Chapter 2

The empire of Lumane, excluding the central regions which directly fell under the imperial rule, had six major regions. Lutania, the largest, bordered the west. Popular for two things. One being their wine, and secondly having the largest Luminite mines in the whole continent. Luminite are mysterious ores formed by the crystallization of mana over thousands of years, found buried deep in the ground. These are what, after a complex refining process, become magic stones. Which is an important raw material in this world of magic. Literally the functionality of almost every small magical device to large flying ships rely on these stones.

In the last timeline Lutania was invaded by Tenebris, the bordering empire. Which cut off this massive income resource from Lumane. Causing the fluctuation of the empire's economy giving birth to a civil unrest, from which the empire of Tenebris took advantage and further invaded inland successfully dethroning the emperor.

Now the question is. How did Lutania fall so easily? Some said they weren't actually invaded but the Duke of Lutania handed over their lands to the enemy. This was quite a popular gossip Anna had heard back in the last timeline. The main reason for this speculation was the fact that the duke of Lutania had this famous grudge with the imperial family for some reason.

For the next few years Anna's goal would be to find the cause for the fall of Lutania and stop it from happening.

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Lumane’s capital Heaven was a large metropolis located in the central plains, divided into five major districts such as Western, Northern, Eastern, Southern and Central Heaven. If one looked down at heaven from an airship, it took the shape of a large circle evenly divided into four triangular districts by large moats. The center was not divided leaving a smaller circle. This was Central Heaven and where the imperial family resides. To its north western side was the main royal palace building complex and to the south eastern side were headquarters for the First Imperial Knights Brigade. Right in the center was a tall tower that gloriously overlooked Heaven. Everything else was a large beautifully maintained garden. Hidden within it was Anastasia's small palace, which was a bit close to the central tower. A small albino elf stood below the tall tower staring at the top, her golden eyes glimmering in the moon's light.

It had been two whole days since Anastasia had regressed back in time. Even though she was aware of all that really happened in an alternate timeline, it all seemed as if she had been seeing a long weird dream. Especially the additional memories of a person called Ayame. And for some reason her inner personality seemed to be more mature than that of a five year old's. Forget Ayame, if things happened according to the last time line, within ten years time, part of Lumane including the capital, would fall into the clutches of Tenebris. The war afterwards and all the losses suffered would be inevitable, including her own demise. That double crossing son of a- oops kids shouldn't be cursing with such words…

All this was too much for her to process to the point she had been unable to sleep the last two nights. Now the very reason she was at this place was because little Anastasia thought she would be able to relax herself better on top of the tall tower. Why she came here by night dawn was because Jeanne never let her out of her palace’s private garden, which seemed a bit odd. What felt more odd was that she was the only maid working there. Anna remembered having a few maids working at her palace even though they were just slacking off. She felt as if she was confined within her palace. Did that pink haired girl really change stuff?

The entrance to the tower was through a large door, which was covered with some large vines. Little Anna simply pushed the door which opened without much effort. The inside was hollow and there were no staircases leading upwards. Moonlight seeped through the many windows that surrounded the tower unevenly. The floor was covered with some variety of white flower she had only seen once before. And that was when she visited this place in the previous timeline, after the recapturing of Heaven. In the middle was what looked like a large cage shaped like a cylinder. It looked more like a fancy garden shade with a blue roof surrounded by white iron bars.

As the little elf walked towards the cage, she noticed a few glowing lights flying here and there. Too big to be from fireflies. One flew right past her, it was not a large firefly but a tiny creature that looked like a girl with wings and blue scales covering parts of her body. She could hear a light soft giggle. Moon fairies.

Fairies were pretty common tiny magical creatures, but moon fairies were something you would not often see. Just as their name implies they come out only during a full moon night. It was indeed a full moon night but seeing them in this part of the empire was rare.

Another flew past her but this one made eye contact with the little elf and suddenly froze. Oops did I scare her? Fairies were timid creatures after all. The little creature came closer to Anna’s face, her tiny face reflecting in Anna’s golden eyes. The fairy smiled and kissed her cheek which surprised Anna but she cared not to jump fearing she’d scare the tiny thing away. Softly giggling, the fairy flew away up into the dark tower.

What was that…

Lost in thought staring up into the dark ceiling of the tower, Anna came back to her senses and headed towards the cage. Upon entering she was greeted by a rotatable contraption fixed to a pole in the cage's center. She rotated it, causing the gate to enter the cage close. Then with another twist and a satisfying mechanical tick sound, the whole cage started moving upwards.

Such an amazing piece of magic craftsmanship.

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Shortly the cage reached the top of the tower. It did not go all the way up onto the top, but to a certain platform. There was another similar contraption on this platform, which probably was to call back the cage when you need to go back down. The platform led to a door which revealed a flight of staircases leading to the top most balcony.

Onto the balcony, past the door and up the staircase went little Anastasia, and finally on Heaven’s highest point. It was a big round open space with a table in the middle. The roof was supported by large arches which also worked as large open windows. There were small iron bars covering, halfway up, the windows most probably to prevent anyone from accidentally falling off.

The little elf went towards the window which was a bit high for her to get a good view, She clumsily made herself up the considerably wide window sill. Went towards the iron frame, climbed a bit up and hung onto it so that half of her little body was above the frame. The vast metropolis looked like a sea of glowing lights surrounding her, and the clear night sky filled with stars. A pang of nostalgia gave her slight goosebumps. It was a never changing view, in the last time line and now. The only difference though was that half of the city was destroyed, and wasn't this illuminated at night.

Little Anastasia was too enchanted with the view, she didn't feel the light breeze that sent her long hair swaying outside. Her hair was a bit too long for a girl her age making it a bit heavy. This made the little elf loose her grip and almost fall over, snapping back she quickly grabbed onto the iron bar.

“Oh shit that was close!”

Suddenly a big hand grabbed onto her waist and pulled the little girl off the iron bars. It was so sudden and unexpected Anastasia was unable to process the situation.

“Oh god you almost fell over!”, the person said, still holding her in his hands like a little kid. Well she was technically a 5 year old… Still unable to process the situation Anastasia kept blankly staring at the person's face. It was a quite well looking young man with blond hair and crystalline blue eyes.

“Little bunny, that was too risky, you know. Wait wait wait… how did you even get here in the first place?”, he asked with confusion clearly written over his face.

All the little girl could get out of her mouth was,

“Bunny?”
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[A few minutes before Anastasia got to the top of the tower]

A young boy about 14 years of age, looking quite mature for his age, strolled through the pathway that led through the orchard, clicking his tongue as if annoyed. Moments ago he had been in an argument with a certain personage, and was why he was in a bad mood.

“Adults, they never listen… tch”

Even though it was night, the environment was quite illuminated by moonlight. There were small twinkling lights moving here and there through the dark orchard. Common fairies. It was as if they were playing together with the tiny fireflies.

Leon stopped when he reached a tall tower that was right in the middle of central heaven. He had come walking quite a distance, having not even realized it. He didn't come here often unless he was passing this place to meet with the general supreme. But that, also by carriage.

The central tower was just a tall tower, with an open area above it giving you a good view of all Heaven. They say it had been frequently used by the founding empress to host tea parties for her closest associates. But after her demise there had been a certain spell casted on the tower forbidding entry for anyone other than that of the royal family. And due to this the place was left abandoned for centuries.

Leon inspected the large door at the bottom of the tower. There were vines going all over covering it, but it seemed sturdy. Maybe the spell was preserving it. Moments later after placing his palm on it, the vines reclined as if they were tentacles of some living creature, and Leon pushed open the door. As soon as he entered, the door closed from behind, and he could hear the vines moving outside. And yes, Leon had royal blood running through him.

Inside the tower was a hollow space filled with a variety of white flowers and vines running here and there in the bottom floor. And in the middle one could find a cage like contraption that would take you to the top of the tower. Moonlight seeped in through the large windows around the tower.

Leon got into the contraption and made his way to the top. Just before he did, he thought he saw what might have been moon fairies. But immediately brushed off the thought, as moon fairies didn't live in this part of the empire. He had only seen them once. A distant memory filled his mind.

~0~

A nostalgic atmosphere
A small boy, peeks from behind a tree at a fairly young elf wearing a velvet gown sitting on the lush grass, beside a large fountain. She has a round cloth and a needle in her hand.

She notices him and smiles looking his way.

“Oh you're here again, boy?”

She calls out, and gestures for him to come sit down beside her.

“What are you doing?”

The little kid asks as he sits down beside her on the fountain’s edge.

“Embroidery, wanna see?”

The little boy even though unable to understand the meaning of that word was able to understand what she was doing.

“What's that thing in it?”

“It's a flower. A flower that grows in my homeland.”

“Ohh”, the kid stares at the partially embroidered flower.

“They grow all over Lutania.”, She says while continuing her sewing. “Hehe, let's go see them, once I'm done with this thing here…”, The lady elf says gently touching her swollen belly.

“Waaa your tummy has gotten bigger!”

“Ahahaha, wanna touch?”

“Uhh No!”

“Ahahaha, oh come on boy. Ahaha”

“Stop teasing him Elda”

Someone calls from behind as the memory fades away.

~0~

Without Leon's knowing the contraption had reached the top. The slight jolt brought him back to the present.

“Maybe I should drop by tomorrow. Wonder how she’s doing…”

Leon thought to himself as he got off and went towards a door which led to a flight of stairs ultimately leading to the top.

It was a spacious open area with a large round table in the middle. The roof was kept on huge arches that gave a splendid all around view. Leon went towards an arch, then took a deep breath and let it out.

“Haaah that's better…”

He then sat on the quite spacious window sill and leaned against the pillar of the arch. There he spectated the bustling metropolis of Heaven. Guess I'll stay here for a bit longer.

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A short while passed and it was starting to get a bit chilly. Leon was about to get off the window sill when he heard a noise of soft footsteps coming up the stairs.

Leon froze and stayed where he was. There were only four, other than himself that could be up there, and two of them were out of question as they were too young. The other two whichever it was made Leon profusely sweat.

To his astonishment it was a small girl, probably 4 - 5 years old in what seemed to be her night gown. She had long milk white hair which shone in the moonlight. This made her look a bit older than her actual age.

“A cute little bunny!”

For some reason it seemed like this was not the first time she had come up the tower.

The little girl went towards a large arc and, with much effort, made herself on to the window sill. Then peaked looking out of the tower. That was when a sudden gust of wind blew past, swaying her long hair. She was losing her balance and was going to fall off, when Leon acted swiftly without hesitation, getting hold of the light thing and bringing her towards him.

She looked like a frightened little bunny who had been caught sneaking out of her hole.