◈ Episode 206. A Lucky Day (2)
The Arcana Continent.
The imperial capital, Antonium.
The Iron Castle, floating in the sky.
“Imperial wheat beer isn’t bad every now and then.”
“Every now and then? Say it properly. Hasn’t it been decades?”
“Is that so? Wahaha. No wonder it was drinkable.”
The fatigue of refinement that had lingered in their bodies.
Even the deep weariness settled at the very bottom.
Having washed it away with beer, the dwarves returned to their daily work.
Now that the demons’ activities had withered, their top priority was, of course.
“Prepare the reconnaissance squadron for sortie.”
Finding the remains of the Quirnberg Machine Tower.
The ones carrying out that role were the small airships loaded inside the Iron Castle: the Scepters.
The dwarf pilots boarded their respective Scepters.
Gunner, a veteran pilot, opened his mouth playfully.
“By the way, Chainwalker.”
“?”
“Wouldn’t this count as flying under the influence? Wahaha.”
Chainwalker responded to the pointless joke.
“Wasn’t it only a few hours ago that you were grumbling the beer was thinner than water? Stop spouting nonsense and be on your way. It’s about time we left Antonium as well.”
Hoyeol’s defeat of an upper-ranking demon king.
The peace that had come to the Arcana Continent thanks to it.
Thanks to that, the dwarves had briefly stopped flying and stayed in Antonium.
However, the Holy War was still ongoing.
Which meant no one knew what incident might break out, when or where.
“Antonium will be sorry to see us go, especially the tavern merchants.”
“Let’s see, how much did we raise their sales by?”
“Lord Gunner, you said it tasted like plain water, but how many casks did you empty all by yourself?”
“Did I do that? Wahaha.”
Walswile looked around the empty interior of the ship.
When the survivors of Dredsen Village, those little brats, had been running around, it had been so chaotic he could hardly think. But now that they were gone, their absence felt surprisingly large.
Chainwalker spoke to him.
“I intend to meet the emperor before we leave.”
“You do? You? What’s gotten into you?”
The dwarves had completely severed exchanges with humans after the annihilation of Akshan. The empire, and even the emperor, had been no exception.
From one perspective, the annihilation of Akshan had been the empire’s responsibility for failing to properly manage its territory.
“Has time made you forget even the past, Chainwalker?”
At Walswile’s question, Chainwalker shook his head.
“No. Even if I had forgotten, I could not forget.”
Akshan.
He had resolved to hold onto his resentment, if only for their sake.
But at the same time, there was Hoyeol.
Akshan’s last survivor.
Chainwalker tried thinking from his perspective.
“That is why I am setting aside my stubbornness to meet him.”
Sir Hoyeol.
If it were you, you would surely not have turned your back on Antonium, on the empire. For that reason, Chainwalker intended to personally deliver the information collected through reconnaissance to the emperor.
“If they have learned a lesson from the past, will they not take our words to heart?”...
Vwoong—The Scepter glided through the sky.
The small airship was smaller than a carriage.
The cockpit, too, was built for dwarves, only large enough for the little brats of Dredsen to barely climb aboard.
“Let’s see. The remains are…….”
Even though the Scepter was small, it had everything it needed.
The technology to find the wreckage of the Machine Tower strewn across the continent from high in the sky. The Scepter was part of the Iron Castle, the culmination of dwarf technology, so it was only natural.
“?”
That Scepter detected an abnormal signal.
The mana-sensitive instrument panel was shaking violently.
For an instant, tension spread across Gunner’s face.
“……
It’s at maximum?”
Not only had it reached the maximum.
It was swaying left and right as if it would burst through the panel.
If the mana sensitivity was this high, there had to be a cause.
Gunner looked around.
Dark clouds suddenly cast shadows over the sky.
Flash—“Lightning, all of a sudden……?”
Rumble!
“What kind of damned weather is this!”
Even the Iron Castle, hundreds, thousands of times larger than a Scepter, could not fly freely through foul weather.
To soar through the sky in a Scepter on a day when not only rain but thunderbolts came crashing down?
That was suicide.
In other words.
“A dwarven natural death, that’s what this is.”
He was already far from the Iron Castle.
Flash—Even if he flew diligently from this moment on, there was no guarantee he could return safely.
Lightning crashed noisily from the sky.
However, Gunner did not turn the control stick.
“Heavens, do you think I’ll back down like this?”
He had experience from the Holy War.
He had realized the importance of information.
Because they had not known what had happened to Akshan.
Unable to offer any help.
They had been forced to watch their end.
“Lightning? I just have to dodge it.”
Even as he declared that, the instrument panel continued to quake.
He would not turn the Scepter back toward the Iron Castle until he found the source.
Gunner did not stop and continued piloting the Scepter.
And then he witnessed it.
“……!”
The Zero Mountains, transferred to the world of adventurers.
The vast flatland that had appeared in their place.
And the beings that had shown themselves there.
“Th-that’s!”
The Scepter had enough performance to inspect even the remains of the Machine Tower.
That was why he could recognize them.
Ears rising to sharp points.
“……
Elves?”
Elves.
And not just one or two.
To a degree that made it hard to believe they were beings that had never appeared on the continent until now. Nearly one hundred elves were standing together on the flatland.
“Why are they there?”
Why had they gathered in such a place?
He did not know the reason, but it was something he could not help worrying about.
Gunner swallowed dryly and gripped the control stick hard.
‘I need to return before it’s too late.’
His mind was shouting that, but he ignored it.
However, even a dwarf’s unique iron stubbornness could not last long.
Gleam—A light touched his vision.
At first, he thought it was lightning.
But it was not.
“!”
Lightning fell from the sky.
But this flash now stretched from the ground toward the sky.
More precisely, toward him, toward the Scepter.
In that fleeting instant, he instinctively knew.
‘They noticed me!’
Creaaak!
At the same time as his shock, he reflexively twisted the control stick.
The flash narrowly missed him.
Its echo belatedly struck his eardrums.
Ziiiiing—!
“!”
It was a roar he had only heard from the Iron Castle’s mana cannon.
However, the flash just now had not been anything so grand.
Gunner’s pupils shook violently.
‘It-it was nothing more than an arrow!’
The fact that he had dodged it was a miracle, truly heavenly luck.
“I can dodge lightning, but not something like that!”
Creaaak!
Gunner urgently turned the control stick.
He had not been able to find out why the elves had begun acting as a group.
But he had clearly learned one thing.
“They don’t discriminate, no matter who it is.”
That they would draw their bowstrings without hesitation against anyone who offended them. That alone was valuable information for the dwarves. It would be the same for the empire, and for Hoyeol.
Rumble—!!
“Damn it, should I call this good luck?”
Amid the pouring thunderstorm.
Gunner muttered after safely returning to the Iron Castle. He immediately ran to Chainwalker, only to find that several dwarf pilots were already deep in conversation with grave faces.
“Chainwalker. And everyone, I have something to say.”
The appearance of elves had to be more important information than any other news.
Thinking so, he opened his mouth.
But that was not the case.
The closer he got, the clearer the voices became.
“A demon. That aura was unmistakably demon king-class.”
“A demon king? This is insane……!!”
“Why do you look like that?”
“Damn it all, I witnessed something too.”
“Witnessed? What do you mean?”
“You may not know, but Chainwalker, you will remember. In the past, when our king was still alive. A single human man who came to our kingdom.”
Chainwalker flinched and asked back.
“It could not have been Akshan……. Are you speaking of Urs?”
“That’s right. The man who received a mechanical arm from us. It was that mechanical arm. That was unmistakably Iron-Armed Urs! That man has appeared on the Arcana Continent once again!”
“Good heavens.”
Good heavens, Chainwalker.
“……
Hey, that’s what I want to say.”
“Ah, Gunner. You returned safely too?”
“Chainwalker, is everything I just heard true? The demons have started moving again. And Iron-Armed Urs has once again appeared on the Arcana Continent?”
“Yes, exactly as you heard.”
“Damn it, what in the world is happening?”
Gunner continued.
“I saw elves. As many as one hundred of them.”
“……!!!”
Gunner let out a sigh of exasperated relief.
“Damn it, it’s heavenly luck that we all made it back alive.”
*
Shall I be strict about this?
About whether this really is the effect of my greatly increased Luck, I mean.
First, the [Telescope of the Demon Eye].
It was certainly good news that I had brought the demon king’s spoils into my inventory.
Demon king-class demons.
Elves.
Transcendents.
If it had not been for the telescope, I would have known nothing.
Yes, if I think about it positively.
Since I learned about the incidents at just the right time.
I’ll try hard to think it was thanks to Luck.
But.
My smartphone vibrated.
A disaster alert from AAU.
And at the same time, a message sent only to players.
That word was clearly written there.
‘Dragon.’
A dragon had been spotted at the summit of the Zero Mountains.
I murmured toward the mountain peak.
“You are cautious for one of your size.”
To translate Granfell-speak.
It meant, when and where did you fly off to without leaving even a trace……!
Still, it was a relief.
Because it did not try to smash Earth apart the moment it woke from its sleep.
‘Besides, according to the information observed by AAU.’
At the summit of the Zero Mountains.
They said a phenomenon similar to a [Cracked Dimensional Rift] had been detected.
At that point, I could be certain.
‘As expected, can dragons open rifts?’
A rift connected to the Arcana Continent, even if imperfect.
Thinking that……
I really felt like I’d been hit by a lucky chain letter!
Demons, elves, transcendents, and to top it all off, even a dragon.
This is literally an unprecedented, massive incident, isn’t it?!
‘At this rate, a rift is bound to form.’
Whether through an emergency update or a regular update.
I could say that for certain.
Even if I gathered all of my current forces, not to mention every allied force that had participated in the Holy War, among those beings we would be nothing but a pupa trying to show off wrinkles before a silkworm.
Needless to say, that applied to the dragon and the elves, right?
The only ones that had seemed even remotely manageable were the demons and the transcendent.
Yet somehow, even those two were far from ordinary.
I looked through the telescope again.
The telescope’s effect was to share the Demon Eye’s field of vision.
Which meant that even without trying to feel it, I naturally sensed what the Demon Eye sensed.
That was why I could tell.
‘That’s no ordinary demon.’
The Demon Eye was trembling.
This was a reaction I had never felt even when spying on demon kings. I did not know about the upper-ranking demon kings, but it was a reaction I had not felt even when looking at mid-ranking demon kings nearing the thirtieth rank.
On top of that.
‘But it’s different from a demon king.’
In outward appearance, it was closer to a human than a demon.
If not for the blatant demonic energy, it would be hard to think of it as a demon.
Lastly.
‘It isn’t cowed even in front of the elves.’
The strength of elves?
I have emphasized it several times, but one only needed to look at Elsidore to know. Elsidore had not only slaughtered demons nearing levels 800 to 900 with a single stroke, he had inflicted a fatal wound on Rockid, a member of the Shadow Mercenary Corps. And there were as many as one hundred such elves.
Then there was only one possibility after all.
“The Great Evil.”
You’ve finally begun to move, Great Evil.
For real!
The Great Evil alone was enough to make my head spin.
But as if the Great Evil was not enough, there was a transcendent in the same space as those elves.
How did I recognize that they were a transcendent?
I don’t know exactly who it was, but…….
It was a face I had encountered at the Social Hall of Space-Time.
‘It was one of the two people who had little interest in me.’
One man and one woman.
『In high society, Granfell’s existence was like an oasis in the desert, or a mirage. Because he did not enjoy social gatherings, there were not many days when he showed himself. Yet on the days he appeared without warning, he inevitably drew the attention of everyone present…….』
The fact that they had not had their gaze stolen by Granfell at the social gathering?
……
It’s awkward for me to say this with my own mouth.
But that must mean they were no ordinary person even among transcendents.
A large frame.
Shaggy hair grown without care.
Though in truth, judging by appearance alone, he was hardly ordinary either.
More than anything, the most distinctive feature was that both his arms were mechanical.
Thanks to that, I could recognize him the moment I saw him like this.
Well, whatever the case, it was good that everyone had appeared. ‘So what’s everyone’s reason?’ The problem was their objective. ‘Why are they doing this after sitting still all this time?!’ If it were Granfell’s personality.
He would have manifested a portal without a word.
This was frustrating enough that he would have teleported right through it!
“O anomaly. Do you hold me back even in a situation like this?”
See, if there had only been a way to go to the Arcana Continent.
He would have charged straight in there without an ounce of fear, wouldn’t he?
The Granfell I knew would.
In that sense, should I be relieved that there was no way to do so…….
I caught hold of my runaway wits and thought calmly. ‘First, conveying the situation takes priority.’ I had to inform those on the Arcana Continent of the facts.
Only then would they be able to prepare countermeasures in some form.
Of course, things weren’t exactly relaxed on this side, either. ‘Considering the flow of time…….’ Time on the Arcana Continent moved a full four times faster.
If an incident broke out in that place right now.
Then a few hours later.
It wouldn’t be strange for a rift to form in reality.
I opened my mouth.
“Diend.”
“Please give me your command, my lord.”
“Convey my thoughts to Chainwalker.”
The information in my head was transmitted through telepathy.
Soon, Diend vanished into thin air as ordered.
Then he appeared before me once more.
“My lord.”
Indeed, I could truly feel that the flow of time was different.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, he had relayed the news to Chainwalker and even brought back news from their side. But that aside……. At Diend’s following words, I could not help but be shocked.
“The dwarves had grasped the situation precisely.”
Up to that point, I simply thought, what a relief.
Even if I hadn’t told him, Chainwalker would have already.
Prepared countermeasures in advance.
The reason I was shocked came after that.
“In addition, they say the Imperial Army led by the Emperor has immediately set out. Their destination is near the Zero Mountains, and their purpose is to protect the village’s people. They say it is to follow the pride of my lord, who saved Dredsen……!”
……
Don’t say that as if you’re overcome with emotion, Diend.
Right now, I am sincerely.
So dizzy it feels like my head is going to split open.
A great evil, transcendents, elves, dragons, and now the Empire too?
I could be certain.
This was not luck.
It was definitely a chain letter of good fortune.
However, I murmured calmly.
“I see.”
That was right.
Even while I was agonizing.
Time on the Arcana Continent was flowing at quadruple speed.
Which meant that from now on, I had to make the best judgment. At quadruple speed.
So I continued speaking at once.
“Then go and tell them.”
Even in a situation like this.
In the way most like me.
Brazenly.
“That there is no need to worry, for I am here.”
Now is the time to make your words reality, Granfell.