Bermuda

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.

It felt as if Alec Siles—who until now had been confined behind a solid glass wall for observation—had suddenly looked straight at him and hurled a stone at that glass. It wasn’t an ideological shock, but the shock that someone would openly speak such things.

Alec, who had likewise been observing his reaction, finally threw out a question that could only be called blatant.

“Do you know what methods later monarchs in this situation usually use to strengthen their power and prove their legitimacy?”

At Alec’s words, Kenis only rolled his eyes back and forth. Earlier, he would have readily answered, but now he found it uncomfortable—borderline frightening—to join a conversation with this atmosphere.

Because of that, the one who answered Alec’s question, which nearly went unanswered, was Leonardo, who had been silently holding his breath.

“War. And concealment.”

At Leonardo’s voice, both their gazes fixed on him. Leonardo continued calmly.

He said that if a monarch wins a war against another nation, his power shoots upward and the people’s patriotism pierces the sky. On top of that, if he gains control of the media, ostracizing opposing forces or brainwashing the populace becomes easy.

Afterward, to govern the interior, the monarch places loyalists in key positions, secretly creates eyes and ears, and instead of dirtying his own hands, moves proxies like chess pieces to deify himself as an unapproachable being.

He added that once the image of an absolute monarch is established, it becomes “truth” even when it hides or distorts facts, turning the claim of legitimacy into a form of “justice” no one could deny.

Leonardo had been talking about the “monarchs in this usual situation” Alec had given as an example, but listening to his words, it was inevitable that a certain dynasty naturally came to mind—along with the imperial line of Raina Logia, which had repeated wars great and small throughout history.

Kenis deflated, and Alec stopped walking for a moment to quietly observe Leonardo. Leonardo also stopped and stared back at Alec.

It lasted only a few seconds, but a suffocating exchange of probing followed.

Eventually, Alec, who had been narrowing his eyes, spoke as he closed his elongated eyelids,

“Good answer. It’s an almost specific answer, as if you’ve ruled, or observed it directly from close by?”

He deliberately probed with a meaningful remark, but Leonardo gave no further response.

“As you said, the ruling power of a monarch who has won a war is incredibly strong beyond measure. War has also been the means chosen by this empire’s imperial family for generations to seize power.”

“...”

“With that mighty power they seized, they suitably distort facts that don’t help strengthen their standing, cover up the achievements and records of previous monarchs who once held legitimacy, granting even firmer legitimacy to the new monarch. Fabricating the weakness of the former monarch with the tale of a hero who failed to kill the witch and ran away, hiding the original truth—”

—Beep!

At that moment, a sound suddenly came from the coordinate system Alec was holding. The gazes of all three shifted to it at once.

Seeing the blinking sensor, Alec’s narrow eyes slowly widened. The pupils usually hidden behind his smiling eyelids were revealed.

In those pupils Leonardo saw, there was a hint of madness and rapture.

Alec abruptly took out a map from his backpack. Then, turning direction, he began walking hurriedly. It seemed like new information was about to emerge, but because of his sudden interruption and movement, Leonardo and Kenis hastily followed him.

He was laughing.

Unable to hold back the laughter spilling out even as he hurried with the map and coordinate system in hand, he continued speaking to those behind him.

“All ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) this time, I’ve been studying the empty spaces in such hidden history.”

Ahead of Alec’s path, the dense trees thinned out, and the light that had been blocked by the leaves now poured down strongly from above. At the same time, beyond the trunks in front of them, old structures began to appear—structures with a particularly artificial, alien feeling, as there were hardly any trees around them.

Leonardo could instinctively tell that the place Alec had been searching for was right here.

As if confirming his intuition, Alec spoke in a voice filled with joy,

“And the reason I came to this place is because this Elder Millie Peninsula is one of those empty spaces in history.”

The coordinate system in his hand informed them that with each step, they were drawing closer to the marked coordinates. Seeing it, Leonardo stared once more at Alec’s side profile, visible at an angle.

As the tree shadows on his face slowly disappeared and full light poured down, the coordinate system made another sound.

—Beep, beep!

The three stopped walking, and Leonardo turned his head forward. Then he realized they stood at the boundary between a wide-open clearing in the middle of the forest and the woods behind them.

Ahead, structures were spread out widely—much more elaborate and complex than those seen elsewhere—and a thick red sunset flowed over them, heightening the serene yet eerie atmosphere.

Among the structures, one in particular stood out. It was the huge stele rising in the center, reached by following a curved path between aligned structures and walls to the left and right.

Alec approached the stele without hesitation. It wasn’t far, but for him, reaching it felt like an eternity.

The stele was covered in moss and vines, looking like an ordinary wall one might pass without notice, but something about it was strange.

From its central placement among the structures, to the columns and statues on either side, to Alec Siles’s mesmerized gaze fixed upon it, everything hinted that something was out of the ordinary.

Thanks to that, when they reached the massive stele, Leonardo—who had been looking where Alec’s eyes lingered—also discovered the peculiar characters visible between the vines.

Ancient language?

Raising his eyebrows slightly, he looked at it, then shifted his eyes toward Alec. Alec Siles was staring up at the stele with a face filled with joy, his eyes wider than ever before. Then, without looking away, he asked the two beside him,

“Have you ever wondered even once while coming to subjugate the peninsula?”

At his question, Kenis, standing to his right, also turned his gaze toward him. As their eyes focused on him, Alec took four large steps back, distancing himself from the stele. When the stele and the columns flanking it came fully into view, he said,

“The imperial citizens in the south are suffering so much from the monsters’ outbreak on the peninsula, and during that long time when the military and the Council shifted responsibility back and forth, the creatures multiplied. Have you never questioned why successive emperors neglected the situation until it got this bad, instead of forcing a full subjugation long ago?”

Kenis swallowed dryly at Alec’s words, and Leonardo’s lips, parted slightly in confusion, trembled faintly.

Neglected?

He had never once considered that this place had been neglected.

He had only thought that the creatures had reproduced beyond control, creating a vicious cycle impossible to eradicate at the root, and everyone simply avoided it. The idea that this place had been intentionally neglected by someone’s will had never occurred to him.

Thus, Alec Siles’s words struck his perspective like a thrown stone. That impact opened fine cracks, and as those cracks spread, his old view shattered—while a new, widened one began to form.

And in that moment, Leonardo suddenly recalled Cordelia’s resentment toward the military and the emperor, who had ignored her pleas for aid before entering the peninsula.

Her determined yet sorrowful face, holding back tears, and the words she had spoken flashed quickly before him.

“It seems that after disbanding the private armies of the aristocrats, His Majesty doesn’t even see the people of territories with knightly orders as imperial citizens.”

“Otherwise, even as imperial citizens are suffering and dying day by day because of the monsters, he wouldn’t order only my family to protect the territory and border on our own.”

“...”

He tried to sort through the tangled threads in his mind, stepping through each piece of the situation with a somewhat dazed expression. It felt as if too many things had come pouring out at once.

Eventually, when his confused eyes turned toward Alec, Alec grinned and spoke again.

“You asked me how I was certain of the queen’s existence.”

He stretched out his arm toward the huge stele before them and said,

“The answer to your question is also right here.”