Soon after Masamune left Heilkwaite, Ichijo left too, and the brave men of Fischanatika disbanded once.

No one knows now.
What can we do for ourselves....

But the more they get lost, the less they know about their own magic.
Then don't get lost, just do your best.

-- "And we will establish a band of adventurers.

Unexpectedly, the one who said that was Akane Hiiragi.
What kind of change of heart is this?　Maybe he's following his father's lead.



　This is a garden on the grounds of Fischanatika.
There was a fountain in the center, and around it were brightly colored flowers that reflected the white schoolhouse.
But today, I can't see such vividness.

Raindrops beat against the flowers and water pooled in the flower beds.
The sky was dark even though it was still past noon, and the garden where it should be was nowhere to be found.

There was a girl there.

The girl was just looking at the grey painted sky, rain beating down on her, but when the rain hit her forehead and cheek, she couldn't help but close her eyelids.
But when the rain hit her forehead and cheek, she involuntarily closed her eyelids.

-- Nishiki Kotori.

It was a little birdie who was there.

''Masamune-kun........''

The little bird mutters, then turns away from the sky and slumps down.
Then she opens her eyes and looks at the ground.

Then she saw an object, clenched in the palm of her hand.

''........''

--a blue ring.

In the palm of the little bird's hand was a crystal-clear, yet dark and bright blue ring.
A simple ring with no special decoration.


-- "Please take this. We can talk at a distance."


As the little bird stared at the ring, she remembered the words of someone else.
The little bird slumped with a clouded expression as the rain and wind beat down.
There was no power in her eyes.

''Masamune-kun.......why did you leave me behind?　Why ... why ... why don't you say something?

Masamune left the academy without saying anything to Kotori.
Whether he dared to do so, or whether it didn't occur to him at all, only he knows.

''Masamune-kun...''


-- "It's because ... she's manipulating me."


The little bird remembers again.
The words of the one who gave her this ring....
And I was thinking.

-- why that person gave her this ring.

''Masamune-kun I........''

Then the little bird's eyes settled.
That's not the kind of resolve I'm talking about.

--I'm not going to be able to get it right.

"Masamune-kun .......I'll save you. My ...........Masamune-kun. My own.........Masamune-kun.......

Something has changed in the little bird.
But it was still only superficially visible.

The blue ring glowed on the little bird's left hand, the ring finger, as he muttered to himself.
The little bird swore something, and then looked up at the sky again.

Then, in the garden, a figure appeared.
One clad in grey robes and with a hood hiding his face.
There was not even a sign of that person.
The little bird noticed the magic power that suddenly appeared there and turned around as if in a panic.
Then he was alerted by the person looking down from the stairs leading to the school building.

''Who? .........?

Then the man replied without showing his true face.

''I've been watching you since the preliminary round. Both schools........

The little bird was alerted and pointed his palm at the one in front of him.
Then he deployed a magic circle at his feet and waited.

''Who........?''

The little bird looked frightened.
Then the one replied.

'Was it Kawachi-san?　I've spoken to her about it, and she has responded graciously.

Mr. Kawachi?

What's up with Kawachi?　The little bird remained vigilant with a question mark in his eyes.
Then he spoke.

''The 'Senior Blacksmith' is a valuable resource. It is not so easy to find them. The Emperor is looking for people like you. I beg you to help me...

The one bowed his head shallowly.

'My ... power?　What do you mean?　What about you? .....

"--Dermscales.

Then there was a thunderclap and the sky glowed.

For a moment, two faces could be seen in the white-lighted garden.
The expression on the little bird's face was clear, and the face of the "man" in the hood was visible.
Probably not a human. --a beastman.

"--I am an emissary of the Empire.

An emissary of the Durmscales Empire.

On that day, the Empire appeared in front of Kotori and Kawachi, two brave souls.





o





　And Hail Kuwait.

After leaving Nito, Patrick walked down the corridor with a dark expression on his face.
Patrick is alone there.
Sarah and Yui are nowhere to be found.

At the end of the corridor, Brahms, an SSS-ranked adventurer, appears.

Hmm?　You don't look well, do you?　If you're a guardian, you'll have to be a guardian, won't you?

Patrick suddenly looked up when he recognized the voice.

'Mr. Brahms....'

Is your master here?

'What? .... well, yes. I'm just a student.

Well....

'What happened to Mr. Brahms?'

Why is Brahms here?

Me?　I'm leaving for now. I've done my business. I have Fiora waiting for you outside.

Well....

Patrick's reply was not a crisp one.

'By the way, I hear you say that you are the Prince of Rathhausen?　What will you do after you graduate?　Are you going back to your country?

'Well, yes. I'm a prince, after all.

Well....

Then Brahms begins to answer as if he had something in mind.

'I'll talk to you about it, just in case. But it's up to you to decide.

Patrick questioned.

'I intend to set out on a journey to find the Spirit King. I do not know what will happen next.

Is that ... Nito?

'Of course you do.　What's the matter with you?

Brahms knew.
That Patrick was being reserved with Nito.
He had seen through it with great insight from a trivial conversation.

Then Brahms sighed loudly.

'Since you have gained the power of the Spirit King, you have a mission as a guardian. I will not allow you to abandon it. If you are not willing to do so, then you should cut off your contract with the spirits. Of course, that's up to you, isn't it?　But as I'm sure you know, there are no coincidences. When the Spirit King dwells in a place, there is some meaning to it. If you're already a part of the wheel, there's no turning back. You must be prepared for that. I'll do what I have to do, but if the journey results in a gathering of guardians, then there's no way for you to escape, either.

Yes.

Patrick nodded easily.

'Goodbye then. Don't neglect your training.'

Brahms has a lot of words, right up to the point of leaving.
Patrick was fed up.

Then Sarah and Yui appear beside him.

'You're a jerk, aren't you?　I can only wonder why Voluto chose that old man.

Sarah was exasperated.

'That's still an SSS-ranked adventurer. It's not just the power of the spirits, is it?'

Then Yui disagrees with him.

'No!　That's not true!　I can assure you!　Definitely the power of the King!　That was completely dependent on the power of the spirits!

What do you know?

It's a spirit's intuition!

....

Yuy doesn't seem to like Brahms.

'If that can be SSS ranked, then Patrick can too!　If I can use my power perfectly, I can even reach a higher, SSSS (SSSS) rank!

'I'm not interested in being an adventurer, and the adventurer ranks only go up to SSS (Triple S).

Patrick let out a sigh and was dumbfounded.

After that, the more Sarah and Yui talk, the more heated the conversation gets, and the more chaos it turns into.
But in the end, Patrick is saved by them.

When he realizes that he has forgotten about his depressive mood, he forgets about it.





â?





　--Take a few moments back in time.

This happened during the time between Nito's departure from Biyoment, after he had conquered the dungeon, and then the start of the national championship game.

This is a vast grassland area.
From there you can see the barrier in the distance.
And beyond that, I could see the extensive defensive wall.

--The Holy Land of Grayberg.

A new king had come to the throne, and this country was changing.

And in the forest near the barrier, there were two figures hiding in the woods, as if they had something to worry about, and keeping an eye on the barrier.

''Khalifa-dono, isn't this a bad idea, isn't it?''

Leonardo, the Knight of Dames Aldan, had appealed to the Khalifa to turn back.

'We need to be sure it's Guinevere herself,'

'Guinevere? ...Oh, the daughter of the king who ascended the throne of Graysberg?　But we've recovered Oliver's cocoon and other things, so let's go home now, okay?

It's not enough. We have to find out what we can before we see Nito-kun next time...

After returning Nito and his friends to Heil Kuwait, Leonardo asked for the Khalifa and sent her back to Tanya village to retrieve Oliver's cocoon, but the Khalifa suddenly said she was going to Greberg.
Unable to disobey Nito's request, Leonardo had no choice but to take the Khalifa with him and come here to Greberg.
And here we are now.
The purpose of the Khalifa, Leonardo now knew.

'Do you mind?　I'm going to break into Greberg now. I'm used to this sort of thing--

Once upon a time, Khalifa, the Heart of the Dragon, spent her days working with Kagetra and others to assassinate the royalists.
As a result of this experience, she is accustomed to breaking into castles.
I have no idea how many times I've snuck into the castle.

''Besides, by nature, assassinations are easier to do alone.

Assassination?　Don't tell me ... are you going to kill someone?

I hope not, but in some cases it does, doesn't it?

The Khalifa's target is Guinevere.
If Guinevere, the current princess of Greberg, was the same person as the princess of the Godland that existed in the past, then the hypothetical structure that Khalifa has in mind now would be proven to a certain extent.

''I don't know ... yet. We're a superhuman race, and it's quite possible that maybe Kagetra is still alive somewhere. But.........

But Guinevere is not a superhuman race.
The disappearance of Kagetora and the loss of the Dragon's Heart took place some 150 years ago.
Khalifa has lived alone in the bayouement for 150 years without knowing the loneliness of her life.
And although this 150 years is a long time, it is not unusual in this world for a creature to live for this long.
But the princess of the Godland must have been human. Khalifa thinks so.
There is no way a human could have lived for 150 years. It's very simple.

'That's why she can't be in this country.

Even if she was alive, and even if it was a mistake on Khalifa's part, that was unusual when she was the daughter of the king.
Why would something that was a princess of the Godland be a princess of Greberg 150 years later?
Either way, the Khalifa's suspicions were never confirmed.

All the hypotheses will be confirmed as soon as she is in this country.
Khalifa was convinced of that.

"Leonardo-kun, you are going to deploy your magic circle here. A shifting magic circle?

'That's fine, but...'

I don't mind, but I don't want you to break in.

As soon as I thought about it.
Leonardo gave up trying to persuade him, saying, "I don't care what you do when you get here."

Leonardo had received only a brief explanation beforehand.

''I should just deploy Califa-dono's transition magic circle instead, right?

Yes, transference takes time, but the transference can be covered by substitute chanting. Yeah, transference takes time, but the proxy chanting will cover it. It's the first rule of penetration. "You have to have an escape route in mind. And a mage's escape route is transference."

Leonardo and Khalifa have a common blue ring on their left hand and ring finger.
I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make your life easier and more fun.
The ring even has a special transference magic attached to it that allows them to always transfer to each other's current position.
And after the transfer, they are automatically marked to the position before the transfer, making it easy to return.

--In other words, it is the Ring of Friendship.

It's not just a matter of putting it on, but also of recognizing each other's magic waves, so that you can always know the other's movements.

I'm not going to chase after you. I'm not going to chase after you, I'll flee as soon as I'm in danger, so you'll be waiting for me to get the carriage out of there as soon as I transfer.

It seems that Khalifa's plan is seamless.

Then Khalifa checked with Leonardo once more, and leaned out of the shadows of the forest.
But that was the moment--.



----The Khalifa's vision was suddenly enveloped in "white".



Khalifa's vision was suddenly enveloped in "white".

''Eh.........''

A white world of fog.
A moment later, Khalifa was lost in that world.

It was as if we were in the clouds.
When I checked the area, I saw that it was vast and endlessly white and foggy.

Then suddenly, someone appeared.
The figure appeared in front of Khalifa's eyes without warning.
At the sight, Khalifa was speechless, and then, for some reason, tears ran down her cheeks.

''........Zephyr......what are you doing......''

The one who appeared there was Zephyr.

The Zephyr is also known as "Shokubeni".
It's a good friend and a lover to Khalifa.

I'm not going to be able to get it right. ...Why are you here?

Khalifa asks in a tearful voice.

'Khalifa, listen, I don't have time for this.'

"I've been waiting for you for a long time...

'Yeah, I know. But we can't celebrate our reunion now. This is my conceptual body. There's an entity somewhere else.

Elsewhere?　That's....

-'Playades'...

Eh....

Zephyr's words startled Khalifa, and then, slowly, she understood the meaning of the words.

'Yes it was all the truth, not a fairy tale. But I can't talk about it any more. If it gets out, they can sense it. So, for now, I'm going to tell them what I can.

Then Khalifa wipes away her tears and listens to Zephyr's words.
I can't get my head around it.
Zephyr's mere appearance is surprising.
And yet Zephyr said something even more improbable.
There is no way to calm down under such circumstances.
But you have to be able to somehow read Zephyr's mind and listen first.

You must not go to Greberg yet, it's not safe there. If you want to go, take Masamune with you.

"Masamune?

Nito. His real name is Masamune.

I have a lot of questions for Khalifa.
I don't even know why I shouldn't go to Grayberg.
But.....

Okay, okay.

Khalifa gives a superficial answer.

'But if you're saying you can wait, I'd prefer it after I come back to life. Then, as for bringing me and Oliver back to life, choose a public place.

'In public?　What do you mean?

It's the safest way to go. They won't take any chances with a runaway. We need a reprieve. We can buy ourselves some time in public. Okay?　Don't pick the wrong place to be unpopular.

....

But that being said, Khalifa had no idea.
Just where Zephyr was right now and what he was trapped in, he had some idea of that.
But because it was so unrealistic, it was somewhat hard to believe it, even though it was something Zephyr had said.
But there was no way that Zephyr, who had appeared in this way, would be talking bullshit.
Khalifa knew that, too.

'Okay, Khalifa?　Information is valuable. This world is made up of information. Somehow, I think I can see that now. So don't make a bad choice. Gather the information before you act, don't rush into it. We will see each other again. So don't go to Greberg. Wait until Masamune collects me.

Zephyr had come to stop the Khalifa.
The Khalifa who was trying to break into Greylberg.
But at the same time, it sort of proves that Khalifa's hypothesis is correct.

'You mean ... that's what you're saying?　Guinevere in Greyberg....

I'm not going to tell you any more. I'm not going to let them get away with leaking unnatural information.

....

'Wait in the bayoument. When Masamune asks you again, tell him this.

....

"Caliphate?

Zephyr waited for Khalifa's reply.
The Khalifa wanted to gain understanding.
But Zephyr's question was not answered by the Khalifa.

Right now, all the Khalifa is thinking about is Shaoan, Adolf, and the allegedly dead Kagetra.
What happened to the three of them after that?
What about Xiaon, who went with Zephyr to Godland?
What about Adolf, who said he'd come back and didn't?
And what about Kagetola?

'Khalifa, I know what you mean, but I can't answer that question. I've given you too much information. I've got to get back...

For how long? ...How long do I have to wait?

It's just until Masamune comes back. I trust him. So do you. It's in Masamune's hands now.

You don't know when Nito's coming back, do you?

You're just spoiled, Khalifa.
After all, 150 years.
Longevity is never a short thing.
They wiped my memory for no reason and left me alone.
There is no reason for Khalifa not to be angry about it.

I'd better get going.

'Wait!　Not yet! .....

Then Zephyr's body begins to fade.

'Khalifa, stay away from the Greyberg. And wait in the Bjornment. And start generating objects....

Then Zephyr disappeared completely for the last time.

'Zephyr? ........Zephyr ah!

But there was no more reply.
Then Khalifa blinked unconsciously.

----.

And when she opened her eyes, there was only a clear sky and a grassy field.

'Khalifa-dono? --

Then Leonardo, who hid in the shadows, was looking at me with concern.

''.........''

The Khalifa did not answer Leonardo's words and did not move from there for a while.

But after a while, the Khalifa turned back, and when she did, she slowly returned to the carriage.

'Huh?　Mr. Khalifa?

Leonardo is surprised when the Khalifa suddenly turns back to the carriage.

'The plan is aborted. I'm going back to the bayouement.

'What?　What do you mean by that?

Leonardo is upset for no reason.

'An acquaintance of mine contacted me with a telepathic message, I'm sorry you had to carry me here, but can you go back to the Beyoment?'

'Well that's fine but...'

Inwardly, Leonardo was relieved.
Invading another country was the most unlikely thing for Leonardo to do.
Furthermore, if it was discovered that he was the one who carried the intruder, a war would break out between Dames Aldan and Grayberg.
That was a possibility he was considering.

'Come on, let's go,'

Yes, I--

After Khalifa, Leonardo also climbed into the carriage.
Then he grabbed the reins, and soon the carriage began to move.
Leonardo probably didn't want to be here that much.

It seemed that the assassination drama was about to begin, but this time, unbeknownst to Nito and the others, the case ended without incident.

And although Zephyr seemed to be afraid of the "leak of information", he did tell them where he was located in the "Playades".
I guess he didn't want to worry the Khalifa.
But what Zephyr was trapped in, he didn't know.
I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to find out what's going on, but I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to find out what's going on.