Until about a week passed, Alon stayed in Divine Land. Of course, it wasn’t like Alon did anything during that time. No, in fact, Alon was starting to head for the marquis’s estate, but he couldn’t.

It was because of Sili.

Sili, who had worked hard to make Divine Land prosper while Alon was gone, kept taking him around, saying she wanted to show him this and that. And while she did, a full two more days passed.

...The amazing part was, she really packed those two days to the brim, so it was only yesterday, by the skin of his teeth, that he finally got introduced to every group that existed in Divine Land.

“......”

Alon recalled what he’d heard from Sili yesterday.

‘Now, this is the Holy Knight Order!’

‘I see—’

‘This is the Blue Knight Order!’

‘......?’

‘This is the Affliction Corps!’

‘......Then, is there some kind of difference between the knight orders?’

‘First, the Holy Knight Order is—’

They were all wearing similar armor, so he’d made one comment, and she’d gone on with explanations about each knight order for nearly an hour.

“Hm—”

...How did my Divine Land Tycoon, which started out so, so small, end up like this?

As Alon hesitated for a moment, a sound drifted in, and he looked down.

[Kyuu-!!]

Smack!

[Nya!-?!]

Blackie smacked away Kalannon, which was slyly settling in beside Alon, with a rubbery kitty punch. Then, as if to say not a chance, Blackie widened its eyes and claimed Alon’s lap.

Kalannon’s face filled with indignation at the sight. An expression that clearly said, That was originally my seat.

But Blackie didn’t look like it intended to yield at all. It primly turned its head the other way.

‘...I thought it was fine last time, but their compatibility isn’t great.’

As Alon recalled Blackie repeatedly hammering Kalannon’s head with kitty punches over the last two days—

“Marquis. Preparations to depart are complete, so let’s go.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

Evan’s voice.

Alon immediately nodded, grabbed Blackie, and rose from his seat. He was done with everything he needed to do in Divine Land, so it was about time to head back.

Naturally, Alon tucked Blackie into his chest area. Then, watching Kalannon claim the chair the instant he stood up like it had been waiting, he petted Kalannon once.

Hisssss—!

Kalannon hissed in displeasure. It seemed to be expressing dissatisfaction that Alon hadn’t stopped Blackie the whole time, but—

[Kyuu-!]

Smack!

Blackie, which had popped out of Alon’s chest area at some point, immediately subdued Kalannon with a punch, and Kalannon shrank down on the spot.

With a bitter smile at the two of them, Alon started toward the carriage.

“Ah, Marquis. This time, can I move with you too?”

“Do you have business?”

“Ah, yes! Something came up for a moment!”

“I’m planning to go as well.”

“......Well, I don’t really care.”

Sili and Deus stepped forward, saying they would accompany him, and Alon nodded even as he felt bewildered.

They weren’t the only ones heading to the Palatio marquis’s estate with him this time.

“Why don’t you just guard Divine Land?”

“No.”

“Why are you deciding what I do?”

“You’re both knights.”

“Hmph— we’re escort knights.”

“Agreed. If anything, you’re the one who should go back—”

“Yeah, that, Colo— what was it again? Go back to the desert.”

“No. I’m traveling properly with Benefactor, you know? I’m different from you, who made up an excuse to tag along?”

“!? This is a clear mission!”

Seollang, Historia, and Ryang-a were already arguing enthusiastically near Alon’s carriage.

Ever since the first day they showed their faces and then suddenly vanished together, the three of them had been constantly bickering.

As Alon watched the familiar squabbling, now used to it—

“.......”

Historia suddenly realized Alon had arrived, then ghosted over to stand quickly at his side.

Swoosh—

Naturally, she wrapped her tail around Alon’s waist.

Sway—

The tip trembled in tiny shakes, like she was in a good mood.

“!”

“!”

Seollang, who saw the scene a beat late, hurried over as well and stood on Historia’s opposite side, wrapping a tail around Alon’s waist.

“.......”

In the blink of an eye, Alon was caught by two tails.

Ryang-a, left alone, ran over with an expression like someone had pulled something on her and shouted.

“What are you doing?! Boss is going to be annoyed!”

“Hmph— Benefactor isn’t annoyed by stuff like this!”

Seollang snapped back, brimming with pride.

...For a moment it felt like the positions had just been reversed from some past conversation between Historia and Seollang.

In the end, because there were so many people, they split up into multiple carriages, and only then could Alon peacefully watch Divine Land gradually recede into the distance.

“......No matter how I think about it, this feels like it got too big.”

“I think so too.”

Evan agreed and looked toward Divine Land as well.

“......At this point, isn’t this basically getting checked openly?”

“Hm—”

Alon nodded without meaning to.

Divine Land’s military force was, even by his own eyes, reaching a level that was getting hard to ignore.

Even if Sian sent him a message tomorrow saying, ‘What the hell are you plotting?’

He would understand immediately.

So as Alon worried over what to do about it—

“...Should I invite the kings, or something?”

“Invite them?”

“Yeah. Like, letting them know first that ‘nothing dangerous is going to happen...’ That kind of feeling.”

He came up with a countermeasure, in his own way.

It wasn’t perfect.

But it was a shallow measure—just enough to stop that ridiculous rumor that he was ‘preparing for war.’

That much defense was enough, if it meant clearing up misunderstandings.

The reason he made Divine Land in the first place was, in the end, for divinity.

‘Come to think of it, I should ask how to handle divinity, too... Do I need to go to Rine?’

Right as Alon fell into that line of thought, Evan, who had been silently thinking things over, spoke.

“I understand the thrust of it, but... will the kings come, even if you invite them?”

“Of course they won’t.”

“......? Then is there a point to inviting them?”

“I told you. Literally, just by inviting them, you convey your intent.”

Alon didn’t think the kings would accept the invitation either.

In the first place, if you invited a king of a nation—and then thought that king would actually come— 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

that meant everyone involved was halfway out of their minds.

Even so, the reason Alon wanted to use the word invite was because it was the softest way to convey this to the kings:

‘I have absolutely no intention of causing anything. Come and confirm it once.’

‘And I can pack a few more gifts in, too.’

Having reached a conclusion in his own way, Alon told Evan, who nodded like he understood.

“Make sure you pass that along.”

“I understand.”

Alon tried to look back out at the vast Divine Land beyond, but—

“Ah, Marquis. Please take this as well.”

“This is...?”

Evan held out a book.

“It’s scripture.”

“Ah, that?”

“Yes. It’s what I received from Sili yesterday.”

Alon looked down at the book with a subtle expression.

It couldn’t be helped.

This scripture was something Sili had written up as Kalannon’s life story.

In other words, put simply—

that meant this book contained Alon’s life story.

“......”

What on earth did she write in here, Alon worried—no, thought, briefly.

...He could just open the book and check, but he didn’t have the courage to open it carelessly, so he hesitated only for a moment.

“Aren’t you going to open it?”

“......You didn’t read it?”

“I wanted to read it with you, Marquis.”

In the end, Alon carefully opened the scripture.

And.

[Let there be lightning.]

“......?”

At the line written in huge letters on the first page, Alon felt a strange emotion.

Because he’d seen a line like this somewhere before.

As he flipped a few pages—

[Kalannon, the one who receives lightning, saith.

O you who believe in me, you shall escape hunger and gain a place to stretch your legs. Your life shall shine with glory, and I promise you this.

To the spirit that believes in me, I shall share the lightning of my power, for this is my holy covenant.]

[Also—]

Swoosh— snap.

Alon quietly closed the scripture.

Then he hunched in on himself.

...Somehow, it felt like his fingers were curling up from embarrassment.

“Wow— did you really say stuff like that?”

“Do I look like I would?”

Evan snickered beside him.

Alon replied coldly, then stared at the scripture—with an expression full of complicated feelings (a scripture in name only, a suspicious con document of unknown origin).

...Just how did Sili see him in her head?

Countless thoughts brushed past Alon’s mind, and—

“......”

They narrowed down to one thought.

...He was starting to worry about Sili a little.

A day after that, the party returned to the Palatio marquis’s estate.

The estate they’d returned to after quite a while wasn’t much different from before. The territory was full of merchants, and the atmosphere wasn’t bad, either.

However, there were a few things that surprised Alon.

The # Nоvеlight # first of them was—

“......Yutia?”

“Teacher.”

The fact that Yutia was at the Palatio marquis’s estate.

“It’s been a while.”

“It has. Have you been well?”

“I’ve been well.”

“That’s a relief.”

“More importantly, what brings you to the estate?”

“Mm— I have something to do.”

“Something to do?”

“Yes. Do you remember last time? I said I was going to build a church.”

“Ah, that. Did you come because of that?”

“Mm— I also wanted to see you, Teacher.”

“Me?”

When Alon asked back, Yutia smiled.

“Yes. It’s been quite a while since I last saw your face.”

While speaking, Yutia adjusted a red brooch that had been sitting slightly crooked.

“I’m glad it seems like you liked the gift.”

“......Mm, yeah.”

The brooch Yutia had given him a long time ago.

For a moment, Alon felt puzzled, as if Yutia was deliberately bringing it up again, but then—

“Ahem, big brother—”

“Ah, Nangwon.”

“Have you been well?”

“Yeah.”

The moment the greetings with Yutia ended, Nangwon naturally cut in from the side.

But Nangwon’s appearance wasn’t that surprising.

Because he’d heard about it last time.

The person Alon found surprising as well was—

“Hello, big brother?”

“......Magrina?”

“Yes, big brother.”

Magrina, and—

“I came too. Godfather.”

Rine.

When had those two gotten to the estate?

“Rine, can you move around now?”

“No. This is me projecting my body using an artifact, Godfather. Once I use it, it can produce the same effect for about three months, but I can only use it twice.”

“......Did you use it because something important came up?”

“Yes. In many ways.”

Rine answered with a smile.

Was it really that important?

Alon nodded for now, then swept his gaze around the office.

An office that usually had only Evan in it had an incredible number of people gathered.

Right away, over by Yutia there were Seollang and Rine, and Deus.

And over where Magrina stood in a strange standoff, there were Nangwon and Nangyeon, Ryang-a, and Historia.

No one looked like they had a particularly bad impression of each other. They all wore faint smiles around their mouths.

But why was it—

even though this was an office that should’ve been noisy with this many people gathered—

““......””

it was extremely quiet?

‘...What is this?’

In that strange atmosphere, with people who looked like they were only smiling with their mouths, as Alon slowly started to feel bewildered—

Alexion.

“......Sir Alexion.”

“What.”

“Today, many young ladies have come.”

“......Already?”

“Yes. There are as many as eight who say they’ll be interviewing this evening.”

“Aren’t there only six letters that arrived, the ones we sent out?”

“......Yes.”

“Then why are there eight?”

At Alexion’s words, the secretary couldn’t answer.

They just unnaturally shifted their gaze elsewhere, then—

“B-but each of them... delivered eight letters. All different people.”

They reported the truth, as it was, and Alexion—

“......”

shuddered for a moment at the anxiety that ran down their spine.