Crest of the Strongest Knight

Chapter 137 - Mysterious Power

"We should've stopped for a break two hours ago."

Despite Medrauta's insistence on slowing down and taking a short moment of reprieve from their travel-weary saddles, Viviane ignored her knight's best attempts at enticing her to dismount. Of course, this led to Medrauta incessantly suggesting they take a break at every opportunity, but Viviane would have none of it. Even after the knight's latest suggestion, Viviane continued to keep her gaze locked ahead, not even turning as she replied to Medrauta.

"We cannot, Medrauta. We must reach the spire as soon as possible, for this is something that concerns not only the people of this duchy, but the people of the empire as a whole. Our friends who reside at the academy, the brave soldiers on the front lines who are still fighting as we speak, and even ourselves."

Medrauta frowned, her eyes lingering on Viviane for several long seconds as their horses continued to thunder on. Though her gaze usually remained on Viviane's visage to admire the noblewoman's beauty, her eyes were filled with nothing other than confusion and concern at the moment. The knight had no clue what had happened to her lady, but ever since Viviane awoke from the brief spell of unconsciousness she suffered back in the ritual chamber, something about her had changed.

If she's not gonna take a break despite those dark circles under her eyes, then I might as well keep her busy so she doesn't fall off the damn saddle or something... Medrauta clicked her tongue in displeasure. She understood the need for urgency, especially when the empire was currently being covered in all manner of foul witchspawned beasts, but she still couldn't stop herself from placing Viviane's health first.

Medrauta hesitated for a moment, attempting to formulate a more elegant approach to her question rather than simply asking bluntly. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't able to come up with anything even after several seconds of thinking. Oh well, here goes.

"Hey, Vivi... While we were fighting Bastiche and Ritya, did you, uh, hit your head or something? I dunno what it is, but after you woke up, you kinda feel... different?" Medrauta regretted her words almost instantly even as they flowed from her mouth, wishing she'd spent a bit more effort on phrasing that more eloquently.

"...Right. I guess you'd feel that." Viviane said. "I guess it'd be weirder for you to not notice, huh? The truth is, when I fell unconscious, I got... pulled into a different world. That's the best way I can put it."

"Pulled into a different world?" Medrauta frowned. While transdimensional travel wasn't theoretically impossible given the implications of certain extremely rare Crest abilities and the presence of Kaslavna's secret weapon during the first war they waged against the empire, she'd never heard of it happening to someone unconscious. Plus, there was another, even more unusual factor.

"Yeah. I was really confused when I woke up there. I thought I'd been teleported or something at first, but it turns out only my soul was transported, if that makes sense."

"...Not really. In all the cases I've heard of, people who experience transdimensional travel are transported entirely with their whole body and all."

Indeed, Medrauta was correct. This alone was the factor that confused her the most, seeing as Viviane's body hadn't disappeared at all from the chamber after falling unconscious. Plus, her lady's claim was absolutely ridiculous even if it was true. If Viviane's soul was somehow pulled out of her body and into another dimension, then only two entities could have performed such a powerful feat: Aluvsha himself, or a suitably powerful witch.

No Crest reached the domain of manipulating or influencing souls, for such an ability would not only be branded taboo by all churches across the continent, but also reign supreme amongst all other Crests, bearing the ability to manipulate life and death itself. Not even the Solar Crest that the imperial family bore would even begin to compare to such power.