The Imperial capital, Yunmelngen.
A transport aircraft roared as it landed in the center of the base. It slid over a thousand meters, sparks violently erupting beneath it until it came to a halt.
Clack, clack…
When the steps of the aircraft lowered, a blue-haired witch stepped out, her hands in restraints.
“…”
Wind swept past the runway, tussling her dazzling lapis lazuli hair. She didn’t bother to fix her stray locks as she continued to make her way down the stairs toward the man below her.
“Hello, Princess Mizerhyby. It’s been a few hours, but I hope you still remember who I am.”
“…”
Mizerhyby Hydra Nebulis IX glared at the man after he called her by name.
The man was lean, with noticeable stubble. This was Sir Karossos Newton, the laboratory chief of Omen—the only institution officially permitted to study astral power in the Empire—and the Saint Disciple of the tenth seat. He raised a hand as though he and the princess were old friends.
“Hmm. It seems our positions are reversed now… Oh, excuse me. I didn’t mean that sarcastically. I’m just stating the facts. And while we’re talking about the reality of the situation…”
Newton cast a conspicuous glance behind her.
A group of Imperial soldiers were transporting a partially transformed man and woman on stretchers. One of them was Talisman, the head of the Hydra household. The other was the witch Vichyssoise.
The two had been transfigured into grotesque monsters by the power of the calamity.
“Their Excellency has ordered me to oversee their treatment. What a dramatic turn of events, isn’t it?”
That single statement brought a hint of grimness to Princess Mizerhyby’s face.
“You want me to lick your boots?” she asked.
“Hmm?”
“Or would you rather I cry and apologize for the violence I inflicted when I invaded your lab? Or—?”
“How ridiculous!” Newton dramatically flung out his arms. His white lab coat flapped open. “The power of purebreds lived up to the stories! Plus, I got to see the power of the calamity transform people with my own two eyes! I shudder at the thought of how lucky I am to have witnessed such a thing!”
Before replying, Mizerhyby looked at the stretchers for a moment. “I know those two can be of value to the Empire—they have critical information on the calamity. Allow them to live.”
“There was never a question about that.” The Saint Disciple clad in white shrugged lightly. “Talisman and Vichyssoise are specimens of the calamity. I’ll keep them alive at whatever cost.”
“I beg that you will.”
“And I have something to ask of you as well.” The voice came from behind her.
As two new witches appeared on either side of Mizerhyby, Newton did not hide his chuckle.
“Well, well. Princess Aliceliese and Princess Kissing. It’s a magnificent sight indeed to see three of the Sovereignty’s princesses standing side by side. By the way, Your Highnesses…” He looked at Alice and Kissing in turn. “Didn’t you both propose subduing the Hydra when they infiltrated the Empire? Yet here you are, asking that we treat them kindly. Did you have a change of heart? Or were you perhaps motivated to save fellow members of the royal family?”
“The tides of battle changed,” Kissing answered immediately. She spoke mechanically, almost as though she were reciting the digits of a number. “The duo you are transporting, Lord Talisman in particular, will be essential leverage for making Mizerhyby do as we please. Isn’t that right, Aliceliese?”
“…Well, yes,” Alice reluctantly answered from across Mizerhyby. “I hate to admit it, but after seeing Lord Talisman, I realized we will need her power to fight the calamity.”
“Hmm, so you mean we might as well use her powers in the battle against the calamity if we were going to let her rot in a prison cell anyway?” Newton stroked his beard. People close to him would have recognized this gesture as evidence he was in a good mood. “All right. That’s more than enough reason for me to treat those two.”
He then turned and faced his former colleague, the ex-Saint Disciple Iska. “Well, then, go ahead and take Princess Mizerhyby, Iska.”
Newton turned back around. “Don’t worry, Princess Mizerhyby. I promise to treat your precious compatriots with the best medical care the Empire has to offer. As long as you behave, that is.”
Then he left, heading out with the Imperial unit carrying the stretchers.
Mizerhyby watched them leave in silence, as did Alice and Kissing beside her.
“Let’s go.” Iska nodded faintly at them.
They would be heading farther into the capital, past the central base where they currently stood.
“The Lord is waiting.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The Lord’s offices.
The oldest building in the Imperial capital was composed of four five-story structures in one.
In its innermost level, Iska entered the Lord’s chambers.
“I was waiting for you, Iska! And Nene!” Captain Mismis turned to them, her face swollen.
She had taken off her Imperial uniform and stripped down to a tank top, revealing her painful-looking bandaged left arm.
“You won’t believe this! While you were out, we faced the biggest threat ever to the Lord’s offices! And then I protected the place by using my body as a shield and—”
“It’s just a flesh wound. Nothing happened to her,” Jhin muttered from behind Mismis. “Like I reported to you earlier, ex-Captain Shanorotte attempted a one-woman invasion. We lost mechanical soldiers on the first and second floors, along with some security cameras. Oh, and I guess the boss happened to get a little graze.”
“You ‘guess’?!” Captain Mismis pointed at her left arm, then at her face. “Look at my shoulder! I was shot!”
“You were grazed. Rub a little spit on it, and it’ll heal right up.”
“Look at my face! Noro punched me so many times!”
“And you hit her right back plenty of times. You even knocked her off guard with a headbutt.”
“Jhin, whose side are you on?!”
“Anyway, that’s what happened here,” Jhin responded lightheartedly, only to squint abruptly.
More people had followed Iska and Nene inside. First were Alice and Kissing. But the one who really grabbed his attention was in the middle of the two royals—a blue-haired princess.
“I heard the report. Looks like you got a good roundup.”
Mizerhyby of the Hydra. They’d had a run-in with her once at Snow and Sun. Little wonder, then, that Jhin gave her a scathing look, and Mismis gulped.
“…” In contrast, Mizerhyby remained silent.
She focused her eyes on the far side of the room, where dozens of tatami mats were laid out.
“Welcome back, everyone.”
A silvery beastperson propped an elbow against the legless chair they sat in and reclined.
Lord Yunmelngen.
“Normally, I would say I grew tired while waiting, but there’s a new face with you this time, so I’m wide-awake from the novelty. Princess Mizerhyby of the Hydra: Do you intend to become the Empire’s poison or our salvation?”
“…” Mizerhyby raised her head.
She brushed aside her bangs with her bound hands and glared hard enough at the silver beastperson to bore holes in them.
“Are you the Lord?”
“Hmm?”
The Lord opened a single eye upon hearing Mizerhyby murmur.
“You don’t seem surprised by my appearance.”
“Yes, unfortunately, I’m not.” Mizerhyby stared at the Lord. “I’ve seen enough people transfigured by the calamity’s power to last me a lifetime.”
“Ha-ha. I’m sure you’re glad your head of household didn’t end up like me.”
“You were watching?”
“This is the Empire. There is nothing that occurs within its bounds I do not know of. Now, then…”
Lord Yunmelngen shifted, raising a knee and cradling it to their chest.
“I have two or three questions. The Hydra are the mavericks of the Nebulis Sovereignty’s royal houses. Your interests in acquiring the calamity’s power aligned with those of the Eight Great Apostles, and you waited decades for the opportunity to strike. You wanted to make the entire Sovereignty your own. Am I correct?”
“I believe you are.” Mizerhyby’s voice stayed steady as she took in the Lord’s words.
The Hydra and the Eight Great Apostles had been the ones pulling the strings all along. Mizerhyby knew she was at Lord Yunmelngen’s mercy and that her life potentially hinged on her answer.
“Or you would be, if you were describing the previous generation,” Mizerhyby added.
“Oh?” The beastperson’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Are you claiming the current head of household, Lord Talisman, did not have those plans?”
“He had different aims.”
“Tell me them.”
“It was curiosity. My uncle was never compelled by conquest.”
While he had been transfigured into a sorcerer, Lord Talisman, the head of the Hydra, had said this to Alice and Kissing:
✦ ✦ ✦
“A new age of knowledge is soon to come!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“At least that’s how I saw things…” Mizerhyby bit her lip. “My uncle didn’t quite know what to do as the head of the household. He’s a researcher at heart.”
“But he still experimented on people, didn’t he?”
“He inherited those experiments from his predecessors. But my uncle was never interested in power. I asked him directly about it once, you know. About what he wanted to do with the calamity.”
And this was what Talisman had said:
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’d just like to research it. I want to know everything there is about the most powerful thing on the planet.”