The huge black shadow was just above the head, as if the entire sky was completely swallowed, and everything around it was shrouded in darkness, leaving the world with only a lonely land, and the light was gone. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

His palms were sweaty, and he looked around in a panic, vaguely feeling that many people were running outside with screams, the footsteps overlapping each other, and when they noticed the dragon above, the screams became more and more intense.

(Will it come down?)

The voice remembers in his mind, and Lance can't help but tremble, his heart trembling as if he has been pinched.

Instead, Lance grabbed the Sword of Thunder, and when he came back to his senses, he found himself running, running wildly at the dragon. Soon, however, he stopped in disbelief and looked at the dragon in the sky, the bright sunlight returning to the ground, and everything was back to normal.

"It didn't come ......"

Lance couldn't help but feel relieved by this discovery, and the great sense of crisis he felt just now also dissipated.

"I can't believe it, Sword of Thunder, what just happened...... Is it a dream?"

This scene lasted for a minute, and in this minute, Lance felt so hard that even cold sweat broke out on his back.

"It's not. ”

"I'm pretty sure it's gone. ”

"I don't want to face it anymore. ”

Thinking back to the minute just now, it was the first time that Lance had such a deep fear of dragons.

"Is that really a dragon, it's bigger than the dragon I've encountered......"

Even, Lance had such doubts.

"Wait...... I seem to have some impression of it. ”

Lance remembered several dragons he had encountered in the mountain town, and one of them had a very similar appearance to what he had just seen, the same purple body and the same tail shape.

Probably just outwardly similar, the dragon was even bigger than anything I'd seen before, at least three times as big.

Either way, it's a good thing it's gone, and it's even more good that it hasn't come.

"O great god of the four directions, I hope it doesn't come back. ”

Lance's palpitating prayer calmed the people around him who had not yet recovered from their panic.

In the afternoon, Lance runs around looking for clues. The words of the maid who waited for Norn were witnessed by others, and it was impossible to panic, and the words of the knight who guarded the door were also witnessed by the nobles, proving that she had not been lazy and ran somewhere. In addition, the gardener also inquired about it, and not long after he came into contact with Norn, he fell ill and went back to rest, which the court physician can testify to, and it is said that he was greedy for a meal that was not very fresh and kept diarrhea.

The rest, the etiquette teacher, the sword teacher, the history teacher, and the kitchen servant, Lance have all investigated.

The etiquette teacher and the history teacher and the servants were all ordinary people, and although no one else had proved their whereabouts, Lance had tested them for not learning any martial arts, and also let the Sword of Thunder come into contact with them face-to-face and they had no magical talent, ruling out the possibility.

Finally, there was the sword teacher, who said that when he passed by, the eldest prince happened to be there, and the eldest prince could prove this.

In order to gather this information, Lance ran around the palace for about two or three laps, and when he returned, it was already dark, and His Royal Highness Norn was having dinner, and after dinner, he had to meet a magic teacher, and the schedule was very busy. Seeing that it was not too early, Lance simply hurried back and inquired about some other important matters.

Last night, Lance knew very secret things from his father, this continent has always been protected by the Temple of the Four Directions, and Lance already knows all the darkness hidden behind the protection. What's more, Danica is still involved, how many times, Lance wants to leave all the in his hands and continue to look desperately, but reality does not allow him to do so.

Walking towards the gate of the palace, Lance received a letter from the soldier at the door, this letter was from his father's handwriting, the content was very brief, saying that Roque Swider had gone to the Suzaku Temple because of the appearance of the dragon, and asked Lance to hurry back in a tone of command.

Lance began to run wildly, in the direction of Jepéry's house.

On the way to run, the words they had said at that time came to mind.

"This matter is very secret to most people, except for His Majesty, the other members of the royal family have concealed it, listen up, Lance, this is really a very serious matter. As for the shadow mages, the enemies of the Vogulite continent, on the surface, our opponents are the dragons, and in the shadows, those shadow mages are the most difficult enemies. ”

"Hundreds of years ago, they were still very scattered around, and for some reason, hundreds of years ago they suddenly decided to form an organization, and this organization is called the Shadow Alliance. After that, the Quartet Temple fought with them for hundreds of years, and many times the Quartet Temple and people were persecuted, and we should be glad to have the Sword of Light. ”

"Shadow mages are a bunch of fanatical lunatics who can do anything. ”

"There was one more than ten years ago, so let's not talk about it for now, let's put it aside. The point is that now, we have a suspicion, and now that suspicion has finally been confirmed. ”

"There's a shadow mage hiding here, and there's evidence that the shadow mage should be associated with some member of the nobility. After all, the Temple of the Four Directions had a rule that it was not allowed to participate in the affairs of the state, so it could not participate in the life of the nobles. ”

Lance didn't notice a hint of fatigue on Roque's face as he digested such an exaggerated fact, more than ten years ago, several of his friends had died in this way, and those shadow mages had used some means to kill and invade several high-ranking members of the Temple of the Four Directions. There are a lot of things that most people don't know about.

Shadow Mages are a terrible bunch of creatures, and Danica's disappearance may have something to do with them.

Luckily, it was sensed from the Sword of Thunder that she was still safe and sound, and her state was stable.

After thinking and thinking for a while, the gate of Jepéry's house was in front of him, and Lance told the guards to open the iron door and let him in.

After taking a few steps inside, Lance saw a figure come out from behind a nearby tree.

"You're finally back. ”

"Field, what are you doing here?"

"You guy is really used, you are so cowardly and incompetent, you are actually the owner of the sword, and you were called to the palace by the eldest prince. What !!qualifications do you have?"

Field's expression became a little hideous, and he drew his sword and made a threatening gesture.

"You're waiting here for me just to say this, you want to do something to me?"

Lance began to wonder if there was something wrong with the confinement and retreat.

“……”

Field stared at Lance fiercely, without speaking, withdrew his sword, and turned to leave.

"What is this?"

Lance watched him leave, unaware that Field had secretly sworn in his heart that he must find his weakness.

"You're back, what's going on with the eldest prince?"

Knowing from the servant that his father was in the study, Lance went to the study, and as soon as he stepped through the door, he heard the words and saw the master of the voice.

"Father. ”

Lance recounted what had happened during the day, and mentioned the dragon that had suddenly appeared.

"Although it flew away quickly, no one could guarantee that it would not come back. I saw it in the palace and many people were terrified......"

"You don't have to worry about this, the Temple of the Four Directions has a way to deal with the dragon, and it can also predict the location of the dragon's arrival, and if it is your turn, it will notify you in advance. ”

"But ......"

"Alright. ”

coughed heavily, his eyebrows were a little solemn, and his tone was full of seriousness that could not be ignored.

"Lance, the next words are very important, you have to listen well, we have come up with a plan, and this plan is like this. ”

Lance was interrupted and looked at his father, seeing that his face was not as serious and cautious as usual.

He couldn't help but hold his breath and listen carefully to every word that followed.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and for two days, Lance went to the palace every day to investigate the traces of the coat of arms.

Lance found out that the sword teacher was extremely nervous for some reason when he met him for the second time, and he didn't know what the reason was, but he couldn't rule out the possibility of lying, so Lance focused on this sword teacher.

I wanted to meet for the third time, but the sword teacher was not in the palace, and it was said that he was sick.

Although the investigation is inconclusive for the time being, it confirms that the sword teacher is indeed suspicious.

Rans disguised himself as he had gone to borrow a book that day, and went to a normal tavern whose customers were mostly civilians and some adventurers. Lance found a table against the wall, sat down and ordered a glass of water and fruit.

For the past two days, he has been visiting the tavern every day.

"This guest, come to a bottle of fruit bar, you order boiling water every time you come, you won't drink it, fruit wine will be no problem, you won't get drunk if you drink it, the fruit wine I recommend to you is still the signature of our store!"

The tavern waitress recommended Reims with a glass of wine.

"Then have a drink, by the way, I would like to ask you if there is anything very sensational going on in the Imperial City today? I went out this morning on the road to see a bard, and said something that seemed to have something to do with the Temple of the Four Directions, and it seemed to be ...... What a very murderous magician escaped. ”

"Magician?"

The waitress tilted her head and thought about it seriously.

"I remember, yesterday evening I heard some guests say that shadow mages are very dangerous, and they are very uneasy. If that's the case, I think it must be a rumor, there is a branch of the Temple of the Four Directions, and there is a dragon slayer knight here, so there is no need to be so uneasy. ”

"Is that so?"

Lance sat for a moment, then left as soon as he settled the bill.

"The news spread so fast. ”

He muttered to himself that the night two days ago, the plan that his father had told him was to be carried out by the Temple of the Four Directions to spread the news of the Shadow Mage, and also spread the news that the Knight Chief was going to arrive in the Imperial City and bring a certain list to capture the members of the Shadow Alliance.

Lance sincerely hopes that this project will go smoothly.

"Shadow magic and light magic are opposed to each other and resist each other. ”

There are not many people with light magic talents, and almost all of those who possess this talent are concentrated in the Temple of the Four Directions, and in addition, the most common and well-known among ordinary magicians is elemental magicians. With the development of the Temple of the Four Directions, light magic has gradually become known to everyone, healing magic is the most popular one for people, in addition to dispel malice and purify the mind, protective magic, and so on.

The most mysterious of all magic is the space magic of the special system, and people who are gifted with space magic are rarer than light magic, and in addition to the space system, shadow magic is the most mysterious.

Because of the protection of the Temple of the Four Directions, most people are ignorant of shadow magic.

These are mentioned in several books that Lance borrowed from the library.

"There are too few records of shadow mages. ”

Two of them are ancient fairy tales, the title of which mentions shadows, and Lance borrowed them together.

"In these two stories, it is mentioned that the shadow mage is an evil mage who manipulates death and souls, I don't know if it is true or false, after all, it is a fairy tale, and it is not surprising that there are exaggerated elements. ”

"The enemy of the Temple of the Four Directions is the Shadow Mage, and the sworn enemy of the Shadow Mage is also the Temple of the Four Directions......"

"By the way, Sword of Thunder, can you feel the shadow mage?"

Lance put the book down and turned to the Sword of Thunder resting on the table.

"No, the only one who can detect the aura of shadow magic is the sword of light, and I can only detect the elemental magic of the thunder system. ”

"So, what about the Shadow Excalibur?"

“…… Shadow Excalibur, yes. ”

The Sword of Thunder sensed the true meaning of Lance's question, and replied, "The Sword of Light, the Sword of Shadow, is special, and the Sword of Light is the weakest, but it is also the strongest. ”

"Well, I don't care about other Excaliburs, what do you think of shadow mages?"

“……”

"Sword of Thunder?"

Receiving the answer from the Sword of Thunder, Lance sighed lightly and continued to read.

Minutes and seconds passed.

There was no moonlight outside the window, and when the clouds dispersed, the misty moonlight shone into the room, casting a clear light on the floor.

"The Sword of Shadows, it's terrifying. ”

In the quiet environment, the whisper of the Sword of Thunder was heard.

Lance read until two o'clock in the middle of the night, and finally finished reading all the books borrowed from them, but unfortunately, there was too little useful information. At most, there were a few low-level shadow magics, frightening magics, and magics that temporarily took away vision.

"What really matters is still nothing. ”

Lance rubbed his tired eyes and yawned a few times in a row, he was so sleepy that he would have to continue his investigation tomorrow morning.

His heart became tired, so much had happened during this time, and he still hadn't found the missing Danica.

"I'm sorry. ”

He could only apologize over and over again, forcing himself over and over again, he had to speed up his actions and speed up the pace of finding Danica.

Behind the young man, the Sword of Thunder looked at the back in silence, seeing all his efforts in his eyes, but he couldn't help at all, for Excalibur, there was only one thing he could do, and that was to crusade against the dragon.

"Danica?"

It was pitch black, and suddenly, he noticed a light in front of him, and Danica was standing in the light with her back to her.

"Danica!!"

He called the red-haired girl's name and ran over.

However, no matter how much he ran, he could never reach the place where the light was, just like running in place, he could never get there. She couldn't hear her own voice either, his cries had no effect, she couldn't hear them at all.

"Danica!"

Still, Lance didn't want to stop, he had a feeling that once he stopped, Danica would disappear in front of him. I don't know how long it took, the fog began to appear and spread all around, and it seemed that in less than five minutes, Danica's figure was gradually blocked by the fog, and she was no longer visible. Immediately after, the place where the light was located was gradually disappearing.

"No !!"

Lance opened his eyes in shock, a little stunned, and saw that this was his bedroom, and realized that he had a nightmare.

“……”

This morning, the mood is particularly bitter.

Lance patted his face, and finally waited for his mood to stabilize before leaving the bedroom and getting outside to get some fresh air.

Before going to the palace, Lance went to another place, and he had to go to find the badge from the people in the palace, and in order to find the badge.

Lance came to a street decorated with flowers, found a second house from left to right on the side of him, knocked on the door, but no one answered. He patiently knocked a few more times, but there was still no response inside.

"This guy, it's impossible not to be there. ”

Lance thought about it and decided to go straight in.

He had been standing here for a while, suspicious enough, and he had noticed that the owner of the shop opposite was looking at him strangely, and that if he broke down the door, he would cause trouble.

Lance went around to the back of the house and broke the window to enter when no one passed.

There was no sound in the room, as if no one was really home, and when Lance came to the upstairs room, it was not the case.

Lance heard a very light movement on the second floor, and there was a door inside that was ajar, and when he looked closer, someone was packing up his clothes.

"Are you going to leave?"

Suddenly a voice was heard outside the door, and the people in the room were startled and turned to see Lance.

"Y-How did you get in!"

"Is this a fear of absconding?"

"What do you mean? Don't talk nonsense. ”

"I already found out that you were hiding, where did you hide the badge?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!!Hurry up and get out!! I can't imagine that the rumored Dragon Slayer Knight will be a thief who broke into someone's house without permission!! if you don't want to be exposed, leave quickly. ”

Lance felt that it would be nonsense to continue, and pulled out the sword of thunder and erected it in the doorway.

"Tell me what you are hiding, or I will swear as a dragon slayer knight that I will never let you go, don't think about escaping!"

"If I use Excalibur here, the whole house will collapse, you think about the consequences. ”

"What's more, the Grand Prince and the Jepery family won't let you go. ”

This last sentence made the person who was packing up his things and preparing to leave show a panicked expression, and even a large drop of sweat appeared on his face.

"I ...... I didn't see it, I didn't see anything...... I swear I won't tell anyone. ”

"What do you see?"

The guy's spirit began to be a little dazed and he spoke strangely.

"No, no......"

After waiting for a while, the man seemed to come to his senses, looked at Lance, and asked slowly.

"You were threatening me just now...... Why do you want to know about this, I promised Your Highness, that you must not say it. ”

"As I said when I first met you, the Great Prince asked me to find the missing badge of His Highness Norn. ”

Hearing this sentence again, for some reason, this person seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"His intentions are really strange, why do you say that, why do I swear, no, things are so important, he has a reason...... I also brought the dragon slayer knight, inexplicably!"

"What are you muttering? I don't have that much patience. ”

“…… Hey, young master of the Jeperie family, if you can guarantee that I am unharmed, I will tell you what I saw that day. ”

"I can vouch for my identity as a Dragon Slayer Knight. ”

"I ...... I saw His Royal Highness Norn who left the room, and the eldest prince who happened to pass by, when they met each other...... "I subconsciously swallowed my saliva, recalled that scene, and couldn't help but be shocked.

"His Highness Norn took the sword I gave him to practice, drew it, and stabbed it at his father just like that......"