After giving the residents of Kines Castle a hearty meal, Hans successfully escaped the Enoa Kingdom with Woohyuk and his companions.

Thanks to the information Woohyuk had obtained in advance, they were able to avoid areas with strict surveillance.

Now that both the geniuses he wanted to recruit were with him, Woohyuk asked King Philip II to help Allen and Reina return safely to the Croa Princ.i.p.ality.

They provided a s.h.i.+p capable of long-distance voyage to the elf and the mage.

Triton, who was a first-cla.s.s navigator and could also serve as a bodyguard during emergencies, was lent as a bonus.

However, there was one problem: How would Triton return from the Croa Princ.i.p.ality alone afterwards?

Woohyuk pondered for a while, before speaking to Triton.

“For the return trip, swim your way back to me.”

“…”

Such a cold-blooded lord.

As Triton reluctantly lowered the sail, Reina waved her hand at Woohyuk from the deck.

“Goodbye, Woohyuk! And thanks for the scale armor!”

“Don't forget to contact me when you arrive.”

"Sure! Stay healthy, my good friend!”

Woohyuk had helped Reina in many ways, which led to her developing positive feelings towards the man.

Once the man and elf duo said their goodbyes, Allen spoke in turn.

“I will find a way to pay back this debt. Let us meet again in the future.”

"Don't worry. I'll visit you personally sometime.”

Allen had to return to his home country as soon as possible and walk down the path of an archmage.

Funnily enough, the man in question still wasn't aware of his own destiny.

“Have a safe trip!”

As the time for departure approached, Helena finally ended her silence and spoke up.

Then, she took out a transparent container and tossed a lemon jelly in her mouth.

“Hey, you greedy saint. You better not come to the Croa Princ.i.p.ality. I'm going to spread terrible rumors about you everywhere.”

"Do as you want. I don't really care.”

Helena munched on the jelly as she shook her index finger sideways.

Reina turned to Woohyuk with an exhausted expression.

“I feel sorry for you, Woohyuk. Good luck traveling around with that shameless woman.”

“Don't misunderstand. The King of Rhine values me very highly.”

Helena hugged Woohyuk's arm with both hands and clung to him.

Reina flinched as if Helena's action bothered her.

“That saint is so troublesome...”

“Why don't you stop now? Let's say goodbye with smiles on our faces.”

Allen tapped Reina's shoulder.

The s.h.i.+p then departed, and once the two were out of sight, Woohyuk pushed Helena away.

“Why do you keep clinging to me?”

“To control you.”

Helena smiled and her mischievous att.i.tude disappeared.

Woohyuk stared at her for a moment and then turned to the carriage.

“Now, let go meet up with the others from Eteria Rodinus. Did they contact you recently?”

“Not really. It seems like everything is going as planned.”

Eteria Rodinus was looking for the whereabouts of the Sangreal Chronicles in the Talis Kingdom.

However, the Talis Kingdom was a country full of dangers, as Dragonlord Ivanov, the three demon kings of Ars Almadel, and the Witch of l.u.s.t were residing in it.

If things went wrong, there would be a grand-scale battle before he would obtain the Sangreal Chronicles and Red Dragon Carnelian.

“They must be exploring the ruins. Are all the members gathered together right now?”

“That's not the case. We have to be prepared for the worst case scenario.”

It would be terrible if something unexpected happened and all the members of Eteria Rodinus died simultaneously.

Even during the previous incident with Rosenkreuz, there were only half of them to face the enemy.

The rest were scattered around and working to rebuild the Ark of Knowledge.

“I pray that there are no traitors like the 12th disciple Judas Iscariot amongst you.”

“Oh, if there were a traitor amongst us, I would be dead already, since I have the nameless tome with me.”

The nameless tome and Sangreal Chronicles were valuable records of the ancestors that Eteria Rodinus paid special attention to.

Woohyuk nodded and got on the carriage.

“Let's go to the Lydia Kingdom, Bailey.”

"Understood."

Bailey swung the reins and the horses began walking.

Once the carriage started moving at a decent pace, Woohyuk had a telepathing conversation with him.

[Were there any disturbances in the Lydia Kingdom?]

[Yes, some believers of the Witch Cult were spotted, but it didn't seem like they were scheming something altogether.]

Bailey was in charge of operating the country with King Philip II while Woohyuk was traveling around other kingdoms.

Thanks to him, the Lydia Kingdom had become much more peaceful and stable again.

Woohyuk would not have to worry about the Lydia Kingdom for now.

'But we never know when problems will occur.'

Because the country was between the Norton Kingdom and the Enoa Kingdom, King Philip II would face a new crisis sooner or later.

Therefore, Woohyuk could not stay in the Talis Kingdom for too long.

He had to negotiate with Eteria Rodinus and learn Rosa Eterna, the language of the wis.e.m.e.n.

Woohyuk looked out the window, feeling some heavy weights on his shoulders.

***

Once they arrived at the royal palace of Lydia, Woohyuk took Dexter and Hans with him and headed straight to the Dane Kingdom.

His plan was to leave them with Leifina for a while.

Leifina would also be excluded from the journey to the Talis Kingdom, because she had to hold on to the Informant's Messages instead of Woohyuk.

She would be the one getting tracked instead of Woohyuk.

However, Leifina did not agree to the plan and wanted to journey with her lord.

Woohyuk took out a transparent container in response to her refusal.

"Take it, I bought it specially for you."

“Wha, what is this?”

“It's chocolate. It's a popular food made with cacao fruits in the Talis Kingdom.”

The food originated from the Talis Kingdom, but he had obtained a small amount of it from a city in the Lydia Kingdom.

Leifina slowly put a piece of chocolate in her mouth.

“…!!!”

“Do you like it?”

“It's amazing. I love how it melts in my mouth.”

Woohyuk had given Leifina this gift to appease her heart, as well as to make her forget the previous incident with Helena.

The plan seemed successful based on Leifina's response.

“It's a reward for working so hard until now. I hope you will continue to work for me in the future.”

“I will try my best to meet My Lord's expectations.”

Leifina was an obedient girl, unlike a certain saintess who enjoyed hara.s.sing him.

Choi Kayoon entered the room and interrupted the calm mood the two were enjoying.

“Do I have to keep staying here? I worry that Tinia will kill all my monsters.”

“Don't worry too much. I already informed Sieg.”

Currently, many of his va.s.sals were returning to the Rhine Kingdom.

Their jobs were to protect the country from demons.

Indeed, since Woohyuk was away from the kingdom, demons could once again aim for it.

And his current plan only required a few people, so he couldn't take all of them on his journey.

“Then, isn't the Dane Kingdom too unprotected? I think we should divide the ratio appropriately.”

“This country is between the Lydia Kingdom and the Izuna Kingdom, so we can reclaim it at any moment.”

Moreover, even though the Holy Aperian Empire was right next to it, they were separated by a mountain range.

In other words, despite them being neighboring countries, the Dane Kingdom was somewhat out of the Holy Aperian Empire's circle of influence.

In fact, there were fewer and fewer priests working for the Pope in this country.

“Those priests are scary. They're going to burn me alive if they find out I'm taming and raising monsters.”

“The hunt for pagans and heretics won't be as frequent for a while. They have to wait until Rosenkreuz gets better. The problem right now is Princess Eleonora.”

Princess Eleonora wanted to make the imperial power greater than the pope's.

Before his regression, she often did things that were unexpected, such as conquering smaller kingdoms in the surroundings that had gotten taken over by demons.

'It'll be troublesome if she comes over here and creates complications.'

Her appearance was that of an impeccable beauty.

She had s.h.i.+ny blond hair descending to her waist and clear seblue eyes, an egg-shaped face and narrow nose that men loved.

Finally, long and thin eyebrows that maximized her purity.

Every aspect of her body was perfect, so she would dazzle even when wearing rough clothes.

But her personality was...

'Right now, Helena is already difficult enough to handle, but...'

A princess who ran wild with a holy sword and a saint who enjoyed hara.s.sing others.

Both were very different from his taste in women.

“If Princess Eleonora does come, how should I act?”

“…Just try to be as far away as possible from her.”

The advantage with Helena was that her behaviors were mostly jokes, but Eleonora's criticisms were all sincere.

If she found out he had demonic energy, she would immediately pick up the holy sword Ertia and cut him down.

In terms of madness, she was no less inferior to Rosenkreuz.

“She must be a very troublesome woman.”

“Helena is an angel compared to her.”

“Oh, do you think of me like that? How embarra.s.sing...”

Helena entered the room and intervened in Woohyuk and Choi Kayoon's conversation.

Woohyuk frowned for a moment, before changing the subject.

"Aren't you done with the magic spell yet?"

“Wha, what are you talking about?”

“Don't pretend not to know. It's written all over your face”

“…You're unbelievable. What a terrible man.”

Helena finally revealed murderous intent for the first time.

Her emotions had become sensitive due to her period.

Leifina criticised as she also knew Helena's pain.

“My Lord, that is not proper etiquette to a lady.”

“…Yeah, I went too far just now. I apologize, Helena.”

"I don't care. I'm just going to go eat some delicious lemon jelly.”

Helena picked up the lemon jelly container with a sullen expression.

Choi Kayoon watched with envy and spoke up.

“Wow, it looks delicious. Can I have one...”

"I can't hear you."

Helena murmured and acted ignorant.

Dexter and Hans came inside while Choi Kayoon was sulking.

“Your Majesty, the requested work has been completed.”

“Your Majesty, the meal is ready.”

Dexter's task was to engrave low-grade protection runes on the Berserker's plate armor set.

There are several advantages of engraving runes on armor, such as resisting mind attacks or magic swords. One would be able to do those things even if their stats were low compared to their opponent.

"Hmm… Not bad.”

“I can only use low-grade runes because my skill level is still low, but I will engrave intermediate and advanced runes someday.”

Sacred rune characters could later be harvested from spirit stones by using Dexter's exclusive accessory, Rune Law.

The usage rights were obviously limited to Dexter, the runesmith.

Later on, if he could utilize runes freely, it would be possible to engrave runes made of combinations of high-grade magic spells and not just runes of protection.

Moreover, if his blacksmith skill proficiency increased, it would be possible to use existing equipment as material to produce even higher-grade equipment.

Currently, Woohyuk had some pieces of equipment that weren't usable, so he had great expectations for Dexter.

"Good work. Then let's go eat now.”

Special food prepared by the King of Cooking himself was waiting for them.

When the whole group left for the dining room, Leifina secretly whispered to Hans.

“Um, Hans. I have a request...”

“Please speak freely, Countess Leifina.”

“Can you teach me how to cook?”

The more someone told you not to do something, the more you would want to try it out. That was the unwritten rule of every world.

Leifina's eyes sparkled as determination swirled in her pupils.