"How long are you going to stay here?"

The woman spoke in a tone of profound indifference. Tragudi stared at her sternly.

"Xyler, that's so rude. Apologize now."

"Forgive me for the offense, Father. It's just that it's so noisy here that I thought, if they have time to have fun here, they should immediately go out and implement those reforms. Because the current situation alone risks implicating our country."

The woman who spouted these words like a machine gun was none other than Tragudi's own daughter, the Dragon Kingdom's princess, named Sylvie.

The implication was that the Liberator should not be invited in as a guest. Tragudi shook his head at her.

"Your patriotism is well known to everyone, and I am pleased about that. However, this kind of exclusivism goes against the ideals of the dragon people, as I have said many times."

"What right does a king who has closed his country have to say that?"

"That's to prevent the world from falling into chaos. You should understand that."

"But the people who plunged the world into chaos are sitting right there."

"Sylvie."

Tragudi's demeanor turned serious, and the atmosphere was tense, as if there was static electricity in the air.

Seeing that the situation was becoming increasingly tense, Mireidi quickly spoke up to smooth things over.

"I apologize for disturbing you. We'll leave as soon as the investigation is complete—"

"When you came here three years ago, I had a bad feeling."

"what?"

Sylvie's eyes turned into dragon eyes, glaring at Meredith angrily.

"If a tragedy were to happen to my country because of you coming here... I would never forgive you!"

"That's enough! Get out!"

"Father, Father! Why don't you understand? Whatever the Dragon People's ideals are, so what!? Aren't the lives of our compatriots the most important things?!"

It seemed that father and daughter had argued about this topic many times. At least, this was not a topic that should be brought up in front of guests. Tragudi sighed.

"Grace, I'm in trouble."

"No...Princess, please."

"You don't have to follow me, I can walk on my own!"

Tears welled up in Sylvie's eyes. She glared at Tragudi and ran out of the hall. Grace bowed and followed her out.

"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you all. It might sound like I'm making excuses, but... that child wasn't like this before. Her mother's death changed her."

Tragudi didn't say it explicitly, but it seemed the princess had died at the hands of a human. Furthermore, the murderer was a human the dragons had taken in to save lives.

The noble nature of the dragon people brought danger, and Xiweier's childish curiosity led to tragedy.

After that, Sylvie began to advocate extreme ideas, believing that as long as it was to protect the lives of her people, whatever she did was right.

Tragudi's face was filled with regret and anguish. That wasn't the expression of a Dragon King, but rather the helplessness of a husband and a father.

"His Majesty……"

Meredi's tone was full of concern. Tragudi came back to his senses and a wry smile appeared on his face. At this moment -

"Onee-sama! Your Ryu is here to find you♡ Please trample on me♡"

A female pervert shouted this in a delicate voice, and rushed into the hall with her hands raised high.

Then, the atmosphere in the hall completely froze. She still held her hands high, and after two beats—

"I, I just wanted to receive my punishment for being late..."

This excuse is terrible.

"It's unbelievable, isn't it? This guy is actually the king of a country just like His Majesty Tragudi."

Oscar's words finally dispelled the depressed atmosphere at the scene.

So, Lutilis also joined the dinner. Mei ignored her, causing her to gasp in excitement, which made the Dragon King look tense and twitchy.

"Your Majesty! Please forgive me for interrupting the dinner!"

The person who rushed into the hall was the document investigator. He knew what had happened without asking.

Miredi and the others' expressions suddenly changed and they stood up.

Everyone moved into a room in the corner of the hall.

"Turning will into magic?"

Mireddy's expression turned to confusion, and Oscar and the others had the same reaction.

Tragudi sat in the seat of honor and nodded deeply after listening to the investigator's report.

"The colorful barrier that protects the temple. The information and 'will' that Lady Lutilis read from within the barrier. And the fact that after breaking the barrier, you were unexpectedly exhausted."

When the investigators integrated this information and compared it with the literature, they came up with a legendary story.

It was an ordinary story, describing the battle between a brave man and a demon king.

In the Age of Mythology, a time when the gods were said to still be on earth, a contemporary hero vowed to protect a woman and transform her will into strength to fight against a powerful demon king.

"According to the story, the hero's barrier is colorful. The hero's sincere will forms the ultimate protection."

"But... Your Majesty, could that just be some imaginary magic written to make the story more exciting?"

Ross asked, choosing his words carefully. As soon as he heard the news, he immediately rushed over to join the others.

The protagonist gains powerful strength to fight against evil, which is a common pattern in legendary stories.

Tragudi nodded.

"That's right. It's just a legend, not a document. That's why we didn't take it seriously."

What's more, in this legendary story, God does not appear at all.

The characters that appeared were the "big tree" and "goddess" that are common in the settings of general legendary stories.

"Goddess? Isn't that Esid?"

Oscar asked, almost mumbling to himself, and Tragudi answered his doubts.

"Esheed's name doesn't appear in the story. Perhaps it's because he doesn't necessarily have a gender."

Anyway, that's not the point here.

"The hero in the story said, 'You must not touch the sanctuary.'"

"It's the same will that Ryu read back then, right?"

"That's right. That will is so strong that it makes me tremble uncontrollably."

Recalling her feelings at that time, Lutilis couldn't help but tremble. Tragudi looked around at everyone...

"After breaking the barrier, you were unusually exhausted. Was that really just due to the loss of mana?"

"this……"

Meredith spoke her thoughts slowly and carefully, as if recalling her feelings.

“At that time, I felt very secure and at peace.”

Mireidi looked around at Oscar and the others.

"It's not about the support of mana or sublimation magic. That's not what I mean. It's more about... the feeling that I'm not alone, that everyone is around me, facing difficulties with me... "

Meredith recalled the unprecedented sense of unity a little shyly.

"I understand. I think that's what it must feel like to be one with one's soul."

"Yeah, I felt that, too. I also felt that if the seven of us got together, we could do anything."

"Me too. Even though we're facing an unknown barrier, I'm also certain for some reason."

"Me too. I was praying for liberation, and I sensed everyone was thinking the same thing."

"Could it be that we activated some mythical magic?"

An expression of disbelief appeared on Bandu’s face.

Oscar pushed up his glasses and took a deep breath.

"However, this is the only answer to your Majesty's question. Simply depleting mana cannot explain such a phenomenon. When I broke the barrier, I felt something like energy being drained from my body. I believe you all felt the same way, right?"

The scene suddenly fell silent. Meredith and the others seemed to be deep in thought.

In order not to interrupt the conversation, Sarus and the others on the side remained silent. They waited until everyone else was silent before they spoke.

"There's no point in racking your brains over something like this."

"Yes. At least we've found a clue. Now all we have to do is follow it and investigate, right?"

"Your Majesty, the Dragon King. May I ask what happened to the hero?"

Hearing Bahar's question, Tragudi shook his head in distress.

"That remains to be seen. Finally, the hero embarks on a journey to pursue the Demon King—the story ends here."

Therefore, people in later generations imagined that the hero must have successfully defended the sanctuary, driven away the demon king, and embarked on the journey to put an end to it.

"...How about we go back to the sea of ​​trees first?"

Lutilis suggested this. Both the keywords "great tree" and "sanctuary" were related to the Sea of ​​Trees. While it was unlikely that there was anything about the Sea of ​​Trees that Lutilis, the Queen of the Sea of ​​Trees, didn't know, if she wanted to investigate further, she had no choice but to return to the Sea of ​​Trees.

However, Tragudi expressed a different opinion.

"No, I think you should go to the southwest end—the 'Blue Land'."

Oscar and the others glanced at each other. A flash of inspiration quickly appeared on Meredith's face.

"Your Majesty, do you want us to go to the vampire kingdom?"

"Exactly. The history of the vampire race is much older than our dragon race."

The Dragon Kingdom suffered persecution several times in the past. This was before the nation was closed to the outside world. During each persecution, numerous documents, legends, and oral traditions were lost.

However, vampires have always maintained a closed-door policy. Therefore, they may have retained more information. After hearing Tragudi's explanation, Meredi and the others understood.

"But I think you should understand..."

The vampires, who are known for their isolationism, have always maintained an extremely exclusive stance. Forget asking for assistance, and you might not even be able to enter the country.

"Well... maybe I can ask for some flexibility, sister. Do you think it's possible?"

Mei'er said this. Everyone looked at her in confusion, so she pointed at her eyes and explained.

"Have you forgotten? Sister Mei, I'm half vampire."

"Ah..." Miledy, Oscar, Natsu, and Bandu blinked.

"Huh!? Is that so!? Why didn't you tell me this before?!"

"What!? So, the man before Riju was a vampire!?"

Lutilis was extremely excited upon hearing the new information from her beloved elder sister. Bahar, on the other hand, gritted his teeth in dissatisfaction at hearing information he did not want to know.

Mel ignored Lutilis's reaction, raised her finger, pointed at Bahar, and proudly puffed out her chest as she sneered.

"My mother loved my father dearly! You deserved it!"

“Stinky, stinky brat…!”

Veins popped up on Bahar's forehead. Kagu patted his shoulder to comfort him.

"No, but I heard that Mei'er's father was a man of high status, so Ms. Lizhu took the initiative to give in and broke up with him, and ended up going to Andica, right? If you go back, will it cause trouble...?"

"That's good. Compared to insignificant beings, those that are particularly troublesome are more difficult to ignore, right? Oh, hehe."

"As expected of the daughter of a lawless person."

Sarus sighed, and Bahar and Meir glared at him, asking, "What do you mean?!" It seemed that while the two weren't related by blood, they were undoubtedly father and daughter.

"Hmm, this might be an unexpected connection. So, sir, leader of the Liberator, what are you going to do?"

Tragudi asked. Meredith looked at Mel with a worried look in her eyes. However, Mel gently patted her head. Meredith nodded. Oscar and the others seemed to agree, their eyes steadfast in response.

So, Mireidi made a decision.

"We're going to go see it. To the oldest country—the Kingdom of Dastia."

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