Zara ended up on the first floor of the Sazardon Labyrinth. A group of adventurers found him there, unconscious, and they carried him outside.
When he awoke, he was assaulted by a terrible headache. The monks and apothecaries who examined him said his body was suffering from extreme fatigue and was under attack from some kind of poison.
Healing magic, medicine, and blessed items could not heal Zara. They tried carrying him into the labyrinth and having him drink potions, but that did not restore his proper movement, either.
It was determined after a more thorough investigation that Zara’s body was being tormented by recoil from overuse of the divine sword’s blessings.
While Zara was resting in the estate in the royal capital, Julius ascended to Red Minister. That year, Julius was forty-three years old, and Zara was seventeen.
An incident also occurred that year in which the minotaur on the bottom floor of the Sazardon Labyrinth suddenly moved upward and spent ten days on the fifth floor. It had been thirty-seven years since it became the master of the one hundredth floor. The Adventurers Guild declared a state of emergency and observed the minotaur, and preparations were made at the royal palace to deal with a disaster-level event should the minotaur leave the labyrinth. The scouts sent into the labyrinth observed the minotaur meditating with its back to the rock wall and kobolds cowering in fear in the corners of the room. In the end, the minotaur spent ten days there without fighting any humans or monsters, then returned to the bottom floor.
The year 1118 of the Royal Calendar arrived. Zara finally became able to get up and move, and he began training for his recovery.
Zara had been asked by Alestra to tell his daughter that he loved her if Zara ever happened to see her. He wanted to fulfill that final request as quickly as possible.
Gondona had told him that he was going to take the dragon child to the Dragon Temple. Zara then heard that there was currently a girl in the Dragon Temple being called the Dragon Maiden who was bringing aid to people by performing miracles. The Dragon Maiden was likely the dragon child he’d met.
Zara remembered what Patagamon had said to him.
Dragons lived long lives and grew slowly. They gained great intelligence with age and became able to operate strong divine power. They even gained the ability to take on human form and interact with mankind. He said dragons that had reached that stage were called dragon gods or divine dragons. He also said that the child born from the goddess Kaldan would probably be a dragon god at birth.
If the dragon child from that time was taking the form of a girl and performing miracles, then she really was born a dragon god.
Zara wrote a letter to the Dragon Maiden. He had a messenger sent to the Holy Kingdom of Roahl through the use of multiple sorcerers capable of teleportation, and from there had them arrange a carriage to deliver the letter to the Ocean Temple.
He received a reply from the Dragon Maiden. It turned out it was her, just as Zara had thought. The shrine maiden thanked him for naming her. She had heard about Zara from Gondona. Zara learned from the shrine maiden’s letter that Gondona was no longer a person of this world. She said she was waiting eagerly for Zara’s visit.
Zara put more effort into his recovery. When he was starting to regain the muscle he lost while bedridden, a big incident occurred that shook every country on the continent.
In the spring of 1119 of the Royal Calendar, foreigners from across the sea arrived in the east on the coast of Anpoan with a fleet of ships.
The ships were made of iron. The foreigners could not use magic, but they had weapons more powerful than magic, as well as a number of strange tools.
The majority of the foreigners had white skin, silver hair, and green eyes, causing their appearance to vastly differ from the people of the countries of this continent. They could not speak the language, but they had made some castaways from this continent learn their language and interpret for them.
The foreigners demanded submission upon their arrival.
An outraged Marquis of Anpoan gathered soldiers on the coast, but the foreigners’ boats loosed balls of fire from a distance that magic couldn’t reach and wiped out the Anpoan Army. The town of Anpoan fell under the rule of the foreigners in just one day.
Thus the Foreign War began.
After Anpoan, the foreigners brought the rest of the cities on the coast under their control and then stayed put for a while without invading inland.
House Riga invaded twice to try to recover Anpoan, but they suffered miserable defeats in the face of the enemy’s overwhelming firepower. They were not an enemy House Riga could handle alone. Not even the entire country of Baldemost could have defeated them without help.
At the appeal of the Baldemost Kingdom, all the countries in the north joined together. The Gorenza Empire and other countries to the south participated in the war as well.
The king gave a royal order for Panzel’s son, Arza, to succeed to his title and join the fight leading his domain’s army, and Zara changed his name back to Arza and became the Marquis of Banust at the age of nineteen.
The Foreign War became a hard-fought war beyond what anyone imagined, and a great number of people died.
Duke Draydol of Riga took command of the royal army and died a heroic death in battle.
Logan died protecting Julius, who ascended to White Minister after Draydol’s death.
Arza considered Draydol to be a strange uncle. He had always found him to be a melancholic person.
His mother, Esseluleia, had told him that Draydol was originally a nice, fun person, so his personality probably darkened after the death of his older brother, Garrest. But in the final few months of his life, Draydol’s personality brightened once again. He became a light illuminating the continent before he died.
His performance in getting the countries of the north to come together and join an alliance was splendid. He also advocated that they appeal to the countries to the south. He got meetings with the various kings and lords in a very short amount of time, an accomplishment not even the anti-Riga faction could find anything to complain about.
His impassioned speech to the emperor of Gorenza, who thought the war had nothing to do with him, astonished Patagamon, who acted as mediator for the discussion.
Then, when Draydol drove him out of the burning castle saying that that wasn’t the place for him to die, Arza definitely felt the warmth of a family member.
Julius also showed dramatic growth.
He figured out from a small amount of information that the foreigners were not a force representing their entire continent but instead a defeated group of people looking for a new world.
He showed off one of the foreigners’ advanced weapons to the emperor of Gorenza as an offering and convinced him that this was an opportunity to study a far more advanced culture.
He borrowed magic soldiers from the country of Mazulu and priests from the Holy Kingdom of Roahl.
His insight, negotiation skills, and talent were all impressive, but what the rulers of the various countries were most taken by were his tactics and vision that emphasized continental cooperation after the war.
Arza continued to grow during the war.
The army of the Marquis of Banust came to be seen as the most elite force in the Northern Alliance, and Arza often took on the most challenging battles.
In the year 1122 of the Royal Calendar, the Anpoan Covenant was established, and the war came to an end.
Arza rendered the most distinguished service in the victory, and he was given the title of Defender of the Continent, agreed upon by six different kings.
After the war, his days were spent receiving the foreigners as immigrants, rebuilding neglected territory, and performing diplomacy with other countries in the new state of the continent. The name of Eisha Goran remained in the memory of the people of the south to a surprising extent, and as a descendant of his, Arza was held up as a symbol of the close relationship that had formed among the various countries.
Then, in the year 1124 of the Royal Calendar, Arza became twenty-four years old.