Interlude: The Great Dragon General of the North and the Chief of the Dead Spirit
The border between the Elberia Empire and the Zenan Dragon Kingdom.
The airborne mobile fortress Lindwurm was floating above the high mountains. The green-toned fortress’s automatic defense system had been deactivated, and the two-meter-tall a large man with a weight of more than 100 pounds stepped out onto the edge of Lindwurm.
The man, whose muscular body was covered with red armor, had shaggy hair and stubble, which together with his physique gives him a crude impression.
In his hand, he holds a large spear that is more than his height. Processed with magic silver and dragon fangs. The point of the spear had a number of sharp sword-like prongs sticking out of it.
The man wielded his viciously shaped spear with ease. The man’s swarthy eyes became even sharper, and his pupils elongated like those of a reptile.
“Guooooooooo!!!”
He jumped down from the mobile fortress with a voice that could best be described as a dragon’s roar.
Without regard to the freezing air, the large man falls at a tremendous speed.
At that moment, something came from the sky, flying at a tremendous speed.
It was a flying dragon that was twice the height of the big man.
Its body turns bright red and its swoops down with its large wings skillfully manipulated.
As soon as the dragon was directly underneath him, the man landed on its massive body.
The flying dragon roared as it slowed down just a few dozen meters from the ground. It turned its head toward its master..
“Sorry to keep you waiting, buddy. All right, good boy. Head west to the barracks.”
The red flying dragon nodded and glided straight over the mountain range.
Beyond that was the territory of the Zenan Dragon Kingdom. And there was a training ground for soldiers.
All of the soldiers who had been training on the ground, shouting, stopped moving when they noticed the presence of the red dragon and the large man riding it, and saluted on the spot.
While the flying dragon continued to glide at a tremendous speed, the man struck the hard scales of the flying dragon and then leapt at once.
The big man landed on the ground at the same time as the dragon flew away, having done its job.
“Thank you for your hard work, our Grand Dragonlord Berger!”
“What do you think, everyone? How’s the training going all the way to the west?”
“Yes! Everyone is very lively! Training in this spacious training ground is the best thing for the dragonriders!”
As he listened to the words of his second-in-command, he gazed at the company-sized soldiers and the flying dragon.
General Rudolf Berger said when he saw a soldier salutes without trembling and a flying dragon staring at him without even swaying on the spot.
“Well, you’re looking good. It looks like we’re ready to invade the Empire at any time.”
“Everyone here has that feeling! For the sake of defeating the hated empire, we have no regrets about launching a suicide mission without regard for our own life!”
“Heh, it’s all very well to be brave. But there are some bad guys out there, aren’t there? That nasty half-elf who destroyed the Dreig with a big bang, Ludio Lambert. The Great Hero who crushed Velda single-handedly, for example. No matter how strong you are, you can’t win against a monster like them. It’s probably best not to do anything rash.”
Berger rubbed his stubble and thought back to the battle five years ago.
In the beginning, the Zenan Dragon Kingdom had an overwhelming advantage, but it was the Battle of the Forcus Mountain Range that gradually pushed them into a corner. At the time, Berger judged that the Empire had no choice but to be on the defensive in the face of the airborne mobile fortress, the Dreig.
In fact, that was the case at first.
The power of the forbidden magic cannon, which can fire 300 rounds per minute, is overwhelming, and no magician can prevent it, he thought.
Even Mildiana Magic Army from Southern Territory who led by Marshall Audran, there was nothing they could do in the presence of Dreig.
Of course, you can’t just keep firing the magic cannon endlessly.
It took some time to recover the magical power, and there was a limit to the number of shots that could be taken in a day. But even so, there was no way they could compete with our airborne fortress. That was what he had judged.
“Oh, man. I can’t stop thinking about it now. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on that half-elf’s face.”
“It was truly out of this world. No one in our country at the time could have imagined that such an outstanding talent would exist.”
“Not many of the prophets can block a direct hit from Dreig’s magic cannon. Even Marshal Audran, who was regarded as a genius and had blessings from multiple gods, couldn’t maintain the barriers by himself….. But that guy changed common sense.”
The Mildiana’s magic army was on the defensive, but he saw an opportunity and pulled it out.
In the end, it was a matter of time before he was able to get the job done.
Its power surpassed even the bombardment of Dreig’s magic cannon.
At the same time as the troops led by Marshal Audran were destroyed, the Dreig side immediately launched a concentrated bombardment against Ludio, who they judged to be a threat. However, the hardness of the magical barrier he had set up was of a different dimension.
Even a direct hit from a 300-round cannon can’t completely destroy the barrier.
On the contrary, the powerful magic shot down the Dreig. Berger, who was in command of the Dreig at the time, had no choice but to flee.
It was the first time he had ever done so.
Remembering the bitter memory made him angry and he inwardly clucked at the monster. But there were more important things to worry about right now.
“Well, enough about the past. It’s more that Lindwurm sensed something strange.”
“Something strange, you say….?”
“It’s’fluctuations of space’. Now it’s a weak reaction that no one notices, but it’s happening near the border between the western territory of Elberia and the Tenebrae Demon Kingdom.”
This time, Berger was ordered by the king to conduct an exercise with a small company of dragon cavalry.
Moreover, it was a training ground located near the border of the Elberian Empire.
No matter how suitable it was for training, if they could see the dragon cavalry flying around, it could lead to provoking that country unnecessarily.
He had no idea why the King had given him such an order, but it was possible that the King had anticipated this situation.
The current Dragon King, who has no idea what he is thinking, it is said that he has power that can be used by various gods.
Berger couldn’t laugh and deny that they were dispatched to prevent this tiny incident from eventually bloating.
“Fluctuations of space?…….. In the history of the last few hundred years, the Zenan Dragon Kingdom and Empire have never observed such a thing.”
“Oh. It was not Zenan and the Empire. But it seems to have happened more often in Chiaro, where they are now fighting the beastkins.”
“Indeed. Speaking of the Kingdom of Chiaro Diruna, Her Excellency the Princess Dragon General, Raffille Balhouse, has been invited as a guest general. I’m sure she knows something about the situation.”
“Raffille, she’s a good woman, isn’t she? I guess that’s what you call a saint full of compassion. I’d like to see how her gentle smile changes when I force her down.”
Berger had a lowly smile on his face as he thought of the cute princess dragon general – but it quickly returned to a blank expression.
“However, it’s the ones who always have a smile on their face that are the hardest to trust. They take advantage of your carelessness. That woman has a good eye, and there is no one better at swaying people’s hearts than her. You should not be fooled by her appearance at the very least.”
“Ye, yes! I know what you mean….! Even though she’s a young girl, in Zenan Dragon Kingdom, where these mighty warriors gather, she’s still powerful enough to hold a position as a dragon general!”
“However, the fluctuation of space may have a strong connection with Chiaro. The best way to find out more about this would be to talk to Raffille. …… Unless my intuition has dulled, I don’t have time for that anymore.”
The second-in-command became nervous when he saw the Great Dragon General smiling wryly.
His subordinates also stood erect, waiting for his next words.
“Something is going to happen on the border of the Empire and Tenebrae in the near future. It was something terrible that had never happened before. If it’s something the Empire can solve on its own, we can just leave it be. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. We should go to the empire and sort it out ourselves.”
“We have a non-aggression pact with the Empire. Of course, any such action would be considered interference in their internal affairs. ……?”
“If it’s not just the Empire that’s at stake, it’s our country. And we’re not going to kill the Imperials. We’re not going to kill them. We’re just going to put down an anomaly that could go bad if left unchecked. This is not the time to be concerned about such things. Well–”
The Great Dragon General chuckled.
“If the Imperial Army gets in the way, that’s not the case, though.”
Everyone present could not help but stiffen when they saw his ferocious smile, as if he were in front of his prey.
“All right, boys. Until then, you should continue to train as before. I’ll be here for a while, too. And I’ll chop off the heads of anyone I deem useless. Prepare yourselves!”
“Yes!”
Satisfied with the salute of the dragonriders, Berger turned to the Elberia Empire.
He looked at it and smiled, enjoying the anticipation of what was to come.
As if hoping that the anomaly detected by that airborne mobile fortress – would become the seed of warfare.
☆
Lucifer’s palace in the Tenebrae Demon Kingdom.
In a huge library set up in one corner of the building, a long black-haired girl who is the second wife of the strongest demon king Lucifer-Giselle was fishing for old books.
The girl, dressed in a dress full of frills turns the pages of the book she picks up.
All of them were written in ancient languages, or a unique language that has been lost, and they were incomprehensible to ordinary people, but to her, who had lived through all these years and was familiar with books, they were no different from mere reading.
As she continued to read diligently in that place with its vast collection of books, another girl appeared in the library.
“Giselle-sama, may I have a word with you?”
“I don’t mind ……. What’s up?”
“Leviathan-sama is here. I hear it’s urgent.”
When Carla, the True Ancestor vampire and Lucifer’s maid, told her, Giselle quickly closed the book.
“Levy? It’s unusual for her to be in such a hurry. All right, let’s go.”
Carla asked as she led Giselle out of the library.
“Did you learn anything about the spatial fluctuations in question?”
“In the kingdom of Chiaro Diruna, similar events have occurred many times. It was also recorded as being caused by man-made forces.”
“Fluctuations in space eventually create ‘dimensional rifts’. What does this have to do with anything?”
“In that country, they are creating magical creatures, but failures are inevitable in experiments. I’ve read that the magical creatures that didn’t turn out well were thrown into the dimensional rift. That’s terrible.”
“So they’re going to abandon their failed products in a place where they don’t even know where it leads? Sounds like something that country would do.”
Just the other day, she felt a slight fluctuation of space in the Granden territory.
Anxious about it, Gisele stayed in the library for the past few days, investigating what happened to the fluctuations in space and the dimensional rifts it ultimately caused.
Then, just a few hours ago, there was another fluctuation of space.
This time she could feel it more clearly than before, and she knew it wasn’t something she could ignore anymore.
It is highly likely that something unusual is going on in the empire.
And there is a suspicion of a connection with the ongoing attack on the temple.
If her prediction was correct, it should be a harbinger of something tremendous to come.
With this in mind, she went to the tea room in the court garden, which is always used by the ladies, and found a girl with a mysterious atmosphere.
“It’s been a long time, Gisele.”
“Yes, it’s been a while. I hope Levy has been well.”
“Look who’s talking, I’m the one who never ages or gets sick.”
The girl who smiled serenely and tilted her teacup looked to be about eleven or twelve years old, with a strong sense of childhood in her appearance.
A girl with long black hair and a doll-like face, but with a hint of melancholy in her lovely face.
She wears a pure white outfit called a hakui and a red undergarment called a hakama.
It was a unique outfit, and even though Giselle had lived a long time, she had never seen anyone else wearing such a garment.
She asked her about it, and she told me that it was a garment that was sometimes worn in ancient prehistoric civilizations on another continent.
“Levy may be physically healthy, but her mind is always restless. Take it easy, okay?”
“You know everything, don’t you? Until recently, you were still nothing more than a feeble child brat.”
“Fufu. It’s been nine hundred years since I came to this land. Humans change. Unlike the majin, both in appearance and content.”
Giselle sat down on the chair facing the girl and spoke to Carla, who was immediately preparing tea.
“Levy, are the Palace of the Dead and the others okay? I heard that there were a lot of raging ghosts and it seemed to be difficult.”
The Palace of the Dead refers to the palace where the Leviathan resides.
As the name implies, a large number of the dead, such as ghosts and zombies, roam her territory.
Recently, the place has been noisy with raging ghosts, but it is usually a quiet place because the power of Leviathan has calmed the hearts of the dead.
“Well, everyone’s mind is somewhat at ease now. There is no longer anything to worry about. …… More importantly…”
Levi – one of the seven pillars of the demon royalty in the form of a girl – turned her lifeless eyes to Giselle.
“I have sensed a large amount of death in the western territories of the Empire.”
“I wonder if it has anything to do with the case…. Ah, I haven’t told you yet. I’m sorry, but can I have your ear for a second?”
Leviathan looked at Giselle with a mysterious look on her face as she spoke elegantly over tea and tea cakes.
When the conversation was over, the majin girl said.
“There have been five attacks on the temple. …… The death toll must have been enormous. And I was able to feel, for a moment, the fluctuation of space that occurred during the attack. Something is going to happen soon.”
“His Majesty is in the Western Territories. I hope …… is okay.” (Giselle)
“What is there to worry about? He’s not afraid of anything, in fact, the more dangerous it is, the more he gets into it, and he’s got the strength to do it. Your worry unfounded, isn’t it?” (Levi)
“Even so, His Majesty’s body is now that of a human. Even though Lumiere has adjusted his body to be stronger than that of an ordinary prophet, he is still so fragile that his body would burst if I, a powerless person, just hugged him gently. I can’t stop thinking about it.” (Giselle)
The young majin giggled at the sorrowful words of the second wife.
“It’s not a problem since he has Rena, who is more powerful than you, by his side. In fact, it’s a wonder that he hasn’t been killed by the lustful Rena before.”
“She’s always calm and intelligent, but when she’s alone with me, she can be very spoiled. But she knows how to take it easy, so it’s fine. But it seems that Lumiere broke my neck once. Last time, I was taken by surprise and died once.”
She scratched his her and talked as if nothing had happened.
Looking at Giselle, Leviathan let out a sigh.
“Don’t you value life a little more ……? Anyway, let’s back to the topic. There is a strong sense of death in the air from the western territories of the Empire. Strangely enough, however, the spirits of the dead do not wander about. Those who die regretfully are scattered all over the place, whether they remain harmless ghosts or become malevolent spirits. In particular, the Palace of the Dead, where I live, has a tendency to attract ghosts, but they don’t come to Tenebrae because of that – they slowly make their way to Granden, as if they are being led by someone.”
Giselle nodded at the words of the majin who tasked in binding and healing the spirits of the dead.
“It’s definitely a sign for the attack on the temple inside Granden. It’s just a roundabout way of doing it. There are many people in the temple who can handle sacred techniques. So it’s inefficient to simply use the ghost as an attack tool. ”
“I believe so. The mastermind’s goal is probably to create a dimensional rift to do something, but the swarm of dead spirits may be nothing more than a decoy. …… I pity those who are being manipulated.”
“I’ll keep an eye on it with my space magic. I wonder if Levy will be able to help me in case of emergency.”
“That was my intention all along. I have no intention of getting involved in the affairs of humans, but it is my duty to heal those who die as a result of my involvement.”
A large number of dead spirits appear, and many more human lives are lost.
Hearing Leviathan’s words, which were tantamount to asserting this, the second wife of the Demon King quickly closed her eyelids.
“…… Your Majesty. Don’t do anything rash.”
As she pictured her beloved husband in her mind, a murmur escaped her lips.
