A handsome young man with long blue hair that reached his waist.
He had white, jade-like skin, just like Isis, and had an oval jewel on his forehead.
A long golden string stretched out from the jewel and wrapped around like a crown around the head.
Hawks involuntarily frowned at Clark’s words and actions.
‘He is the King of Ran and the father of Isis?’
The King of Ran was one of the representatives of the three major races. It means they are on par with the Dragon Lord, who fought hard to kill them.
What great sacrifices did they make to kill the Dragon Lord Acacia?
It meant that the man standing in front of Isis could bring the same amount of loss, so Hawks couldn’t help but be nervous.
The man opened his mouth.
“What is this?”
The man asked, but Isis couldn’t say anything.
She just couldn’t.
She stared at the ground, looking all tensed.
She struggled to look him in the eye. And the man gestured lightly, making her look up.
“Didn’t I tell you?”
“… Father.”
The man, the King of Ran, Hasyath, sighed at his daughter’s feeble form.
“Is this why you left your race?”
“…”
“You reached this point after defeating just one of the 12 Gods?”
“I am not done yet.”
Isis pursed her lips in response, and Hasyath clicked his tongue.
“What can you even do with this body? You no longer have the power of Ran.”
“Frontier isn’t made up of me alone.”
“You are talking about the organization that is nothing without you?”
“Father!”
“This is the limit. Praise the Dragon God for revealing it. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to kill even one God. But you reached a point like this doing that to only one God, so I can guess what the result would be when you would face another God.”
As Hasyath said, in order to defeat one God, Frontier lost most of its forces.
It was safe to say that the only ones remaining could be called formalities, and there was no power left to go against the Gods.
Isis clenched her teeth as she said,
“We aren’t fighting the 12 Gods alone. An irreversible war had begun. It is my father who has to choose, not me.”
“Are you telling me to join the war?”
“The human hero who fought against the 12 Gods ten thousand years back has reincarnated. He is ahead of me when it comes to facing the Gods, and he has troops with him. Frontier is just one of the forces helping, and the other forces supporting him are unknown. A great war that no one can avoid and that the whole world will be involved in will start. Rans cannot escape from this any longer.”
Isis looked straight into her father’s eyes without averting her gaze.
Despite the fact that her eyes were fatigued, they were no longer shaking.
The path she took wasn’t something she regretted, so Hasyath had no choice but to sigh.
“Trust your daughter.”
At that time, Hawks, who was watching all of this, stepped forward and defended Isis.
“Isis is a great leader to us. Although her condition did fail due to a fierce battle, she will continue to be a great leader. Your daughter is a lot better than you think of her.”
“And your name?”
“Hawks?”
Thud!
Hawks eyes widened.
He was upside down on the ground, not knowing what had happened.
“Father!’
Isis shouted loudly, panicking.
“So weak.”
Hasyath put Hawks back in his normal position and approached him.
He tapped the yellow beak with his finger and asked,
“How long have you stayed in Frontier?”
At that point, Hawks finally recognized that he had been taken down.
He didn’t understand what had happened, and his pride had taken a hit, but he was fighting Isis’s father right now, so he sighed.
“Tough, though. I hit you pretty hard.”
Even at that moment, Hawks didn’t answer. Then he opened his mouth, shaking off the dirt.
“Right after Isis.”
“Aren’t you angry?”
“I am, but I am a close friend to her, and you are her parent, so I am being patient.”
“I see.’
Hasyath nodded at Hawks’s answer.
He glanced over at Hawks for a moment and said,
“You are being serious.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought this was just a scam under Isis’s name, helping those who are weak and pretending to be strong. You appear to have a belief that will not yield in the face of strength.
“If I had bowed to the strong, I wouldn’t have come to the Frontier in the first place.”
As the saying goes, Frontier wanted to be free from the 12 Gods.
In other words, it was a place that wanted to be at the top of the world.
Then how could a person like that succumb in front of the strong?
“Confidence is different when it is seen ahead and not behind.”
Hasyath laughed and turned to Isis.
When Isis glared at her father with an angry face, he clicked his tongue.
“Is this the kind of explanation you are making to your father, whom you haven’t seen in a while?”
“Father… what are you doing here?”
“He is weak but a pretty decent one. The others seem to be the same.”
“The members of Frontier are selected by me. Of course, we have cool guys.”
“But everyone is weak.”
“Not weak.”
“Clark.”
He didn’t bother listening to her and called for Clark.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“We will fight too. I will form an army and put it under Frontier’s control so that the preparation ends fast.”
“Father?!”
Isis’s eyes widened at the words she had just heard, Hawks was shocked too, but he didn’t display it too much.
Hasyath snorted.
“…!”
“The God of Nothingness is dead. To the man you spoke of.”
Isis was speechless for a moment but then shouted in joy.
“Jamie! As I thought…!”
“It isn’t just the Rans. The high elves have decided to join in the fight too.”
“H-High elves?”
“They said they made contact with the Valkyrie.”
If it was the Valkyrie, they were the forest beings who were slowly expanding their power to the level of their heyday after they got their successors.
They and the high elves were joining hands.
However, why did those who have been neutral until now suddenly want to join the war?
The same with Ran.
Hasyath spoke as if he were doing this for the daughter, but he was a king for a race too. No matter how much he was worried for his daughter, he wasn’t the kind to let his feelings intervene.
“Then why?”
Isis couldn’t stand it and asked, to which the answer came,
“What do you think of the three major races?”
“The strongest of all.”
“Wrong.”
“Uh?”
“They are called as such because the dragons kept us and the high elves in check, and we put the dragons in check. It had changed now, and that is because…”
“You mean.”
“The dragons are gone.”
Hasyath grinned.
“There is no need for us to stay silent.”
Now that the dragons were taken down, there was no one to keep them in check.
The Rans and the high elves were the strongest races entering the war.
Their opponents were the 12 Gods.
“Remember my daughter. We are the descendants of the War God Shiva! The 12 Gods have long been our enemy. The time has come for us to get our freedom back.”
Silence fell.
No one could speak first.
Ann, who summarized the series that had taken place, was watching them quietly.
It was such a shocking story that everyone needed time to think about it. After some time had passed, Luke carefully said,
“So, you’re saying the 3rd elder killed a God?”
“Yes.”
Beiros was the one who answered. And he spoke while sitting arrogantly.
“Do not try to understand with that head. You won’t be able to understand it either way. If each of you has a religion to follow, then throw it out. The 12 Gods are invaders who invaded this land, and they will not save you.”
“… Is all of this true?”
Adel asked Ann, unable to trust this, and Ann nodded.
“The capital has been sealed off, and I don’t know what other areas have been hit. Teacher said to prepare for war.”
“I see. Then it would be right to follow the advice of the 3rd elder. Adel, take care of the Magic World as much as possible. I will go to the capital and meet His Highness.”
“Luke, are you being serious?”
“I don’t think Ann and he are lying, and we have already been taken down once.”
They were taken down by the priests of a God without even being given a chance to fight.
Everything must have ended as they were absorbed into the void, but the fact that they were back here was proof that a God had just died.
“We owe him, and even if not for that, we will have to survive this. Contact the elders in other regions as well and organize units of troops right away.”
“I understand.”
The two elders who made their plans moved right away.
“Mom! Mom!”
“Mom is here.”
Sarah called Sears as she was running in the garden with full bloom flowers in the winter.
Sears, dressed warmly to protect the cold from touching her skin, smiled sweetly as she looked at her daughter.
But the smile didn’t last long. And she sighed.
“Ha.”
“Why are you sighing?”
Standing next to her was Count Welton, who came to Apton a few days ago.
“Jamie… is he fine?”
Sears felt tears welling up in her eyes as she thought of her son.
She always heard the news about Jamie, but everything was about war. No matter how mature her son was compared to his peers, what parent would be fine with such news?
And she heard Jamie had been missing for over a month, and there was nothing Sears could even do.
Fortunately, Count Welton came and informed her that Jamie was in good health, but she still wanted to see Jamie.
“Bad son… he should at least show me his face if he is back…”
“I should have brought him along. My bad.”
“Right. Looking at our son’s face alone, you are mean too.”
Count Welton smiled at Sears’s complaint, which didn’t really seem like a complaint, and stroked her head.
“But there are things that only our Jamie can do. Our son is quite skilled.”
“I am telling you. I would have preferred that this didn’t happen. He might be a talented kid, but I hope he is the kind who whines a lot to his parents.”
“Such greed, my wife. Jamie was born with a special fate. Then wouldn’t it be right for us parents to support that child?”
“I know. I know. I know, but…”
Count Welton understood her heart.
She loved her son and daughter more than him, and she will always think about them until the day she died.
So, which parent wants to watch their child in dangerous situations?
They would hope for them to grow up, have a normal family, and hang out with their friends.
But unfortunately, that wish couldn’t come true.
“Jamie… he will be fine, right?”
“Of course, he will be fine. If he isn’t, then I will make it fine.”
“You are leaving too?”
Count Welton nodded.
“You wouldn’t stop… even if I asked you to?”
“I need to go for the sake of you and my kids, whom I love.”
“Everyone is leaving.”
Sears looked at Sarah, who was running around with a smile.
She spoke in a trembling voice, holding back the tears.
“This is my last request and wish. Join hands with Jamie and come back all healthy and fine. Please.”
Count Welton replied, holding her hand tightly.
“I will.”
For certain.
