In the western part of the Canary Kingdom there is a city called Belka.

　It is a key point of defense on the western border, and its high walls and deep moats make it a more heavily defended city than Ithaca.

　This defense is not a preparation against other countries - against humans. In fact, there is no human state to the west of the Canary Kingdom.

　So what does Belka have in mind when it comes to defending itself against such a thick defence, it's for the purpose of fighting the desert monsters that come from the west.

　The Catalan Desert. The Catalan Desert, a demonic realm that ranks alongside the Titis Forest and Mount Skim.

　The total area of this area is unknown. The types of demons that live there are unknown, and the total number of demons is also unknown.

　If you set foot in this area without knowledge, you will be forced to become demon bait, get swallowed by quicksand, or lose your bearings in the vast ocean of sand and dry up, or die.

　The vast desert, which could not be traversed even with the flying ability of a dragon knight, has been the subject of various legends since ancient times.

　They say that in the middle of the desert there is a golden empire protected by a ward.

　Beyond the desert, they say, lies an utopia of water, greenery and magic (mana).

　Many people dismiss this as a myth of unknown origin, but it is also true that from time to time, things are discovered in the desert that (presumably) leave traces of tradition.

　For example, there are rose-shaped ores that were obviously carved by human hands, and more immediate-looking gold and silver nuggets.

　This has led many to believe that the Catalan Desert may contain large deposits of gold and silver on a large scale. There are also examples of vast deposits of salt that have been discovered by those who have ventured into the desert, although they are not related to the legend.

　There were and still are many other riches in the Catalan Desert, such as the spices and oils from rare desert plants, and the shells of desert monsters, which attracted many people in the past and today.

　Many people still visit the dangerous desert today to verify the authenticity of the lore, or to get rich.

　The city they use as their base is Belka.



　--I'm not going to be the only one who has been in this situation. Even though they are both within the Canaries, Ishka and Belka are so far apart that it would take more than half a month to reach them by horse and carriage.

　That's more than twice as long as the village of Merte, which takes seven days by carriage. If I were to talk about my own personal feelings, it would feel like an even more distant country than the Ad Astera Empire.

　Fortunately, I now have indigo pterodactyl (indigo) pterodactyl (wyvern) legs, so the number of days to travel has been greatly reduced.

　The reason why I came to Belka is to seek information about the Behemoth, which I mentioned earlier.

　The horn of the beast king (behemoth) that could be the catalyst for the warding magic of the Holy Kingdom, which protects the soil and water of the Canary Kingdom from the sea of poisonous liquid generated by the hydra.

　According to the Elf Wise Woman (Lunamaria), the behemoth's existence is often seen, and it's not a mythical beast.

　However, the behemoths are usually seen deep in the Catalan Desert, where the top adventurers in Belka see them once or twice a year.

　I've said before that Elgato, the guild master of Ishka, is one of the only three first-class adventurers in the Canary Kingdom, but the other two first-class adventurers belong to the Belka adventurers' guild.

　Furthermore, the highest-ranking party in the Ishka Guild was B-rank, with only three groups, but Belka had two A-rank groups and seven groups that reached B-rank.

　There are two A-ranks and seven B-ranks in Belka, which means that Belka has enough appeal for these high-ranking adventurers to sit on. Of course, there is a proportionate amount of danger, and the frequency of attacks by desert monsters is increasing year by year.

　For this reason, the Belka Guild has a quota for adventurers to meet, and those who can't meet the quota won't be eligible for the preferential treatment of adventurers in Belka. Naturally, or rather, there is no end to the number of new recruits who die or are injured as a result of pushing themselves too hard to meet the quota, but the guild master believes that even if they are gone, there will still be plenty of new recruits who are proud of their strength, so there is no problem.

　Apparently, Belka's master has a much different philosophy than Elgato.


''Well, it's not like I belong to a guild, so it doesn't really matter to me.


　I've got a room in one of the city's most luxurious lodgings, and after I finished gathering all the information, I told myself that I wasn't going to make a fresh start as an adventurer in this city.

　It's not that I was planning to make a fresh start as an adventurer in this town. I've been collecting information about the guild as part of the information gathering process for Behemoth.

　It would be troublesome if it stood out in a strange way, so I've also hidden Klau Solas in the mountains on the way.

　The rest - and while I was thinking about the future, the door of the room opened after a light knock. The one who entered was Ilaria, clad in the white war robes of a priest warrior.

　Belka has a rather large temple of the Dharma God, which, along with the Adventurer's Guild, is the cornerstone of the city's security and defense. When I heard about this, I brought Ilaria to Belka.

　The plan for the future is to keep Iria in Belka and have her gather information on Behemoth through both the temple and adventurers' routes.


''How did it go?''

The last sighting was a year and a half ago. "The last sighting was a year and a half ago," he said, "and it was said that the shadow of a huge animal, which could be tens of meters across the sandstorm, was spotted. Around the same time, there was a report of a huge tail disappearing over the dunes.

'I see. It doesn't look like it's something you'll find today or tomorrow, after all.


　Ilaria gave a small nod at those words and sat down on the couch a little further away from me with an obviously nervous look on her face.

　Incidentally, there is only one room I took. There are two bunks, but there are no rules that require you to use both. It's not that I had to explain further to Ilaria, but from the look of it, she seemed to understand why I had brought only Ilaria with me.

　--It's not just a matter of time before you'll be able to get your hands on it, it's also a matter of consideration for Priestess Sela, who has neglected the target of her vengeance along with Miroslav and Lunamaria until today. He felt that he couldn't seduce his mother if he messed with her daughter, so he didn't act on Ilaria until today.

　But now that I've shaken off my feelings for the priest, I don't have to hold back on my daughter. Or rather, I feel that my attachment to Ilaria has increased instead. A daughter instead of a mother. It sounds horrible, but the memory of the time when the Lord of the Flies ate me in the lair of the Lord of the Flies makes me kick away my guilt like a stone on the side of the road.

　In addition to that past sin, he also owes his life to the cure for the incurable poison. There was no shortage of reasons to assemble the Priest Warrior.