Shie-la So hec jeek.
Please turn to me.
E r-nemne elma Ez suo lishe, r-harp riss phenoria uc Seo.
I blessed all you hold dear so you may grow.
Ris sia sohia, Ez xedelis fert Ez lihit siole.
I recalled what you truly desire.
PROLOGUE
Welcome Home
“…”
Her wrists and ankles burned with pain. She tried to struggle, but it felt as though her whole body had been immobilized. The claustrophobic sensation and pressure brought Sisbell back to her senses.
“…Where is this place?”
Her throat was terribly sore, and her lips were dry, so she must have been out for a while.
“Where…am I…?”
She opened her eyes.
Sisbell Lou Nebulis IX was on her back. Thanks to the rusted shackles restraining her limbs, she could scarcely move.
The room was small, old, and filthy. The ceiling lamp likely had broken years ago, and the only light, if you could even call it that, came from between the slats of the wooden planks boarding the windows shut.
“…………”
Cracks decorated the concrete walls, and the corners were filled with cobwebs. Though she couldn’t catch a glimpse of the floor from where she was restrained on the bed, she was certain it would be carpeted by a thick layer of dust.
…I cannot believe they would put me, a princess, in such a loathsome place.
…How utterly brazen.
Things were slowly coming back to her.
She was sure she had been in the Sovereignty’s central state right up until the moment she had lost consciousness. The Hydra, one of the royal families, had been keeping her captive in their stronghold when the witch Vichyssoise paid her a visit.
“I’ll guarantee he’ll live as long as you obey me. Your astral power is useful, after all.”
“…What do you intend on making me do?”
“You’ll find out once you wake up.”
That was where her memories abruptly ended. And now she had come to.
Vichyssoise’s disquieting proclamation was steadily taking a stranglehold over her chest.
…While I was unconscious…
…they took me to a new location?
What were the Hydra up to?
Apparently, they had designs on the Illumination astral power dwelling in Sisbell. Was that why she had been brought to this ominous room?
“…Is anyone there?! I’m sure you have surveillance cameras hidden somewhere in here! And that you can hear me!” she choked out while still lying faceup on the bed. The dust cloaking the room hurt her throat, but she paid it no mind. “If you’d like to win me over, you should at least prepare slightly better quarters for me. And take off these restraints!”
Then again, even if they had prepared a hotel room in the most luxurious establishment they could find, there was no way Sisbell would bow to the Hydra’s whims.
“Are you listening?!”
“Oh my. Seems there’s been a misunderstanding.”
Creak…
The door opened, accompanied by the screech of rusted metal scraping against itself. A woman older than Sisbell entered.
“Nice to meet you. And welcome home,” she said.
“…………”
“I suppose you’re the shy type. You were screeching at the top of your lungs, but you went silent as soon as I arrived.”
Sisbell saw dull red.
A woman with rouge hair that seemed as though it hadn’t been combed in years had appeared. Her ashen skin suggested malnourishment, and the dark circles under her eyes betrayed her sleeplessness. She wore a washed-out white coat that made her seem like a doctor or researcher at first glance, but…
…Who is this lady?
…I’ve got a bad feeling about her. Just from the way she’s looking down on me.
The woman’s eyes were empty—the eyes of a passerby who had spied an empty can abandoned on the street and kept walking.
“…I have a lot of questions for you,” said Sisbell, staring up at her. “You came here because you were responding to my request, yes? Then would you please enlighten me about what’s going on?”
“Go right ahead. But whether I answer will depend on my mood,” the woman replied.
“Where is this place?” Without pausing for a response, Sisbell continued. “Who are you? Why are you keeping me captive here? How long are you going to do that? …And most importantly, why did you say, ‘Welcome home’?!”
“What an ambiguous query to start out with,” the woman in the white coat murmured, sticking her hands into her black pants pockets. “If you mean you want to know the name of the country you’re in, this is the Empire.”
“…What did you say?!”
Anger overtook Sisbell before she could feel a rush of fear.
The Hydra, and Talisman, the head of the household—did that mean he had delivered her, a Sovereign princess, to the Empire of all places?!
“If you have questions about this facility, we will discuss them later,” the woman continued.
“…We will?”
“It’s relevant to your last question. And as for your second one about who I am, unfortunately, I don’t intend to introduce myself.”
Clack.
The woman’s coat fluttered as she approached. She came right up to Sisbell’s eye level, where the girl was restrained to the bed—no, even closer than that. Their faces practically touched as the woman bent down to behold her.
“A director of the Omen Institute for Astral Research…that’s who I used to be.”
“?”
“But I’m not anymore. Now I am Kelvina Sofita Elmos, independent female analyst. Oh, but I don’t think there’s really anything physically womanly about me.”
They were nearly close enough for their noses to meet. Something brushed against Sisbell’s chest.
“Eek?!” she cried out.
“What are you so surprised for? All I’m doing is examining you right now.”
When Sisbell had felt the woman’s fingertips—the fingertips of the researcher named Kelvina—groping her, she had screamed unintentionally.
“S-stop it! You brute…!”
“You really take after your sister.”
“What?”
“Your astral crest’s energy is exceedingly weak,” Kelvina remarked. “I’d thought the Founder’s descendants would all emit powerful astral energy, but it seems that doesn’t apply to you or Elletear.”
She righted herself.
The hands on Sisbell’s chest—or, to be more accurate, on her astral crest—drew away and casually took their place back in Kelvina’s pockets.
“To answer your third question, you’re here as a research sample. I’m not sure how long you’ll be staying. Until I’m satisfied, if I was to venture a guess.”
“…………”
Sisbell was speechless.
More than the shame of her chest being groped or of being treated as though she were an object of research, it was the name Kelvina had invoked that truly horrified Sisbell.
Elletear.
Why had this strange woman mentioned the Lou family’s first princess?
“This is the Birthplace of Witches. I understand you’ve seen Vichyssoise. She was the one who brought you here.”
“…Witches?”
That was the derogatory term the Empire used for astral mages. Technically speaking, Sisbell was also a witch, and most of the citizens living in the Nebulis Sovereignty fell under this category. However…what Kelvina meant by witches was something else entirely—an astral mage who had given up their humanity. In other words, the stuff of fables—a monster and harbinger of disaster.
…The Birthplace of Witches.
…It can’t be. Then that’s how Vichyssoise ended up looking like that?
Had she been the result of barbaric human experimentation? And had that taken place in the Empire?
“Vichyssoise turned out well,” Kelvina continued. “She was the first stable subject we created here.”
“At the hands of the Imperials?!”
Her rage far outstripped her fear of being held captive.
“You treat we astral mages like witches yet create monsters yourselves!”
“That applies to your sister as well.”
“…………Huh?”
“Didn’t hear me? Your sister Elletear was also here in Elza’s Sarcophagus. Though I suppose the difference between you two is that her stay was voluntary. She traveled all the way here from the Sovereignty in order to undergo the operation to become a witch.”
“…………”
She didn’t understand.
What?
What was this Imperial saying? The first princess of the Lou household, her sister Elletear, had willingly come to the Empire?
“L-lies!”
“Believe me or don’t believe me.” Kelvina scratched her disheveled red hair and smiled wanly. “Your sister was magnificent.”
Then she gazed up at the dim ceiling, staring into thin air, as though she was recalling the past.
“Normally, I have no interest in the human body, but she was the one exception,” she said. “She was so captivating, sensual even. Her naked form was not that of a goddess. No, it was that of a demon, one who ensnares all men…and even my fingers trembled from the rush when I first laid eyes on her.”
“…I don’t want to hear any of that. I don’t want to know about your tastes.”
“But she made for a terrible specimen.”
“What?!”
“She didn’t have the level of obedience I desired. That’s why I need an alternative. A purebred. If I was to describe my ideal, it would be someone from the same bloodline as her—”
Her white coat fluttered up. To the left and right of the researcher were rows of syringes containing faintly glowing agents.
“Yes, that’s you, Third Princess Sisbell.”
“What?!”
“That’s why I said that before. ‘Welcome home.’ I’m sure I will be able to get quality antibody research out of someone from the same bloodline as her. Now, which injection would you prefer first?”
Imperial territory, ???. Elza’s Sarcophagus.
The princess’s scream rang out in the Birthplace of Witches.
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