- inside the Castle’s guests’ chamber, Ersten, The Capital of the Kingdom of Apollyon –

- 30 minutes earlier –

It was already one hour after the start of the official meeting that was aforementioned by King Somnus, the talk actually went pretty smoothly at the start until it went downhill at a certain point. A man with a fairly modern nobility outfit in a mix of frock coat, tux pants and other clothing in blue, white and black, along with an emerald gem tied on his collar, was against the pact that Jaeger offered.

“Your majesty! Would you please reconsider this?! I don’t see any benefit in letting this man control our troops to defend our nation! This man has a strategy that holds no honour!” he exclaimed with his lungs out and it caused a murmur of agreement with his opinion. The man sometimes gave a death glare over his shoulder to Jaeger while his hands are still on the hilt of his sheathed sword, standing slightly in front of the mercenary. “Going down such path of disgrace by using ambushes and assassination to achieve victor!? That taints our Knightly order if we ever face the enemy on the battlefield!”

“Then… do you have a better strategy to defend while being outnumbered 100 to 1?” as Jaeger retorted, the man twitched, having a face of denial as he know he doesn’t have any better strategy either. “Sir Duke… this isn’t about honour anymore, your nation- “

“Our nation doesn’t need such underhanded strategies such as gorilla and sabotage!”

“Pardon me but it’s pronounced as “guerrilla” Sir” Christina snickered as she looks away from the duke that’s very agitated at Jaeger’s remark.

“Whatever it is! I genuinely despise such a strategy! Is this how you lowly mercenary doe- “

“ENOUGH!”

The King’s exclaimed, making the whole room’s atmosphere change dramatically. He then stood up from his throne and walked towards the duke that nearly insulted Jaeger with a scowl on his face. “Duke Judas, do you have any better reason to disagree with such a pact? He only asks us to offer the command of our troops until this war is over, other than that, we’ll have technology trade with another world. Think about it, a world that has a ship that could travel between the stars is offering us such a thing. Additionally, I do think the son of the Archmage is trustworthy”

“How are you sure about that?! He has never even proven how he’s a trustworthy person!”

“Well, I do have the prove…” The king snapped his fingers, the door near the throne opens and a familiar man walked out from it. He’s currently wearing a red robe, a fairly fancy yet recognizable outfit and his aura is way different from a day ago. The man’s distinguishable sharp grey hair reflected the sun coming from the large windowpane above the door, raising his hand to wave at his brand-new friend he met days previously.

“Hey Jaeger, how’s your stay in the castle?” the man in question chuckled, to think it was unexpectedly above his prediction that the Prince of this Kingdom was Conrad himself.

“It was great, the bed is pretty comfy just like back at home. But, sorry I broke the wall though last night”

“hahaha! You should’ve apologized to father instead, though. Ah… you already did, didn’t you?”

“Indeed… he laughed at me after hearing the story behind it though” the two of the adolescent boys laughed. Confusing the audience, including Duke Judas. The king chuckled at their conversation for a moment and returned to his serious tone.

“Hear me, my son did a secret duty to do an examination at the capital of the Holy Kingdom of Nelimista several days ago for an inspection of whether the nation did a hero summoning and also “sightseeing” I assume.” He then looked to his shoulder to see Conrad averting his gaze away from his father, pretending nothing happened. Somnus cleared his throat and continued

“During his stay for 3 months in our time, he was captured as both he and my first daughter were on their journey home. But sir Wolfenford here, the hero that was accidentally summoned by the kingdom bravely saved Prince Conrad and his sister, the first Princess, with his bravery, defeating a mass of that Kingdom’s top knights and mages in the process. Is it enough as evidence for him being trusted?”

The King knew what happened back then as Conrad came back home by going through the royal teleportation sigil that could be connected to Christina’s mansion since she’s the one that made the teleportation network throughout the entire kingdom for the royalty and nobles, it was way faster than going with a carriage ride for 2 more weeks, cutting the time to report to the King.

the Nobles were silent except for the duke who refuses to acknowledge Jaeger. “But that doesn’t seem to be enough, your majesty! Surely he saved the prince but how does that make him THAT trustworthy for you?”

Conrad was slightly pissed at Duke Juda’s stubbornness, as he knew very well that nobody had ever done such a feat singlehandedly. “Well then, can you do the same as him? Getting into the fray and successfully saving both of the people that you just met without any of us including yourself getting injured?”

“I…” the duke’s mouth was agape wanting to say a remark, closed back, considering that he wasn’t even that capable if he were in that situation. “No, your highness…”

The King looked around and chuckled. “So, anyone disagreeing with my decision? If either of you does, kindly give a reasonable cause for your disagreement”

It was a unanimous vote, and every single one of the nobles agreed. Though, Jaeger still does not know if this unanimous agreement is just a farce or if it may be because of the feeling of their patriotism towards their homeland. Everyone clapped as the meeting is done and proceeded to egress from the main entrance of the hall one by one, though, as Duke Judas walked away from the hall, he whispered to Jaeger a warning as he passed by him. “You hold no honour and your arrogance will lead you to your downfall, remember that”. Jaeger shrugged it off with a chuckle and mutter lowly, “I’ve already been through that…”

Moments later after the hall was empty, leaving only Jaeger, Conrad, Christina and Somnus chatting with one another about the chronology of the current situation beyond the World Gate, Clarisa burst into the room quite exhausted and out of breath. “Your…. Hah… hah… M-Majesty! Our researchers just recorded a sudden surge of overwhelming mana beyond the gate! Most likely the Hero is engaging the 2nd Army Corps at- “

All of the sudden, the ground rattles violently as if there’s an earthquake. Everyone panicked except Jaeger who currently standing calmly in the middle of the room. The shaking resided moments later and everyone is in relief, though… not all of them.

“Ofnir, did sensors detect any sudden burst of energy from the north side of the mountain?”

[Affirmative sir, it came from the north beyond the mountain range and…]

“And what? Don’t stop in the middle when talking, you’re making me anxious.”

[sensors detected a compromise on the atmospheric energy blanket, and my connection to the ship has been restored, sir]

“Oh, that’s good news then” there was an awkward silence between the two while everyone is checking each other’s condition [so uhh… what are your orders, sir?]

“Do I even need to say it?”

[no sir, I’m just messing with you, sending in our current mission status now]

Far from the capital, right in the mountain range where he landed his fighter jet. The Valliant’s engine started to spool up, and the force from the engines on hover mode was screeching loud enough that the creatures that is surrounding it since yesterday and got confused about it then ran frantically away. It then launched itself to around 25 km above the ground, flying straight to the coordinates of the breach on the atmospheric blanket which means flying through the World Gate again.

On the ground, at the same time at the place where the burst of energy happened. It was a blessing for the Holy Kingdom as they witnessed how the Hero saved the Princess’s convoy as they were ambushed during their journey to visit the Inclira Kingdom to the southeast of the Holy Kingdom by the 2nd army corps of the Apollyon Kingdom that has been demonized. The head of the General who took shape of a 10-meter-tall giant was cleanly vaporized from the attack Kurogane did. Around the ease that suddenly came, he looked around to the destruction that his enemies did, from the 150 guards that was tasked, including 20 support mages, were nearly wiped out by the hordes of aggressive looking wolves called “Evil Wolves” and heavily armed Goblins. The Princess’s carriage was flipped, though fortunately herself and her aide or maid to be exact only suffered minor injuries.

“Looks like he could let out his full potential huh?” Florentina, that was slightly battered on the battle she just encountered, slightly smirked under the shadow of her massive mage hat. To think that Kurogane’s progress was that fast in under 2 days was very astounding in her assessment. Their Journey to Inclira is actually to get permission to enter the endless forest for him to train as the part of the forest that has strong monsters are inside the aforementioned nation’s territory.

“But to think he could defeat such enemy in one strike is quite unexpected as well… should I tease him slightly?”. Giggling at the idea of wanting to give a praise to her pupil as well as slightly teasing him, she then saw him getting a hug from the princess as she turned her head around from the dead giant. the princess was scared to death, wailing her cry loudly as she was being calmed down by the teenager. The scene made her change speed of her walking to them with a slight sulk on her face.

“you two had enough of your love affair time yet??” both Kurogane and the Princess was taken buy surprised and separate from each other with a visible blush on both faces, the Court mage sighed as she remove her hat and held it on her hand, fluttering her hair down. “Good grief… have you got no shame? We’re in the middle of a woodlands you know? You need to have an understanding to our current condition better as we need to move quick before night comes”

She then turned around and stood up on top of the flipped carriage, having everyone’s attention as she tapped her staff to the carriage’s flipped side. “I’m taking command now since the current knight captain is injured, gather up the Injured and leave the corpses of the deceased ones after we collect their identification card. Be quick! we need to arrive to the border city before sundown! The hero has brought us victory and saved us so we must use our remaining time here to the finest!” The knights roared, acknowledging her orders.

She then turned around to the astonished pupil of hers with a smile of pride. “So… my dear pupil, shall we get back to work?”. Kurogane had a thought just passed by as the image of Florentina was awfully stunning as the flutter of her hair by the slow wind and her bright smile with her bold appearance to take over the command made him slightly flustered, looking away from her.

It didn’t took them long to reorganize and resume their journey to the aforementioned border city. Their journey went smooth, the skies were also clear, but one of the knights saw some trail of white cloud that’s coming from something that can’t be identified by him. Little do he know; it was the fighter jet that Jaeger sent to send the SOS signal returning from its mission while the skies slowly recovering its invisible blanket of energy….