Late Morning - Late Winter : Sol | Western Holy Kingdom

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- Astren Ravenna ~

*Jingle-Thud* Dropping a small pouch of silver on the counter, I gently undid the string to show the Inn's hostess, who was around my age, what was inside.

"M-Miss, this is a bit too much. Allow me to count your change-"

I quickly cut her off by motioning my hand, stopping her as she was about to pour out the coins. "Please keep what's extra. Consider it the grace of the Goddess of Balance." I gave her a warm smile over my shoulder as I leaned back against the desk. "If you think I can give you more without drawing unwanted attention to your inn, please just ask." Gently opening the pouch of coins hanging from my waist, I revealed several gold and even a platinum coin.

The hostess immediately jolted before whispering. "You must be sure to be careful carrying so much... Even if you are from the church..."

But her concern just made me want to laugh. "We aren't going anywhere where bandits will be a problem." *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* Hearing some heavy steps, I looked over to see a huge bundle of brown fur walking down the stairs carrying a large rectangular bag before setting it on a table with a thud. "Hahaha, I almost mistook you for a bear."

Elizabeth, who was under the thick and incredibly oversized fur coat, immediately turned to look me in the eyes. "It was the only size they had!" She paused before shooting me an irritated look. "You should have told me I was packing too light back in Voldukirk!"

I smiled as I shrugged. "I thought you were just planning to use some magic to stay warm."

"WELL, I MIGHT HAVE TO AT THIS RATE!"

As she yelled, we heard a series of more gentle footsteps before we saw Arcana and Gale coming down the stairs with their belongings. However, they were far more appropriately dressed, wearing heavy, layered clothes for extreme cold while not compromising on their ability to move or what equipment they were carrying.

Eventually reaching the bottom of the stairs, Arcana quickly looked around before turning to me. "Did Eve leave with Michael to get the horses? Or did she go back to bed?"

I quickly shook my head. "She went out to meet with the guide. Michael should be back in a minute or two. I assume she will be the same."

"Hm, I see..." Finding a place to set down her bag, she quickly opened it before pulling out several cloth scarves and tossing one to both Elizabeth and me.

-Hm?- At first I thought they were just normal scarfs, but as I held it in my hand, I felt a very faint mana swirling around it, and they were warm as if they had sat next to a fire for a moment. "What's this?"

Arcana's panther ears twitched as she turned around with a prideful smile. "Those scarves have a few runes on them that will help keep you warm once we get into the mountains where the ambient mana is thicker. I planned to hand them out when we were up in the mountains, but it seems like the cold is already getting a little unbearable." She quickly put on her own scarf, and covered her ears with a hood as she spoke.

-Oh, really?- Although runes in clothes were not totally unheard of, they were typically very inefficient and horrendously expensive. -For it to run off ambient mana too... Just how efficient is the rune they used?- I gently wrapped the scarf around my head and neck as she continued.

"If they aren't warm enough for your liking, inject a bit of mana into them, and they'll warm right up. Just be careful not to inject too much or the cloth will catch fire." She seemed a little anxious giving us the warning, but it was something we needed to hear, especially considering Elizabeth's mana pool.

*Vwoom* Gently injecting a tiny amount of mana into my own scarf, it almost immediately warmed up. "Woah..." Although it only warmed my head and shoulders, it felt like I had walked in front of the fireplace.

Elizabeth was quite amazed as well. "To think this kind of efficiency is possible... Can I put this under my shirt?"

Arcana's expression instantly turned a bit awkward. "I.. don't see why not."

But the mood quickly lightened agian as Elizabeth darted back to her room to change before coming down in much thinner and more comfortable clothes.

-It's still.. a bit light for this weather, though...- But I didn't have the courage to say anything.

For a bit after that, we ended up just talking before Mag finally joined us, and Michael returned with the horses.

All that was left was to wait for Eve.

*Crackle* Loitering around the fireplace, we all tried to warm ourselves up as much as possible. In the first few hours of daylight, rather than the conditions improving as we expected, they got much, much worse to the point it neared a blizzard.

"You think Eve will be alright?" Gale was the first to voice his concern. "It's been almost three hours since she left."

*fwooosh* Using the billows to stoke the fire, Mag spoke calmly. "She's a survivalist who isn't unfamiliar with the mountains. She'd be the last of us to die."

"But.. in these conditions..." *Thump-creakk* *WOOOSH* Cutting him off, the doors to the inn swung open, and the noise of the blasting winds outside filled the room.

*Tap-Tap-Tap* It was Eve, completely bundled up in clothes and only showing her eyes, but she wasn't alone.

Behind her was a man who looked barely older than me, with light, casual clothes meant for nobility in tropical regions. "Hello, everyone." His voice was unnaturally smooth, and his bright yellow eyes carried an air of supremacy. "You all must be the 'Frontier Group'."

He gave off a similar vibe to Sir Balatos, a colossal dragon, yet compared to him, I felt like I was standing on egg shells...

"We are." Responding for us, Mag walked forward before bowing just enough that his towering head was just beneath the other man's. "I assume you are our guide. It's an honor to meet you."

Pausing as Mag straightened his posture, the guide glanced over the rest of us before settling his gaze on Elizabeth and I. "I look forward to working together with you all." His tone was a tad sour, as if he didn't care that we knew his words were a lie.

But such formalities weren't what we were there for. "So, since everyone is here, are we ready to get going?"

The guide nodded without a moment of hesitation. "The weather will only worsen once we enter the forest, so stick close to me. We will not be moving slowly."

"Of course!"

Quickly gathering our things, we got ready to hop back on our horses in the blizzard, but before we left, Eve walked up to Elizabeth and set her hand on her shoulder. "You should wear that big coat you got. It's only going to get colder from here on out."

But she ignored the warning. "I'll be alright! I have Miss Arcana's heated scarf that will keep me warm!"

Unfortunately though, exactly 3 minutes later, she had a centimeter of snow layered on her head and was shivering.

"WHY IS THIS PLACE SO COLD?! WE AREN'T EVEN IN THE MOUNTAINS!" Letting go of her horse's reigns for a moment, she reached back to her bag before shakily pulling back out the massive fur coat. "I CAN FEEL MY EYES FREEZING!" Quickly bundling herself up, the faint glow of a flame lit up her face from inside her coat.

Although I couldn't see more than a bit of the others' horses, at that moment, I felt as if we all shared the same expression. -At least she's learning...-

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Early Evening - Late Summer : The New Elder Hall
(A few hours later)
- Vasilias Ragnarok ~

*Fw-w-w-wip* The sound of rustling papers filled the air as close to a thousand pieces of paper zipped around the room before neatly being ordered into several piles. -That should be everything for now...-

It had been a week since Hera had flipped the Elder Hall on its head, and while the public had yet to be notified of the changes happening, the knowledge of Myles waking up and then immediately coming to the Elder Hall and summoning Bahamut's highest ranking officials had people theorizing that a wave of change was coming. -But the news of Hera being the monarch will soon get out...-

Although outside the public eye, the changes had already been made, and everything was progressing extremely smoothly. Who would dare to object the word of a dragon that was already one of the strongest demigods alive ten thousand years ago.

The issue was the public. Not being able to see her in person yet, it would take time for people to truly believe she was still alive, let alone fix her reputation that was tarnished by the accusations of betraying Bahamut. Comparing her to Myles, the one currently believed to become the Monarch, it was clear how the public would favor and support, but she wasn't going to give them any choice.

Over the last week, she had been mobilizing the entire military force of Bahamut, and the forces of several noble families to begin preparations for the chaos that would follow the news. While she had the ability to simply use Myles as a puppet for the time being to ease the public sentiment, she wanted to give specific groups of dragons an excuse for rebellion so that she could clean out those still connected to the Aesir.

The crazy thing was just how acutely aware she was of the mess she was going to create. -I guess it makes sense considering she has close to two thousand years of experience being the Monarch... But did she really need to give me so many papers?-

Finally getting the papers ordered, I picked them all up with my aura and walked out into the hall. On my side of things, the last week had been nothing short of a boring and aggravating hell. To try and give me political knowledge and experience, Hera had temporarily shifted all of the backlogged work of everyone in the disbanded Elder Hall to me.

And as it turned out, I was absolutely terrible at it.

Being a dragon so ridiculously outside the norm, I had completely lost touch with the powers and abilities of normal dragons, so when I filled out paperwork, I would provide a solution to a problem that normal dragons could not do. According to Mother, I was also far too blunt and not understanding enough, but Hera actually took a liking to the way I handled 'non-problem/solution' matters.

Regardless, after filling out tens of thousands of pieces of paperwork, I had gotten better, even if I reguired the scolding and guidance of Mother, Grandmother, and Hera. -But at best, I'm still an amateur...- I still couldn't even hold a candle to Krystallo, according to Mother. -But at least I'm done for now...-

Now, it was time for me to be given a mission that was more my speed.

*knock* *knock* *Vwoom-click* Undoing the mana lock to Hera's office after a couple knocks, I nudged open the door and walked in to see Hera firmly sitting on the head of a colossal brown-feathered bird. -Looks like the pigeon is still being domesticated...-

Unfortunately, because of the divinity in his brain, my oath rune was only half-effective on him. -Not that it'll matter considering who his master is...-

"Have you finished? You were faster than yesterday." *Rustling* Moving the wall of papers blocking her face out of the way, Hera looked me in the eyes with a soft gaze.

"I have. Today was a pretty easy batch. You mind looking over them?"

"Of course not." *vwoom-FLUTTER* Taking the nearly 12,000 papers from me, she held them in front of herself before cycling through them absurdly quickly.

She was using her eyes to read rather than her aura like me, but I lacked the ability to say anything. -She can read faster than me...-

It only took her about two minutes to finish reading all the papers before taking out a stack of about 500. "These need changes, if you want to look through them."

As she handed them back to me, I skimmed through them and cringed at my inability to find the issues.

"But we'll save that work for later. For now, it's time to be getting ready for your trip."

-Right...- "Where is it to?"

She paused as she lifted up her wing to look down at Acanthis's face before turning back to me with a tail flicker. "The Scar."

Over the course of the week, Hera had been squeezing information about the Thunderbirds from Acanthis, bits at a time, but at long last, she got the important bit of info. "So they are around the scar?" -If that's the case, how did I not see one when I scouted the mountain?-

But Hera cut my thoughts short as she shook her head. "They're not around the mountain."

"T-Then-"

"They're in it."

-Huh?- My face warped with confusion as the tip of my tail that was curled with curiosity relaxed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean they're living inside the mountain. I'd assume in some huge cave system. I still don't know the details." She gave Acanthis an irritated glance before turning back to me.

"S..so.. where is the cave entrance?"

"In The Scar."

-No shit...- "I mean like-"

I was cut off as she shrugged her wings. "If I knew where the entrance was, why would I send you?"

"Ugh..." All excitement to leave drained from my body in that instant. "I guess I'll be back in a month or so, then."

"Hm? Are you going on vacation?"

"Eck..." I paused as I looked up into her eyes for a moment. "Fine. I'll be back in two weeks."

"That's more like it!" A wide smile washed over her face as she finally got what she was wanting, but as I turned to leave, she spoke again, this time much more softly. "Thanks to you I can rest easy. Just be careful, please..."

Her concern was genuine, but it just made me want to crack a joke. However, as I turned around and saw the soft warmth in her eyes, I hesitated. "Okay, I'll be careful."

Finally walking out of her office, I gently closed the door with my tail before looking down the hall and seeing Ilios happily trotting over to me. *pat-pat-pat*

"You ready, buddy?"

He joyfully nodded.

"It looks like we're gonna have to stretch our legs some on this trip, I hope you don't mind." My excitement slowly started returning as he hopped up onto my back, but instead of laying down, sat up with his head held high with a constant wag in his tail. "Oh, you aren't gonna nap?"

He immediately shook his head before looking into my eyes with a determined and excited expression. "Ruff."

"You want to race to find it?!" A flame of competitiveness instantly lit in my chest. "Just don't feel bad when I beat you, haha!" *Vwoop* Disappearing into the void, the halls instantly fell silent.

But after a moment, one of the ancient-stage maids spoke up. "Did Dagr just.. woof?"

As she turned around, she found all the other maids just staring where I once stood with dumbfounded expressions. "Doesn't Nott call him Ilios? What if he isn't Dagr?"

The maid paused before looking at the butler that just spoke. "I.. suppose you're right... But if he isn't Dagr, then who is he?"

It was that exact question that would make the name of Ilios, the new God of the Sun, begin to spread, not just through the estate but through the entirety of Bahamut.

It would just take many years before I would come to realize him making a name for himself wasn't accidental.

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