Chapter 100: Ophelia: My Brother-in-law Is Acting Strange!
In the modern world, inside the Hall beside the Epoch Tombstone of the Tower of Arcana.
At the center of the hall, a curtain of light shimmered with rippling waves like water.
Dean Silver shrank into a corner, unconsciously yawning, her furry tail drooping from time to time, seemingly struggling against her ermine nature of hibernation.
On the other side, pitch-black undead metal particles, under the amplification of an alchemical matrix, had assembled into the shape of office furniture.
Ophelia sat upright at the desk and chair constructed from the metal, her Mercury Hand continuously delivering royal decrees, intelligence, and quarterly reports before her eyes.
A fountain pen danced between Ophelia's fair and slender fingers, occasionally sketching a few lines across the paper before being retrieved by the Mercury Hand and sent toward the Tower’s entrance.
The range of control over undead metal through the alchemical matrix was limited to a few hundred meters, so clearly, subordinates of the Second Imperial Princess had already been waiting at the Tower’s entrance to deliver the decrees to every corner of the imperial capital.
Although she had yet to come of age, as the Empire’s only publicly recognized princess, Ophelia had long been involved in various political affairs—
And based on this foundation, she had established a faction in the capital loyal solely to herself.
Of course, the reason why Ophelia and Dean Silver displayed such laziness was not hard to understand.
It was simply because the scene being broadcast within the light curtain was undeniably boring.
The queen who looked identical to Akxia, likely her identity in the Sixth Epoch, lived entirely within the palace at the heart of the royal city.
Aside from occasionally handling governmental affairs, she spent most of her time in her personal chambers.
Sometimes playing with a clay doll that seemed bound to her soul for unknown reasons, sometimes reclining lazily on her throne flipping through a mountain of fairy tale books she seemed to have read many times before.
Other times, she simply propped her chin with her hand, quietly gazing into the distance beyond the royal city, like a serene statue.
One could only say that this queen, like Dean Silver, fully embodied the shut-in nature—she hadn’t stepped out of her residence for months.
No wonder the girl and the ermine became close friends in the modern world.
However, this kind of shut-in queen lifestyle might feel novel at first glance, but watching for too long became truly dull.
If not for the differing flow of time between the Nightworld and the present world—
Although several months had passed in the Nightworld, only half a day had passed in reality—Dean Silver and Ophelia would have likely run away by now.
Just like an audience member who had excitedly bought popcorn, only to fall asleep during the movie and wake up to find the show was already over.
“Hey, little Tina’s sister.”
Dean Silver curled a dried fish into her mouth with her tail. “You sure we still have to keep waiting here?”
“We're not really going to keep watching Little Akxia’s shut-in life for months, right?”
Though Dean Silver herself was a shut-in ermine, her shut-in lifestyle at least included the internet, fizzy drinks, air conditioning, and video games for company...
As for the life inside the light curtain, it only had a clay doll and fairy tale books, even making Dean Silver begin to sympathize with Sixth Epoch Akxia.
It seemed the girl had long grown used to this life—perhaps she had spent most of her years in this palace.
If Dean Silver were in her place, she’d probably have gone mad from boredom already.
“Probably not...”
Ophelia finished reviewing another military order, then finally raised her head to glance at the scene in the light curtain.
“Every historical remnant in the Nightworld must correspond to a specific event.”
“And the era selected in the Endtime Nightworld is always one of monumental impact—events capable of altering the course of civilization and epochal history.”
“The Nightworld never assigns tasks destined for failure, but it also never hands out ones that can be cleared by merely coasting along.”
“If one could simply pass a historical remnant by leisurely living in a palace, then the rules of the Nightworld would be far too merciful.”
Ophelia paused for a moment.
“The cycle of a typical Nightworld remnant generally doesn’t exceed half a month.”
“The epoch remnants of the Endtime Nightworld run a bit longer, but even then, they usually don’t exceed a year.”
“The calmer the early foreshadowing, the more turbulent the event that follows.”
She clicked the cap onto her pen, then released her grip.
Before the pen could hit the floor, the liquid mercury behind Ophelia caught it, suspending it mid-air.
Then a rift opened, and the pen was swallowed into a sub-dimensional storage space.
“If I’m not mistaken...”
“That critical change is about to arrive.”
As if to affirm Ophelia’s words—
The palace image within the distorted light curtain, fast-forwarded at nearly a hundredfold speed yet appearing nearly unchanged, suddenly shifted.
It was as though the reel of a film projector had been slowed down, and the speed of the projection gradually decreased.
Finally, it returned to a 1:1 synchronization with real time.
Clearly, the playback circuit inscribed on the image crystal had detected an abnormality and automatically adjusted the time flow.
The gazes of Dean Silver and Ophelia simultaneously fell upon the light curtain.
Within the curtain—
Inside the palace blanketed by dusk, the seemingly eternal silence was abruptly broken.
The queen reclining on the throne, one hand propping up her delicate chin and the other flipping through a fairy tale book, suddenly moved her gaze.
The lazy indolence on her pale and pretty face vanished, replaced by an aura of regal solemnity.
She raised a hand and snapped her fingers.
At the same time, with a flash of ice-blue light, the fairy tale book vanished.
Seconds later, a palace maid in a white dress entered the hall.
She approached the throne and spoke respectfully.
“Your Majesty Helen, the newly selected batch of maids has arrived. Please bestow your blessing.”
「Let them come forth」
The girl identical in appearance to Akxia—now addressed as Her Majesty Helen—did not speak.
Yet at the same moment, ice-blue text appeared in mid-air.
The maid did not appear surprised, simply responding with respectful acknowledgment, then silently withdrew.
A few minutes later, several figures entered the open space beneath the palace.
“What the heck, I thought it was something big... it’s just some new maids. What’s so interesting about that.”
Dean Silver flicked her tail in disappointment.
But then, her gaze suddenly froze.
And Ophelia's gaze froze along with hers.
Just a new batch of maids—nothing special.
Unless—
One ignored that single figure among them with a cool and aloof aura.
Her figure was slender, her beauty unmatched—even for well-traveled eyes like Dean Silver and Ophelia’s, the only word that came to mind was “stunning.”
That alone would have been fine, but between the maid’s brows, there was a softness that seemed to encompass all the world’s beauty... and yet, to the girl and the ermine, it felt hauntingly familiar.
Identical to the clay doll the queen had been playing with moments ago.