His Existence Becomes Known Across the Continent (1)
And so Luna offered her repeated farewells to Karelia and withdrew.
Only when the two of them were left alone in the audience chamber did Vanessa finally speak.
"My lord."
"I know. I already understand what you mean to say to me. You need not speak it."
Karelia's tone was playful, yet Vanessa answered without the faintest smile, her manner utterly grave.
"I feel I must speak it all the same, so I shall. Do not place too much trust in Lunarien Iniang. She was a feudal lord once. She is not a woman who will be content to remain beneath another."
"……."
When Lunarien had first come pleading for sanctuary, Kane and Tifa at her side, there had been those who favored accepting her—Karelia and Cecil among them. Yet there had been opponents as well. Vanessa had stood at the head of that faction, arguing more fiercely than anyone that taking in a person like Lunarien was no different from sheltering a tiger cub, and must never be done.
In her heart she had even considered that the cleanest course would be simply to kill the woman who had crawled to them of her own free will. She had held her tongue only because she knew Karelia would never countenance such a proposal.
Even now, Vanessa trusted Luna not at all.
Karelia listened, then released a short sigh. When she looked at Vanessa again, her expression had grown a little calmer.
"Vanessa. Are you aware of the rumors that come from the places where Lady Luna has been working?"
"I am. The people of the territory who labored beside her all speak of her with one voice of praise, do they not?"
"Exactly. She possesses a vessel capable of capturing others' hearts merely by working alongside them for a short while. More than that—agriculture, commerce, the repair of castle walls, the training of soldiers—she has distinguished herself with outstanding results in every field."
Only moments earlier Luna had claimed she might fail to meet her quotas. That had been purely a matter of the weather. Her ability itself was extraordinary; whatever task one set her, she excelled.
Ability alone was not the whole of it. Wherever she went among the work sites, she naturally won the people's affection.
"Teppelo Castle stands on the very front line of our army. Its importance for the future of this realm is immense. With Lady Luna's gifts she will govern it wisely enough. Would it not be a grave loss to our forces if we failed to make full use of talent such as hers?"
"It could just as easily become a grave threat. In the hearts of the people of the territory—and of those who serve our Karelia Army—there should be room for Karelia alone. I believe no one who might stand as a second absolute beneath the sovereign should be allowed to exist in this land."
"As the nation grows ever larger, that will become difficult, will it not?"
"It matters not. I intend to make it so."
"……Truly now."
In most nations the effective second-in-command was the chief strategist—the one who stood closest to the lord and aided the most intimate decisions of state. The Karelia Army was different. Vanessa sought no power for herself; she remained deliberately in Karelia's shadow, arranging that every merit redounded solely to her lord.
Virtue alone could never govern a nation. The dirty work of staining one's hands with blood fell to Vanessa as well. Thus the Karelia Army ran firmly as a one-person regime centered on the widely beloved Karelia—and the fact that not a single stain had ever touched Karelia's renown was Vanessa's quiet achievement.
In Vanessa's eyes, Lunarien shared more than a few traits of temperament with her own lord. For that very reason she believed all the more strongly that the woman must never be given a chance to grow. Yet Karelia merely gave an awkward little shake of her head and answered in a calm voice.
"It is fine. If someone like Lady Luna should rise to seize the realm, if she should rise again and become a great feudal lord who surpasses even me—then I find I do not mind the thought of the world she would create. So long as this world can know peace, what does it matter who sits above it?"
"……The only heaven I wish to serve is you, my lord. Words such as those merely add another reason why I must guard your side. Nothing more, nothing less."
"……Is that so?"
Karelia gave several good-natured, hearty laughs. She knew full well that her own nature was somewhat soft. That they had been able to expand and consolidate their power so thoroughly in the south was, she openly admitted, largely thanks to her strategist Vanessa.
"Let us change the subject. Have you heard the news?"
"Of what, my lord?"
"They say a man who works miracles has appeared in the Brans Army."
"If you mean the matter of a colossal stone falling from the sky and crushing the Serpina Army—yes."
"You already knew? The rumor has spread that far, it seems."
"An incident of that magnitude was bound to."
A stone had suddenly fallen from the heavens. That alone would have been remarkable. But the tale was further bound up with a white-haired man who had been performing some strange ritual at the time, and the whole affair had become a sensation. News had reached even the Karelia Army at the southernmost tip of the continent; there could scarcely be a feudal lord anywhere who had not heard of it.
"A man capable of bringing stones down from the sky—what sort of person do you suppose he is? I wonder whether a mage, a being who until now existed only in legend, has finally appeared."
"Well…… I find it difficult to believe without having seen it with my own eyes, yet my thoughts differ somewhat."
"Differ?"
"Perhaps the man did not himself use some magic-like power to drop the stone. Perhaps he already knew the stone would fall, and merely performed a suitable rite so that it would appear as though he had arranged the whole thing. That is what I have been thinking."
At those words Karelia's deep-green eyes lit up.
"Ho. That is a rather novel view. Why do you think so?"
"It is simple. Magic that drops stones from the sky cannot exist, can it? Mages are nothing more than figures of legend. If one eliminates the impossible, the more plausible explanation is that he simply read the timing of the stone's fall by some means and acted accordingly."
Vanessa's words raised a new question in Karelia's mind.
"Then, conversely—what of 'reading the timing'? Even if it is not magic, I consider that itself sufficiently extraordinary."
"……."
Indeed. At that point even Vanessa found herself at a loss for words. Whether he had summoned the stone from the heavens or had merely grasped with perfect precision the moment and place of its fall—both were abilities so marvelous as to border on the divine. She had spoken of "some means," yet in truth she could not even begin to guess what those means might be.
"I should like to meet him once. They say he is a young man with white hair."
"If a man of such power had truly been in the Brans Army, Lin Brans—who loves to show off—would have placed him at the vanguard long ago, I should think……."
"Well, perhaps they simply unearthed a talent who had been buried in the countryside. Much as I met you. If we speak with him carefully, he might even share our ideals, might he not?"
"……."
Vanessa thought to herself: whether it was magic or the reading of timing, if she ever met a man who could work such absurd "miracles," it would be safer to kill him than to try to tame and control him. A person of that caliber would never be content to remain under anyone's command.
When the day comes that we face the Brans Army, we had best be cautious.
She and her nation had a more pressing task before them. The conquest of the south. Matters concerning the Brans Army could wait.
I will make our lord the unifier of the continent. Without fail.
She might be a little soft, yet she was the only feudal lord who truly cared for the people of her lands and for the peace of the continent. In Vanessa's eyes, a world that Karelia failed to unify would be a wrong world, no matter how it turned out.
Well then, I suppose it is time to set out.
She had finished her preparations and was about to go mount her horse when the idle chatter of soldiers reached Lunarien's ears.
"Did you hear? A mage has appeared in the Brans Army."
"They say he called down a stone from the sky and dropped it?"
A mage?
Come to think of it, she had been so absorbed in her work that she had only half-listened, yet rumors of a "mage" in the Brans Army had indeed been circulating. She even recalled hearing that the miracle he had wrought matched none of the magic left in the old legends, so that calling him a mage felt somehow wrong.
To Luna, however, the name Brans Army brought something quite different to mind than talk of mages.
Swen…… are you well?
Swen, who had been all but sold off to the Brans Army. She worried intensely over whether he was faring well under Lin Brans.
Then a word she could not possibly ignore reached her ears.
"They say he is a young man with white hair. He offered a rite toward the heavens."
……!!
Among the young men of the continent, white hair was by no means common. Of all the people Luna had ever met, there had been only one young man with white hair.
"E-excuse me! Forgive the interruption!"
"Wha—! L-Lady Lunarien……?"
The soldiers who recognized her scrambled to bow in panic.
"W-what is the matter?! Have we committed some offense……?"
"Is it certain that he was a white-haired man?"
They had been unable to hide their tension for a moment, yet the instant the words "white-haired man" appeared they relaxed and answered readily.
"Ah, so you are speaking of that rumor. Yes. From what I heard, it was indeed a white-haired man. He performed a rite directed at the sky."
"After the rite the heavens suddenly began to seethe, and a colossal stone like a divine punishment fell straight upon the Serpina Army."
"Is that so……?"
A young white-haired man of the Brans Army who had worked an impossible miracle. For some reason she could be certain it was the man she knew.
Lord Swen…… you are alive……!
He had wrought a miracle? There was nothing surprising in that. Swen had always been that way. Even while he was with her, had he not performed feats that could only be called miracles time and again?
Therefore, if something this absurd had been accomplished—no one else but Swen could possibly have done it.
"Ah…… Lady Lunarien, we have somewhere we must be. Might we take our leave first?"
"……."
"……Then we shall excuse ourselves. Please forgive our rudeness."
The soldiers left the silent Luna behind and slipped away. She did not even notice their departure; she slowly sank to the ground where she stood.
Lord Swen……! Thank goodness, thank goodness you are safe…… Lord Swen……!
How long had it been since she last heard news of him?
She had believed his promise that he would surely return to her side, so she had not been overly anxious…… yet anxiety had been real all the same. Thinking back, Swen tended to speak with fierce conviction whenever he made a claim. She knew perfectly well that such a manner could make a poor impression on others. Especially before Lin Brans, famous for her arrogance—displaying that side of himself could have proven dangerous in any number of ways.
Yet somehow he was still alive. Alive, and once again working the same impossible miracles he had shown when he served under her.
He had summoned a colossal stone from the heavens. It was an insane claim—yet the moment she knew the one who had done it was Swen, every shred of doubt vanished. She believed with absolute certainty that he had called it down. He had always been that kind of man.
"I shall do this." "It will turn out thus." He would utter the most preposterous statements, then simply accomplish them. That man was Swen.
Luna rose slowly from the ground. Her ruby eyes blazed fiercely.
Now that she knew Swen lived—hesitation itself would be a sin.
……When the day comes that I meet Lord Swen again, I must be able to face him with pride. I must prepare in advance.
When the time arrived—when a moment so solid that no one could deny it at last came—she would seize that instant without fail. For the sake of Swen, who had lived to this day.
…….
And so Luna, a great resolve kindled in her heart, mounted her horse and set out for her new destination: Teppelo Castle.
She would have to tell Tifa and Kane the news of Swen as well.
For the first time since she had lost her nation, her heart was pounding hard.
And she was not the only one in the southern continent who lost her composure upon hearing the words "white-haired man."
"Is that true? A young man with white hair and gray eyes?!"
"Ghk………khh."
Serpina had seized the defeated general Julian by the collar and was demanding answers, her usual composure completely shattered.
In a battle where she had taken thirty-three thousand men, more than thirty thousand had died absurdly, crushed by a falling stone. The commander Julian, who had barely managed to crawl back alive, had brought with him only some three thousand survivors. Moreover, she had been told that before the colossal stone fell, a certain man had been performing a rite toward the heavens from atop the fortress.
Even that alone was a string of events beyond comprehension—yet, astonishingly, none of it was what mattered to her now.
White hair and gray eyes…… that person is……!
Serpina had scarcely ever seen a young man with white hair. Only once—if one counted a dream.
In her dream.