Side: Yuki
Current time: 5:40 AM.
It's been approximately forty minutes since we discovered the target.
Right now, gathered in the conference room of the government building are my wives, Narjia-san, Peace, and the two people I hurriedly brought here—Poppuri and Lara, along with Taiki-kun and the others.
Oh—the Holy Sword Wielders are still in prison, of course.
They're just noisy anyway.
"Eh!? P-Peace!?"
"It has been a long time, Poppuri. You're still as tiny as ever."
"Don't call me tiny!! Wait, that doesn't matter—no, it does matter, but we can talk about that later! Anyway, why are you here!?"
"Um, Poppuri-sama. Is that knight over there an acquaintance of yours?"
"No, Lara, 'acquaintance' doesn't even begin to cover it..."
"Nice to meet you. I am Peace Guardworld, who was summoned by the previous Dungeon Master to act as her guardian."
"Eh!? Wait—If you were that guardian, then that means you're..."
"A monster. A Dullahan-type. And she's the Demon King who triggered that Great War."
"T-That Demon King!?"
"Ah, yes, those things did happen. After losing the battle against those thieves, I slept beneath the earth until my magical energy recovered. Literally covered in soil beneath the ground."
"...Thieves, huh. So that's how you view them."
"Yes. They were mere thieves. They took the weapons our benefactor—our Master—created to fulfill their wishes, and used them to cut our Master down... There is no other word for them than 'thieves'."
"...You're right. I think there should have been room for discussion, but they chose that path. And I couldn't stop them."
"No, I knew that you weren't involved, Poppuri. That is why I went after them."
"...Thank you for your consideration, Peace. Thanks to you, the orphanage she left behind managed to survive that great war."
"Even though we were consumed by anger, we knew how deeply our Master cared for parentless children. She even poured her personal fortune into it. To us, it was, in a sense, the final legacy left by our Master. We kept monsters stationed there as guards until the very end."
"...Yes. Thank you."
"However, I am surprised. I never imagined that this place, which was once an orphanage, would become the greatest magic academy on the continent. You must have gone through a lot of hardship."
"...Not as much as you, Peace. So, when did you join up with Labyris-dono and the others?"
"Labyris? Ah, yes. I woke up during the border conflict between Jilva and Enaria, and was subdued immediately by the current Master."
"Ah. I remember hearing rumors about a Magic Sword wielder or blood-related Holy Sword wielders being found. I thought it was just a tall tale. So Labyris and the others participated in that conflict?"
"Yes. They had only just arrived here and knew almost nothing about the situation, so apparently they were gathering information."
"I see. And what do you mean by being 'subdued'?"
"It's embarrassing to admit, but I had a bad dream. I kept having recurring dreams of those thieves stealing everything from us, and when I woke up, I happened to run straight into the current Master and attacked him."
"That's... quite something..."
"I was subdued without a sweat. After that, I was placed under house arrest in Weed for a while to cool my head. As you probably realize, the current Master is several levels above our previous Master."
"So it seems. I was beaten pretty badly myself. You mentioned cooling your head in Weed, but what is Weed like...?"
Reunited after so long, the two of them got wrapped up in a lively conversation about Weed.
Well, since we don't have all the documentation ready yet, I'll let them catch up...
We're going to have to hold a troublesome Kaiju countermeasure meeting after this anyway.
The person I'm relying on most for this meeting is Taiki-kun, who comes from the same country as me. He's seen footage countlessly many times of the Kaiju King and other monsters making landfall and waging massive battles.
And that Taiki-kun is currently...
"...Why are you in that state?"
He had literally been rolled up in a futon and carried in.
Well... I did say to drag him here even if he had to be tied up.
"Ah, Yuki-san. Please help me."
"'Help you'? What do you mean? Didn't you get rolled up and dragged here because you were still sleeping so deeply?"
I said that while looking at Airi-san, who was smiling the whole time beside him.
"Could you at least untie me for now?"
"...? Why don't you ask Airi-san to do that? Besides, I just want your input; whether you're rolled up in a mat or not makes no difference to me."
"Hey!?"
Because, man, the aura coming off Airi-san is practically screaming "Do not let him escape."
Fortunately, we still had time. I'll hear the story and have him officially released.
A lovers' quarrel in the middle of a Kaiju King crisis, huh... Get along with your wife, man. Look at Jessica and me earlier—no matter how you sliced it, we looked like a heartwarming couple.
"Ara? So you and Jessica had some fun together?"
Perhaps reading my thoughts, Labyris, who was sitting above me, voiced her displeasure.
"It's fine, isn't it? Labyris is always on top of me, after all. Jessica can't do that."
"That's true. Jessica is a serious girl. Fine. I'll let it slide."
"Thanks a lot. So, Airi-san. Why is Taiki-kun tied up like that?"
It'd be easier if he were freed, so let's hear the circumstances from Airi-san for now.
The deadline is whenever the materials are gathered, or 6:00 AM.
"Ah. Yuki-san, yesterday you were in Weed with your family, right?"
"Yeah. The Duel Festival was over, so we were relaxing at home."
We cleaned the house, took afternoon naps with everyone who stayed home, played board games together, and really just relaxed.
Cleana had gotten along with Shance, and we all had dinner together while chatting merrily. Despite being busy, but I think spending time with your family like this is important.
Back in my school days, it felt like I was breaking through the atmosphere and even crossing dimensions—literally!!
Ah, I wonder why.
Why was it that my family life here felt more peaceful than my old life?
Though—sorry to my wives—the time I felt most free was living alone before I came here. Outside of work I could play games, stay up late, or sleep until night—it was complete freedom.
"...Yuki. That might sound free to you, but isn't that lifestyle kind of terrible in a lot of ways?"
"Well, there were times when that was nice. Though I prefer being with you all now, Labyris."
"Thank you."
Anything for my adorable wives and daughters.
But first, I needed to hear Airi-san's story.
"It sounds like you had a fulfilling day off, Yuki-sama."
"Yes. I thought the two of us could privately celebrate Taiki-sama's victory. We couldn't hold a massive celebration back in our home country, after all."
As a king, just attending the duel festival would be a big deal—and if he won, the nation would want a grand celebration.
"And so, we were secretly celebrating alone at the Academy—but we had a visitor."
"A visitor? Some kind of spy targeting us?"
Come to think of it, this was right after we publicly unveiled video camera broadcast technology.
There was definitely a chance someone would pry around seeking rights and concessions... I had completely forgotten about that.
Yesterday, the Weed group had already returned, while Taiki-kun, Airi-san, and Kirika's group had remained behind, so naturally, they'd be the ones receiving visitors.
"Ah, no. It wasn't that kind of visitor."
"Then what kind?"
"Soel Warber-san, who fought against Taiki-sama, came by."
"Huh?"
Why?
Ah, did she come to voice her complaints after losing?
"Wait, Airi. Don't tell Yuki-san..."
"Oh my, that's not good. Taiki-sama, you should properly report it to Yuki-sama."
Taiki-kun actually tried to stop her.
Does that mean it's something serious?
"Airi-san. If Taiki-kun is trying to stop you, doesn't that mean this could also become a diplomatic issue? You can take your time and discuss it properly before telling me."
Soel-san is, if I recall correctly, the daughter of a prominent merchant who does business with royalty.
If they were doing business with them, there was no need to go through us. Unless dangerous goods were involved, of course.
That was a matter between their countries, and we'd generally stay out of each other's affairs. Taiki-kun was staying at the academy, after all, so he needed to have some benefits from it.
"No, it's not that kind of matter. It's a continuation of what Soel-san said on the stage during the duel."
"A continuation of what she said on the stage? ...Ah."
'A man as accomplished as you, Taiki-san, would naturally be expected to have concubines. If you don't mind, may I put myself forward as a candidate?'
There was a conversation like that, wasn't there?
"Don't tell me..."
"Yes. She came to ask for my permission to become his concubine."
"Well, well. Isn't that great, Taiki-kun?"
When I said that, Taiki-kun's head drooped.
We have video proof, so there's no talking his way out of it.
Still, coming the very next day shows she's quite a go-getter.
"But why is he tied up? That doesn't seem related."
"Soel-san and I got along really well during yesterday's visit. And we're scheduled to head to the Kingdom of August today, right?"
"Yeah."
"It turns out Soel-san's father is currently in the royal capital of August as well, so she wanted to ask if we could take her along. But Taiki-sama was too embarrassed and refused to get out of bed."
"I see. So that's why you wrapped him up and dragged him here."
"Yes."
Yeah.
Yeah. I wouldn't want to be introduced to someone's parents three days after meeting them either.
It'd be like bringing your parents along on the first date. Maximum awkwardness.
Moreover Taiki-kun himself wasn't interested in her that way, so it'd just be painful for him.
As I was debating what to say to comfort him, Steve arrived.
"Boss, preparations are complete."
"I see. Taiki-kun, I'm sorry, but have something more important to deal with right now."
"Something more important, you say...?"
"I mean, that might be important to you, but over here, a Holy Sword wielder has summoned a 30-meter-class monster."
"WHAT!?"
Just as Taiki-kun raised his voice, everyone around us seemed to have heard me, and all eyes instantly turned to me.
"Everyone, the preparations are complete. Let's stop chatting and take your seats. I want to explain the situation."
As soon as I said that, everyone fell silent and took their seats.
"Now, let me explain again. The reason for this emergency meeting is that we discovered the Holy Sword wielder we're likely to encounter on our way to the Kingdom of August today."
I said that as I displayed the final Holy Sword wielder's image on the monitor.
"...Alfin."
Poppuri muttered her name when she saw her.
Alfin, huh... if I remember correctly, that means "white.".
The Holy Sword wielder had pure white hair that reached about her shoulders, with several strands sticking out here and there as if it were naturally curly. She looked like a slightly more grown-up version of Cleana, who was still completely flat-chested.
"I see, so she is the last one. Not a bad choice."
Peace murmured as well.
I hadn't told the two of them which specific Holy Sword wielders we had captured.
So, I double-checked with them.
"She's the monster tamer—the Holy Sword user who specializes in taming monsters—that you two mentioned, right?"
"...Yes."
"There's no mistake. She's given me quite a bit of trouble."
We'd already heard about the characteristics and abilities of the Holy Sword wielders from Peace and Poppuri.
And of them is this person called Alfin.
However, her ability wasn't derived from her Holy Sword. Apparently, she possessed an absurdly powerful Tamer skill.
Looking at her appearance, many modern Earthlings would understand right away. She clearly appeared to be an albino, with white hair and red eyes—a genetic disorder known as congenital albinism. In Japan, white snakes and white rabbits are familiar examples
Because of the lack of pigment, albinos often have visual impairments and extremely weak skin. Naturally, wild animals with this condition have a very low survival rate due to how conspicuous they are. And in places with low levels of civilization, appearances that differ greatly from ordinary humans can become grounds for persecution.
Alfin was no exception.
After her parents died, she apparently fled into the forest and lived there until the previous Master found her.
And the reason she remained safe back then—when magical energy wasn't as depleted as it is now, and monsters were abundant—was thanks to her own Tamer Skill. When she moved into the dungeon, reports stated that she brought along a staggering 300 monsters.
And for some reason, she assisted in the murder of the previous Master, using her Tamer Skill to give Peace's dungeon forces an extremely hard time.
In other words, she's basically someone like Aslin in Weed.
"I see, so that tamer girl is our final opponent among the Holy Sword wielders, then?"
Ratz asked to confirm.
"Yeah. Once we deal with this girl, the Holy Sword user incident will finally be over."
"Hmm. But she's quite a troublesome opponent to leave for last. Besides the monsters she can summon using DP, there's also the possibility that wild monsters may be obeying her."
"No, that's not the case."
I immediately rejected Ratz' line of thought.
"Eh? Why not?"
"The reason I called everyone here isn't because of a massive monster horde. The enemy is just her and a single monster."
"Just one...? Oh, you mean the thirty-meter monster that was reported earlier?"
"Yeah. We've confirmed it. There aren't any monsters—or even animals—around her and that monster. Given her Tamer skill, she's probably deliberately keeping them away."
"Does she think that monster alone is enough?"
"Probably. It may also be because maintaining other monsters would be tremendously expensive outside a dungeon."
"Ah, speaking of which, where's that monster? It doesn't seem to be on the monitor?"
Ratz—and all my wives—couldn't fully visualize the scale of a "giant monster."
Right. Hearing "30 meters" probably didn't give them a concrete sense of scale. It was hard for them to actually visualize it.
Taiki-kun, however, cautiously murmured:
"...That rock beneath her is the monster, isn't it?"
"Exactly."
"""HUH?"""
Everyone except Taiki-kun voiced their utter disbelief.
I zoomed out the monitor view from Alfin.
"It just looks like a rocky hill to me... Wait!?"
The moment Ratz muttered that, what looked like a massive tail swung, flattening trees and sending up a cloud of dust.
"W-Wait a minute, O-Onii-san! Isn't this way bigger than 30 meters!?"
"It's 30 meters tall and 120 meters long. It appears to be a four-legged Earth Dragon-type."
"O-One hundred twenty meters!?"
Everyone was left speechless.
That size is practically unheard of in this world.
"Fortunately, this earth dragon doesn't seem able to fly. If it could fly, it would've reached the Academy long ago."
"T-That's true..."
"But even if we leave it alone, it's going to move toward us on its own."
"...Yeah."
"So we have no choice but to hit it hard before it starts moving. That's why I called everyone here for this strategy meeting. I've already had Weed's modern-weapons unit prepare for deployment."
"You really intend to fight it head-on?"
"Yeah."
Unless we clash directly, I won't get the information I need.
"First, before I explain the plan I came up with, I gathered some info on this earth dragon."
"Info? How? Don't tell me you picked a fight with it behind our backs!?"
Selaria said that, genuinely furious, as she started to stand up from her seat.
My other wives narrowed their eyes as well, clearly preparing to restrain me.
Ah, if I don't clear up this misunderstanding before explaining, I'm going to get tied up.
"No, no, calm down. Obviously I wouldn't do that. There's always the possibility that provoking it could cause it to start moving toward us."
"...Then how do you know about it?"
"You know how we've been summoning monsters in Weed to gather data, right? It's a prediction based on that."
"Oh, right. We did establish a department for that. That makes sense."
Seraria sat back down.
The glare from my other wives returned to normal as well.
...Phew.
"So we investigated similar Dragon-types, as well as monsters we haven't summoned with DP yet."
Saying that, I switched the monitor display.
On it was a dragon we had previously summoned with DP—smaller than the earth dragon Alfin commands, but similar in appearance.
"This species is called a Grand Dragon. The DP consumed to summon it in Weed was 400 million."
"""400 MILLION!?"""
"Where on earth did you pull that budget from!?"
"Well, I discussed it with Eris. Weed's population has passed 30,000 now. Even at a minimum of 30,000 DP per hour, that's 720,000 DP in 24 hours. Since we skim off the top and tell residents it's 1 DP per person every 10 hours, the supply isn't an issue."
"Even if supply isn't an issue, 400 million is nowhere near enough... Ah, wait. You're also counting the DP from tourism and the Adventurer's Guild's dungeon activities, aren't you?"
"Exactly. In fact, I'm pretty sure I mentioned this to you, Seraria. I should've handed you the paperwork too."
"...Now that you mention it, I remember something about you conducting some large-scale experiment. The Adventurer's Guild was supposed to shoulder quite a bit of the cost, too."
As Seraria searched her memory, Milly, who was involved on the Guild side, raised her voice as if remembering something.
"Ah! The Grand Master came to my place and showed me those documents! I wondered why he was talking about using up the DP accumulated by the Adventurer Guild. I see, so it was used for this Grand Dragon!"
"Exactly. So we didn't provide that much of the DP ourselves. The Adventurer's Guild gathered most of it and used it to summon the monster. Gathering information by summoning monsters was actually something the guild requested."
"Ah, so that's why the information about the DP expenditure never reached us. We were getting information about the monsters almost every day, though. But what made you conclude that this Grand Dragon resembles the monster under Alfin's command?"
Yes, just as Selaria said, why did I judge that this Grand Dragon—which was only around twenty meters long—resembles that absurdly huge Earth Dragon?
"You know I use Appraisal on summoned monsters to inspect their skill details, right?"
"Yes. Your and Labyris's Appraisal skills are crucial, powerful assets for us."
"Well, the Grand Dragon's description specifies that it's a 'Juvenile'."
"A juvenile?"
Seraria tilted her head in confusion, but the members who figured out what that implied turned pale.
...Especially Taiki-kun. Since he'd fought that sort of thing in games before, it was probably easier for him to imagine.
Well, the ones in those games eventually learn to fly, which makes them even more troublesome.
"O-Onii-san. Does that mean... there's a fully grown adult form?"
"Huh!? I-Is that true, dear!?"
Ratz's words made Seraria realize the same possibility, and she hurriedly asked me.
"It likely exists. We still cannot summon it yet, but there are several kinds of monsters that can be summoned for five billion DP."
"F-Five billion...!"
"Only the names are listed, so I'll lay it out for you. The name of the adult Grand Dragon that costs 5 billion DP is..."
Silence fell over the room as everyone awaited my words.
"Ground Zero Dragon."
Ironically, in our world, "Ground Zero" refers to the point of detonation or the epicenter of an explosion, and has been associated with places that suffered unprecedented devastation throughout history.
Well, surely my wives and everyone else in this meeting now understood just how absurd an opponent this was.
And we have to stop this "Ground Zero" as quickly as possible.
...One unpleasant piece of information was that even the juvenile Grand Dragon had already been confirmed to be capable of breathing a heat ray.
Damn it. This is exactly why fantasy worlds are such a pain!
It's not going to fly, right? I hope it wouldn't turn into something like Gravios from Monster Hunter...
* * *
