Chapter 191 - Gyeonghui Palace

A season so hot that even the dew of dawn could scarcely show itself for a moment.

The blazing summer sun made its heat feel real the instant it rose from the east.

'And yet...'

Despite the light and heat that seemed as though they could pierce through anything, the land beyond was dark, as if sunlight did not reach it.

They said it had been even darker than that when Godwin was alive, but Ferda could not quite grasp it.

Why had Godwin tried to create a land like that?

Why had he tried to return everything to nothingness?

'A mystical land, huh...'

It was a name given because they used magic that could not be understood by the magic established in the modern age.

Most mystical elixirs originated in the East, yet it was a land with a suspicious lack of records about them.

Ferda, too, had excluded it as a place he would use to reach the 9th Circle, so it was only natural that he had been indifferent to it until he declared its conquest.

"Must you really go there?"

The one who asked that question was Luri, standing one step behind him.

"Because that is where the happiness she desires will be."

"Do you know what Lady Valdrova desires?"

"I do."

Her dream had always been a modest life.

"And yet you are risking your life."

From Luri's position, it was an extremely personal matter.

But for Ferda, he had no other choice.

Ferda knew that a terrifying monster remained within him.

That monster would surely try to devour Valdrova again one day.

That was why he needed the magic of the East.

The driving force behind elven magic was emotion, and it was similar in form to the human Red Circle.

The people of the East had learned from the elves how to use the Red Circle, and had researched control, amplification, and efficiency.

Amplification was something he could do at any time.

What he needed was control.

Ferda gazed silently to the east, then asked her.

"Her Highness Valdrova..."

"She still does not wish to meet you."

"... I see."

This was a matter of risking his life.

They said he would be going with veteran adventurers, but they would be risking their lives as well.

The slightest possibility that he might not see tomorrow squeezed at his heart this much.

He wanted to ease that tension, even a little.

'Eleanor...'

Ferda had given her the name Eleanor.

But ever since that day, he had not been able to call her by that name, so even in his heart, it gradually began to feel awkward.

"Is that not fortunate instead?"

Luri said.

"If you do not return alive, you will not get to see Master, will you?"

"... That is true."

It was not that he would be seeing her for the last time, but that it became a reason he had to come back and see her again.

When she put it that way, he felt some of his tension begin to turn into courage.

"Thank you."

Ferda's hand moved toward Luri's head.

Luri flinched at the sight of that hand, but said nothing.

"Regent Ferda!"

Just as he was about to stroke her head, a lively voice called out to Ferda.

It was Rize.

Confusion had not left his face.

"It took you quite a while to get ready."

"I'm sorry! The spirits kept pestering me not to go..."

"You mean the spirits stopped you?"

"Yes, apparently the demonic energy is too thick for them to enter..."

The beings most easily corrupted by demonic energy were those sensitive to mana, and that meant spirits.

Even though those three looked cute, when they joined together, they became a ferocious being beyond imagination, and if demonic energy corrupted them on top of that, they would undoubtedly become a disaster.

"They kept making a fuss, saying I would die if I went there and that I couldn't go, and they kept tugging at me..."

"And because of that?"

Rize hesitated, then showed him his back without saying anything.

His clothes had been torn away, leaving his pale skin and the curve of his back fully exposed.

"We should go ask the guild if they have any clothes."

"Yees..."

Rize nodded, his face red.

Ferda was still getting confused over the fact that he was a man.

The place where the expedition was supposed to gather was the eastern gate of Hestia village.

Normally there would have been few people there, but not only guild members, even passersby had taken up positions there.

When he pushed through the crowd and went inside, men who looked like scholars and engineers were swarming around one large object.

Rize's eyes sparkled as he looked at it.

"Wow... That must be the thing called a mana-powered automobile, right?"

"Yes."

"At a glance, it looks like a carriage. Something is sticking out where the horses would be hitched..."

It really did resemble the prototype Ferda had once seen in a future that no longer existed.

However, since this thing had to accommodate twelve people, it was quite large.

Still, it was not completely the same, and its design was even more refined.

The long-cherished wish held by the Chancellor of Escolaia was plainly embedded in it.

'He put an absurd amount of effort into this just to screw over people who use carriages.'

To Ferda, who knew the inside story, it was pathetic, but he could not call it useless.

It was raising the morale of the adventurers and guild members, after all.

A flagpole stood on that mana-powered automobile, and on the flag was an emblem along with these words.

-Flint Expedition.

Flint meant a firestone.

For an expedition name, when most groups crammed in anything that seemed cool, like golden wings or eagles, to use flint instead.

'An expedition that began in Hestia, a vow to kindle the first flame...'

When he put it that way, he thought the name was not half bad.

"You came early."

Erica greeted Ferda.

She looked Ferda's body up and down, then said,

"And you are well armed, too. There is nothing in particular to criticize."

"As this is an important matter, I cannot be a burden."

"It would have been very nice if you had said that last time."

"I said this last time as well, though?"

"No matter how I heard it, it sounded like you were telling us to worry about ourselves."

"That meaning was included as well."

"Here comes the noble lord, all high and mighty. Mr. Rize... Looking at your back, it seems you need new clothes."

"Yees..."

"Let us see if there is anything in storage. Shall we go together?"

Erica moved off with Rize to find clothes he could wear.

Ferda was checking his condition, like the others.

At that moment, he sensed that someone's gaze was directed at him.

When he turned his head, the armor knight was standing there.

He could not see inside the armor, but Ferda knew that gaze was aimed at him.

"..."

"Do you need something from me?"

The armor knight made a motion of slightly lifting its head.

It tilted its head gently, as if thinking about something for a moment.

Nod.

The armor knight handed Ferda a sheet of paper.

This was written on it.

-I look forward to working with you.

"..."

Were those words really something worth agonizing over that much?

Thinking there might be some hidden meaning, he focused and examined it.

'The handwriting is very refined.'

That was the only information he was given.

Had it been done by a scribe, or had the knight practiced it personally and brought it here?

Had it really been just to offer that one greeting?

Surely the knight had not come here with some childish goal of wanting to be praised for the handwriting.

"Yes, I look forward to working with you."

Ferda replied as he handed the paper back.

He sensed that the armor knight was not satisfied deep down, but it did not persist.

A little while later, Erica returned and spoke with the scholars and engineers.

"We will be departing shortly! Everyone, to your positions!"

"To your positions!"

At her ringing voice, the adventurers who had been sitting on mats stood and moved to the back seats.

Ferda also tried to follow them and move to the back seats.

"Wait a moment."

The one who stopped him was Erica.

"Regent, would you sit beside me?"

Erica tapped the seat beside her.

Ferda reflexively furrowed his brow.

"May I refuse?"

"You are an important person, so I should give you the seat of honor, shouldn't I?"

"Isn't this the driver's seat rather than the seat of honor?"

"Isn't that right? Isn't it odd that an adventurer branch manager is sitting in the driver's seat? What do you think it would look like if the master of the Blue Eye Magic Tower were sitting in a seat like this?"

What did he care?

He would think the Magic Tower had gone under, so she was reduced to driving a carriage.

But chatting in the back did not suit his personality, so he obediently did as Erica said and sat beside her.

"Let's see. First, pull this lever, then while holding this button down..."

After going through a complicated operation process, sound began to ring out from the front.

WHIRRR!

A sound echoing inside vacuum tubes.

The engine had started.

After Erica performed a few more operations, the wheels began to move.

Very smoothly, at that.

"It's moving!"

"It's moving!"

The scholars and engineers burst into cheers as they watched the wheels roll.

Watching them grow more and more distant,

and eventually even shed tears of emotion, Ferda tilted his head.

"You don't know why they are so happy, do you?"

"No."

"Even the day before yesterday, they were saying something about how it was too heavy to carry all twelve people, you know? They had not accounted for armor or additional supplies."

"So?"

"I gave them twenty-four hours."

"I doubt you simply gave them twenty-four hours."

"Of course."

It would have been a lie to say he disliked Erica's clear-cut solution.

In that way, they left the village and headed toward the Land of Demons.

They crossed the boundary so clearly divided in color that it was called the line between life and death.

"We are entering. Everyone, brace yourselves!"

At Erica's signal, the expedition members checked once again the talismans they wore around their necks.

The moment they entered beyond the boundary, they felt it.

"Hmm..."

"Ugh...!"

Those exposed to demonic energy for the first time quickly reacted.

It was especially severe for the mages, who were sensitive to mana, while the others felt demonic energy at the level of pressure against their bodies.

The same was true of Ferda.

'If I had no reason to go in, I likely would have come out at once.'

He slowly circulated his Circle and steadied his breathing.

He repeated in his mind that this was his sanctuary, where demonic energy could not invade.

—This brings back old memories.

Erica quietly began speaking through telepathy.

—Back then, we somehow broke through while receiving the protection of every dragon and god.

'Is that so?'

—Even now, we somehow ended up with twelve people. Just like back then. At the time, I was also recruiting the expedition members who would go kill the Demon King.

'I see.'

—I'm sorry for telling you a story you are not interested in. But please listen a little. Honestly, I have no one I can lay this sort of thing bare to and talk with.

He wondered if he should block her, but if he did, he thought it might create an opening for demonic energy to slip in, so he left it alone.

Erica, steeped in reminiscence, continued.

—At the time, no one could believe it. The same was true for me, the one doing the recruiting. We had to destroy the entire East, which was called the mystical land, break through something called demonic energy, and go kill the Demon King. Honestly, it made no sense, did it?

'It did not.'

—So everyone believed we should coexist with Godwin and meet his demands. But only one person did not.

'Valdrova?'

—Yes. She believed in the potential of humans. To be honest, at the time, it really was...

'Like something an idiot would say?'

—I was going to say it sounded irrational and emotional, but to think you would put it that way. Did I say that?

'Please continue.'

—In any case, we did not have great expectations for humans. We believed that humans, a race too busy fighting among themselves, could only walk the path of destruction.

'But the result was different.'

—Yes, in the end, they saved the Serdes Continent. And the power of humans is growing stronger and stronger as well. Ultimately, she was right.

'Was this a story you already knew?'

—I knew, but it was not something I could concern myself with. The final incident ended up overturning everything.

Godwin died, and Silverwind died.

Countless people who had charged onto the battlefield died, and among them were spawns as well.

Dragon spawns shared their own deaths.

From the image of Valdrova seen through that trait, they could not help but hate her.

Silverwind still wished only to go to war with Valdrova.

—She had never said anything in her own defense or explained herself, so I wondered if she was simply a shameless dragon.

'She simply could not speak of it.'

—No one even considered that possibility. What dragon in the world would do that? We are the sort who punish anyone immediately if they talk back...

Since she said that herself, he had nothing to add.

—So I decided.

'What do you mean?'

—If the day comes when Lord Iorga can stand tall with a clear conscience, then we will formally apologize for the rudeness we committed.

An apology.

It felt strange that a dragon other than Valdrova would apologize to someone.

Ferda hid that true feeling and answered.

'As the Tower Master thinks so, I can only be grateful.'

After ending their conversation through telepathy, Erica needlessly struck up an ordinary conversation.

"By the way, this is more comfortable than I expected. To think it moves forward on its own if you just keep pressing it."

"Is that so?"

"Sky carriages and ordinary carriages that use mana are quite tricky, you see. If you do not account for the condition on the way back, falling straight out of the sky on the return trip is common."

"That is true."

"Traveling comfortably for one hour is nice, but if only there were a way to supply additional mana stones while completely blocking demonic energy..."

"If we applied magical engineering and created transport equipment with a demonic energy shielding function, the efficiency would be maximized..."

They chatted animatedly, exchanging all sorts of trivial ideas about magical engineering.

Valdrova, seated at the very innermost side, was staring intently at them.

She was listening in on the conversation they were having.

'I have no idea what any of that means.'

The two of them were sharing an intellectual conversation that her own mind could not understand.

To Valdrova, Ferda seemed to shine as she watched him.

After two hours of movement, the engine sound of the mana-powered automobile gradually weakened.

At the same time, the wheels that had been moving lost power, and before long, it came to a complete stop.

The energy of the mana stone had been completely depleted.

At the same time, it showed just how accurate Erica's calculations were.

Before them, the foundation stones that had once supported the main gate welcomed them.

They had arrived at Gyeonghui Palace.

Erica got down from the driver's seat and shouted.

"From here on, it begins. Everyone, stay sharp!"

"Whew, so it begins!"

All of them were veterans with more than five years of adventuring experience.

But in this line of work, being a veteran did not mean one was guaranteed to survive long.

They were people who always kept that in mind.

Erica, the leader of the Flint Expedition, began commanding them in earnest.

"Position A. We will enter."

When they stepped through the entrance of Gyeonghui Palace, a wide front courtyard greeted them.

Though it had long been abandoned, its form was strangely intact.

The keen eyes of the archer flashed.

"Enemy spotted!"

The enemies were not hiding.

They slowly revealed themselves toward the fresh prey that had rolled in on its own feet.

They were demonic creatures shaped as if mimicking the human form.

If one had to compare them, they were similar to ghouls.

Unlike the animal forms commonly seen, their bodies were slender and agile-looking as they moved on all fours.

SCREECH!

SCREECH!

They made sounds and signaled to their kind.

They moved as if waking from a long sleep.

"Fifty of them!"

It seemed like an easy fight.

"No, one hundred...!"

A fight still worth attempting.

"No, two hundred!"

A fight that might be somewhat difficult.

"Three hundred!"

Now, he stopped thinking.

Ghoul demonic creatures densely filled the front of the palace.

With purple skin and green light blazing from their eyes, they looked anything but ordinary.

"Seems there is no making easy money after all."

"What in this world is ever easy?"

Even in a situation where they might die, they smiled.

Because that was the best they could do as adventurers.