Chapter 727 – Homecoming and the Undersea Fortress

000

＂Okay… But… But is this really possible…?＂

As she lifted the lenses of the glasses that clicked open in the form of goggles, she looked at the disk-shaped magical tool handed to her by Quartz, who had completed the analysis.

We succeeded in extracting all the information it contained. There will no longer be any hidden meaning or information that we do not know.

But even though she looked at it all, she didn’t feel like what was inside was true.

Because it was such absurd and absurd content.

To be exact, considering current technology.

＂…＂

She thought that she should immediately tell this to Cleon, their party, the three Aine sisters, and everyone else she could discuss it with, but then she suddenly raised her head.

When you gently open the curtain that darkens the room and look outside, the sun has already set and the color of the night sky has turned black.

Is it already this late? But since the situation is urgent, should we risk rudeness and gather people?

She thought so for a moment, then shook her head and thought that sharing within the party came first.

Then, she suddenly realizes that Cleon has not returned yet, and she frowns and raises her voice.

“What time is it now, and he hasn’t come back yet? Cleon?”

The last time I contacted you was already 6 to 7 hours ago.

She said it would be late, but she didn’t expect it to be this late.

Could it be that something in Retios’s nest made her feel bad, and she was trapped there?

While thinking that, it was the moment when she tried to convey her voice to Cleon through imprinting.

In an instant, the outside of the window flashed brightly, and a moment later, a roar! And then the sound of thunder sounded.

“Uh, lightning? In a dry sky─ Ugh!”

She thought for a moment, but then she belatedly sensed that her enormous magic power was breaking through the barrier she had spread, and the sudden appearance of the magic circle made her feel dizzy.

When the atmospheric pressure suddenly changes, it is a phenomenon similar to the feeling of deafness, and it is like a version of magic attribute pressure.

＂There is really no forgiveness…!＂

If this was a place like the Academy where there were many wizards still growing, she might not have been able to withstand the sudden change in her magical power due to her appearance and would have collapsed.

Slowly, she may need to carefully control her magical power, gradually increasing it, but it is not that she has no reason to do so, but it is more likely that she is not aware of these minor troubles of mortals. Br〉

As the representative of the wizards living in this city, she thought she needed to say something, so she immediately left her room.

Even so, there are only two official wizards currently staying in this city, including myself and Selena.

As I walked toward the entrance with the sound of footsteps pounding, I could see Sasha and Amelia, who, as I had predicted, were exhausted due to the sudden change in magic pressure, and were laughing on the dining table chair and sofa, respectively.

‘Poorly. Just wait a moment, Lila will say something.’

With that wonderful thought in mind, Lila arrived at the front door and opened the sliding door at the sight of her presence.

＂Wow, what a surprise…＂

And Cleon was looking this way with her hand near the door with a surprised face.

＂What time are you coming in now!?＂

＂…8 o’clock?＂

When Cleon carefully tells Laila the current time by raising her head and raising her voice angrily at the height difference, Lila is momentarily speechless at his boldness, but then shakes her head and answers. Br〉

“I never heard that it would be this late.”

“Ah, sorry… I talked to Kuon again earlier, but he didn’t tell me.”

＂… Kuon~?＂

Cuon, who had walked to the entrance a little later, probably sensed the anger bubbling up in Lila’s voice, and when she heard Lila’s voice, her shoulders flinched.

＂Oh, haha… I’m sorry. I was talking to Cleon while I was preparing dinner… Furthermore, I almost burned the pot, so I was so distracted that I forgot.”

After hearing Kuon excuse her by saying ‘the timing is~’, Lila sighs and places her finger between her eyebrows.

Then, she suddenly saw that something of hers was wrapped around Cleon’s waist, and she glanced behind Cleon.

There, the thunder dragon Letios, who was still trying not to get away from Cleon, was standing there, looking in this direction with a nonchalant expression.

Looking at her like that, Lila stretches out her finger and points at her, remembering what she has to say to her right away. It was so-called pointing.

“For a moment! Letios, stop appearing and disappearing so suddenly when entering and leaving your city! No matter how much of a lightning dragon you are, if the magic pressure around you suddenly changes, it is poison to wizards!”

No matter how confident Lila was and that she didn’t like pleasing others, it took a lot of courage for her to point a finger at that dragon.

If Letios was angry about this, he gave the 23 reasons he had prepared and was confident that he would refute them by holding a debate on the topic, ‘Why should we not move to big cities like lightning?’

“Hmm. I got it.”

“Yeah, I knew that would happen. Then why should we do that from now on? No, wait. “You knew?”

Letios nodded his head while listening to his words very obediently.

“Okay. Certainly, the sudden change in magic pressure was poisonous to human wizards like you. Please remember.”

＂Ah, no─ Yes, ah, that’s all you need to know… Hmph.＂

Even though Lila was a little taken aback by her somewhat disheartening response, she couldn’t help but show a very classic reaction of crossing her arms, snorting, and turning her head.

“When I go back, I’ll have to go a little slower and use flying magic.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t have any other plans after this, so I’ll go back to the nest and focus on raising the eggs a little healthier using the magic I received from Cleon. You, too, had a hard time today.”

Saying that, she stretched out her hand and stroked Cleon’s head, and Cleon blushed and became embarrassed, but Lila stood there with a cold expression on her face, looking at the two people with tears in their eyes.

“Why don’t you finish all that pillow talk at the nest and come back…?”

＂What is pillow talk…＂

When Letios muttered like that, as if he didn’t know what Lila was talking about, he couldn’t help but sigh as if it was nothing.

“Anyway, if it had been later, I would have been angry. I just finished analyzing the disk I received from Mr. Quartz. I was planning to talk about that.”

“Okay, sorry for being late, Lila.”

When Cleon said that, Lila also turned her body and tried to move inside her house.

And, Cleon bids farewell to Letios, who brought him here.

“Then, I’ll go in. Thank you, Letios, for taking me directly to the front of the mansion.”

“It’s no big deal. This distance… She had exhausted all of her stamina and was in a state of fainting, so someone had to move her.”

＂Because I overexerted myself on the first day…＂

Cleon scratches his cheek as if he is troubled, remembering Diora’s twisted appearance.

And, Cleon was about to enter the mansion, promising to see her later.

No matter how much she moved her feet, she was unable to move forward and was looking down at her waist.

Her tail, which was stretched out and wrapped around her, was not loose.

＂… Over there.＂

When her Cleon looks back at her, a little embarrassed, Letios looks at her Cleon without saying anything for a moment, then blushes and speaks, as if she is a little embarrassed.

＂… Kiss.＂

＂Huh?＂

＂The kiss of farewell between human lovers is still…＂

When Letios said that, Cleon blinked her eyes, but when she looked at Lila, who had come inside the entrance and watched the scene, and Kuon behind them, they were looking at the two with an expression that said, ‘I got hit.’

＂… Okay.＂

However, when Cleon nodded that he understood, he walked up to Retios, stretched out her arms, and gently grabbed her cheeks.

And then, lightly, on her mouth as she closes her eyes. It was taking her own lips and then falling.

“… Is it human tradition to be this light?”

Letios says it’s a little different than he thought, but Cleon answers by nodding his head.

＂Usually…?＂

In fact, he didn’t know exactly.

However, the tail that was wrapped around his waist soon loosened, and Letios looked a little disappointed, but satisfied with what had just happened.

And, as it spread its wonderful hidden white wings, it slowly rose into the air.

“Don’t slow down, Lila. So don’t worry.”

＂Okay, okay.＂

When Lila gives a vague answer as if telling her to go quickly─ the next moment.

Letios flies up toward the sky at the speed of an arrow.

And, feeling herself being pulled out of this position at the same speed, Lila couldn’t help but place her hand between her eyebrows and wrinkle her head again.

＂Please slow down by human standards~~…＂

Once again, she muttered as she felt her head pounding.

001

A series of sudden dragon disturbances have come to an end, and Cleon and his companions are trying to return to their normal daily routine.

Lila looked back at her group as she placed her disk-shaped magic tool, which she had just finished analyzing, in her case and carefully placed it on the table in her kitchen instead of her conference room. 〉

Cleon, Cuon, Amelia, Sasha.

It felt like it had been a long time since a party of five people, including the four of them, plus herself, had gathered together and held a meeting like this.

Come to think of it, when performing quests as an adventurer, did you always hold a meeting like this before conquering a dungeon or area hosted by Cleon?

When I think about it now, it was natural, but at the time, I slightly regret thinking such arrogant thoughts as ‘What kind of meeting is this when I have my magic…?’.

This is especially true considering that only Cleon and Cuon properly participated in the meeting, and Albain did not even listen properly.

Her own immaturity from her past comes to mind, and when Lila, who has been damaged by some kind of black history in her life, suddenly cups her own face with both hands without saying anything, Sasha is embarrassed and tells her

＂Are you okay, Laila? Is she in a bad mood?”

“No, it’s okay Sasha… Thank you for your concern.”

Sasha wasn’t there at the time, but if she had participated in such a meeting, she would have listened to the story seriously. She became even more miserable as she realized that she was a thoughtless brat. 〉

＂Probably, he is remembering the dark history for the first time in a long time and is taking damage.＂

＂I see…＂

As Kuon quietly said so to Amelia, Lyla looked at her Kuon between her fingers, then she quickly came to her senses, sighing as she felt her growing pain. Talk while looking at the disc.

＂The identity of this disk is that it is an object that has been found in several relics of mechanical civilizations. Of course, it’s from the original world. Scholars roughly call it ‘information storage disk’ or ‘DC (data circle)’.”

“Is the latter an ancient language?”

“Well, I guess so. It’s a name that scholars who like to pretend to know things like to give it.”

At Cleon’s story, Lila shrugged her shoulders and continued with her story about her discus.

“It seems that a large, dedicated facility is needed to properly check the contents inside, but if you use analysis magic, you can check the contents even if it takes time. Inside this, a detailed information processing technique made of magical power is engraved.”

Lila turns the transparent case over and points to the bottom of the disc.

It was clear that there were glowing geometric patterns written in secret, as seen in the magic circle.

“What was inside?”

When Sasha raises her hand and asks a question like her schoolboy, Cleon explains to her.

“Mr. Quartz said it contained information about his plan. And now he’s talking about why he shouldn’t leave the Exile Church’s facility.”

“… I think I’ll have to think a little bit about whether this is Mr. Quartz’s plan or not.”

As if to supplement his story, when Lila muttered, Cleon also turned to her.

Then, Lila started drawing something on the whiteboard she had brought for class.

It was a disk-shaped object with the top and bottom protruding, and it looked like a fortress with cannons hanging here and there.

＂What is this…? Fortress? “

“That’s right. This is the full picture of the facility currently being used by the Exiled Church – what it looks like from the outside. Now, this thing is sunk and hidden under the sea.”

When Lila crossed her arms while answering Kuon’s question, Amelia tilted her head as if it was a little strange.

＂But, why are there cannons at the bottom that appear to be for defense when they are under the sea? To sink ships passing above or intercept enemies coming from underwater, it would be better to hang at the top.”

“As expected, Amelia, you can sense a sense of discomfort just by looking at the picture.”

When Lila nods her head to Amelia’s point, she begins to draw something of her own around what appears to be a fortress.

A cloud of clouds that can often be seen when looking up at the sky was something that should not exist in the sea.

＂… Clouds… ──!?＂

Cleon noticed what it was and looked at Lila with her eyes wide open.

Then, Lila nodded her head again, and she assured him that his guess was correct.

“Yes, that’s right. The facility they are using is something that shouldn’t be in the sea in the first place. Originally… It was a structure that had to fly high up in the sky.”

“A fortress that flies in the sky… Is it a flying fortress?”

When they thought of that thing flying in the sky, naturally the image of the fortress of the mad dwarf king came to Cleon and Amelia’s mind, and they trembled.

Even now, I can only look back on the fight against the mechanical titan at that time as having successfully won.

＂Flying fortress. Vajra. That’s the original name of this facility. According to records – It is said that this is the vehicle that the Hero of the Sky, a hero unknown to anyone, rode around with his party members and used to save the world.”

＂How can there be records when it is not known to anyone?＂

When Cleon asked an obvious question, Lila kept her mouth shut for a moment and then turned to Cleon and answered.

＂Hero and his party, who defeated the magic water created to scatter death from the sky with the power of Vajra and the holy sword, are said to have disappeared after that. With neither name nor gender known. I think it was a battle that was not well known to the public, let alone the historians who left records of the time.”

While Lila said that, she remained silent for a moment as she looked at the numerous cannons hanging on the fortress.

However, after gathering her thoughts, Lila slapped the fortress with chalk with a serious expression, then turned to the group and spoke.

“During the Five Elements Festival, this flying fortress plans to leap out of the sea once again. Now, to regain leadership in the Eastern countries, which has become irreversible.”

＂…＂

It took Cleon a little time to understand what she meant.

But soon, he realized the meaning and jumped up from his seat.

“─Is that really what I think?”

“Yes, that’s right. Asteris’ indiscriminate bombing plan by the flying fortress Vajra. That is the winning strategy that the Expulsion Church is trying to advance in order to overturn the fight against us in the Eastern countries.”