Chapter 978

Despite scouring Bahar, we couldn’t find the desired amount of food. All we found was a magic circle emitting evil energy.

This time, we invited Izario and the others to check it out too. Well, it’s not like they were experts either, so no one knew anything about it.

In the end, we removed the evil crystal, then made quick work of the Evil Berserker that popped out.

Izario and Shikimi were now discussing our next move.

「I think it is safe to say that we have eliminated all the titan-types assigned to us. What will be our next plans?」

「Well… No requests for help from other divisions, yeah?」

「None, although the towns in this region are almost completely ruined. They may not have any way to contact us.」

「They could easily send a fast horse if they wanted. If no one’s giving us any instructions, then they can’t complain if we do as we please.」

「Then――」

「Yeah――」

During the discussion, we noticed a group of people approaching us. We flew up in the air and spotted a troop of about 500 people coming our way.

They consisted of a mixture of adventurers, knights, and soldiers, which suggested that they were one of the rescue teams. They must have deployed from a different city than us.

The commanders from the unit made contact.

It seems they also came to check on Bahar. They said a few of Bahar’s residents had managed to escape and requested aid in a neighboring city.

Izario spoke with them, and they decided to take the refugees off our hands. Since the second division was overwhelmingly superior in fighting ability, it would benefit the continent as a whole to free us from that burden.

But right as the second division was free to move, we found someone else approaching us. Well, it’s more correct to say that they approached Fran herself rather than her division.

It happened right after the rescue team had taken over escorting the Sarthe refugees.

We again caught a glimpse of something coming our way, and pretty damn fast too. A messenger or something?

No, this was no messenger. I could sense a being obviously covered in evil energy, but it didn’t have the aura of an antidemon. A fiend then? No.

A dragonkin, and one emitting an immense evil aura at that. Izario and the others knew about the existence of evil dragonkin, so they did not immediately launch an attack.

Though cautious, we simply waited for the evil dragonkin’s arrival. Then, we found out that he was someone we knew.

It was definitely Frederick, although the evil he radiated was much stronger than before. He was not running, but gliding toward us with his wings slightly above the earth.

I’m pretty sure Frederick didn’t have wings before, right? I know Velmeria managed to grow them, but……

「Frederick.」

「Little lady, you know this guy?」

「Nn.」

Izario and Shikimi didn’t let their guards down even when they heard he was Fran’s acquaintance. I don’t blame them. We knew how the dragonkin were acting incredibly suspiciously, and Frederick’s truly powerful aura of evil didn’t help.

If it was anyone else, I’d have doubted them of performing human sacrifices to the Evil God in exchange for power.

Frederick must have known how suspicious he looked. He flapped his wings once to kill his momentum and land before reaching the second division.

Then, he raised both hands in the air to show his lack of hostile intentions. Izario and the others were still on guard, probably because of the look on Frederick’s face.

Frederick was clearly on edge. I don’t know if that’s anger, panic, or some other emotion, but his eyebrows were furrowed. He was obviously holding back some sort of intense emotion.

Still, he remained rational. Frederick spoke slowly so as not to provoke us.

「……I mean you no harm, despite my appearance. However, I have urgent business with Black Lightning Princess-dono over there. Please excuse my impudence for approaching you in this manner.」

Frederick spoke directly to Izario. He realized that Izario could kill him in an instant, so he immediately made an appeal to show that he was no enemy.

「……Well, you seem fine by me.」

「Nn. Frederick is good. What’s wrong? Where’s Velmeria?」

「Black Lightning Princess…… Please! Please save Velmeria!」

While Fran tilted her head at the missing Velmeria, Frederick suddenly got down on his knees. He sounded calm, but I guess he really was in a tight spot.

「What do you mean?」

「Velmeria has been captured by the Dragon King……」

Frederick recounted the events of the past few days.

「We were trying to locate the Dragon King and rescue Velmeria’s mother……」

「The Dragon King has her mom?」

「Yeah, he took her away……」

Tilanaria, Velmeria’s mother, was said to have been in the southern dragonkin reservation. However, it seems the dragonkin of the northern reservation launched an attack and kidnapped her. During the incident, her assailants said something that suggested a connection with the Dragon King.

For a while, Velmeria and Frederick hunted down the higher ranking members of the Dragon King Syndicate and black market slavers, while gathering intel on Tilanaria’s whereabouts. As a result of this intel, they became convinced that the Dragon King had some connection with Trismegistus.

「The Dragon King apparently bragged about becoming a transcendent with the powers of Trismegistus and Tilanaria-sama. Though I can’t say for sure if he’s cooperating with Trismegistus or just trying to take advantage of him……」

The two knew her mother had been taken to the center of the continent, so they went in to rescue her. However, they were intercepted by unusually strong dragonkin, resulting in Velmeria’s capture. Moreover, they found themselves attacked by antidemons at the same time.

In order to escape from this crisis, Frederick used his natural ability as a half-evil dragonkin. He purposely absorbed a ton of evil energy and managed to power himself up.

It seems he’s absorbed so much that he just barely managed to hold onto sanity.

Frederick’s grim mood was not only because of his anger and impatience, but also because of the evil energy affecting his personality.

「I managed to get away myself… but they took Velmeria!」

「Were the dragonkin that strong?」

「Yeah, they were all on the level of our highest warriors. And……」

「And?」

「Those antidemons……」

Frederick cut himself off. Apparently, he was unsure of what he was about to say. However, he quickly continued with his gut feeling.

「Those antidemons…… It was as if the dragonkin were controlling them……」

Neither Fran nor I could call this nonsense. We too have realized how the antidemons always appeared right where it would benefit the Dragon King.

I’ve previously considered that the Dragon King may be controlling the antidemons in some way.

Frederick’s words only confirmed our suspicions.