“It is so good to see you again, Mother!”

“Four hundred years of separation was quite an issue, Mother…”

Azusa drank more tea as she tried to force herself to get used to being called a mom by her children. If I don’t get used to it now, I won’t ever get used to it… Come on, get yourself together, Azusa! “In any case, I see that you have done quite well in my absence.”

“Yes, indeed…” Ghislaine, her son, nodded. “We left the care of the floor guardians some three hundred eighty years ago and following their decree, we spread the word about the apostles of the goddess, that is, you, Mother.”

Azusa’s brow twitched as she forcibly stopped herself from doing yet another spit-take. So it was you who turned me into a literal freaking god! “Ho-Hoh…” she sighed. “Is that so?”

“I must say, I believe we did quite a good job with it, Mother,” Hildegarde, her daughter, stated proudly. “Now everyone is aware of the glory of «Pleiades».”

Haah… I never asked you to do that! “In any case, where is Gwendoline?”

“Ah, our youngest sibling should still be in «Castello Michele»,” Ghislaine thought.

“If not, then she has gone traveling,” Hildegarde added. “Do you know what people call her, Mother?”

“Hmm?”

“They call her «Runeweaver»,” Ghislaine stated. “A pretty cool epithet, wouldn’t you say, Mother?”

“I-I suppose…” Yeah, see, this was the kind of epithet I wanted! «Runeweaver» sounds frigging awesome! How and why did I literally get canonized as a saint in some random polytheistic religion!?

“They say that she is blessed by the Goddess of Wisdom, Sophia Nannaris, herself!” Hildegarde said, nodding her approval.

The Goddess of Wisdom? I better inquire. “Seeing as I’ve holed myself up somewhere for the last four hundred years, who are the divinities you worship?”

“The name of the divinities?” Ghislaine asked. “Well… You have the Goddess of Creation, Roselia Ishtaris, and her husband, Ciel Anunculus, the God of the Sky.”

“Ishtaris, Elder Brother,” Hildegarde chimed in. “He had chosen to take on his wife’s surname.”

“Ah, yes, indeed,” Ghislaine thanked. “Thanks for the correction. In any case, following them is the Goddess of Water, Arethusa Tiamaris, and her husband, the God of Agriculture, Phytos Emeshulus. The other gods have married but they haven’t taken each other’s names by decree of Roselia; apparently, she wanted it to be unique to herself.”

“After them would be the Goddess of Wisdom, the aforementioned Sophia Nannaris. Her husband is the God of War, Ratimir Ninurtulus.”

“The God of Love, Amadeus Nayarulus, has taken two wives, the Goddess of Light, Lucina Shamaris, and the Goddess of Darkness, Aliona Suenaris.”

“Finally, the God of Fire, Fintan Gibiphulus, and his wife, the Goddess of Destruction, Layla Ninkiris, complete the Divine Pantheon.”

“Brother, you are forgetting the Messenger of the Gods, Evangeline Isinulus. She is married to thー”

The door suddenly burst open as a panicked woman in armor barreled into the room. “Captain, terrible news!”

Sensing the urgency in the woman’s voice, Hildegarde turned to address her but stopped halfway through to look at her mother. Go ahead. It seems to be something that requires your immediate attention, Azusa stated with nothing but her gaze. Thankful for her mother’s approval, Hildegarde asked, “Victoria? What happened?”

Victoria took a quick glance around and saw that Hildegarde and Ghislaine were speaking with Azusa and quickly grasped the situation. “I sincerely apologize if I was interrupting anything important, however, I have some new information that demands your immediate attention.”

“Speak.”

“There have been rumors that the Grand Duchy of Boisesonia is making moves again.”

Ghislaine slammed the table and stood up in surprise, shouting, “What!? We signed a pact of peace with the demons twenty years ago! Are they planning to violate the treaty?”

“Calm down, Elder Brother! Victoria, please elaborate. I refuse to believe that it is the Demon Lord’s children that sent out this order.”

“We-Well…” Victoria chewed her lip. “The report states that it was indeed the Demon Lord’s son, the current Demon Lord, Anselm Vaulossi. He apparently gave the order at the suggestion of his court magician who appears to be a woman of cloth…”

“… Elder Brother, what should we do?”

“Hrm… Arrange for a scouting party. I want to make sure that this information is as accurate as possible. If the rumors are true, then we have a possible resurgence of war.”

“Understood, Elder Brother.”

Before Hildegarde could leave, however, Azusa whispered, “Wait.” As per her orders, everyone stopped moving. “Let me go. I do believe I know this ‘woman of cloth’.”

“… Could it be?” Hildegarde ventured.

“Very possible,” Azusa sighed. “While an action that drastic seems to be a bit out of character for her but… assuming that she is doing it in response to being contacted by me eleven days ago…”

“… Mother, are you implying that the other members are here?”

“Wait, so you didn’t know?”

“No, we were aware…” Hildegarde chewed her lip. “It’s just… We simply couldn’t believe it. «Violet Lightning» aside, as we have yet to properly hear anything about her, we’ve heard rumors of four people who meet the descriptions of the other members.”

“There is someone fitting the description of the «Monkey King» in the Principality of Beitade,” Ghislaine recalled. “That someone appears to be participating in Colosseum events and winning many competitions.”

“That sounds like Vitya, alright…”

“A man befitting the visage of «Guiding Moonlight» is in the Tourboisian Empire, however, the veracity of these rumors have yet to be determined as he was apparently only spotted once,” Hildegarde added.

“Hmm, that definitely is my husband,” Azusa asserted. “He hates being the center of attention. He’d much rather disappear than remain in the spotlight. That was how it was back in the gaー” Azusa cut herself off, clearing her throat. “A-Anyway, what of the others?”

While Ghislaine and Hildegarde exchanged glances in confusion, they thought nothing of it with Ghislaine continuing, “We’ve caught wind of a new rising warlord in the shattered Yamatsu Empire after the collapse of Katagiri Shogunate. Many have called him a living legend as he had turned a puny clan into a regional powerhouse in just five years.”

“Heh, that’s certainly Fate,” Azusa giggled. “He always went on tirades about that time period…”

“What time period, Mother?”

“No, it’s nothing too important,” Azusa dismissed. “The last one is Noir, yes?”

“Yes, it seems that «Divine Marksman» is making himself at home as the tutor of Lady Ciara Gainsborough, the only daughter of Charles-Albert, Duke of Ponselesia,” Hildegarde finished.

“Well, as expected of the one known as the ‘Teacher’…” Azusa laughed. “Well, in any case, I guess I better pay a visit to the Tourboisian Empire first… Actually, where is that anyway?”

“Mother, have you finally gone senile!?” Ghislaine gasped.

“Hey!”

“I’m jesting, Mother,” he giggled. He then went to his desk to retrieve a parchment. Placing it on the table, he opened it before using his tea saucer as a stopper to keep the parchment open. “This is a map of the world.” The map showed three continents and two islands; one of the two islands was nestled below the continent in the middle of the map while the other island was directly east of it and between the middle continent and the easternmost continent. Ghislaine pointed to the middle continent at its southern shoreline. “This right here is where we are in the Holy Capital.” He then moved his finger west on the map to touch the continent found there. “Here is the Tourboisian Empire and to the north is the Grand Duchy of Boisesonia, more commonly referred to as the Dark Territory, the home of the demons.”

“Hmm, I see,” Azusa nodded. She looked over the map and absorbed everything she could as the map from her user interface was basically nonfunctional outside of providing her local information from areas she had already previously visited. Down in the right corner, she made note of the elaborate compass rose but below that, she saw the scale bar. Eh…? Wait, that scale seems a bit too small…? Only six hundred kilometers and this is a world map? That can’t be right.”Hey, this seems a bit small…”

“Hmm? What do you mean by small?”

They aren’t questioning it…? That’s strange. This is obviously very small in scale to be considered a ‘world map’... “No, never mind.” I need to dig around and find out why this world map is this small. This only barely covers the entire North American continent. Hell, the largest ‘continent’ on this map seems to only be just a tad bigger than Greenland! “In any case, this is a very interesting map. I suppose I know where to go now. Ghislaine, Hildegarde, would you like to come with me?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“… If I could, I would, Mother, however, we simply just can’t abandon our positions,” Ghislaine replied.

“I could go with you, technically, but I also can’t leave my Order of the Vestal Blue Roses.”

“Hmm, I see…” Azusa mumbled. “Alright then. In that case, I pray I get to see you again sometime soon.”

As Azusa got up and left, the two siblings bowed in the direction of their mother and said at the same time, “Yes, Mother, we also wish you luck on your journey.”

In the hallway, Azusa looked for a window, opened it, and climbed outside. Hopping up onto the terrace over the window, she reached down and closed the window. “In any case…” Standing up on the terrace, she opened her menu and reviewed her map, mentally plotting out her route. “It took ten days for me to get from the headquarters to the capital city… even though I could’ve made it here in ten hours.”

Like a clueless idiot, Azusa casually blurted out something that would only serve to have the people worship her even more and as luck would have it, little Bernard, the vice-captain of the Order of the Silver Wings, just happened to walk in the vicinity of Azusa opening the window. Bernard overheard Azusa’s boast as the window was rather thin and allowed Azusa’s voice to pass through it. By the time he rushed to said window and opened it to speak to Azusa, she was already gone. Bernard took Azusa's offhand comment to heart and spread it among his colleagues who would then pass the story on to the general citizenry.

This only served to further bolster Azusa’s standing as an all-powerful saint and would be a massive source of headaches later down the line but that is a story for another time.

----------------------------------------

“Rhiannon, are you there?”

Yes, I am. What do you need, Mistress? Hanging around Azusa’s neck was a dragonscale necklace. Earlier, she had kept it hidden under her clothes but she had extricated it from her dress, exposing it to the air. This was the form the defeated dragon had taken after Azusa decreed that it would be far too weird for her to remain in her draconic form; the dragon had initially suggested taking a human form but Azusa vetoed that idea as in those circumstances, she didn't want to further complicate her status by bringing along an immensely powerful dragon-disguised-as-a-human (ironically, her carelessness in her own actions gave more material than what would have happened if Azusa had brought along Rhiannon as is).

“Was it stuffy inside of my dress?”

Oh no, it was perfectly fine. In this form, you can put me anywhere and I’d survive. Well, then again, I’m hard to kill even in my full draconic form so…

“Hah, good point,” Azusa laughed as she sailed through the road at incredible speeds via «Accel Boost».

While she took several breaks along the way, Azusa made good on her boast and made it back to «Castello Michelle» in a little over ten hours. Arriving once more at the front gardens which had been dubbed «Giardini della Regina», she was greeted once more by the valkyrie of the enclosure of greenery, Ortlinde.“Welcome back, Your Majesty,” she began, curtsying as best as she could with a watering can in one hand and a rake in the other.

“At ease, Ortlinde.”

“Is this your home, Mistress?” Rhiannon asked as she emerged from the dragonscale necklace (or more accurately, morphed back into a human) and stood slightly to the right and behind Azusa.

Ortlinde swiftly swapped her rake for her spear, materializing it out of thin air. “Who are you to Her Majesty?”

Azusa raised her hands up in a calming gesture. “It’s fine, Ortlinde. She’s my servant too, so to speak.”

Rhiannon performed a curtsy as well, picking up the hem of her crimson dress as she did so. “I am Rhiannon Pendragon, an elder dragon. I was defeated by Mistress Azusa in mortal combat and decided to swear my eternal fealty to her.”

“Ah, I see,” Ortlinde sighed, dematerializing her weapon and picking up her rake. “It is with great pleasure that I welcome you into our fold.”

Ortlinde remained in the garden, bowing at Azusa’s retreating back as she entered the headquarters with Rhiannon in tow. The two valkyries guarding the front door said nothing as they bowed to Azusa and Rhiannon; they assumed that if Ortlinde let them pass without any fuss then there was no problem with letting Rhiannon pass them. Upon entering the building, Azusa heard the familiar clinking of a hammer. “Hmm… Now, who would be banging a hammer inside this guild?” Just as suddenly as she heard it, it stopped, eliciting a light chuckle from Azusa. Heh, so he can tell that I have returned?

“Who was that, Mistress?”

“You’ll meet them eventually,” Azusa replied. “For now, simply follow me.” Azusa continued walking and reached the main grand staircase that connected the seven floors of «Castello Michele» with each other. She scaled the staircase and arrived at the fourth floor which was under the jurisdiction of Tsuchigumo. It truly held the aesthetic of a spacious Japanese house; there was even a genkan where the staircase ended (it spread in a semicircle around the staircase which was built into the wall). As a proper Japanese citizen, Azusa removed her shoes and placed them facing the staircase before going to the raised floor. Rhiannon stepped up herself but Azusa stopped her. “Wait. Remove your shoes.”

“If you say so, Mistress.” Rhiannon obeyed, removing her footwear and placing them in the same manner as her mistress. She then followed behind Azusa as she traversed the floor, fascinated by all of the different designs that she had never seen before. Azusa walked to the back of the massive floor where she found the two largest fusuma in the entire structure. Of course, she proudly swung it open and found the tatami dais just the way she left it. She then maneuvered her menu and swapped out her formal dress for another formal dress, this time in the Japanese customs of her country of birth. Her outfit of choiceーgiven the name of jūnihitoeーcascaded perfectly around her body.

Carefully so as to not disturb the flowing fabrics of her outfit, she sat on the raised tatami dais in the proper seiza position, closing her eyes to meditate. No sooner had she sat down, the fusuma to her left swung open, revealing a pale-skinned woman dressed in a midnight black ball gown with an elaborate sword hanging at her waist. She stepped in (barefoot, of course) and knelt several meters away from the seated Azusa.

“Your Majesty, it is with great pleasure that I, your most faithful servant, welcome you with the most felicitous of greetings.”

While keeping her eyes closed, Azusa declared, “Where are the others?”

All at once, seven other voices piped in: “In attendance, Your Majesty.”

Rhiannon could only watch in awe as those seven voices materialized out of nonexistence in a cloud of black smoke. Just as quickly as the smoke had appeared, it dissipated away, revealing seven people of varying genders and magical races, all on one knee, and turned toward the tatami dais. So this is the fellowship of my Mistress.

“Where is my daughter?”

“Princess Gwendoline is currently traveling the world,” a woman with violet hair spoke. “I believe her last message stated that she was currently undercover in the Yamatsu Empire before the empire shattered into a state of total war.”

“Hmm, I see,” Azusa replied, her eyes still closed. “Well, she can take care of herself. I’m sure none of you slacked on their education, yes?”

“But of course, Your Majesty,” a superfluous masculine voice replied. “Although I’m more convinced that your children had nothing to learn from us and picked up everything themselves.”

“Perfect.” She finally opened her eyes and stared through the seven gathered in front of her kneeling before standing up and waving the iron fan she had just summoned from her inventory in front of her face. “Very well. You have a new comrade joining you among your ranks. Rhiannon, introduce yourself.”

Rhiannon suddenly felt the weight of seven hostile stares swinging to her as the floor guardians stood up and leered at her. If she was a normal girl, she would’ve definitely shivered in fear at the immense animosity emanating from the seven glares, however, she was a proud and noble dragon. Even in defeat, she shall stand tall. She copied her mistress’ position and attempted to sit in the seiza position as she introduced herself: “I am Rhiannon Pendragon, the first child and eldest daughter to the Flame Dragon King, Arthur Pendragon. I was soundly defeated by the Mistress in a one-on-one duel and per dragonkin traditions, I have sworn my fealty to the one who has bested me.”

The woman dressed in black nodded before curtsying. “It is a pleasure to welcome you into our fold, O Dragon Princess. I am the leader of the floor guardians of «Castello Michele», Rosella Bloodlily. I am Her Majesty’s most loyal servant and I am the administrator of Her Majesty’s Seventh Floor «Pavimento Celeste».”

Following her, the woman with violet hair spoke, subtly flourishing her hair enough so that Rhiannon could just barely make out small veins of quicksilver streaming down her crown, “My humble name is Isabelle Walsh. I am the assistant leader of the floor guardians and I administer His Majesty Mondklinge’s Sixth Floor «Piano dell’Ombra».”

After her, a horned woman with black hair in a hime-cut bowed, her tail peeking out from underneath her black cheongsam displaying to Rhiannon that this woman was of the same race as her. “You may call me Nagao Kagetora. I am the leader of the «Kazekiri» and I administer Milord Fate’s Fifth Floor «Mugon-kyō».”

The fourth person to introduce herself was of very short stature. She looked up at Rhiannon and said, “I go by the name of Hisomu, given to me by Princess Tsuchigumo. I am the proprietress of Princess’ Fourth Floor «Heian-kyō» and serve as the main artisan of this floor’s mysteries.”

The next person was an elf who took off his campaign hat and bowed once before replacing it on his head. He was the one who commented in affirmation of Gwendoline’s education. “My name is Gwytheryn and I am the administrator of Sir Noir’s greenhouse of the Third Floor «Piano Verdeggiante». If you have questions concerning potion synthesis and other related alchemical inquiries, feel free to pay me a visit.”

Succeeding the elf were two young girls, dressed in the garb of sisters of cloth. One of them introduced herself, “I am Araphelー”

“ーand I am Isaphel.”

““We serve as the Saint’s disciples and watch over the Second Floor «Piano Radiante». We also serve as the head of all of the service staff of this guild.””

Lastly, the tallest person in the group introduced himself; Rhiannon was very surprised at the man’s species. “I’m just yer average blacksmith. The name’s Grover Woodsborough. I keep an eye on the First Floor «Piano d’Accoglienza» for Missus Vitya.”

“It is with the greatest humility that I ask this: allow me to join you in servitude of the One True Master,” Rhiannon asked as she knelt on one knee herself.

Rosella, as the representative, accepted the dragon’s bid for joining the fellowship of servants after checking one final time with Azusa who replied with a quick snap of the opening of her decorative tessen (iron war fan). “Very well. As Her Majesty was the one who brought you here, I shall not question her judgment. I will welcome you into our fellowship.”

Azusa watched as Rhiannon was then surrounded by the other floor guardians and pelted with questions. She herself tuned them out as she was thinking to herself. What is the fastest way to move to the Empire? I could most certainly run straight there but my guardians here definitely won’t let me leave so soon after their awakening. … Actually, wait, before that, why were they inactive in the first place? Or is it that they were active right after I woke up but I never encountered them? Argh, I’ll think about this later! She gathered attention to herself by snapping her fan shut. “Roselle, is the «Castello Michele» ready to fly?”

Roselle immediately knelt down again and said, her eyes staring straight at the tatami floor, “Yes, of course, Your Majesty. You simply need to feed the castle your magical energy. It has, after all, been four hundred years since it has tasted your mana.”

“Hmm, I suppose.” Azusa closed her eyes and stood up. She focused her magical energy within herself before opening her eyes, once more revealing her Mystic Eyes of Eminence Discernment. The guardians who were still standing fell onto their knees as Azusa’s eyes trained on them as if the weight of being placed under her piercing gaze was enough to crumble their balance. Getting down on one knee, she placed her left hand onto the ground before releasing a single burst of magical energy. The tremors released from her mana colliding with the building were enough to send a powerful quake through the entire complex.

At the same time that the shaking stopped, the floor suddenly became transparent. It was as if the floor was never there in the first place and the view outside was that of the ground slowly getting farther and farther away as «Castello Michele» took to the skies once more.

“… Incredible.” That was all Rosella Bloodlily could manage as she marveled at the immense strength that her mistress had displayed. She had never once seen the castle flying as she and the rest of her fellow guardians had only entered into the service of the guild recently, some four hundred years ago; in the format of the game while IWO was still up, Rosella and the rest were NPC’s created by the in-game program just three months before the game shut down and the guild had never traveled anywhere away from its current resting place.

“… Is this a sight that one should expect from Her Majesty?” Rhiannon ventured.

“It mostー”

“ーcertainly is,” the nun twins stated.

““Her Majesty is the strongest of all. A feat such as this is child’s play for her.””

With her Mystic Eyes still glowing with power as she probed around the castle, she set course for the Tourboisian Empire.