EPILOGUE 1
Why Does This Keep Happening?!
“Humph. It seems you’ve survived, Imperial swordsman.”
As soon as Rin saw him, she clucked her tongue in contempt. That had happened just as soon as Iska had settled onto the sofa to rest upon returning to the hotel room. Rin had come racing over from the palace. Upon her arrival, she threw a paper bag at him.
“Take it.”
“H-hey?! Didn’t you hear that I’m injured?!”
“That contains disinfectant for burn wounds as well as pain pills.”
“…Thanks.”
He meekly took the bag. She must have bought those things at a pharmacy before coming over to the hotel. They were all brand-new and fully sealed.
“I’ll send you an invoice later.”
“What?!”
“I kid.”
“…Could you not say that with a deadpan voice?” He let out a big sigh.
Rin took a look around the living room. “Nami and Sistia are safe, correct?”
“They’re doing fine, just like our message said. They’re changing in the next room. Commander Mismis is with them, so they should be back soon.”
“Okay,” Rin said and nodded, and then she folded her arms and looked up at the ceiling. “…I’ve reported that to Lady Alice as well. That while you weren’t able to locate Lady Sisbell, you did find her attendant taken captive in the underground level.”
“Yeah, we have photos for evidence.”
“That should help Lady Alice. She’ll be mobilized to do a compulsory investigation by Her Majesty. The servants of the Lou were captured by the Hydra. Once this incident has come to light, that should shake up Talisman’s foothold.”
But it still wasn’t definitive. The Hydra had been the masterminds that invited the Imperial forces into the Sovereignty—and until that was made clear, it meant nothing.
“So, there was something that bothered me. What’s going on with Snow and Sun? The TV broadcast didn’t show the outskirts of the grounds.”
“There was a fire in a building. Astral powers should disappear after a few minutes. I’d be surprised if that had all been astral power.”
“All those flames likely came from the princess.”
Iska meant the stand-in for the head of household, Mizerhyby. Her Legion of Dawn included a flame astral mage. Iska had witnessed a fire like he’d never before seen decimate an entire floor.
“I wish you’d told us more about Princess Mizerhyby.”
“Hmm?”
“She was ridiculously powerful. She wasn’t just powering up others’ astral powers.”
“Obviously.”
Why was he saying that now? Rin seemed to ask. She looked nonplussed.
“Talisman is attempting to back her for the conclave. It’s likely she will vie with Lady Alice for the queen’s throne in the future.”
“In that case, you really should have—”
“You think the Hydra would reveal their hand? Even if Lady Alice and I know the general gist of Mizerhyby’s astral power, we didn’t know her actual skills.”
“…I see.”
The royal family of the Nebulis Sovereignty fought blood for blood with their own family. Until they could capture the throne, they wouldn’t give the other royal families the advantage of knowing intel about them in advance. Mizerhyby’s astral power was part of that.
“And I have one more thing to ask,” Rin said. “What happened to him? If you broke into that building, I’m sure you must have seen him.”
“Him?”
“Salinger, obviously.”
“…So about that.” Iska shook his head. “Was that really Salinger? You’re absolutely sure?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well…I heard the servants say his name, too,” Iska said. “But when I got to the top floor, there was an explosion on the grounds.”
“So you didn’t see him?”
“I didn’t see any sign of him at all.”
The transcendental sorcerer’s appearance had been burned into his mind. He wouldn’t miss the man if they had run into each other in the building.
“You’re sure you’re not mistaken? You’re sure it wasn’t someone else?”
“Humph…” Now Rin was the one scowling. “The queen did tell us that she doubted his involvement. I can find out by retrieving the data from the surveillance cameras of Snow and Sun… Well, no matter. So, anyway.”
She turned partly around, looking bitter. “I’ve been wondering, what are those two doing?”
She glanced pointedly at the table in the back.
Nene and Jhin were silently fast at work. The two of them were so absorbed in what they were doing, they didn’t even hear Iska and Rin’s conversation.
“Jhin, you done yet?”
“Don’t rush me. We’re trying to pry the thing open. It’s over if we crush the contents by being too rough.”
Jhin held a sun-shaped earring, driving a screwdriver tip as thin as a needle into the metal fitting and slowly jimmying open its top.
“Again, Iska: What are those two doing?”
Just as Rin scowled, the two in the back started shouting.
“All right, it’s open.”
“Whoa! You’re amazing!”
“Well, let’s see what’s inside… Yeah, looks like a memory chip. Just like we thought. I’ve got no idea what’s in this IC chip, but the rest is up to you, Nene.”
“You got it.” Nene inserted the thin chip—small enough to rest on her pinkie finger—into a portable device. She looked at the writing displayed on the monitor. “Hmm…”
“How’s it look?”
“So based on what I know, it looks like there are two fishy files encrypted here. This might be too difficult for me without help from the analysis squad at HQ. I think I can only figure out how to open one of these right now.”
“Wait, is one of them not encrypted?”
“That’s right. There’s only one file that was made by someone else. I think the Hydra must have just acquired the data from someone, and they were going to delete it right away.”
Jhin and Nene stared at the monitor.
A map featuring a continent was displayed on it. An arrow starting from the Nebulis Sovereignty’s central state began to move, going straight across to the Sovereignty’s border.
“Nene, what’s that number on the arrow? I can tell it’s binary with all the ones and zeros.”
“I think it might be a date and time. In that case, they left last night from the central state and got outside the border this morning. It has to be a plane based on how fast it’s going, so they must be carrying something.”
“Hmm? Hey, Nene, isn’t this arrow entering Imperial territory?” Jhin murmured.
At that moment, Rin’s eyes snapped open. “W-wait?! Let me check…!”
She rushed past Jhin and Nene, breaking between them to bring her face close to the monitor. She stared at the map and the arrow, not even sparing a blink.
“…I can’t believe it,” her voice rasped as it slipped out from between her lips. “But there shouldn’t be an airport in this spot in the central state.”
“Huh?! B-but?”
“The starting point is at the Hydra’s estate. If they flew a private plane out, then they must have been carrying… They couldn’t have been…”
Shuvalts had been at Snow and Sun, but Sisbell had not. And just yesterday, a plane left from the Sovereignty carrying something.
Considering the situation…
The youngest princess must have been carried to Imperial territory.
Everyone fell silent.
It wasn’t a hypothetical scenario. They were nearly close to fully believing it.
“…We were a step behind.” Rin bit her lip. “We found her attendant there, which we’re using as a pretext to search the Hydra’s base… Then he must have decided to move her prior to the search. Curse you, Talisman.”
“But it looks like the arrow isn’t headed to the Imperial capital. It’s somewhere way in the countryside.”
Jhin sighed. “The Empire’s our home, as far as we’re concerned. We can’t just liberate a witch from Imperial territory or we’ll be in hot water. That’s treason and exactly what Iska got in trouble for a year ago.”
“ ”
What do you wanna do? Jhin silently asked. Rin gritted her teeth in front of him.
“We must rescue Sisbell. There is no questioning that. I cannot give that up.”
“I get it. But as Imperial citizens, we can’t infiltrate anything within Imperial territory. That’d be as good as rebelling against our home country. Am I right, Commander?”
“…Y-yeah. I think it would be hard for us to help you directly, too.”
Commander Mismis and Nene also weakly agreed.
The Sovereignty was an enemy country as far as Unit 907 was concerned. Causing mayhem in an enemy base wouldn’t count as rebellion, so they had been able to work with Sisbell and Alice until that point.
But this next gambit was another matter.
…Unit 907 has its own position to think about.
…We can’t ever cause trouble in Imperial territory, not even if it’s to rescue Sisbell.
So Talisman had even calculated this.
Taking Sisbell into Imperial territory meant Imperial soldiers like Iska—not to mention the queen of the Nebulis—couldn’t do anything.
“If I could butt in…” Rin, who had been silent until then, raised her bitter-looking face. “I have a proposal. Commander Mismis.”
“Y-yes?!”
When Rin mentioned her by name, the commander’s voice cracked.
“We weren’t able to recover Lady Sisbell, but I will make good on our initial negotiations and will deliver you from the Sovereignty. In exchange, I would like you to make a final deal with me.”
“Wh-what is it?”
“I will send a spy to tail you. And you will return to the Imperial territory without noticing the spy.”
“……Excuse me?” Commander Mismis’s eyes were open in surprise.
She would have a spy tailing them. That made sense for the Sovereignty to do. But how were they supposed to not notice the spy? And if she didn’t want them to notice the spy, why had she mentioned there being one? Iska and Nene looked at each other and shook their heads.
“I see what you’re thinking.” The silver-haired sniper smirked slightly. “I got it. That’s something we can just barely agree to, considering our position. But this really is our last deal together.”
“So you figured it out,” Rin replied.
“Basically, it’ll go like this.” Jhin turned to Iska and the others. “We’ll head out of the Sovereignty and back to Imperial territory. That’s not too different from the plan. But before we reach the Imperial capital, we’ll happen to go by the place Sisbell’s being held. The spy that followed us will probably go find Sisbell then.”
All they would do was head back to the Imperial capital.
The plan was that one of Alice’s spies would find where Sisbell was being held by chance.
“Oh…I see.” Iska finally realized it, too.
They wouldn’t do anything. All they would do was tolerate Alice’s spy accompanying them.
“Commander, what do you think?”
“…I think that’s barely within reason for us to accept. Considering I’m sure we won’t be able to leave the Sovereignty unless we accept, I think we can agree to this.” Still hesitant, Mismis turned toward Rin. “But, Miss Rin, if that spy fails to rescue Miss Sisbell, we can’t get involved. All we can do is tolerate that the spy will tail us. We can’t betray the Empire any more than that…”
“And I wouldn’t ask for anything more. We will simply do that no matter what.” Rin immediately pulled out a communications device.
“We just need Lady Alice’s approval and the deal is done. Lady Alice, I apologize for calling at such a busy time. I have a report. It’s about where Lady Sisbell was taken,” the attendant told her, seeming full of nerves.
Iska watched her answer several questions.
“…I understand the situation.” Alice’s voice came faintly from the comm. “Rin, we shall go through with the deal as you have outlined it. We will rescue Sisbell. I would love to rush there immediately, but…”
“It would be bad if you were to mobilize now, Lady Alice.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what the Hydra are aiming for. I can’t leave the queen on her own,” Alice answered.
Iska heard her voice fill with dignity befitting a princess. It was a tone that only he knew.
“I will stay at the palace, so I give the task of rescuing my sister to someone I trust.”
“However, Lady Alice, the spy’s mission will be of utmost importance. Now that we know the situation, the only one who could rescue Lady Sisbell from an Imperial facility would be—”
“I’m counting on you.”
“…Come again?” Rin was taken aback. If her expression were to be compared to anything, it looked as though she had seen a flying whale. She gaped from stupefaction. “Lady Alice, um, what did you just say?”
“This is my precious sister. I can only leave this to someone I can trust.”
“I—I assent! But my idea was…to have one of the queen’s guards or a member of the palace Planetary Domiciles who isn’t busy…”
“That won’t work.” Her mistress’s reply was merciless. “There are certain conditions that must be met to have a spy go through with this mission. One is that they must know they are an Imperial unit. We say you’ll be tailing them, but you’ll actually be traveling with them. You need to know each other.”
“ ” Rin’s face quickly paled.
Yes. There was only one person who could fulfill the conditions of her lady.
“…Um, Lady Alice.”
“What is it?”
“As you are well aware, I despise the Empire. Simply seeing the Imperial territories on a world map is enough to give me goose bumps. And you expect me to go to the Empire…”
“You must go, Rin!” Alice yelled. “You must go to the Empire with Iska in order to save my sister. This order is an honor, and it’s something only you are capable of!”
“Noooo!” Rin’s face turned tomato red as her yell echoed throughout the hotel room’s living area.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login