Azca… Azca…"
The voice came again.
It always arrived uninvited—echoing softly inside my head, like a whisper from a past I no longer remembered. Strange, because I had never known whose voice it was, nor when it had begun to haunt me.
And yet, every time it called my name, a warmth slowly seeped into me.
Warm… and soothing.
Even in darkness like this.
"Azca…"
The voice drew closer, clearer, as though the distance between us were slowly dissolving. Then, beneath that call, another voice emerged—still faint, as if swallowed by mist.
I held my breath. I didn't want it to stop.
I sharpened my hearing, straining to catch every lingering vibration. Curiosity kept my consciousness tethered to the silence—waiting, hoping the voices would finally reveal their faces.
"No… I don't want to…"
The voice trembled. Broke. Each word forced out with the last remnants of fading courage.
"This is the only way, my dear!"
Another voice followed—firmer, yet unable to conceal the sorrow beneath it.
"Azca… You have to live."
My chest tightened.
Why?
Why did they sound so restless? So hurried, as if time were about to steal something that could never be returned?
"Azca… keep growing. Become a girl who makes us proud."
The words were gentle. Too gentle. Like a farewell disguised as a blessing.
And at that moment, something inside me cracked.
"No… don't…" My voice caught. "Don't leave me!"
Their figures began to fade—slowly, painfully.
"Why are you leaving? Why are you smiling like that? As if this is the end… as if we'll never meet again…"
Tears streamed down my face.
"Please… don't leave me alone. Come back… please come back…"
But all that remained was silence—and the last smiles I never got to embrace again.
They ignored me.
No answers. No explanations. Only the same calm, painful smiles.
Slowly, they laid me down inside a glass container.
Cold. Silent.
I didn't understand what they were doing. Didn't understand why everything felt like a carefully prepared ending.
Truly… I didn't know.
I wanted to scream, to call out to them, to force them to stop. But when I tried to open my mouth, no sound came out. Not even a whisper. No matter how much strength I gathered, my throat yielded only emptiness.
Then the light came.
Brilliant. Blinding. Swallowing their figures in an inhuman radiance.
And their bodies—slowly turned transparent.
No.
They weren't just fading.
They were eroding. As if being burned without fire. Their skin cracked, peeled, worn away by the intensifying light. It had to hurt. It had to.
Yet neither of them looked as though they were suffering.
They kept smiling at me.
Until the very last second.
Panic crawled up my chest. Once more, I gathered every ounce of strength I had left. I didn't care if it worked. I didn't care if my throat shattered.
I just didn't want them to go.
"Don't—!"
This time my voice broke free—echoing too late, reaching nothing but the emptiness they left behind.
The shrill cry still rang in my ears when I jolted awake.
My body jerked upright. My breathing was ragged, my chest rising and falling uncontrollably. My throat burned—whether from the dream or from a scream that had truly escaped, I didn't know. I was sitting on a bed now, cold sweat clinging to my temples.
The room was real. The air was real.
And I was alive.
"You're pretty loud."
A voice sounded not far from me—flat, almost lazy.
I turned.
A girl sat on the sofa beside the bed, legs crossed casually, leaning back slightly. She wasn't looking at me. Her full attention remained on the magazine in her hands, as if my scream had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
Her short red hair swayed faintly whenever she tilted her head to read the next line.
"What?" she said again without lifting her gaze. "You're going to ask 'Who am I?' and 'Where am I?'"
I fell silent.
That was exactly what I wanted to ask.
But somehow, the words felt too fragile to speak.
She continued reading as she spoke.
"I'm Naira. You're currently in the secret headquarters of the Kingdom of Avelion. My job is to guard you until you fully regain consciousness. Any questions?"
"Uh…"
"Need the bathroom?"
"That's not it!" I cleared my throat, trying to organize my thoughts. "It's about Percy…"
"If you mean that noisy floating sphere, he's in another room," she replied flatly. "He kept screaming and whining while we were repairing him. You'd think we were dismembering him or something."
Naira kept muttering. I stayed quiet. My head still felt blank—even deciding where to begin was difficult.
"… Um. Thank you for saving me."
"Wasn't me," she said shortly, eyes still on the magazine. "It was Big Sis Jasmine."
"Jasmine?"
The name was unfamiliar.
I tried to recall the figure who had pulled me out of the darkness. Her build was different from the girl sitting on the sofa. Taller… or maybe she only seemed that way in my fractured memory. Her face—I couldn't grasp it at all. Blank. As if swallowed by light.
Maybe I had never truly seen it.
The memory was too blurry. Every time I tried to force it into clarity, a sharp pain pulsed at my temple, making me wince and stop.
But something else bothered me.
Why did I dream about that again?
Was it because of the comfort I felt back then? That faint yet real warmth that made me keep calling out in my sleep? Strangely… that feeling resembled them.
Too much.
I drifted into my thoughts.
Suddenly, the door gave a soft beep before sliding open. A figure stepped inside—someone who felt strangely familiar.
"Hey! Thank goodness—you're finally awake!"
"…?!"
Instinctively, I leapt off the bed and took a defensive stance. My heart pounded.
The voice sounded familiar.
But that face—the one I knew all too well—made my instincts refuse to lower their guard.
"W-Why are you suddenly so wary?" the girl panicked. "Is something wrong with me?"
"Why is the Princess of Asteria here?" I asked sharply. "Are you conspiring with the northern kingdom?"
"N-No! You're mistaken!" She shook her head frantically, her face turning pale. "I-I'm not Princess Avra!"
"Not Princess Avra?"
"She's the one who saved you earlier."
Naira finally spoke up, closing her magazine calmly before standing.
"She's Princess Avra's twin sister."
I stared at the girl named Jasmine once more.
"Twin?"
"You didn't know?"
"No. I'd heard Princess Avra had an older sister. I just didn't expect them to be twins."
"Whatever." Naira snorted softly. "Just don't scare Big Sis Jasmine again. Remember that." She turned toward the door. "Ah, Big Sis Jasmine. I'll head back to my room."
"Eh? Ah, yes. Thank you for keeping her company, Naira."
"Yeah."
Naira waved briefly before the door slid shut again. The white room felt quieter now—leaving just the two of us.
Jasmine looked at me hesitantly.
"U-Um… C-Could you relax a little?" Her voice grew smaller. "Y-You're kind of scaring me when you look at me like that."
I didn't answer. My gaze only sharpened.
"R-Relax! I-I won't hurt you!"
She stepped closer. Slowly, despite my instincts still on alert, I lowered my guard. When only less than a step separated us, she stopped and awkwardly extended her hand.
"M-My name is Jasmine. Naira already explained everything." She swallowed before continuing. "You can call me Big Sis Jasmine… or whatever feels comfortable."
After a brief pause, I took her hand.
"Azca."
Her smile bloomed—gentle, though still tinged with nervousness.
"By the way… can we sit and talk?"
I nodded. We sat facing each other. My hand was still in hers—warm and slightly trembling.
"Um… where are you from, Azca?" she asked carefully.
"The southern region. Safa District."
"Ah… that's quite far." She seemed to think for a moment. "But… how did you end up here?"
"Someone told me to come."
"Who?"
"Carina."
"…!"
Her body stiffened. The fingers holding mine tightened slightly.
I narrowed my eyes. "What is it?"
"Ah—nothing. It's nothing." She quickly shook her head. "Um… if I may ask, how do you know Carina?"
"I don't."
"Huh?"
"There was a meeting between the leaders of Asteria and Wolvord." I drew a short breath. "And I…"
"And you?"
"…I tried to attack Princess Avra."
Silence fell between us.
"To be precise," I continued flatly, "the Black Cloak organization intended to seize Princess Avra's Ultimate Core. But that wasn't their true objective."
Jasmine didn't interrupt. Her expression had grown serious.
"Without realizing it, we were nothing more than suicide bait." My jaw tightened. "Their real target was… someone named Carina."
"…You fought her?"
"Yes. After that, Carina saved me. She told me to come here."
"…I see."
"…I'm sorry."
"Sorry? For what?"
"For intending to kill your sister."
She was quiet for a moment. Then, without a word, a warm, gentle smile formed as she slowly stroked my head.
"It's alright. You were betrayed by them. I understand."
I frowned. "How do you know that?"
"Of course I know. Your eyes… say more than enough." She looked at me meaningfully. "I'm just glad you survived."
"…!"
Warmth spread through me. Not only from her touch, but from the sincerity in her gaze.
Now it was my turn to fall silent. My eyes felt heavy, stinging. I couldn't look at her. My cheeks burned, as if I wanted to hide the embarrassment rising within me. I had meant harm to her sister… yet she was still this kind.
"Don't worry. You're safe now. For the time being, they won't chase you. I promise."
"…Um. Sorry."
"Yes?"
"Could you… let go of my hand?"
"Eh? Ah! Sorry! I forgot! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"
I blinked at her small panic. Why was she reacting like that?
"…You're finally smiling!" she said brightly.
"Eh?"
Reflexively, I looked away. My heart raced, embarrassment creeping through me for reasons I couldn't explain.
"…Why are you still kind to me?"
"Because you're not a bad person."
I fell silent. Slowly, I looked back at her, searching for sincerity in her eyes.
"Carina told you to come here, didn't she?" she continued calmly. "She wanted me to save you. That means she trusts me enough to entrust you to me."
I swallowed. Something still troubled me.
"…May I ask one more thing?"
"Of course."
"Why are you still in contact with Carina? And… why are you here?"
She paused. Her gaze shifted, as though weighing whether I deserved to know. The hesitation was clear—but eventually she let out a long breath.
"Because I am no longer part of the Kingdom of Asteria," she said softly. "I defected… from my own father."
I froze.
"I never agreed with the way he ruled. Many of his decisions would only bring suffering." A faint, bitter smile curved her lips. "So I left. I abandoned Asteria and built my own territory in the north."
"Your own kingdom?" I murmured. "So…?"
She nodded. "We liberated several regions and formed our own government. It's not large, but it's enough to protect the people who believe in us. We strive to support one another. Thankfully, they accepted our leadership."
Her voice lowered.
"But becoming a new nation isn't easy. There's so much that must be built from nothing."
I watched her quietly, then said softly,
"And Asteria… and Wolvord… never truly cared about you."
"Correct. We can't say our relationship with them is close. But from the beginning, we chose to remain open and neutral."
"Then why have Asteria and Wolvord never attacked you? All this time, they've almost seemed to deliberately avoid dealing with this country."
"Because we're just a small nation," she replied calmly. "We don't have abundant resources like the southern regions. The north used to be considered dead land—barren, with no proper irrigation system. No one wanted it. But we endured. We built it slowly, until it became what it is today."
"In five years?" I couldn't hide my disbelief. "Building a territory this large from nothing in such a short time… that's nearly impossible."
Her smile thinned.
"So you noticed."
A pause. Then she looked at me more deeply.
"Azca, do you know about the Ultimate Core?"
The question came suddenly.
"As far as I know… it's an immense energy core that appeared after the Ereshkigal Plague centuries ago. Over time, it was split into six fragments."
"Correct. One of them belongs to Carina. The Southern Star Blade: Canopus Star."
"Canopus Star? So that's its name…" I whispered.
Jasmine's voice grew steady—almost instructive.
"That blade enhances acceleration, allows its wielder to see an opponent's weak points… and grants intangibility without sacrificing offensive capability."
That pulled me back to my battle with Carina. Her body had turned transparent, yet her strikes remained real. A troublesome weapon.
"As for the other fragments," she continued, "one is held by Avra, another by her guard. The Kingdom of Wolvord possesses one. And one remains unaccounted for."
"Wait." I frowned. "You just named five. There are six in total, aren't there? Where's the last one?"
She smiled more deeply. "It's with us. In fact… we have two."
"Two? How is that—? I'm even more confused now."
As if reading my confusion, Jasmine stood and walked a few steps away before turning to face me.
"Azca, almost every kingdom believes there are only six Ultimate Cores. That's what has been known. The strongest one is in Avra's possession. But in truth… there is another fragment. A power that was never announced."
"…?"
She didn't answer immediately. Her eyes closed. A faint light began seeping from her body. Both her hands slowly lifted, and from her back, a glow emerged—growing brighter, like an image projected into the air.
No.
It wasn't a projection.
It was a pair of wings.
"Don't tell me that's…?"
"Yes. With this Ultimate Core… we built this nation."
The light solidified, forming radiant wings like those of a fairy. The same sight as the first night we met.
No—this time, it looked even more magnificent. More brilliant.
A gentle wind stirred.
And for the first time, I realized—
This small nation was far from weak.
Jasmine opened her eyes and looked at me with a warm smile.
My chest trembled. Somehow, I felt what she was about to say would change everything.
"The Seventh Ultimate Core… Sylphina Angel."
※ ※ ※ (CHAPTER 02) ※ ※ ※