Seismic Shift (4)
"That will be all for today."
"Yes! Thank you so much for your hard work again today!"
After exchanging farewells with Swen, Reika returned quietly to her room and let the hours she had spent with him over the past few days drift back through her mind.
It was so wonderful! That little waterfall.
It hadn't been especially large, but it had been more than beautiful enough to hold in the eye. She thought she might have read somewhere in a novel about someone training atop the stones where the water fell — though Swen had told her that was just fiction.
These past few days, she had been allowed outside the castle walls, free to wander through nature and spend her time among the wilds. Just as Swen had said, nature was thick with mana. Every breath of air that wrapped around her body was mana itself.
Reika had been born able to sense the air and the mana mixed within it, but never before had she felt it so clearly. It was as if all the steady training she had done until now was finally beginning to bloom.
As for her magic, that too continued to advance without trouble. She could form larger fireballs now, hold them longer, and wield them more freely. Swen's words from their last session came back to her — next time, instead of a fireball, she should try picturing a spear of ice. She still didn't fully understand what he meant… and yet somehow, she felt as though she could do it. Whenever she followed his instructions, her skill with magic genuinely improved.
Swen was a strange man. By his own account, he was no mage of any kind. And yet, whether it was the ice spear or something else, he would sometimes speak as if he had always known magic inside and out. Ideas she had never once imagined herself would, after hearing them from him, suddenly feel possible.
Is Swen… actually a mage like me, only hiding his identity for some reason?
She had heard that Swen had once performed a miracle — opening the sky itself and dropping a massive boulder from above. To Reika, who could barely manage a ball of fire in her palm, that seemed like something far beyond mere magic.
If she kept training, could she one day work miracles that absurd herself?
As her thoughts wandered further, Reika arrived at a more fundamental question. If Swen truly was concealing the fact that he was a mage… did that mean this was a power that must never be revealed to the outside world? Was that why her father refused to let her leave the house — because being a mage was something that had to stay hidden?
Just then—
"Reika."
"…!!"
From beyond the door came her father's voice — Zinor's. Reika couldn't help but startle. Her father almost never came to her room. The only times he sought her out were to check how far her magical training had progressed, and even those visits had stopped once Swen began teaching her.
The position of State Strategist. There must have been no end of urgent work. Reika had never been the sort to demand fatherly affection from Zinor either, so his absence itself had never particularly troubled her.
What could this be about?
Still too tense to answer, she heard Zinor's voice again.
"Are you in there?"
"Ah, y-yes…! I-I'm here."
"May I come in?"
"Y-yes…!"
And so Zinor entered Reika's room. She scrambled to her feet and bowed at the waist in greeting.
"W-welcome, Father."
Zinor settled himself naturally into a chair in her room.
"Well then. How is your training progressing?"
"I've advanced far beyond where I was before."
"Is that so?"
Reika briefly reported her recent achievements. Zinor watched as she controlled a sphere of flame this way and that for a considerable time without even growing short of breath, and he nodded with evident satisfaction.
"You've been working hard. And your studies?"
"Swen explains everything so clearly that it's very easy to understand. Ah, um, I…"
"Go on."
"Th-thank you… for allowing me to go outside."
Reika bowed deeply as she offered her gratitude. No matter how abundant the mana beyond the walls, if her father Zinor had not permitted her to leave, she would never even have had the chance to feel it.
"…"
Zinor regarded the girl bowing before him, and spoke in a grave tone.
"Do you truly feel gratitude toward me?"
It was a somewhat delicate question, but Reika answered without hesitation. He may have kept her confined indoors, but the fact remained that he had taken in an orphan and raised her.
"I have never once forgotten Father's kindness. That you took me in and cared for me — I am grateful for it always. I mean that sincerely."
"…Hmm."
Zinor rested his chin on his hand for a moment, lost in thought — then fixed her once more with a thoroughly serious gaze. Reika flinched, wondering if she had done something wrong.
"U-um… that is…"
"I did not come here to scold you. Relax."
"Th-then…?"
"What do you think of Swen?"
"Pardon…?"
What did she think of Swen? Did he mean Swen as her teacher? Well, it was her father Zinor who had assigned Swen as her instructor in the first place.
"Well… he has taught me how to strengthen my ability to read mana in a way that is extremely easy to understand. And by following his guidance, I truly have improved a great deal—"
"That is not what I am asking."
"…?"
"What do you think of him as a husband?"
"…Pardon…??"
What?
A husband?
As in… a husband, the man one marries?
All of a sudden? Her father had never once asked her anything so ordinary, and the sheer unexpectedness of it left her too flustered to form any reply at all.
"I… wh-what do you mean by that, all of a sudden…?"
"Exactly what I said. How would you feel if Swen became your husband?"
"…I-I, th-that is…"
Reika flushed scarlet and dropped her head. She had never once thought of him that way.
Because Swen didn't feel like a man to her?
No. The reason she had never allowed herself that thought was the exact opposite. Someone like her daring to regard a man of Swen's caliber as a man at all — she had feared it would be an imposition.
His neatly kept white hair and pale skin carried a mysterious air no ordinary young man possessed. And whenever he smiled and told her, "You can do it," that encouragement had always felt wonderfully steady to a girl who longed for something to lean on. Besides — and this thought was a little shameful — was he not extraordinarily handsome?
That was precisely why she had never dared imagine there might be a place for her at his side. She was old enough to know better than to reach for something so far beyond her grasp.
"Do you dislike the idea?"
"What? N-no! I-it's not that I dislike it…"
"Then that is fortunate."
Where Reika stood flustered and at a complete loss, Zinor remained utterly composed.
"F-Father… I… I can't quite follow what you're saying…"
"Hm? You can't follow even this much? I thought you had a fair bit of sense."
"No, I mean, I…"
Without waiting for her answer, Zinor cut straight to the point.
"I intend to propose a marriage arrangement to him."
"A… marriage arrangement… you say?"
"Yes. He is no ordinary man. It is essential that we deepen our ties with him."
Having said that much, Zinor continued in a thoroughly businesslike tone — so much so that any third party watching would scarcely have recognized a normal father-daughter relationship.
"If you have not forgotten your gratitude toward me, then marry him without fuss. Assuming, of course, that he consents."
"…"
Reika could say nothing. She simply kept her head bowed low.
Marriage to Swen. She did not dislike the idea — of that much she was absolutely certain. But everything about it was far too sudden.
"…If you truly cannot bear it, then so be it. But I would prefer you consider it favorably. Think it over carefully."
Zinor rose from his seat and quietly left the room.
She still had no idea what she was supposed to do — but her father's final words remained etched clearly in her mind.
If he consents… then that means we still don't know what Swen thinks…?
In that case, there was no need to get ahead of herself. Reika let out a long breath.
Marriage…
Naturally, as someone who would have to marry whoever Zinor told her to marry, regardless of who that person was — Swen was hardly a bad match. No, there might not be a better one. Daughters being moved about for the sake of their family's interests was common enough, and at least Zinor was trying to respect her wishes by telling her she could refuse if she truly hated the idea.
More than that… has Swen never been married before…?
A man of Swen's standing, she thought, would already have one or two wives. And at the same time… she remembered the red-haired woman knight who had been at his side the first time they met. She had been immensely strong and deeply reliable — and at the same time strikingly beautiful, with a distinctly feminine grace.
Who was she? Just a bodyguard…?
If she did marry Swen, would that knight lady protect her as well…?
Foolish as it was, that was the thought that crossed her mind.
"Achoo!"
"Are you all right, Lady Irene?"
"Ugh… yes. I'm fine. A cough just came out of nowhere."
So saying, Irene took a bite of the cake on the table. And then—
"Ohh…!"
Her violet eyes sparkled as she pressed one hand to her cheek in genuine admiration.
"This is truly delicious!"
"I'm glad it suits your taste."
"Mm. Swen, you said this was made by the child you've been teaching?"
"Yes. I thought it would go well with the tea, so I brought some along."
As for what I was doing — I was having tea with Irene. I had thought Reika's cake would pair wonderfully with the tea Irene brewed, and it seemed I had been right. Watching Irene enjoy it this much, I almost wished I had brought some of the cookies as well.
"What an extraordinary flavor. Even Anel Castle never had cake this good."
"How would you know?"
"Well, I mean… ah."
"You've tried them all, then?"
"…"
At my words, Irene abruptly closed her mouth, her face coloring as she put on a serious expression.
"…Th-that is hardly the important matter at present. Ahem."
Looking at her like that, I couldn't help but laugh.
How peaceful. I had always known this peace would not last long. Even so, I let myself soak in this moment as fully as I could — so that I would have nothing to regret later.
And so my days passed — with Reika by day, and with Irene at home by night. My own daily life had never been more tranquil, but the state of the continent was the exact opposite.
The first shocking piece of news to arrive: Kelstein Castle in the north had fallen. It was a moment destined for the history books — the moment Serpina's army finally advanced into the central continent. For now, only the Brans Army shared a de facto border with them. But with Kelstein Castle — which had sealed the northern approach like a fortress — now broken, the collapse of the defensive lines behind it was all but a foregone conclusion.
Like it or not, the lords of the continent would now have to find their own paths to survival before the massive wave that was Serpina's army.
And at almost the same time… the sky-blue banners of Lacline Castle came down, and the crimson banners of the Asius Army rose over its lofty spires. Lacline Castle, the easternmost stronghold of the Brans Army — and Kelstein Castle, its northernmost — had both fallen in nearly the same period.
A seismic shift of the highest order.
If there was any silver lining for the Brans Army, it was that the Roland Army and the Hesna Army to the south, which shared their borders, had made no move to invade and were remaining quiet. They seemed reluctant to strip troops from their own defenses for an attack on Brans, wary that their home bases might then come under assault, and so were simply watching how things unfolded.
Be that as it may. With both critical border lines — north and east — already breached—
The Brans Army is finished.
Forget unifying the continent; they would have to brace themselves for falling to the status of a minor power.
And so, on a day when the world's balance of power was shifting as swiftly as if a great tidal wave had swept through—
"Pardon me. Would you happen to be Lord Swen?"
"Yes, that is correct, but…"
As I was heading toward the Nighthart family estate as usual, a soldier of the Asius Army called out to me.
"My lord requests your presence."
"Your lord?"
He was summoning me? I couldn't think of any particular reason he would…
Well, there must be one.
I turned my steps at once toward the royal palace of Valharat Castle.