It was morning of the third day after leaving Boroszló and starting to march towards the capital that Liza and Olga were called over to Leitmeritz’s camp.
“I wonder whether something happened. Normally the trip should be uneventful as we’re merely heading for Silesia.”
Even while cocking her head in puzzlement, Liza had followed the call and visited Leitmeritz’s camp together with Olga. The two Vanadis were immediately let through to Elen’s tent.
The tent’s interior had thick carpets and layers of pelts covering the ground. Writing materials, all kinds of different-sized tools such as maps, wine bottles, porcelain cups, and silver cups were visible in a corner of the tent. Two swords, one with a golden blade and the other with a scarlet blade, were among all these items.
“Sorry for having you come over in person.”
Elen and Lim sat next to each other on the carpet. Lim didn’t wear her usual blue uniform, but white trousers and a blackish shirt with a breastplate on top. A scarlet muffler was coiled around her neck. The bandages wrapped around her exposed arms and legs spoke of the burns beneath them.
“Are your burns healed already?” Liza asked while sitting down opposite of Elen.
Lim bowed in greeting, and answered, “Thank you very much for your kind consideration. I got burned from head to toe, but by now the scars have shrunk in size, and the pain has faded as well.”
Liza quietly scrutinized Lim’s expression. It didn’t look as though Lim didn’t feel any pain at all, but neither did it look as though she was forcing herself. Liza suspected that such kind of adjustment might have been possible with a weapon like Bargren.
“I’m relieved to hear this. On another note, those are rather peculiar clothes considering your usual style.” Liza commented with an expression that made her surprise clear.
Lim’s usual, unsocial expression softened faintly in response, “These are my spares. I have made them while copying the outfit I wore in the past. For the sake of not forgetting the feelings from that time.”
While Lim was answering, Elen pulled a wine bottle and the appropriate number of wine cups to herself. Filling each cup with wine and placing them in front of everyone, she asked with a serious expression, “There’s something I’d like to ask you two. Have you ever heard of the word Zagan? Be it a person’s name or a location, anything works.”
“Zagan?” Liza repeated the word quietly while knitting her eyebrows.
Next to her, Olga brought the cup to her lips while shaking her head.
“Is anything wrong with that word?”
In response to Olga’s question, a frown formed on Ellen’s face as if she was wavering how to choose her words. Even Lim seemed to feel somewhat awkward, going by her expression.
After a pause of two breaths, Elen answered, “Lim had a dream. A dream of Sasha and Figneria.”
“With Sasha you’re referring to Alexandra Alshavin…?” Liza blinked several times at the mention of an unexpected name.
Olga had never met Sasha, but she had heard a while ago that she used to be a close friend of Elen. Staying silent, she carefully listened to the continuation.
“Please allow me to continue from here.” Lim spoke up, staring at the two Vanadis in front of her.
“Last night I had a dream. The space inside the dream was wrapped up in darkness, and before I knew it, Lady Alexandra and Figneria stood in front of me, each wearing their black uniform as Vanadis. And then I could hear a voice telling me 『To Zagan』. Even though the voice sounded like theirs, it also sounded like the voice of someone completely else at the same time.”
When Lim finished speaking, a strange silence descended between the four.
Grimacing, Liza said, “Elen, and Limalisha. You called us for the sake of talking about that…?”
“I understand your doubts, but please humor us for just a bit longer.” Pouring strength into her hands that were resting on her lap, Elen patiently continued, “If it had just been Figneria, I could have understood it as we just fought her the other day. But for Lim to mention that even Sasha made an appearance in her dream caught my attention. Moreover, Lim apparently heard the term Zagan for the first time in her life. By some chance…”
“…their spirits are warning Limalisha…no, us. Is that what you mean?”
After watching Elen, who also seemed confused, Liza shifted her eyes to Olga, implicitly asking for her opinion. Liza was well aware of the trust Elen had in Lim. However, she still didn’t consider it such an important matter that it’d justify them being called over to hear about this.
Olga looked up to Lim with her head slightly tilted to one side, but before long curtly asked, “Were you close with that Alexandra person?”
“Despite her rank as Vanadis, Lady Alexandra was kind enough to interact with me familiarly. However, if you are asking whether we shared a relationship close enough for me to meet Lady Alexandra by myself, I would have to deny.” Lim made an effort to be as honest as possible with her answer even though she wasn’t quite sure of the meaning behind Olga’s question.
Next to Lim, Elen folded her arms, and supplemented, “Lim has that troublesome habit of trying to keep her distance out of tactfulness. But, from my point of view, I can vouch that Lim’s explanation of their relationship just now is correct. Is there anything else that’s bothering you about this point?”
Without trying to answer Elen’s question right away, Olga directed her look towards something behind the two – the pair of small swords that were adorned with beautiful ornaments. Returning her look to Elen and Lim, Olga confronted them with another question.
“Did you two sleep here last night?”
“Yeah. Lim’s burns haven’t completely healed yet, so I thought that it’d be better for me to stay close to her.”
After lightly nodding at Elen’s reply, Olga finally worded out her own idea, “I think that draconic tool showed you that dream.”
Upon the comment of the youngest, the eyes of the other three converged on Bargren. While tracing the blade of Mad Roar, her own draconic tool, with a finger, Olga continued, “My Muma cannot speak, but it definitely possesses a will. I have sensed this many times over when I held Muma in my hands. That draconic tool over there might have tried to inform Limalisha about something by borrowing the appearance of its previous wielders.”
Following that, Olga absentmindedly looked up to the ceiling, “According to a legend of the equestrian tribes, soul fragments occasionally live on in items that have been used for a long time.”
Elen hummed. With her arms still folded, she looked at Liza, “Come to think of it, how about you? Do you have any idea what Zagan could be?”
“In my case, the mention of Zagan immediately reminds me of a location within my territory.” Liza used her finger to depict a very crude map on the carpet, “I think it’s around two or three days away to the north from here by horse. It’s a wilderness off the main road. At most it shelters the remains of a town where they worshiped the gods of the old era.”
“The gods of the old era?”
It was Elen who reacted to those words. Lim only knitted her eyebrows.
“It’s nothing that unusual in my Lebus.”
“That might be true. But, we also know of a very troublesome goddess of the old era, don’t we?”
Upon Elen’s remark, the other three remembered the existence of a certain goddess at the very same moment. A goddess with three personalities who ruled over the night, darkness, and death.
“If you consider that it has been the spirits of the dead within darkness, it certainly adheres to consistency.”
“But, we’ll run into a pile of problems if we were to head to Zagan from now on. As I told you just moments ago, Zagan lies away from the main road.”
Even if it might be a level ground, the speed of any army would drop if they marched across wild land. Their legs would get stuck in quagmires, they’d injured their feet by stepping on pebbles, the hems of their uniforms would catch onto long grasses, and many other problems. On top of that, it could trigger fights among the soldiers when they bumped against their comrades while falling down. If the speed of an army decreased, it’d result in an increase of marching time and decrease of resting time per day. This would gradually chip away the stamina and morale of the troops. Not to mention that neither Leitmeritz’s army nor Lebus’s army had much leeway in provisions right now. These circumstances didn’t differ all that much from Mila and Sofy’s situation.
“Besides, if we don’t return to the capital as soon as possible, Tigre will be in danger…”
“That’s the part. I think Tigre might have possibly something to do with this Zagan.” Elen leaned herself forward, staring at Liza. “The one involved with Tir Na Fal isn’t us but Tigre. Isn’t Lim’s dream telling us to save Tigre?”
“You mean Tigre is in Zagan?” Liza lifted an eyebrow in doubt, but she couldn’t deny the possibility.
Liza thought that Valentina’s objective lay in keeping them away from Silesia so as to make the occupation of the capital easier. And Valentina knew about the power of Tigre’s Black Bow.
‘In that case, wouldn’t she use some kind of means to get Tigre to leave the capital after being separated from us?
“──I understand.” Liza admitted after deliberating for around five breaths. “Let’s bet on your assumption, Elen.”
The three Vanadis and one knight looked at each other and nodded. Afterwards their conversion shifted to the practical parts of executing their plan. They decided that only the four of them would head to Zagan. Elen didn’t look overly happy over the prospect of Lim, whose wounds hadn’t fully healed yet, coming with them, but Lim persuaded her with the fact of it having been her dream.
If not for Lim, Elen would have doubtlessly lost in the battle against Figneria. When she thought of that, the silver-haired Vanadis couldn’t come on her best friend too strongly. Also, as the one who incited Lim’s affection towards Tigre, it was hard for Elen to forbid Lim from accompanying them on an endeavor to possibly rescue Tigre from danger. Elen was quite aware that she’d have insistently desired to come along, if she had been in Lim’s shoes.
They would leave 1,500 soldiers in each army and have the rest return to Leitmeritz or Lebus. The combined 3,000 soldiers would head east to join up with Sofy and Mila. On top of that, Elen and Liza wrote up several letters to landed nobility possessing a friendly attitude towards them.
They had to prepare a place for their soldiers to wait for their return in case they wouldn’t be able to get close to the capital because of Valentina’s interference. It’d be somewhat more efficient for their armies to buy their provisions and fuel altogether from local lords who had some leeway. Moreover, it’d also have the advantage of making it easier to find their armies later on if they could ask the lords for their whereabouts. Both came to the clear decision that it was necessary to lower the number of soldiers.
“No matter what Valentina might be scheming, we’ve got five Vanadis on our side. It’s going to be a 5 vs. 1.” Elen declared with a forward-facing attitude.
Of course Elen was aware that Valentina would know of this as well and had likely prepared several hands to play against them in order to make up for that difference in power. Her deliberately voicing it out nonetheless was no more than an attempt to encourage herself.
The instructions to reorganize their armies took up all morning, and thus it was past noon when the four departed for Zagan.
Translation Notes:
1. I don’t remember whether trash mobs where also called demons in the past, but I’ll reserve ‘demons’ for named monsters such as Vodyanoy and such, and call the rest monsters, fairies, apparitions, or whatever fits the situation.
2. Ezendeis’s title was previously translated as Hollow Shadow, so I’ll leave it at that, but personally I’d go for “Mimic,” a monster that lures people into false safety by shapeshifting, False Copy, or something similar. The name consists of 虚影 (きよえい), meaning attacking in an unguarded moment/falsehood + portrait/painting of people and things.
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