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Chapter 183
The Cascadia family is officially a noble house under the Bata royal family.
As a border count, they are in a position somewhat distanced from the central royal affairs and usually observe from the sidelines.
However, strictly speaking, they are still obligated to respond when called upon by the state.
Currently, the Bata Kingdom is not ruled by the king himself but by the princess, who is acting as regent.
Originally, she was supposed to step down once the king awoke, but for some unknown reason, the king chose to leave the governing of the nation to her.
“Is His Majesty planning to pass the throne to Her Highness the Princess? That succession plan’s a bit odd, isn’t it?”
Melissa said, casually skimming through the letter.
“It doesn't really make sense to summon someone like me—I'm not even a count, just a noble family's son.”
“Normally, you'd be right. But are you just any noble's son? Think about what you did in the capital.”
She didn’t seem regretful about that part at all.
No, in fact, she seemed pleased.
“If it had come to me, I wouldn’t have been able to see Arsha for a while, so this works out. Go do your chores and be done with it.”
She had clearly picked up the phrase I used whenever I teased her.
Is that really something a noble lady should say?
In truth, the letter didn't say much.
It simply requested my attendance for a matter needing discussion.
The fact that it was written with such humility—despite being from the princess who currently holds the kingdom's highest authority—was slightly concerning, but I soon put the thought aside.
“You caused quite a stir recently, so I’m sure the royal court’s in chaos. You were going to need to report eventually. So stop whining and go.”
“Alright, alright.”
Melissa already had her hands full managing the territory.
Burdening her with more responsibility wasn’t ideal.
“I’m entrusting you with full authority over Cascadia. Handle it well. I’ll take good care of Arsha.”
She really had some nerve—slacking off in training and still finding time to be sarcastic like that.
But her words were full of trust.
With that, I threw open the window.
“Baril.”
Murmuring quietly, I leapt into the air.
My body rapidly rose dozens of meters into the sky before starting to descend in freefall.
But soon, my feet touched down on the massive back of a giant black dragon.
“Fly west.”
Sure, teleportation works, but I needed to take the newly-born shadow dragon, Baril, for a proper test flight.
Might as well check how well I built him.
After all, he was crafted using the heart of a demon dragon.
His specs were nothing short of astounding.
In the blink of an eye, we passed over countless terrains and rivers.
Before long, I could see the spires of the royal palace and the capital of Bata in the distance.
Baril, the shadow dragon, was easily over several dozen meters in size.
Landing directly in the capital would only cause mass panic.
So I rapidly increased altitude and, once positioned directly above the royal palace, I unsummoned him and dropped straight down.
As I accelerated in freefall, I took in the view of the capital—the first time I’d seen it in a while.
Fortunately, it seemed no one had seen Baril.
No uproar had broken out.
As I descended over the quaint yet beautiful capital, I activated the Fly spell using my mana circle.
Then I landed slowly on the palace grounds.
“Wh-Who goes there?!”
The guards at the palace were understandably shocked.
“I’ve come at the summons of the royal family, from the House of Count Cascadia.”
When I showed them my family sigil, they didn’t lower their guard completely and asked:
“Still, why did you fall from the sky?”
“Because it’s faster.”
My answer must’ve stunned them into silence, and just as one of the guards tried to say something—
“Leon. It’s been a while.”
At the sound of a voice, the guards paled and snapped to attention with a sharp salute.
“D-Duke, sir!”
“That’s enough. I’ll handle this from here. You may go.”
Duke Berli.
The only remaining Swordmaster in the Kingdom of Bata, and the father of Farell Berli, who once called me ‘brother.’
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He was also a close acquaintance of my father.
“Have you been well?”
“Haha, always. I heard the news—you recovered Arsha and Galeon’s body.”
“Yes. Thanks to your concern, all ended well.”
“That’s truly a relief. Galeon’s fate was unfortunate, but I’m very glad you found Arsha.”
He was genuinely happy for me, and I couldn’t help but feel grateful toward him.
“So, I hear the royal family has summoned me.”
“That’s right. Let’s go inside. Her Highness the Princess is eager to hear your opinion.”
“Well, alright then.”
Following Duke Berli into the reception room, I saw a woman studying a document with a pensive look on her face.
I immediately dropped to one knee and bowed my head.
“Your Highness, have you been well?”
“It’s been a while, Lord Leon. Please, raise your head.”
She welcomed me warmly and rose from her seat, pulling me up.
“The reason I called for you today is because I need your counsel.”
“Command me. I will answer to the best of my knowledge.”
At that, she gave a faint smile.
“Before that, I heard good news. Congratulations on the matter regarding the young lady, my lord.”
“Not at all. I only worry that the royal family might have been troubled because of it.”
“No, not at all. Aren’t you the savior of His Majesty’s life? Besides, since there were no major issues, we can overlook minor matters as much as needed.”
Thankfully, it seemed the royal family hadn’t faced any troublesome matters due to the Holy Kingdom or the Pinas Archipelago.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, she handed me a document.
“What is this?”
“It’s a report from the investigation team.”
“An investigation team?”
“Yes. Are you aware of the ancient dungeon ruins discovered between the Bata and Coral kingdoms?”
“A dungeon?”
“More precisely, it’s a rift that formed within the ruins.”
Unlike regular rifts, ruins rifts often held particularly rare finds.
Coral, huh…
To the east of the central continent lies the Kingdom of Bata.
And on the far eastern edge of the central continent, bordering Bata, is the Kingdom of Coral.
Unlike the fairly cordial relations with Pascalia, Coral had a rather hostile relationship with Bata—almost that of arch-enemies.
And with good reason—history was full of conflicts between them.
“The thing is, the rift was discovered in the disputed border region between Bata and Coral.”
“Hm?”
“Both sides are claiming ownership of it.”
Ah.
A rift filled with treasures discovered in a disputed border zone—of course both nations would fight to claim it.
“This could easily escalate into war.”
Especially since Coral and Bata had only recently emerged from a war.
“Exactly. So both nations sent diplomatic delegations and agreed to a joint exploration. But it all failed.”
“Failed?”
“Yes. Unless a specific condition is met, the difficulty of the rift skyrockets. Even swordmasters were quickly defeated…”
“What condition?”
“According to a translated inscription found at the entrance, only the young can inflict damage.”
The young.
A vague term, but through various tests, it seemed that individuals under 20 years old were within the target range.
A rift governed by a specific geas condition, huh.
That kind of system is efficient in its own way, but it also means that if the condition is met, the penalties must be severe.
The stronger the condition, the harsher the penalty—yet that also weakens the defenses, meaning there must be a viable strategy for breaching it.
“However, sending in young people is risky, given the rift’s difficulty. Bata was about to give up the exploration, but Coral is trying to drag in outside forces as they please—completely ignoring our protests.”
“What do they think is sleeping in there?”
“We haven’t figured it out… but it seems they’ve learned something from within.”
Unfortunately, Coral is militarily stronger than one might think.
Bata had long been worn down by Coral’s aggression.
Coral also had a tendency to meddle in Bata’s internal affairs.
If nothing is done, it’s clear Coral will seize ownership of the disputed zone.
In other words, this exploration of the ruins in the border zone was just a pretext…
It was a power struggle between two nations.
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