23 (2)

It was a room inside the Autonomous City of the Ains Domain, at the headquarters of the Silver Snow Knights.

A placard on the door outside read “Knight Commander.”

“Excuse me, Commander Gaus.”

After knocking several times, one of the Silver Snow Knights entered Commander Gaus’s room.

Inside, a powerfully built man—Gaus—sat alone at a desk piled high with documents.

He had short, neatly trimmed hair and sharp eyes. With a beard around his mouth, Gaus had his uniform opened at the chest, exposing a splendid, well-trained set of pectorals. His overflowing presence intimidated anyone who faced him.

“Yeah? What is it?”

Without even looking at the knight who had entered, Gaus ran his pen across one of the stacked documents. His right hand was stained pitch-black with ink, suggesting he had been at the desk for a long stretch of time.

Resolving trouble within the Ains Domain and handling governance there had been entirely shouldered by the Silver Snow Knights. As a result, the approvals he had to process only increased no matter how many he dealt with.

He read the contents, examined them, and judged whether each was necessary. Along with noting the result, he signed his name as Gaus.

To be honest, even without examining anything, the mountain of paperwork could have been cleared just by Gaus signing it. But if he ever allowed himself that kind of negligence, he would no longer be able to face the “saint” Evan and Silica—who had built the Ains Domain into what it was—in the afterlife.

On top of that, he would have no face left to show “the Silver Snow Sorcerer,” Ains—Ains who had descended into this era. Driven by that sense of duty, Gaus had been devoting himself to the Ains Domain’s governance more earnestly than ever.

Even now, Gaus kept working without resting his hand, enduring the pain of tendonitis as he listened to his subordinate’s report.

“It is a letter from Sophia, who is in Kirk.”

“What? From Sophia? She should’ve reached the royal capital ages ago, yet she hasn’t sent a single word. What’s this about now?”

Gaus took the letter from his subordinate and dismissed him.

When he opened the envelope, several sheets were inside, describing her safe arrival in the royal capital and everything that had happened since.

Gaus read through Sophia’s meticulous report. People often said handwriting reflected personality, and as he looked at Sophia’s beautiful script, he was reminded it was exactly true.

For a while after that, the only sound in Gaus’s room was the turning of paper.

“…I see. So Lord Ains has realized it. …Damn it, Sophia—she’s always fumbled at the critical moment.”

The report also included that she had let something slip in front of Ains, and Gaus—Sophia’s foster parent—couldn’t help but clutch his head.

It also said that Ains had agreed to a cooperative relationship with the Brandy Marquess, and that as a result the Brandy Marquess might visit under Gaus in the future.

In other words, the Ains Domain—closed off until now—would be opening its gates to the Brandy Marquess and seeking exchange with the outside world.

As the one responsible for the Ains Domain’s governance, Gaus could easily imagine how enormous an impact that would bring.

Almost no information about the Ains Domain had leaked outside. The only thing conveyed externally had been the contents of the Original Canon. Even that had spread only because the Eternal Witch had reproduced copies; the Ains Domain itself had merely disclosed a portion.

And the Original Canon was not a single book. No one knew exactly how many volumes it comprised, but some had been lost as well.

Depending on Ains’s decisions, the Brandy Marquess Family had now gained the right to obtain first any contents the Ains Domain still had not disclosed to the outside world.

With only the material already disclosed, the Santia Kingdom’s magical culture had developed to this degree—on a level incomparable even to the neighboring Gairin Empire.

It meant the three-way relationship between the royal family, House Sobi, and House Brandy would change dramatically.

“So the balance has collapsed…”

Marquis Zoin Sobi, head of House Sobi, was famous enough that even Gaus knew his name. With a mind as sharp as Zoin’s, he would thoroughly organize the situation first. And that would inevitably lead him to the conclusion that the scales had swung against House Sobi.

If so, how would Zoin overturn that disadvantage? Even Gaus couldn’t fathom the method, but he could imagine one thing with certainty: it would work against the Ains Domain.

“Fortunately, there’s a window of time while Zoin is sorting out the situation. We need to strengthen our internal structure during that interval.”

This was far more important than the documents piled on the desk in front of him. He wanted to toss the paperwork off the desk immediately, but he had to process it in parallel.

“…This tendonitis is going to last.”

Letting out a dry laugh, Gaus picked up his pen again and returned to approving documents.

Normally, he would avoid making an enemy of House Sobi, the kingdom’s shadow rulers. But to be able to serve the Silver Snow Sorcerer Ains—who had manifested after two thousand years—was enough to set Gaus’s heart racing.

On the path his lord Ains chose, Gaus—and the Silver Snow Knights—would simply follow.

That night, the light in Gaus’s room was said to have stayed on until late.

The three-way relationship among the royal family, the Brandy Marquess Family, and House Sobi had transformed from the usual contest of political power alone.

The Brandy Marquess Family had the “Demon God,” the Silver Snow Sorcerer Ains Silvetas, and the Autonomous City of the Ains Domain.

The royal family had “the Eternal Witch,” Lizelotte.

And House Sobi possessed a dark, unknowable power.

Of the kingdom’s three great powers, the royal side and the Brandy Marquess Family side were both entangled with sorcerers—those who could interfere with the world and warp its laws.

A storm would unquestionably rise.

Indiscriminately, it would sweep people in—and those caught within it would see their lives utterly transformed.