At the same time…
One person noticed the incident in the Queen’s Space.
✦ ✦ ✦
On Hydra Nebulis.
The boy with the rare Gate astral power was at a loss for words.
The Queen’s Space burned.
The entire area had burst into flames. Like a wall obscuring his vision, the fire approached him from all directions, tens of thousands of embers flitting around him.
These flames weren’t the work of a simple candle being knocked over.
This was the queen’s astral power.
“What happened?!”
Just a half hour earlier, everything had been fine. What had happened in that short span of time?
“Your Majesty! Are you safe—? Urgh!”
He yelled so loudly, he became hoarse.
But his voice disappeared into the roaring conflagration. The heat was so intense that just breathing was enough to send him into a coughing fit, his lungs burning.
“Is that you, On?!”
She was on the other side of the wall of flames.
On felt instant relief upon hearing Queen Cassandra’s reassuring voice.
“Yes! What happened, Your Majesty?!”
He knew that there was a fight. The queen was battling someone on the other side.
And then…
On only knew of one person it could have been.
“Is it Salinger?! Your Majesty, I will get reinforcements now!”
“On!” the queen cried out. “It’s the…”
But then her voice cut off.
It disappeared into the roaring flames, and the rest of the message never reached On. No matter how much he strained his ears, he never heard the queen’s voice again.
Was she focused on the battle at hand?
If the sorcerer Salinger really was that powerful, then she really would need reinforcements. Luckily, the best of their forces was still at the ball venue.
However…
Something didn’t sit right with On.
“How did he know?”
Given the situation, Salinger must have been behind the attack. But he should have shown up at the ball. That was where the queen’s double that Lord Arken had made was.
How had he known that the real queen was in the Queen’s Space?
“…”
Something was off.
But the boy had no time to dwell on it. His duty was to bring someone to help as soon as possible. There was no time to hesitate.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Queen’s Space was engulfed in flames.
The strongest flames came from the barrier, Spectacular Blaze.
It was one of Queen Cassandra’s secret weapons. The super-hot flames, which were concentrated in the smallest area possible, could melt a tank in twenty seconds.
“It’s been seventy seconds…”
Her shoulders heaved.
She was out of breath. Queen Cassandra forgot to even wipe her forehead of the sweat cascading from her brow as she watched the red barrier.
“No living creature could survive after being exposed to such intense heat for so long.”
The light from Spectacular Blaze swelled.
The ball of flame that had been just large enough to hold a single person began to expand.
“Disappear, monster.”
Then it burst.
Like an overfilled balloon, it ruptured into thousands of embers that scattered and dispersed.
“I can’t believe the Hydra had such a monster among them…”
“Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha…”
Fwoosh.
A chill ran down the queen’s spine as she heard that craven, maniacal laugh.
“It can’t be?!”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty!”
The crystal monster leaped out from the wall of flames.
It was Francoise, entirely unscathed. She shouldn’t have been able to survive that. The queen hesitated for a moment, shocked to realize that the creature had so easily thwarted the attack that had secured her countless unconditional victories.
“I’m invincible.”
Francoise grabbed the queen’s neck. As she tightened her grip with inhuman strength, the queen’s neck began to twist in an unnatural direction.
The queen had no wherewithal to think about her surroundings. She focused on releasing an astral attack that would set ablaze everything around her.
…Prick.
She felt something stab her neck.
She couldn’t move because she was in a vise grip. The queen desperately moved just her eyes to see what it was.
“What…is that needle?”
A glass needle was in her neck.
Francoise injected the purple liquid into an artery in the queen’s neck, which then coursed through her veins. The queen’s entire body began to quiver before she could wrap her head around what was happening.
What was that? What had she been injected with? Why was she cold? In pain? Shivering? Frightened?
“Ah…ah…aaaah!”
“I’m making more of my own kind. You can become just like me, Your Majesty… Oh?”
“Hrngh!”
The queen shrieked.
She spat out blood and fell to the hard ground.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Your Majesty!”
The witch ran over to the queen. Though she apologized, her eyes were filled with glee.
“The stronger someone’s astral power, the more intensely they’ll reject the concoction, but I thought you would be able to withstand it. That’s too bad, Your Majesty… Your Majesty? Oh, are you already unconscious? Oh, Your Majesty…you look so endearing right now!”
Queen Cassandra was unconscious.
She was facedown on the floor, twitching. The flames and heat filling the space had disappeared as the queen had collapsed.
“Ahh, I feel so excited, I could swoon. I defeated the queen!”
The witch’s gleeful laugh rang out in the space where the queen had collapsed.
“I’m stronger than the queen. That means in the Sovereignty, I’m the top of—”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Is this your first time on a stage?”
✦ ✦ ✦
The witch had been so engrossed with what she had been doing that she hadn’t noticed.
While she had been in the heights of glee, someone had entered the Queen’s Space.
“You’re amusing, monster.”
The sound of footfalls echoed throughout the area.
A handsome man with a coat hanging from his shoulders strode forward majestically, as though he were onstage.
“Are you such a narcissist that simply standing on the stage gives you glee? You really are a monster. Let me fill you in on something: You’re nothing more than a bit player.”
He looked from the queen on the ground, who had coughed up blood, to the monstrous witch.
“Out of the way. You’re not fit for the lead role.”
Salinger’s voice echoed throughout the bloodstained hall.
✦ ✦ ✦
Upon further reflection, this tragedy’s shocking lack of merit became abundantly clear to Salinger from the moment he realized the Nebulis palace was practically unguarded.
……I thought they were trying to lure me into the palace?
……Did they intentionally draw back the guards to do that?
The Hydra planned to use the soiree in order to eliminate the queen and the future candidates for the throne.
If they needed to draw Salinger to their stage in order to be their scapegoat, they would create an opening in their defenses to allow him to sneak into the palace.
In that case, he would simply walk right in.
He would make a grand entrance for them.
✦ ✦ ✦
One hour prior.
Salinger melted into the darkness and looked up at the Queen’s Palace from the courtyard.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I will rise to the stage. Hear me, Hydra: I’m rewriting your amateurish script.”
The explanation was simple.
All he had to do was obstruct the Hydra from coming after the queen and Mira.
……I doubt they’ll both be attacked at the same time.
……Even if the Hydra is using every resource at their disposal, attacking both the queen and Mira together would be difficult.
They would need to prioritize.
He was sure that the current queen would be their primary target, with Mira being less of a priority, since she was just a queen candidate.
They would eliminate the queen first.
He believed they would then use the chaos that would ensue to pursue Mira.
“Then it’s the queen…”
He didn’t care what happened to the queen, but if he had the Hydra by the neck when they attacked her, it would allow him to save Mira.
So where would they attack her?
The stage for the tragedy was unlikely to be the venue of the ball.
……If they want to pin the attack on me, the real culprit can’t afford to be caught.
……The Hydra will have isolated the queen somewhere.
And if they needed to isolate her, they would have naturally chosen one of three options:
One: the queen’s chambers.
Two: the Queen’s Space.
Three: a hidden room only the queen knew about.
Option three wasn’t possible.
The queen would need to be assassinated in a place Salinger was aware of.
……So she must be in her chambers or the Queen’s Space.
……Both are plausible, but the Queen’s Space seems more likely.
After all, more people had visited the Queen’s Space than her personal chambers.
He felt there was some credence to a script claiming Salinger had hidden there to attack the queen.