By the Grace of the Gods

“A new fire outbreak confirmed to the north; from now on, we’ll call it ‘North Point 4.’ Also, the rescue by the advance team at North Third District has been completed. The follow-up teams have arrived as well, but evacuation guidance for local residents is lagging.”

“East No. 5, fire extinguished confirmed.”

“South Sector 8’s fire extinguished is also confirmed.”

“The fires to the north are increasing... Send personnel for cleanup and monitoring to the two extinguished sites. Then, have the firefighting teams that went to East No. 5 and South Sector 8 reroute to the north. For evacuation guidance, load security personnel onto the available carriages and dispatch them. Jill, do you think two teams are sufficient?”

“That should be enough manpower, especially with the follow-up teams. We’ll send available carriages in sequence, but what concerns me is the capacity at the evacuation shelters. How are they holding up?”

“The shelters in the north and west are fine; there’s still plenty of space. East and south can still accept evacuees, but they’re gradually filling up.”

“In that case, direct evacuation guidance in the north towards the north shelters. Also, arrange for temporary evacuation shelter setups. The location should be as planned—the vacant lot at the slum ruins Ryoma demolished.”

“A small-scale arsonist discovered in the west has been arrested. They’ve already been handed over to the security forces.”

Inside the security company’s conference room, contrary to the city’s noisy chaos, calm reports and instructions were exchanged.

At the center stood a large table, covered with a detailed map of the city spread out fully.

Surrounding it were many people, moving small flags and pieces on the map as reports came in.

Overseeing them and issuing orders were Hughes, the security company’s head, and Jill, the vice commander. Their commands were quickly recorded by staff standing behind them and delivered to cages holding small magical beasts arranged along the conference room walls.

The room was quiet but saturated with a heavy tension.

“Excuse me.”

Three maids dispatched from the Duke’s household, like Hughes and Jill, entered the room.

Pushing a small cart, they began distributing drinks to the tense people.

“Luluneze, thanks. Here, Jill, have some too. This is probably going to be a long one.”

“...Yeah. It’s no good to be too tense.”

Jill accepted the drink but her expression remained clouded.

Seeing this, Hughes temporarily entrusted Luluneze with command and quietly asked Jill,

“Hey, Jill. Why the long face? It’s not a fun situation, sure, but aren’t we handling things properly? Better than usual even.”

“...True. We gathered Beast Tamers who can use shared senses with their familiars to form the ‘communication unit’ Ryoma proposed, and built the ‘information network’ using it. Plus, surveillance and communication bases have been set up throughout the city. By leveraging these, we can share the situation not only on-site but also quickly with various Guilds, the security forces, and government offices. The coordination is tight.”

“Ryoma called it... something like ‘telephone operator,’ right? I don’t use beast taming magic, so I don’t really get it, but it’s impressive that something like that exists.”

“The ‘telephone operator’ is said to be an ancient communication method capable of instantly connecting distant countries, likely a magic tool using spatial magic. Its actual existence is doubtful, but Ryoma seems to have taken inspiration from such legends.

The challenge is gathering enough Beast Tamers capable of shared senses to maintain the city-wide information network and have shift personnel, but once that hurdle is crossed, rapid information transmission becomes possible. This allows us to receive updates from multiple sites with nearly no time lag.

Ryoma’s financial resources, combined with Beast Tamers who were free due to recent heavy snow disrupting mail delivery, made this possible... Imagining facing this day without that network is terrifying.”