"Alright, let's go."
Knightwalker moved efficiently, binding Shane tightly.
Then she turned her head and coldly glanced at the white-haired sisters in the corner, who had not shown even the slightest fear from start to finish.
Originally, she couldn't be bothered to meddle further. But considering these two also seemed to come from another world, perhaps taking them back would let her extract some useful information.
Following the principle of better to catch too many than let one slip away, she gave a cold snort and used the same magic ropes to bind Mira and Lisanna as well, then tossed all three of them onto the Legion's back like sacks.
"What a boring hunt."
The red-haired hunter leapt lightly and landed steadily on the beast's spine.
Looking at these unusually obedient "prey," who didn't even put up a symbolic struggle, she clicked her tongue in displeasure.
She had been hoping for a thrilling, satisfying fight. Instead, this felt like rounding up a few tame sheep.
In the corner of the mushroom house, Edolas's three Strauss siblings stood amid the ruins, their hands clasped tightly in front of their chests as they looked up at the sky, faces full of worry and words stuck in their throats.
Although they had been spared, watching their "family" get taken away before their eyes left them obviously anxious.
"Don't worry about us!"
Bound tightly like a caterpillar, Lisanna struggled to hop up on the giant beast's back.
Because her hands were tied, she could only twist her body hard, treating it as a farewell wave, a bright smile still on her face.
Seeing her carefree optimism, the worried siblings below felt slightly reassured, but their confusion deepened.
Why could she still be so relaxed when she was about to be taken to the royal capital for judgment?
Their gazes shifted to the black-haired boy in the sky, who had his eyes closed as though resting.
Was it because of him?
Was the Shane from another world really that trustworthy?
Having suffered the evil dragon's betrayal, they could not understand that idea.
The wind roared past their ears.
Shane was actually quite pleased that Mira and Lisanna had been taken along too.
This way, once he found a method to return to Earth Land in the royal capital, he wouldn't need to make an extra trip back to pick them up. He could simply take them both along, saving a lot of trouble.
It was just that…
Shane kept his eyes closed and sighed inwardly in frustration.
He had finally come all the way to a wide, sparsely populated world where he didn't need to worry about the Council coming to investigate him.
The fourth vision inside him had already reached its critical point. If he didn't take the chance to release it here, it really felt like a waste.
The problem was that the destructive power of the vision was completely unknown.
If he unleashed it in the middle of the densely populated royal capital, it could easily drag the whole city into the disaster.
He wasn't some saint, but he also wasn't insane enough to endanger an entire city of civilians just to save himself a bit of trouble.
"Should I find a wilderness and use it before making my escape?"
Shane was still tangled up in his next plan when a cold voice suddenly pulled him back to reality.
"You lot… seem awfully confident."
Knightwalker walked up to Shane with her spear in hand, looking down at him from above.
Even the slowest person could sense that the three of them had a composure completely unfitting for prisoners.
"How could that be? You're overthinking it, Miss Hunter."
Shane gave a casual, perfunctory answer, not really in the mood to deal with her.
In truth, after confirming Lisanna's safety, the limiter in Shane's heart had been fully released.
According to the information Mystogan had given him earlier, in this world of Edolas, aside from his counterpart—the black dragon that was plundering magic everywhere—there shouldn't be any single force capable of posing a real threat to him.
Here, he could truly come and go as he pleased in the physical sense.
If Knightwalker hadn't conveniently delivered herself to him as a "guide," he had already been thinking of directly attacking the royal capital and dragging out this so-called king to force him to explain the method of returning.
That extremely perfunctory attitude made Knightwalker's anger rise again.
"Is it because you've lived in a world full of abundant magic since birth that you naïvely think the outside world is as warm, harmonious, and harmless as your sheep pen?"
Knightwalker's face was cold, her eyes openly icy.
"When it comes to magic, aside from the portion regularly harvested by the black dragon, our royal capital has collected and monopolized all the remaining magic in this world!"
"The citizens who live there, just like you mages from Earth Land, can all wield the power of magic!"
"Everyone can use magic?"
Hearing that phrase, Shane finally showed some interest.
"Even with the black dragon constantly harvesting you like crops, you still have enough magic reserves for all the civilians in the royal capital to freely use magic?"
"In the past, the kingdom did benevolently allow civilians to live in the city and share that meager magic quota. But now the situation grows harsher by the day. We can no longer maintain that kindness."
Knightwalker tightened her grip on the spear, her tone carrying brutal iron discipline.
"And so His Majesty ordered their expulsion. Now the royal capital only houses qualified nobles and warriors ready for battle at any moment."
"Selection, huh… decisive and cold."
Shane made a neutral comment.
In an environment of scarce resources, concentrating power to ensure the core fighting class survived could be considered a helpless yet effective strategy from a ruler's point of view.
But what he truly cared about was the information hidden behind those words.
"If the people living in the royal capital are all vested interests and military forces willingly serving this tyrannical state in order to monopolize magic…"
Then if he caused some commotion later, wouldn't he have much less unnecessary psychological burden?
"In that case, Miss Hunter."
With that in mind, Shane decided to confirm one more thing.
"The magic you're currently using—aside from the scraps left behind by the evil dragon…"
"Most of it should be magic secretly plundered from our world through that super spell called Anima, right?"
"So you know about the Anima plan too."
Knightwalker did not deny it. Instead, she admitted it openly.
"So what if we did? It's necessary for our world's civilization to continue. The weak are prey to the strong. That's all."
Then I can relax completely.
Shane did not argue back. He simply nodded silently in his heart.
Since your survival is built on plundering our world, then when he made his move later, he could do so with an even clearer conscience.
Seeing that Shane had gone silent, Knightwalker completely lost interest in continuing the conversation.
She turned her head, glanced at the white-haired sisters huddled together whispering about who knew what, and the corner of her eye twitched.
"Speed up!"
She stomped hard on the Legion's back.
The giant beast let out a screech, its fleshy wings beating as its speed increased again.
Under Knightwalker's control, before long, an extremely grand city appeared on the distant horizon.
From high above, the entire royal capital was built on an enormous floating island.
The city's architecture displayed a sharp sense of hierarchy. Tall, heavy walls stood on the outer edge, countless buildings spread within, all surrounding and protecting the royal castle at the center.
"It really is heavily guarded…"
Lying on the beast's back, Shane's gaze swept over the Legion knight formations in the sky, densely arranged and constantly patrolling back and forth.
"So much anti-air firepower. Who are they guarding against? That evil dragon?"
Shane found it strange.
Considering the strength and size that evil dragon had shown, defenses of this level probably didn't mean much beyond giving people courage.
And also…
Shane silently activated Clairvoyance.
Through his penetrating sight, he looked from afar toward the central region of the royal capital.
There, he saw enormous Lacrima crystals piled up like mountains.
Those crystals radiated extremely powerful magic fluctuations, distorting the air almost like something tangible.
"Mystogan has been running around Earth Land all these years stopping Anima from erupting, but it looks like that was only a drop in the bucket."
Shane's gaze gradually turned cold.
Through spatial magic, this kingdom had already secretly plundered an enormous amount of magic.
And what enraged him even more was this—
through the clear shells of those glittering Lacrima crystals, he could clearly see that what was sealed inside was not only dead matter.
Within many of the crystals, the struggling outlines of innocent creatures from Earth Land—even humans—were clearly preserved!
"To preserve your own rule and this fake prosperity, you can so calmly use magic soaked in the blood of lives from another world…"
"Good."
Shane sneered in his heart.
"Since you're this calm about it, then I naturally can be too."
"Stop looking around! We're about to meet His Majesty!"
The Legion landed in the plaza before the palace.
The one who came to receive the prisoners was a man with flowing blue hair and a streak of white at his bangs.
He walked with a carefree arrogance, his smile wild, clearly quite proud of his status as captain of the kingdom's Third Magic War Division.
"Hughes, cut the nonsense. Hurry and escort them inside."
Knightwalker jumped down from the beast and gave him a cold order.
Under the escort of Hughes and a squad of fully armed soldiers, Shane and the two girls were brought into the grand hall.
"Your Majesty Faust."
The moment they entered, Knightwalker and Hughes, who were in charge of escorting them, dropped to one knee and respectfully saluted toward the throne.
With their hands bound by magic-sealing ropes, Shane, Mira, and Lisanna lifted their heads.
Upon the throne sat an old man with white hair, dressed in luxurious robes.
His face was thin, his eye sockets sunken, and his whole being exuded an extremely cold, perverse aura.
"Heh. How rare. People from Earth Land actually ran to our side on their own."
Faust slowly opened his mouth, his voice hoarse and grating.
His venomous, snake-like gaze passed over Mira and Lisanna, then examined Shane's face with extreme scrutiny.
"The evil dragon's counterpart… Knightwalker, you really did bring back a rather extraordinary problem from outside."
The king spoke darkly.
"No, Your Majesty is overthinking it."
Knightwalker stood up, her tone flat.
"This man has acceptable strength, but compared with the true evil dragon, his spirit is worlds apart. He is weak to the bone and doesn't even have the courage to resist. He is no real problem."
"Haha, as expected of our nation's strongest and bravest warrior!"
Faust offered brief praise, then his tone abruptly turned cold, his gaze shooting toward Shane like a blade.
"I hear that you can also transform into the form of an evil dragon in this barren world without magic."
Faust's withered fingers gripped the arms of his throne tightly.
"Could you show me that power here and now, so I may see it with my own eyes?"
As he spoke, he casually waved a hand.
Swish, swish, swish—!
The royal attendants who had been standing ready all around instantly stepped forward in unison, raising their coldly gleaming magical spears and pressing them against Lisanna and Mira's pale throats.
"Shane-nii can really turn into a dragon?!"
Even with a dozen sharp weapons pointed at her, Lisanna didn't panic. Instead, her eyes widened like a curious child as she turned to her sister.
This was a new trick she had never seen before.
"Yeah."
Whether because her sister was safe, or because Shane had been harshly insulted by Erza, Mira was in an unexpectedly good mood.
She even gave Shane a rare bit of face and praised him with a smile.
"He looks a lot like this world's evil dragon. Huge, black all over, and actually very handsome."
"…"
Watching the white-haired sisters chatting as if no one else existed even with blades at their throats, Faust's face darkened.
"That state is unstable. Once I transform, things become very troublesome."
Shane, as though he hadn't noticed his companions were under threat at all, didn't even lift his eyelids. His tone was flat as he rejected the king's request.
"Personally, I hate turning into a beast-like form I can't freely control."
According to his senses, aside from captain-level individuals like Hughes and Knightwalker, the so-called royal elite attendants in this hall could all be cleaned up in an instant without him even using his full strength.
Since he had already met the true target, King Faust himself, there was naturally no need to keep pretending.
"You refuse the toast only to drink the punishment!"
Hearing Shane's perfunctory and arrogant refusal, the attendants' faces chilled, and the spears in their hands pushed forward another fraction, the icy tips nearly piercing the girls' skin.
"I hope you understand your current situation, outsider."
Below Faust's throne, a short old man with a little mustache stepped forward. He was the kingdom's chief of staff, Byro.
"Only if you obediently cooperate with His Majesty's research will we consider sparing your poor companions!"