I Aggressively Stack Steel of the Heart in the Knight Order

Irenia shook her head, her tone wistful as she gave a bitter smile.

”My father was a great man. He gave me all his love, but he never taught me what to do with my life after losing him and my family.

I fell into a state of immense confusion; despair and repression nearly consumed me entirely.”

At this, she looked at Reinhardt. ”Regardless of what you truly think of me, I am still grateful for your help in Kemola.

I no longer live in Lord Anatol’s shadow, and I now possess the power to forge my own future.”

Reinhardt was silent for a long time. ”You sought me out alone just to say these things?”

Irenia tucked a stray strand of black hair behind her ear, a gentle smile on her face. ”The moments of satisfaction and beauty in our long lives are always so fleeting.

But the pain of loss endures in memory, doesn’t it?

It’s so good to see you again.”

As she spoke, a churning pool of ethereal blue energy roiled and spread out behind her. Irenia produced a finger-sized black box and tossed it to Reinhardt across the space between them.

She stepped back, and the moment she made contact with the pool of energy, her body began to sink into it like melting blue wax.

”Inside is some intelligence on Silencer Enok. Agate will know how to use it. As for you, you’re nowhere near strong enough to handle that bastard. The Silencer’s power is beyond anything you or I can imagine.”

Reinhardt reached out and caught the box she had thrown.

”But you’re still alive after clashing with him.”

By now, most of Irenia’s body had completely dissolved into energy. She shot Reinhardt a triumphant smile and left him with a ridiculously flippant parting shot before vanishing completely.

”Because I’m a master of escape.”

---

「Bridge.」

「Command Platform, Second Level.」

The holographic projection, which had been displaying a regional star chart, now showed combat footage between two Wizards from a first-person perspective.

The high-ranking officers of the Vengeful Angels who were watching all had furrowed brows and grim faces. Even Koller was silent, his expression heavy.

The terrifying scene in the footage—where Silencer Enok simply raised a hand and pointed, causing a magnificent mountain to disintegrate on the spot—had genuinely stunned all who watched.

This level of power was far beyond their comprehension.

This was a terrifying level of power, one that not even the Imperial Rebel Army or Elite Demons could hope to achieve!

After the playback ended, a mechanical arm extended from Agate’s chest and retrieved the black cube. ”She used an encryption technique on the memory,” he stated in a cold voice. ”I’ll try to recover it, but the probability is extremely low.”

Agate didn’t say it outright, but the implication was clear: the device was single-use. This was a precaution to prevent it from falling into Enok’s hands, which would allow him to analyze the footage and discover her true identity.

Koller took a deep breath. Only now did he realize what a huge crisis the Vengeful Angels had narrowly avoided after landing on Cyrenaica.

If that... Wizard hadn’t snatched the Chaos Mother Box and drawn Enok’s attention, everyone on this bridge would likely have been sent to the Divine Emperor’s embrace by now.

Reinhardt would be no exception.

A combatant of this level was beyond what a Five-star Earth Military Rank—or even he himself—could handle.

Unlike with Psychics, there was no ambiguity in a Cosmic Mage’s power. It was absolute. Facing the crushing Power of Rules was like facing the swing of an Imperial Knight’s Power Sword.

Block it and live. Fail to block it and die.

There was no other choice.

Koller’s brow was furrowed. He let out a heavy sigh. ”This intelligence on the enemy’s strongest combatant is vital to us—to the war against the rebellion. To think that such valuable information would come from a heretic...”

Clearly, Koller, given his origins with the Eldest Son of the Emperor, could not accept this reality.

A Wizard providing an Imperial Knight with intelligence on another Wizard—no matter how he looked at it, he found it hard to accept.

Matthias wore a grave expression. He glanced cautiously at Reinhardt and, after receiving a look of assent, explained to Koller, ”Irenia’s original name is Eliza. She was the adopted daughter of a Local Lord on Grillers World.

During the early days of the Vengeful Angels, we met her while carrying out a mission in Kemola.

She helped us out a lot.”

”Is that so?”

Hearing this explanation, not only did Koller’s frown deepen, but even the ever-silent Lu Jia and her three sisters also furrowed their brows.

’The Vengeful Angels cooperated with a heretic back in their founding days?’

To say they were shocked would be an understatement. Deep down, Koller and the four Battle Sisters felt as if their world was collapsing.

They never would have dreamed that Reinhardt, the Lord of Vengeful himself, was not only intimately involved with a Heretic Mage, but that the two had cooperated long ago.

This...

Of course, no one present knew about the conversation the two had in the corridor.

Even Koller had withdrawn his Spiritual Perception at the time.

It wasn’t just Koller. Standing beside Matthias, Metaron, a former Ash Guard, also found what his brother-in-arms said difficult to accept.

’The Ash Guard, cooperating with a Wizard?’

’It was practically blasphemy!’

However, Morphis spoke up. He was a former member of the Shadow Knight Order who had barely said a word since joining the Holy Fire Guard, a man with almost no presence. With a deadpan expression, he said, ”As long as it leads to a great victory, cooperating with a heretic is merely a means to an end, not the goal itself.

The former Imperial Regent is leading a rebellion, yet you’re all still hung up on matters of purity.

Utterly foolish.

Getting intelligence on Silencer Enok can help us win this war. That’s all that matters.”

Morphis was an Imperial Knight with black hair, black eyes, and a gaunt face framed by messy, drooping hair. He had a profoundly grim aura. The moment he spoke, the command platform fell into silence.

Few people are willing to pick at old wounds.

But Morphis’s hardline stance made it clear he didn’t care that the Seventh Group Army had been directly under the Imperial Regent’s command, nor that he himself hailed from a Battle Group that had once betrayed the Empire.

Faced with this bloody reality, even Koller, despite his Eldest Son of the Emperor origins, was rendered speechless.

Reinhardt chose this moment to speak.

”The debate on this issue ends here. Has the decision from the closed-door meeting been announced?”

Koller produced a list and handed it to him. ”I’ve already notified the Local Lords on the rebels’ side. This list details who accepted and who refused, but many more are taking a wait-and-see approach and haven’t responded yet.

Right now, it’s not just us. Cicero is also secretly sending people to negotiate with these Lords, and I suspect Grand Lord Kles may be involved as well.

If too many Lords refuse, I fear that if we have to resort to killing them, it will trigger unforeseen chaos.”

Reinhardt replied in a cold voice, ”If there is chaos, then we will crush it. And here I was, worried I wouldn’t have an excuse to kill them.”

The offer of amnesty was merely a stopgap measure.

Reinhardt was perfectly clear on the stakes. If they didn’t eliminate the root of the problem—these vacillating Local Lords—they could very well incite a second rebellion in the future.

They had propped up one Claudius; they had the resources to prop up a second.

Based on his analysis, this rebellion was, in essence, no different from an uprising of powerful vassals. Claudius may have appeared to be leading it, but Reinhardt knew that with Claudius’s limited strength and influence, he wouldn’t have been able to make a single ripple without these people backing him with money and men. Not even a hundred of him.

Hearing Reinhardt’s cruel and cold reply, the hearts of everyone present at the meeting sank.

Koller had long expected such a response.

Before he could respond, his brow furrowed, and dark purple Spiritual Lightning flashed deep in his pupils as if he were conversing with someone.

「A moment later.」

”My lord, it’s Great Sage Cassio. He wishes to speak with you about the Ancient Armory in Cyrenaica.”