Prologue

I put on speed, relying on magic to augment my limbs and launching myself from rooftop to rooftop in the darkness of night. My pursuer’s mana remained distant. The dhampir apostle was going after the magical creatures I had scattered throughout the holy city as decoys. If my luck held, I might manage to escape without a fight.

I glanced back over my shoulder, holding the hood of my cloak in place. The Offices of the Holy See, heart of the Church of the Holy Spirit that had used and betrayed Master Gregory, shot rays of light in all directions, illuminating the darkness.

“We were so close,” I muttered, “so close to unmasking that false Saint.”

Under cover of darkness, I—Ito Tijerina, Lord Gregory Algren’s loyal servant—had infiltrated the closely guarded complex with our collaborator, each of us accepting the risk we ran. We had reached its innermost sanctum, intent on comparing the wavelength of the false Saint’s mana against a sample collected in the Lalannoy Republic, only for an ambush to force us to scatter and each fend for ourselves. How would I ever make a sufficient apology to Master Gregory, especially after he had graciously heeded my pleas not to enter the heart of the pontiff’s domain in case the worst should happen?

I bit my lip, landed on a steeple flying the church’s vile banner, and stealthily cast a spell of detection. My collaborator was...still battling one of the greater apostles while he made his retreat. The old fox with ties to the Dark Lord must have been even more formidable than I’d imagined. My eyes widened a moment later as two massive mana sources collided, kicking up a windstorm. Several buildings near the city center collapsed amid a cloud of dust.

Should I assist him? No. I can’t be certain that I have the wavelength we want, but returning with it should still be my first priority.

Fortunately, a “rat” inside the church had furnished us with detailed maps. I felt confident I could escape pursuit. I pulled my hood back over my head, poised to resume my withdrawal, and—

“Found you!”

The moon dimmed, and a laughing, crimson-eyed girl dove at me on wings of blood that clashed with her pristine white robe.

Fifth Apostle Isolde Talito! How did she find me?!

I clicked my tongue and leapt for all I was worth. Landing in a deserted street, I drew the metal wand from my belt and multi-cast the advanced spell Imperial Thunder Lance at the airborne vampiress. Javelins of lightning swarmed her, spinning for enhanced penetration.

“Goodness. You do like to play rough.” Isolde gave an affected sneer and beat her bloody wings, adding speed to her reckless charge. She weakened my thunder lances with her potent barrier and hacked a path through them with daggers of blood that she conjured in both hands. Wounds covered her slight frame but closed almost as soon as they appeared.

Monster!

I fell back, casting another advanced spell I’d kept in reserve: Imperial Thunder Hammer.

“Oh?” drawled Isolde. “What have we here?”

“See how you like being crushed!” I yelled, bringing down the massive hammer of lightning directly on top of her. The roar and the shock of it bent lampposts, cracked walls, and shattered windowpanes. But I took off at a run, not waiting to confirm the effect of my blow. The vampiress’s mana hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

The empty street led me to a circular plaza. A statue of the hooded Saint stood atop a plinth in its center. Mana lamps cast the eight stone warriors of legend ranged around her into sharp relief. This plaza numbered among the most famous sights of the pontiff’s domain.

“So why is it deserted?” I muttered. Even in the dead of night, a battle on this scale should have drawn a crowd. Yet I hadn’t encountered a single townsperson since fleeing the See complex.

Don’t tell me...!

“Wards of misdirection.” Isolde landed lightly ahead of me. Her robe was torn and bloody, but her flesh was unscathed. She conjured blades of blood around her as she continued, “I’ve heard they’re a closely guarded secret of the demisprites, but I don’t know much more about them. We can hardly let word spread that the church counts dhampirs among its apostles, now can we? So there’s no need to hold back.”

The apostle, a scion of a prestigious Lalannoyan house, couldn’t have had much experience of combat before becoming a dhampir. She made many wasted movements and left any number of openings. Even so, I gave myself a fifty percent chance of surviving a head-on confrontation.

“It looks as though you’re finally taking this seriously.” The white-haired apostle giggled. “How delightful.”

“Isolde Talito, answer one question before I kill you,” I said coldly, ignoring her taunts and covertly weaving a spell. “Why do you follow that false Saint? Surely you don’t imagine she’s genuine? You don’t strike me as a true believer.”

The girl arched an eyebrow and curled her lips, the first change in her sneer I’d seen. “Oh, is that all? What a silly question, Ito, servant of Gregory Algren.” Isolde pirouetted, rising slowly with each turn. Mana overflowed her slight figure and made the plaza shake. “What do I care if she’s false or genuine?”

Blades of blood filled the air, all pointed menacingly at me. Goose bumps rose on my skin. Dancing in midair with a rapt expression on her face, the vampiress seemed as beautiful as she was revolting.

“I simply wish to live for eternity with my darling Lord Artie. Nothing else matters. Surely you understand, the way you follow that foolish little master of yours.”

Flames of wrath ignited in my breast. I owed Master Gregory my life. No one insulted him with impunity.

“It seems...the time for words has passed!” I swung my wand in a wide arc, casting more Imperial Thunder Lances to skewer the insolent apostle from all sides.

“These again? I’ll admit they pack quite a punch...” Isolde effortlessly evaded my lightning, sneering all the while, and her daggers tore through every lance in a bloodred flash. “But did you imagine they would hit me here, where I have room to maneuver? Oh, poor, poor Ito! I think it’s time I put you out of your misery!”

The vampiress beat her bloody wings and launched herself straight at me, certain of victory.

I have her!

I unleashed the secret weapon I’d activated but held in reserve—magic known only to the eastern Tijerinas. The shadows on the ground wavered, and with a thunderclap, a great obsidian fang tore through Isolde’s hastily conjured blood shields, her potent barrier, and the wings she had folded for protection like so much tissue paper. The apostle twisted, avoiding a direct hit with preternatural reflexes, and landed on the ground.

“Wh-What...?” she gasped, her robe awash in fresh blood.

“The Lightning Fangs of the Black Wolf.” A gust exposed the two small horns on my head. Sweat ran down my cheeks. “I can’t see a reason to tell you more. The crime of insulting Master Gregory deserves worse than death. I’ll chew you up before you have a chance to heal.”

“Lowly demon! How dare you?!” the apostle screeched, then gained altitude and charged again. The moon was out, and no doubt she trusted implicitly in her own powers of regeneration—as I’d hoped she would.

I ignored my own rapidly depleting mana and cast the ancient spell once more. A fang of obsidian lightning struck from the girl’s blind spot, directly above her, and tore off her left arm without mercy. Spell formulae flickered over the wound. However...

“I...I’m not healing!” Isolde wailed. “Wh-Why not?! Why not?!”

I doubted she had ever found herself in real danger since becoming a dhampir. Shaken, she retreated and landed on the ground, clutching her wound with her right hand. I drew a deep breath. I only had one more cast in me.

“You have mana to spare, but your combat experience is sorely lacking,” I declared, masking my precarious state with an icy tone. “I can hardly bear to look at you. Let’s end this.”

A lightning fang emerged from the shadows to impale the girl...

“Yeah, about that...”

...and disintegrated, cleaved through by a blade of blood.

I recognize this technique.

I turned my gaze upward and saw a young man. White hair, crimson eyes, and spectacles, with wings of blood and a stained robe that had been apostle white. He carried a single-edged dagger. Fourth Apostle Zelbert Régnier had spotted me at a great distance and lashed out at me with an invisible blade in the Lalannoyan capital. Now he had made short work of my house’s cherished spell. I gritted my teeth as the bespectacled apostle landed in front of Isolde.

“We’re shorthanded.” He shrugged. “I know she’s green, but I can’t have you killing her just yet.”

“Really, Lord Régnier, you are awful. Does the sight of an injured girl not distress you?” Isolde pouted and regrew her arm. My regeneration-blocker had worn off.

As I feared, vampires are simply too hard to kill when the moon is out. They don’t abide by the same rules as the rest of us.

Régnier ignored the girl’s complaint and touched a lingering vestige of mana. “So you had a monster-slayer up your sleeve. They say the Witch of the East created this in the gap between the age of gods and the mortal era,” he said matter-of-factly. “I misjudged you. The Dark Lord didn’t send you Tijerinas to live among humans for nothing. Although it looks like the fuel efficiency of this thing is about as bad as it gets.”

He knows I have to cast it sparingly. Not a good sign.

Stifling panic, I thrust my wand at Régnier. “If you’re here, then—”

“Don’t go giving me up for dead, Tijerina girl,” an exasperated voice cut in as an old fox-clan man appeared from behind me without betraying any trace of his presence. His gray hair looked disheveled and he had lost his coat, but he bore no visible wounds. This was Fugen, the collaborator Master Gregory and I had met in a Lalannoyan watchtower and a martial artist of many mysteries. He was also the architect of our infiltration plot.

“Hey, gramps. Glad to see you’re looking well.” Régnier grinned. “But was chucking a whole steeple at me really fair? You’re not a giant, let alone the Mountain Hurler.”

A steeple? This little old man threw a steeple? His build isn’t much different from Master Gregory’s. Where did he get the strength for such a feat?

“So even that wasn’t enough to finish you off,” the old fox spat bitterly. “If you had any feeling for your elders, you’d drop dead and spare me the trouble.”

“I hate to break it to you,” said Régnier, “but I’m probably the oldest guy here. Wait. I did die once, though. Does that make a difference?”

According to the “rat’s” intelligence, there were three apostles in the Holy See tonight. If the last one stopped chasing decoys and came here, our odds would be slim indeed. So what ought I do in the meantime?

I raised my wand. “Fugen, I’ll buy you time! Use it to—”

“Vampires...” The old fox shot me a glance that said, “Don’t get any stupid ideas. Wait for the right moment.” I couldn’t imagine what he expected of me, but he returned his gaze to Régnier and smoothly continued, “...appear as threats to mortalkind in any number of myths and fairy tales. They must be the best-known monsters out there. Enhanced strength and healing, backed up by a near-inexhaustible mana supply, make them a real handful, especially when they’re getting an extra boost from a moonlit night.”

Both dhampir apostles eyed Fugen with amusement. He advanced, feet gliding over the ground as he sank into a combat stance.

“But on the other hand, no vampire I’ve faced could get over their contempt for mortals. Deep down, none of them thought they could lose. Take Idris Kokonoe. He couldn’t use his full strength, and he was facing Heaven’s Sword and the Swordmaster, but he still never considered retreating. If he’d barred our way as a swordsman, I don’t see how we’d ever have beaten him.”

I’d heard a little about Idris on the road to the pontiff’s domain. He had been a pure-blooded vampire and the church’s fourth apostle.

Fugen glared. “Zelbert Régnier, you call yourself? Who are you? You wield a vampire’s power, but you’ve mastered that swordplay of yours too. You didn’t learn that in the kingdom. The commonwealth, I’d say. No, the Thirteen Free Cities.”

Régnier brushed the dirt from his robe, evasive. “Reminiscing isn’t really my style.”

The old fox raised one gray eyebrow and struck at the heart of the matter. “More than two hundred years ago, the great demisprite sorceress Floral Heaven developed a secret spell, or so a little bird told me at the time. It was supposed to extend the lives of people suffering from incurable illnesses by half vampirizing them. It looks like it worked—and at a price. Is that how a man of your ability was leashed so easily?”

The normally eloquent Régnier ruffled his own hair in silence. A vortex of mana beyond anything he’d shown before kicked up dust and made mana lamps flicker. “This is why I can’t stand you old warhorses. You’ve got to realize almost no one in the world today knows that story.”

A shadow fell. A cloud must have covered part of the moon. The air hung heavy, pregnant with the tension of a drawn bowstring.

The apostle Zelbert Régnier’s crimson eyes flashed, boring into Fugen. “I’m not happy unless I give as good as I take, so let me get a shot in too. I recognize your fighting style. My best friend used it.”

He’s clearly a more powerful dhampir than Isolde. Who would he call his “best friend”? And how would Fugen know them?

The old fox’s eyes widened, and he scowled. “Allen, you mean?”

The Brain of the Lady of the Sword is Régnier’s friend and Fugen’s disciple?!

The unexpected revelation left me baffled. If that were true, why had this man lowered himself to join the apostles? It sounded as though the answer lay more than two centuries in the past, but I could infer no more.

The old fox and the dhampir grinned bitterly.

“Fate’s hand at work.”

“You said it.”

That seemed to mark the end of this battlefield chat. All present poised to resume fighting.

“Régnier! Isolde!” A girl in a hooded white robe landed beside the apostles.

The third one! Why now?

Régnier adjusted his spectacles and winked. “And here’s our resident stickler, Edith. Luck’s not on your side.”

A shiver ran down my spine. My instincts were screaming a warning.

Wh-What now?

A nonchalant Régnier said, “Well, time to die.”

The dagger at his belt shot from its sheath, and a merciless crimson blade bore down on us. Fugen and I narrowly evaded it, but a counterattack was out of the question.

“You’re not going anywhere.” Isolde laughed, deploying her own bloody blades with her regrown left arm.

“Any foe of Her Holiness deserves swift death.” The new apostle began to deploy a grand-scale spell I didn’t recognize. Our future looked grim. But while my panic grew, the old fox stood calm.

“Fugen! What do you expect—”

A wind rose, and an unfamiliar woman’s voice sounded in my ear.

“I will cover you. Withdraw.”

A moment later, the ground rumbled, and colossal roots and branches burst through the paving stones.

Grand-scale botanical magic?! Is this the power of the wardens who guarded the ancient World Tree?

The apostles, caught off guard, vanished beneath the tidal wave of vegetation. At the same time, flares of light magic streaked through the plaza—a textbook blinding tactic.

Who on earth...?

“Don’t stand there staring, girl!” Fugen barked. “If you want to see your lord again this side of the grave, run for your life! We can talk once we’re safely away from here!”

“Of course,” I murmured, stung. He was right. I couldn’t let myself die until I had repaid my debt to Master Gregory. Aware of the writhing plants and flares still engulfing the plaza behind me, I launched myself off the ground, hot on the old fox’s heels.

✽

I, Edith, least of the apostles, leapt onto a building behind me while roots and branches tore the ground and light-magic flares seared my eyes. Régnier and Isolde did likewise.

I cursed under my breath. By the time I landed amid the deafening roar, the heathens’ mana was already speeding away and splitting up.

More decoys?!

I gritted my teeth and opened my eyes to find the magnificent square reduced to rubble in mere moments. The plants had stopped moving, but most of the columns that bore the statues of the eight legends had toppled and shattered. Only the statue of the Saint remained unharmed.

Who could work botanical magic on this scale?

While I pondered, Régnier scratched his head and said, “I’d figured they weren’t the only ones who snuck in, but man, that sure blew up in our faces. Leave it to a Walker, I guess.”

His tone hadn’t changed, but his crimson gaze was sharp as a blade. The interference had caught even the dhampir flat-footed. But what did he mean, “a Walker”?

Isolde and I spoke at almost the same moment.

“What shall we do, Lord Régnier?”

“Permission to pursue! We’ll regret it later if we let them pry into Her Holiness’s affairs and live.”

Régnier considered briefly. “Nah.” He whipped his left hand carelessly through the air. A flash like fresh blood soaked into the vegetation and, to our shock, sliced through every root and branch along with the Saint’s statue. Billowing dust cloaked the plaza. “Forget chasing them. I don’t know about the Tijerina girl, but that old man is tough. We can’t leave the Holy See unguarded while Viola and Levi are out fetching Dialogues on the Apocrypha of the Great Moon. Especially since the prime apostle and company haven’t returned from Shiki for some reason.”

“Very well,” sighed Isolde.

“As you command,” I said. What choice did we have now that a superior apostle had spoken? Prime Apostle Aster Etherfield, the Sage, and Alicia “Crescent Moon” Coalfield were too much to hope for, but we could still have given chase if at least Isolde’s father, Sixth Apostle Yz, had returned. Nevertheless, nothing could matter more than Her Holiness’s safety. With an unknown sorcerer at large, I had every reason to obey.

“Hey, don’t take it so hard. We’ve got work to do.”

Régnier must have picked up on my discontent—Isolde was surprisingly pliable. He raised his left hand ostentatiously, touched his thumb to his middle finger, and—

Snap.

At the apostle’s command, little black birds materialized and flew off in all directions. Was he using magical creatures to probe the whole city?

“Our resident dirty rat has been careful to cover his tracks, but he finally slipped up. Those flares were his work. The final battle’s coming up. Time to weed out the actors who don’t deserve a spot on the stage.”

Régnier deployed a spell formula in midair.

Is this the light spell from a moment ago?

The dhampir’s crimson eyes blazed in the moonlit night. “Come on, Isolde, Edith. The real hunt starts now.”

Chapter 1

“Then you’ve never heard anything about the House of Coalheart or the other ‘heart’ and ‘field’ houses on the Lockheart estates out west, Patricia?”

“N-No, Lynne. Not a thing,” said the girl with unmistakable blonde ringlets sitting across from me in her school uniform.

Patricia’s gaze wandered over the furnishings—doubtless a sign of her unease. Although we were in the same year at the Royal Academy, we weren’t especially close. I also belonged to the Ducal House of Leinster, one of the kingdom’s four greatest noble houses and rulers of the southlands, and the style “Highness,” to which I was entitled as the duke’s daughter, carried considerable weight in aristocratic circles. I had summoned her to call on me the moment she’d returned to the royal capital; perhaps she feared I meant to interrogate her about our classmate Fred Harclay, whom she had been secretly sheltering in her western home.

I returned my teacup to its saucer with a little sigh, glimpsing my red sweater sleeve out of the corner of my eye.

True, Fred’s grandfather, the grand knight Earl Haag Harclay, had led the main rebel army during the Algren uprising. But he had already received his sentence. I merely wished to question Patricia on a few points that my dear brother—Allen of the wolf clan, called the Brain of the Lady of the Sword—had asked me to check on some time ago.

Allen had made a habit of giving others credit for his achievements. Recently, however, he had slain an ice wyrm and a false goddess in the capital of Lalannoy and the church’s second apostle, Black Blossom—whose sinister machinations had spanned the west of the continent—in the Yustinian emperor’s palace. What’s more, the Hero herself had bestowed on him the name of Alvern, first among the eight grand ducal houses. He could no longer run from glory. I had even received word that he had battled and put to flight Prime Apostle Aster Etherfield, the Sage, in the kingdom’s northernmost province of Shiki. He and his sister Caren, who had been granted the same house name, would no doubt receive a summons to a formal audience at court upon his return to the city, leaving him no time to speak with Patricia himself. And in two weeks’ time, I would be too busy to question her as well.

The great demisprite sorceress Chise Glenbysidhe, the Flower Sage, had recently arrived in the royal capital ahead of her fellows, and she had given Caren of the wolf clan and me the following advice:

“Lynne, Caren, we’re forging a new fire dagger and reforging that lightning-wyrm dagger for you to wield. I want you there when we do it. We’ll be using the Grand Arsenal on the western edge of the city. His Royal Majesty has already given permission to reopen it. It’ll be a few days of heavy work, so get anything that can’t wait out of the way before we start.”

The Grand Arsenal had been shuttered a century ago, and the chieftains of the long-lived races had gone all the way to the king to put it back in operation. They were making every effort in their power to fulfill their agreement with my dear brother.

At that very moment, Caren was at the Royal Academy, silently drawing up paperwork to pass her responsibilities on to the next student council. My best friend Ellie Walker, the “Little Lady of Wind,” was doggedly working to dispel the power blocking access to the Sealed Archive, while my cousin Lily, the maid, busied herself ensuring that my dear brother would get his due. My dear sister—Lydia Leinster, the Lady of the Sword—was with him in the far north, supporting him alongside the northern Duke Howard’s eldest daughter, Lady Stella, and Felicia Fosse, Allen & Co.’s head clerk. And my other best friend, Tina Howard, the “Little Lady of Ice,” would be helping them all immensely even as she drove them to distraction. Everyone else was giving their all. I could do no less!

I closed my notebook and bowed to the blonde girl. “Thank you. And forgive me for calling you away from your self-study at the academy. I’m expecting a call today and cannot afford to leave the house.”

“Th-Think nothing of it! I only wish I could have been more helpful.” Patricia waved her hands, looking flustered and relieved at once. She must have realized that I hadn’t asked her here to hound her. She added sugar to her tea and ventured, “But hasn’t my sister Valery already answered these questions? I was under the impression that Margrave Solnhofen called at our home to speak with her personally.”

“Lucky” Valery Lockheart was the youngest knight in the royal guard. She had fought valiantly in defense of the Great Tree during the Algren rebellion. Her talent had recently earned her a place in the expedition to Lalannoy as well. Evidently, the sisters were on good terms.

“My dear brother teaches that you can never double-check vital information too often,” I replied. “I’ve read Valery’s report, but I wanted to hear what you had to say as well.”

“Mr. Allen said that?” Relief entered Patricia’s eyes. My dear brother had taught several lessons at the Royal Academy before summer vacation and helped to administer the final exam of our first semester. His name inspired confidence.

I was cheerfully pouring myself another cup of tea when my classmate surprised me.

“Lynne,” she murmured, “you’ve grown prettier than when I met you in class. Is that another fruit of Mr. Allen’s tutoring?”

I felt my cheeks burn in spite of myself.

C-Could that be because I’ve come to recognize my secret feelings for my dear brother and—

A timely log cracked loudly in the fireplace.

S-Stop that, Lynne. Moments like this demand composure above all others. Calm yourself!

“My,” I managed. “Perhaps I’ve grown without realizing it.”

“I’m jealous. When events took me by surprise, I fell all to pieces.” Patricia went quiet, staring down at her hands.

“Is Fred still in the eastern capital?” I asked.

“He kept saying that he ‘shouldn’t have taken advantage of my kindness,’” she answered slowly, “that he should have gone east the moment the rebellion ended. He looked so brooding, like he blamed himself. I wanted to go with him, but my father wouldn’t hear of it.”

Outside, the rain fell harder again, reducing even the academy’s Great Tree to a dark silhouette.

What can I say in a situation like—

My dear sister’s words came back to me. “He doesn’t know how to give up, so I can’t either.” That was my dear brother’s secret, she had told me on her return to the southern capital for summer vacation, beaming so beautifully that she hardly seemed like herself.

Yes, you’re exactly right.

“Acting Duke Gil Algren led his forces to a great victory over the Knights of the Holy Spirit on the eastern border the other day,” I informed Patricia as though it were no concern of mine. “I hear that old Harclay’s Violet Order led the charge.”

She mumbled a belated “What?”

From the standpoint of aristocratic custom in the kingdom, allowing a commander who had taken part in a rebellion, however reluctantly, to spearhead an assault must have seemed incredible. However...

“My dear brother has performed great deeds in many lands, even in the short time since the rebellion. No doubt meritocracy will continue making inroads in the kingdom. I do not know how Fred feels about his house, but he will be able to make his own way if he strives for it. Have no fear.”

“Thank you.” Patricia nodded repeatedly, wiping the beginnings of tears from her eyes. She wore the look of a girl in love.

“Oh, but I do suggest you secure an engagement sooner rather than later.”

“F-Fred and I aren’t— I m-mean— Oh, really, Lynne!”

I chuckled, watching Patricia blush candy-apple red. The rain had stopped while we talked, bringing an interval of clear skies.

“Thank you again for calling on me today,” I said.

“No, thank you. My heart feels lighter for the visit.” Patricia stood, put her school beret back on, smoothed her skirt, and picked up her bag. “I think I’ve taken enough of your time. Please give everyone my best.”

“Yes, of course.” I thumped my chest and touched my communication orb disguised as an earring. “Lily, bring a carriage round.”

“Sure thing! Coming right up!” responded the voice of my cousin the maid, who was standing guard. If only she were always so dependable.

I stood...and noticed that my classmate had paused by the door. “Patricia? Is something the matter?”

Did she leave something behind?

I had begun to look around when she turned, blonde ringlets waving. “I’ve just remembered. When I was very little, my late grandfather took me...to visit Earl Coalheart.”

I started. The line of Coalheart had died out, but I had heard that Lady Stella and Tina’s late mother, Duchess Rosa, had belonged to it.

Patricia squinted, struggling to recall a far distant memory. “I fell asleep almost as soon as we arrived, so I hardly remember what was said. But I have a vague idea that the earl sounded grave, and that he told my grandfather something about ‘the theft of Lady Alicia’s black hat and parasol, kept in her memory.’”

Thump. I felt my heart leap in my chest. My dear brother had done all in his power to learn what had gone on in the House of Coalheart, so far without success. At long last, I had found him something to go on, however slight!

While I was thrilled, Patricia bowed apologetically. “F-Forgive me. I wish I could be more definite.”

“Not at all. I’ll be certain to report this to my dear brother.” I opened my notebook and jotted a quick memo.

I must telephone the northern capital later!

The door opened silently, and maids filed in. I returned my attention to my classmate. “I’ll see you again at the academy. I hear that classes will resume before winter vacation, and I expect Tina will return by then as well.”

“Yes, at the academy,” Patricia agreed. “You must tell me something of your romance next time.”

“I’ll consider it.”

Patricia gave a grown-up chuckle and left the room, ringlets swaying.

I think I’ll drop my dear brother a hint about Fred.

I was summarizing the results of the interview in my notebook when the door burst open without so much as a knock.

“I saw Lady Patricia home, Lady Lynne!” announced the exuberant intruder, an older girl with a black ribbon in her lovely long scarlet hair. She wore an exotic jacket with a pattern like arrow fletchings and a pair of leather boots.

Her name was Lily Leinster. Despite being the eldest daughter of the under-duke who governed the kingdom’s southernmost territories, my cousin aspired to maid-hood and had earned herself a place as number three in our corps. Just recently, she had brought Caren back to the city ahead of the rest of their party.

Lily took the chair across from me without hesitation and poured tea into a spare cup with a facility that bespoke long practice. The floral clip in her hair and the bracelet on her left wrist caught the light.

“Did you find out anything new?” she asked lazily.

“A little,” I said with a shrug. “Has my dear brother called from the northern—”

I heard hurried footfalls from the corridor, followed by an “I b-beg your pardon.” Into the room stepped Sida Stinton, a maid in training, with her glistening brown hair in pigtails. She must have rushed to get here, because I could see the Great Moon pendant she normally kept hidden inside her blouse. Showing her slow but steady progress, she straightened her uniform and looked me firmly in the eye. “Telephone call for you, Lady Lynne. It’s from the northern capital, and—”

I took off at a sprint without waiting for her to finish.

The trainee yelped. “You’re m-making me dizzy!”

“Hey! No fair, Lady Lynne!” Lily protested. “Wait for me!”

What did I care? I tore through the corridors and dove into the room that held the telephone. Snatching the receiver off the desk with both hands, I cried, “Oh, dear brother!”

That’s odd. Why doesn’t he answer? I was expecting him to call my name at once in the world’s gentlest voice, like he always does.

“Control yourself, Miss Second Place.” Tina Howard’s familiar, icy voice hit my ears instead. I grimaced, realizing at once that I had mistaken who was on the other end of the line.

Recomposing myself, I rested my left hand on the desk and cleared my throat. “Wh-Why, if it isn’t Miss First Place. I never dreamed you would take the time to call. Should I expect a blizzard here tomorrow?”

“What?! And here I went out of my way because I was afraid you’d get lonely.”

“I’m not lonely in the least, certainly not with Ellie, Caren, and Lily for company. Are you certain you weren’t thinking of yourself?”

“That does it! Why do you always have to be so— H-Hey! S-Sir, wait!”

Tina screeched and panicked, failing to comport herself like the duke’s daughter she technically was. Someone must have cast a spell of silence, because the noise faded. And then...

“Thank you, Lynne. Do you have a moment?”

“O-Of course, dear brother! I have all the time in the world!” I couldn’t help swaying in delight at the tender voice I’d so longed to hear. Smiling maids peeked in from the corridor, so I made a shooing gesture and turned my back.

“There’s been a bit of a major development,” the voice continued. “I can’t tell you over the phone, but I’ve sent a letter.”

“Again, dear brother?”

If he didn’t dare tell me on the phone for fear of someone listening in, then the matter must have concerned details of the fighting in Shiki and Felicia’s journey north. Part of me wanted to know. Part of me longed not to.

My dear brother gave a rueful chuckle, and I could tell he had moved away from the receiver. The background noise returned.

“Felicia, do you suppose we should run the tracks through Rostlay after all?” my dear sister asked cheerily. “We can count on Saint Wolf for publicity, for one thing. I could have Anna survey the terrain on her way back from Shiki.”

“Oh, I think you have something there!” cried Felicia Fosse.

“C-Cut it out! Both of you!” shouted Lady Stella. I could picture how flustered she must look.

And Tina...

“S-Sir! Undo this levitation spell!”

...was under magical restraint, apparently. What a delightful thought.

I sensed my dear brother’s return. “We’re all well here,” he said, “although I don’t think we’ll be able to make our way back to the royal capital until we’ve spoken with Under-duke Euni Howard, which won’t be for a few days. Have all of the western chieftains reached you already?”

“No, only Chieftain Chise,” I replied. “An advance detachment is preparing the Grand Arsenal on the west side of the city.”

“I see.” His sigh tickled my ear, and a sweetness ran up my spine. I almost giggled aloud.

“Dear brother, I just spoke with Patricia, and she— Hey! L-Lily!”

A long arm shot out and snatched the receiver before I could stop it.

Height! I need more height!

“Allen! It’s so nice to hear from you!” Lily chirped, fending me off with her left hand. “I brought Caren back here safe and sound, and my report to the palace went off without a hitch. Sooo...” She fidgeted, twirling a scarlet lock around her finger. But her eyes blazed with a frankly frightening intensity. “What about my you-know-what? I’ve been so anxious about it, I can’t even manage an afternoon nap.”

“Don’t believe her lies, dear brother! I caught Lily napping just yesterday!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, only for a swift silencing spell to thwart my efforts.

Wh-Why must she pick the most annoying skills to hone?!

While I fixed her with a frustrated glare, the maid’s eyes widened. “Wh-What? D-Do you really mean it?”

A lock on the top of her head stood up and waved side to side.

What now?!

I surreptitiously dispelled her silence.

“Not a Leinster maid uniform, mind you,” my dear brother was saying. “And Felicia wants reference materials.”

“O-Of course! I’ll scour the city for the very best!”

Evidently, “you-know-what” meant getting Felicia, who was handy with a needle, to make Lily a maid uniform. Had our head maid, Anna, and her second-in-command, Romy, given their permission? Either way, I had never seen Lily so delighted or heard her chuckle so contentedly. I would be a boor to spoil her mood.

The maid returned the receiver to me with a shake of her scarlet tresses.

“Lynne,” said my best friend, as serious as I’d ever heard her, “keep an eye on Ellie until we get back.”

“I know, Tina,” I replied. Now that I had finished questioning Patricia, I could spend a few days helping to reopen the Sealed Archive myself. I made a mental note to bring good tea and pastries with me.

I could hear my dear sister, Felicia, and Lady Stella ganging up on my dear brother in the background.

“Now let’s hear your idea. Well?”

“Allen, I came up with a bunch of proposals!”

“You wouldn’t try to blow what happened at Rostlay out of proportion, would you, Mr. Allen?”

“W-Well...”

I couldn’t ask for a more perfect opportunity.

“I’ve sent you a letter as well,” I whispered to Tina. “Read it with my dear sister and the others. And whatever you do, don’t let my dear brother find out. It concerns the palace.”

✽

“All right, I’m ready! Watch this, sir!”

“Tina,” I sighed, “this is only an exercise to improve deployment speed and spell control, remember. Don’t actually activate a Blizzard Wolf.”

I sat in a chair I’d brought into the Howards’ indoor training ground at their mansion in the northern capital, grinning in spite of myself at the platinum-haired girl in white sorceress’s garb: Duke Howard’s younger daughter, Tina. Her immense mana was slowly but surely sapping the warmth from the air. I had been wise to wear my coat.

A week had already passed since our adventure in the enigmatic far-northern province of Shiki, where we had faced Prime Apostle Aster Etherfield inside a hidden archive and narrowly managed to fend off the “Sage.” I had spent the time penning a report to Under-duke Euni Howard, who governed the northern frontier, and analyzing our gains from Shiki: the second of a pair of forbidden tomes belonging to the Bibliophage, a mighty sorceress who had reputedly performed the only successful resurrection of a mortal life in history, and a flower orb, apparently a guide to the last of the altars that channeled the incomprehensible power of the “black gates.” Today, at long last, I had managed to make time for lessons, and Tina was champing at the bit.

I reached over to a table and touched an orb shard that Aster had left behind. Caren and I had put an end to Second Apostle Io “Black Blossom” Lockfield in the Yustinian capital. In Shiki, we had defeated Miles Talito, aka the apostle Yz, and dealt the prime apostle a serious blow. But he remained a major threat, and signs pointed to an eighth apostle. As long as Tina harbored the great elemental Frigid Crane, she was a prime target. I needed to prepare her for the worst.

Once we got back to the royal capital, locating the final altar and sealing it away to stop the church from using it would be our first order of business. Then there was formal peace between humans and demonfolk to expedite, a vital task that the Dark Lord had laid at my door. The disappearance of the Lalannoyan champion Heaven’s Sword and the resulting danger of a rash response from Heaven’s Sage, Lady Elna Lothringen, also demanded my attention. I doubted I would have much time to spare.

The problem was that, while I might have been able to deal with Tina casting her best supreme spell a year ago, I couldn’t risk letting her do so now. The Howards’ head maid, Shelley Walker, had warned me in no uncertain terms to “please ensure—ensure—that she does not demolish the house.” I dearly wished to avoid a dressing-down, and Tina’s self-assured chuckle did not inspire confidence.

“Stella, reinforce the ice-resistant barriers, just to be safe.”

“Of course, Mr. Allen.” The young woman standing beside me flicked her wand. Gleaming icy feathers mantled the training ground—a beautiful spell formula. Duke Howard’s older daughter, more and more often called “Saint Wolf,” kept her long platinum hair tied back with a sky-blue ribbon and wore, inexplicably, a maid uniform.

“Thank you. I think you’ve learned nearly all I have to teach,” I said. “That outfit becomes you.”

“O-Oh, I don’t know.” Stella’s voice sank to a whisper. “Th-Thank you very much.” She wriggled, raising bashful hands to her cheeks.

“Oh really?” Fiery plumes struck up a mad dance as a young woman with gorgeous, long scarlet hair and a practice sword for sparring with Tina shot me a dirty look. Lydia Leinster, the Lady of the Sword, had been the albatross around my neck since our Royal Academy days. Was it me, or was the hem of her skirt and the rest of her sword-fighting gear lifting slightly of its own accord?

“Sir? Stella? What are you up to?” Tina asked slowly, emitting an unnerving aura of her own and freezing the floor with leaked mana as she wove her spell.

“W-Well, you see, we, umm...” Stella took cover behind me, shrinking in embarrassment. The fiery plumes and snowflakes picked up steam.

Is this why Anko wouldn’t leave Felicia to join us here? Did she see this coming?

I grimaced, thinking of the majestic black cat whom I had come to seriously doubt was my old mentor’s familiar, and waved my left hand. As the noblewomen’s spell formulae unraveled, I winked.

Lydia clicked her tongue in irritation.

“J-Jeez! I’ve had it with you, sir!” Tina shouted and gave her rod a wild swing. A snowstorm tore through the arena. With a great pulse of mana, she invoked Blizzard Wolf, the supreme spell of ice...and squawked as Lydia darted up to her and landed a chop without even resorting to a teleportation spell.

“Too slow. You fail,” she declared as the spell dispersed. “Switch.”

“D-Don’t hit me like that out of nowhere,” snapped the Little Lady of Ice, as she’d come to be known at the Royal Academy, clutching her head. “Jeez.”

The sullen Tina withdrew to my side without further complaint. Lydia rested the practice sword on her shoulder and turned her gaze in our direction. “You next, Stella.”

“Right!” The elder Howard sister advanced, practice sword and wand in hand. She stopped, closed her eyes, and then...

An admiring cry burst from Tina, who clutched at my sleeve as two smallish birds of ice materialized to form one supreme spell: Frost-Gleam Hawks.

“How was that?” Stella asked Lydia, a note of challenge in her voice.

“So-so. It would hold up against a lesser apostle. That said...”

A Firebird took flight without a moment’s warning, engulfed the hawks of ice, and vanished. Stella and Tina froze. They had just witnessed an unconditional difference in ability.

“It won’t stop Alicia Coalfield, Levi Atlas, Zelbert Régnier, or any other greater apostle—or the false Saint’s mystery swordswoman, Viola Kokonoe, for that matter,” Lydia pronounced, toying with her scarlet hair. “If you go up against any of them alone, they’ll cut you down before you can activate it. The same goes for Tiny’s Blizzard Wolf, obviously.”

The Howard sisters made no response. None of us knew what the false Saint and the unknown mastermind planned to use the final altar for, but there could be little doubt that their actions would claim many lives. We couldn’t avoid fighting them—my sworn friend Zelbert Régnier included.

Lydia slammed her practice sword into the floor and folded her arms. “You need to improve your deployment speed, not just your spell potency. The enemy won’t wait for you.”

Tina and Stella grew visibly anxious.

“B-But...”

“How do we do that?”

The scarlet-haired noblewoman stared at me. “Mm.”

“Yes, yes.” I raised my right hand and closed it. Multiple spell formulae appeared in the air.

The sisters gasped.

“A-Are these all...”

“One step shy of activation?”

I stepped up beside them, rearranging the formulae for ease of viewing as I explained. “I know that you have experience starting to weave major spells long before you activate them. The key is simply to make a habit of it. Teto uses talismans in a similar manner. The number of spells you can maintain at once depends on your mana capacity and control. A certain Lady of the Sword has it down so perfectly you’d think she was in a competition.”

“Obviously. Keeping a Firebird or two on hand makes it so much easier to burn things.” Lydia calmly squeezed between Tina and me as though nothing could be more natural.

Honestly! When will Her Highness learn some common sense?

“I wish you wouldn’t be so cavalier with what is, after all, the emblem of a ducal house,” I said.

“Excuse me?!”

“I’m sorry, but how is that a reason to lose your temper with me?”

“You made me like this, remember? Take responsibility. Now.”

“You know,” I ventured, “most girls don’t master techniques the day after you explain the theory to them.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Lydia’s hand snaked out and constricted my left arm. While the Howard sisters’ eyebrows rose, she grinned and prodded my cheek. “You tuned that technique for me. Why wouldn’t I be able to do it?”

“Well, I mean...”

Wh-What choice did I have?

Since learning to do magic, Lydia had positively soaked up knowledge, reaching breathtaking heights with only the most basic of lessons. A plea from a student like her would make anyone want to teach everything they knew. On the other hand, our Royal Academy days had seen Zel mutter the occasional exasperated “give it a rest, man,” and Princess Cheryl Wainwright—currently sojourning in the Lalannoyan capital—sigh a heartfelt “Allen, all things in moderation.”

A tug on my coat sleeve pulled me back to the present. Tina and Stella looked anxiously up at me, hair drooping.

“Sir...”

“M-Mr. Allen...”

I can’t be much of a tutor if I’m making my students look like this.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Lydia demanded as I slipped my left arm out of her clutches and turned to face the pair.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I know you have what it takes to master this now. You only need practice.”

“Th-Then we’ll practice our hearts out!” the sisters chorused, jumping to attention.

Lydia sniffed. “Come on. Back to work.” She liked to teach, even if she didn’t always show it.

“Yes, ma’am!” The Howard sisters followed her back to the center of the arena. I was still watching them go when a heavy steel door opened behind me.

“Allen, I’m b-back!”

In came a bespectacled girl in a gray sweater and long skirt, clutching an old book in her arms. Felicia Fosse had been going about her business as the head clerk of the Leinsters’ and Howards’ joint commercial enterprise, better known as Allen & Co., when a letter for me from Rill, the Dark Lord of the lands west of Blood River, had brought her north. She had shown courage in the Shiki archive, volunteering as a vessel for Anko to join our showdown with Aster. Now, after a morning in the duke’s archive, she gleefully watched Howard and Leinster maids wheel in trolleys heaped with tomes and timeworn scrolls.

“You found more?” I asked, unable to suppress a grin.

“Everyone was so nice about showing me around the archive,” she said. “I even found a rare fashion encyclopedia full of maid uniforms from every time and place you can imagine! I’ve just got to go over it with Lily when we get back to the royal capital. The kids and Anko stayed with me the whole time, but now they’re busy napping in front of a fireplace.”

She tired out three great elementals and that fabulous feline? Our head clerk has gotten to be a real big shot.

“Chitose, thank you for showing her around.” I bowed to the Howard Maid Corps’s number five, who hung back with her dusty-black braid and deadpan expression.

“Think nothing of it,” she said. “Changing the subject, may I eliminate a ruffian attempting to infiltrate this building?”

“An intruder? I don’t see why not,” I answered, nonplussed.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Thank you very much!” the other maids chorused. All bowed and set off into the corridor, spoiling for a fight. I caught faint snatches of conversation before the door shut behind them.

“Now, let the hunt begin.”

“If only Roland would learn when to quit.”

“We won’t let him get in Lady Stella’s way.”

“For Saint Wolf!”

“Yes, for Saint Wolf!”

I strove to put the matter out of my mind and watch Lydia perform a demonstration for the Howard sisters. A large map slid into my view.

“I brought a map of the Yustinian Empire.” Felicia beamed, flushed with exhilaration. “A new railroad from their capital to this very city! I can hardly wait.”

She giggled, and I forced myself to laugh along. I had proposed the new tracks to the aged emperor myself, but perhaps I had overdone it. Still, it was too late now. I had already broached the plan to all concerned in my letters about mediating peace between the Yustinians and Lalannoy.

Felicia filled a porcelain cup from a teapot that someone had deposited on the round table while I wasn’t looking. “I had a quick chat with Emma and the other maids in the royal capital over the phone earlier. It sounds like Margrave Solnhofen is making good progress with the questions we asked him to put to the elders of the long-lived races out west. Have a cup.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I think I will. And you take a seat, Felicia.”

“I’d love to!”

We both sank into chairs and sipped our tea. Its warmth and gentle aroma filled me with relief.

Felicia cupped her drink in both hands and smiled with maturity beyond her years. “Here I am, in a mansion in the northern capital, drinking fine tea from the League of Principalities far to the south. As Allen & Co.’s head clerk, I want to do everything I can to make sure people all over the kingdom can enjoy this experience.”

A lofty goal, but one I felt certain she could achieve. I made a show of throwing up my hands. “You win. I’ll retire at once so you can take over the company.”

“Not in a million years.” The head clerk’s dainty fingers snatched a cookie, which she ate with gusto.

I’ll need to seriously consider increasing the company’s staff.

“Hmm?” Just as I was about to take a cookie of my own, I noticed a sheet of notepaper wedged underneath the tray. I withdrew it without alerting Felicia, who was poring over her map, and quickly scanned its contents: fine penmanship in a woman’s hand and a charming picture of a rabbit.

“I have brought out the item you requested. It appears that the weather will hold and allow for stargazing tonight.”

So Chitose had carried out the request I’d made of Mrs. Walker. I would need to thank her later. I was fondling the enigmatic flower orb in my inner pocket, thinking over my plans for the night, when Tina turned to me.

“Sir, could you demonstrate for us again?” she asked, hair limp and lifeless. “Everything Lydia does is too advanced.”

“Excuse me?!”

“I-It’s the truth!”

While Tina and Lydia fell into their usual banter, Stella, who had been keeping her head down, seemed to reach a decision and locked eyes with me. “M-Mr. Allen! I’d like you to show me the whole process up to activation, so would you please l-link—”

“Guilty!” two voices interrupted.

Saint Wolf shrieked as Tina and Lydia united against a common foe and chased her around the arena. No one would have taken the three of them for highborn Highnesses. The sight lifted a weight off my heart.

I reached over to the bespectacled girl locked in a staring contest with a map and gave her a light tap on the forehead.

“Huh? A-Allen? What was that for?”

I raised my teacup, watching Stella nullify balls of fire and ice with blasts of light. “Felicia, I know it doesn’t come easily to you, but give yourself a break from work while we’re here. You’ll have plenty to do once you’re back in the royal capital anyway.”

✽

That night, once I was certain that all the others were asleep, I slipped out of my room and made my way to the courtyard. Stars filled the sable sky. I couldn’t have asked for better stargazing weather.

After our last battle, Anko had entrusted me with the flower orb as a guide to the final altar. Wrought by the legendary jeweler known as the Gemstone, it had adorned one of the black gates that defied mortal comprehension. And after days of painstaking analysis, I had discovered something within it that demanded I study the heavens.

Now for the moment of truth.

A magnificent telescope stood in the center of the courtyard, and cape-wearing maids from both ducal houses were busy setting out a desk, a one-person sofa, a small mana lamp, and a stand bearing a spellstone of fire for my use.

I shifted my grip on a wicker basket of blankets and called to the seconds-in-command issuing brisk orders. “Romy, Mina, thank you for going to the trouble.”

“Mr. Allen.” The raven-haired, dark-skinned beauty’s eyes widened behind her spectacles.

“You may wait inside if you wish,” said the maid I recognized by the outward curl of her flaxen hair, equally taken aback.

I signed for them to keep their voices down and approached the telescope. Then, depositing my basket next to the spellstone stand, I bowed low to the pair. “I’m so sorry to ask you to work in this cold. And I never dreamed you’d find me such a fine instrument.”

“Please think nothing of it, sir,” said Romy. “Our head maid gave strict orders to obey you while she continues her investigation in Shiki.”

“It’s our job!” chirped Mina. “And I believe the telescope belongs to our head butler.”

I must write Mr. Walker a thank-you. I wonder if he’s still in the city of craft.

While I made a mental note of my new responsibility, Romy and Mina gently stroked Anko, who lay curled up in the basket of blankets, and turned back to me.

“If you will excuse us, sir, we will return to guard duty. The night is cold. Please do not stay out in it longer than you can help, even with the spellstone to warm you.”

“And use those blankets! You won’t earn any marks for catching a cold.”

“Thank you both,” I said. “I took the liberty of setting out hot tea and some pastries I bought in the city in the kitchens. I hope you’ll all enjoy them together.”

A chorus of whispered cheers broke the nocturnal silence.

“Thank you, sir!”

I’m glad that went over well.

I watched the maids leave with many a bow, then took a nearby chair and spread a blanket over my lap.

“It is chilly. You’re not cold, are you, Anko?”

The blankets stirred, and the black cat’s majestic head poked out. I shouldn’t have worried.

I set the flower orb on the table and reached for the other treasure I had gained in Shiki. The forbidden tome, by reputation the work of a sorceress who had lived when gods still walked the earth and performed a resurrection beyond even them, would have none of it.

“Is it still moping?” I wondered. The floating spell book with a tongue had proven surprisingly amenable at first. At least until the children had gotten another look at it.

“A-Allen?”

“A book monster?”

“C-Come no closer.”

The tome had refused to show itself ever since. How could a living spell book have such a thin skin?

Naturally, I had consulted with the Hero, who kept the first tome, and Floral Heaven, who was staying with her in the imperial capital. I had pressed military griffins into service, unsure whether the thing even belonged in my possession. And what had I gotten for my pains? Perhaps the most nonchalant letters I had ever read.

“Mm. No problem. You’re an Alvern, remember? Crisis management is your job now. More importantly, I’m running out of cheesecake. Send more ASAP.”

“Oho. That’s an interesting case you have there. Send me your observations.”

The pair of them beggared belief. Admittedly, we were better off keeping the tomes separate as long as the church wanted them.

I sighed and softly touched the flower orb. It projected ancient spell formulae—centuries old, by my estimate—which began interlocking with subtle precision. I had read more than my share of spell books, but I couldn’t recall seeing anything like it. At last, a beautiful star chart appeared over the table, and an especially large point on its eastern side blazed with light.

The final altar must lie beneath that star. The problem is...

I peered into the fine telescope beside me and compared the stars of the present day with those on the chart.

“They’ve shifted, all right. If only the professor or the headmaster were here. Or maybe Zel would—”

Pain shot through my chest. I pulled my coat tighter around me. My friend who had known so much about the night sky was now the church’s fourth apostle. He had become an enemy I would have to defeat someday. It was too late to change that.

I rolled back the blankets in the basket, careful not to wake Anko, pulled out a small flask, and took a drink. Black tea mixed with sweet liquor, a product of the Howards’ domain, flowed down my throat, restoring warmth to my body.

First things first! I can at least try to figure out the chart.

I unfurled a map of the east of the continent and bent over the telescope once more.

“So this is where you were,” said the voice I knew better than any other.

I looked up and blinked. “Lydia?”

There stood the scarlet-haired girl whom I had thought asleep. She wore a new white wool hat and scarf over a red coat, and she carried a cloth bag. Her Highness grunted, “Scooch over,” and squeezed herself in next to me on the seat.

“I...I’m amazed you found me here,” I said, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders. “I’ve barely done any sort of magic.”

“Are you trying to be funny? I can read you like a book.” Lydia’s eyes were cold—glacial, in fact. I hadn’t fooled her for a moment. Pouting, she punched me in the left arm. “You’re unbelievable. Just completely unbelievable! You try to make every problem your problem the moment I take my eyes off you!”

“A-Anko made this one my problem, strictly speaking.”

The last words weren’t even out of my mouth before the noblewoman pulled another wool hat and scarf out of her bag—we’d bought a matching set in the city—and put them on me.

“No excuses. Don’t think I won’t abduct you.”

“What happened to your hesitation?! You used to have some scruples!”

Oh, where did I go wrong raising her?!

“You didn’t,” she said. “In fact, you should be praising me for my growth and maturity. Now, I take it that’s the flower orb you got off the black gate?”

“Stop reading my mind.” I pulled a sour face. Being joined at the hip had its downsides.

Lydia laughed, snatched the flask out of my hand, and took a swig. “That’s an old star chart.”

“I think it predates the age of strife, and that was five hundred years ago,” I said. “It looks like it will point us to the final altar, but we won’t be able to dig much deeper until we’re back in the royal capital. I wish I’d gotten mom and dad to teach me more about finding stars.”

My parents lived in the eastern capital, but they had once traveled the continent. To hear them tell it, they had even traversed perilous and unmapped regions on occasion.

Lydia’s elbow dug into my ribs. “All the more reason two pairs of eyes are better than one. Stop picking the weirdest things to be ‘considerate’ about. I won’t stand for it! I’ll slash you, burn you, and slice up what’s—”

An adorable sneeze cut her threat short. She blushed faintly and buried her mouth in her scarf. I smiled at her and held up my left index finger.

“Why don’t I warm us up a bit?”

“Mm,” came the reply.

I worked a temperature-control spell on the air around us. Her little head lolled onto my shoulder.

“Where are the girls?” I asked.

“Sleeping like logs. Stella held out for a while, but she’s a thousand years too green to get the better of me.” Lydia squirmed, flashing a childish grin she reserved for me alone. She was a duke’s daughter, and older than me, at least in theory. And yet...

Wait...

“D-Don’t tell me that’s why you went extra hard on them in today’s training session.”

Lydia gave a merry chuckle and deposited the flask on the table. Wrapping her arms around my left, she whispered, “We haven’t had much time for us lately.”

“We could never make as much as we had in university,” I said.

She grunted in unmistakable displeasure.

I levitated a glass cookie jar out of my basket. “You’re Her Royal Highness’s personal bodyguard, while I am but a humble tutor.”

“As much as it annoys me, and it annoys me a lot, you’re also Her Royal Highness’s personal investigator.”

“Well, yes, but you know how it is.” Struck in a sore spot, I resorted to a nonanswer.

My former classmate the crown princess was going to sulk up a storm when next we met, even though it had been the king’s strict orders keeping her in Lalannoy. And could I blame her, when Arthur Lothringen, the great Heaven’s Sword, had gone missing so soon after we’d left the republic? The stress of losing him had confined Lady Elna Lothringen to her sickbed. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the Dark Lord’s mana had been detected in the church where Arthur vanished. Any one of those problems would drive a genius to her wit’s end. And while Cheryl took her duties seriously, I couldn’t let myself forget that she had destroyed even more school property than Lydia during our time at the Royal Academy. Our reunion would require caution.

“I can’t stand that undersized Hero, but you should take the Alvern name,” Lydia continued matter-of-factly, intertwining our scarves. “A grand ducal house counts for something, even without a duchy. It will shut up most of the peerage.”

“Do I really have to?”

“Yes,” Lydia answered instantly and leaned over to press her head against my chest. “Think how much more time we’ll get to spend together if you call yourself Allen Alvern. And if you’re thinking of having Caren take it and not you...”

“What if I am?” I held her stray fiery plumage in check and waited.

My senior by a few months left off listening to my heartbeat and raised her head. “Once this mess with the church is cleared up, I’ll quit my bodyguard job and run away with you. I’d love to tour the four principalities south of the city of water, the southern isles, the Thirteen Free Cities, the commonwealth, the Union of the Central Plains, and all points east.”

How has she gotten even more extreme than the last time we talked plans?! Of course, I appreciate the thought. And I’d love for us to visit all those places together. Still...

I opened the jar and said, “I don’t think so. Cheryl would go berserk.”

“Don’t bring Princess Schemer into this,” Lydia fumed.

I fed her a cookie. Then another, and another. When I judged her mood had improved, I ate one myself and voiced my honest hope. “If we take a trip, there’s somewhere I’d like to visit. I don’t know exactly where it is, though.”

“Where?” A lock of Lydia’s hair stood and swayed leisurely from side to side.

“I think we’d have to cross Blood River.” I held up my right hand, and the ring and bracelet flashed. “I promised to visit a grave when I was under that island in the Four Heroes Sea. That, and to bring Shooting Star a fruit of the Great Tree. He was a ‘key’ like I am, and he said they were his favorite.”

“Hmm...”

She looked a touch sulky, mixed with equal parts resignation, but she said no more. She stood, wearing her blanket like a cloak, and turned to face me. Her left hand reached out, and her ring finger shone with the proof of our pact. “Well, I’ll go with you. To the farthest east or the Dark Lord’s citadel or the ends of the earth if need be. I hope you’re grateful.”

“I always am. Always.” I stood and clasped her right hand in both of mine, looking her in the eyes. I couldn’t tell the younger girls all my fears, but I would tell her. “Lydia, I think the church—the false Saint will make her move before much longer. The final battle is coming soon. And I have one of the forbidden tomes. One of their goals must be to—”

“Allen, it will be all right.” The scarlet-haired noblewoman caught me in a fierce embrace, not caring when a strong wind sent her wool hat and blanket flying. “So,” she murmured into my chest, “never, never leave me. I’ll be unstoppable as long as I have you.”

It took me a moment to say, “Thank you.” The apostles were fearsome. The false Saint was unfathomable. But even so, we had each other.

We touched foreheads and nodded. Anko let out a sleepy yawn. I levitated the hat and blanket into my hands and brushed them off.

“But don’t go gambling with your life, now,” I warned the young woman drinking from the flask of liquor-infused tea.

“Same to you,” Lydia shot back without missing a beat, then twirled on the spot and winked. She must have foreseen what I was going to say. Frustrating as it was, she cut a striking figure.

I folded the blanket and returned it to the sofa, slipped the wool hat onto her pretty head, and sighed. “I really don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

“Oh? I thought you liked a challenge. With long hair, of course.”

I groaned. Lydia giggled and dove into my arms again. Meteors streaked across the night sky, and a brilliant star shone in the east.

✽

“U-Um... Can I help you?” I asked.

I had left the door of my room open after lunch so that my students could call me at once if anything came up, but the visitor was a little girl I’d never seen before. I estimated her age at four or five. She had the same blue-tinged platinum hair as Tina and Stella, tied in pigtails with gray ribbon. More ribbons adorned the white blouse and skirt she wore, both of unmistakably fine craftsmanship. Her striking blue eyes were alight with curiosity, and she kept them fixed on me.

I could practically hear Lydia’s and Felicia’s accusing tones, although they must have been searching the archive by then.

“Really?”

“Not again, Allen.”

I...I’m innocent, I tell you!

The great elementals—Atra the Thunder Fox, Lia the Blazing Qilin, and Lena the Frigid Crane—were asleep on the bed, arms around each other, and showed no signs of waking. I wouldn’t need to take extra care on their account.

Under-duke Euni Howard was supposed to call later in the afternoon, so there could be little doubt the strange girl was of his party. But what was such a young child doing alone, I wondered, stowing the flower orb I’d been analyzing in an inner pocket. I had just started crouching, meaning to match her eye level, when a pitter-patter of running feet broke out in the corridor.

“Thanks for waiting, sir!” Tina called. She wore a white everyday outfit, and her neatly pinned hair caught the sunlight. That one stray lock bobbed happily.

Our resident saint entered a step behind her sister, wearing a white sweater.

“Mr. Allen, Uncle Euni has arrived ahead of schedule. Lydia and Felicia are entertaining him in Tina’s greenhouse room while—”

A charming cry escaped her as the child tackled her in a hug.

I shrugged at the baffled sisters. “She just showed up out of the blue. Do you know her?”

“Y-Yes.”

“This is—”

I heard a faint creak behind me and turned to see all three children sit up and bound out of bed. They wore matching white outfits. A group of maids, who had formed ranks near the door at some point in all this, readied video orbs with practiced skill.

I know I should be used to them by now, but what are both seconds-in-command doing in the front row? Is this another order Anna gave them to follow while she investigates Shiki?

While I pondered, the great elementals introduced themselves, ears, tails, and feathers twitching.

“Atra!”

“Lia!”

“Lena.”

“May, can you introduce yourself?” Tina asked the little platinum-haired girl who had taken cover behind her sister.

“It’s all right,” Stella added. “Tina and I won’t go anywhere.”

The girl gave a shy nod and peeked out around Stella. “I’m M-May Howard, the under-duke’s el-dest daw-ter.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet Your Highness.” I smiled, crouched, and made a courtly bow. “My name is Allen of the wolf clan. I have the honor of tutoring Lady Tina and Lady Stella.”

“I knew it.” The girl’s big eyes got even wider. “The magician.” She blushed and ran from the room.

“Oh, May! Wait!” Tina cried and took off after her. The children followed, Atra and Lia whooping while Lena shouted, “Of all the— Who told you to flee?!”

The maids followed just to be safe, video orbs in hand. Nothing fazed those women.

I stood and turned to Stella, the only other person left in the room. “Do you think I scared her?”

“I’m sure my uncle has been telling her tales of your exploits as bedtime stories,” Stella answered without concern. “I fear for my cousin’s future.”

“S-Surely not.” I faltered, unable to meet her gaze. She evidently had not forgiven me for stargazing alone with Lydia the night before.

How did she even find out? I was so careful to mask my mana. Our Saint Wolf is a force to be reckoned with!

Pouting, Stella took my sorcerer’s robe off its hook and moved behind me. “Tina and I are going to show May the black griffins. My uncle asked us to, so I doubt he’s come to discuss anything terribly important.”

That’s odd.

With Duke Walter on campaign against the Knights of the Holy Spirit, the under-duke was for all practical purposes the governor of the northlands. Why wouldn’t he ask his niece, the heir to the dukedom, to attend our meeting? Because he wanted Stella and Tina to think he had nothing serious to say.

“I bet he’s afraid of Tina’s and Felicia’s endless digressions,” I said over my shoulder, keeping my tone light as I slipped my arms into the robe’s sleeves. “I know how he feels. And the black griffins will be on their best behavior in front of Saint Wolf.”

“I agree with the first part, but r-really, Mr. Allen!”

She was still ineffectually pummeling my back when the children peeked around the doorframe.

“Griffins fluffy-fluffy,” said Atra.

“I wanna go too!” Lia chimed in.

“I d-don’t see the need,” Lena insisted.

“Your head feathers say differently,” I said.

“What?!” The azure-haired child hastily ducked behind her companions. Naturally, she failed to hide her bottom. What had happened to the Frigid Crane who had filled me with awe less than a year ago in this very mansion? Not that I would complain, especially with Stella beside me, watching the children with affection. Cuteness trumped all.

The question was, could Stella handle Lady May, this trio, and Tina, even with the maids on hand to help? It was a clear day, and I could imagine them begging to take the griffins for a flight.

“Mr. Allen? I-Is there something on my face?” The earnest future Duchess Howard touched her cheek, a little unsettled.

Romy and Mina, who had just returned, must have picked up on my unspoken concern. The looks they sent me said, “Leave everything to us.”

My answering look conveyed a heartfelt “much appreciated” as I tousled Atra’s and Lia’s hair.

“R-Really,” complained the third child, “you ought to be more circumspect in your behavior.”

“Stella,” I said, “would you mind keeping Lena company?”

“Not at all.”

“D-Do you not hear me speaking?!” Lena fumed, but our resident saint scooped her up, deposited her on the couch, and cheerfully set about brushing her long azure hair. A cozy atmosphere started to settle over the room.

“May! Hold it right there!”

“No!”

Their Highnesses were still playing tag in the corridors. Yet I couldn’t keep Under-duke Euni waiting much longer. I held up my left index finger and addressed the room.

“Atra, Lia, would you hold hands with Lena for me? Stella, keep an eye on Tina. She might try to fly a black griffin for Lady May. I’ll relay whatever we discuss to you later.”

“Of course, Mr. Allen,” Stella said.

“Hold hands! Hold hands!” chanted Atra and Lia.

“I...I can find my way without help!” Lena protested.

I slipped a notebook from my desk into an inner pocket, listening to Tina’s and Lady May’s footfalls draw closer.

Now, I wonder what really brings the under-duke here.

I knocked, and the heavy door slowly swung open. “I hope you’ll pardon the intrusion,” I said, stepping into Tina’s greenhouse room.

“Oh, Allen! We’ve been wondering where you were!” a massive, platinum-haired man boomed, waving with a muscular left arm from the seat of honor. The well-trained physique of Under-duke Euni Howard, protector of Galois, threatened to burst his white suit.

Lydia and Felicia, seated on a couch ahead of me and dressed in matching sweaters, turned with unspoken reproaches: “You’re late,” and “Allen, what took you so long?”

I shrugged, took up a place beside the table, and bowed to the under-duke. “I beg your pardon for my late arrival. I was paying my respects to Lady May.”

“She scampered off before I could stop her. Tales of your exploits are a great favorite of hers.”

Then Stella guessed right?!

I took a seat beside Lydia, my smile frozen in place. A nearby wicker basket held Anko, curled up and sleeping. A map spanning the entirety of the empire and the northlands lay unfurled on the table. Someone had added several lines from the imperial capital to the under-duke’s city of Seesehr, marked with circles, triangles, and crosses, along with written notes.

Wait. Is this what I think it is?

I narrowed my eyes at the girls beside me.

What are you up to?

“We’re considering where to lay the new tracks,” Lydia said, pouring a cup of tea.

“We expect a lot of trouble from the northern snows,” added Felicia, transferring sugar-frosted cookies to a plate.

“Lydia and Felicia have some fascinating ideas!” the under-duke chimed in. “Walter used ice magic to move troops and smash the imperial vanguard in our recent campaign. If we adapt the tactic to continue construction through the winter, we might be able to lay track faster than anyone would imagine.”

Lydia and I had talked about so many things while we studied the stars the night before. Surely we had revisited the Howards’ unusual tactics leading up to the Battle of Rostlay and Stella’s confrontation with the apostle Edith.

“Have you forgotten that the company is shorthanded as it is?” I said, accepting a saucer loaded with a cup of subtly fragrant black tea and a honey-based sweet in the shape of a wolf from the scarlet-haired noblewoman. “Building a railroad is too much for us to handle. Of course, if worse comes to worst, I’ll temporarily poach Niche to oversee the work.”

“What?! A-Allen, you wouldn’t!” Felicia half rose from her seat, every fiber of her being registering protest.

I raised my cup and waved my left hand. “It’s only one option of many. Don’t get so worked up.”

The head clerk resumed her seat and turned her face away from me, fuming.

Niche, what did you do to earn such enmity?

While my heart went out to my former schoolmate, who sent me fortnightly reports from his far southern post in the Principality of Atlas with scrupulous regularity, the under-duke ostentatiously cleared his throat.

“Ahem! I have come here today for no other purpose than to inform you what has become of Shiki since your battle with the apostles produced that forbidding glacier.”

The mood in the room turned tense. The hard-won fight remained fresh in our memories. Whatever doubts we had about the identities and objectives of Prime Apostle Aster Etherfield, Alicia “Crescent Moon” Coalfield, and Sixth Apostle Yz, the former Miles Talito, they were all monsters in every sense of the word. We had managed to repel them without losing lives only because all of us there had fought tooth and nail, and even then it had taken a fair bit of luck.

The under-duke finished his tea and assumed a sour expression. “I’ll be brief. The land is no longer fit for mortals to enter, and that includes the archive at the heart of it. That’s my final conclusion, guided by Anna’s council. I went to inspect the place myself, but my investigators all threw their hands up in despair. It must be sacred ground—a true sanctuary—although no dragon appeared as they did in the city of water and the imperial capital.”

“I see,” I said heavily. We were lagging behind the church on the information front. Losing access to the Shiki archive stung. Getting the Sealed Archive open would need to be my first order of business once we were back in the royal capital. Thankfully, Ellie’s letters suggested she was nearing a breakthrough with the aid of Marchesa Carlotta Carnien.

“That won’t be a problem, Your Highness.” Lydia broke the silence with a graceful smile.

Something tells me I won’t like where this goes.

“The flower dragon alighted in the city of water. An angel descended on the royal capital. An ice wyrm and a false goddess fell in the city of craft. What difference will one more new sanctuary in the north of the kingdom make? Allen Alvern, the Shooting Star and Brain of the Lady of the Sword, will take charge of it like the others.”

“L-Lydia?!” I croaked. “What on earth?!”

“We’ll have to avoid it when we lay track, then. I’ll make a note on the proposal.”

“F-Felicia?! Not you too!” I wailed, betrayed. Never had anyone been so thoroughly stabbed in the back.

“It’s a done deal.” Lydia crossed her arms.

“And a necessary one.” Felicia adjusted her glasses, catching the light in a most sinister fashion.

I could only groan, cowed by their uncompromising pressure.

Do they seriously want to make every sanctuary my personal domain? I know the idea has come up before, but can’t they see it’s ridiculous?! Still, Lydia talks as though plans have been moving ahead in secret this whole time.

While I neared my wit’s end, the under-duke slapped his knee and roared with laughter. “I see our newest champion has met his match!”

“I never stood a chance,” I sighed, stirring extra milk and sugar into my tea. Meanwhile, the scarlet-haired noblewoman and the bespectacled head clerk looked extraordinarily pleased with themselves.

The nerve of them.

“Now, to business.” Under-duke Euni Howard straightened and turned serious. From an inner pocket, he produced an envelope—unremarkable at first glance, except that its reverse bore a wolf seal in azure wax.

Felicia’s hands flew to her mouth in a start of recognition. “Is that a secret seal? The kind the royal house bans anyone but a duke from using—that marks a message as being of the highest importance? I...I’ve never seen one in person before.”

“I’ll bet not.” Even Lydia looked grave. “We rarely have occasion to use them.”

The colossal under-duke rose. I made to follow suit, but a big hand motioned me to remain seated. “Walter sent this sealed with instructions to ‘deliver it into Allen’s own hands’ and ‘away from Stella and Tina if at all possible.’ That’s why I brought May. I can guess what it says, but read it for yourself.”

“Certainly.” I took the envelope in both hands and channeled mana into the secret seal. It opened at once, and the illusion of an azure wolf vanished. I carefully opened the envelope and found a slip of paper within.

“I wish to consult you privately on a matter concerning Rosa’s suspected murder. Attend me in the royal capital.”

I suppose this has been a long time coming. Duke Walter would never have considered sharing his suspicions with the Tina of a year ago or the Stella who had nearly collapsed under the pressure she felt from her friends and herself. But as they are now?

“Allen? What’s wrong?” Felicia asked, concerned because she didn’t know the circumstances. Lydia frowned in silence because she knew them all too well.

I glanced at both of them and incinerated the envelope along with its contents. “Message received,” I said, bowing low to the under-duke.

“Good,” came his slow reply.

The myriad detection spells with which I’d ringed the greenhouse alerted me to the Howard girls’ approach. Inexplicably, their party included a black griffin.

The under-duke must have sensed them as well, because he flashed a grin and brushed his platinum hair back. “There’s still much we don’t know about the church and its agents. I won’t be able to leave the northlands while affairs remain so turbulent. Do what you can for Walter, Stella, and Tina.”

“Of course. I understand.” I did rise this time and thumped my chest. No doubt Duke Walter would wish to discuss, among other things, the disposition of Duchess Rosa’s diary, currently in Anko’s keeping.

A wind spell brought me a clamor of voices.

“Well, May?! How does it feel to ride a black griffin?!” crowed Tina. “It gets even better when they fly!”

“I wanna fly!” cried the little noblewoman.

“Fly! Fly!” Atra and Lia chorused.

“T-Tina, do you realize what you’re suggesting?!” Stella exclaimed, clearly at a loss.

“Th-The key wolf won’t be happy with you,” added Lena.

I’d better step in.

“Ah!” yelped the bespectacled head clerk. “H-How can we hear them from so far away? Wait. Maybe I can use this to...”

I couldn’t suppress a grin as she retreated into a world of her own.

“Lydia,” I said in passing, “would you relay an urgent request to Anna’s team? I’d like them to update the professor and Mr. Walker on the latest state of affairs, including that my next report will come from the royal capital. And have them mention that I’d like help thinking of a good excuse to give Cheryl. She must be furious.”

✽

“Well, Ito?”

My lord, Gregory Algren, sounded anxious. I continued to work my delicate, far-reaching detection spell in silence, keeping my hands on the cold, moss-covered stone. A lantern resting on what remained of an old stone wall threw into sharp relief the stains on his hooded cloak and the dull sheen of his normally gorgeous pale-blond hair, marked by a single streak of violet. I couldn’t blame him.

Master Gregory had spent all night standing watch over our temporary base of operations, this abandoned and half-ruined shrine in a nameless wood on the northern fringes of the pontiff’s domain. Fugen had for all intents and purposes commanded him to remain behind. I had avoided exposing my lord to danger, but surely there must have been another way.

Stung by a pang of regret, I released my spell and bowed to my lord. “They appear to have lost our trail. I detect no church agents in pursuit. Please have no fear.”

“I...see.” No doubt relieved, my lord sank onto one of the stones that served us as chairs.

A chill night wind blew, playing with the deep black and gray locks under my hood as I piled branches I had gathered near him and lit them with a spell. We had been on this journey to unearth the church’s secrets since the Algren rebellion, and its mental and physical hardships must have taken their toll. My lord looked more ghostly than ever before as he produced a small orb.

All of a sudden, I found myself recalling the day he had rescued me from slavery. Only little Lord Gregory Algren had stood up to save me, one of the horned demonfolk whom the kingdom reviled above all other beings.

The orb drank in the firelight and began to change color.

“The mana wavelength you risked your life to retrieve from one of the magical creatures flying over the Holy See almost certainly matches that of the bird we sampled in Lalannoy,” my lord said. “The trouble is...”

“We can’t prove it belongs to the one who calls herself the Saint.”

Without a sound, without a sign, and without the faintest ripple of mana, an old fox-clan man in a tattered cloak appeared. Fugen had held his own against the fearsome dhampir Zelbert Régnier and claimed acquaintance with the Dark Lord herself. To throw off pursuit, we had parted ways after that mysterious botanical spell had aided our escape from the Holy See, but he appeared none the worse for wear.

“Well, there’s bound to be a way around that.” He sat on a nearby stone and raised his gray eyebrows. “Isn’t that right?”

“Quite right,” a woman’s voice said calmly.

I reached for my wand, poised for combat. “Who goes there?” I asked the shadow of what I could just barely still recognize as a stone wall.

Master Gregory tensed and gripped his own wand, weaving lightning magic. The newcomer must have been skilled indeed to have slipped past our web of detection spells and into this camp so easily.

“Sit still, Algren fledgling. And you too, Tijerina girl.” Fugen crossed his legs, exasperated. “Is that any way to greet someone who just saved our lives?”

“Saved our— Then, you cast that botanical spell in the plaza?”

“Fugen informed me on the way here that you are also investigating the self-styled ‘Saint.’ Also that you obtained the mana wavelength of a suspicious magical creature,” the woman continued dispassionately, ignoring my question. Unbelievably intricate botanical magic grew a table and chairs. “I have been studying them myself, and I obtained this in the course of my investigation.”

Twisted branches reached up from the firewood pile. Their tips supported a small orb. My lord and I gasped.

“C-Could it be...?”

Words failed me. Surely that firelit orb contained the very thing we wanted almost more than life itself.

A tall, slim woman in a gray robe emerged from behind the stone wall. The dark shadows it cast and her deep hood kept her face obscured.

“The mana wavelength of the enigmatic girl who calls herself the Saint.”

A wintry gust whipped the fire into a blaze. The mana in the orb billowed.

“She hasn’t spent all her time secluded in the Holy See. Even supposing that her goals are evil, she has brought salvation to untold numbers of the downtrodden throughout the eastern nations—although not a soul has seen her face. Use that sample for comparison. It should tell you what you wish to know.”

The woman fell silent. She had said all that she needed to for the time being.

Fugen had listened quietly. Now he stood. “Ex-lord Algren.”

Though intimidated, my lord met his gaze. “What?”

The old fox-clan fighter roughly scratched his own head. “If you decide the mana in those orbs matches, it’ll prove the false Saint was in Lalannoy. But the Tijerina girl and I still have to sneak into the See again to find out what they’re really after. You report to the kingdom. Make sure Allen of the wolf clan gets the news.”

I bristled. “F-Fugen?! H-How can you ask such a—”

An icy glare from the seasoned fighter cut my protest short.

Allen of the wolf clan, the Brain of the Lady of the Sword, was my lord’s mortal foe, the man who had upset all his plans during the Algren rebellion. How could my lord bring his bane information, especially when he himself had been branded a rebel, an enemy of the crown? It was plainer than day where that would lead.

Fugen took a strip of jerky from his pouch and sank his sharp teeth into it. “Tijerina girl, you must have felt just how tough those blasted greater apostles are. We don’t stand a chance of surviving them alone. Lend a hand.”

“That doesn’t justify—”

My lord’s raised left hand forestalled my outburst.

“Don’t you...” He took one step forward, then two, fixing the old fox with a gaze far clearer than it had been mere months ago. “Don’t you fear I’ll simply flee?”

“If you run, we’ll know the measure of you. Simple as that.” Fugen popped the jerky into his mouth, wiped his hands, and took the orb from over the fire. His gaze never left it as he pressed mercilessly on. “Any information that brings us closer to knowing who the false Saint really is could sway the course of every nation in the west of the continent. I wouldn’t normally trust it to a fledgling only half out of the shell like you, but you’re the only one of us here with the freedom to leave. It must be fate.”

Turmoil showed in my lord’s bearing. He clenched his teeth and racked his brain in silence.

Fugen took a hearty swig of water from his canteen and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Well, what’ll it be? If your answer’s no, take the Tijerina girl and leave. I won’t stop you.”

Lord Gregory Algren drew in a deep breath, turned on his heel, and strode toward the lightless woods. “Give me... Give me time. I won’t need long.”

“Master Gregory!” I cried.

But my lord’s feet did not halt. Soon, he vanished into the night.

I glared at the old fox. “Well, Fugen?”

“Hold your temper. When will he get a better chance to break out of his shell? The fledgling won’t make too bad a choice the way he is now. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought a thing or two you wouldn’t say to his face.”

I groaned. He had hit a sore spot. Much as it pained me to admit it, Master Gregory would never be a great swordsman or a great sorcerer. But ever since he had thrown himself over the Falls of Lamentation, betrayed and wounded in the gut by the apostle cadet Lev, my lord had...changed in a way I could not define. His collusion with the church was a grave offense, but he could expect a pardon if he brought the kingdom information concerning the false Saint’s true identity. He could return to his place in the warm sunshine—unlike me, a demon condemned to dwell only in shadow.

“If he refuses, I have made arrangements to deliver the information to an old acquaintance in Lalannoy, although I hear the republic is far from stable at the moment,” the woman said, breaking her silence. “Being out east makes it so hard to keep up with the news.”

She stepped out of the shadows. Blonde hair peeked from under her hood, gleaming in the firelight. Her sagacious emerald eyes smoldered with obsession.

“I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself. Millie Walker is my name. My late husband and I faced the mastermind behind this string of outrages in the royal capital’s Sealed Archive eleven years ago. Officially, I died then as well.”

I gasped. A lineal descendant of one of the oldest houses in the north, a family that had propped up generations of “war gods” from the shadows? No wonder she had been able to operate alone so deep in church territory for so long!

Millie lowered her hood, revealing shoulder-length blonde hair. “If I’ve reasoned correctly, he seriously intends to realize a dream we’ve all entertained at least once. And I dare not think what that will mean for the mortal world. Please, lend me your aid. Help me to safeguard your lord’s future. The false Saint is not our only enemy.”

Chapter 2

Central Station in the royal capital was overflowing with people. Young couples bundled against the cold. Children with their faces half buried in scarves. Senior citizens who looked used to travel. A lightly dressed man, probably just arrived from the south, was buying a coat, while groups in foreign outfits goggled at the scale of the station and the warming spellstones installed throughout it.

“Look, Caren! There’s a station attendant! Isn’t that the one who updates departure and arrival times?” A girl’s dainty hand shot out from behind a stone column and tugged excitedly on my uniform cloak. She probably thought she was being discreet.

I retied my brother’s scarf. “Calm down, Cheryl. You’ll draw attention.”

“Not to worry! I didn’t bring Chiffon today, and I’m even wearing a hat!” proclaimed First Princess Cheryl Wainwright, standing proud in her white wool hat and Lalannoyan cloak.

True enough, she had left the white wolf behind along with her formal gowns. But the “Lady of Light” still rivaled Lydia for good looks. The blonde hair that spilled from under her hat gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the skylights. So what happened when an honest-to-goodness princess loitered anxiously around a train station? The occasional passerby stopped to gape or gasp at her beauty. Cheryl never noticed, but her bodyguards Effie and Noa sure did. Time and again, they grimaced and apologetically bobbed their heads to me while they mingled with the crowd.

If only I had steadfastly refused two days ago, when she had burst into the student council room at the Royal Academy and declared, “I want to go with you to meet Allen’s group at the station!” But she had only just rushed back from the Lalannoyan capital to attend the royal audience planned to confirm Allen’s and my new house name of Alvern and celebrate our victories abroad.

“I don’t know if I trust anything as much as you trust that hat to keep you incognito,” I said, massaging my forehead. “It is cute, though.”

“Isn’t it just? I bought it in the city of craft, and one for Lydia too.” Her Royal Highness brought her hands together and beamed.

How buddy-buddy can they be?

While I tried not to roll my eyes, the station staff finished setting up a ladder in front of the blackboard. People stopped to look as wooden signs engraved with numbers quickly turned to new times.

Let’s see. The next train from the northern capital gets in at—

“Caren!”

“And...P-Princess Cheryl?”

Two girls walked toward us from the station’s central entrance. They must have been looking something up in the academy’s library, because like me they wore their school uniforms with scarves—pale red and light green, respectively—wrapped around their necks.

“Ellie, Lynne. I’m glad you made it.” I waved to them, smiling in spite of myself.

“The roads were crowded,” said the Leinsters’ red-haired younger daughter.

“I th-think there was a car accident,” added Tina’s blonde maid, heir to the Walker name.

The number of cars on the royal capital’s streets had grown even in the time I’d lived here. Major accidents and other problems were bound to crop up as well.

Maybe I’ll bring it up when I stay at Allen’s place tonight. It will give us something to talk about, if nothing—

“Lynne, Ellie!”

Cheryl promptly seized the girls in a hug while I contemplated my future. Surprised gasps escaped the pair. Her Royal Highness was at least Lydia’s equal when it came to bare-handed fighting.

“Why, Ellie, did you knit this scarf yourself?” asked the undercover princess.

“Y-Yes’m. Th-Thank you for noticing. Your knit hat is lovely too,” chirped the young maid. I watched them bond out of the corner of my eye and tossed a question at the red-haired girl, who had slipped free of the royal embrace.

“Lynne, isn’t Lily with you?”

“I invited her, but she said she had ‘pressing business to attend to.’”

“Pressing business?” I repeated thoughtfully. Was that maid up to something?

A steam whistle’s screech filled the station. Lynne, Cheryl, and I turned our attention to the platforms in almost perfect unison.

Ellie clenched her fists and jumped for joy. “M-Ms. Caren, Lady Lynne, the t-train is here!”

“It looks like it,” I said.

“Do you imagine we’ll have any difficulty finding them?” murmured the red-haired young noblewoman. Allen’s group had rushed to return ahead of schedule, leaving no time to arrange a meeting place.

The princess adjusted her hat and thumped her not inconsiderable chest. “Not to worry! If all else fails, my magic will track them down in—”

“Your Royal Highness, please pardon the interruption.”

“A message from the palace requires your attention.”

“E-Effie? N-Noa? Can’t it wait?” Cheryl asked the beautiful elf sisters as they seized her arms and started marching her away.

Allen, why couldn’t you have taught her more common sense when you were both at the Royal Academy together?

My two younger schoolmates exclaimed in unison as a little bird, one of my brother’s magical creatures, perched on my beret. I buried my mouth in my scarf, unable to suppress a little laugh or hold my ears and tail still. Doors that had been closed against the escape of warm air swung open, and people poured through into the station. I spotted real cold-weather gear. The northern capital must have gotten even colder since I’d left, just as Allen had told me over the phone. The bird took flight, making a beeline for...

There they are!

“Over here, Stella!”

I spotted my best friend among the surge of disembarking passengers and waved my left hand. She wore a new light-brown winter cloak, which she must have bought in the northern capital, and smiled in relief at the sight of me. Her sister Tina, dressed in a matching cloak with her rod slung on her back, and our other best friend, Felicia, who wore her white military uniform complete with hat, followed her toward us. Stella and Tina were empty-handed—I assumed they had left their luggage with their escort of maids. So why was only the frail Felicia carrying bags?

“Humph! So you’ve finally deigned to grace us with your presence, Miss First Place,” Lynne snapped the moment the happily chatting trio reached us, one red lock standing at attention. “Let me guess: You’ve been driving my dear brother to distraction all this time.”

“L-Lady Lynne, surely there are nicer ways to put it,” Ellie said, quickly stepping in.

I unconsciously relaxed. So did Stella and Felicia, to judge by the tender looks in their eyes. We all knew Tina would lose her temper and strike back with—

“You’re free to think what you like, Miss Second Place. As for Mr. Allen and I, well...” Tina giggled and cupped her cheeks, the mark of Frigid Crane flashing on the back of her right hand and no tantrum in sight. Lynne reeled, and Ellie faltered, at a loss.

Allen, what have you done now? Depending on the answer, you might have a piece of my mind coming.

Mentally reproaching my still-absent brother, who was probably making plans with the maids who had accompanied the group from the north, I spoke out loud to my best friends. “Welcome back, Stella. I bet you’ve had a lot on your plate since I left.”

“And you’d win that bet,” Stella replied. “It really has been a trial, especially reining in Felicia while she tries to buy souvenirs by the cartload.”

“Of course,” I sighed. “Why am I not surprised?”

“You’re both awful. I’m not that bad,” the bespectacled girl mumbled, pouting and tapping her index fingers together.

I glanced at the younger girls.

“T-Tina, confess this instant!” Lynne demanded. “What did you do to my dear brother?!”

“L-Lady Tina, we can discuss a reduced sentence if you admit your crimes now!” added Ellie.

Tina only laughed. They would be at it for a while yet.

I shifted my gaze back to Felicia. “What’s in that bag, then?”

“Oh, this? See for yourself!” Her eyes lit up, and she hunkered down on the spot.

“Oh, honestly,” Stella groaned, hand to her forehead. I might have made a mistake.

“Felicia, you don’t have to show me right this—”

“Ta-da! Souvenirs from the northern capital!” My friend’s luggage opened before I could stop it, and out sprang a horde of tinned snacks and small goods. She picked up a glass jar wrapped in cloth and stood, beaming. “These are cookies from a café Stella told me about! I shipped the heavy stuff separately, so it won’t get here until later.”

“Y-You mean this isn’t everything?” I grimaced.

“I made her pare it down,” Stella said, a distant look in her eyes. “Mr. Allen takes Felicia’s side about things like this.”

Allen! You’d better believe you’re getting a piece of my mind now!

Overcome with curiosity, the younger girls stopped bantering to ogle the contents of the bag.

“So you bought all of those sweets too?” Tina asked.

“Wh-What a haul,” said Lynne.

Ellie gasped a “Wow.”

“Of course, I didn’t forget to shop for you, Lynne, Ellie!” Felicia launched into an enthusiastic explanation.

“Really, Caren?” The platinum-haired noblewoman elbowed me. I responded with a frank “I’m sorry.” This was going to take a while.

We were still watching the younger girls hang on Felicia’s every word when Cheryl returned, looking decidedly miffed. “Honestly, does father think I can’t take care of myself at all?” she groused. “Where was the sense in sending a message like that when I...I wanted to spend the night at Allen’s place as much as anyone?”

Her voice fell to a whisper, and her last words got lost in the noise of the crowd, but my intuition sounded the alarm. I looked to Effie and Noa for confirmation, and they nodded solemnly. The king had definitely warned his daughter against something.

“Y-Your Royal Highness?!” Stella gave a start and froze. Not in her wildest dreams had she expected to find the princess with us. “Wh-What brings you here? I thought you had business in the city of craft.”

“What a silly question.” Cheryl crossed her arms and twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I’ve simply come to welcome my good friends.”

“I...I see.”

Now the Howard sisters, Lynne, Ellie, Felicia, and I were all present and accounted for. We were only missing...

“Stop standing around in a gaggle. You’re blocking traffic. Felicia, Tiny, get that bag packed and closed. Now.”

Into our midst strode a scarlet-haired beauty wearing a white wool hat, a heavy cloak that matched Stella’s and Tina’s, and a pair of gloves for good measure: Lydia Leinster, the Lady of the Sword. Lia, the Blazing Qilin, seemed to be napping inside her.

Cheryl and I greeted her with cold stares.

“W-We were just about to clean up!” Tina snapped.

“T-Tina, be careful with that jar,” pleaded an unnerved Felicia.

“Welcome back, dear sister,” Lynne said, approaching her with Ellie.

“Y-You look lovely in that hat and cloak, Ms. Lydia,” added the maid.

“Winter’s set in here too, I see.” The noblewoman, who looked lovely in anything, swept her scarlet hair aside. “Caren, that scarf is Allen’s, isn’t it? Give it here.”

“Never!” I held the scarf and glared. She had only just returned, yet she was already making demands. And my protest made no impression.

Lydia flicked her wrists, shrugged, and affected a sigh. “Deplorable. How can you forget how to treat your sister-in-law so quickly?”

“I don’t have a sister-in-law!” I shot off a few restrained bolts of violet lightning, mindful of passersby, only to find every single one dispelled.

Did she just unravel my spells like Allen?! She never used to be anywhere near this good at interference.

Before I could make my next move, Cheryl strode between us. “Hey. Don’t ignore me like that,” she whined, plainly more than a little put out. Flecks of light scattered and ricocheted at all angles.

One of Lydia’s eyebrows arched. She must not have anticipated Cheryl coming to meet her. She glanced at the royal bodyguards and flapped her left hand a few times. “What are you doing here, Princess Schemer? Can’t you see Effie and Noa are at their wits’ end? Shoo, shoo.”

“What?!”

Oh, this might end badly.

Stella and I exchanged a nod and motioned the younger girls and Felicia to get behind us.

Cheryl shook from head to toe, erupting with inky mana. “N-Not content to leave me behind in Lalannoy, you dare dismiss me like that when you’re meant to be guarding me too? Fine, then. Our quarrel has dragged on since the Royal Academy. It’s high time we settled it! And today, at long last, I am going to spend the night in Allen’s lodgings!”

We let out a collective gasp. Allen lived in the working district, a far cry from the safest part of town and hardly a fit place for a princess. Besides, I would never give my sisterly permission for any such thing.

Lydia clenched her gloved hands into fists and answered with a dazzling smile. “I see you’ve lost the ability to tell when you’ve crossed a line. Gods and dragons might let you get away with that, but you ought to know I won’t.”

“Oh? And why would I need your permission?”

The Lady of the Sword and the Lady of Light, two of the kingdom’s best and brightest, bombarded each other with fiery plumes and flecks of light at point-blank range. They were avoiding any damage to the station, but if they kept this up, it was only a matter of time.

“Hmm...” Tina pondered. “Who should I back to get in on the sleepover?”

“O-Oh, I wouldn’t dream of s-spending the night at Mr. Allen’s,” demurred a bashful Ellie.

“D-Dear sister,” Lynne called with trepidation, “father insists that you come home today.”

Stella swiftly erected a barrier and turned to our best friend, now seated on her suitcase. “Tina, Ellie, and I have to return to our own house. Father’s orders. But where will you spend the night, Felicia?”

“I’m going to drop by my parents’ place!” she replied. “I heard dad finally made it back from Lalannoy, for one thing, although I haven’t been in touch with them since before I went north.”

Meaning I’ll be Allen’s only guest tonight. I’ll have him all to myself!

While my ears rose and tail swished in excitement, the standoff continued. Their Highnesses’ mana rose so high that it started affecting mana lamps and spellstones all over the station. I snapped out of my reverie and shouted:

“L-Lydia! Cheryl! Stop!”

More spell formulae than I could count deployed at a breakneck pace. We might seriously be headed for disaster if—

“Okay, that’s enough of that.”

I heard a clap, and every spell disintegrated, leaving us stunned. A cat meowed as pitch-black chains bound Lydia’s and Cheryl’s legs.

Anko’s dark magic?!

I stared, dumbfounded, at the young man with dark-brown hair walking toward us, a suitcase in his left hand and the black cat familiar perched on his shoulder. My one and only brother had acquired a long list of titles lately, but he still wore his same old coat. Atra the Thunder Fox seemed to be sleeping, like her fellow great elementals. They must have tired themselves out playing on the train.

Allen sighed at the highborn troublemakers, both shamefaced but unable to flee. “How did you manage to make a scene in next to no time?”

“I-It’s not what it looks like. Y-You see...” Cheryl faltered. “Lydia was bullying me! Yes, that’s what happened! So I had no choice but to—”

“That’s enough slander out of you, Princess Schemer!” Lydia snapped. “A-Anko! Get these chains off me!”

The stately feline meowed a no and leapt onto a suitcase.

Wow. Who else can make getting the better of those two look easy?

Lynne and Ellie got over their shock first and flung their arms around Allen, crying, “Dear brother!” and “Allen, sir!”

“Whoa there! It’s good to see you again, Lynne. And you too, Ellie,” Allen said.

The Howard sisters’ faces fell at their missed opportunity. Felicia kept her seat on her suitcase that refused to close, but she started fidgeting. I spied my chance.

As soon as Allen gave Lynne and Ellie a light pat on their school berets and stepped out of their embrace, I slid gracefully into position beside him.

“Welcome home.”

“It’s good to be back, Caren,” he said.

The gentle words I’d longed for set my tail wagging. I took off my borrowed scarf, wound it around his neck, and reported the latest with feigned composure.

“I’m sure Lynne already told you, but they’re putting the Grand Arsenal on the western edge of the city back into service just to work on our daggers. The remaining chieftains will arrive next week at the earliest. Ellie is making slow but steady progress on the Sealed Archive, with help from Chieftain Chise Glenbysidhe and Marchesa Carlotta Carnien. And we’ve both been summoned to appear at court. This will be a full royal audience, not an informal meeting. The king wishes to hear how we came to bear the Alvern name and our thoughts on the church in person. Lily will be there too.”

“Those are a lot of thorny problems,” Allen said slowly. “I’d like to hear what Niccolò has to report too, and I need to have a long talk with Duke Walter. I think I’ll let you and Lily handle the audience while—”

“Out of the question.” I pulled his scarf tight and butted my head softly against his chest. I could sense Atra sound asleep within.

Behind me, everyone but Felicia hurled flustered shouts and resentful glares as they caught on to my gambit.

“Oh!” cried Tina. “C-Caren...”

Lynne gasped. “D-Don’t tell me...”

“Oh dear, oh dear,” murmured Ellie.

“Caren,” Stella sighed, “do you call this playing fair?”

“Anko, undo these chains!” Lydia screamed.

“This instant!” shouted Cheryl.

I looked at Allen with upturned eyes. “Do you mind if I...stay over tonight?”

“Not at all,” he said. “Especially since Atra will probably wake up in the morning.”

I told him, “Thank you,” and turned to wink over my shoulder at the stunned, seething group. “Sorry,” I said, holding an index finger to my lips. “I’m the only sister he’s got—we even have the same house name—so you’ll have to let me win this one.”

✽

“So they started a fight right at the station just to decide who’d spend the night?” The aging cat-clan man in my old, foreign-made easy chair roared with laughter. “Never a dull moment around you, is there, Allen?”

I slumped my shoulders. “Rai, it’s no laughing matter.”

Locals on the working district’s market street started at the loud guffaws but soon went about their business with looks that said, “Oh, he’s at it again.” The gray-haired ex-fighter in his dark-blue kimono and padded jinbei, both rare sights in the royal capital, just went on grinning. I couldn’t argue with Rai. He was more than my landlord. Time and again, he had smoothed my way in the royal capital.

“Look, Caren! They’re selling gemstones!” cried a bespectacled girl with Anko on her shoulder, seizing my sister by the sleeve and charging toward a stall.

“C-Calm down, Felicia!” wailed Caren. “Don’t pull!”

Felicia had been downcast not long ago, having arrived at her family home to find that there had been a miscommunication and her parents were on holiday. In the end, we had decided that she would stay the night. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about losing sight of her in the crowd, thanks to her unmistakable white uniform.

Wait. Wasn’t the plan for her to buy a change of clothes?

I rolled my eyes and recalled the kerfuffle at the station. Persuading all the girls had taken some doing. A great deal of doing, in fact. Lydia, Cheryl, and Tina hadn’t been the only holdouts; even Stella and Ellie had joined the fray before all was said and done. Strict orders from the king and both dukes had finally convinced their daughters to reluctantly return home for the day, but only after I had promised to make it up to them at a later date. What would I tell them tomorrow, or the day after?

For the time being, analyzing the star chart locked in the flower orb and returning Duchess Rosa’s diary to Duke Walter headed my to-do list. I would also need to visit the Grand Arsenal at least once, and I wanted to check on progress at the Sealed Archive. I also needed to send written reports to all parties concerned, not to mention a thank-you to the president of the Skyhawk Company for the loan of their black griffins. As for the royal audience... I would ask for help with that one.

My head started to ache. I set my suitcase on the ground, removed a cloth-wrapped bottle, and set it on the small table.

Rai’s gray eyebrows rose a fraction. “What have we here?”

“A new distilled liquor from the northern capital,” I said. “It hasn’t made it to market yet.”

“Oho.” A hand reached out and stripped away the twine and cloth, revealing clear blue glass. The cat-clan ex-fighter smiled, a fond look in his eyes. “The pip-squeak who moved to the big city sure has grown. Thanks.”

“Be careful not to drink too much at once,” I said. “It’s strong stuff.”

“I know, I know.” Rai carefully replaced the cloth wrapper and tied it in place.

Felicia returned, flushed with excitement and accompanied by an exhausted Caren. She must have finished inspecting the working district’s famous street stalls. Anko mewed once and teleported to my left shoulder.

Thank you for keeping an eye on them.

“So,” said Rai, “who’s the kid in the spectacles hiding behind Caren?”

“Oh, w-well, you see...” Felicia faltered, surprised to be included in the conversation.

“Oh, this is—”

“She’s one of my classmates and—”

“Hold your horses. Let me guess.” Rai forestalled our introductions with a scarred left hand. He paused for thought, then assumed the glummest face I’d ever seen on him. “Allen, stop fooling around while you still can! And before the Leinster girl turns the city—hell, the kingdom—into one big bonfire. Think about it! I’ll keep my mouth shut if you reverse course now.”

“Really, Rai,” I sighed.

“Fooling around”? The very idea!

“Meet my best friend, Felicia Fosse,” said an inexplicably grouchy Caren. “She currently helps out at a certain business.”

“Yes, I’m F-Felicia Fosse. I can’t tell you how much Allen and Caren have done for me.” The bespectacled girl hastily bobbed a deep bow. Her white hat nearly tumbled off her head, but I kept it off the ground with a levitation spell.

The ex-fighter stroked his stubbly chin with one hand and rested the other inside his kimono. “Rai of the cat clan. I’m retired and taking it easy, but I guess you can tell that by looking at me.”

“He manages the lodging house I live in,” I added.

“Then you’re Allen’s landlord?” Understanding entered Felicia’s eyes as I replaced the hat on her head.

“It was a lodging house, but that was over a decade ago.” Rai crossed his legs and made an exaggerated gesture of denial. “Now he’s the only tenant, and I barely lift a finger. I’ve offered to give him the place, land and all, but the stubborn mule won’t hear of it.”

“Huh?” Felicia went saucer-eyed.

“Allen?” Caren said slowly, with a knife-sharp glare that meant “Why am I only hearing about this now?”

Now how am I going to get myself off the hook tonight?

Rai smirked at our clandestine duel and waved his left hand to Felicia. “I bet he’s giving you as hard a time as the rest of us, Miss Fosse, but don’t kick him to the curb if you can help it.”

“I...I won’t! That’s one thing you’ll never have to worry about.” Our bespectacled head clerk met his gaze head-on and smiled. Perhaps Felicia Fosse had grown more than I’d realized between her sudden trip north and her experience in the Shiki archive, for all that Anko had stuck with her every step of the way.

Now that’s dealt with...

I nudged Caren to get going with a look.

“Till next time, Rai,” she said. “Don’t you dare drink yourself under the table.”

“E-Excuse us.” Felicia clutched Caren’s sleeve, and they started down the street to my lodgings.

“Sure thing, girlies. See you around.” Rai scratched his head and watched the little head clerk go. Then a change came over him, and the face of perhaps the best-informed person in the royal capital peeked through. “So that’s the Fosse Company’s secret weapon. I’ve heard about her through the grapevine, on and off. And I hear Mr. Fosse just got back to the city the other day. Allen, how do you get so well-connected?”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” I said. “Have you noticed any worrisome developments lately?”

Rai pulled a cloth bag of roasted beans from his kimono and tossed back a handful, watching the street. The sunset dyed the tumult and chaos of the working district, a place as full of life as it had ever been. Rai gave a few satisfied nods and crunched his mouthful of beans.

“Nothing much. No word of a bunch of foreigners setting up shop, like what happened before that business with the black dragon. Rumor has it that the dukes and the western chieftains are gearing up to gather in the city, and there’s gossip that they might call in the Vaubel who retired to the south. Something about needing the best dwarven smiths. But I’m guessing you know more about that side of things than I do now.”

“Much as I’d rather not. Thank you.” I shrugged and picked up my suitcase.

Could “the Vaubel who retired to the south” be Riga? Surely not. I couldn’t see him wanting anything to do with his house ever again.

“Well, keep up the good work, but don’t run yourself ragged.” Rai waved his gray tail and half raised his right hand. “And I’m serious about giving you the deed to that place.”

I slid my key into the lock on the old wooden door. It turned with a clunk.

“Come in, Felicia,” I said over my shoulder. “Caren, show her around.”

“I...I hope I’m not intruding,” stammered the bespectacled girl, hugging Anko and looking nervous.

“Of course not,” my sister answered. The door swung open, and she led Felicia to the washstand.

I followed, carrying all their luggage, and continued straight back to the kitchen that doubled as my living room. After turning on the mana lamps and activating the spellstone of fire that powered my boiler, I called, “Caren, you can draw hot water now!”

“Thanks!” she hollered back.

Once I felt warmth start to spread through the house, I set the bags on the floor, opened the cupboards and the icebox, and assessed the state of my larder. Nothing fresh, naturally. I had only ingredients that would keep. Outside the window, the sun was already setting. Still, it wasn’t every day that Felicia came to visit.

I was arranging Anko’s basket and considering the problem when the little bell attached to my front door announced company.

At this hour? It doesn’t seem like Lydia or the girls.

The bell chimed again.

“Coming!” I laid a blanket in the basket and made for the entrance. “I’m sorry to keep you wai— Huh?”

“Good evening!” said a lilting voice.

“L-Lily? B-But why? And what are the paper bag and the trunk for?” I asked, painfully aware of my ring and bracelet flashing “How stupid can you be?”

“To cook up a scrumptious dinner for tonight and breakfast in the morning!” said the beaming maid before me. “I remembered to ask for time off, and I packed a change of clothes, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. Here!”

Lily handed me the paper bag, her lovely scarlet locks spilling from beneath her brown knit hat and blazing in the evening sun. The clip in her hair gleamed, and her white cape fluttered in the wind.

Fresh fruit and vegetables. And look at all this meat! Does she seriously plan on staying the night?

“Th-Thank you,” I said despite my confusion. “But you know, this is a dangerous neighborhood. And you are an under-duke’s daughter, remember. A ‘Highness.’ I don’t think—”

“Lydia stays over all the time, though, doesn’t she? I hear she’s even got her own key.”

I groaned. She had me there.

The maid advanced, step by step, fingering the bracelet on her left wrist. And, step by step, I gave ground before her.

O-Of course! Lily didn’t come to meet us at the station because—

“Who is it, Al—”

“Huh? Wait, what?!”

My sister and her bespectacled friend came out in matching skirt-and-sweater ensembles only to freeze, stunned by the sight of the visitor. Lily’s smile broadened.

“Welcome back, Caren! And you too, Felicia!” She bobbed her head to them, trunk in hand. “What would you like for dinner?” She must have inferred the whole situation at a glance.

My wise sister and clever head clerk eyed me with suspicion.

“Allen, don’t tell me...”

“You invited Lily without telling us?”

“N-No!” I cried. “I’m innocent! I—”

“By the way, about my diplomatic mission to Lalannoy...” Lily interrupted my plea, turning abruptly serious.

Caren and Felicia paused, taken aback, their hands still tugging at my coat.

The maid held her scarlet hair in place with her left hand and smiled. “I reported to the palace, and His Royal Majesty congratulated me on ‘a job well done.’ He’s going to grant us an audience to go over the particulars, although I’m sure Caren already told you about that part. So let’s go to court together!”

I groaned again.

Sh-She’s threatening me. If I keep trying to talk her out of staying over, she’ll do everything she can to get me even more honors than they’ve already settled on! What was it Lydia whispered about this? “You don’t want Lily for an enemy”?

The maid’s smile grew as she watched me squirm. “Anyway, all that is beside the point.” She chuckled. “I need to stay here tonight, come what may!”

Ignoring our bemused looks, Lily wasted a levitation spell on her trunk solely so she could clench both fists.

“I want to talk over every detail of my maid uniform that Miss Fosse is making for me! Tonight, while the head maid and her second-in-command are both out of town for once! I used every diversionary tactic in the book to get this chance!”

Words failed Caren and me, but Felicia seemed convinced and unfazed. “Oh, of course! We do need to make sure we’re on the same page.”

I knew Lily had her heart set on a maid uniform, but I never imagined she was this serious about it. I sh-shudder to think what Anna and Romy will do when they find out. But for now...

I picked up the floating trunk and surrendered. “All right. You win. And you did see Caren safely back to the city for me.”

Caren started. “R-Really, Allen?!”

The laughing maid skipped inside with a merry “Thanks for having me!” Felicia chased after her, crying, “L-Lily, wait for me!”

That left Caren looking unconvinced, swatting my leg with her tail. “Well?” she prompted.

I rested a hand on her little head and gave it a good rub. “I have a hard time saying no to people who look out for my sister.”

“Oh, h-how am I supposed to stay mad when you put it like that?” My sister pouted, and I put an arm around her shoulder. Mana lamps flickered into life as the sun vanished below the horizon.

“Come on,” I said. “We should go in too. I’ll make whatever you want for dinner.”

✽

Clear soup simmered in a pot over a spellstone of fire. Stewing chicken and vegetables wafted a delicate aroma. I scooped a sample into a small bowl.

Mmm. Not elaborate, but tasty.

The remaining meat and vegetables were in the icebox, chopped for use, and the bread and eggs could wait until Caren and the others got out of bed. Breakfast was ready to go. I lowered the spellstone’s heat, removed my apron with its picture of a black cat, and gazed out the window.

Dense gray clouds covered the sky. Birds perched on the tree in the yard, huddling together for warmth. The cold had stung my skin during my morning training, and snow seemed like a real possibility.

“Allen!”

“Hmm?”

A little hand seized the hem of my shirt and tugged me out of my reverie. A nightgowned child with long white hair twitched her ears and tail, eyes shining. After spending the previous day asleep within me, Atra the Thunder Fox seemed to have more energy than she knew what to do with. She had actually woken me up that morning.

I scooped a little soup into a saucer and bent down. “Be careful. It’s hot.”

The child took it gleefully in both hands and brought it to her lips. It must have earned her approval, because her face relaxed into a contented smile, and her tail wagged.

“Now,” I said, “since you’re such a good girl, would you go wake up the sleepyheads for me?”

The child clenched her hands and hared off out of the kitchen with a musical cry of assent. I thought I’d heard the girls talking merrily late into the night. Still, Caren had told me she was going to stop by the Royal Academy with Stella, and Felicia had work. Lily might be off duty, but she could still use a wake-up call.

I sank into a chair and arranged several formulae I’d been inspecting on the table. First, five supreme spells, out of eight supposed to exist, that I’d had an opportunity to observe: Firebird, Water-Fang Whale, Gale Dragon, Lightning Lord Tiger, and Shining Stag. Then, the two bi-elemental supreme spells I had created: Frost-Gleam Hawks and Thunder-Shade Dragon. Each boasted the power to overwhelm most opponents in a single blow. But the fearsome apostles? The vampiress Alicia Coalfield had shrugged off even Lydia’s enhanced Firebird during their battle in Shiki.

They need more work. Oh, and I can’t forget that new shield for Stella.

I pondered, finger on my chin, until...

“G’morning, Allen.” Lily entered wearing a pale-scarlet cape over a nightgown of the same hue, rubbing her eye. She had a bad case of bed head, and anyone could see she was only half awake.

“Good morning, Lily,” I replied. “I take it you had a lively evening.”

“Oh, yes. We talked all night,” drawled the young woman who yearned for a maid uniform, taking the chair across from me and slumping forward onto the table. Her prominent bosom became even harder to ignore.

“Allen?” came a familiar voice, slow and menacing.

I’m dead! N-No, I’m hearing things. Lydia couldn’t possibly notice at this distance, even if we do have a magical pact.

Lily glanced at me, saw me shiver, and sat up, giggling. “It sounds like it will take some time, but I’m just dying to wear it.” She swayed, hands on her cheeks.

I’ll gladly take a scolding from Anna and Romy if it makes her this happy. I can always rope in Ridley in a pinch, I reflected, observing white flowers pop into being around the maid until the light of reason returned to her eyes, which widened as a little gasp escaped her.

“I...I’ll, um, g-go wash my face.” Lily stood, blushing furiously, and bolted for the washstand.

I returned to inspecting formulae, grinning in spite of myself.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Lily spoke haltingly when she returned a while later, staring bashfully at the floor. Was it me, or had her hair clip and bracelet lost a bit of their luster?

The maid fidgeted with her fingers, looking everywhere but at me. “S-So, um, about breakfast...”

“It’s all ready,” I said. “I just need to cook the meat and eggs.”

“Oh, why didn’t you wake me up?” Lily pouted and flounced into the seat she’d left earlier.

I felt a faint tremor. Caren must have gotten up as well.

“Is that a shield pieced together from supreme spells and the ‘angel’s’ magic?” Lily asked, running her eyes over my formulae.

“Yes. There’s still room for improvement,” I said, listening to the pot simmer away behind me.

Lily considered something briefly, then stood and turned a brilliant smile on me. “Oh, Allen.”

“Y-Yes?”

I don’t like where this is going.

The beaming maid brought her hands together, a pink tinge in her cheeks. “Surely deployment and simulated activation don’t tell you everything you’d like to know?”

“Well, no,” I admitted. I had confidence in my spell control, but I lacked the mana to activate even an advanced spell. I could lay out formulae and use elementary spells to test what might happen if they activated, but such experiments were hardly foolproof.

“No, no, of course not.” Lily nodded, turned a pirouette that sent her scarlet tresses and cape fluttering, and gave her chest a left-handed thump. “But you can test-cast them if you link mana with me! Come on! Don’t be shy!”

She already used my spell formulae as is, although not even I knew how. Linked, we could no doubt cast every supreme spell I knew. And yet...

I stood, turned my back on her, and lowered the spellstone’s heat again. “May I speak seriously, Lily?”

“Of course, if you don’t mind me for an audience.” She must have picked up on something in my voice, because I could sense her attitude shift.

I opened the icebox and removed the dishes of meat and vegetables I’d chopped earlier. “Thus far, I’ve linked mana with Caren, Lydia, Tina, Stella, and Ellie. Only, let me be clear, because I had no other choice.”

A piercing gaze bored into my back. This side of Lily was just like Lydia.

I laid the plates on the table and locked eyes with her. “I still know next to nothing about this ability, but I’m convinced I shouldn’t use it more than I can help.”

Lily hesitated. “May I ask why?”

I strained my ears and caught echoes of Atra’s valiant struggle. It sounded like I still had time to air my pet theory. “Linking mana has benefits. It lets me activate big spells I can’t work alone, and my partner can expect some improvement in terms of control, since traces of my formulae remain after I break the connection. However...”

“Yes?”

I closed my eyes and recalled the old demisprite warning that Lady Shise had shared with me in the imperial capital: “Keys devour their enemies’ mana, root and branch. Never attempt to meddle in their spells.”

I let out a breath and then the admission I’d been dreading. “Based on what I learned from Floral Heaven and my own experience, I fear this power the great elementals call a ‘key’ wasn’t meant for ‘opening’ the people I link with but for ‘closing’ them. You could just as easily say it’s for taking everything from them. It might even be capable of consuming a person entirely.”

I had actually used my talent to incapacitate Gerard during the practical portion of my court sorcerer exam. Great power always came at a cost—historians of every age and country agreed on that point. Why should “keys” be the sole exception?

The noblewoman listened intently as I shook my head and went on, “It goes without saying that I have no intention of doing any such thing. I’ve only linked with Caren, Stella, and Ellie a handful of times, and I detect no lasting influence except the lingering vestiges of my formulae—even on Tina, the first of them I forged a deep connection with. The only exception...”

“Is Lydia?”

I nodded and touched my ring and bracelet. The witch and the angel always picked moments like this to become uncommunicative. I took their silence to mean that I had it wrong, but not by much. Still, I could trust Lily with my greatest fear.

“I’ve linked with her more times than I can count, all the way back to our Royal Academy days. We risk serious complications if we keep joining our mana too deeply. I know this is an extreme example, but if I die, then Lydia might too.”

A door slammed shut. Caren and company had left their room.

“Of course, this is all just conjecture,” I said, forcing a milder tone. “Thank you for hearing me out.”

The maid planted her hands on her hips and edged toward me without a word.

Wh-What a bone-chilling smile. So like her mother’s.

“U-Um, Lily? C-Can I help you?”

“You know, Allen,” she said brightly, “I think you ought to spend a little more time learning how girls’ minds work.”

How did she draw that conclusion from anything I just said?!

While I struggled to get my bearings, the maid brought our bracelets together with a satisfying metallic clink. “But I hear you loud and clear! And I won’t breathe a word to Lydia or the others!”

“I...I’d appreciate that,” I managed.

I’d better start investigating myself next. Should I ask Duchess Letty about Allen the Shooting Star? With luck, I’ll find a clue in the Sealed Archive. Ellie is making progress opening it, and I’ll need to search it for old star charts anyway.

I dispelled the formulae and was busy getting out plates, forks, and spoons when Atra led Caren and Felicia into the room, still in their nightclothes.

“Morning, Allen,” my sister mumbled, while her bespectacled friend yawned softly. They still had one foot in dreamland.

“Good morning, Caren,” I said, catching her when she hugged me as a matter of course. “Give your face a wash. And take Felicia with you.”

“Okay.” Caren stumbled into the hallway, an arm around the friend who had just slumped, moaning, against her back.

She’ll be so embarrassed if she remembers this.

I glanced at Lily, who had donned the white-cat apron that Lydia usually wore and was already raring to go, and took several small glass jam jars off a shelf.

“Thank you, Atra,” I said, patting the child’s white-haired head. She looked proud of a mission accomplished. “Pick your favorite jam as a reward.”

The sight of her hopping for joy was too precious for words.

Anko arrived last, leaping onto the couch and curling up there. She seemed tired.

Lily gave a smug laugh and stood proud, eyes ablaze. “Your trusty maid will cook up the meat and eggs, and toast the bread too!”

“Thank you for—”

Tap-tap. A little scarlet bird pecked the windowpane.

Oh dear.

I opened the window a crack, failing to suppress a grimace, and the winter chill brushed my cheek. The bird alighted on my shoulder and vanished.

Duke Walter? I see.

“Allen? What’s wrong?” asked Lily.

“Your diversionary tactics failed,” I said. “Lydia knows everything.”

“N-No!” The maid reeled, then raged. “Wh-Who informed on me?!”

Just about everyone who knew what you were up to, I’ll bet. The Leinster maids love Lydia to bits.

I couldn’t hold back a grin, combing out Atra’s bed head with my fingers while brightly colored jams commanded her full attention. “But right now, we have a delicious breakfast to eat. We can put our heads together and think up a good excuse later.”

✽

A wrathful Lady Lydia Leinster awaited me at the gate of her house’s villa, accompanied by a scarlet-haired, beast-eared child. She stood under the wintry sky in her scarlet-and-white sword-fighting clothes, without so much as a jacket. The enchanted sword Cresset Fox hung from her belt as a matter of course.

“You’re late,” she said.

“Late, Allen!” echoed the child.

“I’m pretty sure I’m early, at least for the meeting time you told me this morning.” I scratched my cheek, refused to meet Lydia’s suspicious gaze, and rubbed Lia’s little head with my left hand. She, at least, looked warm in a white outfit and cape that matched Atra’s. Her ears and tail wiggled.

“Be quiet, you unfaithful cad!” Lydia shouted. The noblewoman was not amused.

“‘Cad’?” Lia repeated, confused but still imitating the denunciation. Atra joined in, keeping her hold on my coat. The maids watching quietly from a distance took out video orbs as one, united in purpose.

Th-They sure are true to form.

Seconds-in-command Romy and Mina led the group, which included a number of other officers. Weather had delayed their departure from the northern capital with the black griffins, but they seemed to have made the journey safe and sound.

Howard maids have joined the guard here, I see. So both Duke Liam Leinster and Duke Walter Howard approved this meeting. Good thing I changed my plans to stop Caren or anyone else from coming with me. Although I would have liked to bring Anko—for my safety, if nothing else.

I wrapped my scarf around the disgruntled Lydia’s neck. “You’re being a bad influence.”

“Humph. Don’t dawdle.”

She seized my left arm and marched me into the villa grounds. With a shiver, I heard the gate close behind me.

“Romy, Mina, keep an eye on the children,” Lydia commanded in marginally better humor, making for the front door.

“Certainly, my lady.”

“They’re in safe hands.”

The maids, one black-haired and bespectacled, the other flaxen-haired with an outward curl, bowed from beside the path. We could certainly trust them. But the children seemed reluctant, cutting in front of us and clinging to my legs.

“Allen,” whined Atra.

“I want to go too!” Lia pleaded.

Oh dear. I can’t bear to tell them no. On the other hand, Duke Walter went to the trouble of borrowing a Leinster villa just to speak with us—all to decide whether to tell his daughters the truth of Duchess Rosa’s death.

I gave Lydia a look that convinced her to release my left arm and sank into a crouch, meeting the children on their own eye level. “I’d like you both to see how the black griffins are doing,” I said, holding up my right index finger. “Can you do that for me?”

Their eyes lit up with understanding and delight.

“Mm-hmm!”

“You bet I can!”

A large white rabbit—a magical creature—emerged from the shrubbery, and the children gleefully charged its fluffy belly. I didn’t see Chitose, the Howard Maid Corps’s number five, but she must have come to the city as well. She and the other maids could take it from here. I nodded to the seconds-in-command, Lydia reclaimed possession of my left arm, and we made for the front door.

“So, what do you have to say for yourself?” Lydia demanded, beginning my cross-examination the moment we set foot inside.

“I...I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” I said. The long corridor had been meticulously enmeshed in wards of every description, but I neither sensed nor heard another soul.

“I’ll grant you Caren, since my generosity is more boundless than the Water Dragon Deep and she is my future sister-in-law. Yes, I’ll forgive you for her, even if you do have the same house name now.” Lydia sounded as though she was trying hard to convince herself, which only made her words more unnerving. She stopped short and smiled as feathers of black flame danced. “But when did I give you permission to put up Felicia and Lily for the night?”

Stray mana made the lights flicker and windowpanes screech in protest.

Hang on. Since when do I need your permission?

Such a commonsense answer would have guaranteed me a point-blank Firebird, so I said, “Th-There was a miscommunication, and Felicia’s parents weren’t home. And Lily...”

“What about Lily?” Lydia’s lovely scarlet tresses writhed like snakes. The black fire converged, taking on the outlines of a bird.

O-One wrong answer and... Anko, please! I need emergency relief!

Unable to bear the pressure head-on, I let my gaze wander. “She just showed up with groceries. She seemed so excited about Felicia making her a maid uniform that I couldn’t bring myself to turn her away.”

“Guilty as charged!”

Only long experience enabled me to duck under her lightning-quick chop. I pulled back, keenly aware of my pounding heartbeat.

“No dodging!” Lydia stamped her foot, manifesting a flock of dark Firebirds.

“Yes dodging! I still value my life!” I enhanced my body to the limit of my magical ability and took off like a shot, bound for the room at the end of the corridor. If I could only make it there before—

“You’re not going anywhere!”

Mana surged.

N-Not a good sign.

I looked over my shoulder and unraveled three Firebirds mercilessly bearing down on me. Fiery plumes filled the air.

That’s strange. She clearly throttled the force of— N-No! Those were decoys!

The noblewoman had predicted my every move and run along the ceiling to land lightly ahead of me, chuckling. “If you think you can stop me whenever you feel like it, Allen, you’ve got another think coming.”

I groaned. Making good my escape from Lydia at this distance bordered on the impossible. And when you got down to it, I had never beaten her in a sparring match, not even in our Royal Academy—

Oh.

“What’s wrong?” The noblewoman came closer, eyeing me quizzically.

I straightened her scarlet hair and scarf by hand and pointed at the door behind me. “He’s here. Shall we call a truce?”

“I suppose we’ll have to,” Lydia said, although she didn’t sound happy about it.

We both pulled out our pocket watches and checked them. It was time. We nodded to each other, and I knocked on the door.

A man’s solemn voice replied, “Enter.”

“Pardon us,” I said.

The room contained no eye-catching furniture, only an old writing desk and chair. The large, burly, platinum-haired man who had summoned us here turned from the window. Duke Walter Howard, the “Wolf of the North,” was one of the kingdom’s finest generals as well as Tina and Stella’s father. His battle-stained uniform told me that, true to his message, he had arrived in the city that morning.

“It’s good to see you again, Allen, Lydia,” he said. “Forgive me for calling you on such short notice.”

“It’s good to see you as well, Duke Walter,” I replied.

“Congratulations on your eastern victory,” Lydia added.

The duke raised his thick eyebrows, lowered his massive frame into the chair, and rubbed his temples. “Word travels fast. Did the professor tell you?”

“Yes.”

“He said your forces nearly reached the holy keep.”

“That rascal,” the duke sighed. “He could have chosen his words more carefully.”

The professor, one of the kingdom’s mightiest sorcerers; Duke Walter, guardian of the north; and Duke Liam Leinster, Lydia and Lynne’s father and defender of the south, had long been inseparable friends, for better and for worse.

“We would still have won on the eastern front without my help,” the duke explained. “We had the most warlike fighters the kingdom’s houses could send, starting with Leticia Lebufera, the Emerald Gale. The Knights of the Holy Spirit seemed to lose their edge mid-battle, and friendly casualties were negligible. Oh, and you should have seen Gil Algren and Yen Checker fight.”

So my old school friends were pulling their weight. Yen could use the prestige when he joined the royal guard come spring. Gil’s contributions would make it easier to champion his cause in a number of quarters, although earnest as he was, he would probably object that his family had started a rebellion.

Duke Walter folded his hands on the desk and closed his eyes. “I suppose I should have waited for those who have long shared my suspicions to arrive in the city before asking you to join me here. Unfortunately, a new incident involving the church arose in the southern capital, and Liam hurried back to deal with it. Lisa has stopped in the eastern capital on her way home from Lalannoy, and the professor won’t leave the imperial capital anytime soon. I cannot wait that long. Now, to business. Let me see it.”

The mood turned menacing. Goose bumps broke out on my skin. I glanced at Lydia, then drew Duchess Rosa’s journal with its gorgeous leather cover from my coat and laid it on the desk.

“Here it is,” I said. “Tina and Stella, with the aid of the great elementals, found it concealed in Duchess Rosa’s library.”

The battle-hardened general’s eyes widened, and he reached for the journal. “I never...” His colossal frame shook. “I never dared hope for a fresh clue. And from our own house! I had the place turned inside out after Rosa passed!”

Once Duke Walter had begun to suspect a curse, he had exhausted every means at his disposal in an effort to uncover the truth. But he had come away empty-handed.

“Have you looked inside?” the duke asked, his glare blade sharp and ice-cold.

“No,” I said. “I did ask Lena—Frigid Crane—to help me retrieve a map of Shiki, but no more.”

“I see.” Silence pervaded the room. Duke Walter stood and turned his huge back to us, resting his hand on a windowpane. “I read all of your reports at the front. As you surmise, my wife...Rosa probably knew who cursed her. And she hid the journal for our daughters after she took to her sickbed. She knew that I would lose myself in revenge if I read it.”

The duke’s hollow laugh rang with grief he couldn’t begin to hide. He covered his eyes with a hand.

“I...I knew my wife, Rosa Howard, and my sweetheart, Rosa Coalheart, but I never knew Rosa Etherheart, the apprentice of the great Floral Heaven who journeyed from the Black Peaks of the far north. I never even tried to know her.”

Lydia and I could say nothing in response. On second thought, I doubted that the duke would want us to. He was denouncing his own past self. Without a word, Lydia took my left hand and squeezed it tight.

Eventually, the Wolf of the North, who made imperial troops and the Knights of the Holy Spirit shiver, lowered his hands and turned to us. In his eyes dwelled a will of steel.

“But I want to know. Rosa was the only woman I will ever marry. I want to know the truth of her death.”

Perhaps time had stood still for him ever since. Only now had it begun to move again. His fingers lovingly traced every detail of the journal’s leather cover, and when he spoke, he sounded like a man struggling to put the past behind him.

“I leave this in your care. I realize that your time is limited, but I trust you to decipher it.”

I gasped. I had felt certain he would either read it himself or entrust it to the professor or the headmaster. “Are you certain?”

“There is no one in the kingdom now more suited to the task,” Duke Walter replied. “The professor has negotiations to conduct, mediating peace between the Yustinians and Lalannoy and arranging the details of the new railroad. He can’t return for some time. Rodde will come for the royal audience in a few days, but he’ll go back west as soon as it’s over. He’s got to question the elders of the long-lived races about the secrets they’ve been keeping. The two of them even delegated responsibility for the Grand Arsenal to Prince John when Chise and the other chieftains petitioned the king to reopen it. Of course, he’s supervising the work in name only.”

Lydia and I shared a stunned look. Cheryl’s older half brother, the former figurehead of the conservative nobility, was in charge of the operation? I only hoped things would go smoothly.

“I imagine you’ve already heard,” Duke Walter continued, “but His Royal Majesty has granted an audience to you and Caren, now that Alice herself has bestowed the Alvern name on you, and to Lily on account of her diplomatic service in Lalannoy. Tina will also attend, and it sounds as though Stella will have a special role to play, although I’ve heard nothing specific. I would like...to tell my girls about Rosa before then. And I want you both to be there when I do.”

“Of course.”

“Very well.”

“I appreciate it.” Duke Walter Howard bowed low—one thing to Lydia, a daughter of his peer, but quite another to me, a wolf-clan foundling. Then he gazed out the window at the first white flakes of snow and murmured sadly, “Oh, I see deep winter has reached this city too.”

✽

Our target’s old-fashioned mansion stood eerily quiet on the outskirts of the Wainwright Kingdom’s southern capital. The mana lamps in the garden shed scant light through the windowpanes. I doubted that they saw regular maintenance. I paused under a shaft of moonlight in the dark passage.

I can’t make sense of it. Griffin mail dominates the kingdom’s airways, and the Skyhawk Company controls griffin mail. Its president’s home shouldn’t seem so deserted.

I sent my comrade a left-handed signal. “Levi, search again.”

The cat-clan girl, who still wore the hooded gray robe she had received from Her Holiness as a cadet, despite now being the third apostle, struck the floor with the butt of her long spear. Obsidian serpents shot away in all directions...and vanished.

Levi Atlas shook her head, revealing a glimpse of white hair under her hood. “No one has moved, much less escaped, since we infiltrated. There’s only one person here apart from our target.”

“We’d best hurry.” I, Viola Kokonoe, Her Holiness’s faithful servant, cut through the web of doubt and launched myself forward. Naturally, Levi followed suit.

A dark-brown door hurtled toward us. I gripped the hilt of my blade, Kōkoku, and slid it free.

Cleave!

The door gave way with almost disappointing ease, not so much as a barrier to bar our path as we cautiously stepped through. The vast chamber held two occupants, as Levi’s spell had shown. In its center, the hazy glow of a mana lamp picked out an attractive bird-clan woman seated in a lone chair and poring over a slim old volume. White feathers mingled with her black hair. She wore a beastfolk garment called a kimono, patterned with moons and stars, and appeared unfazed. Her companion was a cat-clan boy with distinctive white hair, who wore a breastplate over a formal suit.

Doesn’t he look an awful lot like Levi, especially with that long spear in his hands? But never mind. All else pales to insignificance before Her Holiness’s commands.

I leveled the edge of my blade at the woman, who continued to stare down at her book, and demanded, “Give us Dialogues on the Apocrypha of the Great Moon.”

“I will not. My dearest friend risked her life to give me this.” Else, president of the Skyhawk Company, closed her book and looked up. Her gaze held something so powerful that I flinched in spite of myself.

“Viola,” Levi called, reproof in her voice.

I breathed in and leaned forward. “Then...”

“Die,” Levi finished, and we charged at Else.

The boy rushed to his employer’s defense, courageous—but a half step too slow.

“No!” he cried as I leapt over his sweeping spear and Levi slid under it, into striking distance of the bird-clan woman. The undulating temper pattern of my blade and the head of Levi’s spear soaked up moonlight, flashing eerily as they neared our target’s throa—

“That’s quite enough,” a woman’s voice declared, and a large, ominous scythe deflected our blows, driving us back.

I swiftly regained my balance and strained my eyes. The pitch darkness behind Else wavered.

A perception-blocking spell so advanced that it fooled us?

The scythe-wielder slowly revealed herself: a maid with shoulder-length hair of palest red, secured in the front with a silver pin. She was tall, her skin on the darker side, and her long ears suggested elven blood. Her uniform belonged to the Ducal House of Leinster. I recalled what I’d read of the Second and Third Southern Wars.

“Ceynoth the Headhunter.”

“Celebrim, if you please.” The maid bobbed an elegant curtsy, standing between us and Else.

This woman is a foe to be feared. And she was lying in wait. Did the Leinsters know we were coming?

Levi had lost her hood and must have reached the same conclusion. She shifted her grip on her spear and started amplifying her mana. Slowly, her white hair grew, and her eyes turned crimson.

The cat-clan boy froze, clearly shaken. But a keen glint entered the eyes of the maid with the scythe balanced on her shoulder.

“That hair, those eyes...” she murmured. “You must be a survivor of the attempts to re-create the Dark Lord that doomed the commonwealth. For your own good, I urge you to stop. You must realize you’re tempting a fate more dreadful than death. That’s an echo of the power of the gods of old. No mortal can master it.”

“You’re dead.”

“No!” I shouted, but the girl whose heart would never heal ignored me and hurled herself as a white javelin.

The maid gave a sad grimace and touched her earring, raising a potent fire-resistant barrier. The cat-clan boy fell back to a position in front of Else.

What good will—

“Okay, that’s enough of that!” lilted a cheerful voice, totally at odds with the murderous atmosphere.

“Levi!” I screamed, and a colossal bird of fire burst through the window.

A Firebird?!

I abandoned all speculation, imbued my blade with all the mana I could muster, and brought it down on the supreme spell to save the cat-clan girl. We had lived like sisters since Her Holiness had taken us in. I gritted my teeth against the impact as flames engulfed the room, blasting away every bit of window, wall, and ceiling outside the barrier. A heated night breeze brushed my cheek.

I could still fight, despite cuts and burns. But Levi had been closer to the blast. Blood stained her gray robes. Her breath came in ragged gasps.

Why isn’t Resurrection taking effect? Was that Firebird imbued with a spell of obstruction?

“Goodness. And I was so sure I’d taken you by surprise. You are tough cookies.”

A woman landed amid the flame-fanned gusts. She had long hair, so red it might have soaked up blood, and stood no taller than a child, a scarlet sorceress’s robe swathing her slight figure. Her hands gripped daggers marked with flickering signs.

Her Holiness had given us a warning before this mission, and her wise words came back to me now: “Viola, Levi, you are both strong. But the world is wide, and there are foes in it you should not challenge, especially when the tide of battle is against you.” Weaving multiple spells, I muttered the name that the scarlet-haired woman’s enemies had given her.

“Bloodred Witch.”

The flames leapt higher, which I took as a sign of how she felt about the title. Lindsey Leinster, the woman who had effectively destroyed two principalities single-handedly in the Third Southern War, furrowed her brow. “You mean the church calls me that too? I prefer ‘Scarlet Heaven’ myself.”

“Venerable mistress, I know your pain.” Ceynoth raised a hand to her mouth, sounding deadly earnest.

“I don’t hear ‘Scarlet Heaven’ much,” Else interjected flatly, while the boy continued to guard her.

I calmly analyzed the odds. If Levi and I held nothing back and gave no thought to survival, we could slay either the Witch or the Headhunter. But Her Holiness had not commanded us to die on this mission, and we could not bring her Dialogues on the Apocrypha of the Great Moon if we did. In which case...

“Levi, retreat!”

I made up my mind before the Witch could do anything else and slammed a wave of light into the floor to blind our enemies. Slinging the cat-clan girl over my shoulder, I jumped out a smashed window and down into the garden. A puzzled “My, my” from the Witch reached my ears, but I didn’t stop to see if I had really surprised her.

✽

“Now there’s a girl who knows how to think on her feet. And unless my memory isn’t what it used to be, that was Kōkoku, an heirloom of the House of Kokonoe, which held one of the eight grand dukedoms in secret,” the former Duchess Leinster murmured, standing by the remains of a window, and sank into silent contemplation. The inferno was dying down, probably another trick of her magic.

“Are you all right, Ms. Else?”

“Yes. Thank you, Ravi,” I said, wiping my brow with a handkerchief proffered by my concerned attendant. Two days ago, when the Leinsters had sent word that “the apostles are hunting you,” I had prepared for death, but it looked as though I would at least survive the night.

Duchess Lindsey resheathed her daggers and turned. “Well, it will have to do. And it looks like Liam’s force just arrived. You aren’t hurt, are you, Else, dear?”

“No, thanks to your timely intervention.” I stood and bowed, feigning composure.

The wind carried men’s shouts to my ears. True to his written promise to “repay me for the black griffins,” Duke Leinster had come in person, leading reinforcements. I supposed I could trust such a man of his word.

When I raised my head, brushing black hair out of my eyes, the diminutive witch beamed. “Thank goodness we got here in time. The Atlas boy is strong, but against those two together, well...”

A chill ran down my spine, and I saw the boy’s lips twitch. I’d heard that Earl Sykes, a Leinster vassal, boasted that his house would “fool the Dark Lord if they had to,” but had they really probed into Ravi’s origins? Regardless, Duchess Lindsey didn’t press the issue.

“Tell me, Else,” she said, looking straight up into my eyes, “would you mind going to the royal capital and taking that little book with you?”

“Why there?” Taken aback, I clutched the memento of my best friend to my chest. I knew that I would have to visit the royal capital eventually to talk terms with Allen & Co., but I had no fond memories of the city. It hadn’t even allowed me to attend my friend’s funeral.

Seeing me unable to answer, the witch raised her left index finger to her lips. “Just between us, there’s going to be a royal audience at the palace in the next few days. Dukes Howard, Lebufera, and Leinster will all be there, and so will Duke Algren’s proxy. Officially, it’s part of a plan to put pressure on the eastern countries faithful to the church.”

For months now, the Church of the Holy Spirit’s machinations had been making fools of the western powers in the open and in secret. According to the intelligence network I’d built, the League of Principalities, the Lalannoy Republic, and the Yustinian Empire had already sustained serious damage and were, for all intents and purposes, out of the fight. Only the Wainwright Kingdom, with the might of its Four Great Ducal Houses and the rising star of the Brain of the Lady of the Sword, had resisted them on all fronts. But while they had eliminated a number of apostles, it would be hard to call those victories.

So why celebrate now?

My confusion must have shown on my face, because Duchess Lindsey gave a short nod. “And the actual point”—she did a pirouette and launched into a literal state secret—“is to reward Allen Alvern, the kindhearted wolf-clan boy who saved my darling granddaughter and our house with her, and to show him off to the world at large.”

I started. “B-But that’s the Hero’s house name.”

Beastfolk still faced exclusion in the kingdom. Two hundred years ago, Shooting Star had saved the human world. One hundred years ago, the Silver Wolf had done the same. But neither champion was a household name in the present day. And why? Because they were of the wolf clan. I myself had put up with harassment more times than I could count. And now a foundling—of the wolf clan by adoption—bore the name of the most prestigious grand ducal house?

All of a sudden, I recalled a conversation with my late friend. “There’s this boy who can’t get enough of my crepes,” she had said, happy as could be. “And he’s got a weird aura about him. He doesn’t have beast ears or a tail, but he calls himself wolf-clan.”

While I stood stunned, Duchess Emerita Lindsey Leinster, Scarlet Heaven, held her hair in place against a playful night breeze and gazed heavenward.

“The time has come for old stars like me to set and for the stars of a new age to assemble,” she said. “That includes you, dear. Doesn’t it sound like fun?”

Chapter 3

“Would...would you repeat that, Régnier?”

My voice echoed in the oldest and innermost chapel of the Offices of the Holy See, the heart of the pontiff’s domain and center of the Church of the Holy Spirit. No one used it for worship anymore. It didn’t even have pews.

Lounging against a stone column and skimming a report on the recent intruders by the moonbeams filtering through the stained glass and the dim light of mana lamps, the white-haired, crimson-eyed fourth apostle repeated the earthshaking news.

“Like I told you, our resident Sage, Prime Apostle Aster Etherfield, could be dead for all we know. He infiltrated the Shiki archive, and no one’s seen or heard from him since. Apostle Yz, Miles Talito, died for sure—fighting the older Howard girl and her maids, I hear.”

My breath caught in my throat. How could that man, the more-than-mortal master of the great spell Falling Star, be missing, possibly dead? Adding insult to injury, how could Yz have died so soon after assuming the mantle of sixth apostle, and at the hands of Stella Howard, a vile aristocrat I would not soon forget?

Before I could get my thoughts in order, Fifth Apostle Isolde’s overblown lamentations burst from the miniature communication orb fixed to the collar of my robe. “Oh, poor father! To think, he fell before he could see Alf again!” She must have been patrolling the great bell tower, because the wind was wailing with her.

I grimaced. “Who did the prime apostle face?”

“You have to ask?” Régnier looked up from the report, transfixing me with a crimson stare from behind his spectacles.

We had been acting more openly since the Algren rebellion, battling throughout the west of the continent to hasten the day that Her Holiness’s aspirations would reach fruition. And in the course of that struggle, one heathen had done us greater harm than any other. I had my answer.

“The defective key,” I murmured. “Allen of the eastern capital wolf clan.”

“He had the younger Howard girl and some woman I don’t know with him. Somebody really will put a knife in him one of these days—unless the big bad Lady of the Sword carries him off or the Lady of Light gets her claws in him first.” Régnier grinned and tossed the report behind him. The dagger at his hip swayed.

A shadow distorted, and a delicate hand seized the papers.

“It looks like Viola and Levi failed to take Dialogues on the Apocrypha of the Great Moon from the southern capital too,” said a vampiress in a black hat and jet-black dress. Her other hand held a black parasol. I had received word that Alicia “Crescent Moon” Coalfield would replace Io “Black Blossom” Lockfield as second apostle after the latter had fallen in the Yustinian capital. Her power defied comprehension. But she was supposed to have accompanied the prime apostle and Yz.

“Nonsense!” I snapped, not trying to hide my annoyance. “They would never shy from their duty to Her Holiness!”

“It’s a big world out there. Remember the old fox who waltzed right into the See the other day?” Régnier dismissed me, removing his spectacles.

“It’s a wide world, Edith, dear,” Alicia added gently, long tarnished-silver hair swaying as she flipped through the report. “You wouldn’t believe some of the monsters one might bump into.”

Isolde said nothing. Inwardly, I stewed in inexpressible gloom. Why did they sound half pitying?

“So, what now?” Régnier put his spectacles back on and stroked his chin, ignoring me. For once, he looked serious. “The prime apostle took it on himself to seize both volumes of the Bibliophage’s forbidden tome, and he failed to get either one. We’ve also lost North Star, the enchanted sword with the flower orb in it that we picked up in Lalannoy, and now we’ve missed our chance at Dialogues, which is supposed to record a conversation between the cult of the Great Moon’s founder and the Bibliophage about raising the dead. The only thing going according to plan...”

Régnier stamped his foot. I felt the potent, chilling mana of the thing that had been Gerard Wainwright writhing far beneath the earth.

“...is Ex-Prince Brainless,” the dhampir continued, spectacles catching the light. “We’ve finished carving five of the eight great spells into him and fed him dragon bones to make up the difference. He’s a disgrace to his ancestors, but he is still a Wainwright. He’ll work as a sacrifice, at least for a while. Now, as for how we replace the missing apostles—”

“I have someone in mind.”

Through the chapel door, which I hadn’t noticed open, came our leader, with her hooded robe of pristine white and her sublime ashen hair. The old pendant hanging from her neck gathered moonlight.

“Your Holiness!” I gasped, falling to one knee and bowing. Even Régnier and Alicia stood straighter.

“Edith, let me see your face,” said the Saint.

“Of course, Your Holiness.” I raised my head, trembling with elation at the acknowledgment.

She whom I served gave a radiant smile and addressed the cadet who followed her, a girl who kept her face hidden deep in her gray robe’s hood. “Thank you for accompanying me, Shuka. Please return to the new church.”

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

For a split second as the door creaked closed, I found myself gazing into the girl’s golden eyes—a lightless abyss. I couldn’t suppress a shudder. What could give anyone such a cold stare?

Régnier scratched his head, looking conflicted. “So, you’re going to promote that dragon worshipper and Viola?”

“No,” Her Holiness said firmly, proceeding straight across the chapel. I smelled flowers as she passed in front of me. “Shuka is next to helpless in a fight. I wouldn’t dream of sending her to battle. She merely records day-to-day minutiae for me. And Viola would never give up her post as my attendant.”

She halted before a stained glass window, and the moonlight dimmed. Gloom enveloped the chapel.

“But we must not stop. To my great sorrow, Ibush-nur and Ifur parted ways with us in Lalannoy. We lost Io in the empire and Yz in Shiki, and now even Aster is gone. Even so, we have no choice but to press on.”

I pressed a hand to my heart, Régnier struck his sheathed dagger, and Alicia raised the brim of her black hat in silent assent.

Her Holiness waved a dainty hand, summoning warm magical lights to float in midair. “But every cloud has a silver lining—although I don’t wish to make light of tragedy. Piecing together what we’ve learned, it seems that the Shiki archive was not the final altar we seek. I doubt that the Wainwright Kingdom has discovered its precise location yet either.”

I gasped. “Th-Then...”

The beautiful Saint held up a delicate hand that had nonetheless saved thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of the weak and downtrodden throughout the east. “We must reach the eighth and final altar, wherever it might be, and see our mission through. We fight to perfect Resurrection, transcend death, and create a world without strife, where the weak can live and laugh without fear of tyranny.”

“Let it be so.” I went down on one knee again, savoring the sweet thrill. For Her Holiness, I would give everything.

“So, where do we fit in?” asked Régnier.

“Aster took North Star with him, you know,” added Alicia. “That sword came in handy for so many things.”

“How dare you speak to Her Holiness like—”

Before I could finish reprimanding the greater apostles, the magical lights went out, plunging the chapel into yet deeper darkness.

Wh-What’s going on? Who am I sensing?

Even so, neither Her Holiness nor the pendant she always wore around her neck lost their glows. “First, you will welcome the gentleman behind you into the ranks of the apostles.”

I sensed smooth-flowing mana and looked over my shoulder at the door. A tall man stood silently in the white robes none but an apostle might wear. What looked like twin swords hung at his sides. But who was he? There was no one like him among the cadets.

For once, Régnier looked startled. “If this mana means what I think it means... You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Quite a bold move.” Alicia narrowed her crimson eyes. “Heaven’s Sage will turn her anger on us if she finds out.”

“Lady Lothringen is sound asleep, I’m told,” Her Holiness replied. “And without her better half, I doubt she’ll be capable of rational judgments when she wakes up. As for finding a replacement for North Star...”

Another man appeared beside the new apostle whose face I couldn’t make out. I could detect neither mana nor malice from him. Even his outline was hazy. If I had to compare him to something, I supposed he was an empty bottle.

A little jade-green bird appeared as if from nowhere, flitted across the chapel, and perched on Her Holiness’s finger. Multiple beings of immense power stirred within the shadows at her feet.

“...with this gentleman’s help, we’ll retrieve one from the royal capital.”

A flash of lightning from the indistinct man shattered every mana lamp in the chapel. I gaped, hearing Isolde’s startled “Oh my...” from my orb. We were both convinced. The newcomer rivaled the greater apostles—maybe even surpassed them. What couldn’t he do?

Alicia, on the other hand, pulled the brim of her hat low and said nothing.

Régnier furrowed his brow, mumbling something under his breath. (“An Ashfield? No, a Wainwright. And that lightning... It can’t be. But it is. Then, the fate of a key is to...”)

The bird took flight, and Her Holiness spoke with solemn grace.

“A spell book I read as a little girl gave good advice: ‘Always save the best for last.’ Now, let us begin our final battle to save this planet.”

✽

Sure enough, I found the young man I’d been looking for atop a low hill overlooking the enemy camp. His blond hair, so common in the Lothringen bloodline, flashed in the sunlight, and his gold-embroidered cape fluttered in the breeze. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew his eyes—silver-gold like mine—would be alight with boyish glee. As usual, he had no sense of himself as a commander.

If he was going to slip out of camp, he should at least have invited me, I grumbled mentally and called up at his broad back.

“There you are, Arthur. Everyone’s looking for you.”

“Hmm?” My cousin and fiancé turned, puzzled. Then his face lit up. “Oh, Elna!”

My heart beat faster in spite of myself. Arthur Lothringen, Heaven’s Sword, the guardian angel of the Lalannoy Republic, wore bright-white-and-azure armor. At his sides hung the enchanted swords Lunar Cresset and Lunar Fox, forged at the height of the House of Shiki under the Old Empire. As usual, it all came together to make him look dashing—not that I would ever tell him so.

I stood to Arthur’s left and removed my small spectacles. A pleasant breeze played through the lilac hair I was debating growing out a little and my white-and-purple robes. “Our scouts report that Grand Marshal Saxe has reached the imperial camp.”

Arthur burst out laughing. “He sure is spry for his age!”

We had crossed blades with Moss “Castle Breaker” Saxe, pillar of the Yustinian Empire, more than once in the skirmishes over our western border. This wouldn’t be an easy fight.

“I just hope the old man will fight me one-on-one this time.” My fiancé squinted and unaffectedly slipped an arm around my shoulders. I felt his warmth, and the sense that this was where I belonged steadied my nerves.

“Why would he?” I countered, resting my head on Arthur’s left shoulder. “He could never beat you.”

No answer. I moved face-to-face with my prince and brushed his bangs out of his face, which wore an uncharacteristic frown.

“Arthur? Is something bothering you?”

“No,” he said slowly. “I was just wondering how long this fighting will last. I’m no good for anything else, but I hate sending you to the battlefield. You could always oversee operations from the city of—”

“Don’t be silly.” I took my impossible fiancé’s hand and held it to my chest. “Your path is mine. Keeping you safe while you swing your sword means everything to me. Don’t think I won’t read you the riot act if I have to.”

We’d been together since birth. We would be together when we died. The world might call Elna Lothringen “Heaven’s Sage,” but that was the extent of my ambition. I liked to think it made me an ideal match for Arthur, who belittled himself as a man with no skills but swordplay—not that I would ever tell him so.

For a few moments, Arthur said nothing. Then, “Thank you, my lady,” he murmured tenderly and held me close. There was nothing fair about the way he ended our arguments, but I didn’t love him any less for it.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” he cried.

“Nothing.”

I nodded, inwardly bashful, and made to follow Arthur’s retreating back. Only...

“What?”

I...I can’t move my legs?

All the while, Arthur was getting farther away, and darkness—dreadful, inky darkness—fell over the whole scene, robbing me of sight.

“W-Wait!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, reaching for his back. “Please, wait for me!”

✽

“Arthur!” I shrieked, hand outstretched. A high, dark, familiar ceiling filled my blurry view. “The...Addison house?”

I lurched into a sitting position and looked around the dimly lit room. Faint sunlight peeked through the curtains. It wasn’t night, then.

My hand fumbled over the bedside table, and I put on my spectacles. Sure enough, I was in the house of Oswald Addison, leader of the Bright Wings Party and of the Lalannoy Republic. I remembered staying here on several previous occasions. My lilac nightgown was drenched in sweat. My head and body ached abominably, and my thoughts refused to cohere.

What am I doing here?

“Have you awakened?” The door opened quietly, and a beautiful maid I didn’t recognize entered. She carried a tray on which sat a pitcher of water, a glass, a white cloth, and a few other items. Her hair was a lovely blonde, and her eyes the same silver-gold as Arthur’s and mine. Her red uniform came from nowhere in Lalannoy. She took a chair beside my bed and offered me the damp white cloth.

“And you are?” I asked.

“I have the honor to serve as the Leinster Maid Corps’s number eight,” she replied. “Cordelia is my name. My secret house name is Lothringen. You ought to wipe away that sweat.”

A relative?! I have heard that a branch of our house became separated during the age of strife. But why is she a Leinster maid?

Mind whirling, I took the cloth and held it to my forehead. Coolness spread from the contact. Suddenly, my thoughts cleared, and I knew why I had been asleep here. Unable to...to face the impossible reality that Arthur had vanished from a church in the workshop city, I had exhausted my mana and collapsed in a pathetic display.

Barely containing an eruption of fury, I locked eyes with Cordelia. “I’d heard rumors that the western imperial line survived. I suppose the Ducal House of Leinster has been sheltering you. How long have I lain here?”

“At least half a month, I believe.”

Half a month! Impossible. I’ll admit I was shaken to my core, but the shock shouldn’t have put me out for nearly that— Did Lord Addison put a spell on me? Then he must have received information that he considers disastrous for me to know. And I can infer that he called a relative in Leinster service all the way here to attend me in order to prevent me from taking action the moment I woke up.

How do you live with yourself, Elna? After everything that’s happened, here you are, breaking down the situation and planning your next move with cold detachment! What would Arthur think if he saw you now?

Mentally berating myself with every insult I knew, I implored the maid, the first family I had ever met, apart from my late grandparents and Arthur. “Cordelia, tell me everything that you can be certain of now—and please, no lies. That includes anything Lord Addison might have forbidden you to tell me. I will bear full responsibility. Please. Please! I’m begging you.”

Cordelia must have foreseen my request. She handed me a small detection orb. “Here you are. It contains the mana of a certain personage recovered from the church in which Lord Arthur Lothringen disappeared.”

I immediately inspected the contents.

What? I...I know this beautiful, almost abyssal, inhuman mana from the Addisons’ secret archive. But then, if...if this monstrosity attacked Arthur...

I gave the silent Cordelia a pleading look.

The pretty maid shook her head. “Lord Arthur’s whereabouts remain unknown. We have also confirmed that the mana in that orb matches wartime records of the Dark Lord’s.”

My emotions slipped their leash, and mana erupted from my body. Ceiling, walls, windows, and floor all trembled, screeching in protest as dust filled the air.

The Dark Lord? The Dark Lord?! The Dark Lord west of the kingdom, beyond Blood River? The Dark Lord I’ve only ever heard of in fairy tales took my Arthur from me?

Fine, then. I don’t know what made her resort to such lunacy, but I’ll find out when I march up to her seat of power myself. And if the Yustinians so much as think of trying to bar my passage...I’ll mow down every tree and blade of grass in their empire!

“Lady Elna, please control yourself. I have more to report. What I say next comes from Princess Cheryl Wainwright, the Lady of Light, who tended to you up to the very day she left this city, and Mr. Allen, the Brain of the Lady of the Sword, who instructed me to watch over you.” Cordelia touched my tightly clenched fists and looked straight into my eyes, ignoring the cuts that shards of wall and blades of air were leaving on her own cheeks and hands. Her gaze held nothing but pure concern for my well-being.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled and healed her with a spell.

The maid smiled and poured a glass of ice water from the pitcher with practiced skill. “No one can blame you for losing your composure. May I resume my report?”

I squeezed the orb painfully tight. My head had cooled somewhat, but inwardly I burned with a bottomless hate for the one who had taken Arthur from me. Yet Princess Cheryl and Allen had come to our country’s aid when we had nowhere else to turn. I owed it to them to hear them out. If their message failed to convince me, well...

I took a sip from the proffered glass. “Very well,” I told Cordelia. “I’ll listen to what you have to say before I do anything else.”

The brief message left me stunned. Princess Cheryl and Allen made the wildest assertions.

“The Dark Lord wasn’t involved in the disappearance.”

“You met her, in fact. She went by the name Rill.”

“She aided us in the fight against the ice wyrm and the false goddess.”

“Arthur knew that as well as we did.”

“We believe that the mana left at the scene was a deception targeting you specifically.”

I would have bombarded them with questions if they had been here in person. As it was, I drained the glass of now tepid water and slammed it down on the bedside table before turning my unreasoning anger on my long-lost relative.

“You expect me to believe this ridiculous story?”

“I do,” she said.

“But...but how can I?! The Dark Lord’s mana was found in the church! That’s physical evidence! Anyone...anyone would conclude that the Dark Lord must have played some role in Arthur’s disappearance.” The last words came out in a hoarse whisper. Tears streamed down my cheeks. They wouldn’t stop.

Clack.

The maid placed a second little orb on my bedside table. I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and forced out a question. “What’s this?”

“A sample I retrieved at Mr. Allen’s direction and with his approval,” Cordelia replied, “although the responsibility was too great for someone of my unremarkable abilities. That orb proves that the Dark Lord was not involved in this incident. Its significance would be lost on most sorceresses, but I am confident that you, Heaven’s Sage, will find it justifies staying your hand.”

Feeling vaguely intimidated, I picked up the little orb and—

What?

Trembling, I looked Cordelia in the eye. “Where did you find this mana?”

“Beneath the independence memorial.”

I gave a start.

Of course. If Princess Cheryl and Allen are telling the truth, there’s nothing strange about finding the Dark Lord’s mana in the place that the flower dragon sanctified.

I drew in a breath and tried to compare the mana in the first orb with the meager sample Cordelia had risked her life to collect.

They don’t match. The difference is slight, but once you pick up on it, it’s unmistakable. The mana from the sanctuary is more refined!

Then...then did the Dark Lord really have nothing to do with it?

When I opened my eyes, Cordelia bowed deeply to me. “Mr. Allen is worthy of your trust. He saved Lady Lydia when she was known as ‘the Leinsters’ cursed child.’ He would not lie in a case like this, and he is already taking steps to identify Lord Arthur’s assailant. Please, restrain yourself.”

I recalled a story that Arthur’s sworn friend Lord Ridley Leinster, the Swordmaster, had once told me with awe. “That wolf-clan boy rescued my cousin when everyone in our own house had nearly lost hope and resigned themselves to lamenting her fate,” he had said. “And he didn’t hesitate to risk his own life into the bargain.”

I laid my hands on my lap and closed my eyes.

Arthur.

“Very well,” I said. “I’ll wait for a little while.”

“Thank you very much.” I could sense Cordelia’s sigh of relief.

“But not forever,” I reminded her, opening my eyes. “Only until I recover my strength. After that, I will do as I see fit. Please tell Allen so.”

✽

I cast a spell of silence so as not to wake Lady Elna Lothringen now that she had returned to sleep and stepped out into the corridor. Suddenly overcome with exhaustion, I exhaled and placed a hand on the wall for support.

“Cordelia, you’re her only family, and only you can relay the message without sedating her. I know we can count on you,” my mistress, Duchess Lisa Leinster, had told me before leaving the workshop city for the kingdom’s eastern capital a few days prior. Somehow or other, I had accomplished that mission.

Thank goodness.

“I see you’ve been working hard, Cordelia.”

“M-Mr. Walker.”

I jerked my head up to find a gray-haired, monocle-wearing man nearing old age smiling at me. Duke Howard’s head butler, Graham Walker, had won fame as an intelligencer throughout the west of the continent. Hard though it was to believe, he had reputedly driven Ms. Anna to despair back before she had become a maid. He had made the long journey here from the Yustinian capital just the other day and had since taken charge of counter-church espionage in the Lalannoy Republic.

I stood to attention and reported, “Lady Elna has seen her way to restraining herself.”

A male naval officer in a tricorn hat, a group of Lalannoyan marines, and several Howard maids stood guard at the end of the corridor, palpable expressions of Lord Addison’s anxiety. I saw Mr. Walker signal “all clear” and let my head droop.

“That said...” I hesitated. “If Mr. Allen doesn’t make his next move in time...”

“She might still act rashly?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “Although probably not against the Yustinian Empire.”

The noblewoman with whom I apparently shared blood reminded me of Lady Lydia. What would Heaven’s Sage do if she lost Heaven’s Sword completely? I had only to recall what had taken place on the Avasiek Plain to answer that question. The problem was, Lady Elna Lothringen was unquestionably stronger than Lady Lydia had been then. She wouldn’t stop at a single taboo spell.

“No doubt that was the church’s goal,” Mr. Walker said gravely. “If a wrathful Heaven’s Sage were to lead Lalannoy against an empire deprived of the elder Saxe, the kingdom would have no choice but to intervene. At the same time...”

Thunder crashed outside. The weather had been rapidly worsening since the previous evening.

The spymaster’s monocle caught the light. “As Mr. Allen pointed out, for all their scheming, neither the apostles nor the self-proclaimed Saint could know that the real Dark Lord was present for that battle. Therein may lie the first advantage we’ve gained amid the strategic setbacks they’ve handed us on all fronts. We must capitalize on it.”

“I will report Lady Elna’s awakening to him at once!” I had barely finished bowing when I started off down the corridor as quickly as I could walk. The champion of a new era had reclaimed Lady Lydia’s smile. If anyone could save one of my few living relatives, he could.

✽

“What could be keeping Mr. Allen?” I murmured by the ivy-covered redbrick gate of the Grand Arsenal. “I hope he hasn’t run into trouble.”

I adjusted my beret and brushed my hands over my light-brown Royal Academy coat, but I couldn’t seem to relax. Our maid corps’s second-in-command, Mina Walker, and our butler, Roland Walker, were waiting beside the car. I knew that I shouldn’t let them see me like this, but I couldn’t help sighing. Days had already passed since our return to the capital, and I had hoped that arriving early would give me a chance to consult with Mr. Allen.

H-How could I have known that the king would suggest such a thing?

I took my eyes off the cart and automobile traffic and looked inside the main gate. Knights of the royal guard in bright white armor were providing security. I recognized several faces, including a son of the southern Earl Bor, who seemed to be in charge of the platoon.

Chieftain Chise Glenbysidhe had summoned Caren, who needed her lightning-wyrm dagger reforged; Lynne, who was to receive a new fire dagger; and Mr. Allen, and announced that they would “kindle the main mana furnace before the others arrived.” According to her, the Grand Arsenal had been built two hundred years ago to arm elite troops during the War of the Dark Lord. It had been shuttered after the Lebufera-led campaign in the southern isles.

I could not help but admire the western chieftains’ drive. Imagine pressing royalty into service to keep the promises they gave Mr. Allen in the eastern capital!

Roland looked up from his pocket watch. “Lady Stella, it is past time,” he said punctiliously. “Chieftain Chise Glenbysidhe, Lady Lynne Leinster, and Miss Caren doubtless await you inside. May I suggest you proceed as—”

“R-Roland, are you hurt?!” I cried as the blond butler collapsed with a groan. I hurried to tend to him, but the maid with the outward-curling flaxen hair intervened.

“Worry not, my lady. He can be surprisingly careless, so he probably tripped on a pebble.” She added something to the butler that I didn’t quite catch. (“Learn when to keep your mouth shut. No marks. Do you want another taste of my elbow?”)

“R-Really?” I asked.

Roland wore a sour expression and looked as though he wanted to say something, but Mina remained smiling.

W-Well, they have known each other since they were children, so it’s bound to be complicated. As the future Duchess Howard, it’s my duty to watch over them!

I touched the sea-green griffin feather in my breast pocket, firm in my resolve, and—

“Stella, I’m so sorry I’m late.”

My heart leapt at the sound of a voice that had become intimately familiar over the past several months. A young man with dark-brown hair was waving to me from beside a Leinster carriage parked a short distance off.

“Mr. Allen, it’s—”

I let out a cry as two children—the white-haired Thunder Fox and the scarlet-haired Blazing Qilin—threw their arms around me before I could wave back. The great elementals looked adorable in their matching white capes. Mina had already gotten out a video orb, beaming as she called, “Miss Atra, Miss Lia, look this way!”

If he brought both children with him, then that must mean...

Mr. Allen bowed politely to the driver, whose face I couldn’t see from where I stood, and walked up beside me. “I met with Lydia before she was supposed to leave for the palace, and she insisted on coming along,” he said, tousling little Lia’s hair. “I ended up getting the Leinster maids to take her. So much for my plan to visit the Sealed Archive and speak with Ellie and Tina this morning. Are Caren and Lynne already inside?”

I felt a sting in my chest—the tiniest, most infinitesimal twinge of jealousy. Why only Lydia? He might just as well visit me on days we didn’t have lessons, especially now that I lived in the Howard house rather than in the Royal Academy dormitory.

I crouched down and hugged Atra. “Chieftain Chise led them in.”

“Then we’d better hurry. I’d like to avoid a dressing-down from the Flower Sage if I can help it.”

“O-Of course.” I took Mr. Allen’s outstretched hand and stood. My jealousy and annoyance melted away, and euphoria filled me at the warmth of his touch.

Perhaps I shouldn’t say anything.

“Stella!” cried an imaginary white angel, clinging to my shoulder. “That’s too simple, even for you!”

“You need to stand up for yourself a little!” pleaded the imaginary black angel on my other side.

I...I suppose you have a point. I ought to say something, oughtn’t I?

“Mina, I’m sorry, but would you wait with the Leinster servants? Roland, thank you. Please return to the house ahead of us,” I instructed, watching Atra and Lia hug Mr. Allen’s legs out of the corner of my eye. The two Walkers had opposite reactions.

“Of course, Lady Stella! Full marks!” chirped the flaxen-haired maid.

“Certainly, my lady,” mumbled the blond butler.

Was that a misstep? Right now, I don’t care.

I screwed up my courage and shyly twined my arms around Mr. Allen’s left. “W-We should get going! Caren and Lynne must be waiting for us.”

We passed through the imposing steel gate, and a young knight named Ryan Bor, whom Mr. Allen described as “a brave veteran of the battle for the eastern capital,” led us along a stone path through a magnificent wood. Trees planted to guard against mana pollution and fire must have grown over the years. It looked as though regular gardening had continued even after the closure.

“I had no idea there was a forest like this left so near the capital,” Mr. Allen marveled, keeping a tender eye on the children running boisterously ahead of us.

“This place was built to arm our best fighters with enchanted weapons during the War of the Dark Lord. Chieftain Chise says it hasn’t been used in a century,” I explained, keeping my tone brusque. According to a guide to romance I had found in mother’s library and been reading in secret, it was “important to withhold one’s affections on occasion,” but this was as close as I could get.

I mean, I can’t help feeling elated just walking beside him. What a simple girl I am.

Even so, it seemed to work.

“Um, Stella, are you by any chance upset?” my magician asked hesitantly.

This is your moment, Stella! Make it count!

“I...I would hardly call myself ‘upset.’” I turned away from him, but my voice dwindled as I went on. “B-But if you were going to come in a Leinster carriage anyway, you might as well have c-come with us in our...”

Oh, I can’t even finish. I knew I was a lost cause.

The black and white angels cheered me on.

“Don’t give up, Stella!”

“Remember what you got Lydia to tell you!”

Of course. How could I forget?!

I looked up and fixed a shrinking Mr. Allen with an icy stare. “I...I’ve heard that Caren and Felicia s-spent the night at your lodgings the other day! And Lily!”

“H-How did you find out?!”

“Lydia told me everything when my father and I went to pay our respects to His Royal Majesty, now that we’ve returned from abroad,” I said. “Princess Cheryl and Tina know too.”

“How could she?”

My magician sighed, casting a beseeching gaze heavenward. The children mimicked his dejection.

“Listen, Stella,” he said, holding up his left index finger. “I shouldn’t need to remind you that the working district is still far from safe. It’s certainly no place for a duke’s daughter to sleep. I only put up Felicia the other day because there had been a miscommunication and her parents were out of town, so—”

“Lydia and Lily are every bit as noble as I am!”

“W-Well, they...” Mr. Allen faltered. It was rare to see him so unsure of himself.

I pressed my hands together and smiled at him. “Mr. Allen, I believe you’re to call on my father once we’re finished here. The meeting is sure to run late, so I suggest you stay the night with us.”

Mr. Allen hesitated. Then, “I’d love to.” The sight of his shoulders drooping in defeat stirred a strange excitement in me.

S-Stop that, Stella. You mustn’t push any harder now. You have your own problems to ask his advice on today, remember.

I took several deep breaths, leaned against him, and whispered in his ear. “I’ve received a royal order that I’m not at all sure about. Father is against it. I hope you’ll give me your opinion later.”

“The king commanded you?” Mr. Allen lowered his voice to match mine. “Does he want you to play a role in the audience?”

Our eyes met at close quarters. My heart beat faster, and—

“Ah! Dear brother, wh-what...what do you think you’re doing?!”

A sudden shout cut the moment short. A red-haired girl dressed like me stood at the end of the pathway, shoulders squared. Atra and Lia broke into a joyful run to greet the Leinsters’ younger daughter.

Behind her, arms crossed, stood a wolf-clan girl with lovely silver-gray hair peeking out from under a floral military beret. Mr. Allen’s sister and my best friend narrowed her eyes. A stray bolt of violet lightning crackled across her coat. “Allen, Stella. Start explaining.”

My magician forced a hollow laugh.

“L-Lynne, Caren!” I pleaded, panicking. “It’s not what it looks like!”

I h-haven’t even finished telling him that the king wants me to play the part of the kingdom’s guardian saint during the audience, let alone asked what I should do about it.

I heaved the smallest of sighs and watched the children throw themselves at Lynne and Caren.

✽

“Honestly, dear brother, you never learn! And you still won’t link mana with me!” fumed the red-haired girl.

“How could you be late on such a big day for your sister and one of your students? And Stella, stop trying to get ahead behind our backs!” added said sister as they led us out of the wooded path toward an especially large building of fire-resistant brick. The facility’s extraordinary scale lived up to its status as a royal arsenal. Several smaller outbuildings had fallen into decay and been swallowed by greenery, but the central mana furnaces still appeared to be in more than serviceable condition.

While I looked around, the children holding Caren’s and Lynne’s hands started repeating “behind our backs” in a singsong. Smiles creased the faces of the nearby dwarves, giants, dragonfolk, demisprites, and elves hauling materials, constructing a temporary barracks and kitchen, and clearing away dilapidated buildings. According to Felicia, the remaining former officers of the Shooting Star Brigade, all chieftains of the long-lived races, had yet to leave the western capital with their main force, but even the advance force was nothing to sneeze at. Margrave Solnhofen was supplying them, to judge by the marks on the high-piled crates. That detail would make a fine souvenir for my head clerk.

Stella, walking beside me, tugged on my scarf. “You’re not scheming again, are you, Mr. Allen?”

Whoops.

“Perish the thought,” I said. “Lynne, Caren, cheer up. I’ll make it up to you.”

The red-haired girl stopped short and looked back, fidgeting. The silver shooting-star pin on her school beret, proof that she had placed second on her entrance exam, flashed in the light. “W-Well, if it means that much to you...”

My sister’s hand shot between us. “No, Lynne,” she calmly lectured her younger schoolmate. “You need to get it in writing. In this case... I know. How about ‘I grant Caren permission to room with me until classes at the Royal Academy resume’?”

“That’s a wonderful i— Really, Caren?”

“I c-can’t approve of your taking advantage of the situation to push your own desires!” Stella chimed in.

“Oh,” said Caren, “but I’m only asserting my natural rights.”

Even the children joined in the shouting, and all at once the arsenal became a good deal noisier. I hung back to watch events unfold...and felt stares like sandpaper on my skin. I looked around, pretending not to mind, and spotted several human men and women observing us from behind a building. My first instinct in such cases was to suspect Head Court Sorcerer Gerhard Gardner, but I’d heard that he was out of the city following up on the assassinations of Marquesses Crom and Gardner. Who did that leave? Guards in service to Prince John Wainwright, whom the king had appointed to oversee the reopening of the arsenal in place of the overburdened professor and headmaster, seemed the most likely possibility. And they looked less than friendly.

“Humph. Barely arrived, and already causing a ruckus.”

A small flower opened its petals in midair, and a translucent-winged demisprite woman alighted on a rock. Pale-orange hair fastened with a floral pin peeked from under her flower-studded beret, and the cut of her white outfit proclaimed her a sorceress. Chieftain Chise Glenbysidhe, the Flower Sage and Blessed of the Flower Dragon, ranked among the mightiest spellcasters in the kingdom. The girls and the children quieted for the moment, and the people who had stopped working returned to their tasks with a will—proof of the diminutive personage’s great dignity.

I removed my scarf and bowed low. “It’s a pleasure to see you again. I don’t know how to thank you for all this.”

“Stop right there, Allen of the wolf clan. We’re only trying to keep the oaths we swore in the eastern capital. I’m just sorry it’s taken so long.” Chieftain Chise waved a tiny hand, seeming to mean every word. My ring and bracelet blinked in exasperation.

Linaria is out of the question, but could Carina have known her personally?

“Thank you very much regardless,” I said, putting the question aside. “Permit me to pay my respects again once the other chieftains arrive.”

“Suit yourself. Follow me.” The great sorceress flashed an almost imperceptible smile and floated off the ground. I signed to the girls and started after her. We seemed to be making for the heart of the arsenal, where the mana furnaces were.

Are those withered boughs and roots of the city’s Great Tree I see them carrying into that building? They must have come from the blockage around the Sealed Archive.

Chieftain Chise descended to my eye level and said offhandedly, “Caren mentioned you met my little sister.”

“Yes. So much happened, I’ve prepared a summary. See here.” I stealthily cast a perception-blocking spell to deter prying eyes and presented all the discoveries and difficulties we had accrued in Lalannoy, the empire, and Shiki, omitting only what concerned Duchess Rosa.

• Alice had entrusted me with the sword Bright Night and the Alvern name.
• We had taken the latter volume of the Bibliophage’s forbidden tome from the Shiki archive.
• The final altar would draw out the power of the mysterious black gates. The flower orb and ancient star charts would point us to it.
• The Church of the Holy Spirit had an eighth apostle—probably the one pulling the strings.
• We were mediating peace between the Yustinian Empire and the Lalannoy Republic.
• The Dark Lord herself had raised the possibility of a formal reconciliation between human- and demonkind.

When she finished reading it all, Chieftain Chise looked dour. “You can’t be serious.”

“Lady Shise is staying at the Alvern residence. Please write to her. I know she’ll be delighted.” I paused before adding, “You see, she’s just lost Black Blossom, her former star pupil. And if you could tell me where I might find old star charts, I’d very much appreciate it. Here is the orb itself.” I worked dark magic on a small scale, projecting the star chart sealed within the flower orb.

Chieftain Chise frowned and let out a long, deep sigh. “Caren, Stella! What’s wrong with this boy?! He’s worse than the commander was when he was alive! I can’t count on the Lady of the Sword or the Lady of Light to hold his leash, if half of what I hear is to be believed, so you’ll have to do it! Get your acts together!”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!” chorused the pair.

“Chieftain Chise,” Lynne said slowly, “why did you leave me out?”

I felt equally miffed, although for different reasons. I might have shared a name with Allen the Shooting Star, but I didn’t think I came close to the surviving tales of his exploits. Still, I would only anger the great demisprite sorceress if I spoke up, so I stuck to observing her exhort the girls. In no time at all, we had reached our destination.

Several mana furnaces seemed to be undergoing trial runs. White steam belched from chimneys whose tops were lost to sight. At close quarters, the sheer size of the facility was awe-inspiring. Each fire-resistant brick bore a staggering number of spell inscriptions.

Lynne gasped, while Caren managed only a stunned “Wow,” and Stella marveled, “This has stood for two centuries?” Atra and Lia whooped in delight.

Our reactions seemed to satisfy Chieftain Chise, whose grin broadened. “We’re still calibrating and repairing most of the equipment. We won’t fire it up in earnest until Vaubel, Gang, and Egon arrive with the main force. Luckily we already have plenty of fuel for the furnace. That would have been the trickiest problem to solve.”

“And what changed that?” I asked.

“Withered roots and branches from when the Great Tree ran rampant. They’re basically concentrated mana,” Chieftain Chise answered breezily. Into the communication orb on her chest, she said, “Open up.”

The steel double doors swung to either side with a deafening rumble.

“It’s a maze inside. Stick close to me,” Chieftain Chise warned, and we followed her into the arsenal proper.

Stifling heat brushed my cheeks, but temperature-control magic seemed uncalled for. No doubt the spellstones of ice set all about us obviated the need. Chieftain Chise flew a beeline through the partially dilapidated structure, sparing nary a glance for the dwarves and giants arguing as they fed spellstones of fire into small mana furnaces, the dragonfolk transporting materials, and the demisprites and elves silently conducting repairs.

“As I explained in my message, I called you here today so that Caren and Lynne can imbue the central furnace,” she said. “Allen and Stella, I want you to stand as witnesses.”

“O-Of course.” Stella and Caren nodded, expressions tense.

Lynne plucked nervously at my left sleeve. “D-Dear brother, what does she mean, ‘imbue the furnace’?”

I cast a levitation spell on the children to keep them clear of a crumbling wall. “When forging one-of-a-kind enchanted weapons, the wielder channels their mana into the furnace first of all. It yields a marked increase in performance, or so I’m told.”

“Old-timers like me call it ‘a trick of the elementals,’” Chieftain Chise added. “The Vaubels put a lot of energy into studying the phenomenon, but it’s a long way from reliable. When it works, though, it pays off in spades.”

My sister and the red-haired young noblewoman went even stiffer than before and clutched my sleeves tight.

“Y-You can do it, Caren! A-And you too, Lynne!” Stella said, trying to sound reassuring and not quite succeeding. The happily bobbing children threw in a cheer of their own.

Chieftain Chise halted before a massive door without a handle. “Oh, you’ll manage. Ready to get started?”

“Y-Yes!” the pair replied.

“Good answer,” the demisprite sorceress said over her shoulder and held her hand to the door. Intricate formulae patterned on flowers flashed across its surface, and it started to open.

A chorus of voices rose.

“Chieftain Chise, ma’am!”

“All stands ready.”

“We can start anytime.”

“The other western chieftains sent word to remind you that they permit ‘imbuing the furnace and no more.’”

“All barriers are in place.”

The furnace reposed in the depths of the chamber, a dark-gray circular cone. It towered higher than the Royal Academy. Caren and Lynne would need to channel their mana into a great, lightless orb embedded in the center of its base. At least a dozen people awaited us before the furnace. Their races varied, but their superb equipment and mana marked them all as the finest the western houses had to offer. I recognized Chieftain Chise’s granddaughter, Ando Glenbysidhe, by her large flower hairpin. She seemed to be keeping the group in order.

Where is Prince John? I see a sorceress who looks to be part of his guard.

“Pipe down.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The Flower Sage had only to wave her little hand, and the battle-hardened veterans fell silent. She settled in a chair which the lovely Lady Ando set out for her and shot a look at us.

“C-Come along, Lynne,” said Caren.

“I d-don’t need you to coach me,” Lynne retorted, and the pair stepped stiffly forward. They had even forgotten to take off their coats.

Stella seemed to share my concern. She stood beside me, hugging the floating children and murmuring her friends’ names.

I really ought to say something to—

Caren and Lynne stopped, turned on their heels, and retraced their steps in almost perfect unison. They stripped off their coats, tossed them to the children, and seized me by the arms.

“Allen, you’re with us. Stella,” my sister said rapidly, a mischievous light in her eyes. “Stella, keep any stray mana in check.”

“Dear brother, I do hope you’ll stay close to keep an eye on us!” Lynne added in the same tone.

I bet they had this planned from the start. What am I going to do with them?

“In the event of an emergency,” I told a stunned Stella via wind magic, “do all you can to freeze the furnace.”

“V-Very well!” The noblewoman drew her wand and started weaving Frost-Gleam Hawks—rather more than I thought the situation called for.

“I’m putting up a ward. Stand back!” Chieftain Chise barked. Everyone retreated except Caren, Lynne, and me, who stood before the furnace.

All was ready.

“Allen...”

“Dear brother...”

The pair looked over their shoulders at me for confirmation. I gave them a light push. My sister and the red-haired noblewoman exchanged nods and thrust their hands forward.

“Get ready, Lynne!”

“I am, Caren!”

“Go!” they shouted together, and poured all the mana they could muster into the lightless orb.

The colossal furnace roared like a living thing and started to rumble. Dark gray shaded into purple and then red, climbing ever higher. But...it wasn’t enough. We didn’t need to worry about losing control, but this would only end in a half-baked—

Just when I’d started to seriously worry, the children clinging to my shoulders broke into song. Caren’s and Lynne’s mana skyrocketed.

“Ch-Chieftain Chise,” came a call from behind us.

“Hold firm, Ando! They’ll be fine. Watch!”

I sensed the crowd waiting behind us with bated breath look up as one. The once gray bulk of the furnace now scintillated with stunning violet and scarlet mana.

“A-Allen,” Caren groaned.

“D-Dear brother,” Lynne called haltingly, “I’m at my l-limit.”

“Whoa there!” I caught the pair on the verge of collapse, throwing in a levitation spell to keep their berets off the floor.

Nothing wrong with their breathing. They’ve just temporarily exhausted their mana.

I shot a look at Chieftain Chise.

“Well done,” she shouted, satisfied. “They pulled it off!”

A cheer rose. That was one thing taken care of.

“Allen!” Atra chirped from my back.

“I helped!” Lia chimed in.

“Caren! Lynne! Are you hurt?!” Stella cried and started ministering to them.

Now I just have to figure out how Duke Walter and I will explain about Duchess Rosa to her and Tina this evening, I reflected glumly, surveying the group with a beret in each hand. The human sorceress sent me an odd message.

“His Royal Highness Prince John desires to speak with you in person soon.”

I made certain none of the others were watching me, then nodded slightly in response. Still, I remained suspicious. Prince John Wainwright had renounced his own place as heir to the throne and declined to so much as visit the arsenal. What could he have to say to me after all this time?

✽

“Wow. Was the mana furnace as big as all that? You’ve got to take me with you next time, sir! And Ellie too. Don’t you want to come?”

“Yes’m.”

Ellie answered cheerfully as I walked with her and Tina along a twilit second-floor corridor of the Howard residence in the royal capital. Both girls wore their school uniforms, complete with berets, and had evidently just gotten back themselves.

“But will Ms. Caren and Lady Lynne be all right?” Ellie asked, her face clouded. “I thought they were both going to spend the night with us, since it seems Ms. Lydia is here to see the master on an errand from Duke Liam Leinster.” Despite chipping away at the Sealed Archive with the aid of Chieftain Chise, Marchesa Carlotta Carnien, and my old university friends, the maid still spared thought for others.

“That’s a good point,” Tina added. “I had so much to talk to them about.” That ever expressive lock of hair had been waving spiritedly but now lost its vigor.

Gloomy faces don’t suit them.

I patted the young noblewoman and her angelic maid on their berets. “They’ll be fine. They slept like logs in the carriage, cuddling Atra and Lia. And I think Saint Wolf’s healing did them good.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Th-That makes sense.”

The girls skipped for joy, ribbons bobbing. The name of the big sister who had gone to carry the children to the bed where Lena was sleeping had wiped all their fears away. I smiled at my students and—

“Mr. Allen.”

A bead of cold sweat rolled down my cheek. I looked slowly over my shoulder to find Stella smiling prettily, attended by Mina and Chitose, the Howard Maid Corps’s number five, who wore her black hair in a braid.

“Kindly stop getting my sisters used to that silly nickname Alice gave me,” she said. “Or would you prefer to resume our discussion of your little sleepover the other night?”

“M-Mind your eyes, Stella. That look is positively terrifying.” I retreated half a step, overcome by her dark aura.

The president of the Royal Academy student council muttered that she was “no saint” and took up a position on my left. She wasn’t usually so sensitive.

“Oh, that’s right!” Tina exclaimed, hair standing to attention. “Sir, I demand an explanation.”

“Huh? What sleepover?” Ellie blinked, bewildered.

Now, how am I going to get out of this one? I can’t count on Duke Walter’s talk with Lydia ending at a convenient time.

“Well, you see...”

The trio advanced on me.

“See what, sir?”

“A-Allen, sir, what’s going on?”

“Yes, Mr. Allen?”

Just then, a monocled butler passed between Mina and Chitose. “Lady Stella, Lady Tina, the master and Lady Lydia wish to see you,” he announced in a businesslike tone. “Please hasten to the study.”

The girls froze. Duke Walter had finally made up his mind.

“Father and Lydia?” Tina asked, folding her arms in confusion. “Stella, have you heard anything about this?”

“Not a word,” her sister replied, mirroring the gesture.

I need to steel myself too.

“Ellie, would you go with Mina and Chitose to look in on Atra and Lia for me?” I said. “They ought to wake up any moment now. I promise to fill you in later.”

“Y-Yessir. All right.” The nonplussed but quick-witted maid nodded. She would turn fifteen soon.

I still need to track down her mother for her, I thought, recalling Millie Walker’s fresh signature on the map of Shiki that Io had kept hidden on his person.

Tina and Stella tugged nervously on my sleeves.

“Sir?”

“Is something the matter?”

“Let’s go,” I said. “It wouldn’t do to keep Duke Walter waiting.”

I knocked on the heavy wooden door, and a man’s solemn voice said, “Enter.”

“By your leave,” I replied, shooting looks at Tina and Stella.

“P-Pardon us,” they added as I opened the door and stepped inside.

First I bowed to Duke Walter Howard, who sat by the window, hands folded on his desk before him. That done, I gave another look to Lydia, who stood leaning against a wall, dressed for a sword fight, and nodded.

The Howard sisters stood to either side of me, ready with a greeting and a question.

“We only just got home.”

“Father, what do you wish to see us about?”

No reply. The duke turned his apprehensive gaze on me. “How was the Grand Arsenal?”

“Preparations are proceeding smoothly at Chieftain Chise’s direction,” I said. “We succeeded in imbuing the main furnace without incident. The arsenal can resume operating as soon as the remaining chieftains of the long-lived races arrive from the west.”

“Then the king worried for nothing.” A faint smile finally creased the duke’s face, and he stood. Resting a hand on the window, he gazed down at the royal capital by night. “Lydia is standing in for Liam, who’s in the southern capital cleaning up after the church’s attack on the president of the Skyhawk Company, and Lisa, who’s still making her way back from Lalannoy. I have called on the Leinsters to assist me with this matter before.”

I sensed Tina and Stella stiffen, no doubt realizing that their father was not his usual self. They looked up at me, confused, so I motioned them forward.

“All right,” the sisters murmured softly. They approached the desk, and Lydia moved to my left side.

Duke Walter drew in a breath. “Tina, Stella, I have something to tell you. It’s important, and it concerns our family.”

His daughters exchanged looks.

“Important how?”

“What do you mean?”

One of the kingdom’s finest generals closed his eyes, bracing himself. “I’ll be blunt. It’s about the truth of Rosa’s death.”

Tina and Stella gasped and squeezed each other’s hands, probably on instinct.

Duke Walter covered his eyes. “I have always told you...that she died of an illness. But I had my doubts from the first, and I never stopped investigating in secret. I asked Liam, Lisa, the professor, and the headmaster to help me. But even with the Walkers and the full might of our house behind them, I drew a blank. I’ve never had anything concrete to share with you.”

The duke’s voice shook along with his massive frame.

“But now the situation has changed!” he blurted at Tina and Stella, both frozen in shock. “Changed completely!”

A surge of stray mana became a blast of icy wind, covering the ceiling, windows, and desk in white frost. Duke Walter touched the ring on his left hand, not even trying to disguise his agitation.

“Thanks to Allen, I have finally, finally begun to glimpse the truth. Rosa, your mother, died of a curse.”

Tina gave a start. Stella mumbled, “Mother was...murdered?” Both looked imploringly at me while their emotions found expression in a growing flurry of black snowflakes.

“Lydia and I heard a story from Floral Heaven, Shise Glenbysidhe, in the imperial capital,” I said. “She told us about Duchess Rosa’s life before she became a Howard or a Coalheart—about her time amid the Black Peaks as an Etherheart.”

The sisters listened in silence. Lydia raised a finger on her left hand and dispelled only the ice on their uniforms. She had been practicing interference.

“We heard that she had an exceptional gift for magic,” I continued. “Lady Shise even hoped she would claim the long-vacant mantle of Heaven’s Mage. And she was adamant that Duchess Rosa could not have died of natural causes because her potent mana would have protected her against serious illness.”

“Sir...”

Tina pressed her left hand to her heart, on the verge of tears. I could already guess her next words.

“Have you known all along?”

I had come prepared—or so I thought. The sorrow in her voice pierced my heart and sent a bolt of pain through me. I closed my eyes.

“Yes,” I admitted. “For nearly a year now. Duke Walter told me himself before you and Ellie left the northern capital to take your entrance exams.”

“Why?” Tina murmured, almost too softly to hear. A moment later, she was beating her fists on my chest, tears pouring down her cheeks. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?! If I’d known, I would— I could have...!”

Stella watched with a look of sorrow as her sister’s wail filled the room. “Mr. Allen,” she began, then let her head droop, able to endure no longer. Tears spilled from her eyes to the floor.

Their reactions were natural. I had betrayed their trust.

“Unbelievable,” Lydia snapped via wind magic. She must have picked up on my anguish. “You had no other choice, and you know it. You’re too kind for your own good.”

So are you.

Duke Walter raised his left hand. “Tina, Stella, don’t misunderstand. I insisted that Allen keep the secret. The blame is mine, and mine alone.” He drew a breath. “I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”

Tina’s little shoulders shook, her eyes red with weeping. Stella looked up too and whispered, “Father.”

“A year ago...I couldn’t bring myself to have faith in you,” the duke confessed. “I told myself that you were still children—that I should avoid shocking you without proof.”

A year ago, Tina had only just learned to do magic. Stella, I hadn’t even met yet. The sisters must have recalled the same facts. Hesitantly, without a word, they clutched my sleeves.

“But you found a great mentor, and now you’re poised to soar into the heavens!” Duke Walter declared. “Seeing that, I found my own resolve at last. Please, forgive your poor excuse for a father.”

“F-Father, there’s nothing to forgive!” Tina cried at the duke’s broad, shuddering back, wiping her tears.

“We weren’t ready,” added Stella. “I hope you’ll forgive us our loss of composure.”

The violent ice storm began to subside. They had come a long way, in spirit as well as in magic.

“I know you asked me to take custody of Duchess Rosa’s journal in the northern capital,” I said, “but I think that from now on, the two of you should— Huh?”

The sisters threw themselves against my chest before I could finish.

“You hold on to it, sir.” Under her breath, Tina added, “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“We leave it in your keeping.” Stella’s voice sank to a whisper. “I believe in you.”

“U-Um...” I stood frozen, arms half raised.

Sure enough, Lydia and Duke Walter skewered me with looks that seemed to say “Really?” and “There’s still such a thing as propriety,” respectively. But what did they expect me to do?

The Lady of the Sword swept back her scarlet hair, affected a sigh that only I could hear, and gave the duke the benefit of her opinion.

“Would you mind if I shared the facts about Duchess Rosa with my sister and a few others? Given how strongly implicated the church is in the whole business, including the ‘ten-day fever’ that hit the royal capital eleven years ago, I’d call it necessary.”

“Who exactly did you have in mind?” Duke Walter asked slowly.

“Caren, Lynne, Felicia, and Lily. I’ll have Allen do the talking.”

I wish she wouldn’t throw my name out as though it’s a given I’ll accept. I mean, I will, but it’s the principle of the thing.

For the time being, I said, “Lydia, you left out Cheryl.”

My partner hesitated. “Must we tell her?”

“We must. She’s always dependable.”

“You have my permission to inform those you deem necessary,” Duke Walter generously concluded. His bulk subsided into a chair. “Forgive me, but...I’m weary. Leave me be for tonight.”

We all stood up straight and bowed low. Lydia and I let Tina and Stella out of the room first and made to follow them.

“Allen, Lydia.”

Duke Walter’s deep voice struck our backs. I paused with my hand on the doorknob. A flood of emotions poured forth.

“Well done. You have my sincere gratitude.”

We emerged into the corridor to find the sisters hugging and weeping near the stairs. I took out a handkerchief and gingerly leaned closer to them.

“Tina, Stella, are you feeling all right?”

The red-eyed sisters flung themselves at my chest again, berets whirling through the air.

“We don’t feel anywhere near all right!”

“I’m sorry. Let us stay like this for now.”

To my discomfort, I couldn’t find the words to soothe them. Levitating the berets, I gently stroked their backs as I’d done for Caren when she was little.

Lydia, meanwhile, snapped her fingers. “Mina, Chitose, I know you’re about.”

“Of course, Lady Lydia!”

“Here we are.”

The second-in-command with outward-curling flaxen hair and the maid with the black braid bounded to the top of the staircase as if nothing could be more natural.

When did Lydia get so friendly with the Howard maids?

My partner ignored my suspicions and shrugged. “You see how it is. The crybaby sisters are getting nowhere fast. Get Caren, Lynne, and Felicia here quickly. And get dinner and rooms ready for them. We’ll make a girls’ night of it. Oh, and don’t forget Lily.”

“Certainly, my lady. Full marks!”

“You may depend on us.”

The maids curtsied—and vanished.

The sisters looked up.

“L-Lydia,” Tina managed through sobs.

“I am n-not a cry—”

“Yes, yes.” The Lady of the Sword brushed off Stella’s tearful protest, turned her head sharply, and wound a fair, dainty finger through her scarlet hair. “I’ll lend him to you, but only for now. Thank your lucky stars I’m so magnanimous.”

Chapter 4

“Fresh tidings! All northern and western forces have completed their withdrawal from the Knightdom of the Holy Spirit!”

“Duchess Emerita Leticia Lebufera, the Emerald Gale, continues to lead the rear guard with Earls Harclay and Hayden!”

“Enemy troop movements are sluggish in the extreme! I bring word that Acting Duke Gil Algren need not join the battle!”

“Despite some confusion in the supply lines, the overall operation is proceeding smoothly.”

Soldiers streamed into headquarters—a pavilion pitched within the walls of an eastern border fort built by the House of Zani—hurled papers into a wooden receptacle on my desk, and dashed out again. No one stopped to warm themselves at the spellstones of fire we’d set up for them.

Our army had pivoted from attacking the knights’ stronghold in the holy keep just a few short days ago into a full retreat, and a royal order had called one of our best generals, Duke Walter Howard, the Wolf of the North, back to the royal capital. Thankfully, morale hadn’t fallen. But one glaring problem remained.

“No one seriously thinks I can handle all this paperwork, do they?” Faced with the towering heap of documents, I couldn’t even force a smile.

My old schoolmates Allen, whom I owed more than I could say, and Lydia, whom I held in awe, could have cleared it up without breaking a sweat. I’d heard enough about Allen & Co.’s head clerk to feel pretty sure she’d make it look easy too. But reality was cruel, and my talent couldn’t measure up to that of the professor’s other students. Teto Tijerina could lie about being “normal” all she liked, but she and the rest of the oddballs who made up my cohort and the one below it were at least a few rungs above me. So what if my dad was a duke? That didn’t mean squat. If I’d known this was coming, I would have kept my classmate Yen Checker at headquarters with me even if I’d had to tie him down to do it. As it was, he’d gone tearing off to the front with a recommendation from Duchess Letty.

I made sure there were no soldiers around and let out a long, drawn-out sigh, tugging roughly at my pale-blond hair. I was just thinking that maybe a breath of fresh air would do me good when a gray cup arrived in front of me, black tea giving off white steam.

“Lord Gil, please give yourself a rest. I worry for your health,” said a young woman standing beside me with a tray under one arm. My attendant and bodyguard Konoha had tied back her black hair with a pale-violet ribbon and wore an army coat over a men’s suit. Despite her brusque tone, I knew she spoke from the heart.

I took the cup and raised it in thanks. “Sorry, but that’s gonna be easier said than done. Once we’re back in the eastern capital, I’ll still have to visit my old man and fill him in, and councils with the heads of all our vassal houses will eat up time too. I’ve gotta make a dent in this stuff while I can.”

“You won’t get any work done if you make yourself ill,” Konoha said. “May I suggest that you require a larger staff?”

A totally reasonable suggestion, I thought. My attendant from the southern isles had a good head on her shoulders.

I drank the tea, and its gentle sweetness and warmth soaked into me. I heard something pelt the tent. It must have started raining. Seeing as we were alone, I propped my head on my hands and grumbled, “You think anybody would be crazy enough to enter Algren service now? We’re the ducal house that brought them the leaders of the rebellion, remember? And our finances are on fire, so we can only afford to pay them the bare minimum for grueling work. Even Yen snarked at me about needing to ‘find more I can do.’”

My eldest brother, Grant, and second-eldest brother, Greck, had stupidly revolted against the kingdom, dissatisfied with the royal family’s push for meritocracy and cajoled by the Church of the Holy Spirit. And who could forget my third-eldest brother, Gregory, who had convinced himself he was a genius and put all his faith in the would-be apostle Lev, right up until Lev had ditched him and he’d gone over the Falls of Parting, never to be seen again? It was hard to overstate the blow they’d dealt to the Ducal House of Algren.

If only our old man would at least get better—but for every bit of progress, he has a relapse.

“Have you considered consulting Mr. Allen?” Konoha suggested, looking grave. “I suspect he would take action if he knew of our predicament.”

Reflected in my tea, I saw myself in military uniform, and I changed tone completely. “Excuse me? Who do you think pushed for me to lead this campaign, even if I’m commander in name only? Probably Allen. I’d never get a chance to redeem myself like this otherwise. Of course, he’ll never come right out and tell me, and neither will anyone else.”

My attendant with a penchant for menswear looked conflicted.

“I’m always scrabbling for a way to pay him back somehow,” I groaned, putting my cup back on its saucer. “I’m trying like hell. But I can’t see myself ever covering the interest, let alone making a dent in the principal. And as soon as I get back to the eastern capital, I’ve got this to worry about.” I pulled a letter from an inner pocket and levitated it into Konoha’s hands.

Her jet-black eyes wavered in confusion. “May I read it?”

“I’ve got no secrets from you.” I flapped my left hand, falling back into my usual tone to cover my embarrassment. If anyone in my cohort at school had been present, things would have gotten real annoying, real fast.

My black-haired attendant responded with a bashful “Th-Thank you” and swiftly scanned the letter. She came away blinking in undisguised bewilderment. “A royal audience, my lord? And with all the dukes in attendance?”

“It sounds like Allen’s gone and done it again.” I paused to think. “Actually, that’s just business as usual. The second page is the problem.”

“The second page?” Konoha repeated blankly.

I finished my tea and pulled a face. The rain was getting louder. Allen had handed me plenty of tall orders before, but this?

“I won’t go into detail, but there’s hope for peace with the demonfolk. I’d like you to act as our envoy.”

Peace with the demonfolk?! We’ve spent all two hundred years since the War of the Dark Lord staring them down across Blood River. What could have happened to change that now?

I guessed Konoha felt the same way, because she rushed around to my side of the desk in a panic. “L-Lord Gil, is this true?! I f-find it difficult to...”

“I don’t know any details, but this is Allen we’re talking about,” I said. “Duchess Letty and Duke Walter dropped hints too, so I’m pretty sure it’s for real.”

My usually calm, collected attendant froze, at a loss for words. The look on her face was so priceless I was about to tease her for it—when I realized there was someone outside. And I knew his mana. I made a split-second decision: act natural and get Konoha out of the pavilion.

“Anyway, I figure I’ll talk it over with the professor and the rest of the lab once I’m in the royal capital. If it does end up happening, you’re coming with me whether you like it or not. And I could use another cup of tea.”

“Allow me to prepare one for you.” My black-haired attendant adopted a sullen tone and left headquarters holding my umbrella. The beat of raindrops on the tent sounded awfully distinct.

Once I felt Konoha’s mana get a safe distance away, I planted my left elbow on the desk and said coldly, “So, when are you gonna come out?”

“Humph. Noticed, did you?” A scrawny young man slipped through the tent flaps, wary and not trying to hide it. The light-blond hair of an Algren peeked from under his sodden hood. And there was that lone tuft of pale violet. The eyes behind his small spectacles held a grim force I hadn’t sensed in him before.

“Long time no see, Gregory,” I said. “Hard to believe you survived that fall! I’m guessing life hasn’t been easy, since you’ve gotten so much better at concealment.”

“And you’ve sharpened your tongue, simpleton,” the brother who had never dropped his creepy smile and courteous tone shot back in a voice devoid of feeling. Had he always been like this? And why wasn’t his attendant, Ito, with him?

I ignored the questions cluttering my mind and toyed with arcs of electricity between my fingers. “Only because my brainless big brothers made a mess of everything. Dad’s not doing too hot either. Hard to believe anyone could trust the false Saint, the apostles, and whatever other freaks the church is hiding.”

No answer, just a violent crash of thunder. The mana lamp on my desk flickered.

“So, what do you want?” I asked, annoyed at Gregory. “Looking to book yourself a prison cell? Or did you come to beg for forgiveness?”

“As if I care what becomes of the Algrens—or the Wainwrights, for that matter! I want revenge on the Church of the Holy Spirit and—”

Rumbling thunder and gale winds rattled the pavilion. An odd silence followed.

“My foolish little brother.” Gregory casually tossed me a small cloth bag. I caught it in my left hand and felt something hard.

An orb? And more than one?

“Sob tears of gratitude. I’m going to win you glory beyond your wildest dreams. The thing you’re holding could determine the fate of the west of the continent. Just give it to that man—the Brain of the Lady of the Sword.”

“You want me to deliver this thing to Allen?”

That was one name I couldn’t ignore. I half rose, poised to fight, and wove the elementary spell Divine Lightning Chains.

But Gregory had other ideas. “Those are mana readings, apparently from the monster lurking in the church’s innermost sanctum who calls herself the Saint. More than good enough for a souvenir, wouldn’t you agree? So toil away, Acting Duke Gil Algren.”

“What?! W-Wait! Gregory!”

He dodged my Divine Lightning Chains and fled the tent. I chased him outside, but the rain ruined visibility, and his concealment kept me from sensing his mana. His skills had come a long way since the rebellion. I clicked my tongue and clenched my fist around the bag.

How did he get his hands on a reading of the Saint’s mana, of all things? And why, knowing what it’s worth, did he go out of his way to give it to me instead of using it himself? Does Ito not being with him have something to do with it?

“Lord Gil! Are you hurt?!” Konoha screamed via wind magic.

M-My poor ears.

I turned my face skyward and forced a grin despite the soaking rain. “Looks like I really will have to swing by the royal capital soon.”

✽

“Let me see if I have this right, Nick,” I said. “After deciphering The Secret History of the War of the Dark Lord, Volume Two, you concluded that its author was a lineal descendant of the House of Coalheart who had deep ties to the House of Coalfield as well?”

“E-Exactly, Allen! Tuna helped make sense of it too.”

The blue-haired boy on the company’s guest sofa nodded, cheeks flushed with excitement. Creases formed in his aqua jacket. Niccolò, second son of the House of Nitti, had been dropping by to help at Allen & Co. nearly every day since his arrival in the city, but he seemed especially glad to finally have something to report about the tome I’d left with him several months earlier in the city of water.

“Don Niccolò, I did nothing whatsoever,” protested the tall, blonde, green-eyed maid standing beside her young master in an aqua uniform. Watching the two of them always warmed my heart.

Maybe I’m tired. I have been busy these past few days. Or maybe I’m feeling the pressure of the royal audience closing in. Caren seems fine, though.

I took a teapot from the table and filled a porcelain cup made in the city of water. A rich fragrance from the southern principalities filled the air. “May I ask why you’re more certain than you were after volume one?”

“O-Of course! I—”

“D-Don Niccolò?!” Tuna cried. Her young master had tried to spring to his feet and banged his foot on a chair leg, leaving him teary-eyed.

I grinned in spite of myself, setting a teacup and a bird-shaped sweet on a small plate before each of them. “Don’t be so nervous. We shared a bath in the city of water, remember?”

Niccolò groaned and hung his head, blushing furiously. He wasn’t much younger than Tina or Ellie, but he appeared childish in comparison. Perhaps the number of scrapes they had fought through made the difference.

I glanced out the window and spotted the Great Tree towering through the rain just as laughter burst from the office next door. Felicia and Atra were in top form.

“Here you are.” Tuna offered the dispirited boy a memorandum book, presumably her summary of their discussions.

“Th-Thank you!” Niccolò’s face lit up. He might have some of Tina’s talent for amusing reactions, I reflected, as he sat straighter and turned serious. “It was not the contents of the book that first caught my attention but the lettering on its cover.”

“Why so?” I asked slowly.

“Mr. Allen, please look at this.”

The blonde girl, who apparently had elven blood, swiftly drew two tomes from her bag and laid them on the table. Both were sumptuously bound, their titles printed in deep vermilion. What secrets could the lettering hold?

I turned a probing look on Niccolò, who continued, “You know as well as I do that The Secret History of the War of the Dark Lord is based on letters that the great Shooting Star’s lieutenant, Crescent Moon, sent to her younger sister. That holds true for the second volume as well.”

I could still recall the first volume’s opening: “This is the true story of Crescent Moon, a champion born to the line of Earl Coalheart.” It was why I still regarded the dread vampiress Alicia Coalfield’s claim to the same nickname with suspicion.

The blue-haired boy spoke confidently, his recent attack of nerves forgotten. “Volume two opened with a few cheery anecdotes, but it goes on to describe how the Shooting Star Brigade’s too-perfect record made it a target of jealousy as the war intensified, and as battlefield legends spread about famed warriors and commanders going missing. It ends a few days before the Battle of Blood River, in the middle of describing a falling-out between Crescent Moon and Shooting Star. We believe someone tore out the final pages. As for the lettering... Tuna, if you please.”

“Certainly, Don Niccolò.” The maid held a magnifying glass over the two tomes’ titles. It seemed well-made, with a stag motif that suggested it came from the Lalannoy Republic’s city of craft. I peered through it in response to Niccolò’s wordless urging.

“Do you see?” he asked hesitantly.

“I believe so,” I said. “There is a slight difference in the color.”

“Yes! Exactly!” Niccolò literally bounded to his feet, without banging his foot this time. He clenched his little fists, eyes shining. “I only spotted it by accident. Something seemed off when the sunlight fell on the titles. I worked up the courage to ask my brother about it, and he found the key among the effects of Ray Atlas, who perished in the battle for the Fortress of Seven Towers: books that the Houses of Coalheart and Coalfield made around the time of the War of the Dark Lord! The comparison flew by after that, and then I was certain.”

So Niche helped too! He never mentioned it in any of his reports on— Wait. I can use this.

I smiled to myself, recalling the sour face of my old schoolmate busy laying train tracks and healing the scars of war in the southern Principality of Atlas. I would ask him to employ his considerable skills in the north next.

The blue-haired boy touched the book covers. “The Coalhearts printed volume one. Volume two uses a pigment that the Coalfields experimented with only for a brief period after the War of the Dark Lord. It seems to be compounded from minerals and plants only obtainable west of Blood River, so I doubt we could re-create it today.”

West of Blood River, huh? Her Dark Majesty might be happy to tell me more if I asked her, but that girl has a screw or three loose. She’s as bad as the witch or the angel.

The ring and bracelet on my right hand immediately flashed in protest.

Niccolò’s smile broadened. “Tuna’s prepared a digest of volume two! It includes a number of fascinating details. The casus belli was something called ‘the Great Tree’s most ancient bud,’ and the Four Great Ducal Houses were at odds with the Royal House of Wainwright throughout the war, although it doesn’t explain why. Not to mention all the gripes about Shooting Star. It doesn’t record the battle with the Dark Lord herself. Based on the dating, either there was no letter to work from...”

“Or it was deliberately removed,” I finished.

According to Lynne’s conversation with Patricia Lockheart, mementos of “Lady Alicia” had come up in a conversation between Earl Lockheart and Earl Coalheart. And Leticia Lebufera, the Emerald Gale, refused to recognize the vampiress Alicia Coalfield as her former comrade in arms. We seemed to have almost every piece of the puzzle. And yet...

The blue-haired boy returned to his seat and clenched his fists, his explanation over. “I realize I’ve taken a long time to decipher these books since you left them in my care, but I, um, h-hope that our findings are helpful.”

I picked up the magnifying glass and admired its fine craftsmanship. Casually, I said, “Niccolò Nitti, Tuna Solevino, have you considered the Royal University?”

Master and servant stared at me, mouths agape.

I returned the magnifying glass to the table and continued, “Not only did you decipher a book written in notoriously tricky Old Imperial in this short time, but you also brought me the information I most wanted to know. I would gladly threaten—ahem, petition the professor on your behalf, although of course you would need to do some studying as well. Oh, and I would appreciate it if you could see your way to still helping out at the company once you get in. Besides, I might end up calling Niche here as well.”

No answer.

Niccolò timidly looked up at the girl beside him. “T-Tuna...”

“I will accompany you anywhere, Don Niccolò.”

I always knew girls were strong.

I finished my now lukewarm tea and was pouring a second cup when the door quietly opened. A bespectacled girl in a light-purple sweater peeked in, holding an illustrated guidebook. “Allen, are you done talking yet?”

“Yet?” echoed a beast-eared child with long white hair. Anko, who had been following Felicia everywhere since our return to the city, meowed at their feet.

“We just finished,” I said. “No need to rush things, Nick. Just don’t forget that the path is open to you. That goes for you too, Tuna. Thank you both very much.”

“Of course.” Master and servant stood, teary-eyed, and bowed repeatedly on their way out of the room. I caught snatches of upbeat conversation from the corridor.

Felicia scooped up Anko and took a seat on the sofa. Atra clambered onto my lap.

The head clerk narrowed her eyes. “You sounded like you were having fun.”

“Niccolò and Tuna have bright futures ahead of them,” I said. “One day you’ll be president of the company. Wouldn’t the Nitti brothers make a fine pair of chief clerks for—”

“Nope. Rejected. Out of the question.”

Pouting, the bespectacled girl pushed Anko to one side, set the guidebook on the table, and opened it, no doubt seeking inspiration for the maid uniform she’d promised Lily. All the girls except Cheryl had congregated at the Howard mansion the other day, but their heated debate had proven inconclusive. I wouldn’t have guessed they all had such strong preferences.

Felicia shot me a suspicious look while I tousled the child’s hair. “Don’t you like working with me?”

I shrugged, filled spare teacups, and handed them to the pair loaded with generous helpings of milk and sugar. “I love it, of course. Oh, and may I suggest an old-fashioned, black-and-white maid uniform?”

“Huh?” Felicia went wide-eyed, and her cheeks blushed apple red. Flustered, she held up Anko as a shield. “I kn-know what this is. You’re teasing me. Well, t-too bad. You might get Stella and Caren that way, but I’m wise to your tricks.”

“I enjoy working at the company. And I secretly pride myself on being better suited for it than rough-and-tumble adventuring. How could I not like it when I get to work with Miss Felicia Fosse, our ambitious, courageous, highly competent head clerk who can even make a maid uniform when she sets her mind to it?”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see a future in which I got to concentrate on business. Even so, I meant every word.

I was fondly watching Atra lift her cup in both hands and sip her sweet tea when Anko let out a warning mew from the embarrassed Felicia’s arms.

“Oh, um, I mean, well... M-Me too! I also—”

The bespectacled girl swooned and nearly toppled, so I caught her with a levitation spell and guided her down onto the sofa. The superlative black cat familiar hopped onto a cushion and curled up. These sudden fainting spells were one thing that hadn’t changed since our first meeting.

“Emma, Sally—Felicia could use your help,” I called.

“She’s in safe hands with us!” The door opened, and the company maids crowded into the room. In a flash, they were carrying the head clerk out, sofa and all. They must have caught Atra’s interest, because she bounded off my lap, raced to the sofa, and climbed aboard. The maids laughed.

It’s a good place to work, albeit a stressful one.

One maid with long milky-white hair remained. “Watch out for dark streets, Mr. Allen. Someone will stick a knife in you one of these days,” she predicted with glee.

“Cindy,” I said, “don’t give anyone unsettling ideas. What if I get carried off to a foreign country again?”

“Well, you’ll get mixed up in some kind of major incident wherever you find yourself, for a start.”

I longed to refute her with every fiber of my being. My career being what it was, however, I could only groan. I slipped my watch from an inner pocket and popped the lid to check it.

I’d better get going soon or I won’t make it in time. Cheryl will be furious with me if I run late.

A thick sheaf of papers slid into my view.

“And these are?” I asked slowly.

“A little birdy told me that you’re planning to take on more staff,” Cindy replied. “I’ve listed all the Leinster and Howard maids who applied to join us.”

How did word get out?! On second thought, with so many maids coming and going, I suppose it was inevitable.

I paused to consider. “Cindy?”

“Yes?” said the sprightly maid, helping herself to a sweet.

I pushed the papers back into her hands and stood. Grinning from ear to ear, I made my counterproposal. “Given that we’ll be expanding north and south—and possibly west, depending on Margrave Solnhofen—the ducal houses alone won’t be able to meet our staffing needs much longer. I suggest we take the opportunity to recruit from all the northern and southern houses as well. I assume I can count on you to conduct interviews? With Saki, of course.”

“Huh?! M-Mr. Allen, y-you don’t mean...?!”

Leaving the milky-haired maid to her panic at abruptly finding herself in a position of responsibility, I emerged into the corridor. With a last glance through the door and a left-handed wave, I broke into a getaway sprint.

“Cheryl and Lydia want to see me at the palace, so I really must be going. As for convincing Saki, I’d call that a job for one Cindy, the Leinster Maid Corps’s number six. Best of luck!”

✽

“So Richard and Ridley are in the eastern capital?” I asked the great bear of a man striding easily a few steps ahead of me. Knight Commander Owain Albright of the royal guard had recently returned from the Lalannoy Republic. His immaculate white armor looked a little tight on him, although I’d heard it was specially made.

The gallery at the rear of the palace was practically deserted, and the garden beyond the windows was sprinkled with snow.

No wonder I feel cold. Atra didn’t even want to leave the house.

Owain crossed his log-like arms and stroked his stubbly chin, rattling the plain longsword at his side. “Officially, they’re guarding Duchess Lisa Leinster and Under-duchess Fiane Leinster. Duchess Emerita Leticia Lebufera is supposed to join them now that she’s withdrawn from the eastern border.”

“That’s...quite a gathering.”

The Bloodstained Lady and the Smiling Lady had a whole litany of martial exploits to their names. And the Emerald Gale, greatest of the elven champions, had crossed spears with the Dark Lord and survived. Even with Anna in the north and Romy and Lily in the royal capital, what need could the three of them have for a guard?

Owain put an arm around my shoulders. “Well, I guess they’d like to catch up with the guy who keeps finding excuses to avoid going home and the son who ran off to ‘master the art of pastry.’ Plus, it gives them an excuse to shut up anyone who complains.”

The duchesses could have returned straight to the royal capital by military griffin, but they could easily justify a stop in the eastern capital in the name of inspecting the rebellious Ducal House of Algren and its vassals.

Richard, Ridley, I wish you luck!

While my heart went out to my older friends, the commander turned serious. “I fought alongside your old school pals in Lalannoy, and I’ve got to say, I’m impressed. Of course, I’d be even happier if we’d taken out the apostles.”

Like the royal guard, four of my university schoolmates had joined the all-out war in the workshop city at the eleventh hour. I believed they were currently working under the professor’s direction, but I would owe them high praise on their return.

“Aren’t they something?” I said. “I hope you’ll look out for Yen Checker when he joins the guard next spring. He’s a nice, levelheaded boy.”

“Of course! I’ll put him under me in First Company and toughen him up.” Owain took his hand off my shoulder and nodded, clearly looking forward to the prospect. A scion of impoverished nobility himself, he had earned his position through his single-minded dedication to swordplay, so I could see why he would take to a recruit like Yen.

“I would have liked to commend Lord Gil Algren to your care as well,” I murmured, touching a timeworn column as we turned a corner.

“But it sounds like the old duke’s health hasn’t improved much since the rebellion,” Owain finished for me.

The Four Great Dukes were the pillars of the realm. And with the eastern nations under the church’s influence, we couldn’t afford prolonged disorder on that front—which was precisely why the false Saint had maneuvered Duke Algren’s foolish sons into revolt.

“Though if His Highness wants a place in the guard, your recommendation is good enough for me. Not even the king and the other three dukes would refuse the guy who saved the kingdom to his face,” the commander added, bringing his hands behind his head and glancing down the hall to our destination: Princess Cheryl Wainwright’s private apartments.

I massaged my forehead in stunned silence. “Listen, Owain, I’m only a humble tutor. I got the professor to put in a word for Yen, but I’m in no position to meddle in a ducal house’s affairs.”

Owain snorted. “Anyone in the kingdom who still believes that is a dolt who’s lost sight of reality, plain and simple. They’ll be extinct by the time our fight with the church is over.”

Exaggeration, surely. I might have won the trust of individuals, but that would only carry me so far. All I had done was fight tooth and nail to put one foot in front of the other. That wouldn’t change.

Detecting a presence, I turned my gaze to a column. Twin elven beauties emerged from behind it and bowed courteously. Cheryl’s personal bodyguards, Ladies Noa and Effie, wore cloaks over their uniforms.

The commander clapped me on the back. “Okay, this is as far as I go. I’ll be praying for you, buddy! From a safe distance!”

“Owain,” I said, “if you have time to spend praying, you might as well join me.”

“Not on your life! My wife will let me have it if I get on Their Highnesses’ bad side. Remember, Allen—the Lady of the Sword, the Lady of Light, and Saint Wolf all have big followings in the city these days.”

I groaned bitterly.

“Well, good luck!” The commander of the royal guard started back along the gallery, laughing his head off.

The nerve of him.

“Come, Mr. Allen.”

“They can hardly wait to see you.”

At the twins’ insistence, I resumed walking.

Please let Cheryl be in a good mood!

“Allen!”

A scarlet-haired child gleefully tackled my legs the moment I opened the door and entered the warm chamber. She had on a school beret much too big for her, on which gleamed the silver wing-and-sword pin that marked the president of the Royal Academy’s student council. In a word: adorable.

“Hello, Lia,” I said. “You’re looking lively as ever.”

“Lively Lia!” The child romped around, dangling from my sleeves.

A smile spread across my face. Meanwhile, the white-gowned princess glared from the far side of the room, where she sat with her legs crossed on a luxurious sofa, and tapped her finger on a table in wordless admonition. The enchanted sword Cresset Fox rested beside her—an inexplicable and chilling detail.

Stella sat next to her, greeting me in contrast with a little wave and a “M-Mr. Allen.” I presumed she had been summoned from the Royal Academy, since she wore her uniform. I didn’t see Lydia, but perhaps she was in the kitchenette.

“Hmm?”

The scarlet-haired child reached up and touched the back of my right hand. A gentle glow spilled out, and...

“Atra!” she cried as a white-haired child materialized, still looking drowsy.

I looked toward the fireplace, where the white wolf Chiffon encamped on the hearth rug, tail wagging in grand fashion.

You can take it from here.

I waited to see the children charge at Chiffon’s furry belly before removing my coat and hanging it on a chair.

“You’re late, Allen,” Cheryl said, a smile still plastered across her face. “Perhaps you lack appreciation for your duty as my personal investigator.”

“I r-ran into traffic,” I offered. “Because of the snow.”

“It can’t have piled up on the roads yet, surely.”

Oh dear. She’s sulking in earnest. There must be something—some way out of this...

Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Stella’s platinum hair and sky-blue ribbon. Aware of my albatross’s mana, I sat on the opposite sofa and ventured, “So, uh, I can guess why you invited Stella after all the potential converts Saint Wolf’s exploits in Lalannoy, Yustinia, and Shiki won her, but what can I do for you today?”

“Oh? Surely you know the answer better than anyone.” Cheryl’s ominous grin broadened.

“I...I beg your pardon, Mr. Allen?!” Stella’s hair rose in flustered protest.

A tray came to rest on the table, laden with a teapot in a white wolf cozy and six cups. Lydia wore sword-fighting clothes and had opted to tie back her long scarlet hair today.

“They’ve set a date for the audience. It will be on Lightday next weekend,” she announced primly. “Scooch over.”

“Oh, sure.” I slid aside in answer to her unaffected request, and she sat beside me. Our shoulders jostled briefly, and she hummed softly as she removed the tea cozy.

Flecks of light and ice whirled.

“Really, Lydia!”

“L-Lydia, I’d hardly call that fair!”

The scarlet-haired noblewoman let out an ostentatious sigh and gave me a significant look.

Yes, yes. I arranged the cups and began pouring with care. Where are today’s leaves from? Cheryl never picks a bad tea.

Lydia glanced at my work and wove a spell, levitating a coat and brush onto her lap. “Don’t blame me, Princess Schemer and Saint Sly. You’re the ones who failed to act.”

“I...I’m ‘sly’ now?!” Stella gasped, while Cheryl bit her lip in frustration. Evidently, Lydia had secured the upper hand today.

The tea filling the cups had a deep reddish hue and a fruity fragrance.

“I shouldn’t have to spell this out for you, but you have three major roles to play on the day of the audience,” Lydia began, spreading the coat over her lap. I had a sinking feeling. “First, you are to make a formal report of everything that transpired in the Lalannoy Republic to His Royal Majesty, alongside Lily, our official envoy.”

I knew it!

I finished pouring the tea and attempted to argue one final time.

“B-But surely Lily could do that without me? I’ve said all along that—”

“No. His Royal Majesty strongly requests your participation.” Lydia crushed my resistance out of hand. “Put extra milk in mine.”

“Right.” I added the milk.

“Second,” the scarlet-haired noblewoman continued with just a hint of triumph in her voice, “you’re to report everything that transpired in the Yustinian Empire—including how you came to receive the Alvern name, although that should go without saying. Caren won’t take part because she has a major ritual to perform at the Grand Arsenal that day. She’s already agreed. Hasn’t she, Stella?”

Her platinum-haired peer, standing to serve the tea, took a moment to consider. “Y-Yes. We all talked it over the other night, after my father told us about my mother. She said that if the forging conflicts with the audience, she would prioritize her dagger in order to better combat the church.” She reseated herself on my right side, albeit shyly. Our shoulders didn’t touch.

I gasped at the revelation. Even Cheryl seemed taken aback.

“What ‘other night’?” she demanded. “A-And now you’ve changed seats too, Stella?!”

Caren never breathed a word of that decision to me! Has she been keeping secrets?!

Stella raised her teacup and unobtrusively stuck out her tongue. “Forgive us, Mr. Allen. We’re all quite wicked.”

“S-Say it isn’t so.” I lamented my inadequacy as a brother and as a tutor.

Oh, what has become of my adorable little sister and that honest, sober student council president?!

“And third...” Lydia twirled her brush, radiating displeasure but nevertheless accepting Stella’s presence on my right. “You are to address the throne on the subject of peace between humans and demonfolk. Together with me.”

Cheryl and Stella both covered their mouths to mask exclamations. It looked as though someone had shared only the first two with them.

I added sugar to my tea. “Lydia?”

“It’s your first job as Allen Alvern. Not bad, wouldn’t you agree?”

The Lady of the Sword gave a cheerful wink and stood, coat in hand. She approached Chiffon and tenderly caressed the little heads of the sleeping children, who had made a pillow of the wolf’s fluffy belly.

“His Royal Majesty will be in attendance, as will his immediate heir, the Lady of Light; the great dukes, minus old Duke Algren”—Lydia slipped into my coat and flashed a daredevil grin—“and Saint Wolf, who now boasts an international following.” She giggled. “I just know future history books will have a lot to say about this. The sanctuaries in the city of water, the royal capital, the city of craft, and Shiki have only come up in secret documents before now, but they’ll be officially declared Alvern lands during the audience. Didn’t you suspect something when Lily—Lily—went back to the royal capital without a fuss?”

Words failed me.

I should have known. How could I forget that Lady Lily Leinster is even more gifted than Lady Lydia Leinster in some respects? But still, me, lord of a domain? Even if it is only a matter of political expedience? And even setting aside the other three, the sanctuary in the royal capital houses the Blue-Rose Sword. The founder of the Wainwright dynasty wielded that blade herself, and I’ve seen it cut through Duchess Letty’s Stellar Spears.

Clink.

The golden-haired princess set her cup on its saucer, no longer content to let events sweep her along. “Lydia, I think it’s high time you let me get a word—”

“L-Lydia! I h-haven’t agreed to anything yet!”

Stella shouted with uncharacteristic vehemence and let her head droop into her hands. Ice flakes whirled and fluttered all around us. “I’m h-hardly a s-saint. Alice only called me that to tease me, and even when I purify things, I’m only working spells that Mr. Allen made for me, so—”

“Stella.” Lydia’s voice sounded calm in my ears. Her gaze was shrewd and resolute.

The platinum-haired noblewoman slowly looked up.

“Come with me,” said Lydia.

“Huh?”

“Don’t argue! Come here! On the double!”

“Y-Yes’m!” Sounding very much like Ellie, Stella scampered to join Lydia near a window.

She’s worried how our neighboring countries will react if the kingdom declares its own saint, I suppose. The whole thing is meant to be the king’s idea, but...something about it doesn’t sit right with me. I doubt the professor or the headmaster would like it either. At the same time, the church is so powerful that we really have no other choice.

While I savored the aroma of my tea, Cheryl was left to stew, advertising her discontent with a pouting “What about me?” I dreaded the backlash to come.

Lydia whispered something in Stella’s ear. (“This audience is an official ceremony, but we still have to keep up appearances for the blue-blooded birdbrains, so attendance is limited. Lynne will be at the arsenal with Caren that day. Ellie and Felicia didn’t get permission to attend. So the only ones of us who can enter the audience hall...”)

(“...are Cheryl, you, Lily, me, and Tina?”)

The scarlet-haired noblewoman nodded slightly. I looked away, picked up the teapot, and filled the cup Cheryl silently held out to me, adding milk and sugar.

“Th-Thank you, Allen,” she said.

“Your Royal Highness is quite welcome,” I replied, recalling our student days. The princess had known how to express her gratitude even then—a lesson from her late mother, she’d said.

Lydia continued her tête-à-tête by the window, looking as serious as I’d ever seen her. (“The apostles already attacked the city once. Can you be certain they won’t try again? Next time, they’ll target the great elementals...and Allen. They know more about what ‘keys’ are than we do. The more of us in a position to act, the better, especially with the professor away. I hear this was John’s idea, not the king’s, and I don’t like setting you up as a saint any more than you do, but go along with it.”)

(“L-Lydia, d-does that mean you acknowledge me as—”)

(“It’s a question of priorities.”)

Stella’s eyes widened; then she seemed to relax and turned a determined gaze on me—much to my bewilderment. “Very well. I accept,” she said distinctly.

“S-Stella?!” I gasped. “But—”

“Never fear, Mr. Allen. Please leave it to me!”

How did Lydia win her over so quickly?!

The scarlet-haired noblewoman with her hands in my coat pockets seemed disinclined to explain.

“Oh, but what shall I wear? A gown doesn’t seem quite fitting, and neither does my military uniform.” Stella became lost in thought, as proactive as she had been reticent.

Y-You mean she’s even going to dress like a saint?!

Lydia poked my cheek from behind. “Don’t be silly. What is Allen & Co. for if not times like this?”

“Oh, of course!” Stella cried. “I’ll speak with Felicia at once!”

Sh-She’s serious! Then again, Tina doesn’t stop for anything once she makes up her mind either.

“But, um, w-won’t that delay Lily’s maid uniform and—”

Wham!

Cheryl struck the table before I could finish, blonde tresses bristling with rage. “Lydia! Stella!” she roared. “Include me in the conversation! What’s this about ‘the other night’?! And Allen is my personal investigator! You need my permission to—”

The door flew open, and Ladies Effie and Noa marched straight up beside me, their handsome faces as severe as I had ever seen them.

“Our sincerest apologies for interrupting this pleasant chat.”

“Mr. Allen, an urgent matter demands your attention.”

A slip of paper slid across the table and stopped before me.

Really? Here?

The young women gave me puzzled looks.

“What is it?”

“Mr. Allen, may I see?”

“Well, Allen?”

I flicked my left wrist and projected the note with a light spell.

Allen of the eastern capital wolf clan,

As I informed you on a previous occasion, I wish to speak with you prior to the royal audience. Kindly call on me in my library. Rest assured, I mean you no harm.

John Wainwright

Despite all the dangers they had overcome, Lydia and Stella gasped and frowned. Even Cheryl, the prince’s sister, made no effort to hide her discomfort and alarm. Restraining the storm of fiery plumes, flakes of ice, and flecks of light with one hand, I bowed to Ladies Effie and Noa.

“Message received. Please inform His Royal Highness that I will be with him shortly. And that Ladies Leinster and Howard will accompany me.”

✽

The shrill ring of staff on stone echoed through the subterranean chamber and abruptly ceased. Our guide, a lantern-bearing old man in the garb of a minor functionary, reached the foot of the spiral staircase and looked back. “This is as far as I may take you. His Royal Highness awaits in the library ahead. Please mind your step; this is the oldest structure in the palace.”

“Thank you,” I replied.

The old man bowed low, turned on his heel, and started back up the staircase. Listening to the receding noise of his staff, I pondered.

I know that mana from somewhere, from when I was very young. Old Town in the eastern capital? No, it couldn’t be.

“Mr. Allen?” Stella gave me a worried, searching look. Lydia, a pace behind us and alert for danger, seemed equally concerned.

Whoops. That won’t do.

“We’d better hurry,” I said. “I wouldn’t put it past Cheryl to stir up the children and come after us.”

The princess and prince were on far from friendly terms. Nothing good would come of bringing them face-to-face.

I raised several magical lights, and we began to walk with me in the lead, followed by Stella and then Lydia. The passage seemed to have once connected several rooms apart from the library, but new stonemasonry had blocked them all off, lending it an eerie air.

“I had no idea there was any such place beneath the pal—”

Stella’s foot slipped, and she pitched forward with a cry. My left arm shot out to catch her.

“Are you all right?”

“Qu-Quite all right. Th-Thank you very much.” Saint Wolf bashfully lowered her gaze, hair waving from side to side.

“I bet they used to keep criminals and rebels down here. I saw a dungeon like it in the Yustinian capital,” said Lydia. “Now let go of him already.”

Conflicting impulses warred briefly in Stella’s eyes and gave way to a look of resolve. She shifted position, wrapping her arms around my right.

“Stella?” I said, followed a second later by Lydia’s “Did you hear me?”

“I’m afraid I might trip again,” Stella asserted with every appearance of sincerity as a flurry of fiery plumes lit our surroundings.

“Hmm...” I said. “She has a po—”

“No she does not!” Lydia snapped.

I rewrote and dispelled the Firebird she had forced into being despite the obstruction of Head Court Sorcerer Gerhard Gardner’s wards. “Not here, please. It’s dangerous.”

The disgruntled young woman stalked up, seized my left arm with a practiced gesture, and glared daggers at Stella. “Fine. We’ll sit down for a talk about this later. A long, thorough talk. Today is the last straw. Honestly, what are you thinking, copying your little sister?”

“I...I only thought that I could best avoid accidents by—”

“No excuses!”

I rarely heard Lydia, who was really quite shy, flare up so openly at anyone else. She hadn’t merely improved her swordplay and sorcery; she had grown emotionally as well. Gladdened by the thought, I brightened my lights and peered ahead. A black wooden door loomed at the end of the passage.

“Lydia, Stella.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Of course, Mr. Allen.”

The noblewomen stopped fooling around, and we advanced together.

Why would the prince summon me to a place like this ahead of the audience?

I struck the circular metal knocker that hung from the black wood of the door in place of a bell, and a young man’s voice responded, “Come in.” I exchanged nods with Lydia and Stella, then entered.

My first impression was of bookshelves, ringing the chamber in an unbroken circle. Then I noticed the table and chairs in its center and experienced a powerful sense of déjà vu. Was it me, or did the library resemble both Tina’s room in the northern capital and the Shiki archive? Mana lamps set in the walls and ceiling shed dim light on a young blond man running his pen across paper: Prince John Wainwright.

His Royal Highness noticed us and looked up. “Why, hello.” Although we had come at his summons, and despite the many spells Gerhard Gardner had laid to guard him, his face betrayed unmistakable timidity.

The prince, clad in a gray suit such as any common citizen of the capital might wear, poured forth a smooth stream of speech. “I beg your pardon for calling you down here. Elements of the nobility still hope to champion my cause, and Gerhard is of the opinion that I ought to play my part as a harbor for dissidents a while longer. That’s why I had one of the few people I can trust approach you at the Grand Arsenal the other day. It’s absurd, really. They must know that I fall below even Lady Lydia and Lady Stella in the line of succession now.”

“What’s this about the Grand Arsenal?”

“Really, Mr. Allen?”

The young ladies on either side of me delivered elbows that said, “This is the first we’ve heard about it!”

Can you blame me? I didn’t know what it was about, and I didn’t expect him to make contact here.

“I take it my messenger turned back before reaching the library, since I don’t see him with you,” the prince continued, depositing his pen in a bottle. “He’s served me since I was a child, at Gerhard’s recommendation. I’ve heard that he’s an illegitimate son of the defunct House of Rupert, but I don’t know the particulars. Many people left me when I ceased to be crown prince, but he attends me faithfully as ever.”

Of course! That was Rupert mana!

The disgraced earl had killed Atra of the fox clan, a girl Caren and I had played with as children, by running her over with his carriage. And here was one of his relations, serving the Royal House of Wainwright.

“Will overseeing the Grand Arsenal pose any difficulties?” I asked, struggling to master my emotions.

“I do that in name only. At most, I need to sign ‘John Wainwright’ on the paperwork and take responsibility if something goes wrong. The western chieftains defer to no one, not even my father. These are veterans of the Shooting Star Brigade, remember; they survived the War of the Dark Lord. I discovered what that means for myself when I evacuated to the western capital. House names can’t move the likes of them.”

We exchanged looks in spite of ourselves. “My brother has little talent for swordplay or spellcasting, and I never know what he’s thinking,” Cheryl had told us, but it seemed he did have a gift for self-reflection.

“In hindsight,” the prince lamented, leaning back in his chair, “my brother Gerard had talent but lacked wit and wisdom. As a result, the church played him for a fool, and now he’s been reduced to a monster. He’ll be remembered as the shame of the Wainwrights as long as our kingdom endures.”

“The most talented knight in the guard,” Owain and Richard had once called him. He might even have acceded to the throne if he hadn’t gone astray. Of course, there were no “ifs” in history.

Prince John gazed up into the gloom of the ceiling. “And I have a little wit and wisdom but no talent. It’s only natural that Cheryl should be first in line to the throne. The royal house shouldn’t be exempt from the meritocracy my father has been promoting so forcefully these past few years. Reform ought to continue apace.”

He kept a cool head and a broad view. Perhaps Gerhard Gardner continued to back this prince because he valued those qualities. But Lydia and Stella seemed to take them only as reasons to grow more wary. Both had finished covertly weaving spells and stood ready to use them.

I made a slight bow. “May I ask Your Royal Highness the purpose of this meeting?”

“Oh, yes, of course. I’d better get to the point before your companions blast me with supreme magic.”

Prince John Wainwright brushed his blond hair out of his eyes and planted his elbows on the desk. The mood, and his tone, changed dramatically.

“Allen, adopted member of the wolf clan of the eastern capital—who are you? How do you wield the powers of a key? Those abilities are a miracle from the age of gods, and they were lost to the world with Shooting Star two hundred years ago.”

I stiffened at the unexpected questions, and the girls stared, wide-eyed.

He knows what I can do? Did Gerhard Gardner tell him?

The prince slid his fingers over the antique volumes on his desk. “I believe I first heard your name when you drove off the black dragon alongside the Hero and Lady Lydia. Most people remained skeptical then. ‘He’s still houseless,’ they said. ‘His star will fade before long.’” Self-derision and bafflement entered his gaze. “But you fought off a pure-blooded vampire; slew a two-winged devil and that millennium-old monster, the Stinging Sea; rooted out a number of foreign secret societies that had infested dark corners of the city; and trounced Gerard in your court sorcerer exam.” His expression turned to awe. “Finally, you even saved the Howards’ ‘cursed child.’”

We met the heartless nickname with silent anger. There was nothing “cursed” about Tina. But the prince had covered his eyes with his hands and continued, none the wiser.

“Then came this past year. How many countries have you saved? How many people? Keys have occasionally emerged onto the stage of history before, each one a legend in their own right, but you beggar belief.”

In all honesty, I felt that comparisons with legends of the past were no concern of mine. It wasn’t as if I could have solved anything alone.

“Yet your mana is weak—weaker even than mine.” The prince lowered his hands, and an edge of fear and confusion entered his voice. “I don’t understand it. Inexhaustible mana is what sets keys apart! They take mana from others and consume it. That power allowed them to rival even the witches. A forbidden tome authored by an ancient king who had his son adopted by the Sages of the Grand Ducal House of Ashfield makes that plain. But a key weak in mana? Impossible! Categorically impossible! It’s at odds with the Star Oath!”

A draft blew through, piping an eerie tone. Perhaps the library had some opening to the surface.

The Ashfields adopted a Wainwright? And how does this “Star Oath” come into it? But no. Learning about myself comes first.

My heartbeat sounded loud and close. Lydia and Stella furtively squeezed my hands.

John looked me in the eye and said, “Please, please tell me everything you know. Who are you? I understand that you are nothing like the church’s apostles. But for all my faults, I am still royalty. Knowing somewhat more than my sister, I cannot sit idly by and leave a potential danger loose in the kingdom. And I’ll have fewer opportunities to speak with you like this once you assume the Alvern name.”

True, I knew nothing of my birth. I had never made an effort to ask my parents about it. And it was also true I had caused consternation in the course of my battles and encounters thus far.

I drew in a breath and said frankly, “I’m terribly sorry, but I possess no more information than Your Royal Highness does. I developed the ability to link mana as a child, after healing my injured sister. Apart from that, all I know about myself...is where I was found, I suppose.”

The prince’s shoulders twitched. “May I ask where that was?”

“Under the eaves of an abandoned house on the fringes of the eastern capital. I’m told there was nothing to show my origins.”

“The eastern capital?” John gaped, then started flipping rapidly through a bundle of papers I took for a report. “Your adoptive parents are Nathan and Ellyn of the wolf clan, aren’t they?” he groaned, head in his hands.

“Yes, that’s right,” I said.

“Then...” The prince looked up, cheeks taut with strain. Pens rattled on his desk. “Then, that doesn’t fit. Nathan and Ellyn of the wolf clan weren’t in the eastern capital then. Multiple top secret investigations confirm that beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

The shock hit me so hard I nearly collapsed.

N-No. I don’t believe it. Did mom and dad lie to me?

Fiery plumes and ice flakes danced through the air, and my companions stepped resolutely in front of me.

“He’s Allen of the eastern capital wolf clan,” said Lydia, “son of Nathan and Ellyn and brother of Caren Alvern the Lightning Wolf. Nothing more and nothing less.”

“I beg your pardon,” said Stella, “but I believe you are the ‘potential danger’ here. So long as you bear the Wainwright name, no amount of bemoaning your lack of talent will permit you to retire from public life. One wrong step, and you could very well repeat your brother’s mistakes.”

Prince John goggled at the blistering retort. “That...rings painfully true,” he murmured, lowering his gaze and reverting to his earlier tone. “My apologies.”

It seemed our interview was at an end.

The prince weakly seized his pen and wrote something without looking up. “I hear that the work to free the Sealed Archive from the Great Tree’s grip is proceeding smoothly. Please search it for records concerning keys. I will persuade Gerhard. If you’re looking for anything else, I’ll assist with that as well. And take this.” A mournful undertone he couldn’t quite hide crept into his voice as he handed me a note.

“Glen.”

A name?

The ring on the third finger of my right hand and the bracelet on my right wrist flashed.

“He was the Wainwright whom the Ashfields supposedly adopted. An old book records that he was named after a Heaven’s Knight who lived during the age of gods. And that he displayed a rare aptitude for magic. You might need that information in your dealings with the ‘Fields’ and ‘Hearts,’” the prince explained, and bowed deeply to me, a beastfolk foundling.

I exhaled and gave Lydia and Stella, who still stood poised for battle, each a tap on the shoulder, as well as my gratitude.

Thank you. You gave me courage.

“It was nothing,” Lydia mumbled.

“I m-meant every word,” said Stella.

I nodded to the bashful noblewomen and turned to go. I heard a chair shift and a person rise behind me.

“Doubtless I have no right to say this, but please, Allen of the wolf clan of the eastern capital, spare a thought for yourself in future and not only for saving others. The influence you exert on those around you is heavier and greater than you know.”

Prince John Wainwright’s warning stabbed into my back.

Yes, I know. When I set out for the royal capital, I was alone. But now? Perhaps the time has come to face myself.

My mind made up, I closed the door. I did not look back.

✽

“Wow. So Apostle Ibush-nur—ahem, the apostate Raymond Despenser—cut across the pontiff’s domain and escaped south! Gutsy move, don’t you think? Of course, Ifur might have told him something with his dying breath.”

The loud voice of Fourth Apostle Zelbert Régnier carried through a chapel in the Offices of the Holy See, the heart of the pontiff’s appalling domain. The church controlled every facet of life here.

I prostrated my bulk on the cold floor, listening with relief to the cheery remarks so at odds with their setting. I had braced myself when I’d received the peremptory summons, convinced that my secret had come to light at last, but it seemed I had worried for nothing.

I continued my report to the dhampir, one of the few successful examples of the taboo that the great demisprite sorceress Floral Heaven had created two centuries ago. “I managed to track him up to the point where he entered the Knightdom of the Holy Spirit. Beyond that, however...”

“Oh, that’ll do. Good work—not that you did any worse in Lalannoy.”

“Y-You are too kind,” I replied. Currying favor with the powerful had become a habit. If I kept winning their trust little by little, I would eventually reach the true identity of the woman they called the Saint. My first duty was to the planet’s safety. My own dishonor was of no account.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” said the dhampir. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Heino Rupert.”

I looked up, puzzled. No one had called me by name in a long time.

The dhampir lounged on a pew in the moonlight, a notebook in his hand and a gleam of curiosity in his crimson eyes. “The House of Rupert used to be a big deal in the east of the Wainwright Kingdom. I get that life has its ups and downs, but how’d you end up doing dirty work like this?”

“Well...” I faltered on purpose and fumbled at my collar. Squeezing the gold emblem I’d fished out, I said matter-of-factly, “I awoke to my deep and abiding faith in the Holy Spirit. I have neither parents nor children to care for, and despite my earldom, I had no wealth either. I don’t consider my work disgraceful.”

“Good answer.” The dhampir jotted something in his notebook and closed it, apparently satisfied. Dexterously twirling his pen, he added an astonishing offer. “They tell me we’re short on cadets. I’m new myself, but how’d you like me to put your name forward?”

“M-Me?”

It was a chance beyond my wildest dreams. Becoming an apostle cadet would get me sent into fierce battles and increase my risk of dying, but it would also afford me opportunities to obtain far more than I otherwise could. If the worst happened, I would simply bequeath my knowledge to my aged brother lying low with the Wainwrights. I strove to appear dumbfounded, betraying no sign that inwardly, I was dancing for joy.

The apostle stood deliberately and slipped his notebook into an inner pocket. The sheath of the dagger at his side flashed with an uncanny gleam. “It does seem like you’ve done a lot for the cause. What comes next depends on you, though.”

“I would s-sincerely appreciate your endorsement.” I made my voice shake and pressed my balding head to the floor again.

For now, I’m—

“Oh, one last thing.”

In the grip of a ghastly chill, I yanked my trusty sword from its scabbard and retreated, deflecting the bloody slash that the dhampir had launched at me. He whistled—badly—holding the longsword of blood he had conjured.

“Didn’t think you’d block that one.”

A barrier rose, enclosing the chapel.

An improved version of the Eightfold Divine Seal, developed to trap the great elementals during the age of strife. And to make matters worse, this is Ashfield and Wainwright mana.

“Wh-What has come over you, my lord?!” I cried.

“You know how it is. ‘The final battle draws near. Leave no source of uncertainty,’” the dhampir replied. “I went out of my way to tell you I was hunting rats and even broke out my ace in the hole. Stop hamming it up.”

I kept silent.

Calm down. I can tolerate my own death, but not the humiliation of failing to relay what I know.

“Heino Rupert—I mean, Heino Coalheart.” The apostle grinned mirthlessly, arraying many floating blades of blood. “Not many people could’ve spent the two centuries and change since the War of the Dark Lord blending into the kingdom’s aristocracy and passing information across Blood River. I’ve got nothing but respect for you guys, especially since you’ve got to be a cadet branch. I hear the main line died out.”

They’ve even uncovered my secret house name?!

I imbued myself with all the strengthening magic I could bear and raised my blade. “How do you know so much?”

“It’s not my place to answer that,” the dhampir replied.

The air below the stained glass distorted, and a girl in a hooded white robe emerged from a black flower—an imitation of demisprite teleportation magic.

“And you are?” I demanded.

“What? Have you forgotten me?” The girl reached up to her hood and revealed her face. An old pendant glittered at her throat, and her long ashen hair unfurled as though with a life of its own.

The greatest shock of my life transfixed me.

Pale-gray beast ears and tail. Crimson eyes. And writhing over her right hand and cheek...the great elemental Stone Serpent. I-Inconceivable. Such a thing cannot—must not—be!

I launched myself off the stone floor and shot forward, keeping low to the ground. Without a second thought, I brought my trusty sword down on the fox-clan girl.

But it never reached her. The dhampir caught my desperate stroke on his sanguine blade. I knocked it aside and bellowed at the girl.

“I-Impossible! H-How?! How are you alive?! I know I killed you in the eastern capital!”

Never, not for a single day, had I forgotten. Though I had acted to preserve the planet, I had still slain a child under the guise of an accident.

Is she a ghost? No, this is living mana. How, then? Is it mere resemblance?

The girl snickered. “Simple. By a ‘saintly miracle.’ Surely you’ve heard all about them?”

“What do— Y-You can’t mean...” Aghast, I arrived at the answer.

Atra Ashheart had a younger sister. A sister who couldn’t get out of the way of the carriage in time and suffered grievous injuries.

My sword point trembled. I couldn’t stop it. “Wh-What...what has she done?! How could she twist the planet’s laws for but a single person?! Wh-What possessed your sister to—”

Something huge and black, like a dragon’s tail, lashed out of her shadow and slammed me sideways into a wall. I gasped in pain and multi-cast healing spells in my struggle to rise. Alas...

“I don’t want to hear one of the Dark Lord’s puppets speak of my sister.”

With that glacial pronouncement, inky darkness began to swallow me whole.

S-Somehow I...I must tell someone about...

At the edge of my vision, the girl gave the dhampir a delighted smile and removed her pendant.

“Zel, take good care of my Allen,” she said. “Now, let’s start on the finishing touches.”

Chapter 5

It might be winter by the calendar, but the eastern capital—or “forest capital,” as it was often called—at the heart of the kingdom’s eastern lands was no less replete with greenery and sunlight than it had ever been. Flocks of sea-green griffins soared with apparent delight above the Great Tree, which towered in turn over the city center. It looked like the beastfolk districts had been mostly rebuilt in the few months since they’d become the site of heated battles between the rebels and my knights. I couldn’t pick out any obvious scars of war as I walked the streets, shifting my grip on my bag of souvenirs.

Beastfolk militia and ex-volunteers I’d fought alongside spotted me and called out.

“Hey, there’s Lord Richard.”

“Did you get reassigned to the eastern capital?”

“I love the look of that royal guard uniform!”

I would have loved to stop and chat. Unfortunately...

“It’s still warm here. Don’t you agree, Fia?”

“It certainly is. Oh, what could that shop be?”

The presence of my mother, Duchess Lisa Leinster, and my aunt, Under-duchess Fiane Leinster, made that impossible. They walked ahead of me with stately composure, wearing full dress uniforms.

Do these two even need a guard?

I had no objection to stopping by the eastern capital on my way back from the Lalannoy Republic’s city of craft. My problem was keeping company with these two. Between their scarlet hair, their looks, and their dress, they couldn’t help attracting attention, and that left me feeling anything but comfortable. To make matters worse, they refused to let anyone else accompany them.

Well, here goes nothing.

“Mother, aunt,” I said, “may I pay a visit to some acquaintances of mine?”

“Why, Richard, how could you be so heartless? What if something were to happen to us?”

“That’s right! No shirking your duty, dear. Let Ridley worry about paying our respects to everyone who needs them. Work him like a cart horse! I won’t mind.”

“Of course,” I sighed. So much for dropping in to tease my brother-in-arms Sui of the fox clan, who had studied martial arts with Allen, and who must have gotten back from his honeymoon to the western capital by now. Finally retrieving my runaway cousin from Lalannoy had cost me all my usual jobs.

Ridley, the least you can do is listen to me gripe this evening.

With flagging spirits, I walked on after the duo until our destination deep in Old Town came into view: the artificer’s shop that Allen and Caren’s parents called home. People were sparser here than in New Town, and the surrounding houses were all single-story wooden affairs. It seemed a little different than it had before the rebellion, due in part to the portion of its oldest buildings that had burned down.

A petite wolf-clan woman wearing an apron over her kimono was cheerfully cleaning the storefront, singing with broom in hand. Her shoulder-length hair was silver-gray, as were her ears and tail, and she looked astonishingly young for her age. Before my aunt or I could call out to her, my mother rushed forward, crying, “Ellyn.”

“Why, goodness me,” the wolf-clan woman—Allen and Caren’s mother, Ellyn—exclaimed as my mother caught her in a hug. They had been exchanging frequent letters as long as they’d known each other. Ellyn blinked in surprise, but a smile soon lit up her face, and she returned the hug. “Lisa, it’s so nice to see you! When did you get here?”

“I was passing nearby on business. I hope I’m not intruding?”

Wonder of wonders, Lisa Leinster, the former Lady of the Sword, still hailed as the finest sword fighter in the kingdom, responded with an anxious question. I’d seen it before, but I still couldn’t believe my eyes. My father had flat out refused to credit it at first.

Ellyn shook her head and brought her hands together. “Of course not! We’re delighted to have you.”

“Thank you for saying so.” A beaming smile spread over my mother’s face—a rare spectacle indeed. Anna would have made a fuss if she’d been with us.

While I indulged my imagination, my aunt, with nothing better to do, smoothed her hair and uniform and started shifting in eager anticipation.

Ellyn noticed and gave her a quizzical look. “And who might this lovely lady be?”

“Did you hear that?! I’m ‘lovely’!”

“Ignore her,” my mother said coldly, intent on guarding her best friend. The way she showed her possessive streak in situations like this, despite ordinarily being good friends with my aunt as well, was identical to Lydia. I prayed that Lynne would turn out differently.

“Li, how could you?!”

“You brought it on yourself,” my mother snapped, although the look she gave said otherwise.

The under-duchess took her meaning and made a courteous introduction. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Fiane Leinster. Your son has been a constant help to my daughter Lily. Please, call me Fia.”

“My! Lily is your daughter? I’m Allen’s mother, Ellyn, Under-duchess Fia.”

“No titles. It wouldn’t be fair to leave me the odd woman out.”

“Wouldn’t it? I guess I’d better stop, then.”

Just like that, they were laughing in their own warm and fuzzy little world.

Oh no. H-Here it comes. I see the dark flames mounting behind mother!

“Please, come in,” Ellyn urged, still holding her broom. “I’m sure you could do with hot tea!”

Following the custom of the eastern capital’s beastfolk, we removed our boots in the entryway. My mother snatched the souvenirs from my grasp and left me with a quick “Richard, see to Fia” while she trailed after Ellyn.

She doesn’t miss a beat.

I was grinning in spite of myself when a wolf-clan man with dark-gray hair appeared in the doorway, wearing a samue and a pair of small, antique spectacles. “Why, if it isn’t Lord Richard.”

“Nathan!” I cried. “It’s good to see you again.”

We shook hands, reaffirming our friendship. Allen and Caren’s father was a skilled artificer. But his next words, delivered with a tranquil smile, caught me off guard.

“I hear you’ve performed remarkable service abroad. Allen mentioned it in his letters.”

“Nah, I’ve done nothing to write home about.” I scratched my head, embarrassed. Knowing Allen, he had barely touched on his own doings. I was just making up my mind to have a word with him about it back in the royal capital when I felt a tug on my sleeve.

“Richie,” came my aunt’s silent command, “introduce me before Li gets back!”

She’s sure making some aggressive moves today. I know she thinks a lot of Allen, but is that all?

Despite the niggling doubt, I did my duty. “Uh, Nathan, meet my aunt Fiane.”

“At your service.” Under-duchess Fiane Leinster, the Smiling Lady, dropped the expression that had earned her the nickname in favor of a serious look and bowed. “My daughter Lily is able to spend her days happily thanks in part to your son. I feel truly grateful to you and Ellyn, and I wished to tell you so personally.”

“No, we haven’t...” Nathan faltered. “P-Please, raise your head.”

Beastfolk still faced deep-rooted discrimination in the kingdom. The aristocratic old guard would faint if they found out my aunt had lowered her head to a member of the wolf clan regardless—not that they had anything like the sway they’d used to.

“Tea’s ready! In the parlor!” Ellyn called from inside. We nodded to each other and started moving.

Now, time to find out why my mother made this detour.

“So, Lisa, what do you want to ask Nathan and me?”

All three of us started. Ellyn had cut right to the core of the matter while sitting across from us and pouring bowls of green tea. Nathan, doling out cookies shaped like the Great Tree onto small plates, registered no surprise.

Even my mother was hard put to say, “What makes you think I have questions?”

“It’s written on your face. Here you go.”

The duchess accepted a steaming teabowl, lowered her gaze, and sighed. “I should have known I couldn’t fool you.”

The Leinster blood in my veins told me that destiny had brought me here.

My mother straightened her back. “Ellyn, Nathan,” she said earnestly, “I won’t mince words. Tell me the truth about when you found Allen.”

Silence fell over the parlor. The rhythmic ticking of the clock held sway, and I sat with bated breath. My mother and aunt leaned forward on their elbows and continued.

“I don’t know how much he’s told you, but frankly...”

“Your son is now a living legend in this kingdom. And we believe his origins could shake not only the kingdom but the whole west of the continent—maybe even the entire continent. Leticia Lebufera, the Emerald Gale, agrees with us.”

“Ellyn, Nathan. Tell us everything you know. We must share the secret with a highly select few, but we swear to spread it no further. On my life.”

“And on mine.”

That’s a hell of a show of resolve! I bet they mean it too. The House of Leinster has a lot of rules, but “forget what you owe” isn’t one of them.

Ellyn had gone tense. Now she reached out and tapped my mother and aunt on the forehead. “Lisa, Fia, no staking your lives on anything under my roof.”

“Ellyn,” they murmured.

Nathan crossed his arms and gazed out the window at the Great Tree. “Very well. We will tell you all we know about that night on the bank of Blood River, when she placed that boy—placed Allen—in our care.”

✽

“Huh?! You mean Allen stopped by again today?”

It was my own first visit in days to check on the steady progress at the Sealed Archive, and I couldn’t contain my surprise. Around me, giants hauled withered roots and boughs of the Great Tree, probably to the Grand Arsenal I’d heard so much about.

“Y-Yes’m,” Ellie Walker said with a nod. “With Lady Tina and Lady Stella. They went straight on to the palace to take part in the royal audience. Ms. Caren and Lady Lynne came too. Because they’d be staying a few nights at the arsenal for the forging, they said.”

The angelic maid removed a dead leaf that had landed on my witch hat. She looked huggably adorable as usual in her school uniform and beret, accented with a green-and-white scarf. I realized how mentally exhausted I was.

Another cloudy day, huh? Gloomy and overcast, like my heart.

A stack of papers thudded onto the desk in front of me.

“Took your sweet time, huh, Teto? Let me guess: You’re down in the dumps ’cause Yen ain’t back in the city.”

I gasped, left speechless by this abuse from the tall beauty who had just emerged from a tent. My classmate, Soi Solnhofen, had dark, reddish-brown hair down to her shoulders and wore an orange cloth hat with a sorceress’s robe that matched mine.

H-How dare she?! I know she likes Ellie, but jealousy is no excuse! I mean, I am feeling lonely with Yen not coming home, but that doesn’t give her a right to say it!

“Soi, don’t you think you’ve been spending too much time here?” I countered, surreptitiously weaving spells for immediate casting. “You do want to be able to graduate next spring, don’t you?”

“Ha! Don’t count me out yet! I get results when I want ’em bad enough. Ain’t no way in hell I’ll let down Allen, Lydia, and Anko, and you know it!”

Our mana leaked out and collided. The knights of the royal guard standing watch went pale, and so did our new underclassmen from the spring, who were helping Ellie. But what did I care? Today was the day I finally brought down the hammer of justice on my arrogant classmate.

“T-Teto, S-Soi, please fon’t dight! Oh...” Ellie rushed to intervene and tripped over her own words.

Angels can do no wrong.

Soi and I concluded a wordless truth, and I abruptly changed the subject. “You’re making steadier progress toward the gate than you were a week ago.”

“Y-Yes’m! I got Mr. Allen to make lots of improvements.” Ellie clutched a notebook and gleefully displayed her spell formulae. They couldn’t have been more intricate. “Once we make it into the archive, I’ve got to find those old star charts and books on ‘keys’ that he asked for.”

There was a light in her pure, unsullied gaze.

T-Talk about dazzling.

I didn’t see Marchesa Carnien, who had supplied formulae from the cult of the Great Moon to help with the disenchantment, but she must have been making frequent visits of her own. The Brain of the Lady of the Sword had thrown his weight behind the effort to reopen the archive, and there was a good chance it would impact the League of Principalities’ future as well.

“Still, don’t you think Allen’s got too much on his plate?” Soi, toying with one of the white ribbons in Ellie’s pretty blonde hair, said what we were all thinking.

Allen had overworked himself at the university, but even I felt he had crossed a line recently. He had gone from the Lalannoy Republic to the Yustinian Empire and then returned via the northern capital around two weeks earlier. According to the professor’s letters, he was brokering an end to nearly a century of constant fighting between the republic and the empire on top of finding arguments to convince the bedridden Heaven’s Sage, and he would be participating in a royal audience at the palace that very day. What kind of sense did that make? It was downright bizarre. And about as far from “normal” as you could get.

“Well, um, since he’s been back in the city, he’s been working at the company with Felicia and checking on the Grand Arsenal, where Ms. Caren and Lady Lynne are now,” the angel chirped. “He’s been visiting us here at the archive too, and he tutors us on weekends. I think he’s been doing all sorts of other things as well.”

Soi and I could only sigh. It was simply a matter of time until Lydia abducted him again.

I raised the brim of my witch hat a fraction. “Ellie, Soi, I’d like you to look at this.”

“Yes’m.”

“Yeah?”

I waved my left hand and projected a far-reaching spell I’d been developing into the air. The pair considered for just a moment before arriving at the answer.

“Does it construct a large communication network using magical creatures as relays?” asked Ellie.

“Talk about thinking big,” said Soi. “Who the hell— Oh, I get it. So that’s why you ain’t shown your face in a while.”

“Most perceptive,” I replied. “Allen assigned me homework.”

“Teto,” he had said, “I hate to bother you, but there’s a bit of magic I’d like you to give some thought to. Don’t worry. It’s nothing too difficult.”

There are times Allen’s smile makes him look like a devil, and that was one of them.

“Telephones are convenient, but they’re still vulnerable to eavesdropping,” I exclaimed, massaging the ache that lack of sleep had caused around my eyes. “Magical communications, meanwhile, can incorporate encryption into their formulae and maintain a level of secrecy. Allen told me he wants to ‘connect all the most important points in the city.’ The problem is...”

“It would take an immense amount of mana, and the caster would have to maintain control for a long time.” Ellie reached out and touched several formulae—all parts that had been giving me headaches. “When the apostles attacked the city, Black Blossom jammed our communications before they did anything else. I remember Princess Cheryl constructed a network to relay messages using magical birds she conjured. And Big Sis Chitose built a temporary communications network that covered the whole workshop city using her white rabbits. I think Mr. Allen is aiming for a more refined version of what they did: a semipermanent emergency system.”

Did I whistle first, or did Soi? So this was what the young maid—direct descendant of the Walkers, and a “little angel” in Allen’s estimation—could do.

“Hell of a tall order. Have you talked it over with the professor? Or with Suse and the rest of ’em?” Soi asked. She might come off crude, but she was levelheaded at heart.

“I can’t reach any of them,” I said, “although they should be in the Yustinian capital.”

“Fat lot of good they are.” My classmate slapped the sheathed longsword at her side, dismissing both one of the kingdom’s greatest sorcerers, technically our mentor, and the brilliant members of the cohort after ours. She and I were the only members of our lab in the city, except for our underclassmen who had started that spring. It would take more than that to execute one of Allen’s schemes. Another classmate, Gil, was supposed to have arrived in the city that day to stand in for old Duke Algren, but who knew if he would have time to talk the problem over with us.

“I can’t let things go on like this. I just can’t.” I grew fretful and started to pace. “Allen hasn’t had a moment to spare until today, especially with the reports he’s supposed to make at the victory celebration. However...”

“He’ll figure it out himself when he finds time,” Soi said gravely, seating Ellie in a nearby chair. “And you know what he’ll say then? ‘Thanks, Teto. I couldn’t have done it without you.’”

I buried my face in my hands and groaned, while Ellie’s gaze roved anxiously. It was all too easy to imagine.

N-Now it’s come to this, I have no other choice. None! I have natural rights, and I’m going to exercise them!

I levitated myself, placed my hands on my tall classmate’s shoulders, and smiled. “Soi, we’re in the same cohort. And that means—”

“Sorry, but you know that stuff’s out of my wheelhouse!” The straw I’d grasped at slipped through my fingers with a plausible-sounding excuse. Then she darted behind Ellie and smirked.

H-Have you no heart?!

I sank to my knees, sobbing. “Wh-Why does this only ever happen to me?!”

“T-Teto, t-try to keep calm,” the angel said soothingly, but my despair showed no signs of improvement.

It must have gotten too much for Soi to watch—she was a lot nicer than she let on—because she put a hand on Ellie’s head and said, “Well, I figure it’s ’cause Allen trusts you, Ellie, and what’s-her-name—Felicia Fosse?—more than the rest of us. In a different way than he trusts Lydia or his sis.”

Her unexpected words stopped my thoughts dead. Ellie and I gaped at each other.

Allen trusts us?

Soi crossed her arms and turned away from us, looking grouchy. “I mean, the guy spoils his friends and family rotten. But he gives you and Ellie a freer hand than most. Don’t that mean he thinks you can take care of yourselves?”

M-Maybe she’s right. I never noticed because he keeps handing me impossible problems that leave me in tears, but...wh-what do you know. I guess I can take care of myself.

“Oh, I, um...” I giggled, grinning my head off. I couldn’t fight it.

“I...I don’t know about...” Ellie joined in, hands on her cheeks, and actually started swaying.

Allen recognized our ability. Just knowing that made me feel like I could do anything. And after all, wasn’t I on track to graduate from the university in spite of everything?

Soi hurled herself into a chair and crossed her legs. “Ugh. You look like a pair of wimps.”

She sounded sullen as anything. Her unusual route to the university had left her with a deep respect for Allen and a burning desire to repay him. She would even lay down her life if need be. All of which made the fact that he didn’t bring his problems to her especially vexing. Allen and Lydia were still a long way ahead, and catching up to them would take a lot more hard work. For both of us.

Even angelic Ellie clenched her fists, looked up at the overcast sky, and murmured, “I wonder if they’ve reached the palace by now.”

✽

“Oh, wow! I mean, wow! You look amazing, sir,” gushed Tina, clad in an azure gown. “Like the real Sage in the fairy tales. I’m so glad we gave Felicia the idea.”

Lily, in her gown of pale scarlet, threw her fists in the air and let out a smug laugh. “My choice was flawless! If this isn’t victory, I don’t know what is!”

We were in a palace waiting room before the audience. No sooner had I finished changing into new black robes prepared especially—and secretly—for the occasion than they met me with...this. Even Atra was making a fuss within me.

I-If only I had known.

I recalled the abrupt advice that Lydia and Cheryl had given me before I had been led into the waiting room.

“If Stella is a saint, make yourself a sage. Word will spread faster that way.”

“Allen, this is a necessary step for the kingdom and for your future!”

Now that I stopped to think, it seemed obvious that the girls would all have something to say about what I wore to this theoretically momentous occasion.

• Lydia had the single-minded determination to see through anything she set her mind to.
• Lily had the energy to keep maneuvering behind the scenes until she had every last person who mattered on board.
• Tina and friends had the solidarity to not breathe a word of anything to me before today.
• And Felicia had the tenacity to get my new robes finished in time.

No doubt I should have been singing their praises. Still, I hadn’t expected Ellie, Lynne, and Caren to join in the scheme when they wouldn’t even be coming to the palace. Nor the trio of currently sleeping children, if it came to that.

I sighed and took another look at myself in the large mirror. Tina had been right—there stood a fairy-tale sage. They must have used the white robes that Lydia had once prepared for me at an Algren villa as a reference. I detected echoes of them in the embroidery. Only the white flower design on the breast set them apart, drawing, presumably, on the Sage’s well-known iconography.

I felt a sudden temptation. How would I look holding a staff in this getup?

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Tina exclaimed. “Lily, do you have a video orb on you? We need to show Ellie and everyone what a dashing figure Mr. Allen cuts!”

“Lady Tina, weapons and all kinds of orbs are strictly forbidden during royal audiences,” said Lily. “Remember to give your rod to Allen for safekeeping later.”

I left them engrossed in conversation and gave my left wrist a slight flick. Space distorted, and Silver Bloom emerged from the dark magic I used to store it.

This will do nicely.

I moved to study myself in the mirror a third time when the noblewomen caught on and beamed at me, blushing faintly.

“Oh, sir,” gasped Tina, “you look so gallant.”

“Allen.” Lily chuckled. “I guess you’re still a boy at heart!”

I pulled up my hood and turned my back on them without a word. The ring and bracelet on my right hand gave a few teasing flashes. The witch and the angel remained ill-natured as ever.

“Really, Tina, Lily,” I sulked over my shoulder, rod in hand, “I don’t think—”

The platinum- and scarlet-haired noblewomen thrust out their left hands in unison. Their hair clips caught the light as they declared firmly:

“Sir! You don’t have time to change clothes again now!”

“And since this is an official ceremony, informal dress is strictly forbidden!”

Th-They read my mind?!

“H-How long have you been concocting this outrageous plot?!” I cried, shrinking from the highborn ladies, who drew slowly but steadily closer.

“Since the night we all got together at the Howard house,” said Tina.

“Everyone approved!” added Lily.

My back hit a wall. I had nowhere left to run.

So this is as far as I go.

The door burst open before I could steel myself for the worst.

“Are you all dressed? We don’t have much time left until—”

The princess’s personal bodyguard strode crossly into the room, feeling her loosely tied scarlet tresses, and stopped still as a statue with her gaze locked on me. Even the sword Cresset Fox hung motionless at her side.

“U-Umm... Lydia?” I ventured, and she vanished without warning.

The short-range tactical teleportation spell Black Cat Promenade!

Lydia’s dainty fingers brushed my collar, straightening it. “Unbelievable. You need to pay attention to these things.”

“R-Right. Thanks,” I said, flustered.

The scarlet-haired noblewoman blushed, took out a miniature video orb, and started recording as though nothing could be more natural.

Tina and Lily gasped, dumbstruck. Lydia, however, paid them no mind and began a dispassionate appraisal of my wardrobe. “Well, I suppose it will do. At least you won’t embarrass yourself.”

“Y-You think so?” I let my eyes wander and scratched my cheek.

“Stop that. You need to look dignified!”

There’s just about no stopping her once she gets like this.

I was still adjusting my expression and posture to match her demands when the others got over their surprise.

“L-Lydia!” Tina yelled. “What do you think you’re doing, recording Mr. Allen like that?!”

“Th-That goes way beyond bending the rules!” shouted Lily.

The Lady of the Sword arched one eyebrow and sighed. “Don’t be silly. I won’t take it to the audience,” she said flatly, checking the contents of her orb.

“Th-That’s no excuse!”

“Y-You can’t be the only one with a recording of him!”

Lydia flicked her scarlet tresses and planted a hand on her hip. At first glance she looked her usual self, but I knew better. She was putting on an act. “But if I don’t take one here, we’ll have another round of interminable bickering when we decide what comes next. You must admit that someone had to do it.”

“W-Well, I mean...” Tina staggered, the thrust of her questioning clearly blunted.

What does she mean, “what comes next”?

Meanwhile, the maid, who had known Lydia longer, saw through to the hidden truth of the matter and pointed an accusing finger. Her slender silver bracelet flashed again. “Lies! You just couldn’t resist your own desire to preserve an image of Allen all dressed up!”

“Huh? R-Really?” Tina, who had nearly fallen for it, goggled in surprise. I would never get tired of her funny faces.

“Oh? Are you sure you want to take that tone with me, Lily?” Lydia scoffed, stowing her video orb with a dark spell. “I could always tell Anna and Romy that you have a maid uniform in the works.”

The effect was immediate: The maid lurched as though she’d been struck by lightning. She ducked behind Tina, using the girl’s tiny body as a shield while she shouted, “Th-That’s a low blow! I-Is...is that how the Lady of the Sword fights her battles?!”

“It’s your fault for taking forever to decide on a design.” Under her breath, Lydia added, “They probably know already anyway.”

“S-Stop using me as cover!” Tina added.

Despite the solemn ceremony ahead of us, all three of them seemed their usual lively selves—unlike me. What a difference experience made.

“M-Mr. Allen, I hope I haven’t kept you waiting...long,” came a voice from the still-open door. I couldn’t see the speaker.

“Stella?” Puzzled, Tina and I turned at almost the same time, waiting for her to speak again. I spied only the swishing hem of an azure skirt. Had she run into trouble?

“Get a move on, Stella. We haven’t got time.”

“Felicia, d-don’t push. Oh, honestly.”

With a hand from her bespectacled friend, the platinum-haired noblewoman revealed herself and her new look. I’d grown used to seeing her in her school uniform, formal wear, military attire, and various dresses. The dazzling holy raiment in pristine white and azure resembled none of them. Words failed us at the sight of her fiddling adorably with her fingers.

“So, umm... What do you think?” she asked.

Before any of us could break the silence, Felicia, who had designed Stella’s costume as well as mine and sewed the better part of them on short notice, came proudly forward. “Ahem! I enlisted the Howard maids to help make it, and some of the Leinster maids too. I took some hints from the reference materials I got for Lily.”

She held a bundle, and the maids of Allen & Co. stood behind her, grinning from ear to ear. Chitose was with them as well, with a black-haired maid beside her who might have been her younger sister.

Stella, on the other hand, kept shrinking and groaning in embarrassment. Tina and Lily finally recovered sufficiently to share their impressions.

“Stella, you look gorgeous.”

“It came out amazing.”

“Not bad,” Lydia said, resting an elbow on the hilt of her sword. “But it’s not quite saintly enough. Felicia?”

“I’m all ready! Allen, would you help Stella into this?” the bespectacled girl called to me.

I approached her, took the bundle, and looked inside. It was a pure-white veil. “Should I, um, just put it on her head?”

“Yup!” Felicia gave me a push.

I stood before the nervous-looking noblewoman. “I hope you don’t mind, Stella.”

“N-Not at all.”

Keenly aware of the girls’ stares on my back, I gently draped the veil over Stella’s head. The clouds parted, and a lambent ray of sunshine slanted through a slightly open window to envelop her.

“You look lovely,” I said—and I meant it.

Our resident saint clasped her hands to her chest and lowered her gaze.

“She really is...holy,” Tina gasped, too overcome with emotion to say more.

“A maid uniform with a veil,” Lily muttered. “It could work.”

“For your own sake, forget it,” Lydia said, in earnest. “You’d look like a nun.”

“The Saint and the Sage.” Felicia chuckled to herself, committing an image of Stella and me to a miniature video orb. “A nice bit of work, if I do say so myself.” When our eyes met, she disregarded her own exhaustion and said brightly, “I’ll take my payment in the form of increased staff and expanded markets for the company.”

“I’ll do my best,” I sighed, so thoroughly outplayed that I couldn’t even complain.

Felicia’s and the maids’ cheers took over the room. I stowed my rod with dark magic and took out my pocket watch. The audience was almost upon us. Before I could shoot Lydia a look, I felt a tug on my right sleeve.

“Yes, Stella?” I asked. What could be the matter?

While I waited for her to speak, the noblewoman brought her hands together as though she had come to a decision. “U-Um, Mr. Allen, I can’t seem to relax. Would you mind if I s-swore you an oath to encourage myself?”

“Well, if you’re sure you wouldn’t rather someone else,” I replied, a little taken aback. Still, I saw no reason to refuse a student’s request.

“Thank you.”

Stella closed her eyes and pressed her head against my chest, veil and all. Then she whispered her oath, hushed yet firm.

“For today—just for today—I shall be your saint. Whatever disaster might befall, I shall be a sacred shield that keeps you from all harm. Would that be all right?”

A breeze blew in through a window, rustling Stella’s veil, her platinum hair, and her sky-blue ribbon. I took her faintly trembling hands and answered so that only she could hear.

“It would be an honor beyond compare, Lady Stella Howard—I mean, my saint.”

Stella blushed so quickly that I could have sworn I heard her face reddening, brought her hands to her cheeks, and gave her head a shake. Myriad white-and-azure snowflakes danced through the air.

Lydia deliberately cleared her throat, turning the mood in the room on its head. Her gaze, keener than any blade, transfixed me. The mark of Blazing Qilin flashed bright and clear on the back of her right hand.

“Just for today,” came her unspoken message. “Is that clear?”

After a tense pause, I answered in silence: “As crystal.” At this point, our ability to understand each other without words might have been its own form of magic.

“It’s time,” Lydia said aloud, with a quick sweep of her left hand. “Emma, see to Felicia. Start by getting her to go to sleep.”

“Certainly, Lady Lydia.”

“I...I’m not sleepy,” the head clerk protested, looking like she might doze off at any moment now that the tense excitement of her task had left her. She filed out with the maids, Lily—who was still muttering, “A maid uniform really could work with a veil”—and Lydia.

Left behind, I winked at the Howard sisters. “Tina, I’ll hold on to your rod for you. Stella, you’d better leave your wand and rapier here. I can store objects that don’t have mana of their own with dark magic, but I can’t take them out again.”

✽

A distinguished company had assembled in the vast and imposing audience hall at the core of the royal palace. Chandeliers hung from the arched ceiling. Sunlight from ornate windows to either side fell on thick stone columns. The throne stood on a dais against the far wall, emblazoned with the Wainwright family crest.

I think I’m getting stage fright.

“Sir?”

“Mr. Allen?”

Tina and Stella gave me puzzled looks when I lingered by the massive entrance doors. I asked them to “Please give me a moment” and reviewed who was in attendance.

Arrayed to the right of the red carpet that ran down the center of the hall were the three dukes: Walter Howard, Liam Leinster, and Leo Lebufera. They had all donned their formal best and were conversing cheerfully. At a short distance from the trio, Lydia’s and my old schoolmate Gil Algren was doing his best impression of a statue and hadn’t even noticed us. He wore a military uniform, having presumably returned from the eastern front on short notice to fill in for old Duke Guido, whom rumor confined to his sickbed.

He sent word that he wants to talk after the audience. I wonder what’s bothering him.

Across the red carpet, on the left side of the throne, were Prince John Wainwright in white formal wear and, nearer us, Head Court Sorcerer Gerhard Gardner, leader of the conservative nobility at court, wearing a forbidding expression. The headmaster, Lord Rodde, also known as the “Archmage,” looked tired. The great elven sorcerer had been busy of late, and his duties had reportedly taken him to the western capital. Even so, he acknowledged me with a slight nod. I didn’t see Lydia or Cheryl, presumably because they would accompany the king during the ceremony. Both the knights of the royal guard and the royals’ personal bodyguards seemed to be outside the palace.

I’ve never seen a barrier quite like this one. A secret Wainwright spell, I suppose. I certainly can’t fault the security.

“Mr. Allen.” Lily gracefully beckoned me from her position halfway along the red carpet.

I still can’t shake the feeling that I don’t belong here.

My vague unease must have shown, because the Howard sisters fell in on either side of me to offer encouragement.

“Sir, you have nothing to worry about.”

“We’re right here with you.”

Girls really do grow up so fast.

A great bell pealed, and the doors at the far end of the hall began to open. All present dropped to one knee. His Royal Majesty King Jasper Wainwright entered, clad in his royal raiment and holding a scepter topped with a jewel cut in the shape of a rose. Moving without haste, he seated himself on the throne.

Cheryl Wainwright appeared next, wearing a pure-white gown...and let out a quickly stifled cry at the sight of me. Lydia, following behind her with the only sword in the hall, had cast a silencing spell. Chiffon was probably with the rest of the princess’s guard.

“Raise your heads,” the king commanded in solemn tones, with a glance at his beloved daughter. He appeared thinner than when I had last seen him. Perhaps responding to the church’s machinations throughout the west of the continent was exacting a mental toll.

He stroked his gray beard and continued, “Walter, well fought on the eastern front! I see that the claws and fangs of the Wolf of the North lose nothing in other quarters.”

“The enemy destroyed themselves,” replied the duke. “The Emerald Gale and Acting Duke Algren carried the day.”

“Do you hear that, Gil?” said the king. “Tell Guido to be mindful of his health.”

My old school friend, who clearly hadn’t expected to be spoken to, barely managed a “S-Such praise is more than I deserve” and glared resentfully at me. It looked as though he’d discovered who had recommended him to oversee the campaign.

The king turned to Lydia’s father. “Liam, what of the disturbance in the southern capital?”

“My mother-in-law Lindsey dealt with it. All is now well.”

He must mean the trouble with the church that Duke Walter mentioned.

With my eyes, I asked, “Lily, have you heard the details?”

“No, nothing,” the well-informed maid looked back.

So even she doesn’t know? Maybe I’ll do some more digging later.

“Leo,” the king addressed the handsome elf, “I hear that you, Rodde, and Solos have been hard at work. What news from the western elders?”

“Sire, I wish to discuss that matter and that of reconciliation with the demonfolk at a later time. And as I also bear news concerning the daggers for Lady Lynne and Caren the Lightning Wolf, I hope that the Shooting Star might join us.”

Prince John and Gardner stirred. Perhaps the talk of reconciliation came as news to them. As for the western elders, the king must have meant the questions that Felicia had negotiated for Margrave Solos Solnhofen to ask them concerning the great elementals and great spells. I longed to hear their answers, but at the same time...

The king rapped the armrest of his throne and beamed. “Allen, this day has been a long time in coming! Tell me all you can of events in Lalannoy, Yustinia, and Shiki, including how you and Caren of the wolf clan came to receive the house name of Alvern. The former Hero, Aurelia Alvern, has spoken privately to me already.”

I could hear Duke Leo Lebufera, Gil, Prince John, and Gerhard Gardner gasp. A bead of cold sweat rolled down my cheek.

H-He wants me to give Lily’s share of the report as well as mine?!

I looked to see how the maid, Lydia, and Cheryl would react but found them all infuriatingly composed.

N-No! I’ve been had again!

“I-If I may, sire,” I ventured, growing desperate, “we are joined here by Your Royal Majesty’s formal envoy to the Lalannoy Republic, Lady Lily Leinster, as well as Lady Stella Howard and Lady Tina Howard, who fought valiantly in all the lands you name. As such— Huh?”

I turned my gaze to the ceiling, the first to detect something amiss. What was giving me this sense of revulsion?

“Lily, look out for—”

At that very moment, black petals and fang-like lightning shot through the audience hall. The air shook with a clamor like the breaking of chains. The great strategic barrier protecting the royal palace was laid bare and fell to pieces like a wilted rose. While the king, the three dukes, the headmaster, and Gardner gaped, speechless, an all-too-familiar spell crackled and forced itself into being.

I-It’s...

“Black Blossom’s teleportation magic?!” Tina and Stella shouted just as the headmaster and I got over our shock.

“Lydia, Lily!” I yelled. “Get Cheryl to safety!”

“Gerhard!” barked the headmaster. “Evacuate the king, the prince, and Algren!”

The head court sorcerer, whose skill and loyalty to the crown were without question despite his austere manner, produced his staff from thin air and immediately cast a short-range teleportation spell.

“Allen! I’ll—”

Gil vanished in mid objection just as a longsword-wielding mass of gray armor forced its way through the black blossom and crushed the empty throne underfoot. A plume of dust shot upward. The invader’s mana outclassed any spell-soldier I’d encountered before by orders of magnitude. Even the battle-hardened dukes seemed shaken.

“I don’t believe it.”

“Teleportation in the heart of the palace?”

“Impossible.”

Nevertheless, all three shifted into combat stances. Lydia and the girls had also evaded the first strike and completed their retreat. The number of potent mana sources outside kept growing.

“They’ve infiltrated other parts of the palace as well,” I called to the staff-wielding headmaster without taking my eyes off the gray spell-soldier. “To judge by the mana, the dhampir apostle Isolde is leading them.”

“The knights of the guard and the royal bodyguards will have to deal with them. I never dreamed that anything could penetrate the Wainwrights’ great barrier so easily.” The great sorcerer had fought in the War of the Dark Lord and survived, but not even he seemed able to conceal his shock.

The Howard sisters called nervously to me.

“Tina, Stella, arm yourselves before—”

A dreadful chill from overhead stopped me short.

“Oh, Aaaaaallen!”

Blades of blood rained down on me. I hastily conjured black plumes from the bracelet on my right wrist to intercept, knocking them off course. Drawing Silver Bloom and raising it in a single motion, I blocked a downward slash from a sanguine sword. While an ill wind raged through the hall, I screamed at what my best friend had become in the church’s hands.

“Zel!”

“Not bad! I thought I’d land that one!” The dhampir apostle knocked my rod aside and leapt behind the gray spell-soldier, admiration in the crimson eyes behind his spectacles.

“Allen!” Lydia and Cheryl shouted, poised to run to me now that our former schoolmate had joined the fray.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

But a black parasol hurtled out of the black flower, splitting the floor and blocking their path. After it came a black hat and a sable dress, crescent-moon earrings, crimson eyes, long crimson hair, and pointed canines: the vampiress Alicia Coalfield!

“Lily!” shouted the headmaster.

“Coming right up!”

Gravel flew in all directions, but his barriers and her fire flowers kept any of it from reaching me or the Howard sisters. Visibility dropped to almost nothing. Amid the swirling dust, I sensed Zel, Alicia, the gray spell-soldier, and two more powerful mana sources besides. Aster, to whom I’d dealt a heavy blow in Shiki, didn’t seem to be with them, so I couldn’t be certain what they were after, but the church was bringing its full might to bear—an all-out assault if ever there was one.

I was about to issue instructions to Tina and Stella when my feet sank into the floor. Beneath me yawned a pitch-black gate.

“I-It’s just like the Shiki archive!” I tried to tamper with the spell, but I had nowhere near enough time.

Zel, perched on the wreckage of the throne, adjusted his spectacles. With incredible clarity, I heard him say, “Sorry, buddy. My job’s over. Somebody else wants a shot at you.”

“Tina!” I shouted, yanking the girl’s rod out of storage and tossing it to her.

“Sir?!”

My gaze met Lydia’s and Lily’s, then I saw only darkness. Helpless, I merely went on falling.

“Mr. Allen!”

But our resident saint leapt unflinchingly into the shadowy gulf and caught me in a bear hug.

✽

“Did Allen and Stella just...disappear?” I, Cheryl Wainwright, mumbled to myself, unable to believe what had transpired before my eyes. Lydia with her Cresset Fox and Lily with her greatsword stood frozen on either side of me. A short distance from us, the three dukes and Tina, who had regained her rod thanks to Allen’s last act, appeared equally stunned.

“Dear me. Has the fight gone out of you already?” a woman’s scornful voice asked from amid the billowing dust as sickening dusky-crimson mana spread through the hall. A bloodred moon appeared through a huge hole in the ceiling.

“That’s Everlasting Scarlet Dream, a strategic taboo spell,” Lydia spat, scowling.

“She conjured a moon to give herself an advantage,” Lily added grimly.

A wild gust sprang up, restoring visibility. Our breath caught in our throats.

The apostles stood upon the smashed remains of the Wainwright crest and throne, gazing languidly down at us. The vampiress in a black hat and black dress, holding up a black parasol, was Alicia Coalfield, the Crescent Moon. White hair, crimson eyes, spectacles, and a hooded white cloak marked the resurrected dhampir, Zelbert Régnier. A worn gray robe, also hooded, shrouded the pike-wielding third apostle, Levi Atlas, while the false Saint’s servant, Viola Kokonoe, brandished her ancient katana. The longsword-wielding gray spell-soldier that had descended on us alone posed a serious threat as well.

“Wh-Why, you...you...!” The platinum-haired girl, plainly frantic, raised her rod to cast the strongest spell she could manage—when a sharp bark from Lydia filled the hall and stopped her dead.

“Tina! Calm down. They’re both fine. Can’t you sense their mana?”

“B-But that doesn’t mean...!”

The Lady of the Sword ignored Tina’s protest and leveled her enchanted blade at the vampiress. She had finished weaving the supreme spell Firebird, holding it ready to cast at a moment’s notice.

I can’t sense Allen’s mana at all—nor Stella’s, for that matter. If I’d known this was coming, I would have forced him to link with me whatever it took.

“So?” Lydia asked Alicia flatly. “What did you bother with a second raid on the capital for? We had a lot riding on that ceremony.”

Despite her flippant manner, her tone was glacial. The plumes of fire fluttering around her were darkening as well. It reminded me of what she’d been like just after entering the Royal Academy, when Allen wasn’t around.

“My. Is that so?” Alicia sneered and closed her parasol. “I do apologize. Our arrangements were made on short notice.”

“Answer the question.” A dagger of flame shot out with breathtaking speed and punched a gaping hole in the wall behind the vampiress. Fresh blood spurted from Alicia’s cheek, but the wound quickly healed. The sight of her wiping the blood off with a finger sent a chill of fear through me.

“You put on a brave face, but I can see you are worried about the little dears,” she said, with a musical laugh. “I do hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think they’ll make it this time. They’ll die. They’ll be killed. They’ll breathe their last in brutal torment, screaming for help. Any other future is simply—”

“This doesn’t bear listening to. Burn, if you please.” Lily, who had been listening from behind Lydia, produced a fiery sword I didn’t recognize and took a horizontal swipe. Gray flames ignited all they touched, reducing it to ashes.

“Whoa. That looks like bad news.” Régnier gave his left hand a careless wave, and an array of bloody shields took shape. They clung to the spell-soldier, forming a massive bulwark against the ashen blaze. Amid the flames, the dhampir adjusted his spectacles. “The Scarlet Flame’s curse. And using Allen’s formulae as is? Come on, don’t go straight for the kill. What happened to enjoying a little witty banter first?”

“I can do without it.” Lily teleported straight above Régnier’s head with murder in her eyes. “Kindly drop dead now.”

Her flaming sword cleaved through the blood shield that deployed to block it, and a close-quarters battle began. Yet Lydia restrained Tina with her eyes, refusing to let her join the fray.

Could it be...?

I sent the three dukes and the headmaster a surreptitious hand sign. Levi, Viola, and the gray spell-soldier moved to aid Régnier, only for the headmaster to multi-cast the advanced spell Imperial Storm Tornado, blocking and dividing them.

“This mana brings back memories,” he muttered to himself. “A Rupert, perhaps?”

I didn’t understand. Did he know who the spell-soldier had been?

“What horrible manners. You’ll ruin my dress.” The vampiress, holding her hat on with her left hand, banished the whirlwinds with a single stroke of her parasol. She might have surpassed the ice wyrm we’d fought in Lalannoy for raw mana, although admittedly she was in the moonlight. Joy filled her crimson eyes as she watched Lily and Régnier clash blades above. “Have it your way. I’ll kill every—”

“Never!” Dukes Howard and Leinster shot forward, driving blue fists and red blade into the complacent vampiress and slamming her into a wall.

“We’d be ashamed to call ourselves dukes...”

“...If we let the children do all the work!”

Duke Lebufera and Levi traded a flurry of blows in the air behind them and landed facing each other. The elven spearman grinned wolfishly. His beautiful appearance belied one of the most warlike spirits in the kingdom.

“You really must descend from the Kingdom of Atlas if you handle a pike like that,” he said. “This should be fun.”

The apostle made no reply. The white hair peeking from beneath her hood started to grow.

I materialized the sword Dear Departed Dark and the shining staff Moon Bright, Wainwright heirlooms, and addressed the false Saint’s servant, who stood amid the flames. “Won’t your mistress be joining us, Viola Kokonoe?”

“Lady of Light.”

“That nickname has spread to the church, then? I’ll let Allen know later.”

The fierce music of battle rose around us, and the destruction proceeded apace. I drew in my breath and shouted, “We’ll hold back the apostles! Lydia and Tina, help Allen and Stella!”

“We’ll leave you to it,” said my best friend.

“R-Right!” answered the platinum-haired girl she secretly had a soft spot for, and they started retreating at once.

Even if we manage to defeat the apostles here, I can’t begin to countenance sacrificing Allen and Stella. That would make it a defeat, and a decisive one. So I’ll gamble that those two, and the great elementals within them, can find a solution!

While Viola slowly lowered the tip of her beautiful katana, I clearly heard Lydia touch her sword to Tina’s rod.

“Strain your senses to their limits, Tina,” she said. “Do that, and I promise you’ll feel him. Don’t bother with theories or trying to reason it out. That won’t help you with this.”

“Right! I’ll give it a shot!”

Hurry as fast as you can, both of you! Before the palace comes down around our ears!

With that silent cheer, I launched myself forward just as Viola did the same.

✽

My fall to who-knew-where with my arms around Stella came to an abrupt end. Whatever magic was at work, the darkness lifted in an instant, and a mist-shrouded plain of dead grass spread out below me.

It doesn’t look like we’re in the kingdom, let alone the royal capital.

Dimly picking out Lydia’s and Tina’s mana, I cast levitation and wind spells and floated gently to earth.

“Are you all right?” I asked the noblewoman in my arms.

“Y-Yes,” she replied. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to get my staff out.”

Relieved, I surveyed our surroundings, but I couldn’t make out much. Dark snow clouds spread across the sky, admitting only feeble sunlight. The tall, thin shapes I could dimly make out in the distance were probably stone watchtowers.

An old battlefield, perhaps?

Weaving multiple spells of detection, I plucked a stray bit of grass that had stuck to Stella’s veil. “You took quite a risk.”

“I acted without thinking,” she said. “Still, I do have a duty to guard you for today.”

Darn. I can’t very well press her after hearing that. And I can’t deny that I feel better having her with me.

I struck the ground with the butt of my rod and multi-cast detection spells. Sure enough, like the Shiki archive, this space had no end. It had to be the product of some kind of magic, but—

A sudden gust threatened to carry off Stella’s veil. She let out a startled cry.

“Whoa there.” I hastily held it down.

The wind cleared the pale mist that had covered the plain, rapidly improving our view. Myriad rusty swords, spears, and axes and broken staves were stuck, moldering, in the ground about us. Battered armor lay everywhere as well, while human and animal bones slept in the shadow of the grass.

Where on earth are we?

The mist lifted completely. Several dozen graves became visible ahead. In their midst, a white-robed man knelt in prayer.

An unknown apostle? His mana matches the gate we came through.

He must have summoned us, but he made no move to acknowledge our presence.

As I grew warier, Stella squeezed my hand. “Mr. Allen, link with me.”

“But I—”

“I want to help you. Please.” Her resolute gaze did not waver.

With a mysterious foe before us, this was no time to hesitate. I took the noblewoman’s hand, established a shallow link, and nodded. Weaving spells, we stepped slowly toward the man’s back. I couldn’t read the names chiseled on the mossy headstones at this distance. And yet...

“Is it me,” Stella murmured, holding a succession of spells in suspended activation, “or does his robe match yours apart from the color?”

I had no proof—nothing definite—yet my unease would not be silenced. I signaled Stella to guard our rear and darted forward, thrusting Silver Bloom at the white-robed man’s back.

“Have patience, key.”

He sensed that?! Without any kind of detection spell?

The tall man rose slowly and turned. His deep hood obscured his hair color and features, but an ancient curved sword hung at his side.

And...what is this mana? It reminds me of the Wainwrights.

One man stood before me, but he seemed to contain two people’s mana.

Stella murmured my name. She evidently shared my sense of indefinable dread.

“I would like to give you my name in thanks for waiting while I paid my respects,” the man said, reaching out to stroke a tombstone, “but I have forgotten it. Others call me Ashfield the Sage, the traveler who roamed the world with the great elemental Tempest Kingfisher, and the founder of the Church of the Holy Spirit.”

Stella and I froze, stunned by this revelation beyond our wildest conjectures.

The Sage from the fairy tales and the traveler who healed the world were the same person? The legends must have gotten muddled over the centuries, like what happened with the great spells and the great elementals.

I recalled something Prince John had said. The Grand Ducal House of Ashfield had adopted a Wainwright.

Has he lived for centuries, then? But why do I feel like something doesn’t quite fit?

While my mind buzzed with questions, the man took his hand off the tombstone and vanished.

Teleportation magic?! How did he activate it so silently?

“I didn’t anticipate Aster’s defeat at your hands.”

The voice came from behind us. We whirled to face it. The man sat on a rock scarred by terrible blows and lowered his hood. He looked to be in his early twenties, younger than I’d imagined, with golden eyes and lavender hair. He wore an earring shaped like one petal of the flower drawn on the cover of Dialogues on the Apocrypha of the Great Moon. A chill breeze passed through the grass, and thunder rumbled.

The man narrowed his eyes. “I underestimated you. Shameful to admit, given I know the tale of how the Blue Rose slew all the false gods.”

We stood speechless.

The Blue Rose killed every false god? In this godless age? But no, we have more pressing questions.

“You’re the Apostate of the Great Moon, who murdered the family of the great demisprite sorceress Shise Glenbysidhe, called Floral Heaven, and eluded all pursuit.” I shifted my grip on Silver Bloom and glared daggers at Glen, the Wainwright sent to the Ashfields hundreds of years in the past. Atra quivered with fear within me, and the ring on my right hand blazed with anger. “And chaining the Thunder Fox in an island dungeon in the Four Heroes Sea was more of your handiwork, wasn’t it? As was the murder of Duchess Rosa Howard. What do you hope to accomplish with the final altar?”

Beside me, Stella gasped. The man vanished again without answering. His emotionless voice carried down to us from a watchtower with its top torn away.

“Mere trifles, for the most part.”

For a third time, he vanished.

“Deaths mean nothing,” came a blizzard-cold whisper in my ear. “People die sooner, or they die later. There’s no other difference.”

Stella and I hurled rapid volleys of Divine Light Spears over our shoulders, invoking the fastest of all the elements. The man wasn’t there. Our intermediate spells pierced only the remains of arms and armor.

“Mortals are foolish—a blight on the planet,” the man said without feeling, appearing in front of us. “Hideous lumps of flesh.”

Violet lightning surged from his body, setting the whole area ablaze.

Something’s not right! This isn’t only Wainwright mana!

While flames lapped at the dry grass, the man prayed.

“Beckon the divine, end the era of mortalkind, and breathe new life into the planet.”

“If that is your, and your compatriots’, true goal, then I know my answer.” I drew a deep breath and shaped a blade of lightning on the tip of my rod. “No, thank you.”

The man glared wordlessly and armored himself in even more potent electricity.

Lightning Apotheosis?!

I cast a lightning-resistant barrier and continued undaunted. “I don’t know how you’ve survived or how you reached that conclusion to take your own life and drag the world down with you.”

As far as I could infer from the fragmentary information I’d pieced together, the Blue Rose, founder of the House of Wainwright, had possessed unshakable convictions. True, she had become both forceful and extreme in her pursuit of them, and that had doubtless caused a great deal of friction, but I could divine no negative emotions behind her actions. This man was different.

I glanced down at the moss-covered gravestone behind him. “But I wish you wouldn’t involve all of us trying to lead ordinary lives simply to satisfy your own despair. You’re making yourself a nuisance.”

The man wordlessly thrust his right hand out sideways. Violet lightning gathered in his grasp, and thunder started to rumble. “Then, di—”

I launched three Firebirds I’d held in suspended activation. The supreme spells engulfed the man and reduced the area around him to a burning wasteland. He’d shown no sign of teleporting out of the way.

A direct hit!

“Stella, can you reach your staff?” I asked, weaving fresh spells in rapid succession.

“N-No. I’ve been trying this whole time, but...” She shook her head in frustration. Even linked with me, she couldn’t reach it. I had been regularly training the girls to work magic unarmed, but how far would that carry her against an obviously superior opponent?

“Firebird. I haven’t seen one since the War of the Dark Lord.”

“Mr. Allen, watch out!” Stella screamed.

A longsword of lightning whipped out of the flames. I raised the lightning blade on my rod and conjured icy thorns from my bracelet while Stella cast Divine Ice Wall, and together we just barely managed to deflect the blow. A tombstone in its path fell, skewered like so much paper. Our adversary packed a terrible punch.

Ink-black lightning dispersed the flames, and the man reappeared. Some spell of deception must have come undone, because his hair and stature were changing.

“What?” Stella stared, nonplussed.

I gritted my teeth, certain that a conjecture I’d hoped would prove unfounded had turned to hard fact. There was no getting around it—he wasn’t human.

The platinum-haired noblewoman clutched my left sleeve. “He’s...wolf-clan?”

The head of the man who had conjured the lightning longsword bore beast ears. A tail swayed behind him. A disguise? No. His mana was better adjusted and circulating more smoothly than before. Lady Shise’s words came back to me: “Keys devour their enemies’ mana, root and branch.”

Don’t tell me that leads where I think it does.

I drew in my breath. “Is that what you really look like?” I asked with feeling. “Glen the Sage was both a Wainwright and an Ashfield, and he commanded the great elementals Tempest Kingfisher and Tenebrous Wolf. You used your power as a key to consume him at Blood River”—I swung my rod, multi-casting Imperial Thunder Lance and hurling each advanced spell at the unmoving man—“Allen the Shooting Star.”

I heard Stella’s shocked gasp just as my lances, tuned for piercing, reached the man...and vanished, swatted aside by his long blade.

“How could you tell?” he asked, dismissing his sword and manipulating lightning between his fingers.

“Have you forgotten?” I began, striving to hide my inner turmoil and hoping to buy time. “You left a little of your mana in the depths of the Four Heroes Sea. And you have two people’s mana within you now: Glen Wainwright’s and your own.”

I spun my rod, weaving spells for all I was worth. Even if I took the legends of Shooting Star with a grain of salt, this man’s military achievements beggared belief. It seemed safe to assume that tricks would get me nowhere. If he used his powers as a key, we would die instantly.

Thunder crashed, and wind rustled what withered grass had survived the fire. The corners of the man’s mouth rose a fraction, and he disappeared, leaving only an afterglow.

Something struck my shoulder. To my shock and Stella’s, the legend stood atop a tombstone, lashing his tail. He had made the leap in a split second, using me as a stepping stone. It looked as though, even with my best detection spells and all the magical enhancement I could muster, I would have a hard time merely reacting to him.

The lightning that shrouded the man’s body kept intensifying. My skin broke out in goose bumps at his mana, leagues beyond ours, and terror reared its head. How could anyone surpass Alicia on a moonlit night?

The man raised a hand over his eyes and gave voice to his fathomless obsession. “I want your power—the power of a key that I lost that day at Blood River.”

Words failed Stella and me. One careless move, and our deaths were guaranteed.

The man repeatedly clenched and unclenched his left hand. Streaks of pale green and black entered his hair, and it began to grow. His right hand moved to the hilt of his curved sword.

“Stella,” I shouted, “defend like your life depends on it!”

“Right!”

The man’s weapon scythed. Eight colossal pillars of lightning took form and hurtled toward us, pulverizing all they touched.

This spell reminds me of the Algrens’ secret art!

I piled on all the lightning-resistant barriers I could maintain and simultaneously released all the mana in Silver Bloom. Combined with the hundreds of Divine Ice Walls and Divine Light Walls that Stella had planted her hands on the ground and conjured, they would force the lightning pillars to change course. My body screamed under the massive reflux of mana that hit me the moment they made contact. I gritted my teeth and endured and, somehow, succeeded in diverting the spell.

“Mr. Allen!” Stella showered me with healing magic as I collapsed to one knee, leaning on my staff. The man watched us impassively.

So this is what a legend can do. He’s stronger than anyone I’ve faced before, in body and mind. I might not be able to win this one. But that’s no excuse.

I took Stella’s hand and squeezed it tight. “We’re going to do this!”

“Yes, Mr. Allen!”

I strengthened my link with the noblewoman, borrowed a little of Atra’s power, and cast the spell I’d never stopped weaving. Blinding light burst from the orbs on my rod and began to converge.

“Divine Bolt.”

The brilliance sped through the air, reaching the man and—

“What?!” we gasped. Layers of green feathers and rows of obsidian fangs deflected the beam upward, and it soared off, blasting the clouds from the sky as it went. My skin broke out in goose bumps again, and I started shaking.

W-Were those the great elementals that accompanied the Traveler...?

“Tempest Kingfisher and Tenebrous Wolf?” Stella murmured blankly, having reached the same conclusion.

He’s made even the great elementals’ power his own?!

The man raised his right hand high. Black-and-green winds spiraled around him, darkening the entire plain.

N-No! This...this spell must be...!

The greatest champion of the wolf clan whipped his right hand down.

“Star Storm.”

An immense—more than immense—tornado barreled toward us with a force that wore away at the whole space around us. There was no escape. And no clever trick would save us from this spell.

Then there’s only one thing for it!

“Stella, take Silver Bloom!” I shouted, passing her my rod.

“Huh?! R-Right!”

I drew the sacred sword Bright Night from empty air. Touching the blade to the rod, I ringed us in the most potent wards I knew. The vast whirlwind lost momentum, struggling against our defenses. We would be at a disadvantage in a drawn-out battle, but if we could repel a spell of this magnitude, victory might be—

A pulse of mana made every hair on my body stand on end. I heard the man’s voice with startling clarity.

“And another.”

He raised his left hand this time and cast a second Star Storm. The vortex swelled to such gargantuan proportions that it threatened to scrape the heavens, streaked with violet lightning.

Not good! I can’t hold it! I’ve got to at least get Stella to safety, but how can—

“Sir! Stella!” The voice of a girl who wasn’t there rang in our desperate ears.

“T-Tina?!” We gaped.

Fiery plumes fluttered, and I felt a reassuring mana.

“Allen, don’t hesitate! Stella...do your duty!”

“Lydia?!” I cried.

“My duty...” Stella repeated under her breath.

How on earth did— O-Of course! She traced me through our pact! I have a clear grasp on both of their mana now. I’ll link to them. Or at least I’ll try.

The colossal tornado started to advance again. I was running out of time.

The rod abruptly pulled away from my sword. “Stella? What—”

“I’ll hold it back,” she said. “Link with Tina and Lydia while I do!”

Taken aback, I reached for her too late. Our platinum-haired saint sprang forward, rod in hand, and flashed me a smile over her shoulder as she landed.

“I did promise.”

Pushing past her limits, she multi-cast Frost-Gleam Hawks. Pulling the supreme spells into a steep dive toward the rod, she arrayed Azure Shields like a field of flowers against the towering whirlwind. Several shields cracked immediately, and Stella fell back, groaning. Blood dripped from her lips. She wouldn’t last long.

I steeled myself and shouted, “Tina, Lydia! I need your help!”

“Yes, sir!”

“You have to ask?”

With support from the ring on the third finger of my right hand and the bracelet on my right wrist, I linked with both of them. Every fiber of my body strained, screaming out in agony. I ignored it and wove my spell.

The man had invoked the great elemental Tempest Kingfisher for his magic. And its power was greater than Atra’s, Lia’s, or Lena’s. What would it take to surpass it?

Meanwhile, Stella continued her desperate stand against the whirlwind, defending me. Faced with her unexpected resistance, the man thrust out his right hand.

A third spell?!

“Daughter of the Lady of Ice, stand aside. Otherwise—”

“Save it!” she snapped, with a fury I struggled to imagine coming from her usual gentle self. Crumbling Azure Shields regenerated, their hues shifting from blue to bright white. “Mr. Allen, my magician, won’t lose to the likes of you! He won’t!”

The bracelet on my right wrist flashed, supporting Stella with an infusion of power.

Carina Wainwright is helping her?!

The clouds parted, and a ray of light fell around our saint.

“Even...even if my sword can’t reach you, I can still be Mr. Allen’s shield! A shield to defend my magician! So...so I...”

Lady Stella Howard’s mana surged, and white wings unfurled behind her. She looked every bit the saint and angel. Every last crystal forming her Azure Shields turned to white feathers and started pushing back the whirlwind. Carina’s hairpin blazed with clear light as Stella hurled her resolve against the fallen champion.

“I’ll do my duty!”

For all its immensity, the Star Storm reversed course and rebounded. For just a moment, the man froze. Not even he had seen this coming.

“An angel’s Sacred Shield,” he muttered. “That hairpin was—”

“Mr. Allen! Now!” Stella shouted, victorious.

No sooner had I nodded than the Bibliophage’s forbidden tome materialized, tongue and all. It worked an amplification spell without any input from me.

Thank you!

Borrowing strength from three great elementals—Thunder Fox, Blazing Qilin, and Frigid Crane—I swung down the sacred sword with all my might and cast the greatest spell I could imagine:

“Shooting Stars.”

Meteors tore through space itself, raining down on the vast whirlwind and the fallen champion. Stella’s hairpin and my bracelet shone bright white, pale feathers whirled, and the great spell’s power skyrocketed.

The man’s melancholy gaze met mine. The meteor shower drove through everything. With a shrieking reverberation, inky blackness swallowed our surroundings, and...with a grunt and a cry, Stella and I were hurled into the wreckage of the demolished audience hall.

“Allen, Stella!” Cheryl sent Viola Kokonoe flying with a kick and ringed us with barriers.

“Are you all right?!” Lily left the fray and rushed to our side as well, armed with Ash Blossom and a greatsword.

I expressed my gratitude with my eyes and quickly scanned the battle. Despite injuries, all our allies remained alive and well. But Stella, Tina, Lydia, and I had exhausted our mana and could no longer fight. As for our enemies, the gray spell-soldier lay motionless on the floor, but we hadn’t managed to defeat the apostles or Viola.

Zel stood before what had once been the throne, his robes stained with blood. He moved his lips: “Buddy, that really was something.”

The fallen champion landed at the far end of the hall, having pulled his hood far forward and altered his mana once more. “Withdraw,” he mouthed. “We have accomplished all our objectives.”

A large black flower engulfed the apostles, then vanished.

“So they’ve fled.”

“Get me a report on the damages.”

“Is His Royal Majesty safe?”

The three dukes issued swift orders to the soldiers who piled into the hall, and the headmaster’s and Cheryl’s magic set to work curing all of our wounds. A short way off, Tina leaned on her rod and Lydia on her sword, taking ragged breaths with their eyes closed—the price of forcing a mana link at a distance.

Our saint touched my hand, deathly pale and panting. “Mr. Allen, are you...okay?”

“Yes,” I said. “Thanks to you.”

“Thank goodness.” With a look of heartfelt relief, she slumped toward me.

“Stella!” I scrambled to catch her and checked her respiration.

It’s all right. She’s breathing. Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness.

“H-Huh?”

Maybe my relief was the trigger. A fog blanketed my mind. I couldn’t hold Stella upright. The last things I heard were Tina’s and Lydia’s screams.

“Stella!”

“Allen!”

A moment later, I relinquished my last fingerhold on consciousness.

Epilogue

“Now, is that information accurate, Rodde?”

“Yes, sire, there can be no doubt. At the same time as the assault on the palace, some person or persons breached the sanctuary...and absconded with its core, the sword that the Blue Rose once wielded.”

One night had passed since the apostles’ assault. My father, Jasper Wainwright, who had summoned us all to report to him in this secret palace council room, twisted his exhausted features into a grimace. He muttered only, “Impossible,” then slumped back in his chair and closed his eyes. A pall of gloom fell over the chamber.

We were seven people and one creature. My father had fled the throne room only to join the fighting elsewhere. My brother John had evacuated immediately and was therefore the only uninjured member of our company. Dukes Walter Howard and Liam Leinster had held their own in battle with the vampiress Alicia “Crescent Moon” Coalfield, while Lord Rodde had vanquished the gray spell-soldier single-handedly. Gerhard Gardner had maintained order among the court sorcerers and kept the damage to a minimum. And I, Cheryl Wainwright, had scraped through a fight against Viola Kokonoe with only minor injuries. The white wolf Chiffon lay curled up at my feet today.

Duke Leo Lebufera should have been here, but he was hospitalized with wounds sustained in his fierce clash with Third Apostle Levi Atlas. Acting Duke Gil Algren, who had fought bravely after his teleportation, defeating numerous spell-soldiers alongside the royal guard, was likewise absent due to overwhelming fatigue. My love was not with us either, he and Stella Howard having barely survived an encounter with a man who called himself “Glen Wainwright” and who seemed to be the mastermind behind the church’s activities.

“But Lord Rodde, surely sanctification rendered the former cathedral inaccessible,” I said, shaking off a feeling I could neither endure nor identify. “I thought that only Allen or those with his blessing could pass the briars and flowers?”

A frown creased the old elf’s handsome face, and he nodded. “Precisely so, Your Royal Highness. At least, we believed so. But the stark reality remains that the sword was taken.”

“Owain Albright concluded that a matching pair of swords cut through the thorn hedge,” said Duke Howard.

“The attack on the palace was a diversion,” added Duke Leinster. “Infiltrating the sanctuary must have been their true goal.”

“Twin swords,” I repeated under my breath, suspicion growing within me. If—if—Allen and Stella really had fought the legendary Shooting Star, and if he had consumed a Wainwright who had joined the Sages of the Grand Ducal House of Ashfield, then our enemies bending Heaven’s Sword, Arthur Lothringen, to their will was within the realm of possibility. The guardian of Lalannoy could certainly have carved a path through the briars.

“What on earth do they want?” my father groaned. “Why risk losing valuable apostles just to claim the Blue-Rose Sword? Do you mean to tell me the blade is that valuable?”

The sword, supposed to be an heirloom of our dynasty’s founder, did possess considerable power. The brilliant Princess Carina had wielded it a century ago, when she had lost her love and nearly transformed into an eight-winged devil. Yet the church had suffered serious blows, losing its prime and second apostles in successive battles.

Why would they go to such extremes for one weapon?

I shook my head, chuckling at myself. It was no use. My thoughts refused to fall into any kind of order. Anyway, this sort of thing was Allen’s job and had been since our student days. But considering how easily the enemy had breached our strategic barrier, a secret of the royal house, there could be little doubt that a Wainwright descendant was aiding the church. Whether the wisdom of “Glen Wainwright” was to blame, or whether it was Gerard, I didn’t know.

My father tapped his finger on the arm of his chair. “Gerhard, have you learned anything about the gray spell-soldier that Rodde defeated?”

“My investigation is ongoing. However...” The stone-faced head court sorcerer touched the monocle in his left eye.

Gerhard Gardner, Mr. Cold as Ice himself, hesitating?

Everyone except my brother John gave him questioning looks as he reluctantly continued, “Residual mana suggests that it was created from the former Earl Rupert.”

My father’s finger stopped. Intense confusion and regret entered his gaze. Dukes Walter and Liam and Lord Rodde cupped their chins, probably trying to recall the man, while John and Gerhard kept their faces suspiciously devoid of feeling.

At last, my father said, “You do mean that Rupert?”

“Yes, sire. The man who caused an uproar in the eastern capital more than ten years ago now, and who was subsequently exiled from the kingdom.”

“His is the last name I’d have expected to come up here,” my father sighed. “But then, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Father?” I said, unable to make sense of his reaction.

We already know that they make spell-soldiers out of would-be apostles and knights of the Holy Spirit. In which case...

“Cheryl, ask nothing now,” my father said, halting me before I reached a conclusion. “It involves state secrets.”

“Does it? I see.”

One question keeps leading to another. Would this make any sense to Allen or Lydia if they were here?

“Walter, how is Stella’s condition?” My father abruptly changed the subject, signaling an end to that line of questioning.

“She hasn’t woken since yesterday,” Duke Howard answered quietly. “Her life is in no danger.”

“I see. If she needs anything, you need only name it.”

Stella was one of my few friends, even if she was younger than me, and she had summoned every last drop of her mana to guard Allen. I worried for her. At the same time, I couldn’t deny a twinge of jealousy.

I wanted to protect Allen too! I wanted to fight alongside him!

Chiffon gave a huge yawn. Perhaps the wolf had picked up on my escaping mana.

My father flipped through the report that Allen had thrown himself into compiling after his own fainting spell. “So,” he said, arching an eyebrow, “‘Glen Wainwright’ founded the Church of the Holy Spirit and coveted Shooting Star’s power, but he was beaten at his own game and ‘consumed’ at Blood River. John, are we certain of the name?”

“Yes, father. That is definitely the name of the prince supposed to have been adopted by the Ashfield Sages, one of the eight grand ducal houses, before the age of strife. Whether our assailant is the same person, I cannot say.”

I looked down at the report as well. Based on his manner and his mastery of magic from the age of gods, it seemed probable that Glen had lived for centuries. But had the legendary Shooting Star really devoured him?

My father sank back in his chair and rested his head on one hand. “To make matters worse, he’s also the legendary traveler who walked with Tempest Kingfisher and wields the power of Tenebrous Wolf through the Ashfield connection. I wouldn’t believe a word of it coming from anyone but Allen.”

“The Howards”—Duke Walter, who had been sitting with his arms folded and listening intently, broke his silence—“endorse the judgment of Allen of the eastern capital wolf clan in all matters concerning our war with the Church of the Holy Spirit.”

“As do the Leinsters,” added Duke Liam, with a flash of regret at having been slow off the mark.

“Sire, may I suggest that, should you grant him lands, you do so in the west?” the great elven sorcerer said merrily.

“Rodde?” growled the Wolf of the North.

“No, wait,” pleaded Duke Liam. “I’ll never be able to go home to the southern capital if you push that through.”

The suffocating gloom vanished, and a boisterous commotion filled the room.

Allen has a house name, and now they’re even talking about granting him lands. We could never have imagined it back in our Royal Academy days. But glad as I am, I’m sure the real battle has only just begun!

While I reached down and petted Chiffon’s head, my father posed the head court sorcerer one final question. “What do you say to that, Gerhard?”

“Most would deem it proper to reward distinguished service,” the voice of the aristocratic old guard, who had always staunchly opposed elevating Allen before, answered impassively and fell silent.

He won’t stand in the way, then.

“Chiffon? What is it?”

The white wolf had suddenly raised her head and swiveled her ears. Apparently it had started to snow.

✽

“What?” I said. “You mean Allen and Lydia went to the sanctuary alone?”

“Y-Yes’m, Ms. Caren. They did,” confirmed Ellie Walker.

“I tried to stop them, but they insisted. Our maids are shadowing them to provide indirect protection,” added the Leinsters’ younger daughter, Lynne. The pair had welcomed me into Stella’s room on my return from the Grand Arsenal, and they wore matching sweaters, although in different colors.

“They’re acting like they’re in tip-top shape, when they’re anything but,” I grumbled. Lydia was one thing, but Allen had actually fainted dead away.

He could have at least taken me with him, I mentally added, lowering Anko from my shoulder onto a chair. It looked like the room’s owners, Stella and her sister Tina, were still asleep with the children in their massive bed despite a night of rest. That must have been quite a battle they’d fought.

While I gave my coat to Ellie, my bespectacled friend looked up from the papers she’d been studying and waved to me from the couch. “Good to see you back, Caren.” Like Ellie and Lynne, she wore a sweater, so her chest protruded more noticeably than usual.

“And I’m glad you weren’t hurt, Felicia,” I said. She had been in the palace to deliver Allen’s and Stella’s outfits and had gotten caught up in the fighting, but the Howard and Leinster maids, along with Anko, had seen her through without a scratch.

Someone plucked the floral beret off my head and slipped their arms around me from behind. “Don’t worry, Caren. The area around the sanctuary is secure. There’s no chance of a major incursion like yesterday’s.”

“Lily,” I murmured. “Thanks.”

I’d heard that the scarlet-haired maid had crossed blades with the dhampir Fourth Apostle Zelbert Régnier. She was a lady who took her duties seriously deep down, even if she spent most of her time clowning. Of course, I still wanted to insist that she cease reminding me I could “call her big sis if I wanted,” a bad habit she had picked up since we’d gotten back from the northern capital.

“Anyway, I’m glad you’re all safe.” I let out a sigh of relief, still wrapped in Lily’s arms. “To be honest, I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I heard the news at the arsenal. I’m dying to ask what really happened, when I can.”

All of our eyes turned to the bed.

I slipped out of Lily’s hug and patted Ellie on the head, setting her blonde hair and white ribbons swaying. “It looks like they overdid it even more than usual, so we’d better let them sleep until they wake up on their own. Something tells me that will be this afternoon.”

“Yes’m.” The young maid nodded.

“They’re all out like a light,” Lily agreed, pressing her hands together.

“Caren, give me a hand with this paperwork,” whined my work-addicted friend.

Felicia, do I need to have words with you?

“I won’t stand for it,” muttered the red-haired young noblewoman, staring at the floor. We turned to her, and she gripped her sleeves, insistent as a spoiled child. “Why won’t my dear brother link mana with me?!”

I reflexively cast a silencing spell.

Honestly. Is that all?

“Pipe down, Lynne,” I replied.

“L-Lady Lynne, you’ll wake Lady Tina and Lady Stella,” added Ellie.

The Little Lady of Fire gave me a resentful stare, one lock of her hair standing to attention. “Anyone can see that you are both my rivals in this matter! Wouldn’t you agree, Lily? And you too, Felicia!”

That’s probably not a smart move, Lynne.

Ellie and I looked on with sympathy as the older maid raised a teapot and poured amber liquid into cups. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Allen did give me this hair clip, and we do have matching bracelets and formulae.”

“Wh-What?!” Lynne must not have seen her cousin’s betrayal coming. She reeled and turned to the bespectacled girl busy signing papers for support. “W-Well, what do you say, Felicia?”

Felicia’s pen stopped. “I mean, I’m a businesswoman, not a sorceress. And I got to sew his robes, so”—she beamed—“I’d say I’m satisfied.”

Lynne teetered, unsteady on her feet, and flung herself onto a couch. “Oh, dear brother,” she half sobbed, “how could you?!”

A flustered Ellie made a futile attempt to comfort her by saying, “L-Lady Lynne, please don’t cry. I’m c-certain Mr. Allen has his reasons.” The older maid resumed preparing tea, Felicia started on her next document, and I took a seat by a window. Was it me, or had the snow picked up a little since I’d last looked?

“Are they going to be all right?” I murmured to myself.

In the bed, the children’s ears and feathers twitched.

✽

The cathedral, an inviolable sanctuary until the day before, had been reduced to a miserable sight. Walls had crumbled, and shredded briars lay everywhere. Scattered snow and withered petals carpeted the floor.

It’s even worse than I imagined, I thought, raising my umbrella and looking upward.

“Allen,” Lydia demanded from beside me, eyes upturned. She wore an army cloak over sword-fighting clothes and had tied her scarlet tresses in a loose ponytail. Although she had wound my scarf around her neck, she had forgone gloves in order to more swiftly draw Cresset Fox from its scabbard at her side.

“Shall we hold hands?” I asked.

“Mm-hmm.”

I took her hand. It was cold. I slowly warmed it with a temperature-control spell as we advanced into the heart of the once sacred place. The dusting of snow crunched with each step.

Just shy of the center lay a few dozen thorny vines thicker than any we’d seen thus far. The Lady of the Sword extended her right hand and felt the cuts.

“A single blow from a pair of swords, as Owain thought,” she pronounced. “A master stroke.”

“And there’s no mistaking this mana. It was him—Arthur Lothringen,” I said, recalling the jovial champion we had fought alongside in Lalannoy.

How will I explain this to Lady Elna, now that she’s apparently woken up?

Something of the sacred still lingered in the cathedral’s center, but its core, the Blue-Rose Sword, was gone.

“They risked losing apostles—valuable game pieces they’re already running low on—to take the sword by brute force,” I said, trying to follow our enemies’ reasoning. “Did they need a replacement for North Star after they lost it in Shiki?”

“That would explain things neatly,” said Lydia. “It would also mean their backs are against the wall, and they’re resorting to desperate measures.”

If Glen’s words were to be believed, Prime Apostle Aster Etherfield had met his end in the northlands. Our enemies weren’t finding this war a walk in the park any more than we were.

“What do you say we head back?” I suggested, satisfied. “Something tells me Caren is in a temper.”

“I’d like to stop for something hot on the way home.”

“Then let’s swing by the café with the sky-blue roof for— Hmm?”

Something glinted beneath the lone gray flower in the heart of the ruined sanctuary.

An old pendant. No mana that I can sense. Maybe someone visiting the cathedral dropped it?

I bent to pick it up—and a blast of ashen wind roared up from behind me, abruptly depriving me of sight. My left hand shot up to shield my eyes, and...

“Huh?”

A diminutive girl stood before me, clad in hooded robes of purest white. She held the old pendant, and a profusion of gray flowers bloomed around her.

The church’s false Saint?! Did she use the same magic I saw in Shiki to trap me alone in this space with her? But without a medium or catalyst, how could she— Is that why Zel fell back as soon as he’d dealt that first blow in the palace?

The corners of the girl’s mouth rose as she removed her hood. “I’ve waited an eternity for this time—this fleeting moment when I can be alone with you.”

Her long ashen hair unfurled, and a vast dark shadow writhed at her feet. To my shock, beast ears crowned her head, and a bushy tail hung behind her, both the same shade as her hair. Her eyes turned crimson, and the mark of the great elemental Stone Serpent appeared on her cheek and the back of her right hand. There stood a dear departed fox-clan girl I could never forget, albeit older than I remembered her.

I stammered, “Atra?”

“No, my Allen. I’m not my sister,” she laughed without affectation.

My feelings urged nostalgic fondness. My reason told me something was amiss. And my intuition was sounding an earsplitting alarm. The ring and bracelet showed no reaction, and I couldn’t summon Silver Bloom.

“Who on earth—”

“Really, you know, I don’t want to hurt you,” the girl interrupted. “But that wimpy wolf wants to make you a sacrifice, so...”

She vanished. Words failed me. Not only had she closed the distance between us in an instant, but she had dispelled all my magic as well.

In her right hand, the girl who looked like a grown-up Atra raised a blade reminiscent of the black dragon’s fangs, bloodred and ash gray. “Sorry, but would you take a little nap? I’ll make sure everything is over and done with by the time you wake up.”

It’s hopeless. I can’t dodge.

The blade seemed to bear down on me with deliberate slowness. And then...

“Allen!”

Lydia forced herself between us like a scarlet wind, empty-handed. The blood-ash blade plunged into her.

The ashen-haired girl, thwarted in the moment of triumph, dropped her newly bloodstained weapon and leapt back, screaming her naked hate.

“Lydia Leinsteeer!”

Lydia’s face went white as snow, a mask of heroic effort, yet she did not fall. “You can’t...fool me, you sham saint.”

Before the girl could yell a retort, Lydia’s flames swept over everything, and the space collapsed entirely. The false Saint with Atra’s face vanished, and the world around us reverted to the snowy ruined cathedral. Thrust in the ground at its center stood Cresset Fox.

Of course. Lydia used the sword to re-create a pseudo-sanctuary to pursue the false Saint and...

While my mind whirled, the albatross around my neck who had just saved my life turned...

“Lydia!”

And toppled as her strength gave out. My body finally unfroze in time to catch her.

The wound ran deep. I cradled Lydia, constantly multi-casting healing spells for all I was worth, but her mana kept fading. It was like...like she was falling into a long sleep.

She brushed my cheek with a trembling hand slick with blood. “You’re all right? You aren’t hurt?”

“No. I’m fine,” I told her.

“Good. If you’re safe, that’s enough for me. That’s all I...need...” Lydia Leinster, the Lady of the Sword and my partner—inseparable whether I liked it or not—mumbled sleepily and closed her eyes. The feathers of white flame that had been dancing through the air started to fade.

Amid the falling snow, I heard my own wordless scream from somewhere far away.

Afterword

Riku Nanano here. It’s been three months. Let’s hear it for keeping a publication schedule! I sacrificed a few years off my life to do it, but oh well. I’m sure that’s just how it goes in this business. Then again, I still have a hard time thinking of myself as a “light novel author.”

The next volume will be volume twenty! It feels like volume one came out ages ago, and also like it happened just the other day.

This novel is based on my ongoing serialized story on the web novel site Kakuyomu, with revisions. As long as one word or detail remains, it counts as a revision.

Now, on to the story. As with the previous volume, a different girl was originally slated for the cover. I even thought someone new might be nice, like Alice or Lindsey. But Saint Wolf silenced all challengers and became the last one praying when the dust settled. She’s a real contender, practically unstoppable. She even forced me to revise and expand every scene she’s in. I think she’s the reason this volume went to a higher page count for the first time since volume sixteen. Yes, it was all her fault.

What? You want me to make cuts? I already do, every volume. I always write too much.

Announcement time. The official website for the Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter anime now features an all-new short story. The accompanying illustration, by cura, is a real treat, so I hope you’ll check it out.

I’d like to thank all the people who helped me:

My editor. I know I must have been a real nuisance to work with this volume, but I sincerely hope you’ll help me keep pace again next time.

The illustrator, cura. I exclaimed out loud when I got the cover illustration. Hats off to you, sir.

And all of you who have read this far. I can’t thank you enough, and I look forward to seeing you again. Next volume—the final key.

Riku Nanano