Hate me, Miss Witch!

In the deepest part of the palace, there was a faint, curtain-like, dusky yellow shadow.

She passed through that curtain-like shadow and arrived at the throne room situated in the deepest part of the palace.

This was a spacious hall. Beyond the huge glass windows, there was no sun, nor moon, nor stars, yet a faint light still enveloped the area.

It was cold and dim.

At the very center of the hall was a silver-white throne.

Upon the Gray-Silver Throne sat a woman with pure silver hair cascading to her waist.

Her figure was slender, and she wore a somewhat tattered black gauze dress.

Behind her, layers upon layers of dusky yellow wings drooped, ethereal and hazy, enveloping most of the silver-haired woman's body and the entire Gray-Silver Throne.

The silver-haired woman sat thus, quietly, within the frozen twilight.

Her right arm rested on the throne's armrest, her hand cradling her cheek, as if she were lost in a profound slumber.

The moment she saw the slender figure upon the Gray-Silver Throne, Fioran felt an immense sense of crisis well up from the depths of her soul.

Although the figure on the Gray-Silver Throne was clearly still deep in slumber, she still filled Fioran with an inexplicable dread, as if her very life could be extinguished by that frozen twilight at any moment.

As a veteran Titled Rank Beastmaster, she should not have been so unnerved, even when facing a Legendary.

It seems that even while asleep—the Tower Master's strength has clearly continued to grow, accumulating over these five hundred years of self-sealed slumber... A premonition flashed through Fioran's mind.

Ordinary powerhouses, even if they extended their lifespans through self-sealing and slumber, would inevitably suffer a sharp decline in strength upon reawakening and require a period of recovery to return to their peak.

However, the sense of oppression emanating from the slender figure on the throne was distinctly more terrifying than that of any other Legendary Fioran had encountered before.

It was as if they existed in completely different dimensions.

Fioran dared not look at the throne any longer.

She quietly lowered her head and spoke in an exceedingly reverent voice.

"Your Reverence, Silvia."

"I apologize for disturbing your Eternal Slumber."

"However, as per the instructions Your Reverence gave to the elders of the White Tower before entering the Eternal Slumber Plane—"

"While serving as the Southern Inspector in the Fresta Empire, I chanced upon the discovery of an unearthed ruin of the Ancient Dukedom Azure Garden."

"At the excavation site, we also detected traces of an Echo of History having appeared. However, that Echo of History was exceedingly peculiar; none of us could enter it."

"Furthermore, a young man is believed to have entered the Echo of History of the Ancient Dukedom Azure Garden. He was also the one who first found the clues that led to this ruin's discovery."

"His name is Shiayar Egutt."

"He is currently seventeen years old, a third-year student at St. Roland Academy, and already possesses combat strength approaching Master Rank..."

"I suspect that he has some connection to the past that Your Reverence is concerned with and has been investigating..."

Bowing low, Fioran used extremely concise words to quickly report all the information she had gathered.

The instant her last syllable fell, her form rapidly dematerialized.

A dimensional rift manifested, taking Fioran from this silver and twilight-intertwined world back to the Main Material Plane.

The oppressive presence near the Gray-Silver Throne was simply too immense. Even a 6-Ring Beastmaster could only endure it for mere seconds.

Once Fioran's figure vanished, the entire palace, enveloped in twilight, returned to an unspeakable stillness.

The dusky yellow firmament, the towering and magnificent pure silver palace—everything seemed to be frozen solid, fixed in time.

An unknown amount of time passed...

Upon the throne's flawless silver armrest, a fair forefinger suddenly twitched faintly.

In the frozen twilight, the woman in the black gauze dress remained seated on the throne, still asleep.

However, in a certain spot within the throne room, a thick, ancient, and timeworn tome suddenly materialized and opened.

Its dust-laden ancient pages began to flip without warning, RUSTLING.

Then, they stilled, settling on a blank page.

In the next instant, lines of delicate yet archaic, faint gold script materialized upon the heavy book.

Having awakened from my self-sealed long slumber, my memories have become fragmented. Only the memory of that betrayal remains etched deep in my heart.

I checked the flow of the Sands of Time. Has it really been over five hundred years in the Main Material Plane?

I sensed a familiar feeling from that visitor just now. Does this mean The Tower I founded has not yet fallen?

That's rather good news; I can still see familiar things.

I had thought that by the time I awoke again, everything would have undergone immense changes, a total upheaval, just like my former homeland...

I've looked through the throne's records—

That little one, likely from the White Tower, awakened me from my Eternal Slumber because an Echo of History was discovered at the ruins of the Azure Garden Dukedom.

And the discoverer of that Echo of History...

The faint gold text, writing itself out of thin air, suddenly paused.

Then, CRACK—

Above the Gray-Silver Throne, the twilight, which seemed to have frozen even the flow of time, instantly shattered.

It transformed into countless dusky yellow shards that scattered across the ground.

The text on the book reappeared.

However, the previously delicate and neat, faint gold script had suddenly become rushed and disorderly.

Shiayar...

Brother?

— Excerpt from "Diary of the Gray-Silver Witch," Page 705, Holy Calendar Year 902, Month of Frost, 28th.