In the east of the Western Continent, next to the Holy Kingdom of Arendt, lies the Kingdom of Curiela.
　It is located in the easternmost part of the continent, and due to the long, high mountain range that straddles the Holy Kingdom of Arendt and the Kingdom of Rangeland, the only trade it once had was a scant amount of airship trade, or trade with Panachez to the north by ship.
　However, with the discovery of the new continent, the Kingdom of Curiela quickly found trading partners in Lefries, Belfast and Mismid.
　Suddenly there were trading partners not far across the ocean. This was a positive thing for the Kingdom of Curiela.
　We have the magic engineering and golem technology. From the other side, magic technology and magic tools.
　There was also plenty of culture, art, and food that they wanted to trade that they didn't have in the western continent.
　The Kingdom of Curiela had entered an era of great trade.
　Trade goods from the eastern continent gathered in the Kingdom of Curiela, and merchants from the western countries came all the way across the steep foothills to seek them out. From west to east and east to west. Just by moving things around, the kingdom of Curiela would build up wealth.
　All the merchants of Curiela built one large ship after another and crossed to the eastern continent, dreaming of success. There were some seas where huge demonic beasts lurked in those seas that crossed over to the two continents, but it didn't seem to matter in the face of the merchants' ambitions.
　A few ships disappeared with the seaweed, but still, the ships set sail.
　The Gulf City of Alpris, located in the east of the Kingdom of Curiela, was one of those merchants, and was one of the bustling towns where such merchants gathered.
　The port city is now a crucible of confusion.
　It is being attacked by a swarm of half-fishmen who have suddenly emerged from the sea.
　No, it's not just the half-fishmen. A four-armed, slender golem and a four-meter tall rock giant had also emerged from the sea and were attacking them.
　The half-fishermen attacked the humans, while the four-armed golems set fire to the cityscape. The rock giants were destroying everything in sight.
　A nightmarish scene spread through the port city, which was in the midst of its prosperity.
　The guards golems and knights guarding Alpris evacuated the townspeople while fighting off the attackers.
　But fire was everywhere, and Alpris was already trapped to the point of being helpless.
　The despair of the people is growing as they are overrun by unreasonable forces.
　A figure looked down on the fleeing people from the roof of the tall bell tower, which was in two pairs.

'Good, good. The burning flames, the destruction of the city, and the echoing despair. 'It's great!'

　Standing in the bell tower was a boy.
　The lower half of his face was obscured by an iron mask, but the boy's eyes were clearly laughing. His twin eyes, filled with a glow of amusement, showed the burning city of Alpris.
　The boy wore an adventurer's style outfit and a purple-blue cloak, and in his hand he held an oddly shaped spear. It was an eerie metallic purple spear with a stone pike and mouthpiece with the design of a gigantic eyeball.

''Come on, 'Wistaria. Here's your feast.

　As the boy raised his spear above his head, a black blur rose up from all over the town, preying on the spear as if it were sucking him in.
　The black blur rose up from the confused and fleeing people. People who had been plucked out of it, unseen by normal eyes, flopped down on the spot.
　It is alive. But its eyes had been drained of life.
　The metallic purple spear that sucked out the black blur, the evil divine weapon 'Wistaria', increases in brilliance.

''Sora, by the way!

　The boy on top of the bell tower flashed his spear in a flash. Then tens of thousands of lightning bolts shot out from the tip of the spear and destroyed all the ships docked in the harbor.

''Kuhahahaha!　Well, I blew it!　Well, let's see.
You're still playing, Orchid. It's time to pull out.

　Before I knew it, another man wearing a diving helmet was standing behind the boy. He had a deep blue hatchet, or hatchet, hanging at his waist.

''What the hell, Indigo. I'm in a good place right now?
'It's not about destroying the town, it's just about collecting negative human emotions, right?
I know. That's why you're collecting them.

　The boy called Orchid waved the purple spear 《Wistaria》 in his hand and showed it to the diving helmet.
　What the Wicked Vessel was absorbing just now was the negative emotions that humans possessed. To be precise, it was fear.
　Of all the negative emotions such as anger, hatred, sadness and pain, fear is the one that is most easily inflicted by others. This is an emotion of self-preservation that comes from survival instincts and therefore is difficult to escape, and it was easy for anyone to be controlled by the mind.
　A human being whose mind was eaten by the evil divine instrument would be a living dead person. If you lose your heart, your soul, what you have there is just a shell.

''I'm not too impressed with this kind of gathering, though.
'Don't bother drugging them, it's a lot faster this way. Indigo's way is a pain in the ass.
'That one has a high degree of purity to it. Fear only erodes the soul momentarily. It's more highly pure if the potion slowly builds up the negative emotions and tints them towards despair...''
'Oh, yes, yes,'

　Orchid ignored Indigo's story. 'This man is a former priest,' he said, 'and he has a preachy streak to him.

''If you've reached your goal, I'll pull up quickly. It would be tricky if the country's Knights came out.''
It would be fun to see it come out.
No matter how strong you are, you are not strong enough to take on a nation. That's just the way it is right now, isn't it?
d*mn, he's boring.

　A blue bubble rippled at their feet and disappeared as they fell into the water with a thump.
　As if triggered by this, the half-fishmen, four-armed golems and rock giants stopped attacking the town and turned back to the sea again.
　It was later discovered that some of the injured townspeople then mutated and disappeared into the sea, looking just like the half-fishmen.
　The town of Alpris was destroyed. Ironically, there were still only a few adventurer's guilds on the western continent, and the Kingdom of Curiela had not joined the World Alliance, so it took a while for this information to reach the world.
　

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Concert hall...
'We invite traveling minstrels and musicians to play. It will also provide temporary entertainment for those passing through Brunhild.
'Hmm. I guess it's not so bad.

　It seems that Prime Minister Takasaka-san is on board with the story Sakura has proposed. It's true that nowadays there are only two places to play, the tavern and Central Park.
　A bar is a bar, and sometimes it's fun to have a live performance.
　Mr. Kosaka went to Mr. Naito, the construction manager, to decide the place. Worked quickly as usual. Thanks to this, he has been helped, but is he taking a holiday?　I should force him to take a vacation next time.

But what's going on with you all of a sudden?　Concert hall.
Yoshino told me. Yoshino told me that in the future, you played there with me many times.

　Oh, I see. I guessed that Yoshino must have blurted it out. So it was decided to build a concert hall sooner or later?
　When I was convinced, the very same "Yoshino" suddenly appeared in the office where we were staying. That's why I was told not to get sidetracked by [teleportation].

''Tou-sama!　Mother!　Look at this!　The doctor gave it to me!

　Saying this, Yoshino held out a guitar in front of us. It was a guitar. It wasn't a normal sized guitar, but a slightly smaller one that looked like a kid's guitar.
　I was a little surprised to see that it was an electric guitar, and to my surprise, it was an electric guitar. A Stratocaster, eh?
　As I recall, Sakura bought some books on musical instruments on her honeymoon. She also bought some musical instruments..... The one from the doctor, did you use that as a reference?
　Yoshino strummed his guitar with his pick. The sound of the guitar echoed around me quite loudly, even though I didn't have an amplifier. This isn't just an electric guitar. It's a magic tool, right? And the magic of the 【Speaker】 is activated.
　Yoshino is happily scratching his guitar. No, hey, isn't my boy amazing?　I'm out of the loop on the guitar, but I know this performance is awesome.
　Hmm?　This intro.........
　This song.........that song?　I wonder how Yoshino knows this song. Did he hear it from me or Sakura in the future?
　This is the signature song of a band led by the greatest guitarist and renowned musician in rock history. He passed away at the age of twenty-seven, but his presence had a profound effect on future generations of musicians. ........Yoshino doesn't play with his teeth, does he?
　Like the title of the song, the purple smoke seems to cling to the reeds, but is this magic?
　I thought I started to sing, but it wasn't Yoshino, it was Sakura who started singing. Your mother is singing!
　The voice of a thousand different cherry blossoms changes to a husky, bluesy one that accompanies the song. The power of the song is amazing as always.
　I can't help but keep the rhythm to Yoshino's guitar. My grandpa used to listen to this song because he liked it so much.

"Playing 'performance magic' on the guitar is fun, but the real thing is more fun!

　When he finished playing one song, Yoshino smiled with satisfaction.
　The "performance magic" is one that summons the pseudo-body of the instrument to release a musical spell. It has the same effect as Sakura's "singing magic". I'm sure Yoshino prefers performing to singing.
　When the concert hall is built, I'd like to listen to these two perform and sing there, but it's impossible to complete it while Yoshino is there, I guess.
　It's not impossible to build it with Babylon's power, but it would take away the work of the construction workers, you know. I'm holding my own in that area.
　Well, I'll look forward to hearing it in the future.

Lord, are you okay now? Lord, are you okay now?
Hmm?　Is it amber?

　As I was thinking about the future, a telepathic message arrived from Amber.

'There is a small problem at the Adventurer's Guild. Kuon-sama and Alice-dono are in a bit of trouble.''
What?

　In the Adventurers' Guild?　Why are Kudo and Alice?
　I'm not sure, but something troublesome has happened.
　Anyway, let's go. I opened the 【Gate】 towards the Adventurer's Guild.


　　　　　　　　　　◇ ◇ ◇ ◇


　When I came to the Adventurer's Guild after passing through the [Gate], there was something noisy. For some reason, even the adventurers who would normally be winding up in the tavern next door are gathered behind the counter. I'm sure it was a demolition yard.
　As I made my way through the crowd of adventurers to the counter, Misha-san, the receptionist and cat beastman, beckoned me over to her.

''What in the world happened?''
'Well, that's........ Um, I think it would be quicker if you could see it. Over here.

　I was taken by Misha-san and led through the counter to the demolition area.
　At the back of the Adventurer's Guild is the dismantling place for defeated monsters. Normally, the dismantling place of the Adventurer's Guild isn't that big. This is because even if you kill a large monster beast, it's difficult to bring it in.
　Most of the time, you have to go to the site and dismantle them, or bring them back in a cart with the parts taken apart.
　But Brunhild's demolition site is reasonably large. This is because there are many people like me and Ende who can use storage magic. Yae and the others also use smartphones with storage magic granted to them.
　To top it off, there were also Nia and the others with the same smartphone, such as Nia and the others from "Red Cat" [Akaneko], and Norn, the master of the black "Crown" noir, who had the same smartphone, so they had made quite a bit of space.
　And now, a single demonic beast was lying down to fill most of the space in that large demolition area.
　It looks like a giant wolf. But it has wings. Its tail is a snake, with fur as black as obsidian.
　Naturally, its white eyes and long tongue show no signs of life.
　Along with the workers at the demolition site, I could see Guildmaster Lelisha-san and Kuon and Alice sitting on a chair by the wall with a troubled look on their faces. Ember and Silver are also at their feet.

''Ah, Your Majesty. You're here, aren't you?''
Excuse me, have my ... my relatives done anything wrong?
It's not that I've done anything... or that I've done anything enough, but...

　Relisha-san chuckles. The other side also seemed to be unsure of what to answer.

''I'm sorry, Chichiu... Your Majesty. Me and Alice were going to hunt a demonic beast to earn a little bit of pocket money, but we were suddenly attacked by this demonic beast in the north forest. Well, it wasn't very strong, so we managed to defeat it, but when we brought it to the Adventurer's Guild, it caused a stir.

　The competent son explained it clearly. Oh, I knew it was you guys who defeated it.

I've never seen a monster like this before. I mean, has there ever been anything like this in the Brunnhild area?　I think it flowed from around Regulus....
No, this is no ordinary hexenbiest.

　As I was checking out the winged wolf again, Relisha-san opened an old parchment book and explained to me.
　The book had a picture of a wolf demonic beast looking exactly like the wolf lying here. But the words were unreadable. Is it ancient language?

''This demonic beast's name is Markosias. It is a vicious demonic beast with steel body hair and a mouth that breathes fire, its strength is at the silver rank level in modern times.
"Hmm..... Hmm?　To put it in modern terms?

　I looked up from the book, feeling uncomfortable with Relisha-san's strange phrasing.

''This magical beast called Marcocius is a legendary magical beast that was said to have become extinct about three thousand years ago...no, it was said to be extinct. So we were surprised that it was brought to us.

　Huh?　He's an extinct species?　
　Could it be that Kuon and the others killed the last surviving animal?
　Well, on Earth, they might be accused of preserving species or something, but this is a different world. There are plenty of magical beasts that are better off to be exterminated. Goblins and orcs, for example. They seem to be vicious monsters, so I don't think that's a problem....

So is there a problem with that.......is there a problem?
I can't put a price on the materials, you know. I can't even imagine how much I should pay for the materials of an extinct monster, so it's difficult to buy them... So it's difficult to buy them...

　Oh, I see. So you can't put a price on it because it's unprecedented. That said, it's too good a material for the Adventurer's Guild to pass up. So that's what was bothering them.

''What about selling them at the auction hosted by the Adventurer's Guild...?
''It's going to fetch a ridiculous amount of money, but I think it's the only way. However, in the case of an auction, minors are not allowed to sell their items....

　Mr. Relisha glanced over at the two men sitting in their chairs. Ah, so there was a problem there, too.
　In response to that, a suggestion is made by Kuon.

I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work. Since we only need to get some money.
'What?　Are you sure?
Yes. Alice is good too, right?
Okay. I don't have any use for it anyway, even if I get that much.

　No, I'm not going to pocket the money you guys make. I'll hold onto it, though. You're going to have to take a look at Yumina and Ende, though.
　For now, I'll hand a gold coin each to Kudo and Alice as an advance payment. 100,000 yen for an allowance is a strange financial sense, even after all this time.

So, this guy was definitely in the north forest, right?
''Yes. At first I was looking for a monster beast at the entrance of the forest, but I couldn't find it. When I went a little further in, I was suddenly attacked by a hexenbiest. Perhaps they were afraid of this hexenbiest and the other hexenbiests disappeared.

　A silver-ranked class would be at the upper dragon level if it was not good enough. The fact that such a monster beast was so close to the town made me feel a sense of danger.
　However, the safety of the area around Brunhild is supposed to be constantly monitored by the birds under Beniyu's command....... Did I miss a report?
　Anyway, it's fortunate that Kuon and the others found it by accident. If they had made one mistake, the inhabitants could have been affected.
　Since the world was unified, elemental pools have been forming all over the place, and giant beasts, or their equivalents, are being born.
　Relisha-san also said that a stampede might have been occurring as a result of the giant beast.
　It's possible that a stampede might have occurred in Brunhild. When you think about it, this must have been a lucky break.

''Amber. Can you check the animals in the vicinity of the town to see if there are any strange magical beasts or anything else?
As you wish. I will send them out on a quick search.

　Yeah. I don't think so, but it's not necessarily true that there aren't other individuals that are the same. A mate, or a parent and child, perhaps.
　The fact that this individual has existed until this time period means that there might be a similar species.
　But they're not animals, they're monsters. It's the same with monsters, but they don't have to be the same species to be born. It's the same with goblins.
　This Markosias, for example, may be the next generation of Markosias to be born with a wolf female.

I'm sure you're aware of that. I'm not sure if we're ready to go. I'd like to have a tea with Kudo.

　As I was pondering on the biology of demonic beasts, Alice spoke to me as if she had had enough of this place.

''Alright. I'll take over this place and you can go now.
'Yes!　Well, then, Your Majesty, keep this for me!　Kuon, let's go!
'What?　Hey, Alice...!

　As Alice said that, she threw the still-sheathed Silver towards me, pulled the flinching Kuon's hand and disappeared from the Adventurer's Guild in the blink of an eye.

''Hey kora, you dickhead!　You've been treating me like I'm in the way, d*mn it!　Sir, let me go!　You don't want your little boy to fall into the hands of a poisonous woman!''
No. Poisoned women. Don't say that in front of her father.　You'll be broken, okay?

　I ponder what to do about this, while being dismayed by Silver, who is flailing in my hand. It's a great (?) You don't need a bothering bug for a date, do you? Well, I doubt it's a date, though. Should I talk to Umina about it?

"Hey!
Oh.

　As I was troubled, Silver slipped out of its scabbard and flew towards the exit only the main body. All of the adventurers panicked at the sword that flew out of nowhere.
　I was able to escape. I'm sure Alice will complain about it later........

''Your Majesty, what the hell is that sword...?
Oh, never mind. Well, let's get you to the auctioneer's office.

　It was too much trouble, so I let Relisha's question go through. And I don't know much about Silver, either.
　Huh?　Wasn't Coon looking into that guy?　... well, okay.