It boasted fearsome height and a steep slope that made it impossible to climb. On top of that, snow ever blew violently on it. It was not a place suited for humans to step into.
The only way to enter the holy land was through the path accessible by land.
But the castle of the demon king blocked the path and gave the humans a hard time.
Still, that did not mean that the humans merely watched without doing anything for hundreds of years.
They found several paths that a small platoon could sneak in, so they sent some people to investigate if the family of the demon king really did live in the castle.
According to the legends, the world’s largest religion, the Rimoa Faith, has been deprived of its holy land for three thousand years.
The headquarters of the church began to execute the plan they came up with after investigating for many years.
They gathered skilled individuals from the various countries and created several small elite teams. They would have these people break into the castle of the demon king, then they would use the ruckus from that as an opportunity for the army of the Great Alliance to attack the impregnable castle and take over it.
That was their plan to retake the holy land.
The Rimoa Faith worked together with the great power, Damores, adjacent to the territory of the demon tribe, to secretly build their great alliance. The demon tribe that never went out of its territory shouldn’t have had any ways of knowing their plans.
Yes, they shouldn’t have known.
But then, the demon king’s declaration happened, and as it turns out, not only did they know their plans, they even understood their fighting force with terrifying accuracy.
The humans were shaken.
To make things worse, the legendary assassin, Masquerade, failed to assassinate the demon king. The failed assassination of such a legendary figure struck unease into the hearts of the people and plummeted the morale of the soldiers. Even the politicians lost their motivation, though there were a few who remained positive.
It was then that an abnormal situation far beyond anything they could have expected (・・・・) occurred, causing the great alliance to break down.
“Just what kind of situation is this!?”
Representatives of various countries were sat around a large round table. Among them was a middle-aged man wearing priestly clothing.
He was a nervous wreck because of the unexpected abnormal situation that has become the topic of this meeting.
How could this great alliance that was the biggest in history and that they have been preparing for so many years turn out like this?
“Like I said.
I’m going to be explaining it from here on, Archbishop Oreil.”
The shaking and exhaustion was enough to age the archbishop by 10 years.
A conspicuously young and lovely woman dressed in a dress calmly spoke to him.
There were many old generals and kings brimming with majesty, so a beautiful princess with dazzling gold hair and jade-like eyes gathered attention and dominated the atmosphere in the round table.
“What are you acting so calm for!? The hero your country summoned disappeared!”
“To be more precise, all the otherworlders have been simultaneously teleported, Archbishop-sama.”
Although the voice of the archbishop was getting rough, she spoke as if none of these things concerned her.
In the blink of an eye, the archbishop’s face turned beet red. At the rate he was going, it seemed his emotions were about to explode.
“Please calm down, Archbishop-sama.
Princess Lilisha, could you please explain the situation from the beginning?”
A young man standing beside advised the archbishop, then turned to her to ask for an explanation.
Princess Lilisha Earthgant nodded, then signaled toward her attending maids to activate the crystal ball at the center of the round table. At that, the face of several people were revealed.
The name and job of these faces could be seen under. These were none other than the otherworlders that disappeared.
“As everyone might know.
Very rarely, people from otherworlds find themselves lost here in Falandia.
Unlike the summoning spell my country came up with, this is nothing more than a natural calamity.
Normally, there is no way for these people to return to their world.”
That’s why sooner or later they have to think about living in this world.
The reason the politicians acknowledge them is because Falandia has many precedents of welcoming knowledge and ideas native to these otherworlders.
However, their existence wasn’t widely announced due to the danger of their lack of common sense in this world.
“These are the otherworlders that participated in the great alliance army.
They all disappeared on the fourth day after the failed assassination of the demon king.
According to the onlookers, something akin to a light of teleportation covered them.”
“So they ran away!?” The archbishop interjected. “…Didn’t you say they were forcefully teleported away?”
When the archbishop cut the princess while she was talking, she turned to him with a fed-up expression.
That was a terribly humiliating thing to the archbishop, causing veins to appear on his forehead. At that, the man from before tried to save the situation again.
“Archbishop-sama, let’s hear what the princess has to say until the end, alright?”
“U-Umu…”
“Then I shall continue.
My Earthgant investigated the situation of the otherworlders and the traces of the teleportation.
Although we can’t say for certain, but it is likely that they were forcefully brought back to their homeworld.”
“Forcefully brought back? To their homeworld?”
But the young man did not expect to hear those words, causing him to ruminate and be suspicious.
When the other representatives heard that, as expected, they too showed signs of turmoil and confusion.
Although the so-called ‘home’ that the otherworlders spoke of had various differences, anything that could send them back would have to be something that could cross dimensions. Such a feat was nothing sort of mind boggling for it encroached into the realm of fantasies.