"You don't have much here, do you?"

Gore is a regional city in the Kingdom of Cerroa. It is a magical industrial city with a large population of magecraftsmen.

"Everywhere I looked, there were just ordinary things.

Although it is about 20 kilometers north of the main road, many tourists visit Goua because of the large number of Magecraftsmen.

It is a lively town, helped by the fact that a side road leads to Lake Asur.

I don't see any originality here.

A row of stores. They display various kinds of magical engineering products for tourists.

Weapons for self-defense such as daggers and knives, portable magic lamps, travel goods such as bells to ward off beasts. Accessories such as brooches, rings, necklaces.

"...... might have more interesting second-hand items."

A little girl who has been peeking into the store on the street for a while now, and soon comes out with a dissatisfied look on her face.

She was about 14 or 15 years old. She was a beautiful girl with straight, bright blond hair down to her shoulders and eyes like green jade.

Her face, however, was pained with a frown, and you could tell that she was not in a good mood.

Her clothes are not flashy but not frugal either, and are very tastefully coordinated.

Moreover, as is typical of a young lady of her status, she was accompanied by an escort. He was a boy two or three years older than the girl.

"Miss, you're in the back alley."

"It's okay. The main street is all about looks and no quality. This way looks like it has more to offer.

The girl turned a corner and ran out. The boy who accompanied her hurried after her.

She ran straight ahead for about 20 meters, and when she turned a corner, she came to a crossroad. The girl walked through the door without thinking.

"Wow! ......"

The inside of the store is, in a word, chaotic.

There is a vintage wooden table, and a brooch with a design that was popular last year is lying around.

A rusty sword sits next to an assortment of silverware.

Along with dolls that would make children happy, there was an armor worn by soldiers of a neighboring country.

"This is it, this is it!　I'm sure there are some great bargains to be had in a store like this!"

In a complete change from the past, the girl smiled happily and began to look around the store.

"Oh?"

Then she found a dagger.

It has a softly shining golden sheath with intricate carvings and fine magical crystals scattered on it.

The handle is also gold. A light blue magi crystal is inlaid on the handle head.

"...... is beautiful."

I picked it up. It is lighter than I expected.

I gently pull it out.

"......What's this?"

The blade is about 30 cm long. The material is mithril silver, no doubt. The girl was struck by the beauty of it.

"Miss?"

At last the boy who had been accompanying her seemed to have found his master, the girl.

"...... Look, Andro. This dagger."

The boy called Andro did as he was told and looked at the dagger. He admires it.

"It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?"

I want it."

Sheathing the sword, the girl walks to the back of the store. There was the owner of the store, who had been staring at her for a while.

"Master, I would like to have this dagger.

"Well, you've got your eye on it. I found it a while ago in Ikasanat, in the Kingdom of Egelea. Apparently, some soldier sold it off."

I don't care where it came from. How much?

I don't know, 100,000 Tall, something like that.

The girl hears this and looks at her friend.

"Are you sure you want to buy it, miss?"

"Yes. Yes. Pay for it. Now!"

"Yes, I understand."

The boy took out 10 gold coins from his pocket and presented them to the shopkeeper.

"Here, sure. Thank you.

"Come on, Andri, let's go!"

"Wait a minute, miss."

The girl happily holds the dagger in her hand as she walks out of the store.

"Oh, that's a good deal!　If I ordered it, it would cost no less than one million dollars!"

"Is it such an expensive sword?

The girl sniffs.

"Yes. It was a good buy."

* * * * * *

Jin and his friends went on an exploratory trip to Leonard's Kingdom and came back to Horai Island after staying only one night.

The search for the ruins was not as interesting as they had expected, and it was mentally unbearable.

The time is still 10:00 a.m. since they came back with their special camper through the warp gate of Condor 3.

"......Something has gone wrong with my schedule. ......"

Jin blurted out over a glass of soda in the cafeteria.

"How about we have a little meeting for reflection?"

Stearina suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Jin agreed. Elsa and Saki also said they had no complaints, so we decided to have a brief review meeting.

By the way, Hannah is playing with Reiko outside.

When I peeked in to see what they were doing, I found that they were looking around the fields with Reiko's guidance. She is eating some fully ripe persica.

"Well, I'll leave it to Reiko.

Then the review meeting started.

"How did you manage safety?"

asked Jin, the camper's builder.

"Well, I have no complaints about the camper itself. "Well, I don't have any complaints about the camper itself, except that the luggage got stuck on the hill.

"Oh, you know. I'll think about fixing some things.

Saki was next to offer her opinion.

"It's discouraging to see nothing but ruins everywhere you go. It's kind of like a sense of impermanence. ......

"Yeah, that's true. Especially after most of the stuff has been scavenged. Maybe we're going to the wrong place. ......"

"Yeah, the only thing I got is the reason why Leonard's kingdom was destroyed."

Everyone nodded at Erza's statement.

"Yeah, absolutely. I didn't think the whole country had moved to ...... for fear of the plague."

"Is it possible, though, that he was mentally manipulated?"

"Yes. ......"

Jin and Erza cooperated with each other to settle the matter at the time of the magical exhaustion fever trouble, so Erza knows that the demon tribe was involved.

And speaking of demons, they manipulate people's minds. This is an allusion to the fact that her own father was under the influence of a demon tribe named Marcosius.

"I can't say for sure that there isn't. ......"

Now, I don't think we'll ever find proof, but it's possible.

"Goshujin-sama, may I mention when the door to the basement was opened and when you went down to the basement?"

"Oh, Anne. What is it?"

As Jin and the others were still reflecting on the incident, Anne came to them and asked for their opinion.

"Thank you very much. First of all, it seems that when you opened the door you were able to get out, which is not a good security measure. Tortoise, is it?　You should have gotten into that car and deployed the barrier. If possible, you should have been a few hundred meters away.

"......"

What if it's an explosive trap?　You have to think about that."

That's right. If they were so careful to prepare Tortoise, they should have taken that precaution, Jin reflected.

"And it was also thoughtless of you to go underground. You should have been more careful. The Goshujin-sama is an irreplaceable person.

Anne gave me a hard time about this. Jin reflected that he might have been a little carried away by the fact that they were going to survey the ruins.

"However, the fifth column (Quinta) is investigating the site, and it seems to be a place where ordinary people go in and out, so you need to be careful in places like hidden rooms," he said.

Anne is loyal to Jin, but she is not an automata created by him. Therefore, she does not follow him blindly, and she is a valuable person who sometimes gives him a hard time.

"Lastly, Mr. Mere Old Man, I would like to ask the Goshujin-sama for a confirmation. You should have checked with the Goshujin-sama, or even without his permission, you should have kept the air force in the air.

Even the old man was warned. Jin and the other members of the group realized again that Anne was very valuable.