Titee sank deep into thought as she muttered to herself. She seemed desperate to somehow grasp her brother’s reasoning. To help her, I tried drawing everyone else into the conversation.
“So, what do you think, Snow?”
“It’s possible they’re making backroom deals to avoid mutual destruction. Did Ide coax over the Senate of Whoseyards to become the top of the Southern Alliance? Maybe he was even negotiating with Lady Lastiara.”
Snow mentioned officers higher in rank than herself, the acting commander in chief. She seemed to acknowledge that information existed which wasn’t shared with those fighting on the front lines. Titee’s suspicions were starting to feel more plausible.
“Even you think so, Snow?” I asked.
Surely Ide wanted to prolong the war to preserve Titee’s stage for action. The Southern Alliance had likely agreed to it because they stood to gain something of significant value.
Following Titee’s example, I too pondered, trying to understand the thinking of those waging war.
Just then, Titee, who’d been grumbling quietly in the back of the carriage, suddenly lifted her head. “Huh? Is it getting a bit noisy outside? What’s going on?” She must have caught the sound of something unusual in the distance. She had pretty keen ears.
“Ah, we’re approaching a town. I think this will be the last town we can stop at. If you want to rest, shall we go in?” I asked.
“No, I don’t need to rest...but let’s go in. The atmosphere feels a bit different from before.” Titee, with her sharp senses, seemed to feel something was amiss about this last town.
“Different atmosphere? Understood. Rouge, if anything happens, I’m counting on you.” Entrusting Rouge, who sat beside me and was well-connected within the Northern Alliance, with any emergencies, I turned the horses’ heads toward the town.
Scanning the town with Dimension ahead of time revealed it wasn’t particularly large. It stood isolated on the plain, with just over a hundred houses. Perhaps because it was closest to the royal capital, it didn’t feel rustic. Every building was solid brick, surrounded by stone walls. Like the Allied Nations, it had a leyline running through it and even featured a cobblestone main street.
The surrounding fields suggested livestock farming, but the land wasn’t large enough to sustain a livelihood solely based on that. I kept up Dimension to observe the area, wary of traps and snares.
At the edge of town, I found an unusually large house, filled with an enormous amount of food. Perhaps it served as a trading relay point. It was possible the town itself functioned as some sort of warehouse. Or maybe...
“Huh? There are a lot of people...” While investigating, I noticed the number of houses didn’t match the number of townspeople. This area was outside the war zone, and there weren’t many soldiers stationed here. I couldn’t figure out why there were so many more townspeople than expected.
The carriage arrived as I was lost in thought. As expected during wartime, someone resembling a soldier ordered us to halt for inspection. However, once Rouge spoke up, we were immediately waved through. Even considering her past as a close aide to Chancellor Ide, her extensive connections never ceased to amaze me.
Thanks to Rouge, we entered town with the carriage intact and proceeded through the streets while I scanned our surroundings. Just as Titee had heard from afar earlier, the town center was strangely bustling.
Even Rouge seemed unsure of the reason. “Wait here, Aikawa Kanami. I’ll go ask around.”
I considered gathering information myself via magic, but considering the duel was imminent, I decided to leave it to her. Ideally, I wanted to head to the duel with my MP fully replenished.
Rouge left the carriage, spotted a familiar face walking through town, and called out to her. From the look of it, the other person was also a Jewelculus. Her clothes had an air of dignity about them, suggesting she held an important position.
“Hey! What’s going on here?” Rouge asked.
“Huh, Rouge? Didn’t you say you were heading south about a month ago to meet that witch? Why are you here?” The Jewelculus, dressed incongruously for this town, tilted her head in surprise.
Rouge answered with a smile. “I met someone even nicer than the witch, so I was just about to head back to the capital. But why are you here? You’re supposed to be working in the castle there, right?”
“Mmm. I guess you could call it an evacuation drill?”
“Evacuation drill? At a time like this?”
“Yeah. Under the pretext of conducting a castle activation test, a previously scheduled plan was put into action. So everyone from the capital is basically renting lodgings in the surrounding towns.”
“Activating the castle... But if it’s just a pretext...”
Their voices trailed off. They tried to keep it between themselves, but I could hear them thanks to Dimension.
“You have a right to know, so I’ll tell you: The capital is currently in what they call Crisis Pattern Twelve. People with real authority know this is a genuine evacuation.”
“So it’s Crisis Pattern Twelve, the one Dr. Ide predicted...meaning the enemy’s main force is approaching.”
Saying that, Rouge looked at us. She must have realized that we were the danger comparable to that enemy force. Understanding the reason behind this strange evacuation, she cut the conversation short.
“Thanks. I get what’s going on with this weird situation now. I’ll evacuate too, right away.”
“Okay. I have work to do keeping everyone together. See you later.”
Rouge immediately said goodbye to her acquaintance and returned to the carriage. As she climbed up to the driver’s seat, I asked her about something I hadn’t understood earlier.
“Hey, Rouge, I kinda get that the castle folks are evacuating, but what’s this castle activation experiment?”
“It’s about Viaysia Castle in the royal capital. But it’s not just a castle. Its true nature is that of a massive magical artifact powered by tons of magic circuits and plants. Looks like the professor is activating that castle in preparation for his duel with you,” Rouge explained with an intensely serious expression.
I recalled the Viaysia Castle that had been hidden behind floor sixty-six in the Dungeon. But during my battle with Titee, it had never once showed any signs of activation. Come to think of it, when Nosfy’s scheme had engulfed the back side of floor sixty-six in flames, the castle alone remained unscathed. So, when Viaysia fell a thousand years ago, had the flames of war never reached it? If so, what had truly happened to it?
I glanced briefly at Titee, who had been listening nearby, but she shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know either. She must not have clearly witnessed Viaysia’s end, having left the front line mid-battle.
“Be careful, Aikawa Kanami. If that castle activates, the professor will become the Tree Folk Who Pierces the Heavens from the legends of Whoseyards. Its power is exactly as the legend describes.”
Despite Rouge’s warning of the danger, I still couldn’t fully grasp it.
“Wait, you mean that tree big enough to crush a city? That thing was actually Ide?” Titee immediately answered my question. “Hold on, that thing was just a lowly treant, a variant of a dryad! It shouldn’t be able to grow that big!”
“More accurately, it becomes Viaysia-Castle-fused-with-the-Professor. Anyway, it becomes something so unbelievable it’s hard to put into words. They say the Professor fought the enemy army in that state during their final battle a thousand years ago.” Rouge answered Titee’s objection with everything she knew. Apparently, the vague descriptions stemmed from her never having witnessed the activation herself, only hearing about it from others.
But Titee and I accepted that. It wasn’t an impossible story, I supposed.
“Hmm. It seems like a spell Ide devised alone after I vanished,” Titee murmured.
In other words, it was a spell unique to Ide. During that war a thousand years ago, after the Sovereign Queen Lorde had vanished from the Northern Alliance, I could imagine just a little what Ide had been thinking as he kept fighting. Even if he was left alone, he had surely sworn to protect the people of the North no matter what. At the end of that vow, thinking and thinking, thinking it through to the very end, he might have devised the spell to fuse with the castle.
But it felt a bit sad—like he’d clung to the remaining Viaysia Castle because there was no one left he could rely on.
“The castle, huh? But from what I hear, it’s magic meant to be used against entire armies, so it might not be a problem for us.”
“Huh? Not a problem? But it grows huge enough to reach the sky!” Rouge said.
“If it’s just big, it’s only a bigger target. Titee over there could probably destroy it with a single kick.”
Maybe it would also be weak to Distance Mute. If Ide truly fused with the castle, just touching the edge could potentially extract his soul.
Seeing my casual attitude, Rouge seemed to realize I wasn’t lying. She leaned back, creating a little distance between us. “Well, well, you truly are legendary heroes. Come to think of it, the millennium-old tales mentioned something about splitting the earth with a single fingertip...”
Titee, who had a prior record of splitting the land, answered with a hint of pride. “Hmm. Something close to that is possible for me.”
Rouge looked anxious and pleaded toward the carriage behind her, “Um, big sis, if possible, please keep the town below the castle safe...”
“My apologies. If we fought seriously, you wouldn’t come out unscathed. Honestly, I think even this town is too close for comfort.”
“Huh? The shock waves from the capital would reach this far?”
“Mm, faintly.”
Rouge fell silent. Realizing the power of the legends she’d dismissed as exaggerated fairy tales was real, her body trembled. Titee seemed to recognize that feeling as fear. Showing a consideration she likely wouldn’t have had a short while ago, she spoke gently to Rouge.
“You don’t have to force yourself to come with us. Staying here in town is an option too, you know?”
“No. I’m going. I absolutely have to go. Because I have something I want to tell the professor too.”