The Road To Becoming The Strongest Nation

“Strengthening the entire knight order and mage corps, huh…? I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

Millet murmured.

“If you can pull that off, it’ll be incredible.”

“150,000 Skill Points won’t be nearly enough, though. I’ll have to keep accumulating more and more.”

I said with a bright smile.

“I’ll help out, too.”

Millet offered.

“Invite me along on your next subjugation quest. I’m starting to think I should focus on that rather than recruitment for now.”

“Yay! That means we’ll have another member joining our party!”

Flare looked delighted.

“Oh, but you’d better not make any moves on Onii-sama, okay? Onii-sama belongs to Flare!”

“You really are attached to your big brother, aren’t you?”

Millet gave a wry smile.

“Flare really is glued to Aerial all the time~ Hehe, but that’s what makes her so adorable.”

Ram laughed.

—BOOOOM!

Suddenly, the air shook violently.

“W-what was that…!?”

It stood about ten meters tall.

A white, humanoid monster with smooth, featureless skin.

Its face had no eyes, mouth, or nose, and a glowing emblem resembling flames shone on its head.

The emblem began radiating light.

Whoosh!

A fireball shot out, exploding in the middle of the main street.

Screams and cries of agony echoed everywhere.

The surrounding area immediately descended into chaos.

“N-no way… Could that be—?”

Millet groaned, her voice trembling.

“Do you know that monster?”

“That’s no ordinary monster…”

Millet’s face had gone pale.

“That’s the one who gave me this scar…”

She showed me her right arm.

There was a horrific scar on it… Yes, she’d shown it to me once before.

And back then, Millet had told me something.

It was a wound inflicted by an ‘Apostle.’

“Then that thing is…”

“Yes.”

Millet nodded at my words.

Her voice was no longer trembling.

She looked up at the monster hovering in the air, her expression fierce and determined.

“A direct subordinate of the King of Calamity—an Apostle.”

The Apostle’s emblem began glowing again.

It was preparing to fire another fireball.

This was bad.

At this rate, the royal capital would be devastated.

Why had an Apostle suddenly appeared?

What was its objective?

There were plenty of things I didn’t understand, but none of that mattered right now.

First, I had to protect this city—

I charged toward the Apostle.

“[King’s Domain]!”

I activated my skill, slowing the creature’s movements.

G-grrrreeegh…!?

The Apostle let out a low, groaning sound and appeared to abandon its attempt to launch another fireball.

It turned its featureless face toward me.

“[Fire Arrow]!”

I conjured nearly a hundred flaming arrows and unleashed them all at the Apostle.