On the road to Colony, Alon’s party passed through a lush forest and reached the edge of the desert.

[Qyuu- qyuu- qyuu-]

[It’s hot-]

Blackie and Basiliora practically melted, drooping limply inside the carriage.

As Alon watched them, Evan passed along a piece of news.

"...The Empire’s looking bad?"

"It’s the Eastern Empire, but it seems the situation has gotten a little worse than what I told you before."

He was referring to the latest developments in the Empire.

"What’s happening?"

"Apparently, the frequency of fights between Divine blood has increased drastically. Because of that, the other empires that share a border with the Eastern Empire have also been taking a lot of damage."

"Is there a reason for it?"

"From what I heard, it’s because of the fragments."

"If you mean fragments—"

"Yes. They seem to be the same as the fragments that were said to have fallen near Colony."

"Hmm......"

Alon stroked his chin.

'I figured things would escalate, but still......'

He had already expected this when he heard Evan’s report about the fragments last time.

After all, Alon had fought first-stage and second-stage Divine blood himself, and he knew firsthand just how absurd the gap of a single stage was.

'From the Divine bloods’ perspective, it would be something worth staking their lives to obtain.'

While Alon’s thoughts reached that point, Evan continued.

"Ah, and one more thing. They say that if you go to the Eastern Empire, you should be careful of the Predator."

At the sudden title, Alon showed a hint of confusion, and Evan elaborated.

"Yes, apparently it’s an incredibly powerful Divine blood at the moment. They say that when other Divine blood encounter the one called the Predator, they choose to run rather than fight. And on top of that, a lot of groups have started forming too."

"Groups?"

"Yes. Starting with Astarotte, whom I mentioned before, Divine blood like the Pureblood and the Closed Light have apparently formed groups."

Alon sorted through everything in his head, then asked,

"Was there any information that Divine blood were approaching Colony?"

"I looked into it because you told me to check, and thankfully, it seems there hasn’t been anything like that yet."

"That’s good to hear. And—"

"You mean Seollang, right? I heard there’s no major problem there either."

When Evan supplied the answer as if he had been waiting for it, Alon quietly nodded.

Beside him, Penia, who had been tugging at her collar as the heat gradually started rising, spoke up.

"Lord Alon, did something happen to Lady Seollang by any chance?"

"Why do you ask?"

"It’s just that... it seems like you’ve been worrying about Lady Seollang a lot lately."

"I stayed quiet until now too, but I am a little curious. Did something happen?"

She had definitely looked perfectly fine the last time they met.

As Evan recalled the past and looked at Alon, Alon fell silent for a moment under the two sets of eyes before answering.

"...Well, it’s nothing you need to worry about too much. It’s not a big deal."

At that, Evan clicked his tongue, but—

"Understood."

—he nodded soon enough, and Penia did the same.

Right after that—

"Ahh- I can’t take it anymore!"

Unable to endure the heat, Penia quickly pulled out a magic crystal and used ice magic.

[Qyu-!]

[Oh- ohohoho!!]

Then Blackie and Basiliora hurried right over to her, and things immediately grew noisy again.

Beside them, Alon thought to himself alone.

'Something happened......'

Alon recalled a memory from more than half a year ago.

Seollang smiling brightly at him, promising the day they would meet again.

The Seollang he had seen back then had not seemed strange at all.

Just as lively as always.

But—

"Lord Alon,"

At the sudden voice, Alon’s thoughts were cut short.

He turned his gaze to Penia.

"Um, would you like to come over here?"

Penia subtly shifted to one side, making more room on the chair she was sitting in as she asked.

"It’s, um— a little cooler here."

At Penia’s invitation, her cheeks flushed red from the heat, Alon shrugged.

"Very well."

Sure enough, after reaching the edge of the desert, it had grown noticeably hotter, whether it was just his imagination or not.

There was no reason to refuse the ice magic.

Alon immediately moved over to sit beside her.

Then—

"Um, would you come a little closer? The magic crystal is small, so you can feel the cold better if you’re closer."

Penia invited him again in a heat-laden voice.

Without a word, Alon shifted even closer to her.

[.......]

[.......]

Basiliora and Blackie’s eyes went cold and flat without Alon noticing.

It was the kind of look that said, 'We have a lot to say, but we’re enduring it because of the cold.'

Their full-fledged desert journey had begun.

####

A little over two and a half weeks after Alon set out on the road, they finally arrived at the desert city of Colony.

"We can finally see it......"

"Seriously......"

Penia and Evan muttered weakly as they looked at Colony.

Alon understood their reaction.

Last time, he had been too consumed by worry and too busy reaching Colony one day at a time to really notice it, but crossing the desert alone without a merchant caravan was no easy task.

Mainly because of the heat, and the heat, and the heat.

"Still, this is a relief. It looks like Colony’s outer magic is still being maintained."

"From what I heard, that was the first thing they repaired."

Suppressing the heat, Alon stared straight ahead.

Colony’s scenery looked more desolate than before.

The thick walls that had once enclosed Colony still had not recovered their former glory, with sections broken all over, and inside them as well, ruined and collapsed areas were scattered everywhere.

"Wow—"

"This is incredible."

Even so, Penia and Evan let out exclamations of admiration.

Because they remembered how Colony had once been reduced to complete ruins because of the Divine blood.

So the fact that Colony had been restored this much in only about a year naturally drew admiration from them.

"...I see."

Alon as well.

With each of them wearing a look of surprise, they arrived before the wide-open gate and let out another small sound of admiration there.

Inside Colony, just as it had looked from the outside, restoration work was ongoing.

Hundreds of people moved at once, busily carrying supplies.

It was nothing extraordinary, but just as Alon was beginning to smile at the sight of ordinary life returning in its own hopeful way—

"Welcome!"

Someone in the distance called out in greeting, welcoming the party.

Alon had no trouble recognizing the one approaching.

"It’s been a while, Lime."

"Yes! Uh- no, if I talk like this—"

"It’s fine. You can speak comfortably."

"Ah, but is that really alright?"

"Yes."

It was none other than Lime, Seollang’s secretary.

"Thank you!"

Lime bowed deeply at Alon’s permission, but only for a moment.

"Where is Seollang?"

At the question that followed, Lime let out a small exclamation.

"Lady Seollang is currently outside Colony for a little while because of some business."

"What kind of business?"

"Um— recently, there have been some bandits appearing near Colony. But they’re not exactly ordinary bandits—"

After saying that much, Lime ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) seemed to realize something and glanced around.

"Um, would it be alright if I explained after we move somewhere else?"

"...Is it not the kind of thing you should talk about out in the open?"

"Well— yes, more or less."

At that, Alon’s party nodded and followed after her.

How long had it been while they walked along, taking in Colony’s streets as they went?

Suddenly, Alon spoke at a thought that came to him.

"Lime."

"Yes?"

"How has Seollang been lately?"

Lime tilted her head at Alon.

"Lady Seollang?"

"Yes."

"Well— after you left last time, Lord Alon, she was a little down for a while......"

"Was she?"

"But you really don’t need to worry too much. Once her body recovered, she was completely back to normal."

"Hmm, really?"

"Yes! And after that last Divine blood incident, I think she might have become juuu-ust a little more mature too......?"

After adding the disclaimer that this was just her personal opinion and others had said they weren’t really sure—

"Anyway, Lady Seollang is doing well."

Lime concluded lightly.

Alon nodded slowly.

...Without saying anything else.

####

Lately, the atmosphere at the Central Mage Tower had been a little strange.

More precisely, the atmosphere among the mages deciphering magic alongside Heinkel had become somewhat unsettled.

Because of Heinkel’s absence.

Up until a few weeks ago, she had been the leader-like figure who helped with calculation work among the mages and occasionally passed down unexpected knowledge to them.

And then she had suddenly vanished.

Of course, she had left behind a letter saying she would be gone for a while, but that had already been several weeks ago.

So the mages were slowly starting to find it odd—

"...Where did Lady Heinkel go?"

"Hmm— I feel like she’s actually still somewhere inside the Central Mage Tower."

"I’ve been thinking it was strange too."

Around the time the Red Tower Master, the Blue Tower Master, and the Green Tower Master were all exchanging baffled looks and talking among themselves—

Boom-!

With the sound of a massive door, Heinkel walked in.

At once, all eyes turned toward her.

And—

"!"

"Wha...?"

"What is...?"

The mages who spotted Heinkel all went rigid with shock.

It was not only them.

Even the tower masters who had been wondering about her whereabouts just moments before could only stare at Heinkel blankly.

The reason was simple.

"...She’s alive?"

The legendary mage in ghostly form, the one all mages called an object of reverence, looked as though she were alive—

No, she was clearly moving with life in her body.

"How is this......?"

As every mage around her stared in shock, Heinkel slowly swept her gaze across them and thought,

'Just as expected.'

The mages were shocked by the sight of her living body.

And they were letting out exclamations of awe.

In truth, provoking exactly this reaction from the mages had been Heinkel’s goal.

Naturally, because of Alon.

"..."

When Heinkel had first said she would help Alon, she had thought about how to package things in a way that would help him.

At a fundamental level, what worked best on mages was "magic."

They were the kind who would throw themselves without hesitation even into crawling through a sewer, so long as it was for magic.

But Heinkel soon changed her mind.

What Alon needed right now, the one who had handed her the artifact, was faith.

Of course, the mages would gladly offer faith for the sake of an artifact.

Because they were mages.

However, the faith offered that way would neither be all that much nor all that great.

They were people who could do anything for the sake of magic.

But beyond magic, they believed in nothing at all.

And so Heinkel had decided—

Rather than "magic," she would show them a "miracle."

"My apologies, everyone,"

Of course, among mages, "miracles" were not held in particularly high regard.

But Heinkel knew exactly why mages treated miracles that way.

To them, miracles were things they themselves could create as much as they pleased.

Mages were, by nature, people who laid their hands on "mystery."

So Heinkel, more than anyone, could not help but know well how to win faith from mages.

All she had to do was show them a "mystery" that mages could not reach.

A miracle.

At first glance, it sounded absurd.

But Heinkel had more than enough conditions to make it possible.

'If I’m going to do this, I may as well do it properly—'

And so—

"It took time because I received 'life' from the Magic King."

She spoke of a miracle.

A miracle that would never be erased, one that would be engraved into the mages forever.

And—

It did not take long at all for the mages who understood those words to have their eyes stretch wide enough to split.