EPILOGUE
The Most Terrible Day for a Beginning
1
She opened her eyes.
Alice was lying on her bed.
“…”
“A-are you awake, Alice?!”
“Mother?”
The queen, who had been sitting next to the bed, turned to her. She was glad to see Alice able to prop herself upright. She let out a relieved sigh.
“Oh, thank goodness. When I heard from my people that you were unconscious in the underground level, I lost it. Please don’t make your mother worry so.”
“I was… Ouch!”
Alice winced as she held her aching head in her hand. Her brain fog was beginning to clear, and the last thing she had seen was coming back to mind.
“Founder.
“You intend to burn down the Empire, don’t you?”
That was right.
The Founder Nebulis had awoken beneath the palace.
She had tried to stop it, but…
While attempting to escape from the astral power prison, she had reached her limit and exhausted all her strength.
“Your Majesty!”
She leaped from the bed.
It was fine. As long as she endured the headache and torpor, she could still move unencumbered.
“It is a grave matter! The Revered Founder has awakened from her coffin…!”
“Yes. It seems that has come to pass.”
The queen was looking out Alice’s window.
“A great number of our patrol officers and ministers have witnessed her. She wore a worn-out cloak and floated in the sky for some time.”
“And then what happened…?”
“She vanished into thin air. But the scholars told us she doesn’t have a teleportation-type astral pow—”
“I knew it!”
She gritted her teeth.
The Founder had headed to the Empire, without a doubt. She would likely head to its center and burn it down until not a piece of the capital remained.
…This is a dire situation.
…Rin is imprisoned in the Imperial capital, and Iska is there, too!
And also others from the Sovereignty. They had many spies within the Empire collecting intelligence. The Founder would likely spare them no mercy as she razed the entire place.
But she could still make it.
Before the nightmare became reality.
“Yes, all we can do is try, Alice…”
Alice clenched her fists.
She was determined. Sooner or later, she had known the time would arrive when she would need to go to the Empire herself. And the moment had simply come.
“I’ve decided,” she said.
“Alice? What’s gotten into you?”
“Your Majesty, I’ve put all my reservations behind me. Or rather, I can no longer tolerate waiting!”
She turned to face the queen, who had stood up.
Their gazes met, and Alice nodded deeply.
“I cannot bear to be the plaything of that arrogant little girl any longer!”
“Little girl?”
“I mean to say the Revered Founder.”
“Huh?! A-Alice, what has gotten into you? How could you call the Revered Founder that…?”
“But it’s true. She’s caused a great amount of trouble for us!”
Alice released all her pent-up frustrations.
Her voice resounded throughout the room as she declared, “I will go to the Empire. I will stop the Founder! And then I will save Rin!”
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