Published: March 21, 2026
Although I was surprised by Amelia’s story that Aurum and his sister had shown up, if no one was harmed then that was fine.
Even though Amelia had awakened as the divine child, she still didn’t know how to use her power. Yet when Aurum prioritized fighting me over going after Amelia—who had been so heavily targeted—and left, his calm sister accepted it. Did he want to fight me that badly, or was there some other motive? Another mystery added to the pile.
“Sato, where do we go next?”
“W-Do I get to decide!?”
The hero’s eyes widened and I sighed. He really never changes.
“My goal was to go home. That’s why I was heading to Demon Clan territory—Mahiro is the prime suspect, and there was that cryptic message from the demon king. But now stopping the demon king’s scheme and ending the war take priority; going home is secondary. Unlike before when I could just head somewhere, I can’t single-handedly stop a war that’s already begun. I’m asking you to come up with ideas.”
He’s smart—he ought to know at least one way to stop a war.
The hero put a hand to his mouth and thought for a moment.
“…Right. First, we lack information. But there are things only we know. For example, I think King Reytis and the people here probably know that the Demon Clan interfered; the Yamato Country, which was provoked into war, likely doesn’t know. To other countries, including Yamato, this looks like a territorial dispute between humans.”
“And?”
“In other words, Yamato has reasons to fight Reytis that don’t involve the Demon Clan. If we can deal with those reasons, that might be a way to resolve things.”
“So, if we discover and solve the cause of the war, the war might end.”
“Yeah. It’s not that simple, and it might be impossible with only us… But for now we need information. So if we’re going somewhere next, it should be Yamato.”
Makes sense.
At present we’re neutral—we don’t belong to either country. Being third parties might let us do things others can’t.
“How about Noah and Mr. Zeal as humans, and Ria as a Beastmen—what can they do?”
I asked the three who were thinking hard.
“I’ve been to Yamato several times. The people there have a strong sense of camaraderie; they value family name and pride over their own lives. When it comes to war, it’ll be hard to stop them. They’re either go-with-the-flow types or stubborn,” Zeal said.
“That’s right. They produce a lot of food and have abundant water. They’re well resourced—less than Reytis but still capable of war. Reytis has four times their troops if you don’t count Demon Clan reinforcements, but Yamato has two current gold rank adventurers, so it’s not necessarily at a disadvantage. They’ve managed to avoid being absorbed by large Reytis for a reason,” Mr. Zeal added.
“I see.”
I nodded and stored their info. Come to think of it, there are four gold rank adventurers in the world: Amelia’s sister Kirika, the two in Yamato, and one more—Crow?
“The Beastmen will probably remain neutral. Some hot-headed ones might join as mercenaries, but the nation likely won’t mobilize. If this were the old Kingdom of Uruk, they might wait to profit once both countries are exhausted, but things are changing,” Ringa said.
Poor Yamato—suddenly attacked by a neighbor, with Beastmen possibly targeting them as well. According to Zeal, Reytis has also been eyeing them for a long time.
Ringa, who had been listening quietly, raised his hand.
“Ah—about Uruk, you know the Lagoon family has fallen, right? A new royal line may be taking the throne. The coronation was scheduled for today, so a new king might already be in place.”
“No, I didn’t know.”
I knew Ria left the royal line, but I didn’t expect the royal family to collapse. Being a guardian must have been far more important than I thought—or maybe Gram’s crimes could no longer be hidden.
“He’s of the original Uruk royal line. He grew up as a commoner, unaware of his bloodline. He became an adventurer to survive and reached silver rank.”