The Day of Storm and Wind (2)

Tryne hesitated for a moment.

A slight complacency thinking they surely wouldn’t attack the Imperial Guard.

A hint of arrogance believing he could gain the upper hand in close combat against them.

That led Tryne to hesitation.

That was his mistake.

“Judgment.”

When the enormous gray magical spear tore through the air and struck down.

Tryne reacted a beat slower than usual due to that momentary hesitation.

Clang–!!

He barely raised his sword to deflect the spear, but his posture was greatly disrupted.

The same was true for the two Imperial Guard members behind him.

Seraphine’s magic pierced through that opening.

“Current release.”

Hundreds of blue lightning branches covered the Imperial Guard like a net.

It was already too late to dodge.

The only option was to endure it.

Hup! Tryne raised his magical power to the extreme throughout his body and confronted the storm of electric current.

Violent electric sparks burst from the surface of his armor.

“Urgggh.”

“Kugh.”

Even in pain that felt like his joints were being twisted, Tryne ultimately endured.

Indeed, a performance worthy of the Senior Knight of the Imperial Palace Guard.

But the two Guard members behind him were different.

With violent convulsions, they collapsed helplessly to the floor.

The attack was not over.

Psyche, covered in blue scales all over her body, extended her fist with her sky-blue hair flying.

‘These crazy women..! Do they really intend to finish this here!?’

Whoong–!

A sound of air being torn. Tryne, freed from the electric paralysis, led with his sword. He tilted the sword to receive her fist with its flat surface. To deflect the impact as much as possible.

Thud!

Nevertheless, Tryne was pushed back by the dragon tribe’s strength that exceeded imagination.

‘If I keep getting dragged along like this, there’s no answer. I need to grab the flow.’

While being pushed back, Tryne moved.

He spun his body around once, using that momentum to strongly kick Psyche’s stomach with his right foot.

Psyche couldn’t respond in time to the tremendous speed.

Pa–ang! Kwang!

“Kueek.”

With a short scream, Psyche’s body flew faster than a shell and collided with the assembly hall wall. Crash! The wall cracked and dust poured down.

Tryne had managed to counterattack successfully even after being ambushed in an unprepared state.

It was possible thanks to his excellent skill and long experience.

But that was as far as it went.

“Magic beam.”

As the magical beam was fired before he could regain his posture, Tryne gave a hollow laugh.

‘..I can’t block this.’

Kwa-aang!

A gray beam burst forth and devoured his form.

“Huh.”

“Mmm.”

“Crazy..”

The clash of force between the Inspection Corps and the Imperial Guard.

It was the moment when the outcome was decided.

For the assembly members, it all happened in the blink of an eye.

Soon, murmurs flowed from their mouths as they confirmed the result.

The situation was similar for the assembly knights.

They were frozen like stone statues, blankly staring at the inspectors.

Soon after, only the assembly members supporting the Princess and the Franz family secretly exhaled sighs of relief.

‘They’ve taken the right side.’

‘If I had encountered them as enemies. It would have been terrible.’

In contrast, deep despair and lamentation settled on the faces of the assembly members who had supported the Prince.

‘I shouldn’t have accepted Assemblyman Borel’s proposal..’

Loen’s red pupils moved.

She, who had been looking at the Imperial Guard fallen on the floor, raised her head and looked at Assemblyman Borel.

With the obstacles gone, it was time to carry out the execution.

Assemblyman Borel sensed the crisis.

Like a last struggle, he pointed at the unconscious Imperial Guard members and thundered.

“Loen Franz!! How dare you harm the Imperial Guard members who protect the capital! His Highness will never overlook your atrocities! Just wait and see! I will report all these misdeeds you’ve committed to His Majesty the Emperor in detail, gurrk.”

It was a desperate cry trying to reverse the situation by using the fact that she had attacked the Imperial Guard as leverage.

But before his voice could even finish.

Slash–.

Thud..

The magic blade swept past his neck.

The head of Assemblyman Borel, who was about to shout something more, rolled helplessly to the floor.

His eyes were still wide open, filled with anger, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“!!”

The interior of the assembly hall was enveloped in complete silence.

Frozen assembly members, three Imperial Guard members convulsing on the floor, and the blood-stained uniformed inspector standing at the center.

Loen’s gaze swept around.

Faces turned blue with terror and trembling pupils entered her vision.

Even on the faces of assembly members who supported the Franz family, fear was mixed in without exception.

Their fear-filled gazes felt unusually unfamiliar today.

“Ugh, it hurts.. I wonder if my stomach’s going to bruise.”

Just then, a lively voice broke the frozen silence.

The owner of the voice was Psyche, who had been slammed into the wall.

She walked out of the debris while grumbling, and approached Loen while rubbing her stomach.

“Isn’t it fine since you have a healing artifact?”

“That’s true~ but it’s been so long since I’ve been hit properly like this. I just wanted to pretend to be hurt.”

Loen let out a hollow laugh at Psyche, who was still smiling brightly despite the situation.

That girl.. always the same.

Loen, who shook her head slightly, said.

“Psyche, Seraphine. Arrest them.”

“Yes!”

“Got it.”

Loen turned around and walked out of the assembly hall, leaving behind the pleas of those to be arrested.

 

The wind and rain were still fierce.

As she came out of the building, an even more intense rain shower greeted Loen.

It was a downpour that could rightfully be called a waterfall.

Loen stopped walking.

With her back to the assembly hall, she gazed at the dimly visible streets of the capital.

Unlike her utterly cold demeanor earlier, her eyes now held a complex look.

Thick fog enveloped the streets.

So everything looked unfamiliar and blurry.

“…”

Suddenly she felt like having a cigarette.

Not that she would actually smoke, it was just the feeling. She had never smoked before anyway.

‘Somehow..’

It was a feeling quite different from when eradicating traitors.

When dealing with them, there was not a hint of wavering.

They were clearly enemies of humanity, cancerous existences in the Empire, and targets that had to be eliminated for a peaceful future. There was no room for compromise or compassion.

‘But now..’

Assemblyman Borel was not a traitor in league with demons. The same was true for the other assembly members.

They were just foolish humans blinded by ambition and greed.

That’s not to say she sympathized with them.

If anything, it was more like something that had been accumulating finally burst.

Anyway, that’s how it was.

Furthermore, the Prince who had been gradually tightening his grip on the Franz family was not an enemy of humanity… but my enemy.

Even though he would lead the Empire to ruin in the future, he too still belonged to the category of humans.

So to definitely label him as an enemy of humanity… was still ambiguous for now.

Is that why I’m feeling this way?

Somehow the boundary between good and evil felt even more blurred than before.

It would be truly nice if the world could be divided into absolute good and evil.

Reality was not like that.

The current reality was that people in the gray area, where the distinction between good and evil is ambiguous, were overflowing.

Demons would use all means to bring down the Empire.

They would dig into the gray area to incite desire and division, shake the boundaries of good and evil to aggravate confusion, and lead the Empire to self-destruction.

Therefore, we who protect the Empire from demons must also not be picky about means and methods.

We must become ruthlessly cold people who mercilessly behead enemies.

We must move forward firmly.

We must not waver.

Only then can we overcome the crisis.

‘So don’t hesitate.’

There can be no compromise.

That’s what she pledged once more.

If there was one small wish.

After everything is over.

To still remain human, not the same monster as them.

 

Loen was still standing on the steps in front of the assembly hall, looking at the street.

Click, click.

The familiar sound of high heels reached her ears. She could tell without looking back.

“Loen. The arrests are all done.”

“Really? Good work.”

Seraphine, who had approached without notice, stood beside Loen.

At Loen’s subtly subdued voice, Seraphine glanced at Loen’s profile.

It was a face that seemed deep in thought.

“By the way, to think such a downpour would come on the day of our plan execution. Really~ my whole body is soaking wet and I feel so uncomfortable.”

Seraphine tugged at her wet uniform collar and grumbled.

Then Loen gave an unexpected answer.

“Isn’t it good that it’s raining?”

“..What?”

Seraphine’s eyes widened.

To her, a noble to the bone, a rainy day was just uncomfortable and annoying weather.

But saying it’s good that it’s raining?

“Isn’t this weather perfect for a day like today? The rain drowns out other noises, and the fog obscures vision.”

Oh, that’s the reason?

At Loen’s words, Seraphine nodded awkwardly with a smile.

“That’s true..”

The sound of rain that had receded returned to circle around them.

In the silence, Seraphine carefully opened her mouth.

“Loen. Isn’t this warning enough?”

At Seraphine’s words, Loen closed her eyes instead of answering.

Assemblyman Borel, who had acted as the focal point for the assembly members, was dead.

Other core assembly members who supported the Prince were also arrested one after another.

The assembly would be quiet for a while.

The purge targets were not limited to these.

Four counts classified as the financial source and core forces of the Prince’s faction.

By now, the arrest team led by the Team Leader would have raided their mansions.

Some would already have become cold corpses, while others would be being transported to the basement of the Inspection Headquarters.

Even just this much was already beyond a warning.

“I don’t think it would be bad to stop here.”

From Seraphine’s perspective, this was just the right level.

Drawing a sword against the Prince’s faction in the first place was a radical move that exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Nevertheless, this level of purging wouldn’t be a major issue.

The Prince’s faction had initiated the political offensive first, so the justification was sufficient.

Loen had the Emperor’s trust, and the Franz family had reached a level comparable to a grand ducal family.

And now they had joined hands with the Princess. Though there was no official announcement of support, those who knew already knew.

In other words, even the Prince would find it difficult to retaliate recklessly.

Of course, a full-scale confrontation would begin, but

it meant it would be difficult to use the current purge as justification.

At that moment.

Loen opened her eyes and muttered quietly.

“If you’ve started something, you should end it definitively.”

There was no longer any hesitation in her red pupils.

“Anyway, having come this far, there isn’t much difference between retreating now or taking one more step forward.”

Cold resolution filled Loen’s voice.

“So… while we’re away in the west, we need to make sure the Prince is too busy dealing with the aftermath of the purge to move recklessly. We need to mess him up for sure.”

Seraphine swallowed.

To think such a vulgar phrase would come out of the mouth of a ducal lady.

However, Loen’s firm resolve was clearly felt.

“Yes. I understand what you mean.”

With those words, Seraphine too stopped speaking.

Shortly after, Inspection Corps support personnel arrived at the assembly hall.

Black-uniformed inspectors entered the assembly hall and brought out the assembly members with their hands tied, one after another.

Loen watched the scene, then led her group and stepped back into the rain.

Their next destination was clear.

The heart of the capital, the core of the Empire.

The Imperial Palace.

Loen’s group soon disappeared into the fog.