Traveling the Dragon Wing Continent

From the port town at the western edge of the Dragon Wing Continent, there was no proper means of land transportation.

There were no roads, and no train tracks. The only options for travel were on foot or by horse, and if you were willing to accept the possibility of breaking it, you could use a carriage as well.

If it wasn't the season when the sea was frozen, you could go by ship. They could have traveled south by ship, but unfortunately there were no fast ships scheduled to cross southward.

So Sei and Lavi hastily constructed a sled.

They would have horses pull it, with the carriage placed on top. The horses might exhaust quickly, but the only solution was to take frequent breaks.

When the port town at the western edge disappeared beyond the horizon, the horizon created by the snowfield came to dominate their entire field of vision.

"Woah～ This is kind of moving."

While Mako and Kukuri were frolicking about, Sei honestly felt heavy-hearted.

According to the Map, there were no humanoid races within the next 20 kilometers.

If the detailed map was to be trusted, they would travel about 200 kilometers southeast and somehow reach the next town.

There might be snow woman or snow man settlements before then, but at least they hadn't entered the Map's range yet.

According to hearsay, their settlements were deeper inland, so they truly weren't here.

This was a land of death.

Though it looked beautiful, there was no sense of life.

Occasionally ice spirits danced by, but even though they too were beautiful, they didn't evoke the pulse of life.

Staying here long might drive one mad. It was a land that tested you.

Partway through, they camped for a night. At a normal carriage's speed they would have passed through in a day, but they had carefully reduced their speed as they advanced.

Mako had innocently tried to build an igloo, but this place with no shelter was colder than imagined.

Sei and Lavi aside, even Bungol with his fur was shivering.

The dwarf Gantz, who preferred hot places if anything, wouldn't even come out of the carriage.

They did have cold-weather gear, but the horses also seemed to be struggling with this unprecedented cold.

For the time being, Sei used snow wall magic—an application of earth wall magic—to surround the area.

He placed a heat-resistant platform and started a bonfire on top of it.

"Still, this is different from the Dragon Bone Continent, isn't it?"

Even in the parts of the Dragon Bone Continent near the North Pole, you could see trees. Of course it was cold to some degree, but not like this continent.

"I heard that the Ice Goddess is sealed around here, so maybe it's her influence?"

And there it is. Kukuri's folkloric knowledge.

Though really, it was only about the names of gods sealed in various places—she didn't know much detail.

The Goddess's Labyrinth was apparently in the mountains straight east from the western edge town.

Whether they were heading for the Temple of Stars or going to the hero, it wasn't in that direction.

They pushed onward through the snowfield, and the next day they somehow managed to reach a town.

It was only after they had secured an inn that Sei realized they could have just used Lavi's teleportation in a place with such open visibility.

◇ ◇ ◇

They traveled along the roads.

Reflecting on the mistakes of youth, they proceeded along the roads while occasionally using teleportation.

On their right, they could see the sea. And on their left were mountains.

If they went a bit further, they would cross the mountain range and head for the continent's interior.

Yes, the Temple of Stars was located almost at the center of the continent.

Eventually they finally arrived at a town with a train station, but the train's operating schedule was quite haphazard.

This was because all means of transportation were being used with priority for supply transport to the frontlines against the evil gods at the southern edge of the Dragon Wing Continent.

Incidentally, to the southeast from the center of the Dragon Wing Continent, there was one pillar—a powerful evil god.

A god called the Ferocious God.

It destroyed the reason of humanoid races and led them to savagery. Due to this nature, it was an existence that demon races found difficult to deal with.

"Ane-deshi, will you fight?"

"If you want to die, go ahead and fight. My objectives are to meet the divine dragon and to return the hero."

He had heard that dragons would mobilize against the Ferocious God.

If a divine dragon with power equal to or greater than Ria joined the battle, even a god would have no choice but to be sealed.

Bungol looked disappointed, but Sei's purpose didn't waver.

Incidentally, Gantz also had a slightly disappointed look on his face.

Honestly, he thought fighting an upper-rank god would be reckless.

To be precise, fighting without casualties was impossible, and what's more, the one most likely to die was Bungol.

◇ ◇ ◇

The train went.

It would occasionally stop at stations with long wait times.

When it would resume was unknown. An old man riding the same train told them that if the tracks had been destroyed by minions of the evil gods along the way, they might wait for days.

"Stick to the schedule…"

For Sei and Mako, who were accustomed to Japanese trains, these wait times were unbearable.

Since they didn't know when it would resume, they couldn't go out into town, and they couldn't conduct combat training inside the train either.

Killing time with card games would be too much of a waste of time.

More than anything, it was mentally painful not to be making progress.

After waiting half a day, Sei and the others revised their plan.

"Let's take the roads…"

"Yeah…"

With everyone's agreement, the party returned to traveling by carriage.

◇ ◇ ◇

And so the carriage traveled along the roads.

Military traffic had priority on the roads too, but at least they wouldn't be stopped for an entire day, and thanks to the many wastelands and grasslands with visibility to the horizon, Lavi's teleportation was easy to use.

Crossing the mountain range was impossible with teleportation, and the road the carriage took was narrow.

Still, this route had little traffic to begin with, and the military didn't seem to be using it for transport either.

And when they crossed the mountain range, a forest spread out from its foothills.

Unlike the Dragon Bone and Dragon Fang Continents, the Dragon Wing and Dragon Claw Continents hadn't been much touched by humanoid races.

The railway network didn't cover the continent, and even compared to 3,000 years ago, much nature remained.

It was a strange feeling that this continent, which corresponded to North America on Earth, was the least developed.

There was no Grand Canyon, and no nature reserves.

The terrain had some resemblance, so the continental plates were probably similar at least.

◇ ◇ ◇

Having grown accustomed to the excellent transportation situation on the Dragon Bone Continent, the party continued their journey feeling considerable stress.

On the roads through the forest they secretly used Laila's "Forest Walk" too, but since the road was straight to begin with, it didn't result in much shortening.

They occasionally encountered monsters and small groups of evil god minions, but they brushed them aside effortlessly with sheer physical force.

Along the way there were also towns of a scale that could be called cities, but there too, train travel was being used with priority by the military.

"If we had time, I'd like to sightsee～"

Kukuri nodded repeatedly at Mako's murmur, but they mustn't lose sight of their journey's purpose.

They stayed in towns for at most one night. The only time they made purchases was when consumables were running low.

◇ ◇ ◇

As they proceeded along the roads, they would pass similar carriages, but the number of armed escorts was high.

The danger level of travel had probably increased due to the influence of the evil gods. The carriages themselves were sturdy-looking things reinforced with metal.

And they also saw tanks.

They were almost the same as the tanks that had existed on Earth. The details were surely different, but to Sei who lacked knowledge, they just looked like tanks.

"Ah～ I heard those cost 300 gold coins each to make."

Kukuri casually shared his trivia. The tanks were heading toward the southeast where the Ferocious God's stronghold was located.

Honestly, from what Sei had seen on NKH news, they didn't seem like they would work at all against the gods themselves.

Probably unless they used nuclear weapons, the gods couldn't be defeated by military force.

Though Ria had said that nuclear weapons wouldn't work on upper-rank gods either.

◇ ◇ ◇

They passed through numerous checkpoints, and the leisurely carriage journey continued.

There were many opportunities to camp outdoors, and after a long time Sei even used bath magic.

And then, over a month after landing on the Dragon Wing Continent.

The party finally arrived at the Temple of Stars.

◇ ◇ ◇

The Temple of Stars was built on a small hill in the center of a city with the straightforward name of Starlight.

After paying the entry tax and entering the city walls, they could see the temple's form.

It was a pyramid.

(Why a pyramid of all things…) Sei and Mako muttered in their hearts.

◇ ◇ ◇

The townscape was quite ordinary, or rather, similar to developed nations of modern Earth.

In other words, compared to the developed nations of the Nears world, it was somewhat provincial.

Still, there were high-rise buildings, and the roads were built wide enough for vehicles to pass.

The means of transport within the city were buses, taxis, and of course streetcars.

There was a place to store horses and carriages at the city entrance, but in Sei's group's case that wasn't necessary.

Apparently you could reach the temple by either bus or streetcar, but since they had the chance, they tried riding the streetcar.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Next stop: Temple Front～ Temple Front～ Please make sure you haven't forgotten anything."

The announcements were in two languages: the common language and English. Apparently they didn't go so far as to cover Japanese.

When Sei and the others got off at the Temple Front station, they realized their initial impression had been mistaken—what had looked like a pyramid from a distance was actually a smooth four-sided pyramidal structure.

The surrounding area was lined with buildings resembling a government district, but the temple was far more massive than any of them.

"I wonder if we can just go and meet them?"

Having come this far, Sei muttered something he should have thought of earlier.

"It's fine."

Lavi said this and headed toward the soldiers guarding the gate in the wall surrounding the temple.

◇ ◇ ◇

Yes, soldiers. Soldiers armed with rifles and bulletproof vests stood as gate guards. Their races were human and elf.

Seeing Lavi's figure, the guards called out to her.

"Little miss, this is off-limits. Public tours are only once a month."

"I am the Divine Dragon Laverna. I wish to meet Lieselotte."

At Lavi's words, the guards' faces creased.

"You shouldn't say such things. Using the prestige of dragons around here is a crime."

In front of the kind guards, Lavi casually transformed.

◇ ◇ ◇

Both of the kind guards had their backsides on the ground, mouths gaping open.

The passersby also stopped in their tracks involuntarily, frozen in shock even if their legs hadn't given out.

"I wish to meet Lieselotte."

"J-just a moment, please!"

The guards contacted the interior via communicator.

From inside the temple, a high-ranking-looking military officer came running in a flustered manner.

After that, they were smoothly admitted into the temple.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Please wait a moment. I will go inform Lieselotte-sama now."

"That won't be necessary."

Sei and the others were seated in a reception room, but before the military officer who had received them could leave the room, the door opened from outside.

Platinum-colored hair and pale emerald eyes.

Beauty that transcended humanity. It resembled Lavi somehow.

"Liz."

"Lavi."

The two who had called each other's names walked toward each other and faced each other directly.

They faced each other.

◇ ◇ ◇

… And several minutes passed.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Um, how about you sit down for now?"

When Sei said this, the two divine dragons finally sat down on the sofas.