The black witch swung her staff.

To uncover the truth of what happened in the past.

To show the way forward to her wounded companion.

Fortunately, all the materials were prepared.

Memory fragments of loyal knights × 12

Screaming shards of greedy mages × 46

Red blood filling the Chalice of Foresight × 1

She drew the magic circle and summoned the souls.

The blood-red fissures of the past mixed with the witch’s magic, expanding in size.

The curtain of the story rose.

***

The leadership of the Tower of Control had a long-standing wish.

To reclaim Aeolia, the Magic State. This country that was once theirs.

To return to the time when a single royal family ruled, not the imperfect form with four heads as it was now.

It didn’t matter that the former Aeolia Kingdom and the current Magic State were completely different countries in terms of territory size and global status.

By that logic, even the current Imperial royal family was merely the descendant of one of the many small kingdoms that once existed on the continent.

As long as the predecessor of the Magic State Aeolia was the Aeolia Kingdom, they, as the legitimate heirs of the royal family, had the legitimacy to claim everything in this country.

At least, that was what they thought.

Therefore, they built up their power.

They nurtured talent, increased wealth, and expanded their forces.

But at the same time, they realized.

That there was a limit to this method.

The essence of power was initiative.

When a group came together to take a specific action, the one who led that action could grasp power.

For the Tower of Control to hold the reins of other towers and move them, they first needed to make the entire Magic State focus on something as one, rather than each fending for themselves.

And the Tower of Control saw that path in external threats.

Yes, it was the Empire.

The more the Empire bared its teeth and flaunted its sharp claws towards the Magic State, the more the Magic State had to unite as one.

Once bound together as a single group in this way, from then on it was the realm of politics. This was also the field where the Tower of Control was most confident.

This was because the other towers basically had powerful strength but were far from being political forces.

Foresight was for scholars, Annihilation was for fighters, and Protection was for fools with flower gardens in their heads.

While it might be difficult when each tower’s boundaries were separate, once the need to unite arose and their talents began to mix, it wasn’t too difficult to use that as an opportunity to infiltrate.

In the past, the royal family was too weak to seize opportunities even when they arose, but now the Tower of Control had sufficient power.

However, the most advantageous situation for the Tower of Control when following this plan was a “tense state where the crisis of war is felt”.

In other words, an “actual state of war breaking out” was not what they desired.

While there were ways to utilize an actual war situation, there were simply too many variables no matter how one looked at it.

One day, as the tower leadership was lost in such contemplation.

Jeras Rognir, a young man inheriting the blood of the Aeolia royal family, was able to hear about a certain plan from the tower head.

It was, truly, a grand deception.

One. Secretly support the bandit group in the border area of Aeolia Magic State, Lydia Empire, and Ionia Kingdom, allowing them to run rampant.

Two. At this time, the bandits’ targets for plunder include not only the Empire and Kingdom but also the Magic State.

Three. When the subjugation force arrives, bury them together with the bandits, secure the head of the Lennart bloodline who is the subjugation force commander, and then frame the Lennart family as being behind the bandits.

Four. The Tower of Control, as an innocent victim, calls for war, and extracts “concessions” from other towers trying to suppress this.

When he first heard this story, Jeras found it difficult to understand the situation.

Secretly sponsoring bandits to run wild wasn’t particularly difficult.

Even if the Magic State was plundered by them, the targets would be the people near the border anyway, so there was no loss from the tower’s perspective.

However, he had many questions about the content of reversely annihilating the subjugation force from the Lennart side when they came and framing them for the crime.

Especially since the tower head spoke as if even the opponent’s forces and the timing of their attack were all predetermined, it was even more so.

From the tower head’s attitude, he could guess that they had joined hands with the Lennart side, but he couldn’t understand why they had agreed to such a one-sided deal.

The tower head answered Jeras’s questions.

The truth was simple.

They weren’t the only ones who wanted war, a crisis to put the country on edge.

The Lennart Ducal family. They, too, desired war.

While the Lennart Ducal family tried to hide as many details as possible, the Tower of Control wasn’t stupid enough to gamble by just believing the other side’s words without accurately grasping the situation.

They withheld their answer to the Lennart side’s proposal while separately gathering information, and soon were able to grasp the circumstances of the other side.

The current Empress was clearly hostile to the Lennart Ducal family, and with the help of the Witch of the South, her friend and the Empire’s crown mage, she was showing movements to train mages and replace the position of the ducal family.

While the forces of Duke Lennart, who was the Guardian Duke, and the Empress were currently balanced, what if time passed like this and the Crown Prince grew up?

What if, instead of the current precarious two-horse carriage form, the Emperor, who had completed his coronation ceremony, wielded that power in its entirety?

The radicals in the Lennart family wanted war and crisis.

If war actually broke out, the military and the Lennarts who held the military in their hands would achieve merits, so the Imperial family wouldn’t be able to do anything, and even if war didn’t break out and it ended with just a crisis, as long as the threat of the Magic State clearly existed, it would be impossible for the Imperial family to drive them out, they said.

Of course, not everyone in the Lennart family agreed with this mad idea.

Especially the current family head, the Guardian Duke, showed a lukewarm response to these radicals’ cries.

The radicals criticized the Guardian Duke. They cursed him as a traitor, saying he was neglecting the family while being intoxicated with his individual position as Prime Minister.

The tower head explained to Jeras that the Guardian Duke, the core of the moderates, and the Senate, the core of the radicals, were repeating invisible confrontations with each other, and among them, the radical side was likely the one who led this proposal.

Jeras understood cleanly.

The internal strife of the Imperial side and the differences of opinion within the ducal family weren’t important to them.

What was important was that their fight currently benefited the Tower of Control.

If they cleanly erased the on-site evidence, even if the deal counterpart later said anything, it could be dismissed as groundless nonsense.

Jeras steeled himself with a solemn face.

It wasn’t just him participating in this operation, but other successors as well, which meant that the results of this operation would become a stepping stone towards the next tower head position.

For the sake of the glorious throne, he could gladly bury the fools who would come without even knowing they were being used.

***

The Chalice of Foresight conjured a new scene.

***

On a day not long before the set date of departure, the “subjugation of bandits kidnapping people while moving between the adjacent areas of the three countries”, as decided by the agreement between the Lennart Ducal Family and the Ionia Royal Family.

The knights of the Friedel domain received a secret summons from their lord one day.

The Friedel lord, renowned as the strongest in the kingdom, said to them.

— Officially, this mission is a simple bandit subjugation. However, His Grace the Duke from the main family has given me a separate secret order. The Magic State is hiding behind these bandits, so we must uncover their background and stop their evil plot.

The knights were surprised, but soon nodded obediently.

According to the original battle plan, the role of the Friedel domain forces was merely to subjugate bandits within the kingdom’s borders.

But according to the Duke’s secret order, they had to cross the border and enter the Magic State’s territory.

There, they would join with the Imperial forces who had likewise crossed the border.

The outline of the operation was to jointly subjugate the bandits and the Magic State’s pawns supporting them.

While militarily it might be one thing, politically it was truly an explosive operation, but none of the knights objected.

On the contrary, some even welcomed this “secret operation”.

The Friedel domain forces had pride in being the kingdom’s strongest unit, and they also had anger towards the bandits who plundered and kidnapped innocent people.

If the Magic State existed behind such bandits, they must surely pay the price.

They believed this without a doubt.

…If.

If they could have doubted the authenticity of the “secret order from the Duke” here, the outcome they would face might have been different.

However, while the Friedel lord was excellent as a warrior, his nature was too upright and simple.

The knights under him respected such a lord and purely focused on honing their chivalry and martial arts, having little connection with schemes or politics.

And by the time they realized they shouldn’t have been like that, it was already too late.

What came to the promised place was not the Imperial forces they were supposed to join, but fully armed bandits.

What fell on their heads in the midst of battle with the bandits was a festival of all sorts of attack magic.

Only after experiencing the bandit leader screaming betrayal with a dismayed face and the hellfire raining down as if to sweep away everyone present regardless of friend or foe, did they realize something had gone critically wrong.

In the midst of the chaotic battlefield.

The kingdom’s strongest sword, single-handedly dealing with dozens of mages, ordered the knights.

To return.

To return to their homeland, Friedel, and report what had happened here.

They still didn’t know exactly how this situation had come about.

Whether Duke Lennart had betrayed them, or if there had been some mistake, nothing was certain.

However, they did know this much.

If everyone perished here like this, their homeland would fall into another miserable situation.

Their lovers, families, parents would be used by someone without knowing anything, just as they had been.

That much at least had to be prevented.

They had made a mistake, but—

They had failed, but—

At least those left behind shouldn’t end up like that.

Unfortunately, their struggle failed.

The conspiracy surrounding them and those spinning its threads were too vast to be broken by the efforts and valor of mere knights.

Thus, their story ended without being conveyed to anyone.

***

If the witch who handled souls and the chalice that read the past hadn’t been here.

A story that should never have been told, was told.

***

And.

In the violet eyes of the golden lion, flames ignited.

***

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