“Gyaaaaaah!?”

“Fred!? Guaah!?”

The moment the flow of time returned to normal, agonized screams echoed throughout the battleship’s metallic passageways as blood splashed onto them, staining their once-pristine white walls crimson.

“Is that even a human’s movements!?”

“Even nobles aren’t able to go that fa– This is bad! He’s heading here!?”

“Fire! Fire!”

I hid behind a barricade that was put up by Earl Ixamal’s private soldiers in order to catch my breath. After resting a bit, I held my breath again and jumped out. I made use of the makeshift shields I got from cutting up parts of the walls as well as fallen corpses in order to block the soldier’s firing lines. I used my swords to defend the areas I couldn’t cover as I advanced toward the enemy soldiers.

Hostility and killing intent pierced my skin, but the emotion of fear also wafted over. The ship’s halls were awash with a combined tapestry of hope and fear, creating a strange dissonance. It felt like my psionic powers have become even stronger due to being immersed in the heat of battle, making my ability to perceive the emotions of others even more acute.

“–!?”

“!!!?”

When time slowed to a crawl once more, the voices of the soldiers stopped reaching my ears. However, their various emotions permeated the halls and reached the depths of my heart. Anger, sadness, pain, fear. These various emotions managed to reach me faster than the soldier’s own cries even as time slowed down.

I continued to block the deadly laser shots fired by their weapons using the corpses and makeshift shields until they got damaged beyond hope and exploded. However, I moved faster than the resulting explosions and cut the soldiers down with the swords I held in each hand.

I slashed their weapons and their limbs. At times, I went for the head or neck. If they were hiding behind barricades, I cut both them and the barricades in two.

“No, hold on……?”

Then, an idea went through my head as I hid behind cover once more.

Was there any point in limiting myself to only two swords? No, I didn’t even have to do it with my own hands, didn’t I? It wasn’t necessary to cut them down directly, right? After all, since I could already punch them away, it should be possible for me to crush them now too.

Yeah. Ain’t that pretty easy?

“W-What!?’

“The barricades are……!? Geh!?”

“H-Hiiiii!? Gyaaaaah!?”

A torrent of telekinetic power enveloped and grasped all the objects in the hallways, turning them into messy stream of rubble, barricades, optical weapons, and corpses. The ‘stream’ ran over everything in its path, crushing them with sheer weight and momentum.

“The hallways are no good! Evacuate to the room entrances and…… Argh!? Gaaah!?”

“Ah, my head is…… S-Stop–”

I telekinetically grabbed the heads and necks of the soldiers who were trying to attack me from behind cover, strangled them, and crushed them to death afterward. There was no need to swing my swords anymore. There wasn’t a need for laser weapons either.

“M-Monster……!”

“This is hopeless! Retreat! Retreat!”

I watched as the private soldiers threw their weapons away and fled. I wasn’t some sort of murderous demon who’d kill everything in my path; even those who have already escaped. Right. A demon……

“……Damn.”

I couldn’t help but mutter under my breath as I looked at the sorry state of the hallway, where no one was left alive except for me. Somehow, I had managed to calm down enough to realize that I’d obviously gone too far. It was an absolute massacre. Well, since they were pointing their weapons at me, I couldn’t really afford to hold back. However, there was still a line that I shouldn’t have crossed.

Or rather, I had finally managed to gain new ways of using my psionic powers, but…… for some reason, I don’t think I’d be able to use them anymore. I remembered the methods and understood the mechanics, but I just won’t be able to do it. What the heck was this feeling? It certainly doesn’t feel very good.

However, this was no time to be in a daze. I need meet with Mimi and the others as soon as possible.

『My Lord.』

When I was about to head out again, I received a telepathic message from Kugi. All my equipment, including my portable terminal, was confiscated by the enemy, so having a way to exchange messages like this was a lifesaver.

『I hear you. I’m glad you’re able to get in touch like this. Are you guys safe?』

『Yes, My Lord. I could not afford to let my guard down earlier and had to focus on protecting myself, so I was unable to reach out to you. We are finally safe, so I am able to get in touch with you like this without any trouble.』

『Got it. Where are you guys?』

『I shall guide you. The soldiers should no longer try to attack you, but be careful nonetheless.』

I replied with a ‘roger’ and started moving along the hallways under Kugi’s guidance. I didn’t encounter any more of Earl Ixamal’s soldiers along the way. Maybe they’ve hidden themselves somewhere or were regrouping. Anyway, just how did she do this? Even though Kugi was a fairly powerful telepath, she shouldn’t be able to make her abilities affect the entire battleship. The Majestic, was it? Anyway, it was far too huge, even for Kugi.

After walking for a good while, I reached a room that was pretty far in. When I entered, the first thing I saw was David Ixamal, who was bound to a chair and had a blank expression on his face. Apparently, my crew member’s efforts led to his capture. Did his private soldiers stop fighting because their leader got captured?

There was also another guy, who appeared to be a burly commanding officer, that was tied up and left lying on the floor.

“I’m glad you’re safe, but…… you look terrible.”

The first one to call out to me was Elma. However, she was displaying a somber expression. After she pointed it out, I checked my appearance and found that there was a lot of blood on my clothes and, overall, I looked pretty messed up. I was practically covered in blood. It’s not my blood though.

“I was desperate…… When I came to, I found myself tied to a chair, then was told that you guys were also captured and were being held at another location.”

I let out a heavy sigh, stabbed the swords in my hands to the floor, then plopped down on a nearby sofa. The floor of the room got damaged, and the sofa got stained in blood as well, but I didn’t care one bit.

“So, what’s the situation?”

When I asked for an explanation, Captain Serena, who was sitting on a different sofa, began speaking in response.

“It seems that Earl Ixamal was truly planning to defect to the Vereverem Federation. He was also planning to hand over all the areas from this point to the gateway, the star system forces engaging the Federation, as well as the two of us as souvenirs.”

“He really was raring to stage a betrayal huh……? So? Is it really okay for us to simply dawdle here?”

“It’s no good at all, of course. But I currently can’t move even if I wanted to. It appears that my foreign body purging implant has overloaded due to being repeatedly driven to its operational limit, and if I moved recklessly, there’s a chance that the drugs injected to me by that man might take effect.”

Captain Serena replied while giving Daybit a disgusted look.

“You actually had something like that but still ended up passing out?”

“Now look here. The implant isn’t an all-powerful panacea. If the administered drugs were to reach an amount that exceeds its tolerance level, those drugs would still work on me like normal. I regularly deal with space pirates, so that’s why I have special means to protect myself against unknown drugs to some extent. But that isn’t the case for regular soldiers or nobles, okay? Anyway, we have asked the imperial marines of the Independent Mobile Anti-Pirate Fleet to suppress and take full control of this ship. Your maidroid is also–”

“Master.”

As Captain Serena was about to mention her name, Mei appeared and entered the room. Captain Serena saw her and shrugged.

“I apologize for the delay in our rescue effort.”

“It’s fine. I’m just glad that you’re here. What are you carrying?”

“These are Master and the others’ weapons and equipment. I have also recovered the captain’s sword.”

“Thank you.”

When Captain Serena saw Mei take out a familiar sword from the bundle she was carrying, she breathed a sigh of relief and quickly thanked Mei. As expected, a noble daughter like her really does place a lot of importance on her personal sword. I also felt a bit relieved when my own swords were returned to me. I suppose I’ll take the swords I swiped earlier as well. Loot is loot after all.

“So, um…… this guy was planning on switching sides, right? Is it too late if we make a move now?”

“We haven’t managed to get in touch with the relevant parties yet. We’ve yet to take control of this ship’s bridge, nor have we occupied the command center of this base. It’s unclear just how far this man’s influence has managed to reach, and we also haven’t heard any information coming from the front lines.”

“In other words, we’re completely in the dark?”

“As far as the situation goes. However, we did manage to find out the full details of this man’s plan. Your lovely yet terrifying crew member managed to get him to talk about everything.”

Captain Serena turned her gaze toward Kugi. Kugi merely smiled in return as the fox ears on her head twitched adorably.

“As I said earlier, it seems that they were planning to defect to the Vereverem Federation by handing us as well as swathes of imperial territory as gifts. They sabotaged the nearest gateway to prevent imperial reinforcements from coming to the front lines and were planning to send their own private force to help the Vereverem Federation forces in defeating the imperial forces already stationed on the front lines. They would then give effective control of the nearby star systems with gateways to the Federation.”

“That’s quite the grand plan…… The territory’s one thing, but why are you and me included as souvenirs as well?”

“We destroyed the Federation’s fleet in the Termaine system incident, right? We are, in fact, quite hated by the Federation military’s higher-ups. It’s mainly because a certain someone used a forbidden Singing Crystal to conduct a truly deplorable tactic.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mean, someone on board the Vereverem Federation’s flagship at the time was the one who smuggled a Singing Crystal. We were also attacked by the crystal lifeforms, right? That means we’re the victims.”

“……Well, the Empire did make such a claim and feigned ignorance about the appearance of the crystal lifeforms during that incident. Anyway, our heads are actually worth quite the sum over there.”

“The Federation often criticizes the Empire’s feudal society, calling it outdated. But it’s not like their own social structure is particularly praiseworthy either. They are too obsessed with money and profit. Or rather, their ethical standards are actually pretty low.”

“I’ve heard that rich people over there can do whatever they want. I’m not sure how much of it is true though.”

Elma and Mimi, who were listening in on my and Captain Serena’s exchange, talked about how the Vereverem Federation criticized the Graccan Empire under the banner of democracy and free economy but had many suspicious points about their own country’s situation. Was it some sort of dystopian super-capitalist society where money was everything?

“The situation still isn’t fully under our control, but we can’t just stay here indefinitely…… Let’s head out and take control of the base’s command center.”

“With your body’s current condition? Are you gonna be okay?”

“The series of actions taken by Earl Ixamal are clearly acts of rebellion against His Imperial Majesty, so he no longer has the right to continue serving as the defense commander. Therefore, I have to swiftly take over command and bring the situation under control. I have to do it, even if it seems impossible.”

Captain Serena declared so as she used her sword as a cane while attempting to get up from the sofa.

She’s our valued client so…… I suppose it can’t be helped. I better accompany her.