Unnamed Memory - Volume 5 - Chapter 5

5. Contagious Hopes

The little room was just as gloomy and dark inside as ever.

The young man who was the owner of the estate sank into a chair, a letter from the outside world in his hand. It was only one sheet of paper, the message brief and concise. He gave it a glance and then ignited it in his grip.

He ended up blurting out some of the doom and gloom he had intended to keep to himself. “Ugh… it is such a pain subduing the impatient.”

“Did they say something to you again?” Miralys inquired. She was seated in a chair on the opposite side of the room. While Valt was in a plush, upholstered one, hers was a simple wooden thing. Miralys was quite picky when it came to her surroundings, down to her preference for sitting in something free of ornamentation.

While keeping his voice light, Valt groused, “I understand why they want to hurry and get to the battle, but still…”

“Perhaps they’ll learn if they rush on out and mess up.”

“That does sound interesting, but we don’t have any substitutes. We have to use them at the exact right time,” he replied with a bitter, long-suffering smile.

Miralys furrowed her brow. “Why have they made Farsas their enemy anyway? Is the grass really that greener on the other side?”

“I’m sure that’s part of it. Farsas is one of the top two nations in all our land, and it has Akashia. People like them seek nothing more than to bring Farsas to its knees.”

“How pathetic.”

“That’s harsh, Miralys,” Valt remarked, resting one elbow on the armrest of the chair and his chin on his hand. He looked to be deep in thought.

“Oh, I heard that some strange ruins were uncovered in Farsas. Was that your doing?” Miralys asked.

“No, it wasn’t. That place was the work of an outsider—a perfect coincidence, you might call it. This latest rewrite has really left wide-reaching ramifications. All sorts of things that were buried in history are coming to light. It’s like digging through the sand on a beach and arriving at some wholly different place.”

“Doesn’t that mean the world is converging toward the true future?”

“It should be, yes. We may have found that one last straw we’ve been waiting for,” Valt answered blandly, but Miralys didn’t miss the flash of dark intent that passed across his eyes. He stared at a fixed point on the wall. “If the world has started to move, then we need to hurry, too. They successfully dismantled those ruins. She really is the key—the strongest mage and spirit sorcerer in history. Even weakened, she still has great potential.”

Which was why they had to act swiftly, but discreetly. There was no guaranteeing the same timeline would come around a second time.

Valt stood and glanced at the clock. “I’ve got to get going. So much to prepare. Those two aren’t the sort you can run into and fight head-on, after all.” Miralys walked over to Valt as he massaged his stiff shoulders. He looked down at her and, abruptly, his face turned serious. “Miralys, power is only power in the end. It will always be linked to the mental state of its user. What matters is not how much strength you have; it’s how well you can wield it.”

“I know that.”

In all the land, they were the only allies the other had. Everyone else was a pawn, including the most powerful woman.

Miralys and Valt exchanged glances. And then, with an incantation, vanished into thin air.

The plans proceeded apace.

Not even the two of them knew what the future would bring. But the pair believed this was the only path they could take, and that it would eventually take them to their desired end.

There was nothing to be done about the leisurely flow of time. The living beings within could only writhe desperately.

News of the queen of Tuldarr’s engagement sent shock waves through the major nations of the continent.

The announcement also rendered it impossible for any other country to impede Tuldarr’s system change.

Farsas and Tuldarr were to be united. No country wanted to make an enemy of two nations so inherently powerful despite their differences in characteristics. Those who had thought they would use Tinasha’s abdication as their chance to win her over to their nation cursed Farsas for getting there first.

Few people understood that the engagement was not a political one.

The beautiful queen at the center of the commotion entered her council room with a grimace. “Members of the council.”

At the moment, Tuldarr was discussing all manner of items concerning the adoption of a parliamentary system. Countless meetings had already been held so far. While drawing up a formal adoption plan was not a smooth process, it was progressing bit by bit each day. The assembly would hear the opinions of Legis and his magistrates, the mages and scholars, and the merchants and local representatives, then carefully fine-tune the plan.

Once the council members at the meeting table saw the queen enter, each of them looked as if they wanted to say something. This was the first time half of them had seen her since the engagement. Tinasha greeted them, suppressing the heat rising to her cheeks.

“As I’m sure all of you know, I will marry into Farsas after I abdicate. However, my engagement does not mean that there will be any changes in Tuldarr’s new government. I hope that my marriage will contribute to friendly relations between our two nations and that we will continue to work well together.”

She had tried to speak as calmly as possible, but she couldn’t keep the faintest hint of a blush off her face.

All the members were delighted to see their queen looking so youthful and offered her their congratulations.

That was the only unscheduled item on their agenda. The council members, not at all concerned with formalities, moved right along to the main topic of discussion. People could exchange opinions freely there, regardless of social status.

The chief royal mage stroked his beard as he said, “The continent has so few precedents to reference for a parliamentary system…”

“Evidently, the small nation of Tyle in the south once had a similar method in place. However, the records state that a house speaker with overwhelming support rewrote the laws and made it a dictatorship. A decade later, the people revolted, and the country fell.”

“So the conditions we set for amending laws are crucial, then.”

“We could either require the regent’s approval or not. Should the two pillars of regent and parliament be equal, or should one be superior to the other?”

Tinasha listened to each member’s opinions and offered thoughts of her own. Her expression held no traces of the bashfulness she’d had upon entering the room. She wore the face of one laboring to change her country.

The meeting lasted close to three hours. While the discussion was very lively, only a few things were settled—and it was possible they’d be revised in the future.

Some had asserted that this step-by-step progress was going at a snail’s pace because they were all being too cautious, but Tinasha thought that was fine at this stage. They were at peace, so they could take their time and avoid coming off as too high-handed. Surely, Legis felt the same way.

If fate brought me to this era, then I want to work hard to make the most of it.

That was Tinasha’s answer and her feelings for her homeland.

Upon returning to her study after the meeting concluded, Tinasha spread out the papers she had brought back on her desk and smiled wanly. “We have a lot of work to do.”

The mage Renart, who had come to give her a report on another matter, nodded. “It won’t be built in a day, after all. I hope that the result will be satisfying to all.”

“I do, too,” said Tinasha.

Lilia placed a cup of tea before her master. The spirit glanced at the documents on the desk and laughed. “The only thing that’s changed in four hundred years is how tall the stack of papers is. There’s been no progress at all.”

“That’s because there were only books and ledgers back then, not loose sheets. Things have gotten easier, at the very least.”

“How were reports like mine given without documents?” Renart inquired, curious.

Tinasha grinned at him mischievously. “All of them were given orally. If it were still like that now, you’d never be able to leave this room.”

With a hand, she motioned to the stack of papers Renart was carrying. The man’s expression stiffened. The queen brought her teacup to her mouth with a grin.

Lilia threw the tray into the air, and it disappeared. “Putting that aside, I thought you’d be more relaxed once you were engaged, Lady Tinasha. That doesn’t seem to be so.”

“Pff—”

Tinasha choked on her drink and coughed violently.

Lilia went on blithely. “Before getting engaged, you were so bothered by the question of it and fretted endlessly. Yet now you’re in such an exhilarated state that you can’t calm down. I’ve seen you smiling to yourself over nothing, pacing around, and flailing in bed.”

“Y-you’re wrong about all that!” Tinasha protested, slamming her hands on the desk and jumping to her feet. Snatching up her teacup, she held it as she began to pace around the study. “The w-wedding won’t be for another year… And it counts as a political union, too, you know.”

As she conjured excuses no one had asked for, a rosy hue colored her cheeks. She stopped in her tracks, gazing down at her reflection on the surface of the tea in her cup. “It’s true that I… l-love him, yes…”

The words were nearly inaudible, and Tinasha went scarlet. Her smile was shy, though she was overflowing with happiness.

The picture she painted, beaming with joy in the throes of her first love, made her nothing more than a girl full of anticipation for her own wedding.

Seeing his lady like this caused Renart to grin. Lilia, however, only shrugged. “You’re like this all the time in your chambers now. Why don’t you just go marry him already?”

“I have work to do, thank you!” Tinasha snapped tartly, draining her cup before marching back to her desk.

Hiding his smile, Renart placed a new set of papers on the desk. “All right, please look these over.”

He launched into an explanation of the most pressing issues for the queen to handle. Tinasha had to take care of her usual duties that were separate from setting up the new system. Legis had aided with some of these tasks in the past, but she tended to deal with almost all of them herself. However, when Tinasha settled problems, she was frequently told there was no precedent for her resolution method. Thus, she had to show some manner of restraint. Any resentment she incurred would negatively affect the switch to the new government. This wasn’t the Dark Age, where citizens submitted to absolute power.

Renart finished his explanation and then placed another three pages on the desk. “These are about an inspection of that academy in the town of Latuchet, which is scheduled for three days from now.”

“Oh, the Academy of Magic. I’ve been a little curious about that,” Tinasha replied, scanning the papers.

Four hundred years ago, Tuldarr acted as a city-state, and the majority of its people lived around the palace. But at present, towns and villages outside the main city dotted the country. These other settlements were not as large as those in Farsas because Tuldarr’s territory dwarfed its population. The place Renart had mentioned was a midsize town about half a day’s travel to the west of the capital.

“It’s very interesting to have an academy for the children of mages,” Tinasha commented. “In old Tuldarr, it was customary to have personal tutors give lessons in controlling magic, but it’s certainly just as possible to teach students in a group setting.”

“Those who come only for lessons in controlling magic graduate in about a year, but those who want to become proper mages live at the academy until the age of sixteen. Classes aren’t divided by age, but by levels of magic. Many of our royal mages are alumni,” explained Renart.

“That sounds so fun. Do you think I could change how old I look and sneak in as a student?”

“Please don’t,” the man replied immediately, and Tinasha’s head sunk in disappointment.

Tinasha’s palace tutoring had accommodated her interests, but the idea of a school was appealing to the young woman who had grown up without peers. She wanted to enroll in some classes, but considering her position, she could only go for a royal inspection. Still, she was very excited about the upcoming visit.

An unhappy expression crossed Renart’s face. “However, a few students have disappeared recently…”

“Huh? What do you mean? They’ve gone missing?”

“Well, some of them have simply dropped out and fled on their own, so we can’t quite say that. But all have vanished into thin air, along with their belongings, baffling their friends and teachers. As of this month, there have been five so far.”

“That’s a lot.”

The school must have been strict to have five runaway dropouts. That was a worrisome problem all on its own.

After thinking for a bit, Tinasha looked up. “Understood. During my inspection, I’d also like to do some investigating, so make the necessary preparations.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I have someone in mind who graduated from the academy and would be perfect for the job. I’ll have her show you around.”

“Thank you,” Tinasha said, handing Renart a document with her specifications listed. He took it and departed straightaway.

A heap of tasks still awaited Tinasha’s review, and the list of duties she had to take over was just as lengthy.

Still, the young queen took great satisfaction in her busy schedule. Tuldarr was so different from how it had been in her era, and that reminded her that she was walking in the footsteps of those who had labored hard to bring the country to this point.

There were four locations of the Academy of Magic in Tuldarr, and all were nationally run. In addition to the one in the capital, each region of the country had a school. Most of the children attendees, who came from the neighboring towns and villages, were there to learn how to control their magic. Half of those would stay to become mages, while a handful of those would reach royal mage status. The academies were a training facility for the next generation.

“This is a pretty big structure. How many are living here now?” asked Tinasha.

“There are fifty-two children here to learn how to control their magic, while we have sixty-eight students studying to become mages,” the headmaster replied.

“So there are more mage students? That’s a bit surprising, considering how long they stay,” remarked Tinasha, looking about with keen interest as she received a tour of the Latuchet Academy of Magic.

The academy, at which all the students boarded, was home to more than one hundred students and had been founded roughly one hundred and fifty years before. Magic wards shimmered around the polished wood-paneled corridor, which was a giant ring that ran the perimeter of the school building. Six octagonal classrooms were set along the inside of it. From above, the building resembled a beehive. During the school’s construction, Tuldarr’s ruler had designed it to optimize and enhance magical power.

“I’m sure it’s only natural for an academy of magic, but it does seem quite easy to get lost in here,” Tinasha mused, which made the mages in her guard retinue smile uneasily. In contrast, the academy headmaster’s expression turned complicated. The older man must have known that agreeing with her or refuting her would’ve appeared disrespectful to the queen, so he simply said nothing.

Tinasha gazed out a window on the third floor protected by a film of water. Past the circular academy, lush green gardens rolled out in all directions.

She pointed to a small wooden building in a corner of the grounds and asked, “What’s that over there?”

“That is the school for the local children. As part of the academy students’ lessons, they sometimes act as instructors there, so it was built on our grounds.”

“Oh, how fascinating. It’s true enough that teaching does often mean learning as well,” Tinasha responded.

Children were playing outside the building. Judging by their plain attire, it looked like all of them routinely helped out around their homes.

As Tinasha observed the charming sight, the headmaster broached a topic with some trepidation. “Er, actually… Once the town children heard that Your Majesty would be visiting, several of them begged to attend your lecture, too…”

“Oh? That’s quite all right by me, but the content will be difficult.”

Tinasha was scheduled to give a lesson to academy students. The younger pupils could attend as well, but the material would likely be challenging for local children who weren’t enrolled.

The headmaster bobbed his head gratefully. “They are all aware of that and simply want to catch a glimpse of Your Majesty. We will ensure they behave…”

“I don’t mind at all. Let anyone interested attend,” Tinasha said with a smile, and the headmaster looked relieved. “Now, let’s discuss the recent disappearances. Please make sure to tell me everything you can.”

In truth, it wasn’t so unusual for students to vanish from an Academy of Magic.

The younger students who were there to learn magic control ranged in age from five to thirteen. They had to live away from their parents and families to attend the academy, and several—particularly the older ones—got homesick, dropped out, and ran away. Most were found quickly, but some proved elusive for one reason or another.

However, the academy did not dispatch frantic search parties for the truants because it prized an innate desire to learn.

“But five missing students in a month? You should really go out and look for them,” grumbled Tinasha before her scheduled lecture.

A female mage with dark blond hair who was with the queen gave a strained smile and nodded. “The academy is indeed still searching. However, two of the missing students were friends. One was twelve, and another thirteen. They may have gone to another country.”

This woman was Pamyra, the person Renart had referred Tinasha to for assistance during her visit. She was a graduate of this academy and a royal mage. She and Renart were friends who trusted each other’s abilities.

Tinasha examined the documents outlining the situation. “One fifteen-year-old mage student and four younger students aged thirteen, twelve, ten, and five. The thirteen-year-old and twelve-year-old disappeared at the same time, while the others vanished separately. That five-year-old is especially worrisome…”

“Once the youngest went missing, the academy finally realized that these were unusual circumstances. The other kids were in communication with their families but never made it home, while the five-year-old was an orphan who lost his parents in an explosion of his own magic, so there was no one to contact.”

Tinasha frowned upon hearing that. Accidents like that were the reason children born with magic had to learn control. Tuldarr was home to the only Academy of Magic institutions because it had so many mages. In other countries, children would go to a city or town to learn from mages there. Tuldarr’s system greatly reduced the number of unfortunate incidents, but it was impossible to prevent all of them.

Pamyra went on, her voice tinged with sadness. “The five-year-old had just come to the school and was struggling to fit in to the environment. The other four were experiencing doubts about their studies and were very interested in other countries, so they all had reasons to run away. We’ve heard from other students that the pair who left together had worked out a plan of escape.”

“So what you’re saying is that if the disappearances weren’t all clustered together, it wouldn’t be so strange for those kids to have run away?” Tinasha inquired.

“It’s possible that once the first student made off, it emboldened the others to do the same,” Pamyra replied.

“How odd,” remarked Tinasha, flicking the papers away into the air and crossing her arms. After sinking into thought, she asked Pamyra, “What do you think? Is this all just a coincidence?”

Did the queen really need to investigate further on top of the academy’s own efforts?

Pamyra’s face turned serious, and she stated, “No. I think the students were specifically chosen because their absence wouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s very suspicious that we haven’t been able to get in touch with any of them at all.”

There was confidence in Pamyra’s eyes. Tinasha liked her spirit and smiled. “Then let’s look into it. I’d like to have you interview the pupils.”

“We happen to have one student who’s due to start as a royal mage next month. I’ll work together with her to speak to everyone.”

“Thank you. It’s about time for my lesson to start,” Tinasha said, getting to her feet. The mage standing before the door to the lecture hall bowed to her and opened it. A cloth covered the entrance, but the students had already taken their seats and were abuzz. Tinasha lifted the skirt of her long mage’s robes and stepped in. Once the queen appeared, everyone fell silent.

Tinasha’s petite frame brimmed with power, and her innate beauty was startling. She moved with the grace and bearing of a sovereign royal, drawing and commanding attention.

The audience’s eyes were glued to this beautiful creature, at once perfect and at the same time somewhat contradictory.

She ascended the lecturer’s dais and looked around the semicircular hall. Mage students were seated at the front, with the younger students behind them. The town children were packed into the corners.

After surveying her audience, she broke into a smile. “My name is Tinasha As Meyer Ur Aeterna Tuldarr. Thank you very much for coming today.”

It was a crisp, simple address that didn’t match her appearance.

Tinasha gave a snap of her ivory fingers, and a pale blue flame flickered to life. It took the shape of a horse and galloped through the air. After making a circuit above the students’ heads, it vanished. The mage students were astonished by the queen’s technique, while the children let out gasps of wonder, their eyes sparkling.

“All right, let’s begin the lecture. I won’t speak for too long, so get comfortable and listen.”

The queen launched into a discussion of magic and the makeup of the planes of existence in the world.

“The queen was amazing,” Rudd said with a sigh as he flopped onto the grass. He was an eleven-year-old who attended the local school built on the academy’s premises. Once word got out that the queen would be visiting, he and a dozen others had begged to be let in the lecture hall. The rest of the kids had been unable to ask because they’d gotten sick or were busy with chores. Rudd planned to brag about it to them the next day. A girl sat down next to him, and he looked over at her. “Hmm?”

“So here’s where you were, Rudd,” she commented, while rapping him on the shoulder.

He’d been daydreaming, but that brought him back to his senses and jogged his memory of his old friend’s name. “Juliya! What are you doing here?”

Until yesterday, she’d been sick, so she hadn’t attended the lecture. Rudd had planned to describe it for her later.

The freckled girl grinned. “I just got here, so I missed the queen’s talk. How was it?”

“Incredible. We have these things called planes of existence in our world, and there are a bunch all stacked on top of one another. We can’t see them, but there’s one made up of just magic and one that’s totally dark inside, and lots more. That’s what she said.”

“And you thought that was interesting?”

“Well, yeah. It’s really cool. The world is a lot bigger than just the parts we know about. Tuldarr is trying to solve all the mysteries of the world.”

Rudd knew he couldn’t become a mage as someone with no magic. But despite that, he was proud to be a citizen of Tuldarr. Sitting up, he clenched his fists. “When I’m older, I definitely wanna work in the castle. That’ll make it easier to support my mom, too.”

His father had passed when he was young, leaving his mother to raise the boy alone. A job in the palace would earn Rudd good money, and the future of Tuldarr that the queen had spoken of sounded awfully appealing.

“Whether people have magic or not, everyone’s working together to build our country. The queen said that in the future, a bunch of representatives from a bunch of cities are gonna rule Tuldarr with the king. That sounds pretty exciting to me.”

“I don’t really get it,” Juliya replied with a very adult-looking shrug. Having not attended the lecture, it all sounded like something distant to her. She hugged her knees to her chest. “Anyway, I heard the people from the castle are looking into all the missing academy students.”

“Oh… like what happened to Teull.”

While the academy mage students and local kids were taught on the same campus, they weren’t all that close. The mages in training were usually busy with their other classes, so the town children only knew the names of those who acted as instructors. However, the younger students were close in age to the town children, so the two groups played together often.

Teull was five, and had only recently come to the school. He didn’t play with the other kids, instead sitting crouched under a garden tree. Rudd had frequently tried to speak with him.

But one day, after Teull stopped complaining if Rudd sat next to him, he vanished.

“They search, but they aren’t going to find anything. I don’t think he had anywhere else to go,” Rudd said. Despite the statement, he felt a sense of duty toward Teull. The boy made a displeased face, obviously troubled. “Do you think he could’ve gone that far even though he’s only five? He has magic, I guess. I always thought of him as just a little kid. I still do.”

Rudd hadn’t initially known that Teull had lost his parents in an accident when his magic went haywire.

“The last time I talked to him was when my mom came to pick me up. I didn’t know about his situation, so I asked him if he wanted to have dinner with us, but he said he didn’t need any… and he looked super hurt.”

By the time Rudd realized how insensitive he’d been, Teull had vanished. He’d gone in the night, and Rudd only found out about the younger boy’s circumstances afterward. Aside from realizing how stupid he’d been, Rudd didn’t know anything more.

Noticing how low the sun had gotten in the sky, Rudd got up. He had tons of chores to do back home. At first, he’d been awful at them, but he’d since grown relatively competent.

“Okay, I’ve gotta go home. Don’t stay too late, Juliya, or your family will be worried,” Rudd said.

“I’ll be fine. I just need to stop by the classroom,” she replied. The academy gates closed at dusk. Rudd had noticed the groundskeeper making rounds over on the far side of the gardens. If he caught them, he’d tell them to leave because they weren’t academy students.

Juliya grinned, and Rudd waved at her and dashed off. In that last glimpse she had of him before he left, she saw that his eyes reflected the shadow of the grand circular academy.

“Hmm, we really need more clues,” Tinasha muttered as she brewed tea. After her lecture, she spoke with a few people to gather information, left the investigation to Pamyra and the other mages, and returned to the palace. She pondered on the case during a break, but found herself stymied.

Tinasha set a cup of tea down on the study desk, and the man who accepted it cast her an appalled look. “You really do just show up whenever you want…”

“Teleportation magic exists. If something happens in Tuldarr, the spirits can notify me.”

On her break, Tinasha had popped over to Oscar’s study. The king was in the midst of his own royal duties, and while his fiancée’s visit stunned him momentarily, he was easygoing enough to welcome the interruption.

Oscar took a sip of the tea. “So there’s no lead on the missing kids?”

“Not at all, and the schools only recently started a more serious search. Plus, while some kids claim that they saw the missing ones walking through the town at night, others say they saw nothing at all. The reports we’ve gotten are all over the place.”

“Gotcha. Then you’ve got two options,” Oscar replied.

“Indeed. We either search all over with a fine-tooth comb, or—we wait for the next disappearance to happen and catch them.”

The former option was clearly the standard route. Tinasha had already ordered some subjects to the task. But if it didn’t turn up anything, she’d pursue the latter choice. When a new kid got targeted, they would set a trap and find out what was really going on.

“However, now that we’ve launched a full-scale investigation, whoever’s behind this might lie low for a while,” Tinasha pointed out.

“Or they’ll flee to someplace new.”

“I’d like to avoid that. I’ve put up a barrier to prevent those with magic from entering or leaving the town for the moment. If anyone tries to brute force their way through, I’ll know.”

“So you’ve effectively caged them in. Does that mean you’re sure it’s a mage?” Oscar inquired wisely. Tinasha had expected him to pick up on what she’d left unsaid.

Leaning against the wall, the queen grimaced. “Yes, but I don’t have any sort of definitive proof. It’s just that an ordinary person would have left a trail, but here, there’s absolutely nothing.”

There was also the fact that only children with magic had gone missing.

Tinasha didn’t voice the more unsavory possibilities. She shuddered as she imagined them, and Oscar waved a hand in front of her face. “I get how you feel, but don’t overthink it. You’re always trying to take everything on alone. Rely on your people.”

“Excuse me, were you there?! I don’t think you were!” she cried.

“You don’t have a leg to stand on here. I know you tried to interview people yourself. You’re too intimidating for that kind of work,” Oscar pointed out.

Tinasha huffed and pushed herself off the wall. “I’ve learned from my mistakes when it comes to that!”

Oscar beckoned his fiancée over, and she approached, curious. He caught her hands in his. “Don’t do anything dangerous. You’re the type to get yourself hurt right away, and I don’t want to be on edge for the entire year until our wedding.”

“I’ll… be careful,” she answered as her cheeks flushed and she looked away. Only Oscar could make her so bashful.

Most knew Tinasha as an all-powerful queen, but there was more to her than that.

After a hot exhale, Tinasha shook her head to refresh herself. “I should be getting back. People will probably be delivering their reports to me soon.”

“Whenever you need a fun distraction, come and see me.”

She grinned at Oscar and disappeared. The king picked up his teacup again. Some minutes later, Lazar entered and gaped at him. “Your Majesty, did you make tea yourself?”

“I did not. Tinasha came by.”

“I—I see…”

“How come she’s never able to calm down?” Oscar wondered.

“I consider that to be a good thing…”

After Tinasha left Farsas, Oscar thought he would only see her once a year from then on. Yet surprisingly, she dropped by as freely as if they were neighbors. While it was always her coming to him via magic, it still felt much easier than he’d imagined.

In general, Farsas’s people approved of the king’s fiancée, and no one in the castle was shocked at all to find out about their engagement. They had all personally witnessed how well Oscar and Tinasha got along, so while they were a bit surprised, it wasn’t unexpected.

Kevin, Oscar’s father and the former king, had said of the development, “Good, I’m happy for you. Rosalia would be, too.”

For Oscar, who had almost no memories of his mother, hearing her name brought about a fleeting sense of discomfort.

“Lazar, do you remember my mom?” asked Oscar.

“What?! Queen Rosalia? Where’d that come from? I only have a vague recollection of her,” Lazar answered.

“Yeah, I thought so. Never mind, it’s nothing,” Oscar said.

The former queen had fallen ill and died when Oscar was five, and he could barely remember anything from that time. Child kidnappings had been frequent in Farsas then, so he recalled being instructed never to go outside. He had absolutely hated that… Why was that the only thing he could remember?

“Should I go and ask Dad about this?” he posited out loud.

The mysterious magic orb in the treasure vault had apparently been his mother’s heirloom. When Oscar asked his father about it, Kevin told him that it was all right for Tinasha to seal it away. However, Oscar still didn’t understand how a commoner like his mother had come to possess such an extraordinary thing in the first place.

There were multiple questions to ruminate over, but the king set them aside for the time being. He had a pile of more pressing issues to deal with first.

Lazar placed the documents he’d brought in before his liege. The papers outlined the reconstruction progress of the fortress of Ynureid, destroyed during the battle against Druza’s forbidden curse.

“It’s about sixty percent complete. It sounds like the craftsmen and mages are really working hard,” Lazar commented.

“I’ll have to give out special rewards once it’s done. If we don’t restore it soon, Cezar’s going to keep acting suspiciously.”

The fortress of Ynureid, situated on Farsas’s northern border, allowed the country to keep a watchful eye on both Old Druza and Cezar. After the fallout from the forbidden curse incident, Druza split apart, but Cezar had maintained a hostile silence.

Oscar remembered something that Tinasha had mentioned once. “Oh yeah, I heard Cezar has an evil god.”

“What in the world is that?” Lazar asked, sounding revolted.

“I don’t know, either,” Oscar replied blithely.

The idea of an evil god was like a sick joke, but perhaps Oscar might face off against it someday. Before mulling over the idea for too long, Oscar set his mind back to his work.

Once Tinasha returned to her study, the first thing she heard was the indignant voice of a young girl. “Like I told you, there’s nowhere to hide inside the academy! You should look in the town!”

“Yeah, but I was instructed to follow you and look around the school,” argued a man.

“All you’ve done is stalk along behind me! You’re treating me like a kid!”

“But you are a kid.”

The voices were coming from the adjoining room. With a strained smile on her face, Tinasha opened the door. “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting. Please, inform me of what you’ve uncovered.”

“Y-Your Majesty!” chirped the girl, leaping to her feet. Next to her, a beautiful young man simply sighed.

Pamyra, who had kept silent while the other two squabbled, came forward. “Your Majesty, this is Tris. She’s an academy student who will begin working as a royal mage next month.”

“H-hello, I’m Tris,” the girl said, falling into an anxious curtsy.

Tinasha regarded her pleasantly before beckoning all three into her study. “Let’s hear your findings, then. Anything you happened to notice is fine.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Tinasha sat down and closed her eyes to focus her attention only on their reports.

The gist of the mages’ findings was that the missing children had all wanted to leave the school. Once she’d heard it all, Tinasha opened her eyes and said, “So children who wished to go abruptly vanished. Each was last seen in a different place, but none were spotted outside the town. Is that correct?”

“We also spoke to people in the neighboring settlements and on the nearby road, but no one had any clues to offer. None of the children were capable of teleportation, and the one who’s been missing the longest has been gone two weeks,” responded Pamyra.

Tinasha nodded. “Very suspicious indeed. Eir, how did things go with you?”

The young man with black hair and eyes, silent until now, scratched at his head. “Most of the people who’ve been killed were adults, like the headmaster, instructors, and soldiers. There were a few bigger kids, too, but I don’t think any of them are suspicious.”

“All of that was done in self-defense, or it happened as an accident before they enrolled at the academy. We’ve looked into that already,” Pamyra added calmly.

Tris, the only one who wasn’t following, paled. “What?! What do you mean killed people?”

“I can sense those who’ve slain others. That’s why I’ve been following you around,” answered Eir.

“Can an ordinary mage do something like that?!” Tris squeaked.

“He’s not an ordinary mage,” Tinasha put in. “He’s my spirit and a high-ranking demon.”

“What?” Tris said blankly, positively boggling at this. Eir rolled his eyes at her.

Ancient literature spoke of high-ranking demons’ ability to sniff out murderers, something that was impossible for any human mage. It counted as a sort of demon-specific quality. High-ranking demons, who generally lived on a different plane of existence, could use smell to discern humans who had killed others.

Whether the murder was done by magic or by sword didn’t matter. According to the demons, the moment of directly killing a person placed an indelible stain on the soul, altering it irrevocably.

Perhaps this stemmed from the same principle that made spirit sorcerers’ power so closely linked to their chastity. A spirit sorcerer who lost their magic upon forging a link to the next generation and a person who took another’s life both underwent an invisible alteration.

Seeing how blindsided Tris was, Tinasha nervously licked her lips. “I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark. Aside from his beautiful face, Eir can pass for human, so I thought he would be more convincing if you didn’t know.”

“My lady, you always give me orders I don’t understand,” remarked Eir.

“The most important thing is not to be too conspicuous. If only you’d change your face to be more ordinary.” Tinasha sighed.

“I can’t change it. This is how I’ve looked for nine hundred years,” Eir said stubbornly.

Tris, who evidently had thought of him as just some shady guy, was opening and closing her mouth like a beached fish.

Pamyra, however, who had known he was a spirit, wore a grave expression as she asked her queen, “Do you believe the children are already dead, Your Majesty?”

“I don’t want to, but it’s hard to stay optimistic considering the situation,” Tinasha answered. “Based on the fact that only children with magic disappeared, we should suspect the involvement of a forbidden curse.”

“A forbidden… curse?” repeated Pamyra.

“The physical flesh and souls of those with magic are far more powerful as catalysts in a forbidden curse than those of non-mages. And if they’re only children, they would have a much harder time fighting back. It gives me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach,” said Tinasha.

Oscar had likely considered the possibility that the children were already dead, too. He just hadn’t voiced it, out of consideration for his fiancée. But it wasn’t like Tinasha couldn’t handle that. She had witnessed far grimmer things in her life.

The queen straightened to her full height and narrowed her dark eyes at each of the three. In a cold voice, she said, “Tuldarr must act as a deterrent to forbidden curses. If this does turn out to be a plot, we will deliver swift punishment. I want you to carry on with the investigation. Should you run into a dead end, I will go myself.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Pamyra said with a deep bow. Following her example, Tris also clasped her sweaty hands together.

The gates of the academy came into view. The town children were streaming in for morning lessons, but something was different. A guard was posted at the entrance, sent from the castle. The academy had never had soldiers before, and the children stopped and stared.

Rudd glanced up at the woman next to him. “Here is good, Mom.”

“Really? Are you going to be all right?” she asked, fretting.

“I told you, it’ll be fine. I’m off to school now,” Rudd said, waving at her and running off. As soon as he passed the gates, he spotted his friends and waved. “Juliya! Sennett!”

Hearing their names, the two paused in their conversation to turn around. Rudd fell into step with them and lowered his voice. “There’s some sort of guard here now. Is that because kids are going missing?”

“Looks like it. Doesn’t have anything to do with us, though,” Sennett, a boy around Rudd’s age, replied. He loved reading, and the first thing he did after listening to the queen speak the day before was dash off to the library as fast as his legs could carry him.

Juliya looked from one boy to the other nervously. “What if the kids who disappeared are all being held prisoner somewhere?”

“If it’s someplace that could hold all five, I bet it’s an empty house or something. You know, like that one in the alley behind the blacksmith,” said Sennett.

“Should we… go looking for them?” Rudd offered.

He did want to uncover the truth, both out of a sense of guilt toward Teull and out of a sense of duty. His mom must be worried, since she’d insisted on walking him to school every day after the first kid had vanished. She always stood to the side and watched until Rudd went through the gates.

He didn’t want to make his mother worry anymore. Plus, from now on, Tuldarr would need the help of people like him, people who weren’t mages.

“Okay, then once school’s over—”

“What is going on here?” came a chilly voice from behind them.

The three kids stiffened, then slowly turned around.

“T-Tris…”

“That’s Madame to you. I’m your teacher,” chided the girl, one hand laid across her puffed-out chest. Tris was one of the academy students who worked as their instructor. She scolded them often but looked after them well. And yet, for a teacher, she had a tendency to be thoughtless and rash.

Rudd cocked his head. “Madame, I thought you weren’t giving lessons anymore, since you’re going to be a royal mage.”

“I’m here to investigate, so none of you have classes today! You can study on your own, though,” Tris replied.

“What? Then I’m going home,” Rudd said, turning on his heel to leave and maybe go snoop around that deserted house.

Tris caught him immediately, however. “Absolutely not. If anyone finds out that you three snuck off to go poking around somewhere, it’ll be my head. You are going to remain here and study.”

“Why do I have to?!” Rudd protested as Tris dragged him to the classroom.

Amid the flow of other kids turning to go home after getting to the schoolhouse and reading the notice that said lessons were canceled, Tris marched the three into the empty classroom and sat them down.

She sighed and then stretched her arms out. “I’m going to head out on the investigation, so you sit tight and study here until I return. I only came to tell you that lessons are canceled.”

“Aww, come on! You’re already going to look around, so what’s a few more people?” Rudd groaned.

“No, thank you. We already have one very strange person on the team who claims he can tell who might have done it at a glance. Yesterday, he examined the people in the school, and today we’re going to look around town,” Tris said primly.

“Whoa, that’s so cool. You’ll solve this superfast that way,” Rudd marveled, leaning forward with how impressed he was. Castle investigations were definitely on another level.

Tris folded her arms behind her head. “Not necessarily. If that were the case, it could be the teachers or a soldier who did it.”

“Huh. When you say a soldier, do you mean like the one at the gates today?” Rudd asked.

Tris was stunned. Typically, there were no guards at the academy. Her face turned grave. “Now that you mention it… There was no soldier here yesterday. Who did he check, then?”

She got up and gave the kids one of the sternest looks they’d ever seen. “All of you stay right here. I have something to take care of.”

“Hey! Where are you going?” Rudd called, chasing after Tris as she left the classroom.

Sennett followed after. “Could it have been the groundskeeper? I heard he used to be part of the army.”

“Oh, yeah!” Rudd exclaimed. He’d heard that rumor, too.

Tris appeared confused. Academy students seldom interacted with the groundskeeper, who handled various odd jobs outside.

“I heard the groundskeeper only worked at the army canteen, though,” Rudd added. He and his friends had followed Tris out of the school building. There weren’t any other kids around, but the groundskeeper was walking across the lawn on the far side of the garden, dragging a large burlap sack.

Tris gasped. As she strode toward the man, she looked over her shoulder and instructed, “You three, run along home! I’m going to go ask him some questions.”

She trotted over briskly but stealthily. Rudd, Sennet, and Juliya exchanged glances. Rudd whispered to the others, “We can’t let her go alone.”

At the very least, someone needed to sound the alarm if something happened. The trio nodded and hurried after their teacher. She gave them a disapproving look, but she couldn’t say anything without alerting the man.

The groundskeeper lugged the sack toward a gap in the circular academy building.

“Tris, where does that lead?”

“To… the space the school surrounds.”

The octagonal classrooms had no windows facing inward, and the spot in the center should have been empty. That was why the investigation team had only given it a cursory inspection. What could the man be doing there?

The four crept along the wall so as not to be detected. Once the groundskeeper reached the unmonitored central area, he dumped the bag’s contents.

Black terra-cotta soil came spilling out. He began spreading it around using something that looked like a fireplace poker.

Relief washed over Rudd when he saw it wasn’t a child’s body, but all the blood drained from Tris’s face. She gestured wildly for the children to leave, but before they could, the groundskeeper turned around.

Upon noticing them there, his face instantly contorted into a scowl. He was a mere ten steps away. Tris shoved Rudd behind her. “You guys get out of here.”

“What? But it’s just some dirt…”

“Dirt oozing with miasma. It’s definitely sinister. Run and let someone know,” ordered Tris in a tone that held none of her usual flippancy. Rudd was startled to hear her muttering a spell.

The man ran toward them with the poker brandished high overhead, and Rudd darted off with his friends.

“W-we’ll go let people know! Don’t die, Madame!”

Magic light burst behind him. A paralyzing metallic sound rent the air.

Rudd took Juliya’s hand while Sennett kept pace with him. The gardens had never seemed so empty.

The academy doors came into view. But because lessons were canceled, they were locked.

“Damn!”

How could they get inside? Rudd looked all around before remembering the guard at the gates. He dashed across the deserted front lawn, Sennett hot on his heels.

Juliya had disappeared at some point, though neither of them noticed.

The fireplace poker crashed into the wall with an earsplitting screech. Tris shuddered, having narrowly evaded it. She probably wouldn’t still be conscious if it had hit her. She quickly distanced herself from the groundskeeper as she restarted her interrupted spell.

“S-stones of ice, shards of white—”

The man lashed out before she could complete the magic, however. The poker came crashing down, and she instinctively shut her eyes. Her blood ran cold as death felt imminent.

But nothing hit her skull. Gingerly, she opened her eyes—and couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Juliya?”

The girl who had hidden behind Rudd now stood before Tris, her arms crossed and a fierce glare on her face. The poker had stopped in midair—no, magic had caught it. Tris hadn’t heard any incantation, however. Juliya wasn’t even an academy student; she was just a girl from the town.

Tris still hadn’t figured out what was happening when Juliya said to her, “It’s suicide for a mage to fight at such close range.”

The coolheaded remark felt at odds with the childish register of her voice. Juliya extended her right hand toward the man. “Break apart.”

As if it knew that those two words constituted a spell, the poker crumbled to pieces.

Heedless of Tris, who was still rooted in place, Juliya waved a hand. “Eir, come here.”

In response, the strange man appeared silently beside Tris. He pushed her by the shoulder. “Go on, fall back. I took my eyes off you for a second, and you landed yourself in a heap of trouble.”

“Wh-why are you…?”

As she stumbled, Tris realized something. Only one person could command the spirits of Tuldarr. Once she understood what that meant, she was left astonished. “Wait, you’re…”

Juliya’s silhouette wavered for just a moment, and then she was no longer there. In her place stood a woman in a white mage’s outfit. It was the queen of the country and the foremost mage of the era. She was not a powerless child. Dumbfounded that she had fallen for it, Tris massaged her temples. “What? Psychological magic? But when did you…?”

“Juliya was a fabrication from the start,” Tinasha explained. Then she turned back to the man. Frozen while brandishing his poker, he was glaring at the queen with bloodshot eyes.

“Will you tell me what you were dumping here?” she questioned.

The man only let out a grunt.

Tinasha turned to her spirit. “He may be suffering from psychological contamination. Have him spit it out.”

“It’ll be hard not to overdo it. Humans are so weak,” complained Eir, which Tinasha ignored as she pushed the man aside to head deeper into the area encircled by the academy building.

The black soil scattered around emanated faintly noxious fumes. It was the putrid smell of lingering death.

Still, there were no bodies. The groundskeeper might have already disposed of those. Tinasha gazed up at the sky. “Did he only bring the remains of the catalysts he used in a forbidden curse? Was he planning to reuse this corrupted soil? He’d definitely want to bury something connected to anything that sinister, and this architecture is designed to bolster magic.”

“Your Majesty!” cried Pamyra, having appeared at the end of the passage to the central area as several people raced over. Rudd must have summoned help. Tris finally lost the strength to stand upright and sank to the ground. Soldiers marched past her.

Tinasha made no effort to hide her displeasure as she issued orders. “Go and search the town immediately. Since we didn’t find anything during yesterday’s investigation, there must be a forbidden curse constructed somewhere outside the school. And… we’re also looking for the mage who’s behind this.”

“What?!” Tris piped up in shock. Pamyra’s expression indicated that she felt much the same.

The only one left unperturbed was the spirit. Eir had a tight grip on the groundskeeper’s neck as he added, “They used a forbidden curse, but this man isn’t a mage. So someone else must be involved.”

“Involved? But… do you mean the teachers?” asked Tris.

Was one of the instructors the culprit? Many of them were talented mages with battle experience, which is why it wasn’t surprising when Eir discovered that the headmaster and several teachers had killed people. But did that mean they had slain students?

The queen shook her head. “No. We looked into all of them. I suppose they could’ve had others do the dirty work for them, though. We’re up against a very cunning opponent.”

“No way,” Tris whispered, stiffening in horror.

Suddenly, there came the muffled sound of an explosion in the distance. Tremors shook the earth and a creaking sound reverberated in the air.

Tinasha frowned. “I see they’ve come out on their own.”

After giving terse orders to the people around her, the queen vanished. Tris looked down at her own hands.

They were trembling uncontrollably.

“Come quick! Our teacher is in danger!” Rudd shouted toward the gates. Mages from the castle were already there. They listened to him hastily explain before rushing off toward the academy. Rudd and Sennett tried to follow, but the guard stopped them. He pushed them outside the gate and instructed them to go home.

“What in the world did we just see?” asked Sennett.

“Beats me. When I watched him pour that dirt out, I could feel how scared Madame got. But it did smell really weird,” said Rudd.

The more they talked about it, the less sense it made and the scarier it seemed. Just as Rudd decided he needed to make sure Tris was all right, a woman ran over from the end of the road.

“Rudd! What happened to you?!”

“Mom!” Rudd was at a loss for how to explain things to his distraught parent.

Before he could start, she pulled him into a hug. “I heard investigators from the castle are here. What’s happened at the school?”

“Right now, a teacher and the groundskeeper are—”

He got that far before a strange malaise came over him. He wriggled out of his mother’s arms and looked over at Sennett. “Hey… Wasn’t someone else with us?”

“Oh, yeah…”

Rudd had the oddest sense that he’d grabbed someone’s hand and had run with them. But that person had disappeared somewhere along the way. Now that he was aware, it felt wrong.

Rudd turned pale. “Why…?”

A kid who vanished into thin air… Was that what had happened to Teull?

As she watched her son go completely pale, Rudd’s mother gave a pained smile. “Let’s go home first. We need to think about what we’re going to do next.”

Stunned, Rudd let her pull him along. Who had disappeared? A series of memories floated from the back of his mind.

“I… But why…?”

There was a gap in his recollection. It gave him this itchy, unpleasant sensation, and it was only growing—like the gap was constantly widening. Rudd pressed a hand to his head. He looked over to his friend for help, but Sennett wasn’t next to him. “Huh?”

He whirled around to find Sennett standing motionless a few steps behind him. Rudd was relieved to see he hadn’t disappeared, but then noticed Sennett’s dire expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Sennett lifted a trembling hand and pointed a finger at Rudd. “Who are you?”

“Huh? What’s gotten into you? It’s me,” Rudd answered.

“No.” What was Sennett saying? Had he forgotten Rudd just like how they had forgotten the other person who’d been with them? “Who is that?”

Rudd had a feeling someone had said those words recently. It was when he last saw Teull.

It was twilight, the time of day when people’s faces got a little hazy. Teull had looked up at Rudd and asked him that same question.

“Wait, huh?”

No. Teull hadn’t been looking at him. His eyes had been trained on the woman behind Rudd.

And now Sennett was also pointing at…

“Didn’t you say that your mom went to your aunt’s house two weeks ago?” Sennett asked. The woman placed a palm on Rudd’s shoulder. “So who is that?”

From the corner of his eye, Rudd saw a hand that was white and bloodless.

The explosion came from the town, outside the academy grounds.

While everyone else was still baffled by the situation, the queen lifted off the ground. “Eir, make sure no one gets in. Pamyra and Tris, protect the students!”

“Okay,” answered the spirit, the only calm one there, though Tinasha had already disappeared.

Teleporting in quick succession, Tinasha hurried toward the source of the blast, a deserted back alley. Magic hung thick in the air, dim as the little street was in the shadow of other buildings.

The smell of blood hung about the place. Tinasha spotted two boys collapsed on the ground, and she paled. A woman was standing beside them. She was young and plainly dressed, like any lady in the town might’ve been. But blood dripped from her hands.

When she noticed Tinasha, she smiled and giggled like a child who’d been discovered pulling a prank. “Oops, did you catch me?”

Tinasha didn’t reply. She walked up to one of the boys and examined his injuries.

Sennett’s chest was pierced through. He was dead.

Fear was frozen on his face—the despair he had tasted moments before dying. Tinasha bit her lip hard enough for it to bleed.

Next to her, a voice croaked, “Your… Your Majesty?”

“Rudd!”

Crimson was flowing from Rudd’s belly. Tinasha gasped when she saw how much blood soaked the ground below them, but she immediately set about healing him. She added a pain numbing spell, too.

Once freed from the agony, the boy relaxed his brows. “I’m sorry… I… I didn’t realize… that wasn’t… my mom…”

“You don’t need to speak. It’s all right.”

“Teull… he was with me, that’s why… she found him… because she came to get me…”

Sensing his end was near, Rudd was intent on explaining everything. By the time Tinasha found him, he’d lost too much blood. Mending his organs wouldn’t suffice.

Even so, she healed him. Rudd clutched the edge of her robes. His eyes were unfocused and darted about as he sought out the queen. “Your Majesty… save Sennett…”

“I will.”

“And my mom…”

His words cut off there. Tinasha watched as the light faded from his eyes in a single second.

From above, a curious-sounding voice spoke. “Who are you, anyway? A teacher? A castle investigator?”

Tinasha didn’t bother with a reply, remaining kneeling on the ground.

The woman huffed at being ignored, then turned on her heel. “Fine. I’m going. There’s nothing left for me in this town.”

“I can’t let you do that,” Tinasha stated. No sooner did she finish than the woman who had posed as Rudd’s mother was flung into the air. She slammed against the far wall as if punched by a giant invisible fist.

“Ghh… Hah…”

She groaned in pain, but was still alive, perhaps because she’d quickly put up a defense.

While the woman peeled herself from the wall, Tinasha closed the two boys’ eyelids. Summoning two white cloths into her hands, she lay them over their faces.

Upon seeing this act of reverence for the departed, the woman spat a mixture of blood and saliva on the ground. “What a worthless courtesy. They’re already dead. Their souls are gone.”

“That may be true. But it matters to their families,” Tinasha replied, brushing her long black hair back as she got to her feet. She stared straight at the woman, with murder blazing in her gaze.

“So you took the place of adults who were out of town. And without entering the academy grounds, you sent in your pawn and had children abducted. Why?” Tinasha’s voice was low and commanding.

The woman seemed confused. “Why? To get more power, of course. Don’t you know that if you use a mage’s flesh as a catalyst, you can get more magic?”

“I’m aware. Many experimented with that during the Dark Age.”

“Exactly. I’ve always wanted to be a witch, and once I am one, I can live freely forever, right? So I collected some mage corpses, but it looks like I overdid it a little. There’s a barrier up, and I can’t leave town.”

“That’s because I believed it very likely that a mage was behind this,” Tinasha said.

“But it’s not like I’m the one who killed those kids.”

“You may as well have. And you’ve murdered these two,” Tinasha pointed out.

The woman gave a deep, exaggerated sigh. “I only wanted to take them hostage. But they figured out who I am and resisted. Honestly, ordinary people die so easily, don’t they?”

She spread both bloodstained hands wide and gave a carefree laugh. The cruelty in her eyes made them glitter as brightly as an ornament, transforming her from a mother to an ignorant little girl. She had only been able to hide herself this whole time because Rudd had no magic.

Despite that, the boy must have felt something was suspicious. And so he had died with regrets.

Tinasha let out a deep exhale. She fixed her gaze on this red-stained woman. A bone-chilling smile appeared on her lovely face, and a blade formed in her right hand.

“Perhaps you will find more sport in me, then. May your future be one of endless remorse.”

With that proclamation, the queen dashed forward. When the woman saw the fearsome magic gathering in Tinasha’s left hand, she licked her lips nervously.

Enormous waves of magic erupted within the town.

There was no spell configuration to be seen. Such was the massive difference in the two mages’ power levels. Lashed by Tinasha’s invisible whip, the woman flew through the air.

“Guh…”

For a while now, she had been unable to weave spells to counterattack. Although her powers far surpassed those of an ordinary mage, she was helpless to do anything against this opponent.

As the woman’s body soared upward, magical chains immobilized it. Her limbs were pulled far apart, keeping her from moving a millimeter. She stared at Tinasha in disbelief.

“Witches are nothing like this,” Tinasha spat. “Aren’t you glad you won’t sully their reputation?”

“W-wait a minute…”

“I can’t possibly have such a sham of a witch in Tuldarr.”

“The boy called you ‘Your Majesty’… Are you… the queen?”

Tinasha didn’t reply, electing to only hum and smile.

The queen pointed the tip of her slender sword at the woman. The weapon was enchanted with an entangling spell.

“You are not qualified to question me.”

With a clear ringing, the blade shattered to pieces. Those little shards glittered in the sun. Each one was imbued with magic and floated aloft.

The corners of Tinasha’s mouth turned up. Powerful words fell from her red lips.

“Sip it up.”

The tiny metal pieces fell onto the woman’s body like a meteor shower. They tore into her white skin and sent her blood running out.

It must have felt like being stabbed by thousands of nails. The woman’s mouth opened as though to scream, but all the holes in her neck stifled whatever noise would have come. She could only wheeze ragged breaths.

Her death lasted several slow, agonizing minutes. She was not even permitted to lose consciousness. Although she writhed desperately at first, she eventually began to weaken, and she breathed her last as a broken doll. Tinasha watched coldly until the end.

The conclusion was hardly satisfying.

A later search uncovered traces of the missing children that led to an old storehouse in town. There was also clear evidence of a forbidden curse. The poor corpses of the kids no longer resembled human bodies. The dirt the groundskeeper had brought into the academy was stained with their blood, and it was seemingly meant to draw suspicion to the faculty. It could also have been meant to create a forbidden curse site. The exact purpose died with the woman responsible, and knowing wouldn’t have provided any relief.

While extra staff from the castle ran about handling the aftermath, Tinasha attended the deliveries of the two boys’ bodies to their families. Sennett’s parents flew into a rage, raining abuse down on the headmaster and the castle staff, who could only endure it with their heads lowered.

But what tormented Tinasha more was the sight of Rudd’s mother, who had recently returned from her visit to another town.

“What…? This can’t be… There’s no way…”

Her face was white, but she didn’t cry or scream. She only stood there stunned before her son’s body, smiling weakly. When she tore off the white cloth, her lips trembled violently. “Is it really you…?”

The corpse had been purified and cleaned, so Rudd only appeared to be sleeping.

His mother reached out for her son. She brushed her cheek against his cold one and carefully took him into her arms. Her feeble voice staggered in the night air. “You weren’t supposed to leave me behind… You should have taken me with you!”

No one knew what to say in the face of such bitter anguish.

Tinasha pressed her hands to her temples to keep herself from crying.

The mother who had lost her only child began to wail and sob. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Rudd… You must have been in so much pain…”

He would never move again. His soul, mind, and very existence were all gone, and it wasn’t fair. The boy was kind, the type to be considerate of the sickly little girl who had been his friend since childhood. He was so brave, he refused to ignore the kidnappings. Tinasha bit her lip hard and bowed her head.

“I wasn’t strong enough to save your sons. I’m so very sorry.”

When Sennett’s parents heard that apology, it took away any outlet for their anger and left them speechless. Tinasha’s attendants glanced at her, unsure of how to proceed.

All told, seven children had been sacrified.

Of all the forbidden curses that had tormented the country, this one would leave deep scars.

Rudd’s mother beheld the queen’s lowered head and replied, “It isn’t your fault, Your Majesty… I am deeply grateful to you… for caring for him.”

Rudd’s smile flashed through Tinasha’s mind. Bursting with pride, he’d wanted to make his mother happy and be of use to his country. Yet his hopes and future were lost forever. Parent and child had cared so deeply for one another, but the mother was on her own now.

Tinasha kept her head down. Renart gave her a gentle nudge. “Your Majesty, we still have much to take care of…”

“Yes, of course…”

The queen still desperately wished to do more, but she gave one final bow and turned to leave. From behind, she heard Rudd’s mother whisper, “If only I could turn back time and go in his place…”

The queen shivered. Finding it odd, Renart looked over at her only to see her dark eyes wider than they’d ever been and her red lips trembling. “Your Majesty?”

Tinasha didn’t respond, however. When he tried again, she met his gaze.

What Renart saw in the queen’s eyes struck him dumb.

Whether it was determination or fear was hard to judge. Nevertheless, it was something powerful.

“Could I have you take care of the rest? I’m going back to the palace,” she said.

Despite feeling puzzled by her behavior, Renart let none of his hesitations show as he bowed his head. “Yes, Your Majesty. Be careful.”

“Thank you.”

And then she was gone.

Renart surveyed the panicked town and the bereaved family members before letting out a deep sigh.

Once back at the palace, Tinasha stumbled her way to the treasure vault. Ordering the confused-looking guards to stay at their posts, she descended the stairs alone.

With each step she took down the magically lit stone stairway, the weight on her heart grew stronger. Memories of when she was a young girl sprang to mind unbidden.

Soon enough, however, Tinasha reached the bottom of the stairs. Entering the treasure vault for the first time in four centuries, she wandered in deeper, like a woman possessed. Upon reaching a giant stone ledge, she touched the wall next to it. A spell configuration emerged from beneath her fingertips. It was intricate sealing magic she had placed during the Dark Age. She glanced at it, then began an incantation in an even voice. The complex spell reacted to the power entering it and began to unwind.

Her voice was grave, with all emotions stifled.

Once her long incantation finished at last, a small hollow opened in the center of the wall. Set inside it was a box.

Tinasha reached out, picked it up, and gently opened the lid. Inside lay a tiny blue jewel with markings inscribed upon it.

“Here it is,” she said, her heart pounding and her hands trembling. She stared at it.

This orb had changed her fate, and not hers alone. It had transformed another man’s fate and many other things, too.

She had thought she’d never look upon it again, that the day would never come when she needed it.

But now it lay here, in her hands.

“If I go back one month, I can save everyone… Or if that’s impossible, then I can go a few hours back…”

Altering the past was wrong. It flew in the face of the laws of nature. The ramifications were unfathomable.

Yet that very power had rescued her. It was the reason she was here now.

Tinasha thought of Rudd’s grin as he spoke of his hopes for the future—as well as his mother’s crying.

A parent’s wish was to save her son’s life, even at the cost of her own. Tinasha felt powerless to deny the woman that.

“I wonder what Oscar would say…”

She couldn’t imagine it. He might furiously scold her, but he also might shake his head and forgive her.

And… what would he say?

The man who went back four hundred years and changed history.

How determined was he to do what he did? Did he take her hand?

Tinasha’s eyes burned hot as she thought of what he had given her and what he had sacrificed. She bit her lip fiercely to stem the tide of emotions surging within her.

Compared to four hundred years, it was only a little bit of time travel.

It was hypocritical, Tinasha knew that much. She was doing this out of a self-serving sense of complacency. Countless people had died at her hands, and they’d all had families. She was well aware that she reeked of murder more than anyone else did.

But even so.

Tinasha squeezed her eyes shut.

Fear and hesitation rushed through her mind. Whether it lasted for seconds or hours was unclear.

And though she was still undecided, she slowly stretched out a finger.

She would not cast off her fear, or her shivering, or her trepidation, or her hope.

Those were all hers. She carried them inside her and stood upon them.

“It’s all right.”

From deep within the hesitation in her mind, she let out a heavy sigh.

And then she finally reached for the orb, thinking of the man who had been all alone.

Moonlight filtered weakly into the dark room.

Oscar, who had just finished changing for bed, noticed the fading light and looked up. Pale clouds now blanketed the sky, limned at the edges with a hazy glimmer. He then returned his attention to the inside of the room.

The king’s expansive bedchamber was utterly silent. As Oscar sat on his bed with a little yawn, he heard a rap at the window and grinned. At his call, he’d gotten the reply he’d expected.

The woman stole silently into the room. She cocked her head at him and then smiled. “Good evening.”

“Something wrong? You’re here awfully late.”

“I just wanted to see you…”

His beautiful fiancée picked her way over to him, each step careful. As he watched her, he began to frown. “Did something happen?”

“No, nothing.”

“That’s not a face that says nothing happened.”

He took her hand and pulled her onto his lap. The woman seemed a bit surprised, but merely lowered her long eyelashes with an abashed little grin on her lips. After a brief silence, she asked, “Oscar… what happened to that orb?”

It was obvious what she was referring to, and he gave a concise response. “I found it when I was sorting through the treasure vault. It’s stored deep inside so no one can touch it.”

“I see…”

“What happened? Does this have to do with the kidnappings?”

Tinasha only gave a small smile, but she didn’t answer.

Seeing that she was acting stubborn, Oscar wound a tuft of glossy black hair between his fingers and gave a hard tug. “You’re being awfully secretive. I’m going to be your husband, aren’t I? Don’t hold back and just tell me.”

At that, Tinasha’s eyes shone with something like nostalgia. She pinched the bridge of her nose with a deep sigh.

Thinking that she was holding back tears, Oscar settled Tinasha’s head against his chest, and she closed her eyes.

With the queen nestled in her fiancé’s arms, the story gradually began to come out.

As her tale neared its end, Oscar threw his betrothed an unvarnished look of disapproval. “You gave me such an earful about that orb and then you went and used it yourself?”

“I’m sorry…”

“And even though I told you not to get involved, you turned into a kid and went undercover. What were you thinking?”

“I thought it would be the fastest way…”

This woman really was intractable. Oscar had known that since meeting her, but this was still an unbelievable development.

It all stemmed from how deep her emotions ran. Oscar gave Tinasha’s head a light rap. “I understand that you wanted to save those kids, but if you do that every time, there’ll be no end to it. You’ll never get anywhere.”

Tinasha hung her head. She’d known the things Oscar was saying from the start.

Oscar gave a little sigh, seeing her so full of regret and some other emotion that was about more than remorse. “Although… I can’t say I dislike that side of you or anything.”

This delicate young woman was so weak and yet so strong. Looking at her, Oscar got the sense that it was only a matter of perspective whether Tinasha’s traits were flaws or assets; the essence within was practically the same.

By nature, she was someone who wanted to honor people’s wishes and feelings. Yet as a queen, she needed to maintain a considerable degree of coolheadedness. Tinasha was always warring with the contradictions within herself. And those in the midst of battle did feel momentary twinges of guilt over their actions.

The sorrowful look on his betrothed’s face sent Oscar into a reverie. What if she had been born into an ordinary family and had grown up without such an overabundance of magic? Maybe she would have lived a happy and fulfilled life as a good wife and mother. However, from her earliest moments, she never had such an option, and so she had chosen to go to war with herself.

Oscar brushed Tinasha’s hair behind her ear and pressed a kiss to her cheek, which reddened. “So? Could you save them?”

The way he asked was like he never doubted that Tinasha would succeed, and her heart ached. She slumped in visible dejection. “The orb didn’t activate. I couldn’t go back in time.”

“It didn’t activate? Is it broken?”

“No… It didn’t seem that way… It seems like there are conditions of some sort that must be met before it can be used.”

Her story was over. Tinasha closed her eyes.

Oscar clutched her slender, grief-racked frame close to him.

Her own experience of getting rescued because of time travel must have been affecting her. The one who saved her had vanished. Left alone, all she could do was live her life with her gratitude and everything else she felt for him locked inside herself. No matter how deep those scars ran, someone like Oscar, who hadn’t shared her past with her, couldn’t remove them.

It was all he could do to support her. He had long ago decided to stay with her and never let her go.

So if that path had led her to his own, perhaps that counted as something blessed.

Suddenly, Oscar noticed that the supple body in his arms had grown heavy, though not truly. He was simply feeling Tinasha’s full body weight that normally she lightened with magic.

Curious, Oscar peered over at Tinasha’s downturned face. She had passed out, a little crease of sadness above her nose.

“Y-you’re asleep?” he whispered, feeling more worn out than exasperated. He managed to maneuver her limp frame onto the bed and lay her flat.

Whether she’d exhausted herself after being so constantly on edge, or whether she was simply a naturally deep sleeper, Tinasha displayed no signs of waking. Oscar sighed, eyeing her in that vulnerable state. He reached out to smooth the wrinkle in her brow. Now her face carried a modicum of tranquility. Gazing at it, Oscar muttered, “I really don’t know what to do with you.”

He very much wanted to tug at Tinasha’s cheeks for how defenselessly she slept, but he restrained himself.

Oscar lay down to rest next to her, carding his fingers through black strands. The glossy, smooth sensation was a truly alluring thing. He wanted to touch her soft skin but satisfied himself with petting her hair. When he was done, he pulled the covers over her.

The soft, even sounds of Tinasha’s breathing filled the room, relaxing Oscar as he closed his own eyes. He hoped that she could find peaceful dreams in his bed. Hopefully, peace would come to feel like something natural for her. Oscar vowed to keep Tinasha safe, so that it would be possible.

He caught hold of her tiny hand, and the feel of it sent him drifting off into a dream.