The inmates held inside Aureatia’s Central Prison mainly consisted of heinous war criminals. The Central Prison was surrounded by military facilities on all sides. Those imprisoned there, in addition to holding great societal influence, were at low risk of being suppressed through the normal force of arms, and the positioning focused on preventing any escapees or intruders. Gilnes the Ruined Castle. Nihilo the Vortical Stampede—this facility housed the criminals who might be useful to Aureatia, yet who also needed to be kept in utter secret forever until it was time to make use of them. There was a building separated from the Central Prison proper called the Annex. In a strange turn of events, the prison guards were forbidden from entering the Annex. Though plainly visible to anyone, it was also not kept under any surveillance whatsoever, as if it didn’t exist at all. Only a select few individuals were allowed to come and go from the premises. Their identities remained completely secret, and the guards all assumed they were people involved with the military or government. —That was not the case. They were intellectuals; brilliant scholars and teachers, with many among them hailing from the United Western Kingdom. Goods and commodities frequently arrived at the Annex, usually brought in by these teachers. Though part of the Central Prison, the Annex was not subjected to any surveillance. The goods brought inside were never inspected. Of course, there weren’t any dealings in weapons or information occurring there, either. Regardless of how expensive they individually may have been, the items brought to the Annex were little more than humble supplies for the person kept inside, bearing no visible direct relation to a crime or a conspiracy. Pure-silver accessories. High-quality dresses and shoes for special occasions. Books written in aristocrat script. A slender comb made out of a seashell. Brightly colored sweets. Toys. A child lived in the Annex. Her name was Nanal the Fair-Skinned. She had never compared her life to other children outright. Still, Nanal thought that her life probably wasn’t an unhappy one. Nanal was born in a True Northern Kingdom slum. Her father didn’t work, and her mother sold food on the street to feed their eight children. Nanal was the second-eldest daughter, and her daily task was to handle the family’s large loads of laundry. During the day when her mother was gone, she would look after her youngest siblings, and when money was really tight, she would perform small acts of “assistance” according to what her elder brother had taught her. She searched for people who had come to the slums from afar and offered to guide them around. Whether these people would accept Nanal’s request wasn’t a particular problem—most who glimpsed Nanal’s features would stop and listen to what she had to say. After that, she would use her mannerisms and smile to lead the customers’ focus toward price negotiation. Using the hand the customer wasn’t keeping track of, she would steal their wallets and accessories. Sometimes, her younger brothers would perform this role instead. Nanal’s “assistance” wasn’t done with very much skill, but her beautiful features were a fortunate gift, able capture the attention of her marks. Nanal the Fair-Skinned’s hair was white. Not just white, but as white as quality silk thread. Her skin was so fair that the slightest touch of cheap makeup powder to hide the faintest blush made her arrestingly porcelain. Although they definitely shared the same blood, not one of her siblings had the same physical appearance. Amid the lightly tanned browns or dreary grays of the slums, Nanal alone shone like a pure-white angel. Nanal the Fair-Skinned was albino. Eventually, the Demon King’s terror blanketed the True Northern Kingdom, and like many other children, Nanal was separated from her family. The chaos and destruction at the time was horrible, and Nanal couldn’t even figure out which of her family members were alive or dead. When she fully realized that she was alone, she baselessly believed that the Order would take her in. Ominous rumors about the Order, including stories of human trafficking, had begun circulating at the time. Nevertheless, her family members were all long-time followers of the Order, and her childish perspective reasoned that someone would find her, much like how she captured the eyes of customers looking for her to guide them. This outlook of hers proved wrong. Nanal was instead taken in by a Central Kingdom bureaucrat. The two of them would discuss the death of King Aur or the ruined United Western Kingdom, but they never explained to Nanal what exactly these conversations actually meant. From the day they took her away from that bureaucrat, Nanal the Fair-Skinned never left the Annex. She wasn’t sure if it was related to what the bureaucrat had talked to her about, but the name of the Central Kingdom quickly changed to Aureatia. The outside world consisted of a rectangular courtyard and nothing else. She was never able to leave the Central Prison and see the Aureatia cityscape, and a limited number of adults were the only ones who ever visited the Annex. From the day she had been separated from them, she remained bereft of friends and family. Nanal’s life was lonesome, but it probably wasn’t an unfortunate one. Hunger and cold never tormented her. She ate high-quality meals as if she were a noble, slept in a soft bed, and could take a bath filled to the brim with perfectly warm water. Whenever she was feeling under the weather, a real doctor would come to her and examine her without Nanal paying any money at all. For a short while after beginning her life in the Annex, Nanal didn’t even understand why she was living like this. These upstanding adults, complete strangers, all of them, took precious care of Nanal the Fair-Skinned, without any intentions to make her work—or sick desires to toy with her. Perhaps in exchange for looking after her, Nanal was required to study difficult things like the history of the Kingdom and the natural sciences—and forced to practice strict rules of etiquette she had never heard of before. Nanal was slow to understand and struggled very hard the whole time. She finally understood everything when she was introduced to a specific young girl. Nanal had been told she would be able to meet a girl her age for the first time since her arrival in Aureatia. She got the sense that, at the time, all her thoughts had been carefree and optimistic—could they become friends? What would she do if this other girl wasn’t very nice? When she saw the figure on the other side of the open door, however, she felt like her heart had bounded in her chest. “Hello.” The girl said her name was Sephite. Nanal’s albinism was known as a unique physical characteristic passed down through generations of United Western Kingdom royalty. This wasn’t the only coincidence, as Nanal’s build and appearance both closely resembled Sephite’s. However, Nanal’s shock wasn’t because she thought they looked so much alike. “So you’re Nanal the Fair-Skinned, then. Nice to meet you. I’m Sephite.” “O-oh, um…I-I’m sorry.” Those were the first words out of Nanal’s mouth. She remembered being so awed by Sephite’s brilliance, she needlessly apologized to her. “Hee-hee-hee. We really do look exactly alike.” Nothing about them was alike at all. Sephite’s perfectly resonant and clear voice. Her beautiful, upright posture. The depths of her red eyes were a profound jet black, and neither her porcelain skin nor pure-white hair felt like it lacked any pigmentation whatsoever. It was as if she had been perfected with these colors right from the start. More than anything else, the benevolence she showed Nanal from the moment they first met, and the way she carried herself with the utmost grace and dignity, demonstrated the vast difference between their upbringings. Oh. I’m… It was none other than Nanal herself who sensed the truth. This girl’s impostor. Now she knew why she had been so well taken care of—and why she lived without ever showing her face to others. Nanal the Fair-Skinned was a body double. The unprecedented governmental change brought by the ascension of the last remaining royal, Sephite from the United Western Kingdom, after the demise of the Central Kingdom’s King Aur, came with a significant amount of confusion and danger. Therefore, Aureatia located someone who could stand in for the Queen in case of an emergency, much like many members of the royalty had done in the past. Nanal, born to a poor family in the True Northern Kingdom and nothing more, had absolutely no connection to the United Western Kingdom’s royal family, no matter how far back anyone traced her lineage. Nanal and Sephite’s resemblance was sheer coincidence. However, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the frenzied search that must have happened when Aureatia found Nanal the Fair-Skinned to transform this lucky coincidence into an inevitability. A half year of observation determined that, outside the slightly weakened eyesight that came with albinism, Nanal the Fair-Skinned had no physical disabilities or health concerns, and while her personality and learning capabilities were a far cry from Sephite’s, they wouldn’t prove to be a major issue. Thus, while the strict system of secrecy that prevented anything from being leaked to the outside world remained in place, they established periodic times for Nanal to have direct contact with Sephite. This was the next stage after forcing Nanal to learn the culture and etiquette of royalty. The days of studying then began; Nanal learned the mannerisms and behaviors of the Queen she would eventually have to imitate, along with her knowledge of the people around her and even her personal memories. Though Nanal was shown a fair amount of consideration to ensure the precious living copy of Sephite wouldn’t break down after they had scoured the lands to find her, for a very young girl, this was rigorous and hard work that far outstripped the days of nonstop studying that had come before it. For this learning process, Queen Sephite herself was a fantastic teacher. She was born with an abnormally powerful memory, and she made the terribly difficult subject of her own self simple enough for a complete stranger like Nanal to understand through methodical and systematic instruction. “This is Jelky.” Nanal would memorize the faces and appearances of individuals who were in Sephite’s close orbit through photographs when available. For those without photographs, Sephite herself would draw a rough sketch of what they looked like. “He might look like he’s always angry, but he isn’t, really. So if the day ever comes where you talk to him, no need to be scared. Jelky looks so upset all the time because he’s always so concerned and worried.” “Worried…? About you, Queen Sephite?” “About a lot of things. He has all of Aureatia on his mind.” Nanal’s eyes dropped to the painting before her. It was of a tall and slender man in glasses. Sephite’s portraits were drawn almost symbolically, abbreviating the finer details here and there, but they were still very pretty, without the strange proportions and characteristic overexaggerations often seen in children’s drawings. Sephite had opened up valuable time in her royal schedule to teach Nanal. She couldn’t waste time on idle conversation. She needed to ask Sephite about her relationship with this person—and match it up with her memories. However, on that day, after seeing Sephite’s painting for the first time, Nanal couldn’t stop herself from chatting. “…You’re very good at painting, Queen Sephite.” “You think so?” Sephite closed her large eyes, then opened them again. Red eyes, innocent, yet with the fires of ruin burning within. Sephite’s exaggerated blinking, as if Nanal could hear her eyelids smacking together, was the first of Sephite’s quirks that Nanal memorized after beginning her body-double training. “I actually…didn’t think I was that good myself.” “Do you dislike your own paintings? But they’re so good.” “I’m just copying down what I see, though. A photograph would be way better in that case, wouldn’t it?” Perhaps this was nothing more than idle chitchat that should’ve ended there. Nanal was studying right now, and she didn’t have the time to waste on something totally unrelated to her studies. “Um, Queen Sephite? I…I don’t—I don’t think so.” Nevertheless, this trivial fact that wasn’t worth spending any time on had shaken Nanal. I never thought the Queen would think about stuff like this, too. Nanal had never once imagined that a Queen who was so perfect in every way would be so troubled about her painting skills. The subject didn’t even have a bearing on her role as queen whatsoever, either. “In the past…when I lived in the True Northern Kingdom, I learned how to paint from the Order. They taught me several theories and then I put those into practice, but…I couldn’t do it very well. Not very many of the advanced adult students would’ve been able to precisely capture a form like you can, Your Highness. Painting something with the exact proportions you see in real life takes so many years and so much practice, so…” Nanal herself thought that she wasn’t just trying to flatter the Queen but truly meant every word. “I like your paintings, Queen Sephite.” “…” Sephite once again blinked repeatedly. “Why, that’s the first time I’ve heard that you’ve studied painting before, Nanal.” Sephite leaned forward. Though she looked almost exactly like Nanal, everything about her, from the silkiness of her hair to the smoothness of her skin, seemed different. The young girl with the same face as Nanal looked far more beautiful. “Tell me more.” Nanal’s face flushed pink. She had told Sephite very little about her time as a pauper. Compared to an actual queen, the memories felt all too pathetic and sad. “…B-but I didn’t…I didn’t learn from an art school instructor or anything. There was a teacher… They taught all the street children how to paint. A vagabond without family or work who was sheltered by the Order… He had a lot of names, but all the kids called him Teacher.” He might have been an artist who had lost his work during the age of the Demon King, but that wasn’t something she could directly ask the man about. Regardless, no one knew what had happened to him after everything was swallowed up in the tumult. “We didn’t even have a classroom, and the only colors we could use were the discarded white paints collected from whatever shop he could find, but…we didn’t have any other entertainment in our lives, so learning how to draw from Teacher was something I always looked forward to.” “I know how hard you had it. Still, you really enjoyed painting, didn’t you?” “I enjoyed it, but that’s all. That is why I don’t have the sort of experience to discuss painting with you, my Queen.” “…I know, Nanal. I’ll have them bring your favorite color here to this room. I want to see what your painting looks like,” Sephite said, grabbing Nanal’s hand. Nanal gulped. It was the first time they had come into contact like this. Sephite’s fingers were just as slender as they looked, yet they were filled with far more will and strength than Nanal had imagined. “We’re studying right now. If I fool around, they will scold me.” “No one can complain; it’s an order from the Queen herself. That goes the same for you, too, Nanal.” She gave her same slight, perfectly even smile as usual, and yet it seemed more like the teasing grin of a girl her age. Sephite then gave the actual order, and the necessary supplies were brought to the Annex. Nanal was astounded. She couldn’t believe that the Queen of Aureatia…was a young girl who would go to such lengths just to see the drawings of an insignificant poor girl like herself, even if she was her body double. Nanal did something that she never would have imagined possible during the life she had lived until now— Finishing a painting on proper canvas using the tools of a genuine artist. All while the Queen watched, at that. That day, Sephite stayed far past the time allotted for their meeting, and even though she must have had a lot of official business scheduled for the day, Sephite sat and watched as Nanal finished her painting. All the while, it was now Sephite’s turn to ask many questions about Nanal’s memories. Nanal was terribly embarrassed that they were all the exact opposite of everything she had learned of Sephite’s life, yet she did her best to tell the truth. That night, the painting was finished. It was a painting of a big, pure-white bird. The bird wasn’t a real creature. It was abstractly distorted in places and had four wings. A young and large bird, shrieking and flying off, as if opposing Nanal’s own creative imagination. Sephite had said she could use any color she wanted, but Nanal picked white. The color she had grown accustomed to on the streets of her past. Her own color. Only the eyes were different—red, like a gemstone. “It’s beautiful, Nanal.” After watching over her for half a day, Sephite candidly praised the completed work. Sephite was the Queen. She must have constantly seen the highest-quality artworks in the Kingdom. She would have understood just how poor Nanal’s technique was. Perhaps even despite all that, Sephite really did think it was wonderful. Nanal wanted to believe so. She didn’t want to humble or debase herself. Nanal was shocked that she had been able to paint something from her heart. “…Thank you very much. I could not have done it without you watching over me, Queen Sephite.” “Nanal.” Sephite once again took Nanal’s hand in her own. The hand dirtied with oil paint. “I’m truly glad I was able to hear what you hold in your heart. What sort of life you’ve had, the way you lived up until now… I had been worried this whole time that you’ve wasted your life being here. Even when everything you’ve accumulated up to now still has value to you and you alone.” “N-no… That’s not true… Th-this is…an honor.” When she tried to humble herself, the tears spilled forth. She shouldn’t have had any qualms with forgetting all about her miserable life from before. If Sephite never said a word, Nanal would’ve never thought to paint a picture like this at all. And yet with the sense of achievement she felt from finishing her painting of the white bird, with it came a sense of loss that she couldn’t put into words. Nanal the Fair-Skinned had a life of her own. Yet Nanal was Sephite’s body double, and she would no longer be able to paint her own paintings anymore. “Nanal. Listen.” Though the same height, Sephite gently hugged Nanal and calmed her as she sobbed. Splotches of paint got on her pure-white clothes. “I’m going to paint the sort of paintings you do. If I do that, then we’ll be exactly the same, won’t we? So from here on, you’re going to teach me.” “H-hic…sniff…Qu-Queen Sephite…” “There’s absolutely no need for you to be the one here parting with something so beautiful, Nanal.” The last Queen—beautiful, wise, and a brilliant leader. That wasn’t all. The young girl, Sephite, also showed tenderness to Nanal, gave her affirmation, and directed unconditional love to her—Nanal’s very first friend. She was compared to someone the same age who looked so very much like herself. She was asked to slowly erase her inferior self. A cruel and hard task that could have had an adverse and harmful effect on anyone’s mind. However, this cruel and hard task didn’t feel cruel to Nanal. In fact, she eagerly awaited the two days every big month when Sephite would visit. Nanal’s support had been Queen Sephite. She had wholeheartedly adored her. Present day—the man who visited the Annex was so worn out and haggard that he looked almost nothing like the portrait she had seen of him before. “The Queen has…run away.” She knew his name. Aureatia’s Third Minister, Jelky the Swift Ink. It was plainly clear that some abnormal circumstances were at play. Half of Jelky’s face was covered in a blood-soaked bandage, and there must have been some damage to his nerves, as it seemed he would collapse without the support of his cane. “Queen Sephite—” Though her features were appropriate for a twelve-year-old, Nanal had successfully developed into a mirror image of the Queen, so beautiful that no one from her days in poverty would have recognized her. To those who didn’t know about the existence of the body double, she looked exactly like the Queen. “What happened?! Is Queen Sephite okay?!” “…The Queen…should still be alive. Though, that might be the more terrifying prospect… I can’t tell you anything more than that.” “N-no, this can’t be…” Nanal only became necessary when Queen Sephite was in imminent physical danger—or after that danger had already arrived. She should have understood all this from the start. “Nanal the Fair-Skinned… Th-this… The fact that the Queen has run away…is only known to you…and me. I will say that I…safely helped the Queen escape somewhere…only I know about… During the Sixways Exhibition, you…will appear in the Queen’s stead…” “…!” Nanal reflexively grabbed onto Jelky’s arm. “Please explain all this!” “…” She gripped harder. It took her a moment to realize his arm was frail and weak, like the seriously infirm. “…M-Master Jelky…why didn’t you…why didn’t all of you in Aureatia protect Queen Sephite?! If she was in any danger, then why—why didn’t you make use of me sooner?!” “All of this…happened…after I decided…to have you…take her place and let her escape… I can’t say any more… I won’t try to excuse it.” “…If you and I are the only ones who know Queen Sephite ran away, then…shouldn’t we both know the full truth?! Wh-what—do you think that just learning about what happened to her will m-make me abandon my role as her body double?!” “…Forgive me.” Jelky’s voice quavered at the questioning from this twelve-year-old child born to poverty. He was almost a completely different person from the description Sephite had given her. What exactly had he seen that left him so terrified? “I—I can’t…I can’t say… This isn’t to protect myself… For both the Queen…and your sake…I need to…keep this hidden. I will—I will work to save the Queen. I’ll stake my life on it. Should that become impossible, then…I-I’ll bear responsibility for everything…!” “…” Jelky wasn’t going to tell her anything, no matter how much she pressed him. Of course he wouldn’t. When she considered who she was, Nanal could have been easily been run out of Aureatia for what she was doing. Aureatia’s Third Minister giving a considerate apology to Nanal, and her adoration for Sephite, were unprecedented circumstances. Nanal the Fair-Skinned was powerless. She didn’t possess any authority or power like Sephite. She couldn’t leave the Annex. No matter how much she may have wished to die as just a body double, unless the Queen or the Twenty-Nine Officials ordered her to, she wasn’t even allowed to throw away her own life. Nevertheless… Queen Sephite wouldn’t lose her composure. Nanal took a deep breath. The young girl she admired more than any other, who was more beautiful than any other. Nanal knew how she would’ve carried herself at a time like that. Even after receiving news on par with the death of her dearest love, she would’ve been able to quell her raging feelings. “…I understand. Or rather, okay then…Jelky.” This would be the last of her rage—and her sadness. Nanal couldn’t sully Sephite’s image with her own behavior. The moment she took one step outside of this Annex, she would then become Sephite herself. “If you…promise me that you will safely rescue Queen Sephite. Do that, and I will fulfill my role.” “You have my word, Your Majesty.” Just how long had she been stuck like this? Tu the Magic was submerged at the bottom of the river in the Sixth Borough of Aureatia’s Northern Outer Ward. Tu’s superhuman eyesight allowed her to clearly see through the murky waters, but since she was buried underneath a layer of thick mud and rubble that had built up on the riverbed, she couldn’t get a glimpse of the outside world and found it difficult to even sense the passage of time. Eternally unable to move and without any means of calling for help. The average person, even assuming they possessed an immortal physical form like Tu, would have lost it, stopped thinking entirely, and suffered a mental death long before their physical one. I need to save Uhak and Kia. The same impatience circulated within her, repeating itself thousands upon thousands of times. By now…I may be way too late to do anything, but still…I have to go… I have to… In an astounding turn, Tu continued to maintain her sanity. Her invincible defenses were designed to also preserve her normal mental state. In fact, as a weapon meant to successfully slay the True Demon King, it was really the function Tu the Magic had required most of all. However, this sound mental state meant she was unable to descend into a madness where the same thoughts endlessly repeated in her head. Constructs did not dream. However, her instincts, desperately trying to break free from what was essentially death for her, recalled the life she had led, taken from all her memories up until now. There was a landscape, unchanging for so many years, that had burned itself into Tu’s heart and never left. The Royal City. The United Western Kingdom’s capital city that had existed even before Aureatia. Pleading with her creator, Izick the Chromatic, she witnessed the final moments of the country she had always gazed down upon. Leaving Izick the Chromatic to go out by herself, she finally stood on her own two feet in the minian country she had admired from afar, and yet, by that point, it was all too late. All the people Tu had loved, down the last man, woman, and child, were dead. Far in the distance, small fires blazed yet never went out. The absence of the slightest groans of agony or madness so soon after the True Demon King’s arrival signaled a kind of terror different even to that of the New Demon King army. I need to help. Back then, Tu had the same thoughts in her head as she ran through the streets. It might be way too late for me to do anything, but I have to go. Tu’s ears would have been able to pick up even the slightest breaths, the faintest heartbeats. If someone was still alive, she could save them. Anyone at all. Anybody. Tu’s ears picked up a faint noise. She heard the sound of wind blowing, the sound of fires crackling, the sound of buildings creaking. Yet that was all. The only things she heard were the sounds of lifeless natural phenomena. The vast sprawling Royal City, yet there wasn’t even the sound of a single insect’s beating wings. Please, somebody, anybody. It was filled, practically overflowing, with nothing but corpses. Some among them didn’t appear to have any visible wounds at all. Though they had no reason to die, the sheer terror had killed them. This country was finished. They had to run away. Izick’s shouting flickered into her thoughts. Nevertheless, Tu continued to race around the city faster than the blowing wind, trying to pick up even the faintest crying she could catch. She had wanted to save them. She had to, or she couldn’t be saved herself. Just one person, somebody, anybody. At some point, Tu had entered the grounds of the royal palace. There wasn’t anyone to reprimand her. All those who would have were dead. From very far away, she thought she heard a quiet voice sobbing the word no. It might have been a figment of her imagination. Tu dashed in a straight line toward it. Crashing through several buildings, scaling walls vertically, jumping from place to place, she made her way there. The crying was coming from the inside of a very big building, but Tu couldn’t spare any time to figure out what sort of facility it might have been. She had to hurry. “Help… I don’t want this…” A white-haired young girl had been a second away from stabbing herself in the throat with a sword. “Stop!” Tu dived with her whole body to aggressively rip the sword away from the girl. Tu awkwardly collapsed to the ground, but she felt this young girl was far more important to worry about. “Dummy!” she screamed in a frenzy. “You’re still a young girl… What if that leaves behind a horrible scar?!” Surrounded by such terror and horror, she ended up saying something totally irrelevant. It was her first time speaking to any other minia besides Izick. “Didn’t anyone teach you to take care of your body?!” The young girl looked at Tu in shock. Tu gripped her hand. Whatever reason this girl may have had, Tu wanted to stop her from trying to die. It was a small, soft hand. It was her first time touching a minia’s hand. “Wh-wh…?” It was at the moment Tu first took in the girl’s face. Red eyes that seemed to reflect the flames of destruction. Long pure-white hair like strands of silk thread. Tu the Magic lacked a lot of common sense and knowledge, but even still, the thought came to her. She was a beautiful young girl. “…Who are you?” She was scared. Tu thought maybe her remarks were to blame. Minia were bound to get scared if an unknown somebody suddenly started to shout and accost them like this. …I need to be kind. Tu the Magic didn’t need to breathe at all, but she took a deep, deliberate breath before speaking further. “Tu. Tu the Magic, just passing by. Um…er, why?” Tu looked at the sword lying on the floor. She had attempted to kill herself. Many of the people in the Royal City had done same. Assailed by the True Demon King, they all chose death. Even without any wounds, even if they hadn’t been exposed to any danger, they had ended their lives by their own hands. “…Why would you do something like this?” “…” “I looked ’round town before I came here… Everyone suffered; everyone died. It didn’t make any sense at all. All of them had been alive. Everyone… It’s too horrible… I can’t let this stand!” “That’s not it…! That’s not… I-it isn’t… It isn’t my fault!” The white young girl struggled to get her words out. Tu’s heart ached. She might have spoken like she was reprimanding the poor girl again. It didn’t matter who they were, no one could possibly be responsible for terror like this. “……!” Tu shook her head in an attempt to shake off the misery. “Of course not…! Let’s go!” Tu rose up so vigorously, and still with the young girl’s hand in her own, that Tu forced her to stand on tiptoe. The red eyes that had been open this whole time blinked repeatedly. “Go?” “We’re running outta here! I’ll take you with me!” “…Ah.” The True Demon King. Something so terrifying that even Izick’s group hadn’t stood a chance against it. Tu was a weapon made to defeat this calamity. Still, all the other living people in this world were different from Tu. She had to give them the chance to escape from the Demon King’s terror. She was sure that even in the face of a terror no one could defeat, escape was still an option. “I…I want……to run away. I want to get away. But—but where…?” “Doesn’t matter where! You’ll lose it staying in a place like this! Get on my back!” “I’m sorry.” The young girl apologized. Despite there not being a single thing she needed to apologize for at all. “For what?” “Here we go—I’ll run slowly, okay?” Tu started running. Completely contrary to what she had said, the landscape drifted by faster than even the finest steed could hope to match. Flying out of a window, she freely bounded over towers, walls, gardens. She rushed through the cityscape she had gazed out at for so long. The country Tu had been unable to save, enveloped in death and stillness. “…It’ll be okay!” Tu shouted, in order to convince herself. “The world’s not cruel!” Even if it was beyond all help, even if she couldn’t save anybody, she didn’t want to believe the world was one where one was meant to choose death for themselves. Though it may have seemed like everything was filled with hopelessness and despair, Tu had yet to see anything. As long as there were possibilities and unknowns in this world, there had to be some hope out there somewhere she couldn’t see. “I’ve heard it myself. There are all sorts of possibilities, no matter what the times’re like… All sorts of color out there! So in that case, there’s gotta be a future where you’ll be able to smile and laugh, too!” Tu boldly declared in a cheery tone. She had wanted to save this girl, even if these words were all she had. “Who……who are you?” “Tu the Magic. Outside of that… Ha-ha-ha! Honestly, I don’t really know much myself! But it’s okay!” Tu laughed, leaving the hellish scene far in the distance behind them. “The important stuff I’ve known from the beginning. Everything ’cept your name anyway! Mind if I ask?” “…………Sephite.” It was the name of the first, and the only, young girl Tu the Magic had saved that day. “Nice to meet ya…! I’m positive a smile would suit ya.” “What are you talking about?” “I mean, you’d look a whole lot cuter with a smile on your face, Sephite! Don’t you think?” As they moved away from the Royal City, the two of them engaged in a rambling, disjointed conversation. Tu tried to be as lighthearted as possible and spoke about hopeful things to cheer up Sephite, who rode on her back. Sephite fell asleep at some point, having suffered a great amount of both mental and physical fatigue, but Tu fortunately discovered a settlement that hadn’t been caught up in the calamity and forced them to take the girl in. Thinking back on it now, with the last member of the royalty’s life fatefully in the balance, Tu might have been outrageous to leave her there, but at the time, Tu still didn’t have the knowledge to be distrustful and cautious of unfamiliar people. Ahhh, thank goodness. Tu hadn’t thought this out of a sense of relief. Tu considered that children—even just one—may have been saved by her rush to help. She felt like that fact alone would allow her to stand up against what was waiting for her. Now I can go fight the True Demon King. She was a weapon created with this sole objective in mind, who Izick the Chromatic, the greatest construct-creating genius ever seen, had dedicated over ten years of his life to make. Tu the Magic was theoretically guaranteed to defeat the True Demon King. Though the True Demon King may have driven the world to madness with their irresistible terror, Tu’s nerve cells were able to adapt to any brain cell destruction or deterioration. More than anything else, Tu didn’t even feel terror itself. The mechanism in her brain to sense fear had been left out during the creation process. Should the phenomenon that annihilated the First Party through self-harm and internecine killing have been the result of some other supernatural force unrelated to the terror, this, too, would have no effect. Tu was created to be a singular and perfect life-form. Killing her own allies hadn’t been factored into her design at all. Any self-inflicted wounds were physically impossible. Even Tu herself didn’t possess the means to destroy her own invincible body. Tu had no factors that could lead to her defeat. It was something Izick had spoken about over and over again. Still, the entire time, Tu had a vague hunch in the back of her mind. If I fought the True Demon King, I’d probably die. Tu still didn’t really know anything about the world, but she thought that this wasn’t a foe who could be defeated with logic. That was why, even after twenty years, all of creation wished for their death, and though any and all methods had been thought of, still the True Demon King had yet to be defeated. Even then, she was going to go and fight. After leaving Sephite at the settlement, she once again ran to the Royal City. With her running speed, the surrounding scenery streamed past her like light. It seemed like as she got closer and closer to the ruined Royal City, the grass and flowers at her feet, even the river nearby, began to lose their color. The True Demon King killed people. She had seen more than enough to know what type of disaster they left in their wake. Izick was wary and discreet, and even he hadn’t been able to sense the True Demon King’s arrival. By the time he had noticed the signs, everything and everyone had been annihilated. Even still, she couldn’t help but ask herself. If I had pleaded with Izick just a bit sooner. Tu considered that children—even just one—may have been saved by her rush to help. If I had noticed that something strange was going on in the city. However, the fact that she was able to save one person meant… If I had been able to help sooner… …maybe she could have been able to save two or more people instead? She was challenging the True Demon King to compensate for her overwhelming regret and loss. To make up for the people of the Royal City she hadn’t been able to save, she was going to save everyone from here on out. Tu’s innate goodness and sense of justice was undoubtedly just an aspect designed by Izick the Chromatic to make her face off against the True Demon King of her own will, but… It doesn’t matter if this is just what Izick wanted. These feelings may be painful and hard to bear, but…I’m really glad I didn’t feel like running away or turning a blind eye to everyone. Tu’s feet were far faster than any of the minian races or the wings of a wyvern. She arrived back in the Royal City before the evening sun, which she saw at the settlement, had fully sunk below the horizon. The stillness of death. She realized she didn’t hear the cry of a single bug or bird in the Royal City. “True Demon King! Where are you?!” In the middle of a world where all died simply from terror alone, Tu screamed fearlessly. “My name’s Tu! Tu the Magic! I’m Izick the Chromatic’s child, born just to defeat you!” Her echo resounded through the empty metropolis. If there was someone who would hear it, it would be the True Demon King and no other. “I’m right here! If you’re ready to fight, come and get me!” The disadvantage to proudly announcing her presence and location wasn’t a consideration for her. Moreover, there was something that she wouldn’t understand unless she stood against her opponent openly and face-to-face. How can they do something so horrible? Even Izick had almost no idea what the True Demon King’s identity was, but Tu was positive that it wasn’t some mindless phenomenon or a lifeless machine. Since Izick the Chromatic, once called the most horrible demon king of all, was minian himself. Tu thought they had to have something in mind, some reason for trying to bring ruin to the world. I exist to defeat the True Demon King. That’s why I was made… Still, I don’t believe that’s the only path available here. If I could just understand the True Demon King’s heart, even a little bit, then… Then she happened to look up. Her thoughts came to a screeching halt. Tu looked down the hushed boulevard. On the road lined with people’s corpses…the shadow of the sun right before fully setting stretched out long on the ground. Far down the city boulevard, melding into the shadow of the town, fading into the dark-red backlight, something was standing there. Though the distance would have been too far to judge if they were minian, Tu’s innately powerful five senses could see every unfortunate detail. There was a young girl. She wore clothes from the Beyond, unfamiliar to Tu—a pitch-black school uniform. Her long, thick black hair flowed smoothly in the wind. Her pale skin seemed to float up from the black of night. Her eyes stood out black even amid the darkness. —And they were looking at Tu. “—!” I was at that moment Tu first became cognizant of the truth. The Royal City was enveloped in silence. She wasn’t able to hear the sound of any life at all. However, in truth, she had heard the heartbeats and breaths of what sounded like a normal young girl approaching her. Even as she had been so eager to find a survivor, to save them, for some reason Tu had unconsciously disregarded these noises and waited instead. There was one other thing she now understood. The True Demon King’s heartbeats, their breaths, were no different from those of a normal young girl. Earlier, when she had frantically and desperately searched for the sounds of any survivors—and successfully saved Sephite… There had been a one-in-two chance Tu might have run into this young girl instead. “…Ghhee!” A wheezing gasp slipped out from the back of her throat. A black something was standing there. The interference from the evening sun blurred the silhouette. Just as Tu had called out, the girl was coming toward her. “Ah… A-ahhh.” She was going to fight this girl. That was why she was born. To make amends for her regrets, she was going to put an end to all the losses and sacrifices. “Eeeeeeaaaaugh!” She heard a horrible shriek. It was Tu’s own shout. She dashed off. Not forward, not backward, not up, nor down, but frantically she raced off in the opposite direction. With the strength she had been blessed with, stronger than any other and given to her to defeat the True Demon King—Tu fled. Despite her body supposedly having emotions excised from her, she was unable to escape from the Demon King’s terror. So long as she had a heart of her own, even if said heart had no concept of terror from the very start. It was a power lacking any reasoning or logic whatsoever. Tu the Magic didn’t remember anything that happened for about one small month from that point. When she came to her senses, she had been left behind in the United Western Kingdom, where everything had died out, and she had no idea where Izick had gone—or Sephite. Having lost the purpose of her existence, and unable to stop the Kingdom’s ruin, Tu the Magic hadn’t been able to escape into madness, either. That said, she wasn’t incapable of losing her sanity, either. Whenever she found the New Demon King Army, crazed and left behind in the ruined lands as if following after the True Demon King’s departure, she would repeatedly try to empathize with them. No matter how meaningless she knew it was, Tu couldn’t help but do so, having been instilled with justice and her good nature. All the new victims the True Demon King wrought had come about because she had fled from her purpose that day. Once all members of the New Demon King Army, unable to leave the ruins around them, had died out, she headed for the next land. Following after the Demon King, to the land that no one else could hope to approach. Finally, Tu the Magic arrived in the Land of the End and became feared as the “Demon King’s Bastard.” As she acted with innocence, sanity, and cheer, a single thought occupied her. I want to apologize. To all the people, for letting the True Demon King drive the world mad. To the young girl she had found that day, the only person she managed to save, yet who she was unable to repay for saving her. I want to apologize to Sephite. Aureatia’s Old Town was far away from the Outer Ward where Tu the Magic was submerged in the river. At the bottom of the townscape, complexly layered from repeated extensions and repairs, sat a lone young girl. Like a white speck dropped onto a reddish-brown painting, she stood out sharply from the scenery around her. After forcing Jelky the Swift Ink to stab his own eye in the middle of their escape through the royal palace’s connecting passageway, Queen Sephite didn’t know how she had fled the scene and gotten to where she was now. The passageway had existed from the time of the Central Kingdom. It wouldn’t have been at all strange for one of them to connect to the Old Town from that same era. “I…” Sephite stared at her hand. She didn’t know why she was standing there. The intelligent and composed Queen of Aureatia was now baffled by simple cause and effect. When she had handed her hair ornament to Jelky, what had she been thinking? Sephite didn’t really understand it herself. She simply had the thought that she could do it. She trembled. Terror. Terror. Terror. In this world, there was no greater terror. “I’m…the Demon King?”
Chapter 234
39 min read