I, Sedam, and Leiha were at the gate of Jiiteias castle.
The soldiers lined up on both sides as if to form a path of honor, and the servants and the people of Shulz also gathered to see us off.
Among them, the one who clung to me was still Diane.
“Hey, my lord. Are you sure you don’t need me to go with you? I would protect you no matter what, you know?”
“……Yeah, yeah. I appreciate that, but…”
I was almost tempted by her desperate plea, but I managed to resist.
I admit that Diane is a competent warrior and commander, but this time we are not going to fight.
She is loyal to me, even to the point of fanaticism, but she is too impulsive for a diplomatic envoy.
And besides.
“……Do you remember? Their origin, the Shulz tribe.”
Sedam whispered in my ear.
“Yeah. I know.”
I had only heard it briefly before, but according to the legend, they were the descendants of the “God King”.
It was a distant myth, and there was no proof that they were the same as the “God King” who was consumed by hatred and became the first “focal point”. But it would be too risky to take her with us this time.
First of all, we should gather more information about the dark demons and then decide what to do with her.
“Let me go with you, please. It’s fine, right? You can dump me along the way if I get in your way.”
“……Diane.”
I had heard the expression “puppy eyes” before, but her red eyes were not at that cute level.
Her eyes looked like @ signs.
“You’re staying behind because I want you to protect the castle. This is a sign of my trust in you.”
“……Trust?”
“Yes. Everyone in this castle is my precious friend and family. I want to entrust you with the most important role of protecting them.”
“But……if you don’t come back, I……”
I didn’t mean to lie, but it seemed difficult to persuade her with logic when she acted on emotion.
Normally, I would say something like “I’ll definitely come back safely”, but…
In her case, she was probably afraid of losing the person she depended on without realizing it.
“If something like that happens, Claura will take my place. She will take over my work properly. So you too, please help her by thinking of her words as mine.”
“……”
When I glanced sideways, Claura was rolling her eyes. Well, she just looked up with her blue eyes.
“Claura’s words are your words, my lord? If I do as Claura says, will you be happy too?”
“Yes, I will be very happy.”
“I see…… I understand……”
She reluctantly backed off.
The people of Shulz tribe around us also looked relieved.
“Margils……”
“I’ll leave the rest to you.”
I said arrogantly to Claura, who regained her composure, while inwardly praying to her.
Well, she wouldn’t get angry over something like this at this point.
“The Staff of the Great Wizard is a proof of your full authority. You can use it freely as you see fit in case of emergency.”
This morning, I entrusted her with the staff that had several attack spells such as Fireball and Lightning charged.
It should be able to repel an army of five hundred or a thousand, whether they are human or dark demons.
“I will take care of everything.”
“By the way, I’m leaving the matter of the seal to you. I’m looking forward to a design that suits us.”
Having gone through the general departure procedure, I nodded to the warriors who had been waiting for me… the priestess or “woman who preserves knowledge”, the warlord Kanbelis, the warrior chief Leid, and two escort warriors.
The ten warriors who had been staying at the castle were going to stay there as well.
“Have a safe trip.”
“Please tell me all about it when you come back!”
We set off at the signal of Irudo and Lord Sandall’s voice.
When I looked back at the castle gate for the last time, I saw a glimpse of little Mora waving her hand frantically through the crowd.
“……By the way, isn’t it about time you told us?”
“What do you mean?”
We were walking.
It was quite a contrast from the lively departure scene, but walking endlessly on the mountain path was somehow relaxing.
I called out to the huge back of Leid, who was silently leading the way.
“I mean, how and where are we going to the warriors’ ‘lodging’, or whatever you call it.”
“Exactly. I get that you are secretive, but you could at least tell us how much time it will take, right?”
The problem was that they kept the location of the warriors’ base, the ‘lodging’, and the way to get there a secret from us.
They said it was because of their clan’s law and that they had many enemies, but isn’t that enough already?
It took Kanbelis more than two months to come back after he left the castle saying “I’ll go back to the lodging and discuss the results of the interrogation”.
Of course, we were prepared to take a month one way. But it was too painful to just walk without any explanation for such a long time.
Sedam and I both demanded information disclosure.
Leiha was silent as usual.
“Please forgive our rudeness.”
The girl who hid her whole body with a hood and a robe stopped and bowed deeply.
“We will use a special method for this trip. If you can bear with us for one more day, your concerns will be cleared.”
It wasn’t because she was an elf beauty, but Sedam and I decided to endure for one more day.
The next day.
And it was night.
We left behind the “Road of Law” and even the shortcut, and made our way down to a valley in the forest.
The escort warriors held torches, and I used the Light spell, so we had no trouble with our footing… but…
“Could it be that we’re going through a hidden passage, or that this valley is the warriors’ base?”
“……?”
Sedam’s face was twisted, as if curiosity and irritation were competing.
On the other hand, Leiha looked up at the sky… the starry night sky… with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong, Leiha?”
“Master. The sky is strange.”
“The sky?”
Sedam and I also looked up, but we didn’t understand.
The sky was very beautiful with stars filling it, unlike Japan’s… huh?
“What? The stars? There shouldn’t be any stars there…”
“Yes. It’s more like something…”
Sedam and Leiha said quickly, as if panicked.
“We’re here.”
Then, Kanbelis’s voice echoed from behind the huge rock that blocked our view.
The warriors had gone further into the valley without us noticing.
Just in case, Leiha went ahead and followed them…
“What? What is this?”
“……A ship, I suppose.”
What we saw at the bottom of the valley was a magnificent ship that seemed capable of sailing the ocean.
It was about 20 meters long.
It seemed to be a type of longship, but… there was no sail. And to prevent it from capsizing, I guess, several “legs” extended from the left and right sides of the hull to support it.
“So this is the special method you were talking about? How are you going to move on land with this ship?”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before…”
Even Sedam was gaping at the sight that defied common sense.
“I see…”
On the other hand, I was surprised, but I had some idea about this kind of existence.
“This is it, right? The thing they call an airship?”
“Do you know about it?”
“Of course, you are a wizard… I apologize for my rudeness.”
I had never seen it before, but I had some idea of what it was.
But still, I thought this world Sedia was a rather realistic world, but it had such a fantasy-like tool as well.
“As you say, this is the war tribe’s ‘Moonlight Ship’.”
“We’re starting it up now…”
‘Moonlight Ship’, huh. That’s a pretty elegant name.
Sedam and Leiha looked incredulous…
“Hm?”
Kanbelis gave a signal to the warrior who had boarded the ‘Moonlight Ship’ first.
And then.
Around the thick mast that had no sails, some purple glowing lines appeared.
“Hmm?”
Thin purple glowing lines… like tentacles. Four or five of them.
They wrapped around the mast and gradually increased their light.
The purple light spread over the ‘Moonlight Ship’… not just over it, but over our entire heads like a canopy.
No.
I still looked closely and confirmed.
The purple light didn’t suddenly appear.
From the beginning, something transparent… was above our heads.
A canopy that swayed softly.
It was so big that it seemed to cover our entire field of vision.
The whole thing was glowing purple, but in the center there was something like petals that blinked red and green.
I had seen something similar to this before.
“Could it be… a jellyfish?”
Sense of wonder.
The real fantasy was far beyond my knowledge and imagination.
“That’s right. The ‘Moonlight Ship’ flies in the sky with the help of those night worms.”
Leid replied to me, who gasped in awe. He had the most smug expression I had ever seen on his face.