After a few minutes of walking, Daniel successfully escorted Asha to the emperor’s office located at the innermost part of the emperor’s castle.

“Lady Asha Beatrix has arrived, your majesty,” Daniel said as he knocked on the door.

“Please, come in,” Emperor Vasilias replied from the other side.

Daniel opened the door for Asha and ushered her inside where not only the emperor, but also the hero, Alexander, and the high priestess, Kerensa, were there. They were seated on a luxurious couch facing each other, drinking tea and having snacks while the emperor smiled broadly at them.

Seeing that, Asha was convinced their relationship must be quite close. Not to mention, the emperor’s office was quite lavish but designed privately given its location, and the fact that they passed several high-ranking guard knights on their way.

“Welcome, Lady Asha,” Emperor Vasilias stood up to greet her. “Thank you for coming despite the short notice. Come here and sit with us!”

Asha’s eyes widened hearing the emperor call her “lady” and immediately waved her hands and stepped back. Why do they keep calling her lady when she wasn’t a noble? Did she even look like a noble?

“Please, your majesty,” Asha curtseyed and bowed her head, “there is no need to address me as a lady for I am no noble. You may simply call me Asha.”

Emperor Vasilias raised his eyebrows, looking like he couldn’t believe what she just said. Nonetheless, he waved his hand, gesturing for Asha to sit beside them.

“If you insist, then I will call you as such… Asha.”

“Thank you, your majesty,” Asha replied, sighing in relief. Then, she followed and sat on the free couch beside Kerensa and Alex.

“It must be your first time meeting them, but let me introduce you—the hero, Holy Knight Alexander Drausus, and the benevolent High Priestess Kerensa Divinus.”

“Hi there!” Alexander greeted her with a wide grin on his face.

“Such a pleasure to meet you, Asha,” Kerensa followed.

“The pleasure is mine, High Priestess Kerensa, and Holy Knight Alexander.”

“You may call simply call me Kerensa as well.”

“Same here—just call me Alex.”

“Oh… but,” Asha was reluctant to do that since the two of them were famous everywhere. She couldn’t possibly disrespect them by calling them by their names as if they were close friends already.

“Please, be at ease, Asha,” Emperor Vasilias who noticed her unrest immediately butted in. “You can freely call them as they said since these two are not fond of formalities themselves. Besides, I’m afraid we are the ones who will be troubling you tonight with a few questions that I personally think must be discussed.”

Hearing the sudden seriousness of the emperor’s tone, Asha responded in the same manner.

“So I was told, your majesty. Feel free to ask anything. I will answer them to the best of my capabilities.”

“Thank you. The first thing we wanted to know was… about what happened to your opponent earlier—Wynna. Would you mind sharing the details of why she suddenly screamed and fell unconscious? It was quite a disturbing scream that everyone who watched was taken aback, and couldn’t help but speculate different things.”

“About that…”

Though Asha had a hard time explaining, she told the truth to them, leaving only the facts about the Small Whispers out, and the fact that the dark strings seemed to have been following her for months already. After all, hearing unknown whispers was considered ominous by others, what more if an unknown dark power was following her? As for the truth about the dark strings, she wasn’t sure herself what those were so she thought, perhaps one of them would be able to shed some light on her.

“Dark strings of light?” Kerensa said as she pondered deeply. “I am aware of the different strings of light from the Tales of Old that I happened to read once at the temple’s archives, but none of them mentioned dark strings. And it doesn’t help that there is barely anyone who can see them, and whom we can ask. This is the first time I encountered someone who does—which is you.”

“I understand it might be hard to believe but—“

“I believe it,” Emperor Vasilias assured her. “In fact—if I may be so honest with you all—I, myself, can see them, too.”

Alex, Kerensa, and Asha’s gasped, astonished by what they just heard.

“Y-You can see it, too, your majesty?”

“Indeed, I can. And that is precisely why I summoned you, Asha. I saw everything that you did in the arena—especially how you merely touched the dark strings and it vanished right away. That is something I couldn’t do despite being given the gift to see the Strings of Life.”

“Strings of life?”

“Yes. Now that we are on this topic, I believe it is right that you three know about it since you might encounter them in the future as well. This is a knowledge passed down only in the royal family since from our line comes the Envoys of the Most High.”

“Envoys of the Supreme? No wonder you were able to establish such a great kingdom, your majesty!” Kerensa blurted out in awe. “You are an envoy yourself! That’s why the temple had been loyal and everyone—oh! Pardon me, your majesty. My mouth… I just—“

“Ha-ha-ha! That’s alright, Kerensa. You are merely expressing your surprise. I trust that whatever we discuss here will be kept amongst us.”

“Yes, your majesty!” the three chorused.

“Back to the topic, the strings mentioned in the Tales of Old were the different strings of light only the envoys and guardian celestials could see. Red for the creatures and other races, blue for humans, green for nature, gold for celestials, and white for the envoys. However, there is indeed a dark string—which Asha and I just witnessed earlier for the very first time. I can only deduce that it somehow has the capability to turn someone berserk. I have met Wynna before and though she was quite a proud person, she was calm and not as hard-headed as she was in the match earlier. Druids are known for their patience since that is how they could easily focus to manipulate nature. With that truth, I believe those dark strings must have influenced her or worse, controlled her hence the reasons for her unseemly actions earlier.”

“Good heavens,” Kerensa sighed. “To think such a thing exists. But where did it come from? Did someone cast it? But if so, who would dare use such ominous power? For what reason?”

On and on, they started discussing and contemplating carefully about the dark strings. Seconds soon turned to several minutes, until it had almost been an hour of discussion.

“Did Wynna offend someone recently?” Alex asked. “If not, it would be so weird why she got targeted by those dark strings. Good thing Asha happened to be there and can eradicate them.”

“It is indeed fortunate,” Emperor Vasilias added. “Should I encounter the same thing in the future, I hope you wouldn’t mind if we turn to you for help, Asha.”

“Of course, your majesty. I might be wandering around Terra in the future, but send me a message and I will immediately heed your call.”

“How reassuring. Thank you,” Emperor Vasilias smiled. “Well, since we all can’t come to a conclusion overnight, let us leave this matter for now. I will have my trusted people investigate further and will summon you three again should I find new intel to share.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

After that, the emperor invited the three of them to dinner since it was quite late already. They refused at first but the kind emperor insisted so they joined him and the empress in the huge dining hall of the palace. While eating, Empress Charis, who had been very curious about Asha since the tournament started, asked her…

“Asha, my dear,” Empress Charis said, “if you don’t mind me asking—where did you come from? We have met several people around Terra and held a lot of tournaments in the past but never have we encountered such a genius like you in magic!”

“Oh, ahm,” Asha quickly swallowed the meat in her mouth. “I came from the north, your majesty—from the Kingdom of Voreios. Although… it has turned into ruins now so I’ve been wandering around the world.”

“My heavens! I’m so sorry my dear.”

“You’re from the Kingdom of Voreios?” Emperor Vasilias asked, surprised. “Then that means you must have experienced the Great Calamity as well. We have been investigating that tragedy for months and gathered intel from all the survivors, wanting to know the truth of what happened that day, but I do not remember having your name on the list. Perhaps you were somewhere a little farther. Would you mind sharing with me what you know and remember?”

“The… Great Calamity?”

“Yes. You might not know it in that term but seven months ago, we received a report that the whole Kingdom of Voreios suddenly turned into ruins—from the towns, the city, ports, and farmlands, and even the castle itself. But miraculously, every citizen of the kingdom survived! They couldn’t remember everything that happened and from our interviews, everyone was suddenly spirited away in the vast meadow near the kingdom, protected by a powerful barrier. I believe it was King Calcifer who cast it to protect his people. But now… we couldn’t find him. Some even speculate that he died saving them. However, Calcifer is strong and I do not believe there is someone powerful enough to defeat him.”

Listening to the emperor’s story, Asha’s heart began to ache terribly and a great fear fell upon her.

“I… I don’t remember,” she said under her breath. “I just… I…”

Her breathing became hard and her head began to ache as she was suddenly reminded of “that” day when she woke up from the unknown cold and desolate ruin.