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Information is power. No one was willing to make a move when their weaknesses might be in their opponent’s hands.
The Black Wind was the Emperor’s personal, top-secret intelligent service. It was totally unknown to the general public, yet could rival the Moon Gate in its reach. Jacken, the leader of the Black Wind, ruled the Avalon Empire, though no one knew his name.
That wasn’t reassuring for him. He looked around at his fellow agents and saw a grim situation.
“So Duke Agnus will lead the coming war. You can talk about blood ties all you want, but Duke Agnus is a die-hard pacifist. For him to stand in front of His Majesty and swear to go to war is
 contradictory.”
The agents were silent for a long moment before Number Two spoke up: “Do the rumors hold water?”
Jacken gave her a questioning look.
“The Wilhelm Knights. They came here to protect their king, Baron Sanders.”
After Number One, Number Two was the most powerful member of the Black Wind1. She had been tasked with hunting down the traitor—now known as the Assassin King—and thus had been absent from the Imperial Palace until she received an emergency summons.
“Since when did they respect their king? Even the Lion King was treated like a sack of potatoes.”
“Doesn’t that make it even worse?” Jacken pondered. “Besides being a prodigy, there’s something about Baron Sanders we don’t know about.”
“Many things have changed since the Master Battle. Isn’t it time we made a choice?”
“It seems like something of a foregone conclusion. His Majesty, Emperor Marcus, is the sole master of the Black Wind.”
“So instead of attempting something openly, we discussed ‘preparations.’ His Majesty agreed, did he not?”
Jacken mulled over No. 2’s words for a moment. His latest conversation with His Majesty was raising doubts. Why hadn’t the Emperor chosen a successor yet? The first prince was well-rounded and physically perfect, making him the obvious candidate. So how did the Imperial court end up so chaotic?
Ultimately, the crown would not be given to anyone who had not earned it for himself, regardless of the trouble the first prince had already gone through. It made for a constant talking point at the noble’s council, a discussion that His Majesty was content to listen to with a strange smile on his face.
Jacken once asked him about it: Do what your heart tells you to do, the Emperor had told him. Jacken smiled bitterly. Do whatever you want, he says. Evidently, Marcus didn’t care what happened once he was dead; it was no wonder he reacted strangely to the way Duke Agnus cared for his blood.
“Right now,” Jacken said, “there’s only one thing we need to worry about. If you want to know what will happen in the next Continental War, you should watch the nobles. In particular, No. 1 and No. 2 should keep an eye on Duke Agnus.”
“Good enough.”
“And
 I will meet the first prince in person to discuss succession.”
The agents’ eyes widened behind their masks.
“What do you mean?”
“On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the first and second prince’s power, but we already know that that person recently joined the first prince’s side, don’t we? The faster these things move, the harder it will be to keep up. As always, we can’t step forward, but we can support the first prince from behind as quietly as possible.” Jacken’s eyes gleamed. “Under the next emperor
 the Black Wind won’t blow in the shadows anymore—we will blow in the sun.”
The Black Wind agents shivered.
Suddenly, someone walked up behind No. 4.
“Why are you here, No. 5?” Jacken eyed him.
“We found Asiru.”
The agents’ eyes nearly popped out of their sockets in surprise.
“Is that true?” Jacken was absolutely dumbfounded.
It had been twenty years since Asiru had last been heard of. For him to appear just before the Continental War
 wasn’t it too much of a coincidence?
“Yes.” No. 5 nodded.
Jacken let out a deep sigh. “Where
 is he?”
“He’s in
 Agnus Duchy.”
Ash.
On the outside, he looked like any other ten-year-old boy.
Joshua would never forget the day he’d first met the boy in his past life.
Snow covered the world in a blanket of pure white, camouflaging a small village in its drifts. The only remarkable thing about this village was a cute boy sheltering in a broken-down hut. He was rather out of place—his hair was golden, and his skin was perfectly white like that of a noble scion.
But Joshua knew better. The boy was no mere aristocrat, and the world around them was not as real as it seemed. Indeed, it was all an illusion.
“What are you?”
“Someone who can save you,” Joshua answered with a small smile2.
The boy examined him thoughtfully.
“
I don’t know how I got here
 and my name isn’t Ash.”
“No, you’re Ash.”
Joshua got a confused look in return for his insistence.
“I made it that way, and you liked it. Quite a bit, actually.”
The boy’s expression changed as he tilted his head. “I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. You should go now—you’re not familiar with this place, are you?”
It was a very good question. They were standing in the middle of the monster-infested Black Forest, which made it even stranger to find a snowy village there.
Again, it was all a trick.
“Antimagic Field.”
Joshua’s obsidian earrings twitched, followed by the sound of something breaking. The world was flipped upside down, transforming the landscape entirely. Lush green forest replaced the snowfields, and the houses became grand old trees. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the neglected, moldering hut.
That suffering was not an illusion.
This was the truth of Ash’s home. Worse, it was a breeding ground. As the boy quietly raised his hand, the enraged shrieks of demonic beasts thundered down on them. Fiercely snorting orcs, the vicious snouts of trolls, and the grimy tusks of ogres—more than a thousand monsters of all different colors surrounded Joshua on all sides.
“I told you to leave.” Ash’s emerald eyes gleamed. “Go.”
Joshua examined the boy without replying. With the illusions gone, a pair of pointed ears poked out of his golden hair, and on his forehead shone a fingernail-sized starburst.
Ash wasn’t human. The humans thought his species had died out, but they had no idea of the truth. Here sat a legendary high elf, a species of peerless magical ability.
“An antimagic field. You must be a pretty important human, right? Unfortunately, you can’t leave anymore.”
“Well
” Joshua laughed out loud. “From what I’ve seen in the past, I don’t think you can beat me.”
“Human pride still hasn’t changed.” The boy began to lower his hand.
“Are you satisfied?”
“What are you saying?”
“Are you happy to give up the Ellonbers name and become merely a breeder of Crevasse’s beasts?”
“How did you—?!”
Joshua locked eyes with the boy. “The reason I’m here has nothing to do with your current owner. I’m here only to save you and get Sanders.”
“Sanders
3”
“I need to save a life
 Can you help me?”
“
How disappointing. I almost got caught up in it, after all. She can see with the eyes of her mind. What’s the issue?” The boy looked at Joshua, who remained silent. Ash shrugged. “I didn’t expect to get anything out of someone as proud as you. I guess I’ll have to force it out of you.”
His waist-length golden hair began to wave in the wind as a thousand demons rushed at Joshua in a storm of raging magi.
Joshua’s lips stretched into a wide smile. Ash was in for a surprise. His obsidian earring moved again, ever so slightly.
And suddenly, the earth and sky were ripped apart with a bestial roar.
ED/N: You don’t say. ↩
TL/N: He kinda looks like Vanitas ↩
ED/N: Yup, Joshua’s here for the sanders. Turns out all this spear hullabaloo was just to disguise his obsession with abrasives. ↩