Chapter 437 : Oddity (8)
Contanias could not understand.
Why Arculainisis, the guardian dragon of the Empire, was releasing such murderous magic.
Why she was so furious.
But the thing he understood least of all was the word she had spoken.
Just one word.
“……Father……?”
She had referred to Alon Palatio as her father.
That was what made the least sense.
“Hmm? Speak.”
The chilling pressure remained.
Yet even within it, Contanias’s thoughts were bound by her words.
‘Father…… What in the world……?’
Arculainisis was the guardian dragon of the Empire.
She had existed longer than the Empire itself.
In other words, rather than saying the dragon had accompanied the Empire’s history, it would not be wrong to say the Empire had accompanied the dragon’s history.
And that being had clearly said it.
That Alon Palatio was her father.
Contanias raised his head and looked at Arculainisis.
Her trademark dark-circled eyes were filled with a fury he had never seen before.
He could not delay any longer.
“I am sorry!”
Only then did he hurriedly bow his head.
He might be arrogant, but he was not stupid.
Of course, his mind was still filled with one question.
Why the guardian dragon of the Empire would call the king of a mere kingdom her father.
But he did not dare voice it.
Before the divine-bloods had descended, she had lived in this residence while cutting off all communication with the outside world.
Yet even so, it made no sense that the guardian dragon would mistake someone’s identity.
As far as Contanias knew, she was closer to omnipotent than any other being.
Thus—
“I-I was ignorant, and so I—”
Resolving the situation came first.
However.
“That will be enough.”
Unfortunately, the guardian dragon coldly cut him off, as if she had no intention of giving him a chance.
“It seems you must have spewed your characteristic arrogance toward Father.”
As though she had witnessed it herself, the guardian dragon accurately described Contanias’s actions.
The prince pressed his head to the ground, gasping for breath under the crushing pressure.
She looked down at him briefly.
“Go to Father immediately and beg for forgiveness. And bring him here.”
She commanded.
“Th-thank you very much for giving me a chance!”
The prince shouted with all the strength in his voice.
“A chance…… a chance, you say……”
But Arculainisis murmured indifferently.
“Yes. You may call it a chance. If you fail to obtain Father’s forgiveness—”
She looked down at Contanias with weary eyes.
“A strand of history I created will disappear.”
And she declared it clearly.
***
“Law?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Several days later.
Just as usual, while traveling west across a barren wasteland—and still without encountering a single divine-blood—Alon and Penia continued their conversation.
It was about the Law he had been thinking about.
Until now, he had tried to think about it alone as much as possible, but as the temple drew closer, he decided to hear some advice.
Once the time came to create the Law, there would surely be no time to hesitate.
So when Alon first brought it up, the group each began thinking.
“Hmm—this is a difficult problem.”
“As expected?”
“Yes.”
Penia was the first to speak.
“If we think about it simply, I would say you should just steer it toward advancing your magic even further… but if what you said is true, Lord Alon, then that would clearly be a waste.”
Alon nodded.
That was precisely why he could not easily decide on a Law.
If Laws were limited, then one could simply choose among them.
But if Laws were limitless, deciding became difficult.
An ironic situation where freedom itself restrained his thoughts.
“Hmm—I’ll think about it carefully. This doesn’t seem like something that will come out from casually throwing around ideas.”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
“Yes.”
As Penia finished speaking, Evan stepped forward as if he had been waiting.
“But Lord Alon, if you’re setting a Law, shouldn’t you just choose something obviously strong?”
“For example?”
“Well, there are plenty, aren’t there? If it’s an absolute rule… something like, if you’re hit by an attack you die instantly.”
“Or nullifying any attack whatsoever.”
As Evan muttered that, Penia laughed in disbelief beside him.
“Does that make any sense?”
“But didn’t you say anything can be freely set? Then something like that should be possible, right?”
“If you think about it simply, maybe.”
“Then why not do it?”
At Evan’s question, Penia sighed before explaining.
“Even if you made a Law like that, there’s no guarantee it would actually be invincible or absolute.”
“…Why?”
“Well, isn’t the existence of so many divine-bloods already proof enough?”
“…?”
After thinking for a moment, Evan quietly exclaimed.
“Ah.”
“So if such an absurd Law actually existed, there wouldn’t be this many divine-bloods in the first place?”
“Exactly. Though to be precise, that’s assuming it actually works.”
Penia added that no one could possibly fail to think of such simple Laws.
“Hmm, that does make sense.”
Evan nodded in agreement.
“And more importantly, the stronger the power, the greater the penalty apparently is. So we need to think carefully.”
“Penalty? Was that mentioned?”
“Lord Alon just explained it earlier, didn’t he? Right?”
Alon nodded, recalling what the Blue Eyes had once mentioned in passing.
‘Of course, unless one completely reaches Heaven-Created Law, the more a Law deviates from reason, the stronger the penalty becomes.’
Alon turned his gaze toward Yutia.
She was silent, deep in thought.
After some time passed—
“Hmm~ I think a Law that acts like a hidden trump card would be good, My Lord.”
Yutia offered her opinion.
“A hidden trump card?”
When Alon asked again, she nodded and continued.
“In the end, gaining a Law means your method becomes fixed in some way. And once your method is fixed, natural counters will appear. So I thought it might be better to create a Law that could overturn that.”
“After all, you have magic, My Lord.”
Yutia smiled as she said it, and Alon stroked his chin.
Of course, it was not a perfect answer.
In a way, something important was missing from Yutia’s reasoning.
But still—
“A Law that could become a hidden trump card.”
It was quite interesting.
As she said, Alon would most likely end up fighting many divine-bloods in the future.
That meant that from the second stage onward—if not the first—he would have to fight among many different Laws.
And the moment he fixed his Law, he might end up fighting at a disadvantage against divine-bloods.
‘Against such divine-bloods… a power that could become a hidden trump card.’
Alon continued pondering.
Time passed like that.
And when more than two weeks had passed since Alon entered the Western Empire—
“That looks like it.”
“Indeed.”
Alon arrived.
At the ‘temple’ Seeker had spoken about.
***
Turning the clock back slightly to when Alon crossed the border of the Eastern Empire.
“Is that so? The king of Palantio crossed into the Eastern Empire?”
“Yes.”
Serdea Polantisia, the Imperial Princess who ruled the Eastern Empire, chuckled softly at her minister’s report.
‘As expected. There’s no man who would reject someone like me.’
She recalled the image of Alon she had seen several months ago.
His indifferent expression that revealed nothing of his thoughts, and how he had shown no agitation even while facing her, had left quite an impression on Serdea.
Of course, now that she could see his inner thoughts, it only made her laugh.
“But is that really alright?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said you met him personally, but you never verified the rumors.”
The old minister who always stood beside her, offering the best advice.
At his question, she nodded.
“I did not verify them.”
“In that case—”
“But it does not matter.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That man did not seem ordinary. Even his instincts were different from those other frontier kings.”
“Well, it seems my other siblings fail to understand that.”
Serdea added casually.
“Even if my instincts were wrong, it still does not matter. Because—”
Grin.
“If I keep him by my side, I will gain far more than I lose.”
The corners of her lips curled upward.
“Just by taking in the king of a frontier kingdom?”
“Yes. He is a king supported within the Allied Kingdom Alliance. Even if he does not actually possess the rumored ability to control divine-bloods, that alone would be enough to give him a seat beside me. There is much to gain.”
The minister could not immediately respond.
Because it was not difficult to understand what she meant by “there is much to gain.”
Though smaller in stature than her siblings, she was someone who could step forward without hesitation more than any of them.
Watching her, the minister listened as she muttered in satisfaction.
“Besides, his face was quite to my taste.”
“…Then I will arrange for him to be brought in as soon as contact is made.”
The minister bowed respectfully.
A week passed.
“Your Highness. Lord Alon has passed through the Duchy of Tria.”
“…The Duchy of Tria? That is not the route toward the capital.”
“Yes, that is the strange part…”
As the minister looked puzzled, Serdea thought for a moment.
“Ah—so that’s it. What a rather thoughtful man.”
She nodded as if she had realized something.
“Yes…?”
“Think about it. The specialty of the Duchy of Tria.”
“The specialty… do you mean the flowers that never wither?”
“Yes. He seems to have a rather admirable side.”
“I see.”
The minister immediately understood her meaning and nodded.
Time passed.
And when Alon had already arrived at the temple—
“Your Highness?”
“Hmm—ah—my, my. Has he finally arrived?”
Serdea said to her most trusted minister.
“Um, we confirmed it late, but… it seems Lord Alon has headed toward the Western Empire.”
Upon hearing that report—
“…Huh?”
A completely dumbfounded voice slipped out of her mouth.