* * *

Paaaat-!

There was a bright light and Cale appeared on top of the magic circle.

He looked around.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

There was a gust of wind.

Cale heard Raon chatting away next to him.

“Human! I thought the most lush forest in Aipotu would be in a remote corner of the world but who knew it would be within the Empire?!”

As Raon mentioned, the forest that Wiesha mentioned was within the Holy Empire’s territory.

Shaaaaaaaaaaa-

“Puuuuuu! There’s so much sand!”

Of course, Cale’s group was currently standing in the middle of a desolate desert.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in the desert.”

Cale looked to the side to see Tasha touching the sand with a smile on her face.

Her home was the Desert of Death, so this place must remind her of home.

“If you leave the Empire’s capital a bit and head southwest, there is a desert that is the size of two large territories.”

Cale responded to the White Snake.

“And this is that desert?”

“Yes sir.”

This unexpected desert in the middle of the continent…

And an even more unexpected thing…

“The most lush forest exists at the center of the desert?”

“That is correct, sir. Everybody finds this to be quite peculiar.”

The White Snake stopped for a moment before continuing. Her voice sounded oddly profound.

“However, if you think that such a place exists because a path to reach the foundation of this world exists, it does not become peculiar at all. Instead, it makes it look profound.”

Cale nodded his head before looking away.

“Meeeeeow!

It’s sand, nya! It’s so soft, nya!”

Hong and Raon were rolling in the sand.

“We’re rolling down, nya!”

Hong laughed while rolling down a sand hill.

“Kahahaha! This is so fun!”

Raon slid down after Hong on his belly.

On was watching the two of them.

‘Why is that punk laughing like that?’

It was not ‘hehe,’ ‘haha,’ but ‘kahahaha!’ Cale looked at the seven year old Dragon who was laughing that way with concern before looking away.

“Ma’am, you said it was difficult to teleport from here to the forest?”

The White Snake nodded her head.

“Yes sir.”

Chhhhh-

She pulled a map out of her pocket.

It was a simple map of the desert but it had everything it needed.

“Here.”

The center of the desert had a forest the size of a decent territory.

“We will definitely be spotted by the enemies if we infiltrated by teleportation into this forest.”

There was a large castle at the center of the forest.

It made Cale think of the Black Castle in the Forest of Darkness.

“Is a Dragon surveying the entire forest?”

“To be more accurate, it is not Ryan but the magic circle he embedded into the castle that reacts to magic. The range of that magic circle is a majority of the forest.

This was the reason Wiesha set the teleportation to this desert.

“We should arrive at the boundary of the forest if we travel about a day from here.”

Wiesha was extremely concerned about getting spotted by Ryan. That was the reason she teleported to a spot in the desert far from the forest.

Cale did not show any complaints about this. Of course, he didn’t want to waste any time, but…

‘We have some allies in secret bases throughout the forest and desert.’

The Elves and Dwarves who agreed with the White Snake’s actions were hiding in the forest and desert while avoiding Ryan’s gaze.

‘That is why, if possible, I want to avoid a situation where they may get caught.’

How could he complain about a reason like that?

“…Thank you for agreeing with this despite being in a rush, sir.”

Cale smiled gently at the White Snake’s comment.

“Not at all, ma’am. We have to help each other out.”

The human who defeated a middle figure of the ten Dragon gods, Cisco, extremely easily…

An existence that the White Snake wouldn’t even dare to provoke was being respectful to her.

Gulp.

However, Wiesha gulped and remained tense.

The force that Cale had gently shown when she and Hons were bickering over their years of negative emotions had been quite scary.

Seeing him acting so gentle despite having such an aura made the White Snake even more scared.

‘If a Dragon was like this-’

If the Dragons trying to mess Aipotu up acted the same as Cale-

‘No.’

Wiesha decided she didn’t need to think about unnecessary situations and pointed at a spot on the map.

“This is our current location. We will reach the northern boundary of the forest if we walk for about a day. We should be able to meet my ally when we get there.”

She stopped for a moment before continuing.

“That ally is an Elf.”

Peek.

She peeked at the Elf next to Tasha.

The Elf who joined this time was the healer, Pendrick.

“He will guide us underground.”

“Can we reach the foundation of this world if we go underground?”

“Yes sir. I will tell you the specifics once we get to the underground cave. That will make it simpler.”

Wiesha handed the map to Cale. He was the leader after all.

“Ah. That’s okay, ma’am.”

Cale rejected it.

He had already recorded it in his mind.

However, it was annoying to explain so he looked at the White Snake as he stoically commented.

“I’ll just trust and follow you, Wiesha-nim.”

Wiesha’s pupils shook for a moment.

“…Yes sir. Just leave it to me.”

She looked solemn as she put the map back into her pocket.

“Both in the desert and the forest… Ryan’s soldiers are always patrolling. We’ve figured out all of their routes already so we will move according to the patrol path. We plan on moving with as little rest as possible. Will that be okay, sir?”

Cale looked toward the children averaging ten-years-old.

“We are healthy!”

“I want to run quickly, nya!”

“It’s fine with us.”

Raon, Hong, and On answered one after another.

‘Makes sense. They have more stamina than I do anyway.’

Cale had this obvious thought as he looked behind Tasha and Pendrick.

“Will that be okay?”

Choi Han and Lock looked toward a direction at Cale’s question.

Behind Tasha and Pendrick were Choi Han and the Beast people.

These were the people who said they would follow Lock.

“Yes, yes sir! We will be okay, sir!”

Koukan, the first Beast person Cale met in Aipotu, urgently responded before peeking to his side.

There was a petite young girl whose body was completely hidden by a robe.

They learned that the Wolf tribe leader was the same age as Lock.

Nia. Her body was curled up quite a bit but she still managed to speak.

“T, that’s fine, sir.”

Lock’s pupils shook for a moment.

The way she looked extremely timid without any confidence…

He was seeing his old self, how he had been when he first met Cale, as he looked at Nia.

‘She used to be a confident and energetic child. It hurts me to see the situation turning that child like this.’

Koukan’s voice echoed in Lock’s ears.

He subconsciously started to speak.

“Are you really okay? It’s okay to tell us if its hard-”

Lock subconsciously looked around after saying that.

He made eye contact with Cale, who nodded his head with a nonchalant gaze. Lock was subconsciously relieved.

Nia spoke in an extremely flustered voice at that moment.

“N, no! It’s totally fine, sir! We basically forced you to bring us so the least we can do is maintain our condition, sir!”

As Nia mentioned, Koukan and Nia were originally not a part of this plan.

They were here at Nia’s request.

“Then is it okay to believe everybody is fine with it?”

Cale confirmed that Gashan nodded his head as well before motioning to Wiesha with his eyes that it was okay to go.

‘Mm.’

However, his gaze stopped on Nia for a moment.

‘I know this is completely shameless of me, but, may I come with you as well?’

This tribe leader punk…

She was similar to Lock but different.

Nia was so small that it seemed almost impossible for her to reach the size she did during her berserk transformation.

Based on what he heard, she was on the smaller side among the Wolves.

‘Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!’

‘L, let it all out!’

‘Come at me. Just relax and bring it on.’

Nia, who used up all of her strength thanks to Lock and Gashan’s help, remembered everything she had done during her berserk transformation.

She made sure to apologize to everybody first before cautiously asking her question.

She said that she would do her best not to get in their way and wanted to know if it would be okay for her to observe Lock and the rest of Cale’s group.

She looked like she wanted to learn.

Cale had no thoughts about excluding such a person.

‘If she manages to properly go berserk.’

If Nia properly went berserk and took her position as the first Beast person to properly go berserk in about 200 years… That would be extremely beneficial to Cale in this balance of power in Aipotu.

His decision stemmed from that.

‘Well-’

There was also the fact that her timidly asking reminded him of Lock, making it hard to say no.

‘I just have to send them back if they get in our way.’

He just needed to have Raon teleport them back to the Black Castle.

It was no big deal.

‘Mm.’

Cale looked at Lock, who kept peeking at Nia, and thought to himself.

‘The two of them are indeed similar.

But they are oddly different.

That tribe leader, more than Lock-’

Cale thought about someone in his mind.

It was a person who ruled over a nation, a leader.

‘She reminds me of Litana.’

The leader of the Jungle.

This girl reminded Cale of her.

Litana was small compared to others in the Jungle, but she was a skilled spearwoman and liked to be in the vanguard.

For some reason, this girl’s timidness reminded him of Litana.

If Nia manages to get out of this timidness caused by her current situation and returns to her original personality-

‘Mm.’

Lock and Nia…

It was possible that the two of them would be great stimuli for each other.

Cale then looked away from the two of them.

Swooooooosh-

Wind swirled by his feet.

He was not the only one.

Everybody’s feet had wind swirling around them.

– What the hell? I was going to do it?

The Sound of the Wind sounded confused as she commented in her husky voice.

This wind was not Cale’s ancient power.

“It should be okay because this is not magic, right?”

Tasha smiled once Cale looked at her.

– Human, human! Tasha got super strong!

Just as Raon commented as he flew over to Cale’s side, Tasha truly had become much stronger.

‘How reliable.’

Cale couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.

It was a great thing for his allies to get stronger.

– I’m sure the crown prince will be happy to hear about this too! It’s too bad we can’t contact him right now.

Crown prince Alberu Crossman. Cale tried to call him with the divine item, but unfortunately, they were unable to contact him.

Instead, they received a short message a few hours later.

– Currently gaming.

He seemed to be playing the virtual reality game, which prevented him from picking up their call.

“We will start moving.”

Everybody started moving.

Cale, who was about to follow them, suddenly stopped.

‘…No way-’

Crown prince Alberu Crossman.

‘That guy couldn’t have gotten addicted to gaming, right?

No way. There’s no way a thorough guy like that would get so addicted to gaming that he stops doing his work or even eating, right?’

Cale scoffed.

“What am I saying?”

‘How can I have such a nonsensical thought?’

He shook his head and quickly followed behind the others.

‘Yeah.’

The reason he suddenly got the chills has to be because of the cool breeze from the others who moved in front of him.

Cale did his best to avoid the scorching desert sun as he rubbed his arms that were covered in goosebumps.

“At this speed, I think we should be able to get to the boundary of the forest in half a day! We should be there by sunset!”

He listened to Wiesha and increased his speed even more.

* * *

“…The Emperor wants an emergency meeting?”

“That is the case, your Majesty.”

King Dennis clenched his eyes shut at the Prime Minister’s comment.

The Haru Kingdom’s young King Dennis… He got a headache after his Prime Minister told him about the message from the Emperor of the Holy Empire.

“Even if they lost contact with the second subjugation squad as well, the Emperor’s action seems odd.”

“I agree, your Majesty. I believe this issue is a result of the fight for power between the church and the government while the Dragon Lord is away.

…He also might be using this opportunity to see what the Haru Kingdom is doing. And-”

King Dennis opened his mouth with a bitter smile on his face.

“He probably wants to suppress my energy as well.”

“…Your Majesty.”

“Where does he want to meet?”

Their crumbling kingdom… The powerless King Dennis…

The Prime Minister serving such a king clenched his eyes shut before barely getting the words out.

“…If possible, he wishes to have the discussion in the Empire.”

“Ha. He’s telling a king to come or go as he pleases? He’s doing his best to make me feel inferior from the start.”

King Dennis didn’t have any family members he could send in his place for such a situation.

“Huuuuu. Let’s have a meeting to discuss.”

An emergency meeting.

This was the moment that this situation rose to an important matter for the Haru Kingdom.

* * *

“It’s over here.”

Hons calmly commented but his eyes were full of anxiety.

Shake shake shake.

The person leaning on one leg and shaking the other…

Well, Dragon…

“I guess a capital is still a capital. It is quite… sparkling?”

Rasheel was standing quite crookedly as he glared at the distant Central Temple of the Holy Empire.

“It doesn’t feel as imposing as the Church of the Sun God though.”

Hannah fiddled with the handle of her sword as she gave her assessment.

“Hoo hoo.”

Clopeh Sekka simply laughed quietly while standing there looking handsome.

“Mm.”

Hons felt an unexplainable sense of anxiety, but started walking as he spoke.

“…Shall we go?”

The three of them followed behind the stiff-faced Hons.

* * *

The sun was setting over the desert.

“Shh.”

Wiesha motioned to the group and the group stopped walking and quieted down.

Rustle.

Someone walked out of the forest.

It was an Elf.

“That’s my ally.”

Cale’s group was able to take a step into the forest.

—

Translator’s Comments

Oh good. Not an enemy.

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