Sterling felt a "story" beginning to sprout within his consciousness.
This was an indescribable sensation, like pure joy rising from deep within his heart. His instincts urged him to observe and record, as if his very existence was meant to witness this unfolding story. The satisfaction that would come after the story concluded promised to be an irreplaceable bliss.
So far, Sterling had only experienced this feeling once before, after witnessing the story of the mermaid kingdom, which became the source of his bestselling book.
"Great wizard... you're referring to that country's queen? Queen Kai?"
(TL NOTE: The author has gender-swapped Kai from male to female and somehow made her into the Snow Queen.)
"Indeed. This matter has been approved by the Witch Council. Before the Fortune Goddess, we swore an oath not to harm others, thus earning the Dragon Witch's indifference."
The white-robed wizard's explanation gained Sterling's approval. What Maleficent hated most were the consequences of war. If such warfare aimed to capture one person and couldn't possibly harm others...
In Maleficent's eyes, this might only be a "battle" rather than a "war", and she indeed might choose to ignore it.
Sterling should have agreed right then. If even his teacher approved, what was there to consider?
But that wouldn't work.
Queen Kai. Sterling didn't know her personally, but in the snowfields he had befriended her sister Gerda. If Kai were sealed, Gerda would never be happy again.
So Sterling now identified himself as Vivian's godson.
What of it? Had Vivian also agreed to their actions? If not, then she had implicitly approved his interference!
But he couldn't be direct about it. Setting aside that these knights had terrifyingly high combined combat power, they were going to capture and seal a great wizard, so while they might have shortcomings in some areas, they definitely reached great wizard levels in offensive capability.
Even if he could win, the royal city was right behind them. Fighting and drawing out Avalon's temporary controller would be rather unpleasant.
"Well, since my teacher hasn't said anything, I naturally have no objections."
Sterling's words earned the white-robed wizard's gratitude.
"Thank you for your understanding. Then we'll be off. We must complete the sealing work within three months, or once she fully merges with the magic mirror fragments... we might have to trouble Her Majesty the Queen to act personally."
"Magic mirror fragments?" According to Avalon's city-state naming conventions... since it was called the Black Mirror Kingdom, their emblematic object should be a magic mirror. Could these magic mirror fragments be the reason for their attack?
Sterling's complex inner thoughts didn't affect his expression. He bid the white-robed wizard a friendly farewell and received a knight as an attendant to help him tour the royal city.
"By the way, Mr. Sterling, I must remind you of something most important. After entering the city, don't look in mirrors."
The white-robed wizard spoke in a very low voice by Sterling's ear.
Don't look in mirrors? A strange request. Was some magic cast through mirrors?
Led by the knight, Sterling passed by the army's left side and came to the city walls. Meanwhile, the white-robed wizard's gleaming white sparrow also informed the garrison on the walls of Sterling's identity.
The wizard in gold-trimmed white robes on the wall smiled kindly at Sterling below, then raised an oak staff as tall as himself and gently tapped the ground.
The city gate that had been for knights to pass through suddenly distorted. The entire world filled with the sound of shattering glass. The gate caved inward, collapsing into a massive circular plane that seemed to have no thickness.
Within the plane were countless rotating triangular mirror surfaces. Each mirror seemed to show different scenes. Though the people in the mirrors had their mouths open, Sterling heard no sound, as if they weren't in the same space at all.
Just staring at the vortex for a moment made Sterling dizzy. The vortex was remarkably similar to a kaleidoscope toy.
The wizard didn't mind the dizziness, perhaps he was used to it and kept staring seriously at the vortex. Actually, his most significant difference from other wizards wasn't his gold-trimmed white robe, but that his eyes weren't blindfolded. All other white-robed wizards were uniformly like the first one Sterling had met.
Only when a pure white mirror surface rotated to directly below the city gate, connecting with the main road, did he widen his eyes and forcefully strike his staff against the ground.
The sound of shattering glass and the vortex's rotation stopped simultaneously. The triangular mirror gradually expanded, filling the entire vortex space.
The wizard on the city wall pointed to what was now a purely white circular plane, indicating Sterling should walk through.
"May I ask, is the space behind this door Her Majesty the Queen's castle?"
The wizards on the wall looked at each other in confusion. Finally, the unblindfolded wizard stepped forward.
"Absolutely impossible. The location of Her Majesty's palace is a space none of us have the authority to open. What we're opening for you, our honoured guest, is the gate to the royal city."
"Royal city?" Sterling frowned. "Wasn't the royal city already behind this gate?"
He had wanted to add, "What's with all these fancy tricks?" but considering the city's defences were probably designed by the Queen herself, he politely swallowed those words.
"Oh, I see... Lady Dragon Witch probably hasn't told you about our Black Mirror Kingdom's special nature... This city is the entire country."
He had the knights standing packed on the city walls make way, letting Sterling see the city's true appearance.
An inverted hemispherical dome covered it, its surface seeming to be composed of countless geometric facets, refracting dazzling light.
Sterling understood what all those scenes in the vortex had been.
The Black Mirror Kingdom, with only a single city's area of territory, was actually Avalon's most massive country. It had contained all its territory inward, stored within tiny triangular prisms. There were countless such prisms in that vortex...
Even calculating just one mirror surface per household, no other country in Avalon could compare.
"...Now I understand why you take such pride in your Queen and the Black Mirror Kingdom." Sterling swallowed hard.
As they say, experts see the essence. As a wizard, Sterling's shock was no less than when he first learnt of the magical world's existence.
Magic was idealistic, so naturally, controlling magic to extremely precise degrees was difficult. This was a problem based on magic's very nature.
But look at this magic! Expanding such space on a tiny mirror fragment, locking a nation's territory within a single city, even achieving entry and exit by folding these spatial positions. This was mysterious space, yet the Queen moulded it like clay.
This required unimaginably precise magical control.
If initially Sterling had entered the city only for Queen Kai's sake, now his purpose had become extremely simple.
He absolutely had to learn this method of refined magical power control.
The dragon mark within him let out a low snicker. Greed for knowledge was the finest nourishment for Mourning the Demon Dragon.
Sterling rubbed his eyes and slowly stepped into the pure white.