Hidden Land.
Riezel and Lizbeth had been searching for that place for a very long time.
In order to find it—or rather, to obtain any information related to it—they had even crossed the entirety of Jinas and traveled all the way to the neutral city of Sinielle.
In the end, however, the trip had been completely in vain—they had failed to obtain even the slightest clue regarding Hidden Land.
Now, at last, people from that place had finally appeared before them, leaving both of them with mixed emotions.
Lizbeth, in particular, looked extremely conflicted.
"Tell me."
Riezel rubbed Lizbeth's head, silently comforting her before turning toward Ivy and asking calmly.
"What kinda place is it exactly?"
Unfortunately, his question did not receive an immediate answer.
Ivy first looked at Riezel with surprise, clearly not expecting someone who knew of the existence of the Hidden Land to ask such a question.
At first, hesitation appeared on her face, and then she fell silent.
It was obvious that Ivy had admitted her origins so readily earlier because she had assumed Riezel already knew what the Hidden Land was. But now that he had revealed his lack of knowledge regarding it, she had to consider whether revealing information about the Hidden Land might lead to terrible consequences.
Simply put, she had no intention of betraying her hometown.
As a result, she chose not to answer his question and remained silent.
Seeing her reaction, Riezel did not become angry and merely spoke again in an indifferent tone.
"Y'know, the fact that I'm asking you face-to-face like this is already me being courteous. Don't make me use magic to dig through your memories."
Only then did Ivy's expression change slightly.
"Um... could you please tell us?"
Just then, Lizbeth could no longer hold herself back and stepped forward.
"What exactly is the Hidden Land?" Lizbeth asked in a pleading tone, her eyes fixed on Ivy. "Please, this is very important to me. Please tell me."
"Princess..."
Ivy's expression changed once again, a trace of hesitation appearing on her face.
For her, while she could ignore Riezel's threats and remain unmoved by his pressure, she couldn't ignore Lizbeth's request.
As a result, she responded somewhat hastily.
"Your Highness, we're not your enemies! Quite the opposite, we're your most loyal followers! Meanwhile, that arrogant man over there who forced you into an attendant contract is the real enemy. Please don't let him fool you!"
However, Lizbeth immediately abandoned Ivy's pleading demeanor and became serious.
"My master didn't force me, and he certainly didn't deceive me. I became his attendant of my own free will."
Unfortunately, those words failed to move Ivy.
"Your Highness, that's exactly what deception is!"
Ivy shouted, her voice rising in exasperation as she stared at Lzibeth in disbelief.
"You are the last bloodline of Reinnail! In this world, there isn't a single person qualified to make you their attendant, nor is there anyone worthy of being called your master!"
"Your Highness, the blood flowing through your veins is the greatest bloodline in the entire world! Someone like you should never become another person's attendant, Your Highness!"
Anyone could see that Ivy's speech carried tremendous conviction.
Judging from her agitated appearance, she genuinely believed every word she said. It was as though she regarded the bloodline of Reinnail as a sacred faith and worshipped it like a god.
It was not difficult to understand why.
Reinnail had been a clan of heroes, the royal clan that had once led all of humanity in resistance against the monsters and freed mankind from its status as prey. To the humans of the ancient magic civilization, such heroes had probably been no different from gods worthy of worship.
As someone who had inherited the legacy of the ancient magic civilization, Ivy had clearly inherited that ancient belief and worldview as well.
Unfortunately...
"Even if you praise Reinnail to the heavens, it doesn't change the fact that it's already gone."
Riezel suddenly tossed out a cold remark from the side.
"I mean, the ancient magic civilization led by Reinnail was wiped out. Its bloodline has nearly gone extinct across this continent, and barely anyone even knows it ever existed. It's nowhere near as great as you imagine."
"What did you say?!"
Riezel's words instantly shattered Ivy's composure, and the look in her eyes as she glared at him became filled with murderous intent.
It was the gaze of a fanatic whose faith had been insulted.
Unfortunately, she had chosen the wrong target.
Meeting Ivy's stare, Riezel revealed a faint smile that wasn't quite a smile, yet his eyes were as cold as ice.
Ivy's heart trembled immediately as an instinctive sense of dread surged through her. Her intuition told her that if she continued acting without understanding her place, the man before her would no longer show any restraint.
At that point, having her memories searched would be the least of her concerns.
Being condemned to a fate worse than death would be the true nightmare.
After all, this young man was a monster who had casually dragged her out of the sea of death and revived her.
Even though she had no idea how Riezel had accomplished such a thing, since even within the ancient magic civilization, the concept of reviving the dead had never existed, the evidence stood right before her.
No matter how unwilling she was to accept it, she had to acknowledge one fact.
In front of Riezel, she was nothing.
"I'll ask you one more time."
Riezel's voice remained completely flat, without the slightest hint of emotion.
"What exactly is the Hidden Land?"
"What does it have to do with the ancient magic civilization?"
"And what does it have to do with Lizbeth?"
"You'd better think carefully before you answer."
It was clearly an ultimatum.
Riezel was making it clear that he had his limits as well.
He did not mind dissolving the attendant relationship between himself and Lizbeth if that was what she wanted. However, it would never happen because someone else demanded it, nor would he tolerate a third party sticking their nose into the matter.
At this point, the relationship between them had long since surpassed that of a simple master and attendant. Countless bonds now connected them, ties that could not be severed no matter how hard one tried.
Just like his relationships with Yuri and Ais, what had started as ordinary companionship had gradually become a closeness neither side could do without.
For that reason, if anyone dared to criticize or interfere with matters concerning himself and Lizbeth in front of him, he truly would not mind becoming ruthless and teaching them a lesson.
Lizbeth clearly felt the same way, as shown by how she was no longer looking at Ivy with pleading eyes and instead appeared somewhat displeased, puffing out her cheeks in anger.
"Your Highness..."
Noticing the look in Lizbeth's eyes, Ivy felt as though her heart had been pierced.
Strangely enough, she appeared even more depressed and miserable than when Riezel had threatened her.
Finally, Ivy gritted her teeth and looked at Riezel again.
"What do you intend to do after learning what the Hidden Land is?"
Her voice was laced with caution, and there was a hint of wariness in her eyes as she asked the question.
"Hmph, that's my business," Riezel replied indifferently, his expression not changing in the slightest. "It has nothing to do with you."
"No, you have to tell me," Ivy said firmly, her expression turning resolute as she met his gaze without backing down. "Otherwise, I'm never telling you anything about the Hidden Land!"
"It doesn't matter," Riezel said, still indifferent and completely unfazed, as though her refusal didn't affect him at all. "I can just search your memories instead."
Upon hearing that, Ivy immediately began chanting a magic spell.
She was not trying to fight back—rather, she intended to seal her consciousness and prevent any Interference System Magic from probing her memories or mind.
As a powerful magician, she naturally understood the dangers posed by Interference System Magic, so she had long ago placed numerous protective magic spells upon herself to defend against mental, spiritual, memory-related, and other forms of Interference System Magic.
Not only could those protective magic spells all be activated with a single chant, but they were also difficult to guard against and nearly impossible for outsiders to stop.
Yet moments later, Ivy's expression changed once again as she discovered that she could not activate any of her hidden magic spells.
It was only natural.
"You didn't forget where you are, did you?"
As if he had read her mind, Riezel's voice reached her ears.
"We're within the royal palace of Jinas, protected by the Strategic-Class Magic Barrier, Light of Heaven."
"Nobody can use magic in this place. Even the special abilities granted by Special Swordsmanship are off-limits."
"The only reason you could use magic before was because of that tree branch. Now that you've lost it, you're nothing more than an ordinary person here."
As he spoke, Riezel extended a finger and pressed it against Ivy's forehead.
"Since you refuse to cooperate, don't blame me for not giving you a chance."
"I won't search your memories."
"I'll make you speak on your own."
"But this time, you won't have the freedom to decide whether you wanna speak or not."
As soon as he finished speaking, Riezel chanted a magic spell.
"Over Magic - Charm Species."
In that instant, the magic that controlled the minds of others was elevated to its highest tier before being cast directly upon Ivy.
"No—!"
Realizing what was happening, Ivy let out a scream, but in the very next second, the scream abruptly stopped, the light in her eyes faded, and her gaze became vacant. Finally, even the expression on her face disappeared completely.
"Ivy!"
As fate would have it, the young man named Leo woke up at that exact moment.
"You bastard! What did you do to her?!"
Leo predictably flew into a rage, but...
*BANG!*
Standing right beside him, Euryale mercilessly brought her hand down onto his head with a heavy slap, causing his eyes to bulge as his body, which had been about to spring up, instantly went limp and collapsed back onto the floor.
"How brutal..."
Luna, who had hardly dared to speak this entire time, looked at the woman whose appearance strangely resembled her princess's with the eyes of someone staring at a devil. Her neck shrank back reflexively, and she became even less willing to speak.
In fact, she had been confused throughout everything that had happened tonight.
She did not know who had invaded the royal palace.
She did not know where or what the Hidden Land was.
She did not understand why Ivy was so emotional regarding her princess's bloodline.
As a result, she had been completely lost the entire time and had no idea what was actually happening.
Naturally, no one had any intention of explaining things to her.
At the same time, while Luna was still standing there in bewilderment, Riezel had already begun questioning the charmed Ivy.
===
What exactly was the Hidden Land?
In truth, it was a shelter established by the ancient magic civilization before its destruction.
Eleven thousand years ago, the ancient magic civilization had reached its end as the continent stood on the verge of being swallowed by disaster, and humanity itself faced extinction.
Before that catastrophe, mankind had stood at the brink of annihilation.
Faced with that sudden disaster, the final queen of the Reinnail Clan resolved to resist until the very end. Leading humanity's greatest elites, she defended the last remaining main city of mankind.
However, she had no desire to drag everyone down with her—at the very least, she did not want humanity to become completely extinct if she failed.
Hence, she ordered the construction of a shelter at the fastest possible speed, then selected a group of people to serve as humanity's final sparks and had them relocated there.
Needless to say, that shelter was known as the Hidden Land.
"The Hidden Land doesn't exist on the Akasha Continent. It's an isolated dimension, completely separated from the world itself."
"Free from conflict, the last humans who survived that extinction stopped fighting each other there. Instead, they supported one another and continued to grow in number."
"We were born from those people. We're the descendants of the ancient magic civilization's people who still remain in this world."
"For eleven thousand years, we've lived within the Hidden Land, carrying on the legacy left behind by the ancient magic civilization and continuing to grow stronger. We don't interfere with the outside world anymore."
"Throughout all these years, aside from the occasional people who wanted to leave the Hidden Land and settle on the Akasha Continent, the Hidden Land has never kept in contact with the outside world."
Under the influence of Charm Species, Ivy explained the reason humanity had reappeared on the Akasha Continent.
People had left the Hidden Land and settled in the outside world, allowing humanity to flourish once more upon the Akasha Continent instead of leaving behind nothing but a desolate land devoid of human life.
After eleven thousand years of development, the Hidden Land had also grown increasingly prosperous. Its population had expanded dramatically, so they never stopped people from leaving. They merely imposed certain restrictions upon those who departed, preventing them from revealing the existence or secrets of the Hidden Land.
Just like that, the Akasha Continent and the Hidden Land had continued developing side by side in peace. One established the modern magic civilization, while the other continued preserving the ancient magic civilization.
Under normal circumstances, that situation should have continued indefinitely.
Until Lizbeth appeared.
"In the Hidden Land, the highest authority belongs to the priests of the Sanctuary, who stand above everyone else and have always kept an eye on the outside world."
"Recently, the priests found out that a descendant of the Reinnail Clan had shown up in Jinas and had even become a princess of the kingdom. On top of that, she's currently under house arrest."
"Since the Reinnail Clan is the royal clan we've worshipped for eleven thousand years and the representative of God, the priests naturally couldn't just stand by and watch one of their descendants suffer out in the outside world."
"That's why Leo and I received orders from the high priest. Using the teleportation magic formation that connects the Akasha Continent and the Hidden Land, we came to the royal capital of Jinas to bring the princess back home."
Under the gazes of Riezel and Lizbeth, the vacant-eyed Ivy spoke as though she were talking to her closest friend, revealing every piece of information she knew in an intimate tone.
"Our sole purpose in coming here was to take away the true descendant of the Reinnail Clan."
"Actually, the high priest even gave us permission to declare war on Jinas if necessary."
"That's why we brought the powerful mystical artifacts bestowed upon us by the high priest. Everything was for the sake of taking Her Highness away."
As they listened to her words, Riezel remained calm, but Lizbeth looked even more conflicted than before, genuinely not knowing what she was supposed to say anymore.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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