Chapter 258: The Root of Ruin (5)
[Spectrum Affinity]
[Black]
"Well, that pretty boy gave me five years... but I doubt it will take so much time."
Amber muttered as she concealed herself under the color of black, the Spectrum Affinity folding her presence into the night until even the residual heat of her body seemed to belong to the dark itself.
She stepped off the edge of the roof without hesitation and rose into the air, the cool wind of Loreua’s night sliding across her face and through the long fall of her brown hair as the city lights fell away beneath her.
In the privacy of the flight she went over the rough plan aloud, voice low against the rush of air.
"I suppose... I should dive right into the thick of it." She muttered to herself as mentioned before she was not unprepared.
She already knew plenty about Milan, and if she wanted to handle this efficiently, she figured the first thing she needed was answers from the princess herself.
Whether freely given or otherwise—and only then would she decide what should happen to the Empire.
At the end of the day, Akasha had handed her full authority over this place’s fate, and, surprisingly or not, that permission carried little weight for her.
She glided through Loreua’s night, the shroud of Black still wrapped snugly around her form.
As the palace lights flared brighter before fading away beneath her, a reoccurring, lingering thought drifted back into her mind.
’Is any of this even worth it?’
She knew this task could be completed in far less than five years—maybe even just a few months—despite not holding a Cosmic Union rank.
The only way to reach such efficiency, though, would be to avoid delving too deeply into her own past.
Yet, just as she thought to herself... was it truly worth uncovering that hidden Chapter of her history?
It would be one thing if Amber were a child, or even a young woman, with some kind of connection to her origins in the first place.
But as many knew, Amber didn’t fit into those categories.
Now, at fifty years old, she had lived long enough to know better than to be naive about things that held no real importance to her.
Honestly, the only connection she could claim with these people of Loria was that they shared similar hair and eye colors.
Beyond that, the place and its inhabitants felt foreign to her.
Still, despite everything, Amber couldn’t bring herself to turn away from the Empire of Loria—and it had nothing to do with the possibility that this was her birthplace.
As she flew, Princess Milan’s reputation once again crossed her mind, prompting her to shake her head.
"Truly a detestable woman," she muttered. "I don’t think I’ve ever met a princess quite so... different."
Amber had already seen more than enough with her own eyes—men broken in cells for offenses that barely deserved a raised voice, and a harem of women kept not as companions so much as possessions arranged for Milan’s appetite and temper.
Those things were only the visible edge.
Whatever lay further in, whatever answers waited in the princess’s keeping, would almost certainly be worse, and the knowledge left a thin, practical anxiety in Amber’s chest as she crossed above the gates.
Beyond the walls, the palace complex came into view, but she didn’t slow—she kept on flying.
Then after a long moment of silence, a slowly smile crept onto her face unbidden, first carrying acceptance, then shifting into something keener and more familiar.
"Well," she mused to herself, "isn’t this what makes adventuring so much fun?"
It was true that her connection to her Origin had never really meant anything in the grand scheme of her life.
Back on Kalpa, seeing other humans with the exact same hair and eye color had sparked her suspicions early on, filling her with curiosity more than anything else.
But after feeling the motherly love of Liliana for so long, and finding nothing in her initial searches of Kalpa, the longing to know where she came from had faded away long ago.
In truth, all of this wasn’t about understanding more about herself—it was about the thrill of adventure, the excitement of not knowing what was coming next.
Because no matter what she discovered, no matter who her parents might be, there was only one woman she would ever truly acknowledge.
"Mother Lily~"
---
After hours of flying, she finally descended into a dense, remote forest at the far edge of the Empire.
The canopy arched above in thick layers, dimming the faint light of stars, until the world was reduced to the whisper of leaves, the cool damp scent of nature and leaf-mold, and the gentle sound of her sandals as her feet touched the ground.
"Now... let’s see where you’ve been sneaking off to around here," Amber muttered to herself, having kept a close watch on Milan for the past month.
The Princess always came here alone, which was odd considering her status and all.
[Spectrum Affinity]
[White]
"Reveal the path leading to... Princess Milan."
HUMMMM!!!!
She remained concealed, Black still folded around her presence, while White answered the second function she called—Absolute Revelations.
The moment her words ended, a pale path took shape along the forest floor, white against root and leaf-mold, clear enough to follow yet soft enough that it did not blaze and announce itself to ordinary eyes.
Amber moved ahead without a second thought. Her sandals brushed easily through the undergrowth, each soft step muffled by the damp earth and carpet of fallen leaves.
---
"Matt... where the hell are you?"
As Amber made her way through the forest, the very person she sought...
Princess Milan lounged on a throne of dark stone deep within a cave, the dim reddish glow casting most of the chamber into heavy shadow.
In her hand she held a token, turning it once between her fingers while she stared at it as if sheer will could force a reply through the silence.
Two full months had passed without a word from the Crown Prince, and the absence was no longer merely strange; it was troubling, especially now that the Emperor had ordered every plan accelerated.