I Aggressively Stack Steel of the Heart in the Knight Order

Dragging the corpse of a Conqueror Knight, Emperor’s Shield Knight Manon hurried over to Reinhardt, only to witness Romana die in his arms.

Manon crushed the corpse’s skull. His chest heaved violently as he drew a deep breath.

”She’s dead.”

Reinhardt tore a strip from his own clothing and wrapped it around Romana’s naked body. ”The Interrogator injected her with a massive dose of an Alchemy Potion,” he said, his voice low and heavy. ”By the time I found her, her Soul Fire was faint, and her organs were failing.”

”What about the Interrogator who tortured her?”

”I killed him.”

Reinhardt unslung his War Axe and gazed at the now-deserted frontline Fortress. ”Raphael, did you find anything useful in the Interrogator’s memories?”

After a long silence, Raphael responded.

According to the Interrogator’s memories, Grand Lord Kles had dispatched a hundred-strong unit of Baze Interrogators to capture Romana. These secret police of the Great Lord were experts in infiltration and tracking.

Moreover, a member of the Baze Nobility was dispatched along with them: the Curse Mage and Grand Interrogator, Benou.

According to their protocol, after capturing Romana, the Interrogator should have reported to his captain first, then taken her directly to the Grand Interrogator.

But this Interrogator was too ambitious. After resorting to unsanctioned torture, not only did he fail to achieve his objective, but he also painted himself into a corner.

That was why he escalated the torture. He operated under the principle that if he couldn’t extract any useful information, he had to ensure no one else could either, which led him to kill Romana.

Now that the situation was clear, Reinhardt pressed on, ”Where is the Grand Interrogator?”

Raphael froze. Before he could answer, the grating, raspy voice of Seventy-Six cut in over their shared Telepathy link.

”He’s with me. Along with two accompanying Provincial Governors.

However, there’s an entire thousand-man Knight Order stationed nearby. If I were you, I wouldn’t make such a foolish choice, Captain.”

Reinhardt’s voice was cold and merciless.

”Someone must pay for what happened. Seventy-Six, I’ll take over the assassination of the two Provincial Governors. You deal with the remaining target.

Manon, Raphael, return to the extraction point now.”

’Going deep behind enemy lines and storming the frontline Fortress was already insane enough. But now, Reinhardt was trying to break through a thousand-man Knight Battle Group to assassinate—no, to brazenly slaughter—a Grand Interrogator from Baze World and two local Provincial Governors.’

’Matthias had called Reinhardt a madman, but Manon never thought their captain could be this insane. To think he could take on a Thousand-Man Battle Group all by himself in enemy territory!’

’He also wanted revenge for Romana, to make these bastards who betrayed the Divine Emperor pay.

But his rational mind stopped him from entertaining such an unrealistic idea.’

’Storming a defensive sector garrisoned by a Thousand-Man Knight Battle Group was completely different from storming the frontline Fortress. It was a suicide mission, plain and simple!’

”This is too risky! You can’t just charge in there to die. A thousand-man Knight Battle Group is not something a five-man squad like ours can possibly take on.”

At this, Raphael stepped in to fulfill his duty as the squad’s Think Tank, attempting to reason with him. ”It’s true that Romana died because of these traitors, but we have to be responsible for our mission plan, and for Romana’s sacrifice.

The intelligence she had was vital. It’s too important. We can’t...”

Reinhardt cut Raphael off, his tone leaving no room for argument. ”Give me the location, Raphael.”

”Sir!”

But Reinhardt wasn’t just venting his anger, as the other two imagined.

’Grand Lord Kles captured Romana to extract intelligence on the Imperial Administrative Region. It follows that a member of the Baze Nobility, someone with the title of Grand Interrogator, must possess a vast amount of intelligence about Grand Lord Kles’s Legion and its internal affairs.’

’But there was no rule saying the enemy was the only one allowed to capture people, while they were forced to play defense.’

’Without the intelligence from that Interrogator’s memories, Reinhardt wouldn’t have even considered this. And that mute, Seventy-Six, even if he had stumbled upon the Grand Interrogator, he certainly wouldn’t have reported it to the squad.’

’After all, almost no one else would change tactical objectives on the fly like Reinhardt did, adapting to battlefield conditions and seizing unforeseen opportunities.’

In the end, Raphael chose to obey Reinhardt’s command, marking Seventy-Six’s precise location.

Seeing Reinhardt’s determination to go on a suicide mission, Manon, an Emperor’s Shield Knight who had always prized brotherhood, knew his knightly honor and dignity would not allow him to abandon his captain and hide at the extraction point.

Especially after his earlier conflict with Raphael, he realized he had completely misjudged Reinhardt’s character, and he felt a deep sense of shame.

’Regardless of the outcome, he was still a member of the Vengeance Angel Squad, and that meant he must live and die with his Battle Brothers!’

”Sir Reinhardt, if that’s the case, count me in. I am an Emperor’s Shield Knight. My dignity won’t let me hide in the rear while you face the danger alone.”

Reinhardt lifted Romana’s body and passed it to Manon.

”Grand Lord Kles and I have a great deal of personal history, Manon Knight, but this assassination isn’t just about revenge. If I’m right, that Grand Interrogator knows many of Kles’s and Baze World’s secrets.

Since he enjoys digging for secrets in others so much, I wonder how he’ll hold up when the same methods are used on him.”

Manon froze. Until now, his impression of Reinhardt—the famed Vengeful Angel of the Iberian World—had been fixed: an Empire’s Chosen One with immense power and a cruel, bloody fighting style.

’A man skilled in combat, obsessive and courageous, but not in thinking.’

’Even after Manon joined the Vengeance Angel Squad, Reinhardt’s taciturn nature had only served to reinforce these impressions.’

Yet, as Reinhardt methodically laid out his plan and purpose from beneath his rage and thirst for vengeance, Manon suddenly realized something. An Imperial Knight who could single-handedly thwart the schemes of a Great Demon and lead the Mortals of Verne World to victory in battle...

...could never be a mindless, reckless brute.

’The plan still sounded insane, but given a sufficient level of overwhelming power, simply abducting the Grand Interrogator instead of fighting the Thousand-Man Battle Group to the death... actually started to seem plausible.’

And that wasn’t all.

Manon also realized that Reinhardt might not just be a tactical master who made bold, impromptu decisions on the battlefield; his political acumen might even rival that of the Governors.

’He was no green recruit who understood nothing.’

’Reinhardt could have explained his tactical objective from the start, but he had deliberately put on an act, sounding as if he were just going off to die.’

’The fact that he now found this new plan reasonable was probably something Reinhardt had anticipated all along.’

’As the captain of a tactical squad, he had a perfect grasp of the subtleties of the human heart.’