Trouble Always Comes, Literally.

No need to look for trouble.

Trouble will come eventually. Trust me.

******

…

They enjoyed breakfast happily. Marco spiritedly ate the food while Scias slowly ate three sandwiches on the table. Aily and Nina had soup as their main dish. Everyone else in the tower also had breakfast. They'll continue their activity afterwards.

Marco took a bottle of milk and drank it, "Gulp, gulp, gulp, bwaah… this is top notch, don't ya think, Scias?"

"Huh? Oh… I don't drink milk anymore…" Scias showed a glass of plain water on his hand. "Oh, that's too bad… gulp, gulp, gulp…"

Amidst of their breakfast, suddenly a deafening roar shatters the atmosphere, shocking whoever hears it. Some soldiers rushed in and reported to Sir Barts that there's a flying creature above the island. Their joyful breakfast turned unsettling all of sudden. The people of Areda just got out of a messy chaos, anything that poses a threat will cause panic and the feeling of unsafe among the people. They've become sensitive to deathly situations.

"You gotta be kidding me…" said Scias unwillingly. He then dumped the fourth slice of sandwich to the nearest dust bin and rushed into the observatory room along with Marco. Nina and Aily decided to join along, too.

On the observatory room, everyone can see what's happening on the island via the tower's magical overseer device. From there, they saw a terrifying creature flying around the island. That creature is a big dragon with wide wings. Sir Barts, whose also in the room noticed that the dragon was activating some sort of spell. A formation of green magic circles emerged beneath it.

From the outside, the dragon roared menacingly, it is only a few moments, before the dragon continued to enlarge its magic circles. Everyone at the island limped off as they saw the dragon's action in the sky. Everyone's too exhausted from the battle that just took place. There's no possible way they're going to beat an enormous being, let alone a flying target.

At the observatory room, the situation is indifferent: it's a whole place of panicked people, "Why...? Why there's no end to this…?" Aily drops herself. Nina got curious onto the dragon's intention so she activates her Mana Perception ability to observe the dragon's mana energy.

Nina's expression changed into horror, she observed something that she never experienced before! Her eyes turned bright green, representing the color of the wind element. The dragon holds the element of wind, but on a greater height that she had never seen before.

"Why on earth a damned dragon be here?!" Marco grunted loudly. Anger seethes within his voice. Nina reflexively turned her head towards him and witnessed her friend in raging expression.

"M…Marco…" she called softly, but her voice sank in the cacophony of panicking people.

Sir Barts with his men, alongside with the 'king' tried to understand the situation. It's a mess, everyone's panicking. The Areda Cannons can hardly fire into the sky, since it was meant to takedown enemy ships, not flying objects. The cannons CAN technically fire into the sky, but limited only to take out small and fragile targets like cannonballs and other small projectiles.

"Look! Its magic circles…!" Marco exclaimed. His face retains anger.

The dragon's magic circles now swirl around beneath its legs. It emits an intense light show. Shortly, the remains of smoke in the island are absorbed into the dragon's magic circle, cleaning the island's landscape from smoke columns.

"What should we do, Marco?!" Aily asked fervently to her explorer friend. "Sister, what should we do?" she asked her sister as well.

"I'd say we should not retaliate…" Scias argued.

"Wha—you serious, dude?" Marco questioned.

"Uh," Scias nodded shortly. He watches his friend's eyebrows twitching in fury. He knew something about it and made a quick decision and reasoned with the entire squad.

"—IF we attack it, who knows what it will do?" he added.

Scias pointed out that they shouldn't attack the dragon. There's a possibility that their firepower are no match for the dragon. Or even worse, they don't have the power to fight against it. Sir Barts sustained his opinion, saying that they shouldn't attack the dragon. He had a feeling that the dragon won't attack them if they let them be.

Hearing Scias' reasoning, Marco slowly calms down and regains composure. That stiff wrathful expression begins to wash away. "O-Oh… I see. Sorry, I was—

Marco's word is cut short by Sir Barts, "—Look there! The dragon, it's…!"

Everyone's attention quickly switched upon the flying creature.

Five minutes later, the island has been cleared off from any smoke clouds that stain the skies above Areda. The dragon disintegrates its magic circles and flies higher into the sky. It opens up a magic circle larger than itself directly above him. The dragon flies through the magic circle and disappears into thin air.

The dragon has left the island. Sir Barts was right. The dragon didn't attack them at all.

Though unharmed, everyone was stunned by this phenomenon. Nobody ever expected that a dragon would appear in the region. Its appearance is enough to instill fear and terror among the people. Everyone fears that it might bring disaster upon the island. Everyone fears them, commoners, mercenaries, knights, sailors, and even explorers.

Thirty minutes later, the officials finally got the situation under control. However, everyone started to mobilize to somewhere. Marco got curious on what's going on, but just when he was about to ask, Sir Barts comes to him.

"Explorer Marco, you there?" he reached out to Marco, only to notice him drowned in his thoughts.

"Ahem, Explorer Marco," he called again. He begins to feel irate for being ignored, but he chained his anger to not pour out.

"Ah-HEM!" he purposefully cleared his throat with a loud noise.

Finally, the explorer reacts, "W-Wha—huh?! Oh, Sir Barts, what's going on?" Marco replied in a bit of panic.

Sir Barts wipes his forehead in relief, "Phew… I don't know what's in your mind but I wish you to hear me for I bear important message. Though, it's hard for me to say this, but the 'king' has declared Code Black,"

"What the—code black?!" said Marco in a rising tone, unbelieving.

"Yes. His Majesty has delivered the message to everyone on the battlefield to pull back to the tower… and into the underground shelter. You and your fellow friends, too, Marco…" said Sir Barts explaining seriously.

'Code Black'… in the military, it refers to a major threat that has appeared and immediate evacuation must be done right away.

"What the hell happened, Sir Barts?" Marco asked again. "Please don't say that the dragon returns…" Aily concerned.

"Fortunately, that dragon didn't return. Just a moment ago, we just received a message from an incoming vessel, the one and only ship that docks here at Areda," said Sir Barts.

"You can't be serious... he returned here?!" Marco asked seriously. "The one and only ship that docks here at Areda… you can't be saying 'them' right?" Nina expresses her surprise.

"You knew who it is. It's the Regate Marines. They've relayed us information that thirty ships are coming closer to the island as we speak," Sir Barts explained. "T-THIRTY SHIPS?!" Marco nearly shouted.

"T-T-The Fortis Kingdom sent more?! They never know when to give up, aren't they?!" Marco's face got heated up.

Nina expects Sir Barts to deny Marco's accusations because she knew Fortis Kingdom is a prideful kingdom, refusing all sorts of help. But somehow, Sir Barts did not give out any voice.

"Just wait, I'll—

"—Hold on, Marco," Scias halted his buddy in an instance. "Sir Barts, do tell… is it the Fortis Kingdom again?" Scias then asked.

". . . . . ." the man in armor refused to give a word.

"Sir Barts, please answer!" Nina raised her tone, forcing him to reply.

But the man did not answer at all. He's just standing there in front of the party, with a fearful face. It is as if Sir Barts refused to tell the truth. But soon, his mouth opens slightly, seemingly reluctant to tell what's happening. But at last, he speaks.

"…The Fortis' vessel has been wiped out. No counterattacks or reinforcements were called," Sir Barts disregarded about any Fortis reinforcements. It raises another question, who was coming to their island?

"Then who the hell are they?! Some ghost ships? Dragon ships? Or what?!" Marco shouted.

"Calm down, Marco..." Scias lowered Marco's tense. "We must stay cool in this situation," Nina added.

"Just… pull back, Marco. Take your friends to the underground shelter. My men and I shall give a warning shot to those incoming naval forces,"

--and with that, Sir Barts walked out of the observatory room and headed for the control room, leaving the party in total confusion.

Nobody could tell on who's approaching their island right now. Sir Barts refused to tell, the 'king' declared Code Black, and everyone's pulling back from the battlefield.

"Super great, yeah, just great," Marco repeated those words for several times.

Shortly, the party decided to go alongside Sir Barts command and joined the underground shelter. The path going underground is full of people, they're all rushing in as if the doomsday is about to come.

A few minutes later, a series of psionic wave is unleashed into the fray. The warning shot has finally begun. But to Marco and the others, it sounded more like an attack, rather than a warning shot.

"Move it, already. We must hurry!" Scias signaled the party to go faster.

"Geez, dude, just look at how many people are here!" said Marco aggravated. Shortly, he turned around and gives a shout, "Move already! If we don't hurry—

The ground suddenly shakes in a high scale.

"An earthquake?" Nina wondered as she shook over her shoes.

"Protective Barrier!" Aily reflectively casted a defensive barrier above them, the path to the underground shelter is rocky and is prone to crumble. "Hang on, everyone!" said one of the soldiers.

Five minutes later, the earthquake stopped. Gladly, the underground shelter still stands strongly. Everyone breathes out a relief.

However, not with the psionic waves, they were shot out over and over. Marco, Scias, Nina and Aily now question the 'warning shot' Sir Barts stated earlier. It sounded more like a barrage of shots.

…

..

.

It was never a warning shot. Outside of the shelter, Sir Barts and his team fired multiple times into the Sea of Carba, eliminating ships that come near the island. Some of them are under heavy fire due to explosions and some of the ships are sinking.

Sir Barts' actions together with the king were rather panicked and terrified. They overused the reactors' energy to keep on firing the Areda Cannons towards the naval forces in the distance. The incoming vessels fly the flag of an extraordinary, which explains greatly on why Sir Barts and the king acted so reckless.

A blue flag with two white stripes intersecting one another at the center, in the corners appear arrow-like symbols pointing outwards, it's the symbol of the Imperial Fleet. One that belonged to the Empire of Sacranopolis!