“So, my sister drew the winning card, huh? I really can’t win in these situations.”
The Lord had seized control of the other two slums.
Yet, there were no casualties.
He meticulously investigated the existence of any resistance without resorting to senseless slaughter.
He then secured the people of the slums and issued orders to treat them as Third-Class Citizens.
The defenseless slum dwellers were taken away by the Asgard Army soldiers without being able to do anything.
It was all too swift, and the slum people couldn’t even grasp what was happening.
“Well then, let’s go. We should too.”
That worst of enemies began his advance.
The ever-victorious commander, the ruler of the world.
He had never known defeat, not even once.
The genius who had pushed the EU to the brink of collapse.
Asgard’s Lord was heading to the battlefield where Kenyya would fight.
…
“Hey, Jillian, are there really any resistance fighters? No matter how many we kill, they just don’t appear.”
“There are some in military uniforms. The stolen KOGs should be showing up soon… Oh, look, they’re appearing as we speak.”
A KOG appeared before Ymir, who was continuing her slaughter.
Since no signal identifying it as an ally was being emitted, Jillian understood that it was an enemy.
“An inferior species operating a KOG, huh? It’s too advanced a weapon for you lot. Oh?”
A communication came through the open channel from the KOG standing before her.
“I want to ask you, why are you killing? They’re just civilians.”
The pilot was Kenyya.
He addressed the royal Ymir.
Suppressing his anger, he tried to remain as calm as possible.
Soldiers should be prepared to die, and they were in opposition as resistance fighters.
He wouldn’t deny fighting, and he could still understand the reason for being killed.
But.
The view from the cockpit.
In his sight were numerous corpses, and Kenyya grimaced at the sight.
“Was there a reason to kill unarmed people!”
“How amusing. First of all, your understanding is wrong. You are inferior species. Pigs in human skin. Do we need permission to hunt pigs?”
“We’re humans too, no different from you.”
“Hah, you’re impossible to talk to. Is it because you’re an inferior species? I wish you at least had enough brains to communicate.”
“I see… That’s enough.”
“Huh?”
“Shut… up!”
Keeen!
Immediately after, Kenyya appeared in front of Ymir’s KOG.
And then, a downward slash with his massive sword.
However, the attack was deflected by the sword of a KOG that had intervened.
“Ymir-sama, please step back.”
“Don’t kill him, just drag him out, Jillian. I need to educate him.”
“My apologies, Ymir-sama. Haaah!”
Kenyya, having his sword forcefully repelled, took some distance.
The Holy Knight Captain of the Empire, Jillian, held her sword and stared straight at Kenyya.
Sweat was running down her forehead.
“It seems he’s not an opponent we can afford to be careless with.”
And then, the two clashed.
Jillian quickly understood.
This enemy was strong, so much so that even fighting with all her might might not be enough.
“No way…”
Ymir, who witnessed the scene, couldn’t believe it.
Ymir, who also operated a KOG, possessed a certain level of skill.
While she wasn’t at the level of a knight who had undergone proper training, she could still operate it and fight to some extent.
That’s why she knew Jillian’s strength and trusted him.
She had never seen him struggle in actual combat.
And yet.
“What! What are you! I am the Holy Knight Captain! The top of the Empire!”
“Holy Knight Captain? It seems there are differences in strength even among Holy Knight Captains.”
(Zeke-san was far stronger. I wish I could have fought Zeke-san when he was still active. He must have been even stronger then.)
Jillian, who had been calm, began to show signs of agitation.
With each clash, she felt the difference in skill.
With every strike, she was taking damage somewhere.
“W-What are you doing! Jillian!”
“G-damn it!!”
“Have you understood a little?”
The sound of metal echoed across the battlefield.
Massive swords collided; one sword was held firmly, while the other flew through the air.
“Could it be… am I going to lose?”
The sword flew far behind and pierced straight into the ground.
“The feelings of the weak, the feelings of those who are trampled by violence!”
And then, Kenyya’s strike cleaved Jillian’s KOG in two.
The KOG, cut in half, ignited, exploded, and fell silent.
“My apologies… Your Majesty… the Emperor…”
“Huh? Jillian? What are you doing? Jillian?”
Ymir couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
That’s why she spoke to the blackened KOG that had already stopped moving.
“What are you doing? The opponent is an inferior species, right? There’s no way an Asgardian would lose, right? Jillian?”
“You’re a pitiful one too, a pathetic princess brainwashed by the Empire.”
Kenyya’s KOG walked towards Ymir.
Slowly but surely, it closed the distance.
Dragging its massive sword, it scattered the sound of death.
“D-Don’t be ridiculous! I am Asgard’s Ymir! The ruler of the world! I am the strong one! Survival of the Fittest is the law of nature! Why won’t you obey me!”
Ymir backed away.
Feeling something unknown from the machine in front of her.
She didn’t understand the true nature of that feeling.
She had always been on the side of the strong, and the world had become as she had wished.
She had even thought that the world was hers.
What was this feeling?
“O-Obey me! I am a princess! Stop! Stop it!!”
The princess’s machine stumbled on some rubble as she backed away and fell on her rear.
“That’s fear. It’s what the people you’ve capriciously trampled and robbed have felt. It’s a normal human emotion to protect what’s important.”
Kenyya’s blade struck and severed both of Ymir’s KOG’s legs.
Unable to move, Ymir’s machine could only struggle pathetically in place.
“Me, fear? Die? I’m going to die? No, no, no!! I still want to kill more! I still want to take more! Stop it!!”
“That’s your belief, right? Survival of the Fittest. Then you have no complaints. Die while accepting that you were the weak one!”
“Nooooo!!!”
Kenyya’s blade was about to bisect Ymir’s machine.
Or so it seemed.
Keeen
The sound of metal being crushed echoed around.
“Huh?”
Ymir, her hair disheveled and drenched in sweat.
What Ymir, whose hair had fallen out from fear, saw was a Silver KOG.
Sprinkled with pale pink, it was a beautiful machine, like cherry blossoms waiting on the snow.
“This machine is… could it be?”
Kenyya, blinded by anger, hadn’t noticed the machine.
However, he understood from the voice that came through the open channel.
“Ymir-sama, please leave this to me and escape. Lord-sama has arrived.”
“A-Ah! Well done. Well done! What’s your name!”
The cherry blossom-colored KOG held its massive sword and pointed it at Kenyya.
It was a familiar voice.
A pleasant, monotonous voice he heard every day.
However, the blade that was pointed at him undoubtedly carried it.
A genuine hostility that she had never shown him before.
“Reina. Reina Sylphid, of the Ward 13 Special District Military Training School.”
Murderous intent.