Chapter 129: The Constellation's Power 1
Chapter 129: The Constellation's Power 1
After I became a Constellation, this body that no longer ages began to move.
The interior of the battleship—so vivid now I could picture it with my eyes closed.
Somewhere along the line, this space had grown more familiar than the palace I once shared with my wife.
When I entered the command room, the Imperial Guard were already assembled.
Only one had removed her helmet inside the ship.
A young guardsman, bare-faced, stared with eyes blazing wide.
A child who had lost her younger sister to another Constellation's jealousy at the Academy.
"Your Majesty."
When you lose someone precious you thought you could never lose—
I knew, better than anyone alive, exactly what that felt like.
I gave a light nod, and the young one suppressed her emotions to deliver her report.
"We have located the Incarnation you ordered us to track. She was discovered hiding in the wastelands along the northeasternmost front line."
At her words, the holograms on both sides of the battleship shifted.
A single road stretching across a desolate plain spanning hundreds of kilometers.
A wasteland holding nothing but dust and tumbleweeds.
She had dug a burrow in a wilderness where at most a couple of cars passed each month.
That was how she had evaded her pursuers for so long.
Though even that hadn't been enough to wholly fool the Northern Continent's trackers.
who would imagine
that high above her head, higher than the clouds,
a cloaked space battleship was looking down at her?
That a hooded woman parking her car along that desolate road
and vanishing into the dust with a few cardboard boxes had been captured on camera.
I pulled my gaze from the hologram.
What I saw instead were eyes burning bright with fury and vengeance.
Not even reverence and loyalty could quell the rage of a child who had lost her own blood.
Looking into those eyes brought her back to me.
My wife, who upon hearing that her subjects were suffering at the hands of an alien species,
immediately boarded a battleship and joined the war herself.
My wife, who even amid burning planets and cosmic magnetic storms
insisted that the Empress must not turn her back on the Empire, nor the Empire on its subjects—
who soothed me as I begged her not to go, and left for the battlefield.
"Ahem, Your Majesty?"
"Sortie,"
An aged, ragged voice echoed off the cold steel walls.
The fine voice once praised by the Empire's bards was nowhere to be found.
All that remained was an old, cracked, unsightly rasp.
Thinking how well that voice suited me now, I faced forward again.
"Prepare to sortie."
"Understood. Shall I dispatch the Imperial Guard?"
"The entire fleet. Prepare to sortie."
A ripple of agitation spread through the room.
Just as my retainers of old would have stirred.
Those who started to speak, then hastily shut their mouths.
Those who silently followed my orders, chewing on their own thoughts.
Those who met my eyes as though they could not comprehend.
And one who wept tears of joy.
None of it mattered.
"A blood relative of the Imperial Guard—a reserve guardsman—has been murdered."
Ever since the day I purified billions of innocent citizens alongside the parasitic species,
I have had no desire whatsoever for anyone's understanding.
"The Empress does not forsake the Empire. The Empire does not forsake its subjects."
If a god exists, they will punish me.
No—before that, they would have saved the Empire.
For only a god may stand above the sovereign of the Empire, above the Empress's head—
"Even if that subject is already dead, the Empire will remember."
If there is no god, who will call me to account?
※
Sweet golden honey-water.
A fragrant flower garden that quiets the heart.
Then, erupting into my mind without warning—a vision of destruction.
Fifteen space battleships hovered in formation.
Their immense silhouettes were plainly visible even from the city.
They began raking a wasteland containing nothing but a single lonely road with laser fire.
Like herding fish into a net,
the battleships were driving a single Incarnation with orbital bombardment.
'"The Empire will remember even a dead subject"? What the hell is this?'
The earth melted. The road vanished without a trace.
How would people react to such a sight?
Military units scrambled in alarm, a kicked hornet's nest of chaos.
The news flooded with coverage of the Incinerating Tyrant's actions. Stocks convulsed.
Terrified civilians began evacuating as far inland as they could.
"Hey, what's wrong? Are you all right?"
The voice of the Unfading Giant Tree, laced with worry.
A cool hand brushed my forehead, but the illusion did not fade.
Instead, auditory hallucinations joined it, stabbing at the inside of my skull.
And at the same moment, a strange certainty engraved itself upon my mind.
'Is this... a precognitive dream?'
This was not something that had already happened.
It was something about to happen.
Had the memories the Incinerating Tyrant gave me linked him to me,
or had someone who wished to prevent this all-out assault sent me a message?
The exact reason was unclear, but one thing was certain.
I didn't know why the viewpoint was the Tyrant's,
but this dream was a precognitive warning.
'Am I supposed to stop it?'
The problem was that it was agonizingly vague.
The closer you drew to the continent's center, the denser the cities became;
the farther out you went, the more undeveloped wilderness and grasslands remained.
She wasn't hiding next to a road sign.
She was buried in a featureless wasteland. How was I supposed to find her?
The hologram in my precognitive dream had shown nothing but road.
No signs, no billboards, not even a peculiarly shaped boulder worth committing to memory.
I had a feeling I needed to find her before the Incinerating Tyrant did—
"Are you really okay?"
A gentle voice pulled me from my rumination.
Even when I said I was fine, her worried gaze refused to leave me.
And that was when I realized I'd been an idiot.
'Is there any reason to keep quiet in the first place?'
The whole reason I played at being a Constellation was because I wanted to talk to people.
Building connections with other Constellations one by one served the same purpose.
It wasn't as if mentioning I'd had a precognitive dream would saddle me with the sin of divulging heavenly secrets.
"Hey—I have a favor to ask."
"Yes! Anything, tell me!"
Right in front of me stood a senior Constellation brimming with experience and knowledge of magic.
Might as well bring it up. No sooner had I opened my mouth with that thought than she answered instantly.
Seeing her affirm it before I'd even finished speaking filled my chest with reassurance.
She might look like a delicate, fragile elf girl,
but she was still a mid-tier Constellation commanding Incarnations numbering in the thousands.
Add in her influence over the farmers who weren't even Incarnations, and that figure probably jumped to tens of thousands.
"There's an Incarnation I need to track down and capture in the northern wastelands."
"Mm. You want me to find her?"
"Can you?"
Perhaps she saw this as a chance to show a reliable front—as a woman, as a senior Constellation.
She gave her answer without a moment's hesitation.
I was the one who ended up startled by how effortlessly she replied.
'Is it really that easy?'
A colossal donut-shaped landmass.
Sure, it had seas and lakes like the Caspian or the Dead Sea,
but fundamentally this was a flat world with an enormous land area.
'Even if we're limiting it to the Northern Continent, just how vast is that?'
Back in America, you'd drive between states and your GPS would say, "In 2,500 kilometers, turn right."
Thinking about that, this world was probably even bigger.
And I was asking her to find a single person hiding in all that space.
"Are you really sure you can? It's got to be enormous."
I hadn't expected her to track her down in a snap.
I'd only meant to ask if she had a realistic method, some advice she'd like to offer,
maybe whether she had an Incarnation specialized in tracking.
"Of course! It's the northern road, right? Knowing that much is plenty."
Watching her speak with such absolute confidence,
I had to wonder—had I been underestimating her?
She radiated so much self-assurance I almost believed it.
"How do you plan to find her?"
"Tracking down an Incarnation is hard, but I can locate burrows dug along the roadside. Not instantly, of course—it'll take some time."
Like a child giddy at an amusement park, she took hold of my wrist and led me along.
We rose from the table overlooking the garden and moved toward the World Tree.
As if coming out to greet us, pale green vines came slithering forth.
The plant writhed like a snake—faintly grotesque at a glance,
but maybe because its tips cradled a pristine white elf girl,
the sensation was less revulsion and more mystery.
"This isn't terribly urgent, is it? You don't need her found by tomorrow or anything...?"
She'd declared she could definitely do it, full of confidence,
then suddenly deflated at the thought that her method might take too long—and the sight was adorable.
"No, it's not terribly urgent."
"Really? Then I'll find her for you."
Stocks would convulse, the economy would destabilize,
the military would go on high alert and Incarnations would swarm in droves—
but in the end, catching one culprit would resolve the whole thing.
I wasn't the one taking the loss, so there was no need to burden her unduly.
Having decided that, I stood beside the Unfading Giant Tree and watched what she did next.
She brought her small hands together as if in prayer.
Vines coiled around them like bracelets, like ornaments.
As she and the World Tree linked as one, a soft pale-green glow emanated from her.
But that was all.
This wasn't a dream world,
and how could a Dream Demon like me possibly peer into the World Tree?
The best I could do was conjure a handkerchief
and dab at her fair, sweat-beaded forehead as though she were exhausted.
True, it smelled of flowers rather than sweat,
but her brow was growing damp as if she were tiring,
and I could see fine strands of hair clinging to her skin.
I gently wiped the sweat with the handkerchief and watched her up close.
I stared at her from a distance where I could feel her breath, willing magic power into my gaze,
but just as I'd figured—Dream Demon magic couldn't pierce through the World Tree.
It felt like looking at incompatible electronic devices.
'So it can only see emotions tied to desire, and dreams.'
"Huu... Now I just have to wait, and..."
Her softly closed eyes went round and wide.
I suppose closing her eyes and opening them to find me near enough to feel her breath gave her a start.
Watching her cheeks and ears flush red,
I saw her pupils jolt and dart away.
"Just! A little while. We just have to wait."
"In what way?"
Seeing that, I casually reached out an arm.
She said we only had to wait, so I supposed I could trust her and wait.
She didn't answer.
We merely shared warm breath.