Arte's magic wand was destroyed by me.
　With this, Arte can no longer use powerful magic.

　Arte stared at his beloved staff, which was cut in half, and then kneeled down on the spot.
　I thrust the treasured sword tetracord into the cut of Arte's white throat as he nodded.

''What do we do, Arte?　If you're going to surrender, let's make this a deal.

　The crimes committed by Arte are serious.

　An attack on a civilian mansion, an assault on the nobleman's daughter, Lairen Remilia, and the attempted kidnapping of the Imperial Lady Filia.
　With all of these overlaps, it shouldn't be surprising that they should be punishable by death.

　Even though it's only legal, he is also morally responsible for abusing the slaves who are descendants of the Demon King as tools.

　It seems that Arte had the means and confidence to rub out all of the murderous acts if he won, but that's only if he won.

　Now that I'm a winner, even if I killed Arte on the spot, I can explain it to the judicial authorities at any cost later on.

　However, I had no intention of killing Arte.
　If I don't mind hurting someone just because I have the upper hand, I'm no different than Arte.

　Arte is a superior and wise woman, and a girl much younger than me.
　She should be able to start over as much as she wants, and there's a chance she'll even change her mind.

　Considering my age and the fact that I was born into a nobleman's family, even if the crime was originally equivalent to death, the crime would be mitigated to some extent.

　I looked around at the remains of the battle that took place in the mansion.
　The enemy Order's executive astrologer Flora had already lost her fighting ability.
　The ordinary members of the General Order under Arte's command were wiped out by the summoner Notaras and the demons under his command.

　What remained was the twin swordsman Karelia, who was the most dangerous in the sense that she was standing in front of Saint Sophia, who was not strong on the defensive side, even though she was at a distance.　
　Karelia held only the Vermilion Treasure Sword in one hand and stared at me.

''Not yet ... I can still fight!　Fulfill Master Creon's orders and take the saint from here and purge the traitors!

The fight is over, Karelia.

　I muttered.
　The demons Notaras had summoned moved quickly and surrounded Karelia.
　There was no escape.
　This meant that Karelia would have to deal with me, Sophia and Notaras alone.
　Not one in ten thousand would stand a chance.

　Just then, multiple figures appeared outside my mansion.
　There were about twenty of them.

　All of them are young men, lined up in a row next to each other, and all of them are wearing fine clothes with red lines on a white background.
　The clothes were the uniforms of the ordinary members of the Order of St. Sophia.

　I looked at them slowly.

　A tall, long-haired young man who stands in the middle of the group steps forward.
　The young man squinted his eyes languidly and then began to speak in a low, inchoate voice.

''Executives. I am the head of the imperial capital branch of the Knights of St. Sophia, Rascalos, and I have just arrived. From now on, we will take appropriate action against any traitors who disturb the order of the Order.

　With Laskarus's rambling declaration, the members of the Imperial City Chapter drew their swords or readied their staffs in unison.
　The headquarters of the Knights of St. Sophia is located in the eastern port city.
　This is because there are many ruins in the eastern part of the empire to be attacked, but of course, there aren't only ruins in the east.

　With the rapid expansion of the Order, the headquarters alone cannot cope with capturing the ruins of each region.
　Therefore, local branches of the Knights were established in several regions by gathering new members or merging different adventurer groups.

　This measure was promoted by me, who was the Deputy Commander, and was quite effective.
　All of the branches had strong members who were reasonably strong due to the prestige of the Order, and the results were high.
　The existence of such chapters helped to advertise the strength of the Knights throughout the empire.

　Among them, the imperial capital's chapter was the largest. It is said that there are people in the imperial capital branch who are more powerful than the Knights' executives.

　The members of that imperial city branch will appear here and dispose of the traitors of the Knights.
　Arte looked up, and then the light returned to his eyes.

''The reinforcements have arrived. This is a reversal of form, Solon-senpai!　God is on our side!

　As he said that, Arte quickly took out a single tree branch from within his robes.
　No, it's not just a tree branch.

　It's a portable magic wand, the kind you hide in secret as a backup.
　Of course, its performance was inferior to the willow staff that Arte had been using earlier, but even so, unlike the state without the staff, Arte would regain his decent fighting ability.

　Laskalos walked over to me and stood close to me and Arte.
　He then held up his slender sword, which shimmered white and silver.

　Laskalos is a swordsman, the head of the Imperial Branch of the Knights, and he's a pretty good fighter as a vanguard.
　If that Rascalos and the Sage Arte join forces, they should be quite a threat to us.

　If they team up, that is.
　Rascalos flashed his sword in a flash.

　The next moment, Arte's spare staff was cut off in one swipe.

''Huh?''

　Arte looked at the wand in his hand curiously.
　It couldn't be called a staff anymore, it was just a piece of a tree branch.

　The swordsman Rascalos did not change his expression even slightly, he just stood there expressionlessly.
　It was Rascalos who struck down Arte's staff.

''Nah, why?　Laskarus promised to purge the traitors, so why did you break my wand!　Your enemies will be Notaras and this senior Solon who sides with Notaras!

'My enemy is you, Master Arte. You are the traitor to our Order of St. Sophia.

　Laskarus said plainly.