Chapter 452: Return (8)

The instant Airinna overheard the conversation with her enhanced hearing, she doubted her own ears.

But then—

"A slave? Come on—that’s not really—"

"No, I am a slave. That’s how the contract was made."

—when it was followed by a killing blow of confirmation, her mouth fell open without her realizing it.

'Wasn’t it supposed to be... that the king of Palantia was the guardian dragon’s father?'

Contanias had said he was the guardian dragon’s father.

Which meant Alon was a dragon hiding his identity.

But that hidden dragon was keeping another dragon as a slave?

'Is that some kind of custom among dragons...?'

Airinna thought about it, then soon shook her head.

At least as far as she knew, she had never once seen anything in the ancient texts about such a culture existing among dragons.

Which was why—

'What ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ in the world... is the king of Palantia?'

With a confused look, Airinna stared down at the ground.

'I need to meet the king of Palantia in person after all.'

After steeling herself, she vanished.

####

After learning that the heroic tale(?) about him 'shaving away his lifespan to pass on power' had spread because of Sili,

Alon remained in Divine Land for a few more days.

There were three reasons.

The first was to handle work.

Of course, Sili was taking care of most of Divine Land’s affairs, but that didn’t mean he could leave everything entirely to her.

The second was to examine divine power.

Ever since the Divine blood had fallen, Alon had not been able to use divine power properly.

Then, starting from the time he met Kalannon last time and passed divine power on to the people of Divine Land, he had become able to use divine power again.

However, even though it had become possible to pass divine power on to others, and even though divine power was filling him up more than before, he still could not transform into Kalannon.

He had to find out why.

And lastly—

"...This is Seamus’s ability?"

"That’s right!"

—it was to research the abilities of Seamus and Sili, who were now self-generating after receiving Alon’s divine power.

"......"

Alon looked up at the sky.

Above Seamus, who looked somewhat strained, floated a sword so enormous it drew admiration on its own.

If it fell in that state, it looked like it could split even a small castle clean in two.

Alon was briefly astonished by the sheer size of the sword.

Ssssshhhk—!

Soon the sword vanished, and only then did Alon lower his gaze.

"I’m sorry!"

Seamus was gasping for breath.

"No, this is more than enough."

"No, it isn’t! You granted me such a blessing, and yet I’m still so inadequate...!"

Seamus squeezed his eyes shut as though he genuinely found it unbearable.

His tightly clenched lips had gone white.

"......"

Alon felt a stab of guilt for no reason.

It was true that he had passed ability on to Seamus, but in truth, the reason Seamus’s power was not growing easily was also because of Alon.

Right now, all Alon was doing was returning a portion of the faith Seamus had offered back to him.

So inwardly, he felt awkward.

"Really, it’s fine, so get up. Even this alone has shown me how hard you’ve worked."

Even at that calm reassurance, Seamus rose looking deeply apologetic, then—

"I’ll devote my life to you!"

—he shouted, bowing so deeply his waist nearly touched the ground.

Hiding his embarrassment, Alon left the training grounds.

"What do you think?"

Sili asked at once.

Alon rubbed his chin before answering.

"Not bad."

Of course, from Alon’s perspective, the power Seamus had shown was not especially strong.

Through his experiences so far, Alon knew very well just how absurd the Divine blood were.

Still, that did not make it meaningless.

If it were Seamus alone, it might seem slight, but before long, if Divine Land’s knights each received Alon’s blessing and began displaying their own power—

'It’ll definitely be useful.'

As he measured out the future, Alon let out an involuntary sigh.

"Ah."

"? What’s wrong?"

"Nothing."

At Sili’s question, Alon shook his head.

But regret lingered on his face.

'I should have brought Reinysius.'

Reinysius, the golden dragon.

Of course, since Reinysius was a dragon, it might not know much about divine power, but its knowledge of magic circles seemed useful.

It looked like it would be a great help in creating the automatic hunting he had in mind—that is, 'automatic blessings.'

'I didn’t think of it in time.'

He decided he would have to speak to Reinysius separately once he returned.

"So, have you chosen the people to receive blessings?"

Alon asked Sili.

"Just like you said, I picked about ten candidates, including Historia and Ryang-a, who are currently away. People who would follow your will unconditionally, Lord Alon."

The wording was strangely severe compared to her gentle smile, and Alon carefully asked back,

"Unconditionally...?"

"Yes. Unconditionally! They’re probably the sort of people who wouldn’t even hesitate to become martyrs for your sake, Lord Alon!"

"...Martyrs?"

"Yes!"

At the even more shocking word that came out of her mouth—

"...Sili."

"Yes?"

"I’m asking just in case, but you haven’t been conducting some kind of dangerous ideological education, have you?"

Unlike his expressionless face, Alon’s question carried a subtle unease.

Sili thought for a moment, then answered,

"Hm—of course not? There’s nothing like dangerous ideological education."

"Really?"

"Of course! I’ve only been teaching Scripture."

"Scripture?"

"Yes!"

At Sili’s words, Alon recalled the Scripture he had once seen.

...But why did that make him even more uneasy? he wondered, just as—

"Lord Alon."

The moment he stepped into the tent, Evan approached as though he had been waiting.

"What is it?"

"It’s about the matter we requested from the information guild last time. We’ve received word."

There was quite a bit of information they had been looking for, so Evan hurriedly added,

"The kings."

"Ah."

Evan had not failed to put in the request.

"Did they have anything useful?"

"From rough information to more detailed reports, yes. I’ll go through them one by one."

As the mood turned serious, Sili took a step back.

"Oh, then I’ll step out for a bit."

Evan’s report began in earnest.

"So, the Empire has already all gained some sort of ability, and it’s the same with the kingdoms."

"Yes. In the case of the Allied Kingdoms, it seems everyone was able to obtain abilities a little more easily because of the star group."

"...Because of the star group?"

"As I mentioned, the star group is taking care of the Divine blood."

Alon rubbed his chin once.

"Have they figured out the kings’ abilities?"

"It doesn’t seem they’ve gotten that far yet, but judging from what’s been revealed so far, there does seem to be some variance in the abilities."

"I see..."

Evan continued,

"Ah—and for now the Allied Kingdoms seem fine, but things have apparently been getting very noisy on the Divine blood side lately."

"What happened?"

"I heard that something called 'fragments' is currently spreading among the Divine blood."

"Fragments?"

"Yes. They think they’re fragments of some enormous Divine blood, and those fragments are spreading everywhere right now, so it seems the Divine blood are trying to obtain them."

"Hm. Do they grow stronger if they consume those fragments?"

"That does seem to be the case."

Fragments.

As Alon put the circumstances back together in his mind—

"...No way."

A memory from the past surfaced.

When he had obtained the law at the eastern edge, he had heard something similar from Bringing-In Night.

'It said it devoured part of that power and reached stage two.'

Bringing-In Night had definitely said it had devoured part of that power.

If the remainder of that consumed power had simply been left behind and become fragments, then everything fit.

"...This won’t be easy."

Weariness settled over Alon’s face.

If his guess was right, then even now, at this very moment, a stage-two Divine blood could appear.

"Do we have any information on where those fragments fell?"

That was why Alon asked, and Evan answered,

"Not exactly, but there are rumors that there’s a fragment somewhere near Colony."

"In Colony?"

"Yes."

"...Looks like I’ll have to go there myself soon."

Alon let out a sigh.

"And still no word on Seollang?"

"Seollang? ...No, I haven’t heard anything in particular."

When Evan shook his head, Alon ran a hand back through his hair.

He had planned to move a little more leisurely, but that now seemed like a luxury.

####

A few days later, word arrived that Lia and Ryang-a, who had been away, were returning.

Just when Alon was planning to grant them blessings and then leave—

[Hello!]

"...Kalannon."

Without warning, Kalannon, in cat form, climbed into his lap, and he was dragged into the blue shoreline where the Milky Way spread across the sky.

"...When I wanted to talk last time, you didn’t do this. And now you call me?"

At that, Kalannon replied quickly.

[I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help it either! It may not look like much, but this eats up a lot of divine power. I’m barely squeezing out enough divine power to meet you as it is, you know?]

Kalannon sounded as if saying, 'Ahem! You should be grateful to me!'

Alon spent a moment wondering what to say, then let out a small sigh instead.

"So, why did you call me?"

[To give you an answer.]

"...An answer?"

[Even if I can’t answer directly, I can still listen. Weren’t you trying to talk to me in the first place because you couldn’t transform into Kalannon?]

Her guess was correct.

"Do you know why?"

[Of course I do.]

"What is it?"

[Hmm—]

After dragging it out for a moment, Kalannon spoke.

[It’s a slightly difficult concept, but you could say... you’ve been separated.]

"Separated?"

[Yes. For example, up until now, you gathered divine power as Kalannon and transformed into Kalannon, right?]

"That’s right."

[As you know, that was only possible because you had gained belief as Kalannon. But things are different now. Um—]

Kalannon took a breath, then said,

[Put simply, Kalannon and Lord Alon have only now been divided.]

"So in other words, because I’ve started gaining faith not as Kalannon, but as Alon Palatio, I can no longer transform?"

[That’s exactly it!]

Alon nodded.

Seen that way, it certainly made sense that he could no longer transform into Kalannon.

The reason he had been able to manifest as Kalannon in the first place was because he had actually gained faith as Kalannon.

"Then manifesting as Kalannon is impossible from now on."

A faint trace of regret entered Alon’s voice.

[That makes sense. But I don’t think you need to worry about it too much.]

Kalannon’s reaction, however, was unexpected.

"Why not?"

[Well, obviously—]

Kalannon smiled brightly.

[Because now, for the first time, you’ll be able to truly 'manifest' in the real sense of the word!]

Kalannon shouted energetically.