No records were left of just how big the city of dreams, Lands Harvest, was. As such, Hikaru could only make a guess. It had to be smaller than Dream Maker, but not that small. People wouldn't call it “founding a nation in a new continent” if the population wasn't at least a few thousand.

「Let's go.」

Trees had split the cobblestones open. Houses were destroyed. The townscape became clearer as Hikaru went deeper inside. Rusty, metal signboards lay on the ground. Dust piled up inside buildings that still had a little roof left. Dogs as tall as Hikaru prowled the main street, which was wide enough for a number of carriages to pa.s.s by one another.

「Can you tell where the guild is?」

『It stinks.』

Drake had been saying nothing but that for a while. The stench was only natural as they were deeper in the forests now.

From north to south, the ruins were located right in the middle. Dream Maker was situated way south.

After exploring for a day, Hikaru didn't find any noteworthy places. First, no objects were left inside the buildings, most likely carried out when the monsters attacked. There were too many empty houses. Second, more than half of the structures had collapsed. Some crumbled from the pa.s.sage of time, some destroyed by monsters. Even monsters fought each other.

「Hmm, let's call it a day. It's not like there's an Adventurers Guild here for sure.」

『Really?』

The city had fallen completely silent. Hikaru found a place to sleep on the second floor of a relatively undamaged building, its stairs already destroyed.

Hikaru started early the next day. He narrowed his targets down to the bigger buildings as there were just too many small houses around. He didn't have the time to check them all. First, he made his way to the lord's—or perhaps king—residence. Located in the middle of the city, it had expansive grounds. The level of destruction was worse here, however.

Almost all the walls had crumbled down, and weeds grew thick and wild on the yard. A few pillars still stood, but that was it. Unless you carefully examined the place, you wouldn't know this was the lord's mansion.

Hikaru's next destination was the town hall. Or what seemed to be a town hall. It was much taller than the other buildings, three story's high. Although the third floor had collapsed, the first and second floors were still relatively fine.

「Oh… these look like official doc.u.ments…」

Unfortunately, most of them had decomposed.

「I guess it's not like the underground dungeon.」

Despite being located deep within a cave, there wasn't a lot of moisture there, and facilities to preserve the place were also running. But Lands Harvest was located between a forest and the sea, speeding up corrosion. Hikaru didn't really care much for official doc.u.ments, so he ignored them and proceeded inside.

「This safe's damaged.」

Hikaru found a safe as tall as his waist, its door wide open. It was empty, what was inside probably taken when the monsters attacked.

「Not a lot of human bones here.」

Hikaru expected the ruins to be riddled with bones, but he barely found any. Sometimes he'd spot one in a house. Either monsters took them, or insects devoured bones, or perhaps it was simple weathering. Five hundred years seemed too fast for the last one, however. There weren't a lot of residents killed indoors. Most probably escaped by sea and some were killed outside.

Hikaru checked the second floor only to find it as devastated as the first floor.

「Hmm?」

A sound came from downstairs. Hikaru activated his Mana Detection and noticed something. He normally only deployed his detection Skill in a horizontal direction. While in the forest he activated it to include what was above him as well. Running it in all directions put too much stress on his brain.

The sound came from something that fell over. He didn't sense any living creature.

「I see. A bas.e.m.e.nt.」

『Bas.e.m.e.nt?』

「There's a bas.e.m.e.nt down here.」

Hikaru barely used his Mana Detection directly below him so he missed it initially. There was mana coming from down there.

It took some time before Hikaru found the entrance to the bas.e.m.e.nt. Eventually he examined a storage room and entered through a secret pa.s.sage that led underground.

Dust rose as he opened the door. Covering his mouth with a piece of cloth, he descended down the stairs, magic lamp in hand.

The walls and ceiling were slippery, and so was the floor. He had to proceed carefully. Soon he arrived at an open s.p.a.ce.

「Oh…」

『A storage room?』

「Looks like it.」

Shelves were installed on the wall, although it had long since collapsed from decay. Only traces of what seemed to be blackish wood remained. There was nothing in the middle of the room, but deeper inside, a magic item sat by the wall.

「I knew it.」

It was a stone slab as tall as Hikaru's waist. Pens—he didn't know if they were rusted—lay scattered under it.

《Emergency. Monster attack. Too many of them, defending Lands Harvest is difficult. Notice from His Majesty to abandon the capital. Requesting a.s.sistance from the Vireocean navy.》

《…re… state… notice… vy… mons… Vire…》

Although quite different from the ones Hikaru had seen, it was no doubt Linga's Quill Pen.

「I wonder if it works. Highly unlikely after all this time…」

The second message appeared to be the reply from Vireocean. Due to failure in transmission, however, the words weren't properly displayed.

「Maybe I should try it. There's some catalyst left anyway.」

Hikaru picked up some golden-colored powder piled up beside the pens with his fingers. This Quill Pen—although not quite shaped like an actual quill pen—appeared to work by rubbing catalyst on it. Using the fingers didn't cause any problem. Hikaru detected mana coming from the pedestal and the catalyst.

「This is Lands Harvest…」

The golden letters glowed for a moment then turned black, indicating that the message had been sent. Hikaru wasn't sure if it would be received or not.

No response.

『Let's get out of here. The air here is stagnated.』

「Okay. Whatever.」

Hikaru planned to wait for a bit longer. Considering the amount of time that pa.s.sed, however, he left the room with little hope.

『Oh, you're all right.』Gin said as Hikaru returned.『You don't seem to be injured or anything… You're covered in dust, though.』

Hikaru wiped the dust of his clothes with his hand.

「I got nothing. Surprisingly, there were barely any monsters in the city, probably because there's nothing to eat there.」

「Did the forest grow inside the city as well?」Wakamaru asked.

「Trees grew around the outer edges of the city, but the inside is fine. The state of the houses is awful, though. Most, if not all of them, had collapsed. I didn't find anything valuable either.」

「I see. I'm surprised you made it back unscathed. I heard you could move without being noticed, but Gin and I weren't exactly convinced.」

「Haha. I wouldn't have gone if I didn't have any chance of success.」

「All right, then. Let's head to the tower.」

「Of course.」

「Actually about that…」Wakamaru said.「After you headed to the ruins, Gin and I went to see this tower, but we didn't find it.」

「I thought so. When we first pa.s.sed through, no one noticed it. I'm sure it's invisible from the sea.」

「So it's visible only from land? How is that possible?」

「The army uses something similar, doesn't it?」

Hikaru told Wakamaru about the optical camouflage

「Oh, that thing. But that technology…」Wakamaru wore a frown.

「What's the matter?」

「I think you should know.」

Wakamaru went to talk to Gin. At first the man looked surprised, his gaze darting at Hikaru, and then back at Wakamaru, before nodding.

「Gin has agreed. I'll tell you about it.」

「About what?」

「The traitors.」