As they made their way back to Hecius, Gaia gave Solomon a brief breakdown of the current balance of power on Swuvi.
"First, as the rulers of a knight world, the supreme royal House Magris controls the overwhelming majority of the military strength on this planet."
"But from what we've seen so far, House Magris is split into at least two factions, divided mainly by whether they support the Thirteenth Prince or the Eldest Princess."
"Based on what Sir De Orik told us, at least the vast majority of the Knights still believe in the honor of their House, so those supporting the unworthy Thirteenth Prince should be a minority."
"But that changed the moment the Mechanicus stationed here rose up. Those veteran Knights who had originally been enshrined as living relics were forcibly brought under control by some unknown method and made to stand on the Thirteenth Prince's side."
"Still, considering that a large number of Knights and armiger squires are scattered across other parts of Swuvi, a conservative estimate would put the internal balance within House Magris at roughly sixty-forty, with the majority of the Imperial Knights still loyal to their vows."
After hearing Gaia's analysis, Solomon offered a very different view.
"No. You're only looking at the surface."
"The relationships inside a noble family are never as simple as you are the enemy and I am the ally. They're a tangled knot of interests."
"Knightly houses may carry the banner of honor, but at their core, they're still great nobles of the Imperium."
"And if we add the attitude of the still-living High King into the equation, then the web of interests here becomes something not even the most advanced cogitator could fully calculate."
"Maybe most members of House Magris do oppose the High King's decision not to choose the worthiest heir, but that alone doesn't mean they'll immediately throw themselves into open civil war."
"What usually happens is that only a very small number of those who back the worthy candidate will stand up openly, while the rest keep their distance and watch, weighing the words, intentions, and likely fates of those who make the first move."
"Honor matters, sure, but profit is still what most nobles care about most. People as truly noble as Sir De Orik are the exception, not the rule."
As he spoke, Solomon looked toward Hecius in the distance, where the lights of evening had already begun to glow, his tone dry and deeply ironic.
But Gaia quickly countered his judgment with one crucial fact most people would never know.
"Solomon, the courage and nobility of an Imperial Knight doesn't come from the individual alone. It comes from the echo of the souls of all the pilots who came before."
"Even after each pilot dies, fragments of their souls remain in the neural circuits of the Throne Mechanicum, subtly shaping the minds of later pilots."
"The process is painful and not exactly humane, but it guarantees that every pilot shaped by those ancestral memories develops absolute loyalty to House and Imperium."
"In other words, unless all of Swuvi has already fallen at once, then once the Imperial Knights learn of the conspiracy Sir De Orik revealed, they will fight the enemy to the death without hesitation."
Gaia's certainty visibly surprised Solomon.
He turned and looked at Gaia, who was carrying the cargo crate on her back, and the playful look on his face gave way to something much more serious.
If what Gaia had just said was true, then it was unquestionably classified Imperial knowledge.
How exactly did she know something like that?
"I'm genuinely curious about who you are, Gaia."
A faint smile appeared beneath Gaia's hood, and she answered in the same tone.
"And I'm curious about who you are, Solomon Harlock, or should I say Captain Mordecai."
She was well aware that the kind of understanding he had just shown of noble politics was not the sort of thing a man picked up from gossip alone.
Solomon spread his hands, and his usual smile returned.
"Oh, by the God-Emperor, maybe we should focus on what we're actually going to do once we get back into the city."
Gaia cooperatively let the subject drop. She pointed toward the slanted and crooked buildings of the outer city ahead and spoke in a low voice.
"In my experience, places where the urban layout twists around like this tend to gather the least controllable parts of the population."
"If I were one of the conspirators, I would have already planted pieces of my own in this district. Then the moment things began, I could quickly encircle the inner city, which is surrounded by the outer districts."
"So while we're passing through the outer city, we should first observe the situation there, then head into the inner city and use the badge Sir De Orik gave me to gain entry and warn the other members of House Magris."
Solomon stroked his chin, eyes glinting, and asked a single question.
"How exactly do you plan to guarantee that we'll actually get in?"
The question threw their conversation into silence.
Yes, even if they had Sir De Orik's badge, how were they supposed to convince the guards at the inner city's defenses that they had obtained it legitimately?
After all, they were newly arrived outsiders from off-world.
And Solomon also glanced at the crate on Gaia's back containing Dushi's broken body.
The Emperor only knew what the inner-city guards would assume was inside that box.
They might be treated as dangerous suspects the moment they got anywhere near the defensive cordon.
Both of them suddenly realized the same thing.
If just getting into the inner city was already this difficult, then getting from the inner city into the palace and actually meeting members of House Magris would be even harder.
And even if they somehow succeeded, there was no guarantee the warning they carried would actually be passed on to the Knights scattered across Swuvi instead of being silenced the moment they spoke it.
Gaia's brow furrowed. Solomon fell silent as well.
Their plan had run into a dead end.
That silence lasted all the way until the two of them finally stepped into the outer city itself.
As the stellar halo sank and the last faint trace of daylight disappeared in the distance, endless night spread over Hecius, casting a dim oppressive shadow over everyone in the royal city.
Just as Gaia was pushing her mind to the limit, her thoughts were interrupted by a strange bell sounding somewhere in the outer district.
Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong.
With six hollow strikes, the deep and heavy toll of the bell spread through the outer city in a droning resonance.
Gaia turned toward the sound.
Then she saw an open space near the border between the outer city and the inner city, glowing with a strange pale pink radiance that stood out sharply against everything around it.
At the same time, a chant made from the intertwining voices of countless people drifted to her ears along with a breeze carrying a faint, unnatural sweetness.
And the moment she caught fragments of those words, a deep wave of shock swept through her heart.
(End of Chapter)
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