Chapter 244

Translator: Kell | Editor: Weasalopes

Secret Meeting with Emperor Kaglai

A man of small stature—if he were human, his looks would paint him as a young man—was sitting in front of his desk, writing . It was late at night . Magic lamps illuminated Emperor Kaglai G . Quinbland’s room .

The light wasn’t too bright, but unlike candles, it didn’t sway in the light wind, producing only a fixed amount of brightness that dimly lit the chambers .

All of a sudden, Kaglai’s hand stopped moving . 「You have finally arrived . One day later and I would have left already . 」

「That’s one way of talking considering you’re the one who called me . 」

Kaglai turned around, seemingly unsurprised at the figure wearing a black cloak and a silver mask that appeared in the room out of nowhere .

Silver Face tossed a silver mask at Kaglai’s feet, the one displayed on the palace gates for almost a month now .

「I could not think of any other way to contact you . 」Kaglai said .

「It’s not like I want people to call me all the time anyway . 」

「Yet you came here . Why?」

「Hey, you’re the one who called me here . I should be asking you that . 」

「It was the same with Unken’s case . You appear to not want to meddle in worldly affairs as much as possible, yet you delivered his letter to me . You did that for personal reasons, yes?」

He was right . Hikaru could’ve ignored the summons, yet he still came . He figured he could try to be more proactive, although not as much as Selica .

「Let’s just say I’m doing this on a whim . 」Hikaru dodged the question, not wanting to tell the truth .

「I see . That is fine . I have a favor to ask of you, Silver Face . 」

「Of course you do . That’s why you called me here . 」

「I am heading to Vireocean and I want you to accompany me . 」

As he suspected, it was indeed related to Vireocean . 「Hmm . 」

「You do not sound surprised . 」

「I don’t really know the details, though . 」

「We depart at noon tomorrow . Come to the palace gates then . 」

「Wait a minute . Why are you assuming I’m going? Besides, this is all too sudden . 」

Hikaru left Lavia and Paula in Pond since Drake was still asleep and moving with them would draw much more attention than going alone .

「I waited for you to come . Had you arrived a day later, I would have been long gone . 」

The Emperor waited that long for Silver Face . He said he delayed his departure until the last minute, even going against his retainers’ advice .

「Why would you even wait that long for me? It doesn’t make any sense . 」

「Perhaps . But the current situation requires me to go to Vireocean . 」

「What in the world happened?」

「I will explain on the way… or I suppose you will not agree to that . I will tell you now . 」

Kaglai stood up and brought a lamp to a small table carved with the map of the continent . The Imperial Capital was represented with an embedded gem .

「Do you know of the Ruined Continent?」

「Nope . No clue . 」

Hikaru scanned his memories, but nothing came to mind . Even Roland, who received proper education as a noble, didn’t have any information about it . Kaglai seemed to have expected his answer, however .

「What about Dew Roke?」

「I believe it’s an island located to the east of Vireocean . 」

Too big to be called an “island,” there was once a small country on it which was occupied in a past war and now a part of Vireocean’s territory .

「Yes . This right here . 」Kaglai said, pointing at a small circle at the easternmost part of the map . The map ended there .

「The Ruined Continent is over here . 」

He placed the lamp further east, about twice the distance between Dew Roke and Vireocean .

「I do not know how big it is, but its shoreline is at least as long as Vireocean’s, or even longer . 」

「So there’s a continent over there?」

「Gigantic sea monsters inhabit the east of Dew Roke . Going there is impossible . Today, at least . 」

「It was possible in the past?」

「Exactly . Colonization had been attempted in the past, about 550 years ago, using Dew Roke as a base . 」

「That’s a long time ago . I’m guessing something went wrong?」

「The colonization took fifty years and a small nation was finally founded . Man Gnomes were also involved in the foundation . 」

That sounds like a large-scale project, Hikaru thought . According to Kaglai, the population didn’t even reach ten thousand .

「There are barely any records of it left . But it is said that the continent in the east has a much harsher environment than here . 」

「What do you mean?」

「The monsters there are strong . 」

The people back then managed to survive because of the high-ranking adventurers accompanying them . If it weren’t for them, they would’ve been instantly annihilated . The army couldn’t be dispatched that easily as they were also needed for internal security, so at first they had to rely on adventurers .

「After fifty years of colonization, about five hundred years ago from now, aggressive monsters started appearing in the eastern seas and we suddenly lost contact with the eastern continent . 」

「How far is it from Dew Roke to the eastern continent?」

「About fifteen days on a fast ship . Monsters sunk most of the ships that sailed from Dew Roke, and only a few that came from the eastern continent survived . 」

Apparently, huge sea monsters were still being observed from Dew Roke .

「I see . But that sounds like monsters are simply ruling the seas . Is that really enough to call the place the Ruined Continent?」

「It was because passengers who travelled from the continent to Dew Roke said there were supposed to be a lot more ships . 」

「A lot more ships?」

「Ships that abandoned the continent and fled . 」

「What? They abandoned everything they’d built up over 50 years just because monsters appeared at sea?」

「A problem arose on the continent as well . 」

Wearing a complicated look, Kaglai pointed on top of the lamp, on the northern side .

「According to the survivors, there is a so-called Monster Den in the northern part of the continent where vicious monsters dwelled . Noticing the invasion of humans, they advanced to the capital, Lands Harvest, in great numbers and attacked the place . The capital was on the brink of collapse, prompting the people to escape . 」

「If you flee by ship, sea monsters await you . 」Silver Face said . 「If you stay in the capital there’ll be even worse monsters . 」

「Exactly . 」

No information had been received in the past five hundred years from the Ruined Continent, a place located beyond a closed-off area of the ocean .

「Why is information about the Ruined Continent kept confidential?」

「We are not concealing information, mind you . The higher-ups of every nation know about this story . But this is all a matter of the past . We are not to go anywhere east of Dew Roke island . That was all we needed to know . 」

Hikaru heaved a sigh . He knew where this was headed .

「So, I’m guessing someone made contact from the Ruined Continent . 」

Kaglai nodded . 「A fleet of ships believed to be from the Ruined Continent has the island of Dew Roke surrounded . As people who share the same ancestors, they wish to have a dialogue with us . 」

However, their first words were:

「You will pay for what you did 500 years ago . 」

They thought they were abandoned .