"—Proclamation."
"Hm?"
With the [Barrier] activated, throughout the entire duchy—regardless of gender, age, whether adventurer or local resident, or even outsiders who happened to be staying within the duchy's borders—everyone heard the same voice echoing in their ears.
Constructing a large-scale barrier is an extremely tedious and complex massive undertaking, and maintaining it is equally difficult. The barriers within the kingdom are pre-established giant magic circles that, with proper protection, can be activated in extremely short time. Only the king and dukes possess the right to use barriers, with the barrier's range roughly equivalent to their ruled territory.
Barriers are typically used as the strongest defensive trump card when foreign enemies invade. While logically barriers do have the effect of "closing the door to beat the dog," the Kingdom of Michel doesn't permit private use of barriers for such reasons. Barriers have cooldown periods and cannot operate perpetually.
Many people live their entire lives without witnessing a barrier's use.
"This is a necessary decision for seeking stability.
"For a thousand years, the [Demon King] has cursed the land we depend on for survival every single day.
"God's blessed children have also fought for a thousand years, yet the [Demon King]'s minions are the ugliest parasites on Lemoria continent. Those filthy souls without salvation know no shame, seeking to pollute every pure land.
"In recent years, demonic intrusions have grown increasingly frequent.
"Therefore, Father God's spokesperson on earth, His Holiness the Pope, calls upon us to accomplish things by the sword.
"Therefore, I guard the Kingdom of Michel's frontiers, bearing the responsibility of keeping calamity beyond our gates.
"Merciful His Holiness the Pope promises that we must regard purifying the undead as our lifelong sacred mission, permitting those with ambition to study the miracles Father God left in the human world as his gift to us.
"Yet the gates of hell, opened by the [Demon King], have not closed for a single day.
"Evil spirits wearing human skin wander this world alongside us.
"My research results were destroyed and stolen by the [Demon King]'s associate several days ago.
"Fortunately, they remain within the territory and cannot escape.
"Their remaining strength is like that of insects—this must surely be divine punishment brought by their fall.
"I hope that adventurers gathered here—regardless of where you come from or where you're going—take note.
"Their name: [Amaryllis].
"I hereby proclaim this to the world.
"Quest completion condition one: Capture Amaryllis alive.
"Quest completion condition two: Proof of Amaryllis's death.
"Satisfying either condition is sufficient. Quest rewards will be distributed in written form when this proclamation ends.
"Citizens within the territory also bear the duty of assisting in hunting down Amaryllis.
"Holy Calendar Year 1412, August 29th, 8 AM
"Duke Valubilis Borgia
"God save the King
[Limited-Time Quest: Duke Borgia's Manhunt Order has been issued!]
Participants include all adventurers currently within the duchy. When the proclamation ended, every adventurer rushed to open their quest panels.
The official website had no preview of related quests—did someone advance the storyline to trigger this limited-time quest?
The quest completion condition is to kill the NPC named Amaryllis designated by Duke Borgia before the barrier disappears.
A portrait of Amaryllis created through thought-painting also appeared on the quest panels of players who received the task—issuing quests within one's own territory is one of a noble's rights.
"Wait a minute? It's a little girl?"
"Didn't you hear what Duke Borgia said? Hell is empty and the devils are here—it's just a monster with human appearance pretending to be pitiful."
"True, it's not like there haven't been monsters that deceive sympathy to counterattack."
"Plus look, the first reward is 50,000 crystals!"
"...Hey, brother."
"What, you want to be a hero of justice?"
"No, I mean you're missing a zero."
"........................?!"
...
Outside Rothschild, at Anna's Support Group camp.
"A griffin?! This quest actually rewards a griffin!"
"Wait, don't captured griffins have to be surrendered to the state?"
"Are you stupid?! Privately capturing griffins is illegal, but the duke's reward is naturally an officially recognized [Mount]!"
On Lemoria continent where flying methods are scarce, flying mounts are naturally equally rare.
Griffins are the most likely mounts to be captured and tamed, yet in almost every national power, privately capturing griffins is illegal. The sky knights' mounts are precisely griffins, and even military conscription isn't quite sufficient—where would there be extra griffins to give adventurers as rewards?
However, rewards from noble quests are a different matter. Dukes are great nobles second only to the king—owning griffins as personal mounts is a symbol of status, and the king wouldn't say much about it.
But since the game's launch, quests where dukes reward griffins are not only rare but also extremely difficult.
This time is different—just kill someone and it's done, and the quest target doesn't seem to have much combat ability.
"We still have the mission to protect Anna-chan."
"Idiot! Doing the quest doesn't conflict with protecting Anna-chan. Besides, with a griffin we could take Anna-chan wandering the world—Anna-chan would definitely support us!"
"But... the leader said cutting down lolis brings divine retribution..."
"Then don't go. Strategist! Let's act quickly, or others will snatch it away!"
Hohenhiem didn't answer, gazing in a certain direction while adjusting his glasses.
Anxious group members urged: "Strategist! Still sad about losing affection points with Anna-chan? That's exactly why we need to complete the quest and get the griffin to make up for it! Stop hesitating, strategist!"
"I just saw..."
"Hm?"
"The signal's point of origin seemed to be Rothschild."
"...What?"