CHAPTER 1
The House of Lou Is Unfair
1
The mechanical utopia, the Empire, laid on the southern side of the continent.
To the north was the witch’s paradise, the Nebulis Sovereignty.
The two superpowers divided the world into north and south.
Between them were the neutral cities which didn’t affiliate themselves with either nation, but rather served as a buffer in between.
The Empire, the Sovereignty, and the neutral cities. Most of the land inhabited by humans existed within one of those three areas. Everyone knew that.
However…
There was an unexplored territory so polluted with poisons that no humans could settle in the place.
This was Katalisk.
Not a single insect or scrap of vegetation survived in this land of deadly temperatures and toxic, bubbling waste.
But why did poisons bubble to the planet’s surface in Katalisk? Those who had learned the truth throughout all of history could be counted on a single hand.
But now…
Iska knew the secret of how Katalisk had been created.
“Look, Sisbell…”
“This is all I can take!”
The road stretched into the horizon.
As their large vehicle drove through the gray wilderness, Sisbell suddenly yelled from the front passenger seat. That had also been the moment Iska had attempted to speak to her.
“That gas that was bubbling up everywhere! I already found the smell of that vile stuff so offensive—like raw sewage—that I could hardly stand it! But I cannot accept the fact that such malodorous stuff is covering my entire body!”
“Quiet,” Jhin muttered from the back seat. “We’ve gotta keep the windows up for the AC. That means your stupid voice echoes in the car.”
“I’ll have you know that I have a voice as beautiful as birdsong!”
“Pretty sure that little bird ran off the moment it smelled that stuff on you.”
“……What?!”
Sisbell turned around, no longer able to stand it. Her charming face had instantly turned a shade of beet red.
“I am not smelly! It’s not my fault! It’s the mud and gas that’s clinging to my hair and clothes!”
“See, you’ve got it. That offensive odor is coming from you.”
“It’s not me!” Sisbell huffed after speaking so quickly, then she let out a strangled cry because of the odor from her clothes. “This is awful… No, it’s horrid!”
She leaned all the way back in her seat.
“I cannot believe it… It was a red swamp spewing deadly gas without a single insect or bird in sight. The land was dead. If the Planetary Calamity caused that, do you mean to say Elletear was tempted by that power…?”
Sisbell looked into the car’s rearview mirror.
Several large vehicles traveled behind theirs. Inside them were Sisbell’s older sister Alice, her servant, Rin, and also Kissing from the House of Zoa.
Yes.
All of them had learned the truth.
“I understand why the Lord told us to go here now…”
In the middle of the back seat, Commander Mismis spoke to herself.
Before they had come to this place, Lord Yunmelngen, the ruler of the Empire, had told them this:
That the center of the planet used to be the home of the astral powers, until a foreign entity sent it into chaos.
That it deserved its name—the World Enemy.
That this calamity transforms humans and astral powers into grotesque forms we cannot fathom.
The calamity remade beings.
The Lord had turned into a beastperson with silver fur.
The princess had become a witch whose form was a shadowy mass.
Astral power had turned into a twisted thing called an eidos.
And it had turned the planet itself into a place that even a single living thing couldn’t inhabit. It had all started here, in the contaminated land of Katalisk.
“We can’t pretend not to know what’s up now,” Jhin muttered.
“I never intended to turn away from the issue.” Sisbell bit her lip from irritation as she replied. “As soon as I learned that Elletear herself committed such a grave crime against the Sovereignty, it became my duty as her little sister to stop her.”
“Uh-huh, good luck.”
“Excuse me?! Isn’t this where you tell me you’ll do everything in your power to help?!”
“We’ve each got our own motivations.”
Jhin signaled with his eyes. Iska, who also sat in the back seat, was likely the only one who had noticed.
“Most people would be motivated just because we can’t let the calamity roam free. It’s fine if your goal is to stop your sister, too. And also…right. There’s Iska, who got the astral swords from our teacher.”
Jhin had signaled because of the black and white swords at Iska’s waist.
Here, in Katalisk, the Astrals had told them how the astral swords had been created.
“There is hope.”
“If you gather all the abilities of the astral powers together.”
These crystals were the accumulation of all astral powers. Once they had all of them, they would finally be able to challenge the calamity that threatened the planet.
“At any rate… Huh?” Jhin stopped talking.
The comm at the driver’s seat had let out a shrill ring.
“Think it’s Miss Saint Disciple behind us? Hey, Nene,” Jhin said.
“This is the first vehicle,” Nene answered the comm.
They got an answer.
“This is the third vehicle.”
“Uh, Miss Rin?”
“That’s right. I, Lady Alice’s faithful and flawless servant, have a matter of great importance to convey. It concerns Lady Alice, of course.”
“Something important? Um, what is it?” Nene said before she could even think about it.
In the backseat, Commander Mismis was suddenly serious as well, and Sisbell uttered, “Something happened to Alice?” while looking on with curiosity.
“We plan to return to the Empire. While we from the Sovereignty have some reservations over this use of the word returning when applied to the Empire…there is a more pressing concern. In order to return, we must use one of the Imperial forces’ aircrafts, which we will be on board for nearly a dozen hours.”
“But we had to do that on the way here, too,” Iska said into the comm. “What’s the issue?”
“Imperial swordsman, use your peace-addled brain to consider the issues.”
“I’m actually asking because I don’t know. There’s no reason to make me out to be a buffoon!”
“My word… There was no issue when we were coming here, but there is a large one in returning. I cannot believe you do not see it.” Rin let out an exasperated sigh.
Several seconds passed before Sisbell clapped her hands together in realization. “Oh! It’s because we smell, isn’t it, Rin?!”
“Indeed, Lady Sisbell. Yes, how can we board a transport while covered in this offensive odor? Do you understand, Imperial swordsman?!”
“Uh… Not really. I mean, I don’t like being smelly either, but we can cleanse ourselves in the Imperial capital—”
“Then it will be too late!” Rin’s voice was full of vigor. “If we board the transport smelling like this, the other Imperial soldiers will assume the Nebulis Sovereignty’s princesses all stink! They’ll think we’re savages. That we’re witches! They’ll surely disparage us!”
“Uh… Imperial soldiers are pretty used to stink.”
Nene and Commander Mismis seemed perfectly fine with the smell.
Bogs and moors reeked. All Imperial soldiers had experienced situations in which they spent days without showers or running water in such places.
“No, this will not do! I will not have my lady called a stinky witch!”
“R-Rin, please?!” Alice’s quiet voice came over the comm.
It seemed Alice could no longer just stand by and watch. Iska heard her whispering something to Rin.
“It’s not as though…I care what the other Imperial soldiers think, as long as it’s not Iska…”
“You are the one who wanted to take a bath, Lady Alice! And please do not make the Imperial swordsman out to be special like it’s second nature to you!”
“Don’t yell that!”
“In any case…!” Rin’s loud voice reverberated throughout the car and echoed against the closed windows. “Until we wash off this stench, Lady Alice will not ride any Imperial transport!”
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