The 300-Year-Old Magical Girl (1)
The imperial capital, Karlangk. Deep within a secret chamber of the imperial palace, Sabrina sat upon a gilded chair so lavishly adorned it might as well have been a throne. She could not even bring herself to sip the outrageously expensive southern wine she usually savored. Instead, she muttered to herself in disbelief.
The reason was the dire news that had just arrived from Sigmund Academy—the academy city in the satellite city right beside Karlangk.
“We’ve been played… completely played for fools…”
She stared at the now-bare walls—once covered in ornate decorations she had ordered removed—and clutched her face like a madwoman.
“Given the current state of affairs, I told them to avoid any actions that could be seen as rebellion… And yet, they couldn’t even keep one worthless idiot in his seat?”
“M-My lady! I beg your forgiveness…!”
“These rotten bastards—!”
In the next instant, the glass in her hand flew through the air.
Crash—!
The finely crafted crystal shattered with unnatural cleanliness, its contents spilling across the floor like a pool of blood.
“I told you! I told you something would happen at Sigmund! That’s where the child died—there had to be something strange going on!”
“B-But, my lady… Following your orders to seal the doors, extending our influence from inside outward was no easy task. It was the only way to avoid drawing attention…”
Sabrina cut him off with a furious roar.
“Excuses! I don’t care about the process. Because you lot failed to protect that old commoner’s position, the power I had over Sigmund has been overturned right before my eyes!”
“…You may still calm yourself. Nonedon was, after all, an existence chosen from within Sigmund. We can still handle this at the Council of Ministers.”
“That’s the problem… He was one of the few pillars Vancite left behind. And now he’s been replaced so easily—how am I supposed to understand this…? Do you people even realize what this means?”
“……”
The elderly official had no answer. He knew it too. Sabrina’s cabinet was finished.
In her heart, Sabrina wanted nothing more than to convene the council, surround Sigmund, and root out everyone responsible. But the empire’s current situation would never allow it.
This year alone, the Demon King’s army had been relentlessly invading the northern Vitagarte Grand Duchy, crushing the fearsome barbarians on every front. The moment news spread that Karlangk’s gates had been sealed, the demons—whether spurred by the north or not—bypassed fortresses and surged southward with terrifying speed, securing only the bare minimum of strongholds.
With more and more lords surrendering or falling, the demon forces were now nearly at the central region’s doorstep. At this rate, the front lines would reach the capital’s outskirts in roughly three months.
With the crown prince’s seat empty and this crisis unfolding, Sabrina had no choice but to send a humble request to the northern Grand Duke Rexas, who had been left to clean up the demons’ mess on his own.
「I command Grand Duke Rexas of the North. The demon army advancing toward the capital moves with alarming speed. Assemble the northern coalition’s forces and march south immediately to intercept them.」
Using the northern knights the Grand Duchy prided itself on, she asked them to intercept the demons at the fortresses. Rexas replied in his characteristically stiff style.
「The situation does not permit it. We have suffered devastating losses defending against the prolonged offensive since the beginning of the year. Though it shames me to say the empire itself suffers because of the north’s shortcomings, Vitagarte still requires time to recover.」
In short: “Go to hell. You left us to bear the burden alone without support—solve it with the empire’s own strength. But if you collapse, we’ll be in trouble too, so we’ll watch and decide later. Good luck.”
Yet there was nothing they could do about the north’s arrogance. After all, Sabrina herself had stood by without offering support. Complaining to a grand duchy that was now openly defiant would only make things worse.
Thus, the imperial family had to rally the strength of other lords to stop the demons. But now, while public sentiment in Karlangk was already boiling, if they focused on investigating the insolent students of Sigmund instead… the optics would be disastrous, and it would do nothing to actually stop the demon advance.
Trapped in this self-made prison, Sabrina’s mind finally snapped. She began openly cursing the son she had once cherished above all else.
“Vancite… you insane bastard. What the hell were you plotting that’s driven me to this point? Colluding with the demons… and then dying, leaving me—your own mother—in this state…!”
Her nails dug deep into her palms. Teeth clenched, she remained like that for a long while before finally reaching a decision.
“…When did we seal the capital’s gates?”
“O-On the seventeenth of last month, my lady.”
“…Over a month ago. Well, at least the order to keep even a single rat from escaping seems to have been carried out properly.”
“Y-Yes! All city access has been completely blocked. Every carriage, passage, and portal leading to the outer walls remains sealed.”
“And yet you couldn’t stop starving citizens from crawling up to the gates, forcing me to witness that sight?”
“That is… after the stored grain ran out, the grain rationing budget was drastically cut. Public outrage has become unmanageable. What you witnessed was merely the tip of the iceberg. The current situation is nothing short of an absolute catastrophe.”
“It’s over—”
At those words, her once-proud shoulders, draped in golden hair, slumped in utter exhaustion.
“Cryan…”
The name she uttered belonged to the sole surviving child of the current emperor, Stopan III—the last remnant after Vancite’s great purge. In other words, the only possible solution to this hellish situation.
The high officials gathered in the chamber brightened, thinking she was finally about to suggest bringing him in. But Sabrina only spat:
“…Mow’s filthy half-breed. Not even a legitimate bastard—just a disgusting illegitimate child—!”
“Ugh…”
“That child will never be allowed! I will struggle with everything I have. Even if I must bear another child myself—!”
“Then what of the capital’s closure…?”
“…That has already reached its limit. We have no choice. Lift the blockade immediately and begin seeking recovery measures.”
Her words were a terrifying declaration that she would never hand her power to another’s child. Yet because she could not bear to see the imperial family cease to be an imperial family, she ordered the withdrawal of her own policy first.
It carried the risk of sparking a coup, but the situation had changed. Continuing the blockade would make surviving the coming demon offensive impossible.
‘…Fine. If this is how it is, I’ll take it all head-on. Do you know who I am? I am Sabrina—the empire’s queen mother. The living embodiment of human success who rose from a count’s house no one respected. Just watch. I will never lose. I will prove myself again—’
She could only think this way. Having already fallen from the tree once, she never considered she might fall again.
***
“Where did I put it… the thing Nonedon gave me the other day…”
A few days later, the new semester would begin. After successfully installing Nonedon as chairman, everything had normalized in a way even I found hard to believe. The key factor that allowed him to settle in was pushing for the semester to start. This wasn’t public education—most students at Sigmund had at least some reason for being here. Many had been displeased that the academy’s calendar had been halted due to the “incident.”
True to his background as a king of the underworld, Nonedon proved effective at pushing things through, and he managed to secure the chairman’s seat with surprising stability.
So until the semester started, there was nothing left for us to do. Well, except for the fire under my own feet—my declaration that I would save Frau, Professor Babalk’s daughter. That was something I had to accomplish somehow.
But, sorry to say, Babalk himself didn’t need rescuing just yet. So I decided to postpone opening that particular connection.
‘After all, the trigger was one of the Six Swords remaining. Only then would the resistance’s location—stealing people from her human farm—be discovered. She still has time before she dies.’
That left me with some rare free time. What I was looking for was…
“…Here it is.”
The imperial sword Solaris, which I had received from Nonedon.
[“M-M-Master! Me, me, me that—! G-Give, give it to meee!!”]
Just from the sight of it, Burga was trembling all over, screaming inside my head.
“No.”
[“Wh-Why not—!!”]
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn’t something I should devour. My bloodline was that of a homunculus—whether I was a lunar human created by the Moon God or a solar human created by the Sun God was ambiguous. But one thing was certain: I was definitely not a solar human.
Handling something that only a solar human could properly wield felt like overreaching my station. So after some deliberation, I decided to give it to Eclipse.
Of course, this was the protagonist’s exclusive sword in the original story. If I had done nothing, it would have naturally ended up in her hands anyway. So giving it to her wasn’t really a big deal. It was simply returning it to its rightful owner.
“…Well, she’ll probably like it. From her perspective, it’ll just look like I’m gifting her an incredibly famous sword she’s already familiar with.”
Besides, this way I could earn some goodwill. I didn’t have anything specific I wanted from her right now, but she had been persistently approaching me lately and had even provided significant help. When someone tries to enter my circle, I can’t help but favor them a little.
With this, she would power up and help me again someday. The words I once said—that I no longer wanted to push her away—hadn’t been empty.
So to give it to her, I headed toward the after-school autonomous activities clubroom where she was likely to be. The young lady had disappeared since morning for some reason, so I was alone.
But then—
BOOM—!!
From the direction of the Sun Tower came a chilling explosion of destruction. In that instant, every hair on my body stood on end.
“…The aura of a Six Sword?”
Why was it inside Sigmund…?
I didn’t need to think any further. Moving faster than anyone else, I raced toward the Sun Tower.