CHAPTER 3
Night of the Witch Hunt, Part III
1
The Lou Erz mansion.
Gunfire rang out. Sparks flashed from the broken window.
Sounds of combat reached outside the grounds. It was enough to garner the attention of the citizens who shuddered at the Imperial force’s advance.
They were stirring.
Outside the grounds of the Lou Erz mansion, the military police came running.
“An Imperial raid?! All the way out here?!”
“We heard gunfire… Don’t tell me they’re attacking the queen’s villa!”
Witness reports came flooding in. People who looked like Imperial forces had traveled by road to attack the mansion.
“—Things have mostly settled outside of this castle.”
Lou Erz mansion. First-floor hall.
The head of the Hydra, Talisman, walked along the dusty floor.
“Since this property belongs to the Lou, the surrounding residences are occupied by citizens who adore the Lou family. I imagine they witnessed armed Imperial soldiers storming this castle.”
“I assume they didn’t just happen on the scene. You led them there.”
Iska glared into Talisman’s gentle eyes. He was a demon in the skin of a gentleman. The man leading the coup d’état specialized in throwing his enemies off by speaking to them like this. Even now…
“The details don’t matter. What’s important is the witnesses will believe that the queen’s villa was attacked by Imperial forces. Because that’s the reality.”
He reached his hand into his breast pocket. The head of the Hydra produced a small communications device. Iska recognized it. It was made in the Empire.
“Come dawn, the Sovereign people will be furious. At the Imperial army—and the current queen’s administration who allowed them to invade.”
“……”
“Oh, are you interested in this communications device? It’s an imitation created to look like it was made in the Empire. I was speaking to my personnel before I came to this abode, you see. I have no use for this anymore.”
He threw it down on the ground. Even this seemingly meaningless action was calculated. If an Imperial communications device was left in the villa, it would serve as yet another piece of evidence that the Empire had invaded.
“Well, then. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be heading out,” Talisman said.
“…What did you say?” Iska knit his eyebrows together. “What do you mean? Sisbell is still—”
“Wouldn’t it be odd for a member of the royal family to be absent when the palace is attacked by the Imperial army?” He righted his suit lapel. “You were cornered from the start,” declared the demon playing the part of a gentleman. “How many years do you think we spent laying this plan out? There was a chance that things wouldn’t work out, even if I came to this abode. Well, it’s best to be cautious. Depending on the circumstances, Alice might have been here instead of you.”
“……”
“Saint Disciple Iska, you did well, just the four of you. I bow my head to you for your gallant effort to protect Sisbell. But we’ve accomplished our goal.”
Iska was silent.
…What does that mean?
…Have they already kidnapped Sisbell? Or is this another one of his strategies?
He had no way of figuring it out now. Because of that…
“You think I’d let you escape?” Iska pointed at Talisman’s neck with the tip of his black astral sword. “After all this gunfire and detonations, it wouldn’t be odd for the military police to come bursting in here. What do you think they would think if they saw you?”
“They’d realize I’m the mastermind behind everything here.”
“So that’s the real reason you’re trying to get out of here. You intend to escape before the citizens around the castle see you.”
That was why Iska wouldn’t let him run off. The head of the Hydra was here. If that came out into the open, it would be an easy way to bring down their plan.
“I wonder if that’s true?”
Clatter-clatter. Tap… Under Talisman’s feet, the rubble on the floor started to move.
Over two hundred pounds of debris scattered along the wall and chandelier fragments snaked along the floor.
“What’s this?!”
“You have good instincts. You’ve realized this isn’t my doing and have your guard up. You’re right. This isn’t my astral power.”
The astral power of Waves specialized in brute force, destroying things by crushing and blowing them away. It wasn’t something that could draw so much rubble toward him. The fragmented mass crawled along the ground, heading to the broken door behind Talisman and outside to the garden.
…What’s going on?
…This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. I feel as if I’ve seen something like this before.
Iska couldn’t redirect any amount of his focus to think about it. If he was distracted, he wouldn’t be careful enough around Talisman himself.
“I said I was communicating with my personnel, but I suppose I should make an addition.” The head of the Hydra stomped on the communications device on the ground. His voice was jubilant. “Just earlier, a witch who had been imprisoned for high treason escaped the palace jail. I was speaking with her.”
“A witch?”
There were two meanings to that word. In the Empire, it was a derogatory term for astral mages. When an astral mage called someone a “witch” or “sorcerer,” they meant a “felon.”
“You know this young lady yourself. Haven’t you realized it with your instincts, too?”
“…What did you say?”
“You did defeat her once. Unfortunately, if the inquisition thought they could restrain her in an isolated room, they were terribly mistaken. Especially in the state of chaos that the palace is in. After all, she’s no longer human. She’s a witch in the truest sense.”
Clatter…clatter-clatter.
Even as Talisman pieced together his words, bulky pieces of debris were being drawn out of the castle.
Was it some form of magnetism? It was like an immense gravitational force was pulling things toward it.
A witch. Gravity. Who was associated with such terms…?
“No!”
“Farewell, romanticist.” The head of the house Hydra, Talisman, flipped his suit open as he quickly turned around and leaped through the door.
This was bad.
The worst-case scenario worked its way out from Iska’s mind—but it wasn’t of the mastermind escaping. It was about the rubble that was being dragged away. He had seen that astral power invoked before.
“Uh, wai—”
“Finish it, Vichyssoise.”
The ultimate cannon. Magic Shot of Corpses.
All the wreckage from the great hall of the ancient castle combined and compressed to create a bullet that blew away the first floor of the Lou Erz mansion, Iska and all.
The Lou Erz mansion. Third floor.
Chased by snow golems up the stairs, Jhin and the rest of Unit 907 found a pure-white scene of snow before them.
This was the doing of Grugell, the Witch of the Midnight Sun.
The inside of the old castle was piled high with snow like a mirage, but looks were deceptive. There was no way it would be just any old snow.
“…The assassins aren’t here. Did they withdraw?”
“Jhin, behind you! Watch out for the golem!” Nene yelled from the rear.
The golem on the staircase made the place shake as it thundered up the steps to the third floor.
“Run to the back.”
“I—I know! I know, so please don’t let go of my hand!” Sisbell gripped his hand like her life depended on it.
As soon as Jhin and Sisbell, the first two in line, stepped into the snow, the sniper felt an intense pain shoot through his ankle.
“Ouch! Stop! Nene! Boss! You can’t step into this snow!”
“Wh-why not?!”
“You don’t feel anything?”
“No, so what’s—? Eek!” Sisbell’s voice cracked when she looked at Jhin’s buried leg. The fluffy surface was slowly being stained red.
“The snow bit me. If I hadn’t been wearing shoes made in the Empire with metal plates in them, it would’ve torn my foot off, shoe and all.”
He endured the pain as he pulled out his foot. The bloodied snow clinging to his shoe had turned into solid, glass-like crystal fragments.
“I-it’s like walking through a mountain of needles!” Sisbell cried.
“I know that. It’s time for some sleuthing. Why was I the only one who got hurt by the snow? Why’re you unharmed?”
“Huh?! Umm…” Sisbell stared at the wintry scene ahead of her and knit her brows. “Creations of astral power will sometimes react based on the absence of said energy. The elevators and doors at the palace— Oh, I—I shouldn’t have said that. Pretend you didn’t hear me.”
“Just keep going.”
“S-so this snow only attacks those without astral powers!”
“Then we haven’t got a problem. Hey, boss, you’re up.”
“…I knew you’d make me do this! C’mon! You can’t treat your commander like that!”
Mismis rushed out ahead of them and kicked up the fallen snow as hard as she could. Mismis could do it. She pushed away the snow that Jhin and Nene couldn’t even touch.
“Keep it up, boss. Just kick the snow that’s in the way… I guess I should focus on this first.”
Something roared in the passageway. Jhin turned around to face the golem that was crawling up the stairs.
“It’s a real shame—I wanted to save this for later.”
“You can’t, Jhin. Bullets won’t work on a golem made from astral pow—”
“Then I guess I’ll burn the thing.”
“Huh?”
Jhin threw something. As soon as the golem hit and shattered the thing that soared toward it, the smell of alcohol filled their nostrils. Sisbell smelled it sharply in her nose.
“Is that liquor?!”
“A rectified spirit from the banquet table. I borrowed a bottle.”
It was 93 percent distilled alcohol and only a beverage in name. Even the slightest flame would have set it ablaze, making it as flammable as gasoline.
“Too bad you were born a doll made from snow.”
Jhin chucked a lighter at the golem. It ignited the alcohol. The giant was engulfed in blistering red flames. The fire even melted the snow around it.
On the other hand…
“…You’ve gotta be kidding.”
Jhin didn’t even have time to celebrate. From within the quivering flames, the pile of snow condensed, from which new snow soldiers were born. It wasn’t a golem. They were dolls, each about as big as Nene. Now smaller in size, they made up for this difference with their quickness as they started to run toward the flames.
“…So they’re planning on forcing their way through the blaze to attack us.”
“Jhin, over here! No one’s in this room in the very back!” At the end of the hallway, Mismis opened the door to a room and beckoned them in.
The traces of her footprints were left in the snow—the only spots they could cross in this passageway.
“Nene, trace her footsteps and make sure you don’t touch the snow.”
“I already know that, Jhin.” Nene raced through the hall, only stepping in Mismis’s tracks. Once she got to the room, she signaled to everyone with her eyes. “Get in, guys! We’re closing the door!”
As soon as Jhin leaped into the room, he locked the door from the inside. He leaned against the wall and held his breath.
“D-do you think we can hide in here…?!” Sisbell asked, shoulders heaving.
“Who knows? We haven’t got a guaranteed way of escape no matter what we do,” he answered gravely. They were cornered. They might have managed a landing from the second-floor window, but an amateur would have trouble leaping from the third floor. “We’ve got only one option to escape—if we do something about that old lady and get back to the second floor. And if we can manage to evade the other soldiers, we might be able to jump into the garden from an open window.”
“That seems like quite a few ifs!” Sisbell cried.
“Shhh.” Nene grabbed her shoulders from behind, making her body shudder.
Crunch. Footsteps were crossing the snow.
It was the snow dolls that had survived the flames—but the issue was their number. It sounded like an entire army was marching toward them.
“…I have to hand it to her. The old lady is persistent. Looks like she’s trying to grow her numbers as large as she can.”
Bullets wouldn’t work against the snow dolls. Mobilized by astral power, their physical strength far outpaced the humans’. If one of them pinned Jhin, he wouldn’t be able to shake it off.
“Oh? Are you hiding in a room?”
They could hear the sneer of the old woman from beyond the door that stood between them. She sounded like a witch from a fairy tale. Her hoarse voice was spine-chilling.
“Snow isn’t the same as the earth. You might think you can melt a snow golem. Don’t you know that astral powers of earth can only be activated where there’s dirt? That’s the difference with my powers. I can make it snow anywhere.”
Crunch, crunch… Dolls in tow, the old woman slowly progressed forward along the snowy floor.
“This is a world of snow. Take a look. I commend you for getting through this scene, but I can see exactly where you headed from your footprints.”
“—!”
“—Zip it.” Jhin clamped down on Sisbell’s mouth as she almost started to make a sound.
The footprints continued all the way down the corridor. They could imagine it in the backs of their minds—Grugell the witch pointing at the prints that stopped at the door as she grinned, eyes squinting.
“You locked yourselves away in that room, trying to figure out a way to jump from the third floor outside into the garden before your pursuer gets to you? Well, I suppose that’s all you can do, but I won’t let you have the time to do it. That’s what these dolls are for.”
Her presence felt almost volatile.
“Do it. Break that door open!”
The snow troops rammed themselves into the door. After dozens of them charged at it, sections of the door exploded. The dolls squeezed themselves through the hole into the room, tumbling in like an avalanche.
“Crush those Imperial soldiers. Leave only Miss Sisbell—Miss…… Huh…?”
They weren’t there. Not a single person was in the lounge area of the bedroom. Even the bath and restroom were empty.
“They couldn’t have! They couldn’t have leaped outside right at that moment…”
“We’re behind you, Granny.”
“…No!” The old woman’s entire body shivered when she heard the footsteps of the Imperial soldiers behind her.
Why? Why were the Imperial soldiers, who should have been hiding in the back room, behind her? Grugell couldn’t even turn around to face her unbelievable reality.
“We weren’t hiding in the back room. We were two doors up.”
“What did you say…?”
“You’ve underestimated what an Imperial commander can do. Our boss is a slacker and a fool, but she’s not dumb.”
It had been what Mismis had said.
“Jhin, over here! No one’s in this room in the very back!”
She had told them to hide in the back room, yelled, in fact, to make sure the witch heard the sham on purpose.
“B-but the footprints!”
“We backtracked. We left footprints in the snow all the way to the back room; then we walked in the same footsteps back to where we came from.”
“Impossible!”
That was a method of escape used in the animal kingdom. Tundra hares would do that on instinct to evade foxes. The wisdom of the meek trying to survive had gotten the better of the witch.
“Don’t underestimate Imperial soldiers, Grandma.”
“—You scum!”
“Lights out.” Jhin hit her in the back of the head with the muzzle of his handgun. He didn’t let her use her astral power, knocking the witch unconscious. She crumpled onto the carpet of snow.
“…A-are we going to be okay?” Sisbell peeked out from the room, looking down at the unconscious old woman before sighing with relief. “Th-this is no time to be relieved,” she said to herself. “We must not have seen other assassins because they withdrew, so they wouldn’t get caught up in Grugell’s astral power. We need to run while they’re making themselves scarce…but I worry about leaving her here.”
“We need to leave her be.” Mismis looked down at the collapsed woman, not missing a beat as she shook her head. “We already decided to escape from this place. I’d like to use her as a hostage, but we’re not in a state where one of us can carry her on our backs and run.”
“I—I understand. In that case, let’s head downstairs. We may be able to leap outside from a servant’s room!” Sisbell pointed at the stairs.
In that instant…the ultimate cannon blasted. Magic Shot of Corpses.
The laughter of a witch echoed from out of nowhere. No one understood what it was.
The first floor of the old castle had been blown away.
Sisbell, the three members of Unit 907, and even the armed soldiers attacking the villa were knocked unconscious by the force.
Was it two seconds? Or more than ten?
They couldn’t tell how much time had passed.
The old castle leaned without a ground floor. When Mismis opened her eyes, not quite conscious, the whole place was dark.
“………Huh?” She was on her side, collapsed.
The passageway was lurching over.
It seemed the electrical lines had been severed. The lights were all off. She could tell from the moonlight through the windows that tiles had fallen from the ceiling and that the vases and portraits hanging from the walls had tumbled across the carpet.
“Wh…what…what happened…?” She got up from the slanted ground, cautious. “Jh-Jhin? Nene? Where are you?”
She sensed movement.
It was Jhin, the silver-haired sniper, walking toward her and clutching his side. Behind him, Nene appeared from the darkness. It seemed she had sliced her lip open when she’d taken the hit.
“Hey, boss. I said we’re heading down to the second floor, not that we were going to blow the castle away.”
“It wasn’t me!”
“I know. It has to be the Hydra, but…what’s going on here? That wasn’t gunfire from a random soldier. Were they planning on leveling the place?” Jhin scanned the darkness several times. “Where’s the girl we were guarding?”
“Huh?! Oh, r-right… Where’s Sisbell?!” Mismis cried out.
They didn’t see her anywhere. Though a witch, she was daintier than the rest of them. She must have been blown away by the impact.
“Found youuu.”
A witch’s beguiling laughter peeled through the lit passageway. Violet flames sparked.
The astral light quivered like a will-o’-the-wisp and illuminated what appeared to be a genuine monster.
“Found youuu, little Sisbell. Oh, not moving, are we? I see. You’ve fainted. What a relief. I was so worried I’d overdone it.”
The monster picked up the unconscious girl and hoisted her over its shoulder.
The witch in violet. Vichyssoise—it was unmistakably her.
Her hair was flaming red and solidified like a gem. All her muscles had transmuted into something that looked like glass. They could see the windows and ceiling behind her body, transparent like a jellyfish.
Why was the monster that Iska had fought here?
“Wh-why…?!”
“Hmm? Oh, so there were still Imperial subjects around. Which means Aunt Grugell must have lost. Not that I care.” The witch carrying Sisbell turned toward them.
She had finally noticed Unit 907. Or that’s what it sounded like.
“You really think I can be confined? Not a chance. The handcuffs to contain astral power are made from steel. To contain me, they need to find the real stuff forged by the Astrals.”
It was like a nightmare had resurfaced.
Even Grugell, the Witch of the Midnight Sun, who they had been fighting against desperately until now was outshone by this true witch.
That was because she was an inhuman monster.
“I’ve got Sisbell under my supervision. Wonder what I’ll do with you. Maybe I’ll roast you up along with this villa.”
“Th-then come at us. Give Sisbell back!”
“Well, that was what I’d been thinking, but I’m in a great mood right now. I just got my revenge, after all. It’d be a waste of time fighting you, so I suppose I could leave you be.”
“…‘Revenge’?” Jhin repeated back. “You can’t mean…”
“The former Saint Disciple Iska, was it? I blasted him away just earlier—along with the whole first floor.” She pointed her thumb down at the ground. “The ground on the third floor is even starting to lean over. This place should be collapsing in, say, oh, a couple minutes or so.”
“No!” Nene howled, shoulders quivering.
“Iska would never—” Nene’s yell echoed in the dimly lit corridor.
“Lady Sisbell?!”
Several footsteps boomed in the corridor. Three young girls who had been hiding in the back seemed to have heard the sound, each wearing a servant’s uniform.
“Ah yes, the servants of this place.”
“Eek?!”
Once they saw the monster in front of them, they yelped. Fear, however, lasted only for a moment. They saw Sisbell on Vichyssoise’s shoulder. Anger flashed in their eyes as they gritted their back teeth.
“Lady Sisbell!”
“Scoundrel! She’s one of the most important people in the Sovereignty. Unhand her!”
“That won’t be happening.” The witch sneered. “She’s not returning to you—ever.”
“Silence!” One of the girls was indignant as she pulled out a self-defense knife. “Let go of Lady Sisbell, monster!”
“Stop! Don’t be stupid!” Jhin didn’t hold her back fast enough.
Not one of the servants of the villa had astral powers that could be used for battle. There was no way they could fight against a witch.
Especially not with a single knife.
“Ouch. Just kidding.”
The blade stuck out of the witch’s side, but all it had done was open up a small hole in her semitransparent flesh. Not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound.
“You can’t beat me with that.”
“Are you a monster?!”
“If you’re violent, you’re going to get roughed up yourself—and it’s going to hurt. Like this.”
“Uh…gah!”
Knife still sticking out of her side, the witch grabbed the girl’s neck and slowly squeezed, staring into the servant’s eyes. “Cute face. Cute enough that you were picked to work for the Lou. You probably haven’t had a worry on your mind since the day you were born.”
“Ah…”
“Maybe I’ll burn that pretty little face of yours so bad that it’ll never return to its original state. You’ll never be able to get yourself to look into a mirror again.”
“Uhhh?! St…stop…”
“Nuh-uh. I’m not going to be nice to you anymor—”
“Vichyssoise.”
The witch’s smile froze over.
She forgot she was even holding the servant as she turned and looked. Standing there was a black-haired boy, covered head to toe in dust. There were only faint scrapes on his cheek and forehead.
“You again?”
“…Now you’ve really done it. I almost died again.” Iska held his astral swords. The white sword could release the astral power sealed away by the black counterpart just once.
If he hadn’t had Talisman’s astral power at his disposal, he would have been blown away with the first floor by the Magic Shot of Corpses.
He’d seen the astral power once before. His split-second reaction had made the difference between life and death.
“How inhuman can you be?!” Iska cried out.
The witch was quick to make a judgment call. After fighting him once, she knew it in her bones—fighting this Imperial swordsman was dangerous.
“Let go of Sisbell!”
“You were seven seconds too late, intrepid knight.” The witch hurled the servant at Iska. She hadn’t just tossed the servant; she’d basically launched the girl like a human cannonball.
“Guh?”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha! Too bad I couldn’t off you. But it’s over now.”
Iska caught the girl. In those few seconds, the witch leaped out of the window with Sisbell over her shoulder. She used gravity to levitate in midair. Even Iska could no longer go after her.
“This place was destroyed by the Imperial soldiers. Several hundred citizens have already witnessed it. You have no place to run.”
“Vichyssoise!”
“Good-bye, Saint Disciple. I’d be pleased if you were buried with the castle’s wreckage.”
The ceiling began to creak. After being on the receiving end of the Magic Shot of Corpses, the building itself was leaning to one side.
“Lady Sisbell!”
“Stop.” Iska grabbed the hand of one of the servants who had run to the window. “You won’t make it in time. You need to focus on saving your own life.”
“Let go of me… What do you know? She’s important to the Lou family. What good are we as servants if we can’t even protect Lady Sisbell?!”
“We’ll go save her,” Iska said.
“What?” Her mouth hung open, her eyes wide.
What nonsense was this Imperial subject spouting? The two behind him suddenly lost the ability to speak.
“We’ll save her. We’ll go rescue her right now, so get out of this place and hide in a safe location.”
“…What are you…? Keep dreaming, soldier…” The girl didn’t stop trying to shake Iska off as he held onto her hand. “What can you do? You want us to trust you?! Lady Sisbell was kidnapped right in front of our eyes! And you just watched!”
“You let yourself get taken hostage,” Jhin chimed in.
“Uh!”
His comment stopped the girl in her tracks.
“Why do you think Iska called out that witch’s name to distract her? If he hadn’t, you would’ve been roasted by that monster, and your life would’ve been over.”
“……Th-that’s…”
“If you hadn’t been taken hostage, there was a fifty-fifty chance that we could’ve gotten Sisbell back. Those chances nose-dived when you let yourself get hotheaded.”
That was why Jhin had tried to stop her at the beginning.
“Stop!” Jhin had said.
Iska had been trying to get behind the witch. Jhin had meant, Don’t get in the way, but none of the servants had realized that.
“We’ll try again. We’ll get Sisbell back—for sure.”
The knife that had pierced Vichyssoise was on the floor. Iska picked the blade up and pressed it into the girl’s palm, wrapping her fingers around it.
“And if I can’t do it, you can take my life yourself. You can take it out on me with this knife.”
“What?!”
“We can’t tell you why, but we’ll risk our lives to protect Sisbell, at the very minimum. We came into this enemy nation planning to obey the laws. If you want to protect her, then follow our directions for once.”
“……”
“You two.”
The two girls holding lights suddenly snapped to their senses and looked up when Iska called to them.
“Where are the others? If they’re still hiding, you need to get them right away. This place is going to collapse.”
“Uh, um, well…”
“Hurry!”
“Y-yes, sir!” The two girls scampered farther into the castle.
Yumilecia, Ashe, Noel, Sistia, and Nami—the five servants working at the castle. If they were evacuating, they needed to go together.
…If they don’t make it, I wouldn’t be able to face them.
…Not Sisbell. Not Alice.
“If you promise to listen to us, I’ll let go of your hand.”
“Okay…” Yumilecia, the oldest girl, gripped the knife with her now free hand, quietly sheathed her blade, and bit her trembling lip. “We’ll listen to you but only for tonight, if that means getting Lady Sisbell back…”
2
The palace.
Gunshots in the night. Screams ringing from the grounds. These sounds clung to the ears like the damnations of the dead.
…I’m going to lose my mind.
…I’d rather be on the front lines of the battlefield than at the castle in this purgatory.
“This is serious!” Alice’s skirt billowed as she continued to sprint through the plaza.
The soldiers screamed. She couldn’t tell if they were coming from the astral corps or Imperial forces anymore. All she could do was try to pacify the hellfire’s sputtering embers.
“Where are the firefighters?! What happened to the fuel tanks?!”
“Th-they’re still on fire! Imperial soldiers are staked out near them. We’re already at capacity trying to evade the snipers and attempting to contain the fire!”
“…So they’re not attacking and devoting themselves to keeping the fire going.”
All the Imperial army had to do was let the flames grow on their own.
Then I’ll go—Alice stopped herself from saying that out loud.
At that moment, Rin was evacuating the wounded to the underground shelters.
…Rin! What are you doing? It’s been twenty minutes.
…You promised to meet me here.
She hoped Rin was just busy. The worst-case scenario would be if she were stuck in place because the Imperial army was attacking her.
Should she wait? Or should she go in search of Rin?
Every ten seconds felt like a minute. As she gritted her teeth and stood firm, an earth golem hurtled toward her. “Lady Alice!”
“Rin?! I’m glad you’re safe. Are the wounded okay?!”
“It took me time to get in touch with the medics, but they’re all in the Lou’s shelter and receiving treatment.” Rin leaped off the golem. “The House of Hydra have come with their medics and guards arranged by Lord Talisman.”
“He just knows how to handle things. He’s been such a big help.”
“……”
“What’s wrong, Rin?”
Rin made a face. “I saw what Vichyssoise looked like when she attacked Lady Sisbell.”
“…Yes, I know.”
Vichyssoise—envoy of the Hydra—had attacked Alice’s sister, transforming into a bizarre monster. Alice hadn’t seen what she looked like, but Rin had witnessed it, along with Sisbell.
Her crimes had been committed independently of the House of Hydra, according to the head of household, Talisman, but they had no way of knowing if that was true. Regardless, Sisbell could bring everything to light with Illumination once she was back.
“Lady Alice! I have an urgent request!”
It was one of Elletear’s guards, an armed one who never left her sister’s door, running toward them, illuminated by a light.
“An assassin! In the Queen’s Space!”
“…What did you say?!” Her voice nearly caught in her throat. Alice and Rin looked at each other.
“Rin.”
“I—I didn’t hear about that, either. The Queen’s Palace is guarded against invaders.”
“It’s a Saint Disciple!” The guard ignored Rin. “We discovered her two guards collapsed, away from the Queen’s Space—both gravely wounded. The medics are doing all they can to stop the bleeding.”
“A Saint Disciple…” Alice repeated those words again, turning them over in her mouth.
Iska’s face flashed in the back of her mind. Then Nameless, the assassin dressed in active camouflage.
“So you’re telling me to go to the queen immediately?”
“Y-yes. I am requesting that you check on her, but I am also worried about the eldest princess.”
“In what way?”
“…Sh-she dashed out of the Star Spire and headed straight to the Queen’s Space.”
Alice went pale. Rin doubted her ears when she realized what that meant.
“What?! My sister Elletear can’t fight!”
“She was so worried about the queen that she couldn’t stay put. She broke past her guards, though we tried to stop her, and…”
That was reckless.
Alice understood her concern, but it was rash of her defenseless sister to charge into a room with an assassin.
…She’ll only make the situation worse if she’s taken hostage.
…Why would you do that? You have to realize what will happen!
Alice couldn’t comprehend this. Wouldn’t those actions just cause more chaos?
“Lady Alice, please stop the eldest princess.”
“Okay. You stay at the Star Spire. I’ll go to the Queen’s Palace. Rin,” Alice called out. She leaped onto the golem’s shoulder, stepping on its hand. The earth golem stood up without even waiting seconds, the ground around it rumbling as if it were a tank as it started to run.
“I’ll go as fast as I can,” Rin said. “If you talk while you’re aboard, you might bite your tongue off, so be careful.”
“As if I’d let that happen.”
They looked farther into the grounds from the golem’s shoulder. Looking up at the Queen’s Palace gleaming like a dream from astral light, Alice tightened her hand into a fist.
“Why would you do such a thing, dear sister…?!”
About thirty minutes ago…
In the Star Spire. The eldest princess’s chambers, the Small Room of Mirrors.
By the window of a sprawling room that looked like a suite straight out of a luxury hotel…
“You’re such a good little girl, Alice.”
Watching the lawns burn below, Elletear was rapt with the sight, eyes narrowing. Her little sister was putting a Herculean effort into extinguishing those flames.
“If those flames grow, there will be victims even beyond the palace. You’re desperate to prevent that. What a wonderful desire to have.”
She wasn’t being sarcastic. Elletear might have wanted paradise to fall, but she wasn’t so heartless as to wish for more victims. The fall of the Sovereignty was an entirely different matter from the sacrifice of its people.
“But it seems the Hydra don’t share my sentiments.”
“Hmm?”
“When you attacked my sister in the eighth state, you rampaged in the streets, apparently destroying buildings in your way.”
“That’s ’cause she had guards. Bring up your grievances to the Saint Disciple Iska, if you wanna blame someone.”
In the living room behind Elletear, a redhead in prison clothes lounged on a sofa. A pair of handcuffs with a broken chain hung off her wrists.
“It’d be nice if you could at least tell me that I did a good job breaking out of prison.”
“Wouldn’t that be condescending? Breaking out of prison wouldn’t be much of a job for you, Vichyssoise.” Elletear snickered as she faced the window. “I envy your powers. If I had them, I wouldn’t be frightened of anything.”
“…That’s something coming from you—considering you’re a monster.” Vichyssoise sighed from the sofa. “With your beautiful face and body, you could startle the goddess of beauty. But you’ve sure got some strange interests. Why are you sacrificing everything to get in with some beasts?”
“Who can say?”
“Not chosen by the stars, the princess casts aside her position to seek revenge on the planet and turn into a witch. Is that what you’d call a tragedy?”
“……” Elletear didn’t respond at first. “Isn’t it about time?”
“Oh, okay. Well, guess I’m off to capture Sisbell.”
The red-haired witch stood up. Violet flames burst from her entire body, catching her prisoner’s uniform on fire. It burned off her, and she turned from a person into a monster. She turned into something inhuman, something the Astrals had once called the Mutant Star in fear.
“I don’t think there’s much of a point having me go when Aunt Grugell is there.”
“There’s a Saint Disciple among them. Since he defeated you once, Lord Talisman would naturally be cautious.”
“…You really gotta put salt in my wound? You talk to me that way, and your sister’s—”
“Vichyssoise.” The eldest princess kept her back turned.
The witch in violet shivered when she heard the princess.
“If you lay a hand on my sister, I will crush the Hydra immediately.”
“…You plan on betraying my family?”
“I gave three conditions to Lord Talisman from the start. That was one of them. As long as you uphold those, we should be able to get along.”
“……”
“Now off you go. I have an important role to play soon.”
“Ha.” The girl-turned-monster snorted. “Getting wounded hurts, even if you have a body like mine. I’m sure it’ll hurt even more if it’s a Saint Disciple doing it.”
“I know.”
“Hope you can keep it up. To dupe the whole world.” She winked out of sight.
Violet embers sprinkled to the carpet and eventually disappeared.
“……” Elletear did not turn around. The eldest princess, the daughter of the queen, observed the scene outside. “Alice.”
She didn’t care about the witch in violet. All she needed to see was her beloved little sister. Tonight would be the last time—the last time that she would be with her mother and two sisters.
“Your flaw is that you’re too strong. I bet you think you can save everyone, even in this situation. You think you can fend off the Imperial army, save the queen, and be the hero. That’s a splendid thing.”
The middle princess, Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX. It wasn’t just her astral power that made her strong. It was her empathy and benevolence toward her people—and most importantly, her ability to be ruthless when she needed to be.
She could ignore her emotions. For the sake of protecting the Sovereignty, Aliceliese would fight the Imperial army in any merciless way—even as she cried as she did it.
She would stifle her feelings and weep through battle. She was that strong.
“But that won’t do.”
That wasn’t enough. Alice wouldn’t be able to make this place, the Sovereignty, a paradise for all astral mages in every sense of the word.
“Your ideals are founded on your own strength. Won’t you only make this place a paradise for the fittest?”
What would happen to the underdogs who hadn’t been born blessed with astral power? As the representative for all those people, Elletear would burn this faux paradise to the ground.
And to start…
“Let it burn into your retinas and feel despair, Alice—watch as the Empire kills me.”
The eldest princess lightly caressed the windowpane and smirked.
3
The Nebulis palace. Moon Spire.
The battle between the Imperial forces and astral corps had blasted away the walls of the Moon Diadem. Wind blew into the upper levels. Deep purple solidifications of astral energy crawled out of the floor, destroying it in the process.
“Are these Grandfather Growley’s avatars?!” Kissing scowled.
The giant made from astral energy looked out from the hole in the floor and reached up, trying to hoist itself from the lower levels. It was unharmed, even while touching the floating thorns. Kissing’s powers could make anything disappear. In terms of destructive potential, she was the strongest in the Zoa, but Growley’s avatars were unharmed by physical force.
“I love my grandfather, but I hate these…” Kissing pouted, agilely leaping away.
Her Thorns and his Vice were incompatible. Even Kissing could do nothing but keep her distance when the avatars did what they wanted to the place. She needed to keep herself from getting caught up in it.
On the other hand…the Imperial unit who Mei led didn’t know what the avatars were.
“M-ma’am! Our guns don’t work on them!”
“That’s ’cause it’s astral energy. These will be annoying to deal with.”
Mei glared at the giants crawling up. The Ruined King Hurricane on her shoulder was in a state where she could fire it at any moment, but her instincts told her she needed to prioritize figuring out what the astral power was.
“Bullets go right through them and the little miss’s thorns don’t work on them. Which logically means it’s pure astral energy that physical force won’t work on…”
How had the avatars broken through the floor? If they didn’t exist in the physical form, then they shouldn’t have been able to destroy anything material.
“So what’s going on, Names?”
“They’re avatars created by the astral power of Vice or whatever. To put it bluntly, they’re invincible, apparently.”
The soldiers stepped back in surprise. Empty space blurred, and a man wearing a full body coat appeared out of thin air. The Saint Disciple of the eighth seat, Nameless…
“Where’s your left arm?”
“You touch one of those things, and you’ll end up like me. The heads of household are certainly something. He’s tough to handle solo, even for a Saint Disciple.”
“So you ran off?”
“I’ll stop him next time.”
“…Hmm, assuming there is a next time,” Mei joked, then her expression dropped, eyes narrowing like a beast’s.
Giant humanoid avatars crawled up to form a wall where the two Saint Disciples stood in the passageway. Cerberuses pounced from the hole.
“Just to confirm: Are you sure they’re invincible? What if we used missiles or fire?”
“I doubt that would work. If anything, that would increase our sin count and make them larger. It defies logic. It’s so inconvenient. But they don’t distinguish between friend or foe.”
The avatars had scrambled after Nameless.
To fulfill their mission, they had created a path of destruction, trampling indiscriminately in their pursuit of Nameless. That was why the astral corps wouldn’t rush here without a plan.
“Don’t get the wrong idea.” Kissing leveled out her right hand, and thousands of dispersed thorns wiggled, marking their aim on Mei and Nameless. “I will not let my grandfather handle this. I will be the one to eliminate you.”
“Ah-ha-ha. So the head of household has poked his nose in his granddaughter’s business—all to protect her. Someone get me some tissues! Maybe you should go back to your room for bedtime.”
“…I really don’t like you.” The black-haired witch pointed at Mei, who laughed. “Disappear—”
Jingle. It was soothing, seemingly unfitting for a battlefield that determined life and death. It came from none other than Kissing’s ear. “Kissing, return to the meeting point immediately.”
“Uncle On?!”
The communications device shaped like an earring was concealed under Kissing’s hair. On and Kissing spoke in muted tones, but Mei and Nameless had superhuman hearing. They heard everything.
“Why?!” Kissing asked.
“Extenuating circumstances. I cut a fight short with a Saint Disciple. I’m heading there now.” His voice sounded more aggravated. Kissing didn’t even have time to pick up on that. “Princess Elletear was killed in the Queen’s Space.”
“……………Excuse me?” For the first time, the family weapon, Kissing, let out a cute voice fitting for a young girl.
An Imperial assailant attacking the queen would have been believable. But…why had the eldest princess been in the Queen’s Space?
“I can’t believe it. She can’t fight. She’d never go outside in a situation like this…”
“That’s exactly right. I thought she would have been evacuated to the underground shelter. Elletear should have known to do that—as wise and helpless as she is in this situation.”
It was a reckless stunt—as if she had gone out to be slain.
“……”
“I’ve also only been informed by Alice’s subordinate. We need to confirm the report… To be frank, I don’t know what’s happened, either.”
It was at this moment that the plot of a single witch, Elletear…had completely overturned the assumptions of the Zoa.
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