#157
After the Invasion of the Capital (1)
Given the distance involved, the delegations from the Enamel Continent, including the Elven Kingdom, were the first to leave the Great Temple of Roselia once the summit ended.
Afterward, with the cooperation of the various temples, they swiftly moved east and reached the forest at the eastern edge of the continent in a single day. Now, they were on their way to the Enamel Continent through the “Forest Path” operated by Rapori and Cecily.
“In the end, aside from traveling between the eastern forest and the temple, we spent the entire time on the Ion Continent inside the temple. I know we didn’t come here to sightsee, so it’s only natural, but still, it feels a little…”
Shapiron grumbled softly as she walked along the forest path with Harris.
Unlike when she had arrived, her outfit was considerably lighter now; all that luggage had been neatly stored inside the subspace magic tool hanging from her wrist.
It was a bit pitiful, like watching a child come to understand reality…
But this was probably how people grew into adults.
“Still, it isn’t often one gets the chance to meet people from so many countries around the world. And all of them were people in positions that are normally very difficult to encounter.”
Rustle, rustle—
Harris comforted her in a gentle voice and placed a bag of popcorn in her hand.
“No, I’m not a child! Why do you keep giving me food every time I say something? I know perfectly well that it couldn’t be helped!”
This time, she seemed dissatisfied with that treatment and complained again, but of course, she did not refuse the popcorn in her hand.
As Shapiron quietly walked along the forest path, diligently munching away, she suddenly turned back to him as if something had occurred to her.
“Come to think of it, Harris didn’t have any chance to look around the streets either, so where did you get this? Don’t tell me you snuck out by yourself!”
“Ah! It was a gift, a gift. You know that friend we met not long ago, the big one? Before we parted, he packed this and that into a subspace magic tool and gave it to me.”
“Ah… that unusual person, right? At first, I thought he might be some kind of relative of the beastkin. …Huh? If he’s a dragonkin, maybe that isn’t entirely wrong?”
He had casually diverted her attention to avoid a troublesome topic, and she fell for it completely again, tilting her head as she pondered something unnecessary.
But then, someone stepped in to resolve that doubt for her.
“No, no! Beastkin and dragonkin are very different, miss.”
As if he had heard their conversation, a beastkin approached them with easy familiarity.
A mane as long and shaggy as a lion’s, and a body that, while not quite as massive as Harley’s, was still enormous enough.
It was Lionel, the lion beastkin representative of the Wild Land, who had held his own against the Immortal King’s attack.
“Beastkin are simply a race born that way, while dragonkin are lifeforms artificially created by dragons. Of course, dragonkin created like that can pass their blood on to later generations through reproduction, but their roots are clearly different.”
He spoke to them so amiably that it was hard to believe he was the same person who had barely said a word throughout the conference and had only run wild ferociously when it came time to fight.
“By the way, what’s that in your hand, miss? It smells rather tasty.”
…He probably hadn’t approached because he had been lured by food.
Though he did look like he had a bit of an ulterior motive.
“Ah, this?”
At that blatant question, Shapiron’s eyes went round, and she held out the popcorn bag she had been rustling nonstop to Lionel.
Perhaps Harris had been mistaken in thinking she was gluttonous, because her action was unhesitating, as if she did not find giving something to someone else the least bit wasteful.
“I already finished it all, but would you like to smell it at least?”
“…No, that’s all right, miss. You don’t have to go that far. My nose is quite good, you see.”
Apparently, she simply had no attachment to it because it was just an empty bag.
As if her shamelessness had left him rather flustered, he hesitated for a moment before clearing his throat and continuing.
“Ahem, at any rate, the Elven Kingdom has helped us in many ways. Thanks to that brother over there, we were able to repel the Immortal King, and now we’re receiving help traveling between continents as well.”
“It is best to help one another where we can. By the way, Lord Lionel, I heard you were badly injured back then. How is your body now?”
“Hm? Ah! Of course I’m fine. How much time has passed since then? You think I’d still be groaning in bed? Besides, after receiving intensive treatment at the Great Temple, if I couldn’t get back on my feet right away, I wouldn’t be fit to call myself a beastkin!”
It was pride befitting a beastkin, born with a naturally powerful body.
“Tsk, we need to hurry up and build a temple of the Main God Church in Enamel too. You heard the news, didn’t you? Something big happened in the imperial capital.”
“…Yes. The Immortal King invaded Jeron.”
But since they were already well on their way through the Forest Path, there was nothing they could do in particular.
To begin with, they had come as a delegation, not as combat support, so it would have been difficult for them to do much anyway.
“If we had been able to travel through the temple gates, we could have responded more immediately… In fact, they said the matter was discussed once three hundred years ago, but after the Immortal King fell, it just fizzled out.”
Of course, even among the different races of the Enamel Continent, there were clergy who prioritized the Main God over their own religions, but the largest their religious facilities could become were grand shrines.
Naturally, there was not a single temple that met the minimum conditions for installing a gate.
To build a temple, not only all sorts of materials but also many high-ranking clergy were required, and to satisfy all those conditions on the Enamel Continent, cooperation at the racial level was necessary.
‘But no matter how much they respect the Main God, it’s awkward for those who have their own established state religions to help.’
They would not go out of their way to interfere, but it was also difficult for them to directly help establish a temple.
Its necessity may have been raised three hundred years ago, but put another way, it meant there had been no particular need for one for the next three hundred years.
‘Still, everyone reacted positively at this summit. Once we return, the leaders of the different races will discuss it separately and make a firm decision.’
If that happened, a temple could be built quickly with continent-level support.
Most likely, bringing over the necessary high-ranking clergy from the Ion Continent would fall to the High Elves.
‘…It feels like the need for them as a means of transportation is only becoming more pronounced.’
Harris, a candidate to become a High Elf, wore a subtle expression.
Because now, that was no longer someone else’s problem.
At that very moment, when a major incident was unfolding on the Ion Continent…
The delegation of different races that included Harris was walking peacefully along the forest path without incident.
***
The Third Central Dining Hall of the Great Temple of Roselia.
“Kahahaha—! Now my hunger is finally easing! It had been a while since I got such intense exercise, so my stomach felt terribly empty. It’s still a little lacking, but overeating isn’t good, so shall I stop here?”
There was someone stroking his belly with a satisfied expression as he strode majestically out the door…
“Good grief, I told them they could just roughly season it and grill it. As expected of the Great Temple’s chefs, their sense of duty is as outstanding as their skill! Thanks to that, I ate very well.”
It was none other than the barbarian warrior Harley, who had gone to Jeron to provide support and had returned to the Holy Land.
And inside the kitchen of the dining hall he had left, it looked as if a war had already taken place, with the chefs all slumped over, breathing heavily.
“…As expected, he’s a formidable foe. Today was even worse than before.”
“They said he had just returned after an intense battle outside, so that must have had an effect.”
“Hehehe, but he was no match for us. Our Third Central Kitchen is the elite of the Great Temple…”
“Um, excuse me… Head Chef?”
The chief cook carefully interrupted him as he savored victory.
Of course, he fully understood how the head chef felt.
When the food they had put so much effort into making vanished down that man’s throat in mere seconds, even he had nearly had his spirit broken.
But this was one of the places responsible for meals in the Great Temple.
Since they dealt with hundreds of holy warriors and holy knights each day, they had considerable resistance to big eaters.
However, that was precisely the problem.
“It will soon be dinnertime. Um, we’re already a little behind schedule, so if we don’t start preparing right now…”
“…Right, that’s true.”
The meal provided to Harley, a guest who had helped the Church, had not been part of their preplanned work.
In other words, their original duty…
Satisfying the countless hungry demons made ravenous by harsh training had not even begun yet.
“Phew, fine. We can’t start whining over something as trivial as this. Move quickly, you lot! How long are you going to lie around? We are the Third Central Kitchen, Roselia’s finest elite!”
“Yes, Head Chef!”
They dragged their exhausted bodies up and began preparing for a new war.
Since they had fought a life-or-death battle against a formidable opponent during what should have been their rest time, perhaps a few of them would collapse after everything was over…
But even if that truly happened, there would be no problem at all.
After all, this place was the Great Temple of Roselia, which boasted the best medical facilities on the continent!
“Hmm— Maybe I should have eaten just a little more after all? I’m already getting a bit hungry…”
Leaving behind the kitchen swirling with resolve, Harley walked down the corridors of the Great Temple while muttering words that would have made the chefs clutch the backs of their necks if they had heard them.
In truth, he could simply eat the various meats he had stocked up in his subspace, but wasn’t it only natural that food personally made by chefs tasted better?
To anyone else, it may have looked like he was simply pouring food down his throat, but his transcendent sense of taste did not miss even the faintest flavor in those brief moments.
‘No, enough. This is more than I usually eat anyway. No matter how free it is, asking for more here would be shameless.’
Although he had expended a considerable amount of energy fighting Hans and the immortal army, he prided himself on being the last conscience of this era, so this level of consideration was basic courtesy.
‘…That aside, it seems Heinrich still needs some more time.’
Harley, who had gone as support merely in the capacity of a guest, had been able to return immediately after the matter in Jeron ended.
But Heinrich had no choice but to remain there to handle the aftermath, and considering the nature of the matter, it would have been difficult for him, the highest-ranking person in charge on the Church’s side, to leave right away.
‘On top of that, the Great Temple of Jeron is already short-handed because of the deployment issue to the Duchy of Rohan, and now this happened too.’
Still, the distance between Jeron and the Holy Land was not that great, so they had enough leeway to send Harley back here.
After that, working-level staff from the Great Temple of Roselia had left for that side, so Heinrich would likely be able to return before long.
‘Still, this matter has somehow been settled for now.’
After the Immortal King’s invasion of the capital…
From the imperial leadership, beginning with the imperial family, to the very bottom of society, including back-alley organizations, the entire capital was quite literally suffering as it dealt with the aftermath.
In the end, the barrier around the imperial palace had not been destroyed to the very end, so no additional damage occurred there, but…
Not only had many members of the knight orders who had directly faced the Immortal King been killed or injured, but the captain of the Imperial Guard, a Master-level knight, had also suffered significant wounds and would have to recuperate for the time being.
At the same time, the noble houses and other organizations that had been attacked on a large scale were in the same situation.
The immortal army, which had become subordinate to Hans and could now accept part of his magic power, had been granted some of the abilities of the “Eye of the Abyss,” also known as the karmic evil detector, and had carried out a fairly merciless cleanup.
‘After all, there’s a limit to Olivia controlling all of them one by one on her own. Of course, that also meant the standards became harsher than usual.’
Well, what could be done about that?
If they were dissatisfied, they should not have done bad things in the first place.
His usual theory was that if someone had to be sacrificed anyway, it should be the wicked.
Of course…
He had long since realized that he himself was by no means “good.”
‘…By the way, I Se-a seemed to have a stronger bond with the princess than I expected. I had anticipated it to some extent, but she was more proactive than I thought. And now we’ll have to pay attention to managing the prisoners too, so this is…’
“Ah, Sir Harley? There you are. Might I have a word with you?”
As Harley, lost in thought, was on his way to the training grounds for some post-meal exercise, someone suddenly approached and spoke to him.
One of those who had recommended him for the suicide squad, thereby bringing him all the way here.
It was the secretary-general, who oversaw the practical affairs of the Mercenary Guild in place of its figurehead, the “Mercenary King.”