Bigger than many times, the creature bumped its forehead against him like a baby, and had no time to spare as it turned its whole body around to make sure its scent was all over him. Yet, it was still sneaking glances at Lu, guarding her.

“Come, let’s take a ride. Over here, Minister.”

Icaros was squinting at Lu.

“No, Your Majesty. Just greeting him is enough for me.”

He’s making a face that says he’ll show me something hot if I ride him! She desperately shook her head and retreated.

“Afraid of heights?”

“Not that, but this guy…….”

“Icaros.”

Hayden corrected her, and at the same time, Icaros’s tail slapped the ground.

“He gets upset if you don’t call him by his proper name.”

It’s not that he’s upset; it looks like he’s going to bite. Somehow, Hayden seemed to be a typical blind parent to his baby.

“Yes, but it seems that Icaros really doesn’t like me riding him.”

No matter how you look at it, he’s blatantly disliking her, so why is he trying to ride her?

“Icaros doesn’t just let anyone ride him.”

“Grrr!”

Of course! As if to say so, Icaros straightened its body and raised its face proudly.

“But the Minister is fine.”

He said casually while checking the saddle strapped to Icaros. Ah, yes. The day before yesterday, it was dance practice, and before that, suddenly having tea in a wasteland where monsters appear, so what would be different today?

Lu sighed lightly in front of Icaros, who was glaring at her. No matter how you look at it, this creature, just like the devil who slaughtered Calleata Empire knights at the barrier.

“Take my hand.”

“I know how to ride, though.”

“Horses and Icaros are different. Icaros is a griffin, after all. Excuse me for a moment.”

He quickly grabbed Lu’s waist with both hands and sat her on Icaros, who was lying flat.

Even though she was not so slim and lanky, Hayden’s strength to handle her with both hands was enormous. In the surprise, he fastened the ring connected to the saddle to her belt.

“Your Majesty!”

Someone then called Hayden, running through the smoke screen. Looking closely, it was Court White Simon Keinberg, who had greeted Lu on the first day. Hayden frowned immediately.

“Just stay like this for a moment, Minister. I’ll be right back.”

The fact that the Court White came in person meant that it was no ordinary matter. He handed the reins to Lu for a moment and turned to walk towards Simon.

Lu tried hard to hide her uneasy face. Icaros was clearly very intelligent. Not just anyone could become the emperor’s kinsman. So, she had to win even in this battle of wits with this creature.
“Kalreta Consul really has to go through a lot, huh.”

Could Perseita Consul, who had gone to Kalreta, possibly be engaging in a battle with Carlos’s warhorse? Then Icar, the male griffin, shuffled his hindquarters.

“Hey, stop, wait.”

Lucius, the male character, hurriedly pulled down on the reins. Stay still! But the call of ‘hey’ seemed to have scratched Icar’s temperament. Icar, narrowing his eyes once more, stood a bit taller as he looked back at her.

“Hey, Icar? Shall we lie down again?”

Lucius instinctively gripped the reins tightly and looked down. He had ridden large horses before, but perhaps it was because that was so long ago, or maybe because Icar was too large, the ground seemed far away.

Moreover, as Icar straightened his bent body, the ground appeared even further. Lucius hastily hugged Icar’s neck.

“Hey, put me down.”

With a whoosh, enormous wings spread. Is he going to fly here?

“Put me down, aaaaaah!”

The enormous griffin soared into the sky with a tremendous scream.

Citizens of the Perseita Empire, rejoice. The Emperor’s divine beast, Icar, took Consul Kalreta and flew through the Shalea sky, giving her a taste of his power.

Tomorrow’s newspaper headlines formed in her mind, and Lucius tugged the reins this way and that, only to find herself hanging in the air, her foot detached from the saddle.

“Aaaaaah!”

In an instant, her whole body fell from the saddle. The only things connecting her and Icar were the strap tied around her waist and the reins. Lucius was pulled into the distant sky, hanging onto them.

She couldn’t even scream anymore. She pulled the reins hard to get closer to Icar. The wind, or something, supported her body and attached her to Icar, but she didn’t dare to look back.

She barely managed to sit back on the saddle. These unreliable reins can’t be trusted. Lucius gripped Icar’s mane tightly and buried her face in the back of his neck. Now, she had to endure.

“Icar!”

The clever griffin clearly heard the vicious call from below, but pretended not to hear. It had been almost 4 years since he had last encountered his longfought rival. Icar’s agile yet gigantic body barely grazed the rooftop of the Shalea palace.

“Icar, you know me! You know what you’re doing!”

Though she was so out of her mind that she might bite her tongue, there was no other way. Lucius decided to use her words to try and appease Icar.

“You know, back then, no matter how much I hit you, you didn’t get hurt. I don’t have any strength now.”

She used to climb on this beast, which took the form of a magical creature in front of the barrier, and fought swinging her sword. But she couldn’t capture him even then, and now, unable to use magic or swing a sword, she was helpless.

“You’re not taking petty revenge for something that happened in the past, are you?”

Creak. Icar turned his head to the side. What’s this? Was that a snort? Lucius’s eyes widened in surprise, and Icar began to speed up.

“Aaaaaah! Someone do something about him! You damn imperial dog!”

She was wrong. There was no one at this height who could hear her.

Lucius just tightly hugged Icar’s neck and bowed her head to endure.

Surely, having failed to defeat him after several major clashes in the past, Icar wanted to indulge in spite or revenge. Fine, do as you wish. Eventually, you’ll stop. She just had to hold out until then!

‘Theoretically, if I endure, it should be fine, but my neck will probably break before that!’

Not falling off was a great feat. Lucius clenched her eyes shut.

Screeeeek!

At that moment, Icar let out a nearmusical scream and jolted his shoulder muscles, hitting Lucius.

“Why!”

To Icar, it was just moving a muscle, but Lucius, who had been hanging from there, was jerked away.

“What! What are you…”
지금은 아무것도 할 수가 없다는 게 억울해서 소리라도 지르려는데, 압도적인 광경이 눈에 들어왔다.

“Hmm?”

Icar, as if asking ‘how is it?’, glanced at her. Flapping, flapping, he moved his gigantic wings slowly, hovering in midair, and below Icar’s feet, the cityscape of Shalea was spread out.

The vast sky, the white royal palace, and between the large chimneys spewing smoke and the large buildings, the extended roads were refreshing.

The carriages on the roads looked very tiny. From the beginning, she had suspected, but Shalea was a tremendously large metropolis, incomparable to Katat.

“Wow…….”

Over the river crossing the city, ships were puffing smoke and moving thickly. On the small boats, oarsmen rowing could be seen. And beyond the vast city, the river continued along the green forest and fertile land. Somehow it looked just like…

‘It seems like an upgraded version of Katat.’

Shalea, with its oldfashioned buildings and traces of a glorious but lost civilization, seemed to be an imitation of Katat. The current capital of the Kaleta Empire, Katat, was designed and planned by Carlos Arthur Ingram.

“……It’s beautiful.”

Unlike Katat, always facing barriers and having knights and soldiers on guard against sudden monsters, Shalea was just elegantly sitting and enjoying peace.

Her tense arm still firmly held onto Icar and did not relax, but Lu filled her eyes with the world beyond the barrier.

“Did you want to show this to me?”

“Hmm!”

Icar responded very proudly.