‘Should we have gotten off Basiliora before coming after all?’
A few days later.
The brief regret Alon felt as soon as he arrived at the capital of the Empire and heard the uproar lasted only a moment. After wondering what to do, he soon reached a conclusion.
‘It would be best to clear up the misunderstanding quickly.’
Basiliora had already been exposed.
At this point, even if they got off and entered the capital, it would only delay the time it took to meet Contanias.
Now that things had come to this, Alon decided he needed to meet Contanias quickly, and in an instant, he crossed over the inner wall and landed at the imperial castle.
“Uh—considering how much people were freaking out, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to attack us or anything?”
“So it seems.”
At Evan’s words, Alon looked down below.
The soldiers came into view, each of them stiff as stone with weapons in hand.
It was clearly different from the commotion that had erupted on the ground just a moment ago.
On top of that, they were not particularly pointing their weapons at Basiliora, either.
Perhaps it was happy to be receiving everyone’s gaze, Basiliora was trying to stretch its whole body out as far as possible and puff itself up even larger than usual.
Just then—
“......We have been waiting.”
A man bowed politely and greeted the group.
“You were waiting?”
“Yes. That person is waiting for you.”
Alon had no difficulty realizing that the person in question was Contanias, and nodded.
‘Did he notice?’
He thought it should not have been easy to notice them while they were in the sky, then said,
“Basiliora.”
[Kkyu—]
It meant to undo the transformation.
Blackie answered easily.
But—
[Hm.]
Basiliora made a sound and furtively watched him.
[Could I, perhaps, stay like this just a little longer?]
The creature muttered in a voice low enough that the soldiers below could not hear.
At that, Blackie’s shadow, which had been covering Basiliora’s body until just moments ago, slid up toward Basiliora and soon formed eyes that looked utterly pathetic.
Yet even while facing Blackie’s gaze, Basiliora continued its silent demand as if it had completely shamelessly hardened its face.
Seeing that—
“......Do as you like.”
Alon eventually had no choice but to allow it.
[Hehe—understood.]
Perhaps Alon’s permission pleased it.
After confirming that Basiliora, clearly in a good mood at a glance, was stretching its head straight upward, Alon soon began walking with the others after the man who had bowed his head.
To meet Contanias, the imperial prince leading the Northern Empire.
Alon had gathered rough information on Contanias while coming here.
Of course, at most, it was information he had heard from information guilds whenever they stopped by villages, so it was nothing all that impressive. Still, he had a general idea of what state Contanias was in.
‘They said he became stronger.’
He had heard that ever since the enormous Consecration Formation had been built in the Empire, Contanias had obtained several more powers.
Powers ordinary people could not obtain.
Of course, he had not heard detailed information about those powers.
About all Alon had heard was that the imperial princesses who carried the Empire’s blood, including Contanias, had gained power that could imitate dragon speech somewhat.
An ability similar to dragon speech.
Naturally, it was not dragon speech.
But even if it was only a similar ability, it was not something that could be brushed aside lightly, so Alon had come here with a certain degree of curiosity.
He had come, but.......
“......Are you alright?”
“I-I am fine—!”
“.......”
Tremble tremble tremble tremble—
Alon looked at Contanias.
His gaze could not stay still for even a moment, darting anxiously here and there.
His whole body was trembling, as if fear had risen all the way to a lethal dose.
......Alon wondered whether that was the price of gaining those abilities, but he had never heard such a fact from the information guild before, so his doubt lasted only briefly.
“......Did something happen?”
“N-nothing happened!”
“......Is that so?”
“Yes, sir!”
Contanias looked as though he had been whipped into military discipline.
“.......”
When Alon glanced aside, Penia and Evan were also wearing expressions that said, ‘What the hell is wrong with that bastard?’ So it seemed he was not the only one who found this strange.
The feeling was odd, but only for a moment.
Alon had no choice but to continue the conversation as things were.
He had come to the Empire to meet Ar, but there was also something he had wanted to ask Contanias before.
On top of that, even after he had already asked several questions, Contanias had not told him why he was so afraid.
“.......”
“.......”
Alon could feel Penia’s and Evan’s gazes lingering strangely back and forth between Contanias and himself, but naturally, he felt wronged.
After all, all he had done was simply appear in front of Contanias.
So—
“I have something I would like to ask for a moment. Can we talk?”
“Y-yes, o-of course we can!!”
Alon asked Contanias, who was still terrified, two questions.
The first was about the Consecration Formation.
The second was about his abilities.
They were fairly simple questions, but despite that, Alon gained quite a lot of information.
And along with it—
“......Yutia told you?”
“Yes......!”
He learned one unexpected fact.
It was that Yutia had told them how to make this Consecration Formation.
“.......”
Alon fell into thought.
According to the explanation he had heard from Contanias, the things they had done to create the Consecration Formation could be broadly divided into three steps.
The first was finding the “points” hidden throughout each territory of the Empire.
The second was placing the power of possibility that the imperial princes and princesses had received into each of those points—in other words, the power of Monster blood.
And the third was for the three imperial princesses and the imperial prince to draw a magic circle and perform a ritual on top of it.
It was not that complicated.
But even so, the fact that Yutia had told them about it was clearly strange.
“......Before she told you, you did not know that you could use the abilities you received in this way to make the Consecration Formation?”
“......Uh, no, I did not.”
At Contanias’s puzzled answer, Alon stroked his chin.
Interpreting his words, it meant that Yutia had, in effect, known how to use the power of “Monster blood,” something even the Empire’s imperial princes and princesses had not known.
Even down to all the points needed to carry out the ritual.
‘......What is this?’
Countless inferences appeared above Alon’s head, then disappeared, but none of them produced any particular answer.
‘......Well. I know about Monster blood because I heard about it from Rine, but I don’t know the details.’
Along with that, Yutia’s voice came to mind.
Her voice, wearing a calm smile as though there was not a single lie in it, passed through his head.
‘......I need to meet Yutia.’
Feeling his heart grow somewhat heavy for some reason, Alon thought that.
He knew that thinking about it at this point would not produce an answer anyway.
So instead of brooding over it, Alon decided to move on to another topic.
“Understood. And in addition to that, this is a question related to the Consecration Formation. Could you explain it one more time?”
“Yes.”
At Alon’s words, Contanias immediately made a puzzled expression, then grew tense and began explaining again.
“A-as I said earlier, I have not been able to confirm the details myself either, but...... first, under normal circumstances, it only has a structural connection loose enough for anyone to pass through. ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) When Divine blood appears, the structure temporarily condenses.”
“......And during that time, passage between inside and outside becomes impossible?”
“That is correct.”
“......I roughly understand what principle it uses.”
Of course, he had only grasped the principle in the literal sense. How that principle was configured and operated was still a mystery.
So Alon asked Contanias several more questions, but unfortunately, he could not obtain any additional information from him.
However, he did not feel disappointed about that.
In truth, Alon had expected as much to a degree.
Because of that, after continuing to ask him a few more questions, Alon soon ended the exchange before long.
“......Where is Ar?”
At last, he brought up the main reason he had come to the Northern Empire.
Immediately afterward, the place Alon headed to was the enormous castle in the center of the imperial castle grounds.
A massive castle positioned in the center, one that, for all practical purposes, looked like the place where the emperor ought to reside.
“......Wow, it’s ridiculously huge.”
“Don’t act like some country bumpkin.”
“What do you mean, country bumpkin? It’s huge because it’s huge.”
“I’m telling you not to be amazed by every little thing.”
“Aren’t you being way too dismissive? I was still a noble, you know?”
As soon as they entered the enormous castle, Evan let out an exclamation, and Alon heard his conversation with Penia.
Yet even while listening to those whispers, Alon was thinking about Ar.
The little child who always used to coil her tail around Alon’s waist and tear up.
‘......Ar is the Empire’s guardian dragon.......’
To be honest, it was still not easy to believe.
Because in Alon’s memory, Ar was still only the sight of her clinging to him and crying.
“This is the place.”
How long had Alon been walking with those thoughts in mind?
At Contanias’s words, Alon came to his senses and saw an enormous door beginning to open.
And soon, inside that enormous door as it opened—
[...]
He could see a dragon.
A dragon with a massive body, so enormous that even this huge castle felt like a small cage, lying completely still with its eyes closed as though asleep.
“......Ar?”
At the sight so completely different from when he had seen her before, Alon unknowingly let out that murmur.
Beside him, Rine also let out a faint gasp as she looked at the black dragon.
Then—
Slide—
The black dragon’s eyes, which had been closed until just moments ago, slowly began to open.
The opened eyes seemed to sleepily take in the surroundings, and the moment they turned toward Alon and Rine—
[!!]
Ar’s pupils widened.
And in that instant—
Fwaaaaaah—!
Ar’s body began to glow and shrink.
Then, the very next moment—
“Father!!”
Ar, who had changed from a gigantic dragon into the form of a girl in an instant, rushed at Alon.
As always, she wrapped her tail around his waist and hugged Alon tightly with both arms.
‘......Father?’
Alon was momentarily flustered by what Ar had blurted out, but before long, he naturally hugged her back.
Thinking about it, Ar had usually called Alon “you” or “dear you,” but when he had first saved her, she had called him “Daddy” for some reason.
So while he silently stroked Ar, Alon soon felt the area around his chest growing damp.
“......You haven’t changed.”
Alon’s words were a little teasing, coming from someone who knew the old Ar.
At those words, Ar seemed to grow pointlessly sulky and rubbed her face roughly against Alon’s chest, but Alon simply continued silently stroking her.
“I really, sob—wanted to see you. Sniff—so much—”
“I am sorry I was late.”
Seeing Ar look up at him while shedding round tears, Alon felt sorry.
......Because he thought that if she had been waiting this much, he should have come a little sooner.
While everyone was watching Alon’s warm reunion—
‘It. It was true—!’
Only Contanias was watching the situation with an expression full of shock.
Of course, Contanias had known the truth to a degree.
But seeing it directly felt different.
Was that all?
The Empire’s guardian dragon—one who had shown not even the slightest change in expression no matter which emperor knelt before her and prostrated with their entire body—was showing that kind of emotion.
That itself was shocking.
And while Contanias and the soldiers stood there blankly with their mouths open—
Right after that, Contanias’s eyes too widened as if they were about to pop out.
The reason was that the sniffling guardian dragon rolled her gaze upward and soon looked at Penia and Rine.
“Good to see you, concubines!”
—Because she said that so casually.
And then—
For some reason, the air froze.

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