Not a Single Thing

Ferda was looking out the window.

There, he could see Valdemar's back as he walked away after finishing his business.

The road the fox had passed along in a land without lions began to bustle again, and soon filled with people as though nothing had happened.

There was neither sorrow nor concern on their faces.

That was what the Empire was like.

It was a land where every emotion was nothing more than something that quickly evaporated.

Ferda gazed down at it, lost in thought.

Valdemar had predicted that a usurpation and the tyrant's arrival would bring a bloody storm, while first promising not to trouble Ferda too greatly.

Word had been circulating that preparations were underway to receive enormous donations from Pascal Trading Company and other imperial trading companies.

Though he had pressured Ferda for magical-engineering weapons, he had shown a measure of respect by first proposing to purchase them at a reasonable price rather than demand free delivery...