“Why…” A few seconds later, Firefly’s gaze was fixed on the screen, her eyes widening with a mixture of shock and rising anger.
Kazuki’s heart skipped a beat.
He immediately opened the chat group interface.
Robin hadn’t bothered with a private message; she had posted the information directly for all to see.
He scrolled up to find an earlier message from her.
[Pure Beauty Knight]: @Titania II, this is the information I gathered from the Intelligentsia Guild regarding Glamoth…
However, there’s something very strange.
The Guild’s archives have no record of a ‘Glamoth Empire.’Instead, they mention a civilization called the’Glamoth Republic’…
Seeing this, Kazuki couldn’t help but sigh.
Little Bird, aren’t you a bit too efficient for your own good…
Slamming Firefly with the unvarnished truth so suddenly wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Kazuki had always worried about this moment; for someone like her, it might have been better to digest the reality of the Glamoth Empire piece by painful piece.
He glanced at Firefly beside him.
She was still reeling, lost in the shock of the revelation.
Taking the opportunity, Kazuki downloaded the file Robin had sent from the Intelligentsia Guild’s archives.
File: “The Iron Cavalry of Glamoth”
Historians of the Intelligentsia Guild postulate that the Glamoth Republic was destroyed by the disaster of the Swarm.
An alternative, though less substantiated, view claims that the Republic fell due to its attempts to transcend its own nature in the face of a powerful enemy.
To turn the tide against the Swarm’s terrifying offensive, the Ruling Council of Glamoth staked everything on a single, desperate gamble.
They were determined to reshape the very essence of humanity to adapt to the war—by creating weapons “born for battle.”
The result of this endeavor was “Titania.”
An Empress with no real power, she commanded and constrained the knights connected to her through a telepathic network.
In the dreams woven for these warriors, their sole purpose was to protect Titania and her “Empire.” Throughout their short lives, they studied, they fought, they accepted the Empress’s leadership, they fearlessly charged into the enemy’s maw, and they died glorious deaths.
No one knows precisely when this grand lie was exposed.
Was it the day the proportion of baseline humans in Glamoth territory fell below a critical threshold?
Was it the day scientists discovered the Empress had begun to resist her own imprisonment?
Or… was it the day the Swarm’s offensive finally dissipated?
People only know that the Iron Cavalry regiments gave everything for an “Empire” that never existed.
After decades of bloody, grinding war, the remains of mechs and insectile limbs formed a “River of Death,” a glittering, terrible debris field that snaked through every corner of the Glamoth star system.
When the remaining Swarm could no longer pose a credible threat, the leaders of the Council rang the bells of peace.
They announced to their people that they had dispersed the cataclysm that had blotted out the sky, and that the Republic would once again welcome the dawn.
They executed the Empress “Titania,” who posed the greatest threat to their rule, and issued new orders for the remaining Iron Cavalry to clear the Swarm from other star systems.
The surviving Iron Cavalry, their numbers now impossible to replenish, eventually faded into obscurity, worn down by constant warfare and the affliction known as entropy loss syndrome.
However, the Swarm from distant star systems once again descended upon the civilization that had barely survived its first onslaught.
After that, the civilization known as Glamoth vanished from the cosmic record.
The peace its people longed for descended forever upon the masterless star system.
Stardust and wreckage converged into a silent river, flowing together between the stars.
“So…
it was all a lie?” Firefly’s voice was as light as a feather, yet it carried the weight of a thousand pounds of despair.
“Glamoth, Her Majesty the Empress, our Empire…
all of it…
it’s all fake.”
Her body swayed, as if all her strength had been siphoned away in an instant.
The ramrod-straight posture she had maintained through years of grueling battle collapsed, revealing a vulnerability she had never shown before.
Kazuki reacted instantly, his hands shooting out to grip her trembling shoulders, preventing her from crumpling to the ground.
“It’s not fake,” Kazuki’s voice was steady, infused with an indisputable power.
“The Empress was real.
The Glamoth Iron Cavalry was real.
And the blood you shed to protect your home was also real.”
“But the Empire never existed!” Firefly looked up abruptly, her eyes shimmering with tears she stubbornly refused to let fall.
Her voice was raw with the agony of being torn apart from the inside.
“The glory we fought for, the faith we protected with our lives…
it was all a lie fabricated by the Council!”
For a knight of the Glamoth Iron Cavalry, what could be more cruel than having their glory, their entire reason for being, negated?
It was no different from having the very foundation of their existence gouged out from under them.
“No, Firefly.
Listen to me.” Kazuki tightened his grip on her shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze.
He spoke each word with deliberate, unshakeable force.
“Although the Empire was a lie in your world, don’t forget who you are…
you are the Glamoth Empress—Titania II.”
He spoke the name Firefly had been so desperately resisting.
Watching her pupils contract into pinpricks, he pressed on, “Perhaps in the original timeline, even without this chat group, you would have discovered the truth on your own.
And in that moment, you didn’t break down.
You didn’t give up.”
“You would have thought, ‘So what if I’m the Glamoth Empress?
So what if I’m Titania?
Then that’s who I’ll be.'”
Kazuki’s voice gradually rose, carrying the unique, infectious cadence of a master storyteller, painting a future that had not yet happened but felt vibrantly real before her very eyes.
You revealed the truth to your comrades in the Iron Cavalry and raised the first banner of resistance.
While fighting the Swarm, you also fought the Council.
After defeating your deceived compatriots in battle, you didn’t eliminate them.
Instead, you extended a hand and invited them to join you, declaring: ‘Wake up!
Our enemies were never each other, but those who fabricated these lies!'”
“You swore an oath to rescue the imprisoned Empress, and your name began to spread throughout the star system.
More and more of the deceived Iron Cavalry answered your call, rallying to the cry, ‘Glory belongs to the Glamoth Empire!'”
“A single spark can start a prairie fire.” Kazuki’s eyes were burning, reflecting Firefly’s own stunned expression.
“In the end, all the Iron Cavalry united as one, launching a final counteroffensive against the corrupt Council.
You broke through the prison that held the Empress and tore away the Council’s mask of hypocrisy.
To honor you, the hero who rescued her and led their people out of the lie, the Empress declared you her imperial successor.
When she finally passed away in peace, you naturally ascended the throne and became…”
Firefly’s lips trembled.
A single tear finally escaped, tracing a path down her cheek, but it was no longer born of despair.
It was a warm current mixed with shock and a deep, dawning realization.
She looked at Kazuki as if seeing through him, to that other version of herself in another timeline—the one who had never given up.
“Titania II…”
She whispered the name softly.
The sound wasn’t loud, but it connected with the determination of a soul reborn.
It was as if some invisible shackles had shattered and fallen away from her body.
The courage and pride that had been buried by lies began to surge back into her heart, carried on the tide of her own blood.
“Yes.
Titania II.” Kazuki smiled, a hint of relief softening his tone.
“Lies might deceive for a time, but the blood you shed, the land you protected, and the convictions you burned for will never be fake.”
He extended his hand toward Firefly.
“Since…
you already know the truth…
then it’s time to start working toward the future I described.
The future of Titania II.”
[Elysian’s Note:
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