Long after the sun had sunk below the western sky——Zabok, having fled back to the Albas Empire, transported his withered, old-man-like companion to the national hospital and then made his way to the general reception desk on the first floor of the imperial palace.
“I’m Zabok Dodo, a regional tax collector serving the fifteenth district in the southern empire! I request an immediate audience with His Majesty the Emperor!”
“I’m terribly sorry. His Majesty the Emperor is occupied with affairs of state, and an immediate audience is not possible. Please submit the standard application form and allow approximately one week for——”
“——Don’t be an idiot, I can’t wait that long! I have information on Silver!”
“On the Proxy of the Saint……!? P-please hold on just one moment……!”
The receptionist stared in shock, eyes wide, and rushed off in a hurry to seek direction from her superiors.
The reason Zabok is behaving this way is not to serve the Empire’s interests.
The Emperor is currently soliciting information about the Proxy of the Saint from all sources, and an imperial proclamation has been issued promising a substantial reward to anyone who provides useful information.
(That Silver bastard put me through a humiliating ordeal——but I’m not the kind of man who takes a fall lying down! I’ll sell that thing’s information and collect an absurd bounty from His Majesty! Heh, that’s dozens of times more efficient than scrounging around a ‘garbage heap’ like the Spedio domain……!)
Zabok is wearing an evil grin when two imperial guards descend from the upper floors.
“Zabok-dono, this way to the throne room.”
“His Majesty the Emperor awaits.”
“Y-yes……!”
The Emperor is normally occupied with state affairs and an audience requires at least a week’s wait——but given the matter concerned Silver, he is led directly to the throne room.
Zabok keeps his eyes lowered as he follows the guards and kneels in the appointed position.
“——Zabok Dodo. Raise your face.”
“Yes.”
A voice that combines beauty and authority rings out, and he slowly lifts his head.
Before his gaze——on a golden throne sits the absolute sovereign the Albas Empire presents with pride to the world.
(E-even just seeing him in person, the presence is on a different level……)
The thirty-third Emperor of the Albas Empire, Adrinus Odo Albas, twenty-eight years old.
Height one hundred and eighty-five centimeters, slender build.
His hair is dyed a transparent shade of green and falls long enough to reach his back.
Large topaz eyes, a well-formed nose, finely textured skin——keenly handsome yet refined, strikingly well-composed features.
He wears a robe of the finest white silk adorned with golden designs and easy-cut trousers with wide hems.
“Zabok, I am told you have information on Silver. Is this true?”
“Y-yes……! He uses the Spedio domain at the empire’s southernmost edge as one of his bases of operations!”
“Oh……go on.”
“Sir, certainly!”
Feeling a solid bite, Zabok swallows and begins recounting the outline of what happened at the Spedio domain——touching up the parts that reflect poorly on himself as he goes.
“I-I am a tax collector by profession, and I had traveled to the Spedio domain to determine the appropriate land tax for the following year——”
He gets that far——and a sharp knife passes directly alongside his line of sight.
Snipped hair drifts down, and a thin line of blood runs from a shallow cut on his ear.
“Uh……what……?”
Adrinus addresses the bewildered Zabok.
“Zabok, I despise a man’s lie and a woman’s flattery equally. Know that if you speak another false word, that ugly face of yours will have a new hole in it.”
His left hand is already holding the next knife.
“I-I have no idea what you could mean……?”
Zabok still attempts to play innocent, and a look of disappointment is directed at him.
“Zabok Dodo, thirty-four. Graduated from the Imperial Officers’ Academy, appointed as a junior clerk in the central administration. Demoted the following year to regional official for conduct violations. Work ethic poor, no diligence evident. ——Does it seem likely to you that a spineless man like yourself would make a field inspection to such a remote location for the sake of proper land tax administration? You most likely went to squeeze a few coins out of them under the guise of taxation, happened to encounter Silver by chance, and that was the extent of it.”
“I-I-I-I-I……I am deeply, deeply sorry……!”
Having had every detail perfectly called out, Zabok lowers his head below the level of his backside and apologizes for his shallow false testimony.
“Consider this your last opportunity. Tell me everything you saw and heard regarding Silver, without embellishment or omission.”
“Sir, as you command……!”
After that, he recounts everything he knows without the slightest embellishment.
“——And so I somehow managed to flee back. That is the full account……”
“I see……”
Adrinus puts his excellent mind to work digesting Zabok’s story——and smiles.
“Hmm……this information has value. In particular, learning at this very moment that the Spedio domain is one of Silver’s bases of operations is extremely significant. This is most likely something the kingdom’s side has not yet grasped. ——Well done, Zabok.”
“I am most humbly grateful……!”
Zabok lets out a relieved breath——but the next instant, Adrinus’s eyes sharpen to a hawk’s keenness.
“——However. With this affair, Silver has developed no small degree of mistrust toward the Empire. Discord with that individual is worth ten thousand national crises. ……You have really caused me a nuisance.”
“I-I am——deeply——terribly——sorry……!”
Zabok’s tongue fails him from sheer terror, and he drives his forehead into the floor again and again.
Skin splitting, bone grinding, blood spattering——he just keeps bowing, prostrate, without pause.
He knows all too well, as an imperial officer, what fate awaits those who earn the Emperor’s displeasure.
Adrinus watches the painful display of groveling and sighs, granting mercy.
“Hahhh……enough. Stop wasting blood.”
“Yo-your Majesty……!”
He has somehow won a reprieve.
The very moment Zabok’s heart begins to relax——two powerfully built imperial guards seize him by both arms.
“Huh……what……?”
“Even the blood of a fool like yourself retains its nutritional value. I dislike waste.”
“You-your Majesty……?”
“Take him below. Grind him up for magic beast feed.”
“[Guards]: Sir!”
At the dispassionate order, Zabok’s face goes stark white.
“You-your Majesty, please wait……! Have mercy, please……! Your Majesty——!”
His desperate pleas go unheard, and he is carried down to the ‘Magic Beast Research Institute’ in the depths of the imperial capital——meeting a wretched end.
“Well, today’s state affairs end here. ——Rado, come with me.”
“Sir.”
Adrinus rises from his throne and, with his closest aide in tow, makes his way to his private chamber on the topmost floor of the palace.
Rado Tsezgenia, twenty-eight years old.
Height one hundred and eighty centimeters, slender build, shoulder-length light brown hair.
A man who has served at Adrinus’s side since childhood and has pledged him absolute loyalty.
Following the Emperor into the private chamber, Rado quietly chants a small spell.
“——.”
The candelabra mounted on the wall ignites, and a gentle light warms the room.
“Your Majesty, shall I bring something to drink?”
“Hmm……the ‘Glokis Seventy-Year.'”
“Sir.”
From a small fridge utilizing ice magic stones, Rado retrieves the specified bottle, pours the crimson wine into a clear glass, and presents it to the Emperor.
Adrinus settles into a deep red sofa, takes in the full bouquet of ripe grape and aged barrel, draws a small sip of wine into his mouth——and exhales with satisfaction.
“Phew……the earlier information confirms it. The Saint is certainly in hiding somewhere in the Kingdom of Elgia.”
“Because Silver has been sighted in the kingdom on consecutive occasions?”
“Hmhm, I’m not so hasty as that.”
In high spirits, Adrinus lets the wine’s bouquet linger and develops his theory.
“As you know, the kingdom’s national treasure, the ‘Red Book,’ contains the prophecy that the Saint would reincarnate three hundred years hence. ——The Saint placed a reincarnation spell on herself immediately before her execution——that is established fact.”
This position of Adrinus’s is one of complete consensus among the imperial saint scholarly community as well.
“And what follows is classified intelligence not disclosed to the public. ——.”
He deploys his spatial magic and produces a weathered tome from thin air.
“Is that……a grimoire?”
“One of the Sacred Relics passed down through our Albas imperial family——the grimoire left by the legendary saint’s party’s ‘great mage,’ Shasha.”
“Wh-what……!?”
While the Saint was bequeathing her useless dark history to posterity, Shasha had apparently been passing down the wisdom of magic to future generations.
“According to Shasha’s writings——the reincarnation spell takes effect in a place where deep bonds were forged during one’s lifetime. From this information, I had deduced that the Saint’s reincarnation would occur either in the Holy Nation, where she was born, or the Kingdom, where she was executed. But judging by Silver’s sightings and range of activity, the bond that was carved more deeply appears to have been that of death. The Saint’s hatred of humanity must have been considerable.”
As Adrinus laughs with quiet malice, Rado deepens his thinking.
“The Saint’s reincarnation point was narrowed to either the Holy Nation or the Kingdom……. And Silver appeared at the Elgia Royal Museum and at the Spedio domain in the kingdom……yes, that does make the idea of the Saint hiding in the kingdom quite compelling.”
Adrinus lifts the corners of his mouth with satisfaction and brings the glass to his lips.
“By the way, Rado——why do you think Silver appeared at that museum?”
“To recover the ‘Red Book’ stolen by the demons?”
“No, the timeline doesn’t fit. When Silver entered the fray, the Red Book was still stored in the kingdom’s underground.”
“……That’s true.”
“Silver, who had so thoroughly concealed his existence up to that point, chose for some reason that day, that moment, to appear on the public stage and declare ‘the Saint’s reincarnation.’ I cannot help but find this strongly strange.”
“Strange……?”
Rado tilts his head slightly.
“Think about it. Was that actually appropriate?”
“……I’m sorry, I’m not quite grasping the intent of the question.”
“Don’t overcomplicate it. It’s simply that the stage in question was beneath what the occasion called for. From Silver’s perspective, this would be a major announcement held back for three hundred years. If you’re going to do it, you would do it at the very heart of the capital, making a spectacle of it……no, that is what you should do. And yet, for some reason, Silver appeared at a suburban museum and made the declaration there.”
“Which means……the declaration was not intentional but accidental?”
“Precisely. Most likely, Silver had no choice but to appear at that moment. This is my intuition——but to protect ‘something precious’ from the immediate threat of Wise, he made the decision to step forward himself. And there is only one thing in this world he would go to such lengths to protect——something he must protect.”
“You don’t mean……that the Saint was there at that scene!?”
“Yes, without question. That day, that time, that instant——the Saint was at the Elgia Royal Museum. ‘The Saint, immediately after reincarnation, is experiencing severe deterioration of her power and memory’——cross-referenced against the saint scholarly society’s announcement, my deduction holds together.”
The reasoning process aside, the conclusion Adrinus has arrived at is exactly on target.
“However……the Elgia Royal Museum is a tourist landmark of international renown. Its daily visitors number over thirty thousand. Even knowing the Saint was there, narrowing the investigation down would be an extraordinary challenge.”
“Yes, mobilizing every imperial intelligence agent, tracing every person present that day would be impossible. However, by adding just one single ‘condition,’ the field of investigation narrows dramatically.”
Adrinus rises from the sofa and sharpens those topaz eyes.
“Do you know this? On that day, at that location, there was a group with a rather particular status.”
“A group with a particular status……?”
“First-year students from the Kingdom’s Saint Academy. Apparently they were there on a field trip.”
“Wh-what……!”
“To summarize the discussion so far……the Saint’s reincarnation destination is narrowed to the Holy Nation or the Kingdom. And just recently, a figure claiming to be the Saint’s Proxy appeared at a peculiar moment in a kingdom museum——and on top of that, first-year Saint Academy students happened to be present. Is this a coincidence? No it is not. There are no coincidences in this world. Everything is necessity.”
Adrinus snaps his fingers——and the next instant, a large array of photographs materializes on what had been a blank wall.
“These are……!”
“Photographs of every first-year student at the Kingdom’s Saint Academy——and these are their detailed investigation dossiers.”
“……You are something else entirely. (Fast. Everything is impossibly fast. Just how many moves ahead is this man reading……!)”
As Rado falls speechless, Adrinus presses further.
“Having had their personal circumstances thoroughly investigated——a suspicious student was found.”
“A suspicious student……?”
“Students attending the hidebound Kingdom’s Saint Academy are without exception daughters of great nobles, wealthy merchants, central officials——an august gathering of distinguished lineage. However, among them is an ‘irregular’ born and raised in a ‘certain remote domain.'”
“A remote domain……surely not!?”
“Yes——the Spedio domain, where Silver appeared just now.”
From across the entire world, to the Kingdom of Elgia.
From the Kingdom of Elgia, to the Royal Museum.
From the Royal Museum, to the Saint Academy’s first-year students.
From the Saint Academy’s first-year students, to the young woman from the Spedio domain.
Adrinus, with his brilliant mind, steadily narrows down the Saint’s hiding place.
“As you know, the Spedio domain is a tormented land devoured by the four great powers on all sides. From such an impoverished place, a Saint Academy acceptance has emerged. This is, incidentally, apparently the first time in the Spedio domain’s long history.”
“To think you had already investigated this far……!”
The depth of his cunning, the all-seeing perception, the terrifying speed of his hand——Rado’s loyalty to Adrinus knows by this point no bounds whatsoever.
“Looking at this dossier, it appears she is playing the part of an ordinary student at the Saint Academy——but that won’t do. Traces of the extraordinary leaking out in countless moments, an unshakable sense of wrongness, a level of excellence she cannot fully conceal. A young girl’s performance is no match for these eyes of mine.”
“And——the name of this person……the name of the Saint……!?”
Rado can contain himself no longer and leans forward, demanding the answer.
“Hmph.”
Adrinus wears an unfazed smile, produces a knife from inside his robe, and throws it in a sharp, smooth motion.
It cuts straight through the air——and buries itself in one particular photograph.
“——Ro Steinclaw. That one is the Saint.”
Close, but no cigar.