As Sistia and I rushed out of the royal palace, a cacophony of sounds could be heard. The distance made it hard to figure out which from which, but as we got closer to the palace gate and away from the inner residence, I could vaguely make out screams coming from the residential districts.

“What is going on, Sistia?”

I could hardly catch my breath. With her bat wings, Sistia just casually glided across the floor without breaking a sweat, while I must work out my legs that have gone stiff due to prolonged inactivity. I had to rely on strengthening magic to keep up with Sistia’s pace. Even with that, I would soon find sweat breaking up all over my body. Each bead would drip through and get soaked up by my white dress. 

“S-Sistia, at least fill me in first! A protest? Or a rebellion? Either way you know I could not keep running like this!”

My breath became ragged as I struggled to utter words to Sistia, who was still gliding without so much as a brake. 

“I’m sorry, Mistress Anastasia. I had no idea either. You need to see it with your own eyes.”

As we zigzagged our way through the palace and its vast gardens, my confusion grew even higher, what did she mean by ‘seeing with my own eyes’? It’s the problem that severe?

The screams from outside still continually echoed. They gave me such a deep sense of paranoia that I had to wonder, what could be happening outside these gates?

I took a gulp of air, whatever it was, I felt my legs would be the ones that gave out first.

“W-wait, Sistia. I need some r-rest.”

I really could not run anymore. Strengthening magic could be extremely useful when in the hands of users who focused on melee combat, but to someone with a hopeless body constitution like me, they were just like a pinch of salt added to the ocean. It was as if someone decided to fertilize and water a half-dead plant. The magic had reached a limit on its usefulness and the overdue fatigue started to eat on my stamina.

Even since arriving in this world and realizing the existence of magic, I had tried my hands on many different spells, but body strengthening never came to be among the better ones in my arsenal.

As my speed slowed down, blood flows were getting erratic. I could not bear to stand anymore so I opted for a nearby bench. As I rested my whole body on its wooden planks, I could feel my temperature cooling down, though sweat still glistened on my skin from head to toe. 

“What pathetic stamina, and you call yourself our queen? We barely ran half the length of the palace.”

Sistia turned back and stood before me. 

You were not running, per se. But I didn’t have half a mind to retort that now. My lungs felt like they would burst.

“Aquasphaera ”.

I murmured a short chant, and after I finished, the mana concentrated in my hand materialized into a sphere of water the size of a tennis ball. Without any delay, I devoured it. The cool liquid passed down my throat and chilled my body. I could feel my strength slowly coming back.

“I didn’t do body training like a maniac everyday unlike someone. I have other important state matters to attend to”, I said after regaining my breath.

Sistia raised her eyebrows.

“Oh, really? What kind of state matters, my dear Anastasia-sama? Could it be flirting and sleeping with your servants an important state duty?”

Sistia was smiling, but that smile was freezing. I could feel chills in my back.

“I did not ...”

I tried to retort, but Sisita immediately cut me off.

“Don’t deny it, Anastasia-sama. This morning I saw Aquia running away from your room’s direction, half-naked and teary face. Pray tell, Anastasia-sama, was that clumsy maid enjoyable?”

Sistia's smile went even wider. Even though my body was hot from running, I could feel beads of cold sweats forming on my forehead.

Why is this girl’s temper so unstable? Was it really a mistake to make her my subordinate?

“That’s … not even remotely important right now, Sistia.”

As I tried to find something to deviate from this subject, a sudden realization dawned in my mind. I had been fixated on keeping up with Sistia’s pace that I let this irregularity slip.

“Sistia, where are all the guards?”

The palace complex was grand in size. Guards were posted in virtually all corners, from the royal palace where I resided to the other places such as gardens, galleries and museums. The complexes where the nobles stayed also had a sizable number of guards, albeit they were mostly independent mercenaries that were hired by the nobility themselves. All the other guards answered directly to Sistia and me.

However, after passing through so many apartments and buildings, I could not catch sight of a single one. Where have they all gone to?

“About the guards, Anastasia-sama, I issued an order for most of them to be posted in the residential districts”, Sistia said.

“The residential districts? Why?”

I asked in confusion.

Letting down defense in the royal palace was anything but wise, what could have led Sistia as the head of the military to such a rash decision? 

“As I said before, you need to see it for yourself. I don’t know how to explain this to you either, Anastasia-sama.”

Said Sistia as she continued to glide toward the gates. Seeing as she had no intention to answer me, I could only muster my strength and press forward.

Soon we were met with the domineering sight of the palace’s gates. It was mostly a construction made from stone and brick, but its height was certainly impressive. Designed to withstand an attack from the most gigantic of beasts, it was a towering wall dotted with watchtowers, each connected with others to form a contiguous defense line. All of them were manned day-and-night and equipped with artillery-like weaponry to deter any threat that could pose to the royal palace.

Legends had it that this wall was built by the elves who founded this kingdom. At that time, their forests were under the ravage of magical beasts whose body was as hard as stone and some even bigger than a hill. No one seemed to really know where these beasts came from, or why they would be so ferocious. The woods soon proved to be inadequate as a cover as these beasts went on a rampage, demolishing tree houses and wooden fortifications, completely disabling any terrain advantage the elves supposedly had in their own turf. Under the threat to their survival, the leader of the elves made a teeth-gnashing decision to abandon their ancestral hometown and seek a better place to live. 

After months of traveling and fending off wild beasts, they, at last, made it to a wide plain, rich in water sources and blessed with good soil. Knowing that their forest-dwelling habits could not help them survive under the attacks of bloodthirsty beasts, the leader of the elf mobilized the ones who left to construct a defensive structure like the one that they saw at a human kingdom. They laid bricks on top of each other, when they ran out of brick they used stones as a substitute. Each year of battle against magical beasts yielded a higher wall and better defense structures. When the magical beasts started to retreat and the first elf kingdom in the continent was established, the wall was as high as it is now, an unshakable mountain that represented the struggle of a then thousand-year-long elvish dynasty.

At least that was the story we were told.

Until this day, most of 《 Altria 》residents were elves and humans, other races' populations were growing steadily but they still were a minority. 《 Altria 》had always been an elvish kingdom with the elf race as its best interest.

Sistia looked around and then headed for the tallest watchtower, which was a couple of towers from the right side of the main gate. It was taller than other watchtowers by at least one third, and on its top were tools designed specifically for clairvoyance purposes. I remembered peering into the streets of 《 Altria 》through one of its magnifying glasses, which all in all felt very much like a stripped-down version of the telescope I once played with on Tokyo Tower. The only difference was that you put money in one, and mana in the other.

We arrived at the bottom of the watchtower. Sistia flapped her little bat wings and soon, she was up in the air looking down at me.

“Anastasia-sama, please be quick.”

Arching my neck and seeing the giant tower obscure my sight, I felt a little light-headed.

It had been a while since the last time I had to use this. It devoured mana like crazy, but still a better option than walking the stairs, I guess. 

“Angeluskorne ”.

From my back, two wing-like shapes sprouted. They were paper-thin and detailed like a butterfly’s but had a vividly glowing blue contour.

Concentrating mana to the point that I could feel the wings as an extension of my body, both I and Sisita flew to the top of the watchtower.

senchou17

Okay, so I was being totally unimaginative with names for spells since I think complicated spell names are kinda unnecessary. What do you guys think?