Chapter 1506: Chapter 1500: Song of the Ritual
Three days—
Ronald had never imagined that their speed toward Orel would be boosted to this extent. In just three days, he could already see, from midair, the beastman city appearing ahead—their destination for this trip: Orel.
This city symbolized the beastman nation, and shared its name with the King of Giant Beasts.
Or rather, as the ruler of this country, and also of this world.
Orel had named it after himself.
"..."
While flying, Ronald lowered his head and glanced at the Saint’s bequest in his hand.
After using all the Magic Power in the Gray River Grass Ring to enhance his flying speed, he was moving so fast that even he was a little shocked. This degree of enhancement—would absolutely have a sizable impact in battle as well.
As he was just mulling this over, when Ronald came back to himself, the scene before his eyes shifted again.
The beastman city that had still required him to look into the distance just a few breaths ago was now very close. With Ronald’s level of eyesight, he could already make out a fair number of details of the city.
A low wall a few meters high encircled the outside of the city, but it was only a simple framework put together with wood. Likely because in the Songwood World there wasn’t much need for war, and all they needed was to block out minor environmental effects, the result was something like this.
As for the houses inside, freestanding wooden cabins took up the entirety of the building types; materials like stone bricks were almost nowhere to be seen.
It was daytime at the moment, and many beastmen were active in the streets and alleys, making the city seem quite lively.
"Ronald... sir... are we... there yet?"
At this moment, a halting question came from behind Ronald.
He turned his head; it was Martha speaking to him.
At such extreme speed, the three church members were already having a hard time just protecting themselves; talking was affected even more, to the point that it sounded like this.
"That’s right, it’s that city up ahead."
Ronald immediately slowed down. Only after he saw the three from the church dispel their protective Spells and catch their breath did he continue:
"Costate and the master of this city are down there. Judging from how long we’ve been separated..."
Suddenly, Ronald’s narration came to a halt.
Because they had been steadily lowering their altitude, the four of them were getting closer and closer to the beastman city.
And at this very moment, he heard singing.
After his experiences in the Songwood World, Ronald was extremely attentive to any element involving song, so naturally his attention snapped to it immediately.
The beastmen in the city were singing.
As the distance closed, he could now see that on the streets of the city, several teams of beastmen were marching along the roads as they went, constantly singing the same unified chant.
If one lifted their gaze to take in the entire city, they would discover that the movements of these teams were strictly planned. Which streets they walked, how much time they spent, even where they began singing—all of it had very fixed details.
"..."
This was the ritual Orel had spoken of!
Ronald immediately realized what was happening in the city below.
The activity that required the power of an entire city to hold was the method for sending someone into the holy capital.
If such a requirement were imposed on an invading outsider...
One had to admit, this was another measure with very high security.
"Mr. Ronald, they’re singing?"
At this time, Martha spoke up as well.
As they descended, the hearing of the three from the church, inferior to Ronald’s, finally picked up on this phenomenon, and so they asked.
Ronald gave a slight nod and pointed at the beastmen below as he explained:
"I’ve reached a shared understanding with this city’s ruler. He’s holding a ritual to send me into the holy capital."
Martha now perceived the Magic Power hidden within the city, slowly circulating along with the marching choirs. The saint-ranked priestess placed great importance on this journey. As she observed carefully, she discovered something particular.
"I see that besides the processions, quite a few residents are also singing along."
"They’re not participating in the Magic field formed by this ritual. Is this a spontaneous act, or does it have some other ritual significance?"
Ronar simply shook his head:
"This is my first time here as well. We’ll have to go down and ask to find out."
Talking like this, the four of them finally landed on the ground.
Although the beastmen were in the middle of a ritual, the actual atmosphere was like a grand festival being held; as a result, no one paid any attention to Ronald and the others’ arrival.
And even if someone did run right into them...
Given how strange-looking the beastmen were, they wouldn’t care about the appearance of four humans who looked "weird" by comparison.
After landing, Ronald quickly unfolded Reconnaissance Magic.
The four from the church knew who he truly was, so they didn’t disturb him, and instead stood aside to watch and study the singing performances on the streets.
The Reconnaissance Magic rapidly spread through the entire city, and Ronald quickly located Costate.
Now that she possessed a true personality, the maid could be locked onto by the Spell from Divine Comedy - Hell, making her extremely easy to find.
"Found her. Let’s go." Ronald beckoned the three from the church forward as he spoke. "We can observe the ritual on the way. Let’s make the most of the time we have."
Costate’s position was within the city, not far away.
The four of them hurried in that direction, and Ronald didn’t sit idle along the way, continuing to refine the details of his Reconnaissance Magic.
He then discovered something interesting.
Aside from Costate, there were actually traces of other humans moving about in the city, though very few—only three.
These were likely the intruders Orel had mentioned, those who had wandered in by mistake and then been unable to leave for the rest of their lives.
From this vantage point, the King of Giant Beasts didn’t seem so bad.
At the very least, he hadn’t immediately slaughtered those who strayed into this place. That might be one of the reasons he’d been sealed as a Saint by the church in the past.
The destination arrived quickly.
The place where Costate was located was a spacious plaza in the city, with a splendid wooden stage erected at its center.
At this moment, a beastman in full ceremonial dress was standing on the stage, singing alone.
At the side were accompanists, an audience, and other beastmen waiting their turn.
And in a place that looked like a judges’ panel, Orel sat among them, with Costate at his side.
"..."
At this bizarre scene, Ronald didn’t bother to hide his surprise:
"Is this... a singing contest?"
Unlike Ronald, Martha cared more about the ritual itself, and muttered in puzzlement:
"Is this also part of the ritual?"
At the same time, Costate sensed Ronald’s arrival.
The maid stood up directly from the judges’ seats, not caring in the slightest about disrupting the performance, and came over of her own accord.
"Sir!" Costate bent in a bow. In the process, she only gave the three from the church a brief glance, not taking them seriously at all, then focused all her attention on Ronald. "Orel has been very cooperative with me. The plan is proceeding smoothly. In another four days, the ritual will be complete."
