There was a strange space.
A brilliantly clear sky, the sun lighting the earth brightly.
A large clearing in the middle of a fresh forest wrapped in green shade.
A small stream ran through the clearing, and with the stream at their backs some twenty large boulders were set in place.
Beautiful birds and small animals moved here and there among them.
By any measure a peaceful and beautiful space.
But.
There was no sound.
The wind blew and the branches swayed, and there was no sound.
Never mind birdsong; there wasn't even the sound of a small insect in the grass.
And not even the sound of running water rang out.
A real space, yet a place that stirred a strange feeling, like looking at a painting.
Into that soundless space a noise suddenly rang.
HMMM!
One of the twenty-odd boulders trembled finely and made the sound.
Then it was wrapped in a blinding pure-white light and abruptly vanished.
And what appeared in its place was a person.
Precisely, a person seated in an enormous chair.
The attire was out of the ordinary.
The whole body was wrapped in a long, trailing pure-white robe; over the head was pulled a smooth silk hood; and on top of that a pure-white mask covered the face.
The mask too was somewhat grotesque.
It was simply an oval of pure white with not a single feature rendered on it.
The arrangement of the boulders resembled a throne hall.
One boulder at the highest seat. And to its left and right the rest lined up in long rows like retainers.
An arrangement like retainers attending a king or a noble in the main hall of a palace or a lord's seat.
The one who appeared seated in the chair occupied the highest seat among them.
The pure-white mask had both feet drawn up to the chest in the great chair, leaning back against the rest in a bored, reclining posture.
And a moment later.
Another stone changed.
The one who appeared this time wore no different attire from the white mask in the chair.
The one difference was that the mask had a red line drawn horizontally across the forehead on the white ground.
And that he appeared standing, without a chair.
THUD!
The red-lined mask prostrated himself the instant he appeared.
THUD!
He struck his forehead so hard the ground shook.
"The North Warden confesses his fault to the Master!"
"You are not unaware that this is not a matter settled by banging your forehead, are you?"
"I beg your generous pardon!"
"Tell me how the matter went."
"Yes, Master. The original plan was to use Kalian Facial to bring down House Facial's Summer Castle. As the eldest son and eldest daughter of Summer Castle are the finest in House Facial, the aim was to break them and weaken House Facial's strength. But Kalian Facial, assessed as timid and useless......."
That was when it happened.
HMMM!
Another stone trembled, and in an instant another figure appeared in its place.
The attire was identical; the difference was a red line drawn vertically down the mask's left cheek.
He knelt hurriedly and spoke.
"Master, this East Warden has something to report."
"I am receiving the North Warden's report."
"It is connected to it."
At the East Warden's urgent words, both the Master and the North Warden paused.
"What is its content?"
"I will follow once the North Warden's report is finished."
At the East Warden's words the man called Master kept silent for a moment.
An attitude of something displeasing him.
But shortly he spoke to the North Warden.
"Finish your report."
"Yes. Kalian Facial not only killed the two informants keeping watch, he slipped past the eyes of the special operations team guarding the hideout and fled. The special operations team was subsequently wiped out by Chloe Facial while tracking Kalian Facial's trail."
"And after that?"
"We confirmed that Chloe Facial moved rapidly toward the Empire's heartland. Activity in the imperial capital being difficult......."
The Master's and the North Warden's heads turned to the East Warden.
The East Warden spoke without hesitation.
"Kalian Facial and Chloe Facial both appeared in Renhardt territory."
"What are you saying!"
The North Warden shouted reflexively.
But what followed was more astonishing still.
"The two encountered Neik Renhardt, and each passed Neik Renhardt's test."
"A-absurd! Chloe Facial could well do so. But Kalian Facial, the youngest, does not have the ability."
"Does it make sense that a man without such ability killed the informants and escaped the special operations team's eyes? Or are the North Bureau's forces incompetent?"
"Does the East Warden insult the North Bureau!"
"I am telling you to admit that the North Bureau's assessment of Kalian Facial was wrong. He is a man who passed the test of Neik Renhardt, a monster in human form. If he earned such a monster's recognition, then the North Bureau's assessment must be judged wrong."
"But......."
The Master, who had been still, cut in.
"The North Warden will be silent. I will hear the rest of the East Warden's report."
"Yes. Kalian Facial held a private meeting with Neik Renhardt for about thirty minutes, the content of which we are currently ascertaining. Kalian Facial and Chloe Facial have now left Renhardt territory and are returning to Facial territory."
"And acting against them en route?"
"They are using the Mana Train, so we cannot move rashly."
The Mana Train was under the management of the Empire's Imperial Rail Administration.
Touch it wrongly and one might have to face the imperial family's forces.
As the railway was the Empire's highest-tier strategic infrastructure, it could not be touched carelessly.
The Master asked.
"So, the conclusion?"
"We judge it impossible to touch House Facial's Summer Castle."
The Master's gaze turned to the North Warden.
"The next best plan?"
"To use Autumn Castle."
"Autumn Castle?"
"The eldest son of Autumn Castle is outstanding in ability but greedy and narrow-minded, and easy to handle if bait is used well."
"Then why has no move been made against Autumn Castle?"
"Because two people out of Summer Castle, now three, are so outstanding that Autumn Castle offers no way forward. Therefore I beg the Master's approval to use the Elixir."
"Hmm. Is Summer Castle that formidable?"
"If even Kalian Facial, their sole weakness, was concealing his strength, then Summer Castle cannot be touched."
The Master, languid throughout, finally straightened his back.
"And bearing the risk to erase Summer Castle itself?"
"One misstep and there is a risk the main body is exposed."
"I see. I permit use of the Elixir."
"Thank you, Master."
"Both of you withdraw."
"By your command!"
The North Warden and the East Warden answered together and vanished in an instant.
And the great boulders that had been there settled back into place.
Left alone, the Master leaned back into the chair in his languid posture.
"A trigger....... Now that it has come to this, there is nothing for it but to create a trigger......."
With those words the Master too vanished, chair and all.
And so the fresh forest space sank back into silence.
And at some moment even that freshness was stained with darkness, like a light going out.
***
STEP!
A heavy footstep was stamped down.
Its owner was none other than Neik Renhardt.
Neik pushed straight into the largest of the many tents spread out before him.
This was the field encampment of House Renhardt's Eastern Expedition.
The place he entered was his private tent and his command post at once.
"You've returned."
A young man rose to greet him the moment he entered.
Perfectly groomed dark brown hair.
A young man of intellectual bearing, with neat features and deep eyes.
Neik Renhardt's eldest son, Stellan Renhardt.
Neik asked.
"The training?"
"Rotational deployment drills and monster-luring drills for each corps are complete. As expected, the First Corps is in the best condition. The survey of monster habitats is finished, and we are calculating a new wave prediction model."
Stellan finished and lightly tapped the thick stack of documents on the table.
A report documenting in detail what he had just said, no doubt.
A smile crossed Neik's face briefly as he nodded.
"Well done."
"Thank you. But was there a reason you suddenly went to the main house?"
"A feeling."
A vague answer, but Stellan nodded as if he understood.
Because at some point it had become true that whenever his father moved on that 'feeling', there was always a reason for it.
'How to put it? A foresight that came from going deeper within the Seventh Circle?'
That was how Stellan accepted Neik's 'feeling'.
But Neik's words didn't end there.
"Aizel had a friend."
Stellan looked at Neik in bewilderment.
His face was full of doubt.
Had his father ever volunteered a remark like that?
Normally he would have shut his mouth after saying it was a feeling.
And then another thing.
"Aizel's friend?"
The content was astonishing too.
His far too gifted younger brother had no one around him he could call a friend.
A situation astonishing from every angle.
And more astonishing content followed.
"Kalian Facial, of the Summer Castle bloodline of House Facial. Quite serviceable."
High praise.
And absurdly, the subject was a child of House Facial, which could be regarded as a rival House.
But one more astonishment remained.
"So I mean to teach him. It seems there is something in it for me as well."
THUMP!
Stellan dropped the stack of documents in his hand without realizing it.
That Neik Renhardt had set his mind on teaching the sword himself.
"A-a remarkable talent, it seems."
Stellan even stammered as he asked.
"He has talent, yes....... but his sword has a curious grain to it. That is what caught my eye."
Stellan gave up on responding further.
Because his father's eyes were shining and a smile sat at the corner of his mouth.
But the words that followed.
"In terms of talent alone....... he was similar to Aizel. Aizel's lies on the magic side, but I mean their potential is comparable."
As he heard that, a deep shadow suddenly fell over Stellan's eyes.
***
"Kai."
A calm voice rang inside the carriage.
It was Chloe's.
I threw my gaze straight at Chloe across from me and answered.
"Yes, sis."
But.
"Kai, what is wrong with you?"
Chloe asked with the expression of someone who had lost the whole world.
What's she talking about? What's wrong with me, about what?
When I tilted my head, not understanding, Chloe suddenly shrieked.
"Why are you speaking formally to your sister all of a sudden? Why are you putting all this distance between us?"
What? No, how am I supposed to understand this?
Same blood and same mother or not, there's still a hierarchy, so speaking politely is only natur.......
Wow, shit, this is too much.
Why does she pull that face like she's lost her country at the drop of a hat?
Well, what of it?
"My lady, we'll be arriving short....... Hah, whoa, whoa whoa!"
LURCH!
No sooner had the coachman's urgent shout ended than the carriage stopped hard.
The rough jolt sent Chloe, whose internal injuries hadn't fully healed, lurching.
Pain must have flared from the shock; Chloe grimaced slightly.
I turned my head, thinking I ought to say something to the coachman, and that was when.
"Kalian Facial, get out here right now!"
Someone's voice rang out.