Torn Asunder by War, A Sword Saint for Tomorrow X The Knight Wizards!! – Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Ouroboros Serpent, or the Möbius Strip
  Nina Valer, everyone says, is humanity’s savior. The astute woman had been a rare genius since her childhood in her homeland, Germany, but her current achievements are largely dependent on the knowledge she unintentionally gained when she wandered into the “space-time continuum.”
  
  “…The energy that fills space-time acts in a squared manner, so negative energy goes towards the past. And while imaginary and real numbers don’t interact and overlap, an exception occurs only at zero.”
  
  This phenomenon demonstrates the equivalence of inertial space-time, which “comes from the past, interacts in the present, and heads towards the future,” and continues to create “the past and future starting from the present.”
  
  “It’s like the Ouroboros serpent, or the Möbius strip.”
  
  For more than 260,000 hours in her subjective time, Nina, who had fallen into the space-time rift, had been watching an experimental field-like world endlessly without aging, in a state close to stillness.
  
  Destruction triggered by external stimuli given periodically, self-destruction at the end of evolution, and the “mechanical magi” glimpsed within it.
  
  “My heart trembled at the grandeur because it was someone else’s affair, but it’s unbearable to be thrown into the vortex.”
  
  Now, she herself is a piece on the board, not an observer, and she cannot escape the “Hour of Ruin” that has appeared.
  
  It’s fortunate that the previous lord recognized her abilities and took her in. Thanks to that, the development of a giant knight that imitates the “mechanical magi” was on track within a few years, and the Javelin, the first human-built Clawsolas, was completed.
  
  Although it was disassembled and transported to the island nation of Guiltya, a major power that was being destroyed by the Aberrations at the time, the allied forces, which lacked effective means of attacking large Aberrations, were inevitably defeated, and the Zephyrus Domain forces, which possessed the ability to counter them, became the rear guard.
  
  However, it was impossible to hold back the approaching Aberrations with just a few giant knights. Lord Leonid and his sons died in battle, and only a few of the territorial soldiers barely survived… As a result, Nina, who had become the lord’s adopted daughter, used the Clawsolas technology as a bargaining chip to lobby influential nobles and inherited the Valer family with the Emperor’s pardon.
  
  （It’s been quite an unusual journey, hasn’t it…）
  
  As if to bring her back from her brief moment of reflection on the past, a knock sounds gently on the door of her office.
  
  “Nina-sama, I have a report.”
  “Come in.”
  
  With her permission, the door opens, and Aynst, the Knight Captain of Zephyrus Domain, who is about ten years older than the woman in her early twenties, approaches and respectfully presents a small piece of parchment.
  
  “It’s a secret letter from Jax, the technician we sent to the Lizel Knight Kingdom.”
  “Oh, this is… wonderful news.”
  
  Nina’s face breaks into a bright smile as she glances at the parchment, but the Knight Captain quietly shakes his head.
  
  “Certainly, the destruction of the Great Forest’s Spirit Gate and obtaining the composite material is a good thing, but I would like you to read it to the end.”
  
  “… This is troubling. How should I interpret this?”
  
  Until a moment ago, she had been unusually cheerful, delighted that her allies had secured the Spirit Stone she had long desired. Now, she tilts her head and asks, her dark brown hair swaying.
  
  “It’s bad news. The cooperative relationship we’ve had so far was only possible because of King Strauss… Even if the young man who became the new Knight King is ambitious, if he lacks the ability, he won’t be of any use.”
  
  “I see. Should I meet him and assess him myself?”
  “As you wish…”
  
  After Aynst bows his head and leaves, she opens a drawer of her desk and takes out a blank piece of parchment before she forgets, immersed in her research.
  
  Either way, she needed to extort the Spirit Stone from the Lizel Knights, so sending a personal letter was a certainty.
  
  She added a request for a meeting with the new Knight King and indicated that she would provide the second-generation Begalta Clawsolas, and also the modified Belphegor Clawsolas, which was too quirky even for Aynst to handle, as compensation for various things.
  
  （It’s my masterpiece, but… if it’s just on display, it’s nothing more than an object.）
  
  After a moment of hesitation, she stamps the Valer family seal on the finished letter, puts it in an envelope, and hands it to the attendant she called from the next room.
  
  At the destination where the letter will arrive, in the small country of Lizel, located south of Zephyrus Domain… a group of young girls were gathered together, deep in discussion.
  
  “…So, that’s why Claude doesn’t make a move on me.”
  “He seems shy, doesn’t he? Oh, these biscuits are delicious♪”
  
  Ignoring Izana’s rather serious words, the daughter of the Chief Magician nibbles on the baked confectionery, which is generously sprinkled with sugar, like a small animal.
  
  “Oh, dear… Revia, you’re getting crumbs everywhere.”
  “Both of you, please listen to the story seriously…”
  
  The three of them, including Fine, the adopted daughter of the Knight Captain, who is also present, are close in age, and because their fathers had a good relationship, they naturally became childhood friends, and even now, they exchange opinions candidly.
  
  “To be frank, Izana-sama, even if you tell me that, I don’t know how to respond.”
  “Yeah, we didn’t have much free time because of magic training, so romance is…”
  
  “Ugh, I can’t argue with that.”
  
  Izana had also volunteered when her two best friends started learning magic, but… because of her position as royalty, she couldn’t, and all she could do was worry about them when they were exhausted.
  
  Although she is at a loss for words because of that guilt, the matter is serious. Even though they have shared a bed every night since the night she entered into an informal marriage with the Rare Human knight, Claude shows no interest in her at all.
  
  “Perhaps I have to admit it… that I have no charm.”
  
  Resting her chin on her hand with a melancholic expression, Izana’s beautiful emerald eyes cloud over. Revia shakes her head vigorously.
  
  “That’s impossible.”
  “Yes, I also think Izana-sama is beautiful.”
  
  “Then why, even when I snuggle up to him every night, does he only pat my head?”
  “Maybe it’s because his feelings aren’t there yet…”
  
  Fine’s hesitant words resonated with Revia.
  
  “He said something about being concerned about that, so you just have to patiently close the distance.”
  
  “Specifically, how?”
  “Hmm, maybe go out on the town incognito…”
  
  Perhaps it’s the “three heads are better than one” from the proverb of another world, or maybe not. Outside the salon where the girls are huddled together, whispering secrets, Sariel, the one-eyed magician, heaves a heavy sigh, unbeknownst to them, as she eavesdrops at the door.