67

As Id and his friends climbed about two hundred meters along the mountain path Tristan had shown them, they could see some hot springs on the road. Id and Sasha, who yielded a hot spring to the girls, climbed a hundred meters further and went into a hot spring with moderate depth. The bodies of the two friends, who took off their clothes on a rock and became naked, were in contrast. Id had smooth skin without a scratch, while scars covered Sasha’s body. After the two immersed themselves in the hot spring to their necks, Id spoke to Sasha.

“It seems your manna hall has been completely enlarged. How do you feel?”

“Excellent. I believe my swordsmanship is improving fast after creating a manna hall. It may still be a hasty wish, but as you said, I feel like I could be an Aura Beam Owner someday.”

“That’s what’s going to happen. Now that your manna hall seems to have accumulated sufficient manna, you can use it to heal your wounds yourself. Give it a try.”

Id taught in detail Sasha how to treat internal and external injuries using manna condensed in his manna hall. Sasha began manna circulation sitting in the hot spring. When he treated wounds on his own, new scars made in recent months in the Polermone Mountains gradually faded and eventually disappeared. Although the old scars did not go away, Sasha stroked his skin with a satisfied look.

“It is an amazing method of healing. This is why your skin is so smooth. I don’t think I need Benjamin’s magic potions anymore.”

“You might need them. If you’re seriously injured, the magic potions will save your life, so keep them safe. The old scars will disappear when you reach the State of Harmony. Until then, you have to live with them like the Orders of Military Merits.”

“Did your scars go away after you got in the State of Harmony?”

“Right. I had a few scars on my legs and chest earned at a young age, but they suddenly disappeared one day. Probably, I entered the State of Harmony then. After entering the state, not only the skin but also the muscles and bones seem to have changed significantly, but it’s hard to explain in words. Perhaps, the State of Ultimate that gold dragon Vega mentioned would entirely reconstruct your body, but it will be impossible to get there in our lifetime.”

The two friends enjoyed the hot spring bath for over an hour. They recovered for the first time in a long time from their accumulated fatigue. Lara shouted from the bottom.

“Let’s go down. I am starving.”

Id and Sasha wore clothes after coming out of the hot spring reluctantly.

Tristan’s table was full of dishes. Various kinds of wild greens, mushrooms, meat and even bread and dairy products looked delicious. Lara asked Tristan.

“Do elves eat this much meat? I am surprised that you even produce butter and cheese.”

Tristan responded to Lara, smiling.

“I don’t like meat very much, but I eat it from time to time to increase my muscle mass. I buy dairy products in a human village. There’s a pretty large human village over the forests about one hundred kilometers southeast. I drop by the village twice a month to get dairy products and flour. As Callisto likes bread, we bake it almost every day.”

For elf Tristan, a forest species, one hundred kilometers in the forest was not a long distance. Beyond Id party’s expectations, Tristan’s cooking skills were excellent. They enjoyed a satisfying dinner with the wine Tristan recommended. Furthermore, it was exciting and informative to hear about Tristan and Callisto’s journeys around the human world over the last hundred years. The story about the travel in the Paruberian Federation, in particular, caught the party’s attention. Spica wanted to hear more details about Paruberia.

“We plan to join the Expeditionary Army of the Icarus Empire to the Paruberian Federation. I’d like to hear more about your experiences in Paruberia, Callisto.”

“There are many good places to travel. Why do you want to go to the battlefield?”

Id explained why they decided to participate in the Icarus-Parubeira War. There were many things to explain, starting from the feudal war between the Adelian Marquisate and Cronos Duchy to the reason for Duke Cronos’ dragon hunt, so Id’s story was prolonged. Still, Callisto and Tristan listened to Id’s long story with an exciting look. Callisto began to talk about their journey in Paruberia twelve years before.

“We went to the Paruberian Federation to catch dark mages and dark elven warlocks as we heard rumors that they had joined forces to summon evil monsters from the Devildom. We’d been scouring the Paruberian Desert for over a year at the time, but we could find neither dark mages nor dark elven warlocks. There were traces of summoning evil monsters in the desert, so I don’t think it was a false rumor. At that time, Tristan and I thought the dark mages had already left Paruberia and gone somewhere else. Recently, I heard rumors that the dark mages appeared there again. If you meet dark mages in Paruberia, please contact me. We can fly there quickly.”

Callisto handed a beautiful light purple communication crystal to Id.

“I also have a communication crystal. Just tell me your magic communication password. I’ll inform you if I meet dark mages.”

Callisto and Id exchanged magic communication codes. Still, Callisto gave Selena the light purple communication crystal.

“Nobody knows what will happen in the war zone, so you’d better carry another communication crystal with you. I always felt uncomfortable not being able to catch the dark mages and dark elven warlocks. As you’re going to the Paruberian Desert now, I expect to take this opportunity to catch them. Crazy humans or elves, who try to summon evil monsters from the Devildom to this world, show up from time to time, which bothers me so much.”

Dragons believed they were created as guardians of this world. They did not intervene in conflicts between other species except when one of the five intelligent species, dragons, elves, dwarves, humans and orcs, was on the verge of extinction due to conflicts between species. They rarely intervened in human wars, either. Dragons, who enjoyed playing in the polymorphic human body, occasionally influenced human history, but even then, they did not go beyond a certain limit. Nevertheless, dragons directly intervened if someone evoked evil monsters from the Devildom to use them for the war. As a balance and guardian of this world, Dragons could not accept the evocation of evil monsters from the Devildom. It was natural for the blue dragon Callisto to pay keen attention to the news that dark mages appeared in the Paruberian Desert.

Silly humans evoked even a Devil King from the Devildom as well as evil monsters. The last invocation of a Devil King had been carried out a thousand and three hundred years back. Mara, one of the twelve Devil Kings of the Devildom, had been invoked by thirteen dark mages. Three dragons had fought to send Mara back to the Devildom, and two of them had been sacrificed at the time. This incident was handed down as one of the myths humans could not believe since the dragons had sent Mara back to the Devildom before he had influenced the human world. However, dragons remembered it as vividly as it had happened yesterday. Bermut, a red dragon in the State of Ultimate, who had survived until the last moment of the fight against Mara and lifted the invocation of the dark mages, had not lived even a thousand years afterward and died at the age of eight thousand years, an early age for dragons to die.

Tristan talked about the tribal countries that made up the Paruberan Federation.

“Paruberia is a federation of about fifty tribal countries, with two tribes, Hesuth and Dunibar, having overwhelming powers over the other tribes. Twenty years ago, when the Icarus Empire’s army invaded Paruberia, Hesuth was the most powerful tribe, which has its territory in the southeastern part of the Paruberian Federation. Their territory borders the East Sea and the Kingdom of Sakha to the north. I heard Hesuth accumulated considerable wealth by import and export as they’ve traded by the East Sea with many countries in the east and far south of the continent. Although half of Paruberia is desert, Hesuth’s territory is fertile land to produce abundant agricultural products. Their strong Warriors have been firmly defending their territory for hundreds of years. The sword skills of the Hesuth Warriors, who I’ve dealt with, were outstanding. When the Imperial Army invaded twenty years ago, the Paruberian Allies centered on the Hesuth Warriors defeated them.”

Id asked Tristan.

“When you say they were the strongest tribe twenty years ago, do you mean they are not anymore?”

Tristan took a sip of wine into his mouth and slowly savored it.

“Dunibar, another powerful tribe located in the southwestern part of Paruberia, has been vying for the post of the Federal Chairman for a long time as a rival to Hesuth. King Assan Hesuth, who was the Chairman of the Paruberian Federation at the time of the war against the Icarus Empire, lost more than half of his tribal Warriors. Eventually, after the war, the Federal Chairmanship was handed over to Ibrihim Dunibar, the King of the Dunibar tribe, who suffered relatively little damage. Though King Ibrihim is the Chairman of the Paruberian Federation now, it’s no wonder even if King Assan regains his Chairmanship sooner or later, as the two most powerful tribes are in a tight balance. I suspected that the dark mages might have supported King Ibrihim when he took the Paruberian Chairmanship, but I haven’t been able to find them even though I’ve been wandering the land of the Dunibar tribe for more than a month. Well, I’ll have to bring a few more bottles of wine.”