Chapter 08
1. When the Family Collapses, Society Collapses, and the Empire Collapses (6)
The next day.
Waking up refreshed thanks to a good night’s sleep, Selena chose to think positively.
In the long run, the fact that Geum Gayeon was quite righteous was a very good thing. At the very least, they’d have to stay together until the dimensional transfer was complete. If her companion had been unlucky, violent, or unhinged, that would’ve been extremely troublesome.
Of course, it wasn’t like there were absolutely no solutions in that case, but…
Wouldn’t it be sad if she had to slap a sealing spell on the one fellow countrywoman she’d finally met and carry her around like a frozen rag doll?
Not to mention inconvenient.
Fortunately for Selena, Geum Gayeon was pretty, smart, kind, and affectionate.
It was a shame that she came with imperial pursuit attached, since she was still a former—hopeful—empress whose resignation hadn’t been accepted yet. Still, all things considered, she was an excellent runaway partner.
Feeling pleased, Selena handed Gayeon the leftover rabbit jerky from the night before.
Gayeon blinked as she found jerky pressed into her hand the moment she woke up, but Selena only smiled warmly.
Since they had no intention of ever returning, they only tidied up the sleeping area roughly and washed up quickly. After eating just enough, they slung a single backpack each and immediately prepared to leave.
Preparation, in this case, consisted solely of Gayeon holding onto Selena’s hand.
“Alright! Let’s go. Unni’s mana is fully recharged!”
“Yes. Let’s hurry!”
Using teleportation, they moved north rapidly, hopping between memorized coordinates—estates Selena had purchased under false names and her secret magic stone mine—like stepping stones.
“The air’s starting to get cold.”
“We’re getting close to the Frost Mountains. One more teleport and we’ll be in the northern region.”
Technically, she could have drawn an auxiliary magic circle and used an ultra-long-range teleport to jump straight near the Frost Mountains, just like in her original plan.
But after some consideration, she abandoned that option.
Magic circles consumed less mana and allowed longer distances, but they came with a drawback.
If someone investigated the magic circle left behind, they could read the destination coordinates and track them.
Previously, Selena had assumed that even if imperial pursuers found such a magic circle, they’d use it as evidence at best—or take time to analyze it, run safety checks, and only then attempt to use it.
That was only natural, since they wouldn’t know exactly what kind of place the coordinates pointed to.
After all, while Selena wanted Gayeon specifically, most people would assume an empress’s abduction was for a larger political or organizational purpose.
Who would reasonably think an archmage abducted the empress for personal reasons?
They’d assume Selena had backers.
And charging after them recklessly could provoke the abductors, endanger the Empress, lead into a trap like the Great Forest, or even lead straight into enemy territory.
The risks were too high, so investigation would normally come first—
But now that she knew the Empire was abandoning negotiation and strategy and instead throwing itself headfirst into madness to recover Gayeon, that method was no longer viable.
Selena had no desire to play tag with a Sword Master Emperor and his subordinates in the Frost Mountains.
That said, the stepping-stone teleport method reached its limit after three days.
“Further city-scale teleportation won’t work. The remaining coordinates are estates I bought under my own name, so the Empire’s probably already flagged them.”
“Then what do we do?”
“No choice. From here on, we travel overland.”
They had shortened a journey that would’ve taken at least fifteen days of nonstop riding to just three. That alone was worth being satisfied about.
Selena and Gayeon pulled down hats and hoods as they prepared to leave the small estate. Just in case, Selena layered an additional cognition-disruption spell.
The sixth-class mental spell Curtain Call.
A spell that allowed others to clearly see you, meet your eyes, and even talk to you—but afterward left only a vague awareness before forgetting entirely.
Among mages, it was nicknamed the “non-violent impressionist spell.”
In a world where magic overwhelmingly focused on destruction and how to block it, Curtain Call—along with teleportation—was one of the few genuinely peaceful spells.
Of course, digging into its origins revealed a far less peaceful history involving espionage and assassination, but for now, it was excellent for avoiding bloodshed while removing witnesses one by one.
Unless someone was a fourth-class mage or an expert capable of coating their weapon in mana, they wouldn’t even sense anything strange.
Even with hats and hoods, they weren’t wrapped head-to-toe. A bit of hair would still show, and both Selena’s silver hair and Gayeon’s pink hair were eye-catching. Extra caution was warranted.
As they walked through the streets, Gayeon’s eyes darted around busily.
“What is it?”
“Oh—nothing. It’s just interesting… The atmosphere is so different from the capital.”
Ah. Selena immediately understood.
There was no way a ducal daughter like Gayeon would’ve had much experience outside the capital.
At most, she’d visited nearby resort cities. Even then, she’d have traveled via expensive group teleportation.
Unlike Selena, who’d roamed every corner of the Empire searching for clues to dimensional travel.
“That makes sense. Once you leave the central region, monsters start appearing.”
“I learned that the northern region was dangerous because of monsters, but… I didn’t expect it to feel this different.”
After crossing the river into the northern territories, the first border city they encountered was Danil.
Just as Gayeon said, it felt completely different from the peaceful central region.
The central cities—including the capital—had what could be called a modern style.
Stylish cafés, bakeries, tailor shops, furniture stores, and general goods shops. The streets were orderly, with hardly any street vendors. Slums were another matter, but overall, that was the picture.
The northern region, on the other hand, looked straight out of an adventure novel.
Adventurers, warriors, mercenaries. Merchants and researchers busily trading monster corpses.
Large, muscular people roamed the streets with swords or spears strapped to their backs, looking for work. Vendor stalls were packed with miscellaneous goods, from small trinkets to all sorts of odd items. Some even sold suspicious-looking potions.
Looking around with fascination, Gayeon suddenly asked—
“Does it keep changing the farther we go?”
“Near the Frost Mountains, the architecture actually looks more like the central region again. The Empire invested heavily to defend against monsters coming down from the mountains. They modified things for the climate, though.”
“I’d like to see it.”
“You probably will. Moving large amounts of magic stones takes preparation. We’ll have to stop by the fortress city of Aerial beneath the mountains.”
“Oh, right. You can’t transport unprocessed magic stones with magic, can you?”
“Yeah. That’s why moving them from the Frost Mountains to the Starry Desert was such a pain.”
Looking back, Selena realized she’d been desperately flailing, almost crazed, trying to get home.
Thinking about it now—those weren’t memories; they were nightmares. After all that suffering, discovering she still couldn’t perform dimensional transfer nearly drove her insane. That was why she’d opened other dimensions seven times out of sheer desperation.
Selena forced her expression to relax.
Still, after going in circles for five years, she could finally put that experience to use again.
Scouring the Frost Mountains while risking her life. Hauling magic stones with blood and sweat.
None of it had been pointless. That was enough.
“How did you even move them? It must’ve been hard not to get caught.”
“Well… how do you think I did it? Want to guess?”
“Huh? Um… hmm…”
It had been a joking question, but Gayeon unexpectedly started thinking seriously.
As expected of the academy’s top student—she approached questions earnestly. Feeling like a professor, Selena decided to help her think without letting her blood sugar drop.
“Two skewers of seasoned meat.”
Thanks to the non-violent impressionist spell, even if the vendor felt annoyed by her rude tone, he wouldn’t know why. Selena bought the skewers and smoothly fed one into Gayeon’s mouth.
It was a skill she’d mastered back when she supervised lower-rank mages during her research days.
The so-called Forced Human Feeding Technique.
It was Selena’s original invention, combining the perfect angle and force of her right hand, high status, and the restraint of her left hand.
So imbued with the Archmage’s goodwill, this forbidden technique had once moved subordinate mages to tears. There was even a heartwarming legend that some of them, after research concluded, submitted their resignations and retired to the countryside to rediscover health and happiness.
Unaware of such dark academic history, Gayeon obediently chewed the meat held at the perfect angle.
“Thank you. But… did you have accomplices?”
“Haha. No.”
“I see…”
At the immediate denial, Gayeon wrinkled the bridge of her nose slightly and fell back into thought.
