The Emperor

This heralding of the Emperor’s appearance was accompanied by heavy sounds of footfalls coming down the stairs, much like the rhythmic ticking of a clock. I urgently looked at my comrades.

“Hide!” Mana hissed urgently.

Saga looked ready to fight and actually raised her sword, but I agreed with Mana here.

“Let’s wait for an opportunity. Mana can keep him busy,” I said quickly but quietly. There was probably not too much time until he got here, and he might be accompanied by guards, too. “Let’s hide behind those crates.”

It seemed to be a useful hiding spot; there was just barely enough space between them and the wall. I noticed Saga looking at the cage again, but eventually she relented and joined us.

And not a moment too soon. He was finally here.

Although I couldn’t see him, I already formed a mental image of this so-called monarch from his voice alone.

“Ah, my dear Mana, so you’re already awake? You seem to be quite energetic today, for a change!”

His voice was hoarse and slimy, somewhat effeminate and clearly aged. He sounded like an old man who had too much to drink. It made me shiver even here in our hiding spot; if his voice really was this disgusting, I didn’t want to imagine his physical appearance.

“W-what do you want?” Mana asked weakly.

“Now, don’t look at me like that. We’ve known each other for quite a long time now, haven’t we? You know I’ve been thinking about your wellbeing, right? Why, I might even set you free soon.”

“Don’t l-lie to me…”

“Oh, but I am not lying. After all, your role has already been fulfilled. Or did you not realize?”

“Eh?”

In the darkness behind the crates barely broken only by Tarisha’s faint glow I glanced at my comrades, furrowing my brows. Something was weird about the way the man phrased this.

“Have I not said there is good news? You actually did it. The great hero is here!”

“W-what?” Mana said back.

“Yes, indeed! Why, he and his party travelled across Avallux from one end to another, accomplishing some incredible feats! Ahaha, aren’t you happy? Your summoning was a great success, Mana dearest. You should feel proud.”

There was something weird about his words just now. Why did he refer to “hero” in singular, for example?

Wait, don’t tell me. Was my spellcasting so awesome that everyone mentioned only me in the reports?

…I somehow had the feeling this wasn’t it. I’d never get a lucky break like that.

There was a brief silence, unbroken even by the emperor, and then finally Mana spoke again. “You… planned this?” she asked, sounding shocked. “You wanted me to run away?”

The man laughed. It sounded like a frog getting strangled. “Poor little girl… how does it feel to know even your existence is just part of the plan?”

I found myself just as confused as Mana over this. If I understood this correctly, the emperor was implying that having Mana summon us to this world was not only expected but planned?

But if so… then why?

Why would the evil emperor, of all people, want to summon the so-called heroes from the prophecy, enemies to his tyrannical rule? It made no sense.

I felt something welling up inside me. As if I already had most pieces of the puzzle to reach an answer, and that the other pieces lay dormant somewhere in my memories. The conversation continued while I was thinking.

“Ah, but allow me to fix one small mistake,” continued the emperor. He probably intended his voice to sound as sweet as honey, but instead it turned out like some noxious liquid. “This obviously wasn’t my plan, ehehe. Everything had been prepared by none other than Master Three himself!”

Three—the third evil warrior, master mage who conquered the world—was supposedly gone. Where was he, and what was he doing right now?

“Three’s plan? But he…”

“Yes. I believe this took longer than even he anticipated, but everything that happened to you this century—drinking the potion, being imprisoned here, hearing the prophecy and escaping to fulfill it—were all in preparation for a certain moment.”

I glanced at my companions. Kai looked even worse than he did during our math lessons, and even Saga held a confused gaze despite her cold expression. These revelations we were hearing from our hiding place did not make any sense.

I couldn’t understand a thing. Mana didn’t sound like she understood it, either.

But the piece of the puzzle was definitely somewhere.

Probably closer than either of us thought.

“But then… I…” There was a soft thud that might have indicated Mana falling to the floor. “What have I been doing?”

Hearing her weak voice, the emperor unleashed an ugly, screeching laughter. While I couldn’t understand anything about the situation, his mere voice was pissing me off. Judging from the fact Saga was just about ready to leap from behind cover, perhaps she was also angry.

“Aah, poor, sweet Mana. You must have been overjoyed on the day Three was gone, right? Then you joined the resistance and mounted that silly attack on me… ah, such fond memories. To think of how you were imprisoned since then, biding your time, being unable to do anything, then gaining a final hope in the form of the prophecy—the same one as before, in fact.”

“Stop it…” mumbled Mana.

“Ahaha, ehehe! Yes, keep crying. Keep lamenting your life. I always enjoy hearing your voice, whether it’s in laughter or in despair. You always were the cutest. Nothing like that nasty bitch Two. Ahahah, ihihihi!”

“…They’ll kill you,” Mana hissed.

“Oh?”

“The heroes… I don’t know what Three’s plan is, but I know they’ll kill you!”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll try to. They did give me quite an interesting show yesterday. I bet you heard the rumors even down here, right? From all those chatty maids. Ahaha, they will probably be looking for a way to get here quite soon. But killing me? No way. They’ll never make it. Because soon, you see… soon, Three shall return here, in all of his glory! Ohohohoh!”

I gritted my teeth. I had a very bad feeling about his words. Did the prophecy cause Mana to somehow summon the hero and the villain at the same time or something like that? I didn’t get it, but if Three was about to return, we really had no time to waste.

There was one mistake that the emperor had made.

—He had no idea that his enemies were far closer than he thought.

“Let’s do this,” I whispered to Saga and Kai. We were going to kill the emperor, save Mana, take over the kingdom and get to the bottom of everything. Whatever it was that Three planned, we’d be ready for it.

They barely even needed the prompt. Saga in particular was already poised and ready such that she leapt from behind cover as if from a spring.

“And besides, once he—Oh?”

Moving from behind cover, I could see Saga leaping on the fat robed person standing right in front of the cage—as well as the glimmering light that immediately engulfed him, thus blocking the attack.

An arrow that flew toward him a moment later suffered the same fate; it bumped into light and fell to the floor, unable to inflict even a scratch.

“I cannot believe it!” said the emperor, distorting his ugly face in surprise. “You were here all along? Mana, what have you been planning, you naughty girl?”

It was time to kill the so-called Emperor.