EPILOGUE 1
The World’s Last Witch
1
The silence was nearly painful to the ears. Not a single person dared say anything. The underground space filled with tension that made everyone unconsciously hold their breaths.
Sisbell was the first to disturb the quiet by letting out a sigh as she knelt on the ground.
“…Ah…uh…haah……I need a short break…the Illumination power has its limit re-creating such a long series of events…!”
Sisbell placed a hand on her chest and took a deep breath. The astral crest that glittered below her fingertips flickered intensely with her breathing.
“Thank you. That was a wonderful power, Princess Sisbell.” Risya clapped her back. “Your Excellency, should we continue?”
“No. I’ve seen more than enough of what I needed. I’m satisfied.”
The beastperson’s tail swished. Their ferocious fangs were hidden behind their lips.
“Ah, I’m glad. So it really was the Eight Great Apostles. They set the capital on fire. Now I can pass judgment on them freely. And there you have it, Successor of the Black Steel.”
“Uh.” Iska had unconsciously straightened himself.
Successor of the Black Steel. He knew that meant him, and he had also been aware the Lord and Eight Great Apostles had called him that. However…
It was only then that he realized the heaviness of that title.
“My teacher never told me anything about this.”
“Crow’s been becoming more and more reticent the last hundred years. According to him, he parted ways with his sister after a ‘fight.’”
Iska hadn’t known anything at all. He didn’t know his master had astral power, nor that he had clashed with his sister, the Founder Nebulis, to protect the Empire.
…But it all connects.
…That’s why the Founder was surprised by my astral swords.
It had happened on the outskirts of the neutral city, Ain. When the Founder had first been awakened, she seemed to have an unusual sense of attachment to his swords.
“I haven’t seen those weapons for quite some time.”
“Those cannot be used by anyone except Crossweil. He baffles me. Why would he entrust the astral swords to a common foot soldier?”
Now he understood why she had found them familiar.
She meant that it was her second time fighting against them. And the second time the Founder Nebulis had fought with a swordsman who held the astral swords. However, Iska still didn’t know the details of how the swords came into being.
…This is a story about my teacher and the Founder.
…We can defeat the calamity at the planet’s core. But what was the calamity…?
His master had called that hope. It was the hope of the girl named Alice, one of the world’s first witches and the younger sister of the Founder. It was a way of making the first Nebulis queen’s wish a reality—a queen who had misgivings about the all-out war with the Empire until her death.
That was what these astral swords were.
“Ugh, come on…” Iska put his hand to his temple and let out a long sigh. “Why does he always leave out the most important details?!”
“Um, Iska…?” Commander Mismis hesitantly addressed him. “So Alicerose, the really pretty girl in Miss Sisbell’s astral power recreation…she was the first Nebulis Sovereignty queen? And she was called Alice?”
“……Yes. I think so.”
“I think I recall a certain princess who has the same name and looks exactly like her, but maybe that’s just my imagin—eek?!” She was cut off.
Roar!
When the ground below their feet rumbled, everyone in the underground hall readied themselves.
The ground heaved, and the ceiling lights above flickered intensely. It continued to shake dreadfully, and the disturbance didn’t seem to be temporary. It went on for dozens of seconds and showed no sign of abating.
“Wh-what is this?!” Sisbell yelled as she crawled on all fours. “W-we didn’t make the Revered Founder’s attacks into reality because we watched her past, did we?!”
“This is too big for it to be that.” Jhin looked up at the ceiling. “Regardless of whether it’s the Founder or the astral corps, they’d attack on the surface. This shaking is coming from below.”
“B-but, Jhin! We’re two thousand meters below ground,” Sisbell shouted. “What could possibly be below us?!”
“The Planet’s Navel.” Lord Yunmelngen had spoken. Though they were speaking to themselves, their utterance sharply echoed through the hall even as the roar continued.
“You saw it, Princess Sisbell. The excavation site of astral energy from a hundred years ago that reached five thousand meters below the surface.”
“B-but wasn’t that hole filled?!”
“By the Imperial assembly.”
“…Huh?”
“At present, the underground Imperial assembly is established over the cave that was once called the Planet’s Navel a century ago.”
The rumbling continued. Lord Yunmelngen looked down upon the power that was coming into existence far below them and narrowed his eyes to a needlelike width.
“It’s the lair of the Eight Great Apostles. Now, I wonder what’s happened?”
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