In the Empire’s southeast.

A place where, once, a dazzlingly prosperous trade city had stood, but which had now been reduced completely to ruins because of the Divine blood.

And there, where the vast majority of the Empire’s people had been reduced to nothing more than tools of the Divine blood—

[.......]

Rarely enough, dozens of Divine blood had gathered.

However, there was something far too unusual about them to simply call them Divine blood.

Except for when they gradually changed into humans through their stages, the Divine blood fundamentally all differed in form and size.

Naturally, the Divine blood gathered here were no different.

All kinds of shapes and appearances.

But there was one thing they all had in common.

Armor.

They wore bizarrely long helmets, the kind only a plague doctor might use, along with dark armor fitted to each of their bodies.

They stood in formation like knights, and before them—

[Hoo-]

—stood one being.

Its body was not larger than the Divine blood.

If anything, it was absurdly small.

Almost like a human.

But even if its size matched that of a human, its appearance was very far from human.

And unlike the gathered Divine blood, it wore no dark armor.

Instead, what could be seen was gray skin, gaunt and skeletal as though it had suffered from malnutrition.

Where a heart should have been, there was simply a gaping hole in the middle, as if nothing had ever been there to begin with.

And finally—

two spears were embedded in its shoulders.

One black, one white.

With the spearheads piercing both lungs and jutting out through the ribs, the man looked, at a glance, less like a leader and more like a common criminal.

And yet every one of the Divine blood in dark armor had its head bowed toward him.

How much time passed like that?

The thing seated before the group of Divine blood, exhaling a languid breath from atop a broken stone throne,

[Warriors of the great Astarote.]

[The time has come.]

suddenly opened its mouth.

[Now is the time to fulfill our mission.]

[The blood of the heretic has overflowed from death and granted us the chance to gain power—surely this is a holy revelation that will bring the Great One down upon this earth—]

Its quiet and majestic voice

[Gather the blood of the heretic—and heed Astarote’s command. Bring that Great One down into this world.]

rang out in every direction.

[Ahh—Astarote.]

[We are his spear, his sword, and his shield.]

[The unwavering flesh of that Great One—]

Inside those plague-doctor-like helmets, red glows began flickering strangely in the ashen world.

Quietly.

And with a light that made one’s skin crawl.

####

Alon did not particularly enjoy luxury.

That was not to say he disliked money.

If anything, he was quite close to liking it very much.

Not for the sake of luxury, but because of the satisfaction that came from living a plentiful life.

Anyway, from Alon’s standpoint, having the mages of the two mage towers build him a castle was not a bad arrangement at all.

Of course, once he looked at the size of the castle currently being built, he did hesitate with, 'Isn’t this a bit excessive...?' but...

In the end, the cost-performance was high enough that he had not refused.

He had not.

But—

"...Evan."

"Yes."

"...Was there anything like that in the blueprint we saw last time?"

Alon stared blankly upward.

The floating castle was still hanging in the sky.

Strictly speaking, it was not really a castle—at most it felt more like something that could hold a small garden and a house.

Still, in the end, it remained a floating castle, so he asked.

"...Did something like that even exist in the first place?"

"Thought so, did you?"

"Yes. Penia, have you seen it before by any chance?"

"I don’t remember seeing anything like that either..."

Following Evan, Penia shook her head as well.

It was confirmed that that floating castle had not been in the blueprint.

In truth, if the floating castle had simply been added on top, Alon might have just let it go.

It would have been a little shocking, but if it was only that much of an addition, he might have figured it was just one of those changes that happened along the way.

Plans and actual execution were always different, after all.

...Setting aside whether a floating castle was the kind of thing that could just suddenly be added to a building project.

But unfortunately, the reason Alon could not easily let the current situation pass was—

"...Um, Lord Alon?"

"What is it...?"

"Doesn’t the castle itself look... a little bigger than what we originally talked about?"

As Penia said, the castle itself had grown larger.

"...So it’s not just me?"

"Yes. According to the blueprint... it shouldn’t be able to turn out like that."

"Did they maybe have materials left over and decide to build more with them or something?"

Evan offered his own theory, but—

"...On the right, just to build that one extra castle that wasn’t in the blueprint, I don’t think selling one or two territories would even be enough."

At Penia’s words, he closed his mouth.

Just then—

"Hoh—human magic. To think it has advanced this far in only a few hundred years. And even then, it works by a method different from that of the True Mages. Is most of it made of formulas?"

The golden dragon Reinysius instantly recognized the magic circles embedded throughout the castle and looked on with interest shining in his eyes.

Watching the group all react in their own ways, Alon first sorted out the situation.

"...For now, let’s go inside."

At last, he had returned to his territory.

####

Right after returning to Palantia, Alexion greeted Alon with a smile spread deep across his face, despite looking pale and drawn.

After they exchanged brief greetings, Alon was soon able to meet the two tower masters.

"Oh my, you’ve arrived!"

"Please, come in!"

"...??"

Alon stared at the two tower masters, who were somehow showing him the utmost courtesy with all the strength they had.

Of course, Alon had been away from the territory for quite a while, but that did not mean he had forgotten his conversations with the two of them.

'...I’m pretty sure we agreed to speak casually to each other.'

Why had they gone back to formal speech again? Alon thought about it briefly, then pushed the matter aside.

The Purple Mage Tower master, Norton, and the Brown Mage Tower master, Manram.

He greeted them lightly.

"It has been a while."

"Yes, indeed!"

"As it happens, we are doing our utmost to build the castle!"

"All the mages of the Purple Mage Tower have been mobilized to build it!"

"The Brown Mage Tower is the same! Nearly everyone has been put into the project!"

What came back, however, was an intense report.

And one delivered while they shot each other looks and tried to outtalk the other.

The two tower masters glanced at one another, then—

"Ahem—the Purple Mage Tower has used the materials from the alchemy we will be selling this time to upgrade the magic circles to higher-tier ones."

"The Brown Mage Tower has raised the quality of the materials being used this time to even finer goods than before!"

—as if trying to appeal to Alon, they continued speaking with great enthusiasm.

"......"

The two of them poured out achievements without pause.

From Alon’s perspective, it felt oddly like unpaid laborers who had received nothing in return shouting, 'I did more work!'

Still—

"I would like the two of you to calm down for a moment first."

After settling the two agitated mages down, he asked,

"About the castle currently being built—it seems there are parts that differ from the previous blueprint—"

"Ah! You truly don’t need to worry too much about that part! We are building those separately, after all!"

"......"

'No, I mean, why?' rose all the way to his throat, but these people were clearly working hard, so he could hardly say it outright.

For a moment, Alon organized his thoughts inwardly.

"...It feels as though I am already receiving more than enough excessive goodwill as it is."

Alon had enough sense to read the room.

He knew roughly that the level of goodwill was excessive, and also where that goodwill had come from.

Still, it was hard to imagine they would go so far as to do something this absurd over that alone, so he cautiously broached the subject—

"Ahem—as you know, it is because I very much want to form a good relationship with Your Majesty."

"The same goes for me."

The two tower masters merely smiled meaningfully.

Alon asked again,

"...Is that really all?"

"Oh, of course!"

"That truly is all we want!"

The two of them made an even greater fuss.

And then—

"Then we shall come to see you again tomorrow! We still have work left to do!"

"I will also report the details to you tomorrow!"

Declaring, 'I am now going off to work voluntarily!' they quickly slipped away.

"...What in the world?"

It was another day on which Alon’s questions only continued to pile up.

The next day.

Before heading over to Divine Land, Alon was resting from the fatigue of his long journey while carrying out his usual magic research.

Then Penia approached, breaking the silence.

"Lord Alon."

"Penia?"

"...I found out why those two are acting like that."

"The tower masters?"

"Yes. I think they must have seen it."

"...Seen what?"

"Me using a phrase."

"Ah."

Only then did Alon let out a low sound of realization.

At that same time.

In the southern capital of the Empire.

In the place where a royal castle, more dazzling and immense than any other capital in the Empire, stood—

"So Contanias saw that king from the frontier and called him the guardian dragon’s father?"

"That is correct, Princess."

Airinna Polanticia was listening to a knight’s report.

"......"

It was a report shocking enough in its own way, but her expression showed little change.

After thinking for a moment, Airinna said,

"At a glance, the odds are high that that idiot simply misunderstood."

She dismissed the report she had just heard with startling simplicity, then let out a sigh.

"Haah—just imagining him bowing his head to some frontier king and treating such ridiculous nonsense as if it were true is so embarrassing I could die from the shame of sharing the same bloodline."

As if mortified, she covered her face with one hand and shook her head.

At the sight, the knight spoke with his head still bowed.

"...To be honest, I thought the same as well, but."

"Why? Is there some other story?"

"According to the intelligence that came in, the Eastern Empire’s princess also seems to have reacted strongly to those words."

"...To that idiotic remark?"

"Yes. From what I hear, after finishing her current business, she intends to visit the frontier kingdom."

At the knight’s addition, Airinna fell silent.

In truth, Contanias’s fuss had not drawn much reaction from her.

To begin with, her evaluation of {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} him had never been more or less than an idiot who happened to be born with an excellent bloodline.

But if Serdea had reacted, then that was another story.

Serdea was not stupid like Contanias, and above all, her instincts were sharp.

Sharp enough that it could not simply be dismissed and ignored as mere intuition.

'Come to think of it, she proposed to him in the tower too.'

Of course, at the time, Airinna herself had also taken some degree of interest in him.

Because if Serdea’s instincts had chosen that frontier king, then there had to be something about him.

But even so, for that something to be 'the guardian dragon’s father'—

it was so absurd that Airinna tilted her head for quite some time before finally saying,

"...Dark."

"Yes, Princess."

"I’m afraid I’m going to have to borrow your ability for a bit."

"For Your Highness, gladly."

"...It seems I should verify that frontier king for myself. And—"

She quietly issued her command.

"I should also take this chance to verify the ability I gained this time."

As she closed and opened eyes whose irises had become an alien jade color, wholly unlike her own gold.