“Airaitz.”
At the voice, like iron filings rolling over one another, Airaitz turned her head.
The one entering, trailing black mist, was Ataolf, known as one of the strongest beings on the continent.
Only, his condition did not look particularly good.
At the center of his body was a hole so large it was obvious at a glance, and black mist filled the space in between.
“Oh my, you’re hurt, Ataolf. Poor thing.”
For someone calling him poor, the smile in her eyes was bewitching.
A woman for whom the word “splendid” suited best. Airaitz.
Her true identity was the head of a vast criminal organization spanning the west and south.
To be precise, she was the figure behind the scenes who had bewitched the heads of countless organizations and placed them all beneath her feet, and that was how her connection with Ataolf had been formed.
Ataolf spoke to Airaitz as though giving an order.
“Summon every force to Baal Forest. There will be a war.”
“With that body? Can you manage?”
Airaitz asked, pointing at the hole in his body.
But Ataolf showed not the slightest agitation. He spoke calmly, his expression not even creasing, with the natural composure of the strong.
“If it is within my domain, it does not matter who the opponent is or how many there are. Do you still not understand, Airaitz?”
His voice grated mercilessly on the nerves. Even so, Airaitz’s smile only deepened.
“Very well. I’ll gather every last one of them, just as you wish. Well, they were just about losing their usefulness anyway. Then you’ll have to keep your promise too, Ataolf.”
“…Hand over Hio Pavlenko?”
“Yes.”
The smile in Airaitz’s eyes grew deeper and deeper. So much so that the corners of her eyes curved to a grotesque degree.
“I don’t care if his arms and legs are cut off. Keep him alive and hand him over to me.”
“Understood.”
“And also… for the sake of an even more certain victory.”
Airaitz spoke as she slowly approached Ataolf.
A gesture that seemed almost seductive. An elegant gait.
“Shall I tell you Hio Pavlenko’s weakness?”
A crimson aura filled the room.
* * *
Naturally, all remaining academy events were canceled and postponed.
A memorial ceremony was held to mourn the victims, and students and professors alike went about their days dressed in black.
The faint songs that had once drifted through the air.
The fountain that had flowed in the central plaza.
All had come to a stop, and a sorrowful air settled heavily over all of Imenia.
Claire was no different.
She wore a black skirt and tunic, along with a plain jacket, her red hair neatly pinned up.
“Claire.”
“Yeah… Let’s go.”
Claire, Ravena, and even Roland, who had joined them at some point. Among the people they passed as they walked, not a single one was laughing or chatting.
A friend who had sat in class with them only a few days ago was dead. A professor who had taught them was dead.
The bloodstains that had covered everything and the horribly slain bodies had been swiftly cleaned away, but the atmosphere, far from being cleared, only grew heavier with time.
“…I believe that He wipes away all sorrow and tears suffered while living upon this land. All life is like grass, and…”
The priest’s prayer rang out quietly.
After setting down a single white flower, Claire looked up at the tall memorial monument. White flowers filled the surroundings. And sorrow filled the air just as densely.
People seek a place to grieve.
They wish to be comforted even as they mourn.
Because only then can they move forward again.
Because grief swallowed down alone can only sink in the end, they gathered and shed tears.
And the sight spread, bursting into sobs and rippling outward in an instant.
“Even in the dark shadow of death and despair, with eternal hope, may the departed find eternal rest…”
Because it becomes lighter when released. Because it becomes lighter when shared.
They held one another and pictured those each of them remembered. Not their wretched forms just before death, but the way they had smiled brightly and radiantly.
Wishing that, at least within their memories, they would remain forever as they had been in their happiest moments.
Perhaps that was what it meant.
To cry as much as one could and grieve as much as one could.
To miss them, and also resent what had happened.
And to live on once more with that as one’s driving force.
A driving force.
Claire turned her gaze to the side and looked at one man.
Someone whose appearance was strangely unfamiliar now that he had put aside the robe and gaudy hat he always wore and dressed in black.
Someone she had spent two years with, yet had learned more about recently than in all that time. Hio Pavlenko.
She had guessed he must be of high status, but to think he was the Emperor’s Guardian Knight.
A noble symbol of knighthood granted only to the single person most trusted by the Emperor and endowed with power to match.
To think that was the true identity of the man named Hio Pavlenko, who had sent her to the academy.
Along with that, rumors had now begun to circulate within the academy as well.
Rumors about the civil war.
About Imperial Princess Sylvia Verden, whom no one had paid any attention to.
Rumors of a certain mage who had remained alone by her side, persuaded the Eastern Alliance, crushed the armies of the First and Second Imperial Princes, and brought an end to the civil war.
The mage who had, in the end, placed a powerless princess upon the imperial throne.
She did not need to hear who it was to know.
After looking at Hio like that for a while, Claire turned away.
They lived in different worlds.
While she had been feeling proud of herself for being ahead of her peers at the academy, look at what Hio Pavlenko had accomplished.
Whether in status or in the power he possessed, he lived in a different world from her. The view he saw was different.
So it was only natural that someone like her, standing so far below, would not even enter his sight.
She had to grow stronger.
It would not be enough even if she ran forward, looking only ahead.
Because even if she worked herself to death, she could not be certain she would reach him.
More than now.
More, more, more, more, more, more, more, more—she had to become stronger.
* * *
The joint funeral and memorial ceremony were carried out swiftly.
It was thanks to the nation putting its full strength behind them.
As the news spread, the people of the Empire were outraged, and the houses that had lost children and family were even more furious.
They would send troops without hesitation to the war against Black Fang.
“I wanted to see her face before I left, but she’s hard to catch.”
Amid all that, Hio had just finished preparing to leave the academy.
“Is she going through puberty?”
He said that because, once he left, he did not know when he would be able to see Claire again, yet it was proving difficult to catch even a glimpse of her.
“She’s well past the age for puberty. You have a tendency to see Claire as too much of a child.”
Sirbert, facing him, answered as such.
“Do I?”
“…Anyway, then I’m taking my hands off the imperial palace. Handle it yourself.”
Sirbert’s original plan had been to make the imperial princess the emperor and seize actual power for himself.
However, the variable had been Sylvia’s ability.
He did not know in detail what kind of ability it was, but he could tell that every noble within the castle had completely turned to Sylvia’s side.
The attitudes of all the nobles who had kept in regular contact with him had gradually changed.
Perhaps even the conversations and plans they had shared had all been reported to her…
“You said you destroyed the means of contact?”
“As soon as I realized Airaitz had betrayed us, I destroyed it.”
“Then we’ll have to look for another means of contact.”
“There is one in the point shop, but the ones without distance or time limits are a bit… Can’t you buy it for me?”
“I don’t have any points either.”
“…That is such an insincere lie. Anyway, once you’re done with your business, come by again. Once the Abyss攻略 passes the early stage, we’ll have to start preparing soon.”
“Sure. You prepare well for the next plan too, and take good care of Claire.”
With that level of conversation, his schedule at Imenia Academy came to an end.
As planned, he had met Sirbert and shared many conversations with him.
As planned, he had reached the Third Circle.
And he had met Ataolf, which had not been part of the plan.
A tragedy that had not been part of the plan had occurred.
Yet within it, he had confirmed the power of a truly strong being.
He had glimpsed the path by which he could go further.
So now, he simply had to move forward again.
* * *
The enthronement ceremony of the emperor of the Verden Empire, the undisputed hegemon of the continent.
It went without saying that it would be indescribably grand, and so the capital bustled with visitors from various nations and people gathered to watch them.
It was not only the capital.
Inside the imperial palace as well, things were hectic with guests from every nation visiting.
Representative among them were the commercially developed Kingdom of Achaia.
The sacred land of the Lifue Order, the Holy Kingdom of Hiberunia, and others; besides them, small and medium-sized kingdoms bordering the Empire had come rushing in as though competing with one another.
From their position, who became the Emperor of Verden, and what kind of character that person possessed, could only be of utmost importance.
In fact, in the game where the First Imperial Prince had ascended the throne, those small and medium-sized nations had all been devastated immediately after his enthronement.
“There are a lot of interesting outfits.”
In any case, it was the day of the enthronement, and since envoys from every nation had come, there was quite a lot worth seeing just by walking around the imperial palace.
To begin with, Ventair Online had a world centered around the Empire.
Kingdoms close to the Empire and large in scale, like the Kingdom of Achaia or the Holy Kingdom, were familiar nations even to Hio.
However, the continent was vast, and the game had not been able to implement all of that vast continent.
In other words, there were many nations whose names were known but which he had never been able to see directly.
For example, the Kingdom of Sir, built in the desert.
“Those over there must be the envoys from the Kingdom of Sir.”
He had not seen them in the game, but he remembered their characteristics, so he could recognize them at a glance.
Dark skin and cool, airy clothing.
Thick eyebrows and ornate accessories as well.
For some reason, they looked like they might have fiery personalities too. Wouldn’t they be fun to get along with?
“…Then that place must be Pieria.”
The Kingdom of Pieria, covered in ice and snow.
It had often been described as exceedingly beautiful, so he had been curious about it, but it was a kingdom that had not appeared in the game.
That much was about as far as he could identify them by clothing, and for the rest, he would probably have to talk to them to find out.
“Stop muttering to yourself, will you? Where did you sell off your dignity as the Empire’s Guardian Knight?”
Unable to keep watching Hio looking around in a daze, Vitalianus quietly restrained him.
Even without that, more and more people had been stealing glances at Hio.
To be precise, they were looking at him with thoughts like, “Who is that, standing beside the Sword Saint while wearing a strange hat and even carrying a staff?”
In the end, Hio had come to the enthronement ceremony wearing his hat and carrying his staff.
Because of the tearful maid, he had reluctantly worn the uniform, but since he had draped a robe over it, it was of no use at all. Even though a rumor quietly spread that the maid in charge had burst into tears and run out, Hio paid it no mind.
For now, it might look like a ridiculous outfit.
Because they were not used to it.
Then he simply had to make them used to it.
Had he not promised his first teacher?
Had he not vowed before that grave?
That he would complete the ultimate magic.
That he would change the perception of magic and ensure that no one could ever mock magic again.
So now, everyone would have to learn.
That a mage was by no means something laughable.
That magic was by no means an empty fantasy.
Even if he was the last mage remaining, it was precisely because he was the last mage that such a heavy responsibility followed him.
“It’s starting. Prepare yourself, mage.”
At the Sword Saint’s words, the orchestra began to play.
Majestic music rang throughout the hall.
The dignitaries from each nation gathered in the Grand Hall also stopped their conversations and focused their gazes.
The massive doors slowly opened, and a booming voice announced the Emperor’s entrance.
The one who entered was Sylvia Verden, adorned in a manner more splendid and dignified than anyone in the world.
Behind Sylvia, who entered wearing a mantle that suited her lovely silver hair, Theordo could be seen.
Of course, his whole body was completely encased in armor, but he did not hide, and instead stood proudly behind Sylvia, accompanying her.
For the Emperor of the Empire and her guardian knight were no longer in positions where they needed to watch anyone else’s reactions.
“Let’s go.”
As Sylvia entered, Hio and Vitalianus followed behind her.
The Guardian Knight and the Sword Saint followed behind the Empire’s new Emperor, displaying her majesty.
Ten Royal Knights raised their swords upright and formed a path, and when they followed along it, awaiting them was an old priest dressed all in white. The Pope.
The Pope of the Lifue Order had come all this way for this enthronement ceremony.
Sylvia and the Pope faced one another, and a brief oath was made.
After that came the Pope’s blessing.
At the rare sight of divine power filling the space, the people in the hall stared in a daze, taking in the sacred scene.
Once the short blessing ended, the coronation was held. A coronation in which the crown, the symbol of the Emperor, was placed upon her head.
And the moment the Pope set the crown upon Sylvia’s head.
Hio’s staff moved lightly.
「Skill — ‘Shield’ is activated」
A golden miracle poured down from the sky.
As though to prove it, the figure of a goddess appeared in the heavens. The hand of the goddess enveloped the newly born Emperor.
“Ah…”
At that miraculous phenomenon, the devout sank to their knees.
Not only within the hall, but also among the people gathered outside the imperial palace to see the Emperor, all witnessed that sight and cried out that it was a miracle.
They marveled and cheered.
Because even the goddess blessed the birth of the new Emperor, they rejoiced and shed tears.
Thus, with the crown placed upon her head, Sylvia headed outside.
When she stood on the terrace and raised her hand high, the imperial knights lined up below drew their swords at once and expressed their loyalty.
A sharp sound cut through the crowd’s cheers.
Hundreds of blades flashed in the sunlight.
Above them appeared the figure of the new Emperor, Sylvia Verden.
Thunderous cheers rose from the people of the Empire gathered outside.
At that point, Hio’s staff moved once more.
He had cast Shout magic directly on Sylvia.
Knowing that, Sylvia opened her mouth.
The Emperor’s voice rang across the vast space.
What she declared at the moment of her enthronement was nothing else.
A declaration of war against Black Fang.
The complete eradication of the evil organization that gnawed away at the Empire and the continent.
Each and every word shook the soul.
Moved by the power contained in her words, the masses wept and cheered.
This was Sylvia Verden’s power.
A voice that rang directly in the soul.
The goddess had personally bestowed her blessing, and the Emperor’s speech shook the soul.
History would record it as the most perfect enthronement ceremony.
It was the completion of an enthronement that had never existed in the past and would never exist again in the future.
And in the midst of all that commotion.
—…Did you feel that?
Hio’s gaze was fixed as though nailed to one corner of the Grand Hall, not on Sylvia.
“Yeah…”
Because among that great crowd, he had discovered one person.
“That’s…”
An unfamiliar face he was seeing for the first time.
But what he felt within that person was unmistakable.
“…A Circle.”