< 157. The night is deep. >
As the rain stopped, the festival began again. Now, mages were shooting fireworks into the sky, and drunken elves stumbled around, bursting into sporadic laughter with those they bumped into.
Fernandez was walking through the crowd. It was a noisy festival, but it made sense. The Guimerin clan, who had wandered hopelessly for a year, had found a new home, and the Malerun clan, who had occasionally been taken as sacrifices to their king for centuries, had finally found freedom.
Fortunately, most elves either didn’t recognize him or were too drunk to approach him. Fernandez walked briskly toward the inner sanctum, heading to Leia’s office.
-Knock knock.
“Come in.”
As he opened the door adorned with intricate carvings, he saw Leia standing in front of a table cluttered with a large nautical chart, a compass, and other tools. She was holding a glass of amber-colored liquor and gazing at the table.
Leia glanced at Fernandez as he entered and poured him a drink into a crystal glass.
“My people were kind enough to share their drink. Being a queen isn’t so bad.”
“I could never do it.”
“Hehe, do you even see the throne in your eyes? Drink up. The banquet is in full swing, shouldn’t you enjoy it too?”
Leia laughed as she walked to the reception area. She stretched out on a purple velvet sofa, propping her legs on the wooden table and letting out a sigh.
“All this court etiquette is tiresome. It’s been a thousand years since we all became sailors, yet there are still traditionalists around.”
“Even without tradition, it’s not exactly a dignified sight.”
“Aren’t you younger than me? Friend, let’s not talk like old folks.”
Leia sipped her drink and watched the fireworks exploding outside. The room lit up in vibrant colors with each burst.
“It’s a good season. This winter will be warm.”
“Congratulations on the victory.”
“Would it have been possible without you? Meeting you that day in a small village in the wasteland was a great fortune for me and our people.”
Leia turned her head to look at Fernandez. The room, illuminated by the faint glow of magical lamps, and Leia’s expression, swirling the sticky, potent liquor in her mouth, were mesmerizing.
“So, tell me what you desire. Aside from the tribute I’ll send to the church, what do you want?”
Leia’s gaze openly swept over Fernandez. She then set her glass down and crossed her legs the other way.
Fernandez ignored the careless exposure of her attire and looked into Leia’s eyes as he spoke.
“Take me to the north.”
“Hmm, troublesome… What?”
“The north. The land of the northerners.”
Leia looked momentarily flustered, then blushed and lowered her legs. She adjusted her attire slightly and moved her glass aside.
“Ah, right. You spoke with that outsider. Do you have business in the north? Can you tell me about it?”
“Signs of a Great Demon have been detected in the north. There’s not enough evidence to confirm it’s him, but there’s definitely a demon behind it. And I’m a demon hunter.”
“Can you trust that outsider’s words? Didn’t he say he made some deal with Malerun?”
“He said he supported the hunt for a god.”
Fernandez rolled the glass in his hand as he spoke.
“Richter whispered the location of Kian, the Grand Duke of the North Sea, to Malerun, and the northerners taught Malerun a spell to capture the sea god. In fact, Malerun used the northerners’ unique magic system. He must have liked it.”
“If there’s a way to hunt a god, why didn’t the northerners do it themselves?”
“Well, there might have been restrictions. Or the backlash was too strong. There could be many reasons. And killing a god, if successful, is a scheme without consequences. If they killed Kian, they’d incur MacLaren’s wrath, so there was no need to take the risk.”
Kian, the Grand Duke of the North Sea, was one of the many minor deities who couldn’t enter the Temple of the Gods. He lay dormant in the depths of the North Sea, and his divinity was stolen by Malerun’s spell.
The reason Malerun stayed in a region of the North Sea for so long, and the spell to capture and steal Kian’s divinity, was completed before they even arrived. He boasted, “You’ve already lost,” relying on the stolen divinity.
Fernandez found his carelessness amusing. If he had used the magical circuits on the capital ship to engage in a magical battle, the outcome might have been different. But he panicked when Fernandez easily destroyed his magic with a magical wedge and offered a truce.
‘It takes an incredibly long time to fully assimilate the divinity of another god.’
Even Mumto, the demon who hunted divinity, couldn’t fully dissolve the fragments of gods he had swallowed. The first god he swallowed, Kadán, still maintained his independence even after a thousand years.
If even a Great Demon couldn’t do it, it was nearly impossible for a mortal to awaken as a god by gaining divinity in such a short time. If it were possible, the world would be overflowing with all sorts of minor deities.
“Did you hear why they helped Malerun hunt the gods?”
“They said the northern gods were being hunted by demons and their followers. They’re offering that power to their master. So, before that demon gains enough power, they wanted to help the Elven King and strike first.”
“Gods and god hunting. Ha, it’s a tangled mess of a story…”
The queen of a race exiled from the continent for killing their own god sighed with sad eyes. She nodded at Fernandez.
“Alright. I’ll take you to the north. What else do you need?”
“Can you deliver this report to the church?”
“That’s simple. We’re planning to dock at a nearby port to resupply. I’ll send it then. And we’ll head straight to the north.”
Fernandez nodded briefly at Leia’s words and downed his drink.
