I was in a touristy mood until yesterday, but today I'm finally coming to Sevalia to visit the Association.
　I brought only Noll and Esther with me, and Freesia and the others are staying behind.
　I gave Sisha a dimension bracelet just in case, so even if Freesia goes out of control, she'll be caught soon, so she should be fine.

''Ugh, our peaceful, hunting-free life is over...''

'It can't be helped. I'm here originally at the request of the association, so we can't stay here forever doing sightseeing.

Yes, but.....

　Noor is walking around with his shoulders slumped, sounding melancholy.
　It's like watching someone lamenting on a Sunday night or after the holidays.

''Don't worry, I'll be able to resume collecting the magic stones properly.

"What does that make you feel secure, sir?　I was relieved that Okura-dono has calmed down recently and stopped talking about the gacha...

You'll get a good rebound for that, you can count on it.

Oh no....we're going home...

Brother, you're not supposed to play with Noll.

Ha, sorry, sorry.

　Watching Noll lamenting makes me want to play around with it.
　But actually, I haven't done any serious magic stone gathering since I summoned Freesia, so I'm going to get back into it.
　I've got one more as a firepower slot, and I'll be more efficient than before!　
　As a bowman, which hunting ground should I have Freesia work in?
　The trees are going to get in the way in the goblin forest, and the attacks won't get through in the caves to the north.
　Compared to Luna, a self-proclaimed small fish specialist, Freesia doesn't seem to be very suitable for efficient hunting.
　If it's a mimicking opponent like Lapis, it would work.......well, we'll have to think about that after we actually start the hunt.

　I asked the townspeople where the Adventurer's Association is located, and then moved for a while towards the center from the entrance.
　Then I saw a familiar sign and arrived at the Adventurer's Society.
　It's bigger than Brunne, but it's a small two-story building compared to the Society in the King's City.
　It's about the same size as the association in Queles, so I guess the main town's branches are about this size.
　I quickly went inside and called out to the receptionist.

''Um, I'm here for the first time today, but...''

Are you already registered as an adventurer?

'Yes, I'll just give you the plate and fill out the forms, won't I?

'Right. Well, I'll leave the plate with you, and in the meantime, please fill it out here.

　I handed the plate to the receptionist, and while she went to the back, I filled out the familiar form every time.
　This is the fourth time I've done this, so I'm used to the process.
　After I finished filling out the form and waited a bit, the receptionist returned and asked me to return the plate.

'Okura-sama........right?　You may be from Sting....

'Yes, I was asked by the King's Society to come to this city.

So it was Okura-sama, after all. We need to talk to you. Please wait a moment.

　As soon as he checked the papers, he left us and went upstairs.

'We just arrived, what is it that you want to talk about?'

Isn't it about the Diabolus?　We came to this town because of the report of that demon's discovery.

Oh, that's right. Heh, I was so busy sightseeing that I forgot all about it.

From the moment you heard of the port city, all you could think about was the food, anyway.

That's not true!　Utterly, I'm going to be rude!

　Noor is buzzing and waving his arms up and down, angry.
　No, no, anyone would think that after seeing that and the way he's been acting since he arrived in this town.......

　Soon after that, the receptionist came back and we were led upstairs to a room.
　When we walked in, there was a small, fat old man.
　He had a dazzling smile on his face and was in a very welcoming mood.

I thought to myself, "Well, well, well, well, you're Okura!　Christoph told me about it!　The Great Defeat is solved and the labyrinth is traversed!　And I hear it's a party of highly anticipated new adventurers who got a B-rank exceptionally quickly!　Well, ever since I was told you guys were coming to town, I've been too busy worrying about it to get to work... oh, don't just stand there, sit down and sit down.

Yes, sir.

You are a very well-spoken man, aren't you?

I didn't have time to interrupt.

　I didn't have time to say hello to him.
　But I'm thankful that he seemed to be easy to deal with, judging by the atmosphere.
　He motioned to me with his hand, so I did as he said and sat down in the chair facing him.

I'm sorry for talking so soon after meeting you. My name is Bence, I'm the head of the chapter in this association.

Thank you for your kindness. As I'm sure you know, my name is Heihachi Okura.

　I knew it, but I knew this guy was a big shot here.
　I've never met the head of a chapter in any association other than King's Landing until now, but there is a proper head of each association.
　I wonder if there are people like that in the association in Brunne.

''You mean you want to talk to us.......but that's in regards to the matter you were told by the head of the association in King's Capital, right?''

'Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Though I don't know what you guys have been told by Mr. Kristoff, so I'd like to check things out.

Do you think your uncle has any details about the demon?

'You mean the black monster in the sky, right?　I heard the report of the discovery from the adventurers, and it was similar to the demon that Christophe-san told me about before, so I reported it to you in case you were wondering. Well, it's scary that a demon might be involved, isn't it? At my age, I never thought I'd ever hear about a demon. When I was still young, I heard about demons in old stories and--

'Oh, um, I'm sorry to interrupt, but can I ask you something about the investigation?'

　I knew from the beginning that you were a big talker, but it might be more than I expected.
　I have a feeling that if you continue to listen to him without saying anything, you're going to get more and more sidetracked.
　He seems like a good-natured person, so I'm a little sorry, but I have to interrupt and stop the conversation.

Oh, sorry, sorry. I'm sorry, I've heard about that demon from Christophe as well. So the reason you guys came to Sevalia is to investigate that demon, right?

'Yes, so could you tell us more about where the demon was found?

'Apparently we're both aware of each other's perceptions. I invited you guys to talk about it, too.

　After nodding his head, Mr. Bence stood up and brought out a sheet of paper from the cupboard in the room and spread it out on the desk.
　It looked like a map, with red circles in places.

This is a map of the area around Sevalia, and this red circle is the current reported location of the discovery.

There are ten of them! How many of those demons have been found!

'You didn't tell me there were this many of them, did you?

Even after we reported the sightings to the association in the capital, there have been more and more reports of them. It's just that they could have been mistaken for similar monsters, so they may not be the ones you're looking for. However, there are reports of a party of C-ranked adventurers who fought with that kind of monster and then escaped. Also, we have warned adventurers in Sevalia not to fight the black monster.

　Oh, I didn't expect to hear so many reports of sightings.
　From the looks of it, the whole area around Sevalia is marked with circles.
　I didn't think there were even adventurers who engaged in battle.
　Does that mean they are that active?
　And yet, if there have been no noticeable changes or damage reports, that's when things start to get scary.
　But as Bence-san says, there's also the possibility of misidentification, so we need to investigate this properly.

We've asked our B-rank adventurer party to investigate. There are more and more reports of discoveries, but when it comes to looking for them, it seems that they can't find them.

It's a flying demon. It would be quite a challenge to find one in this area alone.

I suppose. And it's going to be difficult to find a moving demon in the hunting ground. It's a very strong monster, so if you encounter it in a bad place, it will probably get the better of you.

　Unlike the demons in the hunting grounds, Diabolos seem to fly around at will.......
　If we were to pinpoint it, we'd have a hard time finding it, unless we had to move fast with beacons and magic carpets like we did.

But since you guys, who have actually defeated that demon, have come, it's very reassuring to know that you're here. I'll let the adventurers who are searching for you know that you are here. If you get stuck in your search, it would be great if you could exchange information with each other. Of course, the association will keep you updated on new information, so please report back to us if you learn anything.

Yes, I understand.

　Considering his strength, a C-ranked adventurer would be dangerous, so the number of people to search for him would be limited.
　We'll have to exchange information with the B-ranked adventurer parties that are already investigating.
　I'm a little worried about whether I'll be able to cooperate well with other adventurers... though I'd feel much more comfortable if Dius and the others were my partners in this kind of situation.

　........Oh, speaking of information, I was going to ask about the Skyfish.
　There's a possibility that that's also an unidentified demon, and I need to provide that information.

'Oh, and I wanted to ask you one more thing. On the way here, we encountered a small demon that looks long and slender like a stick and flies at high speed, do you know anything about it?

"Hmmm, a flying stick demon. As far as I know, I've never heard of such a monster. I'll look into it later, so can you tell me more about it?　I'll stick out the details to the Society and ask the other adventurers for more information.

　No information on the association as well.......as expected of a UMA......it seems that even in other worlds the skyfish is an unidentified creature.
　Then I explained in detail about the skyfish's abilities and more, and left the association after being told about the site of the Diabolos sighting.
　It seems that there are many marine demons such as cancers, primos and humanoid merfolk in the hunting grounds around Sevalia.
　There are also caves on the cape that appear when the tide is low, and it is said that many adventurers explore such places in Sevalia.
　It sounds romantic, but the caves that can only be entered at low tide are too scary to enter.

''The head of the branch is a more impressive person than the head of the association, isn't he?

Yeah. He seemed like a very interesting guy. We could talk about it in our spare time, you know.

　He certainly seemed like an interesting person to talk to, but if we were dating, I don't know how many hours we'd be talking about it.
　Well, he seemed like a good person, so I knew he would be easy to talk to in the future if I had any problems.

I'm not sure how many reports of discoveries are coming in one after another. It was done covertly during the time of Queres, but here it's showing up in public quite a bit.

'That's how big and bold you're trying to be.....maybe.

In the first place, what is the purpose of that demon operating over such a wide area?　If it's this extensive, maybe there's more than just one of them.

　I see, that's an idea.
　Come to think of it, if there was a Diabolus, this is the second one, along with Queres'.
　I had thought that only one of them was active, but considering the number of sightings, it's not surprising that there are multiple of them.
　.........Wow, one of them is pretty strong, but a lot of them like that wouldn't be good for you.