Silent Crown

Even under strenuous observation, aether had never given humans a chance to get close to it.

Some scholars even thought that it was an imaginary element, a concept, and that it had no actual form. There was nothing that people could do other than try to prove its existence.

But now, Ye Qingxuan had brought him to this room, handed him a monocular, and told him that what he was looking at now was aether. Was this some sort of joke?

“No one else can do this,” Ye Qingxuan said quietly. “But I can.”

He knocked on the desk.

Absolute silence fell.

Newton lowered his head again and looked in the monocular. The flittering light had once again stopped moving and coalesced, crystallizing in its original location.

As the silence faded, Newton felt like he had lost all of his strength, and nearly sat down on the floor.

He could finally be sure whether what he had seen was reality or an illusion.

But he was shocked by his own discovery. He didn’t dare to believe it.

“Do you have a cigarette?”

Newton accepted one from Ye Qingxuan, lit it, and took a few drags. He raised his head and looked at Ye Qingxuan, “So my guess was…correct?”

“It was, Newton.”

Ye Qingxuan patted his shoulder and beamed at him. “Aether is alive.”

–

–

That afternoon, dazzling sunlight streamed down from the sky, and the sounds of the ocean drifted over from the distance.

Summer had come early this year. Spring had not even ended yet and the weather was already getting warm. This was especially evident on an island city like Avalon.

At 3 PM, sunlight fell upon the white streets. Those with nothing to do were too lazy to go out, and so stayed at home drinking their afternoon tea.

Cicadas could be heard in the distance.

A simple carriage was parked by the side of the road. A young woman wearing a long, white dress sat on a bench in the shade. The wide sun-visor of her hat drooped down, covering half of her face.

“How does this one look, Christine?”

She clipped the wildflower that she had picked to her hat, and turned her head to show off the result to her friend who was leaning on the carriage. She did seem like a queen in the least bit. She seemed like a normal young woman who had gone sightseeing.

“It suits you.”

Christine leaned against the coach of the carriage. Although she was still a little pale, she was now able to move without issue. After she had recovered from her wound, she had not accepted the status and privileges that her father had passed down to her, instead choosing to continue to serve as the captain of Mary’s bodyguard.

She no longer had to prove that she was better than any man, and had chosen to strive to fulfill her duty as diligently as possible in the later half of her life, continuing to take on the responsibilities of a knight.

As far as she was concerned, Mary was too free with her trust, even with Lancelot’s betrayal still burned deeply in her mind.

Thus, she would remain by her side, even for this secret tryst.

But…was it really appropriate for her to be having trysts?

Christine felt completely helpless.

Although trysts had always been common among the nobles, and were looked at as something quite refined and not worth denouncing, she had never heard of Her Highness the Queen participating in such things.

And her partner was her own cousin, His Highness the current Prince of Avalon.

What was this? Teenage indulgence and rebelliousness come late?

There was nothing that Christine could do about this. Moreover, these last few times Ye Qingxuan had always maintained proper decorum and etiquette, and had never done anything untoward. And Mary had started smiling more. It was not like before when she had worn a mask of cold majesty.

As a result, just when she had thought that he might be a good thing for Mary, Ye Qingxuan had gone and ruined it.

He was almost an hour late!

He was probably the only person in all the the Anglo Kingdom who would stand up the Queen.

Mary had every right to be annoyed at this. But she was still calm and unhurried. She sat there in the shade, humming some tune and putting flowers in her hat.

“Your Majesty…why don’t we go back,” said Christine in a low voice.

“There’s no hurry.”

Mary narrowed her eyes and laughed, completely unconcerned by this, “Maybe he’s been delayed by something. He’s rushing over here right now. I’ve never seen somebody so embarrassed. Do you think I should be angry with him?”

Christine said nothing.

She had hardly finished speaking when at the end of the road they spotted a man running wildly towards them.

Ever since Mary had taken power in the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth, her perception had spread all over the Kingdom. If she wanted to find someone, they would be found in only a matter of minutes.

This was why Ye Qingxuan was under such great pressure.

He always felt like someone was watching him.

Upon seeing Mary sitting there in the shade, his expression became even more awkward. “Sorry I’m late.”

“That’s alright, I just got here.”

Mary laughed and indicated the Ye Qingxuan should come closer. She lightly brushed away the dust on her dress. “Where are we going today? Downtown again? I’d like to drink more of the beer from that place we went to last time.”

“How about we go fishing today?”

Ye Qingxuan showed her the bag of fishing tackle that he was carrying. “There’s a place that I used to go to when I was young, I reckon not many people know about it. I wonder if Your Majesty…ah, I mean, Mary, would you be interested in going?”

“Alright,” Mary nodded. “But I’m not very good at it. Can I use the Firebird to catch fish?”

“…”

Ye Qingxuan was becoming increasingly helpless in the face of this willful and capricious queen. “Where would be the fun in that?”

“Very well, then I leave tonight’s dinner up to you, Mr. Ye.” Mary walked towards the carriage with a grin, leaving Ye Qingxuan smiling bitterly.

It seemed like he couldn’t escape another dinner.

But as Mary opened the carriage door she froze, and stood rooted in the same place.

She turned her head quickly to look behind her.

Her eyes had turned to golden dragon’s eyes. She did not appear to be looking at Ye Qingxuan, but at somewhere far beyond him.

She raised her eyebrows.

Christine unconsciously gripped the hilt of the sword beneath the driver’s seat and shielded Mary behind her.

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”

Mary did not respond, only looking at Ye Qingxuan. “Do you feel something, Mr. Ye?”

A look of doubt crept over Ye Qingxuan’s face. He immediately closed his eyes and tapped the Staff of Fate on the ground. A distant echo came from the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth.

A ripple swept out from the city in the reflection and scattered into the distance.

Ye Qingxuan’s senses rested in the moon shadow in the void, then flew outward along Mary’s line of site. In a flash, it had travelled thousands of miles. At that point, a huge aether fluctuation was spreading out

It was like the blazing sun had suddenly emerged from the darkness and been placed in the center of the sky.

The fluctuation spread far, giving rise to frightful crashing waves of aether. The Sea of Aether had up until this point been turbulent, and the waves scattered out in all directions. The nine levels of the Sea of Aether were filled with regular, loud crashing noises.

The aftermath was as terrible as that of an earthquake.

The scale of the power unleashed instantly surpassed that of a Master Musician, and had entered the realm of Scepter Musicians. And it kept climbing…bursting through level after level.

Finally, it got to a point where Ye Qingxuan could no longer sense it.

His senses returned. He shakily opened his eyes.

Something had appeared somewhere far away, though not far from Anglo territorial waters. It didn’t seem to be human, but the power hidden within it was equivalent to that of the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth!

What could it be?

Mary forced a laugh and looked at him helplessly. “It looks like our date is over.”

“Matters of state must come first.”

Ye Qingxuan nodded and put his fishing gear to the side. “You should be getting back, Your Majesty. I’ll see you later at the Privy Council meeting.”

“Alright.”

Mary glanced at him, then dejectedly looked away and closed the carriage door.

“Let’s go, Christine.”

Christine nodded farewell to Ye Qingxuan, climbed up onto the carriage and spurred the horses on. Before long they were far away.

Ye Qingxuan’s gaze followed the carriage as it sped towards the palace. He felt his ball of aether vibrate wildly.

Shi Dong’s voice came from within. “Your Excellency, you must have felt that? What was it?”

“I’m not sure.”

Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “The Inquisition has made first-rate preparations for war, and the Anglo Kingdom will soon enter a state of emergency. I hope that wasn’t a newborn catastrophe.”

“No, according to our analysis of the readings from the instruments of harmonious melody it probably wasn’t a catastrophe.” Shi Dong sighed, “But I fear it might be even worse.”

“I’m going to meet with the Privy Council. You’re responsible for things while I’m gone. The Witch Hammer of Avalon and the Knights of the Round Table will ensure public safety for a while. If I have any orders, Lola will bring them to you.”

“I understand.”

Shi Dong ended the transmission.

He lifted his eyes, and saw a black carriage speeding towards him from the end of the street. It stopped before him, and the messenger onboard saluted him.

“Your Highness, the Privy Council is about to meet! Greenwich observatory sent…”

“I know.”

Ye Qingxuan waved at him, indicating that he did not have to go any further. He climbed into the carriage. “Let’s go, quickly.”

The carriage once more headed uptown.

Along the road, he could hear the gloomy and powerful echoes of armored knights running around in the distance.

Ye Qingxuan gazed out the window at the dark clouds gradually rising over the sea. He tapped the Staff of Destiny with his finger.

Right now, a hurricane was screaming towards them from far away, bringing with it a faint roar from a distant sea, and thick amounts of moisture.

A storm was coming.

–

–

As the rain poured down from the sky, covering the entire city, all of the important people of the Anglo Kingdom had converged in the throne room.

The Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Privy Council and the Keeper of the Seal, Tristan, the former Deputy of the Round Table who had already left office and been about to leave Avalon…

All of these people had been brought to the throne room in just a few minutes, and it fell to a Musician from Greenwich Observatory, who were responsible for monitoring Aether waves all around the world, to explain to them what had happened.

“Twenty minutes ago there was a great seaquake in the south section of Anglo territorial waters. This was followed by an Aether wave that surpassed the Scepter level. The realm of Aether caved in for unknown reasons, and there was turbulence in the Sea of Aether. The repercussions spread out all over the world. I’m afraid that now not only us, but all the nations have placed themselves on a war footing.”

The Secretary of Defense interrupted him, asking him directly, “Is this a new catastrophe or not? It happened so close to our borders, is it a threat to us?”

The presenter looked pained. “At present our territorial waters are still in a state of chaos. We had no way of monitoring what happened. But the likelihood of a catastrophe is extremely high. If it is a catastrophe, for it to just appear like that would be terrifying, and I’m afraid it would constitute a grave threat…”

An urgent buzzing came from Ye Qingxuan.

It was the ball of aether.

Everyone looked at him, and he looked at the Queen.

“News from the court.”

Mary waved her hand, indicating that he should proceed.

Immediately, Shi Dong’s voice came from within.

“We’ve done a wave frequency comparison, and have identified the object. It’s not a catastrophe.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but Shi Dong’s next words made them freeze in shock.

“Your Excellency, it’s ‘The Ultimate.'”

“…the Ultimate has appeared by using the ruins of catastrophes!”