must have risen, too, as blood began spilling from her chest even faster. The Wise Wolf's long-hidden fury filled the room with its terrifying presence. As she stood, still dying, she curled her lips into a grim smile. "None of us are leaving here alive." "Father..." Alice yanked on the hem of the man's coat in fear. However, he didn't stir. For a moment, the room was still. Then Vyade glanced to the side. Her and Elisabeth's gazes met. Vyade nodded, as though saying she was leaving the rest to her. Elisabeth nodded back. Perhaps that came as a relief to her, as Vyade's expression softened a little. For just a second, it looked like she was about to cry. Elisabeth could tell there were two emotions waging war inside her. A deep rageâ€”the desire to take her enemies down with her, even when faced with certain death. And a childlike fearâ€”the fear of dying, especially after having just watched her subjects and adoptive sister get struck down in front of her. The two emotions were at stark odds. As long as they stayed inside her, they could coexist. But the dying woman only had room on the outside to express one. *** "Consider it an honor to die alongside me, villains!" Without a shred of hesitation, Vyade chose the former, stifling her fear and raising her voice high. There was no falsehood in the proud, elegant figure she cast. Yet at the same time, it seemed unbearably tragic. 'Twould be a slight of the highest order to voice that thought, though. Consequently, Elisabeth chose to remain silent. She just continued watching the second imperial princess. Vyade didn't cry. She glared majestically at her foes, not shedding a single tear. The man, seemingly in response, gave a slight nod. Then he moved with intention for the first time and shifted his fingers. A small shuffling noise sounded out. The man had removed his half mask, as one might take off a hat as a show of respect. From Elisabeth's position, all she could see was the half of his face that had been visible all along. However, when Vyade saw the rest, her eyes went wide. Then something remarkable happened. All the malice drained from Vyade's face. Seemingly having come to understand something, she let out a quiet murmur. "You're..." The man appeared to smile. There was no animosity in it. Then Elisabeth and the others passed through the audience chamber's entrance. Lute and his men hastily rushed into the hallway. And as though it had been waiting for that, the crystal's glow reached its zenith. A sound like that of glass shattering rang out. A flash of lightning filled the room, burning the curtains away. The ivy twisted and cracked like whips. The pink flower twirled. The air began turning silver. Elisabeth's retinas burned. Then she stopped being able to see altogether. She saw nothingâ€” â€”and no oneâ€” â€”not even the faceâ€” the imperial princess made in her final moments. Vision slowly returned to her seared retinas. However, the world still appeared the sameâ€”everything in front of her was completely white. Curious, she reached out her hand. When she did, her fingertips quickly went flat. The whiteness was solid. At that point, she finally realized what had happened. She was in front of the audience chamber's entrance, and every square inch of the chamber before her was packed with pale-silver ivy. That was why it had felt like her vision hadn't come back yet. The plant within the crystal grew at an explosive rate, I take it. As she made her conjecture, she reached out and touched the densely packed vines once more. They were cold, firm, and soft, like a corpse that was just coming out of rigor mortis. It reminded her of a graveyard. And in a sense, it was one. After all, nobody within the audience chamber could have survived. No one inside could have escaped being crushed. "Ah, I see. 'Twas a self-destruct device, to be used in the event an imperial was captured by any who meant to do the nation harm... Ha, that was the item generations of imperials took such painstaking care to pass down?" Elisabeth murmured in exasperation, but the voice that came out was tinged with anger at the absurdity of it all. She frowned. She'd had no intentions of getting emotional over the situation. Suddenly, her frame of view swiveled. "Hmm?" "Pardon me." Lute, who must have wanted to check for himself, had turned around. Elisabeth was still facing backward over his shoulder. Having no desire to be spun about any further, she hopped down. Lute stared silently at the silver mass. Suddenly, though, he pounded his fist against the ivy wall. "Lady Vyade Ula Forstlast..." He was clearly reflecting on each syllable as it came out of his mouth. He closed his eyes and caught his breath. Then after practically tearing himself off the wall, he thumped his chest, assumed a salute, and knelt. The rest of the beastfolk followed his lead. It was their way of showing their grief, as well as their respect for their late master. Elisabeth, the lone member standing, waited for them to finish their prayer. Eventually, the silence ended. Lute shook his head as he solemnly rose. "That's all the time we can spare lamenting our cowardice and helplessness. Lady Valisisa Ula Forstlast and Lady Vyade Ula Forstlast, the first and second imperial princesses, have fallen. We need to make sure the Three Kings of the Forest and the rest of the imperial family are safe." "Not just them. 'Tis important we check the status of the other races' dignitaries as well." Elisabeth amended Lute's statement with a warning. Startled, he turned to look at her. What makes you say that? his eyes were asking. Elisabeth's reply came dispassionately. "Alice Carroll told us as much. 'If you keep being like that, you're going to die along with everyone else in the world.' The beastfolk weren't their sole target." Alice hadn't said that with any sort of agenda in mind. She'd simply been mad. Yet even so, her childish outburst had been akin to a proclamation of war. They wish to revolutionize the world. It was still unclear what their exact goals were. But given that they'd summoned the Fremd Torturchen to facilitate their revolution, something told her that they weren't just planning on handing out pamphlets. Whatever they were planning, it was going to have a substantial body count. Vyade took those two down with her...but I doubt things will end so easily. Her intuition as the Torture Princess told her that worse developments were yet to come. Blood would flow. People would die. And their screams would give birth to despair. Just now, she'd gotten a whiff of the embers smoldering in the world's dark underbelly. She was on high alert, like an animal reacting to imperceptible signs of a coming calamity. Something was coming. Something comparable to the end of days. She didn't know what it was, but there was one thing she was certain of. It was the same as what Kaito Sena had known all those years ago. "If things go on like this, we'll all die." Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Suddenly, a strange noise cut through the tense air. Everyone looked up to see what was going on. The sound was coming from the window farthest down the hallway. It was sunny out, so the waterproof leather flap atop the window had been rolled up, and some sort of round object was smacking into its bare wooden lattice. Bang, bang, bang. It pounded against the window in a pointless display of perseverance. Elisabeth nodded. Lute, puzzled, spoke up. "That's... Is that a...?" "Aye. 'Tis." Elisabeth was well-acquainted with those winged white orbs. It was one of the Church's communication devices. 3 The King's Resolve It's time for a story. There's no need to be alarmed. I promise, there's nothing to be afraid of. It's just a little story about a simple equation. Let's say we have "someone who was cruelly oppressed" and "someone who gleefully oppressed them." The former will never forgive the latter, no matter what they say or do. There's no way for them to apologize. Not the slightest chance for atonement. Given those parameters, there's a pretty clear answer. You multiply hate by resentment, then subtract those pesky ethics. Then once the first party carries out their revenge on the second party, the story comes to an end. And they all live happily ever after. But here we add another parameter. One that throws the whole situation into chaos. The new parameter is as follows. Let's say we have "people who did nothing" and "people who knew nothing." Let's say we have a generous, openhearted world that allows the ignorance to persist, saying, These things happen. Now, how do we solve that one? It looks tricky, doesn't it? After all, so many of the perpetrators are innocent. But there's no need to think that hard. By changing the way you look at the problem, it becomes easy to find the solution. All you have to do is cut through all the tangled-up strings. In other wordsâ€” â€”that is what it means to hate the world itself. "The Capital was attacked by an unidentified group. We request that Elisabeth return from her foreign dispatch at once." Runes scrolled rapidly across the white orb's surface. The message was concise, but unsettling all the same. Elisabeth turned the communication device in her fingers to double-check she'd gotten it all. There weren't any specificsâ€”the message must have been written in a hurry. She let out a deep sigh. "They timed their attacks together, hmm? No surprise there." She'd more or less expected the possibility of a coordinated strike. Up until then, their foes had evaded notice from the three races' joint defenses. There was no way an army could have avoided detection so perfectly. In all likelihood, the enemy's numbers were small. It made sense they were able to move so efficiently. When your targets drop their guard, 'tis best to strike them all at once. Was it that the past three years' peace had made them all complacent? Not quite. After the calamity, the world was met with famine, poverty, ruin, and disease. Law and order eroded, and greater public knowledge of the menace God and Diablo posed gave rise to all sorts of new problems. The scattered remnants of the reconstruction sect began regrouping and gaining power, and demon worshippers began popping up all over the place. However, none of them rose to the level of a serious threat. In part, it was because nobody paid them that much heed. People had the power in them to create hells. But at the end of the day, man-made hells paled in comparison with the real thing. The hells demons made were beyond fathoming. During the end of days, everyone experienced that fact firsthand. It took a lot to shock people now. As a result, the three races devoted themselves wholly to their reconstruction efforts. And the peace they now enjoyed was the fruit of that labor. No one had even considered that an enemy other than a demon might rise up. In fact, not even Elisabeth had predicted the Fremd Torturchen's arrival. "Hmm... Between the summons itself and the paucity of information, 'twould seem that time is of the essence. Now then." Elisabeth ruminated as she rotated the orb. She had to make a choice. As the Torture Princess, should she return to the humans? Or should she stay with the beastfolk? Her execution had been delayed indefinitely, but she still belonged to the Church. By all rights, she should have been helping out with the restoration efforts in the Capital. However, that would have earned no small amount of backlash from the paladins. As a result, she'd come to the beastfolk lands on Vyade's suggestion to work with the