Chapter 84

Late at night, Dianeya was staring intently at some documents.

The documents contained a map of the town, with several red dots placed around it.

"If I align this one and this one, hmm... I guess the deployment of the mages is complete..."

After adding two more red dots, Dianeya put down the documents and sighed. Then she handed the documents to the captain of the knights, who was waiting in the room.

"I'm counting on you with this deployment, Captain."

"You've done a great job, Princess."

"Considering the mass that might fall, I needed two of my mages. It was quite a challenge to gather them... Really, this timing, just before the festival, is tough."

"At least we can cover the entire town, so it should be fine. Ideally, we would have postponed the festival, but..."

"---Since there's almost no actual damage yet."

It's difficult to postpone the festival at the stage where it might fall. People have already gathered in the town, and merchants have made preparations, so there needs to be a good reason for postponing or canceling it.

"Well, I think it's a good thing that we can handle it this time. Even though irregularities have been frequent lately, we've relied too much on Lord Daiti."

Proshia is our town, and we must protect it ourselves. Yet, I don't know how many times Daiti has helped us and lent us his strength. This time, too, it was thanks to his roommate that we noticed the cause of the falling rocks.

"It's the one from the ley line. I hear he's opening a shop, too."

"It's a very delicious nutritional drink shop. You should stop by if you're tired, Captain."

"Oh, that's right. I've been feeling less energetic in the mornings lately, so I'll try it. For that, I'll circulate this document."

"Thank you."

After watching the captain leave the room, Dianeya leaned back in her chair.

"Phew, thanks to Lord Daiti's juice, my body feels great. I think I can make it to the festival with just a few breaks."

Ever since I drank it, my body temperature hasn't dropped, and my mind has been sharp. It feels like more power has been infused into my body than when I directly draw magic from a magic stone. The backlash will probably come later, but...

"Still... Lord Daiti is amazing."

The power inside him is incomparable to the magic overflowing in my body. Even in this state of omnipotence, I don't feel like I can match him. Still,

"It's a good feeling to feel like I'm getting closer to him..."

She smiled at her energetic body. Just then,

*Knock knock.*

There was a gentle knock on the window.

"Huh?"

Since this room is quite high up in the castle, she thought it might be a bird or something, but when she looked over,

"Eh... Lady Hestia?"

"Hmm... I'm glad you're awake. That's good."

Hestia was clinging to the window ledge.

"Wh-Why are you here!?"

"I flew here. Can I come in?"

"Ah, sure, go ahead..."

When she opened the window, Hestia gracefully entered the room. Then she shook her head.

It seemed she had climbed up the castle wall, as there were pieces of the wall stuck to her face.

"Sorry for the late visit."

"N-No, that's fine, but is there something you need?"

"Um, I have something I want to talk about. It's about what I said yesterday."

"Yesterday, you mean the Star Dragon King? Don't worry, we've just deployed mages to deal with the falling scales from its molting—"

"That's a mistake. It's not molting."

Hestia shook her head and said so.

"Eh... What?"

"The Star Dragon King's scales fell in a very large state, right?"

"Ah, yes, the last ones were small and shattered."

"If it were molting, smaller scales would have fallen. But this time, it's different, and there was blood and skin on the scales. —So, it's sick or badly injured."

I see. The reason the scales fell has changed.

"So, Lady Hestia, you came to tell me this?"

"Um, I gave you the wrong information. I'm sorry."

"No, you don't need to apologize. We should have investigated it ourselves."

We would have had to go through the trouble of having a research team read the literature and compare it with what we obtained this time. It's very helpful that we could skip that step.

"Okay, so don't worry about it, Lady Hestia."

"Hmm... But because it's not molting, there's something we need to be careful about. It might not just be scales that fall."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe the Star Dragon King's body itself will fall."

Where the Star Dragon King is now can be inferred from where the scales have fallen. Based on that inference, Dianeya deployed the mages. So,

"You mean the Star Dragon King, which is in the sky above this town from the Magic Forest, will fall?"

"Um, I think it will fall soon. The last time, it fell in a similar situation. If it's the same as before, it will fall."

A 300-meter-long giant body falling on this town. Hestia's words were serious. That's why Dianeya immediately took action.

"---I think I'll gather the captains of the knights for a meeting now. Lady Hestia, would you mind staying? I need your information."

"Um, okay. But can I go home in the morning? I need to tell him, too."

"Eh? You haven't told Lord Daiti yet?"

"Um, he's sleeping. I thought it would be bad to wake him up."

Dianeya also didn't have many good memories of waking up Daiti, but...

...Can it wait until later?

It's a bit concerning. But we just decided that we should do what we can ourselves. So,

"Um, yes. I need to protect this town. ...So, please stay until morning, Lady Hestia."

"Um, okay."

"The countermeasure meeting begins again...!"

And so, once again, Dianeya's office was filled with many people that night.