Chapter 413: The Second (2) |
After some time had passed.
The festival held at the Marquis Palatio estate—no, in the capital of Palantio—came to an end.
The capital began to regain its original atmosphere.
The kings and major figures of each nation who had gathered to celebrate Alon’s ascension returned to their homelands, and the nobles who had filled the banquet hall also dispersed.
It was only natural—considering the devastation caused by the divine-bloods, it was rather surprising they had spared even this much time.
And Alon Palatio, who had become the first king of Palantio—
“Your Majesty, yes, we can proceed with the territorial expansion as planned, but there seem to be far too many shortcomings.”
“Is that so?”
—was in a meeting with Palantio’s leadership.
So in practice, it wasn’t all that different from their usual meetings.
“Yes. For starters, don’t we need to build a new castle immediately?”
“A castle, huh……”
Alon nodded.
For an ordinary territory, whether there was a castle or not wouldn’t matter much, but Alon was no longer a noble—he was a king.
In other words, he needed to maintain a certain level of dignity.
“It’s certainly necessary, but can we afford it?”
Though not to the same degree as Alexion, Alon had a fairly clear grasp of the marquisate’s financial state.
‘It’s starting to get risky.’
At present, the marquisate’s finances were in quite good shape.
They had even managed to procure most of the materials needed for the territorial expansion at prices that were absurdly cheap compared to current market rates.
Even taking that into account, however, building a castle was not a small expense.
‘We can probably build one, but……’
Pouring all their available funds into castle construction made no sense.
So when Alon asked, Alexion checked something briefly, then replied.
“Normally, we’d be a bit short on funds, but circumstances seem slightly favorable.”
“Really? Why is that?”
“There were quite a lot of gifts sent from each nation during the proclamation ceremony.”
“...............Enough to build a castle with the gifts?”
“Strictly speaking, not enough to fully cover it, but they’ll be a significant help.”
“......Even so, that must be an enormous amount, right?”
“That’s true.”
At Alexion’s affirmation, Alon couldn’t help but be surprised.
He knew that attendees usually brought gifts out of courtesy for such events, but he hadn’t expected that courtesy to amount to such wealth.
After some consideration, Alon came to a decision.
“Then let’s proceed with building the castle. But make sure to economize wherever possible.”
“Yes. Then we’ll construct a new castle within the inner city.”
“How long do you estimate the construction will take?”
“It depends on the budget, but if we hire a large number of mages, it should be shortened considerably.”
“Mages……”
As Alon pondered, Penia, who was beside him, chimed in.
“Shall I contact the Mage Tower?”
“If that’s possible, please do.”
“Yes. I’ll reach out separately, and I’ll try to keep the labor costs as low as possible.”
“Thank you.”
“Not at all.”
Penia spoke with a smile.
As Alon briefly thought that she’d been smiling more often lately, he checked a few more matters.
“Is that all for the urgent issues we need to settle?”
“Yes. For the territorial expansion, we plan to hire workers a month in advance to prepare the groundwork as materials arrive, and as for the soldiers, we’ve been told Divine Land will handle everything.”
“I see.”
With that, he concluded today’s meeting, and as he stood up—
“Godfather.”
“Rine?”
Rine approached Alon.
“You’re leaving?”
Sensing why she 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.”
At her brief reply, Alon looked puzzled, but soon nodded as if he understood.
After Penia, who was giving Rine a strangely knowing look, and the others, who looked a bit taken aback, had left—
“So, what is it you wanted to say? Is it something you need to tell me in secret?”
Alon got straight to the point.
Rine fiddled once with her newly styled hair and replied.
“Um—actually, it’s not really that.”
“......Then?”
“I just wanted to be alone with you, so that’s what I said.”
For a moment, Alon went blank.
Rine chuckled softly, clearly amused by his reaction.
“I’m joking, Godfather. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Divine Land.”
“....Divine Land?”
“Yes.”
“Did something happen there?”
“No, not exactly. I was thinking it might be time for you to start learning how to properly make use of Divine Land.”
At those words, Alon realized anew—
That it had been Rine who had suggested creating Divine Land in the first place.
“How to properly make use of Divine Land?”
“Yes.”
“..Aren’t I already using it properly?”
In truth, since the divine-bloods had fallen, he hadn’t been able to use it properly, but before that, Alon had been utilizing the gathered faith extremely well, so he was confused.
Rine replied.
“Um, I thought so too, but actually, you’ve only been using Divine Land halfway, Marquis.”
“...Halfway?”
“Yes. More precisely, you’re only using it to consume the faith you receive.”
As Alon nodded with interest, she continued.
“I’ll tell you about some information I found in the library.”
Smiling, she stepped closer.
***
The next day.
“Let’s depart.”
Despite having become the king of a nation, Alon set out with only Evan and Penia, without any special escort.
“Master Alon.”
“Hm?”
“You’re a king now. Wouldn’t it still be better to have some guards with you?”
Evan asked, but Alon thought differently.
‘More people would just slow us down.’
If Alon were weak, he would have brought guards, but that wasn’t the case.
In other words, even traveling like this, there was little chance of encountering a threat to his life.
So—
“Having more people would just lengthen the travel time.”
“...That’s true.”
Evan nodded in agreement, then added.
“Ah, come to think of it, you’ve looked quite troubled since yesterday. What’s on your mind?”
“Since yesterday?”
“Yes. Ever since you spoke with Rine.”
At Evan’s words, Alon let out a quiet “Ah,” and recalled his conversation with Rine the day before.
‘Actually, after those things fell last time, I kept looking into divine-bloods in the restricted section of the library, and I found some rather interesting information.’
‘What kind of information?’
‘Divine-bloods with a certain level of power can strengthen their followers—or even the territory they possess.’
‘....Strengthen their followers or territory?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t know about territory, but even now, those who believe in me use my power……’
‘That’s right. But that’s literally just borrowing your power, isn’t it?’
‘Then—’
‘Strictly speaking, what I mentioned isn’t so much strengthening as—’
“Evolution.”
Alon murmured the term Rine had used at the end.
Rine had definitely said that.
That divine-bloods didn’t just grant divine power to humans—they ‘evolved’ them.
And if what Rine said was true, then Alon should be capable of the same.
The problem, however—
‘Since the divine-bloods fell, faith hasn’t been accumulating.’
At that moment, Alon possessed two divine powers within himself.
The divine powers of the Poison Eater and the Devourer.
Yet strangely, aside from those two, no other divine power was gathering within him.
‘Nothing should have changed……?’
So as Alon pondered this while heading to Teria to meet Siyan—
“Ah, Master Alon, did you hear about this?”
“What is it?”
“Apparently, a divine-blood appeared near our territory last night.”
Evan suddenly reported.
“What?”
Alon’s expression stiffened.
But Evan, in contrast, spoke with an easygoing look.
“Ah, you don’t need to be too tense. If it were serious, I wouldn’t be bringing it up so casually.”
“Then?”
“The divine-blood disappeared almost immediately after appearing.”
“...............Disappeared immediately?”
“They think it’s dead.”
“Dead?”
“Yes. According to the information guild, there were signs of battle, and red divine-blood along with fragments of its corpse were scattered everywhere.”
At Evan’s explanation, Alon tilted his head in silence.
A divine-blood being dead was good news.
But—
‘Who on earth could have done that…?’
As far as he knew, there was no one capable of killing a divine-blood, so his doubts only deepened.
At that same moment.
In Rosario’s office—
“Lady Yutia?”
Cardinal Sergius stopped in place with a somewhat startled expression.
His gaze was fixed on Yutia Bloodia, who was seated there.
And it was only natural.
‘.......How are you already here?’
He had heard that she had left the Marquis Palatio estate—no, Palantio—‘yesterday.’
So as Sergius stood there dumbfounded—
“Yes, please go ahead.”
Yutia spoke gently.
And at that moment, Cardinal Sergius noticed at least two strange things about her.
One was that red blood stained the hem of her black holy robes.
And the other—
‘Hair ties……?’
White elastic rings, the kind women used to tie their hair, were caught in her pure white hair.
Two of them, at that.
As his dazed gaze moved from her hair to the hem of her robes, Yutia slowly lowered her eyes—
“Oh my, I didn’t even realize it got stained.”
She murmured calmly with a gentle smile, then looked back at Sergius.
“So, what is it?”
At her question—
“......It’s nothing.”
Sergius simply closed his mouth.
He knew this.
That sometimes, in this world, not knowing was far better than knowing.
So rather than asking why she was here when she should have been on the road from Palantio to Rosario—
“Unlike usual, you seem to be in a particularly good mood.”
—he changed the subject.
It wasn’t a perfunctory attempt to smooth things over.
Yutia truly did have a soft smile that was different from her usual demeanor.
“Oh my, do I?”
“Yes. Did something good happen?”
At that question, Yutia looked at him with the same gentle smile.
“Yes. Something good did happen.”
“Something good?”
“Yes, something good.”
She turned her head and quietly gazed out at the capital of Rosario.
Then—
“At last, all the arrangements have found their proper place.”
“....Arrangements?”
“Yes. The preparations are complete.”
Her lips parted slightly.
“All of them.”
As her blood-red eyes shone.