Prologue – A Cry Rings Out Because You Died
“Princess, you’re not hurt are you? If you are, please use the first-aid kit by your feet.”
“……Thanks.”
The one driving was a middle-age servant Mary knew well.
Perhaps as a disguise, he was wearing casual clothing as opposed to his usual tailcoat.
“Lady Francis will be fine, there’s a reason they call her the strongest sorcerer of the Pulsherima family. As long as she doesn’t face an arcana user, she will not lose to anyone.”
“Arcana user……”
Such is what they called those who utilized arcana, a power that was one rank above normal sorcery.
It was said to be a power that could only be acquired by those among the best sorcerers chosen by God, but it still was not clear how one could acquire this power in concrete terms.
The one thing that was clear, was that there were 20 arcanas in the world.
Even an extremely strong sorcerer, like Francis, would stand little chance against such powers.
“There are only 20 of them in the world. It doesn’t look like the ones based in the kingdom’s army are active right now. As for House Slava, there are no publicly known arcana users working for them. It’ll be okay.”
“Yes, you’re right. I think so too.”
That was all Mary could say.
However, she could not stop the unpleasant feeling disturbing her heart.
She gazed at the landscape outside through the window to calm herself down.
As they passed through the land lined up with tall buildings and estates of the nobility, the residences suddenly became shabby.
She could separate the winners and the losers with one glance – this was not limited only to the Slava territory, as it was no rare sight throughout the lands of the Kingdom of Orvis.
Mary was a good-for-nothing.
But she was certainly in the winning group after being born as a princess, and she squinted her eyes while thinking she definitely had no right to feel sad looking at this sight.
They went through the ‘commoner town’ as she kept herself busy thinking, and left onto a road surrounded by a forest on both sides.
There were few city lights, and the surrounding area was abruptly covered in darkness.
“Where are we headed?”
“Outside the country.”
“Outside the country!? Can we just leave so simply like that?”
“Lady Francis made arrangements for us.”
How long had Francis been anticipating this turn of events?
(Sister, if you knew about this, why didn’t you tell me…..? Because you had to oppose my father and the others?)
Despite being the person at the center of it all, there were too many things Mary did not understand.
However, her life would be in danger unless she focused on escaping right now.
Perhaps Francis had refrained from telling Mary in order to avoid making her think about things she shouldn’t.
◇◇◇
They spent 3 hours traveling by car.
They continued going further on the road moving away from the city.
They had to go by improperly maintained roads now and then, and one certainly could not call this a pleasant trip.
Mary bit down on her stiff bread, drank some water, and gazed outside.
Dark and cloudy skies.
Vast dry lands.
It was an unpleasant sight, lined up with withered trees, and there was smoke rising up from the ground far away in the opposite direction.
“It’s the Death God’s Valley.”
That’s what the servant said.
“Yes, I heard that… they used to throw corpses off a cliff there after wars.”
“Right now, I believe that’s where the poor who cannot afford gravesites dispose of their dead.”
“……I see.”
“Thanks to the gas coming up from underground, all the corpses that are piled up there slowly turn into ash. That’s what the smoke comes from.”
“I know it’s the gas’s fault that these lands are dead….. but it’s almost like the grudge of the dead is seeped into these lands.”
“That’s why they call this the Death God’s Valley. That’s how the people who live here pray.”
“Like a way to pray for the Death God to take the souls of the dead to the next world?”
The more she gazed at it, the more Mary felt as if she was being sucked into the valley.
She turned her eyes away out of fear.
The car continued on a relatively well-maintained road while drawing a loose curve.
It was only a short distance to the national border now.
(If I can safely escape this country, and meet up with my sister…… what should I do afterwards, I wonder? Is it even possible for two princesses to live peacefully without being dragged into politics?)
An uncertain future. Nothing but unease.
The reason Mary could keep her composure despite all this was the presence of Francis.
She firmly believed that Francis would come find her.
Because if she did not believe… that alone would be enough to destroy the balance in her heart.
“By the way, what are the other servants doing? Are you the only one working for my sister?”
“……”
“Umm!”
Then, the engine made a loud noise and the car suddenly picked up speed.
Mary screamed, ‘aaaaah!’, as she clung to the front seat.
The servant stepped even harder on the pedal, and the car continued gaining speed.
“What’s going on!? Is someone after-“
Mary peeked at the driver’s seat as she asked.
Then, a tire went over a stone on the road and the car slightly bounced along with a clattering noise.
The servant’s head slid off at this moment… and dropped by the driver’s seat.
His wide-open eyes stared at Mary without emotion.
“Ah…. ah, aaah…… Nooooooooooo!!”
She screamed at the top of her lungs and backed off while pushing the corpse leaning on the driver’s seat away.
She could not get any further away, of course, but she wanted to get as much distance as possible between that head and herself.
The cut was sharp, and after some delay, fresh blood started gushing out.
The servant’s body remained still as it continued stepping on the pedal.
“W-What’s happening….!? Why is this….. Help me, sister!”
Mary’s screams did not reach anyone.
The car robotically continued speeding up, and finally smashed against a tree as it went out of the road.
One withered tree was not enough to stop the car.
“Aaah! Ugh, guh! Aaagh, noooo!”
The bumper was crushed and the windshield was cracked, but the tires continued turning.
The interior of the car violently shook because of the shock, and while Mary avoided being launched off thanks to her seatbelt, she banged her body all over the car’s interior and couldn’t help but scream in pain.
Then, the car finally stopped after taking down five trees, and smoke started coming out of the hood along with a sizzling noise.
“Aah…… Aaaa…… Fi…… Fire, it’s a fire…..!”
It didn’t take long for the car to catch on fire.
Mary’s eyes teared up and she finally unfastened her seatbelt after a few clumsy attempts in her panic.
She then crawled out of the door and ran away from the car.
The fire quickly spread all over the car’s body.
A sorcery car’s engine was an extremely delicate thing, so there would be a massive, booming explosion if the fires reached it.
“Aaaaaaagh! Aaah, ah, uuuh…..!”
The explosive burst blew Mary away before she went down and rolled around on the ground.
She scraped her knees, but thankfully, the scraps flying off from the explosion had not directly hit her.
Mary stared at the ground on all fours for a while, and took control of her breathing.
Her shoulders went up and down, ‘aaah…… aaah…… uuuh……!’, and her sweat dripped down onto the ground as she sobbed.
Leaving aside the future, she could not even properly think about what was going on right now as her head went completely blank.
Despite this, she stood up and looked ahead.
“Yo.”
There was a man standing there.
He was as tall as her eyes could see, with a skinny body covered in muscles and a shocking pink color on his hair.
His face was covered in tattoos and countless piercings, and most of all, his eyes were clearly not normal.
Mary intuitively understood.
“You did this, didn’t you?”
The man raised the corners of his mouth to grin before replying.
“That’s right, little lady. I did this.”
“But why!?”
“For the sake of this beautiful world, is what I would like to say, but it was just a job, really. I’m a hitman. And…”
The man’s face contorted, and he spoke as wrinkles showed up on his cheeks.
“I’m an arcana user.”
Right then, Mary felt as if the landscape around her started twisting.