Vol. 11 - Chapter 611 - Giran's 2nd trial, Rameciel Kingdom
(Wait, before that…)
Allen had arrived at the temple where the Dragon King\'s throne was located. A group of dragonkin priests quickly went to meet them.
"Lord Allen, welcome back from the divine realm."
"Thank you. We have some business in Rameciel so we returned for a bit."
"Ohh, then should I send a message to them so they know to await you?"
"I\'d appreciate that. Please tell King Oolon we\'ll arrive at his palace before the evening."
Allen was glad that the dragonkin caught on to conversations so quickly. Since Allen was always restless, as if he was in the middle of an RTA run, everyone around him was getting used to getting through things quickly. There were also members of Allen\'s Army in the temple, ready to follow his orders.
"Understood. We dragonkin believe your goals are our ideal future."
After the Dragon King Matildora joined Allen\'s group, the dragonkin had started cooperating more. Allen thanked them and then summoned Kuwatoro inside the gigantic temple.
"Sorry, Kuwatoro. But I figured you were the best choice since we\'re going to Rameciel."
\'No no, it\'s fine.\'
Kuwatoro looked like a beautiful swan with golden feathers. Allen and the two girls climbed on Kuwatoro\'s back and quickly went to work raising his Skill Level. Since he was not making any Golden Eggs now, he just had to leaf through the Grimoire.
"The terrain is changing around here…wait, there\'s nothing though."
The terrain below them had turned into an endless sequence of hills of various sizes, with a mountain range in the distance. The mountain range\'s slope was higher than 60 degrees, so Cecile did not think that was a place where people could live. There were just mountains everywhere, without any flat terrain for people to build on, and she could not see any man-made structures like bridges or villages either.
"I\'m pretty sure Rameciel has cities within valleys."
"So between the mountains?"
"Yes. Kuwatoro, try to fly through the valleys here."
\'Understood.\'
Kuwatoro replied with her usual polite demeanor, descending into the valleys. Her wings were nearly 100 meters wide when stretched out, but the valleys were hundreds of meters wide so she could fly without much trouble.
As they descended between the mountains, the valleys produced an updraft that allowed them to glide along without much effort.
"Ohh, there\'s a city between the mountains!"
Sophie\'s eyes were twinkling as she said that. They were seeing a city of birdmen, where the living spaces had been carved into the mountain sides.
"Hm? They\'re waving at us."
Allen used a Bird E summon to check out the city from closer, and saw the birdmen had already noticed them, likely thanks to good eyesight as they were still really far away. There were children waving at them, carried in the shoulders of their parents, and Allen waved back at them. The city was surrounded by iron fences with 10 meter gaps, likely to stop large monsters from approaching the city. Though it also made it look like a bird cage.
There were also a multitude of windmills all over the city, putting the strong valley winds to good use, making water flow or milling grains. There was also a large statue of Kuwatoro standing in the center of the city, in front of which many birdmen held their feathered hands together and prayed.
(Birdmen are also really religious then.)
That made it even more confusing why the Mythical Bird Rame still had not become a God.
"Hmhm, so that\'s what a regular city in Rameciel looks like."
Allen took out a map from his Grimoire. He had asked Allen\'s Army to gather maps from every country and continent before, so he had one showing Rameciel and most of its cities. Their destination was the capital, but along the way they saw other cities. Allen continued using a Bird E summon to take a closer look at more cities, but most looked similar to the first one they flew over.
"They all look the same from up here."
Cecile gave her thoughts, which made a lot of sense.
"For now yeah, but we should arrive at the capital soon enough. We\'ll talk to the king there."
Allen looked at the map and compared it to the terrain around them. He pointed at a bigger mountain which stood out from the rest, with one side carved into. That was the location of Friedel, the capital city of Rameciel.
Kuwatoro flapped her wings and adjusted her path to head there. The capital was a large hole, 1 kilometer tall and dozens of kilometers deep, carved into the mountain at a height of 10 kilometers. There the iron fences stopped Kuwatoro from going further, so Allen had to send her away, then summon her again a distance ahead to get through.
The birdmen of the capital quickly noticed Kuwatoro flying elegantly above them, and quickly began praying to her. The royal palace was in the middle of the capital city, and Allen\'s group landed there.
(It seems we\'ve caused quite a commotion, but they don\'t seem to be angry at us.)
There were guards and soldiers gathered in the palace, but none held their weapons ready. They had likely already obtained the message of Allen\'s arrival from the dragonkin priests. There was also one birdman with unsteady feet but gorgeous clothes that approached them.
"Oh my, I didn\'t think you\'d return together with our venerated Kuwatoro, thank you so much. I\'m Karasagi, the prime minister of this kingdom. I can hardly believe my eyes…such glory!"
The heron-faced prime minister looked more interested in Kuwatoro than on Allen.
"Hey! Kuwatoro is attracting way too much attention."
"Ah, right. I guess that\'s enough. Kuwatoro, thank you for bringing us here."
\'Don\'t mention it. I\'m glad I was able to fly over Rameciel again.\'
There were knights, soldiers, and even nobles and servants coming out to see Kuwatoro, so Allen quickly sent her away. But Cecile still sighed, muttering "Here we go again" seeing that Allen was trying to act like they were the messengers of Kuwatoro.
"We were told that you had some urgent matters to discuss with His Majesty the King?"
The prime minister\'s head tilted 180 degrees as he asked why Allen was there.
"Yes! The truth is, the Mythical Bird Rame is having some trouble in the divine realm, so I\'d really like to talk about that with His Majesty King Oolon!!"
"Wha-?! Are you sure about that?!!"
"Yes, I swear on the name of the Sacred Bird Kuwatoro that I\'m not lying!"
Allen put on the most serious face he could muster.
(Cecile, Sophie, try to act a little more nervous. It\'ll just drag on if it doesn\'t look important.)
Sophie and Cecile just looked annoyed and fed up, unable to go along with Allen\'s antics.
"I see, then let me show you to the drawing room, please follow me."
The prime minister, basically the second person with the most power in the kingdom, guided Allen\'s group into the palace. Stories of everything that Allen had done to fight the Demon King\'s Army were spreading across the world already, but Rameciel was so remote that they probably did not hear those stories in much detail. Still, they allowed Allen into the palace. Inside, the prime minister went up a set of stairs leading to the second floor.
(Hmm, the drawing room isn\'t near the entrance, but quite far inside. Hm?)
The top of the stairs was a corridor, leading to both the right and left sides. Allen looked at a 5 meter tall painting hung on the wall there.
It depicted Kuwatoro with both wings raised, and 6 figures in front of her. Those 6 appeared to be a party of adventurers with humans, dwarves, dark elves, and beastmen. The man in front of the group was holding an enormous egg the same size as him, which had a rainbow sheen to it.
"Ohh, what a wonderful painting."
"You\'re right. I wonder if they\'re some sort of heroes?"
Sophie and Cecile looked at the painting in awe.
"Oh that\'s Kuwatoro together with the S Rank adventurer party Glorious Serenity."
"Ohh~"
Karasagi\'s voice was filled with pride as he described the painting. Those words also caught Allen\'s attention, so even though he wanted to hurry, he decided it was worth it to stay and listen to the prime minister.
"This is something that happened more than 60 years ago. The Albaheron Legend laid a rainbow egg, which led to a lot of misfortune in our kingdom."
That was a big incident that happened in Rameciel way before Allen was born, but after the Demon King\'s Army began to attack.
Albaherons were monsters that ranged from E Rank all the way to S Rank, and the Albaheron Legend was the one that birthed them all. Those of low Ranks could procreate really quickly, as the weakest Albaherons could lay 100 eggs every day, but as their rank went up that would also slow down. In the case of the Albaheron legend, it only laid one egg every 1000 years, and it was a rainbow egg.
(Even that\'s a form of gacha though. The Rank of an Albaheron depends on the shape and color of the eggs it came from.)
As the Albaheron Legend neared the time to lay eggs, the other Albaharons would go in search of large amounts of food for it, leading to a drastic increase of Albaheron attacks not only in Rameciel, but in the entire continent.
That was especially worse when a rainbow egg was coming, as the Albaherons would become more aggressive.
But according to Karasagi, the adventurer party Glorious Serenity came and saved Rameciel during that time.