Many years ago, Hypermion still knew winters that could almost be called warm.
Admittedly, describing the northern ice plains with the word warm felt strange.
But for those who lived in the north, simply seeing even a sliver of sunrise on a winter morning was an immeasurable blessing.
Back then, the Master of the Sky had not yet abandoned the people of this land completely.
Even this frozen region occasionally basked in rare, gentle daylight.
And the bards still sang of a vision:
that above the most mysterious kingdom of the north, radiant auroras painted the heavens ,
and beneath that light lay the true homeland of the Northerners.
An ancient utopia.
A glorious, sacred city.
A wise regent ruled there, scholars of countless disciplines gathered under his banner,
and under Talantum's divine guidance they worked for the welfare of all.
In that place, people never worried about hunger or cold.
No one toiled to resist the endless frost.
The barren tundra was replaced with valleys blooming with seas of color.
Back then, Anaxa didn't bear that name.
She also didn't have that striking indigo hair.
She was just an ordinary shepherd girl , a dreamer who loved stories.
Whenever she heard the old legend, she would always ask:
"How far away is that aurora?"
And the bards would always answer:
"Far. You must cross endless snows, slay countless beasts, and sail across raging seas.
Only with courage that defies life, strength beyond human, and faith unwavering could one reach it."
When she was around ten, she announced to her family her intention , to find the northern homeland of her people.
Unsurprisingly, she was not praised for it. Her family scolded her harshly, forcing her to abandon such foolish notions.
She was just an ordinary pastoral girl.
If nothing unexpected happened, she would have become another shepherd's wife by thirteen, like her sisters before her.
But she did not despair.
Instead, she decided to chase her dream before fate could shackle her.
She prayed to Talantum, god of fairness and law, studied incomprehensible texts, tried to memorize words beyond her literacy,
even when exhaustion brought her to tears, she pressed on, finding joy in labor that promised no reward.
Then came disaster.
A calamity swept across the north.
The already-barren pastures turned to dust. The herds starved. Civilization collapsed with the coming of the Eternal Night.
Refugees began their great migration south , but not all had the right to join.
At least, she didn't.
When her parents quietly left, taking their youngest son and all their possessions,
she understood: she had been abandoned, alone, cast away upon a dead land with no tomorrow.
Thus, she became a vagabond,
and saw the cruelty, the real color of this world.
She drifted between refugee groups, surviving,
until at last she could no longer bring herself to worship the Titan of law and fairness who had never answered her.
When she finally decided to abandon her faith and become just another discarded soul...
she heard it.
A whisper in her ears , low, ancient, divine.
"Child of man... what do you desire?"
"I wish to become a Chrysos Heir."
(Only then would my existence have value , bought, owned, but alive.)
"Child of man... what will you offer in return?"
"Everything. I can give all."
"Then, child of man, your veins shall run golden , but your growth shall cease forever at this moment."
And so, on one long Hypermion night, the daughter of a shepherd died.
In her place, there was born a girl with golden blood and hair blue as the royal crest ,
the Stray Princess.
Her name was Anaxa ,
the orphan who wanted only to live.
"If I agree to leave with you, what will I gain?"
"A stage. One worthy of your talents. Is that enough?"
"And the price?"
Anaxa never believed in gifts without debt.
In her mind, every gain demanded a cost.
But her bargaining chips were pitifully few , laughably so.
Every gamble fate dealt her, she had to win.
Failure was the only unacceptable outcome.
"The price," the boy said with a grin,
"is that your brilliance will be at our disposal, Caesar."
"We need someone to govern cities, suppress uprisings, train armies, devise strategies..."
Wait a second.
Aizen rubbed his temple.
Did this recruitment list not sound way too familiar?
This wasn't recruitment , this was straight-up drafting Zhuge Liang.
Still, the worst part was that the woman in front of him actually checked nearly every box.
Except, this one wasn't a Guan Zhong or a Zhuge Liang.
This was the type who might stab you in the back once the empire's stable.
Sure , she had the brilliance of a chancellor...
But she was the chancellor to a Liu Xie, not to a Liu Bei.
"So, you mean to hire me as a 'governor'?"
"You can see it that way."
"Janusopolis?"
"That's just the beginning."
At Aizen's words, a glimmer flashed within Anaxa's gaze.
Was this boy implying... that Janusopolis was only the starting point of conquest?
She had to admit , the idea was tempting. Almost irresistible.
Because she did want to conquer.
She wanted to conquer the south.
That warm, shining land , especially the one sacred city farther east of Janusopolis.
Since ascending the throne, she had learned the truth behind the poetic tales of the bards ,
the ancient utopia of the northern legends was real.
The aurora was real too , but only as a sky-phenomenon, long vanished after the Eternal Night.
The city of dreams, however, was not in the north at all.
That paradise her ancestors sang of was Okhema , the Holy City built upon Cephale's monumental body,
far to the south, untouched by frost,
where the four seasons never died.
Eternal spring.
Such beautiful words.
If she had been born there, her destiny might never have been this cruel, this broken.
So yes,
She wanted it.
No matter the odds, she wanted that land.
Anaxa wanted to conquer warmth itself,
to become the regent of the fabled southern city,
to rule the flourishing earth the bards had promised.
But as a puppet queen, even ruling the frail ruin that was Hypermion was hardly certain.
And now , a stranger had laid before her the right to govern a city like Janusopolis,
as if she only needed to nod, and this dreamlike prize would be hers.
But...
After everything she endured in Hypermion,
did he think she would simply tuck her tail and run?
Follow him alone to Janusopolis ,
live under his shadow?
Would that not make her... another puppet?
So no.
She could not leave so easily.
She needed more leverage.
Anaxa needed more chips, to bargain, to win, to rule.