“That’s why you have no knight beside you. And that’s the reason why you cannot win against me.”
She had made sport of Alice.
“I’m so sorry, Kissing. Don’t look at me with such fear in your eyes.”
She had horrified Kissing.
“If I can’t break your mind, then I suppose I have no choice but to break your body instead.”
She had trampled on Mizerhyby.
✦ ✦ ✦
She had treated the Lou, the Zoa, and the Hydra the same.
Now that the queen considered it, Elletear had already defeated a princess from each royal household.
“The Sovereignty’s elite forces won’t comprehend what a terrifying force Elletear is. They’ll write her off as the daughter of the House of Lou, thinking she’s just a slightly more powerful version of the princess who could only mimic voices. That’s as far as they’ll understand it. And though it is a discourtesy to say this, Your Majesty, that is true of you as well.”
“Hmm.”
“If you truly believe the Sovereignty is capable of stopping Elletear without the Empire’s help, then you must still see her as just being your daughter, Your Majesty.”
She felt a stab through her chest. It was sharp and painful. There was no doubt about what she was feeling.
“But the people who are gathered here think differently.”
The Zoa princess’s voice came through clear over the comm.
“The Lord, the Saint Disciples, even Alice and me. And Mizerhyby, too. We all fear Elletear’s power, as should be the case. That is why we are fit to face her. That is what makes us different from the Sovereignty’s elite forces.”
“Princess Kissing…”
“Yes.”
“You’ve started to resemble Lord Mask in his youth.”
“I have…?” The girl seemed surprised. For a fleeting moment, her eloquence disappeared. Her childlike voice came from the comm.
“Whatever do you mean, Your Majesty?”
“I look forward to watching you grow.”
She couldn’t help but smile bitterly. She had remembered it despite herself.
The Lord Mask of her youth—a man not fixated on destroying the Empire but who spoke with fervor about bringing glory to the Sovereignty.
“If he hadn’t become so obsessed with destroying the Empire, he might have been speaking as you are now.”
“I wouldn’t know about that…”
“Thank you for your valuable points. Now, will you give the comm back to Alic—?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Pardon me, Your Majesty.”
✦ ✦ ✦
This voice didn’t belong to Alice or Kissing.
The queen’s eyes opened wide when she heard this third person over the comm.
“Princess Mizerhyby…”
She wasn’t shocked by the princess’s voice so much as by her insolence in addressing the queen.
It wasn’t as though the Hydra’s crimes had disappeared. They had kidnapped the queen’s daughter. Mizerhyby was smart enough to know how incensed the queen would be if she addressed her.
“I do not plan to beg for your forgiveness.”
This was the first thing she said.
“I plan to help Aliceliese. Even if you object, I do not intend to change my mind.”
“Because you hate Elletear?”
“Yes, and I will join forces with anyone to defeat her. Be it the Lou, the Zoa, or the Empire.”
“Even you…”
“No, not ‘even’ me.”
“What?”
What did she mean?
Just as Mirabella was about to question her, Mizerhyby said over the comm, “The princesses have all made up their minds. Don’t you see, Your Majesty? You are the only one who hasn’t.”
“!”
A cry slipped from the back of her throat.
The Lou, the Zoa, and the Hydra princesses who would carry the next generation had all decided to work with the Empire. Only the queen had yet to make up her mind.
She had finally been made to realize that.
“You truly held nothing back by saying that…”
“Um, Mother?”
“She hung up.”
Mizerhyby had ended the call. As she held the silent comm, Queen Mirabella shook her head.
“I will need to think over how to punish the Hydra.”
“A-about that!”
Sisbell pointed at the door of the Queen’s Space. It had been destroyed beyond all recognition in a blast caused by an unidentified group.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
“The Hydra were behind the explosion. And I could determine exactly who did it with my astral power.”
“Thank you, Sisbell. Fortunately, we are not at that point yet.”
The Hydra had already been driven into a corner.
She would use her authority as queen to investigate every member of the Hydra family. Since Lord Talisman, their head of house, was absent, the Hydra’s secrets would likely come to light on their own. However…
This was not the end.
There was someone else she needed to face.
“…”
The queen let out a long sigh.
She bit her lip and looked up at the ceiling of the Queen’s Space for a while.
“I am the only one who is undecided. I’m held back by the past. I don’t even have the courage to hang on.”
“Mother?”
“I’m one to talk…”
She looked at her daughter again.
“Instead of re-creating the incident caused by the Hydra, would you summon a different scene for me, Sisbell?”
“Of course I will!” Thumping her chest, Sisbell gave her mother a vigorous nod. “That’s exactly why I came back. My Illumination power can re-create anything that has occurred within a radius of two hundred seventy-four meters up to twenty years ago and—”
“Please re-create what transpired here thirty years ago.”
“Th-thirty?!” Sisbell’s voice cracked.
That was only natural. She had told her mother she could re-create anything within twenty years, so going ten years beyond that was a tall order.
“Mother?! Um…my powers are able to re-create…”
“You can do it, can’t you?”
The queen smiled as her daughter looked up at her, as though to say she had seen through Sisbell’s ruse.
“I believe Illumination is able to summon scenes much older and much more distant than you claim.”
“…I—I…”
“A mother should know.”
“You don’t normally say things like this, Mother.”
Sisbell pouted unhappily. She seemed slightly peeved the queen had seen through the trick hidden up her sleeve.
“How did you know?” Sisbell asked her.
“Because I was just like you.”
Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t had such an unagitated conversation with her daughter in a while.
“And I suppose children like to hide things from their parents.”
Children took after their parents. In the end, that was really why she knew.
……But…
……I hope she doesn’t take after me from the incident thirty years ago.
She was the only one who needed to face this.
Not her time as the queen or her time as a mother.
But her past as a young astral mage.
“I was the same, Sisbell. I had secrets I could tell no one. I wanted to ignore what happened and turned away from the past.”
“……Huh?”
“I was a coward.”
She had been too afraid to look back at the past.
If…
If the past as she understood it wasn’t the whole truth, what then?
✦ ✦ ✦
I…
What could I even say to him?
✦ ✦ ✦
Sisbell’s astral power of Illumination glowed.
The truth of thirty years ago played out before the eyes of Mirabella Lou Nebulis IIX.