Chapter 270 – Express

“Kathe, please hurry.”

The village that had been overrun by vampires was two hours away from the royal capital on foot.
If Kathe flew at full speed, she should be able to arrive in ten minutes.

“I know!”
Just as Kathe began to accelerate, my communications bracelet reacted.

‘Mr. Locke. Can you hear me?’
“What happeed?”

I could hear Philly’s voice coming from the bracelet.
Before leaving for the beastkin wolf settlement, I had given Philly and Milka the bracelets.
It was for emergency communication.

‘Something is happening in the royal capital.’
I had expected this.

“What, precisely?”
‘There is a hole in the divine protection.’
I did not expect that. I didn’t think that things would be that bad.

“Tell me the location and scale.”

As I talked to Philly, Eric used his own bracelet to contact others as well.
The privy council directly under him, and the royal guards, which had a lot of beastkin wolves. He was likely giving them orders to be on guard.

‘The hole is directly above the royal palace. As for the size, it is more than big enough to cover the palace. In fact, your mansion is inside as well, Mr. Locke.”
“I see. That is very big.”

If even my house was in range, that means the palace and entire nobles district was no longer protected.
Eric looked at me grimly when he heard this.
Goran also started to contact others with his bracelet. He was probably giving orders to the Adventurers Guild.

“Has there been an attack?”
‘I do not know…’
“I see. That’s good.”

If they didn’t know, it at least meant that Philly, Milka, Nia and Luchila had not been attacked.
That was enough for me at this time.

“Philly. I have casted magic on the mansion. You should be safe as long as you stay inside.”
‘I know.’
“Is there any way to close the hole in the divine protection?”

Philly was a genius alchemist. She had more skill and knowledge than the alchemists in the palace.
Besides, the divine protection used the sage’s stone as its core.
And Philly was the only one who could craft those.

‘…Mr. Locke, it is harder than it sounds. I won’t say that I’m sure I can do it, but…’
“That’s fine. Just think of something quickly. If you can’t do it, then no one can. We will have to give up.”
‘Very well. I will do my best.’
“Take care of my apprentices, Milka, Nia and Luchila.”
‘Yes. I will do my best for them as well.’

I finished my communication with Philly and then contacted Shia next.
Shia was one of the chiefs of the beastkin wolves. And so Eric had given her one of the bracelets.
Also, Shia and Serulis had said that they were going to the palace to play with Eric’s daughters.
It was likely that they were at the royal palace right now. And so if I could contact them, I might be able to find out about the situation in the palace.

“Shia! Can you hear me?”
‘…zazaza…zaa…’
There was no reply. Perhaps she was saying something, but there was too much noise, and I couldn’t hear.

“Shia! Answer me if you can hear!”
‘…Za…zaza…’

Once Eric saw that I couldn’t connect to Shia, he said,

“So there is no reply for you either?”
“You either? Is it the same for you too?”
“Aye. I can’t connect to the guards or the privy council.”
“Is it only within the palace?”
“Yes. I was able to contact departments outside of the palace. I’m sending them to the palace right now.”

“What about you, Goran?”
“I am able to contact the others. I’m sending our best Adventurers to the palace now.”
“I see. So not only did they make a hole in the divine protection, but they put up some kind of barrier that obstructs communication magic.”
“They can do such a thing?”

“Normally, it would be impossible. Well, I suppose Locke could do it…”

While Eric and Goran weren’t doubting me, they were very surprised.

“It’s not that easy to do. I believe it was something done over a long period of time by the informers within.”

Ever since we had helped Philly, we were aware that there were informers within the palace.
The privy council was doing its best to look into it, but they had not been able to find the culprits.

“What a disaster.”

Eric tightly gripped the handle of his holy sword.

“Calm down, Eric.”

That being said, his wife Lefy and daughters, Charlotte and Marie were in the palace.
So I couldn’t blame him.

“Aye, I know. I am calm.

Still, Eric forced a smile.

“We are almost there!”
Kathe shouted.

Thanks to her flying at top speed, the palace was now within view.
The area surrounding the palace was filled by a thick fog from the ground up into the sky.

“…What is that? It can’t be ordinary fog…”
“Locke. Do you know what is happening?”

Eric and Goran looked at me.

“I’ll check.”

And then I activated Magic Exploration and Magic Detection.
I wanted to know what the fog was, as well as the condition of the divine barrier. And if there was an evil god protection, I wanted to know about that as well.

“I checked, but I can’t tell. There must be something that is obstructing my magic.”
I could not even tell if there was an evil god protection.
However, it was clear that there was no divine protection.

“Eric. Where is the divine protection core?”

The location of the core was the highest state secret.
That being said, the closer you were to the core, the stronger the effect of the divine protection.
And so even I had a vague idea of its location.

“It’s deep into the palace. To be precise, the ceiling of my room.”
“I see.”
“Does that tell you anything?”
“I’m measuring the distance between the center of the divine protection and the hole.”

The divine protection wasn’t nullified completely.
And so a large part of the royal capital was still under its protection.
The hole was just in the center, over the palace.

“So the core itself is not nullified. There is just something to get rid of its effect.”

I said to Eric and Goran as I continued to search.
In the meantime, Kathe continued to fly us closer to the palace.

“I found it!”

After careful calculations, I found the location of the thing that was making a hole in the protection.