“So? Where are the trash locations?”
“…There are several candidates, but it’s not clear if they’re just slums.”
Zeke and Ymir were in the conference room, planning their operation.
“Then, let’s clean up the trash in those slums. We’ll smoke them out in the end, right? Okay, meeting adjourned.”
Ymir gave orders to one of her close aides, a citizen of the Aasgard Empire.
Jillian, the captain of Ymir’s personal guard, was a Holy Knight of the same rank as Zeke, who lived for his loyalty to the Empire.
He was a tall, young man wearing glasses.
He was the epitome of seriousness, yet a young talent chosen as a Holy Knight Captain of the Empire.
(So, he’s Jillian… I’ve heard he’s talented, but he’s still just a Holy Knight. A Holy Knight Captain who was promoted because none of the Holy Knight Captains wanted to be Ymir’s knight…)
Jillian was strong, but his actual strength was at the Holy Knight level.
The Holy Knight Captains of the home country were fed up with Ymir’s outrageous behavior and made Jillian Ymir’s knight as their replacement.
Even so, a Holy Knight was an Ace-class talent, a rare find, with only one or two appearing each year from the training schools of each country.
“Understood, Ymir-sama.”
“Ymir-sama! That would mean killing civilians as well! Please reconsider!”
A soldier who was standing guard in the room raised his voice in protest.
(Damn it! He’s…)
Zeke regretted his mistake when he saw the soldier objecting to the princess’s statement.
He should have kept anyone below Second-Class hidden from this woman.
“Oh? You’re… Second-Class, right? Come over here for a moment.”
She called out to the soldier with a seemingly gentle smile.
The young man in his twenties walked straight to the princess’s side.
“I’ll explain why. Could you lend me a pen? And could you put your hand here?”
“Huh?… Y-yes…”
The soldier handed over the pen from his breast pocket.
The moment he placed his hand on the desk as instructed.
“Gwaaah!!”
Ymir stabbed the pen into his hand with all her might.
She asked with a smile as if nothing had happened.
But her eyes were not smiling at all.
“That’s how it is. Understand?”
“B-but Ymir-sama! There are children there too… Gwaaah!”
“There aren’t any humans there. You’re not people, you’re livestock. You’re beings that can die at any time, depending on my mood.”
She twisted the pen she had stabbed in, as if to inflict more pain.
Ymir watched the soldier’s tormented expression with a look of ecstasy.
Her beautiful face twisted like an ugly witch.
“You’re Second-Class, aren’t you? A loser who can only abandon your country and wag your tail for us, right?”
“Guh… P-please reconsider!”
“Fufu, you’re trying hard even though you’re a dog. It’s thrilling. Hey, you guys!”
“…Yes.”
Three men stood behind Ymir.
All of them were handsome and beautiful, but they were not citizens of the Aasgard Empire.
They were men who had lost their countries after being defeated by the Aasgard Empire in the past and had fallen into slavery to Ymir.
As proof, they wore collars with bombs around their necks, and their heads would be torn off at Ymir’s command.
They did not resist Ymir.
Their hearts had already been broken after seeing their comrades who had opposed Ymir being tortured and killed in front of them.
“I wonder how many times it will take for you to break? It’s fine anytime, you know? I’ll educate you properly. It’s my duty, after all.”
The men held down the soldier’s hands on the desk.
“Gwaaah!!”
She stabbed the pen in again and again.
But no one could stop her.
No one could stop the rulers of this world.
They were the rules, and if anyone could stop them, it would be only one person.
A young boy entered the room.
“Sister. He’s still a soldier, so that’s enough. I have more fun things prepared.”
“Oh, Lord!”
She threw the pen away, her interest immediately shifting to Lord.
The sister favored her brother, a brother who only did what was convenient for her.
“Thank you for today. Thank you for coming all this way.”
“It’s fine, I’ll leave the command to you. Well, call me when you’re ready.”
With that, Ymir left the room and entrusted everything to Lord.
“Haa, I didn’t expect my sister to come. More unnecessary blood will be shed. She has a nose for these things, which is troublesome.”
“Lord-sama… I know this is an impertinent request. But please, try to minimize the bloodshed. Please…”
Lord nodded at Zeke’s plea.
Then he declared loudly, and the surrounding soldiers knelt.
“Ah, I’ll try to arrange it as much as possible. I’m not a pleasure killer, after all.”
(Unlike my sister…)
And the operation began.
It was early morning, the same time Kenya and the others went to school.
…
“Good morning, Kaguya.”
“G-good morning!”
Kenya sat next to Kaguya as usual.
He was a little lonely that Kaguya hadn’t been making much eye contact with him lately.
“Kaguya, is something wrong?”
“H-huh!? Nothing’s wrong!”
(Why is my face turning so red just by looking at his face, me!)
She didn’t like Kenya at all.
Kaguya repeated this to herself as if to convince herself.
The more she tried not to think about it, the more she fell into a rut, but she was unaware of that.
“Where’s Reina?”
She had contacted him saying she couldn’t make it to their usual morning practice, so he came slowly, but Reina wasn’t in the classroom.
“Who knows… Besides, it’s self-study today. I wonder if something happened.”
They had come to school, but the instructors were not there today, as it was self-study.
He was thinking of looking at the manual since there was nothing else to do.
“No way…”
A message came to Kaguya’s device.
Her face turned pale as she looked at the screen with a listless expression.
Immediately after, she stood up.
“Kenya, come!”
Kenya was taken out of the classroom by a flustered Kaguya.
“What’s wrong, Kaguya? What’s the rush?”
“Listen calmly, the Asgard Army is heading to our base right now.”
“Eh!? The base, you mean Amaterasu’s?”
“Yes, I’m going there now… What about you, Kenya?”
“Of course, I’m going.”
“…I see. Understood.”
Kenya and Kaguya left the classroom and headed to the base.
Since then, Kenya had been going to Amaterasu’s base almost every day for KOG practical training.
His unease wouldn’t stop.
“Please be safe, everyone.”
…
“Alright, let’s begin. Zeke.”
“Yes!”
A huge transport vehicle that also served as a mobile fortress.
The large vehicle, which looked like a mansion, also served as a command center during wartime.
The inside was spacious and comfortable, and the one sitting on the throne-like seat was the commander.
In other words.
Aasgard Lord.
The ever-victorious prince known as the devil’s brain.
“There are three slums nearby. First…”
“Well, I’ll take this one. Let’s go, Jillian.”
“Yes!”
“…Understood, Sister. I’ll take care of the remaining two.”
His sister interrupted and decided on her own.
However, Lord, who tried not to go against his sister as much as possible, yielded since it wasn’t particularly important.
“Sister, at least give a warning first… Do as you please with those who resist.”
He asked Ymir to at least give a warning first.
He knew it was pointless, but it was supposedly to suppress the resistance.
“Really? Okay, I understand. See you later, Lord.”
And the Torture Princess went out to battle.
Lord and Zeke watched her from behind.
Despite being royalty, she operated a KOG.
Why?
In the Empire, power was everything, which now meant KOG operation skills.
In the Empire, where one could become a noble just by their KOG skills, it was that important.
Therefore, it had become a tradition for even royalty to be able to operate them.
But Ymir’s motive was not that.
“Fufu, it’s been a while since I’ve hunted humans. How exciting.”
Just like nobles enjoyed hunting wild rabbits.
She enjoyed hunting humans.
That was the Torture Princess, Ymir’s pleasure.
“Haa, it can’t be helped. Let’s finish this as quickly as possible. Now, the operation.”
Lord stood up from his throne and declared.
“Begin!”