Published: September 10, 2025
Correction made on 2018/10/2.
This is Satou. In my father’s and grandfather’s day, it was common to see off transferring colleagues at the Shinkansen station platform. It sounds a bit far-fetched, but if we did that nowadays, people might mistake us for celebrities.
â—‡
“A prophecy?”
“Yeah, Sete heard it directly from the shrine maidens.”
As soon as I entered the living room of the Isolated Island Palace, Hikaru told me this.
We had returned to the Isolated Island Palace to recover from our fatigue in the Parion Divine Kingdom after setting our airship’s course to the Saga Empire.
“Sete — oh, the king, right? So what’s the prophecy about?”
“That a Demon King will appear in the Saga Empire.”
Again.
The previous Demon King prophecies I heard from the chief shrine maiden in the Duke’s Capital had all been fulfilled, so this new prophecy must be from a completely different source.
“Any prophecy from the Parion Divine Kingdom side?”
“No, I asked, but they just asked me back why I was asking such a thing.”
Hmm. I wonder if the Demon King homunculus that appeared in the Parion Divine Kingdom was unexpected by the gods, or if since the central temple of the Parion God is there, no other gods gave a divine oracle. It’s a bit curious.
Maybe because people in the Parion Divine Kingdom got upset, it seems they weren’t given any prophecy from the Parion God.
“I’ll go check it out.”
I said so, then moved via unit deployment to the Saga Empire and updated the maps across the empire to the latest status.
So far, no Demon King appears in the map search.
In the old capital of the Saga Empire — the place the Parion Divine Kingdom shrine maidens told me to visit — I found a homunculus with a unique skill.
It gave me a “canary in the coal mine” kind of trap vibe, so I only marked it without direct contact.
After finishing the necessary checks, I returned to the Isolated Island Palace.
â—‡
“How was it?”
“There’s no Demon King so far.”
I told Hikaru that and also informed her about the homunculus with the unique skill.
The others seemed to be taking a bath, so I could tell them later.
“I agree it feels like a trap. The green high-rank demons often set such traps using their avatars,” she said.
Rarely, my intuition was right.
But oddly, rather than feeling happy about it, I was more worried that maybe I was wrong.
“—Oh, Ichiro brother, there’s one more thing I want you to check.”
Hikaru looked up at me pleadingly.
“Sure. What is it?”
“Sete said there’s a massive cold going around in Seryu City and the old capital.”
The old capital — the territorial capital of Duke Oyugok’s territory.
“Should I make cold medicine?”
Hikaru shook her head at my words.
“No. I want you to check whether it’s really just a cold.”
“Not just a cold — influenza or something?”
“Yeah, I don’t want that to be the case.”
“Got it. I’ll check it out.”
I deployed to Seryu City.
After updating the map information, I searched for abnormal status.
No influenza. Despite the big spread, only about 10% of the population seemed to have caught a cold.
—Hmm?
Something’s off.
I searched again by status abnormalities.
The number of affected people was about 70% of the population.
It seemed they were suffering from unique mental illnesses in this world called Regret Sickness, Restless Anxiety Disorder, and Anger Syndrome.
Since I had never heard of them, I looked them up, and it turned out to be special illnesses contracted through undead such as banshees, fury ghosts, etc., when the body is weakened by colds or similar.
Moreover, they all were in a "latent" status like “Regret Sickness: latent,” so ordinary appraisal skills could hardly detect them, which probably made the local people think it was just a widespread cold.
Alternatively, it might have started as a cold epidemic and then these illnesses followed.
In any case, it’s not a severe illness.
Those with Regret Sickness sulk and brood in their rooms; those with Restless Anxiety Disorder become restless and constantly uneasy; Anger Syndrome causes irritability and a desire to lash out at those around them.