"This is the letter."
After explaining her purpose, Ligeia took out the final letter written by Luo Li and handed it to Augus.
Augus frowned as he took the letter, looked it over, and nodded slightly.
He then handed it to Yuna.
"Destroy it."
Yuna gave a slight nod. Without even a hint of a desire to look at the contents, her long sword was out of its sheath in an instant.
With a flash of sword light, the letter was shredded into pieces.
Ligeia, still feeling a bit uneasy, used a fire element spell to incinerate the remaining fragments.
"When you see Her Highness, please tell her that 'Augus understands what needs to be done.'"
"Very well."
Ligeia nodded and looked around at their surroundings.
"Has there been any change in the situation here?"
Augus shook his head slightly.
"Nothing has been discovered for now, but the more quiet it is, the more I get a bad feeling about it."
"Then please be careful. Here... take this."
Ligeia hesitated for a moment before taking out a magic stone.
"There is a one-time spell sealed inside. Although its power is less than a third of a normally triggered spell, it can save your life at a critical moment."
"Thank you."
Augus nodded, pocketing the magic stone without any pretense of politeness.
He then spoke with a righteous tone.
"Lady Ligeia, compared to us, Her Highness at the front needs you more. Please set out as soon as possible and ensure her safety."
Ligeia was momentarily stunned. Was he essentially chasing her away?
This Augus really did not know how to handle social niceties at all.
However, he was right. Luo Li was in more danger and was more important at the front lines.
"In that case, I shall take my leave. Be careful."
With that, Ligeia rose directly into the air and flew toward the horizon.
Watching the figure gradually disappear into the sky, Augus frowned and glanced at the ashes left on the ground.
"Augus, do you think... Her Highness will be able to return safely?"
Augus looked at Yuna.
"Of course."
"I see..."
...
Ligeia did not stop. After leaving the refugee camp, she headed straight for Moonrise City.
If traveling by land, the distance was quite vast. Even moving at forty kilometers per hour, it would take at least a dozen hours to get from Brilliant City to Moonrise City.
In this era where transportation was not well-developed, aside from knights who could travel at speeds over forty kilometers per hour, only those with the ability to fly remained.
Fortunately, Ligeia’s flight was relatively effortless, and her speed was much faster than a knight's.
It took her only a little over three hours to reach Moonrise City.
Upon arriving at Moonrise City, she presented the Papal Decree, and naturally, no one dared to stop her.
She met Byron Stuart without any obstacles and explained her intent.
"So it is Lady Ligeia. I have long heard of your name, great mage. Meeting you today is truly an honor of a life—"
"Enough. I do not want to listen to your nonsense. Are the ships ready?"
Ligeia had no favorable impression of these nobles who were accustomed to exploiting commoners.
If it were not for Luo Li, she would not have bothered to even greet them.
The Byron before her was pale, with deeply sunken cheeks, bloodless lips, and lifeless eyes.
One look was enough to tell he was physically weak due to excessive overindulgence.
Furthermore, it was not just ordinary overindulgence, but the kind resulting from using harsh stimulants unique to alchemists.
People in this era lived long lives; sixty-year-olds could be seen all over the streets.
As long as a noble maintained a decent lifestyle with their wealthy resources, they would inevitably live much longer than the average commoner.
However, the reality was somewhat ironic.
The lifespan of nobles, especially males, was often quite short, sometimes even shorter than that of commoners.
Ligeia had seen many people and was a standard biologist. She could tell with a glance that Byron was only around thirty-five or thirty-six years old.
At such an age, he should have been in his prime, yet the man before her was this weak.
Looking like this, it would be a miracle if he lived to fifty.
"Yes, yes, of course they are ready. All ships are standing by at the docks. All cargo ships are currently unloading. They will be completely cleared by noon today at the latest, and then they can set sail."
Ligeia frowned slightly.
It would still take half a day?
From here to the location of the demon island, it was at least five hundred nautical miles.
Even with a tailwind, a ship could only reach about fifteen knots. By that calculation, it would take at least thirty hours to reach the island.
She had returned last night, and six or seven hours had already passed.
Waiting until noon would take another twelve or thirteen hours, plus the thirty hours of travel.
This would take almost two days.
Ligeia calculated the distance in her mind. If the entire army retreated at full speed, they could probably reach the evacuation point in thirty hours.
In other words, the army at the front would need to hold out for at least ten hours.
"Have the workers speed up the unloading! There can be no delay!"
"But..."
"There are no buts! Send everyone from your family! Mobilize all laborers! I want the ships to depart within the hour!"
Ligeia suddenly put on an authoritative air. It wasn't that she enjoyed doing so, but time was of the essence, and she simply could not care about anything else.
"This..."
"For every minute of delay, I will report the matter to Bishop Lola."
"Yes, yes, yes... I will arrange it immediately! Right now!"
At the mention of reporting to Bishop Lola, Byron shuddered and hurried to make the arrangements.
Ligeia went directly to the docks, looking out at the thousand or so ships of various sizes.
The largest were the greatest vessels currently developed by humans on the continent.
A single one could hold over five thousand people. The entire hull was made of metal, although the deck remained wooden.
Anyone who saw such a ship would be filled with wonder.
It was far too massive.
The enormous hull exceeded four hundred meters in length, with over a hundred massive wooden oars extending from its sides.
Several sails, none less than a hundred meters tall, stood atop the ship. The entire vessel was so large that one could only gaze up at it in awe.
The normal function of this ship was not for combat, but as a cargo vessel.
Showing her credentials, Ligeia walked to the bow without hindrance and looked down.
The people on the docks looked like tiny ants, working tirelessly.
In the distance, ships of all sizes were docked.
From small fishing boats that could only carry a dozen people to steel ships as long as four hundred meters like this one.
There were a full thousand of them.
Her gaze swept over these ships, and she quickly calculated the approximate capacity.
By all accounts, they should be sufficient to carry a hundred and ten or twenty thousand people.
Including the horses, a rough glance suggested the number was adequate.
If the Kingdom of the Sun were still flourishing, their warships alone would have been enough to transport these people.
Unfortunately, the Kingdom of the Sun was currently weakened to the extreme.
It was impossible for them to assemble that many warships anymore.
With Ligeia’s urging, the unloading speed increased significantly, and the ships were finally cleared an hour later.
The fleet set sail immediately. Ligeia did not want to waste a single minute; she only wanted to return to the demon island as quickly as possible to bring her Highness back.
"Little Luo Li, you better wait for me. Otherwise... big sister won't talk to you anymore~"
...
"Ugh~"
Standing atop the black dragon's head, looking down at the land where almost no trees grew, Luo Li shivered for no apparent reason and instinctively touched her cheek.
What was that? Did she catch a cold?
That shouldn't be possible.
The current altitude was at most a thousand meters. It was a bit chilly, but her Saintess's robe had a heat-retention function. How could she catch a cold?
She looked into the distance, but the coastline was still nowhere to be seen.
According to the army's retreat speed and the distance to the evacuation point, they should be able to arrive within two days while fighting as they withdrew.
As for the vanguard sent to occupy the high ground, they had likely already reached the evacuation point.
"Black, how much further is it to the coastline?"
Looking back, they had already left the vicinity of the Demon King's Castle.
It was now just a small black dot, and even the outline of the castle could no longer be seen clearly.
"In response to the Saintess, based on the humidity and pressure in the air, the coast should be another two hundred kilometers away."
Two hundred kilometers?
Given the flight speed of the dragon race, two hundred kilometers wasn't particularly long or short. It would take about two hours.
At the thought of this, Luo Li couldn't help but envy the dragons.
It had to be said that the dragon race truly deserved their title as the strongest race on the continent.
Even without seeing it, they could determine a general range based on their sensitivity to air pressure and humidity.
Was this why the dragon race never got lost, no matter how they flew across the vast lands?
However... even if Luo Li reached the coastline, she would still have to fly west along the coast for a distance to reach the evacuation point.
In truth, Luo Li had another plan from the start.
That was to not return to the evacuation point at all.
Instead, she could have taken the dragons to evacuate from the northern coast of the demon island, crossing hundreds of kilometers of ocean to reach the territory of the Beastmen Empire, then passing through the Snow Country to return to the Kingdom of the Moon.
That way, she could at least avoid a direct confrontation with the demon race.
However... that idea had been shattered the moment she learned about the 'tentacle trigger mechanism.'
No matter what, she had to go back and take a look.
Otherwise, she couldn't rest easy.
If she left tens of thousands of people to wait for death while she returned to the continent first, she would be unable to face the other Saintesses of the human race.
Once war broke out and the death toll reached over ten thousand, it was very likely to trigger that tentacle mechanism.
Calling it a summoning wasn't quite right, and calling it a sacrifice wasn't entirely accurate either.
Luo Li always felt that the tentacle wasn't something temporarily summoned, but rather something already rooted on this island.
In other words, the number of deaths wasn't a simple sacrifice, but rather using blood to attract it.
At least, this speculation seemed very logical now.
But if that were truly the case, the difficulty of reclaiming the demon island would increase greatly.
Even if they could wipe out the demon elites at sea, capturing the demon island would become almost impossible.
Unless she could truly unite the power of the entire continent and use absolute military superiority to eradicate the main body of that tentacle.
Otherwise... at least in the short term, they shouldn't think about counterattacking the demon island while the demon race was weak.
"Black."
"Please give your orders, Saintess."
"You had close contact with that tentacle, right?"
"That is correct."
Black answered honestly. This fellow didn't seem very good at small talk and spoke in a very methodical manner.
However, this made things easier for Luo Li, as she didn't have to beat around the bush.
"Then do you think that tentacle is strong?"
"...If I may say so, the tentacle itself is very strong. But if it is just a single tentacle, one member of the dragon race should be enough to contend with it."
"You mean you alone could deal with one?"
"Yes, I can contend with it, but... it is very difficult to kill."
Black spoke truthfully as he said, "If it were just me, I could slowly figure out its weaknesses. After all, the tentacle's range of movement is small. Although its individual strength is great, its agility is too poor."
"It can indeed exert a massive power advantage in a military formation, but against a single target, even if we cannot win, the dragon race can protect ourselves."
In other words, the true combat power of one tentacle was roughly equivalent to one dragon?
No, that wasn't how the calculation worked. Black said 'protect ourselves,' not 'defeat it.'
"Then how many dragons do you think would be needed to be completely sure of defeating it?"
"...In my personal opinion, I believe five would be enough."
"Why do you say that?"
"The last time we faced that tentacle, none of our dragon race exerted our full strength. Only His Majesty used his full power for a single strike. You experienced the effect of that yourself."
She had indeed experienced it. It had almost reached the standard of a small nuclear bomb.
"But that was the Dragon King's full power strike after all. Can five dragons compare to that?"
Black gave a light chuckle.
"The Saintess still underestimates my dragon race. Although five dragons cannot exert an absolutely crushing power like His Majesty's, dealing with one tentacle is not a major problem."
Absolutely crushing?
Yes... indeed, the Dragon King's strike was essentially a crushing blow.
What the other dragons did was merely prevent that tentacle from escaping.
If five dragons could handle one tentacle according to Black's thoughts, then strictly speaking, was the strength of this tentacle inferior to a feathered serpent?
That wasn't quite right either. In terms of recovery and strength, this tentacle absolutely crushed five dragons.
However, combat could not be based entirely on strength. Otherwise, the two sides could just arm-wrestle to decide the winner.
Why bother fighting to the death?
In other words, Black likely felt that since the tentacle could not move, they could wear it down or grind it to death.
"I think I understand what you mean."
Luo Li nodded. From Black's words, she had roughly inferred the strength of that tentacle.
In a stationary state, five dragons should be able to grind it to death.
However, this required the concept of 'time.'
At the same time, there were some limiting conditions.
For instance, a situation where 'one tentacle takes on five dragons alone.'
But if some other demon race experts were added to the mix, it would be very difficult for the dragon race to hold out.
Sigh...
This tentacle really isn't easy to deal with.
She would have to find a way to break this thing after she got back.
Rate on N.U.
