West Bayam, Caesar Pier.
The Queen Anne's Revenge, an ancient three-masted sailing ship painted black and over a hundred meters long, giving its hull a somewhat elongated appearance, lay at the busy harbor's most prominent berth.
Beside it, ships carrying Intis colonial troops and some administrative personnel set sail one after another, heading north toward Midway Island or Partis Island before returning to the North Continent.
These were the last colonists to evacuate the Paz Valley in East Balam. Long before this, the Balam-Paz Import and Export Company, which possessed a vast private army and fleet, had already been driven out.
The valley, seized by outsiders for its rich mineral deposits and ravaged for a century, had finally been liberated.
As the colonists departed, some dejected and others resentful, none noticed the woman aboard the enormous black ship who had been watching them all along.
Of course, even if someone had noticed her, they would have found it difficult to connect this woman, with her long, slightly curly chestnut hair and sea-blue eyes, to the imperial princess of the Intis Empire over a century ago. Times had changed, after all, and Intis no longer had an emperor.
Most people had dismissed the cry of "The emperor has returned!" that echoed two years ago as a bout of mass hysteria.
Watching the fleet flying tricolor flags gradually recede, and listening to the locals' merciless jeers and irrepressible cheers from the harbor, Bernadette Gustav closed the captain's cabin window and turned toward the door.
A moment later, deliberately softened footsteps approached, followed by a gentle knock.
"Come in."
Bernadette spoke as though she already knew who stood outside.
The door opened, and Cattleya, the Queen of Stars, entered in a black robe patterned with purple, wearing thick glasses.
"Good afternoon, Your