The Summer Palace in the heart of the imperial city.

Surrounded by a small forest, this particularly cool place also welcomed autumn without fail. The rich trees surrounding two lakes were slowly turning red and yellow where the sun touched.

A man, who was appreciating this sight from within the palace, muttered quietly.

“The autumn leaves are early this year.”

With bright silver hair and blue eyes, he looked to be around thirty, bearing a beautiful appearance.

However, his eyes were not the same. His eyes looked extremely dry, not matching the bountiful autumn.

As he turned his head, those in the room seemed to have been waiting, and bowed their heads.

Lionel Fezzan Marcia.

The Emperor of the Marcia Empire and at 53 years old, had been ruling this Empire for over 30 years. He passed over a taciturn knight and a couple of nobles and slowly turned his head.

In this place, there was only one woman who didn’t bow her head.

“Illien.”

His only daughter, Illien.

But Illien’s eyes were dull, devoid of focus. The Emperor, after gazing into her eyes for a moment, played with the ruby necklace in his hand and asked.

“It seems the effect of suggestion have improved… Did you clear out some of the miscellaneous copies?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I have mostly cleared them and left only a couple.”

“Good, I told you not to make many. If you recklessly produce something that can be replicated, when it’s actually needed, it might lack power…”

He returned the necklace to the middle-aged man, Marquis Lycaon, who had his head bowed, and continued speaking.

“Don’t mess up.”

“…I apologize, Your Majesty.”

“No, it’s good you realized now. Now, leave. I need to have a conversation with my daughter.”

Everyone hurriedly left the room.

The Emperor, approaching the seated princess, knelt to match her eye level and spoke.

“Now, Illien. Since everyone else is gone, you can speak. Last time I told you what you were curious about, now it’s your turn to share what you know, right?”

“What I know…”

“Yes.”

Due to the side effects of using the necklace of suggestion hundreds of times, Illien’s brain function had severely deteriorated. It was inevitable as it suppressed her ego and forcibly altered the flow of her thoughts with magic.

The Emperor waited patiently.

And finally.

“As you wished… on the last day of the banquet, the sky will open. The world will plunge into chaos, many will die, but great beings will connect with this land.”

“Good. Just as they said.”

The Emperor, nodding his head, gently stroked Illien’s hair and warned.

“If any of the great beings approach you, reject them. Do nothing. Understand?”

“Yes, Father.”

“Good. If you behave well, I’ll visit again soon.”

After hearing her prophecy, the Emperor left the room without any reluctance. Illien, who had been sitting quietly for a while, suddenly looked out the window.

“…”

There was something she hadn’t said because her father didn’t ask.

The sky, clear without a single cloud.

Numerous holes piercing through that sky, and the mysterious monsters pouring out from there.

And the blue flames burning all those monsters without exception.

* * *

The three weeks passed quickly.

The Month of Abundance Banquet was an important event that every noble usually attended, and Count Aper, who was the imperial aide as the head of the family, was no exception.

Therefore, Rosha and her two brothers were heading to the capital, seated side by side in a carriage.

Rattling rattling-

The carriage ran smoothly on the road.

For two days on the way to the capital, there were many unpaved roads, but as they entered the last day of the journey, the road gradually became cleaner.

‘Well, it’s still not comparable to asphalt.’

Rosha, watching the trees swiftly passing by through the window, soon turned her head and looked at Cedric sitting opposite her.

With golden hair like thin strands of honey and an elite, intellectual atmosphere. His calm, green eyes quickly scanned through the documents in his hand.

Originally, she would have thought Cedric was cool, but now that she knew about his suspicious side, she didn’t feel the same way. She felt a strange tension thinking that he was hiding something.

Under her gaze, Cedric stopped reading the documents and looked up.

“Bored?”

“Um… a little.”

Cedric, who was six years older than Rosha, looked at her with kindness dripping from his eyes.

He put down the documents and continued the conversation with an interested expression.

“It seems you’ve endured the carriage ride pretty well, looks like your stamina has improved. Is it manageable to run around the training ground?”

“It’s still tough. But it’s much better than the first day.”

Initially, she used to walk around after running three laps, but now she could run about six laps without resting. It seemed like Marian was slowly starting to teach her swordsmanship.

“It’s good that you’re improving. I never knew you were interested in physical training…”

“I just decided on a whim. Marian is cool, isn’t she?”

“…Well, it’s rare to find someone with such a strong will.”

Whether or not Cedric realized Rosha’s vague response, he softened his green eyes and spoke gently.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to pay attention to you these days. I should have visited our youngest in the training ground at least once… There was a lot to handle. Right after we arrive in the capital today, I have to briefly visit the palace.”

“Ha, you should have gone ahead if you were so busy. It’s not ordinary busy for an imperial aide who has the Emperor’s trust,” sitting upright, Cassis retorted sharply.

He always had a displeasure toward Cedric who harbored grudges against the imperial family.

Although the current Emperor was praised for his competence, it was for different reasons that Cassis found it distasteful.

At Cassis’s words, Cedric answered calmly without getting angry.

“I wanted to see you all, that’s why. I’ve been going back and forth to the capital, so I’m only home for less than half the year. Even recently, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t seen you much. If not now, when will I see you again?”

“…Hmph.”

“Don’t keep doing that. It gets disappointing when you act all snippy.”

Cedric smiled as if troubled.

However, the reason for Cassis’s attitude was because Cedric was hiding a lot.

Even the documents he was reading indicated so.

‘Just a glimpse, and the words ‘Necklace ofSuggestion’ were visible, it seems uncle finally confessed his misdeeds to Cedric.’

Rosha had already received the information from her uncle.

Moreover, she made sure to keep her power a secret from her uncle, so the information was quite filtered.

By now, the uncle probably quietly packed his bags with his subordinates and left the residence.

“…”

Starting from uncle’s misdeeds to the princess’s prophecy, the battle in the last rift, the special ability Cassis gained then, and the trials that would follow.

Despite having casual conversations, everyone on this carriage had something to hide from each other.

To achieve her goals, she needed to gradually find out what it was…

Nevertheless, this moment of facing each other was very precious to her. Because she knew that there will hardly be any leisure for such in the future.

“Ah. We’ve already arrived while we were talking.”

Suddenly hearing Cedric’s words, Rosha turned her head and looked out of the window.

Gradually the red walls enclosing the Empire’s capital were getting closer.

The capital of Marcia Empire, Baler.

The scenery of the capital under the full fall was very beautiful even from afar, but Rosha was staring not at the city, but at the sky above it.

The smile on her lips naturally faded away.

Kwaaaaaaaa-

There, a massive amount of magic power that couldn’t be found anywhere else in this world so far was swirling heavily.