Chapter 3
The Power to Act

"Thank Goddess that I left prepared…" Alexander murmured as he ran after the boy who previously blitzed him during his conversation with the soldier.

It was really strange for someone as armored as Alexander to move at a record-breaking speed, especially while taking in consideration that he was wearing a full rucksack on his shoulders.

But if one analyzed Alexander's equipment in detail, it was understandable that he could accomplish that.

First, his armor was not made of iron, steel, or other metals, but by a unique material that many people would feel disbelief upon hearing it: Dragon Scales.

Yes, that's right, Alexander's armor was made with genuine, fossilized dragon scales, before the armor had been magically synthesized with the tough shell of a powerful insect monster to further enhance its defensive performance to ridiculous levels.

Just the materials themselves are particularly rare to obtain, not to talk about finding a person capable of using those materials to build it, which was why the armor was considered priceless even for a rich noble like Alexander and personally handed over by the Queen of Grand Noah after a knighting ceremony.

And even then, in the current generation, only his father was worthy of wearing such armor, while other knights wore normal Dragon Scale Armors.

But despite being made of dragon scales, the armor still weighed way less than an actual iron armor if all of its mass was to be converted into metal. For example, a normal armor suit made of iron would weigh around 30 kilograms, but this bulky armor weighed at most half of it.

And second… He was wearing magical accessories.

The accessory in question that let him reach such speeds was his crimson cape, the "Breeze Cape". Thanks to this enchanted cloth, Alexander felt light like never before, as if a strong wind was blowing him in the direction he was moving, giving him a definitive speed advantage over his peers.

And while there were other reasons, these two were the most important ones which explained why Alexander could quickly catch up to the running boy who, despite his small size, was already moving particularly fast since he wasn't holding much that could possibly weigh him down.

"Hey, Luka!" Alexander shouted again, and this time, the purple-haired boy actually turned around and took notice of the approaching Alexander.

"Alex, you're here?" The boy called out the name with a tinge of surprise in his voice, and let Alexander reach him. It was a strange sight for him to see a bulky-armored man running faster than him, but this wasn't exactly a time to worry about that.

Meanwhile, when Alexander reached the boy, he looked down at him with a serious expression and asked: "Luka, it's an emergency right now and there might be monsters out here, what are you doing?"

"I know, I've heard of it." Luka replied to Alexander's words, before he followed up with this. "But Hans is in danger! I can't just wait in the village when I have the power to help him, I'm a Hero!"

"..." Alexander merely threw a weird gaze at Luka, before he tentatively asked: "Do you even know where to look?"

"..." Luka opened his mouth, just to breathe out empty air without any sound, and after a few seconds, he slowed down his steps until he came to a full stop. At this point, he didn't even look at Alexander and blankly stared at the road ahead, decorated with one mountain in the distance.

Seeing that Luka was completely clueless in this regard, Alexander shook his head in disappointment and sighed. "Dear Goddess, Luka…"

"W-Well, we can start by looking for clues at where Hans has been kidnapped!" Luka quickly threw up a suggestion, which was quickly shot down by Alexander as soon as it left his mouth.

"And where is that?"

"It's…" Luka was about to lift his finger to point forward, before he realized that he did have absolutely no idea of where to look first. "...Oh."

"..." A small grimace appeared on Alexander's face, which he quickly suppressed for the boy's sake. The young man sighed again and replied: "Well, I can just directly go to their nest to check out."

"...?" This time, it was Luka who looked at Alexander with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if it was a slime that kidnapped Hans, then they must have taken him back to the Iliasville Mountain Range, right? Whatever reason they have to do that, they must at least go back to a safe spot before doing anything, since Jerry managed to escape." Alexander reasoned, and Luka nodded in understanding.

If the slimes that attempted to kidnap Hans were still on the spot where it happened, the guards would find them with ease. So, it was logical to think that the first thing the slimes would do is carry their victim to a safe location, which was the Iliasville Mountains in this case.

But…

"It will take us a lot of time to get there, nevermind returning to the village. Won't we be too late by then?"

Luka was right to say that, because they were on a deadline. If they take too much time outside, they may miss the period when the Goddess descends on the temple, and thus be left without getting baptized and becoming Heroes.

However, instead of answering that question, Alexander was more focused on something else that Luka had just said…

"We? You've got it wrong, I'm going alone."

"Wait, what?" Luka was taken aback by Alexander's sudden comment, while the young man elaborated while lifting his crimson cape.

"Yeah, I can go much faster than you with this cape, and I also have a few other magical accessories that can help me on the way. I should be able to get there and return to the village with Hank if everything goes well."

"But what about me?" Not willing to step back, Luka asked.

"You can just turn back, I guess." Alexander casually replied, which made Luka frown back at him.

"But I want to do something, I'm almost a Hero…"

Alexander took a deep breath and exhaled, before he slightly crouched down on Luka and told him: "Look, just go back and wait for me, okay?"

"..." Sensing a hint of impatience in Alexander's tone, Luka could do nothing but remain silent and slowly turn around, before slowly returning to the way he came from. Meanwhile, Alexander quickly stood straight up and threw a last glance at his friend, before he started running towards the Iliasville Mountain Range visible at the end of the road.

With his light armor and his Breeze Cape, he should be able to get there and return to the village of Iliasville quickly enough to not miss the baptism. And if he is lucky, he wouldn't even need to fight at all…

Alexander's free hand went for his rucksack while he kept running, and after some time spent rummaging through its pockets, he managed to retrieve a stone tablet that fit on his hand, with a eastern character written on it.

The Seal of Nothingness…

This magical accessory is unlike any other trinket that is currently in his possession, since its effect on its own field was particularly intense. With this seal, he will hardly be noticed by anybody, even if he stood in their field of sight while acting like a clown.

Of course, even with its mystical power, there were a few things to take in account, but as long as he is holding this seal with one hand, he could even sneak into a completely guarded royal castle without much of an issue, not to talk about retrieving a kidnapped man from a group of slimes.

Alexander's grip on the stone seal tightened as he looked at the mountains in the distance with some determination. Hopefully, nothing bad is happening to Hans right now.

But didn't Alexander tell the soldier that he would just bring Luka back to the village? Why is he now thinking about saving Hans instead? It's not like he is even that much of a good friend; they're simply on good terms, not being friends, but not being just acquaintances either.

He could just leave it to the soldiers to do it, and wipe his hands clean. Nobody is going to bat an eyelid anyway.

Well, the reason why he did that is… Why wouldn't he do it? He has the power to do so, unlike Luka who only has a sword among his belongings that could help him in this case.

It's better to do something and help someone, instead of staying passive and living on with future regrets.

Yeah, I know, some of you may get confused about this. After all, there is already Luka acting as a good-willed Hero, so there is no need to add another one, right?

Well, yeah, that is the case indeed, but there are a few key differences between Luka's heroism and Alexander's actions, which of course I won't explain now.

Anyway, onto the reviews!

Weewoozesty: I saw this response to a review.

"The most important reasons why I shortened the chapters os much is so that I can practice on not wasting the readers' time with unnecessary info dumps"

And it just occurred to me. As much as I joke about it. It could be a legitimate purpose to include Amira into the story as even by Canon standards, that's her purpose. She's the exposition 4th wall, self aware thicc reverse lamia.

It could come in handy for you yourself if you need to unload a bunch of information in a plot friendly manner.

Answer: ...Damn, you really got a boner for Amira, huh... But anyway, with how the things go in this version of the fanfiction, it is indeed possible to insert Amira without much of an issue, and also expand the plot in a small side story in between. Just let me find the best opportunity to do so.

Mediocracy: Are you going to mark Arrogant Love as completed, and put the title of this in the description as a rewrite?

Answer: Unfortunately, there is not enough space in the synopsis, and considering that there may still be some readers who like Arrogant Love more than Sovereignty, it's better to leave it there untouched. Anyway, I would like to leave some kind of "Paused" tag there like I could do in Webnovel, but I don't feel like betraying the readers' expectations by tagging it as "Completed", so... nah.

genilgames: Well, I don't know what to expect from this story, the previous one, although fun, the amount of "tragedy" was really starting to annoy me, not to mention the "unusually long chapters"

This story so far is giving 10x0 to the previous one, and I hope it stays that way.

"short" but objective chapters, and it seems that the world is now a "little less tragic"(but I stll prefer the Monster Girl Encyclopedia universe hahahaha)

Answer: I... think that we are moving on completely different spectrums. If you thought that those 24 chapters were filled with tragedy... Damn, I don't know what to say, except that I can't really wait for you people to see what I had in mind when referring to "tragedy".

And here we go, I hope you liked how prepared Alexander came up compared to the previous version, and I hope you like how the story is going on in general.

As always, put it among your favorites if you like it, and share your thoughts in the review section. See you tomorrow!