Closest Person

Frenzel Residence, Yuri's Office.

"Back already?"

As always, Yuri sat at her desk doing her work, but the moment she saw Riezel walk through the door, she immediately put down what she was doing and smiled at him—a gesture that had long since become a habit.

"Yeah, I'm back."

Riezel sat down before Yuri, with Lizbeth trailing closely behind him.

As Lizbeth saw Marilyn bow to Riezel as he entered, she quickly followed suit and bowed to Yuri as well.

Yuri nodded at Lizbeth before turning her attention back to Riezel.

"Judging by your expression, it looks like you had quite the haul..." Yuri said with a hint of curiosity. "What did you pick? Let me see!"

Obviously, she was eager to know what Riezel had brought back from the royal treasury.

"Yeah, here."

Riezel didn't hesitate as he removed the green jewel pendant hanging around his neck and placed it in front of Yuri.

As soon as Yuri saw the pendant, her face lit up in shock.

"You... You actually took this thing?"

At first, Yuri didn't seem to recognize the pendant as Divine Meloe, likely because its jewel, which had originally been transparent, had turned an emerald green. It wasn't until she realized the pendant was indeed Divine Meloe that her expression became one of complete astonishment.

"Heh..."

Seeing Yuri's shocked expression, Riezel chuckled lightly.

"Looks like you know about this pendant, huh."

"..."

Yuri stayed silent for a while before finally letting out a sigh.

"Well... its existence isn't exactly a secret, after all. With such overwhelming abilities and the fact that even Strategic-Class Magicians can't fully fill it with magical energy, it has become a pretty well-known rumor in the magician circle."

It wasn't all that surprising.

Given Divine Meloe's immense capability, it was certain that countless people, especially magicians, had coveted it over the past four hundred years.

Since most of the magicians who could access the royal treasury were Strategic-Class Magicians, one could easily imagine how frustrated they must've been after trying and failing to fill Divine Meloe with magical energy.

If even one of them couldn't help but mention this treasure out of regret, it would have definitely spread quickly. On top of that, with the influence of their status as Strategic-Class Magicians, any treasure they couldn't stop praising yet couldn't use would soon become a well-known rumor.

"I also saw this pendant when I entered the royal treasury before and tried filling it with magical energy, but I could only get it to about 70%, then couldn't continue any further..."

As Yuri mentioned this, she gazed seriously at Riezel.

"Judging by its current state, it looks like it's been fully charged with magical energy and is ready for use... Are you the one who did it? How did you pull it off?"

Yuri was genuinely shocked and curious.

Even she, a Strategic-Class Magician, could not fill more than 70% of its magical energy capacity, yet Riezel, a Tactical-Class Magician, managed to fill it to 100%.

It was truly nonsense.

Could it be that Riezel's magical energy was so much greater than her own?

It shouldn't be, right?

When it came to magical energy, she had always been confident in herself. At least, from birth until now, she had never met anyone who surpassed her in magical energy, not even other Strategic-Class Magicians.

She had met the other Strategic-Class Magician of Jinas before, and she was certain that the magician's energy paled in comparison to hers, proving that even among Strategic-Class Magicians, her magical energy was one of the best.

Given that, it would be almost impossible to find anyone on the entire continent with more magical energy than her, let alone someone who surpassed her by much.

Through her long-time observations, she knew that Riezel's magical energy was considerably less than hers, so how on earth had he managed to fully charge Divine Meloe?

Even after careful thought, Yuri still couldn't figure it out.

"It's actually really simple..."

Riezel noticed the confused and puzzled look on Yuri's face and smiled slightly before explaining.

"It's because I have a second source of magical energy."

"A second source of magical energy? What does that even mean?" Yuri raised her brows before furrowing them. "You just keep adding more and more secrets..."

She was clearly annoyed, looking as if she had finally given up on trying to figure him out.

"Yeah..." Riezel replied casually, not denying it.

He immediately thought of the Dimensional Magic Cube, Lizbeth's animal skin, and Divine Meloe.

"Honestly, even I don't know what other secrets are hidden inside me..." Riezel muttered to himself, his eyes squinting.

Yuri, of course, didn't understand what he was muttering, but seeing him deep in thought as if worrying about something, she couldn't help blurting out something surprising without thinking.

"No matter what secrets you have, as long as I know you're the closest person to me, I don't care about the rest."

"..."

In that instant, the entire office instantly fell into silence.

Riezel snapped out of his thoughts and quickly looked at Yuri with a peculiar expression.

Marilyn looked at Yuri in shock, like she had just seen a ghost.

Lizbeth covered her mouth as if she had just witnessed something unbelievable.

It wasn't until then that Yuri realized what she had just blurted out.

Her face immediately turned bright red, and for the first time in her life, a strong sense of embarrassment surged in her heart.

"N-No... that's not what I meant!"

Yuri, completely overwhelmed by embarrassment, started to stutter, which was truly rare for her.

Seeing this normally heroic and confident Marquis Frenzel turning into a blushing mess like a lovestruck girl, Riezel couldn't help but chuckle.

"You know what? You're actually the closest person to me in this world." Riezel said with a calm smile.

"R-Really?" Yuri responded, feeling her face heating up even more, her heart racing so fast she hardly recognized herself.

Almost instinctively, she started fanning her own face with her hand, trying to cool it down before quickly changing the subject.

"Anyway, I've found some leads on what you asked me to investigate earlier."

Yuri's words caused the smile on Riezel's face to fade since he knew exactly what she was referring to.

"You mean the Hidden Land?"

Earlier, Riezel had asked Yuri to look into this mysterious place for him.

"Eh?"

Lizbeth, who had been listening silently, froze when she heard Riezel mention the Hidden Land.

It was only then that Riezel remembered that he hadn't told Lizbeth about this yet.

As a result, Riezel immediately turned to Lizbeth and apologized.

"Sorry, I mentioned the Hidden Land to Yuri and asked her to investigate it."

"I see..."

Lizbeth nodded in relief, though she still felt puzzled as to why Riezel wanted to investigate the Hidden Land.

Regardless, this topic wasn't entirely unrelated to her—in fact, she was curious about it too.

'What exactly is this so-called Hidden Land?'

Such a question made Lizbeth glance at Yuri, her expression a mix of nervousness and unease.

Unfortunately—

"Don't look at me like that since you guys are probably going to be disappointed..."

Saying this, Yuri let out a small sigh of relief.

At this moment, her face finally lost some of its redness, and the change in topic eased the embarrassment she had been feeling.

"I looked through tons of information, cross-referenced a lot of hidden details, and even, as the Chief Court Magician, borrowed maps and ancient texts from the palace library to search, but I still couldn't find anything related to this Hidden Land..."

Yuri sighed again.

"So, I have no idea where this Hidden Land you're talking about is. I couldn't even find the name, which makes me wonder if this place even exists."

Such an unexpected result left both Riezel and Lizbeth momentarily stunned.

"Not even the name?"

Riezel furrowed his brows, and Lizbeth even began to doubt herself, wondering if the so-called Hidden Land even existed.

It was, after all, just a place Lizbeth had once heard about from her grandmother while caring for her years ago, so she wasn't sure if it was even real. If Riezel hadn't made her recall it last time, she probably wouldn't have remembered it at all.

'Maybe that place really doesn't exist...' Lizbeth started to suspect. 'Was Grandma Mia just making it up on the spot?'

Only Riezel, after frowning, looked toward Yuri and asked again.

"If that's the case, why did you say you had some leads earlier then? What exactly did you find?"

Yuri's response to this question was simple.

"Didn't you also ask me to investigate Her Highness's sword while I was at it?" Yuri responded casually. "I didn't find anything about the Hidden Land, but I did manage to dig up something on the sword."

She immediately handed a piece of parchment to Riezel.

As Riezel gazed at the parchment, he saw there were no words on it, just a picture.

He could clearly see that the picture looked very similar to the one he had seen on Lizbeth's animal skin, especially with the distinctive human-like figures drawn in a recognizable style.

However, the scene depicted in the picture on this parchment was somewhat different from the one on Lizbeth's animal skin.

It showed a confrontation between humans and beasts on a battlefield.

While the human-like figures were armed, fully equipped, and seemingly ready to charge as a group, the beast-like figures filled the other side, roaring and snarling at them.

It was obvious that both sides were armies gearing up for a fierce war.

However, the curious part was an enormous, mysterious shadow looming behind the beast army, while a woman with a crown, looking like a queen, stood behind the human army, holding a gleaming golden sword.

"That... That's Moslow!"

Lizbeth couldn't help but lean in closer, immediately recognizing the sword the queen held in the picture.

Riezel nodded in agreement.

Just like Lizbeth's animal skin, this picture also showed a queen leading her people, wielding a brilliant golden sword.

He was sure that the golden sword, whether in shape or outline, was identical to Lizbeth's Moslow.

He lifted his gaze from the parchment and looked at Yuri.

"What's this, and where did it come from?"

"It's a rubbing..."

Yuri replied while gazing at the parchment for a moment, then back at Riezel.

"A rubbing of a mural found in an ancient ruin."