The Shadow in the Crosshairs
Alpina Rainer was Daisy's grandmother — the mother of Luther Rainer, Daisy's father.
A legendary knight, Alpina had once declared she would save the empire and entered the Forest of Illusions, emerging proudly after enduring the 7 Nights.
Generation after generation, the Rainer family had been of thoroughly ordinary standing, but thanks to Alpina they rose to the rank of Count, and from then on they were known as a house of legendary knights.
The prevailing belief was that Daisy had become one of the finest knights in the empire precisely because she had inherited her grandmother's blood.
"Sir Rainer. Say something. The empire stands in danger — does it not shame you, the empire's greatest knight, to simply stand by in silence?"
Michael Amesis turned his arrow toward Daisy.
It was an unavoidable choice. If he kept talking with the Emperor, his furiously pounding heart might burst right out of his chest.
And there was another reason he could not back down.
Michael Amesis had made his daughter the Empress purely out of an insatiable hunger for power.
Even as Crown Prince, the current Emperor had been whispered about as an ill omen, and so his support among the people was weak.
Michael Amesis, by contrast, was the most powerful man in the empire short of the imperial bloodline itself.
His exalted rank and immense wealth had won him the people's support, and power and money drew the other nobles to his side as well.
From the moment rumors spread that the Crown Prince was cursed, Michael Amesis had thirsted for the empire's highest seat of power.
A man like that was never going to let an opportunity slip by. The instant the problem of the Demonic Beasts came to a head, he had swiftly pushed his daughter into a political marriage.
But nothing had gone the way he wanted.
That skilled knight at the Emperor's side bore the name of Rainer. Though merely a count's house, the knight was celebrated as a hero — and every little thing about it grated on Michael Amesis.
To isolate the Emperor and weaken the imperial authority, that knight had to be peeled away from his side.
Thus the Emperor and the Archduke each harbored an entirely different ambition behind one and the same political marriage.
Daisy had no intention of opening her mouth — but before she could, Franz cut the air with a warning so cold it made the marrow in his bones ache.
"Since the legendary knight Alpina Rainer passed from this world, countless knights have set out for the Forest of Illusions in the empire's name. Not one of them survived. That is why my father forbade knights from entering the forest — and I am no different. Not Daisy Rainer, not anyone. I will permit no soul to enter the Forest of Illusions."
Even standing opposed to a crowd of nobles — wealthy, honored, the very pillars of the Lowes Empire — Franz's resolve did not waver by an inch.
"And yet, Your Majesty, circumstances have changed. Are the Demonic Beasts not pouring out in a maddened flood? In this hour of imperial crisis, it falls to Your Majesty to make the correct choice."
Michael Amesis pressed his case again.
"It is precisely because of this crisis that I requested soldiers from you. Otherwise, do you think I would be bound to you in such a relationship?"
Franz said it quietly, in a low and threatening voice.
"But Your Majesty — Sir Daisy may think differently. She may wish to follow in her great grandmother's footsteps and win the glory of bringing peace to the empire once more."
Michael Amesis clung to Daisy to the very end.
Legendary knightly house or not, a knight who served as the Emperor's shadow was, in the end, only a count. The Archduke's rank, he calculated, would be pressure enough.
What he did not know was that Daisy listened to no one's word — not anyone's — except Franz Juligen Roheas's.
"Whatever thoughts Daisy Rainer may hold are of no consequence. I will send no subject of mine into the Forest of Illusions. Not even the Archduke himself."
The last words were as good as a threat.
Michael Amesis flared up, but he could say no more. One more sentence, and the will flickering in the Emperor's eyes made it plain: he really would have the Archduke bound hand and foot and thrown into the Forest of Illusions.
In the crackling tension, silence stretched on.
No one dared open their mouth.
"Let this be enough for now. We came here today to celebrate a joyous occasion, did we not?"
When one noble bravely spoke up from behind, Michael Amesis let out a breath of relief and rubbed his protruding belly, and Franz returned to his seat. Before sitting, he stole a glance at Daisy — but Daisy still wore no change of expression, her gaze fixed straight ahead.
Her eyes changed only after Franz had taken his seat.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty. My daughter — no, Her Majesty the Empress — carries the imperial grandchild. What a joyous event for the empire."
Michael Amesis declared it in a booming voice, as though trying to blow away the subject of the Forest of Illusions altogether.
But his face was far from bright.
"…Since you are already here, go pay your respects to the Empress before you leave."
Without a flicker of joy, without so much as a word of thanks for the congratulations, Franz offered only that ambiguous remark, rose, and walked out of the hall.
Verdi, Daisy, and Matheus followed behind him.
But no one noticed the gleam of madness flickering in Daisy's eyes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
By the time they returned to the imperial study, the sun had already set.
"They mean to clip Your Majesty's wings."
Verdi spoke once the two of them were alone. His tone was as composed as ever, but deep beneath it simmered fury.
"The real problem is that he can say such a scheme openly, to my face."
Franz gazed out at the stars filling the night sky.
He had known the man would never give up his soldiers easily — but he had never imagined the audacity of that brazen, accusatory insolence.
"But Your Majesty, the trouble lies elsewhere."
"…"
"Michael Amesis will soon begin sowing unease across the empire. He will claim the Demonic Beasts could reach Sayron itself — and therefore a knight must be sent to the Forest of Illusions."
A shadow fell across Franz's face.
Verdi already seemed to know exactly what he was about to say.
"And it is true that the situation with the Beasts is dire. I have no wish to echo that man's words, but sending troops now would do nothing more than hold the line for a heartbeat."
"So. You think I should send a knight to the Forest of Illusions too."
"…No, Your Majesty. Even if we did, no knight could survive those seven days. It would be nothing but the pointless sacrifice of innocent men. It might quiet the public outcry for a little while — but that would be the end of it."
"Then we must find another way. Strengthening the imperial army comes first. Until then, even a brief dam against the Beasts made of Amesis's soldiers will have been worth something."
"Yes, Your Majesty. Though the unrest among the people cannot be avoided — and that burden will fall on you as well."
Franz gave a small nod at Verdi's words.
"Then we endure it, however we must."
Even for Verdi, this was the best path available.
Michael Amesis's greed was so bottomless that not even the position of the Emperor's father-in-law could satisfy him.
The situation was hard enough without that man in it. Verdi half wished he could bury him alive in the Death Swamp.
"Daisy."
Worried about the woman who had been so openly pointed toward the Forest of Illusions in the hall, Franz asked after her. He had very nearly snapped that fat, stubby finger that had jabbed in her direction.
"Sir Rainer does not so much as hear the words of anyone but Your Majesty. You need not worry."
Verdi said it flatly, without hesitation.
"…She had better not."
Franz murmured, almost to himself.
In truth, the present circumstances disadvantaged Franz on every front.
Just as Michael Amesis said, the Demonic Beasts were multiplying like mad.
No one knew why. It wasn't as though the Beasts could explain themselves.
The instability in the north had spread to the people. As Verdi feared, if the problem went unresolved, the clamor to send a knight into the Forest of Illusions would only grow — and how long could it be ignored?
If some fool volunteered to enter the forest and win glory, Daisy might be safe for a time. But even that would not last.
Merely being the granddaughter of Alpina Rainer — the first and only legendary knight in imperial history to survive the 7 Nights in the Forest of Illusions — already rested a crushing weight upon Daisy's shoulders.
Franz rubbed the ridge of his brow with his long, broad fingers.
There was no answer. But there was a conclusion.
Daisy — no one at all — would ever be thrown into that graveyard called the Forest of Illusions.
The Demonic Beasts came in every variety, from small, venomous things to monsters the size of a house. What they shared was a single trait: they attacked every living creature that was not one of them, without mercy or exception.
The enormous ones, and even the small but lightning-quick ones, could sometimes shrug off any number of attackers.
Sending Daisy into the Forest of Illusions, where such things swarmed, was sheer lunacy.
And yet there was something else that worried him.
Daisy was the empire's greatest knight.
Which meant she knew no fear.
And that for the sake of her family's honor and the empire's stability, she would spare nothing.
The expression Daisy had worn when pressed about the rumors of the Empress's pregnancy had lodged itself in a corner of his chest and would not leave.
Her hand had been trembling — faintly, but trembling all the same. The same hand that never shook, even facing a Demonic Beast that glowed a deep violet found nowhere in nature.
Verdi said she listened to no one but him. But was that still true?
Was it true, even now that the Empress carried a child?
Had her loyalty remained unchanged even after he failed to tell her that his feelings for the Empress were not real?
When Michael Amesis had thrust that pointing finger toward her, Daisy's body had been there — but her mind had seemed to be somewhere else entirely.
"You should retire for the night, Your Majesty. It's late."
Franz stayed seated, ignoring Verdi's words.
He wanted to see how Daisy was. But he could not bring himself to go to her.
He was afraid.
He, who feared nothing in this world.