At the northernmost edge of the empire lay a frozen land, where biting blizzards that seemed to cut to the bone raged all year round.
In the midst of that harsh, barren north, within the study of an obsidian castle crouched like some colossal beast, a heavy silence hung in the air.
Only the whistling of the blizzard outside, as though it might pierce even the thick stone walls, and the crackling of dry firewood burning in the great hearth filled that stillness.
“……This is the final report that just came in through our informants planted in the capital. They say the pacification of the Southern Alliance has been fully completed. The emperor has accepted the Southern Alliance’s unconditional surrender, and has taken the royal families of the defeated nations, including the Kingdom of Sterling, as hostages and sent them under guard to the capital.”
“Understood. Good work. Withdraw.”
The subordinate in charge of intelligence who had delivered the report bowed quietly and swiftly, then left the study.
Seated at the head of the dim study was the grand duke who ruled the north.
A hulking man clad in a fur coat made from the hide of a black bear he had beaten to death with his own fists, Grand Duke of the North Victor von Arzenheim stared into the wavering red flames in the hearth and roughly stroked his thick beard.
“The imperial army’s losses were minor, and they’ve completely cut off the south’s lifeline…… In that case, it had been convenient while that emperor bastard was too busy turning his gaze south to pay attention to our north, but now things will slowly start becoming tiresome.”
At Victor’s heavy voice, a young man lounging askew on a sofa to one side of the study let out a faint laugh and spoke.
It was Eric, the grand duke’s son and a corps commander of the northern army.
“What are you worried about? Surely the emperor won’t openly march an army into this barren north right away. They must have consumed an enormous amount of military supplies on this southern expedition as well.”
“Of course open war won’t break out immediately. Even that sly old serpent of an emperor would want to avoid a civil war without justification for the time being. But from the emperor’s perspective, as the one who must govern the entire empire, a cousin entrenched in the north with vast military power and influence, never knowing when he might bare his fangs, must be a thorn in his eye.”
Victor seized the bottle of northern traditional liquor on the table—strong enough to burn the throat—and drained it in one go.
“That bastard must be yearning for the day I crawl in and bow my head beneath his feet. Isn’t that right?”
“I suppose so. But was the blood flowing through your veins and mine ever the kind to meekly bow beneath another?”
“My father and the current emperor’s father once fought more bloodily than anyone else over the next imperial throne. When I think of how our house lost the imperial seat by the narrowest margin at that damned conference to decide the next emperor, and had to hand over the splendid palace of the capital and be shoved into this frozen hill in the barren north, my teeth still grind.”
At the grand duke’s rough words, steeped in old resentment and defeat, his son lightly shrugged and tossed out a frivolous joke.
“Then perhaps we should take this opportunity to lower our heads and crawl into the capital. The emperor would be satisfied, and less blood would be spilled. Haven’t we lived long enough in this cold, hungry north?”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
At his son’s idle joke, Grand Duke Victor burst into a hearty laugh.
It was a wild laugh, loud enough to make the thick obsidian walls ring.
“You brat, have you already forgotten? The House of Arzenheim is a house that would sooner burn the whole world to ash than lower its head beneath another’s feet! If we forgot that, it would be no different from denying the great blood of our ancestors, who began as a mere tribe of shepherds herding beasts with nothing but a few tents on a wind-lashed ice field, and went on to create a great empire that swallowed the entire continent!”
At his father’s mad pride as he spoke with veins bulging in his neck, the son merely grinned and let the words pass.
“It was a joke, Father. How could a wolf put a collar on itself? It would become less than a dog.”
“Good. As long as you understand. In any case……”
The Grand Duke of the North stopped laughing and gazed out the window at the raging blizzard with the eyes of a beast of prey.
“Now that the south has been dealt with, the emperor’s gaze will turn fully north. In that case, during the coming winter social season, we will have to send at least some sort of friendly gesture if we want the emperor to turn his eyes away from the north, even a little.”
“Do you still not intend to go to war?”
“They are too hostile for us to speak of peace, but not yet so far gone that we should draw our swords first without justification. It is ambiguous. Ambiguous indeed. Whatever the case, war is a tiresome affair.”
The Grand Duke of the North set the empty bottle down on the table with a thud and frowned.
“That said, I am extremely reluctant to crawl personally into that den of nauseating hypocrites. If I see the faces of those capital nobles, soaked in the scent of perfume and having forgotten the romance and honor of old, I may find myself twisting their necks on the spot before I know it.”
“Would anyone really complain if you twisted the necks of one or two men you dislike?”
“They would say northern folk are barbaric. Though they were no different until a generation ago. I would prefer to avoid that.”
Victor looked between his son and his daughter, who sat quietly in a corner of the room, and said,
“One of you two will have to attend the imperial palace’s social gathering in my stead. Go and nod along appropriately, say a few hypocritical words about how the north is loyal to the empire, dance a few times, and come back. While you are there, help consume some of the imperial family’s food as well.”
“I will go.”
At that moment, the young woman who had, until now, sat in silence watching only the flames in the hearth while turning the pages of a thick grimoire, raised her hand.
She was the eldest daughter of the grand ducal house.
“Oh, what has gotten into you? Normally, you detest the capital’s social circles full of false smiles so much that you cannot stand even the smell of them. Why would you want to go of your own accord?”
At the grand duke’s curious question, she closed the grimoire she had been reading and slowly turned her head.
With skin pale enough to seem bloodless, she brushed back her silver hair with slender, colorless fingers and smiled coolly.
“Just now, in the intelligence officer’s report, he said the imperial family had brought back several hostages from the south.”
“Mm, that is so.”
“From what I have heard through my personal informants, something very strange and amusing is happening in the capital right now.”
Her blue eyes, reflecting the red light of the hearth, gleamed as she continued.
“Most of the hostages brought from the south are being kept quietly in mansions under surveillance in or near the capital, as assigned by the emperor…… But apparently, only one of them is freely roaming the heavily guarded imperial palace as if it were his own living room.”
At those words, Grand Duke Victor stroked his thick beard and narrowed his eyes as if he found it impossible to believe.
“Huh. What is that emperor bastard thinking? Is he not known as a heartless man, without blood or tears, who treats prisoners of war and hostages like dogs and pigs? In the past, he even dumped a few hostages onto our northern territory like inconvenient garbage and let them freeze to death. Just which country is this fellow from, and who is he, that they would dare allow him to stride freely through the imperial palace?”
“They say he is a prince of the Kingdom of Sterling, a small seaside kingdom in the south.”
A deep interest settled in her cold eyes.
“And according to the rumors, that southern bumpkin hostage has been going around the imperial palace and bewitching all those ill-tempered and fussy members of the imperial family. They say he drinks tea with the First Princess, meets the Second Princess in the library, has private audiences with the emperor over tea, and even spends time with that ignorant Second Prince.”
“He is bewitching the imperial family? Those viper-like bastards? A mere hostage?”
“Yes. I am curious just what sort of silver tongue he possesses to accomplish such a thing. I have taken a personal interest and would like to see for myself, down to the last detail, exactly what kind of man he is.”
“Ha, is that all? You would travel all that distance just to see one bumpkin prince?”
“No. Of course, there is a practical reason as well.”
She rose gracefully from her seat, the hem of her black robe fluttering.
“If the emperor does not want an all-out war with our north right away, surely he would not commit the foolish act of laying a hand on an envoy who attended the social gathering…… But in politics, one can never know what will happen from one moment to the next.”
Her red lips curved smoothly upward.
“If, by some chance, the emperor has a change of heart and tries to forcibly detain the child of the Grand Duke of the North who has arrived in the empire, or lure them into a trap, then would it not be safest and most certain for this house if I go—when I can escape by teleportation in the blink of an eye?”
Grand Duke Victor smiled with great satisfaction at his daughter’s answer.
She was right.
Even if the emperor, by some remote chance, had laid a trap with tens of thousands of imperial guards lying in ambush throughout the entire palace, no prison or chain on this continent could forcibly hold her.
In her early twenties—an age when ordinary mages would barely have shed their apprentice status while running errands in a magic tower—she had already reached a realm no one else could approach, seizing the title of the greatest mage in the empire, an unparalleled genius.
The eldest child of the Grand Duke of the North, Ella von Arzenheim.
To the world, she was known with fear and awe as the White Witch.