Epilogue
Two weeks had passed since the Naval War of Patura.
Felite was in the fortress that had once held him as a prisoner—not in a jail cell, but in the command room. The same one his brother used to use.
He had a mountain of work set out for him: mend public relations to encourage others besides the Kelil to accept him as the new Ladu, rekindle trade with foreign nations, compensate victims of rampant pillaging, suppress the resistance that continued even after Legul’s defeat, and other unavoidable matters that made his head hurt.
A knock came at the door.
“Sorry to bother you.”
It was Wein. Felite smiled at the friend he’d met through a strange twist of fate.
“Ah, Wein. How can I help you?”
“It’s nothing much. Just wanted to let you know we’re pretty much packed up and ready to head home,” Wein replied. “I gotta get back to my own country. It’s been a long trip, but now we’ve done what we needed to do.”
“I see… I cannot thank you enough. I vow I will fulfill our promise one day.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it… Can you come with me for a second? There’s something I want to show you.”
“What could that be?” Felite tilted his head and obediently followed Wein out of the room.
“Your ancestor Malaze made this fortress, right?”
“Yes. A large-scale military port became necessary when he stirred up trouble with other nations. You might say that, in a way, it is a symbol of unity. But what of it?”
“You’ll know soon enough.”
They headed out of the fortress and finally arrived at a yard for holding goods. Ninym was there.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Your Highness.”
“Is it over there?”
“Yes. I confirmed it earlier.”
Wein motioned to an old, unused well. It wasn’t for drinking water. Felite remembered it was excavated for seawater to be used during yard fires. The water, however, hadn’t pooled in the borehole, and it had been abandoned since.
Whatever it was that Wein wanted to show him, it seemed to be in there.
“Let’s go.”
“W-wait. What in the world is in there?”
Wein returned a question for a question. “Felite, what’s on top of a backbone?”
“Huh?”
Wein climbed down the well with a ladder Ninym had prepared. Felite looked at her, and she gestured—After you—urging him to descend.
“…Okay, here goes nothing!”
He couldn’t say he didn’t trust the motley pair. Felite entered the well.
There were torches fixed to the walls, so the inside wasn’t pitch-black. Ninym must have prepared these, too.
This only added to Felite’s confusion. Oddly enough, Wein had disappeared from sight.
“Um, Wein—?”
“Over here.” A hand popped out from the wall.
Well, not exactly the wall. Though nearly invisible, there was a narrow path for people to walk through at the bottom of the well.
“Wh-what’s this…?”
Arriving at the base, Felite let go of the ladder in surprise. Splsh. He landed in a puddle of seawater on the ground.
“You’ll understand once you solve the riddle I just gave you.” Wein took a torch from the wall and started down the passage.
Felite’s mind raced as he followed after him.
That riddle.
“What’s on top of a backbone?”
On top of a backbone… I guess that would be…a head?
Felite was rubbing his skull when a flash of inspiration came upon him.
“It—it can’t be…”
“The trick is to think of the ‘top’ as something that points north.” Wein smiled. “‘When the new body nears its completion, the rainbow slumbering in the artificial eye will emerge.’”
Words left behind by Felite’s ancestor, Malaze. It was said that this riddle would lead to the location of Patura’s greatest treasure.
“‘The new body’ refers to the celestial body of the moon. And ‘completion’ refers to its waxing and waning. It indicates the flow of the tide.”
It would be a full moon tonight, which meant the tide was low. Now that Felite thought about it, the walls and floor of the passage were wet. It was as if they’d been filled with water not long before.
“‘The artificial eye.’ The eye is in the head. And the head is on top of the spine. In other words, the Patura Archipelago is lying on top of the Giant’s Backbone, which cuts the main continent into East and West. That’s the head: Patura.”
Felite’s heart raced a mile a minute. They were drawing near the end of the pathway.
Could it really be? Was it really here?
“And ‘the artificial eye’ points to a man-made object, located exactly where the eyes are located on the head. Like this fortress, for example.”
Malaze had commanded the military port to be built. If there was another reason for its creation… If the fortress above was meant to mask what was buried below…
“—We’re here.”
Their destination filled Felite’s vision.
A room packed from floor to ceiling with gemstone deposits that winked in the torchlight.
“…I can’t believe it.”
Every ounce of strength left him. He fell to his knees. They grew damp from the seawater, but he didn’t care.
“Legul, what you wanted so badly was right here the whole time…”
Shellfish were moving in the water. Anemia.
Their shells shone in rainbow colors. Perhaps Malaze had brought and raised young shellfish here, or maybe they had found their way in and come to live peacefully in this room absent of natural predators. Felite didn’t know the answer, but it didn’t really seem to matter.
“What will you do?” Wein picked up one of the shellfish at his feet, and it snapped closed on itself. He prodded it with his finger. “You’re in a postwar struggle for dominance, right? With these, that power can be yours.”
Wein was right. If Felite had the Rainbow Crown, getting people to follow him would be simple.
In fact, it would be all too easy. However…
“I did not become Ladu to take the easy way out.”
That was Felite’s answer.
“I see.” Wein gently returned the shell to the water.
“I know I’ve already asked much of you, but I have one more request,” Felite said.
“You want me to keep quiet about this place, right? Sure. Patura isn’t my country, after all.”
“…Thank you.” He bowed. “Let’s seal this place off so neither I nor anyone else can obtain the Rainbow Crown. If my heart wavers, I have no doubt that I will try to fall back on its powers.”
Wein said nothing. His job now done, he gave a satisfied nod and turned on his heel.
“Well, shall we head back?”
Behind him, Felite called out, “Please wait, Wein. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. Now is the perfect time.”
“What is it?”
“—Did you break the Rainbow Crown on purpose?”
It had all been an accident. At the time, he’d been so sure. But Felite found himself wondering if it had truly been a coincidence.
“You thought the Rainbow Crown alone wouldn’t be enough to persuade the Kelil,” he continued. “Even I would not be forgiven if I destroyed the crown. You anticipated Rodolphe’s boat being below us. If you had dropped it in the ocean, I would have dived after it.”
“……”
“The loss of the Rainbow Crown forced me to make a decision. I believe I’ve grown as a person. Perhaps you had calculated that, too.”
“…If that were the case, would it be a problem?”
Felite shook his head. “Not at all. It’s just one more thing that I owe you for.”
Wein nodded. “It’s over. You’re not going to chase the shadows of the rainbow anymore, right?”
Felite chuckled. “…No. Let’s go back. There’s still much to do.”
Several days later, Wein left for Natra with a grand send-off.
From then on, the Kingdom of Natra and the Patura Archipelago would enjoy a long friendship that spanned generations.
Only future historians would know how long their bonds lasted and how deep their relations become.
A man sat in a dimly lit room. A canvas was in front of him, his hands holding a paintbrush and palette. He slowly stroked the brush, letting the white canvas become dyed with color. The paintbrush began to speed up, and—
“ Why?!” He smacked both brush and canvas to the floor in anger.
“Why can’t I paint?! I’ve been moved to the core! The natural genius gained nothing and suffered defeat at the hands of the derided younger brother! It was pure poetry!”
The man stomped on the canvas before looking up at the ceiling.
“Oh Lord! Why are you preventing me from becoming an artist?! If you would allow me even one painting—one simple painting—that I alone can create, I would be saved by your grace!”
God did not answer his pleas. Instead, a small voice came from behind the man.
“It appears your wish was not granted, Sir Steel.”
A delicate light crept into the darkness. There sat a woman draped in robes.
“Ah…Lady Caldmellia.” The man—the Holy Elite Steel Lozzo—caught his breath and faced the woman. “I’m embarrassed to have shown myself in such a state of discomposure.”
“Think nothing of it. Indeed, there is no shame in expressing one’s suffering. After all, most answers come not from within oneself but from the outside.”
“I see. I’m sure that’s true,” Steel said with a lifeless smile.
“So what will you do? About Patura, that is,” Caldmellia clarified.
“Unfortunately, Felite Zarif has completely seized power. It seems he’s on good terms with the Kelil, so it will take time to rip them apart.” Steel continued. “From the impressions of my messenger, he plans to follow in his predecessors’ footsteps and remain neutral in the relations between the Eastern and Western regions of the mainland. To be frank, one might call the plan a failure.”
The Kingdom of Vanhelio, where Steel lived, had devised a scheme to gently win over the Patura islands by supporting Legul and raising arms against any opposing nations. The only problem was that Legul had been defeated and Vanhelio’s aid had come to nothing.
“This is troubling…” Caldmellia noted with a melancholy sigh. “Natra to the north, Mealtars in the center, Patura to the south… Three nations that support the main road connecting East and West. Chaos will never spread like this.”
Steel nodded. “Natra has shown breakneck progress. Even King Gruyere admits Prince Wein is powerful.”
“Yes… I’m developing a number of plans—some of which involve that nation. However, Prince Wein is keenly perceptive, so I’m curious how many he’ll undermine. It’s vexing.”
“You say that, Lady Caldmellia, but you seem to be rather enjoying yourself.”
“Oh dear.” Caldmellia pressed a hand to her flushed cheek. “I’m embarrassed for showing girlish giddiness beyond my years. I must apply myself properly and devise a plan that causes the people of the continent to lose everything.”
“Loss is one method of unleashing human emotion. I shall help you to my fullest capacity.”
“Very well. There appears to be trouble brewing in the East, so let us do our best together to fan the flames of war—”
In the darkness, the two monsters sowed the seeds of tragedy.
No one knew at what point that dark flower would bloom.
“We’re hoooome.”
Willeron Palace in the Kingdom of Natra.
Wein sighed as he sat in his familiar office chair. The journey had started out with a meeting to conclude a trade deal; instead, he got twist after twist after twist. He’d gained some things in the process, but he still wasn’t used to traveling by sea and needed a serious break.
I’ll take care of most of these documents before I take some time off.
Wein looked down at his own knees.
“—And what might you be doing, Falanya?”
His little sister was perched on top of them.
“Don’t mind me. I’m just sitting here.”
“Uh, well, it’s hard not to mind.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.”
Falanya seemed to be miffed that she hadn’t been included in the long journey. As her big brother, Wein needed to be on his best behavior.
“So, Wein, how was your trip?”
“Huh? Yeah, it was pretty interesting.”
“Hmph.”
Shoot. That hmph meant she was in a bad mood. Wein immediately realized his mistake.
“W-well, why don’t the two of us take a trip next time?” Wein blurted out to appease her, but Falanya eyed him suspiciously.
“…Our kingdom’s representative will go with little old me on a trip? Just the two of us?”
“Ha-ha-ha. Have some faith in your big brother, Falanya.”
“……”
Darn. She didn’t believe a word of it.
A younger Falanya might have fallen for his sweet words. He guessed this spoke of her maturity. Speaking of which, he could tell she’d gotten heavier.
“Wein, did you just think something incredibly rude?”
“N-nope! I’m always your perfect big brother!”
“Hmph.”
Her ability to read these subtle signs seemed to have heightened. Wein shuddered with the realization. His little sister had become someone not to be taken lightly.
“…Well, it’s fine. I’m just happy you’re back safe.”
“Falanya…”
“By the way, where’s Tolcheila? I feel like I haven’t seen her since you returned.”
“Oh, she went to report to King Gruyere. It seems she’ll be there for a while.”
“—In other words, I can have you all to myself.” Falanya’s mood instantly brightened as she broke into a happy smile. “Tell me everything that happened on the islands.”
“E-everything?”
“Yes. Knowing Tolcheila, I imagine I’ll have to hear her bragging about every last detail. So let me get the jump on her and find out ahead of time…!”
His sister seemed riled up. An indescribable look bubbled up on Wein’s face.
If it would make her happy, he figured it was an easy enough task.
“Go ahead, Wein.”
“There’s a lot to cover. For example—I was in jail.”
“Huh?”
“I raised my own ransom to two hundred thousand gold coins.”
“What?”
“I smashed Patura’s most valuable treasure.”
“What in the world have you been up to, Wein…?!”
“Plenty. Well, then, I’ll make sure I don’t leave out a single detail.”
As one might expect, it took a long time to cover everything. Wein finally had some time to take it easy, so he was glad he could spend it with his little sister.
A knock came at the office door.
“Pardon me, Your Highness.” Ninym presented Wein with a missive. “We’ve recently received word from our spies in the Empire.”
“…I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Same,” Falanya piped up.
If it was about the Empire, he couldn’t just dismiss it. Wein opened the letter, Falanya peeking into its contents.
His jaw went slack in surprise.
“—They’re having a coronation ceremony in the Empire?”
* * *
A new year marked the beginning of a new friendship between the Kingdom of Natra and the Patura Archipelago following a series of complicated events.
It wouldn’t be long until the continent of Varno found itself embroiled in new trouble…
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