"Why?"
Gwen looked a little puzzled.
Viktor had come together with the knight order, yet at this moment he suddenly proposed to separate and move alone.
She couldn't quite understand. If Viktor didn't need the knight order's protection, then why did he travel with them in the first place?
Or rather, what exactly was his purpose in coming to Mount Vesuvius?
"I want to head to the crater first."
That was what Viktor said.
Under Gwen's Heart of Justice, any lie would be instantly revealed.
But he hadn't lied, meaning Viktor really did intend to go to the crater.
Gwen recalled the reason Viktor gave for coming along in the first place.
"Could it be that the kind of monster you mentioned… is up there, at the crater?"
"Mm…"
Viktor fell silent for a moment. Right then, in his heart, he pictured the colossal shadow of that monstrous beast.
So he replied, "Something like that."
'…What does he mean by "something like that"?'
And yet he wasn't lying. Gwen felt a little curious, but she wasn't the type to pry into others' secrets.
After all, this was an extinct volcano, and Viktor had also said before that he was quite familiar with Mount Vesuvius's terrain.
There shouldn't be any problems.
Gwen nodded, agreeing to his request to leave the group.
"I'll go find you after I'm done with my business."
Just as Viktor finished speaking, a blue magic circle, flickering with specks of starlight, appeared beneath his feet.
A flash of blue light, his figure vanished without a trace.
A living person disappearing right before her eyes left Gwen a little dazed.
One of the knights, who had watched their whole exchange, saw Gwen still standing there blankly and walked over, asking, "Captain? You two… had a fight last night?"
Gwen turned her head, her lips parting slightly.
"N-no, it's not what you think…"
Before she could finish, the knight continued, "Ah, it's normal for couples to argue. I quarrel with my wife all the time, but our son's eight years old now."
"Quarrel at the head of the bed, make up at the foot, there's no overnight grudge between husband and wife."
The more she listened, the redder Gwen's face grew.
"Enough nonsense! Move out!"
She barked at the knight and quickly walked away.
"Eh? Captain Gwen! I didn't say anything wrong… sigh, women these days, so sensitive. That reaction... definitely means I hit the mark."
Whatever else that knight said afterward, Gwen didn't really hear.
Her face was slightly flushed, like a shy girl whose secret thoughts had just been exposed.
But in truth, no one knew better than her, there was absolutely nothing between her and Viktor.
Just as she would never fall for Viktor, Viktor would never like her either.
Mounting her steed, Gwen thought with a faint sense of melancholy.
If nothing unexpected happened, she would probably end up marrying Viktor in the end.
After all, the marriage between their two families had been arranged long ago.
As the second daughter of her house, Gwen could only obey the family's decision. She couldn't change it.
She didn't want to marry at all, especially not to Viktor, who had always left her with such a terrible impression.
'How could I ever marry that kind of bastard?'
That thought flashed through her mind, and suddenly she remembered last night.
He had acted like a refined noble, every gesture calm and gentlemanly.
At some point, he had even given up the only bed for her.
When she woke up, she found Viktor quietly sitting in a chair, reading some obscure magic book, he had stayed like that the whole night.
She'd felt guilty, but Viktor told her that mages had their own ways of resting, and as long as it was quiet around them, they didn't need sleep.
'Is he… really a bastard?'
Gwen couldn't help but wonder.
Determined to be a knight of absolute justice, Gwen had never truly hated anyone.
Not even Viktor.
'I should've been pretty quiet last night… right?'
Shaking off those unnecessary thoughts, she raised her silver sword and swung it forward.
"Move out!"
———
A shower of blue light fell from the air, forming a teleportation circle midair and revealing Viktor's figure.
When he opened his eyes, the scenery around him had changed completely.
The surroundings were barren, nothing but scattered chunks of charred, coal-like rock standing on the slope.
He was now halfway up the volcano, far ahead of the knight order.
This was the farthest range his teleportation magic could reach.
Trying to teleport straight to the summit was still unrealistic.
Seeing that no one was around, Vega, perched on his shoulder, croaked out, "Why did you choose to split up from them?"
"The knight order's route should lead here anyway. Following them would've brought me here sooner or later."
Viktor pressed down on the bird's head and explained calmly, "I don't need their company."
"There are some things I need to investigate alone. No need for others to know."
Vega found that strange. From Viktor's attitude, it seemed like he had planned this long ago.
Thinking back to how intrigued he'd looked when he first heard about Mount Vesuvius, Vega couldn't help but suspect that Viktor knew something.
The man and the bird walked along the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. It had erupted once in the past,
but after that, the volcano lost its power and became dormant.
The townspeople at its base had lived there for centuries now.
After hundreds of years of wind and sun, the ground here had turned grayish like charred lime, full of cracks and weathered volcanic rock.
Trying to find plants here was nearly impossible.
But after so many centuries, no one worried that the volcano would erupt again.
The mountain wasn't too tall, only a few hundred meters, and soon Viktor reached the summit.
The closer he got to the top, the more clearly he could feel that extremely dense fire element.
Not only he, Vega felt it too.
The bird turned its head and gave Viktor a subtle glance.
"Interesting. I really want to open up your skull and see what made you think of coming here."
"You actually found a 'Calamity.'"
Viktor's expression stayed calm. Vega's eyes narrowed, he clearly already knew something was here.
Calamity.
Strictly speaking, that was the official name recorded in history for the "Forge Beasts."
There were six Calamities in the world, each corresponding to one elemental force.
Wind, Wood, Fire, Earth, Water, and Lightning.
And sealed within Mount Vesuvius, was the Fire Calamity, Guldon.
Its body was massive, towering toward the heavens, its entire form infused with molten flame, like a demon god born from fire.
They were called Calamities because wherever they appeared, natural disasters and chaos followed, beings so powerful that they made all tremble in fear.
For any living creature, their existence brought only harm, never benefit.
That was what made them "Calamities," just as their name implied.
"I'm curious," Vega said, looking down into the crater where Guldon slumbered.
"It's sleeping soundly here, what do you plan to do with it?"
"Collect a little interest in advance."
Viktor stood at the crater's edge, looking down.
The depths were pitch-black, one could hardly tell if anything even existed inside.
Hot air blasted upward, scorching heat sweeping over him.
His eyes suddenly hardened with resolve.
Cold wind and burning heat mixed together, whipping at his cloak. Standing at the volcano's highest point, even Vega's voice became hard to hear.
"Hey, hey! What are you doing standing there? Don't tell me you're planning to jump in?!"
Viktor didn't answer. Vega was silent for a moment.
"You're not… seriously… going to… jump… are you?"
Its question didn't help in the slightest.
Because Viktor had already said, "Hold on tight!"
And with that, he leapt into the depths of the volcano.
"Would it kill you to ask me first?!!!"
The glowing red rocks around them blurred as they plunged downward. Vega clamped its beak tightly onto Viktor's clothes, so panicked that it even forgot it could fly.
The scene spun wildly, until finally… a flash of white light, and the two vanished from sight.
———
"I've been a god for so long, and this is the first time I've ever felt this insane."
When Vega opened its eyes again, it seemed they had arrived in another space.
Everything was pitch black. Only the floor could be faintly seen.
"So dark… Viktor? Viktor?"
Viktor stood just behind it. Seeing the raven awake, he picked it up and set it on his shoulder.
Vega was just about to tell Viktor to light a flame so they could see when a massive snore thundered through the darkness ahead.
It was so loud it nearly burst the raven's eardrums.
"Damn it, who the hell is snoring, uh…"
Vega fell silent.
It had found the source of the sound, or rather…
Right there before it, eyes closed, sleeping deeply.
How could it even describe such a thing?
Like a towering pillar piercing the sky.
Huge as a mountain, overwhelming in both awe and terror.
The Fire Calamity, Guldon, lay right there before them.
Cold sweat trickled down Vega's head, the feathers on its crown seeming to stand upright.
"Kid… you're not seriously thinking of fighting that thing, are you?"
"Don't joke around! I'm just an ordinary bird now, I can't help you at all!"
Viktor didn't even look at it. A spark of flame appeared at his fingertips, lighting up the darkness, and revealing the full form of the giant beast.
"Don't say that."
"You're my greatest help in defeating it."
The next second, the snoring stopped.
Massive crimson eyes opened, glowing like blazing lamps.
"ROOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!!!"
It looked down at the two specks before it,
and its roar shook the entire Mount Vesuvius.
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