A group of distinguished guests gathered around the golden round table in the reception hall in the royal castle of the Kingdom of Avianoia. It was a veritable who’s who from the royalty and nobility of various nations. Each one had come forth to provide the information they had gathered, all in pursuit of the same goal: to save the life of a single girl.
“So then, umm, in summary...”
The hesitant voice that broke the silence belonged to Stuart, the crown prince of Klingate, a great kingdom that lay to the west of Avianoia.
He had been the first of this group to meet Claudia and Noah eight years prior. At the time, he had confined himself to his own chambers for years, paralyzed with fear of his own younger brother. But despite this troubled past, he was widely regarded as a master of barrier magic. The deep shadows that had once marred his eyes had mostly faded, and he now held more confidence. Having gained international recognition for his talent, he now worked with various nations on projects that required his magical expertise. However, his voice still held hesitation as he spoke.
“The magic that repels all who attempt to touch Lady Adel... N-No, I mean, Her Highness Princess Claudia’s coffin is no mere barrier spell. That much is certain. Rather, it is a f-far more formidable magic imbued with its own will, c-capable of actively striking down those who come close...” As he murmured the last of his words, Stuart spread an assortment of documents across the table. “I, umm, I devised seventy-six possible countermeasures after our last meeting...to withstand its rejection.”
“My goodness. Seventy-six? That is impressive,” came the astonished voice of Fiolina, a professor at the Raushneur Academy of Magic who conducted research on magic. “Now, let me see...”
She took up the papers and read the key points in her soft, melodic voice. Once she finished, she said, “Before directly attempting any of these on Claudia, we should conduct some preliminary experiments. We’ll need other researchers so we can test as many of these methods as possible... Perhaps we should seek the aid of the other professors.”
She turned to the young woman sitting beside her who looked nearly identical in appearance and asked, “What do you think, Lauretta?”
“Hmm.” Her twin sister, Lauretta, did not lift her attention from the pages set in front of her. Her speech was somewhat stilted, almost as if she were still getting used to speaking aloud. “Some of these methods...might require me to test them. They seem to...require a large amount...of magical energy.”
Fiolina hummed in agreement. “And I imagine some of our most talented students would be interested in assisting. I’ll speak with them.”
“How beneficial that we have allies among the academy’s faculty. The sheer number of personnel we can mobilize will prove invaluable,” remarked Ehrenfried, Claudia’s elder brother. He sat resting his chin on his hands, his expression grim, perhaps due to exhaustion. Now nineteen, his features retained some of the boyish beauty of his youth, but in recent months the stress of sleepless nights had worn his features, lending a hint of harshness.
“I have matters of my own to discuss, but there’s something I need to confirm first. Particularly from Cedric and—” His gaze shifted toward the seat farthest from the door. “—King Ashbal.”
In the seat farthest from the door sat King Ashbal of Sharavia, the kingdom of sand and gold. For the past three years, his kingdom had flourished, despite being in the heart of the desert, through the masterful management of its water resources. Even as its gold ran dry, Sharavia continued to thrive, its markets teeming with merchants from across the land. Now, all eyes in the room turned to its sovereign.
“We deeply appreciate your presence here on behalf of my sister, despite it being so soon after the birth of your child,” Ehrenfried continued.
“Claudia is a dear friend to both me and my wife. If there is any way we can help, we will do so,” he said with a nod. “Faraz.”
“At once, Your Majesty.”
At the king’s order, his trusted retainer, Faraz, stepped forward and used his magic to draw a glowing map while Ashbal continued the explanation.
“This is the current state of the Lemilsian barrier.”
This information was the result of the request Claudia had made to Ashbal three years prior.
That was the first year the Kingdom of Lemilsia had closed its borders. In the years prior, Noah’s cousin Sieghart had been spreading cursed artifacts to the royal families of various nations. Then, upon the death of his father, he had sealed the kingdom’s borders and erected an impenetrable barrier. And for the past three years, Ashbal had been keeping a close eye on the situation.
“The barrier has a very deceptive structure, but we’ve detected sections where it has been reinforced,” Ashbal said. “Cedric, could you tell us why that’s happened to these specific locations?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The one who answered was a young man from Lemilsia whom Noah and Claudia had first met while attending the academy.
Lauretta, seated nearby, regarded him with her usual glare that spoke of long-held grievances. It was no secret that Cedric had once treated her harshly during their time at the academy.
Cedric cleared his throat, looking somewhat apologetic, before responding to Ashbal’s inquiry.
“It looks like the barrier has been reinforced around the royal castle and other key locations,” he explained. “These would be the first places to fall under attack if a war were to break out.”
“If that’s the case, then the explanation Lemilsia has provided until now—that the closure of its borders is merely for the mourning rites of the previous king—is a blatant falsehood. But before we discuss that further...” Ashbal turned to the figure standing silently against the wall, the only person not seated. “I would like to hear from the man who gathered us all here today. Well, Noah—Claudia’s ever-loyal servant—it was you who used your position as captain of the mage knights to officially seek our cooperation. Thanks to that, we’re all here now, moving on a grand scale for Claudia’s sake.”
At this, Noah cast his eyes downward.
“I would not presume to claim such an honor,” he said. “All of this is solely due to the deep regard you all bear for Her Highness Princess Claudia.”
Then, raising his head, he let his gaze sweep across the assembled company. There was Prince Ehrenfried, Claudia’s older brother, who had at one time viewed her as a burden. There was Prince Stuart of Klingate, who had once blindly worshipped Claudia in her adult form and remained an ally even after learning her true identity as a princess of Avianoia. Fiolina had met her at the academy at the bottom of the sea and had once viewed her as an unattainable symbol of the royal life she herself had been denied. Like Fiolina, Lauretta met Claudia at Raushneur and had even been her roommate there. Although she had at one time rejected Claudia, she now counted herself among her closest friends.