Chapter 124

"More than that — among the nobles who haven't sided with the emperor, there's a lot of talk about the Crown Prince's disappearance, too."

"Is it Cherity's influence that the talk got started?"

"Yes."

For now, as long as there were people taking note of the fact that Yelberk had vanished, the emperor wouldn't be able to move recklessly.

He wouldn't be able to do anything immediately.

"……He'll be all right, won't he?"

Even so, Iberin's expression wouldn't lift from worry.

She just hoped nothing had happened.

"He'll be all right."

The hypnosis materials Yelberk had worked up the nerve to hand over hadn't even been put to use yet, and things had ended up this way — it ate at her.

But there was nothing to be done about it right now, so winning this as quickly as possible was the best option.

Iberin steeled herself.

It wasn't time to weaken before things had even started.

And besides, the protagonist didn't usually die so easily.

"You did get word to the people of the Gelta region?"

"Yes — at first they were on the fence, but as word came in from this side and that, they've started to head out as refugees."

The Gelta region currently had no lord and lay along the road that led to Lecashe, which made it the most dangerous place.

When war broke out, the ones who suffered most were the common people.

And the longer it dragged on, the more that was true.

"The fewer civilian casualties, the better. That's good. Good."

Now there was nothing to do but wait for the emperor.

---

Not long after they'd had word that the emperor was rallying his forces, more news came that he was already pushing in.

The intent not to give Lecashe enough time to prepare its defenses was plain.

Doing it that way meant they'd take a hit themselves too, but Lyssel's strength must have frightened them that much.

"Be careful."

"Don't worry."

"Though Duke Cherity still hasn't shown up. We haven't been able to get in touch since that letter."

"Maybe he's betrayed us."

"No way."

"He's not exactly the trustworthy type, is he?"

"That's true, but."

Even so, betrayal didn't seem likely.

They hadn't told him everything — not about meeting the god — but the way he'd treated Iberin as if she were the god made flesh, there'd been no lie in that.

Just then.

A heavy tremor came rolling in from far off. It seemed to be the rumble of hoofbeats from the emperor's so-called subjugation force riding in on horseback.

To feel it like this meant they'd already come quite close.

"It's dangerous out here now — go on inside, Iberin."

"All right."

Iberin looked back over her shoulder again and again as she went in.

On this side, they had no intention of opening the gates — not for the emperor, not even for the emperor's grandfather — and they were busy with their own preparations.

Every servant and soldier had been put to work boiling oil and hauling siege weapons and stones.

When Iberin stood watching them, without her having said a word, Rotte spoke up flatly.

"You can't."

"…I didn't even say anything?"

"You were thinking can I help?"

"…You're a mind-reader."

"After serving you this long, I'd hope so. No."

"All right, what should I do, then?"

Sitting still wasn't Iberin's style.

Maybe she should go into the forest and rush the god along.

She was in the middle of that ridiculous thought when —

The rumbling grew louder, and a stir broke out along the outer wall where Lyssel was.

"Get inside!"

It seemed they'd arrived.

---

Lyssel looked down from the wall.

Beside him, Count Elton murmured in surprise.

"To think the emperor would come himself."

This time even Lyssel was a little caught off guard.

He'd assumed the man would just hand down orders — he hadn't thought he'd come in person.

Put another way, it meant his backside was well and truly on fire.

"Grand Duke Lyssel Lecashe — open the gates!"

An old noble at the emperor's side shouted it out.

For all that he was a noble, his rank had to be lower than Lyssel's, and yet he was dropping straight into informal speech and commands.

"Open the gates, I said!"

He bellowed it a second time, but when there was no movement, the noble snorted as if he'd expected as much.

"Do you mean to defy the will of His Majesty here and now?"

Coming through the Gelta region wouldn't have given them any trouble.

There was no lord, and most of the territory's people had fled.

But from Lecashe, it was a different matter.

If words wouldn't get the gates open, the only option left was to force them open.

"My, my — quite a lot of you have gathered."

Lyssel, who'd been quietly watching, murmured it.

It wasn't a loud voice, but with mana carried in it, everyone heard.

"We have no grievance with Lecashe. We've only come to cut down the World Tree in the forest."

"Truly?"

"That is so."

The noble at the emperor's side was speaking like his mouthpiece.

"I wasn't asking you. I asked His Majesty."

"Hk…."

The noble flinched, then turned bright red and seethed.

But the emperor reached out an arm as if to calm him, and he stepped quietly back.

"What this one says is correct. We will cut the World Tree and turn back."

"And the Crown Prince? Have you killed him?"

"……What are you saying, Grand Duke."

"His Highness the Crown Prince came to call on us. And then he went missing."

"Are you trying to say his disappearance has something to do with me? I, too, am a father. The matter of my son is regrettable, but I judged that dealing with the World Tree had to come first — that is the only reason I've come here."

"They say cults have been running wild in the capital these days."

"Grand Duke, what is it you're trying to say. Will you open the gates, or won't you."

"Of course I won't. If you wish to cut down the World Tree, you'll have to come through me."

Shing—

Lyssel drew his sword.

"In other words — you're saying you'll have no part in the new Aleta."

A dry laugh escaped Lyssel without his meaning to.

"The new Aleta. How arrogant."

The emperor's brow tightened.

But he soon shouted out,

"It's been thousands of years since the god showed himself. The temple has rotted as thoroughly as anything could rot. I — I will be the emperor who changes this corrupted empire!"

"And what do you mean to do about the seed."

The nobles who didn't know about the seed wore baffled expressions.

"Pay that no mind. All you need to do is open the gates."

The emperor pressed it again as if to coax him, but Lyssel didn't budge.

"The wish."

That was when the emperor spoke.

"Sorry?"

"You owe me a wish — promised some time ago."

The emperor had no confidence he could beat Lecashe.

He had far more troops on his side, no question, but even a glance was enough to tell they were a ragtag bunch.

That was why he was reaching for the wish.

If it was the inflexible Lecashe, he'd thought, they would keep their promise.

"A promise has to be kept, doesn't it?"

But Lyssel didn't show a flicker of being thrown.

"I refuse."

"What?"

"Looking back on it now, the way you got that wish out of me was pretty pathetic, wasn't it."

"Pathetic — what?"

"Yes. So I've lost any intention of keeping that promise."

"Hh!"

The emperor let out a dry laugh.

Lyssel had already changed a great deal — and the emperor was the only one who hadn't realized.

"So you really mean to go to war?!!"

"If Your Majesty turns quietly back, I'm willing to look the other way."

"You're the one whose arrogance is splitting the heavens!"

The emperor, as if he had no intention of talking any further, gave a sidelong glance to the noble beside him and fell back.

---

A siege was a fight between the ones trying to take and the ones trying to hold.

Naturally, it dragged out and turned tedious.

Which was why the casualty count climbed by the day.

Iberin found her own work to do.

She started helping the chief physician look after the wounded.

Boiling oil, hauling stones — those things were dangerous, and everyone made a fuss, but assisting with treatment was fine.

Of course, watching the gravely wounded and the dead who came in each day was its own kind of agony.

In any case, with Iberin out there working hands-on, the children too began trotting around saying they'd help.

"Big brother soldier. Look at this!"

"What is it?"

"Ether drew this. This is you, brother."

"Wow, thank you, young master. It's the first time I've ever gotten a portrait of myself."

"Hehe. Treasure it, okay."

"Of course."

Ether liked running around, but he liked drawing too, and he kept the wounded company and drew pictures for them.

Sometimes it was a portrait like this one, sometimes flowers or butterflies — plants and landscapes.

That power was greater than expected, and laughter began to circulate through what had been a relentlessly gloomy infirmary.

"Lady Rozelia!"

On top of that, with Rozelia, the Saintess, pouring out holy power and healing people directly, the empire's people found their hearts settling.

"Thank you. Thank you."

Until now, commoners hadn't been able to meet a priest in their entire lives.

And now a Saintess was going around in person making the sick well — what a thing to be moved by.

The soldiers and knights healed that way threw themselves into the battlefield with even more fire and devotion.

A life given back by the Saintess — they'd want to do something, anything, to make themselves useful.

Kal was so capable that he was a genuine help to the chief physician.

Above all, with Iberin — Lecashe's lady — looking after the soldiers herself, Lecashe's image improved too. Two birds, one stone.

"We'll handle things here, my lady, so please rest for a bit."

And the demonic energy left in Iberin still hadn't been fully drawn out.

Rozelia was checking on Iberin's condition every day, but even so they couldn't relax.

"…I'll rest for just a little while, then."

"You aren't going to head in?"

"There's too much to do."

"This much we can manage!"

"Forget it."

"Aah, my lady."

"Then I'll take a slightly longer rest and be back."

"You'd better, you really had better!"

Only then did Iberin straighten and step out of the tent.

On her way to take that short rest, her gaze drifted toward the forest.

If she'd known it would come to this, she should have asked exactly how long the purification of the seed would take.

It wasn't going to take, like, more than a year or anything, was it?

She was in the middle of that faintly ominous thought when a brilliant white light suddenly burst from where the World Tree stood.

"Eep!"

The light was so powerful that the startled Iberin threw an arm up over her eyes.

The people inside the tent must have felt something too — they all came out and just stood there gazing blankly at the light.

And then that light shot down precisely toward where Iberin was.

"My lady!"

Struck head-on by the light, Iberin crumpled where she stood.

But even as her whole body took in the light, she knew nothing bad was going to happen to her.

Only — did it really have to be this dramatic.

If she collapsed again here, weren't they all going to worry.

How many times have I fainted in this place because of the god — honestly, Demedeto, you…

The thought didn't run any further.

"Mommy!"

Because along with Ether's near-scream of a cry, she lost consciousness.