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Kingdom of Arya.
King Otto Arya visited the tea room.
“Don’t let anyone in until I come out.”
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
He opened the door alone and went in.
A tea room that seemed like a miniature version of an outdoor garden. In the small pond in the center, colorful fish were lapping at the water.
Otto, who had finished preparing for the tea ceremony by gathering porcelain and teacups containing hot water on a tray, approached the pond.
A pond with shallow waters.
At best, the lower half of his body could barely be submerged. Otto stepped into the pond without hesitation.
The fish swarmed at the sound of splashing water. They thought the maid had thrown them bait. But there was nothing there.
Even Otto, who had clearly entered the pond.
The carps, not knowing English, just kept gaping.
There are more than a few secret places in Arya’s castle that are only known to the king. The pond in the tea room is one of them.
Otto had moved to the basement, where there was a pungent fishy smell and a damp feeling.
In the dark space, he walked, using a faint ray of light as a beacon.
Clink, clink.
He was soaking wet from his shoes to his knees, making a crunching sound every time he walked. He might have frowned, but Otto showed no expression on his face.
He passed through a narrow, dark path and arrived at a large hollow where the light was.
“······ why?”
I was embarrassed because there was no one there.
Otto put down his tray for a moment and walked around.
How long has it been since then?
“Is it Otto?”
At the voice calling his name, Otto turned around hurriedly.
As if he had fallen from the sky, a person was standing where there had been nothing just a moment ago.
He was a strikingly beautiful young man wearing the traditional scholar’s attire of the Kingdom of Arya.
Otto knelt down and bowed his head.
‘Sapian has awakened.’
The young man was in the guise of Etrim.
Etrim, the eight-headed dragon. Looking at its disguised form, you can immediately tell which head is currently in control of the body.
The fourth head that Otto had been seeing a lot lately was that of an old man with his eyes closed. He had made an appointment with him today, so he had dipped his feet in the pond in the tea house.
The eight heads of Etrim had separate names. The young man in the robes of a scholar was Sapian. He was the third head who possessed the most extensive knowledge.
“Meet Sapian.”
“It’s been a while. Aren’t you curious about where Biden went?”
Viden was the name of the fourth head that had been promised to Otto.
“How could I know the will of the great ones?”
“Hahaha, that guy, I ate it while I was sleeping as I was waking up.”
A strange voice that suddenly pops out.
The smell of death was thick in the air. Otto trembled in fear without realizing it.
‘The second head has awakened.’
If even the second head, the most vicious and lazy one, had woken up, then it would have been safe to say that all the heads had woken up.
Sapian closes his eyes and frowns.
The heads were talking to each other. After a while, he opened his eyes and looked at Otto.
“You looked so ugly.”
“······.”
Otto nodded his head silently.
“You understand the situation, right? I need some time to see Viden again.”
It was also said that if one wanted to restore the fourth head in the near future, he could offer tribute.
“While we were sleeping, it seems like the kingdom was in shambles?”
Otto’s heart stopped beating at the sight of Sapian’s cold gaze. He couldn’t breathe properly.
Etrim is a being close to God.
But he is not a perfect god.
Etrim, who actively intervened and grew in power by devouring everything – the worship, fear, hatred, and resentment of the people of the Arya Islands.
Although it greatly helped Etrim to quickly grow in power, it eventually became a huge obstacle to his ascension to the divine realm.
We are too attached to the earth.
As he flew into the sky to ascend, Sapian closed his eyes again, calming his anger as he recalled the ‘causality’ that had tightly grabbed his ankle.
Killing Otto, the king of Arya, ‘directly’ would be a huge ’cause and effect’. It would be enough to require him to remain in hiding for hundreds or thousands of years. And at that point, he would become a forgotten being, and the divinity he had painstakingly acquired would surely be shattered.
Otto was freed from the feeling that had been weighing on his entire body.
“haha······.”
He let out the breath he had been holding. Sapian looked at him pitifully and opened his mouth.
“What did Biden make you do?”
Otto quickly opened his mouth.
“Rain, Mr. Biden has come to me urgently and ordered the destruction of all confidential documents.”
“You made me do that? Why?”
“He didn’t say anything about it. He just said that the great eye that watches over the kingdom must be covered.”
Even as he answered Sapian’s question, Otto was once again left with doubts.
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Why on earth should we destroy confidential documents?
I had no idea what a giant eye could be.
I didn’t ask because I didn’t think I’d get an answer, but now it seems like the answer I got was wrong.
Etrim is one and yet eight.
What the fourth head saw and thought will now be forever unknown.
“······ Yes. That’s what happened. He, whom even I had forgotten, has finally found a piece of himself.”
Forget? That? A piece?
Otto, who had no idea what Sapian was talking about, was left with only questions in his head. He watched Sapian’s expression, hoping that he might explain.
Sapian was deep in thought, his gaze comforting. Otto gave up his expectations at the sight of him not even being noticed.
After a while, Sapian opened his mouth.
“What did you order again?”
“After destroying confidential documents······.”
Otto began to report in detail to Sapian about the things that Biden had ordered him to do.
“······ And three days ago, I reached out to the Prime Minister through the ambassador stationed in the Aymen Empire, and this morning I received word that he had taken my extended hand.”
“There was no talk of what to do after that?”
“There wasn’t anything in particular. So I thought we might have a story about it today.”
Sapian became deep in thought. He closed his eyes.
I started doing what I was doing before Otto came.
-Stella? If this kind of technology is developed, our kingdom will soon be swallowed up by the Kingdom of Lionel.
-While the Kingdom of Lionel was developing so rapidly, what on earth were our country’s wizards doing?
-The Kingdom of Arya now has no future.
-Yes! I must immigrate to the land of opportunity, the Aymen Empire.
.
.
.
Like the fourth head, Viden, who could see into the future, Sapian also had one power: the ability to eavesdrop on the thoughts of those who worship Etrim.
Other heads could hear the prayers of the believers, but only Sapian could eavesdrop on their thoughts.
One hour, two hours, three hours······.
Otto, whose lower body was completely soaked, shivered without showing any sign of cold. Just when he thought he was going to die, Sapian’s mouth finally opened.
“Duke Fran Minerva of the Kingdom of Lionel. If we leave it alone, it will be a great trouble.”
“That’s right.”
“What were you thinking?”
“While she is in the Aymen Empire, she cannot be touched rashly.”
“so?”
“I only have one chance, and I intend to wait until she returns from Horizon and returns to the Kingdom of Lionel.”
“I see. Are you planning to rain down on me from the sky?”
Sapian looked Otto up and down.
Otto realized that the gaze was exactly the same as his own when he looked at his unattractive subject.
“I will go with you too.”
Otto opened his eyes wide.
I never imagined that Etrim would intervene directly. Etrim was always the one who gave verbal instructions and stayed a step back.
‘I guess I should get ready.’
Before Evan turned the situation of the Kingdom of Arya into a mess, Otto was a fairly capable king.
It immediately occurred to him what he had to do for Etrim.
Her own younger sister, the former second queen of the Kingdom of Lionel.
And Yandercia, the daughter who committed a crime.
Both must be offered as tribute.
If the two have the noble blood of the Arya royal family, even if Etrim directly intervenes, the backlash can be minimized.
Even if Etrim doesn’t exert much force on the scene, the fourth head will be restored.
“Soon, we will send a priestess to serve the great ones.”
“will wait.”
Sapian smiles for the first time after meeting Otto.
He licked his lips with his tongue as thin as a snake, for the scent and taste of the noble blood of the Arya royal family came to mind.
***
After Stella’s announcement.
Fran, who had been locked up in a hotel under the ironclad protection of the Aymen Empire, went out for the first time in a long while.
Because an awards ceremony was held to select the person who would wear the Horizon Medal around his neck.
“Master, aren’t you nervous?”
“at all.”
Fran answered Alice’s whisper with a relaxed expression.
Five years ago, during the ‘Magnetron’ era, there were honestly a lot of strong studies, but this year, ‘Stella’ was in the lead.
Of course, there were many excellent presentations.
However, most of them were improvements and developments of existing ones. In contrast, Stella was a completely new concept.
That’s why Fran was confident of winning the Horizon for the second time in a row.
And her thoughts were not wrong.
((The protagonist who will receive the Horizon Medal is! It is! It is! The Duke of the Kingdom of Lionel, the 8-star wizard Fran Minerva! The first two-time consecutive Horizon winner. Congratulations!))
Fran’s name came out of the host’s mouth.
Clap clap clap!
Fran walked out amid thunderous applause.
Perhaps because she had received it before, she skillfully hung the medal around her neck and gave her acceptance speech.
((······ And I would like to express my gratitude to His Majesty Evan Lionel, King of the Kingdom of Lionel, who recognized Stella’s potential and provided enormous support.))
Evan’s name was also mentioned briefly at the end.
After the awards ceremony, high-ranking officials from each country who showed great interest in Stella visited the banquet hall with excited hearts.
To contact Fran, who had been staying at the hotel, and talk about investing.
But no matter how long I waited, Fran never showed up at the banquet hall.
“What?! The Lionel Kingdom’s airship has already left!”
“Why are you reporting this now!”
“Contact the home country immediately and tell those heavy-assed gentlemen to fly to the Kingdom of Lionel!”
This was because, immediately after the awards ceremony, Fran secretly boarded an airship heading to the Kingdom of Lionel.
Officials from each country who found out about this fact late were furious and blamed their own informants.
Meanwhile, at that time.
On the deck of the Lionel Kingdom’s large airship Golden Dragon, Alice was holding Jaryan and complaining.
“Ah~ no~ But don’t you have to eat at the banquet hall before you leave? Right, Jaryan?”
“Really? I think the in-flight meal is pretty good too······.”
“Oh, really! Who said that the food on board was bad? Anyway, I really don’t sympathize with you! I sympathize with you!”
Alice shoots a big shot and leaves.
Jaryan scratched his head. A woman’s heart was truly more difficult to interpret than any magic.
There was a small quarrel between the couple, but the Golden Dragon quickly headed towards the Kingdom of Lionel.
One day passed, then two days.
Reina came out of the cabin and headed out onto the deck.
6 stars, 7 stars, 8 stars.
As her level improved, it became less severe, but she would still break out in a cold sweat and feel nauseous if she stayed in a vehicle such as a carriage, train, or airship for a long time.
The reason is something he knows all too well.
It was because of the memory of when, as a child, I almost starved to death for several days in the carriage of a group of prostitutes that followed a mercenary group.
That too, along with the cold corpses of his friends.
Reina, whose memories she didn’t want to remember, quickly shook her head and reached for the sword on her waist.
My mind has calmed down and my motion sickness has subsided a little.
She was not a young girl hiding in her luggage to avoid the eyes of the raiders like in the old days. She was an 8-star knight who could cut down dozens or hundreds of knights with a single swing.
Startle.
As Reina was thinking about that, something caught her attention. It was a very damp, gloomy, and unpleasant sensation.
She slowly turned her head.
In her vision that transcended humanity, she saw a fleet of airships approaching, led by an airship as large as, if not larger than, the Golden Dragon.
It was an airship fleet from the Kingdom of Arya.
