Outside Air
Even as we left the imperial palace, the weather never cleared.
Past noon, the ashen clouds still hung heavy over the walls, refusing to lift. Every time the carriage wheels and horses’ hooves rang against the stone, eyes from afar turned our way all at once.
I had expected it, but a quiet departure was impossible after all.
The Imperial Knights. The retinue of the northern House Rubenheim. And sandwiched between those two lavish groups, one bandaged noble. That combination was more than enough to draw every gaze.
Anyone watching might think we were deliberately seeking attention.
I pulled on the reins and lifted my head. The princess’s carriage was not particularly ornate, yet the imperial crest alone made it stand out. The young lady had chosen a horse instead of a carriage, and the silver-blue hair peeking from her dark cloak caught the eye coldly even under the dim light.
Just before the carriage door closed, the princess looked at me once.
“Sir Elberhart.”
I bowed my head at once.
“Yes, Your Highness. Please speak.”
“Once we leave the capital, you are the guide. Do not forget that.”
“If Your Highness finds my guidance trustworthy, I shall gladly serve.”
The princess’s mouth twitched ever so slightly.
“At least more trustworthy than that wreck of a body of yours, I should think.”
The door closed.
One of the knights who overheard glanced my way briefly, then looked away. Like it or not, the princess was solidifying my position right now.
And so we left the capital under countless stares.
By the time we passed the outer gates of the palace, even noble carriages that had come out to watch were visible. Through a window crack, someone with a fan scanned our way. On the other side, a servant’s uniform bearing the Valter family crest flashed into view before vanishing into the crowd.
Truly noisy to the very end.
I deliberately did not look back. I doubt I would ever feel like returning of my own free will.
Once past the city outskirts, the road soon changed. Damp earth pressed heavily under the horses’ hooves, and beyond the ditches the winter fields lay wide in the color of dead grass.
The wind changed too. It was simply cold. Sharp air free of any cumbersome pretenses. The chill piercing my lungs actually cleared my head.
Only then did I feel my breathing ease, just a little.
The young lady turned her horse’s head and came up beside me.
“It may be my imagination, but your expression seems a bit better.”
I almost snorted a laugh but held it back.
“I feel far better than when I was in the capital. It is no imagination.”
“Sounds like you’re saying you’re not suited to the capital.”
“Is the young lady suited to the capital?”
Adelaide looked ahead at the imperial carriage for a moment before speaking.
“Hmm. I dislike feeling stifled. But the capital hides much behind that stifling, while the borders are simple yet lives pass too quickly.”
It was a casual remark. Yet strangely, it pierced through the empire’s currents without a single wrong word.
In time, the procession was scheduled to turn northeast before the sun set. The knights maintained a pace that was swift by capital standards yet not overexerting, and the princess’s carriage advanced almost without a jolt even in the midst of it.
The problem arose just before crossing the second bridge.
I casually lifted my head and looked to the forest edge on the right of the road. Wind brushing through the winter trees was ordinary. Birds taking flight, a black shadow flickering briefly between trunks—those could be normal too.
But beneath that, something flowed through the ground. A very shallow, minute tremor.
I instinctively pulled the reins.
“Stop!”
My voice burst out louder than expected. The lead knight turned in surprise, and the horses’ steps faltered all at once. From behind came the sound of carriage wheels churning the earth.
One knight’s face hardened.
“What is the mean—”
“Do not cross the bridge!”
The door of the princess’s carriage opened from inside. Princess Isabella herself leaned out.
“What is it for?”
Instead of answering, I pointed below the bridge. It looked like a perfectly fine stone bridge. But under the central support, a very thin black stain was spreading. It looked like a shadow wet with muddy water, so if you just passed by you would never notice.
“Down there.”
The young lady immediately turned her horse toward the bridge. She leaned down for a moment to look under the railing, then said expressionlessly.
“…Your Highness. He is correct.”
The princess’s eyes cooled.
“We will have to detour.”
No sooner had the words fallen than a cracking sound rang out from under the stone bridge. A beat later, the center of the bridge collapsed downward.
Crash—!
Stone crumbled and murky water surged up. From the gap of the fallen bridge, something like black mud writhed, then instantly split into three branches and climbed the surrounding embankment.
It was hard to classify as an ordinary monster. Earth and water long soaked in the gaps of the barrier, twisted into form while blackly contaminated. Slower and heavier than what I had seen in the barrier chamber last night, but far larger and more tenacious.
One knight drew his sword.
“It is no illusion! It has physical substance!”
The princess fully dismounted from the carriage. Golden mana spread over the back of her hand.
“Lady Rubenheim.”
“Yes.”
The young lady’s cyan-white mana fanned out along the dirt path before the bridge. The path where the black mud had been crawling froze solid in an instant. But the contaminated things did not stop completely even on the ice. Slowly but continuously, they cracked their way up.
I clenched my teeth.
“Your Highness, if you cut those, the entities will only split further!”
The princess answered without even looking at me.
“Then what is the solution?”
“You must blast the support underneath entirely. Sever the axis of the flow itself!”
The princess’s eyes came to me briefly. Then three strands of golden light rose into the air at once.
In that moment, one branch of black mud shattered the ice and leaped toward one of the horses. The horse screamed sharply and reared. Just as the knight nearly lost the reins, the young lady’s ice line passed through it first, as if stitching.
The mud lump half-froze in midair, and the princess’s gold light plunged straight into the deep darkness of the bridge ruins below.
Fwaaat—!
This light was not broad. Instead it stabbed down so straight and sharp that the eye could not even follow. From under the bridge rose the sensation of the black thing’s core being torn. The damp earth flipped once, then the mud lumps that had been about to scatter lost their power all at once and sank to the ground.
Only murky ripples remained.
The procession fell quiet for a moment. Only the sound of water flowing under the collapsed bridge was clear.
The princess withdrew the gold light and asked slowly.
“Sir Elberhart.”
I was still looking under the bridge.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Things like this… do they fall under the category of frequent sights in the northeast?”
“No. Not this blatant.”
My voice came out lower and rougher than I thought.
“But I have heard of similar cases. Where the barrier line is holding, yet already tattered.”
The young lady looked once over the frozen earth and said.
“If what you say is true, then the third line of the northeast is truly being targeted.”
Instead of answering, the princess looked down at the collapsed bridge for a moment. There was no anxious emotion in her expression. Eyes that seemed to measure how late we already were, and how much faster we must go from now.
Then one of the lead knights rode up this way.
“Your Highness. Even taking a detour will take half a day more. What should we…”
The princess said shortly.
“We had better detour anyway. Lead, change direction.”
The knight hesitated.
“Your Highness. But… once the sun sets the mountain path—”
“──Do not make me say it twice.”
At those words the knight could ask no more and withdrew.
I feel it sometimes, but her charisma is truly impressive.
I looked down at the collapsed bridge once more. This means someone had already laid hands on this entire road in advance.
The young lady turned her horse’s head a little more toward me.
“Sir Elberhart.”
“Yes?”
“There is nothing left to confirm now, it seems.”
“What do you mean?”
She indicated with her eyes the black ripples flowing under the collapsed bridge.
“The fact that if we are late, next time it will not end at this level.”
I did not bother answering and looked at the sky toward the northeast. It was cloudier there than the capital. Under that distant, cloudy sky lay my still-unseen territory and barrier line. And someone was already touching those strings.
As if choosing a horse instead of the carriage, the princess demanded the reins from the knight beside her. The knight was briefly surprised but soon handed over the horse. She mounted the saddle and said.
“From now on we will increase the pace. We must reach the first point before the sun sets.”
Hearing that, a hollow laugh escaped me. Only now did it truly feel like I was returning.
The procession moved again. Leaving the collapsed bridge behind, we turned toward the rougher detour. The earth under the hooves grew muddier, the wind colder. A texture utterly different from the talkative air of the capital.
That alone was good. From now on, at least, no one would be able to wear a mask.