“What do you think?”
“About…?”
“The current situation. Are you not worried at all? You know, while everything looks calm right now, I’m already starting to get a bad feeling.”
“You’re right to think that way. After all…”
Pausing, Leon mumbled, ‘…that jinx is here.’ Evelyn, who heard his words, smiled bitterly.
“I’ve been hearing this a lot but do you really think he’s a jinx.”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation in Leon’s words. The speed and certainty in his tone were enough for Evelyn’s smile to grow more bitter.
“…You really do hate him.”
“At times.”
Leon shrugged, mopping the floor.
“He may or may not be a jinx but it’s undeniable that he’s been at the center of all troubles lately. Whatever the case is, we’ve only just arrived, but looking at the rules placed on us, the situation outside is quite complicated.”
“You’re not wrong.”
Entering the hallway, Amell glanced at Leon and the others who stopped whatever they were doing. Since everyone knew what they looked like with their new disguise, nobody had trouble identifying Amell.
“I’ve just done a little investigating while you guys were cleaning. I more or less know what is going on at the moment.”
Hearing Amell’s words, Aoife raised her brow.
“You do?”
“If the servants didn’t lie to me, then yes.”
“Don’t tell me you bribed them.”
“Whatever gets the job done.”
Amell shrugged with a smile. It didn’t even cost him that much. Just a few mana crystals.
Since the currency in this place was different, Amell had to pay using mana crystals— condensed forms of pure energy created from mana. These crystals were not only a medium of exchange but also a valuable resource for enhancing one’s strength and abilities.
They were usually the currency used in out-of-empire trades.
“Anyways, the situation is complicated.”
With a grim look, Amell started to recount his findings.
“From what I’ve gathered, the Kasha are facing a similar issue with monsters. Normally, handling them wouldn’t be a challenge for them, but one of the strongest factions within the Eastern Kasha has gone completely silent, vanishing from everyone’s sight.”
“One of the biggest forces?”
Aoife pondered for a few seconds before concluding, “Are you talking about the House of Astrid?”
“Yup.”
Amell nodded, his face growing more troubled.
“It started just a month ago, but all of a sudden they cut off all contact with the outside world and the people in the Kasha. It’s as if they’ve sealed themselves from the world, cutting all ties with the world.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Nobody knows.”
Amell rubbed his forehead.
Things would’ve been easier if he knew, but regardless of who he tried to bribe, nobody knew the answer.
Be it the servants or anyone else within the household.
Nobody knew.
“Without the support of the House of Astrid, everything here has begun to deteriorate, including the trade. In the past, all goods flowed through the House of Astrid before being distributed to the four Empires. As the overlords of the region, they control everything that passes through.”
“Ah-! And wow that they’ve sealed themselves, they can’t trade!”
Evelyn smacked her fist against her palm as she had a sudden understanding.
However, she soon frowned.
“Wait, if the House of Astrid had closed themselves off, can’t they just bypass them? If they don’t check I’m sure they can just-”
“That’s the problem.”
Amell’s expression turned even more complicated.
“…You can say they’ve sealed themselves off from the world, but that’s not entirely true. The Astrid’s are still patrolling the surroundings, and they cut off anyone that tries to move outside of the city walls immediately.”
“Wait, what?”
Aoife placed her mop to the side and frowned.
“If they’ve stopped everything, why are they blocking trades?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but even when the other Houses attempt to confront them by capturing some of their lower-ranked guards, they get no answers. The servants claim the guards suddenly go mute. No matter how far they push-severing limbs, burning flesh with acid-they refuse to utter a single word. It’s almost as if they have suddenly become soulless puppets.”
“Hiss…”
Everyone drew in a breath of cold air.
From what Amell was saying, the situation was even more complicated than expected. “The House of Myron has already spread the news to the Four Empires, but as you all know, they don’t really have the time to help with the current situation. Furthermore, considering the relationship between the two sides, they are probably against the Four Empires providing a lot of help. They don’t want to be in too much debt with them.”
“So they’d rather have their own people starve?”
“…Apparently so.”
Amell replied with a bitter smile.
He too couldn’t understand why those of the Kasha were so stubborn and hated the Four Empires so much. It wasn’t as if they prohibited them from entering the Empires and
becoming its citizens.
The same was true for the trades.
They could easily trade with the Empires if they wanted to, but they simply refused. They wanted nothing to do with the Empires, and if not for the situation becoming so dire, they probably wouldn’t have allowed them to enter the Kasha.
…They probably needed a small helping hand.
Small enough that they didn’t need to be in a lot of debt with the Empires.
“Ukh.”
Leaning by the side of the wall, Kiera made a face.
“It’s always like this in the end with this bullshit politics. These bastards’ egos are even bigger than mine. If they put their pride down they could’ve probably have solved the situation a lot faster since the Empires could’ve probably helped a month ago. But it’s too late now. They did this to themselves.”
“…Their resentment with us runs deeper than you think. There’s nothing you can do about
it.”
Amell shrugged and turned to look at Leon who was in deep thought. After a while, Leon shook his head and sighed.
“Since the situation is like this then it’s best if we wait for a bit to better understand how the House of Astrid currently operates. Considering the situation with the monsters they might even make us fight them so we might not have that much time.”
“Oh, right.”
Turning to look at the window, towards the large walls that appeared in the distance, Amell’s
expression grew solemn.
“I’ve heard there’s quite a lot of Terror-Ranked monsters outside. If they do send us out freewebnσvel.cm
there, I’m not sure we’ll ever have time to understand what is happening. I don’t know about
you all but I want to go back quickly.”
“Yes.”
Leon agreed.
This place… despite having only spent a few hours here, it already felt incredibly stuffy for
him. He already wanted to go back.
“Hm?” Just as Leon turned to look at the window, he realized something.
“Wait, where is Julien?”
Leon turned his head to look at his right and then left. However, regardless of where he
looked, he couldn’t find a single trace of Julien.
Where did he…?
“Maybe he left?”
Kiera mumbled, pointing towards one of the opened windows of the hallway.
“He did look pretty annoyed from what I remember. Hell, he didn’t even finish cleaning his
window.”
Scratching the back of his neck, Leon moved towards the window Julien was working on and saw that it was only half-clean. Thinking back to how they were making fun of him, Leon
shook his head.
‘…I guess what Kiera said makes sense.’
Had Leon been in Julien’s position, he too would’ve left.
Looking down the window, Leon looked at the empty streets below and felt a faint breeze
brush against his skin. It felt cool, and at the same time heavy.
It was hard to describe, but it was anything but pleasant. ‘It’s like a mix of the environment within the Mirror Dimension and the real world.’
Shaking his head once more, Leon reached for the window handle and began to push it shut.
However, just as the glass started to slide into place, he froze mid-motion.
“This is…?”
Reaching his hand forward, he caught what appeared to be a blood-red leaf.
Staring at the leaf, Leon felt his breath pause for a second. For some reason… that leaf, felt
eerily familiar.
But where…
Where had he seen it before?
***
Thu Thump! Thu Thump!
A loud, rhythmic thumping sound echoed through my mind, pounding relentlessly and
shaking me out of my daze.
Thu Thump! Thu Thump!
They were loud.
Too loud.
“Hm?”
Thu Thump!
At some point, my eyes opened up and my expression changed drastically.
Thu Thump! Thu Thump!
The color red dominated my surroundings as crowds gathered from every direction, their gazes fixed on the center of a sprawling open field encircled by towering white buildings.
At the center of the field stood several figures clad in vivid red, each gripping large drums that
reverberated with every powerful strike of their sticks.
Thu Thump!
‘What is going on?’
Shocked by the situation, I tried to recall what had happened a few moments prior, and it soon
hit me.
“Ah.”
Just as I leaped down to assist Kaelion, a few hundred people suddenly surged out of the
houses as if they had been waiting there all along. I attempted to fight back, but before I could
do anything, my vision began to fade to black.
‘…This is bad.’
Looking around and seeing the people around me clap and jumping around, I felt my lips
grow dry.
However, instead of panicking, I remained calm.
I was good at remaining calm in situations such as these.
“Hoo.”
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and fully relaxed myself. ‘Judging from the situation, I was ambushed and brought to this place. Everything happened so fast
that it’s also likely that Leon and the others didn’t detect a thing. Especially since the people didn’t even
use any mana when taking us down.’
At least, I hadn’t felt any mana from them.
‘… Since I’m here, I’m also sure Kaelion and Caius are here, but where are they?’
I looked around in hopes of finding them but there were far too many people around me to see
properly.
‘For now, I should get out of here and look for them.’
“Eh…?”
With a plan in mind, I tried to move when I was hit with a sudden realization.
“This…”
Looking down at my legs, I realized I couldn’t move at all.
Not only that…
Cra Crack-
A strange cracking sound echoed in the air, and before I could process it, my hands moved on
their own. Their stiff, jerky movements caught me off guard.
And before I knew it, Clap, clap!
I started to clap on my own.
Looking at my arms, and more specifically the string attached to them, my stomach churned.
This was bad.
Really bad.