CH 196

Chapter 196 – Reunion

The castle was in an uproar.

Of course, it was. The information that the army that went out to defeat the bandits calling themselves the Liberation Army, had been wiped out had arrived, and the Liberation Army, the very bandits, had rushed into the castle along with their leader, the saint. They came in numbers of about 300 people. It was no wonder that they were trembling with fear, wondering what would happen and what the bandits were going to do to them.

“What should we do?”

“First of all, we need to calm them down, don’t we?”

I asked, and Sylphy pulled out a microphone from the airboard that was connected to the speaker. The mithril copper alloy cable has a generous length, so the speaker itself can be used as long as it is in the immediate vicinity of the airboard. Good thing I made them a little longer because I figured it would be inconvenient to use them unless we were in the vehicle!

“We are the Merinard Kingdom Liberation Army. And I am the commander, Sylphielle Danal-Merinard. The army of the Holy Kingdom, which is your main hope, has been crushed by our hands, and the saint has offered to surrender to us. And we accepted. We do not want any more bloodshed. We will not harm you if you comply with our disarmament, but we will not tolerate it if you resist. That is all.”

Sylphy announced over the loudspeaker, then put the microphone back on the airboard and sent out instructions to the infantrymen. For the time being, they were to gather the confiscated weapons in the castle courtyard. The civilian officials will move to take control of the castle and its administrative structure, and they will do this and that inside the castle with the riflemen as their escort.

“What about us?”

“We need to have Kosuke put the confiscated weapons and supplies in your inventory, but first, we’re going to the royal family’s living quarters. Isla and the others will follow us.”

“Hmm, got it.”

Isla nodded her head, and the mage corps nodded their heads in unison. Ellen also seems to be following us.

“I’ll go with you too. Amalie and the others will guide the civil servants over there.”

“Y-yes. Um… you alone?”

“Yes. No problem.”

Ellen nodded at the worried Amalie and the others with a blank expression and stood next to me.

“If it comes down to it, I am sure that my destiny will help me.”

“…..”

“…..”

Ellen, who was pitifully attached to me after saying that, was staring at Sylphy and Isla with a stern look in her eyes. Hyiee… invisible sparks are buzzing.

We climbed the stairs several times and walked through the corridor to the destination while scattering a subtle and unsettling atmosphere. The furnishings in the castle were minimal or even plain. Is this Ellen’s taste?

“I miss it so much. Memories of twenty years ago are gradually coming back to me.”

“Hmm, it’s been a long time. Many of the furnishings have changed, but the castle itself hasn’t changed at all. The candelabra and other things are exactly the same as they were.”

Isla looked up to see a dull golden candelabra mounted on the wall. It is probably made of brass. The Holy Kingdom’s people didn’t pull out the brass candelabra from the wall and take it with them. If they had been made of gold or silver, they would have been pulled out.

“Doesn’t it feel kind of cold?”

I just noticed that the ambient temperature seemed to be dropping as we walked.

“That means it’s about time.”

Sylphy said and continued to walk with a stern expression on her face.

Oh, by the way, I remember that Sylphy’s father’s power freezes the whole compartment. Normally, people die when they freeze, but I’m sure there must be some kind of magic that allows them to stay frozen without dying. I don’t want to think too much about it, though.

It would be tactless to go into the mysterious phenomenon of magic with a scientific approach, especially when it comes to life and the soul.

If it were a simple physical phenomenon, it would be a different story. Wind magic seems to have a lot of interesting uses. I’d like to try my hand at explosion magic and light magic one of these days.

Magic that produces super strong flashes of light, and if used properly, it could be used to create laser weapons.

“This is as far as I can go. Lime-san and the others will stop me if I try to go any further.

Ellen stopped in the middle of a corridor leading to somewhere. The cold air is clearly felt on the skin at this point. It was as chilly as if we were in a refrigerator.

“Will it be okay to go on?”

“It’s probably all right. I’m sure they are watching us.”

Sylphy didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold and continued on her way. This is followed by Ellen and me, and then Isla and the mage corps. The cold air felt on my skin became even stronger, and it was so severe that I could almost describe it as stinging. I can still stand it, but Isla, who has a small body, is shivering with coldness.

“Isla.”

I held out my hand to her, and she squeezed my hand with both of hers. Her hands are now completely cold, and I hold them as if I’m wrapping them in my hands.

“It’s warm…”

“Hang in there; it’s going to be a little while longer.”

“Hmm.”

Isla, who had regained some of her energy, nodded her head. Sylphy and Ellen looked enviously at her. 

“…Do you want to hold it?”

“…That’s right.”

“Yes.”

Sylphy hesitated for a moment, and Ellen immediately decided to hold both of my hands. It is truly a flower in each hand.

“What about this picturesque scene…? Isn’t this a serious scene?”

“That’s it; this is it.”

Sylphy said so and moved forward through the icy corridor. Ellen and I followed, and Isla and the mage team followed with a flurry of footsteps.

After walking for a while, we finally arrived.

“This place is amazing.”

It was a frozen space.

The elegant furnishings, the soft sofa, the beautiful princesses sitting on it, the king lying on the floor, the queen cuddling up to him, everything was frozen and stopped.

Mysterious lights were dancing in the frozen space. It seemed to resemble something I had seen before. Yes, that was early in the morning of my second… or rather third day in this world.

“A spirit?”

“Yeah. An ice spirit.”

Sylphy looked at a total of five people who were sleeping with their bodies frozen in place.

One was the king lying on the floor. He was a very handsome man who looked to be in his late 20s or early 30s from my point of view. And then there was a woman who looked like the queen, frozen with a sad expression on her face as she was kneeling on the king’s lap. Her face looks somewhat similar to Sylphy’s.

In addition, there are three beautiful princesses who are frozen on the three-person and one-person sofas in the center of the room. All of them seem to look somewhat similar to Sylphy. Are they Sylphy’s sisters?

“Is this a spirit…? But this is…”

When Ellen saw the spirit, she had a difficult expression on her face. Then, while I was tilting my head at Ellen’s appearance, Sylphy let go of my hand and stood at the entrance to the frozen room, stepped firmly on the stone floor with both feet, and began to sing something that sounded like a song.

It probably wasn’t words. Judging from what had happened so far, I should be perfectly capable of understanding the language and writing of this world. But nevertheless, I couldn’t understand what Sylphy was singing. So I guessed that what she was saying was probably not in a definite language.

However, the effect was enormous.

The ice spirits, which had been shimmering freely in the room with a sparkling bluish-white glow, began to follow Sylphy’s song and began to move around the room in an orderly fashion, gradually diminishing in size. At the same time, the cold air that stung the skin gradually eased, and the frozen room began to melt. Time in the room slowly began to move.

The first to wake up was the other elf princess, who was sitting on the sofa in front of the room, leaning against the beautiful elf princess sitting next to her, her eyes closed as if she were sleeping slightly. She was the smallest of the three princesses and not much bigger than Isla.

“Nnn… It’s so cold.”

With that, she shuddered and rubbed her eyes sleepily as she turned her attention to Sylphy, who was standing in the doorway of the room and then to her surroundings.

Her bluish silver hair sways, and her aquamarine eyes begin to look around.

“Who in the world are you…? If-aneesama? Dri-aneesama…?”

When she woke up, she called out the name of the princess she was leaning on and the other princess and began to call out what seemed to be the name of the princess sleeping next to her, trying to shake her awake.

“…Cold.”

The first princess who woke up shakes her awake, and the second princess who was sleeping next to her wakes up. Could she be If-aneesama?

“Aqua…? And Dri-aneesama and Mother… Father…?”

She is still unconscious and shaking her head, her eyes glazed over. Her hair was a shining red color. It is a color that would not be possible on earth, but strangely enough, it seems to suit her. Her eyes are azure, shining like emeralds.

She is a slender woman with long limbs. She is a woman who can be described as slender.

“Hmm…?”

The next person to wake up was a blonde princess with a healthy body who was sitting on a one-person sofa. I think she’s a little shorter than Sylphy in height, but moderately… yeah, she’s more than Sylphy on that side. Amazing. It breaks my boring stereotype of Elves as slender.

When she woke up, she held her temples as if she was enduring a headache and slowly looked around the room. Then she turns her gaze to Sylphy, who is standing in the doorway of the room.

“…Sylphie-chan?”

“Eh?”

“Eeeh?”

The two people who woke up first were startled by her mutterings, and their eyes turned to Sylphy. It seems that the two people who woke up first didn’t know much about Sylphy.

“…Ix.”

The queen-like woman who woke up last mutters what seems to be the king’s name and looks at Sylphy with a sad expression on her face. The same amber-colored gaze as Sylphy’s caught sight of Sylphy and looked at her slightly.

“Sylphiel…?”

“…Yes, Mother.”

Sylphy replied in a strangled voice and turned her head down. Then, a faint sob was heard.

“Well… you really are a crybaby. Come on, come here.”

The woman Sylphy called mother smiles and beckons to her. Sylphy walked up to her with dazed steps as if she were being pulled along and crumpled beside her, kneeling down on the floor and hugging her.

“Thank you… you did your best, didn’t you?”

In an inaudible voice, Sylphy cried and buried her face in the chest of the woman she called her mother. The woman whom Sylphy called mother kept stroking her head like that forever.