Time passed after that.

The festival held by the House of Marquis Palatio—or rather, in the capital of Palantia—came to an end.

The capital began to recover its original atmosphere.

The kings and other major figures from each nation who had gathered to celebrate Alon’s ascension returned to their own countries, and the nobles who had filled the banquet hall dispersed as well.

That was only natural.

Given how everything had been shattered by the Divine blood, it was almost surprising they had managed to spare this much time in the first place.

And Alon Palatio, now the first king of Palantia—

“...Your Majesty, yes, for now, we can expand the territory as planned, but it seems we’re lacking far too many things.”

“...Is that so?”

—was in a meeting with Palantia’s leadership.

Of course, “leadership” only meant Evan, Penia, Alexion, and Sili, so it was really no different from their usual meetings.

“Yes. For one thing, don’t we need to build a new castle right away?”

“A castle...”

Alon nodded.

If this had been an ordinary territory, whether it had a castle or not would not have mattered much, but Alon was no longer a noble. He was a king.

Which meant he needed at least some degree of kingly grandeur.

“It certainly seems necessary, but can we afford it?”

Not as clearly as Alexion, but Alon had a fairly solid grasp of the marquisate’s financial state.

‘It’s probably starting to get risky.’

At present, the marquisate’s finances were in fairly good shape.

They had also managed to obtain the materials needed for the territorial expansion at prices so low they were practically absurd compared to current market rates.

Even taking that into account, however, building a castle was not the kind of project that only cost a little money.

‘We could probably manage it, but...’

It made no sense to pour every last coin they had into castle construction.

So when Alon asked, Alexion looked as if he were checking something, then said,

“Ordinarily, our finances should have been a little short, but circumstances seem a bit more favorable.”

“They do? Why?”

“Because we received quite a lot of gifts from each nation during the Proclamation Ceremony.”

“...Enough gifts to build a castle?”

“Strictly speaking, not enough to build the entire castle, but they’ll still be a great help.”

“...Even so, that would still have to be an incredible amount...?”

“That’s true.”

At Alexion’s confirmation, Alon could not help being surprised.

He already knew that people who came to a Proclamation Ceremony brought gifts as a matter of form, but he had not realized those formal gifts would amount to that much treasure.

So after thinking it over, Alon said,

“Then let’s go ahead and build the castle. But cut costs wherever we can.” 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

and made his decision.

“Understood. Then we’ll build a new castle in the inner district.”

“How long do you expect construction to take?”

“That depends on the budget, but if we hire a large number of mages, it should be shortened considerably.”

“Mages...”

As Alon fell into thought, Penia, standing beside him, added,

“Should I contact the Mage Tower?”

“If that’s possible.”

“Yes, then I’ll get in touch separately. I’ll also try to negotiate the wages as low as possible.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

Penia spoke with a smile.

Alon briefly found himself thinking that she had been smiling more often lately.

Then he checked a few more matters.

“Is that all for the urgent issues we need to divide up?”

“Yes. For the territorial expansion, now that the materials are arriving, we plan to hire workers starting a month in advance and prepare the ground bit by bit. As for the soldiers, I heard Divine Land will handle that side entirely anyway.”

“...I see.”

With that, he concluded today’s meeting.

And just as he rose from his seat—

“Godfather.”

“Rine?”

Rine came to see Alon.

“Are you leaving?”

Sensing why Rine had come, Alon asked, and she nodded.

“Yes. And there’s something I’d like to talk about as well. Just the two of us.”

“Something to talk about?”

“Yes.”

Rine gave that short answer.

Alon looked puzzled at the sight of her, but soon nodded as if he understood.

And after Penia, who for some reason was looking at Rine with a rather strange gaze, and the others, who still looked a bit dazed, had all left—

“So then, what was it you wanted to say? Is it something you need to tell me in secret?”

Alon asked for the point.

At that, Rine idly touched the hair she had styled differently than usual, then said,

“Mm... actually, not really.”

“...Then?”

“I just said that because I wanted to be alone with you.”

For a moment, Alon went blank.

Rine chuckled to herself as though his reaction amused her.

“I’m kidding, Godfather. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Divine Land.”

“...Divine Land?”

“Yes.”

“Did something happen there?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s more that I thought it might be about time for you to learn how to make proper use of Divine Land.”

At those words, Alon was suddenly reminded again that Rine was the one who had suggested creating Divine Land in the first place.

“How to make proper use of Divine Land?”

“Yes.”

“...Am I not already making proper use of it?”

In truth, he had not been making proper use of it since the Divine blood began to fall, but before that, Alon had been making very good use of the faith that gathered to him, so he looked baffled.

Rine answered,

“Mm, I thought so too, but in fact, Marquis, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) you’ve only been using Divine Land halfway.”

“...Only halfway?”

“Yes. To be precise, only on the side of using the faith you receive.”

Seeing Alon nod with interest, she said,

“I’ll tell you some of the information I found in the library this time.”

With a smile, she stepped closer.

####

The next day.

“Let’s be off.”

Even after becoming the king of a nation, Alon set out with no special escort, taking only Evan and Penia with him.

“Alon.”

“Mm?”

“You’re a king now. Wouldn’t it still be better to travel with an escort?”

Evan asked, but Alon thought differently.

‘More people would only slow us down.’

If Alon had been weak, then perhaps he would have traveled with an escort, but that was not the case.

In other words, even traveling like this, there was almost no chance anything life-threatening would happen to him.

So—

“The more people there are, the longer it takes just to move around.”

“...That’s true.”

Evan nodded as though he had to agree with Alon, then said,

“Ah, come to think of it, you’ve looked deep in thought since yesterday. What’s the reason?”

“Since yesterday?”

“Yes, um... it seems like it started after you spoke with Rine.”

At Evan’s words, Alon let out a quiet little sound of realization and recalled the conversation he had had with Rine the day before.

‘Actually, after those things fell last time, I kept looking through the Forbidden Book Zone in the library for information about Divine blood, and I found something rather interesting.’

‘What kind of information?’

‘It said that Divine blood with a certain level of influence can strengthen their followers or strengthen the territory they possess.’

‘...Strengthen followers or territory?’

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t know about territory, but even now, those who believe in me are using my power, as I understand it.’

‘That’s right. But that’s literally just borrowing your power, isn’t it?’

‘Then—’

‘Strictly speaking, what I’m talking about isn’t so much strengthening as—’

“...Evolution.”

Alon murmured the word Rine had used at the end.

She had definitely said that.

That Divine blood did more than simply grant divine power to humans—they made them “evolve.”

And if what Rine said was true, then Alon should be able to do the same.

The problem, however, was—

‘...Since the Divine blood fell, faith hasn’t been accumulating.’

At the moment, there were two divine powers inside Alon.

The power of the Poison Eater and the Devourer.

And yet, strangely, aside from those two divine powers, Alon had no other divine power gathering within him.

‘Nothing should have changed at all...’

So while Alon remained troubled by that as he headed for Theria to meet Siyan—

“Ah, Alon, do you happen to know this?”

“...Know what?”

“Apparently Divine blood appeared near our territory last night.”

Evan suddenly delivered the news.

“...What?”

Alon’s expression hardened.

But in contrast, Evan spoke with an easy expression.

“Ah, you don’t need to be too tense. If it were something serious, I wouldn’t be mentioning it this casually.”

“Then?”

“They say the Divine blood disappeared almost immediately after appearing.”

“...Disappeared immediately?”

“They think it died.”

“...Died?”

“Yes. For now, the Information Guild’s judgment is that there were signs of battle, and red blood and pieces of a Divine blood corpse were scattered all over the area.”

At Evan’s explanation, Alon fell silent, though he tilted his head.

It was fortunate that a Divine blood had died.

But—

‘Who in the world could have...?’

At least as far as he knew, there was no one who should have been capable of killing Divine blood, so Alon’s confusion only deepened.

At that same moment, inside an office in Rosario—

“...Lady Yutia?”

Cardinal Sergius stopped in place, looking somewhat startled.

His eyes were fixed on Yutia Bloodia, seated there.

And no wonder.

‘...How is she already here?’

Because he had heard the news that she had left the House of Marquis Palatio—or rather, Palantia—“yesterday.”

So while Sergius still stood there stunned,

“Yes, go ahead.”

Yutia spoke gently.

And at that moment, Cardinal Sergius noticed at least two strange things about Yutia.

One was the red blood staining the end of her black holy robe.

And the other was—

‘Hair ties...?’

—two rubber bands of the sort women used to tie up their hair, caught among her snowy white hair.

...Two of them, at that.

His dazed gaze moved from her hair to the hem of her holy robe, and as Yutia slowly lowered her own eyes to follow it—

“Oh my, I didn’t even realize that got on me.”

She murmured it calmly with a faint smile, then looked back at Sergius.

“So, what is it?”

At Yutia’s question that followed,

“...It’s nothing.”

Sergius simply closed his mouth.

He knew it well.

That there were times in this world when not knowing was far better than knowing.

So instead of asking why she was here, when she should still have been on the road from Palantia to Rosario,

“Unlike lately, you seem to be in unusually good spirits.”

he changed the subject.

Naturally, it was not some routine attempt at polite cover.

Yutia really was wearing a faint smile unlike her usual self.

“Oh my, do I seem that way?”

“Yes. Did something happen?”

At that question, Yutia looked at him, still wearing that quiet smile, and then said,

“Yes, something good happened.”

“...Something good?”

“Yes. Something good.”

She turned her head and silently looked out toward the capital of Rosario.

Then at last—

“Only now has every arrangement fallen into its proper place.”

“...Arrangement?”

“Yes, the preparations are complete.”

Her lips moved slightly.

“All of the preparations.”

As her blood-red eyes shone.