The second morning that greeted me in the neutral city of Athropolis was filled with a different, crisp air than before.

　A room in a building that looks like a wooden house integrated with a large tree, the bright morning sunshine shines through the window of the bedroom assigned to me by the city's administrator, the jujin (dryad) Flaxinus.

　Naturally, this is not real sunlight.

　The ceiling of the vast underground space deep in the dungeon, which encompasses hills, forests, rivers and underground lakes, is a ceiling that repeatedly emits light and turns off in conjunction with the time zone above ground.

(...... I'm getting into a situation that was unthinkable in the past.

　Shaking my sleepy head, I recall the events of the past day.

　In the past, the armies of the human race and the Demon King Gandalf waged a war in the Demon King's Castle Realm in the underground space, and this is the level where the Demon King's army was defeated.

　The White Wolf Knights were tasked with overseeing the adventurers exploring this dungeon, as well as mediating with the palace and other knightly orders, and as part of that, they were to meet the administrator of Athropolis.

　As part of this mission, we are to meet with the administrator of Asropolis.

　We agreed to the condition, and we were able to successfully restore the light of the ceiling through a number of valuable experiences, such as the unexpected fight with the Ice Norzli, one of the four demon generals of the Demon King's Army, and the deadly battle with Skoll, a demonic beast that is said to be a member of the family of the disaster that nearly destroyed the world.

(Okay, it's not a dream. There are demons everywhere outside the window.

　I get out of my bunk and go to the window and look down at the residents rejoicing in the crisp morning.

　Beastmen and fishmen and lizard men (lizardmen).
　Normal elves and dark elves and dwarves.
　There are tree people (dryads) and demons (ogres).

　As expected, there are no creatures classified as demons rather than demons - like goblins, for example - but it's an exposition-like scene of known demons.

　Aslopolis is a town that has posted that all species can benefit from neutrality as long as they comply with the conditions offered by the administrators.

　However, I never saw a single human other than us, and the inhabitants consisted only of various types of demonic races.

　This is simply because it is a very recent event that humans on the ground have reached this level of hierarchy.

　No matter how many races were in the neutral city, there couldn't possibly be residents of races that didn't exist in this hierarchy.

　Of course, from now on, adventurers will be using it as a base for their explorations, and there will be many opportunities to see humans in the city.

　Thinking about this, I was about to start getting ready for the morning, when an upbeat garnet came out of the shower provided in my room.

I'm so refreshed. Warm water feels so good after all.
What, you already tried it?
It would be rude not to use it.

　Wiping her hair wet from the hot water, Garnett sat down in a chair at random.

　Perhaps because of the peculiarity of the building where trees and dwellings stand in unison, the shower in this building is designed to produce only water.

　I know it's for fire prevention purposes, but it's not easy for us humans.

　That's why Noir made a magic tool that can be attached to the mouth of the shower to heat up the water.

　Since it is disposable, he told me to consider it a bridge until facilities for humans are built, but from Garnett's reaction, it seems to be more than satisfactory.

''So, I guess we can call it a 'wait and see' attitude for a while from now on, right?
Yeah. We won't be able to move forward with our work until the adventurers arrive and the Fluxinus is ready.

　Establishing an exploration system based in Aslopolis and collecting information about the ancient magical civilization from the administrator, Fraxinus - the immediate task of the White Wolf Knights can be divided into two main categories.

　The former requires the involvement of a party of adventurers who will actually conduct the exploration, so they can only do the minimum amount of prep work until their representatives arrive in Asropolis.

　Fortunately, we know that the bird model, the messenger released by Noir, has arrived safely at the nearest camp site with our message.

　All we have to do now is wait for word from the camp site to reach the main unit and for the personnel sent by the main unit to arrive in Asropolis.

　The latter will have to wait for Fraxinus to finish sorting out the information.

　The ancient magical civilization was a mind-bogglingly old civilization, and if Fraxinus had been alive since that time, he would need to recall memories that old.

　If he only spoke on the spot with randomly recalled memories, the accuracy of the information would inevitably be in question.

　That's why I needed time to organize the information.

But we can't just sit around until we're ready, you know. Well, what should we do?

　Just as Garnett creaked the back of his chair with a troubled look on his face, we heard a voice calling us from behind the door of the room.

'Excuse me, sir. Master Luke, if you could have a moment of your time.










　The person who visited our room was Populus, a tree man (dryad) who claimed to be an emissary of the administrator, Flaxinus.

　Garnett and I quickly finished getting ready in the morning, and then the young jounin (dryad) led us to a room somewhere attached to the Great Council Hall.

'Master Luke. Have I told you about the council meeting in Athropolis?
'No, I haven't heard of it yet. Is there such a thing as just administrators?

　Populus walks down the corridor with his long green hair of plant-like texture and the trinket-like petals and branches and leaves that are part of his body, waving his ivy-tangled limbs in a regular fashion.

　He is a child with a complexion that cannot always be described as expressionless or an immature smile, perhaps because he is not used to wearing a human expression.

''Although Fraxinus-sama is the supreme decision-maker of Asropolis, he can't handle all the miscellaneous tasks related to the running of the town by himself. That's why we have a council as an administrative auxiliary body.

　Certainly, even a being without a physical body like Fraxinus would not be able to continue to perform every task without limit.

　It's natural to think of delegating less important tasks.

'As a general rule, one council member is elected from each race, and he also acts as a spokesperson for each race. It's a principle, of course, and there are exceptions.
If we're talking about that now, does that mean that the person you're about to meet is one of the council members?
''Yes. At the direction of Mr. Flaxinus, the Council has instructed me to brief the White Wolf Knights on various aspects of Asropolis.

　When the conversation had gone that far, Populus stopped unexpectedly in front of the thick door.

'A council member is waiting for you here. He has a reputation for being a bit intimidating to look at, but he is a mild-mannered man, so please don't worry.

　Populus said something I'm not sure if it was a threat or a follow-up, and pushed open the thick door and asked us to enter.

　Waiting for us in the room was a single large, old skallion (lizardman).