Chapter 58: Rescue Operation Part One (4)

"As I expected, you're not human, are you?"

"..."

I didn't answer. I was slowly getting annoyed at the fact that I couldn't give a definite answer to this question. But it was then.

"…Dae-ha?" The Legion girl, who has been sitting still all this time, suddenly called my name. Rather than calling my name, it felt like she was just muttering, but that alone seemed surprising, and Celestia's eyes glimmered.

"Hehe. I can't believe a Legion called out a specific individual… Errr you, by any chance, do you know about Dae-ha?" Celestia asked naturally like she was dealing with an old friend, but the Legion girl didn't even give Celestia a glance, disregarding the question.

Instead, she looked at me and said, "Do you want me to help?"

"...Wow." At long last, even the bold Celestia had an aloof expression. And soon, her face turned serious.

"Dae-ha, this is dangerous. This girl is saying that she'll help you."

"What's wrong with that?"

"What do you mean what's wrong? What she's saying right now is no different from saying that you can utilize Legion."

If it was a matter of fact, Celestia could've just obviously said so. So I found it strange that she was treading on the topic carefully.

"But didn't the demi-humans also use the Legion?"

"That's because Morne that bastard forced them to, Legion didn't help the demi-humans out of their own accord. If this Legion really wanted to help you sincerely…" Celestia paused before finishing her sentence, "Huh? Then shouldn't we just snatch this ship away? Wouldn't that solve our problems?"

"Let's get out of this prison first, then we'll talk."

It was a big variable, but I didn't let it faze me and responded nonchalantly. There was no reason to be surprised. Because... I had been thinking about stealing this ship all these while.

And in addition, it was possible even without the Legion girl.

'As long as there is a control persona controlling this ship.'

Of course, I thought there would probably be one. Importing and using the Iron Heart was the same for both the Leonhardt Empire and the Tekea Federation. So, there would only be a slight difference in the style and method, but the system adopted would pretty much be the same. Of course, there were a lot of people who made flight systems that could defend against the attack of Legion even without a control persona, but it would end up being useless as Legion was also capable of cracking magical-based programmings. Unless these people rowed with a paddle and sail, they would definitely be vulnerable to the Legion's erosion.

"Hmm… that's definitely true. But then again, the demi-humans must have confidence, that's why they locked the Legion up in this manner."

Celestia was lost in thoughts for a while, perhaps because she thought my words made sense. And while she was lost in thought, I laid down and recovered my strength.

Grrroar.

But it didn't feel like I was recovering.

"I'm dying ugh..."

These damned bastards didn't even feed me properly.

Has it been three days, no, was it four days since I came to this ship?

In any case, I hadn't eaten at all since then. All I had while I was here were some nutrients injections that were given when they were torturing me. They only gave me the bare minimum to keep me alive and it wasn't as if I could recover just by resting. If Celestia hadn't come and used her healing powers on me, I would've blacked out by now and I wouldn't have been able to get in touch with the outside world.

"What the hell, you weren't even able to eat?"

"They weren't such nice people."

Celestia continued while looking at the sight of me drooping with no strength left in my limbs, "And it seems like you were tortured."

"It didn't just seem like it, I was really tortured. I was lucky to have survived… What's wrong?"

She grunted, gasped for breath and looked at me with a strange look, and I paused at the sight of her being like that. She looked at me as if I was a peculiar animal.

"... It's nothing. It's just, you're pretty strong."

"I'm close to dying, so what do you mean I'm strong?"

"Hehe. That's not what I was talking about."

She smiled gently and walked towards me. She sat beside me and released her Golden Lion Aura. The golden light gently covered my whole body. Needless to say, it didn't fill up my empty stomach, but even that was enough to make my body feel better.

"Whew… I need to recover my physical strength too. There's probably nothing to eat, right?"

"There is."

"...There's something to eat?"

I wasn't expecting her to actually have something to eat, so I was flustered. That was because she was thrown into prison, so her outfit was...

"Ehem."

"Oh my, it's embarrassing if you look at me with such a lewd expression."

"Wha-, what do you mean by a lewd expression! I didn't even look at you with such an expression, not even for 0.1 second!!"

Similar to how everything I had was taken away, Celestia was also robbed of all her weapons and armor. All she had on was a thin gray T-shirt. But if I was to point out something out of the ordinary, it would probably be the cross-shaped golden earrings she had on both her ears.

To be honest, it was so provocative that I couldn't understand how she had not been noticed so far. Fortunately(?), the t-shirt was considerably large, so it covered up her lower body to some extent like a one-piece dress, but perhaps because the T-shirt was pretty thin, I could clearly see her body curves.

"Well, anyways, cover your ears for a second. I'll make you something to eat."

"...You're gonna make some food?"

"In any case, just cover your ears."

I couldn't understand the meaning behind her words, but there was no point lying in the situation right now so I covered my ears obediently. After making sure I had tightly covered my ears, Celestia looked straight at the ceiling and opened her mouth.

Ooooouhhhhhh------!

The roar sent a jolt down my whole body and shook the surroundings violently. The roar was so overbearing that I couldn't believe it came out from her slender figure! But I grimaced as I felt that it was more ridiculous than surprising. Covering my ears were of no use. The vibration that was transmitted alone was enough to make my head spin.

"No, wait a second, you said you're going to give me food, so why are you screaming?"

Celestia laughed as I removed the hands covering my ears and grumbled.

"Why do you think I shouted? I'm trying to give a meal to our poor little human here."

"No, wait, what does shouting have got to do with a meal… huh?"

I froze for a moment. Because I saw it. A well-roasted whole pig about the size of a child appeared in front of me.

"…Huh?"

I was lost for words. It felt like I was seeing magic. A roasted whole pig that didn't fit in with the surrounding scenery was spinning nonchalantly in front of me.

"Ta-daaa! It's the Golden Pig of Philpos!"

"…What the hell? What is this? Where did this come from?"

"I don't know either."

"You brought in a pig without knowing? No, pigs are pigs, but what's firewood? When did you put the fire on?" I wondered for a moment whether it was an illusion, but the roasted pig in front of me was real.

God Realm

Crossed over dimensions, Golden Pig

"..."

Its title was ridiculous.

"Now now, I understand you're suspicious of this, but this is the special ability of the Leonhardt imperial family. Don't worry, it's been verified and it's good for your health too, so it's okay to eat it."

"What do you mean by special ability… There are all kinds of weird special abilities huh."

It was a flabbergasting situation, but the smell that was emanating from the roast pig was so good that it was hard to ignore. Even if the God Realm premium wasn't there, the sweet fragrance wafting in the air hooked me in and made me dizzy.

"Ea-, so you're saying it's okay to eat it, right?"

"Of course. It's already fully cooked from the moment it appeared, so you can eat it right away. Also, it's not as hot as it looks, so you don't have to worry about scalding your mouth too."

I lifted myself up at her words. Then, I grabbed the drumstick of the well-roasted pig.

"Huff...huff…"

But I stopped at that moment. No, to be exact, it wasn't as if I stopped, I just couldn't gnaw it off. I took a short break because I couldn't muster any strength. My appetite was building up, but putting that aside, the hand that was holding onto the pork trotter was trembling from lack of strength.

"Aigoo, I can't bear with this anymore. Just lie down."

Celestia clicked her tongue and placed my head on her thigh. Then, she took the pork trotter and tore it piece by piece and feeded me. I immediately chewed up the meat.

Chomp chomp.

I chewed and swallowed the pork without saying a single word for a while. I was worried that I might not have been able to chew because I didn't have strength in my jaw, but there wasn't any problem eating it because the meat that entered my mouth was so tender that I thought the meat was some kind of jelly. And most of all, it was also because Celestia tore it into bite-sized pieces for me.

"That's right, that's right. You're eating well."

"…Please don't do stuff like that, Mother."

"That's it that's it. My son is eating so well, oojjoojjoo." [1]

"..."

Celestia was being sarcastic about it, and I sighed nonchalantly. I was hungry, so I just ate it, but when I came to my senses, our current position was a bit weird. I was lying on her soft thigh and I was eating the meat she tore for me.

"I'm done eating."

"Ehh? Since you're already eating, just eat all of it. "

"…I'll get sick if I eat too much on an empty stomach."

"Hahaha. You're already almost done eating, so what do you even mean?" Celestia continued tearing the meat for me while giggling. And as I was going to eat it…

"As expected, this position is just too weird."

I jumped to my feet.

"Ah, you scared me."

"Ack, I'm sorry… Uhmm, by the way?"

I glanced at my body in surprise. Just a while ago, I couldn't even grab the meat properly because my hands were shaking, but my strength recovered and rose to a point that was hard to believe. However, Celestia had an expression that seemed to imply that it would obviously be the case.

"There's nothing to be surprised about. If I just summoned an ordinary roast pig, then how could that be called an ability of a royal member? In one way or another, it's an ability of someone with the bloodline of God."

"Bloodline of God?"

"That's right. It's the Godly Bloodline."

As I was taken aback at the unexpected term, Celestia nodded and explained, "The Imperial family of the Leonhardt Empire inherited the blood of the Golden Lion God."

I was also aware of the existence of the Golden Lion God. It was a Beast God that formed a brotherhood with the Golden Dragon God. Although the concept of religion itself was very rare for dragons as a majority of them possessed godly powers, there were still a few Dragon Gods revered as Gods. In fact, though I wasn't very interested in such tales, I remembered stories related to them because they were mentioned several times in the story background of the game I played.

"Such as Golden Dragon God and Dark Dragon God or something."

The Golden Dragon God, protector of justice and light, and the Dark Dragon God, protector of tranquility and darkness, were mythical beings strong enough to gather a following of devotees. Unlike what was common between godly beings, there weren't any relations between them. The Golden Dragon God was an innate god who had existed since the moment they were born, and on the other hand, the Dark Dragon God started off as an ordinary Shadow Dragon, and he climbed up to the ranks of God with his own powers.

Rather than the Dark Dragon God, the Golden Lion God was instead the one related to the Golden Dragon God. As compared to the Golden Dragon God, the Golden Lion God was relatively less known, so I found it weird that she had a background explanation in the game, but I never thought she would be the progenitor of the Leonhardt Imperial family.

"But, it was like that even during orientation too. I've never heard anything regarding this bloodline up till now. Isn't this something that should've been widely spread?"

Nobility and royalty, as well as the sacredness of the imperial bloodline was something that had always existed no matter what period of history it was. Even in fairy tales and folktales, there were almost no occasions where an ordinary person became king, and usually, they would either be a child of God or a being born from an egg. Anyways, that was the usual route these stories took to create a sense of mystery, and that was their purpose for doing so. But why would the Leonhardt Empire that inherited the bloodline of the Golden Lion God keep quiet about it?

However, Celestia gave an obvious response, "The Golden Lion God is still alive today, so we can't advertise it. If she found it offensive, the consequences would be… Anyways!"

Celestia stopped talking mid-sentence and gnawed at the leftover roast pork.

"The bottom line is, I am also not a pure human being, but you just need to know that this is one of the abilities of the power I possess. To be honest, I was annoyed by the fact that I was born with such useless powers, but there's actually some use to it."

1. It's a Korean onomatopoeia for something adorable like a baby or a cat.