Nicole led me to a private room in the restaurant where, for some reason, the king of the land was waiting for me.
　Victor di Grandia.
　He was a middle-aged man with a toned body.

　King Victor described himself as a descendant of a family that knew about something called calamity.

　I've fought against it twice before.
　The Black Dragon of Extremis.
　The Empty Violent Dragon.

I also have the skill of 【Calamity Killer】, so even if I encounter calamities in the future, I won't have much trouble.
　But what is a calamity in the first place?
　There was zero information on that area of the world, and it was a blur for me.
　That's why it was convenient for me to meet the "descendants of a family that knows about the thing called disaster." ...... It was convenient for me to meet King Victor.

　We took our seats for the moment.
　It's a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you're looking for when you're looking for it.　
　I'm just sandwiched between Iris and Lily.

　...... Or rather, is it okay to talk about the disaster without keeping it private?

　It's okay for me and Iris to be the party, but what about Lily?
　As I was thinking about this, Lily opened her mouth in confusion.

I'm sure you're not interrupting me, are you?　If there's anything you don't want to hear, it's out there, but ......

　At Lily's offer, King Victor shook his head.

''Lily-kun, I think it was. I'd rather have you in attendance. ...... I had to do a little research beforehand, but you are a descendant of an ancient civilization, aren't you?　Then you should know about the disaster.

　Lily is a descendant of the great sage Mobius.
　In that sense, she is indeed a descendant of an ancient civilization.

''Wow, I get it: ....... I'll hide behind Mr. Ko and secretly listen in.

　I'm not sure why I'm mentioning my name there, but at any rate, Lily seems to be sitting in the same room with me.

I'm probably the one who is most out of place.

　Nicole mutters jokingly.

'He doesn't have the power to fight, nor is he a descendant of an ancient civilization. He's a man with no characteristics except that he knows ...... Lord Ko.
Nicole was formerly with the Royal Academy's archaeology lab.

　King Victor added.

''I have a certain understanding of ancient civilizations, and I'm also the next chairman of commerce for the Scarlet Chamber of Commerce. The response to the ...... calamity will be quite extensive. The country alone won't have enough hands to deal with it. That's why I asked Nicole to help me out first. Well, the main reason is that I know Kou-kun.

　I'm a very influential person: .......
　When I was in modern day Japan, I was a corporate salaryman everywhere, so I'm a bit confused.
　My bosses would tell me, "There's a replacement for you everywhere! I remember being yelled at.
　Compared to that, we're treated very politely in the other world.
　Life, really, you never know what's going to happen.

　...... After that, King Victor taught me a lot about the disaster until the food arrived.

　I can summarize the story in my own words like this.

　　A calamity is "a powerful dragon with the power to destroy civilization".
　　Each calamity emerges according to a specific rule and causes destruction and slaughter.
　　Multiple plagues may appear at the same time.
　　This world has been destroyed many times by disasters.

　By the way, the cycle until the destruction of the world seems to be repeating: "disaster happens" → "people who survived the disaster manage to rebuild civilization" → "after hundreds to thousands of years, civilization returns to its original level" → "disaster happens".

　In that sense, a calamity might be a 'reset device for civilization'.

　At the end of his explanation, King Victor added the following

''Right now, disturbing events are continuing in various parts of the kingdom. Demon outbreaks, eerie earthquakes, weather anomalies ....... My prediction is that other calamities will still appear.
'Don't you know where and what calamities lie?'

　When I asked him that, King Victor gave me a disappointed look.

''I'm sorry. I'm sorry, there are no records of that area. ...... calamity is a really troublesome entity. You can't predict when and where they will appear, but they will certainly appear sooner or later and cause a great deal of damage.
So it's like a typhoon or an earthquake.
'Yeah, Kou-kun is right. The calamity would be a natural disaster in the form of a dragon, I suppose.

　Natural disaster. ?
　If it's a typhoon or an earthquake, there are measures to be taken in case of a disaster.
　What are we doing to prepare for calamities?

　...... When I asked him about that, King Victor immediately responded.

''For example, all of the cities in the Kingdom of Grangia are surrounded by walls. It may be comforting, but it's another way of preparing for the appearance of disaster.

　Other than that, they have built an information network so that when an abnormal situation occurs, the royal palace is immediately contacted, and they seem to have sent out advance notices to each noble family and adventurer's guild about how to respond to emergencies, encouraging them to train on a regular basis.
　Come to think of it, during the Black Dragon Incident in Onen, both Count Mayard and the Adventurer's Guild were very quick to respond.

　However, it seems that the existence of the disaster itself has been hidden as a secret known only to the king.

''To be honest, until the other day, I didn't believe in the existence of the disaster. To be honest, until the other day, I didn't believe in the existence of any disaster, because in the eight hundred years since the Grungea Kingdom took its present form, there has never been a single disaster.

　Yes, I can see why you would want to keep quiet about the disaster in such a situation.
　The worst thing that could happen is that people's trust in the king could be shaken or there could be a panic among the people.

But you never know what will happen in this world. We've been working on the wall and building an information network as part of our disaster preparedness. ...... I didn't think it would be really useful,

　King Victor murmured sincerely and then turned to me again.

I'm sure you'll be able to find out what I've been up to," he said, "but what I've been up to is just an evil struggle to reduce the damage of the disaster as much as possible. ...... Even with the combined strength of our country, we will not be able to defeat the disaster.

　That might be natural.
　Both black dragons and tyrannical dragons had power that was incomparable to ordinary demons.
　Even if they gathered tens of thousands of soldiers, they would only be reamed away collectively.

''According to our clan's lore, we humans have always been defeated by disaster. No matter how hard we tried, our country was dying and our civilization was crumbling. But Ko has fought the disaster twice and won both times. ...... This is a tremendous feat.

　I don't know.
　I don't really feel like I'm doing anything with it.
　As for me, I felt like I was just "clearing up the mess in front of me," so I'm kind of confused when I get this much credit.

'Anyway, you defeated two disasters and saved our country from destruction. I'm very grateful. Thank you. ...... Only, Ko-kun's achievement is too great for me to decide how we should repay him as a country. Is there any hope for us?
Hope?
'Whatever you want. I will give you whatever is within my discretion. I don't care if it's a title or a fiefdom, or if you take my daughter as your wife and become a member of the royal family. You have accomplished that much. How about ......?

　Hmm.
　Oh boy.
　A title, a fiefdom, joining the royal family.
　They all seem to be tied up in troublesome ties, and they're not appealing at all.

''For now, let me refrain from being a nobleman or royalty.
"Law.

　King Victor sounded surprised.

'So you're not interested in status or power. You are as humble as they say you are.'
It's not that I'm not interested, it's just that I don't want any trouble.

　As for me, I want to continue my current, carefree life.
　I want to go wherever I want, whenever I want, and do what I want.
　I just want to enjoy the freedom I never imagined when I was a corporate employee, and I just want to enjoy those days.

I get it.

　King Victor nodded.

''The titles and estates are just examples, I wouldn't say they're forced. It's true that royalty and nobility are a lot of trouble. For a substandard hero like you, they'll only be a liability.

　Good, I think they understand.
　I may get along with royalty and nobility, but I don't want to be royalty and nobility.
　As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to stick to this policy.

　In the end, I've put my hopes on hold.
　If you think of it as a favor to the king, it's a pretty big advantage.

　So that's the end of the conversation, and it was time to eat.
　The food was a full-course meal, all of which was excellent.
　It was especially good that the bread was freshly baked and I had two or three more.

　...... There was a variety of sumptuous meat dishes and such, but the one that left the biggest impression on me was the bread, so maybe I'm a bit of a poor man.



　Ah, yes.
　While we were eating, I checked King Viktor's skills at 【Appraisal】, so I'll introduce them to you.

　King Victor's two skills are 【Vigilance】 and 【Guardian of Killing Calamity】.

The effect of 【Vigilance】 was to make those around him naturally respect him by behaving in an imposing manner.
　It could be said to be the perfect skill for a king.

　However, I had the [Otherworldly Person] skill, and since the effect included mental tolerance, it seemed that [Dignity] didn't work for me.


　And the other skill, ...... [Guardian of the Disaster Killer], was described like this

''Guardian of the Killing of Calamity.

　This skill has three effects.
　1) Understand the name and characteristics of the demon.
　Disables all status abnormalities caused by the disaster.
　(3) The following subskills are released only when fighting against the disaster.
　[Absolute Realm]
　　It creates a special magical warding that nullifies all attacks of disaster.
　　The warding will disappear in 48 hours.
　　Activation requires Kou Kou Koussaka's approval.''

　It's kind of like the [Dragon Princess of the Disaster Slayer].
　However, the sub-skills are slightly different.
　As befits the name of a guardian, she seems to be able to deploy a barrier to prevent the attacks of calamity.

　Hm.
　For example, let's say that in the future, if I encounter multiple disasters at once, I'll ask King Victor to help me.
Iris and I will set up a warding with the Absolute Realm, while destroying the disasters one by one.　


　* * *


　The dinner party ended in an amicable atmosphere, and the party was dismissed without further ado.
　After returning to the inn, I lay down on my bed and immediately fell asleep.

　The next day, I headed to the Royal Academy.
　The next day, I headed to the Royal Academy to complete a quest.

　Remember that young archaeologist named Relic?
　I met him in Oonen, the third son of a duke.
　I had received a quest from Relic.
　It is a very good idea to take the remnants of the Orichalcong Golem to the archeological laboratory of the Royal Academy.

　...... I headed to the Royal Academy, but unfortunately, the archaeological laboratory was not at home.

　A clerk at the Royal Academy (a serious-looking bespectacled woman in her mid-20s, who looked good in a tight skirt). When I asked her about it, she told me that a rare fossil had been unearthed in the mountains some distance from the capital, and all the members of the laboratory had gone to the excavation site.

...... I'm in a bind. Maybe we should come back later on for this one.

　As I was pondering, the clerk's sister let out a small voice, "Ah.

''Could it be that you're Kou Koussaka-san from the [Dragon Slayer]?　If so, Mr. Relic has told me about it. I'll take you to the underground storage room in the archaeology lab and you can take the items you've requested there.

　Oh.
　Well, it looks like Lerik has been through it beforehand.
　My sister took me to the underground warehouse.
　I took out the remnants of the Orihalcon Golem from the item box, and the quest was complete.

　Incidentally, my sister, who was present at the scene, rolled her eyes in surprise when she saw the wreckage of the Orihalcon Golem.

''This Orihalcon Golem was defeated by Ko-san?
Yeah.
'Awesome ......!　You're really strong: ......!

　The clerk's sister murmured sincerely and then began to say this.

The fact is, I'm a fan of Ko-san's ......《Dragon Killer》. If you don't mind, may I shake your hand ......?
Um, ......, well, that's fine.
Oh, thank you very much!　I won't wash my hands anymore!

　No, get it clean.
　I mean, I don't know what in the world would make you happy to shake hands with an old man like me.
　I don't know what a young woman thinks: .......

　Afterwards, I left the Royal Academy with the clerk's sister's happy smile on my face.

　Now that I've completed my quest, I'll go report to the Adventurer's Guild.
　Oh, yeah, that's right.

　I wonder how long my adventurer rank is going to remain at F.
　The guildmaster in Surie told me earlier that my achievements are too big for him to process my achievements, or something like that.

　I'd like to believe that the process is indeed over by now ......, but I'm not sure.

　Anyway, let's go for it.