The One Who Soars High did not particularly enjoy associating with other Divine blood.

In truth, it was not the only one.

If they were not from the same faction—no, even if they were from the same faction—Divine blood did not like mixing with each other.

No matter how much they were bound together under factions, in the end, each of them was still a potential rival.

Divine blood belonging to the same faction could practically be considered allies, but competition within a faction was still inevitable.

So unless they were one of a few unusual cases, it was only natural for them to be individualistic by nature.

All the more so, then.

The One Who Soars High could not understand at all what was happening right in front of it.

[Kraaagh—!]

Because the once-overbearing Festering Tree was being beaten one-sidedly by no fewer than five Divine blood.

And not only that—

[Are you joining the Star Group or not!!]

[Kghaaak—!]

—it was being threatened in an extremely bizarre way.

[.......]

Naturally, even the One Who Soars High, who had remained inside Caliban, knew a little about the Star Group.

Even while underground, Caliban’s king had brought it one piece of news after another.

'It was definitely... supposed to be a Divine blood group growing inside the Allied Kingdoms...'

Thinking that, the One Who Soars High watched the scene. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

[I will— I’ll do it! I said I’ll do it!]

[You’re joining the Star Group, right?!]

[Y-yes— yes—!]

For an instant, the ones mercilessly beating the Festering Tree seemed almost insane.

The look in their eyes was as if they were staring at prey.

And then—

[Good. Then I suppose we should hold your initiation ceremony?]

[At last, our fourth result.......]

[At this rate, we’ll definitely become the first string—]

The moment the Festering Tree accepted, they nodded again and again as though deeply satisfied—

[Let’s go, hehe.]

Then they grabbed the Festering Tree by its tail and legs and dragged it straight into the forest.

And at that moment—

[......!]

The One Who Soars High met their eyes.

Its body flinched, and its grip tightened on its spear without thinking.

But after the Divine blood spent a while glaring at it and muttering among themselves—

[That one’s not—?]

[Then—]

[Too bad—]

Thud—thud—

—they soon vanished with the Festering Tree, mumbling nothing but unclear, meaningless fragments it could barely even hear.

The mad abduction scene carried out by Divine blood had, for the moment, come to an end.

But—

"......"

The One Who Soars High stood there blankly for quite a while.

####

"...A way to grow stronger?"

"Yes, Godfather."

After taking a moment to steady her breath, Rine continued.

"Would that perhaps be startling to hear from me?"

"......"

Alon fell silent.

If he had to say, then yes, of course it was startling.

He had never told Rine about anything related to that in the first place.

'...No, did I?'

Alon went back over it once more.

But even if he had mentioned it in passing, they had never had a full conversation about it like this.

"It is a little surprising."

Even as he admitted it, Alon also thought it worked out well.

He needed companions who could fight Divine blood, so he had originally intended to bring it up one way or another.

Even at Alon’s reaction, Rine did not lose her smile.

"I gave some thought to what you might need most, Godfather. Was that unwelcome?"

Alon shook his head.

"No. In fact, I was planning to ask first myself. Still... it is a little strange."

At that, Rine’s smile turned slightly knowing.

"I’ll answer that curiosity for you next time."

"...Next time?"

"Yes."

Lightly, she moved on to the main point.

"Then I’ll explain it simply."

Rine’s explanation continued for a short while.

"...And that is the method I found."

Once she finished speaking, Alon thought for a moment, then spoke.

"So, you mean to use the power of the five sins?"

"That’s right."

Rine nodded and added,

"As I explained a moment ago, the five of us, myself included, have exceptional aptitude as vessels for the sins."

"But to wield the power of the sins, haven’t most of them already been extinguished?"

What Alon said was true.

Before the Divine blood began to fall, Alon had fought the sins, and four of them had been extinguished.

In other words, the beings that should have been the source of that power were already gone.

But Rine lightly shook her head.

"As you said, Godfather, most of the sins have been extinguished. But that’s still fine."

"Fine?"

"Yes, as long as we have the 'artifacts.'"

"...If you mean the artifacts."

In his mind, Alon recalled the artifacts of the sins that he had stored away.

In the game’s setting, they were artifacts kept by monsters, said to grant even more catastrophic power if the sins ever obtained them.

Then realization came to him.

"...Don’t tell me the sins can be revived through the artifacts?"

"That’s right. Strictly speaking, it means we’ll be able to properly use the weapons."

At Rine’s answer, Alon nodded.

Because he had recalled that the five sins were, to begin with, guardian weapons of the Ilanef Empire.

But only for a moment. After mulling something over, Alon asked Rine,

"...But will that really help?"

"Hm... does it feel like it won’t?"

"No, I wouldn’t say that completely. But..."

In truth, Alon did not think the power of the sins would be useless.

Every single manifestation of that power he had seen so far had been irrational enough to rival Divine blood, so it would surely be a great help in a fight against them.

But at the same time, having already experienced second-stage Divine blood for himself, Alon also knew how absurd their power was, and so he could not help but ask.

At Alon’s hesitation, Rine thought for a moment before speaking.

"You don’t need to worry too much about that."

"...I don’t?"

"Godfather already knows this, but the five sins are guardian weapons. Which means they were created not to fight on their own, but to be 'used.'"

"Then that means—"

"It means the power you and I have seen wasn’t all there was."

She continued.

"And on top of that, there’s one more important thing."

"What is it?"

"Your law, Godfather."

"...My law?"

"Yes. How strong we become will depend on your law."

The smile at the corner of her lips remained unchanged.

####

The next day.

After granting blessings to the three of them, including Historia and Ryang-a, Alon said his goodbyes to Rine.

"So you’re returning to Fildagreen?"

"Yes. Like I said before, I can move around freely now, but I’m still not in perfect condition yet."

Of course, Rine added that she would soon be completely free, with only a little left to go, then bowed her head to Alon.

"Then I’ll see you again next time."

"Boss, I’m gonna work hard!"

"Me too, God."

At Ryang-a and Historia, who each spoke up energetically ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) beside her, Alon gave a small nod.

"Then have a safe trip back! Leave this place to me!"

"...Understood."

Feeling a strange unease at Sili’s bright, utterly untroubled smile, he nodded once more and climbed into the carriage.

When Alon let out a sigh, Evan asked,

"Lord Alon, then are we stopping by Palantia and then heading to Colony?"

"I think we’ll likely stop by the mage tower on the way."

"Ah, come to think of it, Penia had gone there, hadn’t she?"

"She asked me to take care of something for her while I’m there."

At that, Evan let out an "Mm—" and nodded.

Leaning deeply back against the seat, Alon recalled what Rine had told him yesterday.

"...The power of the sins..."

The power of the sins.

Based on Rine’s explanation yesterday, that power would certainly help their fighting strength.

If what she said was true, then absurdly enough, the power of the sins he had seen and experienced so far had not even been shown in full.

"Hm......"

In fact, there was nothing to worry about.

Rine had told him how the sins could be revived.

And aside from one, he already had all of the remaining artifacts in hand.

And yet the reason Alon remained deep in thought was because of the final thing Rine had added.

'My law is important... is that it?'

She had definitely said that.

That the law Alon had gained was important.

'What does that mean...?'

Alon stroked his chin.

The reason he was thinking so hard was that Rine had told him nothing beyond that.

And so, after remaining lost in thought for quite some time, Alon—

"...?"

—suddenly felt a strange sense of incongruity.

A sensation as if he had forgotten something.

So Alon, continuing to think with a blank look on his face—

"...Huh?"

—let out a short exclamation.

Because an utterly unexpected fact had just flashed through his mind.

'...Had I ever told Rine about my law?'

Alon hurriedly looked out the window.

...Rine was no longer there.

####

The next day.

Still mulling over Rine’s remark that "the law is important," and having only belatedly realized that he had never actually told her about his law, Alon arrived in Palantia still full of questions.

"...Doesn’t it seem even more overloaded with decorations than last time?"

"It does, but..."

"Well, it’s not exactly a dramatic change, but it is kind of fascinating."

Just as Evan said, even more excessive ornamentation had somehow been added to Palantia Castle.

By now, Alon simply let something like that slide and entered the castle, only to soon become caught up in something he had never expected.

In truth, it was nothing major—he merely had to receive guests.

Even so, the reason Alon felt compelled to think of it as having been "caught up in it" was twofold.

One reason was that the guest who had come to Palantia was none other than the famous imperial princess of the Eastern Empire, Serdea Polanticia.

"Ahem-ahem— it’s been a long time, my dear!"

The other reason was that Serdea Polanticia was sitting together with Airinna Polanticia, the imperial princess of the Southern Empire.

Even that alone was already exhausting enough for Alon.

No matter that he himself was a king—an imperial princess was still mentally taxing to deal with.

But what Alon found even harder to understand than that was Airinna.

"......"

"......"

"......"

"...Um."

"Y-yes, sir...!"

For some reason, every time Alon so much as began to say a word, she froze in place while seated and snapped into a posture of attention.

"......"

Alon felt a fatigue he could not begin to explain.