Using the Divine Feat, Inglis and her group left Alucard and returned once more to Charalia. Their destination was an island in the middle of Lake Vault.
The remnants of a Highland that once was Illuminus. The Central Research Facility, half-destroyed, was being restored, and the Highlanders from Illuminus, including Mais, were living there.
The cleanup from the Knight Academy’s Seminar Festival had already been finished, and everyone had gone to sleep, but when Inglis and the others arrived, Mais and his companions welcomed them kindly. They were led to a room similar to the laboratory once used by Dr. Vilkin. Though still sleepy, Mais listened to Inglis and the others.
“You’re asking about the location of the most powerful of dragons, the Dragon Gods?”
“Yeah… Do you know anything, Mais?”
“Give me a moment… Let’s see if it shows up. Most of Illuminus’ data was damaged, and a lot of it became unreadable… But maybe there’s an old map…”
As he said this, a large 3D map of the terrain was projected onto the desk in front of them.
“Okay. This here is the place where the dragon god Vufailbane was sealed…”
Mais pointed to what looked like a volcanic area filled with red lava.
Yes. King Inglis had sealed the dragon god Vufailbane deep beneath the Clavoid Volcano. The powerful ice magic of the dragon was offset by the intense forces of nature, making the seal even stronger. This was the world as King Inglis remembered it.
“Huh? But the dragon was in Alucard, right? I don’t think Alucard is a volcanic place at all?”
Rafinha tilted her head in confusion.
“Maybe it’s a really old map?”
“That might be it. Sorry, this was the only thing that came up when I searched. If Illuminus were still intact, we might’ve been able to access more up-to-date data.”
“No, this is more than enough. But if the terrain is different now, I wonder what happened?”
Inglis posed the question to Mais.
“Clavoid Volcano… Right. I think that area became part of the Highland. If I recall correctly, the Church’s Union had a highland region with the same name.” Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn n0velfire.net
“Oh, I see. So they turned an existing volcano into a floating territory, built a city there which became Lekrea, and eventually that place also rose to the heavens, where Vufailbane reappeared.”
“So the Highlanders have been cutting off parts of the land and taking them into the upper realm again and again…”
“I’m sure there are plenty of other places too.”
Both Leone and Liselotte wore hard-to-describe expressions. At any rate, if that was the case, there was something Inglis couldn’t help but be curious about:
The royal capital of the Kingdom of Sylvair—Sylveria. It was the city King Inglis had built, and the place where he ended his life. Was Sylveria marked on this map?
Still, asking that now would only raise questions from everyone else. The priority right now was to find the location of another dragon god. Sylveria could wait—she would come back and look into it herself another time.
“So, Mais—do you think there are other Dragon Gods?”
When Inglis asked, Rafinha and the others grew slightly tense, waiting for Mais’ reply.
“Uh, let’s see… Ah, yes. There’s one record!!”
As long as she got to fight a Dragon God, Inglis didn’t mind if it wasn’t Vufailbane specifically. They’d save Rochefort, gain another powerful opponent, and get to eat delicious meat again. It was nothing but good news.
“Th-then, where is this Dragon God!?”
“Where should we go to save Ross!?”
Arles pressed Mais for an answer.
“The location is… southeast of where Vufailbane was sealed. Right here.”
As he spoke, the projected map shifted and displayed a new landscape.
“Uhh, by today’s geography, I think it’s near the border between Charalia and Venefique. The data says this is where the Dragon God Owlgloria was sealed.”
“The Venefian border—that’s around where we brought the Frozen Prisma, right?”
“Which means it’s inside Charalia! Then this’ll go quick!”
Rafinha’s face lit up instantly.
“But, Miss Rafinha, keep in mind—this data is old, so there’s no guarantee it’s still accurate today.”
“Even so, it’s our only lead. It’s worth investigating. And we’ve got the Arcane Warden’s flying battleship—if we can borrow that…!”
Leone said decisively.
“The problem is that this region happens to be Prime Minister Rigriff’s domain. If it were in Shealot or Ymir, things would be much simpler… But awakening a Dragon God is a major matter. We must go through the proper channels and obtain permission.”
“Right. If it’s still asleep, they might say we should just leave it that way… and the eastern region is probably very busy right now.”
The recent attack on Charalia by the Venefian forces…And at the same time, the invasion by the Frozen Prisma… These two events caused massive damage to the eastern lords of Charalia, making them hardliners against Venefique, now demanding retaliatory strikes.
In fact, they were already assembling invasion forces, and if diplomatic talks with Venefique failed before preparations were complete, they were fully prepared to launch an attack.
At the heart of that movement was Prime Minister Rigriff.
Bringing him a proposal about a Dragon God being buried beneath his territory and asking to dig it up now of all times was likely to be met with a firm, “Don’t stir up unnecessary trouble.”
“What… Then does that mean we’re not allowed to investigate the Dragon God? Even though Professor Arles is so worried about Instructor Rochefort…”
Meltina’s face darkened.
“No, that’s not true at all. It just depends on how we present it, right?” Inglis gave Meltina a reassuring pat on the shoulder.