The Nebulis Sovereignty, around the same time.
Nebulis IIX, current queen of the Nebulis Sovereignty, would need to make the greatest decision of her lifetime.
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The Nebulis palace.
It was quiet and cool as the morning light flooded into the Queen’s Space.
Until just a moment ago, the palace had been in an uproar over a visitor.
“The Revered Founder seems like she’s rather busy. Could she not even stop for a spot of tea?”
There was a black fissure in the space. The queen looked up at the rift the Founder Nebulis had disappeared through and sighed.
Queen Mirabella Lou Nebulis IIX was the matriarch of the Lou and the mother of Elletear, Alice, and Sisbell.
“Wh-what in the world was that?!” Sisbell came to her senses and shouted. “Mother, shouldn’t we go after her?! The Revered Founder took the Lord’s letter…the one I brought all the way here!”
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“Yunmelngen. How far does he plan to pull me into this?”
“Give me that letter.”
✦ ✦ ✦
That had all happened only minutes before.
Sisbell had finally returned to the Sovereignty after being escorted here by Unit 907 all the way from the independent state of Alsamira. She had been sent with a missive from Lord Yunmelngen.
It contained a world map.
Three vortexes had been noted on it.
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One, the Planet’s Navel: the world’s oldest vortex, which had formed in the Imperial capital.
Two, the Gregorio: a gigantic vortex that had formed in the northernmost reaches of the continent.
Three, Eclipse: a vortex within the unexplored, polluted land of Katalisk.
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If this map were to be believed, that is.
Only three vortexes reached the planet’s core. And Elletear would be waiting there.
“That letter was meant for you, Mother…”
“It’s all right, Sisbell. I’ve already memorized it.”
Queen Mirabella gave a large nod to her daughter, who went silent from dejection.
Actually…
It was significant that the Founder had taken the letter.
“So does that mean it was real?” the queen asked herself.
“What? Uh, um, Mother?”
“I’m sorry, Sisbell, but I’m unsure whether to believe in the missive the Lord gave you.”
The Empire had released Sisbell without conditions.
She had wondered if there was a trick behind this. As the queen, she needed to consider whether a scheme could be at play. Even the letter could have been a trap…
But the Founder’s reaction had nullified any and all doubts.
“The Revered Founder believed the letter to be real, and she detests the Empire more than anyone on the planet.”
That meant it was genuine.
The three vortexes that led to the planet’s core had to be the most classified information the Empire had. And the fact that they had told the Sovereignty about it meant…
“The Empire is seeking our help?”
“I believe so…,” Sisbell said as she weakly balled her hands into fists. Her eyes were sorrowful. “Elletear has become an actual monster. Lord Yunmelngen is wary of her, too…”
“I see.”
The queen finally understood.
The Lord had actually let Sisbell go free for this reason.
It hadn’t been in order to inform them of the location of the vortexes. It was to show the Empire had no intention—at the moment—of fighting the Sovereignty. The Lord had wanted her to hear this from her own daughter’s lips.
“But it feels so strange…” Mirabella furrowed her brows as her daughter looked up at her. “This is slightly different from the Empire I know. What happened to the barbaric, merciless Imperial forces…?”
They couldn’t allow Elletear to go unchecked. She knew that as both the queen and as Elletear’s mother. However…
The Sovereignty was in no position to send out its troops.
Supposedly, the Zoa’s elite forces had been annihilated in the battle against Elletear. If that was all true, then she couldn’t allow her kindred from the Sovereignty to be exposed to danger.
“The Empire’s troops will be invaluable for the fight…”
And so she was conflicted.
Considering the century-long strife between the Sovereignty and Empire, she wouldn’t be able to join hands with them, regardless of the situation. Or rather, she wouldn’t have been allowed to cooperate with them before.
“Right now, I could make the call to ally with them.”
Growley, head of the Zoa, and Lord Mask were unconscious.
Lord Talisman, head of the Hydra, and Mizerhyby were missing.
By some stroke of luck, there was no one around to oppose the queen’s decision.
“Do we work with the Empire or not…?”
There was one thing she was certain of: The people would never approve of her choosing to work with the Empire.
They would never believe her about the Planetary Calamity and Elletear.
……If I choose to work with the Empire, the people would despise me.
……It would put the House of Lou in a precarious position.
Alice and Sisbell would lose their place in the Sovereignty. She could easily picture it. She also couldn’t expose her daughters to such danger.
“…”
That meant she couldn’t work with the Empire. But just as she came to this conclusion, the comm in her hand began to ring.
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“Your Majesty, it’s me, Alice.”
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“Alice?!” Sisbell shouted.
“Greetings, Alice.” The queen did her best to maintain her composure as she spoke.
Alice was presently in the Empire. If they acted like mother and daughter, the Imperial forces would realize it.
“First, I am relieved you are safe. What happened to the Hydra who invaded the Empire?”
“We have captured Lord Talisman.”
“……Ah. I see.”
“We also have incapacitated Mizerhyby. She is beside me at the moment.”
“You did an excellent job.”
The Hydra had concocted countless schemes. They hadn’t only researched the calamity in secret. They had also set off an explosion in the Queen’s Space to target her life and had orchestrated Sisbell’s kidnapping.
All their meddling had finally come to an end.
“Mizerhyby corroborated the crimes we suspected the Hydra of.”
“Thank you, Alice. Now we’ll be able to nip the cause of all this chaos in the bud.”
“Your Majesty, I’m afraid that…”
On the other end of the comm, Alice’s voice was sharp.
“…the ones really behind this are still at large.”
“…”
She was referring to Elletear and the calamity itself.
The queen was presently in a torturous situation and the greatest dilemma of her lifetime because of them.
They had to stop it. But could she disregard the Sovereignty’s long history of conflict with the Empire and cooperate with them?
“Alice, please tell me something. I want to hear it from you.”
“As you wish.”
“Do you believe the people before you now are trustworthy?”
Alice was in the Empire. Likely so close to the Lord and the Imperial soldiers that they could overhear this conversation.
But the queen still needed to ask.
“I received a missive from Lord Yunmelngen through Sisbell. I interpret this as a request to help them defeat the calamity.”
“Yes…”
“However, I have yet to reach a decision on the matter.”
In order to defeat Elletear, both nations needed to come together and fight. But due to the Sovereignty’s history and the people’s animosity toward the Empire, that would be no easy task.
So which was the correct choice?
“I only know how they were in the past. But you have seen the Empire for yourself, Alice—tell me how much credence we should give them.”
“”
She heard silence on the other end of the line.
But that was fine enough for her. She didn’t expect an immediate answer to something so heavy. The queen wanted an answer that would require deliberation, hesitance, internal discord, and strife.
“Your Majesty…”
“Please tell me.”
“I am prepared to entrust my back to the Imperial forces. I have determined that the Imperial forces’ abilities will be indispensable for defeating Elletear.”
“Huh?!”
She hadn’t expected her daughter to go so far. She had expected this answer from Alice, but not the intensity of her response.
“It’s not enough, Aliceliese. You will get nowhere.”
“Hey! Hold on, Kissing, we’re not done talkin—!”
“Your Majesty,” someone else said through the comm.
It was a voice of someone younger than Alice, monotone and devoid of emotion. The voice belonged to…
“Princess Kissing?!”
“Yes. Though it may be forward of me, I would like to say something as well.”
“What is it?”
The queen doubted her own ears even as the girl answered.
This was Kissing, the Zoa princess who relied so heavily on Lord Mask that she couldn’t walk down a hallway alone.
“Your Majesty, are you still hesitant to join forces with the Empire?”
“Why do you say ‘still’?”
“Do you have a plan to defeat Elletear?”
“…No. Nothing concrete as of yet…”
“It’s no use. You won’t be able to come up with a plan. Even if you managed to gather astral mages from the Sovereignty to confront Elletear, not a single one of them would be fit to face her.”
“And why do you say that?”
“Because you have not seen how frightful Elletear is. Did you not hear about it? About the crushing defeat Uncle On and I suffered at her hands?”
“…”
The queen had.
And not only from Kissing.
She had heard what Elletear had done to the princesses.