Published: March 21, 2026
It took three days after arriving here to heal the wounds and fully recover our strength.
Oddly enough, this forest required as much caution as the lower levels of the Cantinen Labyrinth.
It seems true that the closer demonic beasts get to the Demon Clan territory, the stronger they become.
We sat in a six-seat table, in the exact same configuration as at the Crow Manor.
Noah, who was supposed to be the mistress of this house, stood behind Crow. Amaryllis and Ria, who were meeting the heroes for the first time, introduced themselves and then stood behind us.
Although Amaryllis was hiding about half her body behind Ria.
Noah called Crow “foolish son,” yet she kept treating him with considerate gestures. She was a strange person.
“So, is there any route to the Demon Clan territory now?”
I rested one elbow on the table and asked Crow and Noah standing behind him.
I didn’t expect the route the former Hero used to reach the Demon Clan territory to still be usable after decades.
Crow and Noah, who spent yesterday and today checking the route, looked as bad as I’d expected.
“From what we checked yesterday and today, every secret passage to the Demon Clan territory that I knew has been destroyed by collapses or flooding.”
The heroes’ faces clouded at Crow’s words.
Crow’s bad news continued.
“Even the sea is unusable—ships can’t be used because of demonic beasts living in the water. And we’ve determined that the passages were blocked not merely by natural disaster.”
“...What does that mean, exactly?”
Kazuki frowned, paying no attention to the cat and monkey playing on his head, eager for an answer.
“It means the Demon Clan—specifically, a very powerful individual among them, capable of creating events that can easily be mistaken for natural disasters—deliberately did this.”
So the Demon Clan had been anticipating our movements.
Crow methodically pointed to each path on the map as he explained.
They had taken the trouble to block each one.
As I idly watched that, faces of Mahiro and Aurum whom I’d met in the Brute Labyrinth floated into my mind and vanished.
“They didn’t block routes to the Elf territory or the Human territory—only the path leading to the Demon Clan.”
Amazingly, the former Hero had engineered underground routes from this base to territories other than Beastmen and Demons.
Not only the nearest Demon territory, but paths to other places as well.
The former Hero was overly cautious.
Back then, relations with the Humans and Elves weren’t necessarily hostile, either.
Crow, who had seen the former Hero’s actions with his own eyes, had seemed to hold that Hero in some regard, but I wondered what the truth really was.
“What about reopening the blocked passages?”
One of the heroes raised a hand to speak.
Crow and Noah shook their heads.
“No. Every one of them is in a precarious state—if you move even one pile of rubble, it will trigger a full collapse.”
Noah summed it up bluntly: they didn’t know when it might collapse.
Despite being more than ten people, the room fell into silence.
“So both underground and the sea are out of the question, huh.”
A hero muttered with disappointment.
I could understand that feeling, but I simply stared at Noah.
At the edge of my vision, Amelia mirrored my expression.
“If you have any suggestions, speak them.”
Noah gave us a resigned look and said that with a sigh.
Amelia and I exchanged glances, and I opened my mouth.
“...What about the sky?”
At my words, the heroes’ eyes lit up and they applauded.
“I see! If the ground is impossible, then the sky!”
Summoners, who were familiar with flying machines, brightened instantly, but natives of this world were different.
They tilted their heads in confusion, and the heroes began explaining the principles of carrying people through the air.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t follow what the heroes were saying.
Maybe it was the modern person’s bias toward flight. When they started talking about air resistance, required takeoff distance, and speeds, I barely understood a word—even doubting if they were speaking Japanese.