Dian cautiously burrowed into Karl’s embrace. She rested her face against his chest and placed her hand there.
“Your Majesty.”
Karl, who had been floundering in a black sea, slowly opened his eyes. As he lowered his gaze with a creaking motion, he saw soft blond hair nestled against his chest.
“I’m fine.”
“……”
“I’m fine, Your Majesty.”
Karl remained silent, turning those words over in his mind. After a moment, he slowly pushed Dian’s shoulders back. Pushed away, she stared up at him with wide, vacant eyes, as if her soul had left her body. The Emperor asked,
“Did you send a merchant to the Empress’s palace today?”
“……What?”
“I asked if you sent a merchant to the Empress’s palace today. I hear you mentioned the price of a fine steed?”
“……Your Majesty?”
A bone-chilling cold ran down her spine. Fine hairs stood on end, and goosebumps rose to the point that it was terrifying.
The Emperor’s expression was utterly cold. He was not worrying about Dian. He was interrogating her—why she had sent a merchant to the Empress’s palace.
Dian hurriedly grabbed the Emperor’s hand and spoke desperately.
“The Empress was unwell, wasn’t she? The national holiday is approaching, Your Majesty. Do you remember the dress the Empress wore at the wedding banquet? That was her wedding dress. She even canceled what little budget there was. Then with what money is Her Majesty supposed to buy jewelry and dresses?”
“……”
“I was foolish. But there was no better way. If I had given her money directly, she would have been even more offended. How could I dare speak of the price of a fine steed? I merely told the merchants the amount you told me to use. I only told them that I would pay within that budget and to keep it in mind. It was money you gave me, Your Majesty. I’m sorry.”
Dian spoke while weeping endlessly. She was not lying.
Karl slowly withdrew the hand Dian had been clutching and swept his hair back.
Sunlight, beginning to lie long, poured in through the window and washed over Dian. The crimson sunset, burning red like the tongue of the gatekeeper of hell, licked as if to devour her, brushing over Dian’s cheek that had flown all the way to the gates of heaven.
What is hell? Had I ever flown as far as the gates of heaven?
The gatekeeper of hell whispered in Dian’s ear.
“……Provoking the Empress will bring you no benefit.”
“……”
“You said that having only my love was enough for you.”
At those words, Dian answered a beat late, barely managing to respond.
“……Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Remember those words. As long as you remember them, I will protect you.”
The Emperor took a step back, widening the distance between them. Then he issued an order that pushed her into the abyss.
“Vacate the Ivory Palace.”
“……Pardon?”
“I will prepare quarters for you in my palace. Move there. The Imperial Palace is a place the Empress’s hand cannot reach.”
He could roll around fighting with the Empress like dogs if he wished. But if he were to wage an all-out war with her over this issue now, the Valdir ducal house would surely intervene.
“If you don’t like that, you may return to the House of Count Poitiers.”
“No! No, Your Majesty!”
Dian urgently grabbed Karl’s arm and shook her head.
“Don’t abandon me. Please don’t abandon me, Your Majesty.”
At those words, Karl, as if forcing himself to swallow a great lump, shook Dian’s arm off.
“I told you not to say that.”
Her face, disheveled by shock—her face looked as though she might die at any moment.
“You are…… becoming more and more like my birth mother…….”
Karl turned and began to walk away quickly. His strides were so fast it was as if he were running.
And as he reached the end of the corridor, he ran into someone who was just coming up the stairs. The person was not dressed like a palace employee and wore an identification badge around her neck—clearly someone from outside. Facing the Emperor head-on, she hurriedly bowed and stepped aside.
“I’m the skin-care specialist summoned by the palace mistress.”
“……”
The Emperor frowned briefly, then kicked open the doors of the Ivory Palace and left.
＊ ＊ ＊
A short while later, the siblings headed to the library. Having been notified of the Empress’s visit, the butler personally followed behind them, pushing a food cart. Adel, who had been deeply engrossed in a book, rose from her seat at the visit of the three.
“Shouldn’t you eat something?”
“Thank you. The library is splendid.”
While they spoke, the butler, who had laid out the food at lightning speed, quietly withdrew.
“It is not a dinner in the dining hall, and we were told to keep the visit secret, so the food is modest.”
“It’s more than splendid enough. Thank you. Now then, let us eat.”
Because she had not eaten much all day, Adel scraped her portion clean.
“Does it suit your taste?”
At Lionel’s question, Adel swallowed what she was chewing and replied,
“Very much.”
After finishing the meal, the three moved to an area with plush sofas and a low table. The ducal library was extremely spacious, with many places suitable for sitting scattered throughout.
“Now, ask me what you are curious about.”
As soon as she sat down, the Empress spoke bluntly. As someone who had stood close to the pinnacle of a nation, she had no need to soften conversation with flowery words. Yet it was surprising that her manner did not feel overbearing. As she had felt at the wedding, the Empress was someone who could command the room with even the lightest words and actions.
While Theseus observed the Empress, Lionel began with the first question.
“May I ask about the destruction of towers?”
When Adel nodded, Lionel asked as if he had been waiting for this. In truth, he had been holding back this curiosity all along.
“That day, you said, ‘It’s a fourth-tier close to fifth-tier, so there’s no need to wait.’ Are you able to destroy towers of fourth tier or lower on your own?”
At that question, Adel tilted her head and shook it slightly.
“Towers of fifth tier or lower, I can handle alone. In the case of fourth tier, I can destroy mid- to lower-level towers, but upper-level ones are too much alone. Still, I usually don’t destroy them solo if I can help it.”
“You destroyed the tower before it touched the ground. In Gottrop, is that the usual method of destroying towers?”
“About five years ago, I stumbled upon that method by chance. Since then, the number one rule of tower destruction has been to destroy them before they touch the ground.”
To destroy a tower, one must break its core. The core is usually located in the mid-to-upper levels of the tower, so to efficiently break it, it was best to ride the updrafts upward.
“The problem is that mages who can ride updrafts like I do are rare. So statistically, about half the towers each year are destroyed before touching the ground, and the rest are, unavoidably, destroyed after they’ve already touched down.”
“The extent of the damage must be incomparable.”
“You saw it that day, didn’t you? When destroyed before touching the ground, as long as the striker doesn’t make the mistake of falling, there are no casualties.”
At that point, Theseus, who had been listening, asked in a low voice,
“What do you think about leaving towers that have touched the ground as they are? Is something called ‘management’ even possible?”
At that question, Adel’s face hardened into a severe expression. Then, in an utterly firm tone, she asserted,
“Absolutely not.”
“Absolutely not?”
“Absolutely.”
“How does Gottrop respond to towers that have touched the ground?”
“The principle is to destroy any tower that has touched the ground within two days of its appearance. Mages in the vicinity are obligated to destroy the tower, and if the jurisdictional mages are insufficient, the next tier of mages must rush in.”
Theseus, who had been quietly watching the Empress, asked for a moment’s leave and rose from his seat, returning with a long cylinder. Adel immediately sensed that it was a map.
As expected, it was a map of Ehmondt, meticulously marked by territorial divisions. Theseus spread it wide across the table. As Adel looked down at it, Lionel began placing red stones at various points on the map. In an instant, dozens of stones were set down. Even after using up a handful of red stones, he took another handful and continued. Adel’s expression darkened by the second as she watched.
By the time Lionel withdrew his hand from the map, the Empress looked like someone who had forgotten even how to breathe. Light glimmered through the translucent red stones, casting shadows, making it seem as though the entire map were drenched in blood.
“……You’re saying all of these are towers?”
“Yes. At this moment, these are the towers being ‘managed’ in Ehmondt.”
“What? Managed?”
The Empress slowly swept her gaze over the places where the red stones lay.
