Chapter 85
Lunaris's brow furrowed sharply.
She had guessed what it meant to feed mana into the staff, but she had never imagined it would devour this much mana.
That wasn't the end of it.
The jet-black thorned vines sprouting from the surface of the gaunt, withered old tree instantly wrapped around Lunaris's wrist.
As if saying it wouldn't let its prey get away, it constricted her relentlessly.
"...This is bad!"
Gerard, the commander of the Imperial Mage Corps who had been watching the situation, went grimly pale.
"The seal on Arke had weakened to this extent!"
Before Lunaris, it had already been well over ten years since the last archmage investiture ceremony had been held.
The staff, starved for all those long years, was thoroughly enraged.
Living up to its epithet of Innocent Hunger, it was trying to swallow Lunaris whole and make her its nourishment.
The atmosphere was turning grim, and the nobles and mages began to stir.
"Something's wrong, isn't it?"
"The flow of mana is strange..."
"W-We should run even now, shouldn't we?"
Murmurs mixed with worry and fear echoed through the hall.
At the eerie aura, some people shrank back, while others quietly backed away.
The First Prince, Kalian, also went pale and rose from his seat.
"Shouldn't we stop the investiture?"
The knights guarding the royal family and the mages presiding over the rite only kept glancing at one another.
No one could bring themselves to move, and only tension filled the air.
"It's all right, Your Highness."
Even amid the confusion, there were those who calmly watched the situation unfold with unruffled expressions.
"How about trusting that child and simply watching?"
The one thing they all had in common was that they knew all too well what kind of mage Lunaris was.
One of them, Eleanor, smiled lightly and calmed the First Prince.
"It seems unnecessary to meddle any further. Hoho."
Prince Kalian unconsciously sat back down.
Listening to Eleanor's relaxed voice made what was happening before his eyes feel as if it were nothing at all.
Even so, he couldn't completely shake off his unease.
"But... isn't Miss Lunaris still young? Even if she subdues Arke again, that child..."
"Age doesn't matter, Your Highness."
Before the First Prince could even finish speaking, Eleanor shook her head.
"That child's mana reserves rank among the few highest here. She's not the sort of talent to be swallowed by some dried-up branch."
Her wrinkled eyes were full of certainty.
"Look. The situation is already steadily stabilizing, isn't it?"
Just as Eleanor had said.
The crimson-black mist surging around Lunaris slowly began to fade.
At the same time.
Clear mana like starlight flowed out and filled the empty space.
*
'Ah, seriously, what a pain.'
Lunaris looked down at the thorny vines tightening around her arm and clicked her tongue.
This withered twig thing—she had no idea how hungry it was—but it was trying to gorge itself.
'Just how much mana am I supposed to feed it? Until all the red energy disappears?'
She had no idea.
She didn't have a manual, and no one was giving her advice.
Truthfully, Lunaris didn't care about anything else; she just wanted this investiture ceremony to end as quickly as possible.
If she fed it mana like this, little by little—though by ordinary mages' standards it was already quite a lot—the ceremony looked like it wouldn't end today.
'Fine, whatever.'
Lunaris simply came to a conclusion.
If it was acting up because it was hungry, wasn't the solution to feed it until it burst?
Once it was full, this thing would probably calm down too.
-Rumble rumble!!
Lunaris sharply drew up the mana within her body.
She intended to pour in so much that her body would be completely emptied out, then go straight to bed and sleep soundly.
At the same time, with her other hand—the one not holding the staff—she twisted space.
She drew natural mana from the atmosphere and shoved it straight into the staff.
Mana of the stars and mana of nature.
Two immense tidal waves of different kinds surged into the staff at the same time.
-Kiiiiiik!
A grotesque sound leaked out from Arke, the Innocent Hunger.
The thing greedily sucked in mana, brimming with delight.
But the happy scream lasted only for a moment.
The withered twig suddenly began to tremble violently.
The mana flooding in far outstripped the mana it could absorb and digest.
The predator had become the victim before it knew it.
Mana began to flow back out of the staff.
As if it could take no more, as if to say that was enough.
But Lunaris didn't stop and kept forcing mana into it.
-Crack, crackle.
Before long, it reached its limit.
Cracks began to spread across the blackened, withered old tree.
The grotesque bark crumbled away like fallen leaves.
-Whoosh!
A silver-white true form, so dazzling it hurt to look at, was revealed.
"Th-that's... Arke's true form...?"
Gerard's eyes widened even further, and brilliant starlight mana gathered at the tip of his staff.
Soon, the mana Lunaris had been unable to digest spread out in all directions from Arke.
The ceiling disappeared.
So did the walls and the furniture.
So did the floor and the red carpet.
In an instant, they were erased into a blue-black backdrop.
The entire hall where the ceremony was being held was dyed with the night sky.
And over that darkness.
-Shwaaah
Countless stars were dotted across it, beginning to sparkle.
The overflow of mana had altered the space itself.
"H-Huh...!"
"W-What is this!"
Exclamations burst out one after another from all around.
The nobles covered their mouths or hurriedly clasped their hands, staring dazedly up at the night sky before them.
The archmage investiture ceremony could be this beautiful and dazzling.
"Am I dreaming right now?"
"Heh, what a sight. A scene fit to appear only in legends is right before my eyes..."
Some even had tears welling in their eyes.
Most of those gathered in the hall seemed to have lost all sense of reality, utterly immersed in the sea of starlight.
Amid that ecstasy, several mages wore expressions closer to shock than admiration.
Those deeply versed in magic.
They were the ones who could see through the essence of the phenomenon before them.
"A space that defies the laws of nature..."
"C-Could she possibly have forged a world of her own?"
"Impossible..."
Whether it had been intentional or not, they couldn't tell.
What was certain was that Lunaris had overlaid reality with a world where she herself was the law.
The unbelievable sight made their bodies tremble on their own.
A forbidden mystery one might spend a lifetime pursuing and still only barely touch.
They felt complex emotions toward Lunaris, who had accomplished it.
Awe, admiration, envy, fear.
A jumble of emotions too many to put into words.
"A... u, aahh...!"
The one most shocked by this overwhelming spectacle was none other than the Second Prince, Valerius.
Only moments ago, he had been standing there with one leg cocked, yawning drunkenly.
But at the sight of the starry sky before him, the Second Prince forgot even how to breathe and stammered.
Hot moisture welled up in his eyes.
His heart pounded madly.
Prince Valerius swept his trembling hand through the air.
"Th-this is... the world beyond the wall I've been searching for all this time..."
The river of starlight flowing before his eyes.
The cool, exhilarating particles of mana touching his fingertips.
He couldn't help but recognize it.
This was the scenery beyond the wall that had blocked his path for years.
The realm he had longed to reach, yet never could.
"Hah, hahahaha..."
The Second Prince's eyes gleamed with madness.
The spark of a dream long lost, the desire that had been fading in frustration, began to burn again.
That was the path he had to pursue.
Though swordsmanship and magic were different disciplines.
The Second Prince unconsciously clenched both fists.
He didn't even notice the pain as his nails dug into his palms.
Then Lunaris lightly swung the pure-white staff, taller than she was.
Blinding stars began to circle and spin.
The Milky Way flowed like a river.
In no time, meteors came pouring down like rain, leaving long tails behind them.
"This is it... this is it!!"
The Second Prince twisted the corners of his mouth upward like a madman.
Leaving the tears streaming down his cheeks as they were, he etched the night-sky scene into his eyes.
A mix of contradictory emotions—joy and sorrow, longing and awe—surged up in his chest at once and tangled together.
"Lunaris... Lunaris Evermoon!"
A voice crazed with madness burst out, scraping his throat raw.
But it was drowned beneath the song of the stars echoing everywhere, and never reached the owner of the name.
Still, that didn't matter.
The Second Prince simply reveled in this moment.
He surrendered his whole body to the joy of standing before that brilliant night sky, which had caught his world as it kept falling and pulled it back up.
Prince Valerius's gaze turned toward the center of the night sky.
Amid the falling meteor shower, his gaze fixed on the silver-haired girl radiating a mysterious aura, greed gleaming in his eyes.
In the Second Prince's mind, the value of the mage named Lunaris soared sky-high.
That jewel, that monster.
He had to get his hands on her, by any means necessary.