Chapter 6

With each passing day, the north wind grew balmier, softly stirring the surface

of the blue lake water. Solus's light reflected off the ripples, transforming into

complex and tiny flickers of color.

Nestled among the smooth hills outside North Centoria, Lake Norkia's ice had

just melted half a month ago, but there was already new grass sprouting along

the shore, and tiny yellow flowers added some meager color to go with it.

This region was the richest in earthly fertility near the capital and offered

beautiful sights in each of the four seasons, but it had been a long time—over a

hundred years, in fact—since any commoners or lower nobles were even

allowed near it. That was because the shores of Lake Norkia had always been

part of the largest of the private lands owned by nobles: the imperial private

holdings.

After the Rebellion of the Four Empires, all the private lands had been opened

up, and now they were considered free land that anyone could walk across to

enjoy. But with the full bloom of spring still distant, there were no other figures

at the waterside except Ronie, Tiese, and their two dragons.

By the calendar of the Human Era, it was the year 382, February 24th.

The girls concluded their training session during the morning, and with the

permission of their teachers, as well as that of Deusolbert, Commander Fanatio,

and even the swordsman delegate, they took Tsukigake and Shimosaki out of

the cathedral grounds. Kirito was disappointed that he couldn't join them, a

feeling Ronie shared, but this was not a trip for fun. They were going to test out

what Stablemaster Hainag had suggested yesterday.

As Solus reached its zenith, the two juvenile dragons frolicking in the grass

stopped what they were doing and trotted over to Ronie and Tiese, who were

sitting on the rocks at the lakeside, and took turns trilling at them. After all their

running, they were hungry.

Just in case, they packed a bit of dried meat and fruit for the dragons' lunch

on the small carriage that Tiese had nominated herself to drive here, if a bit

awkwardly. But Ronie did not pull out the jerky for them.

"Tsukigake, Shimosaki, you're going to catch your own lunch today."

"Kyuru…?"

It wasn't clear how much the dragons understood human speech. They

craned their necks with curiosity and skepticism, which prompted Tiese to

chuckle and get up off the rock.

"Here, follow me!" she said, crossing the short new grass to the water's edge.

Tsukigake and Shimosaki chased after her, their little tails wagging. Ronie

quietly snuck along behind them.

Tiese came to a stop along the lake edge where white rock was exposed and

peered down into the water.

"Ooh, there they are," she murmured. Ronie came up next to her and saw

many shapes swimming speedily through the clear water. It was a school of fish

that had passed the winter beneath the ice. The dragons crouched and stuck

their long necks between the two girls.

"Look, Tsukigake, those are fish. I bet they're really yummy," she whispered

to the picky dragon, who looked up at her and trilled skeptically. When she tried

to wriggle away backward, Ronie reached down to steady her rump with a hand

and added, "If you don't catch some fish today, you're not getting any lunch."

"Krruu…," Tsukigake whined, as if to say That's not fair! It was so comical that

Ronie wanted to laugh, but this was too important. She scowled, determined to

play the stern master.

While Ronie and her dragon stared each other down, Shimosaki let out a highpitched cry, beat his wings a few times for good measure, and then leaped out

over the water. He folded his wings in the air, straightened out his neck, and

plunged headfirst into the lake.

The fish swimming near the bottom of the seventy-cen-deep water split in all

directions. Shimosaki pursued one of them fiercely, twisting and twirling with

an impressive underwater agility.

Though dragons' bodies were specialized for flight, the natural dragon nest in

the remote stretches of the western empire was found in a treacherous

mountain area surrounded by a vast lake dozens of times as large as Lake

Norkia. There, the wild dragons swam freely, catching fish. Tsukigake and

Shimosaki, who were born at the cathedral, had only swam in the shallow pond

within its walls, but they knew how to do it by instinct.

Nearly a minute later, Shimosaki burst up out of the water, beating his little

wings furiously until he landed back on the shore. Before Tiese and Ronie could

get out of the way, he shook himself vigorously, spraying a carpet of water from

his soaking-wet down.

"Aaaah!" Ronie cried, turning her face away. She noticed something shining in

Shimosaki's mouth and looked closer. It was a trout, silver with little red flecks.

While the fish had looked small at the bottom of the water, up close she could

see that it was nearly twenty cens in length.

Tsukigake leaned closer to sniff at the trout flailing and flapping in her

partner's jaw. But then the successful hunter tilted his head backward and

swallowed the fish whole.

"Kyurrrr!" chirped the satisfied little dragon.

Tiese just shook her head. "You went through the trouble of catching it; why

not savor the flavor a little more?"

But Shimosaki just waggled his tail and jumped back into the water, as if

saying this was just for starters. Tsukigake looked at the surface of the water

but stopped there.

"C'mon, Tsuki, you can do it!" coaxed Ronie. The dragon bobbed her body

several times, trapped between hunger and hesitation. Finally, she cried

"Krruu!" and leaped into the water.

The pale-yellow figure was a bit more awkward in the lake than Shimosaki,

but she was trying her best. The school of trout was quick and slippery,

however, darting left and right to evade. Tsukigake was more reserved and

quiet than her partner, and Ronie was starting to wonder if sending her to catch

fish right away was too high a hurdle when Shimosaki suddenly turned to head

off the school of trout. The fish stopped in their tracks and panicked, and that

was when Tsukigake burst through the group.

The juvenile dragon shot out of the water and returned to shore, now

carrying a majestic, twenty-five-cen trout in her mouth.

"Krrrrrr!" she trilled, proudly showing off her prize.

Ronie cried out, "You did it! Well done, Tsukigake!"

She gave the dragon a burst of applause, but this was the easy part. Tsukigake

was leaving fish behind at the stable, so would she actually eat the trout she

caught? Stablemaster Hainag had claimed that eating a fresh fish would fix

being picky, but was it true?

Ronie watched her dragon nervously. Tsukigake blinked a few times, thinking

it over, then stretched her neck toward her master and dropped the trout onto

the grass. "Krr!"

The dragon didn't mean to be stubborn, but Ronie couldn't help sighing. She

enjoyed catching fish but still didn't like to eat them, then. Ronie was going to

scold her, to say that she wasn't going to get any lunch if she didn't eat—when

Tiese interrupted.

"Don't you think she's giving you the fish, Ronie?"

"Huh…?" She blinked, then asked the little dragon, "Is that fish for me?"

Tsukigake cried "Krrrr!" as if pleased to finally be understood.

"Oh…thank you, Tsuki," she said, reaching out to caress her head, dotted with

water droplets. She picked up the flapping, jumping fish with her other hand

and smiled. "I'll make this my lunch. But you have to eat the next one yourself."

"Krr!" she chirped, jumping back into the water.

From there, the dragons' improvement was undeniable. Rather than chasing

the trout individually, they set one after the school, while the other came from

the other direction. When the fish panicked, trapped between two predators,

each dragon was able to catch their own prey.

Before the fish finally swam for deeper waters to get away, Tsukigake and

Shimosaki had caught five fish each. They ate three of their catches and gave

the other two to the girls. The humans seared the trout over a little campfire of

dried branches; it was very simple compared to yesterday's fantastic papercooked dish from the subdelegate, but because the fish was so fresh, and the

dragons had caught them just for the meal, it seemed just as tasty.

As the stablemaster had said, this seemed to cure Tsukigake's picky

tendencies, while Shimosaki didn't seem to have any problems to begin with.

When they were done eating, the young dragons began to frolic around the

knoll again. The yards in the cathedral were spacious, but the dragons clearly

enjoyed being in the openness of nature more.

Ronie breathed in the fresh air, telling herself that she'd have to bring

Tsukigake here more often.

On a nearby hill, the horses were calmly grazing where they stood tied to the

trees. About ten white waterfowl formed a small flock farther out on the lake,

while newly emerged butterflies fluttered from flower to flower. Still, there

were no other people aside from the two apprentice knights.

"After we opened up the private lands, you'd think more people from the city

would come out here to visit," Ronie murmured.

Tiese paused drinking tea from her canteen to snort. "Oh, Ronie, you're too

used to living at the cathedral now. It's not the day of rest today, so people

aren't going to just get up and leave the city in the middle of the day."

"Oh…r-right."

The children would be learning at school, and the adults would be busy with

work or chores at this hour. As apprentices, once they were done with their

morning training, the knights had much more freedom with their daily

schedule. I need to remember not to take that for granted, she told herself.

"Oh, but from what I heard," Tiese continued abruptly, "nobody comes out to

the emperor's holdings, even on rest days. Even though the other private

estates are so popular there are lines at the gates."

"Ohhh…," Ronie murmured. She glanced around them again.

Norlangarth spread outward from Centoria like a fan. So the closer you were

to the capital, the narrower the breadth of the land. This spot was only ten

kilors out from the city, and the Everlasting Walls, which split the empires, were

still clearly visible to both the east and west.

The emperor's private holdings spanned all the land on the west side of the

main road leading north out of Centoria, while the other noble lands were lined

up along the east side. In other words, the imperial holdings weren't necessarily

farther away, so that wasn't a reason to deter visitors.

Ronie looked at her friend and saw that Tiese's nostrils were twitching just

slightly—the look she got when she really wanted to say something. Despite her

foreboding, Ronie went ahead and asked the question Tiese was clearly hoping

to hear.

"…Why aren't the emperor's holdings more popular?"

Tiese cleared her throat theatrically and pointed at the far bank of Lake

Norkia. "See that mansion on the other side?"

"…Yes." Ronie nodded.

There was a bit of a forest along the far shore, with a black building spire

jutting out of the middle of it. That was less of a mansion than a castle manor; it

was where the emperors of Norlangarth would stay when visiting their private

land. Before the rebellion, there were always about twenty soldiers and

servants in residence, but now the building was entirely off-limits, and the

whole lot was chained off to prevent visitors from going in.

"The emperor's mansion, right? What about it?" she asked, seeing that Tiese's

expression had clouded over into something more ominous.

"…I hear you see things there."

"See things? …Like what?"

"You know what I mean," Tiese murmured, leaning closer to Ronie's ear.

"Ghosts."

"..."

Ronie wasn't really sure how to react to this at first. She said nothing for

several seconds before finally asking, "Whose?"

Tiese's overly serious face finally cracked. She shouted, "Aw, come on, you're

no fun! You're supposed to get all scared!"

"Let me guess: You were preparing yourself to say that all day."

"Of course I was! I don't get many opportunities to spook you, Ronie,"

complained Tiese.

Ronie poked her near the elbow and asked, "That's not just a story you made

up, is it? Where'd you hear about that?"

"The last day of rest…when you and Kirito were in the dark lands, I went

shopping in the market in the sixth district, and the man at the bakery told me.

He said that people like to go out to visit the formerly private lands now, so his

hard rolls for packed lunches are selling well, but the emperor's holdings aren't

a popular destination, and it's because there are ghosts near the mansion,

apparently."

"Really? They believe in ghosts now…?" Ronie wondered, shaking her head.

According to the old stories she'd heard in childhood, there were ghosts

wreaking havoc around the various towns and villages before the Axiom Church

started. But they were all exorcised by the Church's bishops and the Integrity

Knights, and now the land was at peace, all the tales said. In all her life, Ronie

had never seen anything like the spooky ghosts from the stories.

"For one thing, the actual fighting happened at the palace in the first district,

and the only people who died were the emperor for not surrendering, the noble

generals, and the grand chamberlain of the palace, right? Why would there be

ghosts around the mansion in the holdings outside of the city?" she said, a bit

faster than necessary. It surprised Tiese, who recovered and gave a small smirk.

"Wait a minute, Ronie. Are you getting a little intimidated?"

"M-me…? No, of course not!"

"Oh really? Well then…why don't we go and check it out?"

"Huh?" She leaned away, taken aback by the suggestion. "Ch-check out…the

mansion?"

"Of course," said Tiese smugly, arching her back. "Look, if these creepy

rumors are going to continue spreading, it's going to have an effect on the

Unification Council's plans to reuse the private land, right? Apprentices or not,

we're Integrity Knights, so if we realize that something needs to be investigated,

shouldn't we be the ones to do it?"

This is verrry suspicious, Ronie thought, but on the surface, at least, her friend

was correct. Instructor Deusolbert often told them that they were now knights,

and they couldn't just stand there waiting for orders all the time. Her entire

afternoon was scheduled for hanging out at the lake to fix Tsukigake's eating

habits, and it was still early.

She stopped herself from sighing and looked from her friend to the southern

sky. From this angle, Centoria was hidden from view by a hill, but even ten kilors

away, Central Cathedral's majestic pillar stood bright against the blue sky. Kirito

and Asuna were probably in there at this very moment, waiting impatiently for

the report from South Centoria's city office. The plan was to receive the results

of that investigation, which was likely to be fruitless, and then hold a massive

search of the entirety of South Centoria. But if an emergency arose before

Ronie and Tiese returned, the elite knight Renly was supposed to ride here on

his dragon mount Kazenui and alert them.

"…All right," Ronie said in as placid a tone as she could manage. She glanced

at the dragons, who were running energetically around a nearby field. "But

what about them?"

"Why don't we take them along? Ghosts should be afraid of a sacred animal

like a dragon, right? Assuming there's actually one there."

It was hard to tell just how seriously Tiese believed in this, but seeing that she

wouldn't relent, Ronie gave in. Only the Integrity Knights could enter a mansion

locked up by order of the Axiom Church, and there weren't going to be

dangerous creatures like bears or wolves here, much less any ghosts. So it

would be safe to bring the juveniles along.

"I suppose you're right…"

"Then that settles it!" Tiese shouted, bolting upright from the rock she was

using as a chair.

Ronie stood up, too. She brushed the hilt of the Moonbeam Sword hanging at

her left side and said, "If it was going to come to this, you should have chosen a

new sword for yourself, too."

Her friend looked at the standard-issue Human Guardian Army sword she had

and shrugged. "Mmm, I guess so, but I like this sword…It's so familiar to me

now…"

That was understandable. Ronie felt uneasy about changing to a sword that

felt unfamiliar, and it was difficult to let go of an old one. She couldn't force her

friend to change.

Tiese gave her a small grin and then turned toward the dragons. "Shimosaki!

Tsukigake! Come over here! We're going to go on a little trip!"

The diminutive dragons, bursting with energy after gorging themselves on

fresh fish, beat their little wings and trilled in unison.

To go from the east shore of Lake Norkia to the west, where the off-limits

mansion was, they had to circle either north or south quite a ways.

The south end of the lake was a wetland, so they chose to go north instead.

The ground here was dry grassland, which made it easier to walk on. Still, that

meant nearly three kilors to walk around the vast lake. They were worried

about the dragons' stamina, but the creatures with the highest natural life value

in the realm were perfectly fine trotting along on the hike.

After fifteen or so minutes, they reached the northern tip of the lake, where

there was a river feeding into it, spanned by a firm stone footbridge. The river

was a tributary of the Rul River, which started at the End Mountains on the

northern edge of Norlangarth. The main part of the river followed the highway

right into Centoria, where it filled the city's aqueduct with crystal-clear water.

According to Kirito and Eugeo during their academy days, the source of the

Rul was very close to Rulid Village, where they lived. When Tiese had suggested,

Why didn't you just build a little boat and ride it all the way down to Centoria?

the two of them were very quiet for a long time, then admitted, "We never

thought of that."

Realistically, there would be shallows and rapids and probably a few falls

along the way, so it wouldn't be an easy trip, but Kirito and Eugeo had agreed

that whenever they went back to visit Rulid, they should use this method to

return to the capital. Tiese and Ronie dreamed excitedly of making that trip

with them, but that was an adventure that would never happen.

They hopped from the grassy hill onto the impressive stone path and crossed

the bridge. This route would take them directly to the mansion. After a while, a

very large field appeared on the right. There were lines and lines of neatly

arranged shrubs—probably the grape plants for making wine.

Ronie's father, a lower noble, had said that if the vineyards in the emperor's

and high nobles' private lands were converted over to wheat, they could

provide the yearly demand of wheat for all of North Centoria, without having to

ship it all down from the grain-producing lands to the north. Now that she could

see their size for herself, Ronie realized he was not exaggerating.

And the emperor's wine was chosen from only the very finest of the grapes

grown on this vast number of vines, with no extra produced that the common

people might actually taste. According to Hana, who had been Administrator's

personal chef, her master did not particularly fixate on fine food, so she was

satisfied with the wines carried by the shops in the capital—which were still

very fine, to be fair. But the emperor of Norlangarth was secretly proud that the

wine he drank was finer than the pontifex's.

"…I wonder what will happen to these vineyards?" Tiese murmured as they

walked past them. Ronie considered this with a tilt of her head.

"The project to reuse the private holdings still hasn't decided whether to

leave them as vineyards or convert them to wheat fields. From what I hear,

some of the serfs who lived on the land and managed the trees still want to

come back and continue growing grapes."

"But with this much space, you'd need a lot of people to manage it…I've

heard that similar problems are happening on the private holdings of the other

empires, too."

"Yazen lived on the Sothercrois holdings. I wonder what his preference was?"

Ronie questioned this time.

Tiese gave it some thought and said, "According to what Lady Asuna saw in

the past-scrying art, Yazen said something like 'I'm not a serf anymore,' so I'm

guessing he didn't want to go back."

"I see…that makes sense. He'd just found a new calling for himself…"

They were silent after that, walking in the warm, soft sunlight. The breeze

through the abandoned vineyard ruffled the feathers of the juvenile dragons,

who walked a bit ahead of the girls. The gnarled grape vines had lost all their

leaves, but they would soon be sprouting bright, new green growths from every

possible branch. In order to keep the vineyard functional, they would need

people to start pruning the thousands of vines when that time came.

"Listen, Tiese…if there aren't enough people to do the work…," murmured

Ronie in a daze. But she didn't finish that thought, and when Tiese pressed her

for more information with a look, she only said, "N-nothing, never mind."

As a matter of fact, she was going to suggest, What if we move all the goblins

who are suffering in the distant reaches of the Dark Territory and give them

work tending to these plants?

But that would only mean replacing the serfs who'd been forced into a painful

livelihood in this place with goblins, instead. It wouldn't be forced servitude this

time, of course, and there would be income that matched the amount of work

involved, but in the sense that it would be bringing them here to do hard labor,

it was hard not to see this as a kind of slavery.

In that case, however…

The vast majority of people in the human realm were forced to start a calling

at just ten years old—and begin to work. Children who got to go to a higher

school, like Ronie and Tiese, were the exception, and even for them, if they

hadn't become apprentice Integrity Knights, their only options would have been

to join the army or marry someone their parents decided upon and be

homemakers.

If they couldn't choose their own future, how was that fundamentally any

different from the former serfs?

Ronie came to a stop, so befuddled was she by these new questions she'd

never considered before. Just then, Tiese called out, "Oh, look! I see the gate!"

She looked up with a start and saw where Tiese was pointing, farther down

the path. There was a majestic iron gate that loomed tall and dark. Beyond it

was a line of lush, ancient trees that absorbed the light of Solus, leaving the

path beneath them darkened.

They crossed the last hundred mels quickly and stopped before the gate. In

the center of the thin metal filigree was an enormous crest of Norlangarth: a

symbol of a lily and a hawk. Beneath it was a wooden placard carved with the

symbol of the Axiom Church. It had a simple message: ENTRY PROHIBITED WITHOUT

PERMISSION OF THE HUMAN UNIFICATION COUNCIL.

On top of that, the double gates were locked by very tough-looking chains

that extended off to the left and right, apparently around the entire forest lot.

You could simply jump over the chains anywhere aside from the gate, of course,

but nobody in this entire realm would attempt to do that after seeing the

placard.

At their feet, Tsukigake and Shimosaki looked up at the ostentatious chains

and snorted. Their masters looked at each other for a while, until Tiese finally

said, "We are members of the council, right? Technically speaking?"

"…We go to the meetings every day. I think that counts?" Ronie replied, but it

was really more like they observed the meetings than attended them. Still,

there were times when they were given the right to speak, so they clearly

weren't total outsiders to the process.

Tiese bobbed her head. Then she made a stern face, lifted her right fist to her

chest, and put her left hand on her sword hilt. "Integrity Knight Apprentice

Ronie Arabel! In the name of the Human Unification Council, I permit you to

pass through this gate!"

Ronie was taken aback at first, but she recovered to return the knight's salute

in acknowledgment. When Tiese lowered her hands, she said "Okay, my turn,"

so Ronie repeated the formal process.

They gave the dragons permission as well, just in case, then walked about ten

mels to the right, where the chain was only held up by metal supports, and they

could slip through.

Instantly, the air felt colder, causing Ronie to hunch her neck. She told herself

it was because they'd walked into the shade, but there was an oppressive

heaviness to the air here that went beyond that simple explanation.

They walked beneath the mossy trees back to the stone path, where Ronie

confirmed the point of their impromptu mission with her partner.

"Um, Tiese, we're here to investigate the rumors of ghosts…right?"

"That's right."

"And that means we have to go inside?"

"That's right," Tiese repeated. She smirked. "Uh-oh, Ronie. Are you scared of

ghosts?"

Well, now she certainly couldn't admit it. Despite the scary stories she heard

as a child threatening to come back to her mind, she said breezily, "Of course

I'm not…And besides, there aren't going to be any ghosts in this day and age."

For some reason, Tiese's smirk faded, but she recovered and patted Ronie on

the back. "Then going inside the mansion shouldn't be a problem for you!

C'mon, let's move!"

"F-fine, fine…"

She knew that she was passively allowing herself to be pushed onward, but

Ronie went ahead with it anyway.

Over half a year had passed since this entire forest was chained off, but the

ground beneath the trees was surprisingly well kept. Perhaps because the tall

trees overhead were taking all of Solus's and Terraria's blessings, the ground

weeds couldn't grow underneath. That would explain why the air felt so fresh

and alive on the other side of the lake but so gloomy and stifling here.

Tsukigake and Shimosaki had been quite happy to proceed ahead of the girls

outside of the gates, but now they were trailing behind. Ronie looked over her

shoulder and saw that the dragons were sniffing skeptically at the sides of the

road, waving their raised tails back and forth.

"What's wrong, Tsuki?" she called out. The dragon crooned quietly back to

her. She seemed hesitant to go on, but she wasn't stopping, either.

Dragons connected to their knights by a powerful bond were said to sacrifice

their lives to protect their masters when the situation required it. As a matter of

fact, at the end of the Otherworld War, Ronie had seen Kazenui swoop in to

block the long spears wielded by the red knights from the real world in order to

save its master, Renly.

The war was over, so even when fully grown, these dragons shouldn't ever

come across that situation. Even still, Ronie was briefly paralyzed by that

terrible thought.

This trip was for the dragons' benefit, so if the dragons were uneasy about it,

there was no need to bother with the mansion. So she thought, but Tiese was

not stopping. Ronie turned to face forward again and jogged to keep up with

her partner.

Looking back on it, Tiese's attitude felt like it wasn't quite in keeping with her

usual character. Her idea to investigate the mansion was delivered in a joking

manner but in a strangely insistent way, and it came out of nowhere, too.

Almost as if she was planning this sojourn as soon as their trip to the lake was

set in stone…

"Hey…," she said to her friend, right at the moment that the sound of the two

o'clock bells came echoing from the distant south.

Tiese's head swiveled. "We should hurry, before it gets dark. Let's run!"

"O…okay," Ronie agreed, without much choice in the matter, trotting after

Tiese. The little dragons beat their wings and hopped along to keep up. Even for

dragons, the juveniles would soon get tired and begin to lose life, so they'd

have to pick a moment to stop and feed them some of the dried fruit they

brought from the carriage.

The forest around the mansion didn't seem that deep from a distance, but the

path twisted and turned, so they never seemed to get through it. After nearly

ten minutes of walking since the two o'clock ringing, the way ahead began to

brighten, much to Ronie's relief.

There was an opening about a hundred mels across, right in the middle of the

forest, with the mansion in question sitting directly in the center of it.

The stone construction was dark gray, and the steeply angled roof was black.

It was a three-story building by the look of it, and the low number of windows

made it seem more like a fortress than a mansion. There were a few flower

beds in the front lawn just for effect, but now they were full of dead, dried

grasses, which only added to the chilly feeling.

"Is this really…the emperor's villa…?" Ronie wondered.

Tiese pondered the question. "Well…I'll admit, the mansions on the nobles'

private estates seem bigger than this…Oh, but look," she said, pointing to the

large doors on the front side of the building. "It's got the crest of a lily and a

hawk. Only the imperial family can use that symbol."

"True…"

The gate at the edge of the forest had the same crest of Norlangarth on it, so

this was undoubtedly the emperor's mansion.

"…Let's go," Tiese murmured quietly, starting to walk toward it. Shimosaki

followed her, his head drooping.

Ronie looked down at Tsukigake and asked, "Are you okay? You're not tired?"

The little dragon spread her wings and chirped as if to say Of course not!

They passed down the footpath of dead grass, through the flower beds, and

reached the front doors. Behind them, the blue surface of Lake Norkia was

completely hidden by the trees. What was the point of building a house by the

lake if you couldn't see the water?

There was a clanking of metal behind her, and Ronie saw that Tiese had

grabbed the handles of the doors and attempted to push them open.

"…They won't go?" she asked.

Her partner's red hair shook. "No. I think they're locked."

"Well, that makes sense. So…I suppose that means there's no one inside,

right?" she asked, assuming Tiese would agree. But her partner did not let go of

the handles.

"Still, a ghost doesn't get stopped by a locked door, does it?"

"What…?"

She wasn't expecting that rebuttal. True, the ghosts in the old stories usually

didn't have solid bodies, and she thought she remembered descriptions of them

passing through walls and doors…

"But that doesn't mean we can do it…," she muttered.

Tiese closed her eyes, still holding on to the handles, and began to groan.

"Mm…mrrmng…"

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"Mrrrmmngng!"

"Um, Tiese? Tiese!" She moved to grab her friend's arm before she abruptly

realized what was going on:

Tiese was clearly trying to mimic the Incarnate Lock-Picking trick that Kirito

exhibited at the inn in South Centoria earlier.

"Come on…We can't even use Incarnate Arms yet; there's no way we can use

it to pick a lock!" Ronie pointed out with exasperation. But Tiese's face was

resolute—perhaps even desperate—causing her friend to gasp.

She paused, hesitated, and finally squeaked, "Tiese…why are you doing this…?

Is investigating some ghosts that important to you…?"

Tiese exhaled slowly and finally removed her hands from the doors. Her face

stayed downcast until she finally asked, "Ronie…do you think ghosts are real?"

"Huh…?"

It was like a question from a little kid. Ronie almost chuckled and asked what

had gotten into her, but she stopped herself. Tiese's eyes were searching and

serious as they stared at the ground. She was not joking in the least. Whatever

the reason, her best friend was asking her in all seriousness, and she ought to

respond in kind.

Ronie had never seen a ghost—at least, defined as the souls of people who

died holding on to great hatred or sadness, fated to wander the earth instead of

reaching the celestial realm. And the same was probably true of her mother and

grandmother, who were the ones who had told her the old stories to begin

with.

So were there ghosts hundreds of years ago, in the setting of those stories?

She didn't think so. For one thing, the celestial realm that the souls of the dead

traveled to most likely did not exist. Outside of the Underworld was the real

world, where Kirito and Asuna came from. There were no gods there, either,

just more human beings who'd been fighting for thousands of years.

If there was no celestial realm, then by the stories' logic, the world should be

overflowing with the ghostly souls of the dead with nowhere to go. Since that

wasn't true, it probably meant that regardless of any hate or sadness a human

soul might cling to, it still vanished in the moment of death, and no ghost ever

resulted.

Ronie took a breath to prepare for her answer. But before she spoke, a vivid

image flooded into her mind, and her eyes went wide.

She'd never seen a spooky ghost before.

But she had seen the glimmer of a dead person's soul.

It was at the very end of the Otherworld War, when the man in the black

cloak who was leading the red knights from the real world got into a violent

clash with Kirito, who had just woken up from his long stupor.

The huge blade that the man in the cloak had wielded had been pushing

down on Kirito's sword, until it seemed like it might slice into his shoulder—

when Tiese had clasped her hands together and prayed: Please, Eugeo. Help

Kirito…

And as though in answer to that call, a translucent golden arm had appeared

and propped up the Night-Sky Blade. With the arm's help, Kirito had pushed

back the enormous knife and won his desperate battle against the man in the

black cloak. There was no doubt it was the hand of a person who no longer

lived: Kirito's friend and Tiese's mentor, Eugeo the Elite Disciple.

"Tiese...are you...?"

All thoughts about the logic of ghosts were gone from her mind. At last, she

felt like she understood why Tiese was fixated on the rumors of ghosts at the

abandoned building in the woods.

She reached out to touch the back of her despondent friend—when a faint

but undeniable sound caused her to flinch. Tiese's face rose swiftly in reaction.

It was not a natural sound, but an unpleasant scraping of metal on metal. And

it was undoubtedly coming from the other side of the locked doors.

Ronie brought a finger to her lips in a hushing gesture to Tiese, then carefully

pressed her ear to the door.

She waited several seconds. There was nothing coming through. But the

sound earlier was no illusion.

Ronie pulled away from the door to stare at Tiese, whose face was pale. Her

friend whispered, "We have to get in there…"

"..."

Ronie wasn't sure whether to agree.

Even if the ghost rumors were accurate, it was impossible to believe the ghost

would just so happen to be that of Eugeo, the boy Tiese had pined for in life.

Eugeo had perished on the top floor of Central Cathedral; he wouldn't show up

as a ghost in the villa on the emperor's private land.

And if the sound had been caused by a flesh-and-blood human, rather than a

ghost, it was quite possible this person was not just some innocent civilian. The

only person who could go in and out of a building sealed by order of the

Unification Council and the Axiom Church was someone who could resist the

Taboo Index, which was the legal cudgel of the Church.

Ronie thought it best to return to the cathedral at once to report to Kirito or

Fanatio, but Tiese burst into action before she could suggest it. She began

running south along the mansion's exterior, looking to circle around the back.

Shimosaki followed behind her, bounding and leaping.

"Krrrr!" Tsukigake urged at Ronie's feet. She had no choice but to follow.

The back door was bound to be locked just the same, however. Whatever it

was that Tiese thought she was going to do, Ronie had to stop her from putting

herself in danger. And yet, the ten-mel gap between her and her partner wasn't

closing.

After rounding two corners, they were in the backyard, where it was suddenly

much darker. There were flower beds back here, too, but hardly any sunlight

reached this spot, so they were taken over by bluish mosses and gray vines. The

walkway was littered with broken cart wheels and rotting barrels. Now it

certainly didn't look like an emperor's residence.

The back door that Tiese was looking for ended up being surreptitiously

placed on the north side of the building. It would have been quicker for them to

circle around to the north than the south, but Tiese ran even faster, hardly

paying attention to such details, until she reached the door.

She grabbed the rusted doorknob and turned it, but as Ronie expected, it

rattled loudly and stayed firm. Yet, Tiese put even more strength into it.

Apprentice or not, her weapon-equipping authority level was nearly 40, so if

she set her mind to it, she could end up destroying an ordinary door. However,

this mansion had been confiscated from the imperial dynasty and now

belonged to the Human Unification Council, so even in the case of an

emergency, an Integrity Knight could not destroy the door without the council's

permission.

Ronie finally caught up to her partner and promptly grabbed her hand. "Don't

do this, Tiese. You're going to break the door."

"But…the sound inside…," her friend replied in a high-pitched wail. Even in

the dark of the shade, her skin looked very pale.

Ronie used both hands to envelop Tiese's cold fingers and pleaded, "I heard

the sound, too. It wasn't a trick of the ears. But that's why we have to think

straight."

Tiese's grip on the knob weakened until it came off, at which point Ronie

marched her a mel or so away from the door so they could look around the

yard.

"…It might be a ghost inside the building, but it could very well be something

else. If there's a living person going in and out of the mansion, they'll have left

trace evidence of their inhabitance somewhere."

That caused Tiese to blink a few times, clearing her eyes. She nodded, and her

dazed expression regained a little clarity and life.

"Yes…you're right. Let's look around the area."

Ronie gave her partner a vigorous bob of her head now that she was looking

more like herself, then returned to scanning the vicinity. The gloomy backyard

was more cramped than the front, but it was still a hundred mels across and

thirty mels deep. There were mossy flower beds on the left and right, and in the

center, a stagnant little pond that was dark green. Broken junk littered the

footpath, and weeds grew everywhere. Despite the fact that it was her idea in

the first place, she had no idea how to look for clues.

But surely looking around at random wasn't going to do the job. She had to

use her head and figure out which spots to investigate in particular.

"If anyone is coming through the back door…," Ronie murmured, examining

the ground in front of the door.

If the dirt was exposed, there might be footprints to find, but unfortunately,

even around the back, the paths were all gray cobblestones. Unlike in the front,

however, there were thin layers of moss here and there. Not thick enough to

preserve footprints, but maybe there was something else…

"Tiese, can you watch the dragons for a moment?"

"Um…okay," Tiese assented, backing away a few steps. She crouched so she

could put a hand on Tsukigake's and Shimosaki's backs, keeping them at bay.

Satisfied, Ronie held out her right hand.

"System Call, Generate Umbra Element."

Her command produced shining-purplish light that wreathed a tiny black

sphere, like a hole poked into empty space. This was a dark element, the most

difficult of the eight elements to control.

As opposed to a light element, this possessed a kind of negative energy and, if

released, would suck in nearby objects before it vanished. Water and air were

one thing, but if any objects or people touched it, the results could be

disastrous. But there were ways to utilize this property that were completely

impossible with any other element.

"Form Element, Mist Shape," Ronie continued, and the dark element silently

spread out until it formed a little purple fog cloud. It could be combined with a

wind element's vortex and hurled at enemies as an attack, but that wasn't the

point right now.

She used both hands to widen the mist into a thin, flat shape, then whispered,

"Discharge."

The purple curtain spread out in front of her. This mist had the ability to draw

sacred power into itself, react to it, and vanish. If combined with a whirlwind,

the blades of wind would tear the enemy's skin, and the dark mist would cling

to the wound, sucking out blood, which was the source of sacred power.

Humans and animals weren't the only things that possessed sacred power, of

course—so did plants, even the kind of moss that would cling to cobblestones.

They had just a tiny amount, but if trod upon to the point of damage, they

would release a trace of sacred power into the air.

The mist was unleashed in the shape of a purple belt, branching apart finely

like an actual plant as it sucked along the ground with an eerie glow. The

formation it made was undoubtedly that of a human footprint. And based on

the way it was glowing, the moss had been very freshly stepped on.

The prints led away from the back door of the mansion to the north, vanishing

into the woods surrounding the rear yard.

"That way, Tiese!" Ronie hissed, beginning to run along the fading light of the

steps as they proceeded away.

She turned left at the north end of the backyard and caught sight of a little

path that opened through the thick woods, almost like the mouth of a cave. The

undergrowth was cut away and the branches broken off, so this was clearly

human work. There was a series of glowing purple footsteps belonging to

someone heading down the path.

Ronie stopped at the entrance to the path and waited for Tiese to catch up.

"Be careful," she whispered. "We might run into whoever owns these tracks."

"Got it," her partner replied.

Down at their feet, the two little dragons had their wings folded and were

wearing serious expressions. If their group continued this way, it could end in

battle. She wanted to leave the dragons behind for that reason, but the yard of

the mansion wasn't necessarily safe, either.

Realizing they'd have to take them along, Ronie crouched. "You two have to

stay quiet, all right?"

Tsukigake responded with a quiet croon, so she rubbed the dragon's head and

stood up again.

The light of the footprints was already fading from the path, but based on the

size of the forest, they weren't going to get lost here. She and Tiese shared

another look for good measure, then headed into the trees.

Within just a few mels, the cold air stung their skin. It was a warm day hinting

of the spring to come, yet their breath fogged up as though it were midwinter.

Ronie had a bad feeling about this. When she had plunged into the throne

room of Norlangarth Castle with Tiese during the Rebellion of the Four Empires,

it had felt as oppressive as this. It wasn't just cold; it was like the chill that

seeped into the walls and floor over years and years was actively sucking out all

the warmth.

The bells for half past two hadn't played yet, but the area got darker the

farther they walked. Bushes with sharp thorns blocked the sides of the trail, and

gnarled branches from the trees loomed down right over their heads.

If it got any darker, they'd need to use light elements to see. Ronie was just

mulling it over when Tiese yelled, "Oh! Ronie…look!"

Through the darkness, she could see a number of metal rods standing up. At

first, she thought they'd reached the metal fence surrounding the forest, but

then she realized that this was not a fence but a lattice pattern. There was a

little shrine-like building at the end of the path, with a latticed door in front.

They came to a stop, made sure there was no sign of human presence around

the little building, then carefully approached it.

"This building…It's really old…," Tiese murmured. She was right—the stone

shrine was darkened from exposure to wind and rain, and moss covered the

area where it met the ground. Ten or twenty years couldn't cause that kind of

change. The large lattice gate was a bit rusty but must have been made of very

high-priority material, because it still seemed very sturdy.

The two halves of the gate were in perfectly seamless alignment, with a

heavy-looking padlock around it about a mel off the ground. They grabbed the

gate and tried to push or pull, but it was unsurprisingly firm. Behind it was a set

of stairs that led down into the ground, where there was nothing but blackness.

"This one's locked, too," Ronie said.

Frustrated, Tiese groaned, "And I'm sure there's something past here…"

To Ronie's relief, she sounded more rational, not as possessed as she had

been a few minutes earlier. She probably wasn't completely over her fixation on

ghosts, but between the back door and this little stone hut, it was clear that

whoever was here was a living human, not a specter. The same went for

whatever caused the sound inside the mansion.

It was very likely that the person was breaking the council's order forbidding

trespassing, so as apprentice knights, they wanted to expose whoever was

responsible and arrest them if they meant to do evil—but that did not justify

breaking the lock. There was no crime being committed in sight here.

Unfortunately, they would need to return to the cathedral, give a report, and

come back with one of the senior Integrity Knights, Ronie realized. But before

she could say this, Tiese said, "Oh…! There!"

She jabbed a hand through the lattice pattern to point at the right wall of the

descending staircase. Ronie stuck her face close to the gate and stared into the

darkness.

About seven steps down the stairs, she saw something glowing, dull against

the black. Hanging from a hooked nail in the wall was a string connected to a

long silver object…

""...A key!"" they shouted together, looking at each other.

That was probably a spare key, in case the user got locked inside the

structure. In other words, this stately gate was meant to keep intruders out.

They tried to reach through the gate toward the key, but the spaces between

the metal bars were only ten cens wide at best, and sticking their arms in to the

shoulder wasn't nearly enough length to get to the key.

"If…If only we could use Incarnate Arms…," Tiese groaned. Ronie agreed, but

if they could do that, then they might as well have learned Incarnate Lock

Picking from Kirito. She looked around just in case there was a long stick nearby,

but of course there wouldn't be.

If there was a stick three mels long, they could use it to hook the key off its

nail, so that would be a very careless thing to keep around. But if they were

going to have a spare key, wouldn't it be better to keep it much farther down

the stairs, rather than next to the gate?

What is this building for anyway? she wondered again.

Just then, she heard a dragon growling down below. Pale-blue Shimosaki was

trying to wriggle his body through the space between the bars of the fence.

Tiese hastily whispered, "No, Shimosaki, even you can't squeeze through—"

But at that moment, Tsukigake pushed Shimosaki's rump with her head. The

little dragon's body popped through the space, doing a somersault before

stopping just short of the stairs.

"Kyurrr!" Shimosaki squealed proudly. There was a little rust stuck to his soft

down, but he didn't seem to be injured. The soft puffy layer made the creature

look larger than his tiny body actually was.

"Now who said you could do that?" Tiese scolded, but there was a hint of

pride in her smile. With the arm still sticking through the gate, she pointed for

the benefit of her dragon. "Can you grab that for us?"

He chirped in the affirmative, then tottered down the stairs until he was

directly below the hooked nail. The key was 1.8 mels above. As he beat his little

wings, Shimosaki jumped once, then twice, then on the third time, he

successfully caught the key in his mouth. Then he returned to the gate, elated,

and stuck his narrow snout back through the gate.

Tiese took the key and handed it to Ronie so she could use both hands to rub

the dragon's head. Ronie watched her as she stuck the aged key into the lock on

the gate. It resisted a little but turned as expected and finally clicked.

After waiting for Tiese to step back, she pulled the gate open, causing it to

squeal. Shimosaki fluttered his wings from the inside, urging them to hurry.

Now that the gate was open, they had to investigate what was underground,

but when Ronie took another glance into the darkness below the stairs, she felt

sweat suddenly flood her palms.

She didn't like the discrepancies at play here: the fanciful steel gate, with its

key hung in plain view, asking to be taken. She didn't necessarily think it was a

trap to lure intruders underground—why lock the gate at all, in that case?—but

she couldn't begin to guess what was down there.

Tsukigake seemed to have caught her master's anxiety and rubbed herself

against Ronie's legs. She picked the dragon up and suggested, "Tiese, I'll go and

see what's down there. You stay here, and…"

"Absolutely not. I'm going down, too, of course," her friend said firmly. Now

Ronie couldn't back out and say she'd prefer to wait outside with the dragons.

"…Fine. Just remember to be very careful."

"Same to you," said Tiese with a grin.

That was enough to embolden Ronie a bit. She smiled back, then walked over

to the bushes on the left side of the path, picking out a branch without thorns

and breaking it off. Then she generated a single light element and affixed it to

the leaf at the end of the branch with the Adhere command.

With Tsukigake under her left arm and the impromptu torch in her right, she

set foot inside the shrine. Tiese and her dragon followed her in, and then Ronie

closed the gate and locked it again. She wanted to take the key with them, but

someone might notice the missing key and realize there were intruders, so she

put it back on the hooked nail.

The staircase down was much longer than she imagined. There were thirty

steps in all to reach the end, at which point it doubled back for another thirty

steps before turning to flat ground at last. Each step was about twenty cens tall,

so they were twelve mels below the surface by now. That was three floors'

worth of the cathedral.

The air was noticeably warmer than outside, but it was damp and dank and

moldy. A part of her actually thought this might be the hidden treasure

chamber of the Norlangarth Empire, but in conditions like this, any treasure

would lose its life within just a few years and fall to pieces.

After a full fifty mels along the subterranean corridor, the stairs turned right.

At last, some weak light appeared ahead. They couldn't be sloppy now, though.

Whatever that light source was, they'd find whoever set it up nearby.

There was over thirty mels of space between them and the light, but Ronie

stopped right there, waiting and listening for signs of life. There were no sounds

or voices for now. When she resumed walking forward, the hood of her cloak

was pulled backward.

She flinched and spun around, exclaiming "…What?!" as quietly as she could.

Tiese was looking up at the ceiling of the corridor with a troubled expression.

Ronie looked up as well, but it was the same stone lining as the walls. She

peered down again at Tiese.

"We went northwest from the yard, into the forest…then went underground

at the building and turned back…Ronie, don't you think we're back under the

mansion by now?"

"Uh..."

She envisioned a side profile of the mansion and forest, blinking slowly and

nodding. "Yes…you might be right about that. What's your point?"

"Isn't that…weird? If it's a basement for the mansion, they could just build

stairs inside the building…Why would there be an entrance dozens of mels away

in the forest?"

Tiese had a very good point, she had to admit. That suspicious feeling she got

from the key on the wall next to the gate came flooding back, but they weren't

going to figure out the answer just standing here, she could tell.

"Maybe if we look farther in, we'll learn something," Ronie whispered. Her

partner agreed. In any case, they'd come this far, so they couldn't turn back

before they'd investigated this underground passage from end to end.

The interspecies pairs snuck south down the passage, listening intently.

Yellow light wavered faintly up ahead. Ronie focused on the air and noticed that

among the musty smell was the particular charred odor of an oil lantern. And

among it was another, fainter scent.

Cradled under her left arm, Tsukigake's pointed snout was twitching. Ronie

could tell that she'd smelled this smell before but couldn't figure out where.

Still, they moved onward.

The light turned out to be coming from two oil lanterns hung on the right

wall. The passageway came to an end just past them, but there was something

on the left wall. It shone dully in the lantern light. A new barred gate. No…it

was…

"A…a cell…?" Tiese whispered. Ronie nodded.

It was too big to be a door. Iron bars ran from floor to ceiling, exactly like the

underground jail cells in the city guard's office. There were two large cells here,

each one four mels wide. From their angle, they couldn't see farther into them.

They placed their backs against the left wall and crept along its length. The

closer they got to the cells, the stronger the mysterious odor. It was like straw

that had been dried in the sun or well-used leather armor. There had been a

similar scent before…not in the human world but in the Dark Territory…

Before she reached the answer, Ronie stopped. She had come to the very

edge of the closer cell. With Tsukigake in her arms, she silently leaned her head

around the corner to look inside.

The light from the lanterns on the opposite wall was weak and didn't fully

illuminate to the far end of the cell. She extended the light-element branch, and

it soon became clear that the cells were not empty. In the corner farthest from

Ronie was a trio of prisoners. They were huddled together, apparently sleeping.

The figures, clad in crude and simple clothes, were very small. Each of them

was less than a mel and a half tall. Children? …No, their arms were too long.

Their heads were hairless, and their noses and ears were pointed.

They weren't children. They weren't even human.

They were goblins.

She shot back straight upright and pressed the hand holding the lit branch to

her mouth. Tiese leaned closer.

"What is it…? Is someone in there?"

Ronie nodded rapidly. She exhaled, then inhaled deeply through her nose.

The scent of dried straw was familiar to her because it was the body odor of the

mountain goblins she had smelled when visiting their dwelling.

"Yes…three mountain goblins. I think they're the tourists who were taken out

of the South Centoria inn."

"What…?" Tiese said, wide-eyed. She leaned around Ronie, clinging to her, to

look into the cell. Three seconds later, she pulled back. "You're right…But

why…? Why would the goblins taken from South Centoria be here, in the

emperor's private holdings in Norlangarth?"

There was no immediate answer to that question.

To travel from South Centoria to North Centoria, they would have to pass

through either East or West Centoria, so in either case, it would involve crossing

the Everlasting Walls twice. In order to move through the one gated checkpoint

between each city, you needed a travel pass or a one-day certificate, and even

the certificate was difficult to obtain, much less the pass.

While the people who abducted the goblins by forging an order from the

South Centoria city government and impersonating an official might be able to

forge a permission certificate, there was still the question of if they would risk

the danger of being stopped at the gates, just to get them up to the northern

empire. There was just as much land in the southern empire, with equal

opportunity to hide the goblins.

"…We can think about this later," Ronie murmured, both to herself and to

Tiese. "We have to break them out and take them to the cathedral."

"Yes…but the cell's going to be locked, of course."

Tiese was right about that. They looked around at the walls, but there didn't

seem to be any keys around. The situation was vastly different from before,

however.

Right before their eyes were tourists from the dark realm who had been

abducted by falsified orders. This was clearly an act of treason against the

Human Unification Council, and as knights, apprentices or not, Ronie and Tiese

could rectify this situation as they saw fit.

"I'm going to break the bars," Ronie said, grabbing the hilt of her Moonbeam

Sword.

The material of the metal bars was probably the same as that of the gate up

on the surface. There was almost no way her sword could be of a lower priority

level. Whether she could cut it or not depended on the skill of the wielder.

"…All right. Go ahead, Ronie," said Tiese, who even smiled for a brief

moment. She glanced at the cell again. "But we should wake up the goblins

before you do it. They're going to be terrified if you just start smashing through

the bars with a combat technique."

"Good point…"

Tiese's concerns were valid, but it would be a challenge to wake the

exhausted, terrified goblins without making much noise. If they started to

scream, the kidnapper in the mansion above them would surely hear it.

Naturally, slashing the metal bars with a sword would make noise, but if Ronie

used the quickest technique she knew, and it was perfectly successful, she

could minimize the amount of noise. Still, that required waking up the goblins

beforehand.

Ronie crouched down to let Tsukigake go. Then she put her hands around her

mouth to call out to the sleeping goblins.

Just then, a tremendous noise filled the passageway, like extremely heavy

objects being scraped against each other. Ronie and Tiese jumped up, startled,

as the three goblins in the cell also bounced to their feet and noticed the girls

standing before the bars.

"Giiie!"

"Please stop! Don't hurt us anymore!"

The three clung to one another and trembled, a sign of the very cruel and

traumatic treatment they'd been given. She wanted to reassure them that

they'd come to save them, but there was a more pressing matter at the

moment.

The wall at the end of the passage, which they'd taken to be a dead end, was

slowly rising. It was a hidden door—and almost certainly the source of the

sound they heard faintly from outside the front door of the mansion.

And if the door was opening now, that meant someone was coming into the

underground passage.

There was nowhere to hide. The closest corner in the passage was over thirty

mels behind them; there was no way to run that far in time.

"We'll have to fight," Ronie heard Tiese whisper.

Indeed. If there was no place to hide, the only remaining options were to fight

or surrender. The choice was clear.

Ronie and Tiese drew their swords and held them with both hands in combat

stances. On the floor before Ronie, Tsukigake had her wings outspread—a

position meant to protect her master—while Shimosaki did the same in front of

Tiese.

"Tsukigake, Shimosaki, get into the cell and be quiet!" Ronie commanded at a

hiss.

The little dragons crooned discontentedly but followed the order. First,

Tsukigake squeezed between the iron bars. She beat her little legs, twisting her

body until she popped through and rolled into the center of the cell. The goblins

along the back wall shrieked in terror, but they would soon realize that the

dragon meant them no harm.

Next, Shimosaki attempted to get through. The hidden door was already half

up, sending a chalky-white freezing mist through from the darkness. The

darkness was so thick that they couldn't see whoever was on the other side of

the door, but the presence was absolutely there.

"Hurry, Shimosaki!" Tiese cried. Shimosaki groaned painfully. Apparently,

these bars were just slightly narrower than those of the gate aboveground.

Perhaps because of being picky around fish, Tsukigake's slightly smaller build

was able to squeeze through, but the base of Shimosaki's wings was too wide.

Perhaps they could push him through, but that might end up breaking his

delicate wings. And in the meantime, the door continued to rise.

"Forget it, Shimosaki! Get behind us!" Tiese shouted, squeezing her sword.

Shimosaki answered, pulling back out of the bars and rushing behind the girls.

At last, the hidden door reached the ceiling and came to a stop with an even

louder rumble.

From the darkness a few seconds later came the dry, crisp sound of footsteps

—tok, tok, tok—over the stone floor toward them. Ronie had to utilize all her

self-control to keep from using her combat techniques to cut the figure before

it came into view. That would be the act of a coward, not a knight, and killing

the enemy would leave their identity and reason for kidnapping the mountain

goblins a mystery.

A few more seconds passed, though they felt like an eternity, and a figure

appeared in the weak light of the oil lanterns.

It was so black that it seemed like darkness itself cut into the shape of a

person. Very soon they realized that it was a pitch-black robe, but the effect

was so severe that for the first instant, Ronie couldn't even be sure it was a

living person.

No, it is definitely a human.

And she recognized its presence.

This was the man in the black robe who had kidnapped Leazetta, the daughter

of Commander Iskahn and Ambassador Sheyta. The figure in the hallway before

them had the exact same air as that person on the top floor of Obsidia Palace—

somewhere between man and monster.

But it wasn't possible.

The kidnapper in the black robe had jumped from the window of Obsidia

Palace and vanished just three days ago. Over three thousand kilors separated

Obsidia from Centoria. That was half a year's travel by foot, three months by

carriage, or two full weeks using the horseback messengers in the ten towns

and villages that spanned the distance. The only way to cross that span in three

days would be dragons—but there would be panic if someone other than an

Integrity Knight was flying over the human cities.

Was it the same person or just someone very similar? Ronie stared fiercely,

hoping to catch a glimpse of some detail that would help her make that

determination.

The kidnapper's right arm had been severed by a chop from Ambassador

Sheyta, the Silent Knight, followed by Ronie's Aincrad-style Sonic Leap to cut off

his left. A very powerful user of sacred arts could regenerate limbs by healing

them, but the movement in those limbs would be awkward for a week

afterward.

But this man—that was still an assumption—took a step into the hallway and

then went totally still. From the darkness of the figure's deep hood, Ronie and

Tiese could feel a prying gaze that clung to their skin.

He's trying to predict what we'll do first…Or no, is he waiting for something…?

Ronie put a little more pressure into her grip on the handle of the Moonbeam

Sword. Whatever the man was waiting for, they had no reason to oblige him. If

this was indeed the same kidnapper from Obsidia, he would use poison. Better

for them to attack before he could use it on them somehow.

They couldn't just kill him. Ronie would strike the enemy's right leg; Tiese, the

left. That would rob him of the ability to fight.

Ronie pointed the tip of her sword a bit to the left. Tiese instantly understood

her intent and leaned in the opposite direction.

Their breathing aligned in preparation for a simultaneous execution of the

Aincrad-style technique Slant. Inhale, exhale, inhale…

The moment she sensed she was perfectly in sync with her partner, Ronie

started to move. But as though stealing the very breath from her lungs, the man

in the black robe acted first.

If he had moved to attack, they would have done their technique. Instead, the

man lazily lifted his hands and simply swept back his hood. That was enough to

throw off Ronie's timing, and she pulled back her sword just a bit.

A deep voice rumbled, "Unexpected guests, then. Or…perhaps I should call it

the guidance of Vecta."

She recognized that deep, raspy voice. It was nothing like the hoarse whisper

of the kidnapper in Obsidia.

For one thing, the movement of his arms was very smooth. And more

importantly, Ronie knew his features. They were sharp and fierce. His mustache

and beard were gray and fashioned into pointed ends, his eyes the pale blue of

a frozen lake.

"…N-no way…," Tiese stammered.

Ronie wanted to say the same thing.

It was the sixth emperor of the Norlangarth Empire: Cruiga Norlangarth.

Details came flooding back. Black wall hangings on fire, the distant sound of

swordfighting.

But that wasn't possible. Emperor Cruiga died in the imperial throne room at

just about this time last year.

Ronie and Tiese had crossed swords with the emperor in person. They'd dealt

with his High-Norkia style of combat, where each technique had big, exploitable

holes but also deadly power; the battle had lasted over five minutes. When

Deusolbert had finally arrived, he'd pierced the emperor's right leg with an

arrow from the Conflagration Bow. That brief moment was enough for Ronie

and Tiese to unleash their best attacks, driving the blades deep into each side of

the emperor's breast.

No human being could survive such wounds. Deusolbert confirmed the

emperor's death, and the body was taken to the cathedral, where it was given a

cremation with the bodies of the other two emperors. The imperial remains

became lights of sacred power, and Ronie saw them melt into the air with her

own eyes.

So Emperor Cruiga couldn't possibly be alive.

And yet, the man in the black robe before her couldn't be anyone but

Emperor Cruiga.

Her mind went numb. Ronie couldn't move or even speak. Her vision

narrowed, and her bodily senses faded. The man's unfeeling, icy eyes got bigger

and bigger, crowding out everything else.

And because she had fallen into a state of numbness, her reaction came just a

moment too late to the faint sounds coming from behind her.

Footsteps…Sneak attack…Enemy!

The thoughts burst through her mind. Ronie kept her left hand pointed

toward the man with the emperor's face and spun her head the other direction.

But the newly arrived man in another black robe was already leaping backward

out of the way.

And in his hand was the downy-blue ruff of a juvenile dragon's neck.

"Gyurururuu!" the dragon gurgled in pain.

"Shimosaki!!" Tiese screamed.

To the girls, Tsukigake and Shimosaki were irreplaceable partners whom

they'd spent eight months with together, ever since their hatching from the

eggs laid by their mother, Akisomi. The thought of those dragons being harmed

was unbearable.

Tiese flew at the man in the black robe in a mindless blur, but like Ronie, she

froze stiff just a step away.

The man had drawn a large knife that he pressed against Shimosaki's neck.

The edge of it was mottled and green, clearly coated with a poison of some

kind. Shimosaki sensed the danger and stopped struggling.

Slowly but surely, the man backed away, until there were over five mels of

distance between him and the girls. They needed to do something, but they

couldn't afford to budge from where they stood.

"You knights value those lizards too much," mocked the man with the face of

Emperor Cruiga from the hidden door. "They are nothing but beasts. It strains

understanding why you should be so close, when there are plenty more where

they came from."

"I wouldn't expect the likes of you to understand anyway," Tiese said in a

stifled voice, thick with emotion. "Order your man to release him. If you harm

even a single plume on that dragon's body, neither of you will leave this place

alive."

"Ha-ha-ha. Even as knights, you are as bold as ever." The man who looked like

the emperor laughed, his voice cracking. He traced his left breast with his

fingers—the very spot where Tiese's sword sank into him one year ago.

"Unfortunately for you," he continued, "I will be the one giving the orders.

Drop your swords and kick them along the ground to me. If you make even one

extra move, your little lizard's head will fly."

And so will yours, Ronie thought darkly. But even if the man was the real

Emperor Cruiga, his life was not a fair trade for Shimosaki's. Tiese looked to her,

gaze pleading, and Ronie gave her a little nod.

The girls dropped their naked blades to the ground. With a silent apology to

her sword, Ronie placed the tip of her boot against the hilt and slid it toward

the emperor.

The emperor extended a foot from his robe to stop the two swords, then

kicked them carelessly back into the passage behind where the hidden door

opened. Their silver shine was soon swallowed by the darkness.

"Very good. Now, for your next orders…"

From the depths of his robe, he pulled out a black, gleaming key, which he

tossed to Ronie. She reached up to catch it with both hands. Despite having

been on his body, the key was as cold as ice.

"Open the cell next to the goblins, go inside, close the door, then lock it."

Ronie was hoping that if he approached them, careless after having disarmed

them, she could grapple with him barehanded and take him hostage, then

demand the man behind them release her dragon. But the emperor was calm

and careful, keeping his distance. She glanced back and saw that Shimosaki was

holding firm not to agitate the poison blade, despite the occasional struggle.

Once they were inside the cage, escape would be almost unfathomably

difficult, but there was little choice now. Ronie gave Tiese an eye signal, then

approached the empty cell on the left. She unlocked the door with the key, then

walked inside with her partner. Then she closed the door, reached back through

the bars, and felt for the lock so she could insert the key again and turn it.

If only I could turn it just enough to make it look locked without actually

closing it all the way…But that would not work. She remembered Kirito saying

something like The keys and keyholes of this world aren't mechanical

contraptions—they're system-controlled locks.

The sacred word system was supposed to refer to the workings of the world,

she knew. So Kirito was essentially saying that the key-maker calling, which was

passed down from parent to child, involved punching keyholes in metal plates

using special traditional chisels handed down from ancestors, then fashioning

the metal piece that was punched loose into the key—and that the workings of

the world ensured that only that combination of key and keyhole would ever

work together. By that logic, every lock had only two states—locked or

unlocked—and it would not be possible to make it "look" like it was unlocked,

only to jar it loose with a strong blow.

Ronie turned the key to the right until it began to push back and finally gave a

last cruel click. She pulled the key out and tossed it to the emperor.

Cruiga caught it with a pale hand, returned it to his robe, and smiled cruelly

again. "Heh…I'm glad to see you can obey your betters. I would not want to soil

this historic place with filthy lizard blood."

"…!"

Tiese growled with rage, but Ronie placed a hand on her shoulder. In a

strained voice, she said, "Historical…? It just looks like an underground prison to

me."

The emperor pinched the pointed end of his beard between his fingers.

"Indeed, it is just an underground prison. But those stones on which you stand

are stained with the blood of three hundred years. So many serfs have been

punished on that spot by judicial authority…"

"…!"

Now it was Ronie's turn to gasp. She looked down at the blackened stone

beneath her feet.

Judicial authority was a privilege given only to high nobles and imperials that

allowed them to punish any who failed to show them proper deference, by

whatever means they chose. Only lower nobles or civilians on their lands could

be punished, but Ronie's father, a sixth-ranked noble, said that he'd been

humiliated many times by high nobles for very unfair reasons.

But even judicial authority could not take the life of another without a very

proper reason—or the noble would risk violating the Taboo Index. And private

punishments by nobles did not count as "proper." Even the Integrity Knights,

who possessed the greatest privileges of anyone in the human realm, were

limited to taking only 70 percent of a guilty person's maximum life in

punishment.

"Any punishment that sheds enough blood to stain the floor would violate the

Taboo Index," Ronie rasped.

The emperor just chuckled again. "Heh, heh-heh-heh…There are countless

ways to evade that porous excuse for an index. You might even say that the

very history of the four imperial families and high nobles is the pursuit of

finding those loopholes."

Those words brought a hideous memory to Ronie's mind, like a bolt of

lightning in the dark of night.

The former first-seat Elite Disciple, Raios Antinous, despite being a fellow

student, had laid an intricate and devious trap for Ronie and Tiese and

attempted to use judicial authority as an excuse to violate them. It left her skin

crawling to imagine what kind of depravity his father and grandfather, who

were of the third rank, must have conducted on their own private lands.

And when it came to the imperial Norlangarth Empire, which stood on the

shoulders of all other nobles…

"Did you never think it strange, girl? If there is a door into the mansion, why

should there be an underground passage that leads out into the woods?" the

man asked. Ronie stared at the emperor's face through the bars.

The man's thin mustache sat atop a wan, cruel smile. He did not wait for her

answer. "It is to take out the bodies, of course. The last thing we want to do is

stain the mansion with the filthy blood of the common folk."

"H…how dare you!" shouted Tiese. She threw herself to the bars like she was

trying to break through them, clutching the steel.

White-hot fury coursed through Ronie as well. The man before her—and his

entire lineage—had for years and years locked people in these cells, tormenting

them while avoiding the law and unjustly taking their lives.

The gate they found in the woods wasn't meant to protect the passage

against trespassers. It was simply the gate through which they carried the dead

bodies of the innocent commoners from the cells below. That was why the key

to the gate was in such a careless location. And of course it was—who would

ever sneak into the emperor's private land with malicious intent?

Despite the best efforts of Tiese, who was technically an Integrity Knight, the

metal bars only creaked, nothing more. Just imagining the sheer amount of

despair that all those people who'd been locked in here over the years must

have felt while holding on to these same bars set Ronie trembling with ever

greater fury.

But then the man in the black robe holding Shimosaki hostage silently

appeared from the right side of the passageway and took a position behind the

emperor. One look at the poisoned knife held to the little dragon's neck actively

propelled Tiese away from the bars.

Shimosaki was slumped with exhaustion after struggling, but when he saw his

master, he let out a little wail. Tiese whimpered at the sound, and Ronie's eyes

filled with tears.

But they couldn't shout. Not now.

In the neighboring cell, through the stone wall that separated them,

Tsukigake was still hiding. She was staying quiet, desperately upholding the

order she'd received earlier, but if Ronie lost her cool, Tsukigake was likely to do

the same. She might rush back through the bars and attack the man in the robe

to save her older brother. As cold as it might be to think this way, if Tsukigake

got caught, too, then their chances of escape went even lower.

Please, Tsuki. Just stay quietly where you are, Ronie prayed through the thick

stone wall. It was the only thing that could keep her rage at bay.

As though he were reading her thoughts, Emperor Cruiga fixed his sharp gaze

on Ronie.

"You…the black-haired girl. Don't you have your own lizard?"

She was so taken aback that she could only shake her head without a word.

Tiese took it upon herself to answer.

"We came here to the lake to help that one get over being picky about fish.

Ronie's dragon is still back at the cathedral."

"Ah…You may not realize that there are five kinds of fish in Lake Norkia. We

allowed the serfs to catch four of those kinds, but any who caught the

forbidden golden trout would instantly be thrown into these cells," the emperor

said, his voice wistful.

Tiese retorted, "As though they could choose what kind of fish bit on their

lines."

"Precisely. They cannot. Yet the starving people had no choice but to let down

their lines anyway, praying that the delicious golden trout did not bite their

hooks. You might only catch one in three hundred, but the lucky…or should I

say, unlucky winner could be heard wailing across the water. It was quite good

fun to enjoy a drink at the waterside, accompanied by their screams."

Ronie glared at the chuckling man. It was another test of perseverance not to

explode at him.

It was true that violations of the Taboo Index and imperial law were almost all

accidental. For one thing, knowingly violating the law required breaking the Seal

of the Right Eye. But to be punished for something that one could not

knowingly avoid was simply unfair and unjust. And the emperor was essentially

coercing the residents of his private holding to fall into misfortune. At its core, it

was no different from Raios Antinous antagonizing Ronie and Tiese in order to

use his judicial authority on them.

The emperor's cruel smile vanished. "Hmm. So there is only the one lizard.

Then we shall take this one into careful custody. Do not worry, it will be fed…

and if you attempt to escape, it will be fed to the goblins as a roast."

And with that, Emperor Cruiga turned toward the hidden door.

But then he stopped and glanced at Shimosaki, whom his minion still held

around the neck.

"…Zeppos, do you think that lizard can fit through the bars of the cells?"

Ronie's heart leaped into her throat. The man he called Zeppos lifted

Shimosaki up toward his face and examined him. In a voice surprisingly highpitched, the man said, "If you shoved it hard enough, maybe."

"I see."

The emperor took an oil lantern off the wall and held it aloft toward Ronie

and Tiese's cell. With a sharp glance, he examined the entire cell, then nodded

with satisfaction.

Please just turn away now, Ronie prayed. But the emperor turned right, not

left, and began walking toward the other cell.

Tsukigake was surely hiding in the corner of the cell, but once the lantern light

reached it, that pale-yellow down would be very visible. She had to stop him

somehow—but if she carelessly called out to him, he would suspect something.

And what difference would buying a few more seconds make anyway?

If he spots you, Tsukigake, do your best to run to the gate up on the surface!

she thought, clenching her fists, willing the message to reach her little partner.

The emperor stood before the adjacent cell and lifted the lantern. His brows

knit, he craned his neck forward and peered thoroughly around the cell.

Three seconds…five…ten.

"…Hmph," he snorted, stepping back from the bars. He then returned the

lantern to the hook on the wall and, without another look at the girls, returned

through the hidden door. The man he called Zeppos followed, Shimosaki

dangling from his grip.

A few moments after they vanished, there was a small thunk from the

darkness, and the hidden door that had receded up into the ceiling began to

rumble and descend again.

When the bottom of the door fused with the floor, Ronie let out the breath

she'd been holding. Tiese pulled her hands off the bars and pressed her

forehead against Ronie's shoulder as she approached.

"…Shimosaki will be okay…right…?" she squeaked.

"Of course," Ronie reassured her. "He's a valuable hostage. They won't harm

him."

"…Yeah," Tiese agreed shakily. Ronie rubbed her back over and over before

finally disengaging herself. She carefully approached the bars and, as quietly as

possible, said to the adjacent cell, "Thank you, goblins."

She was met with silence at first, but eventually, another whisper returned.

"…They didn't find the little dragon."

Indeed, there was only one possible reason that Emperor Cruiga couldn't see

Tsukigake in the cramped cell. The mountain goblins, who had been so afraid of

her when she'd first squeezed between the bars, used their own bodies to hide

the creature from the emperor's sight.

"Thank you so much…," Ronie said. And this time the response she got was a

tiny "Krr!"

Tsukigake squeezed back through the bars and came trotting over before

Ronie. She squatted as the creature tried to wriggle through the bars again to

join her, but Ronie held out her hands to force her away.

"Tsukigake, please. Take the hallway up to the surface and find a way to get

to the north gate of Centoria…If the guards notice you, they'll take you back to

the cathedral."

This was a difficult order to give an eight-month-old dragon. Not only was it

over ten kilors from Lake Norkia to North Centoria, it wasn't easy to get from

the mansion to the highway. And they'd already walked a long way today—

Ronie couldn't begin to guess how much of Tsukigake's life would drop before

reaching the city. It was quite possible the dragon would pass out along the

way.

But at this point, Tsukigake was their only hope. It would likely be impossible

to break the iron bars without a sword, and even if they could, it would

certainly draw the attention of their kidnappers and probably end up with

Shimosaki dead.

Through her anxiety, she clutched Tsukigake's body beyond the bars. The

dragon chirped, as if to reassure her that she could do the job.

Then she backed away from Ronie, beat her wings twice, and began to run

north down the passageway. Soon she was gone from sight, and her trotting

footsteps faded from earshot.

"I'm so sorry…Please pull through, Tsukigake."

Ronie fell to the hard stone floor, clasped her hands, and prayed.