Gazing at the scene in front of him, Allen let out a breath.

　If his previous life was included, Allen had done a fair amount of traveling.
　He had walked through the deep woods and experienced long boat trips.

　If you were to ask him what he hated the most, Allen would choose one without hesitation.
　It was the desert and ...... which is now spread out before you.

I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this.
"Huh?　Well, I wouldn't have wanted to come to this place if I could, but I don't know if there's a devil in it, you know?
Well, to begin with, hideaways and such are usually built in places where people don't come.
That's true, though.

　Still, I would not have wanted to come here if I could.

　After all, the desert is hot during the day and cold at night.
　Both require appropriate measures, and before you know it, you'll find yourself getting sand in your clothes and, quite simply, not enough fun.
　The only thing that was boring to Allen was the sight of the desert, at least to him.

　However, that doesn't help.
　Letting out another sigh, Allen stepped out into the desert.

"Well, it took me a little while to find it last time, but this time I know where it is. I'm sure you won't have too much trouble finding it this time.
I hope so, by all means.
...... I'm sorry. I just asked for something extra. ......
"...... sorry
"No, no, we're the ones who decided to take it after all. You guys shouldn't worry about it.

　I shrug, returning a wry smile at Chloe and Milene, who give me an apologetic look.
　Then, I pull myself together a bit.
　Any more complaining is going to make the two of you overly concerned.

　I can't relax too much when I think about where we're going.
　Allen and the others are about to head to the place where the demon was based.

　That's why Aren and the others have come all the way to this place.
　And the reason why this is happening is because Chloe asked me for help.

　When asked for help by Chloe, Allen and his team answered immediately.
　Or if Chloe was the only person asking for help, they might have consulted a little, but the people Chloe asked for help were also people back home for Milene.
　There was no need to consult with them.

　Incidentally, although it was a unanimous vote, Noel was not here.
　She tried to come, but she had an urgent job at some point and could not leave her place of work.
　The reason he came back was to tell you that.
　He's probably shaking his hips in frustration right now.

　Anyway, you decide to help Chloe and her friends, but the key to where you are, Chloe doesn't know.
　They've been together for a while, but when Akira launched his attack, Chloe was in the middle of opening a hidden room she happened to find.

　I knew the demons were in a hurry to do something, but if I showed my face there, they would find the hidden room and more importantly, I didn't know what they would do.
　So I stayed put, and then it became quiet, and while I was debating what to do, Akira came along and found Chloe in the entire hidden room.
　Because of this, Chloe doesn't know where the demons have gone.

　But there's no way to find out where the demons have gone without any information.
　So, first of all, Aren and his team decided to go to the demon's former base of operations to find out where Chloe was.

　According to Akira, there wasn't anything that could be used as a clue, but it's also possible that they just couldn't find it.
　This is not to mock Akira, the demon has a wide variety of powers.
　The possibility that there's some kind of cover-up that Akira can't see is not a remote possibility.

　And there's no other place that could provide a clue for now anyway.
　It wouldn't be a bad idea to go there for the time being.

　The reason why we are in the desert is because Akira and the others say that the place where the demon's base used to be is in the desert.
　How could Akira find a demon's base in a place like this?

By the way, I just remembered, why did Akira look for a demon's base?
"Hmm?　Oh, we haven't talked yet. It's just that it's starting to get annoying. Those guys interrupt me every time I try to do something. I just got mad and thought I'd crush them first.
It's not a good idea to be able to have a good time with them.
"...... disturb each other?
"Haha ...... I don't want them to like me in the first place.
I don't want the devil to like me. I don't want the devil to like me, but I'd rather be considered a hindrance to him.

　As we walked through the desert, all I could see in my field of vision was sand.
　The sand extends to the other side of the horizon, and that alone tells you that this desert is quite large.

　But that's a bit of a stretch for now.
　It is precisely because of this desert that the kingdom of Ad Astera has no contact with the southern country.
　It was judged by both sides that it would take a reasonable number of days and effort to travel back and forth and that no benefits would come in return.

　Because of such a place, very few people try to go somewhere on foot in this desert.
　Only the most curious or suicidal people are there.

　That's probably why the demons decided to build a base here.

How long is it going to take to get to the place where the base was located, by the way?
Maybe it won't take much, you know?　It took me a long time to get there because I had to be careful on the way, but it was quicker on the way back because we didn't have that.
It would be inconvenient to be too far out in the desert. But even so, I'm amazed that they were able to establish a base of operations in a place like this, even though they are demons.
We worked so hard. It was really hard to work in hot and cold weather. Well, it was mainly hard work for us, so it wasn't so hard in itself.
"Oh, by the way, is Amazons basically a powerhouse?
I don't know much about them except for the people back home, but at least in my home village, they were all stupid. It's a good thing that you're able to get the most out of it. Of course, I am no exception.


"...... isn't that the place to get your heart pumping?
"Ehehee

　While looking at the two people who seemed to be getting along well with each other with a sideways glance, what went through Allen's mind was what he heard from Chloe.

　This is the first time I've heard of a demon using other species.
　It's common knowledge that if you encounter a demon, you won't get out alive except to fight it off.

　If Milene was the only one, one could still assume that she was an exception.
　But according to Chloe, everyone in the village has been captured.
　Even so, it's unreasonable to think that everyone in the village is an exception.

　In fact, it's almost impossible that many of them have been caught before.
　There's no way to hide it, no matter how hard we try, and in fact, Chloe made that fact known.
　It's unlikely that this was the first time it came to light by accident.

　More importantly, I didn't bother to hide it.
　What's the point in pretending to kill everyone but actually taking them away?

　Of course, he may have an idea ...... but we should consider other possibilities.
　That is, the need to do so has arisen.

　The story is that the devil has been invading other countries all along, but in recent years we don't hear much about countries that have been destroyed by the devil.
　It's not that there has been no invasion, it's that there has been a state of balance.

　In short, one could say that the country the devil can destroy is already gone.
　The only countries that remain now are those that can endure the demon kingdoms while sharing borders with them, such as the Empire and Ad Astera Kingdom.

　And if this trend continues, it will not be surprising if the neighboring countries cooperate to defeat the demons in the not too distant future.
　Perhaps the demons have already realized this.

　Perhaps that's why they began to act in uncharacteristic ways, such as assassinating generals in the kingdom and assassinating emperors in the empire.
　You can't use your past force, so you've changed your tactics.

　In fact, both assassinations were successful and caused a lot of confusion in both countries.
　As a result, we have been able to contain the confusion, but we are still not fully recovered.

　This is where we are based.
　In the southern part of the kingdom, farther on the frontier, in a desert that is almost unvisited.
　It's definitely a nuisance to have a demon stronghold in such a place before you know it and have the demons attack from there.

　You'll be able to see that the demons have been removed from that base by Akira, but that doesn't mean there aren't others like it.
　No, it's more natural to assume that there is .......

　If that's the case--

"Hmm ...... somehow it seems to be in trouble again,
It's a little late for that when the devil is involved. Besides, you're right. You've always gotten into trouble and gotten into it, haven't you?
It's true, though.

　I know I've gotten myself into this, but I just want to get this over with and resume my search for a place of peace and quiet.

　Thinking about this, Allen let out a breath as he looked out at the desert.