The morning of the 30th, the last day of April, arrives.

A night coach arrives in the town of Urau.

It leaves in the evening and arrives at its destination in the morning. In short, it is a horse-drawn carriage version of the night bus.

You have to pay a surcharge, but you can make good use of your time. The downside is that you don't sleep well during the trip.

"Here we are: ......?"

Three men and a golem disembark from the night coach.

One of them is Berlich Becker, a magi engineer of the Shoro Empire.

He is accompanied by a golem. It is, of course, of his own making, and he is proud of his latest creation.

The three passengers of the night coach have breakfast at the snack bar adjacent to the station.

The restaurant is open early in the morning to accommodate this clientele.

"Now, where is Katjea staying?"

After breakfast, Berlich Becker took Golem out into the town.

He had received a letter from Cachier, saying that he would be conducting a survey in the town.

Since the letter took a while to arrive, he arrived on the same day.

"It's just a normal country town.

At first, he decided to check out all the hotels where he and his friends might stay.

Since it was not a very big town, there were only about 15 inns, and we hit the fourth one.

In Ars, innkeepers are not obliged to respect the privacy of their guests, so if you say, "I am looking for an inn where my acquaintance is staying," they will search for a guest anywhere.

"You must be Mr. Katjea, you are indeed staying here. ...... No, I was."

"Was?　Have you already left?

"No, actually, my companion and I didn't leave ......, I mean, we're missing, ........."

What?

No, no, ...... actually."

The receptionist at the <> explained that Cachair had been the first to disappear and that Eira and Gromma, who had gone looking for him, had not returned.

Of course, the letter to <> had already been sent.

"......What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know, we don't have any ......."

"That's right. I'm sorry for making a scene.

Berlich Becker paid the tip and left the .

* * * * * *

"You still don't have any leads?"

<

The old man has been searching with his peepers, but we don't have any information about the kidnapped Cachéa and Groma.

"It's a little tricky when the other party has technology similar to ours.

Once again, Jin realized the danger of misuse of Horai Island's technology.

"...... So, you need to use technology that surpasses your existing technology."

<>

"All right, old man, I give you permission to use <>.

<

<

In other words, it is possible to places that cannot be seen at the moment.

Of course, there is a drawback.

It is that <> has too high permeability.

They penetrate ordinary matter like glass, or almost as well as a vacuum.

In other words, it is very difficult to focus.

If it is a space, it is no problem, but if it is a solid, i.e. inside of a wall or in the ground, it is not easy even for the old man to focus on it.

Also, it requires much more energy (magic power) than the ordinary peepers that use <>.

It can operate in extremely concentrated free-magic elements (ether) without being affected, so it is installed in the spaceship <>, but it can only do so when it can take in too much free-magic elements (ether).

In places with a normal concentration of free ether, the mana tanks are also used, but even then they consume too much, so their operating time is limited.

This is the reason why they are usually sealed.

This time, however, since the place to be searched is clear, such as <>, it is thought that it will not take much time.

<> is activated. >Switching of the carrier wave is complete. Observation started. Scheduled time: 5 minutes.

The old man used the peepers with sub-free ether wave for 5 minutes only.

* * * * * *

On the other hand, Berlich Becker.

"...... clue is the town of Hulek."

But Kachere is missing from the town of Urau.

Berrich Becker wondered which to look for.

He decides to give priority to the search for Cachair.

He was concerned about the safety of Cachea, of course, but he also had a <> that it would be easier to search for her in this town.

（Cachier and the others had come here to meet the creator of the control core.

Berrich Becker decided to trace their thoughts.

He himself was a designer of <>, so he was fairly good at logical analysis.

（He would go to gather information. (He would go to a workshop, a magic tool store, and maybe a ...... store or an agency.)

There are many kinds of stores.

(There are not so many stores that can ship goods to . Maybe that's a good place to start.)

So he went into a large store he saw and asked the clerk about it.

Is this a store that can ship goods to <>?　There are two such stores in this town.

"Can't you do it here?"

I'm sorry, we can't.

I'm sorry, but where are the stores that can do that?

I'm sorry, where is the place that can do it?

Thus Berrich Becker found his next target.

At the first store he visited,

"Well, we last shipped goods to seven months ago, didn't we?"

"I see. ......"

Not here, if the clerk is to be believed.

Berlich Becker decided to try another store.