Once, Astarotte had been there.
But now, in that desolate territory where nothing remained anymore—
“Hm—”
one person stood there.
A man draped in a black star-sea robe, with a silver chain hanging from his pants.
As if he found it interesting, he looked over the territory of the one who descended.
More precisely, the places where the one who descended and the Divine blood had fought.
As though the situation from back then were replaying right before his eyes, his gaze moved nonstop.
His eyes swept here and there, then stopped in one place.
And then he—
“I see—”
smiled as if he had seen the end, as if he had realized sothing.
“So this is how it turns out this ti. How curious.”
After muttering quietly, he turned away without the slightest hesitation.
As if there was nothing left for him here anymore.
But at that mont—
the star-sea robe stopped walking.
A woman stood right in front of him.
An unusual appearance, with pentagrams in both eyes.
At the sight of her, the man in the black star-sea robe spoke in surprise.
“Well now— it seems soone got here before .”
“I’m not here first.”
“Then?”
“I ca to see you.”
At that answer, a natural smile spread across the star-sea robe’s lips.
“Is that so? Then I’m honored. To think the recently famous ‘Predator’ ca all the way here just to find . So, what is it?”
The woman stared at him for a mont before parting her lips.
“If I could’ve killed you in advance, I was going to. But it seems I can’t do that.”
A calm voice, and words that were anything but calm.
The man in the star-sea robe replied with an easy smile.
“My, that’s frightening.”
“Stop lying.”
“And why do you think that? Did you hear it from the ‘’ before this one?”
“......”
“Hm, I suppose that must be it.”
Even as the star-sea robe laughed in a curling, amused way, the Predator only stared at him in silence.
“Don’t act like you’ve newly realized sothing you already knew.”
“Well now, have I been found out?”
“......It would be nice if I could kill you.”
“That’s unfortunate. Still, seeing as you want to kill — I suppose you want to protect him?”
“......”
Without a word, the Predator rely glared at the star-sea robe with those pentagrams shining in both ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) eyes.
“But let say it once again. That’s impossible. He’s forced far too much already.”
“......”
“And for one who twisted the proper order that should have been followed, it is only inevitable that even greater absurdity will be given in return.”
Yet, unconcerned even by that chilling stare, the star-sea robe turned away.
“That won’t change. Even if it repeats any number of tis.”
With those final words, he vanished completely.
As though he had never been there in the first place.
And soon, in that place—
“......”
only the Predator, pentagrams glowing in both eyes, quietly stared at where the star-sea robe had stood.
####
“......Lord Alon.”
“What is it......”
“Normally, fish that live in the sea...... no, that thing’s not a fish, it’s a monster, but...... normally things that live in the sea can only swim in water, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what is that?”
Alon glanced sideways at Evan.
He looked at him for a mont with eyes that clearly said, You’re asking that right now?
Then—
“Uh, for now...... should we go?”
At Penia’s dazed voice, Alon nodded.
And the group continued on toward Palantia.
But even as they did, their eyes refused to leave the castle.
Naturally so.
They still hadn’t even gotten used to the castle as it was, yet after another half a year, it had once again changed enormously.
To be fair, the sea god leisurely swimming near the castle was so shocking that it pulled their attention first, but even beyond what Alon had expected, the castle itself had changed unmistakably.
Among those changes, the most shocking by far was the floating island above the castle.
“......It’s big enough to build an entire mansion on.”
“It’s big enough to build the academy we saw while crossing the Empire this ti.”
“......I see.”
The floating island they had seen last ti had definitely been very small.
If he had to put it into words, it had felt almost like a mascot—sothing just large enough to build a tiny house on.
But now?
It really had beco so huge that Penia and Evan could say things like that.
And that wasn’t all.
“......Why does the castle look even bigger?”
“I felt the sa way.”
“So I’m not imagining it......?”
The castle had gotten bigger too.
And not to the point where you’d tilt your head and go, Hm? Did it maybe get a little bigger? No, it was at the point where you could simply recognize, Ah, it got bigger.
“Logically speaking...... is that even possible?”
“No, I an...... castles don’t normally gain weight like that, do they? Normally, if a castle gets bigger, you have to tear it down and rebuild it.”
“So that is how it should work......?”
“But it doesn’t look like they tore it down and rebuilt it either.”
At Evan’s words, Alon nodded.
In the first place, tearing down a castle of that size and rebuilding it within half a year made no sense at all.
So as Alon wondered just what in the world had happened while he was away, he soon arrived in front of the castle.
And the mont Alon reached the front of the castle—
“?!”
Fwaaaaaa—!!
a red carpet began to spread out before him.
He was startled by the suddenly appearing red carpet, but only for a mont.
“......Illusion magic?”
The instant Alon realized what it was—
Fwaaaaaak—!
illusionary knights appeared all at once on both sides of the red carpet and drew their swords.
The brightly shining blades instantly crossed in X-shapes and shot toward the sky, making sounds like fireworks as they began forming Alon’s image.
“......Oh.”
Evan let out a sound of admiration.
“Wow...... the amount of magic crystals this takes for just one use...... this is a complete waste of mon—”
Penia wore a horrified expression as she calculated the amount of magic crystals being consud at that very mont.
And—
“......Ah.”
struck by a level of horrifying embarrassnt so intense he felt like he might collapse on the spot, Alon had no choice but to squeeze his eyes shut.
Right after that, after completing a return ceremony he had absolutely not wanted while receiving greetings and applause from countless residents of the territory—
“You’ve returned, Your Majesty.”
“Alexion.”
he exchanged a brief greeting with Alexion, who had co to receive them.
“There is quite a lot I need to report, but...... I imagine you have many questions first, so I’ll postpone the report a little.”
“Thank you.”
Then he headed straight into the castle.
And there, he soon found Reinysius and—
“......You’re here.”
“Reinysius. And—”
“Ah, you’ve returned, Your Majesty.”
“Mm.”
—the two tower masters.
More precisely, Norton, master of the Purple Mage Tower, and Manram, master of the Brown Mage Tower, both smiling as though they were having the ti of their lives.
At the sight of the two of them, Alon squeezed his eyes shut once, then opened them again.
“That illusion magic...... did the two of you make it?”
“Yes. What do you think?”
“......Stop doing it.”
Still clutching his head with hands trembling from embarrassnt, he made that request.
####
Right after that, Alon was finally able to hear why things had turned out like this.
“So, to summarize. Reinysius’s magic power is so great that rely running this castle doesn’t consu it at all, so you renovated the castle again on that premise?”
“That’s correct.”
“Wow......”
At Norton’s words, Penia couldn’t help letting out a sound of amazent as she looked at Reinysius.
“......I’m starting to feel like I’m an idiot.”
Hearing her strange mutter, Alon continued.
“......Then is that the sa too?”
“If by that, you an?”
“......That.”
When Alon pointed at the sea god swimming around the castle, Manram nodded as if to say that was right.
“That’s right.”
“How exactly did you do that?”
“It wasn’t such a grand feat. Using the five castles that serve as each point, we drew a great magic circle and added a bit of a gravity formation on top of it. Originally, it was a chanism made to block long-range attacks from incoming, but as I kept looking at it, I thought it might also work well aesthetically, so additionally—”
As if he had been waiting for that question, Manram started speaking in a rush.
After confirming that, Alon let out a quiet little sound.
“......Ah.”
“......Is there, perhaps, so problem?”
At that, Manram cautiously tried to read the room.
Now you’re trying to read the room? That thought did cross Alon’s mind, but he soon shook his head.
“......No, it’s not that.”
From Alon’s perspective, they had turned the castle into this on practically half-free labor, so it felt a little difficult to start saying he didn’t like it now.
And objectively, the castle wasn’t bad.
If anything, it was good.
......It was just a little too much, and that was the problem.
So after thinking for a mont, Alon asked,
“......Just in case, let ask— did you add any other chanisms to the castle?”
For now, he decided to hear what exactly the tower masters had done to this castle during his absence—
or rather, what sort of chanisms they had installed.
“Of course we did—!”
And with those words, the tower masters began talking again, visibly brightening once more.
“This is an automatic interception system. In case there is an external intrusion—”
“This is an illusion maneuver device. If an enemy or any unwanted person appears, illusion magic will imdiately—”
“There are various defensive spells on the castle walls, but more importantly, a firestorm—”
“In the place where you’ll be living from now on, if anyone other than Lord Alon enters, a golem capable of responding imdiately—”
And that went on for a full two hours.
And by the ti rely listening to it had gone beyond exhausting and was starting to drain the life out of him, the last thing Alon was introduced to was—
“......”
a violently enormous sphere of magic power being created at the center ford by the vertices of the five castle towers.
“What is that—?”
At Alon’s question that followed—
“It’s an anti-Divine blood interception device.”
“It’s called Dragon Breath!”
the two tower masters proudly declared.
And with that—
‘It really is the Demon King’s castle.’
‘This is the Demon King’s castle.’
‘It’s the Demon King’s castle.......’
Evan, Penia, and Alon had no choice but to arrive at that evaluation of the completed castle.
####
After that, around the ti the sky was growing dim—
“You look tired, so let’s talk about Kylrus tomorrow. In the first place, it’s not the kind of matter that will end quickly.”
“......Let’s do that.”
After receiving that consideration from Reinysius, Alon ended up speaking with Alexion.
“You’re saying one castle is going to be empty?”
“To be precise, it seems one inner castle and the castles on the outer side, which are arranged in five overlapping layers, will likely be left vacant, so I thought this might be a good opportunity for you to recruit so defensive troops.”
“Defensive troops?”
“Yes. In truth, the castle itself is just so......”
Alexion fumbled slightly with his words.
“......It is very well made, but since the castle is so large, I think the current forces have their limits.”
“So you’re saying we need to recruit additional troops.”
“Yes. In fact, we’ll need to gather quite a lot, so it would be nice if we could recruit a large number at once, but...... if we do that, their reliability will drop significantly, so I think it will take so ti to fill the ranks.”
At Alexion’s words, Alon nodded and answered.
“......Then let’s do that.”
“Yes, I’ll start preparing. Ah, and what would you like to do with the vacant inner castle?”
At Alexion’s question—
“An inner castle.”
“Yes. It’s the castle attached to yours, Lord Alon. In truth, with an ordinary castle, it would be fine to leave it empty, but, well......”
“What is it this ti......?”
“There are just too many chanisms built into it....... It feels a little too wasteful to leave it unused.......”
Alon understood that feeling as well.
Of course, since Reinysius was supplying the magic power, there was effectively no cost, but even so, letting that level of consumption go to waste did feel regrettable.
“Hm—”
Thinking it over, Alon said without much thought,
“......I suppose I should give the castle to soone.”
“You’re giving away a castle......?”
“Yes. If there’s soone among the people around who needs it.”
That was what he said.
And at that mont—
the red brooch and green badge on Alon’s coat began to sparkle.
As if foretelling turmoil......
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