MEMORY ILLUMINATION 7
Alice’s Wish
1
A decade later.
Far to the north of the Imperial lands, the astral power contaminators built a small country.
In the past ten years, they had learned to control their astral powers and dubbed themselves astral mages. The Grand Witch Nebulis led them. And so, that small country was dubbed Nebulis Sovereignty.
To Crossweil Gate Nebulis, all of those events felt as though they had happened yesterday, in the blink of an eye.
In those ten years, as the Nebulis twins developed their small country, the Empire built a new capital.
The Imperial capital Yunmelngen.
Though the city was named after its new Lord, it had not been built from scratch, but instead restored. After the Grand Witch Nebulis had turned the capital into a sea of flames from her revolt, Yunmelngen ordered the buildings to be made heat-resistant.
At a corner of an Imperial road…
“Hey, did you hear?” the Imperial soldiers were whispering to each other all over. “A new vortex turned up on the east coast. They found one in a western neutral city, too.”
“There are more and more new witches every day. Even in the countries near us and within our allies.”
“Think they’ll move to Nebulis Sovereignty?”
“That’s right. The population in the witch country keeps multiplying. At this rate, they’ll turn into a huge nation.”
There was a weariness to what the soldier said.
As the country that had ousted all astral power contaminators, it was only natural for them to fear the strengthening of the Nebulis Sovereignty.
“…” Passing through the gathering of soldiers, Crossweil walked silently down the main road, two swords at his side.
An adhesive to seal off his astral energy was on his neck. If that peeled off, his astral energy would be detected, and he would be ousted from the Empire.
“…”
He headed to Castle Tower Seat.
Ten years ago, he had had to slip in through a secret passage, but now his position was different.
He was the Saint Disciple Crossweil. When the guards saw he was the Lord’s direct guard, they opened the gate for him. Then he headed to the Lord’s chambers.
The moment he set foot into the room of rush mats, the heavy scent of the grasses prickled his nose.
“I’m back,” he said.
The owner of the room greeted him with nothing but breathing—while peacefully asleep.
“ ”
The silver beast was curled up on the mats, sleeping.
He didn’t try to hide his large ears or tail as he slept curled up like a cat. Since Crossweil knew there was a reason behind the slumber, he couldn’t easily tell his companion to simply wake.
“Seeing you sleep so peacefully annoys me for some reason, though,” he said.
“ ”
“So, Yunmelngen, it turns out it is difficult. We can’t alleviate the fear that’s taken hold of people that easily. Even after a decade.”
In the last ten years, the Imperials still feared the Grand Witch Nebulis and detested the witches who were with her. They were unable to forget the capital being burned to ash.
And then there were also those who took advantage of that.
“The Eight Great Elders. Oh, I guess they’re the Eight Great Apostles now.”
The people running the Imperial assembly were still alive and well. They continued to have a great influence on the governing body even now, in fact.
Lord Yunmelngen didn’t show his face to people. As he couldn’t garner trust from his vassals, the Eight Great Apostles continued to have control over the Empire’s authorities.
“Also, Yunmelngen, I think there’s a meaning behind these past ten years,” he told the unresponsive Lord. Crossweil looked at one of his swords. “The astral swords. We’ve finally forged them, just like you wanted. It seems even the Astrals can’t make anything greater than this. But with it, we can…”
He hesitated. In that split second, the silence was suddenly disrupted…
…by the sound of an alarm that filled the Lord’s chambers.
“……Ugh. What is that?”
It wasn’t coming from Castle Tower Seat.
If it had been, then the chamber’s automatic alarm would have sounded as well. So that meant it was outside. An alarm was ringing somewhere in the capital.
…I don’t like that noise.
…I never wanted to hear it again.
It was the third time he’d heard it in his life. The first was when the astral powers had erupted from the excavation site, the Planet’s Navel. The second was when the capital had been engulfed by a sea of flames. And now this time.
Because the two past incidents had been so extreme, he felt a sense of foreboding at the sound ringing throughout the capital.
“I’m going out,” he said. “I sincerely hope that you won’t be woken by anything.”
Then he left the still slumbering Lord.
Crossweil quickly exited the Lord’s chambers.
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