CHAPTER 4
The Unforgiven
The main doors of the Queen’s Palace were shut.
These doors could only be opened and closed using astral power, and they could not be shut for some time after being unlatched. That meant it worked entirely in the Imperial forces’ favor if they could get them open. It would let them stream in and invade.
“Rin, you know what to do: Go in through the hidden door in the back.”
They ignored the main doors and headed to the rear. Alice ran along the backside of the sprawling castle where the light did not reach.
“Lady Alice, I understand why you’re in a rush, but you must keep your wits.”
“I’m perfectly calm.”
An awkward lie.
She was panting. Sweat formed on her forehead, which was uncharacteristic for her. She knew she was far from acting the part of a composed princess. Her heart pounded out of her chest.
…An enemy is in the Queen’s Palace. A Saint Disciple is too dangerous of an opponent.
…I hope Elletear and the queen are safe.
“Hide, Rin.”
They concealed themselves in the shrubbery along the outer wall of the Queen’s Palace. Nothing seemed to be there, at least through the eyes of the Imperial forces. Alice—a trained mage—could spot the faint presence of astral light on the wall.
“Astral powers, it’s me. Listen.” Alice held out her hand.
The wall seemed to squirm in response.
The Queen’s Palace was alive. Reacting to a descendant of the Founder Nebulis, the microscopic powers came to life and created a small tunnel in the wall.
“I can’t see Imperial forces. If we go now, I don’t think they’ll notice this door.”
“Let’s hurry, Rin.”
They sprinted through the hidden tunnel into the first-floor hall of the Queen’s Palace. There, they found the royal guards ordered by the queen and one of the Astrals.
“Lady Alice, you’re back!”
“We have a report. Earlier, Lady Elletear—”
“I already know.” She nodded at her subordinates and ran down the hall. “I’ll go to the Queen’s Space immediately. The three of you will come with me. The rest can continue to keep guard!”
…I wonder how long this feeling has been with me.
…When did I realize something was off about this fight? Something bothers me.
She felt something—something foreboding. She couldn’t shut down this feeling of uneasiness in her mind. In the hundreds of battles that Queen Mirabella Lou Nebulis IIX had fought, instinct had led her to the right path every time. In Imperial minefields. In plains poisoned by gas. When her comms were intercepted. When dealing with spies. When they were surrounded.
Her sense of smell was picking up the scent of death.
“I wonder why I get that from you.”
She wiped away the dust that had settled on her lips. The Queen’s Space where the queen stood had been leveled. It was her rampaging. Round columns that supported the roof had been sliced into discs. Where there had once been stairs were now piles of stone cut like tiny dice.
Plink-plink. Stained glass crumbled from the shattered windows.
“A scythe made of air. It once even cut an Imperial bomber in half. I decided that using it on a person would be too inhumane and held back in the past, but I see no reason to have restraint for someone who’s treacherous enough to try to kill the queen.”
“……” The Imperial assailant sat slumped on the ground under the cracked wall. He held his sword, completely unmoving, as a small puddle of his blood formed under him.
“Tell me how this makes sense. Why are you still alive?”
“……”
“I can hear your heartbeat. The atmosphere picks up all sounds. Even the tiniest of breaths.”
“I see. That’s a useful power,” observed the swordsman matter-of-factly. He shook off the blood that had gotten on his crimson hair. Part of his armor had been gashed wide open, but he stood up as if to show that didn’t affect his battle readiness. “You’re atrociously cruel—expected, I suppose, for the Founder’s descendant. You can use your powers when attacked from behind. It has many applications.”
“…Why are you still alive? It seems you won’t answer my question.”
“It’s because I’m me.”
“……”
“You must think I’m spouting nonsense. I have no intention of forcing you to understand.” He swung his sword, which was as long as he was tall, bringing it upright. The Saint Disciple of the first seat, Joheim, followed the queen’s movements with his eyes. “This time, I’ll kill you.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand what you mean, and I don’t like the way you’re looking at me. I can tell from experience that it’s not a good look.”
She took a step back on the cracked floor. With liquid-smooth movements, the queen tapped the ground with her toe.
“So disappear. Vanish in the wind, your unmarked gravestone.”
Under the impact of Divine Wind, Mandala, the walls of the Queen’s Space buckled. Winds layered upon each other and begun to blow in the Queen’s Space. The disarrayed gusts created a geometric barrier that twisted anything around it and annihilated its surroundings.
In normal circumstances, she would use this to lay siege. It was one of her secrets to destroying a walled city, fortress and all. Used on a small scale in the Queen’s Space, this attack couldn’t compare to the original in raw power.
“It looks like you did underestimate me,” Joheim observed.
The man was unscathed. He had slipped past hundreds of violent whirlwinds. The greatest swordsman among Saint Disciples pursued her, coming right up in front of her eyes.
“What?!”
“Your winds avoid astral energy as they push forward.”
It was a large-scale attack. That was why she’d contained herself from unleashing all of it.
They were in the Queen’s Palace. Had her people run into the room now, they would have been pulled into the winds and torn from their limbs.
So she had curbed her astral power, making sure it wouldn’t hurt astral mages.
“That was your downfall.”
“Why…you don’t mean?!” Alarm found its way into her voice.
The Saint Disciple of the first seat. Joheim. The assailant from the Empire.
This was his true identity.
“You were the traitor.”
“That’s right. I betrayed the queen to change the Sovereignty.”
Joheim. He had been born in the Sovereignty, an astral mage who had betrayed paradise and gone to the Empire. The queen hadn’t known that, which was why her inhibited attack, intending to not hurt any astral mages, had been fatal.
“I knew about you, but you, the queen, couldn’t care less about me. I was just an enemy combatant to you. That’s what made the difference.”
“Grk?!”
A single long sword. In her heyday, she would have been able to leap away from it in an instant as the best war automaton of the Sovereignty.
Did I dodge it?
And then she saw her tattered royal dress sliced into ribbons. Blood sprayed. She was lucky that she was only cut from her left arm up to her shoulder…or perhaps not so lucky. The Saint Disciple was already preparing a second strike.
“This will change history.”
The blade intending to destroy the paradise for astral mages came down. The queen could only accept that this was the moment when she would meet her doom.
“Mother!”
“………………Huh?”
Someone was shouting.
The eldest princess, Elletear, had shielded the queen, wounded by the Saint Disciple’s sword.
“…Mo…ther…run……” Her back still facing the queen, the eldest daughter fell to her knees.
The Saint Disciple was showered in the blood pumping from the wound from Elletear’s shoulder to her chest. Before the queen, her mother, could see the scene through to the end…she fainted.
The queen was struggling to keep conscious due to the wound on her arm—and her mind had shut down upon seeing the tragedy that befell her daughter.
She lost consciousness.
The eldest princess was sliced open, drenched in blood.
The witnesses to the event were none other than the Saint Disciple Joheim and…
“…Elletear? …Mother? ……”
The Saint Disciple turned around.
Far ahead of the swordsman who gripped the bloody long sword stood a girl in the doorway of the Queen’s Space. A purebred wearing a white royal dress. A witch with beautiful golden hair.
“I don’t know who you are, but it looks like you were too late,” came the steely murmur of Joheim, the unforgiven. “This nation has fallen.”
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