Isaac

The Queen threw herself onto the bed and closed her eyes. Waves of exhaustion washed over her body. Her vengeance was practically fulfilled, but it didn't feel real to her. Perhaps it was because her vengeance couldn't be seen, at least not directly. Now, all that was left was quietly retiring and watching the world as a bystander, occasionally stopping the radicals from going too far. But problems were sprouting one after the other.

The Queen snickered. Poor Kunette. It was clear as day how hard Kunette was trying to save Isaac, stalling the effort at every step of the way. But no matter what Kunette attempted, Isaac's death was inevitable.

Up until now, the Queen had been amusing herself with watching Kunette struggle to buy mere seconds of time, for Kunette had always been a thorn in her side when it came to her quest for vengeance. She had also believed that all of these delays would make no difference in the end. But as Isaac continued to bleed the last of his forces away in a pointless endeavour, unease crept its way into her mind.

If Isaac somehow managed to accomplish the unimaginable feat of reaching the Gate and throwing the nuke into it, this world was doomed. The death toll in the other world would not be insignificant, but that was all. And the Queen's vengeance would slip from her grasp.

So she told Rivelia and Kunette the truth as a final wakeup call. The stress of her machinations had finally bubbled to the surface. But the Queen was certain Isaac would be found soon, remembering the look on their faces after the revelations.

Ding!

The Queen's eyes flicked open at the ringtone. She pulled out her tablet, and where the report on Gabelin's damages lit up the screen.

She read through the estimated damages, the recovery plans, and lists of casualties relating to Isaac's terrorism. But she realised something—immediately, she jumped off the bed.

"Ha! How is this possible?"

The Queen mumbled to herself as she looked in disbelief at the list of deaths, when Reisha contacted her.

"Come to the Command Room. We found traces of Isaac sunbaenim."

The Queen smirked and put her tablet back in her pocket.

"Oh Mr. Isaac. I almost fell for it."

When the Queen entered the Command Room again, a completely different atmosphere greeted her. What was blatant hostility had been replaced with an awkward jumble of emotions. The Queen smiled inwardly. That was why she liked the non-humans over humans. They were honest with their emotions and spoke only in truths.

"… I found Isaac's last tracks."

Kunette, whose face had grown weary from deliberation, spoke to the Queen hesitantly.

"Huhu. See? We're making such quick progress now that you've made up your mind."

Kunette looked away, not wanting the Queen to see her wavering emotions.

"But the location is strange."

"Hm?"

The Queen cocked her head. Kunette magnified the map on the table as she continued.

"The last traces of Isaac were in the Icetail region, in the northern province of the Empire. I only deployed an investigation team, since it had nothing to do with any of the roads leading to New Port City."

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"… The northern province?"

The Queen frowned. Humanity's reach ended at the northern province of the Empire. Beyond that was the land of non-humans, and past that was the Forbidden Lands, where the mana storm raged eternally.

"That is strange. There shouldn't be anything in the north? Is this some ploy to weaken the perimeter?"

The Queen considered the possibility of Isaac blitzing through when the perimeter was temporarily weakened by the sudden departure of a strike team to follow a phantom lead. But that was impossible. Isaac had turned the entire world against himself. A tidal wave of forces was crashing down on his head. Their reserves were overflowing, standing at the ready.

Kunette, Rivelia, Reisha and Rizzly shared the Queen's assumptions, which was why they too were confused as to what Isaac's intentions were. Isaac seemed to only come up with the most insane ideas when he was an ally, but when he was on the opposing side, even his slightest move had to be carefully mulled over.

"But does sunbaenim have to come here? New Port City was only chosen as the site of a permanent Gate. Since he only needs the Gate open for a moment, couldn't he open a Gate anywhere with the key he has?"

Reisha asked, and the Queen shook her head with a smile.

"That's not true. It takes time for the Gate to fully open. And we'll pick up on a Gate opening the moment it starts. We haven't gotten any warnings of a new Gate opening anywhere."

Rivelia's face stiffened at the explanation.

"… But what about the Forbidden Lands?"

"Hm?"

Rivelia, who had travelled to the Forbidden Lands with Isaac, faced a near-crisis when the outside world couldn't detect a Gate's sudden opening in the Forbidden Lands. The Queen froze at Rivelia's suggestion, returning to cautious contemplation.

"True… We have no way to find out if the Gate is opening in the Forbidden Lands. But there's no way Mr. Isaac can pass through the non-human territories freely."

"Queen. All of Central's warriors were reassigned to New Port City per your recommendation. And the werewolves were the most cooperative to your plan, were they not? They accepted responsibility for the recent events and sent all the warriors of their tribe, while the rest of the tribe have ceased all activities."

A chilling silence befell the Command Room. As penance for their irresponsibility, the werewolves had sent all of their warriors—typically patrolling the borders—to New Port City as the rest of the tribe holed up in their residences. That would leave their vast territories empty and unguarded. Which would explain the lack of witnesses. The Forbidden Lands were never considered a priority in the first place.

"He can't use an airship, so he'll definitely travel by land. And since all our eyes were focused on roads leading to New Port City, it is a plausible theory."

"You're right. Finding no trace of him wave after wave of pointless decoys—all of this must have been a plan to buy some time."

Rizzly and Reisha nodded, having come to a definite conclusion. But Kunette and Rivelia did not share the same sense of assurance.

"When was Isaac's traces found?"

Rivelia asked, to which Kunette answered stiffly.

"… It was the day after Gabelin was attacked. Back then, witness accounts were flooding in from everywhere. Reports from the northern province were moved down in priority because we thought they had no significance."

"Then he should have reached the Forbidden Lands by now…"

Having reached her own conclusion already, Reisha asked.

"Isn't that trouble? What if sunbaenim enters the Forbidden Lands?"

"And how would he do that?"

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"What? By using the air… he can't do that."

Reisha, who was about to reply to Rivelia, realised that the answer was not so obvious after all. In order to pass through the mana storm surrounding the Forbidden Lands, you needed an airship.

And the lockdown had grounded every form of travel. Anything even resembling a transport moving without Central's explicit permission were swarmed by Central agents when found.

"Ah! He could have prepared an airship near the mana storm in advance!"

Reisha clapped and shouted. The Queen smiled at Reisha like she was an adorable child and answered.

"If so, the days of calamity would have started by now."

"…"

Reisha looked down sadly. Rivelia spoke.

"We might not have the full picture, but we can't just leave it be. We must contact the garrison's headquarters…"

Rivelia suggested contacting the Central agents garrisoned in the Forbidden Lands, but the Queen had bad news in regards to that.

"With the loss of all Strategy's combat agents, the Emperor recalled all agents that had been garrisonning the Forbidden Lands to make up for the loss of manpower. There's no one in the Forbidden Lands now. There's no need to keep a watch there anyway, now that a permanent Gate has been established."

"…"

Their heads were sinking into their hands as the problem weighed on their minds when Rizzly spoke.

"Um… If we assume that Isaac was heading to the Forbidden Lands, do we have any chance of intercepting him if we deploy our troops there now?"

"Hm… I'm not sure. They can't travel through the manastorm with a plane, so they'll need an airship… But even if they take a regular plane to the closest airport and swap to an airship, they could easily catch a bad wind and end up travelling in circles at the storm's periphery… It's difficult."

"Then aren't we in trouble?"

Reisha shouted out in panic, and Rivelia added on stiffly.

"But we can't just ignore it. Since it's highly likely Isaac headed there, we must confirm so."

"Sending ordinary troops is pointless."

Kunette argued against Rivelia's suggestion. If they did find Isaac there, then it'll be a problem of its own. Ordinary troops were no match against Isaac.

"And that's if they do arrive in time."

The Queen added sarcastically to Kunette and Rivelia's discussion of the ominous possibilities. Kunette glared at the Queen.

"If Isaac opens the Gate, it's not just our goal that perishes—yours too will fail."

The Queen shrugged.

"I guess so. Aren't we in trouble, then?"

As Kunette and Rivelia growled at the Queen, Rizzly carefully raised his hand.

"Um… I do have an idea."