[Mission complete. Reward distributed.]
It felt as if a long time had passed, and yet also as if only a short while had gone by.
As Seiryū continued suppressing the rampaging natural energy beneath the earth, the system notification suddenly sounded in his mind.
A moment later, information about Gran Rey Cero flooded into his head.
"Oh? The mission is complete?"
Seiryū was somewhat surprised.
The reward was Gran Rey Cero.
That meant the mission to completely subdue the Hollow power within his body had been completed.
"In that case, am I now the perfect Jinchūriki of the Dragon Vein? I wonder if this will make my Hollowfication stronger."
Seiryū muttered to himself, feeling curious.
After becoming the perfect Jinchūriki of the Dragon Vein, would his Hollowfication also become stronger?
Could it rival the state of opening the Eight Inner Gates Formation?
At the same time, after completely mastering the Dragon Vein's source power, Seiryū discovered that his control over the natural energy beneath the earth had become much stronger.
"The time has come. I will break free from this predicament and return even stronger."
Seiryū felt that it was time to resolve the crisis.
After fully mastering the Dragon Vein's source power, the flow of natural energy underground became clearly visible to him.
Like a monarch commanding the power beneath the earth, Seiryū moved his will, and the Dragon Vein Chakra spread outward.
He connected with the surrounding natural energy and suppressed its rampage.
Hum, hum, hum.
Under Seiryū's control, the rampaging energy was not only suppressed, but also gradually stabilized.
Before long, everything returned to calm.
Once the danger had passed, Seiryū wiped the sweat from his brow and let out a breath of relief.
"Phew. That was close. I almost died."
It had truly been dangerous.
If he had failed to suppress the rampaging natural energy underground, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
He would have died, and then he would have had to trouble Nagato to summon him back with Impure World Reincarnation.
Rōran would also have been destroyed. At that point, his title as Prince Regent of Rōran would exist in name only. How would he pursue his happiness then?
Fortunately, everything had remained under control.
Nothing had gone wrong.
It had not taken too long either. To Seiryū, it felt as if only about an hour had passed before he brought the situation under control.
"Did everyone leave? Tsunade should have heard what I shouted earlier."
Now that the disturbance had subsided, Seiryū scanned his surroundings.
He found nothing unusual. Everything looked exactly the same as it had roughly an hour ago.
Then his Vollständig: Heavenly Eye perception spread outward, but he could not sense Tsunade, Kurenai, or the others.
Tsunade must have heard him.
That was why she had moved everyone away from the area.
"Sāra's chakra is here, though. Is she rushing over? Heh. As expected, she was still worried about me."
"But why does it feel like she has become stronger? Can that forbidden jutsu also increase the user's strength?"
Seiryū only sensed Sāra's chakra, and she was quickly heading toward him.
Moreover, her chakra seemed much stronger than it had been an hour ago.
Did the forbidden jutsu have other effects?
As for why Sāra had not left with Tsunade, Seiryū could more or less guess the reason.
As the Queen of Rōran, Sāra would never abandon her people and flee.
She was a responsible queen.
Of course, there was still one thing that puzzled him.
Why had Sāra not evacuated the people of Rōran?
If the natural energy underground had exploded, the residents might not have been able to escape anyway, but the complete lack of movement still felt strange.
Whoosh.
Without thinking too deeply about it, Seiryū locked onto the Flying Thunder God mark on Sāra and disappeared.
When he reappeared, he was already at Sāra's location.
The instant he arrived, before his vision could even clear, he sensed a soft body crash straight into his arms.
He heard a startled cry, followed by a faint, elegant fragrance drifting into his nose.
The impact made him stagger slightly, but he quickly steadied himself and teased, "That's quite the welcome. Keep this up and you'll make me shy."
The one who had crashed into his arms was naturally Sāra.
The location where he appeared through Flying Thunder God had been directly in front of her. Since she had been rushing over, she had not been able to stop in time and had fallen straight into his arms.
After seeing Sāra's face clearly, Seiryū felt something was strange.
"Eh? Not only has your chakra grown stronger, but you seem even prettier too."
Sāra stared blankly at him, as if trying to confirm whether he was real.
For a moment, she said nothing.
Seiryū blinked.
It had only been around an hour since they last met. Why was she looking at him as if she had seen a ghost?
Worry was normal, but this expression was becoming stranger by the second.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Seiryū sensed that something was off, but he did not ask immediately. Instead, he patted Sāra lightly on the shoulder and smiled.
"Don't just stand there in a daze. Anyone who didn't know better would think you'd seen a ghost."
"It's not a hallucination..."
After being patted on the shoulder and feeling the warmth of the person in her arms, Sāra finally came back to her senses.
Her voice trembled with emotion.
"Seiryū, is it really you?"
"It's so good that you're okay. I... I thought you would never..."
It really was Seiryū.
Seiryū was truly alive.
The emotions Sāra had suppressed for so long finally burst free.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
She was crying from relief.
Sāra's expression and tone made the ominous feeling in Seiryū's heart grow stronger.
Having a sharp mind was useful, but sometimes it also made him realize things he did not want to know.
Through her reaction, Seiryū vaguely guessed the truth.
He simply did not dare to believe it yet.
Tentatively, he asked, "Sāra, it has only been about an hour since we last saw each other. It was dangerous, sure, but this reaction seems a little much, doesn't it?"
"An hour?"
Sāra suppressed the emotions in her heart and released him.
She wiped away the tears that had fallen from sheer relief.
Then she looked at his familiar face, the face that had appeared in her dreams countless times, as if she wanted to carve it into her very soul.
Her voice still carried a trace of sobbing.
"Two and a half years. You were trapped inside the altar for two and a half years."
"If Lady Tsunade hadn't failed every time she tried to summon you with Impure World Reincarnation, we would have thought you had already..."
As the Queen of Rōran, Sāra had some understanding of what had happened.
The Dragon Vein's final counterattack had triggered the rampage of the natural energy beneath the earth.
That power had been so overwhelming that no one could approach the altar.
They had all heard Seiryū's final shout, and they knew what he had been doing.
He had been suppressing the rampaging natural energy underground.
Because of the Dragon Vein and the underground natural energy, space and time around the altar had been distorted.
The Dragon Vein possessed the power to interfere with time and space.
Perhaps in Seiryū's perception, only an hour or so had passed.
But Sāra had been waiting for two and a half years.
Seiryū had been trapped inside the altar, suppressing the rampaging natural energy beneath the earth for a full two and a half years.
If Tsunade had not failed every time she tried to summon him through Impure World Reincarnation, they might truly have believed he was dead.
It was only moments ago, when Sāra sensed the familiar chakra of Rōran's royal line, that she had rushed here.
"What? Two and a half years have passed?"
The uneasy feeling in Seiryū's heart was confirmed by Sāra's words, and he froze for a moment.
"Is the timing really that exact?"
Two and a half years.
That was far too much of a coincidence.
No, that was not the point.
How had two and a half years passed?
"What coincidence? It has been a full two and a half years."
Sāra bit her red lip lightly, her eyes never leaving Seiryū.
"Do you know what two and a half years means? Do you know how I spent those two and a half years? I was..."
Seiryū pulled her into his arms and said softly, "Mm. It was hard on you. On all of you."
Putting himself in her place, he could understand.
Making someone wait for him for more than two years, while filled with worry, anxiety, and guilt, was a kind of torment.
Although it had been an accident, Seiryū still felt guilty.
No.
The Dragon Vein was the one at fault.
It was unforgivable.
"As long as you understand."
Sāra was the queen of a country, after all, so she was not so easily overwhelmed by shyness.
Looking at Seiryū, she felt the emotions she had suppressed for so long gradually settle now that he was safe.
She smiled faintly.
"Then you must take responsibility for worrying me so much."
"Let's go. You must be tired. Eat first, and then I'll tell you what I know about the past two years."
Because of the distortion caused by the Dragon Vein and the natural energy beneath the earth, Seiryū had been in a different flow of time from everyone else.
For him, it might only have been an hour.
But Sāra could see the exhaustion on his face.
That made her heart ache.
They had waited more than two years for him, but suppressing the underground natural energy could not have been easy for Seiryū either.
He had even left behind what sounded like final words at the time.
Seiryū nodded. "All right."
To be honest, he was exhausted.
Both his body and spirit felt drained, as if he had fought an endless battle.
He really needed a good rest.
He also wanted to know what had happened in the shinobi world during the two and a half years he had been trapped.
Two years was enough time for many things to change.
At the dining table, Seiryū devoured the exquisite meal in front of him.
Although it lacked a certain soul and there were no medicinal dishes, it was enough to fill his stomach.
Beside him, Sāra simply watched him.
She did not speak.
She just quietly looked at him.
Feeling increasingly uncomfortable under her gaze, Seiryū swallowed his food and looked at her helplessly.
"Sāra, you know it feels strange when you keep staring at me while I eat, right?"
Sāra rested her chin on one hand and blinked her beautiful eyes.
"Am I not allowed to? I'm not disturbing you."
Seiryū fell silent.
Was that really the point?
Seeing that she had no intention of looking away, Seiryū stopped worrying about it and asked about the shinobi world.
"Two and a half years have passed, so that means it is now Konoha Year 51?"
"Sāra, tell me what has happened in the shinobi world over these past two and a half years."
This was one of the things Seiryū cared about most right now.
More than two years had passed.
There was no way the shinobi world had remained unchanged.
Madara, for one, would definitely have caused trouble.
Without him, Konoha's Reaper, protecting the shinobi world, who knew what kind of mess Madara had made?
Hopefully, Madara had not already reached the Six Paths level.
That would be a real problem.
Sāra nodded, her tone becoming more serious.
"I don't know everything. Rōran does not participate in the wars of the shinobi world."
"However, quite a few things have happened over these past two and a half years."
"The war has not ended. Iwagakure and Sunagakure have joined forces, while Kumogakure has closed its borders."
"Konoha has also faced several incidents. Kirigakure attacked Konoha at one point, and Madara was apparently involved, but Konoha repelled them."
Sāra told him what she knew.
The Third Shinobi World War had not ended, and many battles had broken out across the nations.
Because of the threat posed by both Konoha and Madara, Iwagakure and Sunagakure had finally abandoned their grudges and formed an alliance.
The Third Raikage of Kumogakure had been killed, and with few high-level fighters remaining, the village had closed its borders and withdrawn from the war.
Even so, they had not escaped disaster. Madara had invaded Kumogakure at some point.
Many things had also happened in Konoha.
Tsunade had officially taken the position of Fourth Hokage and had successfully stopped an invasion by Kirigakure and Madara.
These were all matters widely known throughout the shinobi world.
Sāra did not know the finer details.
Seiryū listened quietly, his expression thoughtful.
"As expected, quite a lot happened. It seems Madara has already obtained several Tailed Beasts."
"Kirigakure and Madara invading Konoha... their target should have been the Nine-Tails and the Rinnegan, right?"
Based on what Sāra said, Seiryū made his own deductions.
Madara's goal was the Tailed Beasts.
There was no way he would give up on them.
To think he had even invaded Konoha.
Seiryū did not know the current situation in the village.
Sāra was not from Konoha, so naturally, she did not know many details.
Fortunately, the thing Seiryū worried about most had not happened.
Madara had not yet reached the Six Paths level.
That meant the situation had not completely collapsed.
Sāra looked at Seiryū and reminded him, "I don't know the specifics, but Madara is extremely powerful. You must be careful."
Because of the Dragon Vein and the underground natural energy, Seiryū had indeed mastered the Dragon Vein completely.
But he had also lost more than two years.
More than two years had passed in the outside world, while for Seiryū, only an hour or so had gone by.
If those two years had not been lost, perhaps Seiryū would have already ended the war completely.
"I will."
Seiryū nodded slightly.
He would not be careless when it came to Madara.
After more than two years, Madara had probably returned to his peak.
A peak Madara was not someone who could be underestimated.
And Madara had also taken Ryota away, which added another unknown factor.
Did Madara now possess a pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan again?
Or perhaps even the Rinnegan?
Seiryū did not know.
Facing such an opponent, even he could not confidently say he would win.
He truly had wasted more than two years.
Seiryū glanced at the sky.
It was already close to dusk.
Sāra looked at him with a trace of hope in her eyes and said softly, "It is already late. Why not rest here tonight?"
"You can return to Konoha tomorrow. Is that all right?"
"Mm. All right."
Seeing the hope in her eyes, Seiryū could not refuse. He nodded and smiled.
"Her Majesty wants me to stay in the palace tonight. Since this is an order from the Queen, how could I, the Prince Regent, refuse?"
"What if you dismissed me from my position? I care deeply about being Prince Regent. It concerns my happiness."
"Who said anything about dismissing you?"
Sāra rolled her eyes at him.
Then she rested her chin on her hand and chuckled.
"Besides, I paid a great price to bring you to Rōran. As the Prince Regent, you must take responsibility for me."
"I won't let you leave so easily."
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)