The only thing that can stop a knight is another knight.
That was an absolute law of war that had not changed over a thousand years.
Joseph thought so as well.
"1st Imperial Guard Platoon. We will annihilate the remnants of an old era."
Until the Imperial Guard's machine gun opened fire.
The knight, who had already consumed a considerable amount of Aura, could not block the point-blank machine-gun barrage.
When the muzzle flash faded, only one knight remained, collapsed helplessly with dozens of bullet holes riddling his body.
"Guh, keuk..."
Joseph, who tried to say something but vomited the blood backing up into his throat and collapsed just like that, could not rise again.
On a battlefield where pulling a trigger once could take a life, there was no such thing as an honorable death.
When one of the Imperial Guard members pushed the knight's corpse into the sea and gestured, the platoon headed for the coast in search of another target.
The tide of battle had already turned.
When a knight who broke through the dense Anti-Air fire net reached the ground, the waiting Army pushed him into the sea with overwhelming firepower.
There was resistance from the knights in the process, but it did not mean much.
Even if they barely annihilated one Army platoon, the Imperial Guard appeared from behind and poured out firepower.
The light of tracer rounds brightly lit the dark night sky. The trails of machine-gun fire crossing the city, and the roar of guns filling every direction.
In a kind of war they had never seen before, the knights were helpless.
"Die!!!"
A knight who charged bravely with a lance in hand came into the sight of a 20mm Autocannon gunner.
The difference in their physical specs was immense.
A human weapon the West had spent over 10 years raising, and an infantryman who had been conscripted for 1 month.
Even such a vast gap meant nothing before the absurd firepower spewed by the quad 20mm Autocannon.
Tukagagagak-!
The moment the trigger was pulled, the body of the knight charging with such momentum shook in place as if dancing.
10 seconds later. When the soldier let go of the trigger, the knight's body had already been crushed beyond recognition.
"Ha, haah... haah..."
The soldier caught his breath and stared blankly at the corpse.
Then, he looked once at the autocannon, which proudly emitted gray smoke as if nothing had happened.
"Haha, hahaha..."
The soldier, born the son of a factory worker, had admired knights all his life. The Empire's strongest sword had the power to captivate a young heart.
Even after becoming an adult, he could not abandon his lingering attachment to knights.
Though his status was lowly, and he was so poor he could not even dream of an elixir. And though he knew there was no chance at all.
He had always envied knights.
"This is what a knight is?"
But... not anymore.
He had only pulled a finger. With that simple act, a single knight was, quite literally, ground away.
Even that amazing Aura was useless before the 20mm.
The quad autocannon boasted a rate of fire of 1,000 rounds per minute.
Every second, fifteen bullets the size of an adult fist slammed in at a speed far beyond the sound barrier, and no human could withstand that.
Knights and ordinary humans alike were no more than equal corpses before it.
The soldier was no longer afraid of knights, nor envious of them.
Rather...
"Has the knight who fled this way already died?"
The Imperial Guard was far more impressive.
Special-class soldiers. Martial arts masters. Aura technique practitioners, and so on. A direct escort unit composed of Superhumans.
Before them, running across the battlefield with heavy machine guns while hiding their identities, even knights were nothing.
"Good, well done, soldier."
Watching an Imperial Guard member pat his shoulder and walk on with praise, the soldier gained a new dream.
Now, this world was no longer the age of knights.
***
"Your Grace. Approximately 250 enemy knights shot down and killed. There are no prisoners, and the Army and Imperial Guard are currently cooperating to search for surviving enemies."
"Good."
When I arrived at D-5 District, the battle was already in the mood of being more or less wrapped up.
The Flares that had lit the sky slowly died down, and the successive roars of the Anti-Air Guns heard from far away also stopped.
In the city where silence had come, only the intermittent sound of machine-gun fire could be heard.
"Charles Raymonds?"
"We have not found a body presumed to be him. It seems he likely felt the tide was unfavorable and retreated."
Well, it was a little regrettable, but it was fine.
I had never thought I could kill Charles Raymonds here in the first place.
Honestly, leaving him alive to hold the position of Western Grand Duke was much more convenient.
I may have built the Dreadnought and succeeded with Taggapdoe, but the true standard of Taggapdoe is Charles Raymonds.
A madman who insists that you just occupy, plunder, and repay.
As long as a man like that keeps holding the West, the West will never get its act together.
"Ah, and the Imperial Guard performed better than expected. Most of the knights who succeeded in landing on land were handled by the Imperial Guard."
"That's fortunate. From now on, it would be good to continue research in this direction as well."
It was not that the South had no mages or knights at all. It was common for those pushed out of the center to defect to the South.
The Imperial Guard was the unit formed by gathering such people together.
The idea when it was first founded was simple.
If an ordinary infantryman is strong just by holding a gun, wouldn't someone who can use magic be even stronger?
For now, because we did not know well how magic and guns would pair, we had merely gathered them nearby under the name Imperial Guard.
Still, with results like this, it might be worth operating them in earnest.
Using them as agents in the intelligence agency. Or using them as an Army infantry assault unit. This was worth researching further.
"The Destroyer Squadron's results?"
"They report shooting down approximately 50 Wyverns."
The Destroyer Squadron's results also came out as expected.
Seen this way, it was a battle in which we had only gained in many respects.
But I could not simply be pleased.
This battle had not been a perfect victory.
"...So, what are our losses?"
Imperialism begins by erasing human ego and brainwashing people with ideology.
The state urges soldiers to become tools, treats the lives lost in war as numbers, and runs wild.
It is not that this is completely wrong. If a leader rejoiced or grieved over the death of a single person, the nation would not function properly.
But...
At least remembering it as Kyle the human, not Kyle Leopold the leader, should be fine.
"107 Anti-Air Artillery personnel and 58 Army soldiers died, and 131 are being treated for serious or minor injuries."
From the leader's perspective, it was truly overwhelming results.
It was a night raid by the Wyvern Unit, which until now had been known to have no way of being stopped.
Having blocked it with only this much damage was clearly an achievement that would remain in history for a long time.
But I could not help feeling uneasy. Because we had suddenly launched a surprise attack before the Imperial Arbitration came, people who did not need to die had died.
I closed my eyes for a moment, calmed my emotions, and gave the order.
"Compile the list of victims by tomorrow and place it on my desk. Do not forget sufficient compensation for the bereaved families."
They were the victims of the first war. Even for internal unity, I could not let this pass sloppily.
Even for the justification to start a war.
"And 1 week from now, clear the hall of Albion City Hall."
It was time to sprinkle 20th-century-style propaganda and agitation over a romance fantasy world brimming with romance.
"This time, I will personally appear at the speech venue. I will write the speech myself as well."
The reason I did not leave it to a professional speechwriter was simple.
To stir up anger at their surprise attack, sympathy for the victims, and boiling vengeance... I needed an appeal containing raw emotion.
"Ask the bereaved families for their understanding, and if necessary, bring them even if you have to pay additional compensation."
"Yes, Your Grace!"
And for that, the participation of the bereaved families was absolutely necessary.
Not to mention the participation of people from all walks of life, from laborers to capitalists.
I had no outstanding gift for words. For me, whose only writing in my past life was a diary I wrote in elementary school, it was hard to conjure a speech out of thin air.
But I had the knowledge of 21st-century humanity.
And I could confidently guarantee that my ability to process that knowledge to fit this world was certain.
After all, I was already the man who had used the Labor Standards Act to overturn the South's entrepreneurs once.
***
By the time the Imperial Arbitration proposal arrived, it was already far too late.
To summarize the contents of the arbitration proposal, it was like this.
1. The West shall compensate the South for all profits gained through Sarsen Fortress up to now.
2. The South shall return the Sarsen Territory.
The South and the West had already drawn blood. With both sides intent on devouring the other, no one was willing to entertain an arbitration proposal from a Crown Prince whose head was full of fanciful ideals.
The South's newspapers focused all week on how unjust a surprise attack the harbor air raid had been.
For an entire week, the South's newspapers focused on the injustice of the West's surprise air raid on the harbor.
They talked about how vile the West's upper echelons were. They spread the argument that their compatriots had to be saved from the West's clutches.
At the moment when South public opinion had boiled to its limit.
The Grand Duke of the South, Kyle Leopold, personally stepped before the citizens.
Albion City Hall.
The huge hall, capable of accommodating up to 5,000 people, was filled with people.