Encountering the Ashes
The southern tower was not as far as I had expected.
It should not have been far at all.
Yet the stone floor under my feet changed several times over, and the corridors I brushed past blurred into the same muted color as I ran in a breathless frenzy.
The princess led the way.
Knights cleared a path for her, and the lady followed hard on her heels.
I nearly ran to keep up, but my breathing turned ragged first.
“Lord Elberhart.”
The lady spoke low at my side.
“It would be troublesome if you collapsed now.”
“I know. I know, but…”
Even as I said it, the wound on my palm throbbed in time with my pulse.
The flesh beneath the bandage burned hot.
When we reached the entrance to the southern tower, two knights were already standing guard.
“Your Highness!”
The princess did not slow her stride as she asked,
“Who went inside?”
A knight answered in haste.
“Just a moment ago, someone carrying a viewing permit stamped with the Records Office seal went up the stairs. We tried to stop them, but while we were going through the verification process—”
The princess’s eyes went cold.
“—Why did you simply let them through?”
The knight’s face stiffened.
“I-I beg your pardon.”
It was at that exact moment.
From an upper floor inside the tower came a very brief sound of something shattering.
Clang.
The sound of a thin metal plate being forcibly torn free.
The princess spoke at once.
“We go up.”
The stairs of the southern tower were narrow and steep.
The old stone steps showed little sign of regular traffic.
Along with the smell of dust, a faint, familiar scent drifted down.
The scent of paper.
In other words, the document-preservation incense of the Records Office.
And beneath it, the smell of burning.
I nearly stopped halfway up the stairs.
“Your Highness.”
The princess looked back.
“…I smell smoke.”
She raised a hand at once and halted the knights.
“Only two knights as far as the door on the upper floor. The rest stay below. They may try to jump from above.”
The lady added shortly,
“There are windows. It would be best to seal the northern railing as well.”
The princess nodded.
We climbed the remaining floors almost without pause.
The corridor on the top floor of the tower was wider than expected.
It had once stored old documents and blueprints, to judge by the low iron doors set into the walls on either side.
The problem was the room at the far end.
Pale smoke was seeping out from under the door.
The princess said quietly,
“We’re late.”
I shook my head.
“It hasn’t all burned yet.”
I did not know where the certainty came from.
Only that the mana beyond the door had not gone completely dead.
If the flames had already swallowed everything, the space would have felt hollow. Instead, something inside was still moving in hurried agitation.
The princess jerked her chin at a knight.
“The door.”
Bang.
Once.
Bang!
On the second blow the iron door slammed inward.
Hot smoke billowed out, revealing the room beyond.
It was a small document chamber.
A desk, a few document chests.
And in the center, an open incineration brazier.
Someone in white gloves stood before it.
Their face was half-covered by black cloth, and over the gray coat of the Records Office they wore a dark cloak.
For a brief instant the figure looked as startled by us as we were by them.
Golden mana flared at the princess’s fingertips.
“Stop.”
But the other did not stop.
Instead they kicked the brazier and stepped back.
Red sparks scattered across the document-room floor, and a folded bundle of papers caught flame in an instant.
The lady moved first.
Blue-white mana raced across the floor and cut off the fire’s advance.
The burning flames stiffened as if striking a frost-rimed wall.
In that same breath the princess’s golden line shot toward the white-gloved wrist.
Flash.
A sharp light sliced past.
But the figure twisted their body in a fraction of a second and dodged.
A corner of the black cloth was sheared away and fluttered to the floor.
I held my breath.
Fast.
One knight charged in, yet the figure snatched a small vial from the desk and flung it to the floor.
Crash.
The glass shattered, and the black liquid inside spread like smoke.
A black film, reminiscent of the residue I had seen in the barrier chamber the night before, crawled across the floor and clouded our vision.
“Back!”
My voice cracked out, and the princess and the lady reacted as one.
The princess floated several thin golden threads into the air and stabbed the edges of the black film; the lady froze the floor beneath it, binding its movement.
The figure did not waste that single instant of opening.
They kicked open a small side door at the rear of the document room and dove through.
“After them!”
Two knights gave chase, but a curse-laced shout soon erupted.
“It’s a ladder!”
I pushed through the smoke to the side door.
Beyond it, an emergency iron ladder clung to the outer wall of the tower, descending.
Looking down, I saw a flap of cloak already brushing the railing two floors below.
The princess raised her hand.
Golden mana lanced straight downward.
But the figure twisted aside, barely avoiding it, and vanished as if flinging themselves over the railing.
The lady said quietly,
“We lost them.”
The princess’s expression did not change.
Only the gold light gathering on the back of her hand grew a fraction sharper than usual.
“…It isn’t over yet. We sealed the lower levels, so they will be intercepted.”
One knight immediately drew out a communication magic tool.
I stopped watching the escape route and surveyed the document room instead.
The lady had suppressed most of the flames, but whatever had gone into the brazier was already half-consumed.
Several ledgers lay scattered across the desk, and two document chests on the wall shelves stood empty.
And on the innermost desk, one sheet of paper still lay open, untouched by fire.
I went to it by instinct.
The princess asked from behind me,
“Is something left?”
The paper was a list of barrier relay lines arranged in table form.
Not the interior of the imperial palace, but the northeastern border region.
My gaze stopped at the bottom line.
The third relay barrier line near the Elberhart territory.
My breath caught for a moment.
The lady saw it almost at once.
“…Your Highness.”
The princess came to stand beside me.
Dates and correction cycles were written on the paper, along with a very brief memo.
[1st: Confirm resonance within the imperial palace]
[2nd: Synchronization test for northeastern third line]
[3rd: Expandable upon occurrence of a gap]
The princess’s eyes settled into a cold stillness.
“So the palace was merely a rehearsal.”
I felt my fingertips go cold.
This had never been about shaking a single palace barrier.
From the beginning they had placed the palace and the border on the same line.
And right in the middle of that border lay my territory.
The lady said low,
“That is why they needed Lord Elberhart’s defense records.”
“No. Not the defense records of Elberhart—they were after the structure of the barrier line itself.”
I turned the lower edge of the paper further.
Another scrap, just short of catching fire, was tucked there.
A short roster and a signature were written on it.
Deputy Preservation Officer of the Calibration Office, Edgar Roen.
Approval signature as temporary viewing-permit holder of the Records Office.
The instant I read the name, the forged signatures I had seen in the archives overlapped in my mind.
Pressure of the pen. Stroke order. Points of emphasis.
Identical.
“Your Highness.”
My voice came out lower than I expected.
“This is the one.”
The princess took the paper.
Her fingertip paused briefly over the name Edgar Roen.
“You’re certain?”
“The same hand as the false signatures left in the ledgers.”
The lady gave a short nod as well.
“Moreover, as Deputy Preservation Officer he can set foot in Records Office files, barrier records, and chemical inventories alike.”
The princess was silent for a time.
From outside came the shouts of knights—someone had been lost, and orders to seal the northern railing.
Yet strangely, the document room itself was quiet.
Half-burned paper, and a barrier list aimed not at the palace but at the border.
The pieces had fallen into place, yet I felt no satisfaction at all.
The princess spoke slowly.
“The situation is clear. So the first trail ends here.”
I lifted my gaze.
“Ends?”
“We have learned who threw open the palace gates.”
Her eyes glinted, thin and sharp.
“What remains is to see how far those gates lead.”
The lady gathered the half-burned list as she said,
“And the northeastern third line.”
I looked again at the mark on the paper that read “near Elberhart territory.”
A chill settled deep in my chest.
What was coming had finally arrived.
The collapse of the palace barrier was only the beginning.
The princess turned to me.
“Lord Elberhart.”
“…Yes.”
“It is no longer a matter of fleeing the capital. It has become a matter of returning to defend your territory.”
It was an unwelcome statement.
Yet I could not deny it.
The lady added shortly,
“We will not leave you to go alone.”
I looked from one woman to the other.
One was cold, the other dry and expressionless.
Both were difficult to trust, yet at least they were looking down the same road I was.
A knight hurried in from outside.
“Your Highness! We found a scrap of cloak beneath the northern railing. But we lost the person themselves.”
The princess showed no surprise.
“I expected nothing less, so it doesn’t matter.”
She folded the documents in her hand.
“We already found what we needed first.”
Inside the windowless document room, a final thin thread of smoke rose from the dying brazier.
It was certain now.
What had begun inside the imperial palace would, in the end, spread to my territory.