“What on earth are you planning to do…….”
“I’ll be back shortly. Do not follow me. This is an order.”
“Your Majesty the Empress!!!”
Leaving behind Mrs. Giggs’s desperate cry, Adele slipped out of the palace as swiftly as a lithe black panther.
The imperial palace was in chaos. Adele began moving against the flow of servants rushing past in groups. In the confusion, no one could easily imagine that the woman in black training clothes was the Empress, and so no one recognized her as she brushed past.
The sky was already a blood-red spectacle.
What lay beyond the firmament? The sky, always so close yet impossible to touch, had endlessly stirred the human imagination. Minstrels sang of the gods’ realm, and astronomers read the movements of the stars—until that thing appeared.
The tower that suddenly manifested in this world one day turned the sky into fear in an instant. A sky beginning to be stained crimson was the very incarnation of terror, no different from hell.
Before such an overwhelming calamity, the human body was far too fragile. Disaster awakened humanity’s most primal fear. People screamed as they fled in panic.
But Adele remembered that day vividly.
That thrilling sensation—the shudder as something long dormant in every corner of her body awakened—was unlike anything she had ever felt. It was as if a dead body had gained new life. Was this how it felt for a young eagle to spread its wings and glide for the first time? Or for a young leopard to sprint across the wilds for the first time? That day, ten-year-old Adele awakened as a mage.
And from that day on, she had always tried to suppress that exhilarating sensation of mana. Because when she thought of the people suffering before such tragic calamities, she believed that even a fleeting moment of ecstasy should not be permitted.
Adele moved faster. The closer she drew to the tower, the fiercer the wind became. Trees collided and cried out, and objects were swept up by the wind, tumbling everywhere.
Fortunately, the epicenter of the tower was not atop a building. Strangely, however, not a single mage was in sight—only knights. Seeing the knights standing in a circular formation, gazing up at the tower, Adele could tell at a glance who their commander was.
＊ ＊ ＊
Whenever the colossal tower descends rapidly from the sky to the ground, a terrifying updraft of the century is created. At the moment Vice-Captain Henri Jacques went to fetch the mages, the knights were confronting the powerful updraft with their entire bodies. Late-summer roses in full bloom were torn up by the roots and hurled high into the air, and windows of nearby buildings shattered with a clamor. The knights were forced to bleed from flying debris even before the tower touched down.
“Commander!!”
At the adjutant’s shout, Lionel reflexively moved, and the shard of glass flying toward him was swept upward by the wind.
“Watch out for falling debris!!!! Be careful of glass shards!!!”
Despite the platoon leaders’ repeated warnings, casualties mounted everywhere. Lionel shouted as he personally knocked away the glass shards flying at his subordinates with his sword.
“Is the Keeper still not here?!!!”
Because of the shadow cast by the tower, the rose garden where the knights had gathered was as dark as night.
“Kieeeeeek!!!”
“Kraaaaaagh!!!”
As grotesque cries mingled with the howling wind, the knights’ fear deepened. The violent vortex that seemed capable of swallowing even their sturdy bodies, the black terror, and the cries of bizarre monsters all evoked hell itself.
Lionel abandoned hope that the mages would arrive on time. As always, the knights’ sacrifice would be inevitable. Wishing that his sword might protect even one more of his men this time as well, Lionel steeled his resolve once more.
“Draw swords!!!!”
At his booming command, the platoon leaders drew their blades in unison, and the remaining knights swiftly followed suit.
When the overwhelmingly massive tower cut through the raging wind and touched the ground, that would mark the true beginning of hell. Lionel widened his eyes and tensed every muscle in his body. The roar of the wind, loud enough to tear eardrums, seemed to numb his hearing.
Then, cutting through the dreadful noise, a low, clear voice like an autumn breeze suddenly pierced his ears.
“Why are you only watching?”
“?!”
Startled by the calm voice that did not fit this situation at all, Lionel turned his head.
Long black hair whipped violently in the wind and brushed across Lionel’s face. The woman, clad in form-fitting black training clothes, casually gathered her flying hair and deftly twisted it up. Standing among the burly knights, her small frame looked especially slender.
She stared at Lionel with intense golden eyes—eyes impossible to forget after seeing them even once.
“Your Majesty the Empress?”
Empress Adelaide had suddenly appeared in the very midst of the calamity.
＊ ＊ ＊
Lionel’s brows drew together. He quickly scanned the surroundings to see whether anyone had followed the Empress.
Amazingly, she stood alone without any escort. Since she was not wearing a dress, most of the knights seemed not even to realize that she was the Empress.
The Empress did not respond to Lionel’s call. Instead, she lifted her head and stared coolly at the tower hurtling downward.
“It’s dangerous! Please go back! Sir Repart!”
Growing frantic, Lionel stepped forward to block the wind as much as possible, shielding her delicate body, and called out to the adjutant before even hearing the Empress’s reply. He had to shout almost as if screaming to be heard over the roaring wind.
“Yes!”
“Immediately escort Her Majesty the Empress to a safe place!”
Sir Repart, squinting against the wind, nodded and approached the Empress.
“Why are there no mages? The tower is this close—why aren’t they destroying it? Are they waiting until it touches the ground?”
Frowning, the Empress questioned Lionel. But he had no time to answer.
“Please move quickly, Your Majesty! It’s dangerous!”
The danger here was not just the tower. As if on cue, a shard of glass as long as an adult’s forearm came flying faster than an arrow. If the unarmored Empress were struck by it, her body would be sliced apart instantly.
Why on earth had she plunged into this hell instead of evacuating?! The mere thought that even the smallest wound might mar that delicate body made his breath catch. Lionel stepped back, completely shielding her with his body, and raised his sword.
It was the very moment the glass shard, flying at a terrifying speed, was about to collide with his blade.
“?!”
The shard, which had been hurtling in with a chilling sound, struck something transparent and was gently pushed aside, then swept away by the wind.
“Keeper?”
Lionel thought at last that the mages had arrived. Sir Repart seemed to think the same, glancing around in search of them.
“They’re only coming now? At that speed?”
The mages were indeed approaching. But was the mana from just now really theirs? They were still extremely far away, and as the Empress said, they showed no sense of urgency.
Lionel turned to look at the Empress. Rather than retreating, she was walking toward the tower, uttering words of unclear meaning.
“A Grade 4 that’s close to Grade 5—no need to wait.”
Before Lionel could even respond, she drew a sword from behind her back. The pairing of the slender Empress and a sharp longsword was utterly incongruous, yet the long, sleek black blade she held matched its owner with frightening perfection.
Every knight of the Imperial Guard watched the Empress in breathless silence.
“What are you trying to do?!”
As Lionel hurried toward her and asked, the Empress replied crisply in a cold voice.
“Remove the tower.”
And no sooner had the words fallen than the Empress lowered her body and began running like a black panther—toward the black calamity falling through the red sky amid crashing thunder and flashes of light.
“Commander!!”
Sir Repart cried out in shock as Lionel immediately chased after the Empress.
As her body was about to be lifted by the updraft, Lionel desperately grabbed her shoulder. Clicking her tongue at the unexpected interference, Adele pushed his hand away with mana.
“Don’t worry. Don’t interfere.”
As he was shoved backward by the mana, the Empress hurled her entire body toward the tower without a moment’s hesitation. And before anyone could stop her, she stamped down hard with her right foot, entrusting her body to the rising current
