Mirror Flower, Water Moon

"Ah— w-welcome back."

It was late at night when I returned to the imperial palace, and there waiting in front of my chamber was Aria, my older sister. She had been crouched by my door, and now scrambled awkwardly to her feet.

Could it be that she'd been waiting for me from this morning all the way until now? It was an impressive display of patience, to say the least.

"Seems we've said all there is to say."

Once I'd experienced the convenience of actual conversation, writing things down became unbearably tedious.

"Back then, if you'd simply forgiven me, I might have stopped at stripping the Empress of her title."

At my words, Aria shook her head furiously.

"Don't lie! You— you hate me!"

It was true that I didn't particularly care for her. She had a prickly personality, after all, and she was the daughter of an Empress no amount of chewing could make palatable.

But that had only been true back when my mental age matched this body's. At the very least, I understood now that Aria was separate from the Empress—her own person. So I didn't hate her with any mad, burning intensity, nor dislike her for that reason alone.

"You're spitting your grievances at the wrong target."

That said, if Aria ended up harmed as fallout from my handling of the Empress, I couldn't exactly go out of my way to shield her from it. I didn't see any reason I should have to, either.

"Take it up with the Empress."

"Because of you... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my birthday—the first one I was ever going to spend with my mother—was ruined, completely ruined!"

So that day had been her birthday? How perfectly ironic.

"Is that so? Well, on my birthday, I heard the news that my mother had been sentenced to death."

The moment Aria read my words, her mouth snapped shut.

"Come to think of it, didn't you find it strange how differently you reacted to Mary and to the Empress?"

"......"

"Why aren't you answering?"

When I took a single step forward, Aria stumbled back two.

"You already know the truth, don't you, sister? You know exactly what a piece of trash that woman is."

I walked right up to the speechless girl and drove in the final nail.

"The root of all this wasn't me. It was the Empress."

They say blood runs thicker than water. Watching Aria go to such lengths to save the very mother who had treated her with cold contempt and heaped abuse upon her head proved it well enough.

With that, our conversation ended. I returned to my chamber, took a bath, and sank into sleep.

From that day on, whenever Sir Brand could spare the time, I made my way out into the capital.

Ten minutes was hardly generous, but now that I could pour the power of Lingual Magic into conversation, the pathways for acquiring consonants and vowels had multiplied, making the whole process far easier.

In total, eight days. Eight days spent going out into the capital to gather consonants and vowels, minus the occasions when Sir Brand couldn't free up his schedule.

There was no room to relax on my end, either—my father's summons had gone out, and the great nobles of count rank and above were nearly all arrived in the capital by now.

"I owe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you my life, Your Highness."

"...And yet you skip training like this. You'll make it up later anyway, won't you?"

Speaking with the power of Lingual Magic threaded through our conversation, I let out a soft laugh.

"That may be true, but my father is ill, or so I'm told. I wanted to be at his bedside."

"If the people of the capital learned that the typhoon currently battering the entire city exists because of you, they'd have a collective seizure."

"Would anyone really believe that a single person could summon a typhoon?"

At this very moment, fierce wind and rain were sweeping across the palace and the whole of the capital. It was, quite literally, a typhoon.

It was spring—and yet a typhoon raged instead of spring rain, and plenty of people found it absurd. Of course, the cause was me.

"Besides, Your Highness, I noticed you seemed rather eager to try it yourself."

My inner thoughts laid bare, I flinched. Well—he wasn't wrong. Ever since I'd acquired the word typhoon, I had wanted to test whether it would truly manifest.

And Brand, having learned that I'd assembled the word in the first place, had merely come up with a convenient excuse to ask for leave. The request was nothing but a throwaway pretext, through and through.

"Still—controlling the weather. Honestly, at this point even surprise is exhausting."

Being able to command the weather meant choosing whatever conditions suited me on any battlefield, at any time.

"And I assume there's more you've acquired besides that?"

"Water Current."

A word meaning the flow of water. True to its name, it granted me the power to bend moisture in the air—and water itself—to my will.

Even as I imbued the word with Lingual Magic, I took Sir Brand by the hand and stepped out into the rain-soaked garden.

The moment Brand crossed into the garden, his face froze in astonishment. Every drop of falling rain around us had simply—stopped.

"No need for a rain cloak, then."

"You do need one. Once I command the flow of water a single time, I can't use it again."

After moving with Brand to a spot the rain couldn't reach, I withdrew my will.

"So it's a different beast entirely from the spells mages cast."

"Because the essence is different."

The eight ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠days of gathered consonants and vowels had taught me one more thing as well: composite words could be assembled too.

"I granted your request, Sir Brand. Now it's your turn to grant mine."

"Understood."

"Vital Point Designation."

Vital point and designate—two words joined into a single new one. Just as its name declared, it marked an arbitrary part of the body, anything but a true vital point, as one.

"Just now, I designated the ring finger of your right hand as a vital point."

"Is that all?"

"If you don't believe me, why not try snapping it? I'll heal you after."

"You've designated it a vital point, and now you ask me to break it? Isn't that a bit cruel?"

Brand gently touched the ring finger of his right hand, then clenched it hard in his left fist. Before long, the man they said was on the verge of reaching the realm of the Aura Master would possess crushing grip strength—so that single squeeze alone must have brought no small pain.

And yet, remarkably, no agony showed on his face.

"It hurts quite a bit. Bearable—but if I actually snapped it, I might well black out."

"...Is that so."

"And you chose well, designating a spot near the hand. When blades clash, it's the palm that absorbs most of the impact. The greater your strength compared to your opponent's, the easier it becomes to seize the upper hand."

"Thank you for the advice. Then, one last request."

"A little frightening—but my heart's pounding with anticipation."

Brand fixed me with a look of keen interest. In response, following Vital Point Designation, I granted my power to the second four-syllable compound I had assembled.

"Mirror Flower, Water Moon."

A word meaning the flower reflected in a mirror, the moon reflected in water. Phrased another way—visible to the eye, yet impossible to grasp.

In truth, the reason I'd conceived of this word at all was the matter of my late mother. If rumors began to spread that I could resurrect the dead, things would become troublesome for no good reason.

Assembling the word resurrection was now permanently impossible—and the same went for any other word bearing an identical meaning.

So I needed some plausible basis for how my mother's death might have been staged—and the word I arrived at was Mirror Flower, Water Moon.

"What in the—?!"

A painting stretched across the sky. The instant Brand realized he was standing upon it, he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cried out and swept me into his arms.

When he glanced down, the charming sprawl of the imperial capital spread out far below, and the roar of the wind tore ferociously past his ears. And yet here lay the contradiction: he couldn't feel that wind at all.

The moment Brand pulled me against his chest, seized by that uncanny wrongness, he understood—

"An illusion... isn't it?"

He saw straight through it. It was nothing more than a trick of the eye.

The moment Brand caught on, Mirror Flower, Water Moon lost its power. The materialized image collapsed, and the palace grounds returned to their proper shape.

"Yes. It's an illusion."

Because the power was born from the phrase visible to the eye yet impossible to grasp, it couldn't deceive touch or taste—senses that direct contact would expose. But sight, hearing, and smell could all be fooled, which still made it an enormously potent word.

This time I had deliberately conjured something wildly fantastical, easy to catch onto; if I rendered the illusion as a seamless extension of reality instead, it wouldn't be seen through so simply. Indeed, even Brand—a man bordering on the Aura Master—had needed some time to recognize it, despite my showing him something so brazenly unreal.

All things considered, I'd judged this to be a considerable harvest.

After all, animals are creatures hopelessly dependent on their eyes. Even a bird will take a painted tree for the real thing and fly straight into it, dying on impact.

"Well then, when the Demon World Tree fully matures, it seems every last measure of glory will fall to you, Your Highness."

"Who can say? Quite a few nobles are slated for execution this time, so plenty of merit will come your way too, Sir Brand. Though—I take it there are rather a lot of knights who share your thinking?"

"...Well, yes. In peaceful times like these, this is the only chance my knights have to earn recognition and rise into the peerage. Honestly, even the Demon King doesn't feel real to most of us—and ironically, the majority of capable knights are simply waiting for the Demon World Tree to hurry up and grow."

"The effect of Dialogue has run out. A pity, but I'll call it here for today."

"It was an excellent experience. Take care on your way back, Rohen."

Thinking that the time I'd invested hadn't been wasted after all, I made my way back to my chamber.

Time flowed on, and three days later, at last, the assembly of nobles convened at the imperial palace to purge the trash who had raised the banner of treason.