Chapter 297: The Nation of the Southern Continent

Gabriella looked the young Hero over.

Though her face remained composed, she still caught a hint of something unusual.

Reina had a sunny smile that the Abyss Bishop and the various pilgrims did not possess.

She could even be called the most ordinary girl Gabriella had met recently.

Yet the aura on her that was neither human nor demon was even heavier than the Abyss Bishop’s.

Gabriella did not investigate the truth at once.

She simply followed Simona’s knight contingent toward the teleportation array.

All along the way, however, Reina showed an excitement Gabriella had not expected.

The streets of Consron’s capital were as lively as those of the Holy King Capital, but neither Gabriella nor Isabella had time to admire the foreign scenery.

Reina followed carefully at Gabriella’s side and nearly crowded Creis out.

“Lady Silver-White Sword Empress, may I ask when you began studying the sword?”

“They say the Silver-White Sword Empress was the strongest swordswoman of her time. My classmates and I all study your techniques!”

“About a dozen years ago, at the academy.”

Gabriella was a little surprised.

“I thought I had been forgotten.”

“Of course not. Plenty of people don’t know you, but the academy still thinks very highly of you… By the way, was Gabriella a student at the Holy King Capital Magic Academy? I graduated from there too!” Hero Reina’s eyes were probing.

“No.”

“Then which city was it? I still haven’t seen enough of the world…”

Gabriella smiled.

“That city no longer exists.”

“Oh. All right.”

Reina’s face was full of apology, but even more of admiration, the kind of childish ideal that swore she wanted to become someone like Gabriella.

Gabriella, though, could not be sure whether the girl was only lying and trying to get close.

Her strength had been recognized by Simona.

The title of Hero, however, was not a title Simona had conferred.

It was a title the Pope had granted her.

That only made Reina’s true identity more confusing.

Reina got along well with the knights around her, like a flesh-and-blood, ordinary human being.

Her assistant, in particular, was a middle-aged male knight who seemed to be her supervisor, something like a butler and a foster father.

The two of them often bickered, or rather, joked with each other.

Gabriella’s safety did not need these people to take charge of it.

In truth, in front of Morphis, Olivia, and even Creis and Isabella, the human army felt entirely superfluous.

That these people had been allowed to come along was not Simona’s idea either.

Part of it was courtesy, and part of it was procedure.

Soon everyone arrived at their destination, the royal palace of Consron.

The moment Reina stepped into a formal setting, she instantly became a sensible, polite young woman.

Even the tone of her speech grew much more mature, a completely different person from the little girl who had just been standing in front of Gabriella.

The governor of Consron was a warm, enthusiastic man.

His tall frame and formal suit made him look especially crisp.

He had Consron’s local soldiers stand guard at Gabriella’s side.

After everyone had eaten, they hurried on to a circular fortress built of black stone.

On the first floor was the teleportation array.

Monastar’s teleportation array.

Monastar soldiers stood all around it.

They wore no armor.

Their right hands carried light magic crossbows, and on their right arms were bracelets that could summon swords of magical energy.

The female soldiers’ uniforms were teal-blue, like qipao, while the male soldiers wore trousers with suits.

Compared with soldiers, they looked more like bodyguards or agents.

The inside of the fortress was very dark.

Only the fluorescence given off by the teleportation array lit every face.

Under the Consron governor’s farewell, everyone except Liya, who had remained on the train, vanished with a flash of light and was teleported into the nation of the Southern Continent—Monastar.

The knight order led by the Hero, along with the priests, would follow close behind.

The moment they arrived in Monastar, it was as if the scenery had been holding back only to bloom all at once, and they could not help but feel moved.

Compared with Consron’s decline, Monastar’s prosperity was written plainly across everyone’s faces.

The teleportation array had been built in a high tower.

From the top, they could look down over row upon row of buildings.

A breeze brought moisture and cool air.

Lofty mountain ranges rose on both sides of the tower, and swift water rushed below.

The city they stood in had actually been built between two mountain ranges.

The people of Monastar had carved broad platforms into the cliffs and supported those platforms with high-strength stone pillars.

Orderly high-rises rose in that fashion among the mountains.

All kinds of overpasses linked the city’s hubs to one another.

Mechanical carriages coming and going were almost too much for the eye to take in.

From time to time, the roar of magic engines reached their ears as cargo aircraft slowly descended onto the platforms.

Most of the city’s buildings were circular or conical.

Reinforced glass made up the main body of the architecture.

In the sunlight they looked like rainbow gems, giving off a classical beauty.

Yet in this dreamlike mountain city there was also a next-generation, high-tech aesthetic that stood no lower than the prosperity of the Holy King Capital.

A few seconds later, at the soldiers’ prompting, the tower platform they stood on began to descend slowly.

When it reached the proper height, it connected with a sky bridge.

Mechanical horses drew a carriage up before them.

Under the soldiers’ guidance, everyone boarded a luxury carriage similar to those of the Holy King Capital.

Creis, Olivia, Gabriella, and Isabella shared the same carriage.

“The soldiers here are weak.”

Creis gazed at the scene outside the window.

She did not look particularly excited, as if she had seen far greater sights before.

She was not wrong.

Gabriella had assumed those people in qipao and suits were only some kind of agents.

Only now did she realize that this city’s security personnel all carried the same weapons and wore the same clothes.

The residents cultivated magic, but there was not much mana in their bodies.

Most of them did not even have Marquis-rank strength.

The city seemed as if, not long ago, it had still been a primitive place where magic had not yet spread.

“But…” Creis lifted her head and shifted her tone. “Do they really need it?”

An enormous airship, like a moving hill, flew over their heads.

Iron plating and giant wings decorated its hull, very much like gills.

Its curved design made it look even more like a gigantic whale.

Olivia walked up behind Creis.

“I came here a few years ago,” she said. “Back then, this place was about the same as Consron.”

“So now they finally don’t intend to hide it, and they’re using all their knowledge to develop?”

The carriage passed through the noisy streets and at last arrived at their destination.

The entire platform spanned a canyon tens of kilometers across, supported by countless stone pillars, like a bridge.

At the center of the platform was a broad circular plaza.

Walls rose in layer upon layer, protecting Letitia’s palace at the safest point in the middle.

Rhomboid and rectangular glass formed the main body of the palace, like an enormous pearl.

If she had not looked up and seen the towering cliffs on either side, Gabriella might even have mistaken this place for some prosperous district of the Holy King Capital.

They had not yet stepped out of the carriage when Isabella warned them.

“It looks like they’re all waiting for us.”

“Are the Heavenly Oracle Envoys all here?”

“Yes.” Olivia smiled and admitted it. “It seems they’re all waiting for us.”