But that couldn't be helped, either. Even if Schneider behaved in unheard-of ways, he was still the only S-class adventurer in the western region of the continent. There were several A-class adventurers that were said to be his equal, but not a single adventurer who surpassed him.

In other words, he was unexpectedly busy.

In particular, Schneider had continued refusing to associate with the Empire using his numerous achievements and military value. Thus, his official social status was no different from an ordinary civilian. This meant that anyone could request things from him as long as they had the money.

Thus, many requests fluttered into Schneider's inbox.

Even after Lissana had received the Divine Message, he had finished requests that he had already accepted and completed the requests that he was unable to turn down. Finally, a few months later, the year had changed and Schneider had finally been able to set sail.

"What was written in that letter?" asked Dalton, the Dark Elf with a mohawk, who probably wouldn't have felt uncomfortable to be called one of the sailors of this boat.

Schneider snorted. "It's a request from some duke somewhere to hunt down the resistance in the Sauron Duchy that they invaded years ago, and investigate the source of some Undead that destroyed a fort," he said. "I can't deal with this stuff! Are they trying to work this old man to death!"

"Yeah, it's true that you can't deal with that. On top of it being a pain, you'd be resented by the honest lot who support the resistance," Dalton agreed. "Whether you're an old man or not is another question, though."

Schneider was currently scribbling his reply of, "Save your sleep-talking nonsense for when you're asleep!" His true age was that of an old person in Lambda, or a little past middle-age on Earth.

However, he had maintained the youthful appearance of a man in his twenties. He had platinum-blonde hair that he insisted was white, toned skin and muscles that covered his entire body like a suit of armor.

Lissana, who was sunbathing on the deck while having perfumed oil applied to her by a Dragon about the size of a person, and the Dwarf woman Merdin, the one with the most common sense among the members of this party, were in agreement with Dalton.

"I wouldn't call anyone who goes for walks on top of the sea 'for health reasons' an old man," said Lissana.

"Yeah, you were running around like an idiot, too. You should have just kept running all the way to the Dark Continent," said Merdin.

Saying that it was good for his health, Schneider had been taking walks on the ocean every morning. To be more precise, he had been running around on the water's surface without using magic.

"Seriously, I don't know why they can do something like that..." the Dragon whispered, remembering how nightmarish it was. The sight of Schneider, Dalton and Zorcodrio, who was actually a Pure-breed Vampire known by his nickname Zod, running around on the ocean's surface.

If they were using magic, it would be nothing more than a skillful performance. Mages capable of using wind-attribute magic to create masses of air beneath their feet or water-attribute magic to harden the water surface beneath them weren't uncommon.

But even from the Dragon's point of view, these three were monsters to be able to do this with pure physical strength alone. He definitely didn't want to be kicked by those ridiculously powerful legs.

"What, even Merdin and Lissana can do that," said Schneider.

"We do it with magic and Magic Items!" Merdin exclaimed.

"Don't think that I'm the same as you. I'm in charge of the brain work," said Lissana.

"Brain work...?" the Dragon repeated.

Lissana shot him a glare that seemed like it could kill someone. "Do you have something you want to complain about, Luves?" she asked, showing the pink scales and long tongue that were proof that she was an evil god.

"It's nothing!" shrieked Luves... or rather, Luvesfol, the Raging Evil Dragon God.

Luvesfol, the one who had sealed Fidirg, the Dragon God of Five Sins, in the marshlands south of Talosheim, created a Scaled King as his priest and stolen the faith of the Lizardmen from Fidirg. He was wounded after having his Spirit Clone destroyed by Vandalieu, and he had been making his escape to the Dark Continent, thinking that he would be killed if he stayed where he was.

However, the domains of slumbering gods such as Vida had been in his way, and since he was injured, he had been unable to move as he wanted. It had taken him time to make his escape, and unfortunately for him, the day he had finally managed to leave the Bahn Gaia continent was the day that Schneider and his party set sail.

Normally, there wouldn't have been any problems. It was almost impossible to do anything to Luvesfol, who existed in a Divine Realm with a mortal body. In fact, it would be impossible to even notice Luvesfol's existence.

"You shitty, useless Dragon!"

"I've found you at last!"

"I don't really know what's going on, but you're in the way!"

Indeed, there wouldn't have been any problems if there hadn't been the reincarnated form of an evil god, a Pure-breed Vampire who possessed strength equivalent to a god's despite merely being a member of one of the world's intellectual races, and a Dragon-slaying adventurer.

Having lived in the continent's southern region for about a hundred years, Luvesfol had been slow to notice the presence of these three. His Divine Realm was breached and attacks were laid into him one-sidedly, and after that, Dalton and Merdin joined in to beat him to a pulp.

Lissana had once been an evil god of the Demon King's army, and Zod had fought the Demon King's army alongside the champions under Vida's command. Of course, they knew of Luvesfol, who had betrayed them and joined the Demon King's army after the Dragon-emperor god Marduke had fallen.

And they knew about everything that he had done afterwards.

Now, Luvesfol had materialized as a small Dragon. Gods could gain a weak physical body in exchange for being unable to use most of their divine powers. This would normally be incredibly risky, but Luvesfol had been forced into this state.

It was a seal, in a way.

"Luves, your hands have stopped," said Lissana. "Haven't I taught you that you need to apply the oil evenly?"

"I-I know!"

"Make sure to massage me properly as well, okay? Ah, and I haven't forgotten that you used your breath against me in your aim to profit from the battle between Vida and Alda."

"Ugh, you remember everything?!"

"Please keep in mind that I also remember that your betrayal during the battle against the Demon King's army caused the frontlines to collapse, forcing us into a hellish battle to try and retreat," Zod added.

Luvesfol screamed in terror. For Lissana and Zod, he was someone who certainly deserved to be killed. And there was a single reason he hadn't been killed yet... since he had betrayed the dragon god and joined the Demon King's army, if he were to die, his soul would return to the Demon King's circle of transmigration system and he would be reincarnated one day.

As the Demon King's system currently had nobody managing it in addition to having always been unstable to begin with, there was no guarantee that even gods could be reincarnated with their memories and personalities intact unless they made preparations like Lissana had. There was a high chance that they would be reborn as a Goblin or Giant Frog with brand-new memories and personalities.

However, the chance that they could be reincarnated as something new with their memories, personalities and power miraculously intact was not zero.

So normally, they would have completely destroyed Luvesfol's body and sealed his soul away, just as Schneider had done to the Elder Dragons that he had exterminated in the past, but... they hadn't been able to prepare the soul-sealing ritual on their boat voyage, so Luvesfol was in this state as a small Dragon now.

"It's not like I don't feel sorry for you, but every time I do, I keep remembering another evil thing that you did, so I can't sympathize," said Lissana.

"You're right," said Dalton. "Should I give him a punch then?"

"Dalton, he's weaker than a Wyvern right now, so he'd die if you punched him," said Merdin.

Luvesfol was being tormented by Lissana and Zod, but Merdin and Dalton didn't feel any sympathy for him, either.

They were treating him like a criminal slave.

But it seemed that Luvesfol had some knowledge regarding the Dark Continent and Zantark's whereabouts, so he was still being treated better than normal criminal slaves.

The clues he could give were on the level of, "He might be somewhere over there," but it was far better than nothing.

And thanks to him, they had managed to gain some information regarding Vandalieu.

"The Demon King's fragments, huh? Will he be alright, using things like that?" Schneider wondered.

"Hmm, the truth is that Zod and I don't know any details about them," said Lissana. "And I don't have any memories of a hundred thousand years ago; I can only remember events that happened after I was reincarnated in this Elf body –"

"I was also sealed a hundred thousand years ago, and was slumbering until recently," Zod added.

Nobody would have suggested trying to use the Demon King's fragments in the period immediately following the Demon King's defeat. Thus, Zod and Lissana didn't know much about them. They only knew as much about them as Schneider and the other two.

"We've fought monsters whose fragments of the Demon King were on a rampage, and Elder Dragons who kept them to use as trump cards, but they were surprisingly manageable," said Schneider. "They become unable to use elemental magic, and their movements become sloppy... normally, at least."

This had been the case for the enemies in possession of the Demon King's fragments that Schneider and his companions had faced. The fragments themselves had posed no problems either; Schneider and his companions simply needed to place strict seals on them after defeating their owners.

"Th-that Dhampir used the Demon King's blood to make gun barrels and fired projectiles made of the Demon King's horns using the Telekinesis spell. It's true!" said Luvesfol.

Vandalieu had calmly used magic, even if it was no-attribute magic, with two of the Demon King's fragments active at once.

It was probably dangerous for Schneider and his party to work under their previous assumptions.

"Well, there's no use in worrying about it. If things get really bad, I'm sure Ricklent will say something else to Lissana. More importantly, we need to find Zantark," said Schneider, turning his thoughts towards the still-unseen Dark Continent that was somewhere across the ocean. "According to the legends, the Dark Continent has a fountain of youth."

"Not that you need that fountain," said Merdin.