Chapter 133 - The Borderlands (1)

After Blue Moon's regular meeting ended, the magical orb that had been hosting the video conference went dark.

"How was it?"

Hidan came over from the next room while Yuna sat there looking dazed.

She opened and closed her mouth as though she had no idea what to say, then finally asked a question.

"... Um."

"Go ahead."

"That was a meeting, right?"

"It was."

"... That?"

"Yes."

"... A discussion about turning the second prince into an Outer God so they can erect a statue of Blue Moon counts as a meeting...?"

"The second prince did try to smear Blue Moon once before."

"... Well, then he deserves it. But still—"

"It was a perfectly ordinary meeting until halfway through, wasn't it?"

"But still—"

Yuna continued, "Red Moon and Gold Moon... were arguing about marrying the Great Moon or something... and Green Moon spent more than thirty minutes showing off a gift from him. And Silver Moon... heard there was someone else trying to smear him and jumped out through the window, breaking it before the meeting was even over... Isn't that a bit much, no matter how you look at it?"

"Hmm..."

"Was Violet Moon always so talkative? I'm sure he wasn't. He used to be so quiet, but today he spent over two whole hours talking about nothing but the Great Moon...?"

These were nothing like the personalities of the Moons she knew. They had changed far too much.

As conflicting emotions crossed her face, Hidan fell silent as well.

... He felt much the same way as Yuna.

The recent meetings in particular had been getting even worse. Their fanaticism had grown more intense than when he first attended.

'... Has the Great Moon... learned hypnosis or something?'

Entertaining the same thought Radan had once had, he looked at Yuna. Her expression plainly said this wasn't the kind of meeting she had wanted to see.

Then she spoke.

"Hidan."

"What is it?"

"About the Great Moon... Could he have some ability to manipulate people's perceptions...? Or something like hypnosis? When I saw him from a distance last time, he certainly didn't seem that way..."

Seeing that Yuna had ultimately reached the same conclusion as he had, he did not bother to contradict her.

"... He might."

####

The borderlands of the allied kingdoms lay so far from House Pallatio's marquisate that reaching them took about a month.

That was only natural. The Kingdom of Asteria was in the east, while the allied kingdoms' border lay at their westernmost edge, beyond Callivan.

As a result, Alon had already spent over two weeks traveling by carriage.

Still, he had no time to be bored. That was thanks to the sentence "Unification of Shadows," which he had obtained along with Blackie... or rather, the Death Shadow Dragon.

"My lord, what are you thinking so hard about?"

Alon had been watching Blackie eagerly pick up and eat sweet potatoes beside the campfire. He answered Evan slowly.

"I can't quite get a feel for it."

"Ah, the magic?"

Alon nodded.

'The spell won't manifest at all.'

Throughout the carriage journey to the border, Alon had repeatedly tried using Unification of Shadows, but he still hadn't worked out the proper method.

'What's the problem...?'

Of course, he knew there could be several problems.

Fundamentally, magic using phrases and sentences required "the correct, precise terms" to produce the proper effect, as the dragonkin had told him before.

Yet his previous experiences still left him puzzled. Even when he hadn't understood how to use sentences and phrases correctly, the magic itself had manifested to some extent, albeit imperfectly.

Unification of Shadows, however, merely consumed mana without manifesting at all.

'... Does this spell require some special method? Or can it only be activated with a Shadow Dragon, making it impossible now that Blackie is a Death Shadow Dragon?'

His questions snowballed.

"My lord, there's something I haven't had a chance to tell you."

"What is it?"

Evan's voice interrupted his thoughts. Alon collected himself and turned to look at him.

"I heard this in the territory we stopped at this morning, but apparently a lot of Time Gates have been appearing lately."

"Time Gates?"

"Yes. They used to appear only around magic towers, but I'm told they've started appearing all over the place simultaneously."

The news was no surprise.

'... Right. There's less than half a year until the original story starts, so it's about time they began appearing.'

He had expected Time Gates to start appearing more frequently around now.

'Elivan, the protagonist of Psychedelia, began his adventure when a Monster Gate—the phenomenon that follows a Time Gate—appeared in his village and put it in danger.'

Alon hadn't given them much attention because he was focused on the Five Great Sins, which were directly linked to the destruction of the world. But Time Gates were also one of the main events driving Psychedelia's story.

Quite a few Time Gate incidents had threatened entire kingdoms.

Even so, Alon wasn't particularly worried, thanks to the protagonist.

Yes, even without Alon's involvement, Elivan would travel around closing those Time Gates as he did in the original story.

'... He'll take care of closing them himself.'

Unlike the Five Great Sins, which invariably wiped out a country or two whenever they descended, Time Gates posed no major problem as long as they were closed promptly. That was why Alon wasn't too worried.

'Well, perhaps I'll lend him a hand when he starts his first adventure, just in case. Give him a few extra things, too... If he's weaker than I expect, should I stay in Lartania and train him up a little?'

Thinking of the hardships awaiting Elivan and making plans of his own, he put a now-cold sweet potato into his mouth.

"... Delicious."

"My lord, you eat sweet potatoes every time we light a campfire. Aren't you getting tired of them by now?"

"No, they're always fresh and delicious to me."

"... Are they?"

Evan was eating a potato, apparently having tired of sweet potatoes.

'... I don't think I used to like sweet potatoes this much, either.'

Why on earth were they so delicious?

The question briefly occurred to him, but he soon shrugged and pushed another bite into his mouth.

Sweet potatoes eaten beside a campfire on a cool night were as delicious as ever.

####

About two more weeks later, Alon finally arrived near the border.

"Wow, it's really nothing but wasteland out there."

Looking at the high wall marking the border and the sandy wasteland beyond it, he began thinking.

'... How do I get across?'

The wasteland between the allied kingdoms and the empire was an area players called the Badlands.

Guarded by the "allied army," it was not easy to enter. In fact, ordinary nobles weren't even permitted to set foot in the wasteland. Even when playing Psychedelia, he had only been able to cross into it a few times for special quests.

'... The empire was one reason, but wasn't it also to avoid awakening the Curse?'

The Curse.

Though it had yet to reveal itself at this point, it was a group that would one day be known as one of the Four Great Factions, alongside the jungle's Hundred Demons.

It had made its home in that wasteland.

There were plenty of other, exceedingly minor reasons, but that was ultimately the main one.

'Will I have to use the crawl hole after all?'

He recalled the sole crawl hole in that wall, which was covered with dozens, even hundreds, of magic circles, then smacked his lips awkwardly.

'... I'd rather not, if I can help it.'

The crawl hole would certainly get him inside. But if there was another way, he would rather not use it.

Getting in and out through it was harder than one might expect.

'... Though I don't know exactly how it was hard.'

Whenever Alon had occasionally entered the wasteland through the crawl hole to grind levels in the game, a notification saying "You've expended too much stamina!" would appear, and every party member's HP would drop by 50%.

As his deliberations deepened, Evan spoke.

"Shall we stop in the village first?"

"Yes."

The sun was already setting, so they decided to spend the night in a village overlooking the borderlands.

And in the village they reached...

"Teacher?"

"... Yutia?"

"Brother."

"... You're here as well, Your Holiness."

He encountered a very peculiar pair.

"What brings you here?"

His surprise at the unexpected encounter lasted only a moment. Yutia approached swiftly through the many clergy, wearing a reassuring smile, and Alon answered her question.

"... I have some business at the border."

"At the border?"

"Yes. But why are you here?"

When he asked what had brought them there, Yuman answered before she could.

"A problem recently arose at the border, so we're heading there to repair the gate, Brother."

Yutia looked at Yuman with a slightly stiff smile, perhaps because he had cut her off.

But Yuman paid her gaze no heed and added with a gentle smile, "If you have business at the border as well, Brother, why not come with us?"

Though it didn't show on his face, Alon was delighted. If he went to the border with Yuman, he certainly wouldn't need to use the crawl hole.

"... Would that be all right?"

"Of course."

This unexpected stroke of luck gave Alon a very easy way into the borderlands.

####

The "allied army" defended the border.

True to its name, it was not the army of a single country, but a force assembled from fixed proportions of soldiers and knights drawn from each of the five nations representing the allied kingdoms.

At present, its garrison commander was Kyriana, who had been known a few years earlier as the Second Sword of Callivan's Five Swords.

She was not flustered by the saint and cardinal's sudden appearance. Her superiors had already notified her.

The person who drew Kyriana's interest instead was Marquis Pallatio, who had accompanied them. Not only had he not been mentioned in the report, but she had yet to properly thank him for helping her once in the north some time ago.

But that lasted only a moment.

Kyriana soon found herself in an awkward situation. No, to be honest, it was rather ridiculous.

The situation in question was this:

"... I think you can put me down as his guarantor."

"No, please put down my name."

They were squabbling over whose name should go in the guarantor's signature field for the marquis.

The saint and cardinal, who had come to repair the gate, needed no guarantor. Marquis Pallatio, however, could only accompany them into the borderlands with a reliable person vouching for him.

He didn't need several guarantors. Just one.

In other words, either one of the two people before her simply had to write their name in the signature field.

Yet over that single name...

"... Your Holiness? I'll vouch for Teacher, so please don't worry."

"No, Cardinal Yutia. I'll do it, so you needn't concern yourself. I hear you find this sort of thing terribly burdensome."

"Not at all. Perhaps for someone else, but this is Teacher. It's no burden whatsoever, you know. Not with the relationship Teacher and I share."

"The same goes for me. With the relationship Brother and I share, this is nothing at all. There's no need for you to worry so much."

They had already been engaged in this battle of wills for over ten minutes.

"..."

Kyriana looked at Yutia's and Yuman's faces.

Both wore easy smiles, but neither was smiling with their eyes.

... If anything, they felt strangely chilling.

"Your Holiness? Perhaps it's time you stopped being stubborn. Teacher seems to be growing uncomfortable, too."

"Perhaps you should stop being stubborn, Cardinal."

'... Seriously, why make such a fuss over this...?'

As the two clergy began choosing increasingly aggressive words, even Kyriana started to feel uncomfortable there.

"Stop being stubborn."

"Cardinal, I would ask the same of you. You did nothing when Brother was being reprimanded at the last meeting of the kingdoms. There's no need to try so hard simply because Brother is watching."

"I'd already sent a letter before you even knew about it, Your Holiness, so don't worry. I care about Teacher far more than you do."

The atmosphere had now grown so hostile that they seemed ready to fight for real. Barely resisting the urge to clutch her head, Kyriana looked at the cause of their dispute.

'Just who is Marquis Pallatio...?'

But Alon himself was equally clueless.

'... What's gotten into these two?'