With Penia's small gasp—
silence fell over the campsite that had been bustling just moments earlier.
‘...What is this?’
Alon stared blankly at Yutia.
The gentle smile resting at the corners of her lips was the same as always.
Only her hairstyle had changed.
But that alone—or rather, that very thing—
dealt Alon no small amount of shock.
He had thought maybe, just maybe, but he had never imagined that Yutia of all people would wear her hair in twin tails.
‘Why all of a sudden...?’
The question swelled inside him.
The truth was, he had noticed.
He had noticed since last time that she had been trying to change her hairstyle.
But he had not expected anything this drastic.
Of course, it was not wrong.
It was not wrong, but—
“...Uh...”
While Alon’s mind spun busily,
Yuman, the Saint of Rosario, lost his usual smile and faced reality with a somewhat flustered expression.
“...Cardinal, you changed your hair.”
“Yes.”
“...Why so suddenly...?”
Yuman asked carefully.
Yutia did not lose her usual smile.
“I just changed it for a bit of a change of pace.”
“I-I see.”
Yuman was openly flustered.
He had not managed to hide it in time.
But no one could blame him.
Not the other holy knights, not Penia or Evan. Everyone present was the same.
And through all that, Yutia’s composure did not break.
No—if anything, she walked up to Alon with a quiet confidence about her.
“Teacher, have you been well?”
For some reason, her voice sounded more triumphant than usual as she asked after him.
“Uh... yes, I’ve been well.”
“Yes, of course you ★ Ncefbighs ★ have.”
Alon had no idea what was going on, but he nodded anyway.
Then Yutia ran a hand through her hair and asked,
“More importantly, Teacher, what do you think?”
“...What do you mean?”
“I tried changing my style this time, and I was curious what you would think of it, Teacher.”
Smiling, but with a strange amount of force behind the question, Yutia waited.
Alon fell into thought.
Honestly, his impression of Yutia’s twin-tail style was...
...not positive, if he was being blunt.
To begin with, he thought this kind of thing suited a young girl.
Of course, Yutia herself looked quite young, and Alon’s own way of thinking was rather old-fashioned...
But regardless, it was true that was how he felt.
At the same time, separately from that, he also wondered whether being honest was really the right thing to do.
Because, judging by that quietly triumphant air behind Yutia’s gentle smile, she seemed to be very pleased with her appearance at the moment.
And so, after hesitating briefly, Alon asked,
“You’re asking for my opinion?”
“Yes.”
Having made up his mind, he finally answered.
“...I think your original style suits you better than this.”
“Ah.”
For an instant, Yutia’s pupils widened.
She looked shocked.
Seeing that, Alon immediately felt both confusion and unease at the same time.
“Is that... so.”
Yutia answered.
Unlike before, her tone creaked slightly.
As if bewitched by something, she turned and walked unsteadily back toward the carriage.
“...Uh... did I perhaps make some kind of mistake?”
“Mmm... I do think that’s the kind of thing you could say...”
Penia was just answering the flustered Alon when, far away, in the forest—
a man and a woman, Hidan and Yuna, were watching the scene with magically enhanced vision.
And then, after finally seeing Yutia, who had stood before Alon, turn around and creak her way back toward the carriage,
Hidan said,
“...Yuna.”
“Yeah...”
“When I’m buried, bury me beside the orphanage.”
“...All right... if there’s anything left to bury, I’ll do that.”
At Yuna’s prophecy, Hidan squeezed both eyes shut and humbly accepted death.
Another week passed as they traveled with Yutia.
On the way to the Central Tower, Alon ran into yet another familiar face.
“Brother!”
“It has been a long time, Your Majesty. I hope you have been well.”
“...Prince?”
It was Karsemm, who had become the king of the desert city of Colony.
“Please, just call me comfortably! More importantly, I’m sorry. I really wanted to attend your coronation, but I couldn’t come see you—”
“It’s fine. More importantly, are you headed to the Central Tower?”
At Alon’s question, Karsemm nodded.
“That’s right. Are you as well, Brother?”
“Yes.”
“Then, would it be all right if I joined you? We’re headed the same way.”
At Karsemm’s suggestion, Alon glanced toward Yutia and Yuman.
The two of them lightly nodded.
“Then let’s do that.”
Karsemm joining them was decided.
“I look forward to traveling with you.”
Karsemm bowed his head in greeting.
Alon returned it lightly, and soon the two of them began talking about one thing and another.
Among those topics, the one that took up the most space was the letter that had summoned the kings of the Allied Kingdoms, Alon included.
“Do you happen to know anything about the letter?”
At Alon’s question, Karsemm shook his head.
“No... If you mean the Seeker’s Contract, the truth is that I don’t know the details either, Brother. But even with Colony in such terrible shape, it seemed like going to the Central Tower would still be worth it, so I decided to go.”
“...Worth it?”
“Yes. After receiving the letter, I searched Colony’s old archive in case any information remained.”
He said the old archive was deep underground, and outside Colony as well, so it had escaped damage.
Karsemm took a moment to gather his thoughts, then continued.
“When I went there, I found something about the Seeker’s Contract.”
“What did it say?”
“It wasn’t much. It just said that when the time came, the contract had to be faithfully fulfilled. If that was done, power would be received.”
“The power that had been entrusted?”
“Yes. Of course, I don’t know what that power is...”
Karsemm’s face grew more serious.
“But at this point in time, anything is better than nothing if it will help the country I’m leading.”
“...I see.”
“To be honest, it still weighs on me that I left behind a country in the middle of reconstruction... but Seollang is in Colony.”
At that, Alon fell silent for a moment.
Because in truth, ever since their reunion, he had been wanting to ask about Seollang.
“Come to think of it, how is Seollang?”
The subject shifted naturally.
As if recalling Seollang, Karsemm let out a small groan.
“Mmm... all the injuries have healed.”
“...There aren’t any problems, are there?”
“Problems... At least, not that I know of. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Seollang.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Even if I try to think of anything that’s changed, nothing really comes to mind.”
Alon murmured, “I see,” and nodded briefly.
The conversation continued a little after that.
Eventually, Alon climbed back into the carriage, and Evan, standing beside it, called to him.
“My Lord Alon.”
“Mmm?”
“I’m just curious, but why have you been paying so much attention to Seollang lately?”
“Ah, of course, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It just seems like you ask after Seollang often.”
That was certainly how it could look.
Alon was silent for a moment.
“There’s a reason.”
He looked out the carriage window.
The sky outside was blue.
“...There’s a reason.”
His murmur scattered quietly into the air.
The sun was sinking low, and night would soon be arriving.
“Hoo—”
In the enormous training ground set up on one side of the Divine Land, Seamus let out a deep breath as he held his sword.
Sweat was pouring down his body like rain.
And yet that did not mean he had done anything especially strenuous.
Because all he had done today was stand here from morning until evening, motionless, holding his sword.
And yet even so, Seamus was clearly satisfied with this situation itself.
After the hardships of the past several weeks, he could feel it instinctively.
That he had reached it.
‘You are not being told to find a derivative.’
‘Nor are you being told to use mana.’
‘Simply desire it. If you do, you will obtain your power.’
Seamus recalled several weeks ago.
The moment when, gloriously, he had been allowed to receive that person’s power.
And at the same time, the words that person had spoken to him.
Honestly, Seamus had not known why he had been chosen.
There were many in this Divine Land far greater than he was.
And yet one thing was certain.
That his god had trusted Seamus and bestowed power upon him.
And that Seamus had to live up to the will of such a god.
That was why Seamus had not been able to rest since the moment he received that power.
Repeating the words his god had spoken to him, he had continued meditating somehow, trying to follow that will.
And today, he had realized it.
That now only a single final step remained.
And that was not all.
Instinctively, he also quickly realized what was needed for that final step.
‘The power I desire.’
That person had told him.
Simply imagine what he desired.
And what Seamus desired was—
‘...The power to defeat Divine blood.’
—that, exactly.
Compared to the gigantic Divine blood, humans were endlessly small and frail.
And so he wanted power that could answer the enemy.
Power to face those overwhelming, colossal Divine blood.
And then—
Woooooong—!
In the next moment, Seamus felt it.
The sensation of something inside his body erupting outward explosively.
And then—
The Darkness-Eating Sword.
One of the strongest among the current Divine blood, a being that had crossed over into the Allied Kingdoms to kill the Star Eater... only to be half-forcibly(?) recruited into a group called “Star Root.”
To be honest, it had a lot of complaints about this group called Star Root.
Naturally so.
It had not joined because it wanted to.
And what made its dissatisfaction even greater was the fact that these beings kept spouting unbelievable nonsense.
The ridiculous claim that the Star Eater could divide up the power of a god.
Of course, a few among them, including Burned Foliage, claimed to have personally seen the Star Eater share out the abilities of Divine blood, but even that was hard to believe.
No—in fact, it thought that was practically impossible to be true.
A Divine blood’s power was, to begin with, something like its essence.
But to not only absorb that essence at will, but to pass it on to someone else?
That was only possible for an omnipotent god in the truest sense, so the Darkness-Eating Sword had decided to confirm it with its own eyes.
Whether the Star Eater truly possessed such an ability.
Fortunately, the Darkness-Eating Sword’s actions were not heavily restrained.
Partly because it had moved in secret from Burned Foliage, but also because there were other Divine blood who agreed with its thinking.
No matter how many said they had witnessed it, for the Divine blood who had been drawn in, willingly or unwillingly, by Burned Foliage’s words afterward, it was still a story too distant to fully believe.
And so, five Divine blood in total, including the Darkness-Eating Sword, deliberately created split bodies using one Divine blood’s ability and moved toward the Divine Land where he was.
[This is the Divine La-?? governed by the Star Eater?]
Not long after arriving in the Divine Land, they saw it.
Floating above the Divine Land—
a gigantic greatsword.

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