The Rise of the Black Plain

Four days later...

After leaving that previous village, Minos and Gloria traveled without stopping at other human settlements, having flown most of the time and only stopping to camp in the middle of forest regions.

Other than that, the two were interacting normally, with young Stuart doing what he could to improve his position. At the same time, Gloria enjoyed traveling with someone who did not seem to be afraid of her.

As for dangers or incidents on their journey, they had even come across groups of bandits twice. But upon realizing Gloria's level, some of the outlaws had even died of fear!

Apart from those who had crapped themselves before trying to escape, the spiritual beasts that had accompanied Minos this far had accomplished the task of exterminating them.

And, of course, Minos once again had not put his identity at risk; As for Gloria, who had waited to see what he would do, had been disappointed not to have seen him in action.

After that, she tried a few times to encourage young Stuart to demonstrate his combat proficiencies and offered to train with him in the remaining days of the trip.

But as tempting as the offer had been, Minos had refused Gloria's attempts, thus increasing her curiosity about him by one more point.

Anyway, after these events, they had finally reached their current position, near the first city that gave entrance to the security area of the capital of this kingdom.

The Kingdom of the Waves had several cities within a few hundred kilometers of the capital, which were basically the cities that bordered the territory directly administered by the Walker family.

In such a place, not only did the highest-ranking members of the royalty have their lands and, in some cases, even cities, but it was also the place where a good part of the troops of this state was.

From this point on, the local royal guard made all kinds of checks and inspections to prevent enemy troops from passing through.

That was done to prevent, as had happened to the Chambers family, House Walker from being taken by surprise by thousands of enemies at once.

In fact, this type of strategy was used in all the kingdoms of this region, on the outskirts of their respective capitals.

Unfortunately for the Chambers, they were only a medium-sized noble house when the Hayes had attacked them!

Otherwise, they might have had the opportunity to build defenses as good as those others and perhaps survived that situation.

But even with such defenses, royal families could not limit the entry of just one or two people. After all, unlike troops with thousands of individuals, it would be tough to notice a single being traveling through these areas.

Even this protection area of the kingdom, which had only a fraction of this territory, was a few tens of thousands of square kilometers in area. And with that, considering the number of people able to check this area, there was no way that the royal guard could stop anyone who tried to infiltrate this area.

First, it might be a waste of resources to place Spiritual Generals every few kilometers apart in this area. Second, even if this were done, it would be useless to have these people if the invader was a Spiritual King.

The region had few of these specialists, and it would be impossible to use them efficiently in this job.

It was even possible to do something efficient in some special situations. Still, if an assassin, for example, wanted to enter this area, as long as he avoided the cities, it would not be difficult to infiltrate this region.

That was also one of the reasons why even the royal families in this region had to be cautious when dealing with the Scourges of the Devil!

With that, the existence of this region itself was not a problem for Minos, and he was following alongside Gloria there without stressing about it.

'Soon, my time to act will come!' Minos thought about this as he smelled the sweet scent of Gloria's hair, who was sitting in front of him on that grating mount of hers.

At the same time, the black-furred Winged Tiger was flying right behind that great bird, getting closer and closer to the city they were about to land in.

'Should I use my relationship with Gloria to get easier access to that crown prince?' He wondered as he looked at the left side of her face.

'No!'

'If I do that, I may end up forcing her to act herself!'

'And even if she didn't, that might force the church to accept all the requests from the regional families...'

'I'd better just stick with the original plan.' He made up his mind as he absentmindedly squeezed the sides of Gloria's waist.

Feeling Minos' touch stronger than usual, that woman looked back sideways but without expressing any discomfort. 'What...'

She was about to think of something, but immediately after noticing the serious expression on young Stuart's face, she dropped that subject and asked. "What? Are you, by any chance going to give up going through this place? We had already agreed to do that."

Hearing Gloria's sweet and pleasant voice, Minos put aside his thoughts of revenge, killing, and other hostile things to answer her. "Uh? Oh, no, I'm not giving up."

"Then why were you looking so serious?"

Minos then looked at her and smiled. "I was just imagining that even after days of traveling with you, I couldn't even get a kiss..."

"That can depress anyone!"

"Tsk!"

'Scoundrel! I knew you were going to say something like that!' So, she imagined while turning her attention to the city ahead, which became more noticeable as her mount decreased its altitude.

"Anyway, I'll wear a mask while we're passing through here..."

"A mask, eh?" Gloria's eyes sparkled at this information. "Are you by any chance some kind of criminal? From what are you hiding?"

"Well, you could say that I made the mistake of teaching a lesson to a person of powerful background..." Minos said in an 'embarrassed' manner, speaking half-truths to Gloria.

"Oh?"

"I almost killed the son of a powerful person of this state when he tried to act against a person important to me. After that, I think he probably put a bounty on my head..."

"So, a poor level 53 Spiritual King like me has to hide when traveling through this state."

"I see..." Gloria commented to Minos, finding this story good enough to convince her why he wanted to hide. 'Poor Albert, he was just protecting someone and earned a mark of death...'

'Well, don't worry. I won't be the one to get in your way by exposing your identity."

"Is that so?" He said in satisfaction, just before he hugged her waist, seizing the opportunity. "Ah, Gloria, you truly are a godly woman!"

"Thank you!"

Her face then flushed as she swallowed her saliva in surprise at Minos' random words. 

After that, it was not long before the two left the two beasts at one of the city's exits and then proceeded in a carriage to the central area there.

"Good evening, sir, ma'am. Where shall we go?" The coachman asked while he had a sad expression on his face.

"Take us to the best hotel in this place," Gloria said promptly.

As for Minos, he could not help but find that fellow's expression curious. 

Usually, people in the Spiritual World do not show their emotions so easily, even more so in an everyday situation like this one.

So, young Stuart could not help but ask that man, "What happened? Why do you look so down?"

Gloria then noticed that and waited to hear from that old gentleman what the case was. She then heard, "Ah, sorry about that, but it's just that recently a great tragedy happened in the kingdom..."

Gulp!

"A week ago, King Walker passed away in the royal palace!" He said in lamentation, feeling bad that such a pillar had disappeared precisely in this tumultuous period.

...