“The Princess is busy. You will have to wait until her appointments clear up. Set up a meeting through the proper channels, if you wish to see her.”

For the umpteenth time, I find myself turning away more and more visitors, seeking a word with Aire. It should be a guard doing this sort of task, but not only are most of our guards and soldiers busy preparing for the inevitable confrontation, many of those seeking an appointment are of high standing, and willing to throw their weight around. If this were a time of peace, then these things would operate more smoothly, but probably because this isn’t a time of peace, those nobles and merchants have much to worry about.

A shift in power leaves many worried, and nobles who cooperated with Lein during the occupation are worried about losing their position, now that the Royal Family is in control again. Or rather, it’s Princess Aire herself who’s in control, under the name of the Royal Family.

Retaking the city was simple enough. We managed to make use of the hidden tunnels laid out throughout Senha and the Royal Castle. After deposing the Lein Governor, and wrestling control of the city from within, we immediately freed the Royal Family… or at least those who were imprisoned here.

Some of Aire’s sisters and brothers were here, even some of the King’s concubines; but the King and Queen, Aire’s parents, as well as the eldest Prince were apparently held elsewhere.

I allowed Aire to have her reunion with the family she thought dead, while at the same time I instructed Louy and Elya to begin reining the families under control. I wanted to weed out potential traitors before they became an issue, and I also wanted Aire’s rule to be cemented in the minds of the people.

Most of all, I wanted her family to see that Aire was to be Queen.

I had suspected that her family would be kept as hostage against the nobles who swore fealty to the Royal Family. Technically that includes most all of the noble families, however many of them still follow an honour system that keeps them to their words, and many of them also have significant power within the realm, so throwing them away isn’t an option. Soon enough, Aire herself had began to issue orders, calling to arms our allies.

However, she finally gave me the dreaded order I had hoped would never come.

“Ask Toyaru to come. We will need some of her fortune in the coming war,” She said to me. This order was something I dreaded. Not because I feel Toyaru isn’t trustworthy, but that I believe he is extremely unreliable. I still haven’t told anyone that Toyaru is a boy, and even instructed Violet and Liz to keep shut about it.

Speaking of Liz, Toyaru has really made the last few years awkward. When we left Toyaru behind, Lisya became extra clingy, and I realized she was using her powers to try and seduce me. I already had a suspicion that she was fond of me, but she wasn’t this forward until she had that talk with the damn fox.

“You’re all business, and no fun,”—and then there’s this woman.

“Maria please. I have no time to be playing around,” I said, as I returned to my office. “We can’t have Aire’s coronation until we rein in the families, and we can’t rest until we know who is an ally, and who is an enemy.”

The older woman smiled at me with a light chuckle. Her violet eyes gazed around my office as I sat down, but I knew by now that in reality she was gazing thru the walls, peeping on everyone like some kind of pervert. “And that’s why you want the Fox’s help? The other reincarnated,” She said with an accent not too common in this region. “With her supporting the Princess, the nobles will fall in line, right?” She asked, tilting her head.

“That’s her plan,” I said with a sigh. It’s a quick and efficient idea, but it relies too much on a wildcard like him.

However, she merely chuckled to herself, as if something funny had been said. With a quizzical glance from me, she cleared her throat. “Well, I just find it ironic that the Western faiths see the Foxes as divine beings,” She said. “After all, in our old world, weren’t Kitsune and related beings a product of far-east mythos?”

Even I had noticed that bit of irony. “That’s just how things turned out.”

“Well, I’m interested in meeting a Fox from the West. What I’ve heard about them is interesting,” she said.

Looking up at Maria with my eyebrows raised, I asked, “Aren’t they the same back in the East?”

“Oh my, no. The Foxes I knew of only grew tails after a hundred or so years. I never heard of a Divine Heart, until I crossed the straight, and made it to this side of the wall. You even say that they possess multiple powers for every tail, but the Foxes I know only have a single ability each, and each tail only gives them more magic to their disposal.”

This bit of information surprised me a bit. Was that so? “The thing Toyaru called a Divine Heart seems to have cognates in many races from the African continent, and even some Fay races here have a variation,” I said. “You’ve never heard of this type of bonding ability?”

However, Maria shrugged. “I’ve travelled to every corner of Asia, and I found nothing of the sort,” the explorer said. “But that is interesting. I suppose the Foxes that made it to this side may have ended up having little pups with the races that have this Divine Heart,” she said, as she began to draw up a hypothesis.

Although sometimes this woman made a good conversational partner when it came to some of the sciences, our interests didn’t always align. I couldn’t care less that the Foxes on either side of the Great Wall were somehow different.

I want to know why did the “Divine Heart” ability not exist in the East. The East is blocked off by a magical wall that prevents anyone from passing it without the ability to fly above the clouds. What’s more, the only information we have on it is a small trickle that occasionally slips from the East, such as this woman Maria.

According to Violet, reincarnaters have a peculiar abnormality in their magic system that is distinct enough to recognize after seeing it once or twice. That was how Violet found Maria several months ago—or maybe it was Maria who found Violet? From what I understood, both Violet and Maria could see the flow of magic. To do this, they both extended out tendrils of magic that touched and felt active mana, which to each of them was like a bright beacon of light that couldn’t be ignored.

However, Violet was a special case, where her “tendrils” stretched out in all directions without distinction, while Maria’s were connected to her eyes and could only work by relaying information to her optic nerve. Maria believes that one of Violet’s ancestors were from her own clan.

In either case, the Eastern continent was a foreign place in every sense of the word. Having information on it was useful in case it was ever needed. I could do without Maria’s personality though—if “Maria” was even her real name.

A knock at my door brought my attention away from my thoughts, as Violet entered.

“Aniel. Toyaru’s sister has arrived,” She said.

After a short silence, I asked, “Just his sister?”

“She’s approaching the castle,” She nodded with her ever stern expression.

Giving out a sigh, I say “Bring her to me.” This is trouble. Why isn’t that Fox with her?

“She has a sister?” Maria asked, as I was contemplating what this meant.

“He, he has a sister. Though, not by blood.”

“Oh? I see,” She said as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Not surprised?” I asked, but she only shrugged.

“Even monosex races occasionally have the oddball blacksheep. Of course, even the Foxes in the East have records of a few Males in their past. But I don’t believe there are any alive today. Apparently their males tend to be rather self-destructive,” She said with a chuckle.

Oh great. Now I learn this. And so many things suddenly make sense now.

“Oh my, she is quite pretty,” Maria said, as her eyes gazed at the floor.

“I thought you couldn’t see people with those eyes of yours.”

“I can’t. But her magic system… It’s so pretty and alien,” she commented, as her eyes moved along, scanning the floor like she was trying to get a clear view of an ant. “What sort of race adopted that Toyaru fellow?”

“Baseline, as far as I know,” I answered, as I turned back to my paperwork. Considering the variety of people in this world, and taking into account that every other race was at least genetically human, there was no proper way to refer to just “regular humans”. So, me and Maria used the English term, Baseline to refer to the breed of humans in this world whose magic system only consists of the so-called Spirit Force that most other races also posess.

“A regular human? I don’t believe that. This kind of mutation is too extreme,” She said as if in awed.

My pen stopped moving for a second, as I looked back towards Maria. She said the same thing about me, when I told her I was born of human parents.

“Is she reincarnated?” I wondered.

“No, she’s missing the right characteristics—this mutation is also much more radical than yours or mine,” She said, as her eyes had raised from the floor up to the wall. “Actually, now that I get a good look at her, it’s more like her Magic System was tampered with,” She said.

However, a moment later, the door to my office was flung open. There, the auburn haired girl that I only saw a few times, several years ago, sood with an enraged expression. Her name was Yenna, wasn’t it? I was worried when I didn’t see Violet, however the bluish colored girl quickly ran up behind Yenna, clearly out of breath. It seemed that Yenna had run ahead of the slow Violet to meet me at once.

This was bad.

“Where is Toyaru?” I asked seriously.

“That bitch Sentra took him!” She said in a rage.

Bringing my hand up to my temples, I sighed out. “Did she break out of her shackles or something?”

Yenna’s angry look further became enraged. “Does it matter?!” She asked. So they didn’t even restrain her…?

“Where’d they take him?” I asked.

“I don’t know!” She shouted. “She threw me into the river, and by the time I got out, they were both gone.” Although it seemed she was angry at me, part of me could tell that she was more angry at herself.

“When did this happen?”

“Earlier today,” She answered immediately. “I ran here as fast as I could. You have to find him!” She demanded.

I’d love to go get him, just so I could punch him in the jaw for being stupid. But I have no way of tracking him. Not without sending Violet out to search, which is entirely out of the question. However, the fact the White Fox only took Toyaru and didn’t kill him might be a good sign.

“We’ll look for him. But the fact she didn’t just kill Toyaru is a good sign for us. If you bring Maria here with you, I’m sure she can help. She has a wealth of experience. The enemy is bound to have left a trail of some kind,” I said.

“Trying to get rid of me?” Maria asked amused.

I shrugged. “He’s your type, so I’m sure you’ll thank me later,” I said.

“My… type?” She asked.

“You know, like—what’s the word?—An androgynous shota?”

“Well, I guess it’s best we get going,” Maria suddenly said, as she grabbed Yenna’s shoulder, and made her way for the door.

“Wait,” I called out, stopping the excited fujo at the door. “What else do you know?” I asked the confused Yenna, whose eyes shifted between the suddenly excited Maria and the calm and serious me.

“T-there’s nothing else that comes to mind,” she said, gently trying to part from the excited Maria, but finding that they were practically glued together. “Oh, there was one more thing!” She said.

I nodded, prompting her to continue.

“Before Sentra attacked us, Toyaru mentioned that a Lein noble was nearby.”

“A Lein noble?”

The girl nodded. “We had met him by chance a few days ago, but he must not have been aware of Toya’s… affiliation with the Princess.” I nodded, understanding the gist of what she was saying. So the noble somehow ended up bound to Toyaru by the Divine Heart, so Toyaru can ascertain his location now.

However, Lein seems to be acting faster than expected. If it was a few days ago, then the noble likely was already within our borders by chance, and decided to join the war effort against us.

“What’s his name?” I asked. Knowing ahead of time would give us an idea of that person’s fighting style, if he’s a threat, and if he would have value as a hostage. As Yenna spoke, I got ready to write down the name to look up later.

“I don’t remember his whole name,” Yenna admitted. “But his first name was Ezder.”

Upon hearing that name uttered, I dropped my pen and doubted my ears. It couldn’t be… “Ezder Lenson?” I asked, looking up at Yenna with wide eyes.

Yenna nodded, as if the full name had clicked in her head. “Yes, that’s it!” She said.

Fuck. Oh fuck. God dammit…

This cannot be happening. This fast? We’re not ready.

Hitting the table I stand up and look to Violet. “Tell the Princess that Ezder Lenson is within our borders, and marches to Senha!” Violet, dutiful as ever, nodded to my order and swiftly flew out the door.

Maria on the other hand was openly curious, and didn’t seem to notice as Yenna’s arm was pulled away from her grasp. The woman asked, “Who is Ezder? What’s the panic?”

“Ezder Lenson,” I repeat the name as I begin to draft up an emergency order to our allies.

“Son of Lein. The reason for this war.”