After repelling the attack of the space pirates.

In the reception room prepared inside the battleship, the night view of the city was projected on the monitor.

The time inside the ship was night.

The lights in the room were also dimmed.

There are two women in the reception room.

One is a woman with red hair and brown skin - Patris.

Her glamorous physique is wrapped in a suit that opens at the chest.

She is a young woman who exudes sex appeal, but she is also an executive of the Newlands Trading Company.

Patris, who is standing in front of the monitor and gazing at the night view of the city, speaks to the female knight who is looking at the monitor.

"I didn't expect to be attacked all of a sudden in the airspace controlled by the Unified Government. The three super-large transport ships are my prized possessions. You must protect them at all costs."

Even among the transport ships owned by Patris, only three are super-large.

They are not just big, they are ships that use spatial magic.

The actual amount of cargo loaded is several times the appearance.

Losing even one ship would be a huge loss for Patris now.

Losing two would be a fatal blow.

The person turning back to Patris, who has a worried expression from anxiety, has purple hair and eyes.

Her silky hair spreads out as she turns, and her toned body has just the right amount of flesh.

At first glance, she may seem fragile, but she is a knight after all.

The density of her bones and muscles is different from ordinary people.

She possesses unimaginable strength from her slender body.

A master of her craft alongside the one and only Christiana - the knight who supports the Banfield family.

She is a knight who surpasses the top tier and has stepped into the realm of the superhuman - Marie Marian.

Her eyes, which look back at Patris, seem to glow in the dark room.

"Didn't I repel them properly? Don't worry, this Marie Marian will protect your precious transport ships."

Patris looks at Marie with a worried expression as she smiles with her hand on her chest.

"I have high expectations, but the Unified Government is different from the Empire. The quality of the space pirates is also different. - In fact, the escort fleet seemed to be struggling."

A different interstellar nation.

Things are different from the Empire, but the same is true for the space pirates.

As they operate under the rule of the Unified Government, they can't use the same methods as the Empire's space pirates.

That difference affects the nature of the space pirates.

There are many space pirates who ignore interstellar nations and operate on their own, but most of them have their own territory.

As Patris thinks, the escort fleet had a hard time against the space pirates who had fought against the Unified Government.

However, Marie smiles upon hearing that opinion.

Her previous smile has disappeared, and her face gives the impression of a ferocious beast laughing.

"No matter how different they may be, their essence is the same. There is no problem hunting them. Besides, after the previous battle, my subordinates have become accustomed to fighting here."

She is said to be a master of her craft alongside Christiana, but from Patris's perspective, the two of them are essentially different.

Christiana, who resembles an ideal knight, Marie the knight, on the other hand, gives off a strong impression of a ferocious warrior.

No matter how much she tries to cover it up, her violent nature cannot be hidden.

Patris breaks into a cold sweat, but at the same time feels reassured and smiles.

"Don't let me down."

◇

Marie, after finishing her meeting with Patris, leaves the room and walks down the corridor.

The corridor is dimly lit because it's night time inside the ship.

Behind Marie, diagonally, is the figure of a male knight.

The man's name is Heydi, he has bushy hair and a scruffy beard.

He was Marie's deputy.

"How's the client reception, Marie?"

He is a deputy, but he addresses his superior, Marie, by her first name.

He has no discipline or manners, but Marie doesn't reprimand him for it.

If he were just a rude man, she wouldn't have chosen him as her deputy.

"If it wasn't for that lady's orders, I would have pushed her off on someone suitable. Heydi, you deal with her from now on."

Heydi, who was told to deal with Patris, scratches his head.

"Don't joke around. Unlike you, I can't act all fancy."

"Get lost."

Marie smiles with a change in tone, but her expression gradually fades and her eyes become sharp.

"- So, how is the escort fleet?"

It's a vague question, but Heydi sighs softly before answering.

Heydi has a bad mouth and attitude, but he doesn't slack off on his work.

That's why Marie tolerates his rudeness.

If he were just a man with a bad attitude, she wouldn't have chosen him as her deputy.

"Quality and training level are fine. Plus, apart from a few, their morale is high. You can say with pride that this is the Banfield family's fleet. - But they lack experience."

He had been speaking loudly like a joke at first, but by the end, Heydi's serious expression made Marie realize something.

"Thanks to the clumsy fight, that woman is making a fuss."

Although she promised to protect them, there are problems with the fleet she leads.

It's a matter of experience.

Heydi shrugs his shoulders.

"Every single one of them is just a chick who boasts about having only a few combat experiences. If only they had survived at least three digits - no, even ten times on the battlefield, I wouldn't have to worry so much."

Having only a few combat experiences is not enough.

For Marie and Heydi, that level of combat experience was unreliable.

Then, Heydi mentions the units he is particularly concerned about.

"Actually, the biggest troublemakers are the ones Marie personally picked. They were trembling in the back."

Hearing that they had retreated to the back of the battlefield, Marie's expression changes dramatically.

Her eyes widened.

"What?"

Heydi, who had enraged Marie, didn't change his attitude.

In fact, he tells her something that will make her even angrier.

"The aircraft developed under that lady's guidance didn't perform well either. The number of shootdowns was an unbelievable zero. Zero! Well, the light carrier was in the back, and the late sortie probably also contributed."

Then, Heydi talks about the Russell Squad.

"The elites you pushed on Melea also seem to have held you back. They didn't live up to expectations. - So, what are you going to do, Marie?"

Marie uses her strange ladylike language, but here, she lets her true self show.

She doesn't try to cover it up at all.

It is evidence that she is hotheaded.

"Bring them to this ship. I'll personally retrain them."

Seeing Marie walk ahead, Heydi shrugs and says,

"Don't break those promising newbies."

Marie was warned, but her answer was cold.

"If they're going to break, they're not worth expecting anything from."

◇

(Oh my god!! Something terrible happened!! )

Emma, who wants to scream, has been summoned to the flagship of the escort fleet.

The third squad members have been gathered - but the only one present is Emma.

And the three members of the Russell Squad.

The four of them are facing Marie, who is sitting with her back against the chair, her arms around the back.

She is sitting facing away from them, with a dissatisfied expression directed at Emma and the others.

"You stayed on the battlefield just enough to make excuses, and then participated passively - do you have anything to say?"

She is reprimanded for being passive during the battle with the space pirates.

It's a matter of course, but the problem is the person questioning them.

Marie Marian - her rank in the Banfield family's private army is Vice Admiral.

She also holds the rank of Rear Admiral in the Imperial regular army.

And her knight rank is "AAA Triple A".

She is even higher than Clodia, who served as Emma's instructor.

And she is one of the knights who represent the Banfield family.

Although she is just making a dissatisfied face, Emma feels intimidated by her achievements and her imposing presence.

The same goes for the Russells.

Even the ever-insolent Shall is subdued.

When Emma doesn't answer, Russell steps forward.

"The mothership was moving passively, but our squad fought bravely!"

At that opinion, Marie lets out a small sigh.

"Yes. In that situation, it was a good fight. If these were normal knights, I would have applauded them and recommended them for a more active role. - But you're not normal knights, are you?"

Marie glares at all of them, and the air feels heavy just from that.

"!!?"

Even Russell is sweating bullets and can't answer back.

Marie stands up and approaches Emma and the others.

"You're being given preferential treatment compared to other knights, and you're making excuses like 'we fought bravely' and 'we did our best.' Do you really think that will work? - If you have such foolish thoughts, I'll kill you right here."

Marie uses her strange ladylike language, but no one laughs.

If they laughed, they would be killed - that was their intuition.

Marie looks at Emma, who is silent.

"The pilot of Atalante."

"Y, yes!?"

Emma straightens her back, and Marie brings her face closer.

"Why didn't you participate in the fight?"

Emma, looking into those purple eyes, couldn't look away. She had an intuition that she couldn't look away.

"My, my orders were to support."

"Oh, then there's nothing we can do - did you think I'd say that?"

She smiles and says there's nothing we can do, then she immediately turns into a demon-like face and denies Emma.

Emma is shocked to the point where her hair stands on end, and Marie asks her a serious question.

"What is a knight?"

"Huh?"

"Just answer me. What is a knight?"

"Uh, uh, well - a knight is a being who has been enhanced since childhood - "

"That's not the answer I'm looking for."

Emma is at a loss for words at the unreasonable statement, so she closes her eyes and thinks.

But she can't come up with a good answer, so she decides to just tell her the truth.

(Just do whatever you want to me!)

"They are champions of justice! Knights - they are there to protect the weak!"

Russell, who has been listening to the answer, is dumbfounded.

"Were you that stupid all along?"

But Marie is different.

She is laughing happily, with her hands on her hips.

"Good. Good, pilot of Atalante! It's your selfishness that makes you second to none, that is the essence of a knight."

"- Huh?"

Instead of being angry at her for calling herself a champion of justice, she was actually amused.

Emma is confused, and Marie speaks in her pseudo-ladylike language.

"The Unified Army calls those who are like knights enhanced soldiers. They are treated like ordinary soldiers, unlike us knights."

In the Empire, they are called knights, but in the Unified Government, they are treated as "enhanced soldiers".

They were not given the privileges or treatment that knights were given.

It could be said that the Unified Government is more efficient than the Empire in deploying knights - enhanced soldiers.

Marie changes her expression in front of the four.

"If you want to be a tool like an enhanced soldier, just obey orders. But if you want to be a knight - you have to have the power to get your own way."

As the four ponder how to interpret those words, Marie breaks into a wide smile.

"So, all of you are going to be my trainees from now on."