“I am certainly exceptionally interested, but whether I accept will be determined by our conversation.”
“Of course. Though with that said, there is little I can say here that was not already contained within our missive. Our lineal magic contains a spell that can restore things that have been destroyed. Using that, it would be possible to restore a corpse, however damaged it has been. Of course, the corpse must be nearby, and it is just restoring the body, not performing a miracle such as reanimating it. If you can accept that and bring the corpse to me, I can restore it.”
“There are several things I would like to confirm first, if that would be acceptable, Your Majesty?”
“You may ask whatever questions you wish, and I guarantee that our dealings will not be colored by them. However, I will not necessarily answer everything.”
“Very well,” Yan answered after a pause at her blatant calculation, his gray eye sharpening. “Your missive reached me almost immediately after news of the execution. Were you aware of my location the whole time?”
“That is correct.”
“Does that in turn mean that you could have contacted me before the execution if you wished?”
“That is correct.”
“Would it have been possible to rescue him with your and His Majesty’s aid?”
“I have no answer for you.”
“Had I not seen your missive, I would certainly have attacked. I am confident that there would have been some uproar on the Northern Continent if I had done so—particularly within the church. So is your desire to limit the chaos on the Northern Continent?”
“I have no answer for you.”
“That makes no sense, though. The church’s strongholds are currently strengthening their naval abilities. That itself would be a threat to the Southern Continent. With His Majesty Zenjirou being your spouse, there is no way you would not realize that. Despite that, you stopped me from causing chaos on the Northern Continent and within the church. That seems to go against your best interests as royalty of the Southern Continent. Or has Capua already contacted the church?”
“I have no answer for you.”
Silence fell as Yan examined her expression, trying to read her intentions in her face rather than her words. It was one of the fundamental techniques of negotiation. Leading a mercenary group, he had needed to become skilled in negotiation and bargaining whether he wanted to or not. Negotiating with an employer was generally the leader’s job, and if he couldn’t see through an employer who merely wanted to chew him up and spit him out, it could lead to the deaths of the whole group, himself included.
Even his keen eye could glean little from Aura’s expression, though. She was the monarch of the country that had emerged from the great war victorious, so she was naturally well-versed in such matters. Fortunately, she did not rush the man, simply remaining silent after she had answered each question.
Silence from the monarch of a country of Capua’s stature was weighty in itself, but Yan wasn’t going to falter at just that now. He remained sitting in his chair, knees apart as he screwed his eye shut and thought things over. He considered what he wanted to accomplish, what he could risk for it, and the potential problems. Additionally, he considered what Aura would want for bringing this to his attention.
He was not possessed of such superlative insight that he could discern a person’s abilities and personality after a single meeting. He was someone who felt that to know a person, it was more important to investigate their past actions and words than to meet them. So although he would never say that he knew her well enough, he had at least a minimum idea of both her personality and abilities.
She was the queen of a huge nation, so she would have a decent amount of skill and self-awareness. Therefore, her judgments, suggestions, and plans would befit her rank. The problem was—as he had said before—this all seemed to contradict that.
It was frightening to take someone’s assistance when you had no idea of their goals or what they stood to gain from it. If he had still been ready to rampage, he would have thought nothing of it and leaped at the chance, but now that he had regained his calm, his actions were dictated by his natural reasoning abilities. He was responsible for a mercenary group, even if it was a small one, and he didn’t want to throw his or his men’s lives away for nothing.
Once he had concluded his deliberations, his decision was to follow through with the course he was on.
“Very well, I shall accept your proposal. However, I wish to see proof first,” he said, his single gray eye darting to the brazier. The corpse was little more than a blackened mass now.
Aura’s gaze was pulled along with his. “It seems about time, yes. Very well, I shall show you. Place it on the table.”
“Understood. I will borrow your tongs, then.”
He stood as he spoke. There was always a fire burning in this room, so there was a constant reserve of logs, water to extinguish them in an emergency, tongs to safely handle burning items, and so on. He picked up the tongs off the wall and, with practiced movements likely resulting from how much time he’d spent making camp over the years, used them to retrieve the rabbit’s corpse from the fire.
Fortunately, it was still a single piece, but its ears had long since burned away, so it would be hard to tell that it was a rabbit without having known ahead of time. Of course, since he had taken it from the fire, it was still burning. Yan placed it on the stone floor and scooped up some water before dropping it onto the burning corpse. Then, just in case, he used his booted foot to tread on it and carefully turn it over to make sure it was properly extinguished. Only then did he use the tongs to pick it up again.
The burnt, doused, and trodden-on rabbit was practically unrecognizable and barely holding together. He used the tongs to bring it to the table and placed it in front of Aura.
“Does that work?” he asked.
Even with the charred remains in front of her eyes and nose, she didn’t flinch.
“It is. I will give you your proof. Do not approach, though; you ought to be able to see well enough from there.”
“Very well.” The mercenary stayed where he was. She was right in that the remains were completely visible on the table from his position.
The spell she was about to use was time reversal. It was one of the most closely guarded spells of space-time magic and wasn’t even publicly acknowledged. Never mind foreigners, there were exceptionally few even within Capua who knew of its existence.
That was precisely why they were within this stone room, where only those most trusted by royalty would be guarding the secret. The fact that she was even casting it in front of a mere mercenary showed just how much of a threat she considered the Northern Continent.
Aura covered her mouth with her left hand to prevent her lips from being read and pointed her right towards the rabbit’s remains before incanting the spell.
“Let time’s flow reverse upon this object by one full day. As compensation, I present...”