♣♣♣
A few years later, the world crowned Tinaris Ril as its new Holy Woman.
The world’s state was rapidly shifting. All the nations of the human continent formed an alliance to fight Edesa Kura. War was on the horizon once again.
The Mythicals, at first uninvolved, eventually joined our side—all for the Holy Woman’s sake. Edesa Kura’s stronghold in the world’s navel, Fort Deshmel, was captured by our side.
There, we embarked on a dangerous plan. The Holy Woman made her residence there and a monster-attracting barrier was set up to draw in monsters from all over so she could purify them with her power.
The number of monsters was in clear decline. Yet, they were still growing in size. With fewer monsters appearing, the knights needed to be sent on fewer missions to repel them. But I got the feeling that despite that, the number of sighting reports we got rose sharply. It was strange, but maybe them becoming bigger made them easier to detect.
Eventually, the Mythicals gave us more bad news. The world was on the brink of ruin.
The Sugula—a monster that devours entire worlds.
At first it was a black dot in the sky. But gradually, it grew bigger and bigger. Within a few years, it had enveloped the entire sky in pitch black, causing the monsters’ numbers to once again increase and the monsters themselves to grow enormous.
At first, the Holy Woman’s powers made a key difference. But before long, the monsters spawned faster than she was capable of purifying them. As monsters became rampant on the highways, the knight orders were bombarded with requests to take care of them. There were more of them than we could handle, and we ended up taking on escort missions instead.
The world being destroyed… I’ve never even considered that…
As we all looked up at the Sugula, growing bigger by the day, I and everyone else were overcome with anxiety.
✦ ✦ ✦
♣♣♣
“HAVE you considered getting married again, Licorice?”
“Huh?!”
When I returned home for the first time in a while, I found my father and brothers there. They wanted to talk as a family about how De Marl would handle Edesa Kura. This led to the question of our assets, what the family’s future would be, and eventually leading to my father’s question.
“Father! I’m in my mid-thirties and a divorcee! What nobleman would want me?” I asked.
“Why, the various priest families have approached us with offers of arranged marriage.”
“Wh-What…? That’s crazy!”
“No, these talks have been going on since before your face was healed. I turned them all down because you were fresh off your divorce and said you still needed to let your wounds heal. Your face was never the problem! The issue was strictly with your heart.”
“Father…”
Father cared about me that much. While that made me happy, I had to shake my head. The right thing would be to accept an arranged marriage and repay my family’s kindness and love. But in the end, I wanted to count on my family’s considerate love for me.
“I’m not getting remarried!” I declared. “I’ll remain a single alchemist for the rest of my days.”
“I understand… Well, that’s your choice to make…and the kind of choice you’d make anyway,” he laughed.
My family had all been on my side from the start. Still, it felt like up until now, I’d been one-sidedly refusing their attempts to help. They’d only brought it up to check how I felt and let me know the option was still on the table.
My family was kind. They truly understood me. In nobility, daughters were mostly used for political marriages. Most nobles wouldn’t give their daughter the right to make these choices to begin with. My family rose to its status thanks to my father’s military accomplishments.
But there was no knowing what our future would hold. Once I passed the mantle of captain of the Ebony Knight to my vice-captain, what would happen to our status? My brother and father were both senate members so, as the conversation leading up to this told me, the family’s fortune wouldn’t evaporate any time soon.
“That reminds me, Licorice,” my third brother said suddenly, tipping his glass. “The Alchemy Academic Conference is coming up! Elysis said she wouldn’t go. But you’ll be attending this year, right? Did you ask for your leave yet?”
“Ahhh!”
I’d completely forgotten about that! Since it only happened once every four years, the conference was easy to forget about. But since Elysis refused to attend, purportedly due to her age, I was the only De Marl state alchemist left who could attend. My brother had become an alchemist first. Yet I’d surpassed him. It must’ve made him feel like a failure. And yet he’s telling me this now…!
“Hahaha,” he chortled. “You can be so forgetful sometimes, Licorice.”
I could only hang my head in shame. My family really was too kind to me. Why did they all look at me with proud smiles? Only Lysteinn, our adopted sibling, looked at the way my family smiled at me like there was something weird about that.
My family really is…
“Good grief! Dad! Mom! You three! I’m thirty-three years old! Treat me like an adult!” I complained.
“We know that!” protested my father. “We’re trying to treat you like an adult!”
“That’s right,” my mother chimed in. “We just think that for all that, you’re still our little girl.”
“Your forgetful streak is cute, Licorice,” said my third brother. “I’ll submit the leave request for you.”
“And we’ll arrange for your bodyguards, too,” said my second brother.
“Hearing you won’t get married put all your big brothers at ease!” said my eldest brother.
“Grr…!”
I’m thirty-three years old! Yet, they treat me like a child…
“…I heard Captain Rondered is politically isolated in the castle,” Lys said suddenly. “That’s what he gets for making enemies of House Avide.”
“Lysteinn!” my whole family chided him for mentioning that name.
I never heard what else he had to say. Everyone kept their mouths shut and a placating smile on their lips. They were probably planning to harass Rondered for the rest of his days as payback. Not that I can do much to stop them…