"Actually, I've heard a little bit of inside information about dragonkind too. I wasn't there in person, though—this is just something I picked up from rumors within the Kingdom's army…"
After Brennan parted ways with us, he had stayed in the Kingdom's forces for quite a long time. Because of that, he was able to tell us certain secrets the Kingdom of Astralrealm hadn't publicly revealed. He proceeded to lay it all out for us in full detail:
"Less than a month or so after the Parristol incident, another group of visitors claiming to be dragonkind crossed into the Kingdom's territory, demanding that humans give them an explanation for the death of their companion."
"A group of dragons?"
Cyrae couldn't help knitting her brows. One dragon might be manageable, but if a whole group traveled together, that was no small matter at all. A force of that size could easily wipe out any nation on the continent. Yet the Kingdom was still standing—safe and intact—and we hadn't heard even a whisper about anything like that from the outside. That meant the situation probably hadn't escalated as far as one might imagine.
"That's right," Brennan said. "Back then, those uninvited guests even pushed into an area not far from the royal capital. The king urgently dispatched envoys, accompanied by several sages from the Sages' Alliance, to intercept them and explain the situation clearly. Fortunately, those dragons weren't unreasonable creatures. Once they understood how everything had unfolded, they withdrew on their own very quickly, and the incident was resolved peacefully in the end."
From what Brennan told us, one thing was clear: whatever that group of dragons had come for, they must have received an answer they found satisfactory—otherwise they would never have left of their own accord.
But that only raised another question. If they were all dragonkind, then what was the deal with this dragon that later appeared along the Kingdom's border? It still looked dead set on revenge. Had it changed its mind?
Unfortunately, all of that had happened after Brennan left the Kingdom's army, so he didn't know the deeper reasons either. And considering that even if Boyak Town sent a request for aid to the capital, it would take at least a week or two before reinforcements arrived, our group couldn't afford to wait that long. The best option was obvious: take action ourselves, go wipe out this bandit force led by a dragon as soon as possible—and at the same time rescue Adrian's mother and the other hostages who had been abducted.
"I've never actually seen what it looks like," Brennan said with a helpless shake of his head when I asked about the dragon's appearance. "In the last few clashes, the enemies were basically all its human subordinates. Even so, just those deserters from other countries are already more than our town's defenses can handle."
It was clear we had far too little useful information about the enemy. Brennan and the entire guard force of Boyak Town didn't even know where the enemy's base was. All they knew was that the first attacks had come from roughly the east.
Fortunately, that still wasn't enough to stump me. A bandit den like that was usually lit up all night long. If I flew high enough, it should be easy to spot their exact location.
To end things quickly, I simply headed outside alone and shot straight up into the sky. But after circling at high altitude several times, I realized I'd miscalculated—everything east of Boyak Town was nothing but a vast, pitch-dark stretch of forest and mountain ranges. There wasn't the slightest trace of human activity, let alone a sizable bandit encampment that should have stood out like a beacon.
"That can't be right… Did Brennan's information end up being wrong?"
I couldn't help feeling a bit deflated as I muttered to myself. And as if the heavens were mocking me, a light rain started to fall right then and there, making my already limited visibility even worse.
I was just about to descend and ask again, when—at the very instant I turned my head—my peripheral vision caught something: near the base of the mountains to the southeast, one or two faint, unusual points of light flashed briefly.
Yes! Even though it was a bit far away, I could be sure something suspicious was hiding over there. A lead that important was not something I could let go. I locked onto the direction at once, swung around without hesitation, and plunged straight into the rain clouds overhead—piercing through them and emerging high above the cloud layer.
Originally, I'd only done that to get out of the rain. But when I looked out at the night sky—glittering with countless stars—I suddenly noticed a massive, broom-shaped celestial body hanging in one corner of my view, trailing a long tail behind it.
"That… is a comet?"
My mouth fell open.
Air pollution on the Eldoria Continent was extremely low. Come to think of it, this was the first time in quite a while that I'd seen a sky this clear. Over the past few days, almost everywhere we'd traveled had been soaked in gloomy rain—there had barely been any sunlight at all. Yet somehow, an uninvited presence had quietly appeared above my head without me realizing it. The shock of seeing it with my own eyes was almost absurdly intense.
There was no doubt about it: this was a comet I had never seen before. It was wrapped in an exceptionally bright, dazzling radiance. It was easy to spot with the naked eye. On the surface, it looked roughly the same size as Earth's moon, but the light it gave off was, in a sense, far brighter than the moon—so bright it was impossible to stare at for long. From that alone, I could infer it was already extremely close to the continent beneath my feet… and it might even come closer still.
But when you thought about it, that was not a good sign at all.
Compared to this, every comet photo I'd ever seen from Earth looked like nothing more than a tiny tadpole. A grim thought immediately surfaced in my mind—what if it hits? What happens if it really crashes into this world?
After all, scientific development in this world didn't even include the concept of "space." Magic had many advantages that technology couldn't match—but if a catastrophe like this struck, it would surely be a world-ending disaster. There would be nowhere to run. Everyone could die.
"I have to tell the others right away. This isn't something to take lightly!"
I had no idea how long it would be before that enormous comet actually came down. In that moment, I completely lost any desire to keep tracking the enemy. The only thing in my head was rushing back to Adrian and the others and figuring out what to do.
…
But when I hurried back to Brennan's house as fast as I could, I didn't expect to be met with nothing but merciless laughter.
"You're overthinking it!" someone said. "Isn't that just the 'Sunship Star' that so many countries have been watching in real time lately? I've never heard of it 'falling out of the sky'!"
Since I didn't know much about this world's strange phenomena, Adrian even kindly gave me a little "science lesson" all over again:
"If I remember right, the 'Sunship Star' appears about once every hundred years or so. Every time it shows up, legends claim it comes with all sorts of ominous signs. But because it always turns around after moving away and returns to the embrace of the sun, it was named the 'Sunship Star.' In some older historical records—and in poems and biographies—it's also called the Celestial Star."
"But it really looks dangerous," I insisted. "It's that close—close enough to knock on its door. Are you sure it won't crash into us?"
The moment he mentioned the name "Celestial Star," I did have a faint flash of recognition. But hearsay and witnessing something with your own eyes were two completely different things. The scene I'd just seen—the so-called "Sunship Star"—had been far too overwhelming. No matter what they said, I still couldn't fully relax.
"It should be fine," Cyrae said, unexpectedly joining in to reassure me. "I've seen what you described countless times in Elara's memories. Don't worry."
From the impressions she'd inherited, the Sunship Star's orbit was gradually moving farther away. Compared to the last few thousand years, it had already become slightly smaller over the past few centuries. It was hard to imagine just how close it must have been at the very beginning.
However, because some of Elara's memories hadn't carried over smoothly, Cyrae also felt as though she was forgetting something important about it. According to her, the Sunship Star seemed to have some unknown connection to the angelic race—but she simply couldn't remember what that connection was.
"Fine…"
Since everyone said so, I didn't insist any further. Besides, it was only today that I learned the continent had long since established a specialized observation system for tracking celestial bodies like this.
Because it moved so fast after appearing, the Sunship Star usually didn't remain visible for very long. From the time it could first be observed to the moment it vanished completely beneath the sun's overwhelming glare, there were only a few weeks at most—and these last couple of days just happened to be the period when it came closest.
"The sages and astrologers in Crescent City can worry about the stars," Brennan said, steering the conversation back to the crisis Boyak Town was facing. "That's not something we can do anything about. But didn't you go scout the enemy's lair? Did you find anything suspicious?"
"If I'm not mistaken, it should be at the foot of that mountain not far from the Empire's border," I answered.
After the huge embarrassment I'd just made of myself, I didn't dare waste time any longer. I immediately told them everything I'd discovered, holding nothing back.
Now that the target had basically been confirmed, forming a temporary punitive expedition was the obvious next step. With the sudden addition of the three of us, Brennan didn't even need to notify any other local guards for support. He simply led everyone out of town in the dead of night, and we headed straight toward the enemy's position.