Chapter 332 – Duties.

“What are you talking about?”

Usher wondered what the hell he was saying when he saw Reuben sitting down.

“Hee hee, it’s a secret ♪”

Erica smiled her bashfully and put her index finger to her lips. He looked at her, then reached out and stretched her girl’s cheek.

“What’s wrong?! What’s up?”

She asks in a hoarse voice, as if wondering, as she enjoys the feel of her chewy cheeks stretching down her fingers.

“It’s a punishment for making a secret with someone other than me.”
“Oooh, take good care of yourself.”

Erica apologized, but she laughed bitterly at her refusal to speak. Even Usher thought it was a pretty far-fetched statement. When she let go of her cheeks for a while, she rubbed her cheeks with both of her hands and glanced at him nonchalantly.

“Too bad.”
“But Erica, didn’t she like being punished?”

Erika blushed as she whispered playfully to her, recalling the events of last night.

“That, that and this is different.”
“Where and how?”
“Aww.”

The girl, unable to answer his words, glanced around her and lifted her heel and whispered to him.

“It’s sensitive there.”
“Ah…”

It was around the time that Usher blushed at the shy voice that reached her ears.

-Puuuuu!

Hildisbini’s sudden warning sound meant at least that a monster or something similarly dangerous was approaching, so he immediately hugged Erica.

“I’ll run like this. Hold on tight.”
“Huh.”

And just like that, he ran towards the place where the mermaids and the wagons were staying. Usher knew very well that even if he was holding a weapon now he would have no answers when he was surrounded by monsters. He couldn’t lose even Erica because he was fussy. As soon as he arrived at the wagons in a hurry, he saw knights carrying weapons and moving around busily.

“Did the monster invade again?”

He rushed over and asked Diana, who shook her head.

“It’s not like that, but I think Hildisviny was crying because I saw other wagons coming this way.”
“Then the people who broke up last time…?”

Recalling that they had parted in a procession, when asked, the answer was not her, but Kayaba, who commanded her knights.

“That’s probably not it. It’s far from the confluence here, and the direction they’re coming from is too different from the direction we came from.”

If you follow his gaze and move your gaze over there, you can see carriages approaching this place at first glance. The sight of Hildis beanies covered in feathers approaching from the front, crossing the waves, is intimidating enough.

“Then where the hell?”
“If it’s from that direction, it looks like it’s coming from the Parz side?”

As Usher muttered incredulously, Priyazen approached from a nearby waterway and said, Hearing her words, Diana frowned and watched them approach.

“Something is strange.”
“That’s strange, is there a problem?”
“Parzu doesn’t need to build a company like that.”

Among the many reasons why the country of Parz is rich, that reason was the biggest. Since most countries exist along the cloud belt, trade is limited, whereas Parz, which is located in an oasis without a cloud belt, is close to any country and is in the center. Being a guild, no matter how small it is, requires a lot of preparation and money, but there was no need for that, because Parz was the place where money was gathered even if you stayed still.

“Isn’t it possible that another country’s corps is heading to the Holy Land through Parz?”
“It hasn’t been long since Rachel led the believers to the Holy Land. Those who had business to visit the Holy Land would have followed Rachel long ago.”

It was all the more so because the Holy Land was not a place one could easily come to even if they wanted to. The road to the Holy Land was so rugged that they wouldn’t dare dare to venture unless the Paladins were dispatched to guide and protect them once every few years. Kayaba listened to Diana’s story and gave instructions to the knights.

“First of all, wait for them to come. If you see signs of an attack, report it right away.”

A battle could have happened, so Priyazen went back to his house with his mermaids, while Usher and Erica decided to go inside the carriage with Diana and watch the situation. Soon after, the number of wagons approaching them was smaller than expected. Usher felt a sense of incongruity in the appearance of those leading the carriage.

“Harpy and… Caitsy?”

It wasn’t different, it was a combination that I never thought they would be together. Especially since I’ve heard that Catsis never come out of Parz. Looking closely, there were quite a number of humans. They also looked bewildered as if they hadn’t expected to meet them here, but soon a man was seen coming down from the lead carriage. He was exceptionally large and was wearing a large robe. The moment he took off his hood, Usher was startled.

“What, what is it. What about that harpy?”

This is because the face revealed underneath was not that of a human, but that of a large bird of prey with red feathers and a black beak. The coolly shining blue eyes seemed to stiffen even though they didn’t seem to meet properly.

“The author…!”

Because of this, Usher did not know Diana, who was shocked to see him.

“I never thought we’d meet again like this.”

Kayaba gulped nervously at the sight of him approaching her and said to his knights who raised their weapons.

“Everyone put down your weapons.”
“But the cardinal! The author!”
“Cardinal? Was it really you who took over the place of Mr. Bargazzet instead of Yakaf?”

Kayaba spoke again at the sight of him questioning the knights with his naked body and calmly questioning him.

“It’s an order. Put down your weapons.”

In the end, he had no choice but to look at the knights who were putting down their weapons and face him.

“What’s going on here?”
“That’s what I want to ask.”

At Kayaba’s question, he rather narrowed his blue eyes and looked at him.

“You’re sure you haven’t forgotten the rules?”

In a chilling atmosphere, when the knights couldn’t take their hands off their weapons so that they could pull them out at any time despite Kayaba’s order.

“…Huh, yeah, you can’t mess things up because of things in the past.”

It was he who first eased the atmosphere by gently closing his sharp eyes.

“We were evacuating.”
“You said you were evacuating?”

At his words, a commotion arose among the knights. That’s because Parz was the final destination for them after leaving the Holy Land. However, the harpies and catsis who should have been living in Parz were evacuating from Parz.

“So you were on your way to the Holy Land?”
“No, I didn’t think that you would accept us as Harpies, even if it was Catsy and humans.”
“Then why did you come here?”

In the direction they were heading, there were few places for people to live except for the Holy Land. It is famous for how terrible the place is where the sunlight does not reach all year round, although there is Lagado at least.

“Because I was temporarily diverted by an attack during the evacuation.”
“A raid? You mean there was someone who could compete with you?”

When Kayaba was surprised, he shook his head.

“It would have been fortunate if it was an opponent we could compete with. It was a wizard who was chasing us.”

Wizard, at that one word, everyone fell into silence. There is no one here who does not know the name. Paladins can use magic, but that’s only part of it. Just knowing how to use a part of it is praised, but a wizard is free to use any magic he wants. Even if they were paladins, they were not something that could be matched against them.

“But why are you here? It must have been the rule to protect the Holy Land?”
“Now the Holy Land is no longer a place where people can live.”
“What? The legacy of the Tsushima Age can’t be stopped so easily.”

He frowned at her in disbelief, but Kayaba sighed and opened her mouth.

“Bingryong Oter has descended.”
“Is it like that… The sudden coldness of the day. That’s why I can’t see Yakaf.”
“…Did you know Master was alive?”
“Yeah, looks like we met after all.”

At his words, Kayaba managed to let go of the power in his sword grip. He couldn’t blame them for not telling them about it. They were enemies in the past, and of course they weren’t even close.

“But he broke a taboo. What the hell happened?”

But it was funny that he was the only part they could talk to. Because the Yakaf they knew was not someone who could die easily.

“The demon of the Great Magic Age has resurrected.”
“Oh my God. In the end, the legacy of the Great Magic Age lost its power. It was the worst timing.”

He looked up at the sky as if lamenting.

“I thought if Yakarp came back, he’d be able to do something with the mage.”

He couldn’t help it because Yakaf broke the taboo to save them and fell asleep in the depths of the permafrost. When silence fell between them again.

“Is the story over?”
“This voice.”

Diana opened the carriage door and walked out.

“Saintess?! You’re still coming out…!”
“Are you okay.”

Then, standing next to Kayaba, she faced him directly.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you like this.”
“You’ve grown a lot compared to before.”

Diana smiled wryly at his words, which sounded familiar. Actually, they couldn’t be called enemies, but it was even more difficult to call them friends.

“To think that someone who would have jumped right in in the past started talking like this. Time is scary.”
“…I certainly didn’t expect to meet you like this, not aiming swords at you.”

The first to voice a complaint about the confrontation, which was hostile but not comfortable, was Priyazen, who had been observing the confrontation on this side from afar.

“You guys. I want you to refrain from being a nuisance on our land.”
“Mermaids? Was this the land of mermaids?”
“Right. So decide for sure. If you’re going to fight, if you’re going to fight, then you’re not. That’s how we decide what to do.”

Hearing her words, he laughed and shook her head.

“It’s a fight… Quit it. We’re in the position of evacuating to the end. We can’t cause any inconvenience to the owner of the land.”
“Then what about that one?”

When his intention was clear, Priyazen asked Kayaba and Diana this time.

“It’s the same here.”
“Yes, even if we fight like this, it won’t be good for each other.”

She nodded her head when they were even sure of their intentions.

“Okay! Then we get along well, right? If we fight or something, we all have our own ways, so you better be careful?”

In the end, their confrontation ended with only ambiguous emotions left.

“Who the heck is that harpy?”

Usher soon heard a voice telling him to get out of the wagon, and he and Erica came out of the wagon, but the sight of them setting up camp a little further away bothered them. Especially since the knights were still wary of the harpies that Kayaba and Diana faced.

“Paladin Gideon, Vargazzet’s henchman.”
“If it’s Bargazzet…”

It was the name of the demon king who ruled the holy land. But Usher had more concerns than that.

“I’ll leave Erica to you for a second!”
“Eh, Usher?”
“Now, hold on!”

Erica and Diana tried to catch him, but Usher had already checked the weapons he had brought with him just in case, and was approaching Gideon and talking to him.

“Hey.”
“Her?”

Then he looked at Usher in surprise, and for some reason the people around him, regardless of race, looked at him with a look of surprise. The sharp blue eyes looking at him made me tremble along with the face of a bird of prey, but Usher had something more important than that.

“By any chance, where is Nausicaa’s sister?”

Maybe he thought that if he was the leader who now leads the harpies, he might know Nausicaa who lived with Krikaliev. Then he opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“How can you name the princess…”
“Yes?”

Usher stared blankly at the unexpected words.