Science/Magic

After checking their rooms, the group gathered in Bloed's room to discuss the situation.

Their main topic was the high number of churches sending men to Academy City.

'It's higher than expected.' Bloed thought to himself.

He had underestimated the attraction that the Heart of the Forest had to deities.

Even when he knew that deities coveted the Heart of the Forest, he also knew that some deities did not care about it that much, such as the Goddess of Fate or the Moonlight Goddess.

However, what Bloed did not expect was that these goddesses were not the rule, but the exception.

Almost every god desired to get that item. Only a few gods such as the Goddess of Fate did not care about it.

"Claus, will Academy City be alright? What if the gods become angry when they fail to find the Heart of the Forest." Liu Ying asked worriedly.

Bloed hesitated. The truth was that he was also concerned about it.

After hesitating for a moment, he decided to communicate his concerns to the Headmistress.

Before leaving Academy City, Bloed had left a communicator to Headmistress Wave and another to Little Gina. That way, he could know what happened in the city and at the same time, he could talk to them if the situation changed.

A few minutes later, Headmistress Wave's projection appeared from a small device on Bloed's hand.

[My cute student, could it be that you already miss me? You have only been gone for a few hours.]

"Now is not the time for jokes, teacher." Bloed smiled wryly. "I need to ask you something." Bloed then told Headmistress Wave about his concerns.

But to his surprise, the Headmistress was calm.

[I see. Don't worry, the gods don't dare to go too far on my territory.]

"Huh?"

[Do you know who my grandfather is?]

Bloed was stunned. However, Eres and Elwha opened their eyes wide in excitement.

"Are you talking about the Dragon Overlord!? The rumor is right!?" Elwha was unable to hide her agitation.

Bloed froze.

"… Do you mean that the Strongest Dragon is your grandfather?" He asked in disbelief.

Wave grinned.

[It's an open secret. Yes, my grandfather is one of the world's three Irregulars, the Dragon Overlord.]

Bloed was stupefied.

The Dragon Overlord was a legendary character. He was the strongest dragon, and one of the world's only three Irregulars.

He was not a god, but he was as strong as one. In fact, he had fought several gods in his life, and he had never lost.

Such an existence was equivalent to the Human Confederation's Beyond SSS-Grade ESPers.

According to Bloed's knowledge, existences at that level had the potential to destroy the world!

"Wait a moment." Bloed suddenly frowned. "If your grandfather is the Dragon Overlord, then why is Academy City in danger. Are the four races not afraid of attacking the city of the granddaughter of the Dragon Overlord?"

[Why should they be afraid?] Wave smiled bitterly, her caramel-colored eyes becoming downcast. [It doesn't matter as long as they don't kill me. Grandfather can't leave the Beasts' Wilderness easily due to an agreement he made with the gods. Even if Academy City is destroyed, he won't intervene.

[Even so, the churches don't dare to act rashly. They are afraid of earning the enmity of my grandfather. Due to that, the churches won't act recklessly. At least for a while, they won't take forceful measures.

[Plus, if I realize that I'm unable to control the situation, I will just reveal that the Heart of the Forest is no longer in Academy City. By then, the churches won't dare to touch the city without a good reason.]

"That is good." Bloed sighed in relief. "It looks like I don't need to worry about Academy City."

[You need to worry about yourself instead. If the news about your location and that you are transporting the Heart of the Forest leak out, you will be in a dangerous situation.]

"I know. Don't worry, I will be careful."

After that, Bloed asked the Headmistress a couple of things more before ending the communication.

"It looks like the situation in Academy City is under control." Bloed smiled at the girls. "Now we only need to worry about our trip."

"About that, Bloed." Elwha suddenly frowned. "I think things are not so simple."

"What do you mean?"

"… I'm not sure, but I think that I felt a strange fluctuation in one of the men of the Church of the Sun."

Bloed and the others were startled.

"What kind of fluctuation?" Eres asked.

"I'm not sure. However, you know that I'm the Priestess of one of the Great Trees. I felt that this fluctuation is similar to my connection to the Great Tree."

Bloed's eyes narrowed. At the same time, the expressions of Liu Ying and Eres changed.

"It can't be." Liu Ying's face was pale. "They can't be that crazy, right?"

Bloed did not reply. Instead, he looked at Regina.

"Regina, do you think you can eavesdrop on the group of the Church of the Sun God."

"Of course, master."

"Be careful to not be discovered."

"Understood."

After bowing slightly, Regina left the room.

She then used her physic energy to scan the entire hotel. Because she did not want to be discovered, she was very careful, spreading her psychic energy inch by inch slowly.

After thirty seconds, she found a place where the concentration of energy was much higher than normal, and her eyes flashed.

"Found it."

Having found the location, Regina took out an artifact able to bend the light around her to make her invisible and activated it. She then manipulated the energy around her, hiding any trace that could give her away.

When she reached the rooms where the men of the Church of the Sun God were staying, Regina used her senses to find the location of the demigod that they saw in the hall of the hotel.

She did not take long to find him. She then tried to use her enhanced senses to listen to the sounds in the room he was staying in.

But to her surprise, no sound was coming from that room.

"Could he be asleep? No, my enhanced senses should be able to catch the sound of his breathing. Then… Is he using a technique to soundproof the room?"

Regina knew that this world had some techniques like that. However, that was not enough to stop her.

"I just need to bypass that technique," Regina said before closing her eyes and extending her psychic energy towards the room as stealthily as possible.

Eventually, her psychic energy found an obstruction.

A mana barrier.

But instead of stopping, Regina blended her psychic power with the mana barrier.

In less than five seconds, her psychic energy had taken the property of the mana barrier and mixed in it. Astonishingly, the mana barrier did not show the slightest change during the process!

It was due to Regina's ESP ability, [S-Grade Energy Materialization].

Energy Materialization was a weaker variant of the ESP ability, Energy Manipulation. Compared to Energy Manipulation, Energy Materialization was way less flexible. There was a limit to the way Regina could use it.

But even so, it was a variant of Energy Manipulation. If Regina tried, it was not impossible to manipulate energy in more complex ways.

Something like changing the property of her psychic energy to fuse it with a mana barrier was a piece of cake.

When her psychic energy fused with the mana barrier, it allowed Regina to listen to the conversation inside the room.

In the next instant, the voice of the demigod they met in the hall reached her ears.