A pure-white field of ice, as if the stars in the sky were twinkling.
Quiet and still to the far reaches of the horizon, without any enemies to battle or friends to exchange conversation with.
She serenely closed her eyes.
Battle. Ah, what a wonderful thing.
Beyond the Igania Ice Lake, conflict still continued on within the realms of men.
Long ago in the past, another dragon had described it. Saying the conflicts of men were terribly ugly and asinine. That they do harm to others of their own race, their own species, was proof of the depths of their wickedness.
Lucnoca didn't think so.
Those not of humankind didn't know. They didn't know how venerable and noble it was to challenge others unlike oneself, while trying to stay true to themselves with the power and knowledge they were able to possess.
Hope. Emotion. Animosity. Conviction. Any of them would work.
All in order to prove that the inner realm of the heart was something far bigger than the reality seen in one's eyes.
As long as all the living creatures across the horizon hadn't given up for good, conflict was undying.
Even beyond this far-off and frozen land, that alone remained ever unchanging for her.
As long as the spiral of strife continued on, eventually someone would appear to challenge Lucnoca.
Within the endless repetition, someday, someone she could fight would appear.
Someday.
When would Harghent, the man who had promised combat today, appear again?
He might have come tomorrow. He could never appear again, too. Lucnoca had known more people who had kept her waiting like that than she could count.
Someday. Someday.
Nevertheless. As long as there was the possibility, however small, her life wouldn't be empty.
She wanted an opponent. She wanted victory. She wanted defeat.
—She wanted to fight like the champions she had watched expend everything while fighting her.
"Listen. The Twenty-Nine Officials of Aureatia are the highest authority of the minian races. They're the ones who keep Aureatia moving. Make sure not to offend them at all and knock before entering just like I taught you."
"Yeah, leave it to me! I practiced a whole bunch!"
A manor in an affluent and high-class residential area. A strange pair advanced down the brightly illuminated nighttime corridor. A bizarre man cloaked in a full-body robe, who seemed to drag his feet behind him as he walked. A young girl walking with short steps while her attention was drawn restlessly left and right, her long soft braid of chestnut hair swaying with it.
The pair was Krafnir the Hatch of Truth, pioneer of the fifth system of Word Arts, and the Demon King's Bastard, Tu the Magic. A combination that anyone was likely to find incomprehensible, whether privy to the identities of the two or not.
"Look, look, Krafnir! What a cool sculpture! What d'ya think it is? The sun, maybe?"
"You damn—!! That sculpture was on the door, wasn't it?! Why did you break it?!"
"Wait—this wasn't supposed to come off? Uh, um…"
The bronze sculpture ornamenting the door was made with a mold from Craft Arts and certainly wasn't something that could be torn off with a minia's physical strength.
"Krafnir, take it!"
"No. You hold on to it."
"But—but they'll revoke my entry!"
"Pay them for the damages, then! I don't care!"
Gathering the eyes and ears of the servants with their banter as they went, the two finally arrived at the room they were searching for—the room of the
Seventh Minister of Aureatia, Flinsuda the Portent. The civil servant sponsoring Krafnir the Hatch of Truth's participation in the Royal Games.
"Um… Hello and good evening…"
Tu timidly entered the room, conspicuously hiding something in her hand behind her back as she entered.
Krafnir bowed, appearing exasperated with the girl's behavior beside him.
"…It's been some time, Flinsuda. This girl…is Tu the Magic. As I mentioned in my correspondence prior to arriving, I would like to recommend this girl to be a hero candidate."
"Hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh! Young little Tu, then? Nervous? I'm Flinsuda the Portent. We'll be great friends, I'm sure."
Flinsuda the Portent was an extremely corpulent woman, decked out in extravagant clothes with ornaments of gold and silver. Blowing on her beautiful nails she had been tending to, she gazed at the two with a beaming smile.
"Relax, relax~! Feel free to sit; I don't mind. Shall I have them bring some tea? Tu, dear, which would you prefer, amber tea or orange tea?"
"Oh, um, I… I wanna drink both!" "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
"Oh no, it's fine, it's fine! In that case, I'll have them bring both. You don't need anything, right, Krafnir? Misanthrope you may be, it's awful sad that I can only ever talk to you through a construct like this, you know."
"Yeah! Krafnir, you coward!"
"C-coward… This isn't cowardice! Remote construct synchronization! In order to show, not keep secret, this unrivaled technique to the masses and make them recognize the utility of Mind Arts, I—"
"We don't need to get all technical now, Krafnir. Now, what were you here to talk about, then?"
Flinsuda's cheerful smile never faltered as she hastened the conversation along.
"…The Sixways Exhibition. You need to back an unparalleled fighter, one who's certain to win out over the other candidates, yes? Of course, I don't plan on losing myself... But."
"…And you're saying little Tu here is stronger than you?"
Behind Krafnir, Tu carried one cup of each of the different teas in her hands and looked to be alternating between them, but she ended up finishing both in the blink of an eye.
"THAT'S RIGHT. NONE OF THE METHODS I CAN THINK OF CAN DEFEAT HER."
"No injuries no matter what sort of attack she's hit with, and neither poison nor fire have any effect on her. If that is indeed true, it's quite unbelievable, isn't it? Hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh! Now who's sturdier, I wonder, her or the Vortical Stampede."
"THE VORTICAL STAMPEDE ULTIMATELY DIED. SHE MAY'VE BEEN A CONSTRUCT WITH A HIGH DEGREE OF PERFECTION, BUT…I THINK THAT GIVEN HER PILOT REQUIREMENT, THAT LEFT BEHIND ROOM FOR WEAKNESS."
"And what about Tu? Can you definitively say that the girl has no weakness
you can think of?"
"…Look into her yourself. I'm leaving Tu with you."
"What?"
Stuffing her face with a tea cake, Tu looked at Krafnir with surprise.
"She should be left in your hands so you can inspect her. There's plenty of lead time before the matches start for that."
"If you're so insistent, Krafnir, then I think perhaps it is indeed worth a try." "Um… What am I supposed to do here exactly?"
Tu didn't understand most of the conversation going on in front of her. She was brought along to this manor today similarly under the vague pretext of "consulting about the next steps forward."
"Don't you worry now, Tu dear. If you come here to this mansion, I'll treat you to whatever sweets or teas you'd like, every day."
"…I'm happy to hear that and all, but…"
She dropped her eyes down to the plate still sitting in her palm. "Will I be able to meet with Sephite?"
"…With the Queen?"
"She's the girl I wanted to see. I came to Aureatia believing I'd get the chance to meet her here… If I participate in the games, will I get to see Sephite, too?"
Sephite. It was the name of the queen who sat at the top of Aureatia, not a person some mysterious unknown being called the Demon King's Bastard could get an audience with—as long as said being wasn't a potential hero candidate.
"I'd say so. As long as you keep on winning and advancing, dear." "…! I'll give it my all, Flinsuda!"
Although he gazed at Tu as a smile blossomed on her face, Krafnir's inner thoughts were spinning.
…With this, I've removed myself as a candidate.
Krafnir was very well acquainted with Flinsuda's overall character. She was a pragmatist who only believed in financial power, instead of her longtime friend Krafnir or the power of heroes. She also needed a peerless candidate for the games herself. Unmatched enough to compel the other powers at play into trying to court her as an ally.
With the money she gained from this, she was planning on expanding her own influence even further and solidify her authority for generations. There were some like her among the Twenty-Nine Officials, simply using their hero candidate for their own political goals.
If it was only being manipulated as part of Flinsuda's schemes, that would be one thing. This Sixways Exhibition...is dangerous. It's all preliminary groundwork for the era that will continue afterward. These true duel contests, both candidates struggling for their life, have to be nothing more than a plot to get rid of Aureatia's foreign elements, these deviant individuals.
If Krafnir was going to survive, he couldn't afford to get himself involved in such a plot.
At the very least, he was different from Tu. He wasn't a truly invincible being like her.
"...The Gray-Haired Child has wormed his way into the Sixways Exhibition." A meeting room in the Aureatia Central Assembly Hall. Rosclay the
Absolute spoke to the room filled with his main supporters.
Golden hair with red eyes. The beautiful features that charmed all the citizenry didn't currently wear the smiling face he could present to the nation.
"Not only is he simply appointing a hero candidate, but he's forcing us to accept the entirety of the Free City of Okafu itself as a hero—an interpretative use of the 'hero' idea beyond our expectations."
Now, at the stage where Aureatia could no longer stop their machinations ahead of the Sixways Exhibition, the Gray-Haired Child had made his move.
He skillfully used information control to create a threat out of the Old Kingdoms' loyalists, using the Particle Storm to their advantage, and then through his eloquence and negotiations to influence the Free City of Okafu's movements, he personally destroyed the Old Kingdom loyalists himself.
The New Principality of Lithia. The Particle Storm. An inevitable result of these priority threats to Aureatia piling up one after another, he had led them into this final state. The Gray-Haired Child's aim from the very beginning had been to take part in the Sixways Exhibition using the power of an entire nation itself.
"Rosclay. There's no need to accept them. They're foreign enemies of Aureatia."
Immediately replying was a tan-skinned man wearing dark tinted glasses.
The Twenty-Eighth Minister of Aureatia, Antel the Alignment.
"If we accept their demands, they'll trample us all, best they can. Right now, while we were forced to concentrate our focus on the Sixways Exhibition, the whole of Aureatia might be swallowed up by the Gray-Haired Child."
"…Another concerning factor is that the Gray-Haired Child went and colluded with that idiot Dant. Now that they count an entire nation among their allies—who's to say how much the Queen's faction is going to try to get in our way."
The snaggletoothed and wiry man was the Ninth General, Yaniegiz the Chisel.
On the front lines against the Old Kingdoms' loyalists, he was the general, together with Dant, tasked with defending the nation.
"Yaniegiz, it was your role to begin with to watch over Dant and make sure he didn't get caught up in any of the enemy's schemes. Why did you so easily let him make contact with their messenger?"
"…I definitely kept a close eye on him. However, they carefully aimed for the moment he was in the middle of a sudden retreat to contact him, so there wasn't anything I could do. The agents I had watching him were all mid-retreat, too, see. What, are you saying you would've been able to stop it, Antel?"
"That's enough, Yaniegiz."
Rosclay reined in Yaniegiz's provocation.
"…Nevertheless, he's right. The Gray-Haired Child choosing Dant's retreat to make contact means that was all a part of his calculations, too."
By showing the Okafu military force, who never actually fought at all, he had made both the Old Kingdoms' loyalists and Dant's forces move all at once. It signaled that he had a perfect understanding of the current internal factions within Aureatia.
Antel pushed up his tinted glasses with his middle finger.
"At the very least, though, our moves going forward are pretty cut-and-dried. We shouldn't recognize his participation as a hero candidate. Okafu's already
exhausted their national resources from the Black Tone's unconventional warfare. We need to move forward with negotiations while we hold the advantage."
"That is—," a shrewd-looking man wearing thin glasses replied. Third Minister, Jelky the Swift Ink.
"—impossible. We can't prepare any material that will draw out concessions from Okafu beyond the current status quo. You are quite right, Antel, we could defeat them in open war. Nevertheless, we mustn't force them to surrender. We don't have the economic reserves to simply govern Okafu after its surrender. Allowing Morio the Sentinel to continue governing Okafu would become an absolute condition of the negotiations. There's nothing we can make a move on here.
"I get all of that well enough! I'm saying that we need to present them with an alternative condition and block their involvement as a potential hero…! If we acknowledge their twisted interpretation here, there's no way to know what sort of moves the other Twenty-Nine Officials will start to make!"
"And what would you do for that alternate condition? As long as we recognize their participation in the games as a potential hero, we'll be able to avoid providing any financial compensation to Okafu regarding their recent intervention on the Toghie City battlefront. I'll say it again, but we don't have any public funds to spare. That includes both the budget for hosting the Sixways Exhibition as well as the losses we're anticipating to occur from the games themselves. Disaster relief to the cities damaged by the Particle Storm and the reconstruction support to Lithia. Our enemy's ascertained the limits of our support capabilities and is now trying to force things to go his way. What I can say, as the man responsible for our finances, is that it's impossible. Simple as that."
If they were simply going to war, the very best option would to be hit their enemy head-on with their overwhelming troop strength.
Therefore, there was a reason behind Aureatia's mobilization of individual champions to combat the New Principality of Lithia and the Particle Storm, beyond simple fighting strength and covering up the truth—champions didn't cost them any money.
No matter how high the rewards to the different individuals involved may have been, it was immaterial compared to the total cost to mobilize an army's worth of soldiers. It was necessary for them to do so in order to expel the hostile powers while preparing for their large-scale and prioritized political policy, the
Sixways Exhibition.
Antel put his hand up to his chin and searched for some other measure. "…Then why don't we prolong the negotiations with Okafu and stipulate a
deferral until the Sixways Exhibition is over. That would… Wait, that's all the more reason for the hero candidacy… I see."
"Exactly. As long as there is an undecided hero candidate, the Sixways Exhibition itself can't get underway. Much like the New Principality situation, assuming we directly eliminate the Gray-Haired Child or Morio the Sentinel ourselves, the enormous burden of governing the completely resourceless Free City of Okafu will be levied on us. It's not about whether to accept their hero candidacy, Antel. The opinions we need here right now are what we're going to do about it."
On top of it all, the circumstances around the Free City of Okafu were different from the conquered New Principality of Lithia and Toghie City. Okafu was a city that reflected the ideas of the visitor, Morio the Sentinel, from its point of inception. A city for the mercenary trade, constructed in a desolate mountain crag without any sort of resources to speak of outside of its military superiority. Even if they were defeated, given that there was nothing to be gained from occupying the city, they wouldn't be truly defeated.
"…Let's transfer them to Aureatia," Rosclay posited. Bringing his hands together before his forehead, he contemplated.
"We'll give Aureatia city citizenship to the mercenary industry that abandons the Okafu homeland and allow them to pursue their profession. Given that they are going to name themselves as heroes and participate in the Sixways Exhibition, our enemy's accepted the dissolution of their army as one of the conditions already. We'll assign Morio the Sentinel to govern Okafu, and the Gray-Haired Child will be allowed to work with Dant."
"That's…Rosclay. You're basically saying to open up our gates and invite an enemy army right inside our walls."
"We can't compleeeetely ban mercenary work anyway, right? We won't be able to stop contracts on an individual basis."
"…Naturally, I don't think this will totally keep their threat in check, either. What we need is to divide up their forces between their homeland and Aureatia… Then for all intents and purposes, we will be holding Okafu's only current source of capital, the Gray-Haired Child, hostage."
The wrinkles in Jelky's brow furrowed deeper as he replied.
"…So we'll be the ones pressuring Okafu's finances instead. In exchange for
allowing them to infiltrate the heart of our country, we won't allow them to raise the funds to wage an organized war. The Gray-Haired Child's assets and Okafu's coffers… Since the Sixways Exhibition's overall duration isn't set, it'll turn into a contest of resilience, then."
"That's right. I don't believe that by operating solely off their mercenary trade, the Free City of Okafu has anticipated this type of situation and amassed the capital to deal with it. However, the budget for everything involving the Sixways Exhibition has already been fully appropriated on our end, isn't that right, Jelky?"
"Yes. Just as I mentioned earlier."
"…With both sides stopping each other's attempts at war, then that means the Sixways Exhibition will ultimately decide things, after all."
Antel bitterly nodded.
"I think some serious consideration is necessary, but Rosclay's proposal might be the only way to go… If the money's not there, not much can be done about it."
"I think we're favored enough," Rosclay asserted as the one shouldered with the name Absolute.
"As long as they fight in Aureatia—they won't have the power of the people on their side."
There were too many threats that exceeded all possible estimations, and they couldn't wield unrestricted power. Despite this, their only option was to expend all their strength to maintain order. Until peace eventually came.
Aureatia. The largest and strongest minian nation, seizing control of the shura that threatened the very continuation of the world itself, plotted to use the power of the people to bring the world under their control.