Chapter 45: Emergency

“Coo-coo!”

“Oh, you landed right on the perch, Hayate.”

“As expected, she’s a clever girl.”

“Good girl, Hayate.”

When we went to the second-floor balcony, there was Hayate perched on a stand we had purchased at a Japanese pet shop.

We welcomed Hayate and moved to the living room together. While giving her food and water, we removed the Magic Bag fastened to her leg and checked its contents.

“…A crystal? Why would something like this be in here?”

Inside the Magic Bag was neither merchandise for the flea market nor a letter from Rain, but a beautiful transparent crystal sphere about thirty centimeters across—like the kind a fortune-teller in Japan might use.

“This is likely a magical tool. I’ll channel magical power through it.”

Aoi reached that conclusion. Yuuka watched warily as Aoi placed a hand over the crystal and channeled magical power into it, causing it to glow.

“Hello, can you hear me?”

“Rain!? I can hear you.”

The crystal shone, and Rain’s voice emerged from it. Why could I hear him through this object when he was still in the royal capital?

“I can hear you too. Sorry to contact you so suddenly. This is a rather special magic tool that transmits voices between two paired devices, much like a telephone.”

“…I’ve never seen such an amazing magical tool. I’m incredibly curious about how it’s structured. I want to take it apart and check what’s inside.”

“Aoi-chan, stop! This is a national-treasure-class magic tool, so please don’t take it apart! If it were broken, even a prince like me would be in far more trouble than a simple scolding!”

“How unfortunate.”

Aoi looked genuinely disappointed. As someone capable of crafting magic tools, she must have found its inner workings fascinating.

The ability to communicate in real time across the great distance between the royal capital and Berlia, without anything resembling radio waves, truly made it an extraordinary magic tool. I could understand why it was considered a national treasure.

“What’s going on? Could it be an emergency?”

The fact that he had suddenly sent such a valuable magic tool suggested that something serious had happened.

Could something have happened to the Blessed Person he was investigating?

“Yeah, you could say it’s a bit of an emergency. There’s something I wanted to confirm with Kakeru-kun, so I had the Star Pigeon carry this. Before Kakeru-kun went to Berlia, you were in the town of Soraval, right?”

“Yeah.”

I had already told Rain and the others about myself. When I was reincarnated into this world, I had appeared near the town of Soraval.

I had registered with the Adventurers’ Guild in Soraval, spent about a month steadily earning money through safe requests, and then moved to Berlia to meet Yuuka. Had something happened in Soraval?

“Yeah. Actually, the town of Soraval is in a bit of a pinch… Kakeru-kun, do you know about the natural disaster of this world called ‘Earth Eater’?”

“Earth Eater…? No, I’ve never heard of it.”

“I don’t know either.”

Natural disaster… Earth Eater… I had never heard either term before, and Aoi didn’t appear to know them either.

“Could you mean the Abystortas?”

“I thought an experienced adventurer like Yuuka-san might know. Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”

…I was technically an adventurer too, but I was only an F-rank rookie who had accepted safe requests within town. The gap between my knowledge and that of Yuuka, an S-rank adventurer, was as vast as heaven and earth.

“The Abystortas is a unique individual classified as an S-rank monster. It resembles a turtle, but its body is said to be as large as a mountain, and its hard shell can repel any attack. It has a voracious appetite, and nothing remains after it passes through an area—not even a lush green mountain. It truly deserves to be called a natural disaster, and it has remained undefeated for more than a century.”

“An S-rank monster…”

Even that incredibly intimidating large monster, the Sleipnir, was supposedly only equivalent to A-rank.

A monster even stronger than that—an S-rank. I had heard that, just as with adventurer ranks, there was a vast gulf between A-rank and S-rank monsters. Since S-rank was the highest classification, there were also enormous differences in strength within the rank itself. A creature undefeated for more than a century must have stood near the very top.

The adventurers’ rule of thumb was to consider retreating when facing a monster one rank higher and to flee immediately when the difference was two ranks. I had learned that when I first became an adventurer.

“Since I heard Kakeru-kun had been in the town of Soraval, I thought maybe there were people who had taken care of you or people important to you there, so I contacted you urgently.”

“Yes! There are! What happened to the people of Soraval!?”

“Calm down. An evacuation advisory has already been issued to the residents of Soraval, so I think they’ll be fine. The Abystortas is an extremely hard and strong monster, but it has the characteristic of being very slow. It shouldn’t have reached the town yet.”

“Is that so? Thank goodness…”

Relief washed over me when I heard Rain’s answer.

Several people in Soraval had taken excellent care of me during that month. Knowing they still had time to escape relieved me from the bottom of my heart.

“Come to think of it, you never told us much about your time in Soraval. Who helped you there?”