Everyone has a scale of justice in their heart, but it was clear that some people's scales were broken, leaving only the arrogance unique to power.
If an attendant were to face an officer of the Deputy Commander Level, any resistance would only bring more severe punishment.
Friedrich believed Reinhardt could handle this matter himself, and his signal to Erich not to escalate the situation was entirely because he knew the boy was now an Official Knight who had awakened his 'Power'!
In the Radiant Empire, Knights and common soldiers are treated completely differently.
The orders of an Infantry Legion officer are absolute! No soldier is permitted to disobey! During a state of war, an Infantry Legion's officers hold the power of life and death over every single soldier!
They can be accused of desertion and executed on the spot, without any need to report to a higher-ranking officer.
But Knights are different.
For every Knight who falls in battle, their direct commander must write a detailed report and submit it to the Group Army to which their Knight Order belongs. After review, it is sent to the Empire's central command to be re-examined and archived.
To level accusations against a Knight, the Arbitration Court must issue a detailed investigative report. Only after it has been confirmed to be accurate can a verdict be passed according to the laws of the Empire.
Afterward, the verdict must be submitted to the Empire's central command for review, and it can only be enacted after receiving the personal signature of the supreme His Majesty the Emperor.
In other words, only His Majesty the Emperor is qualified to pass judgment on any Knight of the Radiant Empire.
Although Sedon was a Vice Commander of the Steel Knight Order—one of its highest-ranking officers in the Commander's absence—he only had the authority to command Reinhardt as a Knight. Any personal punishment enacted without a trial would be seen as a provocation against the supreme authority of His Majesty the Emperor!
Friedrich's great white beard was stained with blood. He carefully wiped it with a towel soaked in hot water, no longer paying attention to the conflict between Reinhardt and Sedon.
'The higher-ups of the Seventh Group Army sent me here to serve as Vice Commander, but it won't be for long. It's nothing personal against me, but what can I do? I'm just an old, powerless Earth Knight.'
'Guarding Frostfire Fortress... this wonderful job of being cannon fodder wasn't going to fall to anyone else.'
'As for why a Knight from a great noble house like Sedon would bring a squad of his cronies to join the Steel Knight Order, it couldn't just be a simple ploy to seize control.'
'The specific reason was a mystery. The upper echelon of the Seventh Group Army was tight-lipped, and I couldn't dig up any information.'
'But the struggles and schemes of the top brass have nothing to do with me. Once this small-scale invasion by the Abyss Legion is suppressed, I'll probably be transferred somewhere else, assuming nothing goes wrong.'
'That's why I have no interest in getting involved in the dispute between Erich and Sedon.'
Erich didn't quite understand Friedrich's meaning. He stood where he was, his brow tightly furrowed. 'What does he mean, Reinhardt can handle this himself?'
Knight Adrian and Elias were close friends. Since Reinhardt was Elias's favorite attendant, Adrian couldn't just stand by and do nothing.
'Even though this will mean completely offending Vice Commander Sedon and making him an enemy, it's obvious he's targeting this poor boy! I can't just let this stand!'
'What do the power struggles among the Knight Order's command have to do with a boy chasing his dream of becoming a Knight? Why do they have to hound him relentlessly?'
'Expelling him from the training camp was one thing, but to blame him for a Knight's death? Wasn't that Knight's death your fault for avoiding the battle?'
'If this goes to the Arbitration Court, Reinhardt's life is over!'
'If my friend Knight Elias were here, he would never let that bastard Sedon get away with this!'
The great battle was over. Adrian's brilliant blond hair was soaked in dark, crimson blood, and a terrifying new scratch marred his handsome face. He was determined to find Vice Commander Sedon and have it out with him over this matter!
「Meanwhile.」
Sedon waved his hand, signaling the guards outside his tent to seize Reinhardt. His frigid gaze swept over Erich in the distance, brimming with provocation, before finally landing on Reinhardt. It was as if he was spelling out a cold, hard fact: that Reinhardt had the right to resist the injustice here, but his resistance was pathetically weak, a complete joke in the face of true power.
Tomorrow.
Or the day after.
'No one in the training camp will remember a boy named Reinhardt who, in a fit of hot-headedness, dared to openly defy my will.'
'People will only know that there was once an irreverent fool who defied the Knight Order's garrison regulations and received the harshest possible sentence from the Arbitration Court, thanks to the Vice Commander's impartial enforcement of the law!'
'Establish my authority, and make an example of him!'
The Knights sitting around the same campfire as Robbie Hiling smirked, mercilessly mocking the commoner-born boy for having a death wish.
The Knights loyal to Erich all glared in fury!
Their rage at Sedon—the coward who avoided battle and skipped the funerals of the fallen Knights—instantly reached its zenith!
It was as if all the bloodshed and sacrifice in the fortress were merely stepping stones on his path to controlling the Knight Order.
If Vice Commander Erich hadn't remained perfectly still, they would have already been spitting on Sedon's disgusting, bureaucratic face!
Just as two guards tried to grab Reinhardt from either side, the aura of an utterly unfamiliar 'Power' erupted through the camp!
A dark purple light twisted and writhed, and the two guards were instantly flung backward, crashing into a crowd of onlookers!
At the same time, an unyielding young man's voice rang out clearly before Sedon!
"Vice Commander Sedon, according to the regulations of the Steel Knight Order garrison, when a knight's attendant awakens their Knight Power while serving in the training camp, they are automatically considered to have joined the Steel Knight Order.
Furthermore, those same garrison regulations state that during wartime, if a Knight has not received direct combat orders from a commander, they have the right to act on their own authority when encountering a dangerous situation."
The moment Reinhardt finished speaking.
Every eye on Reinhardt—those of Sedon's faction, Erich's faction, and Robbie Hiling—filled with utter, incredulous shock!
Extraordinary Armament!
A genuine form of Knight Power!
The attendant who once poured his sweat and blood onto the training grounds, the boy who had shouldered immense humiliation and suffered every injustice!
In this moment, his transformation was complete!
He was no longer a mere knight's attendant, but Knight Reinhardt!
A true Knight who enjoyed the special privileges of the Empire, subject only to the supreme jurisdiction of His Majesty the Emperor—a commoner who had ascended to the Extraordinary Tier!
At this very moment, Sedon's face was as dark as a thundercloud.
Witnessing this, the Knights in the camp and the nearby Hearn Territory Guard were lost in profound shock. No one could believe that a boy who, just this morning, had been thrown in confinement for brawling, would awaken his Knight Power overnight!
Vice Commander of the Steel Knight Order, a great noble, a celebrity of the Imperial City, Earth Knight Sedon.
He never would have dreamed it. He thought he was just crushing an insignificant bug to establish his authority, but he never predicted that all his plans would be utterly ruined, his reputation dragged through the mud, by one pathetic, insignificant boy!
Even with all the nerve in the world, he wouldn't dare fabricate a crime to pin on Reinhardt now that he was a Knight. If the Arbitration Court investigated and found out, not even his patrons in high places could save him.
The authority of His Majesty the Emperor was inviolable!