Chapter 436 : Oddity (7)
Among the divine-bloods, including the Darkness-Devouring Sword, a fierce debate was taking place over who had left the greatest “impact(?)” on Alon.
“......This is a gem?”
“Yes.”
Alon received a gem from Yutia.
A very peculiar gem, with one side dyed blue and the other dyed red.
While quietly observing it, Alon asked Yutia,
“Where did you get this?”
“After Blackie absorbed the entire corpse, I noticed this was there.”
“Then that means—”
“I think it came out from inside that divine-blood’s body.”
Alon’s gaze returned to the gem.
It was fascinating, but at the same time it raised questions.
“Is this the item Seeker mentioned?”
Alon examined the gem from every angle.
However, aside from the unusual appearance of its differently colored surfaces, he could not sense any particular power from it.
Alon lifted his head.
“Thank you for finding it.”
“It was nothing. Are we leaving?”
“We should.”
There did not seem to be anything else here.
After taking one final look around the ruins, he headed toward where Yutia and Blackie were.
Having apparently eaten its fill, Blackie lay on its side, stretching its limbs and yawning.
[Meow-]
The creature glanced at Yutia as if watching her reaction, then quietly slipped into Alon’s chest again.
Soon after, Alon asked the group,
“Did anyone find anything?”
“No. I walked around the shattered areas just in case, but I didn’t find anything.”
Evan scratched his head.
However, considering those words, his pockets looked rather full.
Tilting his head, Alon asked,
“......What is that?”
“Hm? What are you referring to?”
“Your pocket.”
“Oh, ah—this? Well, how should I put it, it’s like a reward for someone who diligently explored these ruins.”
Evan rambled awkwardly.
But when Penia, standing beside him with an exasperated look, lightly tapped his pocket—
Clatterrr!
The tightly packed gold coins instantly spilled out.
“Ahem—”
Evan immediately cleared his throat and began picking up the coins.
As Penia and Alon stared at him with cold expressions, he hurriedly tried to explain.
“No, you don’t think I was just wandering around looking for things like this without thinking, right? I just thought that if something valuable existed, maybe it would be in the territory’s treasury or something!”
“How pathetic……”
Penia clicked her tongue in disdain while looking at Evan.
Evan scoffed and glared back at her.
“You don’t really have the right to say that either.”
“Me? Why?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice? You sneaking off to the archive while glancing around.”
“!”
Penia’s expression revealed she had been struck at the core.
“No, that was only because I thought there might be something there—”
“That’s exactly the same as me!”
“No it isn’t! I was only doing it for the advancement of Lord Alon’s magic!”
“You should probably hide the book you’re holding before saying that.”
“Ugh—!”
She hurriedly hid the book behind her back and began making excuses with a face like a startled cat.
Watching the two bickering, Alon sighed and made a decision.
“Let’s depart.”
He had strongly concluded that finding anything in this collapsed territory was essentially impossible.
Besides, Yutia had said it came from the body of the Father of Maggots.
Alon looked at the gem.
Even now, aside from being somewhat unusual, nothing particularly stood out about it.
However, Alon felt that perhaps this was the “necessary item” Seeker had mentioned.
Even if Seeker had given most of the information roughly, it did not seem like he would have been careless with something important.
Therefore, there was no need to waste any more time here.
Their journey west resumed.
***
More than a week had passed since they began moving west.
While preparing camp in the middle of another barren grassland, Alon realized something anew.
“......How strange.”
“What part?”
“That we haven’t encountered a single divine-blood.”
“Ah, that part—”
Evan nodded.
“To be honest, I didn’t really think about it at first, but now that we’re here, I do feel it too.”
“Right?”
“Yes.”
They had heard many times that there were numerous divine-bloods in the western region.
Naturally, they had expected to encounter them, yet surprisingly they had not met any at all.
Even Evan, who earlier had asked if it wasn’t better not to meet them, was now beginning to think something was strange.
“Honestly, if the territories were still normal or something, I might’ve thought the rumors were exaggerated… but the rumors we’ve gathered in the west and the territories we’ve seen are all completely destroyed.”
“Hmm—”
Alon nodded.
As Evan said, the current situation was clearly strange.
To cross into the Empire, Alon had already traveled across the eastern Empire.
Although he had not visited territories directly, he had heard countless times that the Western Empire had fallen because of divine-bloods.
Of course, according to Nataman, the prince of the Western Empire, it had not completely collapsed.
However, most of the territory had indeed fallen to divine-bloods, and that was also how it looked to Alon.
Everything he had seen while moving through the western Empire were shattered territories and grotesque creatures that were clearly the work of divine-bloods.
Of course, they had all been dead.
‘Anyway, despite all these traces, we still haven’t encountered a divine-blood.’
“Is something happening?”
When Alon muttered that—
“Hmm, that possibility cannot be ruled out, My Lord.”
Yutia suddenly spoke.
“You think so too?”
“Hmm—it’s only one possibility. But there’s no reason for things to differ this much from public rumors, so in a way, it makes me think something else might be happening that we don’t know about.”
At Yutia’s reasoning, Penia—who had been quietly watching her reactions—raised her hand.
“Um, I also have a small thought.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve been going around various ruined territories, right?”
“That’s right.”
“And every time, we saw how divine-bloods turn humans into various different types.”
She was right.
While crossing the Western Empire, they had seen humans reduced to tools of the divine-bloods.
“But the territories we started seeing a few days ago are different. The types are similar.”
“Similar types?”
“Yes. Before, they were all different forms, but recently most of them are……”
As Penia trailed off, Evan, who had been thinking, let out a quiet exclamation.
“Ah.”
“That’s true. The humans we saw recently were mostly in the form of red eggs. Though most of them were already burst.”
“Ah.”
Alon remembered as well.
Most of the recent territories had been filled with red eggs.
Penia seemed to recall the scene too, letting out a groan as if her stomach felt sick.
“Well, maybe someone is helping us out?”
“…Who?”
“Yes. Like maybe someone we don’t know is quietly taking care of the divine-bloods or something.”
When Evan proposed the hypothesis, Penia looked at him with blatant disdain.
“Tsk. Try saying something that actually makes sense.”
“Ahem… maybe I went a bit too far.”
As Evan scratched his head awkwardly, Alon sighed.
“Well, if someone like that actually exists, I’d like to thank them.”
While the group continued chatting like that—
Far away.
At a distance where Alon’s group looked like mere dots—
“…A word of thanks.”
A woman was watching them with eyes marked by a distinctive six-pointed star.
Standing quietly atop the corpses of countless divine-bloods.
***
The prince leading the capital of the Northern Empire, Contanias, had been in quite a good mood when he arrived at the capital.
He could not help it.
He had only gone because of the dead Emperor’s words that he could obtain “power,” but he had never imagined he would actually find such an opportunity there.
Strictly speaking, he had not obtained it yet.
Seeker had only given him the possibility and method to obtain power; the “power” itself had to be acquired personally.
However, Contanias did not mind.
After all, he was the prince leading the Northern Empire.
If he gave the order, there would be people lining up to create even legendary elixirs that might or might not exist at the edge of the continent.
But the true reason Contanias showed such absolute confidence was something else.
There was a special being granted only to him—something no one else in the Empire possessed.
Hundreds of years ago, in exchange for offering countless dragon hearts scattered across the continent, the Empire gained a guardian dragon who protected it.
Crying Dragon Arculainisis.
Thus, immediately after returning to the capital, Contanias went to see Arculainisis.
“I pay my respects to the great dragon of the covenant.”
“Yes.”
As usual, Crying Dragon sat upon the most magnificent stone throne in the middle of countless treasures and looked down at him.
“It has been quite a while since I summoned you. You took rather long.”
Its voice carried clear dissatisfaction.
Contanias bowed his head even lower.
A prince’s head should not bow easily, but it was different when facing the guardian dragon.
After all, the Northern Empire could continue to prosper only because the guardian dragon stood behind it.
“I apologize, Guardian Dragon. Please forgive my delay.”
“That is enough. More importantly, you said you had business with me as soon as you returned. What is it?”
Arculainisis waved its hand lazily, as if uninterested in formalities.
The corner of Contanias’s mouth twisted upward as he bowed his head.
It was the question he had been waiting for.
Thus—
“I came to make a request of the Guardian Dragon.”
“What is it?”
“I ask that you punish an insolent human.”
“An insolent human?”
“Yes. A king from a small nation in the Allied Kingdom Alliance. His name is Alon Palatio.”
With excitement in his voice, Contanias continued.
“He insulted me, a prince of the Empire—and by extension, the Empire itself. That is no different from insulting the Empire protected by you, Guardian Dragon! I was so outraged by this that I could not sleep.”
He spoke about Alon Palatio, who had acted insolently toward him.
“Alon Palatio?”
At the guardian dragon’s reaction, Contanias became even more animated.
“Yes!”
“Did you say Alon Palatio just now?”
“Yes. He insulted me, the Empire, and even you, Guardian Dragon! Please punish him with the utmost severity and demonstrate the Empire’s authority!”
Contanias shouted with solemn exaggeration and waited.
“I see.”
Hearing the guardian dragon’s response, he smiled viciously.
He believed it to be agreement.
However.
At some point, Contanias felt something strange.
No—
It was not strangeness.
It was—
“Ghk—?”
Pressure.
A horrifying pressure that made it hard to breathe.
And in that sudden moment—
“......What you are asking of me now,”
he heard it.
“Is for me to kill my father.”
Crying Dragon’s voice burning with fury.