In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 29 - Chapter 2

 Chapter II: Desert Stampede

“I brought Leylle with me today! C’mon, Leylle, say hello!”

“H-Hello...”

Allis arrived for her etiquette lessons with Leylle in tow. Having overcome whatever was on her mind, she was smiling as she always was. Leylle, on the other hand, was clearly much jumpier, eyes nervously swimming.

I could feel Allis silently exuding the air of one who was trying to be the dependable older sister.

“So you were able to make up?” Kuon asked.

“Yup! Oh, Leylle, Kuon’s gonna be my husband someday, so that makes him your older brother!”

“My brother...?”

“That’s...not quite right.”

Kuon looked a bit uncertain at Allis’s claim. He was clearly thinking about how being the husband of one’s cousin did not make them your brother-in-law. I understood where he was coming from, but it was for the best if he let them say whatever they wanted.

“Um, I can go home if you think I’ll get in the way...” Leylle nervously spoke up.

“No, not at all. Today is a history lesson, so it would benefit you to listen in,” Yumina told her with a reassuring smile. She was right—learning about this world could only do her good.

“Oh, also, Your Grace! I was hoping we could get a [Mirage] pendant for Leylle too.”

“Hm? Oh, did you guys borrow Melle’s for now? Got it, I’ll make sure to have one ready by the time you go home.”

I couldn’t see the distinctive features of a Dominant Phrase on Leylle, but I realized at that moment that she had the pendant I’d given to Melle hanging around her neck. Thanks to the effects of [Mirage], she looked just like a regular girl. She was about the height of Kuon, or maybe a little smaller? She was at least taller than Steph. Her clothes, a simple plain dress, were likely also an illusion.

“Linze, sorry to bother you, but...”

“Don’t worry, I understand. I’ll make plenty of cute options in her size.”

Linze nodded before I even finished what I was saying. The way we were able to guess what the other was thinking in only a few words made me feel like we were a couple who had been together for years. It made me happy.

Leylle was dragged away by Allis to go take the history lessons with Yumina.

Oh yeah, when does Halle’s personality even come out?

I was pretty sure that Ende’s presence was a trigger. Things were tough for him, as well. If he returned home while Leylle was present, he’d just get attacked, and even if he wanted to get closer to his daughter, if Leylle was with her, he wouldn’t get that opportunity.

He was able to return home safely now, but the moment it was time for Leylle to head home, he would just be kicked out again.

I feel bad for him...

Well, I was sure things would work out eventually. I wasn’t the kind to get myself too involved in someone else’s family affairs, so I had to keep myself out of it.

Just as I was coming up with such excuses, my phone started ringing.

It’s not Ende, is it? Oh, good, it’s just the doc.

“Hello, hello?”

“The Ark’s on the move.”

I instantly felt a chill run through me upon hearing those words.

“Are the adjustments on Reginleif and the Valkyries finished yet?”

“Sorry, but not quite. We’ve not even started on Reginleif, and for the Valkyries, only Elze’s, Yae’s, Hilde’s, and Lu’s are ready. They’re suitable for underwater combat now, and we’ve upgraded their mobility, but...”

I could tell what she was trying to say. All four of them were made for close combat. Lu’s Waltraute could at least exchange parts to make it more suited for long range, but that wasn’t the best solution.

“What about the Nereids?”

“We have about ten ready to deploy. Their test flight’s gonna end up being the real thing, though.”

We’d been training the knights in underwater combat using the Frame Units in a simulation of the Nereids. This would end up being their first actual attempt at piloting a Nereid, but the controls weren’t all that different from a Frame Gear, so I didn’t think they’d struggle too much.

“Where’s the Ark headed?”

“They’re going north through the sea to the west of Isengard. Keep going and they’ll hit Orphen.”

Orphen, the island country ruled by the houtei. It was the opposite shape of Eashen, the land most resembling Japan.

“Is Orphen their goal or is it the natural resources in the nearby seafloor?”

“If it’s the resources, then we’d be better off not engaging. We’re not exactly in the best condition to fight them. Sure, we’d be leaving them to create more Kyklops, but it’s not like they’re going to build thousands of them overnight.”

She was right. The infiltration plan we had in mind involved entering the Ark discreetly and taking down the wicked devout with the diver helmet that could use teleportation magic. It would take a bit more time before we were prepared to handle such an operation. If their target was Orphen, then we would have no choice but to send aid, but if they just wanted to excavate the resources, then I felt it would be better to leave them to their devices, as frustrating as it was.

Thankfully, our fears were unfounded, and the Ark began excavating resources just south of Orphen, which meant the island was safe for now. That said, that didn’t mean we could let our guard down. I made sure to tell Doc Babylon to remain vigilant with their observation of the Ark and to speed up the strengthening of the Valkyries and the production of the Nereids.

I at least made sure to send a message to both Orphen and the nearby Lassei to evacuate their citizens if there were any strange movements by their ocean borders. Even if there was no movement from the Ark, there was no telling if there would be attacks by the Fishmen.

There hadn’t been any Fishmen attacks the past few weeks, but this felt like the calm before the storm. It left me with an indescribable sense of unease.

◇◇◇

Far south of Brunhild, in the sprawling Sea of Trees, there was a location known as Dragonbone Roost. It was a large hollow ruled by the Red Dragon hidden deep within the forest. It was a very precious place to the Dragons located a short distance away from their Sanctuary.

Deep within that large cave rested Dragon bones of all sizes. As the name implied, it was where elderly Dragons would go to rest at the end of their lifespans. It was a special place, acting as a Dragon’s final abode before being sent off to the afterlife.

Due to being one of the strongest beings of the land, Dragons did not have a high rate of fertility—because they were strong, they did not need to worry about numbers as a species. Around ten Dragons being born every thousand years was more than enough.

Dragons were a long-lived species; even if the number of Dragons being born was limited, they would always retain a steady population. In more recent years, however, the number of living Dragons had decreased dramatically.

A combination of the rampages of insolent young Dragons who did not know their place, and the tyrannical rule and massacre of the self-proclaimed Dragon King had led to many Dragons ending their lives without even making it to Dragonbone Roost. The last time a Dragon had lain to rest in this cave was centuries ago.

A Dragon’s bones contained huge concentrations of mana, and it would not fade even thousands of years later. After ages, the corpses of many Dragons had gathered in the Roost.

Standing in the holy ground of those departed Dragons were three suspicious figures. One was a man with a diver helmet, a metallic blue hatchet hanging from his waist. Another was a woman wearing a domino mask, a metallic orange mace hanging from hers. And last was a surreal-looking man, covered in a black robe and wearing the skull of a goat. He was wielding a metallic black scepter.

The masked woman, Tangerine, sighed as she muttered, “Bones, bones, and more bones. Look to your left, bones. Look to your right, bones. Could this place be any more suspicious?”

“This is essentially a graveyard, what else did you think would be here?” The man with the diver helmet, Indigo, sighed back.

“So? Does it look like we can use this?” Tangerine asked the robed man.

“There should be no issue. They contain plenty of mana. This will make the perfect catalyst,” the man replied in a ragged voice. Tangerine stuck her tongue out in disgust at the sound of delight that had come from the back of his throat.

“Then hurry it up, Graphite. If you take too long, then— Oh, forget it, it’s too late.”

Just as Indigo had called out to the robed man, when he turned round, standing at the entrance to the cave was a gigantic Red Dragon glaring right at them.

“Who gave you permission to enter this sacred land? This place isn’t welcome to people like you.”

The Dragon’s voice was filled with a boiling rage. He wanted nothing more than to incinerate these intruders right there, but this was his kin’s place of rest. He couldn’t carelessly destroy such a place, so he managed to restrain himself. If possible, incineration would be left for after they left the Roost.

“Ah, the Red Dragon. What an interesting turn of events. We could use its bones too. I leave him to you, Tangerine.”

“Huh?! Why do I have to deal with the annoying job?!”

The moment Tangerine fired back at Graphite’s selfish order, the cave was suddenly filled with the flames of hell. Upon realizing that these intruders had no intention of leaving peacefully, the Red Dragon decided there was no point in showing restraint.

The flame breath of the Red Dragon was so hot, it could melt even mithril. Even orichalcum could only withstand such heat for so long before it, too, ended up boiling. A regular human falling victim to such an attack would be completely scorched in the blaze, even bones turning to dust.

The Dragon bones scattered throughout the cave were as sturdy as orichalcum and held a high magic resistance, so one blow from the Red Dragon’s flames would not be enough to disintegrate them, allowing him to release his flames without restraint. The idea of disturbing his kin’s rest left him with immense feelings of guilt, but he told himself that they would no doubt wish for peace as soon as possible.

When his flames faded, there was no one standing there.

“Hmph, made their leave, did they? Still, what is the lookout doing? They’re slacking if they didn’t catch three whole intruders. Young Dragons these days...!”

The Red Dragon’s eyes widened when he turned around. The humans he should’ve burned to a crisp only a moment ago were now standing right in front of him.

“Ugh, what a pain.”

“Guh?!”

At the Dragon’s noise of surprise, Tangerine jumped up into the air and struck down with her mace, Halloween. Though the mace should have been nothing more than a metal rod that stung as much as a toothpick to someone like the Red Dragon, that single hit struck the side of his head as hard as a swish from one of his kin’s tails.

The second strike was stronger than the first, then the third strike was stronger than the second—the strength of the blows was increasing with each consecutive hit.

The Red Dragon tried to breathe out its flames in retaliation, but the moment he did, Tangerine melted into the ground like water.

“What?!”

The Dragon’s eyes roamed through the cave, searching for the woman’s whereabouts, but what he found instead were the two other figures that he thought he had annihilated in his blast standing a distance away. The woman who had struck him wasn’t there. Just where did she go? Right as he was left on edge, he was suddenly hit with the strongest blow he’d faced so far.

“Grah?!”

She was suddenly above him?! It took until that moment for the Red Dragon to realize that his opponents had some form of teleportation magic. Except, he hadn’t felt any mana coming from the woman at all, which meant that the culprit had to be one of the two standing farther away.

Though he now realized who he really had to deal with, his head began to swim. Perhaps due to being struck on the head, his sight was beginning to blur. No longer able to stand, the Dragon’s body crashed to the ground of the cave.

“He held out much longer than most. That’s a Dragon for you, I suppose,” Tangerine remarked.

“You fool. The Dragon’s skull is the most important part of their skeleton. Break it and we’ll get absolutely nothing of use from it.”

“Ha! If you have complaints, do it yourself!”

Watching the two of them argue, the Red Dragon thought to at least roast them with his flames, but his head refused to stay up.

“You...insolent trespassers! Is this it for me...?!”

Just as the Dragon was about to give up, a white fog suddenly began filling the cave. Before long, the space was so filled with it that it was impossible to see even a few meters in front of your eyes.

“Hey, what is this?!”

“Tangerine, do not move recklessly. This is not a regular fog,” Indigo warned. Tangerine obeyed the command, staying where she was and keeping an eye on her surroundings. There was no telling when and where the creator of this fog would make their attack from.

Only a minute had passed. The wicked devout refused to drop their guard for that whole minute, but the fog gradually dispersed.

“Oh my.”

“Seems we were played.”

By the time the fog cleared, the body of the Red Dragon was no longer there.

“It appears they have made their escape. In which case, we had best hurry and retrieve these bones. If a whole herd of Dragons comes, I can’t guarantee our safety.”

“Then hurry up and do it. Isn’t this your job?” Graphite prompted the diver man.

“You are such a slave driver,” Indigo mumbled to himself as he began teleporting the Dragon bones scattered about the cave.

◇◇◇

“Ngh...”

“Red Dragon, are you all right?”

Though his head was still swimming, the Red Dragon somehow managed to lift it to see a white Dragon in front of him. They were a beautiful Dragon much smaller than himself.

“Mist Dragon... So you were the one who rescued me?”

The Mist Dragon was unique in that she held the rare power of teleportation. More specifically, she produced a fog that would also turn herself and her target into fog, and allow them to freely move within its range of effect. Rather than [Teleport], it was an ability much closer to [Gate], but it had a notable flaw in that one could not teleport instantaneously. It was required to move through the wide-range fog field.

The Red Dragon was currently in a forest far removed from Dragonbone Roost. The Mist Dragon had no doubt carried him this far.

“When I was flying above the Roost, I suddenly saw your flames... Just what happened? Who were those humans?”

In exchange for the Mist Dragon’s special ability, she did not boast much in the way of physical strength. Upon seeing the Red Dragon struggle against his opponents, she instantly judged she would be unable to stand a chance, and so chose to rescue her kin and then run. It appeared she made the right decision.

“I do not know, but regardless, they were undoubtedly grave robbing. I cannot ignore those who would dare disturb our kin’s rest!”

The Red Dragon’s injured body bristled as he once more spread his wings to return to Dragonbone Roost, but before he could take flight, he wavered and collapsed back onto the ground.

“Those damned...!”

“Red Dragon, please stay here. I will go take a look.”

The Mist Dragon then released her fog once more, and her body dissipated from view. Expanding her field to cover Dragonbone Roost, she used her ability to infiltrate the cave. However, by the time she made it to the area, there was no longer anyone there.

Not only that, but not a single one of her sleeping kin’s bones remained.

◇◇◇

“Yeah, there’s no mistaking it. That was definitely the wicked devout.”

Being the Heavenly Beast of the Dragons, Luli was the first point of contact the Mist Dragon reported the incident to. We could tell straightaway that it was the work of the wicked devout.

Damn it, even if we can keep an eye on the Ark, it doesn’t mean anything if they can just wreak havoc everywhere by teleporting wherever they want. This is beyond just outsmarting us.

“But what could they want with Dragon bones?” I asked from our place in the garden.

“Dragon bones are known as an all-powerful material. They’re so sturdy that they can replace orichalcum in forging weapons, and they can be used as catalysts for both magic and medicine. They may be intending to use it for the inner frames of the Kyklops,” Quun answered my question while wielding her spellcaster.

Dragon bones could even be used as medicine? Did you crush them and have it as a powder? Or did you have it like tonkotsu soup stock? Dragon meat was delicious, so soup made with Dragon bone dashi sounded good.

Instead of tonkotsu ramen, we could have ryukotsu ramen...

My curiosity was kind of piqued.

The Mist Dragon suddenly stepped back from me.

Oops, my thoughts must have slipped out.

“My liege, please allow me to accompany you when you depart to eliminate the wicked devout. I very much desire to have them experience the rage of those who had their rest disturbed.”

Luli’s blue eyes were positively burning when she looked at me. She might have looked like a calm and composed beast on the surface, but deep inside, she was quite the passionate one. There was no denying that the horrible treatment of her kin was causing her great anger.

The majority of Dragons whose final resting place was Dragonbone Roost had died of old age. Apparently, Dragons allowed the opponent to do as they wished with the bodies of those who died in battle, but desecrating the corpses of those who were finally granted peaceful rest in heaven after such a long lifespan was deemed unforgivable.

If they had died due to old age, that meant they were most likely Ancients. In other words, they were the veteran Dragons of old. Of course the Dragons would be mad if the graves of those respected elders were ransacked. Luli, as the leader of the Dragons, obviously didn’t want to simply stand by and do nothing.

“The bones of Ancient Dragons... There’s no way, is there?”

“Leen?”

Leen raised her head from the magic codex she had been reading next to Quun.

“They may be trying to create Artificers using Dragon bones. It has been said that immortal soldiers born from magic known as Dragontooth Warriors or Spartoi were used by a country of the ancient magic kingdom.”

“First we get Fishmen, then we get Four-Armed Gollems, and now we’ve got Dragontooth Warriors. Man, their forces are just getting stronger, huh?”

We couldn’t forget that we were also managing to bolster our own forces, though. I’d made the sacred treasure, we’d found the Ark, we’d managed to create several Nereids, and the Valkyries’ upgrades were going smoothly. There were various things I was a little worried about, but if I let those overtake my thoughts, we’d never be able to go on the offensive.

I could sense it: our battle with the wicked devout was fast approaching.

◇◇◇

“Come oooooon, isn’t there, like, some kind of magic or artifact that can seal a personality or something?”

“There’s nothing as convenient as that, no.”

Ende, clearly exhausted, was in the castle’s living room with me, complaining about his predicament, to which I ruthlessly cut him off. The situation between Ende and Leylle had gotten no better, and Ende was still unable to return home. He at least got the opportunity to return for a short while whenever Allis brought Leylle to the castle. Today, though, he was here voicing his complaints.

Allis was receiving dance lessons with Kuon today, but she had also brought Leylle along. Her father was moaning because he wasn’t able to go see her.

Leylle and Ende weren’t even on bad terms, so this felt extra bad. It was Halle’s personality inside of Leylle that absolutely detested him.

“The kid’s main personality is the girl called Leylle, right? Then there shouldn’t be any issue with just removing Halle’s personality from her, no?” Ende suggested.

“You haven’t forgotten that we still have no idea what happened to the original Halle, right? If he’s dead back up on Phrasia, that means that for Melle, that personality inside Leylle is the last remaining memories of her brother—in fact, it’s her brother himself. Could you really delete that?”

“You’ve got the wrong idea, I’m not saying to delete him. But is there no way to temporarily seal the memories, or make it possible for us to enable and disable the personality at will? I’m pretty sure a fluctuation of emotions being all it takes for Halle to present himself isn’t convenient for Leylle either.”

I understood what he was saying, but wouldn’t everything be solved if he just...made up with Halle? They’d be able to interact fine if Halle didn’t keep coming out because of his instinctual animosity toward him.

“I doubt there’s any chance of us making up...” Ende said, his head drooping dejectedly. I honestly couldn’t think of what else to tell him. “Were your wives’ families against you getting married to them at all, Touya?”

“Not really...? Wait, no, the overlord was a bit grumpy when I married Sakura.”

But being grumpy was all he was, however. He didn’t particularly object to it. Sakura was completely on my side, so he couldn’t really do anything.

“Couldn’t Melle maybe help mediate a little?”

“Melle still feels guilty over having essentially abandoned Phrasia, so I don’t feel right trying to convince her to help with something like this.”

“Not like I don’t understand where you’re coming from, but...”

If no one ever took that step, then the whole situation would remain unsolved. There’d be all kinds of issues if we just remained at a stalemate.

“...Then again, you’re the one who’s most troubled by all this, so maybe we don’t have to worry too much about solving it?”

“Hang on! It’s a huge problem for Allis too, ’cause she can’t meet me, you know?!”

“She’s never said anything like that. And she’s getting along with Leylle like they’re sisters.”

All the color drained out of Ende’s face before he collapsed sideways onto the sofa.

Oops, guess I went too far there.

My phone rang as I was wondering what to do with the guy.

Wait, that’s not mine. Is it Ende’s?

“Hello...? Huh? Yeah, now’s fine, but...”

Ende’s eyes regained life again as he spoke on the phone. He slowly rose off the sofa and walked away as he continued his conversation with whoever was on the other end.

Who was he talking to? Was it Melle telling him to buy groceries for dinner?

When Ende finished his phone call, he turned to look at me as I was sipping away at my tea.

“It was from the guildmaster. Apparently, there’s a stampede over in Sandora.”

“A stampede?!”

At that ominous news, I pulled out my phone and displayed a map in the air. Zooming in on the Sandora region, I used [Search]. “Run search: monsters or magic beasts going on a stampede.”

“Searching... Search complete. Displaying results.”

Red pins appeared on the map. Though it looked like they were moving slowly, in reality, they were running at an extremely fast pace.

“Exact number of matches?”

“32,691 matches.”

Damn, that’s a lot.

It was a stampede on a pretty large scale, and it looked like there was a town in its path. They’d reach it in less than three hours at the current rate.

The Kingdom of Sandora that ruled the region no longer existed. Nowadays, several small city-states had become independent, working away at improving their trade to survive. My reputation was the same in Sandora as it was in Yulong, given that I was the one who led to their destruction, especially with slave traders.

Given the town was in Sandora, chances were high that it was financially supported by ex-slave traders, but...

“So what was Relisha saying?”

“It was a hunting request. They only just managed to get a branch set up in Sandora, so the last thing she wants is for them to get destroyed already.”

Could Ende really manage it alone? Sure, he had the Dragoon, but that was still a massive number.

“Don’t worry about me. Relisha said she’d send a request to the black and red crowns as well.”

“Norn and Nia?”

Norn was the master of the back crown, Noir, while Nia was the master of the red crown, Rouge. They were both registered with the adventurer’s guild, and we had also loaned them their respective Over Gears. Add the Dragoon and some more impressive adventurers, and such a large horde of monsters should be fine. Ende could teleport over there, so his time wouldn’t be so limited.

“You can join if you want, Touya? This commission is for adventurers who are red-rank or above.”

“I’m not so sure I can... Reginleif is still in for maintenance.”

It wasn’t that I would be in danger if I were to participate without it, but the problem was that the people of Sandora really didn’t like me. I’d much rather not make myself visible, especially since a lot of adventurers taking part would be from the area.

I could probably avoid it if I used a Knight Baron, but it had been so long since I really moved my body that I felt I might as well go without one. I’d been so focused on forging the sacred treasure that it’d been a while since my last fight. Plus, I could just put on my silver mask to make myself unidentifiable.

It was time for the return of Shirogane, the silver-masked warrior. I wanted to warm up before I had to fight the wicked devout anyway.

“Hm, might as well join, then. I’ll let Relisha know.”

People would probably be shocked if Shirogane suddenly reappeared again without warning, so I made sure to send a message explaining the situation to the guildmaster.

That’ll do.

“I’ll get in contact with Norn and Nia, so let’s meet in two hours outside the gates,” I said.

“Roger,” Ende responded before leaping out through the window.

What did I say about using the front door?!

I grumbled to myself as I returned to my room to get changed, completely unaware that a small figure had been watching us that entire time.

◇◇◇

I met up with Ende, Norn, and Nia in front of the town entrance. Norn and Nia had made sure to bring their crowns with them. The noble thieves that usually accompanied Nia weren’t with her this time though, only Est, her second-in-command, and Akagane, Est’s Gollem.

“Where’s Red Cat?” I asked.

“Those guys aren’t red-rank yet, so they can’t join. Only Est and I are qualified.”

I hadn’t realized they hadn’t passed the required rank. Nothing else we could do about it, then. That was probably the reason that Norn’s humanoid Gollem, Elfrau, wasn’t here either. Though Norn’s elder sister, Doctor Elluka, had said that Elfrau was specialized for medical purposes, so I didn’t think she would be all that useful in a fight anyway.

“Not that I care all that much, but what the hell are you wearing? Have you gone loopy already?”

Norn was looking at my full attire of armor, surcoat, and silver mask in disgust as she gave her harsh opinion.

It isn’t that weird, is it?

“I don’t have the best reputation in the Sandora region. This is just a disguise so I don’t draw too much unwanted attention. Call me Shirogane when I look like this.”

“You don’t have the best reputation? What did you do?”

“Well, uh...I guess I destroyed their country?”

I could feel everyone present apart from Ende recoil at that admission.

Okay, now hang on a sec, they’re the ones who declared war first! I just protected Brunhild from a potential danger.

I didn’t expect them to understand if I explained, so I just went ahead with opening a [Gate] to Sandora.

“Whoa!”

When we stepped through the [Gate], there were already a ton of male adventurers waiting for us.

This was one of the small oases in the desert of the Sandora region. It had been designated as the meet-up point for everyone involved in the commission. It seemed like a good bunch had already gathered.

Relisha had already let the members of the guild know we were coming, so someone frantically rushed over the second he saw us.

“Gold-rank adventurer Ende, red-rank adventurers Norn, Nia, and Est, and...Shirogane, yes?”

The moment the words “gold-rank” were uttered, the crowd around us grew restless. There were only three gold-rank adventurers in the world right now, after all: Galen, one of the previous kings of Lestia, Ende, and myself. I was pretty sure Yae and Hilde would join those ranks soon, though.

The guild member had clearly deliberately obscured what rank I was. Seemed Relisha had made sure to work that out with this branch.

“So you really can use teleportation magic. It gave us a bit of a fright. No wonder you’re gold,” he marveled.

“Well, y’know,” Ende awkwardly muddled his words. I was the one who used the [Gate], but Ende could actually use teleportation magic, so it wasn’t a complete lie.

“Is this all of the adventurers who accepted the commission?”

“Yes. There are ninety-four red-rank adventurers in the Sandora region.”

Including us, that made an army around a hundred strong. Even though a lot of it would be trash like goblins and kobolds, asking us to take on a stampede that was more than three hundred times the size of us was insanity. But red ranks were first-class adventurers, so they would be strong enough to take this on. Plus, the commission was put out under the assumption that people like Ende and Norn would be joining anyway, so we would be fine.

“Jeez, it’s so hot out here...” Norn complained. “Sorry, but I’m gonna go cool myself down until the fight starts.”

After saying that, she took out a storage card from her pocket, and with a swish, made her lion Over Gear, Leo Noir, appear in the desert. Ignoring the shocked onlookers, Norn boarded the cockpit together with Noir.

Look, I get that they come equipped with air conditioning, but seriously?

“Ugh, lemme do the same.”

Nia immediately copied Norn, materializing her tiger Over Gear, Tiger Rouge, and began boarding it. Sometimes these girls could march to the beat of their own drums a little too much.

Seeing the two Over Gears on our side, the adventurers began showing signs of relief. They must have been nervous after all.

I had heard that there were a lot of former slaves and gladiators among the adventurers of Sandora. I couldn’t imagine former slaves holding a grudge against me, but it would be a little awkward if they started making a big deal about getting to meet me, so I felt I’d made the right call coming in a disguise.

“Tou— Shirogane, how far has the stampede gone?” Ende asked.

“They’ll arrive here in about thirty minutes,” I said upon checking my map. Ende had also called out his Dragoon from the pocket dimension.

There was a large town to the back of this oasis. They had guards there, but the ideal situation would be not letting a single monster leak through. In the case that any did reach the town, though, the guards would be more than capable of handling a few dozen of them.

“Guess I should get ready myself.”

As I watched Ende board the Dragoon, I pulled two phrasium katana from [Storage], one large and one small, and attached them to my waist. If I used Brunhild, I would definitely end up standing out. There was also the risk of people realizing who I was. Phrasium weapons were easy to explain away, since other countries who had acquired Phrase fragments, few as those were, had learned to manufacture them themselves.

All that was left was to call out Kohaku.

“My liege, what is with your appearance?” she asked, looking at me with suspicious eyes. I could tell, right this minute, that she was thinking to herself, “You’re doing something strange again, aren’t you?”

“We’re trying to stop a little stampede. Thought I’d have you tag along like you did in Eashen.”

“I see. Well, I have been a bit lacking in exercise recently.”

While at the castle, Kohaku very much lived a cat’s life. Or a big cat’s life in captivity, in her case. She would eat, sleep, rinse, repeat. Of course she would feel that she wasn’t getting enough exercise. Naturally, I made sure to say none of that out loud.

“Hm?”

Suddenly feeling eyes on my back, I turned around. The Sandoran adventurers were focusing on preparing for the stampede, maintaining their weapons or focusing their minds. Some of them were looking in my direction. Was it their eyes I felt? Rather than curiosity, I felt like someone had been watching me out of caution... Well, whatever.

“Tou... No, uh, Shirogane, it seems like the head of the pack’s arrived,” Ende told me from the Dragoon. I leaped up from the oasis using [Fly], and when I focused farther away in the desert, I could see a sand cloud being kicked up among the heat haze.

“[Long Sense].”

I strengthened my sight and was able to see countless magic beasts charging right toward us. Sand Goblins, Desert Scorpions, Basilisks, Sand Crawlers, Lizardmen, Desert Buffalo, Sand Sharks... There were a number I didn’t know the identity of too.

Beasts that could move through the sand such as Sand Sharks and Sand Crawlers led the group. Due to the difference in speed among them, rather than closing in like a wave, they were in more of a spear formation.

Well, at least that makes it easier for us.

“They’re here, huh? All right, let’s do this!”

Nia, full of energy, burst right out of the oasis with Tiger Rouge.

“Oh, come on! Don’t go charging in by yourself.”

Sick of Nia’s antics, Norn chased after her in Leo Noir.

“Guess I should head off too.”

The Dragoon lowered the wheels in its heels and dashed off into the desert. I thought the sand might impede movement, but it seemed to be moving perfectly fine. Had Doc Babylon upgraded it?

Once the three Frame Gears were off, the adventurers also began their charge into the desert.

Better make sure I don’t fall behind.

I jumped onto Kohaku after she had landed on the ground and turned into her large tiger form. When I unsheathed my tachi, Kohaku charged toward the stampede.

“The silver-masked warrior will begin his assault! I suppose that’s the appropriate thing to say here.”

Kohaku had passed by the adventurers in a matter of seconds, and before long, we had caught up with Ende and the others. We were going fast despite having to wade through sand.

“Kohaku, we’ll just end up getting in the way if we’re too close to the Frame Gears, so let’s hold back here and catch any monsters that get past them.”

“Yes, my liege.”

Kohaku slid to a halt. Ende’s group was already wreaking havoc on the stampede, no mercy to be seen. I could see a Sand Shark’s fin poking out of the sand, sliding along toward us. The sharklike magic beast leaped out of the sand, mouth open wide to chomp down on me.

“Get lost, you impudent brat.”

At the shock wave that Kohaku released from her mouth, the leaping Sand Shark exploded into pieces. Now nothing more than chunks of meat, it fell to the ground, red stains left behind in its wake.

You can eat Sand Shark, can’t you? Maybe cook up its fins?

I could already picture Lu and Arcia getting mad at me if I wasted it, so I decided to put its body parts in [Storage] for now.

“Oh, got another visitor.”

First was the Sand Shark; now came a Desert Buffalo. Desert Buffalo were rampaging carnivorous beasts that came equipped with deadly horns. Kohaku easily dodged its charge, and I took my phrasium blade and slashed its head clean off as it passed. The buffalo went tumbling over after being beheaded.

Lu and Arcia would almost definitely get pissed at me if I left the buffalo behind too, so I decided to store that as well.

For now. Just for now, okay?

“Hyeh hyeh hyeh!”

“I don’t need you, though,” I ruthlessly said as I cut down the Sand Goblin that had come jumping at me next. No point collecting monsters we couldn’t eat. “Kohaku, prioritize the targets we can take back as food.”

“I feel like your priorities are a little skewed here...”

Kohaku was clearly confused by my order, but she ran off to fulfill it regardless. We jumped into the rush of magic beasts that had gotten past the Frame Gears and slashed through them all. I made sure to not forget to take a little detour to put them into [Storage] here and there.

I could’ve taken all of them down with one fell swoop were I to use magic, but then the adventurers would lose out on pay, and I wanted to get my feel for battle back anyway, so I decided not to do that.

The more monsters I fought against, the more I could feel my honed instincts returning. I was keenly reminded of how this stinging tension that came from being in actual danger wasn’t something you could truly replicate in training.

When I looked up, I noticed the adventurers also starting to engage with the stampede.

Look at ’em go.

Trust red-rank adventurers to charge into a horde without fear and still successfully take down the monsters.

Perhaps because there were a lot of locals, they seemed knowledgeable on the most efficient way to take the creatures down. They were even properly equipped against those with venom like the Desert Scorpions. Good on them.

Oh, and there was Est fighting together with Akagane. They were both showing great teamwork, coordinating their attacks well as they looked out for the other. As expected of a Gollem and its master, they were completely in sync.

The adventurers were fighting as hard as they could to not be shown up. There was a girl over there fighting with a katana, same as myself. Was she from Eashen? She looked a lot like Yakumo. Another girl over there swinging a halberd around looked a lot like Frei. And a girl beating up a Lizardman by the back looked a lot like Linne.

Oof, that was one hell of a tackle.

The girl who’d done it looked exactly like Steph. The girl using magic over there looked like Elna, and the girl cheerfully singing looked like Yoshino. The girl going around collecting the monsters that looked edible looked exactly like Arcia. And honestly, I could only see the one wearing the power armor as Quun.

Ha ha ha...

“WH-WHAT THE HELL?!”

What are my kids DOING?!

◇◇◇

No matter how you looked at it, my kids were taking down the stampede one monster after another.

“Hey, why are you guys here?!” I angrily questioned, running to Linne where she was sending Lizardmen flying with her fists.

“Who are you, old man?” was the response I got back from Linne, her head tilted.

Guh!

A metaphorical knife stabbed right into my gut.

Oh, right, I enhanced the mask with cognition disruption, so of course she wouldn’t recognize me...

It was a type of magic that only got stronger the better I knew the person. It completely erased that sense of someone looking familiar, meaning that Linne couldn’t register any features that would let her recognize me. In her mind, I was just a stranger. Still, did she really have to call me an old man? I was eighteen...

“Huh? Wait, is that you, Kohaku?” Linne asked, looking over in surprise at Kohaku behind me.

“Indeed.”

Oh, so you’ll recognize her and not me, huh?

Even though Kohaku had no form of cognition disruption cast on her, I still felt burned.

Things finally clicked into place, so the girl slowly asked, “Is... Is that you, dad?”

After a beat, I replied, “I am indeed your father.”

I nudged aside my mask a little. Somewhat hilariously, Linne started flailing at the realization.

“U-Um, that’s, this...! Q-QUUUUUUN!”

At Linne’s shout, Quun immediately came lumbering over in her power armor. Quun herself had made it, an Armored Arm Gear that she called Beowulf, I think?

Jeez, just what are you riding there, girl?

“Whatever is the matter, Linne? Did you get hurt? Wait, father?!”

When Quun saw me with my mask slightly off, she showed the same shocked expression as Linne.

“Quun? Mind explaining why you’re all here?”

“U-Um, that’s, this...! Y-YAKUMOOOOOO!”

Thank you for having the exact same reaction.

The Mochizuki family’s eldest daughter, Yakumo, came over next, slicing through any monsters in her path.

“Why are you all hanging around here?! We need to prioritize the high-ranking monsters and take them... Wait, f-father?!”

Admittedly, I felt a little depressed at Yakumo having the exact same reaction as the other girls. Our kids had a habit of pushing responsibility on Yakumo much more than they should. I really needed to sort that out before it was too late.

“Yakumo, you’re the oldest. You must have an explanation, right?”

“U-Um, that’s, this...! A-AUNT MOROHAAAAAAAAA!”

“What’s up, kid?”

“YOUUUUUU! YOU’RE THE REASON FOR THIS MESS, AREN’T YOU?!”

It was my turn to exclaim when Moroha suddenly popped up.

And so, the villain makes her appearance! It was clear that this musclehead goddess of swords hadn’t gotten enough action recently and so had decided to lead our children down the path of evil!

“Well, that’s a bit rude. I’m more like their leader and their guardian.”

She laughed heartily as she slashed the incoming monsters in half with her sonic boom.

“The kids were already heading here through Yakumo’s [Gate] by the time I saw them. I thought it looked kinda fu— I mean, I felt a little worried about ’em, so I decided to hop on through as well. I only learned what was going on after I got here.”

So rather than Moroha bringing them here, the kids had made their way here themselves. Apparently, Yoshino had overheard me and Ende talking about the stampede. Steph ended up wanting to go when Yoshino told them, then Linne and Frei joined in after her, and Quun successfully enticed...convinced the reluctant Yakumo. And then, Moroha caught them in the act and ended up becoming their leader plus guardian?

“Do Yae and the other girls know?” I asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Um, they...probably don’t? We only came here for a bit of exercise, so...” Yakumo mumbled, averting her eyes.

You don’t go participate in a stampede extermination for some light exercise...

I mean, technically, that was why I went, but still! To these kids, this was probably the same as going to play a little ball in the park. Why should they need to tell their mothers about every little outing? But that was dependent on family. That said, we did tend to give them a lot of freedom.

“If Kuon had been there, I’m sure he would’ve either tried to stop you or at least made sure to tell me and Yumina,” I muttered with a sigh. Quun averted her gaze. She totally didn’t tell Kuon for that very reason.

You’ll be the ones getting yelled at by your mothers later, you know?

“Father, um, maybe you can leave the scolding for later? The monsters are closing in, see? Look!”

“Mngh... You know what, fine. Stay together, don’t get separated. If anything happens, tell an adult right away.”

“Okaaay!”

At least their responses were enthusiastic, but I was pretty sure their mothers would be mad at me too later for this... In fact, it would definitely happen. They’d demand to know why I didn’t stop them. But what parent could after seeing how much fun they were having?

Nothing I can do about it. I’ll just get scolded along with them.

“Moroha, keep an eye on them for me, will you?”

“Leave it to me. But before I go, Touya, who exactly is this musclehead goddess that hasn’t had enough action recently, hm?”

“I’m really sorry!”

Damn it, she knew exactly what I was thinking!

After bowing my head in apology, I leaped onto Kohaku and left the scene.

I’ll just let sleeping gods lie!

“Grrrrrrrrr!”

“Shut it!” I slammed a [Fireball] straight into the mouth of the Sand Crawler that suddenly decided to stand in my way. It might have been a bit too obvious that I was letting my frustrations out, but...well, whatever.

Even though Ende, Norn, and Nia were managing to thin out the numbers, the amount leaking through never seemed to decrease at all. With the kids and Moroha here now, it didn’t really matter how many leaked through—we’d be able to clean them up easily. But it was quite mentally taxing when it felt like there was no end in sight. I guess if the adventurers were hitting the end of their tether, I could just kill them all with magic...

Oh?

“I think there might be some monsters joining the party that I’ve never seen before.”

Pretty sure that Sand Shark I just killed had two heads. Was it some kind of subspecies...? It wasn’t as if I knew every monster that existed. In fact, since I was basically never in Sandora, I wouldn’t really know about the monsters specific to this region. I kind of just assumed they would be the same monsters you’d find in any old desert region.

Suddenly, I was attacked by yet another unfamiliar monster. Was it a squid? An octopus? Some kind of strange monster with a bunch of tentacles burst out of the sand. I cut one of its tentacles down with my blade when it attacked, purple blood spurting out from where it was severed. When the rest of the tentacles attacked, I cut those off as well.

Right after that, it suddenly started spouting some kind of red-brown liquid at me. Of course, we made sure to dodge that one. When it landed on the sand, there was a sizzling sound as white smoke rose from it. It had quite literally melted the sand.

Ugh, not dissolving acid!

It was gross as hell, so I decided to take it down as fast as I possibly could. Betting on it being similar to a squid or octopus, I thrust right between its eyes, and just like that, it fell to the ground dead.

This was the first time I’d seen a monster like that. Was it a Sand Octopus? Or maybe it was called a Sand Tentacular?

Can we eat this...? No, no, that thing was spitting out acid. No way I wanna eat something like that.

But there was definitely something strange going on. None of the monsters attacking us now were the same as the ones from earlier. And if it wasn’t my imagination, it felt like they were getting stronger too.

Just as I was starting to feel a faint anxiety at that thought, my phone started ringing. It was Ende.

“Yeah, hello?”

“Touya, something’s weird about this stampede. It’s like there’s no end to it, like they’re just infinitely appearing from somewhere.”

I did agree that it felt like there were a bit too many monsters than would be normal. Stampedes obviously did not occur if there were no monsters or animals to cause said stampede. There would be some sort of trigger that would result in swathes of them migrating from areas like forests and mountains that tended to be rich in resources. But deserts were tough locations for animals to live in to begin with, so stampedes rarely had reason to happen in them.

But then, where did these monsters come from? It was like someone had gathered them from all across the desert and set them loose...

I was starting to get the feeling that this was a man-made stampede.

Could this also have been caused by the wicked devout?

I took a look at my phone’s map again, but the shape of the stampede hadn’t changed at all. The only difference was that the red pins now stretched all the way to our location. The rear wasn’t moving at all? Actually, rather than it not moving, it was like more monsters were appearing from there.

“No way! [Teleport]!”

Getting a bad feeling, I teleported myself and Kohaku to the rear of the stampede. What I saw there was a whole crowd of monsters coming out from distorted space. The monsters leaping out were charging straight along the desert, probably blindly following the monsters in front.

“Is this a [Gate]?! Actually, no, is it...?!”

“Oh my, was I a little late?”

As if to confirm my speculation, a familiar voice spoke from behind me. When I turned around, standing there was Grandma Tokie, a slightly awkward smile on her face, which meant...

“Is this a timequake distortion?”

“Precisely, my dear. And one so dangerous that it is completely connected to the past. Should this remain, the past and this time will have a constant path open to each other.”

Was it one of those time tunnels that she had mentioned once before? If I remembered correctly, when time tunnels completely stabilized, the past, present, and future would get all jumbled together, and since there was no easy way to fix it, the god of destruction would have to appear and completely destroy the world as a countermeasure.

Hey, hey, hey, isn’t this pretty bad?!

That meant that the strange monsters I had been seeing were actually extinct species from the past!

“I’m sorry. I acted so confident, and yet I had been putting this off... It is quite shameful of me.” Grandma Tokie laughed bashfully. It was a rare sight for her.

But is this really a laughing matter?!

Despite my panic, Grandma Tokie simply closed her right fist into a ball...and the dimensional rip disappeared in an instant. I thought we were in a critical situation, yet she handled it so easily...

“Um, what was this about you being late, exactly?”

“You see, I wanted to solve it before you found out, but it appears I was just a wee bit too slow.”

That was what she was talking about?! She was talking about erasing the evidence?! Grandma Tokie gave me a cheeky little chuckle.

“Dimensional distortions of all sizes have been opening across the land recently. I had thought it was the effect of the timequake, but it appears there might have been someone pulling the strings.”

“The wicked devout, by any chance?”

“Yes. They are unmistakably creating the distortions of their own volition. As a result, monsters foreign to this time are flowing here from the past. That can often be the trigger for a stampede, but in this case, the stampede itself is from the past. Due to the endless flow of monsters, even if the dimensional rip wants to close, it can’t.”

Usually, small rips in space fixed themselves through the world’s natural regenerative abilities. But when they got too big, it took time to close them, and on rare occasions they could end up stuck there. That created a time tunnel.

The constant flow of monsters coming through it was what had been preventing this specific tear from repairing itself. The god of destruction would absolutely have ended up arriving here if it weren’t for Grandma Tokie...

Was that the goal of the wicked devout? The end of the world through the god of destruction? That spelled the end for themselves as well, so it felt odd to think it was the case, but there were those out there who outright wished for complete destruction, so maybe it wasn’t so far-fetched.

“What has me a little curious is why the recent ones have only connected to the past. Dimensional distortions should be able to connect to the future as well.”

“Now that you mention it...”

Though there were plenty of visitors from the past, the only visitors from the future had been our kids. The kids’ and Leylle’s appearance here was no doubt due to the timequake, and the wicked devout likely had no hand in that. Was there a reason for them to be so invested in the past?

“Wait, is it possible for them to pull the wicked god here from before we killed him?”

“That would be impossible. So long as I’m here, I refuse to let the wicked god or any other troublemakers make their way here. Were they to arrive, I would send them to an infinite looping time chamber and have them wander there for eternity.”

My deduction was immediately crossed out. An infinite time chamber? What was that? It sounded kind of scary...

Paying no mind to my fear, Grandma Tokie sighed and continued, “They may be unaware of that themselves and are going on a wild-goose chase, though.”

That was a possibility. It could be that the wicked devout were trying to revive the wicked god, unaware that their efforts were fruitless because of the goddess of space-time’s intervention. But as much as I’d end up feeling sorry for them if that was the case, was that really what was happening?

“Wait, does that mean stampedes like this will keep happening?”

“This case is a little unique in that the dimensional tear just happened to end up connecting to a stampede from the past. That is the only reason it grew to this size. I don’t think ones of this scale will happen so often. But these kinds of distortions tend to appear next to anything that moves, so monsters appearing will be an inevitability. Since many monsters in the past were stronger than the ones in the present day...”

“That leads to a stampede, regardless.”

Basically, all the animals got a fright when really strong monsters suddenly appeared, so they all ran away at once. It was their natural survival instincts kicking in, so I couldn’t blame them, but it sure was a hassle.

“So...is there any way for you to know where dimensional tears are going to appear before they happen?”

“Well...I wouldn’t say it’s impossible for me to pinpoint likely locations, but...not only can there be unexpected cases like this one, but I don’t know what to think about an upper god like myself giving too much assistance to the surface world. There are already some gods unhappy at how much we listen to you.”

Ugh, well, if she says that...

It was technically my responsibility as the caretaker of this world to clean up this mess. Plus, I was already getting a ton of help from Moroha and Kraft. They could at least make the excuse that they were just giving some guidance to the newbie, but Grandma Tokie was hands-on assisting.

If a time tunnel were to form, the god of destruction would arrive to bring about the end of the world. That in and of itself was a special measure put in place by the gods, especially given this was the gods’ resort.

“So you can only assist when a time tunnel has already formed, is that right?”

“Yes, I’m afraid that is all you can rely on me for. More importantly, is everyone all right over there?”

Grandma Tokie pointed behind me, and when I turned, I saw a large sand pillar. A gigantic monster about the size of Leo Noir with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and a skull head was floating in the air. Was it a Behemoth?

Hmm, no, maybe on the way to becoming one. The size is kinda small, comparatively.

“This is not a monster that crossed over to this world. It was originally from the desert of this time.”

“Yeah, I think this is a...Skull Sphinx? It probably got attracted here by the smell of all the blood.”

Though the Skull Sphinx had a skull for a head, it was a monster that loved sucking the blood of its enemies. Whether it was because deserts were so devoid of water or it was simply just its taste, I didn’t know, but it was definitely attracted by the ridiculous amount of blood flowing here.

“Grrrrrrr...”

All I could see within its eye depressions was pitch darkness. Though it had no eyeballs, I could tell that it had noticed me. The mouth of the skull opened, and a long needlelike tongue slithered out. That was most likely what it used to suck out the blood of its prey.

Like a falcon that had found its quarry, the Skull Sphinx made its attack from above.

“GRRRRRRRRROOOOOOAAAHHH!”

“Be quiet, you fool.”

Kohaku slashed her claws down at the attacking Sphinx. A slash that practically cleaved space in two cut the monster into pieces.

“GRRREEEAAAEEEEEE?!”

“There we...go!”

I slashed the Skull Sphinx in two when it came falling toward us.

Wait, I’m pretty sure this guy’s fur sells for a lot. Man, what a waste.

Now that the time tunnel had been sealed, there were no longer monsters adding to the stampede. We could probably put an end to all of this in just a few more hours.

There was no way in hell the girls weren’t going to shout at me once we got back, though...

This sucks.

◇◇◇

“Activation experiment no. 125: failed.”

The dull light being emitted from the large jagged core that looked like konpeito candy inside a cylindrical tank filled with light purple liquid faded. A small figure sitting in front of the tank frantically ran its gold fingers along the console, looking at the graphs displayed on the monitor.

“Adjustments complete. Commencing activation experiment no. 126.”

Bubbles started to form in the purple liquid, and the core began pulsing as a light flickered from it.

Deep within the camera eyes of the small golden Gollem that was quietly watching over the experiment were the dark flames of a deep-rooted delusion glowing like embers.