—all of them.

They merged with everyone who had been killed so unreasonably.

He knew things like this happened somewhere in the world.

Even so.

“Sorry, Jin-san. Rillbelt-san.”

Now that he’d seen it—now that he knew—he couldn’t abandon them.

“You’re really serious… Sword-kun.”

One hand gripping a gun, the other a sword.

At his back: evacuating civilians.

And dead ahead…

“I cannot obey that order.”

The world’s strongest army.

…

“What!? Rebellion!? Who?!”

The report raced straight to Odin.

“I-it’s… that Sword Silfield…”

Major Nez reported to Odin over the comms.

“Sword… the man slated to become Road’s knight! Why! What’s the reason?!”

“It’s not entirely clear, but… ‘Don’t kill the resistance’…”

“Hmm… I see.”

(Just like his knight… but he can’t possibly fail to grasp what that implies.)

“So? Has the situation been contained? He’s strong, sure, but it’s just one machine. Overwhelm him with numbers and neutralize him in no time…”

“Th-that’s…”

…

“So this is your full power… Sword?”

Including Jin’s, countless disabled KOGs piled up as mountains of scrap.

From inside his immobilized cockpit, Jin stared at Kenya.

They were fighting in earnest, willing to suffer injuries—or even lose their lives—to stop him. Yet they couldn’t.

The world’s strongest army, with the world’s finest training.

Even assembled for resistance suppression, their forces weren’t something a single machine could hold at bay.

And yet, one by one, they fell combat-ineffective. Not destroyed—just disabled.

In other words, he was holding back. Carefully neutralizing them without killing.

Thus, zero fatalities since Kenya’s defiance—among enemies and allies alike.

That otherworldly piloting skill and combat prowess—even instilled dread in the hearts of the third-class citizens, resistance included.

“Sword-kun! Stop! No more! Any further and there’s no going back!”

From her disabled KOG, Rillbelt persisted with her desperate persuasion.

“Sorry, Rillbelt-san. I can’t do that.”

He declared it plainly, sword at the ready.

“Please withdraw. I won’t harm anyone who doesn’t want to fight!”

The Earthguard army couldn’t halt that giant.

Save for one—the boy who rushed in after a report from his subordinate.

Save for the lone youth who descended upon the battlefield.

…

“Sigh, my knight… always throwing my plans into chaos…”

But the boy grinned wickedly. Was it because he was a little pleased by his actions?

“That’s what I like about him, though.”