In the capital of the Gabriel Empire, Gabriels City (Sword Capital), at the key Roberta Pier along the Claudina River, Bella and her attending loli maids had arrived here together. Based on the arrangement, the guests attending the Hundred Flowers Festival would take the ship at Roberta Pier and head to the gathering point by ship, the Elitechra Academy, where the Hundred Flowers Festival was being held.
It was said that the Sanctuary of the Sword, where the Hilikas family resided, was nearby that academy. All the guests had large numbers of escorting guards following them, but Bella only brought along three lolis without a single guard, so she was quite clearly different from the rest.
With General Natasharam at the top, the generals of the Southern Alliance wanted to arrange for some men to escort Bella, but Bella refused that proposal. There was no point in having so many guards. Moreover, no guard could be more terrifying than the three lolis behind her, Collapsing Evil Dragon Emperor Lolita, Devouring Holy Dragon Euphenisia, and Cursed Demonic Dragon Queen Stimmons. These direct subordinates of the leaders of the World Destructors, Chaos Bringers, and Forsakers temporarily stayed by Bella’s side to help out.
As if they had arranged beforehand, all three of them happened to be dressed in gothic lolita dresses at the same time, but there were some differences in the accessories they chose to wear. Lolita wore a black gothic lolita outfit with her trademark black parasol while Euphenisia wore a white gothic lolita dress, holding a cute white rabbit doll with both hands. Meanwhile, Stimmons was wearing an ash grey gothic lolita dress with a magical notebook in her hands as well as a strange black eye patch over one eye, looking very chuuni.
The only thing Bella wasn’t happy about was that none of her three maids had put up their hair in twin-tails. All of them just let their hair down with a special headdress on top. However, the type of underwear these three dragon lolis wore inside were not the cute type, but the sexy lacey gothic style underwear. These girls were the minority among Bella’s girls that couldn’t be taken by force, so Bella could only admire them now and not push them down.
Bella soon discovered that their looks quickly attracted the attention of the other guests at Roberta Pier. Rumors said that Grand Duchess Bellina never lacked beautiful girls by her side, and this rumor was confirmed once again. These three lolis were all too special, constantly exuding the aura of a foreigner, so it would be strange if they did not attract any attention.
The ships were ready to go. Large wooden ships ready to depart were present everywhere around Roberta Pier. From Bella’s observation, the shipwright skills of the Gabriel Empire and the Aldridge Empire were both the same, very poor. It looked almost like it was paper mache. Fortunately, this was an inland river. No matter how poorly made the ship was, it shouldn’t be too big of a problem as long as they didn’t go out to sea.
Bella couldn’t be bothered to take the same ships as the other nobles. Taking her lolis with her, she found a fisherman’s boat at the docks and bought it, intending to use this to sail along the Claudina River over to the Idri Pier near the Elitechra Academy. She could just follow the rest of the ships there.
“Hey old man, I’ll buy this boat of yours. Is this enough?”
“Um, Your Excellency Grand Duchess, this is too much. My poor ship isn’t worth this amount, I can just give the boat to you.”
“Just keep the money. My… Our young mistress isn’t lacking in money.”
Old Alva had been a boatman at the Claudina River for decades, but it was the first time a noble ever asked for his boat. The small bag of gold coins that Bella gave him had an estimate of about a hundred coins inside. This alone was enough to buy a few large ships. Since the ships of the human continent were all poorly made, they were worth practically nothing.
Spending more than a hundred gold coins on his little boat was a shocking amount as the boat was worth even less. Many of such boats were given away as gifts upon the purchase of a ship. Old Alva originally wanted to refuse her, but under the kind persuasion of Devouring Holy Dragon Euphenisia, he accepted the generous gift in the end.
Euphenisia was the more lively one and had a sweet tongue, so she was better at communicating with outsiders. Lolita and Stimmons belonged to the cool type of loli and only talked to people they were close with. They rarely had any interest in outsiders. They just chose to watch in silence on the side. Only when she spurted out “my,” they warned her with their eyes, forcing Euphenisia to change her words.
Everything else was fine, but they couldn’t compromise with her saying ‘my’ as there was a big difference between that and ‘our.’ If she said ‘my,’ that would exclude Lolita and Stimmons, which they couldn’t turn a blind eye to. Bella didn’t pay attention to that bit of difference as she was busy learning about Alva’s ship.
“Grand Duchess Bellina, are you not able to find a suitable ship? Why don’t you come with me? I’ve found the best ship and it’s anchored not so far from here. This type of boat is too dangerous.”
“Oh, Prince Glenard. I appreciate your kindness but I prefer boats, so I won’t be bothering you, thank you.”
While Bella was learning about this boat’s performance, she happened to encounter Prince Glenard, who was preparing to depart from Roberta Pier. Third Prince Glenard was backed by Prince Frauer, the younger brother of the empire’s Emperor Alfred the Third. Since Bella had worked with Prince Frauer in the past, Prince Glenard had come to invite her to the ship that he had prepared, almost as sort of an invitation for political cooperation.
Prince Glenard said his farewells in a very gentlemanly manner. He didn’t have much hope when he had come to invite her. All the senior nobles knew of Grand Duchess Bella’s strange hobbies that she practically never accepted the invitation of any man. Prince Glenard was only acting to give a false impression to outsiders that the political partnership between Bella and Prince Frauer was still strong.
Many ships had already departed from Roberta Pier and were heading towards the Elitechra Academy. Seeing this, Bella and the girls also prepared to depart. With four people on one boat, things were easy. Unlike those ships, they didn’t have to prepare a whole bunch of things and take forever to depart. They could depart whenever they wanted.
“Your Excellency, you… why don’t you go by land instead? The rivers have been very troubled recently.”
“What’s wrong with it? Is it something that’s difficult to say?”
“Well… Recently, the Claudina River…”
On the premise that Bella would not hold Alva responsible for the leaks, Old Alva looked around and secretly told Bella the secret after confirming that no one was around. It turned out that the Claudina River had been chaotic these past months because some horrible men had been attacking small boats traveling on the Claudina River during the nighttime.
The shipbuilding technology in the Human continent was inferior, so even pirates were rare. There weren’t many to be found in inland rivers, so the biggest threat to ships traveling on rivers was usually a variety of water Demonic Beasts. Water Demonic Beasts weren’t as common as those on land, so they would rarely even appear in a river. Only large rivers like the Claudina River would see activity from such Demonic Beasts.
The difference between the beasts in water and land was usually the size and body shape. The Demonic Beasts in the ocean were larger as they were affected by the width of the space they were living in, the depth, amount of food, and other factors. In the last month, there had been many ships that were mysteriously attacked by Demonic Beasts.
Since there were no survivors, no one knew what sort of Demonic Beast there was. Judging from the size of the downed ships, the Demonic Beast far exceeded the size of a normal Water Demonic Beast, and nobody knew if it was a normal Sea Demonic Beast that came from the sea. The Emperor had ordered people to keep the news suppressed since the preparations for the Hundred Flowers Festival were underway. News of some super Demonic Beasts appearing in the Claudina River would lead to the abandonment of the waterway.
All the roads near the imperial capital were filled with people from the various forces controlling them, so it was possible that the powers would break out into conflict, which might cause a war. Emperor Alfred the Third could only change the route to the waterway instead since it was harder to set up ambushes there. Going through the river would be much safer than going to the Elitechra Academy on land.
Based on repeated observation from Alva, the mysterious Demonic Beasts that attacked the ships preferred attacking small boats and usually occurred at night. During these recent days, those guys also seemed to be active even during the day. Only that they didn’t seem to have any intentions of attacking anyone during daytime. So far, the empire had not encountered any ships that were attacked during the day, so it was believed that the day was a safe time for ships to sail.
After finding out that Bella would be going to the Elitechra Academy, he advised Bella against taking the boat since a ship would be safer. It was hard to find an easy-going type of noble who didn’t put on airs like Bella, so this old man didn’t wish for her to disappear just like that. After hearing that, Bella didn’t really mind since those things weren’t going to be as terrifying as the three lolis behind her.
“Thanks for the reminder but you don’t have to worry, I have my own plans.”
“Ah, then I hope you take care, Your Excellency.”
After confirming Bella’s words, Old Alva sighed inwardly to himself. There was nothing he could do if Bella insisted on riding the boat, as he could only wish her luck. After saying goodbye to Old Alva, Bella and the girls also departed from the pier. All they had to do was follow the large ships.
All the ships setting sail from Robert Pier headed upstream to the Elitechra Academy. They would need to be propelled by a tailwind since they were going upstream against the currents. Fortunately, the wind blew from the north in the Gabriel Empire’s summers, just opposite of the southward flowing Claudina River.
In the duel of the northern wind and the stream of the Claudina River going south, the ships slowly moved upstream. Bella pressed her hand on the side of the boat with some caution on her face. The boat was moving so slowly, and if they were to meet any unexpected situations, they wouldn’t even be able to hide. Lolita and the girls were all sitting lazily at the bow, nibbling on some candy that Bella gave them. These bold highly-skilled experts weren’t worried about any beasts attacking at all.
After some distance, a burst of water vapor suddenly floated up from the water in the distance, and the concentration was just like a sea fog. Such a strange occurrence attracted the attention of Bella and the others almost instantaneously. The ship right in front of them silently disappeared without a trace into the fog; who knew if they had encountered some sort of danger.
Even if it were a sunny day, the bright sunlight couldn’t penetrate the dense vapor. Bella’s boat also drove into the fog, following the ship in front of them. As soon as they entered it, the scenery in front of them changed. The originally lush scene full of trees along the banks of the river mysteriously disappeared.
In its place were barren banks with withered trees littered everywhere. The large ships sailing in front of Bella also disappeared without a trace as if they had never been there. Bella looked back, and the fleet of ships sailing behind them was also gone. It was as if their boat were the only thing remaining in the entirety of the Claudina River.
A bewildering silence filled the air around them, and the sudden quietness without the presence of anyone made Bella feel a little unsettled. At this time, Lolita and the girls put down their snacks and walked to the side of the boat lazily. These girls seemed to know the reason behind this strange scene.
“Mistress Bella, this spell is a mix of illusion and space time magic. Dead Rivers, I believe.”
“Mistress Bella, it’s not hard to break this secret magic, should I?”
From Lolita’s explanation, Bella got to know that they had encountered a “Dead River.” Dead Rivers were similar to urban legends on Earth, where you would suddenly pop up in an alternate haunted dimension. Under the control of some evil force, any ship sailing inside would keep sailing circles here and be unable to leave. Right now, there was no end to this Claudina River. If they really kept sailing on, then any normal person would feel scared.
But there were no normal humans atop Bella’s boat. Bella wanted to confirm whether this Dead River was the doing of the Demonic Beast that Old Alva mentioned before. With her eyes, she stopped Euphenisia, who was about to move. She didn’t need her to do anything yet. This Dead River could only confuse ships traveling along the Claudina River and had no effect on existences in the sky.
Bella took out a transparent crystal ball that looked very much like an eye. It was a control crystal connected to the Demonic Eyes in the sky. The Demonic Eyes of the Darkness Sacred Region could be found throughout the skies of the Gabriel Empire, and what they could see was quickly transmitted to the crystal ball in Bella’s hand.
From the perspective of the Demon Eyes, Bella was able to see the true situation in the Claudina River. There was no fog, and all the ships traveling on the river were strangely still. The currents that were originally not so fast suddenly accelerated to the same strength as the propulsion of the wind. With an equilibrium met between both sides, the ships were now in a stationary state due to zero thrust.
The people on the ship seemed to be confused by something, and they all looked very confused as they walked into the place, waving their hands in strange ways. Only the ones on Bella’s boat were moving casually. Even though their vision was affected, their bodies were not under the control of the illusion. It wasn’t just the ships, even the passengers on board were caught up in the illusions.
The culprit of all this also appeared. It was a strange blue phantom floating on top of the water like a lost soul. It was currently moving towards Bella’s location, seemingly curious about their ability to move. Bella wasn’t sure whether this guy was a Water Demonic Beast or not, but she couldn’t be arsed to wait.
Under Bella’s command, a strange black light emitted from the Demonic Eyes in the sky, shining together on top of the blue phantom. This was called the Demonic Light, a commonly used move by the Demonic Eyes when they sneaked down to the ground. Demonic Eyes usually wouldn’t use this move since it came with a risk of revealing their positions, but the people in the ships across the entire Claudina River were “collectively blind,” so it was a good time to use this move.
The blue phantom was forced to retreat after the Demonic Light was shone on them. After it disappeared into the waters of the Claudina River, the mist also disappeared. The world in front of Bella and the girls went back to normal again, and the ships both in front and behind continued moving forward. The sudden change in current from before mysteriously turned back to normal.
“Strange, what happened? Just now…”
“I didn’t see any other ships just now… Are my eyes going bad?”
Quiet discussions broke out on the other ships. Illusion magic affected each person differently. Bella and the girls saw barren banks since they were non-humans, and the illusion magic was a reflection of the world in their hearts. The humans in the ships all saw the normal Claudina River, but they just couldn’t see the ships both in front and behind, and couldn’t reach their destination no matter what.
Since nothing big happened, this incident was treated as a mass hallucination and became an after-meal gossip. Bella, who knew the truth, was a little curious. She could vaguely see a human-like figure when the Demonic Light shone on the blue phantom. That blue Demonic Being might be a human, but if it weren’t, it at least looked like one.
