Chapter 496: Anomaly (4)

The flow of people in and out of Palantia was enormous compared to any other territory.

The reason was simple: at this point in time, Palantia was the largest commercial territory in the Allied Kingdoms.

Strictly speaking, though, calling Palantia the largest commercial territory was somewhat misleading.

There were several places in the Allied Kingdoms larger than this one, and some had territories themselves that were twice the size of Palantia.

Of course, once Palantia’s castle was fully completed and the territory expanded to encompass the entire castle, the existing commercial territories would not even be worthy of comparison—but that was only by the standard of when the castle was finished.

There were many commercial territories larger than Palantia.

Even so, the reason Palantia had obtained that title was the auction house.

A massive auction house unlike anything that could be found in any other territory, and relatively low fees.

And that was not all.

After Divine blood began to appear, the Allied Kingdoms were carrying out their own internal purging, but underworld organizations and bandits still kept surfacing without rest. Amid all that, Palantia was exceptionally safe.

As a result, most of the merchant companies currently in the Allied Kingdoms had established their headquarters inside Palantia’s territory.

In other words, the infrastructure needed for commerce had become concentrated in one place.

And since it was also on the road leading to Divine Land, the population flowing through Palantia’s main gate—the northern gate—was so dense during open hours that it was always packed tight.

The same was true right now.

Which was exactly why the silence hanging over Palantia’s main gate, a place that should have been bustling beyond measure, felt so strange.

The four women standing at the main gate, smiling at one another, were the culprits.

“An elf?? No, that’s Cardinal Yutia...?”

“It really is! And there’s even one of Colony’s Baba Yaga there too?”

“If it’s Baba Yaga, then—the one they say smashed a Divine blood all by herself? Is that true?”

“Yeah. That beastkin, Golden Flash.”

“Why is Golden Flash over there?”

“No, more importantly, there’s a senior councilor there too?”

“Rine Groph?”

“Gasp! The one rumored to have wiped out all the underworld organizations in Lartania—”

“Why is that person here?”

People murmured among themselves.

But not a single one raised their voice.

Because of the peculiar atmosphere flowing between the four women.

Thanks to that, from the moment one of the people passing through the main gate recognized them—

the crowd that had gathered merely watched the ominous, unplaceable atmosphere in silence.

At that moment—

“Rine, why did you come back?”

Yutia’s voice rang out.

“Ah, I had something to say to Godfather.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me, and I’ll pass it on.”

“No, it’s alright. I plan to tell him directly. More importantly—didn’t you say you had something to do, Yutia?”

“It’s alright. It got delayed a little.”

“Even so, it’s better to take care of what you need to do quickly, isn’t it? If there’s something you want to say, tell me. I’ll pass it on in. stead.”

The two smiled as they exchanged ordinary conversation.

It was certainly an ordinary conversation, and yet the merchants began to tense up.

Because merchants skilled in speech immediately understood that those words were not meant to be taken at face value.

“Oh my, what a coincidence. I also came back because I still had something I wanted to say to my brother.”

“Hm—still, you’re a queen. Shouldn’t you be going?”

Seollang said that while looking at Magrina.

“That’s right. You shouldn’t keep leaving state affairs to other people.”

“Indeed.”

And Rine and Yutia added to it in turn, but—

“It’s alright.”

Magrina smiled sweetly, then looked at Seollang.

“Is Baba Yaga truly alright? I heard Colony is in quite a dangerous situation, so it still needs continued help.”

“Yeah, it’s alright. They’ll handle it just fine on their own.”

“But won’t they still need help?”

“If something happens, I can get there quickly, so you don’t need to worry.”

But Seollang also smiled as she refuted Magrina’s words.

After exchanging one move each like that, the four of them—

“Let’s discuss the details once we go inside.”

“Alright.”

“We need to go back in anyway.”

—put on artificial smiles and passed through the castle gate together.

“......”

“......”

“......”

The merchants finally let out the breaths they had been holding.

“......Come to think of it, everyone over there is connected to the Magic King.”

“Do you know who that elf is?”

“I don’t, but judging from the order of what was said, didn’t she call the Magic King ‘brother’?”

“I think that’s right.”

“......An elf calling him brother? What kind of relationship do they have?”

“Hm—”

“No, more importantly, didn’t someone definitely say ‘Godfather’?”

“Cardinal Yutia calls him Teacher.”

“And Golden Seollang calls him Benefactor.”

“But for the way they address him, all their vibes felt a little different—”

“I felt the same.”

And soon, among the merchants, people began forming their own theories about the women who had been standing at the gate just moments ago—and their relationship with Alon.

...As though suggesting it would not be long before rumors close to outright falsehood began to spread.

####

At that same time—

Alon arrived in Divine Land early in the morning, riding Basiliora, which by now had become somewhat familiar.

He immediately fastened the statue Sili had prepared in advance onto Basiliora and began flying toward where the star roots were gathered.

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

“At this speed, I think it’ll take about three to four days, just like planned.”

Alon found himself impressed anew.

“It really is fast.”

“And considering the flight time is only six hours, that makes it extremely fast.”

Just as Evan said, Basiliora’s current flight time was around six hours.

If Alon could use Reverse Heavens infinitely, then flying for twelve hours would have been easy enough, but unfortunately, that was too much of a burden for him.

‘Once I get a little more used to Reverse Heavens here, the flight time should increase.’

He thought that only briefly, then soon asked Basiliora, which still seemed to find flying endlessly enjoyable and was humming to itself,

“Basiliora.”

[What is it?]

“Isn’t it heavy?”

The reason Alon asked Basiliora that was simple.

Though it was not as large as the giant stone statue he had seen last time, Basiliora was currently flying through the sky with a fairly enormous stone statue tied to it.

Of course, the size itself was not larger than Basiliora, but even so, it was more than large enough to be heavy, so when Alon asked—

[Don’t worry. This much is nothing.]

Basiliora replied boastfully, as though it were effortless.

“That’s a relief.”

Listening to Basiliora, Alon moved toward Ashtalon’s territory, where the star roots were gathered, and thought,

‘...Once I stop by the star roots this time, I should check immediately.’

He was thinking of the adjustment Kalannon had made at his request so that, if he entered his inner world in real time, he would be able to see his manifested form.

And then, a few days later.

When Alon arrived in Ashtalon, where the star roots were said to be, he realized just how foolish his earlier worry of ‘The territory is huge, so how am I supposed to find it?’ had been.

Because the moment he reached Ashtalon’s territory, Divine blood came into view.

At first they looked at Alon in confusion, but then, as if recognizing who he was, every one of them began bowing their heads.

Watching them, Alon moved toward the place where the Divine blood were gathered.

Not long after, Alon saw the Darkness-Eating Sword, the Burning Vegetation, and the other Divine blood all kneeling on one knee, as if they had been waiting for him.

“...Doesn’t it look like there are more of them than last time...?”

“It does... doesn’t it...?”

There seemed to be even more Divine blood than before.

But only for a moment.

After wearing a bewildered expression, Alon let out a deep sigh and opened his mouth.

“Blackie, I’m counting on you.”

[Kkyu-!]

At Alon’s words, Blackie cried out, immediately set down the statue it had been holding onto the ground, and then lowered Alon’s body to the ground as well.

And then—

thud—

With Blackie’s help, Alon landed on the ground without difficulty.

“......”

After that, briefly recalling what he had practiced with Blackie over the past few days, Alon swept his gaze over the Divine blood.

“I shall grant you a chance.”

He spoke.

At those words, a stir ran through the Divine blood.

Should he have explained the situation a little more first? That thought crossed his mind, but Alon quickly discarded it.

If not before others, then at least in front of them, he knew he had to carry himself with the weight of a Divine blood.

If Alon’s lie were exposed in this situation, the consequences would be difficult to handle—it was truly a double-edged sword.

And at the very least, if Alon wanted to continue pretending to be Divine blood, he could not become closer to the Divine blood before him than necessary.

[...A chance, you say?]

Of course, he could not become too distant from them either.

At the Darkness-Eating Sword’s words, Alon said nothing.

Instead, he glanced at Blackie, which had already flowed down beside him like a shadow and formed red eyes, then gave a faint nod.

Along with that small motion from Alon, Blackie clung to his hand as if it had been waiting for the signal.

Once he confirmed Blackie had attached itself, Alon raised his hand.

In that brief span of time, Alon read the atmosphere among the Divine blood and thought,

‘As expected.’

At least as far as Alon could tell, the atmosphere among the Divine blood was not all that fervent.

If he had to describe it, it felt more like uncertainty.

But even faced with that lukewarm mood, Alon did not panic.

He had expected this from the moment he came here.

‘There’s no reason for them to be that enthusiastic when I’ve never shown them anything directly.’

Alon did not know why the Divine blood—why they thought such things about Alon, or rather, the Star Eater.

But he had never bestowed abilities upon the Divine blood.

He had not even known they held such misunderstandings about him, and to begin with, Alon did not even know whether he himself was capable of bestowing abilities.

Even now, he only thought there was some possibility. He still did not know for certain whether he could bestow abilities or not.

He had never even tested it.

Even so, the reason Alon had deliberately come here was because he knew something.

A mere misunderstanding born from who knew where would never be enough to control the Divine blood before him.

He knew that right now, he had to show them at least something.

“Right.”

That was why Alon had come to the star roots.

Wooooong—!

Above Alon’s hand, blackened by Blackie, two spheres rose into the air.

And the instant they saw them—

[Th-that—!]

[Surely—!!]

Murmurs spread among the Divine blood.

Naturally.

Because the spheres created above Alon’s hand were none other than the abilities of the Divine blood.

Of course, Alon had no way of knowing whether the Divine blood would be able to absorb these spheres or not.

But what mattered to Alon was not whether they could absorb them—

“If you are capable,”

—it was making the Divine blood believe, so Alon spoke calmly as he held out the two spheres.

“Then you may take them.”

And with that, he finally delivered the words he had prepared.

The Burning Vegetation felt something slightly strange as it looked at the Star Eater, who had appeared so suddenly and was now trying to grant abilities.

Of course, this situation was one the Burning Vegetation had dreamed of.

This very moment was the reason it followed the Star Eater.

And yet, lately, a peculiar hypothesis had been rising in the Burning Vegetation’s mind.

That was the question of whether the Star Eater might actually be ‘human.’

Naturally, the Burning Vegetation had heard rumors to the effect that “the Star Eater deliberately stepped down from the position of Divine blood and became ‘human.’”

But the suspicion that had arisen within the Burning Vegetation was different. It was, quite literally, the question of whether the Star Eater was not a descended Divine blood at all, but a pure ‘human’ with a purpose different from theirs.

And that suspicion had arisen because of the Star Eater’s actions.

At first, it had merely thought, He must have his reasons.

But no matter how it looked at it, the Star Eater acted for humans.

Not to use humans as tools, but literally to protect them.

And if he truly was Divine blood—moreover, if the rumors were true—then those were actions he should never have chosen.

As far as it knew, the Star Eater had cast aside all his power and descended in order to gain even greater power.

And yet even so, rather than pursuing power, he had thoroughly dealt only with the Divine blood trying to kill humans.

Was that all?

Even though those beings on an entirely different level from them—those effectively called “karma”—would soon descend, he was not using humans at all.

Even though he would need to use humans to stop them.

And so, in the end, the Burning Vegetation had begun to think that perhaps the Star Eater was either a pure human, or perhaps Divine blood that was using Divine blood in order to protect humanity.

And if that were true, then the Burning Vegetation—no, the Divine blood—should not follow him.

For them, this was their last chance.

But it thought on that only briefly.

The Burning Vegetation—

[Thank you for granting us a chance.]

—for now, reached out and placed its hand on one of the two spheres he had offered.

And in that moment—

tuk!

The world before the Burning Vegetation’s eyes turned pure white, then in an instant became dark.

[?]

It only had time to feel confusion briefly.

The Burning Vegetation soon realized without difficulty that this was a mental world.

And in the next moment—

[......?]

The Burning Vegetation saw something strange.

[A moon...?]

It was a moon.

A moon endlessly dark, close to an abyss.

But a little later—

[...Ah?]

The Burning Vegetation came to a realization.

That was—

that was not a moon.

It was—

a pupil.

A pupil vast enough to look down on even the Burning Vegetation with infinite detachment.

And the moment it recognized that—

the Burning Vegetation saw it.

Wooooooooong────────────!

A gigantic eye gazing down at it.

Scattering an abyss across the whole world.

As countless rings shattered and re-formed over and over—

and devoured cluster after cluster of stars—

it saw that

‘eye.’

[......Ah.]

The true body of the Star Eater.

It beheld the end.

And at the same time, it realized.

That its question—

had been a ridiculous doubt.