The Imperial Capital of Lydia. Hydrangea Palace.
This palace, located about 30 minutes away from the imperial palace by carriage carriage, was a special place in many ways.
Its size itself wasn’t particularly large. No, it was rather small compared to the name “palace”.
It wasn’t a building with much history either, being less than 50 years old.
Nor was it imbued with special power like the northern magic tower, covered in layers of enchantments.
True to its name, the hydrangeas blooming profusely throughout the garden were incredibly beautiful and picturesque, but in other words, that was the extent of the building’s characteristics.
Yet, the Hydrangea Palace remained a special place.
The reason? The only person staying here was what made it so.
“Hey, did I do something to upset you?”
The mistress of the Hydrangea Palace.
The Empire’s Empress said this while languidly lowering her eyes.
It was a small, trivial action, yet even that alone exuded a charm that could make any viewer breathless.
Considering that the Empress was already a mother of six children, her youth and beauty were almost eerie in some sense.
The anecdote of the Iron Blood Emperor personally instructing, “Wear a veil when walking around the palace as it interferes with work,” unable to bear the sight of officials standing dazed every time they saw the Empress’s face, was like a legend among the palace people.
But even such outstanding beauty was just a tiresome face from a close friend’s perspective.
Opposite the chair where the Empress sat.
The Witch of the South. The Empire’s Crown Mage.
Glinda Goodwitch answered indifferently, “I don’t know what you’re suddenly talking about.”
“You don’t know why I’m acting ? Truly?”
“I’m not your lover, Mary. No matter how much you pester me with that tone, you won’t get anywhere.”
“You’re the only one who scolds me like a child.”
“If you dislike being treated like a child, carry yourself with dignity. You do it well in front of others, so why are you only in front of me?”
“Oh my, I never said I disliked it.”
After a rather undignified verbal catch-ball for a conversation between supreme power holders who could blow away the heads of countless nobles with a single finger, the Empress asked, “Why did you let them go? You know how much trouble I went through to get that?”
“Wasn’t it your subordinates who went through the trouble, not you? You didn’t even care much until things got big in the first place.”
“You’ve got the order wrong. Even if I didn’t care much, I suffered losses hearing harsh words from the Duke, so I need to get something equal to those losses.”
“If you had used proper subordinates from the start, you wouldn’t have had to hear harsh words or suffer losses, would you?”
“That should be taken up with Stutenheim, who stuck his incompetent son in there. I can’t personally manage trivial positions like guild branch managers. It’s not like it’s an important palace position, right?” the Empress continued grumbling. “Politics is like a card game. There are almost no versatile cards that are both good to use and powerful. There are cards that are strong but tricky to use, cards that are easy to use but weak, and cards that are difficult to use and weak but numerous. If you don’t deploy these in the right place at the right time, you can’t win the game. Why do you think I bother holding onto Maximilian, that child, without discarding him?”
After saying that, the Empress’s throat seemed to choke up for a moment.
The Witch of the South silently flicked her finger.
Although there were no servants to attend to them or even guards to protect their safety around the two, as if such things were unnecessary, a tea set floated up in the air on its own and poured tea with faint steam into cups.
Seeing the Empress pick up a cup and wet her lips, the Witch of the South said, “It was Algind’s decision to let them go. If my top protégé judged that was best, I, as a master, can only trust her.”
The Empress put down her teacup with an expression of disbelief, “…That might be the most ridiculous wordplay I’ve heard all year.”
“Is that so? It seems you’re living a life lacking in joy more than I thought. Quite unfortunate.”
The Witch of the South’s face showed not even the slightest change in expression as she said this.
“Enough. Speak plainly.”
The Empress’ gaze pierced through the Witch of the South.
“What is this ‘protégé’s judgment’ you speak of? What are you aiming for?”
To the Empress’ question, the Witch of the South answered, “—A Witch Hunt.”
Originally, there were many diverse nations in the northern and southern parts of the continent.
The reason for using past tense was because that was no longer the case.
The northern nations were absorbed by the Magic State Aeolia, and the southern nations by the Lydia Empire.
This expansion came to a halt when the two great powers came to face each other’s borders, but that didn’t mean other nations could feel at ease.
While the two great powers had less capacity to spare for other places due to internal consolidation and checking each other, even a light jab from these two nations with ridiculously large weight classes could mean a life-or-death crisis for smaller nations.
And between the eastern and western parts of the continent, the west felt a greater threat.
There were various detailed reasons, but the biggest was that the eastern part of the continent itself was too rural.
There were many magic beasts, many terrible natural environments, and many who acted like unified kingdoms despite being mere villages or small domains at best.
If these were unified under one huge force, one could capture or replace the top leadership and use the administrative organization below, but in the case of the east, if one invaded carelessly, they might have to create and manage all those administrative organizations one by one themselves.
The Kingdom of Ionia had a fairly appetizing weight class, but being tucked away at the eastern end made it bad to invade or attack.
Compared to this, the western kingdoms were closer in distance and had more money, having prospered through trade with other continents since ancient times.
If the east was like pine caterpillars, mice, hedgehogs, and foxes scattered in a treacherous forest, the west was like chickens and fat pigs roaming around a well-organized pasture. There was no comparison as to which would be more appealing.
The western nations had two choices.
To quickly bow their heads to the Empire or Magic State and take subordinate positions, or to band together and face external threats.
Some chose the former, but most chose the latter.
“—And, what those who chose the latter created is the Locria Federation we’re heading to now.”
On a trade route connecting the Empire and the Federation.
A clear voice rang out from the cargo compartment of a carriage running on it.
As if responding to the light history lecture, Adelaide and Sophia clapped their hands.
The Tin Knight was in the coachman’s seat, so naturally, the one talking wasn’t Dorothea…
Towards the twin-tailed girl who made an expression like “This much is exaggerated. But if it’s praise, I won’t refuse,” at the applause from the two, Dorothea said incredulously, “You, what are you doing?”
To Dorothea’s question, Franka Aglaia answered with an attitude as puffed up as her skirt, “I’m spreading knowledge to the ignorant, is there something wrong with that? Digging into the origins and roots of ideas is the basic attitude of an alchemist. Sharing and improving knowledge is the duty of mages. Well, a necromancer who greets their own kind with wariness before greetings wouldn’t know that.”
“Anyone listening would think you’re an enthusiastic lecturer. And someone who tried to assassinate people out of nowhere is lecturing about greetings? Ironic if you ask me.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a bit much by bringing up past events? It’s not like I want to get close to you, either. I’m just cooperating because releasing even a little information increases the possibility of saving my children. Don’t misunderstand.”
“Ah, then I guess we can treat your dead child’s matter as just a past event, too. No need to fall short of your witch name.”
At the vicious exchange of words like slicing each other with ice blades, the temperature in the cargo compartment dropped in real-time.
The atmosphere breaker, the Tin Knight, wasn’t here, and Sophia was busy comparing the story she heard from Franka with books brought from Thracus, so only Adelaide could stop the two.
“Um, you two. How about stopping here? While it’s true you have bad blood, I think internal strife in front of a strong enemy won’t do us any good.”
At Adelaide’s intervention, the two witches who were glaring at each other simultaneously looked at Adelaide.
Adelaide felt like she could understand the feeling of a frog in front of a snake seeing the two pairs of vicious eyes, but fortunately, the two didn’t continue to hurl abuse at each other.
Dorothea grumbled, “By the way, is it okay for you to just abandon that shop and come along ? Didn’t you say it was a punishment from your master? Won’t it be discovered soon if you leave it empty?”
“I’ve already taken care of that level of precaution. It should hold up for about a week, and by then we’ll already be where my master is, so it doesn’t matter if it’s discovered or not. More importantly, how were you planning to proceed without a guide if I wasn’t here?”
“We could just use a compass.”
At the blatant mockery, a vein popped on Dorothea’s forehead again, but seeing Adelaide fluttering beside her in confusion, she forcibly suppressed her anger.
“The compass isn’t omnipotent. It’s useless if the sacred treasure is in a place the guiding animal physically can’t go to. The ‘Gloves of Haider’ are paired with an indigo mole. If you leave the guidance to it, you’ll never find where my master is.”
Adelaide tilted her head, but Dorothea seemed to quickly understand what Franka meant.
“I see, so that’s why we’re going to a port city?”
“Um… can I ask what that means?”
“It means the Witch of the West’s base is on an island. A mole might be able to swim, but while it might be fine on flat ground, following that tiny thing without losing it while on a ship would be quite a chore. Not being able to rest freely in the middle like on land is also a problem.”
“Ah, that certainly makes sense.”
Adelaide imagined the scene of chasing after a mole swimming in the sea while rowing hard.
It might be quite cute in a way, but thinking about it coolly, it was a mission with high difficulty in many aspects.
After nodding for a while like that.
“Oh, so we’re going out to sea!?” Adelaide said in surprise.
Perhaps because her voice was quite loud, the Tin Knight in the coachman’s seat reacted.
It was a moment that proved the utility of making a hole connecting the coachman’s seat and cargo compartment, based on the experience in the Garden.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses excitement, asking if it’s naval warfare this time!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he wants to fight a giant octopus or sea dragon!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ argues that we need to get a ship with a giant harpoon!]
“Stop the nonsense and just hold the reins properly.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ argues it’s unfair that he’s always the driver!]
“The mana you use to play with sword energy. If you don’t need it, we could switch.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ changes his words, saying on second thought, the driver’s seat is better than the cargo compartment after all!]
Dorothea shook her head.
Adelaide said anxiously, “Um, it’s my first time with both ships and the sea, will it be okay?”
Franka answered, “It doesn’t matter. I’ve already sent people ahead to prepare a ship, and the journey itself is only about 3 days at most, so it won’t take that long.”
“What about sea monsters?”
To Adelaide’s question, Franka laughed, “Ha, it seems inland people hear strange things and get unnecessarily scared, but the giant monsters people talk about aren’t that common. If such things appeared so easily, proper trade using ships wouldn’t be possible in the first place, right? The only threat would be rough weather at most, so there won’t be any problems with the plan.”
Watching Franka assert this, Dorothea made a strange expression.
She thought these preparations were convenient in many ways, but there was a strange sense of déjà vu.
“Miss Franka, we have a problem. Our sailors have been captured by pirates! They’re demanding ransom now!”
“Ah, Miss! It’s a sea serpent! It has appeared for the first time in decades! The fishermen are all too scared to go out to sea!”
“The weather has been ominous lately. We need to perform a ceremony to calm the weather in the sea god’s cave, but there are rumors that a giant magic beast has made its nest in that cave recently…”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses satisfaction, saying it’s indeed standard for main quests and sub-quests to be in the same place!]
“Why!? Why now of all times!?”
Watching Franka cry out in despair and the Tin Knight jumping around excitedly, Dorothea let out a deep sigh.
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