“Because of this incident, the Zodiacs’ doubts have grown even deeper.”
“The god they truly believed in took over their own bodies. That shock would not be small.”
Almost every Zodiac possessed divine power. The only real exception was Ospreet.
Looked at another way, that made very clear just how much weight divine power occupied in a human’s strength.
Now the Zodiacs understood. Receiving divine power meant they were giving their bodies over to a god at any time.
They were saying they would accept it even if, when they woke again after being possessed by a god and losing consciousness, one of their limbs was gone.
If so, could they accept that?
If they could not accept it, could they throw away their divine power?
“......Aster Evans. You know that name, Bartello?”
“Of course.”
“When he faced the Minotaur, he is said to have abandoned his own divine power.”
At that, something flashed in Bartello’s eyes.
“He gave up his divine power at such a dangerous moment? That’s quite a bold decision. Did he realize something?”
“In the end, it was because of that choice that he was able to fell the Minotaur, so we must call it the right decision.”
Philly, too, had many questions about what had happened back then.
How had Aster been able to kill the Minotaur?
No, why had Aster chosen to discard his divine power at that time?
No one had ever heard of divine power becoming a hindrance.
But Aster had known. No, he had felt it.
That to defeat the Minotaur, he had to leave Baldur’s embrace.
“However, even after Aster defeated the Minotaur, the Zodiacs did not abandon their divine power. They couldn’t find any causal link.”
“They all believe that if Aster still had Baldur’s divine power, he would be even stronger than he is now.”
They did not know. Only Frondier knew what Aster’s end had been like, leaning on Baldur’s divine power.
Even Frondier had never arrived at the idea that divine power must instead be cast off. If he had known, he would already have broken through that point in the game.
And it was not merely an issue of throwing divine power away.
“Still, doubts have arisen. And those doubts are now nearing something like conviction.”
“That the gods do not grant us unconditional grace. That thought is becoming firm.”
It was not just Philly and Bartello.
Within the imperial palace, and among many in the Empire, people could feel that the air had changed.
“The Empire is changing, Bartello.”
“It’s a frightening thing.”
There was worry in Bartello’s voice. When Philly looked at him, he continued.
“We know this is the right direction. But the question is how much blood the Empire will shed while it walks that path. That’s what I fear.”
“......If we had only gone on living relying on the gods, the Empire would already have been burned away in the war with Manggot.”
“The gods would never admit that.”
The Empire was surely shaking. Perhaps it was like removing the hand that had been covering the sky, or like breaking out of a shell—some kind of birth pangs.
But if those pains were too intense, and the Empire were to be broken before it could hatch—
Could the Empire endure these pains and rise again? That was what worried Bartello.
‘Frondier......’
All the more at times like this, he thought of that boy.
The boy barely past twenty who had stopped a war.
Frondier, who had been hailed as a hero and then fallen as a demon, who had stepped back of his own accord to stop the Empire’s conflict.
“We drove out too much.”
Philly’s voice came then. Bartello looked at her.
“You were thinking the same thing, I see.”
“That’s no coincidence.”
Philly shook her head.
“I’m always thinking about that child.”
Philly thought of Frondier at all times—because of the regret and affection she bore him, because of the news that reached her from moment to moment, and because of her own foresight. Her feelings were like those of a mother watching her son.
So if Bartello was thinking of Frondier, it was only natural his thoughts would align with Philly’s.
“More than I thought has been hollowed out of the Empire.”
Sending Frondier away from the Empire had not meant sending away only him.
Surely far more than that had flowed out of the Empire along with him.
And now they could not even say what all of it was, could not retrieve or regain any of it.
“I still believe that someday, Frondier will come. Malia said so too.”
Malia had made two promises with Frondier.
That she would not be wounded, and that the citizens of the Empire would offer Frondier a sincere apology.
Those two promises began from a single premise.
The premise that there would come a day when Frondier returned to the Empire.
“I just hope the Empire calms down a little before that day comes.”
Philly let out a sigh.
After the war with Manggot, the Empire had unquestionably defeated the great force that threatened them.
The monsters’ assaults were still dangerous, but the Empire had succeeded in reclaiming many territories, including the routes that continued on toward Manggot.
Yet somehow, the Empire now seemed more turbulent than it had before the war with Manggot.
“And I hope the Zodiacs come to their senses soon.”
Even now, with Ludovic missing since crossing the continent, one seat stood empty.
Of course, even before that, Ludovic had been so tormented by guilt that he had practically abandoned his duties, but still, there was a big difference between his existing in that role and his not existing at all.
Bartello asked,
“You said most of the Zodiacs haven’t been able to snap out of the shock. Whose case is the worst?”
At that question, Philly’s eyes sank sadly.
***
The northeast region, Teivon.
A place that always met the cold, regardless of season.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
Hector Dutoit, the “White Lion,” strode hard enough to seem like he would smash the floor.
The butler hurried to keep pace beside him and spoke.
“L-lord Head of House ordered that no one be allowed to approach today—”
“Say it properly.”
Hector glared at the butler like he might kill him at any second.
“When the old man wasn’t around, you lot didn’t hesitate to chant ‘Head of House, Head of House’ at me, and now that old geezer shows up, you just swap out your Head of House?”
“T-that’s not it, my lord......”
“I’m the lord of Teivon. Who in here dares give me orders?”
──Chzzk!
A strange spark jumped at the corner of Hector’s eye. The butler’s eyes went wide at the sight.
‘D-did he just use magic? No, that can’t be......’
Hector was a magic swordsman, but even so, he usually needed long incantations to use magic.
Then what had that sound just been......?
Thud, thud, thud!
“Ah! P-please hold on a moment, my lord!!”
While the butler froze for an instant, Hector moved forward before he could be stopped.
Clack, clack.
Hector arrived in front of a certain room, grabbed the doorknob, and shook it. It was locked.
Bang!
So Hector opened it by force.
“Get up. How long do you plan to do nothing but drink?”
“......Hector.”
In the middle of the room, a man was half-collapsed over a table, raising only his head a little. The drink in his one hand—or rather, hanging from it—was spinning in circles.
“What is it. Didn’t you hear my order? I told everyone not to come in......”
“Go back to the imperial palace. Now.”
Hector cut off Ridwi’s words as he spoke.
Ridwi glared at Hector with a flushed face.
“You brat, how dare you speak to your lord like—”
“I’m the lord. Did you go senile at the imperial palace or something?”
Ridwi had entrusted all authority to Hector and left. That was how he became a Zodiac, and Hector became the lord of Teivon.
“I delegated it to you, that’s all. How dare you talk like—”
“Ridwi, look at yourself right now.”
There was a speck of pity in Hector’s cold voice.
He had heard the story as well. That most of the Zodiacs had been possessed by the gods.
The Zodiacs had been thrown into confusion by the unforeseen situation, and the citizens’ opinions were split.
If it had been done by the gods, then surely there was some intent in it. Or else, even for gods, how could they do such a thing?
Those who affirmed the possession were idiots who knew nothing of thinking for themselves, and those who denied it were heretics betraying the will of the gods, and the two sides tore into each other.
Yet unlike the other Zodiacs, who were merely somewhat shaken, Ridwi’s current state was very strange.
“Ridwi von Urpa.”
Calling Ridwi by name, Hector sat down across from him.
“Where did you go when you were possessed?”
“.......”
“You’re the only one with no eyewitness reports. When the others who were possessed headed for Agoris, you alone did not.”
After being released from his possession, Ridwi had come straight here. And for days, he had done nothing but drink.
Finding that odd, Hector had investigated and discovered something strange.
“And you said you came here straight from the capital, as soon as the possession ended.”
Suspicion sharpened Hector’s gaze as he looked at Ridwi, as if he could bore a hole through him. Looked at that way, he almost seemed like he could.
“You were too fast.”
“.......”
“Without carriage, without horse, without even using magic, from the imperial palace all the way here. Even at top speed, it takes five days. At first I thought you had taken that long, but it turns out the time your possession ended pretty much matches the others. I don’t see you as someone whose possession would have been broken any earlier than theirs.”
“.......”
“Calculated that way, you came here in half a day.”
Magic left traces. Flying spells left even more mana residue behind.
When Hector confirmed that they had found no traces, a very peculiar feeling came over him.
Why had Ridwi not used a flying spell?
Without flying magic, how had he arrived here from the capital in half a day?
The answer that came out was only one.
“Ridwi. You didn’t come from the capital, did you?”
“......Hector, stop.”
“From where did you come here?”
“I told you to stop.”
“What did you go through that you ran away here like this? You didn’t use flying magic because you were worried you’d be tracked, right? And you started drinking as soon as you got here to try and forget it.”
“Hector!!”
Boom─
The weight in the room surged upward. The butler, who had followed in by accident, clapped a hand over his mouth and staggered backward. Only after he had barely made it out of the room and hurried away did Hector speak again.
“Ridwi, you told me once. That whether I liked it or not, I was your son.”
“.......”
“I don’t particularly sympathize with that, but you were the one who said it first, so let me just ask you one thing. Once I know the answer, I’ll leave you alone. I won’t care if you drink however many bottles you want or drown in a barrel.”
“......What is it.”
“What you went through.”
Hector’s eyes twisted.
“Is it something I don’t have to know?”
Even as he said that, discomfort clung to Hector’s throat.
Ridwi von Urpa, living drowned in drink. Because he was terrified. It was very hard to believe.
What kind of man was Ridwi? Even if someone told him the world would end tomorrow, he’d say, “What now? Then I’ll just stretch out my legs and sleep here, won’t I?” That was the kind of man he was.
Ridwi was a Zodiac, the great mage who had protected this Empire in the monster war of the distant past—
And Hector’s father.
“.......”
“......Fine. Got it. If it looks like you’re about to drink yourself to death, let me know. I’ll be out picking a burial plot.”
Hector stood up.
If Ridwi would not speak, then he would have to find out himself.
Ridwi had ended up like this. It wasn’t something they could just gloss over as if nothing had happened simply because he refused to say anything.
The distance a human could travel in half a day without magic or any means of transport. It was wide, but not so wide that he couldn’t find it if he gritted his teeth. Not if he deployed every man he could use under his authority as lord.
“......Hector.”
“What.”
“I didn’t go through anything.”
“Sure you didn’t. Just drink. I said I’m done caring.”
As Hector walked away, Ridwi’s voice came from behind him.
“I didn’t go through it.”
He spoke.
In a trembling voice.
It was a tone Hector had never heard before, and it made his steps stop.
“I saw it.”
“......What?”
When Hector turned back,
“When I woke up, I was.”
Ridwi was shaking.
From his fingertips to the skin around his eyes. Every shadow belonging to Ridwi that Hector could see was trembling.
“Looking at a tree.”
“A tree?”
“Its roots swallowed everything in the world, and its flowers breathed everything back out into the world. But the two of them were different worlds.”
“......What, no, what are you even talking about?”
“There were humans there. Rotting flesh, crushed bones, dried blood piled up. Even when I lifted my head as high as it would go, I couldn’t see above it. It felt like a very, very long time had passed.”
“I’m telling you, I don’t understand a word of this. Try explaining it so I can at least make sense of it.”
“Yggdrasil.”
Ridwi looked at Hector. His gaze was turned toward him. His eyes reached Hector. He was looking at Hector.
“There, the word Yggdrasil was written. Hector, I knew what it was. There was no way for me to know it, and yet I did.”
“.......”
Hector understood almost none of what Ridwi was saying.
Yet even without understanding the content, something crawled along his nape and beneath his ears.
An army of ants, ten thousand ants, from his feet all the way up to just under his eyes already—
“Hector, find Frondier.”
“Why, why?”
“I didn’t see all of it. And now, even if I did see it, it would be meaningless.”
“Why can’t you read it?”
“It was written in the ancient language.”
“......!”
“You have to find him and figure out what it means.”
