Outside the Ataru Canyon, where the National Knight Order's base was.

At this moment, this place is like the surface of the moon, a wasteland full of craters. There, a group of knights have orderly assembled here.

The knights weren't all that numerous, only about a few hundred or so.

However, those few hundred were all equipped with the highest quality equipment, armed with the highest grade weapons, and they faintly gave off powerful and intimidating presence.

If anyone saw this, they would definitely end up shouting out in surprise.

That's because not only those hundreds of knights all female, but the lowest level among them is level 50. All the female knights were also all quite beautiful, forming a beautiful scene all together.

Of course, anyone with decent eyes would have been able to identify who those knights are.

They're the personal knights created by the second princess of the Kingdom, Lucilosti. The Holy Sword Knights.

And where the Holy Sword Knights are, so too will that princess be.

That's right.

Lucy had come here.

In fact, she was standing right at the front of the assembled female knights.

".."

Faced with the shocking sight before her, Lucy fell silent.

The female knights behind Lucy were all practically holding their breaths, staring at the sight before them in disbelief.

Last night, a group of knights and adventures ran back to the Capital in a panic and reported what happened here to the palace.

"A catastrophe!"

"It's a true catastrophe!"

"The National Knight Order is already done for!"

"Garibaldi is also done for!"

Those knights and adventurers were utterly terrified. Some were practically mad, some were excited beyond measure, and some were even in tears. All of them were basically saying the same thing in their own ways.

Thus, the palace had already known that the National Knight Order that was guarding this place had encountered a catastrophe.

Unter that catastrophe, the National Knights guarding here had been nearly completely wiped out. None of the members of the Garibaldi family had made it out alive, having all been buried here.

The moment this news broke, the entire Capital was shaken.

It's the National Knight Order after all, one of the foundations protecting the Kingdom.

Now though, that knight order was annihilated just like that. It's equivalent to a major army of a nation being lost, so how could it possibly not have caused a huge commotion?

The palace even summoned various nobles for an audience in the middle of the night for a conference on dealing with the mater. They soon decided to send people there to investigate and figure out just what happened.

Lucy volunteered herself.

Thus, while the Kingdom is greatly shaken by this matter, and the palace was still discussing just how to deal with the aftermaths and suppress any actions from neighboring countries who might sense weakness, Lucy had already brought her own Holy Sword Knights to rush to this place without stopping. There, they saw the scene before them.

And then, after seeing it, Lucy basically understood.

"This was no natural catastrophe."

There were two reasons why she made that judgment.

One is the situation here.

Based on the knights and adventurers who manged to escaped back to the Capital, it was a catastrophe caused by a meteor shower. A constant rain of meteors destroyed everything here, utterly annihilating the National Knight Order that was guarding this place.

However, Lucy didn't see any meteorites at all here.

This proves that those meteors aren't physical items that fell from the sky, but instead something created by some kind of magic. After the attack was over, they automatically dispersed. That's why things are the way they currently are, with no leftover materials left behind at all.

The second is the remaining magic power here.

If it's a natural disaster, then there wouldn't be so much magic power remaining here. Nor would the magic power in the air here be so chaotic.

Given the abnormalities in the magic power ere, this proves that what appeared here wasn't some kind of natural disaster, but magic that someone had cast.

Add in the fact that one one would be willing to believe that a natural disaster could just so happen to land on where the National Knight Order had set up camp, and then just so happened to be aimed right at them and destroyed them all. Lucy was certain that this is all the result of someone purposefully striking at the National Knight Order.

In that case, the question becomes.

"Just who is the other party?"

Lucy had never heard of anyone who could summon a meteor shower.

No, Lucy did indeed think of someone who might have that kind of ability.

After all, said person had recently claimed that he learned the super high difficulty magic known as the hardest magic in the world to learn – astro magic.

If its that kind of magic, and given that person's magic power, then it's completely possible for him to summon up a meteor rain akin to a natural disaster.

However..

"Why though?"

Why did he do something like that?

Lucy furiously considered the matter.

She had faith that that person would definitely not have done this for no reason at all.

Although he's super unreliable and always screws around, Lucy knows that he's a trustworthy man.

Of course, that man is also the kind who would definitely repay any grudges. He can't be said to be all that kind, but he's not the kind of evil person who would casually murder without any reason.

Rather, Lucy believes in him.

Plus, that faith of hers didn't bring her any unsettling feeling either.

As one who bears the blessing of the goddess of fate, since Lucy didn't get any bad feelings from deciding to trust someone, it's proof that she wasn't heading toward a fate that she shouldn't be.

In that case then, Lucy was even more confident that the man definitely did this for a reason.

Thus..

"Leave a portion of people to survey this place. The rest come with me into the Canyon."

Lucy gave out her orders to the Holy Sword Knights.

""""Yes!""""

The female knights of the Holy Sword Knights all agreed.

But just at that moment..

"Eh?"

Lucy's flawless face suddenly shifted in alarm, and she loudly yelled out.

"On guard!"

In response, the knights who were about to carry out Lucy's orders were quite alarmed, but they still followed her order without hesitation. Each of them all drew their weapons and readied themselves for combat.

Lucy also drew the Holy Sword at her waist without hesitation as she stared warily in the direction of the Canyon.

She felt it.

There, an unbelievably powerful aura as flying toward them at high speeds.

That aura..

"So strong.."

It's way too strong.

A magic power of such strength is already on the same level as her teacher, Aldia Arbin.

It even faintly exceeded him.

"It can't be.."

Lucy turned serious.

There's only one being in the Ataru Canyon with such a powerful aura.

Lucy thought of it immediately.

And reality also proved that Lucy did not guess wrongly.

"Roar!"

Amidst a draconic roar, a pitch black dragon flapped its wings and flew out of the Canyon right before everyone's eyes.

This scene made all the knight of the Holy Sword Knights react with great alarm.

"The black dragon of Ataru..!?"

"The black dragon of Ataru came out!"

"Quick! Protect her highness!"

"Be careful of its Dragon Breath!"

The female knights all reacted with alarm and got ready to protect Lucy.

Lucy's pupils also shrank, but then she immediately relaxed, and her expression turned strange.

Its' because she seems to have seen a number of familiar figures on that dragon's back, as well as detecting a few familiar auras.

"It cant be, right..?"historical

Lucy just stopped, dumbfounded.

That black dragon on the other hand, after hanging in midair for a bit, actually came down and landed.

The female knights immediately readied their magic and got ready to attack.

"Wait!"

Lucy hurriedly stopped them before letting out a bitter chuckle.

At this distance, Lucy had confirmed it.

There were a bunch of people she was familiar with on that dragon's back.

Especially the person at the front.

"Why did you come here?"

Following the surprised question, Shien poked his head out from atop the dragon's head and looked at Lucy with a surprised expression. He looked like a naughty child at that moment.

Lucy kind of wanted to slap him to death then.

Don't you know that you nearly scared this princess to death?

Descending on a dragon?

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