Once, Astarotte had been there.
But now, in that desolate territory where nothing remained anymore—
“Hm—”
one person stood there.
A man draped in a black star-sea robe, with a silver chain hanging from his pants.
As if he found it interesting, he looked over the territory of the one who descended.
More precisely, the places where the one who descended and the Divine blood had fought.
As though the situation from back then were replaying right before his eyes, his gaze moved nonstop.
His eyes swept here and there, then stopped in one place.
And then he—
“I see—”
smiled as if he had seen the end, as if he had realized something.
“So this is how it turns out this time. How curious.”
After muttering quietly, he turned away without the slightest hesitation.
As if there was nothing left for him here anymore.
But at that moment—
the star-sea robe stopped walking.
A woman stood right in front of him.
An unusual appearance, with pentagrams in both eyes.
At the sight of her, the man in the black star-sea robe spoke in surprise.
“Well now— it seems someone got here before me.”
“I’m not here first.”
“Then?”
“I came to see you.”
At that answer, a natural smile spread across the star-sea robe’s lips.
“Is that so? Then I’m honored. To think the recently famous ‘Predator’ came all the way here just to find me. So, what is it?”
The woman stared at him for a moment before parting her lips.
“If I could’ve killed you in advance, I was going to. But it seems I can’t do that.”
A calm voice, and words that were anything but calm.
The man in the star-sea robe replied with an easy smile.
“My, that’s frightening.”
“Stop lying.”
“And why do you think that? Did you hear it from the ‘me’ before this one?”
“Hm, I suppose that must be it.”
Even as the star-sea robe laughed in a curling, amused way, the Predator only stared at him in silence.
“Don’t act like you’ve newly realized something you already knew.”
“Well now, have I been found out?”
“......It would be nice if I could kill you.”
“That’s unfortunate. Still, seeing as you want to kill me— I suppose you want to protect him?”
Without a word, the Predator merely glared at the star-sea robe with those pentagrams shining in both eyes.
“But let me say it once again. That’s impossible. He’s forced far too much already.”
“And for one who twisted the proper order that should have been followed, it is only inevitable that even greater absurdity will be given in return.”
Yet, unconcerned even by that chilling stare, the star-sea robe turned away.
“That won’t change. Even if it repeats any number of times.”
With those final words, he vanished completely.
As though he had never been there in the first place.
And soon, in that place—
only the Predator, pentagrams glowing in both eyes, quietly stared at where the star-sea robe had stood.
“......Lord Alon.”
“What is it......”
“Normally, fish that live in the sea...... no, that thing’s not a fish, it’s a monster, but...... normally things that live in the sea can only swim in water, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what is that?”
Alon glanced sideways at Evan.
He looked at him for a moment with eyes that clearly said, You’re asking me that right now?
Then—
“Uh, for now...... should we go?”
At Penia’s dazed voice, Alon nodded.
And the group continued on toward Palantia.
But even as they did, their eyes refused to leave the castle.
Naturally so.
They still hadn’t even gotten used to the castle as it was, yet after another half a year, it had once again changed enormously.
To be fair, the sea god leisurely swimming near the castle was so shocking that it pulled their attention first, but even beyond what Alon had expected, the castle itself had changed unmistakably.
Among those changes, the most shocking by far was the floating island above the castle.
“......It’s big enough to build an entire mansion on.”
“It’s big enough to build the academy we saw while crossing the Empire this time.”
“......I see.”
The floating island they had seen last time had definitely been very small.
If he had to put it into words, it had felt almost like a mascot—something just large enough to build a tiny house on.
But now?
It really had become so huge that Penia and Evan could say things like that.
And that wasn’t all.
“......Why does the castle look even bigger?”
“I felt the same way.”
“So I’m not imagining it......?”
The castle had gotten bigger too.
And not to the point where you’d tilt your head and go, Hm? Did it maybe get a little bigger? No, it was at the point where you could simply recognize, Ah, it got bigger.
“Logically speaking...... is that even possible?”
“No, I mean...... castles don’t normally gain weight like that, do they? Normally, if a castle gets bigger, you have to tear it down and rebuild it.”
“So that is how it should work......?”
“But it doesn’t look like they tore it down and rebuilt it either.”
At Evan’s words, Alon nodded.
In the first place, tearing down a castle of that size and rebuilding it within half a year made no sense at all.
So as Alon wondered just what in the world had happened while he was away, he soon arrived in front of the castle.
And the moment Alon reached the front of the castle—
Fwaaaaaa—!!
a red carpet began to spread out before him.
He was startled by the suddenly appearing red carpet, but only for a moment.
“......Illusion magic?”
The instant Alon realized what it was—
Fwaaaaaak—!
illusionary knights appeared all at once on both sides of the red carpet and drew their swords.
The brightly shining blades instantly crossed in X-shapes and shot toward the sky, making sounds like fireworks as they began forming Alon’s image.
“......Oh.”
Evan let out a sound of admiration.
“Wow...... the amount of magic crystals this takes for just one use...... this is a complete waste of mon—”
Penia wore a horrified expression as she calculated the amount of magic crystals being consumed at that very moment.
And—
“......Ah.”
struck by a level of horrifying embarrassment so intense he felt like he might collapse on the spot, Alon had no choice but to squeeze his eyes shut.
Right after that, after completing a return ceremony he had absolutely not wanted while receiving greetings and applause from countless residents of the territory—
“You’ve returned, Your Majesty.”
“Alexion.”
he exchanged a brief greeting with Alexion, who had come to receive them.
“There is quite a lot I need to report, but...... I imagine you have many questions first, so I’ll postpone the report a little.”
“Thank you.”
Then he headed straight into the castle.
And there, he soon found Reinysius and—
“......You’re here.”
“Reinysius. And—”
“Ah, you’ve returned, Your Majesty.”
“Mm.”
—the two tower masters.
More precisely, Norton, master of the Purple Mage Tower, and Manram, master of the Brown Mage Tower, both smiling as though they were having the time of their lives.
At the sight of the two of them, Alon squeezed his eyes shut once, then opened them again.
“That illusion magic...... did the two of you make it?”
“Yes. What do you think?”
“......Stop doing it.”
Still clutching his head with hands trembling from embarrassment, he made that request.
Right after that, Alon was finally able to hear why things had turned out like this.
“So, to summarize. Reinysius’s magic power is so great that merely running this castle doesn’t consume it at all, so you renovated the castle again on that premise?”
“That’s correct.”
“Wow......”
At Norton’s words, Penia couldn’t help letting out a sound of amazement as she looked at Reinysius.
“......I’m starting to feel like I’m an idiot.”
Hearing her strange mutter, Alon continued.
“......Then is that the same too?”
“If by that, you mean?”
“......That.”
When Alon pointed at the sea god swimming around the castle, Manram nodded as if to say that was right.
“That’s right.”
“How exactly did you do that?”
“It wasn’t such a grand feat. Using the five castles that serve as each point, we drew a great magic circle and added a bit of a gravity formation on top of it. Originally, it was a mechanism made to block long-range attacks from incoming, but as I kept looking at it, I thought it might also work well aesthetically, so additionally—”
As if he had been waiting for that question, Manram started speaking in a rush.
After confirming that, Alon let out a quiet little sound.
“......Ah.”
“......Is there, perhaps, some problem?”
At that, Manram cautiously tried to read the room.
Now you’re trying to read the room? That thought did cross Alon’s mind, but he soon shook his head.
“......No, it’s not that.”
From Alon’s perspective, they had turned the castle into this on practically half-free labor, so it felt a little difficult to start saying he didn’t like it now.
And objectively, the castle wasn’t bad.
If anything, it was good.
......It was just a little too much, and that was the problem.
So after thinking for a moment, Alon asked,
“......Just in case, let me ask— did you add any other mechanisms to the castle?”
For now, he decided to hear what exactly the tower masters had done to this castle during his absence—
or rather, what sort of mechanisms they had installed.
“Of course we did—!”
And with those words, the tower masters began talking again, visibly brightening once more.
“This is an automatic interception system. In case there is an external intrusion—”
“This is an illusion maneuver device. If an enemy or any unwanted person appears, illusion magic will immediately—”
“There are various defensive spells on the castle walls, but more importantly, a firestorm—”
“In the place where you’ll be living from now on, if anyone other than Lord Alon enters, a golem capable of responding immediately—”
And that went on for a full two hours.
And by the time merely listening to it had gone beyond exhausting and was starting to drain the life out of him, the last thing Alon was introduced to was—
a violently enormous sphere of magic power being created at the center formed by the vertices of the five castle towers.
“What is that—?”
At Alon’s question that followed—
“It’s an anti-Divine blood interception device.”
“It’s called Dragon Breath!”
the two tower masters proudly declared.
And with that—
‘It really is the Demon King’s castle.’
‘This is the Demon King’s castle.’
‘It’s the Demon King’s castle.......’
Evan, Penia, and Alon had no choice but to arrive at that evaluation of the completed castle.
After that, around the time the sky was growing dim—
“You look tired, so let’s talk about Kylrus tomorrow. In the first place, it’s not the kind of matter that will end quickly.”
“......Let’s do that.”
After receiving that consideration from Reinysius, Alon ended up speaking with Alexion.
“You’re saying one castle is going to be empty?”
“To be precise, it seems one inner castle and the castles on the outer side, which are arranged in five overlapping layers, will likely be left vacant, so I thought this might be a good opportunity for you to recruit some defensive troops.”
“Defensive troops?”
“Yes. In truth, the castle itself is just so......”
Alexion fumbled slightly with his words.
“......It is very well made, but since the castle is so large, I think the current forces have their limits.”
“So you’re saying we need to recruit additional troops.”
“Yes. In fact, we’ll need to gather quite a lot, so it would be nice if we could recruit a large number at once, but...... if we do that, their reliability will drop significantly, so I think it will take some time to fill the ranks.”
At Alexion’s words, Alon nodded and answered.
“......Then let’s do that.”
“Yes, I’ll start preparing. Ah, and what would you like to do with the vacant inner castle?”
At Alexion’s question—
“An inner castle.”
“Yes. It’s the castle attached to yours, Lord Alon. In truth, with an ordinary castle, it would be fine to leave it empty, but, well......”
“What is it this time......?”
“There are just too many mechanisms built into it....... It feels a little too wasteful to leave it unused.......”
Alon understood that feeling as well.
Of course, since Reinysius was supplying the magic power, there was effectively no cost, but even so, letting that level of consumption go to waste did feel regrettable.
“Hm—”
Thinking it over, Alon said without much thought,
“......I suppose I should give the castle to someone.”
“You’re giving away a castle......?”
“Yes. If there’s someone among the people around me who needs it.”
That was what he said.
And at that moment—
the red brooch and green badge on Alon’s coat began to sparkle.
As if foretelling turmoil......

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