Page 245

Late Morning - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut

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"Uwahh..." I let out a groggy yawn as I slowly turned to stretch my incredibly stiff body. "Ugh..." It hadn't even been 24 hours, but my body made me think I had overslept by a couple weeks.

As I looked down though, I understood why.

-I grew again?- It was only by about half a meter, but there was a noticeable difference in the shape of my scales, which were much more jagged compared to the rounded scales I had grown used to, and my horns, which grew slightly longer and had a bit more texture than before.

-I wonder if Father and Krystallo will even recognize me at this point. ..-

But as I laid my head back down and idly thought about it, Ilios finally woke up and shifted over to lick my face. *lick-lick-lick* "Haha... Good morning, buddy..."

He was in an unusually good mood that morning, but while I wasn't sure why, I wasn't complaining. -Maybe its a sign that today will be a good day...-

A smile slowly crept onto my face as my self-doubt faded before I finally decided to get up with another stretch. "Mmmm... Alright..." -Let's see if I can find that so-called ancient wreckage in a timely manner...-

Finally turning off the rune and making my way outside, I was immediately met with the odd looks of several maids, but paid them no mind and made my way down the hallway with Ilios on my back.

Thankfully, after sleeping on the accumulation rune, my reserve was around 10% full, so I had some aura to work with and had no issue finding Grandmother.

But as I approached her room, I noticed just how calm and smooth her aura was. -Ah.. she's asleep... Uh... That might be a problem...-

My original plan was to wake up and explain a manipulated version of last night's events to her, explaining that I got into a fight with Erpo and that I wasn't injured and such, but now I couldn't do that. -I don't have time to wait for her to wake up either...-

Quickly finding a passing maid, I motioned her over.

"What is it, my Lord?"

-'My lord'?- I was slightly taken aback for a moment before assuming I just misheard her. "Could you bring me a piece of paper and something to write with?"

"Right away." She gave me a deep bow before running over and handing her things to the supervising butler walking down the hall.

He wore a confused look for a moment, but as he noticed me looking at him, he simply smiled and continued on as if nothing had happened. -What is up with them today...-

The unusual stares of the other maids and butlers continued as I sat there and waited, but thankfully, it only took another moment for the maid to return. "Here you are, my lord." She bowed again as she held up a few sheets of paper and a quill with a small artifact inside it.

-Is it customary for maids to call all the male guests here, 'my lord'?- Slowly picking up the paper and quill with my aura, I tried to shake off any unnecessary thoughts and start writing.

-Hm...- It only took a few minutes for me to finish writing before giving it a quick proofread, drying the ink, and folding the paper.

The story was a bit of a stretch, and I honestly wasn't sure whether Grandmother would even believe it, but I didn't really have a choice at the time.

-It's not like I can really tell the truth here.

..- Finally lowering the letter back to the maid, I played it off casually.

"Hand this to Asimi when she wakes up. Make sure no one but her reads it. "

"As you wish!" She gently pulled the letter in toward her chest before bowing one more time. "Is there anything else you require?"

With a quick thought, I ran through everything else I could think of before finally shaking my head. "That is all." Casually creating a platinum coin, I lowered it in front of her, where she just stared at it with a confused look for a moment before it fell to the ground. *chink-cling* *vwoop*

"Huh?" A confused look came to her face immediately. "My lord, I don't need-"

But by the time she looked up, I was already gone.

*vwowowooop* The mana in the gate ripped as I jumped through it to instantly find myself floating in the nebulous void. -I wonder if Maria is as natural and formal as that girl now...-

Quickly helping Ilios get situated, I finally shook all unnecessary thoughts out of my mind and moved back slightly to get a better view of the near-kilometer-wide, faintly glowing orb I was practically standing on. -What the...-

It was something I had never seen before.

-That's.. new...- I tilted my head slightly before looking around and noticing that all of the markers for the space runes were on the very outer edge of the glowing area of the orb, with my marker for the laboratory being less than a meter inside the edge. -Is this.. the planet?-

I was expecting to have to do some calculations to figure out where would be safe to exit the void, but now that I could vaguely see an outline of the planet, I didn't have a whole lot of guessing to do. -I should still exit a good ways off the surface to be safe though...-

Hastily running through some numbers to double-check the orb as I floated toward the temple rune, I confirmed the glow should technically be at least generally accurate.

-But is my space ratio actually accurate?

- I ran into what seemed to be a bit of an anomaly.

-This planet is a lot bigger than Earth. ..-

Although I already knew this world was larger than Earth, I most definitely didn't realize that it was by so much. -If my ratio is right, the diameter of this planet is at least twice Earth's... How did life evolve so similarly...-

At the least, if this planet had a similar density to Earth, gravity would be around 1.5 times Earth's, but I was already skeptical about that. -The way mana strengthening works.. this planet is most definitely denser than Earth... It likely wouldn't be by a small amount either...-

I slowly sank into thought as I floated toward the rune before eventually having Ilios snap me out of my thoughts.

*tap* -Hm?- Finally looking around and noticing I was passing the temple rune, I reoriented myself with the other runes and started making my way toward where I assumed the Holy Kingdom to be.

Thankfully, it wasn't hard to find once I got closer, as the mountains were very easily visible from my approach. -Those things are massive...- With a conservative estimate, the mountains were at least 40-50 kilometers tall and spread over an absolutely colossal area.

I silently gulped down a bit of anxiety as I started to worry about whether I could find the wreckage before finally approaching the glowing peaks.

"Hooh..." -Alright...- Quickly taking a moment to inspect the mountain range, I found where I believed the edge of the glow was and moved a decent bit away from it. -I should be around 10 kilometers to the side of the peak...-

Ten kilometers gave me a ton of headroom. *vwoop* But for whatever reason, when I created the gate, the anxiety I felt in my stomach worsened.

As I released the gate, I assumed it was simply because I was worried about finding the wreckage in time, but I quickly found that not to be the case.

*crraaCCCKKLLEE-BANG* An insane amount of pressure slammed into my body before instantly being released with a bang.

-WHAT THE?!- *WHAM* Instantly spreading my wings to try and catch myself, I felt them get driven into stone before the gate dissipated to reveal the large, dimly lit hole I caught myself in.

Before doing anything, I checked to make sure Ilios was alright, but I barely had time for it before the entire area below my wings broke off. *CRACKLE-FWWOOOOOOSH*

The next thing I knew, I was in free fall, riding a hunk of stone down the side of a horrifically steep cliff that was completely shrouded in fog, but thankfully I managed to calm down quite quickly. -Holy sh*t that could have been bad...-

Finally spreading my wings again, the huge section of the cliff that broke off disappeared in the fog beneath me, and I glided out into the cloudy space away from the snowy cliff face.

But it was only a few seconds later, after I started questioning what I did wrong, that I realized I still hadn't heard the massive stone slab hit the ground yet. -Wait a minute.. no part of the mountain near where I wanted to come out was this steep...-

The possibility that I embedded myself in the edge of the mountain peak ceased instantly. -The glow.. must have only shown the core of the mountain then...-

As I looked down, I tried to listen for the sound of the stone slab hitting the ground, and sure enough, after several more seconds, I heard it. *crackle*

But the noise sounded so distant that it made my eyes go wide. -How.. big is this mountain?-