Betrayal

Some time after Haalfrin perfected his last Name, he finds himself standing on the edge of the wall of his castle, looking down at where the Queen is.

Queen Fina isn't standing near the window, so he can't see her with his far-sight ability… However, he had long ago grown very sensitive to mana after living for so long handling it, so he knows precisely where she is.

As the man looks over at her, he begins tapping his foot – something he does while he's deep in thought.

His thoughts are suddenly interrupted when something hard pokes his ribs painfully.

Haalfrin spins around, and Freyya is already dodging out of the way of his strike. "Ha…haha," she shrieks in laughter. "One day you'll manage to hit me back!" Freyya gloats before haughtily hopping on the edge of the wall and perching herself on it.

Before she can even blink, Haalfrin slaps her upside the head and knocks her off the wall.

As his wife spins down the great distance to the ground, she bursts into a black cloud, then reappears beside him again.

Her eyes dart to the sides, and she starts to quickly say, "A-anyway, Haalfrin… dear… What were you thinking about?" She seemed to him that she was anxious to change the subject.

"Hmm… I've already gotten my Fel Name advanced way ahead of schedule," Haalfrin says slowly. "I'm wondering… Is there much point in keeping the Queen locked up here?"

"…Not really."

Haalfrin gives a deep sigh, as if a great burden was lifted from his shoulders. "Good. I'll gather the captains and generals tonight."

"What's this about?" Freyya asks. "It's not like you can drop the barrier willy-nilly, even if you think she's all right now."

Haalfrin shrugs, "Yeah. I'm going to try forcing Dakka to duel me. I haven't gotten any more powerful since I've woken up, and he has his Dominating Presence. I won't be able to put up a fight."

"Dear… You already know that Dakka is WAY too attached to you. He WON'T fight you."

Haalfrin smiles mischievously, "I can just threaten to try attacking his wife. With the way he dotes on her, there's no way he'd choose me over her."

Freyya shakes her head and sighs, "Well, you do you." She then flies off his balcony and disappears in the distance.

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Later that day, Haalfrin goes to deliver the news to his friend.

Even Dakka can feel how serious his friend is about dueling. And so, Dakka sends Haalfrin away with a promise that he'll think about it.

Of course, Haalfrin has the feeling that Dakka is just saying "I'll think about it" so that he can just put off answering long enough for the issue to slip away and be forgotten.

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Less than a week after Dakka's noncommittal answer, Kaalhyme is visiting the 'Ant kingdom's capitol' (the Threshold). He is a rather social man who gets along with the Ants better than most of his colleagues, so he's one of the Threshold's regular visitors.

During this particular visit, Kaalhyme was drinking with some of his friends at a bar with homegrown alcohol, rather than stuff the Rehkin send.

One of the Ants must have been new to brewing ale since she ended up making a batch with far more alcohol content than usual.

With Kaalhyme having an undying body, he's always the first to try something new – the Ants insist on it.

The next thing he knows, he ends up on the streets in a puddle of his own vomit.

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When Kaalhyme wakes up, he hears strange noises, and he turns his head to the side groggily. 'What the…?'

He looks up, and he sees some of the Ants atop the walls digging into the Time-locked cannons and eating the mana stones directly out of the hatch.

'Weren't they supposed to not be eating mana?' Out of interest, he keeps watching.

He then sees how the cannons keep restoring themselves before the Ants eat their batteries again.

At first, Kaalhyme thinks that some of the Ants just got curious, but then he suddenly realizes. 'Wait, if the cannons are being stitched back together again, then that means the Queen is using the Master Key. That means she's the one who ordered them to do this!"

This problem just turned from a problem worth a scolding to something that could jeopardize their long peace.

'I have to tell the Commander! I-"

He's interrupted by a curious Ant who saw him atop the wall. She's not sure why, but she was ordered by her Queen to knock the man out.

Alas, the Great General Kaalhyme was far too drunk to really fight back – even if it was a single Ant.

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Kaalhyme's unconscious body is wrapped in sailcloth, then sneakily carried to the Queen's Throne Room. There, his thrown out of his cover, and his face flops on the ground.

After he's shaken awake again, he's given a tonic to sober him up.

With clear eyes now, the Arkin looks up at the Queen, who is sitting on her throne and impatiently tapping her fingers on the armrest.

There's a long silence, which is only interrupted when the Queen suddenly frowns and asks, "What's that expression you're making?"

"It's called disappointment and pity." His answer is short and terse.

"Pity? PITY!?" she shrieks, "After you little demons trapped me here for so long, you dare PITY me? It was all YOUR FAULT!"

'She seemed a lot crazier than I remembered seeing her last,' he thinks.

Feeling suddenly annoyed, the Queen telepathically orders Kaalhyme to be taken away to the dungeon. In parting she says, "I promise I'm not going to kill you, at least."

Of course, she's not being merciful here. If she slit this snooping Arkin's throat, then this pointy-eared demon would just be resummoned at Haalfrin's side and reveal everything she's been doing – all that information that she's been trying to keep a secret.

She can't afford to let Haalfrin know that she's found a way to break the treaty and finally stockpile mana. The longer she can hoard her mana while keeping this 'peaceful' charade going, then the bigger advantage she'll have.

Of course, she'll have to find a way to get Dakka to leave for a while at least, since that stupid lizard is way too powerful for her to ever do anything – no matter how much mana she hordes.

That means that she'll have to get Haalfrin in a room alone with herself, then kill the troublesome human too quickly for her husband to show up and ruin her plans.

And so, if the Queen is to have any confidence in killing Haalfrin in a single, decisive moment, then she'll need a lot of mana that she can afford to lose.

While thinking about this, the Queen looks over to where the demon was dragged off to, and she thinks, 'I'll try to keep him a prisoner for as long as I need to keep up this peace farce. The more time I have to prepare my surprise, the better.

As Kaalhyme is nearly out of the room, the man shouts at her, "What about your Ants? Aren't they your children? Don't you feel bad about sending them to war again and getting them killed?"

The Arkin can't get out of his head the image of all those girls and ladies smiling innocently and living happily.

The Queen just frowns at this and caresses her heart. "Hm… These 'children' are just splinters of my own soul. They're not my children; they're myself. There's nothing immoral about making myself suffer or sacrificing myself to get what I want."

The Queen then looks up at the Valor Hall and snarls, though she keeps her thoughts to herself this time.

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Needless to say, Kaalhyme feels… complicated in his heart as he's stuffed in a special prison cell designed for mages.

Still, he knows he has to find a way to get back to Haalfrin before his Commander is completely blindsided by the Queen's treachery.

Well, no point in being angsty and overthinking he can't control; the most important thing is to figure out how to escape his cell.

This is going to be difficult since he's been put under a restraining boulder – much like the one that had trapped Haalfrin in the Pit.

Being completely immobilized, and having Spirit Stone Rock all around him, he has no way of reaching out to his comrades through his spirit Threads.

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Maybe it's because the Queen's mind is fraying right now, or maybe it's because she's subconsciously feeling suicidal, but she didn't think to order all of her children to keep their mouths shut about her new prisoner.

Soon enough, rumors are flying around among the Ants. The only reason the entire Ant population doesn't hear about it within a day is because many of the Ants are sensible enough to be cautious or skeptical of such a strange rumor.

Even Dakka himself, when he hears the rumor, thinks that the Ants are just making something up, or they're playing 'hide and seek' with this soldier.

However, he's shaken out of his stupor when one of the Ants comes up to him with a sheepish face and confesses that she was there when the Queen ordered the man to be put in prison. She also was one of the Ants who was eating the mana stones.

"Mom told me to keep a secret about the cannons and the mana stones, but when the pointy-ear saw us doing it, she had us capture him. Is eating the mana stones bad?" The girl says this as she cautiously looks down and wrings her shirt with her wrists. She fully believes that she's about to be scolded by her guardian.

"…What…?" Dakka rumbles. He then looks up at the sky towards the Valor Hall, and he hisses at the girl, "Keep this to yourself… and tell all the other witnesses to shut up about it too. If I hear of the pointy-ears hearing of this, you'll be in BIG trouble."

The girl energetically nods her head before running off – glad to not be in any immediate trouble at least.

'What have you been up to, dear?' Dakka shakes his head and thinks. 'Well, mind as well solve this myself, rather than let Haalfrin get involved. I don't want this to turn into another war.'