Chương 127: Chapter 126. New Era

Once, before Yukihasa was thrown into a malignant tempest of death and despair, the country was famed for producing some of the best teas in the world. Due to the Emperor closing borders and severely limiting trade for the past ten years, most of the surplus harvest ended up being stored and preserved in massive state-owned vaults. One such tea was known as the Snow Dragon's Tea, a semi-oxidized rocky oolong tea sourced from exactly four ancient bushes that'd existed for millennia.

Legend said that the bushes had originally been planted and cultivated by a dragon, and over thousands of years the roots had absorbed enough mana to transcend the mere label of 'tea' and ascend to a higher, holier realm. And a more expensive realm; the last time the leaves went on public auction five decades ago, it fetched a record-shattering thousand iridium coins per pound.

"Shit," Qorbin said, looking down at his cup. He looked back up, eyebrows raised.

"You're telling me this tea costs how much again? You sure you can afford to let us have this? Yukihasa just came out of a war, you know." Yuki laughed lightly as she expertly poured from a dark purple clay teapot.

"It would be a blight upon our nation's honor to offer you anything less. Please, enjoy."

"That so?" Qorbin grinned.

"Well, I appreciate your generosity then." They were sitting in the tea room of a missing noble's mansion. That the missing noble's severed head could be located inside Qorbin's inventory was not relevant to the conversation. It had been a few days since the war's end, and Yuki had called a post-operation debrief with the foreign party. Levi, Qorbin, Anastasia, and Selene all sat in kneeling positions in one row, and Yuki sat across from them. Levi accepted his cup with a polite nod.

He eyed the cup curiously before inhaling deeply. Immediately, a visceral shudder ran through him. This scent, this aroma, this texture–"My god," he whispered reverently. He took a small sip, and had to choke back tears.

"This is impeccable. It's one of the best teas I've ever had–" He caught sight of Qorbin Ravenbane next to him, and he choked altogether.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Levi demanded, appalled.

"Hmm?" Qorbin glanced up from where he was offhandedly pouring the contents of his hip flask into his teacup.

"Just enhancing the flavor a bit. What's wrong?" Levi considered him for a moment before turning to Yuki.

"Would you like to buy him?" Yuki blinked.

"You mean, as a slave, or…"

"No, as a human being," Levi said.

"How much would you pay for his spleen?"

"Excuse me?" Qorbin hissed.

"Levi!" Anastasia said reproachfully.

"Please don't say things like that." Qorbin brightened.

"Thank you—""You should know his organs would be far too low quality to fetch anything even resembling a fair market price."

"Anastasia!" Qorbin cried in betrayal. Yuki giggled, holding a hand up to her mouth.

"A tempting offer, but I fear the priestess may be right." She nodded to something behind Qorbin.

"As such, that won't be necessary." Qorbin blinked before tensing up and whirling around, just in time to see Selene's shadows hurriedly darting away like a frightened cat.

"What," he said flatly, looking more than a little disturbed. Selene simply sipped her tea serenely, refusing to acknowledge that she'd just tried to harvest his organs. The debrief began. Yuki filled them in on what'd happened the past few days on the Resistance's end. As expected, once it got out that the Emperor was dead, the rest of Yukihasa quickly gave up the fight. Each passing day came with more news of cities surrendering en masse.

"Some citizens think the Emperor is still alive, that a god cannot be killed so easily," Yuki said.

"Fortunately, they're very much the minority. People believe what they want to believe, and as it turns out, most people really want to believe that the Emperor is dead." Of course, it wasn't a universal surrender. Quite a few islands had refused to surrender, mostly those that were favored by the Emperor. The Resistance was carrying out operations to reclaim those islands. Similarly, most of the Huntsmen were too brainwashed to give up peacefully.

The Resistance captured those that they could, but the majority of the Huntsmen went down fighting to the bitter end. Idly, Levi reflected on the Huntsman that had originally guided them through Yukihasa. In retrospect, that Huntsman really had been an odd one. According to Makoto, the captured Huntsmen were being put through extensive deprogramming; hopefully, one day he'd be able to live a normal life. The Dragon's Leyline was already back online.

Magical leylines were resilient, the Dragon's Leyline especially so, and Levi estimated it would return to full capacity within a month or so. There shouldn't be any lasting permanent damage. Levi had warned Yuki that foreign parties might come to investigate, but so far, the Resistance hadn't detected any intrusions. Either nobody in the outside world had noticed, or they weren't willing to enter a country still officially embroiled in civil war. Levi dearly, dearly hoped it was the former.

"If it isn't, though," Qorbin said quietly, "then what will we tell the world? Who else knows what you did?"

"Only the people inside this room, Terminus, and Makoto," Levi said.

"Makoto will keep your secret," Yuki promised.

"He'll take it to the grave, knowing him."

"Yeah…" Levi and Qorbin looked at each other, an unspoken message passing between them. It wasn't Makoto they were worried about.

"Worse comes to worst," Qorbin said, "we can just blame the Emperor, say that his barriers malfunctioned or something." Other than that, Yuki had ordered the release of all political prisoners, allowing them to finally reunite with their families. She'd also abolished the state-mandated curfew, which resulted in people dancing through every hour of the night, and began the tedious task of redistributing the land they'd seized from the corrupt nobles.

Military tribunals were being carried out for the members of the Imperial Court, high-ranking government officials, and commanding military officers. Anastasia had spent most of the past few days volunteering at these tribunals. While she technically held no actual authority in the Resistance's chain of command, General Shiba had glared at anyone who objected to her presence, and that was the end of it.

"What about the Emperor's successor?" Levi asked.

"You were a princess once, weren't you? You have a legitimate claim to the throne." He paused, suddenly looking wary.

"Or will there be a succession crisis?" Since the Emperor had thought himself to be immortal, he had never officially appointed an heir or heiress – and the Emperor had sired many children.

"There won't," Yuki said.

"Right now, all my siblings are still under Resistance custody, technically prisoners of war. We'll release the youngest ones eventually, and perhaps even some of the older ones depending on how complicit they were with the Emperor's crimes, but it won't be for a while." Levi nodded, relaxing.

"Then will you become the new Empress?"

"I considered it," Yuki admitted.

"After the Resistance's higher-ups got over their shock of me still being alive, they all wanted me to rule as the new Empress. But… I don't know. We all fought for this country together, so to be told that I alone will be responsible for ruling over it? It doesn't feel right to me."

"Then what will you do?" Anastasia asked.

"Hand the position over to someone else?" Yuki hesitated.

"Actually… I was planning to hold a country-wide election." There was a long moment of silence. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Qorbin frowned.

"You… You want the people to choose Yukihasa's new ruler?" Yuki nodded.

"They've spent the past ten years being tormented and oppressed. I say they've earned the right to this choice, don't you?"

"Huh," Qorbin said slowly.

"I… Huh." The idea of a noble willingly giving up power – absolute imperial power at that – to instead hold an election must be alien to him. Indeed, Anastasia was looking at Yuki in disbelief, Selene looked utterly confused, while Levi… Levi was examining her with an unreadable gaze.

"Was this your idea?" She laughed.

"Heavens, no. Terminus was the one to suggest it to me. He seemed rather impassioned, actually, kept on going on about 'representative democracy' and 'the will of the people' and such." She shrugged.

"Of course, I realize there's a good chance this country will end up choosing me anyway… but at least, this way it'll have been their choice."

"I see," Levi said. He felt he should be surprised, but for some reason, he wasn't at all. He nodded.

"Fair enough, I approve."

"Thank you," Yuki said.

"And besides… I think I've had enough of blood for a lifetime." She beamed at him.

"You know what I mean?"

"Fascinating," Minato said.

"Also disturbing, worrying, and more than a little unsettling, but fascinating all the same." Kaito snorted.

"Only you would say that about an extradimensional eldritch entity capable of possessing even us Ascendants at will." The Sea Druid turned to Levi.

"And you don't know how to counter the possession?" Levi and the Three Pillars sat in a small meeting room. The room was sealed by multiple barriers, ensuring absolute secrecy. He'd explained the Chorus to them – though he'd left out the Devourer, not wanting to overcomplicate things. He figured they deserved some explanations.

"I have inferences, but no hard facts," Levi said.

"As it stands, only Minato, Ayako, and Phantasm – Terminus's coworker – managed to break free of the Chorus's control so far. Minato regained control by remembering his duty to protect Yukihasa's people, Ayako first regained control when she sensed her impending death, and Phantasm seemingly forced the Chorus out through nothing but sheer force of will."

'Why are you doing this, by the way? Why do you and the Devourer travel from world to world, consuming all the Time from the inhabitants within?'

'ISN'T IT OBVIOUS? WE DO THIS TO – SaVE thE WoRLd.' The Chorus had been about to tell Levi its motives, but Phantasm had 'interrupted' it, clawing back control through sheer force of will and declaring his own purpose to save the world.

"Meaning that there are two possible ways to break free of the Chorus's possession," Ayako said, her brows drawn in contemplation. She looked a lot healthier, the potion aftereffects gone and the divinity dissipated.

"Either by having a purpose so great that it overwhelms all else, or by nearly dying. But then… Why hasn't the Chorus attempted to control you? Does it choose its targets by random, or is there some prerequisite that needs to be met?" Levi shrugged.

"No clue." He didn't know why the Chorus hadn't possessed him or Anastasia or Selene or even Qorbin. In fact, when he thought about it, back when Levi first reincarnated, why didn't the Chorus just possess someone closer to Levi to kill him? Why did it go the extremely roundabout way of forcing Montague to hire assassins to take out Levi? It made no sense. There had to be a hidden requirement somewhere.

Levi felt a vague sense of uneasiness, of how even after he'd met the Devourer and Chorus face to face and literally killed them, there was still so much he didn't know about them. Their powers, their motives, what the Chorus had been trying to tell him at the very end–"And the Chorus is still out there?" Minato asked, shaking him from his thoughts. Levi nodded.

"I injured it severely, but it managed to escape, so do be careful."

"Don't worry," Minato said.

"If I ever sense it controlling me once more, I'll be sure to impale my heart immediately. I'm sure the same goes for the other two." Ayako and Kaito both nodded, Kaito especially looking pained.

"Though, hopefully it will not come to that," Ayako said.

"We'll watch out for each other."

"Excellent," Levi said.

"I wish you the best of–""You carry the scent of death." Levi froze. Minato and Ayako both frowned as they turned to Kaito. The Sea Druid was staring at Levi with hardened eyes.

"What do you mean?" Minato asked.

"Like, the scent of blood?" Kaito shook his head.

"No. Death. Not decay, not rot, but…" He gestured vaguely with his hand.

"It's difficult to describe." His dark eyes seemed to pierce into Levi.

"Are you aware of this?"

"... Yeah, I am."

"Fascinating," Kaito said. His expression revealed nothing. Levi couldn't tell if the Sea Druid was scared of him or hated him or liked him.

"Tell me, who are you really, Levi Ironwood? Yuki tells us you're an adventurer from Luminarche, but… You can be no older than twenty, twenty-two at most? How are you so strong?" A heavy silence fell over them, the tension steadily rising and rising– Minato rolled his eyes and slapped Kaito on the back of the head.

"Chill out, man. Let the kid have his secrets. Besides, do you really think intimidating him is going to work?" He gestured at Levi.

"Look at him, he's two seconds away from spewing the most ridiculous bullshit as an answer–""I resent that," Levi said as he mentally discarded the ridiculously bullshit answer he had been about to give.

"I might've told the truth." Surprisingly, it was Ayako who snorted.

"As Qorbin's apprentice? There's no way." Levi paused, then chuckled.

"Heh, fair." Kaito winced, rubbing his head.

"I'm not angry or anything. I was just… curious. But fair enough, apologies if I overstepped." Then the Sea Druid paused.

"Though, one last thing… When I was controlled by the Chorus, I recall sensing the world cry out in pain, as if one of its leylines was profaned, violated, severed. The backlash was so great that it knocked me unconscious. Did you have anything to do with that?" Levi smiled widely.

"Nope! That was totally the Emperor's fault." Kaito, Ayako, and Minato all stared at him for so long that Levi began to feel a little self-conscious.

"Damn," Minato finally said.

"Can't even tell he's lying through his teeth. You're good, kid." Levi coughed.

"Okay, fine, it was me. But," he hissed under his breath, "you can not tell anyone–" Ayako laughed.

"Your secret is safe with us, Levi Ironwood. That being said… I trust you understand the repercussions of what you did? Yes? Good. Best of luck then, Levi Ironwood. I have a feeling you'll need it. And if you ever require help… don't hesitate to call on us. We are in your debt." Levi smiled.

"Thank you."

"Now, if you'll excuse us…" Her expression turned somber.

"We have a funeral to prepare for." The funeral for all those who'd died in the battle to retake the capital. Since they had been possessed by the Chorus, the Resistance hadn't charged the Pillars with any crimes. Nevertheless, it was clear the three still held themselves responsible to some degree. Levi couldn't say he didn't understand. He silently inclined his head as the three left the room.

A week after the Emperor's demise, Yuki stood atop the roof of the missing noble's mansion and watched the capital come alive before her. Levi, Qorbin, Anastasia, Selene, and Terminus stood next to her. The entire city was celebrating, the streets overrun with festivities and the skies adorned with gorgeous fireworks. High above, the full moon shone down brightly as always.

"I can't believe it's finally over," Yuki said.

"We've been fighting for so long…"

"The end of an era, and the start of something better," Terminus agreed from next to her. His eyes traced a magnificent firework off in the distance.

"I'm glad you're here to witness it with us." Yuki froze for a second before relaxing.

"I am too." She couldn't help but smile as she gazed over the city. It was still damaged from the battle the previous week, many districts burned and broken, but already she could see signs of rebuilding. The Emperor had inflicted a terrible wound upon this country, but it was by no means fatal. Yukihasa would recover and heal. The people of this land were strong, and resilient, and above all they dreamed. Yes…

Yes, this country would be alright with or without her— Distantly, she became aware that there was a certain tension in the air. She glanced at the others and blinked. While most might miss it, she was trained enough to notice the minute tensing of tendons in Terminus's neck, or the way Levi had slightly shifted his stance, or how Qorbin was oddly still.

"So the war is over now, huh?" Levi said, his tone measured as he stared straight ahead at the fireworks.

"It appears so," Terminus replied in a very similar tone, also pointedly looking straight ahead.

"At long last," Qorbin said, taking a drink from his hip flask. There was a long moment of silence. Yuki stared between them in confusion. Qorbin's knees bent. Terminus's hand twitched. Levi's eyes glinted. Slowly, her confusion morphed into understanding, then resignation. In a flash, the three of them burst into movement. Terminus flung himself back to dodge a Sever and Cleave before creating a boundary around him to repel Qorbin's stab.

At the same time, Levi and Qorbin leaped into the air, the space they'd occupied a second before suddenly compressing into a tiny ball. This all occurred in less than a second of real-time. They landed across from each other. Overhead, a firework bloomed into a meadow of flowers that covered the night sky.

"Let the record show that Terminus betrayed us first," Levi said.

"As expected."

"Belay that!" Terminus snapped.

"You evidently launched the first attack — I was merely acting in self-defense."

"That's a lie and you know it," Levi said. He whirled to Selene.

"Who made the first move?" Selene paused.

"Ah… I believe you did, Levi. Your Sever and Cleave's cast time was a tenth of a second faster than both Qorbin Ravenbane and Terminus's respective attacks."

"Shit!" Levi cursed.

"Hah!" Terminus crowed triumphantly.

"Looks like you were quicker on the draw this time, Levi Ironwood." He glanced at Yuki.

"Sorry, Yuki, but–""I understand," Yuki said. She smiled.

"I suppose I should thank you both for setting aside your differences to help overthrow the Emperor first."

"Of course," Levi said.

"Don't worry, this'll be quick."

"Do we really have to do this?" Terminus asked. He smiled thinly as Levi, Qorbin, Selene, and Anastasia closed in around him.

"Ah, I suppose we do. I don't suppose you'll at least allow me a head start?" Levi grinned.

"What do you think?" Terminus sighed.

"I thought not."