by Takehaya
A bright flash filled the area with light, and the horde of demons was surrounded by a gigantic cube. The cube grew in size, extending downward and outward so that it also covered Maxfern, his subordinates, and the castle. But it only lasted for a few moments. Then it vanished and it took everything inside of it with it. The demons, the bottles they were carrying, Maxfern, his men, and even the castle behind them. All that was left was a giant, square hole in the ground and an earthquake-shockwave combo that felt like it shook the entire world. The intense vibrations of space being erased created the earthquake, and the air flooding in to fill the vacuum turned into a shockwave that assaulted everyone in the area.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Koutarou and the girls screamed. Clan’s barrier could block the shockwave, but not the intense earthquake. They all clung to each other as the ground beneath them shook violently.
“...D-Did it stop?”
Since it wasn’t a natural earthquake, however, the shaking soon subsided. Koutarou hurried to his feet. He stared at the gaping square hole carved into the ground, a sign of just how powerful the Super Space-time Repulsion Shell really was.
“Did we do it...?”
“We did it, Veltlion! They’ve all been completely erased!”
The demons were gone and so were the bottles they were carrying. All of it had been cast out of the universe. Forthorthe was saved.
“No, not yet, Veltlion! Look over there!”
Pale-faced, Flair frantically called out to Koutarou and pointed towards the sky.
“Oh no! It looks like one of them made it!”
A lone demon remained overhead. It was still flying after being hit by the shockwave, albeit very shakily. Fortunately, the demon seemed to have absorbed most of the shockwave and the bottle in its hands was undamaged.
“We can’t let it get away! Hurry and―”
Just as Koutarou was about to take to the skies and chase after it...
“Koutarou-sama, it’s falling!”
“What?!”
The shakily flying demon suddenly began plummeting towards the earth. The shockwave had been too overwhelming, and the demon finally lost control.
“Oh no, the bottle is going to break!”
Of course, the bottle fell right along with the demon. If it broke, the virus would be unleashed, giving birth to yet another nightmare.
No good! I won’t make it!
Despite knowing what was at stake if that bottle hit the ground, nobody could reach it in time to catch it. The demon was too far away. Koutarou wouldn’t be able to make it even if he set off now at full speed. There was no longer anything they could do.
“There is no need to worry.”
Suddenly something large blocked out the sun overhead, casting a towering shadow on Koutarou and the others. Looking up, Koutarou nearly staggered backward when he saw what it was.
“Alunaya?! Y-You’re still alive?!”
“Yes, and you will be grateful for it yet.”
A white line of fire shot through the sky. It was Alunaya’s breath attack. The high-temperature flames incinerated the demon and the bottle in one fell swoop.
The Golden Sea and Silvery White Snow
Alaia was crowned empress and her coronation ceremony was held on a winter morning a few days after the New Year.
With Maxfern and Grevanas thrown out of the universe, the coup d’etat had naturally come to an end. As the coup was the direct result of Maxfern and Grevanas’s intrigue, once they were gone, there was no longer anyone that would stand against the royal family. The coup d’etat army had already surrendered too. And so Alaia and the others were finally able to return to the imperial palace.
The month after that was incredibly busy. The collapsed political system had to be restored and the standing army quickly had to rebound in order to keep the neighboring countries from getting any funny ideas. With the coup over, there was no shortage of business that needed to be tended to. The country had a lot to recover from and a lot to rebuild. But with the help of many people, Alaia cleared task after task.
About a month after the end of the war, things were finally starting to shape up for Forthorthe. By then, most of the chaos had stabilized and the industries ravaged by the war were beginning to recover. Seeing her chance and hoping to give the citizens a reason to celebrate, Alaia announced a grand coronation ceremony to be held concurrently with a ceremony to officially commemorate the end of the war. It would be the biggest celebration in Forthorthe since the foundation of the country.
“The wounds of war run deep. They still haven’t healed, but after a month, the country is finally starting to get back on its feet. And that is no mean feat. I was only able to return here thanks to the help of the people. I have seen what you all can do, and I know in my heart what we can do together. This country will recover yet.”
Alaia was giving a speech. A large crowd had gathered in the imperial palace’s courtyard to witness her coronation. On her head was a beautiful crown made out of platinum and decorated with jewels. It was the crown of the empress of Forthorthe.
Today was the day Alaia ascended from Her Highness to Her Majesty. On this day, history was made for the Holy Forthorthe Empire and the gears of fate were set in motion. They would continue to turn as a thousand years passed and Forthorthe entered its space age and became a galactic empire. And they would continue to turn for another thousand years after that as a lone girl departed Forthorthe for the outskirts of space in a blue battleship. This day would be the first step towards those events. It would be the grand beginning to many things, but it also marked the swiftly approaching end of something else.
Once she finished her speech and stepped off the platform, Alaia let out a small sigh.
“Phew...”
She then took several deep breaths. With Alaia’s weak constitution, an unusually busy day like today was rough on her.
“Good work, Your Highness.”
Fauna the priestess approached Alaia. When she put her hand on Alaia’s chest, her pained expression gradually eased up.
“Fauna, I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Please take care of yourself. Your Highness... I mean, Your Majesty, your body is no longer just your own.”
“Thank you, Fauna. I hope you will continue to help me in the future.”
As payment for awakening Signaltin, Alaia’s health had deteriorated. Because of that, Fauna would use spiritual energy to heal her from time to time. It was a secret between just the two of them. Not even Charl, her own sister, had been told of it.
“Sister!”
It was Charl that was now running towards Alaia, with Mary in tow right behind her.
“You can’t, Your Highness! Slow down! You’ll mess up your dress!”
“It’s fine! You’re such a worrywart, Mary.”
Like Alaia, Charl was also wearing a ceremonial dress for the occasion. But she didn’t seem to think anything of it as she ran along like she always did. Meanwhile, Mary was mortified that she might tear or ruin it.
“Sister!”
Charl threw herself at Alaia. Since hitting a growth spurt, Charl had grown quite considerably over the last month. As a result, Alaia staggered as she caught her. But thanks to Flair’s casual support, Alaia managed to avoid falling over.
“Thank you, Flair.”
“Not at all, Your Majesty. This is my job, after all.”
Flair flashed a calm and gentle smile for Alaia and Charl. As of late, Flair had become a lot more feminine, but that was largely thanks to the war ending. She’d been kept on edge and on high alert since the minute the coup started, but now that it was all over, things were different. In a more natural, relaxed state, her real personality was starting to show.
“So, why were you in such a rush, Charl?”
“Blue Knight isn’t here! Sister, have you seen him?”
Charl was in such a hurry because she was looking for Koutarou. H
aving gotten bored after the ceremony, she’d decided she wanted to play with Koutarou. However, he was nowhere to be found, and so she’d come to ask Alaia if she knew where he might be.
“Lidith, what job is Layous-sama doing?”
“Lord Veltlion wasn’t assigned any duties today.”
Lidith shook her head in response to Alaia’s question. She was wearing a long robe indicating her status as a government official. Specifically, she was serving as Alaia’s court lady. In modern terms, she’d be something like a secretary. She was also looking to become a minister, just like her uncle had once been. He’d taken a wrong turn and done a great deal to damage their family name, but Lidith sought to correct that.
“That’s strange. He was here just a little while ago...”
Alaia could remember seeing Koutarou while the priest was crowning her during the ceremony. She secretly wanted Koutarou to see her with the crown on, so she’d made sure he was there.
“Hmm... Do you know anything, Caris?”
Charl then turned to Caris. Caris was a bit of a strange girl, but she got along with Charl almost as well as Koutarou did, so Charl considered her someone easy to talk to.
“I didn’t see him in the dining room.”
Caris shook her head as she munched on some of the bread she had. She was now one of few remaining magicians in Forthorthe. Most of the court magicians had vanished alongside Grevanas. As a result, only the magicians who’d been out on missions at the time were left behind. Caris was put in charge of them, making her the new head of the court magicians.
Alaia also made a policy to prevent any new magicians from being recruited. She had decided to reduce the number of magicians at court after Grevanas’s tyranny. She was aiming to create a country that didn’t rely on special powers or special people. She wanted to phase out court magicians altogether. But Caris was fine with that. To her, magic not being needed was a sign things were peaceful. She was currently living comfortably and got to eat something delicious every day. In order for that to continue, a long-term peace was needed.
“Hmm... Where would the Blue Knight run off to without me? Is he really that determined to keep me from riding a horse again? That disloyal knight...”
“Where...”
When Alaia heard Charl say that word, she suddenly remembered something.
“From an endless time and an immeasurable distance.”
Without a word of explanation, Alaia broke into a run.
“Sister?!”
Charl immediately chased after Alaia. She knew that Koutarou would be wherever Alaia was going.
“Koutarou-sama!”
It wasn’t logic so much as it was a hunch. Even so, she had to go. If she didn’t, she felt like she would never see him again. And so she ran as fast as she could, trusting that the strong emotions welling up inside her would sustain her. The coronation ceremony was the last thing on her mind right now.
Meanwhile, Koutarou was on a small hill in the suburbs of Fornorn. He was there with Clan and a crimson dragon over twenty meters long.
“I see. So you two are heading home too.”
“Yes. We’ve already seen all the sights in this country.”
As it turned out, Fire Dragon Emperor Alunaya was welcomed into Forthorthe as a state guest. He was then tricked, put under Grevanas’s spell, and forced to fight against his will. The magicians used the crystal in his neck to manipulate him, so he was set free from their control when Koutarou destroyed it. That’s why he’d saved everyone with his flame breath. Alunaya wasn’t a hostile dragon, but a peaceful one.
Having learned the truth, Alaia was deeply grateful and invited Alunaya in as a proper guest of the state. He was treated to fresh food and alcohol daily, and she even summoned bands and theater troupes to come perform for him. It was both Alaia’s way of thanking him and apologizing for what Maxfern and Grevanas had done to him. Alunaya accepted Alaia’s apology and became a friend of Forthorthe.
However, after the coronation ceremony, Alunaya had decided to leave. Humans and dragons had rather different lifestyles, so he couldn’t remain in Forthorthe forever.
“Where will you go now, Alunaya-san?”
“To a new home. This world has grown colder, and it has become much harder for us to live here. That’s why we’ve decided to travel to another world. The others are awaiting my return.”
“A different world? I see...”
That was the reason dragons had gradually vanished from Forthorthe. They hadn’t died out. They were simply migrating to a more comfortable world. The only dragons that remained behind were those with intellects too small to comprehend what was going on and those who were against moving. There were also, from time to time, dragons that came to visit the latter.
It was a shocking discovery, but Koutarou and Clan both knew how powerful Alunaya was. They’d also come from a different world themselves, so they had no trouble accepting what Alunaya shared with them.
“Where will you two go?”
“We will return to the future.”
“The future?! Fuahaha, no wonder you have such a strange smell! I see, I see... So this is the smell of the future.”
The trust was mutual. Alunaya had no trouble believing that Koutarou and Clan had come from the future. They were all outsiders here, so they shared something of a special bond.
“But still, if you aren’t from this age... I’ll have to thank you as well.”
Alunaya considered his destroying the last bottle of the virus to be his thanks to the people of Forthorthe, but that didn’t much apply to Koutarou who was from another world. Since Alunaya had a strong sense of obligation, he felt that he needed to thank him in some way for saving him too.
“What you’ve done already is thanks enough. If Forthorthe hadn’t been saved, we wouldn’t be able to return to our own world.”
“Heh heh... Then think of it as a token of friendship.”
Alunaya laughed in a low voice and his eyes began shining green. As they did, a crest of a dragon’s head was carved into the back of Koutarou’s hand. But he felt no pain in the process. It was a special crest that Alunaya had carved using magic. It wasn’t dissimilar to the crest on Alaia’s forehead.
“This is...”
“This crest connects you to me. If you ever require my assistance, then speak your wish to this crest. I will certainly appear, no matter how far apart we may be or how much time may have passed.”
“I hope that I never have to.”
“Fair enough. But even then, please call me out to play at least once before you die.”
“Would calling you out for such a reason be okay...?”
“Like I told you, it’s a token of our friendship. Heh heh... Now then!”
Alunaya spread his giant wings as he laughed and lightly flapped them a couple of times. That alone created a wind powerful enough to tousle Koutarou and Clan’s hair.
“I believe it’s time for me to leave. It’s been fun, Blue Knight.”
“Likewise. Take care, Fire Dragon Emperor Alunaya.”
“Attendant, you stay healthy too.”
“You’ve got it the wrong way around. Veltlion is the attendant.”
“Heh, you’ve been a funny lot till the very end.”
And with those words, Alunaya took off. He flapped his giant wings and flew up into the sky in an instant. The setting sun cast its light over the dragon’s crimson body, making it look like he was on fire. Alunaya continued flying until he disappeared over the horizon without looking back even once. It was a powerful, dignified image truly befitting his name.
“I guess it’s time for us to go too, Clan.”
“Yes. We’ve stayed for quite long enough.”
Once they could no longer see Alunaya, Koutarou and Clan headed towards Clan’s spaceship, the Cradle, which had been summoned to the hill.
“Still, in the end, the real Blue Knight never appeared...”
“However, history has been more or less cor
rected. We should still be able to return to our own time and place.”
“I hope so...”
Koutarou and Clan walked shoulder to shoulder with no hurry in their steps. At first they had just wanted to escape from this age as fast as possible, but now they felt an attachment to it. And it was that attachment that slowed them down now. They both just wanted to take in the scenery for a moment longer, to feel the wind blowing for another second.
“By the way, how are we going to get home? I heard you had a plan.”
“Right now, the Cradle still isn’t capable of spaceflight. So I figured that we could use the ship as a literal cradle and sleep until the parts necessary to repair the ship have been produced.”
“Even if we’re asleep, we’ll die before that happens. Those parts won’t be available for another two thousand years, right?”
“It’s fine. By freezing time inside the Cradle, time will be stopped for us, but continue to flow normally around us. Of course, I’ll need to make some fine adjustments first.”
“I don’t really get it, but I’ll leave it to you.”
“Yes, yes. I’m always the one who has to do all the work...”
When they had first arrived in this age, they had been trying to kill each other. But now it was as if they’d been friends for years. Their relationship had changed completely in the time they’d spent here. That’s just how long it had been. Or, at least, how long it felt.
And that didn’t just go for the two of them. They had developed bonds with the people of this age as well. The sadness of having to leave them slowed their footsteps towards the Cradle even more. They really loved the friends, companions, and allies they’d made here.
“By the way... Are you sure you don’t need to say your farewells to Alaia-san and the others?”
“Yeah. If I did that, my determination would waver.”
“I understand how you feel. I’d probably keep putting off our departure a few days at a time and never actually end up leaving...”
“So you do have a cute side to you.”
“Wh-What’s that supposed to mean?! Hahh... Jeez...”