Two weeks and five days after Alon began heading toward the Empire.
“Mm—”
After flying until just before sunset as usual and coming down, Alon prepared dinner.
Then he suddenly realized it.
An unexpected inconvenience that came with traveling by flight toward a destination.
Information gathering.
Back when they traveled by carriage, they could steadily gather information by stopping at villages from time to time, but when traveling through the sky, that became impossible.
Because they remained in the air constantly, there was no reason to stop in villages anymore.
Of course, stopping by a village itself was not particularly difficult.
The problem, however, was that Basiliora, whom Alon was riding, looked overwhelmingly intimidating to ordinary villagers.
[Ahem.]
“What is it, Basiliora?”
[Are we not going to a village again?]
“......”
Alon looked at Basiliora with a strange expression.
Ever since the last time, when he had absentmindedly tried to stop by a village only to witness the villagers fleeing in absolute terror the moment they saw Basiliora, the creature had occasionally asked him things like this.
“......Why do you want to go to a village so badly?”
[Is it not more comfortable to sleep in a village than out in the open?]
“You’re a snake. It’s the same no matter where you sleep.”
Evan, who had been listening nearby, pointed that out.
[That may be true for me, but not for you.]
At Basiliora’s rebuttal, Evan let out a snort as though he could clearly tell what the creature actually wanted.
“What, this is not about wanting us to sleep comfortably, but about satisfying your own desire for recognition?”
[Hah. Are you doubting my purity?]
“Purity, my ass. Every time we pass near a village, you double the amount of thunder you make even though you’re already loud enough. Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”
[......]
At Evan’s words, Basiliora subtly rolled one eye to the side.
Watching that, Alon finally spoke.
“Well, we should stop by one at least once.”
[Exactly! Constantly sleeping outside exhausts the body and wears down the mind—]
“Of course, I do not intend to fly into the village.”
[......Eh?]
Basiliora looked at Alon with an expression that practically screamed, How could you say something so # Nоvеlight # cruel?
Despite being a snake, the emotion was so vivid that Blackie let out a little [Kyuu—] and looked at Basiliora with a pitiful expression.
After thinking for a moment, Evan spoke.
“Mm— stopping by a village right now does not seem like a bad choice. Once we pass this one, we’ll be entering the wasteland anyway. You’re stopping because of information gathering, right?”
“Yes. More importantly, does this mean we crossed the Allied Kingdoms in barely three weeks?”
“Right? Thinking about it again, it’s insanely fast. At this rate, we really might arrive in just over two months.”
As Evan spoke in admiration, Alon nodded as well.
“It truly is fast.”
“I agree.”
Rine and Penia, who were eating roasted sweet potatoes nearby, agreed as well.
And so, the next day.
As planned, before entering the wasteland, Alon arrived at a village and spent another day there.
Then—
“Lord Alon.”
“Did you gather some information?”
“Yes. Though there’s a lot of strange information.”
“......Strange information?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“There’s information about the Empire, and information about our side. Which do you want to hear first?”
That was what Evan told him.
“Tell me about the Empire first.”
“They say a massive defensive barrier has appeared throughout the Empire.”
“A defensive barrier?”
“Yes. Apparently it appeared a few days ago.”
“......Across the entire Empire?”
“They say it covers every region except the eastern territories. Honestly, that alone is already strange, but— what’s even stranger is the performance of the barrier.”
At Evan’s words, Alon tilted his head.
“How strong is it?”
“Well— even though it’s written as confirmed information, it’s honestly hard to believe, but apparently Divine blood cannot break through the barrier.”
“......To that extent?”
“Yes. On top of that, it only reacts to Divine blood, and apparently the barrier remains active twenty-four hours a day.”
Evan tilted his head as though even he found it bizarre, and Alon did the same.
Naturally so.
At least as far as Alon knew, Divine blood was not something that could be blocked in such a convenient way.
No, strictly speaking, defensive barriers themselves were not supposed to function like that.
Fundamentally, defensive barriers consumed absurd amounts of mana depending on their size and durability.
And that was not all.
Even if there were spells capable of distinguishing between physical attacks and magical attacks, he had never seen a barrier formation capable of distinguishing Divine blood from non-Divine blood.
‘......No, more importantly, how did they even construct the magic formation?’
A defensive barrier of that scale would normally require a magic formation of equivalent size to activate it.
While Alon was still tilting his head in confusion—
“I think it would be better to investigate this directly once we reach the Empire.”
Penia spoke.
“I agree.”
Alon nodded.
If the defensive barrier created by the Empire truly possessed an effect capable of restraining Divine blood to that degree, then it was something that should be reproduced somehow.
“So, what’s the next piece of information?”
As he spoke after thinking that through, Evan continued.
“The next one is about Divine Land. It seems Reinysius has started speaking with Sili in earnest.”
“Ah.”
At Evan’s words, Alon nodded.
He had certainly told Reinysius to ask Sili for help once the research was complete.
‘Now that I think about it, I should have contacted Reinysius. I never did.’
To be honest, Alon had wondered several times whether Reinysius was handling things properly.
But contacting him over something like that might have felt like pressure, so Alon had deliberately refrained.
“Is it going well?”
“Mm— hard to say. But according to the rumors, an enormous statue has been erected in the center of Divine Land.”
“......An enormous statue?”
“Yes.”
“......Hm.”
Alon immediately realized it was the same enormous statue Sili had shown him before.
‘......Well, once I return from the Empire, there should be results one way or another.’
With that thought, he glanced once toward Blackie.
[Kyuu?]
Blackie looked back at Alon and tilted its head.
Alon stroked Blackie, then suddenly felt curious and asked,
“Penia.”
“Yes?”
“I am only asking hypothetically, but if there were a clone body capable of using roughly fifty percent of my combat strength, do you think it would be of significant help to our forces?”
“Uh...... all of a sudden?”
Penia looked confused by the sudden question, but only briefly.
After thinking seriously for a moment, she spoke.
“Mm— maybe not to an overwhelming extent, but I think it would definitely help.”
“Is that so?”
“But why are you asking?”
“......Come to think of it, I never told you.”
At Penia’s words, Alon realized he had never explained the conversation he had with Reinysius, so he told them what had happened.
“......Uh, so to summarize, does that mean Blackie can use your powers, Lord Alon?”
“Yes.”
When Alon nodded at Penia’s question, she looked at Blackie with fascination.
“This little one really has all sorts of abilities.”
“I think so too.”
Rine also looked at Blackie with interest as she spoke.
“But is it impossible for it to use powers that are completely identical to yours?”
Penia asked.
At that, Alon shook his head.
“As I said, unfortunately that is impossible. The only thing it can imitate perfectly is my original appearance.”
“......Hm?”
“......? What is it?”
“No, you said the only thing it can imitate perfectly is your original appearance......?”
“I mean exactly that. The output is only around fifty percent, but it can imitate my appearance perfectly.”
“Uh...... then does that mean Blackie...... turns into Lord Alon?”
At Penia’s question, a question mark practically appeared over Alon’s head.
“Would it not? Was my explanation difficult to understand?”
“No, no— it’s just that I understood it as being able to use around fifty percent of your power. I didn’t realize it could actually transform into your appearance.”
Penia spoke.
At that, though confused, Alon replied,
“Well...... that is not really the important part, is it?”
“Uh, I guess not. Still...... it’s kind of fascinating.”
Penia kept staring at Blackie as she said that.
“Though I have not seen it myself either, according to Reinysius, its appearance can apparently become completely identical.”
Seeing Penia react that way, Alon added the explanation as though to confirm it.
“Oh.”
“Oh.”
“Ooh......”
At that, Rine and Penia let out strange little sounds of admiration without even realizing it themselves as they stared at Blackie.
“......?”
Naturally, seeing that reaction, Alon could only tilt his head in confusion.
[???]
For some reason, Blackie suddenly shivered at the strange chill it felt.
......Oddly enough, the red brooch attached near Blackie’s chest also gave off a strange glimmer.
About three more days passed after that, and Alon’s group fully crossed beyond the Allied Kingdoms and entered the wasteland.
Late at night, after flying until nightfall as usual and settling down somewhere suitable to sleep outdoors once again—
Blackie, who had settled beside Alon and was sleeping as always—
[......?]
suddenly woke up.
The reason was a faint trace of mana brushing against Blackie’s body.
A tiny amount of mana that no ordinary person would ever have noticed.
[Kyuu?]
So Blackie naturally opened its eyes and tilted its head, glancing around here and there.
Soon, it realized the mana was coming from behind a cliff near their campsite and turned its gaze there.
Even after Blackie noticed it, the mana did not disappear.
No—
it almost seemed to remain there intentionally, as though guiding Blackie.
Looking at that lingering mana, Blackie soon began toddling toward the source of the mana’s residue with tiny little steps.
And after some time passed, once Blackie moved behind the cliff—
“Shh—”
it saw one member of Alon’s group.
Someone who should normally have been asleep, yet for some reason remained awake this late at night.
“Do we have to stay quiet?”
The woman rolled her eyes around cautiously as though worried about the surroundings, then soon realized the campsite behind them remained quiet and let out a small sigh of relief.
[?]
Then, seeing Blackie tilt its head, she slipped a hand into her clothes.
“You like this, don’t you?”
Soon, she held out meat toward Blackie.
Meat Blackie had not seen for an entire week because of Alon’s recent sweet-potato dictatorship.
More specifically, Palantian beef.
The kind sold only at a restaurant in Palantia called Bourdi, where merchants had recently started coating the meat with various mixed spices before selling it.
Back when Blackie had been in Palantia, it had acted cute toward the maids countless times just to get some of it.
And now, that very thing sat in her hand.
Without realizing it, Blackie reached out.
But—
Whoosh—
she smoothly lifted the beef higher, then awkwardly cleared her throat.
“The truth is, I brought this for myself to eat....... It’s just that the food has been....... too repetitive....... You know what I mean, right?”
[Kyuu—]
Separate from its dissatisfaction, Blackie understood the suffering caused by the dictatorship, so it gave a small nod.
Seeing that, she looked cautious and said,
“I’ll give this to you. But in exchange, could you do me one favor?”
[Kyuu?]
“It’s not— some huge favor or anything—”
Then she fidgeted with her fingers a little.
“Could you maybe transform into Lord Alon just once......?”
she asked.
Carefully letting her blue hair fall over one shoulder.

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