Chapter 35 The Sorcerer Who Flew꞉ Viorga’s Plans Shattered by an Unseen Power
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
That night, I, Viorga, found myself settled comfortably in my private chamber, savoring a bit of fruit wine. It was a touch stronger than my usual preference, perfect for reflection.
”Fufu… if things continue on this path, it seems the domestic situation might finally stabilize,” I mused, allowing a small, satisfied smile to curl my lips. My father’s reign had been an absolute mess for our country—though, truth be told, the kingdom wasn’t exactly flourishing even before he took the throne.
The capital was crawling with nobles selling secrets to the Republic’s merchants for pocket change, and provincial lords were practically courting our neighboring countries. The only reason the Emmeld Kingdom had endured this long was purely thanks to the sheer number of talented sorcerers we possessed.
At this rate, the kingdom’s history would have been cut short; there are even nobles who seem to be in league with the Empire. It was truly a stroke of luck that the Hero Summoning managed to work out just when it did.
(The Empire must have been so certain of victory… but the Hero’s presence seems to have been completely unexpected,) I thought, sipping the wine. Knowing the enemy has someone worth a thousand men acts as a powerful deterrent.
We already have intelligence that several nations are actively investigating our Hero; we will simply have to make the most of this political asset. Furthermore, I predict the Republic will reach out to us soon. That new country is formidable, not just for its deep coffers but also its military strength. As long as a deal can be struck, I intend to leverage them for all they’re worth.
(For the moment, I suppose there are two major concerns…)
The first is the Empire’s movements. They’ll spend the next few months gathering intelligence but likely won’t initiate any significant military action.
This gives us the perfect window to secure our domestic affairs. I’ve already set the stage for this. The victory banquet will also serve as the Hero’s public presentation ceremony, where I will completely co-opt the opposing noble faction—specifically, the faction belonging to the late First Queen.
And that leads directly to my second concern: the movements of Egrest, the great noble of that old First Queen faction. Even though they lost most of their lands, I pointedly refused to grant him the governing rights over the territories the Heroes reclaimed. This is a very transparent act of spite from the Royal Family, and I fully understand it will provoke significant backlash from Egrest and his allies.
If I handle this wrong… no. If I guide it just right, I might even be able to incite a civil war.
(Though how it plays out depends entirely on Egrest’s move,) I noted mentally.
This is a considerable risk for me, as Egrest’s influence is vast throughout the country. That is why I must seize this opportunity, even aggressively, to dismantle his faction. After all, Egrest, though distantly related, is of royal blood. Even if not of the main line, he holds great value—both domestically and internationally.
With Cleonora’s self-destruction, sending Liliarette away will leave the First Queen’s faction without anyone left to rally around. Of course, Liliarette’s current state makes her a high hurdle to champion anyway. But without both sisters, Egrest might just decide to stand up himself, a possibility that is not zero. If that happens, so be it, but a clear preemptive warning is necessary.
That is the purpose of the victory banquet, the Hero’s unveiling ceremony. Tomorrow, I will formally announce the granting of a noble title to the Hero Muro.
No one will be able to deny that the Hero is completely within my grasp. Furthermore, if I hint at the Hero’s capabilities to the Republican merchant—no, the Councilman—whom I invited as a guest, he will surely offer to provide more gold. After all, I had my own sister put into that condition specifically to satisfy his request.
Hah! The First Queen’s daughters, both sisters, are proving useful to me right up until the very end.
Liliarette is currently confined to the top floor of the East Tower. No one is allowed near her, and in her state, descending the stairs alone is impossible.
”The Councilman’s request… when I heard he wanted her unable to move her legs, I wondered what he was thinking,” I murmured to myself. “Fufu… He simply wants a noble songbird that can never escape, a pet to adore forever. I’m sure he intends to cherish her like a favorite animal.”
As a big sister, I’m rather pleased to send her off to a master who will ‘cherish’ her. She will undoubtedly spend the rest of her life in a luxurious cage in the Republic.
(It took time, but now I’ll rapidly solidify my position.) I should also review the education plan for the Heroes…
”V-Viorga-sama! I sincerely apologize for disturbing you before your rest, but I have a matter of extreme urgency to report!”
A frantic male voice reached me from beyond the door.
Allowing a man to approach my private chambers meant something truly extraordinary had occurred. I placed my glass on the table, rose, and turned toward the door.
”Remain where you are,” I commanded.
”Yes, Your Highness! We have an intruder in the castle!”
In the castle? Not just on the grounds?
”What sort of intruder is it?”
”That is—it’s just a girl, Your Highness! But she’s wearing… odd clothes, and she’s constantly flying through the air! Our sorcerers can’t manage to track her, even when working as a group!”
”Constantly flying—!?”
Even in our nation, where research into sorcery is so advanced, no sorcerer exists who can truly fly.
The research continues, but there is no prospect of success—it is an incredibly difficult technique. If this man’s report is true, that girl must be a being who has surpassed even a Guru—a Master Sorcerer.
”Is the girl still within the castle?”
”Y-Yes! A Guru is personally commanding the response team! Your Highness, it is dangerous, please—”
I snatched my scepter which is taller than I am, and pushed the door open, cutting him off.
He hadn’t expected me to emerge from my private room and stared at me with a startled expression. To stare so openly at a member of the Royal Family is quite rude, but given the emergency, I dismissed the formality.
”Where did the girl appear, and how is she moving?”
”Yes… yes, Your Highness. The first sighting was in the Western Courtyard. From there, she entered the castle and spent some time rapidly flying around the fifth floor of the northern wing. That is all the information I have.”
”………”
The northern wing, fifth floor…! Could it be…!?
”I am heading to the East Tower immediately! Relay an order to the Guru: send several First-Class Sorcerers to join me!”
”Y-Yes!”
The man obeyed instantly, not questioning the intent behind my command, which I found commendable.
On my swift journey toward the East Tower, five sorcerers converged with me. To manage to dispatch five First-Class Sorcerers despite the late hour and the ongoing operation shows excellent command.
”Secure the entrance to the East Tower—no, she can fly. We will proceed to the top floor. Your priority is securing Liliarette’s person,” I instructed them while maintaining my brisk pace.
”Understood!”
”At once!”
The fifth floor of the castle’s northern wing—where the mysterious girl lingered—is where the late First Queen and her daughters’ rooms are located.
While I hoped I was wrong, I could not rule out the possibility that the girl’s target was Liliarette. The princess is currently confined in the East Tower, and if the mysterious girl somehow knows of its existence, she might be heading there for Liliarette.
After all, that tower has historically been used to confine royal family members and great nobles who have committed crimes. Now it serves the dual purpose of imprisoning the princess, who can no longer move her legs, and keeping her condition hidden from the castle staff.
”…! Viorga-sama! The tower entrance is…!”
”Hurry!”
The entrance to the East Tower had been utterly destroyed! It was unbelievable.
This was a confinement tower for nobles; it had been fortified with formidable mechanisms! I mentally chastised myself for underestimating the security.
As we ascended the stairs, I tried to organize the facts. How did this mysterious girl know so much about the castle? And why target Liliarette?
Neither the Empire nor the Republic has any reason to target Liliarette at this moment. The highest probability still points to Egrest’s faction. It is plausible that he moved to secure her person.
Yet, a troubling question remained: Would Egrest truly use a girl with a power exceeding a Guru for this task?
A talent of that magnitude would be a card he’d want to keep hidden until the very last moment. The Egrest I knew was not the sort of man who would play such a valuable card here.
”The door is—!?”
I arrived at the top floor before I could fully synthesize the information. The door to the room had also been broken down!
I motioned for the sorcerers to take the lead, and then I stepped into the room. Directly in front of me was Liliarette on the bed… with the girl from the rumors.
(What a strangely peculiar outfit…)
The girl looked to be in her growth phase—tall enough, but clearly young. Her clothes had an unfamiliar design, and she possessed pale green hair.
She was certainly not from our country. I needed to extract information from her and anyone who might be with her. As the sorcerers assumed defensive positions, I addressed the girl.
”Are you the intruder? Judging by your movements, you were targeting Liliarette from the start, weren’t you? Are you an agent sent to assassinate a member of the Royal Family?” I demanded, my tone a smooth blade. I was sure assassination wasn’t her goal. I wanted to see how she’d respond, and her voice and mannerisms would give me a read on her personality.
I kept my expression neutral, focusing on her every movement, which would serve as my intelligence. The girl finally responded.
”…Her legs… did you do this to her?” she demanded, the raw anger barely concealed in her voice. A friend of Liliarette’s? Or hired by a distant noble of the First Queen’s faction? I could play dumb, but shaking her confidence would be more effective.
”And what if I did?”
”Why…”
”She accepted it herself. She agreed to this in exchange for saving her older sister, who was attempting to commit treason against Your Majesty.”
”………!”
The girl’s expression shifted, visibly. Anger, regret, a sense of her own powerlessness…?
It seemed to be half anger, half sorrow. She clearly had some connection to Liliarette. I decided to pursue this line of questioning, simultaneously sending a silent signal to the sorcerers.
”Isn’t it a beautiful display of sisterly love? She accepted the miasma into her body, knowing her legs would never move again and that she could no longer absorb spirits—an act equivalent to completely abandoning her sorcerer’s talent—all so her sister could be saved.”
”………”
The girl’s gaze dropped to Liliarette’s discolored legs. Concern, pity, and that unmistakable shade of regret were there for all to see.
”To let miasma corrupt her body like this… were you trying to kill her slowly?”
”No, of course not. She is still my dear little sister. I simply had a merchant who wanted a noble bird for his cage, so I intended to hand her over to him,” I explained with cold, false sympathy.
”Eh…?”
”She will live a far more blessed life than she could here. Her master will cherish her, immobile sister, every single night, I’m sure. Perhaps even until dawn, wouldn’t you say?”
The moment the girl’s eyes widened in horror, I raised my right arm and gave the signal. Immediately, the five sorcerers pointed their index and middle fingers toward the girl.
From those fingertips, five beams of different colored light shot out. We couldn’t risk hitting Liliarette in the confined space, so the power was limited, but the sorcery was potent. The five beams each possessed a different effect: Paralysis, Magic Power Disruption, Heatwave, Sight Destruction, and Equilibrium Collapse.
It would be impossible for even a Guru to immediately resist five different and simultaneous sorceries like this. Two, perhaps, but not five.
My plan was to capture the girl, neutralize her ability to use sorcery, and then begin the interrogation. Yet…
”……! W-What—!?”
Upon closer inspection, none of the beams had reached the girl. A transparent barrier had deployed, successfully defending against all five different light beams!
”Impossible—!? A single barrier protecting against five different sorceries!?”
This one action confirmed that her power truly exceeded that of a Guru. What’s more, she hadn’t given the slightest visible indication of casting such an advanced barrier sorcery.
While the beams remained fixed against the barrier, the girl lifted Liliarette into her arms. Liliarette, though surprised, offered no resistance and simply remained docile in the girl’s embrace.
Even more astonishingly, the girl levitated into the air while still maintaining the barrier.
”…! Two such high-level sorceries—activated simultaneously!?”
”…Viorga. Even if you become Queen, it won’t matter to me—no. It doesn’t concern me anymore. Goodbye, Viorga,” the girl declared, her voice heavy with finality.
”Stop her!” I commanded, my calm shattered.
The girl, holding Liliarette, broke through the skylight and vanished into the night air. I couldn’t believe there was a sorcerer of that magnitude in our country!
”V-Viorga-sama…”
”………”
Five First-Class Sorcerers could do nothing against her.
Worse, she had likely spared us. If she had truly wanted, she could have utterly obliterated this entire tower.
(Do I need to be more cautious of Egrest…? No, we can’t assume she is working for him yet.) And tracing her escape won’t be difficult. It’s no simple matter to harbor a princess of the realm. Movement of people and, more importantly, supplies, will inevitably occur. By identifying those anomalous flows, it will be simple to figure out where Liliarette is being looked after.
(The flight sorcery… I need to investigate who developed it immediately.) That sorcery itself is extraordinary. By tracking the researchers and the documents, I should be able to determine the girl’s true identity. Creating such advanced sorcery without any prior research or verification is impossible. There must be a trace of it somewhere.
(More concerning still is the sword tucked at the girl’s hip. It was the spitting image of the Holy Sword Miseric.) Yet, Cleonora had taken that sword with her, and she hasn’t emerged from the Demon Forest in over a month. More importantly, it’s unthinkable that Cleonora would ever part with that blade.
(In any case, there is no doubt that this girl has deep ties to the First Queen’s faction. We will launch a thorough investigation into her identity starting tomorrow.)
—
Summary:
Princess Viorga’s meticulously planned political gambit to consolidate power by leveraging the Hero and selling her sister, Liliarette, is brutally interrupted. An impossibly powerful, flying young sorcerer, Eme-rald, rescues the immobilized Liliarette from the East Tower. The confrontation reveals the extent of Viorga’s cruelty and Eme-rald’s devastating power, far surpassing the kingdom’s greatest sorcerers, hinting at the return of the legendary Holy Sword Miseric and a major threat to Viorga’s nascent rule.
—
Character Insight:
Viorga is not merely ambitious; she is truly ruthless, viewing her family and state as components in a grand, calculated political machine. Her composure only breaks when faced with a magical power she cannot control or understand, revealing her reliance on logic and established systems. Eme-rald’s immediate, visceral anger shows she is driven by a deep, personal connection to Liliarette, contrasting sharply with Viorga’s cold calculation.
—
Behind the Scene:
The chapter sets up the immediate counter-reaction to Viorga’s scheming. The ‘Councilman’ who requested Liliarette’s condition is the key to Viorga’s foreign funding. The introduction of Eme-rald, who can fly and utilize complex, simultaneous sorcery, raises the stakes considerably, suggesting a revolutionary element to the world’s magic that will disrupt the political status quo. The mystery of the Holy Sword Miseric ties the new threat to the old First Queen’s faction.
Notes:
• Viorga – The First Princess of the Emmeld Kingdom. She is a beautiful, young woman with long golden hair and sharp blue eyes, always dressed in an elaborate crimson and gold royal gown. She is utterly ruthless, viewing all people—including the summoned Heroes and her own family—as disposable assets in her political games. Looks like Aileen Lauren from certain series.
• Liliarette – The other Princess, who sacrificed her ability to walk and her sorcery talent to save her sister, Cleonora. She is imprisoned in the East Tower and is being used as a political and monetary pawn by Viorga.
• Cleonora – The second princess. Have a yellow blonde hair. Usually styled as hairbun.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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