Rin's words made the entire great hall fall silent. "If they truly have such power, they will probably be difficult to deal with."
A minister waved his hand and laughed. "A meteor? Lady Rin, that's just a rumor, isn't it?"
The other ministers echoed with laughter.
Kyouya did not laugh. He analyzed seriously, "If the opponent truly masters magic capable of summoning a large meteor, that would be at least seventh-tier magic. There are only a few seventh-tier mages on the entire continent."
Kyouya continued, "Fluder, the chief mage of the Baharuth Empire, is called the greatest genius in the empire's history, and he has only mastered the sixth tier."
The great hall fell silent again.
The seventh tier.
Everyone present knew what these words meant. The Slane Theocracy, the continent's premier powerful nation, might conceal one or two such monsters.
But those were just guesses. No one had witnessed them firsthand.
And in Makoto's group, there was already someone who could summon a meteor?
"Impossible. Where could so many monsters come from?" A minister blurted out.
But it sounded less like a refutation and more like self-consolation.
The king of Belzerg was silent for a long time. The candlelight cut his expression into light and dark halves.
"Iris."
Finally, the king of Belzerg gently called his daughter's name.
Princess Iris turned her head. Her light blue eyes met her father's bloodshot eyes.
"Can you join the battle?"
Darkness, Claire, and Rin's faces changed simultaneously.
Although shocked by the king's decision, they were not surprised.
Only the upper class and high-ranking nobles knew about this.
The Belzerg Kingdom had never stopped doing one thing since its ancestors' generation... introducing the bloodlines of the powerful.
Generation after generation, the bloodline was gradually optimized. Finally, in this generation, they had raised a monster.
12-year-old Belzerg Stylish-Sword Iris.
Although she looked small and cute, her strength was extremely terrifying, far exceeding Gazef, the Warrior-Captain of the powerful nation Re-Estize.
With the empowerment of the holy sword, she could even easily kill dragons in seconds.
This was why the Baharuth Empire and the Re-Estize Kingdom dared to use the Kingdom of Melromarc as a battlefield but dared not mess with the Belzerg Kingdom.
Because Belzerg had Iris.
Iris was stunned.
Her eyelashes fluttered a few times. In the end, she nodded.
She mainly wanted to use this opportunity to see what the outside world was like.
She didn't think about winning or losing at all.
Because from birth until now, she had never lost.
…
A few days passed. Axel barely returned to normal.
When the wooden door of the Adventurer's Guild was pushed open, the door hinge made the familiar 'creak' sound.
"You useless goddess!!"
Shiho's roar once again echoed through the Adventurer's Guild.
The others were already used to it.
This had almost become their regular feature.
Today, they had taken a quest to subjugate [Runner Lizards].
Because of their migration season, these lizards were roaming around Axel in large groups, causing merchant caravans to dare not enter the city.
The best strategy to deal with them was to capture the leader first... defeat the Lizard King, and the rest would scatter.
Shiho's plan was: wait for the lizard group to tire out, have her sister use sleep magic to put them to sleep, find the Lizard King, and eliminate it.
After the lizards fell asleep, while everyone was busy searching for the king, Aqua stepped on a lizard's tail.
The lizard screamed and woke up. All the lizards woke up screaming simultaneously. Hundreds of lizards swarmed them.
Everyone barely escaped with their lives and ran back.
During the escape, Megumin used Explosion Magic to blow the lizards and their habitat into the sky... including the section of the city wall closest to the battlefield.
A corner of the city wall collapsed, taking down several shops inside the city.
The quest was completed, but the money earned wasn't even enough to cover the damages, and they were still in debt.
"Can't you be useful at all?!"
Shiho grabbed Aqua's collar with both hands and shook her back and forth.
Aqua's head swung back and forth like a rattle, still protesting, "I didn't do it on purpose! What right do you have to curse at me! I am a goddess! A goddess! Since you hate me so much, then kill me! Kill me!"
Megumin lay on the table, her chin resting on the tabletop, and said weakly, "Let's go freeload at Yunyun's place."
Kazuha sat in the corner with a troubled expression.
She didn't want to go.
Makoto was connected to the deaths of Hattori Heiji and her father, Toyama Ginshiro. Although she wasn't capable of revenge, she didn't want to get too close to him either.
"Let's go." Mrs. Shizuka stood up.
Kazuha opened her mouth to object, but her stomach beat her to it, letting out a 'growl—' of protest.
Kazuha wished she could find a hole to crawl into.
Mrs. Shizuka patted her back. "Heiji's death, actually, you can't really blame that person."
Kazuha was silent.
She knew that reason, but the problem was she didn't dare to hate the US, especially since the US was now crippled by Makoto.
But she needed an outlet, a target to hate, to make her feel like she still had a reason to exist.
And that was why Makoto was the most suitable.
In the end, Kazuha nodded, barely convincing herself.
"But constantly freeloading at someone else's place isn't very good, is it?"
Akemi said with some embarrassment.
Mrs. Shizuka didn't respond. She thought to herself, 'It's not really freeloading. At worst, I'll just let Makoto have me a few more times.'
Not long after, Shiho's group stood at the entrance of Makoto's mansion.
Aqua and Megumin, the two thick-skinned ones, had already rushed to the front. Aqua was about to knock on the door when Makoto's voice suddenly came from inside the house.
"The capital has already replied to my letter to the king of Belzerg, asking him to abdicate and yield to the worthy."
Aqua's hand stopped in mid-air.
"Actually refused!"
Inside the house, Makoto's voice suddenly rose, like a thunderclap squeezing through the crack in the door.
The group of Shiho and the others who had followed up were collectively speechless. For the other party to agree to such a demand, that would be strange.
"The king of Belzerg saw that my strength is growing daily in Axel, so he deliberately rejected my request."
Yu's voice came from inside. "Then what does Senpai plan to do?"
"Purge the treacherous ministers! Execute the incompetent king!"