Chapter 236

Chapter 236
Chapter 236: Never Mind The Heir, I’ll Focus On Healing

The Great Barrier.

A massive sealing barrier designed to completely sever the Demon Realm from this region.

Standing atop the highest tower within sight of the Great Barrier, Petrick observed the sweeping perimeter curtain with a tranquil gaze.

There was not a single trace of irregularity anywhere along the Great Barrier.

Which, in all fairness, was to be expected.

As an Archmage, Petrick had routinely inspected and reinforced this Great Barrier during every spare moment he could find.

At most, only weak, low-tier demons occasionally managed to breach the threshold.

More often than not, they simply perished because they could not endure the harsh atmospheric conditions of this realm.

‘There is definitely no problem.’

Petrick’s eyes remained fixed on the barrier, which was woven from intricate magic and pure divine power.

Even under his expert scrutiny, no flaws could be detected within the Great Barrier.

The defensive network was remarkably resilient.

“How strange.”

According to the Marquis of Byedantis, however, the frequency of demon sightings had been on the rise lately.

While they were nothing more than cannon fodder comparable to ordinary beasts, this shift was undeniably an abnormal warning sign.

Do demons really multiply so easily outside the Demon Realm?

For their numbers to grow, there had to be a fracture somewhere within the Great Barrier.

Yet no such thing existed.

No matter how meticulously he investigated, the Great Barrier remained completely sound.

He, an Archmage, had verified it personally…

*Swish.*

Petrick glanced sideways at the Archbishop standing beside him, who wore a gentle, benevolent expression.

“What are your thoughts on this?”

“While the former Archbishop’s divine power has indeed grown somewhat faint, it is not degraded to the point where it fails to sustain the barrier.”

“Are you certain?”

“I can guarantee it as the Archbishop. Should you remain uneasy, I will return shortly to perform a fresh blessing.”

The Former Archbishop. Though lacking the overwhelming purity of his predecessor, who was revered as the Saintess, the current Archbishop was nonetheless a formidable wielder of divine power.

Consequently, his assurances were far from idle words.

“Are you troubled?”

“About what?”

“Haha……”

The Archbishop gazed out toward the Great Barrier with a soft, affectionate smile.

His eyes carried a flicker of deep nostalgia alongside an indefinable sorrow.

“It is simply that I worry from time to time. I worry that people might forget the former Archbishop if this magnificent barrier she forged ever fades away.”

It was a rather self-absorbed sentiment for a man of the cloth.

If the Great Barrier were to collapse, catastrophes akin to the horrors of fifty years ago would inevitably repeat themselves.

Innocent lives would be lost, plagues would spread, deception would run rampant, and countless irreplaceable things would be destroyed.

And yet, the Archbishop’s foremost concern was that “the Saintess might be forgotten.”

In earlier days, Petrick would have harshly rebuked such vanity, but today, the words failed to leave his tongue.

“Marquis, surely you too worry about your grandchildren coming to harm, do you not?”

“……”

Petrick answered only with silence, gently closing his eyes.

Indeed.

It was a perilous train of thought for anyone burdened with such immense responsibility.

“Is that not a natural fear? I, too, feel excruciating pain whenever I imagine my own people facing harm.”

To the extent that one might even harbor resentment toward the divine.

The Archbishop brushed it off with a self-deprecating chuckle and offered a quiet prayer.

“However, if you consume yourself with worry, you may find yourself unable to truly cherish the precious moments you have with your grandchildren.”

“You are remarkably talkative today.”

“Haha…… I only mention it because you have appeared so relentlessly busy as of late.”

Do you not ever carve out time to rest?

With those parting words, the Archbishop turned on his heel.

“At any rate, from my perspective, the Great Barrier is flawless. The root of the issue lies elsewhere. I shall conduct a search, so it would be wisest for you to head back now.”

That way, I can earn some favorable standing.

Once the Archbishop had departed.

“……Hmm.”

Petrick lightly stroked his chin with one hand and muttered to himself.

“Moments spent together.”

For once, the Archbishop had uttered something sensible.

It was not as though Petrick desired nothing more than to idle away his days with his beloved grandchildren.

However, buried beneath a mountain of pressing duties and persistent anxieties regarding his grandchildren’s futures, he had been forced to run himself ragged.

Especially that particular child, Lion; there were simply too many troubling variables surrounding him.

Even at this very moment.

“He must have gone there.”

Lion’s signature presence, which ought to have been confined within the Imperial Palace, had shifted to a distant coordinate.

He had undoubtedly been chosen by “that painting” residing within the Imperial Treasury.

Petrick had deduced all of this during his dialogue with the Archbishop moments prior, yet he had maintained absolute composure.

It was entirely unlike the incident at the Labyrinth.

Petrick himself had stepped inside “that painting” long ago.

Back in the early days, when he still traveled alongside the Hero.

Petrick allowed his mind to drift briefly into the past.

‘We entered because there were clues tied to the Demon Realm hidden among the imperial relics.’

What choice did they have? Infiltration was the only path.

In truth, it had not been a particularly arduous task for Petrick.

He had visited the Imperial Treasury on multiple prior occasions.

The Asteri Family had still been at the height of its power back then, and the former Emperor had held a deep fondness for Petrick.

Favoring him even more than the reigning monarch.

Regardless, the point remained that not a single anomaly had occurred while Petrick was inside.

It was likely the same for anyone else.

And yet, as fate would have it…

The moment the Hero set foot inside the Treasure Vault, that sudden spatial anomaly had erupted.

The only peculiar detail was that the Hero had acted as though he anticipated the event, remaining entirely unruffled.

‘That had seemed quite baffling at the time…….’

Looking back now, he considered it a fortunate stroke of luck that he had been pulled inside beforehand.

Petrick and the Hero’s vanguard had already cleared out every latent threat.

And although it grated on his pride to admit it.

‘The Second Prince’s abilities appear dependable enough as well.’

Any unexpected complications would likely be managed by him.

Petrick shut his eyes and offered a slow nod.

Regardless, his eldest grandson was a moth drawn inexorably to the flame.

He possessed an uncanny talent for stumbling into perilous zones.

Given that he had been invited to the Imperial Palace, it was a given that he would wander into restricted areas.

Even if he were explicitly forbidden from going, would he ever heed the warning?

Knowing his temperament, he would sneak off rather than endure the restriction.

If that was inevitable, it was safer to dispatch him with a proper escort.

Naturally, he could not predict what sort of trouble might ensue inside, but he felt far less dread than he had during the Labyrinth ordeal.

“……Which reminds me.”

It would require a fair amount of time for them to escape the confines of the painting.

He ought to notify his youngest grandson ahead of time.

Lifting the hand that had been resting on his chin, Petrick began tracing characters into empty space.

Mana flowed like ink in the wake of his graceful gestures, solidifying into written runes and engraving themselves upon the air.

The message itself was brief.

It simply instructed him to manage matters until Lion returned safely.

With the short missive completed, Petrick flicked a finger, causing a blank sheet of paper to materialize and absorb the floating mana script.

The paper folded itself mid-air into the shape of a bird, transforming into a sturdy familiar that soared upward and vanished into the distance.

Watching the direction the paper bird had taken, Petrick turned around.

If he wrapped up his current duties and hurried back, he should arrive at the Imperial Palace just as Lion reappeared.

“Hmm hmm. Still, I should probably drag him out here at least once.”

The boy needed to ground his runaway temperament, which acted much like an unstable warp gate.

A period of mental detox, so to speak.

Regrettably, in the not-too-distant future, Lion—who drew perilously close to the Great Barrier—would experience no such detox.

—

“I apologize.”

“It’s fine.”

For a full hour since their arrival, Lion had been enduring the Second Prince’s repetitive apologies.

Following an intense staring contest with the dragon, they had successfully reached a Dragon’s Lair.

To be precise, an abandoned, ownerless Dragon’s Lair.

Dragons in this era were creatures of myth, having vanished into extinction ages ago.

The reason Lion was currently on the receiving end of such profuse apologies was quite simple.

Warp sickness. That was the root cause.

Yes. He had lost consciousness entirely.

The silver lining was that the architect of this teleportation mechanism happened to be a dragon, which perhaps explained why his recovery was far swifter than it would have been after using a standard warp gate.

‘Well, since warp sickness was involved, at least this isn’t a dungeon like the Labyrinth.’

He had evidently been transferred to an authentic Dragon’s Lair that still endured somewhere within the world.

Lion, finally regaining the stamina to inspect his surroundings, let out a low grunt and hoisted himself up.

“Shall we take a look around first?”

“That would be wise.”

The Second Prince agreed with a resolute expression, reaching into his tunic to draw his weapon…

‘As anticipated, he brought it.’

Within the confines of the Imperial Palace, carrying arms was strictly prohibited.

That regulation applied equally to imperial royalty.

Which was why palace tours were typically restricted to heavily secured zones.

Under normal circumstances, the Second Prince would have continued concealing his weapon, but the current crisis demanded otherwise.

This situation bore no resemblance to their trip to Easter.

‘*Sniff*, though…….’

Lion scanned the terrain slowly, tilting his head in confusion.

Even through the lingering waves of nausea, the landscape had seemed vaguely familiar.

To be exact, it felt as though he had navigated an identical map while playing .

“Hmm……”

After meticulously inspecting the cavern and the scattered piles of treasure, Lion abruptly slammed a fist into his open palm in front of a massive dragon skeleton!

‘Ah, so this is that place!’

A combat map tied directly to essential main story progression!

He had skipped through the intermediate narrative segments out of boredom, which explained why he had been clueless about how he ended up here.

Yet, as luck would have it?

The mandatory combat encounters featured surprisingly entertaining mechanics, leaving this specific map deeply etched in his memory.

Granted, the actual Dragon’s Lair differed slightly from his digital recollections.

Scars left by fierce battles were etched everywhere.

He spotted boulders—presumably shattered golems—crushed by overwhelming magic, while the wings of gargoyles, frozen solid like plaster monuments by holy magic, stood nearby.

Fortunately, since at least half a century had elapsed since those events, the area appeared entirely devoid of active threats.

“I don’t sense any immediate danger.”

Reassuring the Second Prince, who remained defensively coiled, Lion stepped up to the dragon fossil once more.

‘The real issue is…….’

Back during the game, they had pulverized every guardian protecting this vault and teleported straight back to their starting point.

Presently, however, not a single guardian remained.

Which meant there was no obvious mechanism for return.

‘Well, if absolute necessity dictates it, I suppose I could burn a Warp Scroll…….’

The fact that Lion had been dragged into the very space the main character Hero had visited implied there was a purpose behind it, making the scroll a last resort.

Besides, since he had no guarantee of ever revisiting this place, he intended to strip the vault clean while he had the chance.

To achieve that…

‘I need to elevate my Expert’s Eye.’

With enhanced perception, his chances of uncovering hidden secrets would multiply.

And he would almost certainly… unearth something significant.

Furthermore, to hedge against any unpredictable hazards, he required the Second Prince’s cooperation.

Or rather, since the Second Prince was already deeply committed, it was more accurate to say Lion needed to brace himself for being caught red-handed.

“Your Highness.”

Lion murmured in a subdued tone, fixing his gaze on the Second Prince.

“You stated you would assist me with anything, no questions asked, correct?”

“…You appear to have discovered something.”

The Second Prince met Lion’s solemn inquiry with unwavering resolve.

“Whatever I witness in this place, I shall drive from my memory.”

At those words, Lion let out a dry chuckle and slowly closed his eyes.

Then, habitual as ever, he funneled mana directly into his vision before opening them wide.

And instantly.

Responding to the radiant purple glow in Lion’s eyes, the vast piles of magic stones littering the cavern began to hum with a resonant vibration.