Chapter 79: Unveiling (1)
「That’s a bit hard to believe so suddenly.」
Any spellcaster held some form of a connection with spirits, and as the Nine Wisemen were at the top of them, they understood what spirits were better than anyone.
The King Spirit Symbiosanctius, it was said his power was akin to that of a god, his presence alone emanating a power capable of distorting his surroundings in the real world, so he normally stayed inside a phased out realm referred to as the Spirit Palace.
「That’s also how I felt at first. You can just look at Atlantis for example, it’s said that they possessed power like a fragment of a god, and yet you saw what happened when they waged war against the Three Gods’ Countries. If the Spirit King is even more similar to a god, then it’s not a being that can be approached by humans.」
Atlantis was a country that possessed multiple high ranking generals with power similar to the Nine Wisemen, and boasted of the largest territory and army out of all the countries founded by players. But even after being superior to the other countries, they were utterly defeated once they attempted to touch the divine power residing in the Empire of Grimdart, one of the corners of the Three Gods’ countries.
If the Spirit King was not a mere fragment but a god itself like Luminaria suggested, then history proved he was not a being that could be approached with mere weapons.
「But well, attacking spirits is already quite reckless in itself, so going after the Spirit King would normally never occur to anyone. But we’re talking about Chimera Clauzen here, and they already proved they can be that reckless, and they probably already have a plan to deal with the Spirit King.」
Solomon plopped down on his leathered chair and crossed his arms while knitting his brow, glaring at the papers on his desk. There was a clue as to what their plan was on the report detailing the Libra Fortress.
When the Spirit King manifested himself, the surroundings would get distorted. So when it was investigated how he had managed to command a battle in the fortress without affecting anything, it was found out that they built a special control room to contain his influence. If that room was reverse engineered, then it could be repurposed to build a cage for the Spirit King himself. That was as far as Leoneil’s investigations had found out.
「From what we know, they’re really watchful people who turn around and run away as soon as things turn against them. But if this plan works, then their success is pretty much guaranteed.」「So far our intel suggests they’ve already researched how to build a cage to contain the Spirit King, or that it’s already being built. That’s why they’re trying to find a path into the Spirit Palace now.」
「If they were able to succeed and became able to use the Spirit King’s power however they want, then their power would be the same as that of the Three Gods’ Countries, if not stronger. We can’t just watch idly.」
After mentioning how Chimera Clauzen was going after the Spirit King, Solomon quickly summarized the contents of the report and the conjectures it arrived at.
「Even if it’s a one in a million chance, it’s not something we can just ignore without doing anything about it.」
「You have a point.」
That entire conversation was purely based on possibilities and guesses formed from the information they had. But even then it would carry too serious implications for them to ignore it. Mira nodded in agreement instantly. Seeing that, Solomon smiled as he pulled a letter from one of the drawers in his desk. The envelope was of very high quality and it had a wax stamp firmly sealing it.
With the letter in his hand, Solomon walked with a light gait until he stood at Mira’s side, where he placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with a really obvious fake smile.
「If I remember correctly, your next destination is the headquarters of the Fifty Bells League. So while you’re there, please give this to the upper management there to request for their aid.」
「So it really came to this…」
Since Chimera Clauzen was so spread out, having members even amongst adventurers, they needed more than just information about the group, but manpower to go against them as well. Their best bet at that was the Fifty Bells League, who already held hostility against Chimera Clauzen.
Solomon did not know how much information they had, but the information the Union Leader had gathered by abusing his authority would definitely serve a good present for them. Solomon thought that with that, they would officially become allies with the league which would benefit both sides, so he wrote the letter detailing everything they knew about Chimera Clauzen and formally expressing his wish to cooperate.
He chose Mira to be the special envoy delivering the letter. She had already met a few of their members before and possessed a letter of introduction, so she was the best candidate. Mira was aware of all that, so she received the letter while only grumbling 「I get no time to rest」 to herself.
「I also have some good news though. Your own exclusive wagon was finished yesterday! Time for applause.」
After saying that, Solomon alone clapped his hands. The wagon he was referring to was an equivalent of a carriage made for birds, just like the one Creos used while being carried by his summoned Garuda. It had begun construction as a reward for Mira completing a special mission, and she was really interested in it ever since it started being planned, so it was heavily customized for her.
「It’s finally done!」
Those were good news indeed, as Mira leaped to her feet energetically in contrast to her earlier lifeless pose sprawled on the couch. Her expression showed she was clearly delighted as well.
「A wagon? You mean those things you use to fly around? That’s nice, that’s so nice, being an evoker…」
Luminaria remembered how Creos would arrive at the castle in one from time to time, so she ruffled Mira’s hair while filled with deep envy.
「Just leave it be, don’t be such a bad sport.」
Mira ignored her provocation and smiled broadly, thinking about it as her privilege as the superior one as she rebutted Luminaria.
Evokers were a subset of spellcasters who could call forth entities. Summoners were the leading ones, followed by Necromancers and Onmyoji masters. Now that the shackles of the game were gone, evokers had gained a lot more diversity with their skills. One of those being the wagons. For instance, if a necromancer learned how to create a really fast golem, then they could possess a new form of transportation that only cost the mana spent to travel from one place to another when compared to the expenditures of maintaining a horse carriage. As a result, evokers had become much more useful in recent times.
「Ahh, come on, make a vehicle that magicians can also driveee~」
Pushing Mira’s head away, Luminaria threw herself on the couch with a sulky demeanor as her hair spread out all around her. She looked just like a child that had gotten tired of sulking and demanding something. Though her voluptuous body that jiggled as she lied down was one a child would never possess.
「Eventually, eventually it might happen.」
Solomon replied to her halfheartedly as he combed Mira’s severely disheveled hair. The majority of spells used by magicians focused on creating large fires, and there was none that would be effective at propelling a vehicle forward. He had thought about using their fire to power a steam engine, but that was still quite low on his list of priorities.
「Would you like to see it?」
Having finished combing Mira’s hair, Solomon smiled pridefully as he asked that, probably because he was very confident in the quality of the wagon.
「But of course.」
Seeing that, Mira’s expectations grew as she instantly stood up.
「That sounds interesting, I’m going too.」
A little bit later, Luminaria said that as she stood up.
Since they would be leaving the office, Mira picked up all the remaining gifts, which Solomon watched with reluctance.
Solomon explained that Mira’s exclusive wagon was stored in the same warehouse as the horse carriages. As they walked down the hallway, a spellcaster wearing a blue robe turned to look at the three of them with her lips pursed up. At the same time, a hesitant grunt came from Luminaria.
「Lady Luminaria! I finally found you!」
The spellcaster perked her shoulders up as she moved through the hallway with long strides. Her eyebrows were slightly slanted upwards giving her a serious appearance, but now that she was in a bad mood her eyes looked even sharper, clearly showing her anger.
「Did something happen?」
Once the spellcaster was in front of them, she performed a military salute. Solomon was confused as he asked her what this was all about, and she replied after bowing to him.
「Excuse me, His Majesty. Today we had scheduled a group training exercise, so… Well, Lady Luminaria is our leader, and if she’s not present we can’t begin the exercise, so I was looking for her inside the castle.」
「Oh right, I remember seeing a petition for that.」