Volume 2, Chapter 18
“We’re here!”
After a long while without setting foot on land, the Varzian members filed off the ship one by one, groaning as they went.
A few people, including Jack, who still needed training, and those tasked with guarding the cargo, were left aboard until they returned home.
“Huu, it’s hot.”
“It feels even hotter because it’s been so long since we’ve been here...”
“Damn it, this stifling heat! This really is the Hestallion Empire.”
As soon as they arrived on the western continent, complaints started rising from the group.
The Hestallion they had just set foot in was a nation where it was summer all year round.
Foreigners who had not received the blessing of Asubell, the dragon of summer, would be tortured by dreadful heat the moment they entered the Hestallion Empire’s territory.
Even now, many of those who had come down with their luggage were wiping away the sweat trickling down their necks and stripping off layers of clothing.
Here, sleeveless tops and shorts were everyday wear. Some people even walked around bare-chested. From the perspective of someone from the Alferios Kingdom, it was almost as if they were strolling about in their underwear, and more than a few people grew embarrassed on their behalf.
“Good grief. Don’t you feel hot, priest? You’re still wearing that cumbersome priest’s robe.”
The only one whose clothes had not changed was Seherbian.
With a clean face and not a single bead of sweat on him, he replied, “Not at all.”
“Really, sir?”
“I have the blessing of winter.”
“Ah...”
Cassio, the one who had asked, stared at him blankly, like someone who had been struck on the back of the head.
Come to think of it, it made no sense for the priest of Winter Bell to wilt under the heat.
Just as Asubell, the guardian dragon of summer, granted his blessing to the people of Hestallion to ward off the cold, Winter Bell could likewise bestow a blessing upon his own followers to keep the heat at bay.
After hearing that, the rest of the group let out envious exclamations one after another.
“To think you can’t even feel Hestallion’s heat, I’m honestly jealous.”
“Tell me about it. That’s enough motivation to make me want to bring winter back to life with my own hands, and fast!”
Cassio grumbled for a moment, then let out a long sigh. Looking as though he’d expected as much, he trotted back and helped support someone from behind.
“Sir priest, could you maybe cast some kind of blessing? At this rate, our boss is gonna keel over.”
In the end, Cassio returned to Seherbian with only the bags in hand and mimed slashing his own throat with his thumb.
I can cast a blessing, all right.
Seherbian stood there blankly and looked around him.
People sweating profusely even after throwing off their shirts because of the heat. People who had emptied their water flasks for the third time since disembarking. People carrying boxes with towels draped around their necks, moving with determined efficiency.
And among the bustling crowd, he could see a magnificent blue current flowing like a river.
The power that had brought summer to this land.
The authority of the water dragon, Asubell.
It wouldn’t be polite to go against the natural order in someone else’s domain.
Cassio, taking Seherbian’s silence as a refusal, hurriedly waved both hands.
“Right, of course. This isn’t Winter Bell’s territory, after all, so it must be hard on you too, sir priest... Sorry for asking something so unreasonable.”
“That’s troublesome.”
“Huh? No, no! This heat’s nothing. Don’t worry about it!”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
Shaking his head at the flustered Cassio, Seherbian pointed ahead.
“We have visitors.”
Only then did Cassio realize that the atmosphere around them had changed. “Huh?” he muttered, craning his neck this way and that through the murmuring crowd.
Iren, who had been walking ahead, had stopped dead in his tracks.
“At last, you’ve arrived. I’ve been waiting.”
A smooth, cultured voice drifted out from within the crowd.
The Varzian members who had come with them whispered among themselves.
“What’s this?”
“Who is it?”
“Judging by the accent, they’re from the Empire?”
The one who had come to greet them differed from the Alferios group not only in speech but also in dress.
A woman shading herself from the sun beneath a black parasol.
She was tall enough that Iren had to look up at her.
Most noblewomen in the Alferios Kingdom preferred long hair, but not in Hestallion. Because summer was their main season, they cut away any troublesome length and favored efficiency.
Instead of long hair, large earrings swayed at her ears, and her black dress fell only to her knees, leaving her legs fully visible.
Compared with Alferios attire, which required noblewomen to cover themselves down to the ankles, it was an outrageously bold design.
And as befitted a people blessed by summer, she even wore a cloak, which made anyone looking at her feel suffocated just from the heat, yet the Hestallion woman, dressed in a lace-trimmed gown and carrying her parasol, continued in a neat, composed voice.
“I’ve come to receive you.”
A soft clink sounded as her earrings touched.
The woman with the parasol bent her knees slightly in greeting before Iren. In that fleeting moment, her green eyes met Seherbian’s, who was half-buried in the crowd.
“Winter Bell.”
“...?”
“...and all of your followers.”
Only then did Iren realize that this was a greeting sent by the Hestallion Empire to welcome Winter Bell’s dragon knights, and he offered his hand.
“Ahaha! This is embarrassing. Even if we’re knights of winter, unlike you, we haven’t even received Winter Bell’s blessing. Just call us Varzian, all right?”
“If that is your wish, then I shall.”
“I’m Captain Iren Varzian.”
The other woman took his hand in turn and answered, “I am Hannah Sel Wyrk, the second pillar of the Hestallion Empire. I awaited this meeting under imperial command in order to receive our honored guests, so if you would, please accompany me.”
In the Empire, the term “pillar” denoted a great noble. Realizing that this was no mere subordinate but someone important, the muscles around Iren’s eyes twitched, though he kept his smile in place.
After all, unless one was the emperor himself, there was no reason for the dragon knights who served Winter Bell to bow their heads.
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
“This way, please.”
At the commander’s signal, soldiers led them in orderly fashion.
They had reached their destination, and once they finished whatever business the Hestallion imperial family had set for them, they would finally be able to meet the dragon of this foreign land. The thought stirred a quiet excitement among the dragon knights who had no master.
But while everyone was moving along smoothly, one person was stopped by the Hestallion side.
Clang!
“The priest of winter will be escorted this way.”
Though spoken respectfully, the way they crossed their spears to block the path was rather rude.
When the Hestallion soldiers stood directly in front of Seherbian and barred the way, Iren immediately sensed something was wrong and turned back to them.
“Hold on. What do you think you’re doing to one of my people?”
“I apologize. We received a special order to escort only the priest alone. Please understand.”
“What?”
Though she called it an apology, Hannah’s expression as she separated Seherbian from the group was cold and unyielding.
Iren’s face darkened as well.
A special order?
“...Whose order was that?”
“I’m afraid I cannot answer that.”
“So at the very least, it wasn’t the order of the Hestallion Emperor.”
The atmosphere turned ice-cold in an instant.
The Varzian members who had been following obediently came to a halt around Iren, and the Hestallion soldiers likewise surrounded them without leaving a single opening.
“I’m not sending my comrade anywhere without a proper explanation.”
With a sharp series of clicks, weapons were drawn all around them. Jin gripped his sword beneath his cloak, and Cassio, a beast sorcerer, formed hand seals in case he needed to summon a beast at once.
Even under their grim stares, Hannah faced them without a trace of wavering and warned, “If you attempt to use force, we will regard you as hostile to the Hestallion Empire and suppress you accordingly.”
“Can’t you see who’s brandishing force first?”
“My duty is to ‘guide’ our honored guests. If you will peacefully accept the grace of His Imperial Majesty, then I will escort everyone here to the palace without a single hair on your heads being harmed.”
“Where are you taking Serby the priest?”
“...He is simply being borrowed briefly for another matter. You will be reunited at the palace before long.”
Iren frowned at Hannah’s brazen evasion of the question. The young captain’s irritation showed plainly on his face, but Hannah’s expression remained serenely calm.
“I hope you will not betray the trust of the emperor who invited you to this land because of such a minor doubt.”
“Minor doubt?”
For the first time, a dry, breathy laugh escaped Iren.
“You expect us to trust you when you won’t even tell us whose order this was or where you’re taking him? Would you accept that kind of treatment yourself?”
“Naturally, if it were under the orders of His most august Majesty...”
“But in your eyes, I guess we’re just some reckless band of mercenaries from the Alferios Kingdom, blinded by the Hestallion Emperor’s bounty and stupid enough to risk our lives crossing the Serpent Sea.”
As he spoke, Iren strode toward Hannah.
“What we want is to make a place where everyone in Varzian can stand together. Not some reward you get for sacrificing one person and selling them off for riches.”
The noblewoman with the parasol and Iren, who stood exposed beneath the blazing sun, faced one another at arm’s length.
Already weak against the heat, Iren felt so dizzy from the rising shimmer off the ground that he could barely keep himself upright.
Sweat dripped from the tip of his nose.
“If you won’t explain properly, then we’re leaving this land.”
“...!”
For the first time, Hannah’s perfect composure wavered.
Truthfully, the Hestallion side had been looking down on them rather heavily, just as Iren said.
Even if they were dragon knights, they were incomplete free knights who had not received a guardian dragon’s blessing.
They had assumed that people like that would throw themselves at the chance for money, honor, and an audience with a dragon without caring about anything else.
In fact, Varzian had come through the variable of the Serpent Sea immediately after receiving the offer and reached the foreign land safely.
Who would have thought they’d declare they were turning back now!
Her fingers tightened around the handle of the parasol.
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