Miledi escaped the suffocating embrace of Meiru and Lyutillis, nodded, and replied, “Yeah, that’s fine. I’m sorry for doubting you guys earlier. But hey, it looks like our goals align, so hopefully, this’ll work out well for all of us!”
“Yes, thank you for letting us accompany you.”
“God is an enemy of us vampires as well, so I’m sure our master won’t get in your way. He’s not that foolish.”
Miledi and the others could tell just how much Morgan and Nevrai respected their master, which reassured them a little.
A few days later, the party finally arrived at the southwestern tip of the continent.
Dastia’s capital was filled with greenery, and many streams cut through the city streets. Those streams spilled over terraced blocks of earth, creating a series of waterfalls that gave birth to a rainbow bridge. Beautiful forest-covered mountains also towered in the distance behind the city.
No one in the outside world would ever have believed that such a beautiful city could be the capital of the wicked vampires, much less that it sat in the center of the Azure Lands—the fog-covered region that was known to be cracked and barren.
The elegant buildings were all made of gray limestone, as was the palace situated atop the tallest hill in the city. And standing atop the palace’s terrace was a noblewoman wearing a beautiful crimson dress. She had wavy blonde hair, crimson eyes, and exuded sex appeal from every pore. Though she was looking down into the city, it wasn’t the streets that were reflected in her faintly glowing eyes.
“I could just turn them away, but...” she mumbled with a tired sigh. Her gaze was focused on the rivers and springs surrounded by fog, as well as the semi-submerged forest that stuck out like a sore thumb in the otherwise barren Azure Lands.
The woman was staring at a section of the Azure Lands over five hundred kilometers away. Her special magic—Familiar Contract—allowed her to share the senses of monsters and animals she’d bonded to, and she was currently looking through the eyes of one of her birds that she’d stationed in the swamp. She could even talk through that bird, though she could only say a few stilted words.
The Azure Lands were Dastia’s first line of defense against intruders. Some bottomless swamps and geysers spit out poison gas, and the terrain was difficult with poor visibility. The rivers split off and flowed in all different directions, making navigation nigh impossible as well, and the forest was home to many dangerous monsters. Moreover, the forest was quite vast. A good two hundred kilometers wide. Plus, to top it all off, even if someone did manage to make it through the forest, it ended in a steep cliff, which was patrolled by Dastia’s border guard. There was also the royal family’s heirloom artifact that protected Dastia’s borders.
Usually, whenever this noblewoman got a report that intruders had been spotted, she just let the border patrol handle things. And yet, something felt off about these particular intruders, so she felt compelled to personally keep an eye on them. After all, it was possible these newcomers had something to do with the news her spy—who was situated in the demon empire city closest to Dastia—had brought back two days ago.
Her intuition was soon proven correct. When she got a better look at one of the intruders who was fighting the border guards, she gasped. The return of two of her countrymen was a surprise, sure, especially since they’d gone missing a few years ago and had seemingly come back much stronger. However, that wasn’t what had caught her attention. It wasn’t even the appearance of the ancient magic users, as she’d heard reports about them too. No, it was those crimson eyes that were the most shocking of all.
“S-Stop fighting immediately!” she shouted, and the maids waiting inside her room looked at her in surprise.
“I command you in the name of Anya Il Dastia, cease fighting immediately!”
The combatants looked shaken as well as they heard her speaking through the bird.
“Bring that woman— No, bring that entire group to the fortress.”
Realizing that she’d let her ladylike demeanor slip, the woman took a deep breath and steadied herself.
Confused, the guards nevertheless complied.
Meanwhile, Dastia’s queen brought her hands to her chest and closed her eyes, conflicted feelings warring within her. After a while, she opened them once more and turned on her heel, looking every bit as regal as a queen should as she left to go visit the daughter of the woman her husband had truly loved.
Two women were staring silently at each other within the fortress atop the cliff at the end of the forest. Meiru and Queen Anya. Five minutes had passed since they’d started staring.
Miledi and the others had been surprised when the guards had suddenly been ordered to stop fighting, and then even more surprised when they’d been led to a fortress and had sat around waiting for half a day before the queen of Dastia herself came to visit, especially since she’d come with no guards and had ridden a giant black eagle over. It was around three hundred kilometers from the palace to this fortress, meaning she’d pushed her eagle pretty hard to get here as fast as she did.
Normally, royalty would never travel via such inelegant means. Anya appearing so suddenly had been such a shock to the soldiers at the fortress that they’d forgotten to bow to her. And then, she’d pushed her way past all of them despite their protests to the room where Meiru was.
That brought them to the present, where the two of them were staring at each other. Miledi and the others thought the queen had come because she’d discovered they were all ancient magic users, so they were a bit taken aback by Anya’s extreme interest in Meiru.
Eventually, Meiru broke the awkward silence.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Meiru Melusine. I assume you know about my heritage?”
The soldiers in the room bristled. No one was allowed to speak so casually to their queen like that. However, Anya didn’t seem bothered by Meiru’s tone at all, and she looked deeply into her eyes.
“Yes. It’s nice to meet...Reej’s daughter.”
The soldiers stared curiously at Meiru, while Miledi and the others broke out into a cold sweat.
“Wh-What should we do, O-kun?! What if this turns into a bloodbath?!”
“Don’t ask me! Morgan, what’s going on here?!”
“I-I don’t know! His Highness never once mentioned that his mother might know the truth as well!”
“Wait, I know! We should get the only other married man here, Lau-chan-san, to mediate!”
“Heh, my family’s in shambles, but if you still want me to...I’ll try.”
“Oh no, just mentioning Laus’s family dealt a critical hit to him.”
“Laus’s confidence in his ability as a family man has hit rock bottom... Just what happened back in the Dragon Kingdom?”
In order to keep their conversation a secret from the soldiers and the queen, Miledi and the others were talking via telepathy artifacts. However, while they were still struggling to think of what to do, Anya turned to her men and ordered them to leave the room and not listen in on their conversation.