"I think they must have seen it somehow."

At Penia’s words, Alon asked back,

"...You mean they know you used spell phrases?"

"Yes."

When she confirmed it, Alon paused for a moment, then checked again.

"Well—since you were practicing even just yesterday, I suppose they could know that fact itself if they wanted to... But you mean it seems like they’ve known for a long time already, right?"

"That’s right."

Penia nodded again.

"I could tell after talking with them today."

"You met with the two tower masters?"

"More accurately, I happened to run into Norton, the Purple Mage Tower master."

"Hmm—if we assume that, then I can understand why the two tower masters are going this far."

In truth, even up through today, he still hadn’t understood their behavior.

Of course, from an outside perspective, there were plenty of benefits to being on good terms with Alon, but even taking that into account, their goodwill had been excessive.

But if it was because they had seen Penia use spell phrases?

That explained it well enough.

Because Penia had told him before that, to mages, being able to use spell phrases was something enormous.

"Just in case, let me ask—how much did they know?"

"I didn’t ask directly, because they were only feeling me out and I just sort of evaded it, but it seems like they know at least that magic can only be used after receiving a blessing."

Penia added that the tower masters had probed her only up to that point.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Hm. Well—"

Alon stroked his chin.

'I've got a rough idea, but...'

The reason Alon had been conducting spell phrase experiments on Penia was to strengthen humanity’s fighting power.

If mages could use spell phrases, then maybe they’d be able to stop the Divine blood—or at the very least the bizarre monsters the Divine blood created.

Of course, there was also the concern that if he handed spell phrases out recklessly, they might end up being used for something strange.

But he decided not to think too deeply about that part.

Spell phrases were fundamentally based on Alon bestowing a blessing.

In other words, the moment he chose not to grant the blessing—or took it back later—it would all be as though it had never happened.

"Well, I’d already been planning to hand them out to mages who could use spell phrases, so I’ll probably spread them around."

"That does sound like you."

"Were you expecting that?"

"We’ve been together for how long already?"

Penia gave a little smug smile, then added,

"Still... doesn’t it feel a little wasteful?"

"Wasteful how?"

"The truth is, if you just told mages they could use spell phrases, they’d probably be willing to pay a fortune. So if you just hand it over without asking for anything in return, it feels like a waste."

"Hmm, that’s not wrong, but—"

Unfortunately, Alon hadn’t thought that far.

Strictly speaking, he had for a moment, then quickly dropped the idea.

Because what mattered right now was not material compensation, but whether they could become even a little more capable of opposing the Divine blood.

As if she had expected that, Penia let out a sigh.

"Lord Alon, then would you let me handle it once?"

"...Handle what?"

"Delivering the blessings to the mages. Even if we don’t take compensation, shouldn’t we at least secure their faith?"

It was a reasonable suggestion, and Alon nodded.

"That’s true, but I figured just spreading the blessings around would create that on its own."

"Of course faith will gather anyway, but if we can get more of it, and faster, that’s better, isn’t it?"

But Penia was wearing a suspicious smile, like she had something in mind.

"...If you’ve got a plan, then go ahead and try it."

"Yes, then I’ll make some preparations and put it into action."

For now, Alon decided to trust her and leave it to her.

####

A few days later, Alon headed for Divine Land without Penia or Reinysius.

If he were being honest, he wanted to rest a little longer, but he couldn’t keep resting forever.

'Though judging by divine power alone, it does seem to be functioning properly now.'

Alon turned his gaze inward.

What he saw there was a massive divine power like a planet, something that had not been visible before, and beside it a small, shining star.

It was certainly small compared to the planet, but the star was shining more distinctly than before, proving that the predictions he and Kalannon had made were working exactly as intended.

Alon studied the little star for a moment.

'...Wait, now that I look at it, the divine power itself seems to have grown a little too.'

Soon realizing that the divine power itself had also become somewhat larger, he released the state of introspection.

"Lord Alon?"

The moment he did, he heard Evan calling him.

There was puzzlement in his voice.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, it’s just that I called you several times and you didn’t answer."

"Did you?"

"Yes. Anyway—I had something to report."

Without delay, Evan got to the point.

"I investigated the additional things you asked me to look into last time."

"...The things I asked you to look into?"

"You know—the Star Cluster, the Empire’s movements, and Divine Land."

"Wasn’t that something I told you before we even arrived in the territory?"

"That’s true, but as I mentioned before, all the information guilds that should have been there were gone."

"Right, that did happen."

"Anyway, because of that, it wasn’t until yesterday that I finally got the information delivered in rough form. As for Divine Land, since you’ll be seeing it soon anyway, it doesn’t seem like something I need to report urgently—"

When Alon nodded as if he remembered, Evan continued his report.

"I received quite a lot of information on both the Empire and the Star Cluster."

"Hm."

"I’ll start with the Empire. Right after we returned from the Empire, it seems several Divine blood factions began forming in the east."

"...In the east?"

"Yes. From what I heard, there used to be only about four major Divine blood factions, but now there are quite a few more. And among them, the strongest faction seems to be one called Astarote—"

Evan trailed off for a moment.

"This one is apparently a bit unusual."

"The Divine blood being unusual is... well, isn’t that always the case?"

Alon asked as he recalled the wildly different appearances of the various Divine blood, but Evan shook his head.

"I understand that much too, since I’ve been following you around and seeing them myself, but this is unusual in a different sense."

"What do you mean?"

"The Divine blood belonging to that group all wear black armor."

"...Like an order of knights?"

"Yes. No one seems to know why."

Evan stared into the air for a moment as if searching through his memory.

"Other than that, there are rumors that a 'predator' appeared in the east, and that fragments of power were scattered so the Divine blood are no longer staying only in the Eastern Empire but are rampaging across the whole continent—but for now, I think that’s the important part."

When Alon nodded, Evan moved on.

"And as for the information about the Star Cluster."

"...Hoo."

The Star Cluster.

A group of Divine blood that had suddenly begun expanding its influence within the Allied Kingdoms.

Thinking of them, Alon let out a sigh.

Up to now, the Star Cluster had not done anything especially notable.

But even so, the existence of a Divine blood group like that inside the Allied Kingdoms was not a good thing.

Unlike the Empire, which was fending off the invasion of the Divine blood in one form or another, the Allied Kingdoms were helpless against their attacks.

Of course, they had the power the Seeker had distributed, but the truth was that that alone still felt unreliable.

If, while everyone relaxed because the Star Cluster was keeping quiet, they suddenly launched an attack—

there was a high chance the Allied Kingdoms would simply collapse.

"Has the Star Cluster grown again?"

At Alon’s worried question, Evan nodded.

"Yes. From what I’ve heard, they’ve grown even more than before, and it seems around ten more entities have already joined them."

"...This won’t be easy."

As Alon muttered darkly, Evan scratched his head and added,

"Though there is one somewhat unusual rumor."

"What is it?"

"Of course, this is still only in the realm of observation, so they say it isn’t certain, but apparently there’s a rumor going around that the Star Cluster protects humans."

"...The Divine blood—no, the Star Cluster protects humans?"

"Yes."

"...?"

Even Alon couldn’t help tilting his head in confusion.

####

Around the time Alon was feeling doubtful about 'Protecting humanity! The Divine blood gathering, the Star Cluster,'

back in Palantia, the two tower masters and the golden dragon Reinysius were deep in animated conversation.

"Hoh—how fascinating. Did you make this yourselves too?"

"That’s right. How does it look to you?"

"You did a pretty good job."

Naturally, the two tower masters and Reinysius had not known one another before.

To begin with, until Alon saved him, the golden dragon had been stuck in an underground cavern in the wasteland.

And yet the tower masters and the golden dragon quickly grew close.

The two tower masters were deeply interested in dragons, a species of magic, while Reinysius found the magic circles they had created interesting.

The golden dragon’s eyes shone brighter than ever as he looked over the blueprints the two tower masters had handed him.

And the two tower masters were quickly captivated by the golden dragon, who understood the magic circles containing the full breadth of their knowledge at a glance.

But only for a moment.

"Wasn’t this part already built?"

"Hm—yes."

"But a great deal of the magic circles are missing. Is it unfinished?"

At Reinysius’s observation, Norton, the Purple Mage Tower master, looked over the blueprint once, then let out an ah of lament.

"No, it’s not unfinished. It is complete."

"Then why is this missing?"

"Obviously because of cost."

"...Cost?"

Norton nodded.

"Yes, cost. If we built it according to the blueprint, it would require so many mana stones that actually operating the castle would be almost impossible."

She let out another sigh.

"It’s a shame—if only we could do something about the cost, we could make something even greater than this."

At that, the Brown Mage Tower master beside her also voiced agreement.

"That’s true. Even that floating island we raised into the sky could be made several times larger than it is now—or rather, we could just make the entire space itself float with levitation magic—"

"That too, but we could also apply large-scale golem manufacturing methods to prepare for invasion and infiltration."

"Honestly, if the castle gates could be controlled by magic, it would really have the right feel to it—"

The two of them smacked their lips regretfully as they looked [N O V E L I G H T] over the contents of the blueprint.

Reinysius listened quietly to the conversation, then said,

"...At this level, if I simply replenished it with magic once a month, it seems it could operate for half a year without difficulty."

He said it as if it were nothing.

"What...?"

"Really...?"

The two tower masters asked back in shock, but Reinysius only nodded calmly.

"Yes. In any case, I now belong to him and will be staying here, so I don’t think you need to worry about magic power."

And the instant the golden dragon added, My magic power is effectively infinite.

"...Infinite magic power?"

"We can build what we wanted to build?"

The eyes of the Purple Mage Tower master and the Brown Mage Tower master unfocused as though spellbound.

"Th-then if we added illusion magic through a structure like this, would there still be enough magic power?"

"There would be no problem. As I said, the amount of magic power is infinite."

"Then what about a linked spell like this?"

"The same."

And at those answers—that everything would be no problem—

"......"

"......"

the two tower masters’ eyes began to fill with resolve.

...Something was about to happen.