第８５１堀：どっちだろう？ (Part2)
“Alright, Kagura and the others, go inform the higher-ups about this plan of action and get their permission. It would be problematic if we acted on our own. As for me, I'll have Kirika determine the appearance times and routes, and I'll also convey this plan to Dressa's fleet.”
“Yes, sir!”
With that, Kagura and the others immediately left to contact their superiors, but...
“We spent all that time discussing, but if the cause isn't Magic Gear, then it's a waste of time and effort,” Seraria said, her tone laced with sarcasm.
“Even if that's the case, we'll know there's a different cause. That's a result, a definite result.”
“...You never change, always having a retort for everything.”
“Call me positive.”
“If anything, I think you act based on negative assumptions, though?”
Nod, nod.
My wives all nodded in agreement.
How rude. There's no point regretting failure. People move forward.
“But it's strange. The castle town of Seasifos is already within our dungeon's range, yet there's no Magic Gear reaction there. If it's circulating this much, I'd think it wouldn't be strange to find it on land elsewhere.”
“It certainly is strange. Well, it's possible they took them all at once, or just one out of a few, but the question remains: why the sea?”
“We can speculate endlessly about that. Perhaps they were trying to flee the country. Still, it's odd that there's been no talk of anything like that until now. Come to think of it, the original report was about monsters appearing in a mountain pass.”
Yes, if I recall correctly, the original monster disturbance was about monsters appearing in a mountain pass in the great mountain range. Then, after coming to Seasifos, the story changed to monsters appearing in the sea.
“...It would be troublesome if that's a separate matter. I was so surprised by Seasifos's sudden request that I'd forgotten about it, but that needs investigation too.”
“Indeed. But we haven't heard any follow-up reports since then. Have they gone into hiding?”
“Who knows? In any case, dealing with the monsters in Seasifos's waters, which is the immediate problem, comes first.”
Everyone nodded at her words.
For now, Seasifos, who requested aid, was the top priority. As for the mountain pass monsters, it was just a rumor. There was no reason for us to actively get involved. After that, they briefly discussed Weed's current situation, concluded the meeting, and returned to the aircraft carrier Lilishe.
“...So, Kirika. I'm counting on you.”
“Understood!”
He immediately asked Kirika to identify the suspected routes by which the Magic Gear was transported and to pinpoint their appearance times.
“As for Dressa, investigate the sea area, taking into account the opinions of Agil, Comet, and the investigation team.”
“I understand. But so, the Magic Gear is appearing here. That means the monsters weren't coming from somewhere else, but were summoned on the spot, right?”
“That's one possibility. Don't get too fixated on it, though. It could be a different cause.”
“I know. Even so, there haven't been any attacks or anything since then.”
It's been about two days since that attack.
…This really makes the Magic Gear possibility seem more likely.
“But if Magic Gear is the cause, that reason also makes sense.”
“There's a limit to the number of monsters that can be summoned with Magic Gear. So, that's why we haven't encountered any other monsters. However, General Lake's story mentioned other types of sea monsters, didn't it?”
“Well, don't ask me about that. In reality, only the Shera look-alikes have appeared.”
“You haven't moved from the sea area where you encountered the monsters since then, have you?”
“No. We dropped anchor and haven't moved since the attack. We've started the sea area investigation by the Shera look-alikes as planned, but there's nothing special to report here either…”
Nothing found, then. If it were that easy to figure out, no one would be struggling.
“Until now, we were just blindly searching suspicious areas. I think if we focus on finding Magic Gear based on Kirika's information, it will be a bit more efficient.”
“I hope so.”
Saying that, Dressa gazed out from the bridge, and I followed suit. There was nothing but the sea stretching out to the horizon as far as the eye could see. It could only be considered beautiful for a few days at most; after that...
“We need to finish this as soon as possible, or morale will suffer. We, the members of Weed, know what we're doing here, but the people on Seasifos's escort ships, even though they've heard we repelled the monsters, are just anchored here without being told anything.”
“That's another problem. Being a commander is tough.”
“Idiot. You're the one who put me in this position, Yuki.”
She spoke with a laugh, but morale was indeed quite an issue. Would we need to consider rotating personnel using the Gate? Hah, it's going to be a long road ahead.
Based on the information so far, is the cause of Seasifos's monster disturbance Magic Gear? Or a natural disaster? What do you all think? Ah, it might even be a divine disaster rather than a man-made one. That innocent-looking one.