Lardon had replied with great confidence that it was possible to reseal the promised land. However, she immediately fell silent and didn’t follow up with anything.
“Huh? Lardon?”
Actually, I could also pick up a slight sense of guilt and hesitation from her. Lardon had possessed—no, it would be more accurate to say that we were coexisting within this body. Although I couldn’t see her expressions, I had learned to pick up on her emotions after all the time we’d spent together.
“Hmm... This is an oversight on my part. Apologies.”
“What do you mean? Is it difficult to reseal?”
Beside me, Scarlet turned wide-eyed and flustered. She couldn’t hear Lardon, but from my words she could tell that things weren’t looking too good. She hardly interrupted at times like these—when Lardon and I, the divine dragon and her master, were talking—and seemed to be holding back the urge to ask. Thus, I decided to try including more context as I spoke.
“No, it is not difficult. It’s no easy feat, of course, but it should prove little challenge to you. After all, you can freely use space-time magic and divine magic yourself.”
“If it’s not a problem of my abilities...then is it something else?”
“Yes. You see, that seal was a byproduct of our war.”
“So it’s a byproduct of the Tri-Draconic War...”
“But something had slipped our minds—our sense of time.”
“Your sense of time...?”
“That is to say, we experience time differently than humans.”
“So you experience time differently than humans. What about it?”
“Simply put, once the seal is put in place, it cannot be undone for another few decades—no, an entire century.”
“It stays sealed for a century?!” I exclaimed in shock. Scarlet—who’d been keeping up with the conversation through my context—reacted similarly. “Is it really impossible to undo before then?”
“It should be...” Lardon sighed. “You may be able to force it open, but I cannot make any promises. In that time, nobody will be able to enter or exit the land. That girl does not wish to be bound to this place, does she?”
I shook my head. “Of course not.”
Basically, if we resealed the promised land, then we’d all be on lockdown for an entire century. It might not be that big of an issue for me or the monsters, but Amelia wasn’t a citizen of this country—we couldn’t just lock her in here with us.
“This oversight was born of our lack of human sensibilities. I apologize.”
“No, Lardon, it’s not your fault. Actually, this is making me want to study the seal in detail now.”
Lardon chuckled. “How very like you. In any case, this means the seal is unusable at the moment.”
“Yeah, well...” I shrugged it off.
I was planning to study it more closely after Amelia’s concert, once we’d sent her back home. A spell made by Lardon, immense enough to seal this entire land—I was so curious to figure out how it worked.
But that was for after we got this done.
“Pardon...” Scarlet, who’d been holding back this entire time, hesitantly spoke up. She took the chance to chime in now that she sensed our conversation was over.
“What’s up?” I asked her.
“Perhaps we could try to recreate it...?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Scarlet looked me straight in the eye. “I suppose you could call it...a bluff. You see, I vividly remember the day I first came to this promised land with you.”
I hummed. The first time I came to this place was with Scarlet after she’d told me about it.
“When I close my eyes, I can still recall that scene like it was just yesterday...”
“Really?”
“Of course. It left a very striking impression on me. There was nothing there, but I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t the sort of place a human can just waltz into.’ If we could recreate that appearance, then would it not function as a bluff?”
“Ah, I see... Since we only need it to work for half a day.”
“Yes.”
We both nodded. This was the kind of advice only Scarlet could give me. After all, she was the only one who came with me to the promised land that first time.
“Spirit Summoning: Salamander.”
I brought forth a fire spirit and ordered it to light a fire a short distance from us. The heat warped the scenery behind it.
“A heat haze...” Scarlet muttered.
“This is the first thing that came to mind,” I told her. “Anyway, if all we need is to make it look different, then there are many ways to go about this. Thanks, Scarlet.”
Scarlet smiled and bowed deeply. “I am honored to have been of help.”
Making this land look like it did back then... I don’t even need half a day. Let’s get this done in a jiffy!