‘Trump card?’

‘Yeah . I don’t care how it’s been disguised . I’m going to uncover it . …All of you, leave the suspicious area for now! …Move out so you are not within this boundary here . ’

I said as I made a large circle on the map .

I was sure that something was hidden there .

‘Okay!’

We hadn’t found any human footprints within the circle .

…Perhaps they had some kind of device that helped them create these cursed magic stones more efficiently .

If that was the case, I could understand why these cursed stones had been placed here so densely . After all, if there was no reason to do so, it would make more sense to scatter them further apart .

The slimes finished their evacuation as I considered this .

‘…Yuji . What are you going to do?”

‘Destroy the forest . …Uh, as a Dryad . Do you mind?’

I asked her .

What I was now going to do was undoubtedly an act of deforestation .

After all, it was necessary in order to uncover what the enemy was hiding .

Unless the Blue Moon of Salvation had done something to make it withstand the power of h.e.l.lfire of Death—then it should not be able to escape my eye .

…Of course, if the Dryad told me to stop, then I would think of another way .

‘There are no Dryads in this forest, so it’s okay . Forests return after a while anyway . …And having cursed stones made here is the bigger problem . ’

Good . I had permission now .

So there was nothing to worry about .

“…h.e.l.lfire of Death!”

I chanted . And magic energy left my body all at once .

And then the now familiar sight of explosive flames . They enveloped the forest .

The flames erased the trees and the packed snow until there was no trace of them ever being there .

And when the fire was gone…

‘There’s something strange there!’

‘There’s a big hole in the ground!’

A giant hole had opened up .

There had been a thick sheet of iron several meters underneath the forest .

And under the sheet of metal…

“…A machine?”

There were lots of machines .

h.e.l.lfire of Death had melted them . So they did not retain their original shape, but there were a few dozen clumps of metal that looked much too intricate to be natural .

And so I cooled off the area with water magic and then walked closer to it .

I didn’t know if it was true for all of them, but some of the devices must have been used to help grow the cursed stones .

While I inspected the machines, they started to groan .

It looked like there were people inside of them .

The machines and the thick layer of dirt and the iron plate had saved them from death .

As the surface layer had been destroyed, there was no way to tell how they had gotten in . But judging by the fact that there were no footprints, it must have been quite a while ago .

…This would be very bad if they happened to be innocent .

Well, that was highly unlikely considering where they were, but I would have to save them in order to find out .

And so I moved closer…and then I heard a voice come from the machines .

“…A Saviour…for this filthy world…”

Yes, there was no mistaking it . They were from the Blue Moon of Salvation .

Then…they would only try to hurt themselves if I helped them .

That in itself was fine, but there was a possibility that they would explode or use traps that could affect the rest of us .

And so I stopped walking and put my hands together .

While they were enemies, they were still humans .

I wasn’t going to help them or anything, but I could at least pay my respects .

But I wasn’t going to show mercy to people who were trying to destroy the world .

After a while, the area cooled enough so that the slimes could enter .

The weather had made things cool faster than they would have .

‘Tell me if you find anything!’

‘Okay!’

The slimes said as they entered the giant hole in the ground .

And before long, a slime shouted .

‘There’s a tunnel here!’

So there was a hidden pa.s.sage after all .

So that’s why there were no footprints .

‘…I don’t know . I’m not sure I feel like going in directly . ’

I said . After all, I didn’t know what was in there .

It would be one thing if it was an ordinary crime organization . But this was the Blue Moon of Salvation…

As I considered this… One of the slimes went inside!