Editing Masou Gakuen HxH:Volume 5 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 3===

Aine was greatly busy in the next day. Formal report to the public, greetings and introductions to all sides, Aine went to events and parties again and again.

She was concerned about Kizuna and the others even during that time, but there was no chance to meet. Aine didn’t try to go to meet them because she was worried about what Nayuta said to her that night.

However, if Nayuta was really not going to interfere with them, then shouldn’t she not need to be particularly worried? She had such thinking. On the contrary, she also suspected whether Nayuta had some kind of aim instead.

While hesitating like that, several days passed. And then tonight too there was a party carried out in the imperial castle. After she received greetings from so many people that she couldn’t really remember, she pretended to go to toilet and just barely managed to escape to a balcony.

“Haa……”

She sighed alone……but she noticed that slightly distant from her there was a guard of the imperial guard standing. Even when she was in the bath, she already didn’t have any chance to be alone.

‘――Even so, I wonder if this is better than being in the party hall?’

Just when she was thinking that, a fierce explosion happened overhead.

“Wha-!?”

She immediately took a stance and almost yelled out the equipping code for her Heart Hybrid Gear――the next instant, large flowers of light bloomed one after another in the night sky.

“Fireworks isn’t it……don’t make me surprised like that.”

Aine looked up at the night sky and stared at the fireworks which bloomed into various shapes and colors. Whether it was in this world or the world at the other side, there was no large difference of the fireworks. It was just that fireworks that used sorcery could make movements, colors, and shapes that were impossible for the world of the other side, that was the difference.

Suddenly, a memory of when she was in Ataraxia welled up inside her heart.

At Ataraxia’s balcony, she was wearing a dress like now and looked up at the fireworks blooming in the night sky with the two of them.

“Are you pleased with the fireworks, Ainess-sama?”

Zelsione called out to her worriedly.

“Zel……yes, that’s right.”

“The welcoming festival for Ainess-sama will still continue for a week over there. Fireworks will be launched everyday like this.”

Aine made a cramped smile.

“What’s with that. You don’t need to make that big of a commotion.”

“Even this is still not enough. Everyone is happy with Ainess-sama’s return. Conversely it might burden Ainess-sama as the result, but this is also for the sake of the empire’s people. Please be lenient somehow.”

Aine murmured while gazing at the castle town that made merry in the festival.

“I heard that Vatlantis is heading to the danger of destruction because the Genesis became abnormal in its working, but……despite so, everyone is lively aren’t they?”

“No, it has been a long time since there was this much energy. Everyone was building up fear towards the collapse of the world. The world restoration experiment by Nayuta the other day was a success, but……”

Zelsione looked up to the sky. Aine also chased after her gaze and looked up. There were various shapes of firework launched up, but there was not a single star at the night sky behind them. There was only pitch black darkness spreading there.

“The starry sky returned temporarily, but it soon returned like this. According to Nayuta, it has to be dealt by expanding the installation after this.”

“I see……that magic power plant will be created in every place then.”

“Yes. And so hope also welled up inside the people of the empire. And there the miraculous return of Ainess-sama happened. That made the hearts of the people to become brighter.”

Aine shook her head with a difficult expression.

“But, even if I’m expected so much like that……I, don’t understand what I should do.”

“There is no need to feel lost. We have to conquer the whole territory of Lemuria.”

“!?”

With a soft smile to assure Aine, Zelsione said the thing that Aine didn’t want to hear the most. She understood that this was a problem that she had to face sooner or later. Since she heard about Vatlantis’s predicament, she knew that this was a path that she had to go through someday. But, even so this was also something she couldn’t come to a clear solution with. Aine spoke with a wrung out voice.

“Conquer……there is no way we can do that.”

“Then, are we to steal the happiness of those people?”

Zelsione spread her hand and pointed at the brightness of the castle town. The place where it looked conspicuously bright was the place where a night market was opened. She visited there yesterday under the pretext of observing the living of the people.

Everyone looked really happy. They welcomed Aine and treated her to the food from a stall. The imperial guard stopped her from eating such lowly food, but she shook free and forcefully tried to eat them.

Every one of the food was amazingly tasty.

“Really, Ainess-sama is too reckless. What would happen if there was poison in it, I felt like my life was shortened.”

Her grim face crumbled, Aine leaked out a stifled laugh.

“You are exaggerating. There is no way such thing will happen.”

“However, thanks to that Ainess-sama is greatly popular among the masses. The gossipy bunches are grumbling that it was a performance for popularity, but even such voices immediately vanished.”

Shadow covered Aine’s face once more. The memory of the incident in the audience room was revived in her brain.

“Zel……don’t tell me, you are not planning to lay your hand on the people that are our retainers aren’t you?”

“No, I wasn’t speaking in that kind of mean――nn?”

Zelsione knitted her eyebrows. Aine too felt a dizzying sensation.

And then in the next instant, *DON* a large sound shook the earth.

“Wha, what? Earthquake!?”

Aine almost fell to the floor from the shaking that made it hard to stand.

“Ainess-sama!”

Zelsione rushed to Aine and caught her body. The imperial guards that were standing by in a slight distance were running to them all at once.

The towers of the imperial castle shook greatly like a pendulum. Even the central part of the castle where Aine was at, was like a ship that was agitated by waves, it was slightly jolted. It was to the degree that she felt like she would feel seasick even while in the castle.

One of the imperial guards raised a voice that resembled a scream.

“Ah! That’s! The town is!”

When Aine looked at the direction where the guard was pointing at, she too raised a short scream.

Fissures were running through the castle town. The gigantic crack collapsed the buildings standing above it and swallowed them. Suddenly blazes were rising up all over the city.

“No way……the market”

And then the market that Aine observed, its ground was greatly crumbling, that one district was falling into the depths of the abyss.

Zelsione faced the imperial guard and yelled.

“Emergency dispatch! Prioritize the extinguishment of the fire and the people’s evacuation. Confirm the damage condition and report as the situation calls.”

“Yes-!”

The imperial guard other than Zelsione each put on their magic armor and scattered to every direction. The shaking was settled around that time.

“Ainess-sama, no need to worry. I’ll protect you no matter what happened.”

Aine was dumbfounded by the disaster that she witnessed. The trembling of her legs couldn’t settle down. She had heard the words about how Genesis became not functioning, but she never thought that it would be this bad.

When she looked at the direction of Genesis, a large crack ran through the sky where the pillar was at the center. Something shuddering crawled up Aine’s spine. She felt the fear toward fate, of something that a power of an individual couldn’t oppose against.

“I wonder……if Grace is fine?”

“That person will not die even if she is killed.”

Aine made a wry smile inside her heart towards that horrible way of talking. However there was persuasiveness in Zelsione’s words, and then she could feel her faith and affection to Grace.

“I guess. Grace, is like that isn’t she……”

There was one more thing that she felt concerned about no matter what. Aine asked while feeling slightly hesitant.

“Hey, about every……the prisoners we brought here from Lemuria, how are they?”

Zelsione answered after a short pause.

“They are imprisoned within the special prison inside the castle. But, just as Ainess-sama commanded, we didn’t do anything that inflicted pain to them. It’s a little like living in a villa there. Also the prison was built solidly, I think it won’t even give an inch just from an earthquake of this much. Though this is something ironic.”

“I see……then, that’s fine.”

Aine stared hard at the crack that was created in the middle of the castle town and resolved herself.

“Hey, Zel. I have a request.”