From Alicia (2)

“His Majesty must be busy, so this subject will take his leave. The Duke of Lef will also take his leave.”

Reichardt offered his respects and quickly turned around.

“Wait…!”

The Emperor, who had been lost in thought, tried to call out to Reichardt.

He meant to confirm whether the answer he had reached was correct.

“Theo, shall we go meet your cousins?”

Reichardt left the audience hall unhurriedly, chattering to Theodor in a tongue-tied pronunciation.

“……!”

“……!”

The attendants and maids guarding the front of the audience hall widened their eyes in shock at what had just brushed their ears.

They barely maintained their lowered heads, but could do nothing about their shoulders that jerked up on their own—flinch!

“Reichardt! No, Eugene!”

From inside the audience hall, the Emperor’s urgent voice rang out.

Eugene, with a blank face, reflexively went into the audience hall.

“You have to get along well with your cousins. All right?”

Reichardt’s tongue-tied whisper continued.

“…….”

“…….”

Frozen in shock, the attendants and maids rolled their eyes with curiosity and watched the Grand Duke of Tessen recede.

They felt like their eyeballs would fall out from looking while keeping their faces lowered, but they could not not look.

Reichardt strode down the corridor with long legs, holding Theodor steadily in his arms.

“Yes, I understand. You’re good. You’re pretty. Our Theo, you resemble your mother.”

Hearing the Emperor issuing instructions to the Chief Steward inside the Grand Real Session, Reichardt walked even faster.

Once he saw Dorothea and the twins, and relayed to Her Majesty the Empress what Alicia had asked him to say, he would be done.

The Emperor would be busy in his own way, and the Empress in hers.

He planned to watch for an opening in between and return to Tessen.

In the imperial palace, there was never a calm day.

Tessen border, west.

Between the deep valleys of Mount Kaip, a massive Lusa ran.

The Lusa’s large hooves left big impressions in the moist soil.

Alicia swung a long spear.

The sharp spearhead surged upward from below, as if scraping up along the side of the Lusa’s torso. To the right, to the left, the spearhead swept through in succession.

Whoosh!

Following the sound of cold wind, then—skrk!

The sound rang out of a metal blade smashing a body made of solid stone.

Pashh.

Alicia’s long hair, riding atop the Lusa, fluttered with the wind.

Alicia struck the Lusa’s body, making it turn back.

On the Lusa that retraced the path it had run, Alicia slid down.

“Mm, let’s see.”

Alicia carefully examined the dirt road and picked up the scattered magic stones.

After collecting them all, she leapt up onto the slowly moving Lusa.

Spurring the Lusa into a fast run, Alicia pulled a pocket watch from her bosom.

Click.

If Reichardt saw her checking the time atop a running Lusa, his face would look as though the sky were collapsing.

Alicia knew Reichardt would worry, but she did not even think she might fall from the Lusa.

“I should go faster.”

Alicia tucked the pocket watch back into her bosom, and this time pulled out the astronomical clock and gripped it in her hand.

At the same time, she made the Lusa run even faster.

Her destination was the summit of Mount Kaip—North Kaya Castle.

At that time.

Reichardt, too, was riding a Lusa and running.

Ignoring the risk of being attacked, he was traveling brazenly with the Grand Duke of Tessen’s heraldic banner hung on the Lusa’s body.

Pararak!

The Grand Duke’s heraldic banner, draped over the Lusa like clothing, trembled with a frightening sound.

From the imperial capital Baden to the Great Temple’s jurisdiction.

Arriving in just a few hours, he plunged into the Great Temple’s territory without seeking any separate permission from the Great Temple.

Seeing the huge, pitch-black Lusa, the Great Temple’s residents were momentarily terrified, but did not act rashly.

The Great Temple’s land was still desolate, but with the priests of the Great Temple and Tessen’s efforts, it was recovering rapidly.

“G-Grand Duke!”

“This is the Great Tem—”

The Great Temple guards who recognized the Grand Duke of Tessen’s heraldry raised their voices.

Without even replying, Reichardt untied the Grand Duke’s heraldic banner that had been bound to the Lusa and threw it to the guards as he passed.

The heraldic banner, caught with both hands by six guards, seemed to stand in for a request announcing the Grand Duke of Tessen’s visit.

“…….”

The guards stared at Reichardt on the Lusa with resentful faces.

“…….”

Reichardt, galloping on the Lusa, looked back at the guards, too.

He sent them a glance that said, Go and report it yourselves, and rode even faster toward the Dolore Ruins.

When the Lusa carrying Reichardt arrived before the Dolore Ruins deep within the Great Temple.

“Rei!”

At the entrance leading down beneath the Dolore Ruins, Alicia waved a hand in greeting.

“Alicia!”

Reichardt, atop the Lusa, leaned sideways and reached an arm toward Alicia.

“You came quickly!”

Alicia clasped Reichardt’s outstretched hand and smiled brightly in delight.

At the same time, her body was seized by Reichardt’s hand and pulled up onto the Lusa.

Reichardt seated Alicia in front of him and ran the Lusa.

“I could have come faster, but I was delayed a bit in the middle. Did you hunt a lot?”

Reichardt spoke, gathering Alicia’s tousled hair to one side.

“Yeah! A lot.”

The Lusa carrying the two of them ran quickly out of the Great Temple’s territory.

“Was it good?”

“Yes, hurry.”

Alicia fluttered her hand and urged Reichardt on.

Seeing Alicia’s smiling face, Reichardt tilted his head.

“Will it work?”

“If it doesn’t, we’ll go to North Kaya for a bit and come back. Come here again.”

Alicia spoke about the front of the Dolore Ruins deep in the Great Temple as if it were her own home.

“Alright.”

Reichardt answered, pulling Alicia seated in front of him into a deep embrace from behind.

The Lusa carrying the two ran at a faster speed than ever.

According to Alicia’s hypothesis, it was like this.

Originally, at the castles of hell reached through the astronomical clock, one could stay for about ten minutes.

If one crossed a certain boundary before ten minutes passed, one could continue to remain where one had moved, and would not return to where the astronomical clock had been activated.

Alicia had tested this many times at North Kaya, and discovered that North Kaya’s boundary line was Dragonhead Rock.

She had not yet found the Great Temple’s boundary.

For days, the two had been running through the Great Temple on Lusa, trying to find the boundary line between the Great Temple and South Penz.

The High Priest and the priests of the Great Temple felt anger and fear at a situation they could not understand.

‘High Priest, the Grand Duke of Tessen is running through the Great Temple’s territory on the demon horse with Her Highness the Grand Duchess!’

A Great Temple priest submitted reports in an indignant voice over the past few nights.

‘Reichardt coming all the way to the Great Temple is possible if he overexerts himself on a Lusa, but the Grand Duchess? Wasn’t the Grand Duchess said to be in Tessen?’

‘Her Highness the Grand Duchess of Tessen appeared suddenly at the Dolore Ruins.’

‘What do you mean? Did you check the Great Temple entry records for a record of the Grand Duchess of Tessen?’

The High Priest was furious and pressed the priests.

‘High Priest! Her Highness the Grand Duchess of Tessen has suddenly disappeared. His Highness the Grand Duke headed for the Dolore Ruins.’

‘High Priest! Her Highness the Grand Duchess of Tessen has appeared again!’

‘…Th-the two of them are running about the Great Temple’s territory again on the demon horse.’

The priests’ voices reporting to the High Priest grew frightened.

Even as they reported, they wore faces that did not understand what they were saying.

For several nights, Alicia appeared and vanished like a ghost.

Reichardt and Alicia rode the Lusa and ran about gleefully, ignoring the Great Temple’s authority.

At daybreak the next day, the Great Temple protested to the Grand Duchy of Tessen.

But the delivery of the protest letter was slow, and Reichardt and Alicia appeared each night and raised a ruckus.

Tonight was the same.

“How dare you treat the Great Temple—!”

As the High Priest’s clenched fist trembled, the door burst open.

“High Priest, His Highness the Grand Duke of Tessen and Her Highness the Grand Duchess of Tessen passed through Annas Village, where Archive No. 4 is located, and headed for Baden.”

It was the Grand Ducal couple that always appeared on dark nights and ran wild.

Among them, the Grand Duchess appeared and vanished suddenly like a ghost, scattering unsettling rumors among the priests and the Great Temple village.

Some believed that Alicia Rain, the Grand Duchess of Tessen, was a true angel and could appear and disappear wherever she wished.

“T-the Grand Duchess as well?”

“Yes. I must confirm again, but it seems Her Highness the Grand Duchess is also traveling together with His Highness the Grand Duke.”

At the priest’s report, the High Priest sank into a chair nearby.

She was the High Priest, but she did not particularly believe in angels.

The Great Temple valued history and humanity’s records more highly.

“Didn’t you say the Grand Duchess appeared and vanished suddenly each night…?”

“Indeed, even today, she appeared as if surging up atop the Dolore Ruins.”

The priest said in a terrified voice.

“Ke-keep s-silent—”

The High Priest ordered, her lips twitching.

“Y-yes.”

The priest answered in a trembling voice and nodded strongly.

A dreadful silence fell over the High Priest’s office.

Meanwhile, in front of the Great Temple’s Archive No. 4.

“I think it’s here!”

Alicia turned back to Reichardt behind her with a radiant smile.

“Seems so. You don’t have to go back?”

Reichardt, placing an arm to support Alicia’s back as she twisted her upper body so she would not fall, gradually slowed the Lusa.

Even so, the Lusa’s speed was fast, almost like a horse running quickly.

“Let’s go home!”

Alicia nodded and smiled brightly.

“To Tessen?”

Reichardt wrapped an arm around Alicia’s shoulders in case she might fall.

“No. To where Rei and Theo are. That’s my home. Hurry!”

Alicia shouted in a voice soaked with laughter.

In a way, it was nothing special.

At the words that where her family was, was home, Reichardt pulled Alicia into a tight embrace with a face that looked as if he had received a shock.

“Rei?”

“Let’s go home.”

“Yeah, alright.”

The two of them ran toward a home filled with warm comfort.