CHAPTER 4
UR-SHUKAR
Just before dawn, the vehicle was already rolling through the miasma-polluted wilds. While yesterday’s battle had greatly damaged most of its armor, the engine reactor functioned without issue.
Leonis, Riselia, Regina, and Sakuya hadn’t run into any Voids since last night. Leonis’s skeleton hounds had told him where Voids were concentrated, and he advised Regina to avoid those locations.
“Say, kid, are you all right?” Regina glanced over her shoulder from her spot in the cockpit; concern was clear in her eyes.
“Yes, I’m fine. I just feel a bit anemic…,” Leonis replied, straightening up in his seat.
“…Sorry, Leo,” Riselia whispered.
Leonis shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”
Evidently, she’d taken a bit too much of his blood.
“Maybe I should put on some music to lift the mood. Does this vehicle have a karaoke function, kid?”
“I don’t think it does. It’s for military use, after all.”
Admittedly, Shary might have added that sort of feature for all Leonis knew.
“Hmm, really? All right, Lady Selia, why don’t you sing something to cheer the kid up?” Regina proposed.
“H-huh? Me? A song? Why?!” Riselia quickly grew alarmed over the idea.
Regina shrugged. “I mean, the scenery’s so boring. It’s all sand. I’ll play a tune on my terminal so you can sing along.”
“But…”
“I’d like to hear you sing, Miss Selia,” Leonis added.
“Not you, too, Leo!” Riselia cried, now torn about what to do.
Leonis had never heard her sing, so Regina’s suggestion had stoked his curiosity. If she has a talent for curse songs, perhaps I could teach her a few, he mused.
Curse songs were a type of sorcery that didn’t cause as much direct damage but invoked various magical augmentations that affected large areas. If Riselia were ever to command undead in the future, such a power would prove invaluable. However, Leonis couldn’t use curse songs, so he’d need high-ranking banshees or other monsters to instruct her in the craft.
“F-fine. Just a bit, then…”
Ultimately, Riselia accepted, perhaps because she still felt guilty and indebted to Leonis for last night. She cleared her throat.
“My sword, stand bravely, to defend our homeland ,” she began in a clear, fair voice. “March on, march on, Crystalia’s brave knights. ”
“…”
Her voice was unquestionably charming, but…
“Wh-what kind of song is that?”
“Erm, it’s an anthem for the Crystalia Knights.”
…Leonis hadn’t expected a war song.
“Are you setting up for a joke, Lady Selia?” Regina asked.
“Ugh… You were the one who told me to sing something to lift everyone’s spirits.”
Regina hurriedly corrected herself upon seeing Riselia sulk. “S-sorry. Don’t worry about it, Lady Selia. Just sing whatever you like.”
Meanwhile, the imperial palace was in an uproar.
“You still can’t find her?!”
“We’re working on it now, Your Highness. However, it seems Princess Chatres has—”
“Just focus on getting a grasp on the situation.”
The emperor’s younger brother, Alexios, ended the call with his subordinates and collapsed on his desk, cradling his head.
The cause of the mass Holy Swordsman disappearance from Elysion Academy was still a mystery, but it seemed likely that Voids were responsible in some capacity. Worse yet, Third Princess Chatres Ray O’ltriese was among those missing.
Blast it all. What’s happening?!
Alexios was usually one to keep his temper restrained, yet he slammed his fist against the desk in a show of frustration. More than thirty hours had passed since the incident. Elysion Academy had been closed off, and investigation units inside were issued a gag order. This was a major problem, and it was only a matter of time until news leaked to the general population.
Chatres’s disappearance alone is bound to get out before long.
Chatres Ray O’ltriese was the third princess and the strongest Holy Swordswoman, having acquired tremendous popularity for her performances in recent Holy Sword Dance Festivals. She was very much the light that helped keep hope alive among the populace during troubled times. If she was truly lost…
Anxiety and discord would reach a fever pitch. It could mean an uprising.
Alexios sighed, his expression grim. As Chatres’s uncle, he was concerned for his niece’s well-being, of course, but the political ramifications troubled him far more, and that filled him with self-loathing.
Such was the duty of those born to the royal family.
If only Altiria could remember some detail that might help.
Their sole clue about this incident came from fourth princess Altiria. She had been in Elysion Academy’s girls’ dorm at the time of the incident. For some reason, she alone had been spared from the abduction. When she awoke, Alexios visited and questioned her. However, she couldn’t recall what happened or how she’d escaped the danger. The shock must have left her memory in disarray.
I can hardly blame her.
The most baffling part was the lack of any conceivable way Altiria could have escaped. It was almost as though she’d vanished in a puff of smoke and reappeared in the palace courtyard.
This whole thing is baffling…
Whatever the reason, Alexios wouldn’t get anywhere sitting on his hands. If those who’d disappeared had been taken through the Void tear, then there was no choice but to deploy a search party to recover them. Were it only that simple. Sending out a group with insufficient information risked even further losses.
We’re at an impasse. There’s nothing we can do.
No, that wasn’t quite true. Alexios knew of another option, although he tried to push it to the edge of his mind.
Perhaps he’d help if I asked…
The mere idea was enough to make him break into a cold sweat. Alexios hadn’t forgotten his terror the last time he stood in that man’s presence.
The Dark Lord Zol Vadis. If Alexios asked that monster who surpassed human understanding for help, perhaps…
…N-no, I can’t! I must only turn to him as a last resort! Alexios shook his head to dismiss the idea from his thoughts.
He couldn’t afford to carelessly accrue debts with that terrifying Dark Lord. However…
“…!”
Alexios pulled open his desk drawer with a truly agonized expression. Sitting inside it was a terrifying statue of a monster, carved from an unknown kind of bone. When Alexios returned to his office after that terrifying meeting with Zol Vadis and found it sitting atop his desk, he nearly fainted on the spot. The letter sitting next to it had explained that if he held on to this statue and wished to meet with the Dark Lord, he would.
“I know that I may be driving myself to ruin with this,” Alexios whispered, “but my only choice is to rely on his strength…”
He picked up the statue and held his breath.
“…”
Standing from his seat, he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.
Great and ancient Dark Lord, please answer your humble servant’s call…
…
Five minutes passed. Then ten. Alexios slowly opened his eyes…
“He’s not showing up, the bastard!”
He threw the bone statue to the floor and frustratedly kicked it away.
“Haaah… Haaah… Blast it. Damn that horrible Dark Lord.”
No sooner had he said as much than…
“Am I imagining things? I could’ve sworn I heard someone speak foul of the Dark Lord…”
…he heard a voice from behind him. A familiar, charming one.
“…?!”
Alexios spun and saw a maid seated on his sofa, eating a doughnut.
“Ahhhhh!” Alexios let out a tense yelp.
This girl was a servant of Zol Vadis. She looked like an innocuous, pretty girl, but her power was beyond measure. She’d incapacitated the two Holy Swordsmen who had escorted Alexios during his first meeting with Zol Vadis without any trouble.
“E-erm…,” Alexios stammered.
“What’s this?” The maid looked at the statue lying discarded on the floor.
“I, well, I…dropped it, by accident… Ah-ha-ha.”
“…Is that so?” The girl fixed Alexios with an icy glare. “I would advise that you handle it more carefully in the future, then. Because mistreating an item bequeathed to you by the Dark Lord is tantamount to treason.”
“Ha-ha-ha… I’ll keep that…firmly in mind…,” Alexios replied, reflexively falling to his knees.
It wasn’t the sort of pose appropriate for a man who carried the imperial lineage. Yet in the face of absolute power, his body felt compelled to submit.
I-I’d probably be dead if she saw me kick it!
“I come bearing a message from the Dark Lord,” the maid declared, still eating.
“Oh?!”
“The third princess Cha…Cha-something-or-another leads the students abducted by the Voids. They are on their way back.”
“?!” Alexios raised his head, regarding the maid in disbelief. “A-are you sure that’s true?!”
“Are you implying that the Dark Lord would lie?”
“No, no, I would never!”
The maid shot Alexios a look before tossing a terminal to him.
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