Bermuda

At Alec’s answer, Leonardo also tilted his head. His eyebrows furrowed slightly with it. At that odd expression, Alec laughed as if amused and added,

“If I’d seen it directly, wouldn’t I already be dead?”

Kenis, who heard him, also made a puzzled expression.

In fact, Leonardo had been thinking deeply about the system of this peninsula that Alec had mentioned throughout their movement. He thought that if the monsters followed and were drawn to the queen’s pheromones, that being called the queen might be a means to end the subjugation quickly.

However, hearing that answer made him start to have fundamental doubts about the concept of that queen again.

“Then where did the concept of the queen of monsters first come from? And how do you know about it?”

“...”

“In the first place, the fact that this Elder Millie Peninsula is structured similarly to the system of bees is something you could only know after confirming the existence of the queen, right? It can’t be that you’re convinced such a thing exists just because the queen is the only idea that explains the sudden appearance of mutants.”

At Leonardo’s sharp questions, Kenis blinked and looked back and forth between the two. Come to think of it, if he hadn’t seen it directly, he also wondered how he knew about that being and why he was so certain.

As even Kenis’s doubtful gaze turned toward him, Alec laughed in disbelief, as if asking if they were starting this again, and answered,

“Because I saw records proving the queen’s existence.”

However, Leonardo asked as if it were hard to understand,

“What records? This peninsula has been designated a restricted area all along, so there should be hardly any official records left. Even I don’t know—no, are you saying you saw records that even the Council that came to subjugate doesn’t know about?”

“Could I make up such a detailed story if it didn’t exist? Of course it’s because I saw something.”

Alec pushed up his slipping silver-rimmed glasses and scratched his nose. He seemed to be pondering what to say.

“Hm, let’s see... Where should I start...”

Muttering as if entranced, he just walked ahead again, unable to give a specific answer for a while.

Kenis wondered if all the tales he had brought up earlier were false, but there were too many things that fit together to conclude that, so he was confused.

As Alec kept thinking like that, he suddenly stopped and turned around. His expression as they faced each other could be called the most serious one they had seen so far. After that, he opened his mouth quite cautiously, as if revealing the prelude to a dangerous story.

“If I tell this story anywhere else, I’ll get caught right away, but since this is a peninsula with no one listening, it should be fine, right?”

Leonardo’s eyebrows moved slightly. He wondered what on earth Alec was trying to bring up, laying such groundwork. His tone was light, but Alec’s words carried a demand to keep it confidential more than ever.

Kenis, who had been listening with him, nodded absentmindedly. Only after confirming Leonardo’s look that he would also keep it confidential did Alec speak again.

“Did you read a lot of fairy-tale books when you were young?”

“...Pardon?”

Kenis answered as if asking back at the sudden topic.

“Fairy-tale books all of a sudden?”

“Do you happen to know a story like this among fairy tales? A hopeless tale where a hero went to defeat a man-eating witch in the south but, lacking strength, barely managed to seal her and ran away—without knowing he’d already been cursed by the witch—so he ended up dying not long after.”

Leonardo frowned, wondering what this was again, as he had been quite tense, but suddenly a fairy-tale story came up.

Moreover, fairy-tale books from childhood were quite distant from him, who had lived an uneven life, so he had no idea what content Alec meant.

However, unlike him, Kenis seemed to know that story.

“Oh... I know that one. I think I read it when I was young.”

“Didn’t you find it a bit strange while reading it? It makes you wonder if this is a fairy tale made for children. There’s no lesson in the story—no lesson.”

“Yes, it was a bit like that... But I read it when I was so young that I didn’t really think much of it...”

“Stop the nonsense and tell me, what does that have to do with what I asked? You’re not going to say that a children’s fairy tale is a record proving the queen’s existence, are you?”

Leonardo cut in and broke the flow. The Alec Siles he had seen so far tended to speak in a roundabout way, like a riddle on purpose. Therefore, if he didn’t correct the topic midway, it was clear he would circle again before reaching the answer.

Alec just smiled at him for a moment.

“The reason it’s so strange is that it wasn’t made for the purpose of a fairy tale in the first place. It’s an unnatural piece intentionally distorted, and especially in the case of founding myths, they often personify things that aren’t human.” 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

He shrugged and continued,

“As a result, it spread in such a transformed form that no one knew what it actually represented.”

“...A founding myth? So that’s a founding myth?”

Kenis’s eyes widened.

Records related to the founding of Raina Logia had an especially large number of lost parts, leaving many things with unclear causality or factual basis. So many historians deeply regretted those lost parts.

Amid that, the revelation that a story known to the world only as a fairy tale was actually part of a founding myth was a shocking claim—like finding that a fork used at home was an ancient artifact historians had been desperately searching for.

However, at Kenis’s question, Alec shook his head and answered,

“Strictly speaking, it’s a distorted novel based on a founding myth—made to resemble one—for the legitimacy of later monarchs. So interpretations of the symbolic parts vary by person, and it’s unclear what is fact and what is fiction, which is why it hasn’t been officially recognized as a historical record and has only been passed down orally.”

He continued his explanation, raising his clenched fists to the two’s eye level as if giving an example.

“Therefore, it didn’t even go through the process of verifying its historical value or ideological censorship, and with no one knowing its original meaning, it just remained a children’s fairy tale.”

As Alec’s unfolded hands made a motion as if flying to the sky, the two watching him were silent for a moment. They couldn’t quite grasp what Alec was trying to say.

Alec stared at them, then turned back and walked on, speaking frankly as if revealing his heart,

“I said earlier, ‘When the king dies or disappears, or can’t perform his functions, fellows who aren’t kings pretend to be kings.’”

“...”

“It’s a story related to that. In fact, what I was really researching was exactly that kind of thing.”

What Alec was researching was not monsters pretending to be queens in place of the peninsula’s queen. The monsters on the peninsula were just one of the many roots he learned about while researching “that.”

The story Alec brought up next made them instantly understand why he had to lay the groundwork in advance and speak carefully, mindful of any listeners.

Although there is relatively more freedom of thought now than in the past, it was still quite unreasonable to tell this story openly. What came out of his mouth was too obvious an offense against the imperial family.

He likened those “fellows pretending to be kings” to the current imperial family of Raina Logia. To be precise, he meant the imperial family after the death of the first emperor, the severance of the direct bloodline, and the succession ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ of the throne by several different heirs.

The first emperor of Raina Logia, “Theodore Ragnavalode Raina,” was also the last king of the Raina dynasty before unifying the two nations of Raina and Logia to found the current empire.

However, opinions are still widely divided on whether he should be recognized as the first emperor, because his reign was the shortest in history—so short it’s hard to see it as having a meaningful impact on the empire after its founding.

The Raina royal family had taken consanguineous marriage for granted to maintain the external symbols and powerful mana passed through the bloodline, and as a result, they acquired a genetic heart disease and had a relatively short lifespan.

And even Theodore, called the most powerful king and emperor of his time, could not escape that fate. He died of heart disease not long after founding the empire, without leaving an heir.

Afterward, his short reign and the absence of an heir intertwined, leading to quite divided opinions on who should be placed as the next heir to the throne.

At that time, there was a strong opinion that the king of Logia—who had made a peace treaty with Theodore during the unification and was recognized as a grand duke—should ascend as the new emperor. However, the result was that a distant relative who shared Theodore’s surname succeeded and maintained the imperial lineage.

However, the detailed process leading to this outcome was lost, so the exact situation then is not known.

And Alec explained that in the case of an imperial dynasty continued this way, they would strive even harder to strengthen imperial power and keep internal and external forces in check to prove the legitimacy of the succession. And he said the result was the current emperor-centric political landscape of Raina Logia, which is said to lack a foundation.

Kenis unknowingly observed Leonardo’s reaction while listening. He worried deeply about how he, who had been the empire’s brightest Armsilver until just three years ago, would react to this.

However, contrary to Kenis’s concern, Leonardo quietly listened to Alec’s words without showing any particular reaction.

But in truth, his inner self was quite flustered.