The Road to the Royal Palace

♪Poet — Present♪

“Wake up. The weather’s clear.”

Guided by Growl’s voice, I opened my eyes. I could hear birds singing.

“Looks like we were stuck here for two nights. But don’t worry. Allegro was held up too. He still hasn’t reached the royal palace.”

Five days had passed since we set out. That meant today was the day Miss Adagio had been sentenced to die.

Despite my worries, Miss Adagio was still asleep. A pain tightened deep in my chest.

When I shook her body, Miss Adagio rubbed her eyes.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Miss Adagio. Today is the final battle.”

“Yes. We have to do our best.”

Her smile was as bright as the sun. I didn’t want to lose that smile.

The father seemed to have gone out to work in the fields first thing in the morning and was no longer in the hut. After thanking the daughter on behalf of all three of us, we returned to the road toward the royal palace.

As we drew closer to the palace, the road grew wider. It looked like we wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost anymore. I let out a sigh of relief.

Then we tried to cross the bridge that joined the main road, but…

“The bridge is gone.”

The wooden bridge, which probably had barely allowed one person at a time to cross, had collapsed.

I remembered that the royal palace had been considering cuts to public works. Under something called the compact city plan, they had reduced the budget for infrastructure construction in inconvenient rural areas.

Those opposed to the plan had argued that national land development was the foundation of national power, but they had been silenced as old-fashioned.

At this rate, we couldn’t reach the royal palace. To be thrown into crisis here, for a reason like this!

Maybe not only diplomacy and military affairs, but problems like this were connected to national security too. I regretted how foolish my past self had been for paying no attention to those debates.

“Could we make a temporary bridge somehow…?”

I asked Growl, who knew civil engineering, but he shook his head.

“The river’s far too wide. Even if we worked efficiently, it’d take us three days.”

“Then Allegro will arrive before us.”

“Exactly. We’d better give up on building a bridge.”

“Th-then what about floating magic?”

“You should have learned the limits of floating magic in middle school. Whether through commoners’ compulsory education or a royal’s studies in kingship.”

Miss Adagio was right. Floating magic only worked on hard ground, or on water surfaces as calm as a reservoir. It was useless over a fast-flowing river or the sea.

“I-I know that. I only said it because we have no other option.”

I gazed at the sheer cliff below, so terrifying that the thought of being swept away made me shudder.

“Should we descend the mountain and take a detour? It would mean our effort was wasted, but if we run, we might make it in about a day and a half.”

“Most likely, unless we get there today, there’s no point. Allegro will beat us there.”

Our discussion went in circles. We wanted to move forward, but there was no path forward. The main road was right in front of us!

“So all you need is for the river’s flow to stop a little?”

At the sound of that voice, we turned around.

It was the father who had let us stay at the lodge.

“Step back a bit. I’m going to cast a little magic.”

The father chanted a male-voice spell I had never heard before. Then, only slightly, a zone appeared where the current had stopped.

“Let’s cross now! This magic probably won’t last long!”

At Growl’s signal, we used floating magic, slipped through the gap in the clear current, leapt across, and crossed the river.

“Thank you!” all three of us called across the river.

“You know those Neo-Classical School people you young folks hate so much? This is a spell we use at construction sites by adapting a new score they created thirty years ago. Well, how should I put it? Don’t get so hung up on whether something is new or old that you decide what you like and hate based on that. Good things are good. It pays to learn all kinds of things.”

“I’ll take that to heart!”

Perhaps magic that survives across time has something beyond factional boundaries. Even technology that looks like a mere flower of its era must leave some kind of footprint for later generations.

“And one more thing. If you meet my fool of a son, Feroce, at the palace, tell him this. If he thinks he’s going to die, then he should abandon the country and run. As long as he’s alive, another chance will come. Well, maybe that’s not something I should ask of people who look like royalty…”

“I’ll tell him! I promise!”

Since we were in a hurry, we gave only brief thanks and headed for the royal palace. Please let us make it in time!

As we ran, gasping for breath, a pigeon came to us. It had a piece of paper in its beak. A carrier pigeon.

I read the letter while walking quickly.

“It’s from Masahide!”

“What does it say!?”

“It says to open the back cover of the Mirror Chord!”

“Let me see. Leave screw-turning magic to me! There’s something inside! It looks like a tiny music box!”

I recognized the tool Miss Adagio handed me.

“This is a device that records voiceprints. A Voice Tracer. Why would something like this be…”

“Maybe he wants us to listen to what’s recorded on it. It might contain something important!”

I calmly took a deep breath and chanted a male-voice spell to play back the voiceprint.

“Lord Sonnet. Might I suggest resuming the development of the Garnet Prince? At this rate, we will not be able to stop the momentum of the instrumentalist faction. If the royal authority falls into disorder, the nation will perish, and the people will wander all across the world.”

“I refuse! You would have me repeat the tragedy that led to her death?”

“The development of new technology always comes with pain.”

“You, who deny the technological innovation of the instrumentalist faction, dare say that?”

“This too is for the sake of preserving the national polity. A ruler must sometimes swallow mud. Incidentally, what do you think of Lord Poet as a candidate test subject? Other than her, only a handful of people are suitable, such as dragons or rabbit royalty.”

“Are you saying you intend to take someone precious from me again?”

The voiceprint from the magical tool ended there. From this point onward, accessing the rest required Magical Private Network security level five authentication. Since I was formerly royalty, I had access authority. However, the country was currently under martial law. The network was still cut off.

One of the voices belonged to my brother Sonnet. The other belonged to a mysterious person called the Captain, who came and went as he pleased under the pretext of being a friend of the minister Serpent. Apparently, he had been dispatched by a world organization called the Noah Society, so he was difficult to reject. I remembered that Masahide had often complained about the Captain’s comings and goings. In any case, the mere fact that he entered and left without going through proper procedures made him a problem. Depending on the circumstances, even Serpent himself, whose name was being used, might not have fully known how frequently the man was coming in and out.

In any case, the content of the conversation seemed to be about the development of military weapons.

I had heard of the Garnet Prince. It was said to modify a person, destroy their mind, and remake them into a biological weapon. It seemed the Captain had proposed modifying me, and my brother had refused.

Brother…

He had been protecting me so I wouldn’t be modified.

We hadn’t had a warm, honest conversation in so long, but he had still been worrying about me properly.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry I didn’t notice.

But who exactly was “her” in that conversation? And why was Masahide trying to make me listen to this now?

Masahide had learned of the plan to submerge the royal capital, and his life had been targeted because of it. But why would an ordinary butler start doing such dangerous intelligence work on his own in the first place?

Most likely, he had heard some other, even more important piece of information. And while investigating that, he must have happened to uncover the plan to submerge the capital.

What was that information?

Someone was being turned into a new Garnet Prince.

Who?

No. Isn’t that obvious?

“My brother is being remade into a Garnet Prince! I won’t let that happen! It must never happen! We have to get to the royal capital as soon as possible! There’s still time! We might still be able to save my brother!”