A Journey Unwanted

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Heart Kingdom]

[Pulchritudo]

[Banquet]

Gretel had thought the violet explosion was going to be the most absurd and frightening thing she had ever seen.

Even now, standing amid what remained of the estate, she could still feel the memory of it in her bones.

The earth had quaked beneath her when the violet force had erupted. Even at a distance the shock had travelled through the ground and into the structures around her, making stone walls shudder, windows burst, and entire sections of the estate groan beneath stresses they had never been designed to withstand. For several moments, Gretel had believed that the surrounding buildings were going to collapse completely.

She remembered the sound most clearly.

Not one sound, but hundreds. Stone grinding against stone, wood snapping, metal bending and glass breaking. With people shouting somewhere in the distance. The deep, almost subterranean rumble of the earth reacting to the force.

She had thought that was the limit; she had been wrong. Because then the pillar of light had come, Gretel had barely understood what she was seeing when it descended.

It had been so immense that the violet force, which had seemed almost absurd only moments earlier, suddenly looked insignificant by comparison. The sheer scale of that attack had made the previous explosion feel like a warning for the main event.

The aftermath was all around her now.

Gretel coughed.

The sound came from deep in her chest as she pushed herself upright, one knee still pressed against the broken ground.

Dust had settled over nearly everything; it coated her clothes, and it clung to her hair. It had worked its way into her mouth and throat; she spat to the side and grimaced.

Then something shifted beside her; a large and thick chunk of stone had been resting against her body, partially burying her beneath the rubble.

Gretel planted a hand against it, her arm tensed as she shoved. The stone moved reluctantly at first, then it rolled away from her and landed several feet away with a heavy crash.

Gretel remained crouched for a moment before she took a deep breath, then another. She checked herself; her arms were intact, and her legs were intact. There were no obvious fractures or serious bleeding.

Her clothes, however, were another matter.

Several scratches had torn across the fabric. Dust and grey smudges covered portions of her outfit, and there were small abrasions across her exposed skin.

Her rapier was gone; that realization bothered her more than she expected.

Gretel looked around; she couldn’t see it. The weapon had either been buried beneath the rubble or thrown somewhere beyond her immediate sight.

She sighed quietly before she looked up.

Everything was in ruins; the estate was utterly destroyed. The various structures that had once surrounded the grounds had collapsed into heaps of stone, timber, and bent metal. What had previously been carefully maintained paths and courtyards were now indistinguishable beneath layers of debris.

Walls had fallen inward, roofs had disappeared and several towers had been reduced to broken foundations. The estate wards were still visible in places, their remnants even flickering weakly through the dust, but even those defensive systems had not been able to protect much of the estate.

Whatever had been designed to shield the property had simply been overwhelmed. Debris was strewn everywhere.

Gretel slowly turned in place, taking in the full extent of the destruction, which was difficult to comprehend. This had not been the result of someone deliberately destroying the estate piece by piece. This had happened because of a shockwave.

Just a shockwave.

Gretel stared at the ruined buildings.

"Good God." The words escaped her before she could stop them; she winced as she looked across the destruction.

There was nothing pleasant about seeing this; the sight made her stomach tighten.

She had been in dangerous situations before. She had stolen dangerous things. She had fought dangerous people. She was hardly unfamiliar with destruction.

But there was something different about this; the destruction felt disproportionate. It was difficult to believe that so much of the estate had been reduced to rubble simply because someone had unleashed an attack somewhere else.

Gretel’s eyes swept through the area again.

She tried to look beyond the immediate devastation.

People.

Where were the people?

Her expression gradually lost what little relief had been there.

("I doubt all the people evacuated from the main building...")

The thought stopped there; she didn’t need to finish it.

That meant some were either injured or...

Gretel frowned; she forced herself to keep looking. The silence made the thought worse.

Then a noise quickly drew her attention; something large shifted nearby. Gretel’s body tensed immediately. Her shoulders tightened and her hands came up instinctively.

She had no rapier; that fact registered again.

Before she could decide whether she should search for it or simply prepare to fight without it, a large and thick chunk of rock was thrown aside. It went flying as though it were a pebble; it struck another pile of debris several meters away and broke apart.

Gretel stared.

A familiar figure emerged from behind the rubble.

"Tch."

Iphigenia clicked her tongue as she stepped free; unlike Gretel, she seemed far more irritated than shaken.

The princess brushed dust from her dress with irritable movements, first clearing the fabric around her sleeves and then moving down toward the lower portions of the gown. Her hair was in disarray, loose strands hanging where they normally would have been neatly arranged.

She lifted a hand and fixed it; the gesture was almost absurdly ordinary given the state of the estate.

She dusted herself again, then she looked around.

"What brute would release such a disaster so casually?" Her voice carried more annoyance than shock.

That easily caught Gretel’s attention.

Iphigenia was angry but hardly frightened or confused.

Gretel stared at her, her eyes narrowed slightly, and Iphigenia’s gaze eventually settled on her.

Their eyes met, Gretel tensed, and her body automatically shifted into a more guarded posture.

Iphigenia noticed and gave a small huff.

"Rest assured, disasters take precedence over mere thieves."

Gretel blinked; for a second, she genuinely wasn’t sure she had heard correctly.

"Didn’t you throw a whole tower at me?" There was a clear disbelief in Gretel’s voice.

She couldn’t help it, but the accusation was too obvious.

Iphigenia had thrown such a large structure her way, and now she was standing there talking about priorities as though the blonde girl had simply stolen a pastry from a kitchen.

"It was a calculated move on my part." Iphigenia’s response came without guilt. "There were no civilians nearby. I knew exactly where I was directing it, and I made certain that no one uninvolved would be caught in the attack."

She glanced around at the destruction before her expression soured.

"Not whatever this was." Her irritation became more apparent. "This wasn’t a thought-out move in the same way. Whatever caused this destruction affected far too much ground, and I don’t care how powerful the person responsible is. There is a difference between taking a risk in a contained fight and unleashing something that can tear through an entire estate."

She looked toward the ruined structures.

"Even Trismegistus is not capable of such destructive magics."

Gretel remained quiet; her eyes moved past Iphigenia.

She thought about Mikoto and the fact that he had been fighting Trismegistus.

("Was it Mikoto?") Her lips pursed; she had already gathered that Mikoto was strong. Far stronger than she had initially understood. But that wasn’t what bothered her; Mikoto hadn’t seemed careless.

Blunt, certainly, arrogant in a strange way, perhaps.

But careless?

No.

Even when he was being irritating, he usually seemed to know exactly what he was doing. The destruction surrounding them was different; it felt excessive. Maybe it was not because the attack had been intentionally cruel, necessarily, but because of the sheer scale of it.

Gretel’s eyes moved across the ruins.

("To cause such destruction so carelessly, it doesn’t seem like him.") She paused as her brow furrowed. ("Or maybe I simply don’t know him well enough.")

That possibility bothered her more; perhaps she had mistaken his attitude. Or perhaps what she had interpreted as confidence had simply been the indifference of someone so powerful that consequences rarely mattered to him.

Gretel didn’t know, and she hated not knowing.

Iphigenia, meanwhile, turned away.

She adjusted the sleeve of her dress and looked toward the remains of the estate rather than toward Gretel.

There was no obvious attempt to attack.

It seemed she genuinely saw no further need to fight.

Gretel watched her; she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

"Are you really just letting me go?" The question came more cautiously than her earlier one.

Iphigenia stopped; for a moment, she didn’t turn around.

Then she glanced back at Gretel.

"I am the sole princess of the Heart Kingdom." Her voice had changed; there was still irritation beneath it, but there was something more serious to her tone. "Next in line for the throne should my mother ever perish."

She looked toward the destroyed estate.

"I do not have the luxury to merely idly sit by while my people suffer."

The words were blunt, but they carried the tone of someone reminding herself of an obligation she could not set aside simply because she happened to be pursuing something else.

Gretel said nothing as she looked around once more. To the various ruined structures and debris. There might have been people who were trapped beneath the rubble.

Gretel understood why Iphigenia had stopped fighting.

It certainly wasn’t mercy toward her; it was duty.

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