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Lenly had thought that there would never come a day when he would agree with Imil, but this time, he agreed with Imil completely.
It was no illusion that Lenly felt as if the castle was alive—the Dragon Citadel was both inanimate and alive at the same time. Not only were there fluids flowing inside the building, but it also pulsated; it even ate or excreted at times.
At the same time, the building was moving as if it was unaffected by the laws of physics.
“Sir Bekelt said that we would never be able to understand or get used to this castle,” Lenly muttered.
“I think that the thing that we don’t understand is not this castle, but rather the world beyond the Crack. How can such a thing exist?”
Imil folded his arms as if he felt the chills at just the thought of the Crack.
Meanwhile, Lenly nodded.
“We will have to persuade His Majesty to deal with the Crack sternly when we meet him. Although the Order of Lindwurm has gained a lot of talented individuals, as well as many useful tools from the Crack, we can’t let these profane and incomprehensible things continue striding around.”
“Hmm. I understand your perspective, Sir Lenly. But it’s not something to be just ostracized, is it? The Dragon Citadel is certainly incomprehensible, but there is no malice in the castle itself. It’s no different from a sword owned by you if it is handled well.”
Lenly glared at Imil.
‘How can he compare a sword with such an ominous thing?’
He already knew that Imil had a pragmatic and progressive stance, but there were lines that shouldn’t ever be crossed.
“...We will talk about this again later,” Lenly said.
“Yes, let’s do that. Come to think of it, do you know where the Order of Lindwurm went? I thought they said they were looking for His Majesty Gerard. But it seems that no one is looking for him; they are just wandering around the castle.”
“They are all singing in the center of the castle.”
“Singing?”
“Yes. Can’t you hear them? Their song is echoing throughout the entire castle.”
Imil looked puzzled, but Lenly could faintly hear the knights from the Order of Lindwurm singing despite their low volume. Lenly hummed along to the sound of the song.
Meanwhile, Imil nodded as he listened to Lenly’s song, but soon covered his mouth with his hand. His expression slowly turned pale.
“Um, is that the song that the Order of Lindwurm is singing?”
“Yes. Is there something wrong?”
“...No. It’s just that
 I feel like I heard that song in my dream last night. I couldn’t sleep at night because I had an ominous dream. But I guess I must have heard it in my sleep.”
Lenly felt pleasant upon hearing that Imil had been up all night, but the content of the story bothered him.
“An ominous dream? Like what?” Lenly asked.
“Oh, it was just a nightmare. Something was watching me and whispering unknown words in my ears. I remember the voice being quite creepy. It sounded like it was gnawing at my guts.”
Imil explained in a calm manner, but suddenly flinched as if something had inadvertently come to his mind.
At the same time, Lenly looked at Imil upon realizing that he had thought of the same thing as Imil.
Both Lenly and Imil somewhat knew about information related to the encroachment of the Crack. When the Crack begins to encroach upon someone, they begin to hum a song and mutter an unknown name that is unique to each of them.
They had also heard that repeating that name gave people a powerful force, but the encroachment of the Crack becomes stronger every time the name is muttered.
“...We are going to have to get some earplugs. I don’t know if it will be good enough to block the sound, but still,” Lenly said.
“The only way out of this is to leave here as soon as we find His Majesty Gerard. I know that the Order of Lindwurm is loyal to His Majesty, but I feel the need to distance ourselves from them,” Imil nodded.
“What are you distancing yourself from?”
Lenly and Imil turned their heads toward the direction of the voice.
Bekelt was standing in front of the door while wearing armor with a helmet that hung deeply over his head. At the same time, the sound of the song sung by the knights from the Order of Lindwurm was cut off before anyone knew it.
Bekelt smiled and opened his mouth, the only visible part of his face.
“We have found out where His Majesty is. Let’s go.”
***
As soon as Lenly stepped on the purple ground, he could feel a stinging sensation, almost as if he had been electrocuted.
Lenly firmly stepped on the ground a few times to make sure that it was solid and looked around at the surroundings. He could see blackened letters on the ground.
They were on what looked like a kind of island. Although it was tiny compared to the rocky mountains that were swirling above their heads in the vortex, it was still the size of a small island.
And there was a woman standing in the middle of the island.
Bekelt stood beside Lenly and opened his mouth while staring at the woman.
“I couldn’t find His Majesty’s exact location no matter what I did, so I thought of a slightly different method. I thought of the possibility of His Majesty not being alone despite him kicking out Dane. Perhaps she is the woman who is taking care of His Majesty?”
“I don’t think she came here to take care of His Majesty,” Lenly answered in a calm manner.
Bekelt looked back at Lenly with questioning eyes.
“Do you know that woman?”
“It’s a little complicated to say that I simply know her.”
Lenly pulled himself together as he faced the female knight glaring fiercely at him.
It was Sina Solvane.
Sina seemed to be in a normal condition. Lenly had clearly seen Dismas crushing her, but there was no sign of her body being destroyed. Rather, her left eye, which had remained closed due to the burns, looked like it was back to normal now. The only change was that her left pupil was orange in color, just like a heated metal. She gave off a strong impression with her odd eyes, since her right eye was blue.
Bekelt placed his hand on his sword and opened his mouth.
“She seems like she wants to kill you. I hope she does not end up being a nuisance to His Majesty.”
“She has a reckless personality, but she is not stupid,” Lenly answered.
Lenly stared at Sina for a moment but soon strode forward.
“Let’s just leave her alone and go see His Majesty.”
Meanwhile, Sina was quietly staring at Lenly, who was approaching her.
‘I can kill him for good if I were to attack him right now.’
Sina already knew through Gerard why Lenly betrayed Juan and left her to die. She had her own guesses as well. Because of this, Sina felt the strong urge to kill him right at this moment.
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But Sina pulled her hand off of her sword.
Upon seeing this, Lenly, who was preparing to fight in case of an unexpected situation, breathed out a sigh of relief. He whispered to Sina as he passed by her.
“I have no reason to kill you now. I never hated you either. I just wish for you to safely return to Juan. I don’t want to make him more sad than he already is.”
“I’m not going back empty-handed,” Sina answered in a cold voice.
Lenly smiled bitterly upon hearing Sina’s reply and passed by.
Sina looked at the direction they were headed to; they were going to where Gerard was waiting.
Gerard stood at the edge of the cliff. Without any signs of tiredness, he was creating his own world of chaos, just like a child touching the sand on the beach for the first time.
No one could tell what would be appearing in the picture where many mountains, rivers, and various forces were constantly clumping together and splitting.
Lenly, who was walking ahead, frowned upon seeing the figures approaching from the opposite side. Those figures were wearing a deep robe and had thornbush necklaces on their necks. They were members of the Thornbush Priest Organization, the organization that was known to have been destroyed by Juan.
The person standing at the very front seemed to have the form of a human being. However, there were many people standing behind him who did not have a normal human form.
Bekelt clicked his tongue as he looked at them.
“They must have been keeping their eye on us.”
“I had heard that the Thornbush Priest Organization had been wiped out. However, they seem to be quite large in numbers,” Lenly said.
“They are not the ones who were hiding in this world. The Priests from the Thornbush Priest Organization that remained in the empire were weak and small in numbers. But these are the real Priests from the Thornbush Priest Organization, those who live and parasitize inside the Crack. The leader of the Thornbush Church in the empire just led one of their thousand branches,” Bekelt explained.
Bekelt seemed quite displeased with the Thornbush Priest Organization. This was only natural, since the reason why the Order of Lindwurm turned their backs against the empire was because of the Crack in the first place.
Even if they lived under the influence of the Crack now, their hostility did not go away easily. In addition, Gerard had not only tortured, but also killed the leader of the Thornbush Priest Organization in the empire.
Bekelt walked ahead and stood in front of the Priests from the Thornbush Priest Organization.
“His Majesty wouldn’t enjoy seeing you bastards’ faces.”
“We,” the Priest standing at the very front said in a split voice.
It was a neutral voice that made it so that no one could tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman. Only the Priest’s teeth could be seen, since their face had a hood covering it entirely.
“We only came to see the return of the owner of the Crown. It’s nearly a hundred years behind the appointed date, but it’s only an instant compared to the time that we’ve been waiting for until now.”
“The Crown belongs to His Majesty. There is no chance of you ever getting it back.”
The Priest grinned from inside his dark hood. It was a smile that could never be considered human.
“You really don’t know anything, do you? Sweetheart, you and I both serve the same master. No—everything's meant to serve the master. Do you think we are on the same level, especially when I walked around the entire world to spread the power of the Crack?”
The Priest took off the hood after speaking. She was a middle-aged woman with silver hair and gave off an aristocratic impression. She had an elegant appearance, but she had pale white skin and had red cracked lips. Over her face were a few stems of a black thornbush wrapped into a crown made of thornbush.
Bekelt immediately released a murderous intent as soon as he saw the Priest’s face.
“Black Aldebaran.”
“It’s been a long time since I heard what that name sounds like in this world’s pronunciation. “
Black Aldebaran. It was the real name of the Priest from the Thornbush Priest Organization. The original name couldn’t even be pronounced properly by anyone other than the owner of the name herself.
Black Aldebaran did not budge even in the face of Bekelt’s murderous intent. Instead, she turned her gaze toward Lenly. She made a curious expression for a short moment, but she soon turned her head toward the other direction as a strong flame suddenly began to burn on the edge of the cliff.
The flame burned fiercely, almost as if it wanted to burn the chaos and then slowly died down.
Before anyone knew it, Gerard was looking down at them.
In his hand was a giant spear twice his own height. As Gerard’s gaze scanned them from head to toe, the Order of Lindwurm, Aruntal, as well as the Priests from the Thornbush Priest Organization all knelt in unison.
Bekelt was the first to raise his head and exclaim.
“Your Majesty! Your knight order has come running from beyond eternity in response to your call. Give us another chance to fight by your side!”
Then Imil from Aruntal also spoke out, almost as if this was a competition.
“I celebrate the birth of the eternal emperor and pray that Your Majesty’s empire will last for an eternity. May us of Aruntal be a part of such an eternity, just as we have done so far!”
Black Aldebaran also raised her head proudly and opened her mouth.
“As always, the Thornbush Priest Organization, which serves the nine-headed dragon, welcomes the Crown bearing head back to its original place. It is the moment when all the burning stars will finally be put in place.”
While everyone was pledging their allegiance, Gerard trudged in front of them. Everyone lowered their heads even further and waited for Gerard’s words, but he just walked past them and strode forward.
As soon as everyone looked back at Gerard with a perplexed expression, he stopped in front of Sina.
Then, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Sina Solvane.”
Sina, who was scowling upon hearing the oaths of allegiance of the three groups, also looked up at Gerard with a perplexed expression.
Meanwhile, Gerard lifted the spear he had created.
“This time, I have made a spear. I’d like to give it a name, since I haven’t made such an impressive item in a very long time. I want you to be the one to name it,” Gerard said.
“...What? Why me?” Sina asked, dumbfounded.
“Because I’m not good at naming.”
“Who cares? That’s none of my business. Just call it whatever you like.”
Sina avoided Gerard’s gaze with a perplexed expression while enduring the three group’s burning gazes.
Sina had shared many questions and answers with Gerard over the time they had spent together, and Gerard had also asked her a lot of useless questions. But it was the first time Sina was feeling this perplexed.
Gerard seemed to ponder for a while, then soon opened his mouth again.
“Then can I name it Solvane?”
Sina felt unpleasant, and desperately wanted to get out of this situation. She wanted to tell Gerard to name it ‘Gerard is a son of a bitch,’ but she felt like that would just be an insult to Juan—not to mention that it would be insulting the three groups standing behind Gerard as well.
Thus, Sina nodded as if she had no choice.
“Solvane it is.”