134. Silver Firefly

Visiting the Poankare Great Library in the Academy City had become a regular routine for Shiro.

He was still searching. There had to be some cause behind the periodic outbreaks of Miasma.

Today was unusual—Aria and Albert were also present. They’d just finished a major job and were on leave. They’d decided, on a lark, to tag along with Shiro for a bit.

And, further, the heroes, Miradia, and Emilia Filidia had joined in. When Aria and Albert said they were coming, it sparked the idea of gathering again after such a long time.

So everyone had come to the Great Library.

“What’re you looking into now?” Aria asked.

“Ah, there’ve been global Miasma outbreaks at regular intervals in the past,” Shiro explained. “I’m trying to figure out what’s causing them.”

“Right, so any other phenomena with similar cycles?” Aria said.

“Exactly,” Shiro replied.

With that, everyone set off to search through materials on their own. Since nothing had turned up before, they decided it was worth trying their own hunches.

After a while, they regrouped. Each brought the materials they’d found.

First, Albert began, holding up an insect encyclopedia. “I remember hearing about something called Silver Firefly from Sophia, long ago.”

“Silver Firefly?” Shiro said. Then—

“Wait—is that the glowing insect monster we saw on our first day heading to Sotohaim, when we’d just met?”

“That’s it,” Albert said.

He showed them the encyclopedia. “It says here that these insects periodically erupt in massive numbers.”

The book noted, without explanation, that they bred in huge numbers roughly every thirty years, with detailed observations from past sightings recorded.

“Big proliferation years—so far, we’ve got Holy Era 920, 950, 980, 1021, 1190, 1230, 1270. Last one was Holy Era 1302,” Albert said.

“Huh… I see,” Shiro mused, lost in thought.

He’d been wondering ever since that day—why he’d been driven, almost compulsively, to run and confirm the sighting of the Silver Firefly. Why he’d needed to see it so badly. Not because he’d wanted to carry Shestia like a princess, that was for sure.

And now, hearing the years Albert just read off… something clicked.

As Shiro pondered,

“Lord Shiro, I know something about the cycle too,” Emilia said.

“Oh? What kind of cycle?”

“Yes. You know this world has dragon veins, right? And their strength fluctuates daily—but over longer spans, a pattern emerges. It’s called the ‘Dragon Vein Oscillation Cycle.’”

“Huh. And that’s the data?”

“Yes. This is something Clerics often discuss, though I never knew the specifics. But I found a document. It says that roughly every 300 years, there’s a peak in dragon vein activity. The last one was Holy Era 1021—the year of the last great monster surge that nearly destroyed the world.”

“Ah,” Shiro said.

“Shiro, if we extrapolate from the last years of both cycles—Silver Firefly overpopulation and dragon vein oscillation—they both point to Holy Era 1331. That’s this year,” Mitoka said.

“Wait—really? Huh. Now that you mention it, I never really paid much attention to the Holy Calendar,” Shiro said.

“Both cycles aligning? Feels ominous,” Shestia said.

“Yeah. Where’s the Silver Firefly…?” Shiro started, then suddenly realized.

“Silver Firefly emits ultraviolet light, right! Could it be…?”

Shiro turned pale and rushed out into the library courtyard.

Everyone hurried after him, wondering what was going on.

Shiro stepped into the courtyard, pulled a lump of mushroom from his inventory, and shone a spectrum of light mimicking the Silver Firefly onto it.

A portion of the mushrooms began to emit a faint glow—and started releasing miasma.

Shiro quickly cut the light and moved the mushrooms inside the barrier.

“Shiro, we’ve found a new virus in the miasma-emitting mushrooms. Let’s call it Virus C. It seems to generate miasma when exposed to the spectral light of the Silver Firefly. Its miasma production efficiency is several times higher than Virus M’s mushrooms,” Mitoka reported.

“Shiro, is this…?” Aria asked.

The others stared, puzzled.

“Yeah. Another kind of virus. Probably, with Virus M alone, the miasma release was still within manageable limits. But this combination—Virus C and the Silver Firefly’s light—is bad. It’s generating miasma beyond our control. That’s why the beast surge happens every thirty years, synchronized with the Silver Firefly’s massive bloom. And when the dragon vein cycle hits peak value? The damage amplifies. That’s why it was 1021 last time.

“Shiro, so this year’s dangerous?” Shestia asked.

"Yeah, dangerous year. I think that’s what’s causing the phenomena we’ve seen so far," Shiro said.

"Shiro, there’s a record of massive Silver Firefly outbreaks in the Elfwood. Plus, there are entire regions in the Elfwood where Silver Fireflies are so common they’ve become a tourist attraction. If the fungus in question has started spreading there..."

"Yeah, that’s bad. Emergency report. We need to send investigators to the Elven Kingdom."

And so Shiro and the others hurried to file their report.

A sense of urgency stirred in their minds. Could the Elfwood be in danger now?

If you found this interesting, please consider rating, bookmarking, or leaving a comment—it really helps!