Alon was briefly stunned by the completely unexpected encounter with Deus, then looked past him.
More precisely, at the collapsed border guards.
Every single one of them had been utterly smashed apart and lay motionless on the ground.
At least, fortunately, it seemed Deus had held back his strength somewhat, since no one appeared to be dead.
“......Was there some kind of problem?”
At Alon’s question, Deus immediately shook his head.
“No, there was no particular problem.”
“......No problem?”
“Yes.”
Then why did this happen? That question showed clearly in Alon’s eyes, and Deus answered without hesitation.
“They insulted you, Lord Alon.”
“Me? Out of nowhere?”
“Yes. They said you were a vassal of Contanias, descendant of the great Emperor.”
“......A vassal?”
“Yes.”
At that, Penia, standing nearby, seemed to roughly grasp the situation and added,
“Mm, sounds like his pride got hurt.”
Having seen Contanias at the Seeker’s tower before, Penia spoke as though she could easily understand his personality.
When Alon silently agreed, Rine also glanced down at the fallen guards.
“Mm, but even so, does turning them into this over just that not create unnecessary trouble?”
At Rine’s remark, Deus answered calmly.
“They joked that Lord Alon was Contanias’s bootlicker.”
“Then why did you leave them alive? They still seem to be breathing.”
At Rine’s immediate change in attitude after hearing Deus’s answer, Alon was left speechless.
‘It’s nice that when people insult me, the response is UFC instead of WWE.’
But even so, was bringing up whether they should live or die not a little extreme, Rine?
That thought crossed his mind briefly.
Alon began considering how to handle this situation.
Since Deus had smashed the border guards apart without even attempting a conversation, it did not seem like this could be resolved neatly anymore.
After standing there silently for a moment—
“......For now, let’s go.”
In the end, Alon reluctantly decided to just move on without cleaning up this disaster.
If he tried to sort it out, there was a high chance it would consume far more time than expected.
‘At this point, it would probably be better to just meet Contanias and talk to him directly.’
Just as Alon reached that conclusion and tried to cross the border—
“You bastard—!!”
One of the border guards who had been lying collapsed until just moments ago painfully pushed himself up from the ground and glared at Alon with a face full of fury.
‘Judging from the uniform, he seems to be the border guard captain......’
A face Alon had never seen before.
Naturally so. This was his first time crossing the northern border.
‘No, I think I crossed it once before.’
Back then, however, it had been someone else stationed at the border.
Remembering that, Alon approached the border guard first, intending at least to try talking.
“L-let’s calm down first.”
Since he did not know how to begin, he tried calming the man’s anger first.
However—
“Move aside, you worthless mage bastard!”
Perhaps furious over what Deus had done to him, the border guard captain shouted that and glared at Alon even more viciously.
And at that moment—
“Ah.”
Alon felt it.
A bizarre sensation coming from the sky.
A strange feeling, as though someone were watching.
At that, Alon raised his head toward the sky.
And there—
“......Ah.”
Something enormous, glowing green, was faintly staring down at this place from beyond the blue sky.
And the moment he recognized it—
Alon turned his gaze.
Deus had a dangerous expression on his face.
Penia was openly frowning.
“......Wait—”
For some reason, Alon instinctively let out those words.
But by the very next moment—
Deus’s fist was already flying toward the man’s face.
“Ghk—!”
The border guard captain, whose name Alon did not even know, began getting beaten by Deus.
In a way so horrifying and brutal it was difficult to even look at directly.
After the brief storm passed—
“......Let’s go, Lord Alon.”
“I think he should at least receive treatment.”
“Treatment?”
Looking at the man’s condition—not only covered in traces of Deus’s beating, but also with small ice shards thrown by Penia embedded in him—Alon felt a headache coming on.
“And Rine.”
“Yes, Godfather?”
“I do not think that is the sort of thing you should casually say.”
“Oh my, don’t worry, Godfather. It was only meant as a threat.”
“A threat?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
“Of course. Do you really think I would actually do anything?”
Rine answered with a bright smile.
......But for some reason, that smile felt fake to Alon.
“Was it really only a threat?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“......”
Rine quietly shifted her gaze to the side.
......It really was just a threat, right?
Alon’s thoughts became complicated once again.
After crossing the border rather smoothly—
Alon, who had gotten off Basiliora again to camp for the night, finally asked Deus a question.
“Deus.”
“Yes, Lord Alon.”
“Come to think of it, what brings you to the Empire?”
In truth, Alon had already been curious earlier when he saw Deus alone with the border guards.
At the question, Deus showed a slightly awkward expression.
“It is nothing particularly serious.”
“Is it something difficult to talk ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) about?”
“Not to that extent.”
Quite unusually, Deus hesitated over his words.
Seeing that reaction, Alon waved his hand as though it was fine.
“If it is difficult to talk about, then you do not have to.”
“......Thank you.”
Deus bowed his head slightly at Alon’s consideration.
Alon himself was not so curious that he wanted to force Deus into discomfort over it, so he merely shrugged lightly.
“We ended up naturally joining together, but is that really alright? We are heading toward the capital of the Northern Empire.”
“It is fine. I also have business there.”
That was how Deus answered Alon’s next question.
‘......What kind of business could he have there?’
That question rose in Alon’s mind once again.
But soon he pushed the thought aside.
If he was not going to ask anyway, there was no point dwelling on it.
“......Let us eat dinner.”
“I’ll prepare it right away.”
Evan answered Alon’s words.
“But what should we eat today?”
“What should we eat......”
Alon fell into thought at Evan’s question.
‘......How many days has it been?’
He thought about the days they had eaten sweet potatoes for dinner.
Personally, he did not particularly mind eating sweet potatoes all the time, but unfortunately, he had realized that the others did not like them very much, so he considered it carefully.
“Let’s have meat today.”
“An excellent choice.”
At Alon’s answer, Evan smiled brightly and nodded.
Of course, separate from that, Penia and Rine’s expressions became slightly strange.
But Alon failed to notice it.
Only Deus, who was watching from behind, managed to notice it, and so he could only tilt his head in confusion.
Until recently, the imperial prince of the Northern Empire, Contanias, had been in quite a good mood.
Strictly speaking, he could not help but be in a good mood.
The reason was the power he had recently obtained.
The power he first received from the Seeker had been unrealistic, certainly, but it had not been especially powerful.
However, that was only when he had first obtained it.
From the moment he met the Saintess he had seen at the Seeker’s tower and, following her words, joined forces with his blood relatives—excluding Nataman—to create the Consecration Formation, he had begun to feel something close to omnipotence.
The reason was simple.
After creating the Consecration Formation, his abilities had become absurdly powerful.
Originally, his ability had not been anything remarkable.
It merely allowed him to “hear.”
Of course, it was not merely hearing better than others.
His ability literally allowed him to pierce through thoughts.
Certainly, that was impressive in its own way.
But it was not something that could block Divine blood.
However, from the moment he joined forces with his blood relatives to create the Consecration Formation, his ability changed.
No—
more precisely, it should be said that they merged together.
From the moment the Consecration Formation capable of blocking Divine blood was created, Contanias became able to use the powers of his other blood relatives.
The “eyes” that could see through anything.
The “mouth” that could accomplish anything.
The “ears” that could hear anything.
And in forms far stronger than before.
Serdea’s “mouth,” in particular, had even become capable of manipulating mana, though still inferior to dragon speech, and because of that, Contanias felt even more omnipotent.
Of course, the strengthened abilities came with a restriction.
They could only be used within the territory covered by the Consecration Formation.
But that was not much of a problem for him.
The Consecration Formation currently spread across all surviving territory of the Empire.
Which meant that within the Empire, he could wield tremendous power.
And that was not all.
The abilities Contanias used continued growing stronger.
Yes.
Growing.
They were not simply fixed in an enhanced state.
The abilities of the imperial princes and princesses, including Contanias himself, literally became stronger the more they used them.
It was not that they merely became more skilled at controlling them.
They truly grew stronger.
As though training martial arts.
Because of that, recently, Contanias had been living each day with tremendous fulfillment.
And together with that, the arrogance that had gradually shriveled away after the Seeker’s tower incident had slowly begun swelling once again.
As a result, even the rumors he had heard recently did not shake him that much.
Even the rumor that Alon—the one he had longed for so desperately—was coming.
Yes.
It certainly should have been that way.
“......Wh-what is that—?!”
“H-how are we supposed to deal with—”
“I thought Divine blood could not enter—!”
Listening to the voices of his subordinates, Contanias looked up at the sky.
And in that sky—
Crackle—! Krrrzzzt—!!
Black lightning crashed down as something leisurely swam across the skies of the Empire toward the capital.
As though the entire sky belonged to it.
Scattering black mist and red lightning.
Its sudden appearance in the blue sky was enough to inspire despair.
But strangely enough, Contanias himself did not feel that much fear toward the sight itself.
Even though that enormous, horrifying thing was approaching them, unlike his other subordinates, he could see it.
The man riding atop that black thing.
The King of Palantia.
Which meant the thing swimming through the sky was not an enemy.
And yet—
despite that, Contanias’s face was deathly pale.
Ironically, the reason was his own ability.
The ability he had trained tirelessly every single day after creating the Consecration Formation—
the “eyes” that had grown powerful enough to see even things far away at a glance—
“......Ah.”
were showing him something he should never have seen.
Craaack—!
Rumble rumble rumble rumble—!!!
A gigantic eye floating in the abyss.
────The end.

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