episode_0036

The next morning.

We wrapped ourselves in our robes again and left the inn.

Originally, I wasn’t planning on stopping by this city. Like the city we first entered, this is a city with close ties to mercenaries, so there was no one who didn’t know the story about us.

Whenever we walked, we always heard stories about us, and many of them were quite embarrassing. Since it was difficult for me to listen to, I was planning to pass it by right away.

The problem was that there were traces of a slight distortion of causality here.

‘It was so weak that I didn’t notice it at first.’

Thanks to Hiria, I was able to notice that causality was disrupted here too.

It is quite different from the original plan.

Because our goal is to return causality to normal.

I had no choice but to come here.

“But the question is, where is it?’

Where causality is disrupted, the location is bound to be clear.

I was able to go straight to the place where the second causality was disrupted and the first historic site because the places were clear.

But I don’t know if it’s because the causality is weak or what.

I just feel like it’s somewhere in this city.

The correct location was unknown.

If this happens, the entire city will have to be turned upside down.

‘The question is, are you sitting there doing all that?’

The city is not a village, and it is not possible to find everything in a day or two. You will have to stay here for at least a few months and see everything without stopping.

“Can’t we find it with magic?”

“None.”

I had high hopes for Hiria’s magic, but the answer I received was negative.

Well, if that were possible, Hiria would have said it herself, so of course the answer had no choice but to be negative.

“I have no choice but to find it myself. The distorted area is also very weak, so nothing clearly noticeable will happen.”

Where causality is distorted, some transformation or some problem occurs.

However, it was so weak that it was not possible to truly know whether the events that occurred in the city were due to causality or just happened.

So, if anything happened, I had to check it one by one.

‘It will be difficult, but what can I do?’

I have no choice but to do it.

Hiria and I moved in earnest to find the location of the twisted causality.

***

A city of mercenaries.

Akti has a famous story.

That is the hometown of Rojan, the current archmage and teacher of the warrior party’s wizard.

Archmage.

Who are they?

These are people who have reached the extreme when it comes to the study of magic.

It was a level so high that even a talented wizard could not even dream of it.

Considering that there was originally only one person in the world.

This was a part that showed how difficult it was to reach the level of an archmage.

The level of being an archmage is so high and amazing.

As it became known that it was the hometown of the great wizard Rojan, many people came to visit it even though they were not mercenaries.

Now there are two, but before that, there was only one great wizard in the world, so many people came to visit because they were curious about him.

As a result, Akti, where people naturally gathered, took a natural path of development.

Now it has become a more developed city than other cities, and more people are visiting it than before.

But as the city has developed.

Other problems arise.

More people are moving through the back alleys, and the crime rate has risen significantly.

Many people think that with mercenaries in place, the number of crimes committed will decrease.

What you need to know here is that even those who commit such crimes have become mercenaries.

As a result, it can be said that Akti City has experienced a lot of development and at the same time, many problems have arisen. Now that a lot of time has passed with the four S-class mercenaries, many of the problems have disappeared.

Akti still had chronic problems that other cities experienced.

Such a back alley of Akti.

There was a boy advancing there.

The clothes the boy was wearing were faded and tattered, as if they had been several years old.

Not only my face, but my entire body was covered in dust and sweat, and it had a foul smell.

The boy’s condition was so bad that even those present were shaking their heads.

The boy rummaged through the trash can as usual.

I promised myself that I would do the same this time because I sometimes come across things I can eat here.

The only thing in the trash can is inedible trash.

There was nothing edible.

Since this kind of thing happened quite often from time to time, the boy put his regrets aside and started walking again.

Jump and jump.

The boy didn’t know where he was going.

All I had to do was keep walking and running to survive in this back alley.

In the process, I was lucky enough to get enough food to survive the next day.

On unlucky days, I don’t get to eat for several days.

Fortunately, it hasn’t been that long since I last ate, so I wasn’t that hungry.

For the next time, I had to find food whenever I could.

‘uh?’

As the boy was looking for food to eat for a long time, someone stopped in front of him.

The boy survived for a long time in the back alley.

What that means is that he has experienced pretty much anything and is quite specialized in how he sees people. And from the boy’s perspective, the person who appeared in front of him was clearly a dangerous person.

I have to run away right now though.

For some reason the boy couldn’t move.

There is definitely nothing around.

It wasn’t like there was something blocking the boy or holding him down.

But the boy couldn’t move.

This was because he felt as if someone was holding his ankles tightly.

Like falling into a swamp.

Something invisible that bound the boy pulled him deeper and deeper.

“Hey. Won’t you come with me?”

The unidentified person who blocked the boy spoke.

Normally, he would have been a boy who would have said he never wanted to go.

For some reason, the boy spoke differently than he had thought.

“… Yes.”

“Follow me.”

The man walked slowly.

The boy obediently followed the man.

***

I wandered around all day.

Although I couldn’t visit every place, I looked around as much as I could to see if there were any traces of causality.

From time to time, small incidents occurred or mercenaries ran amok.

Even this took up quite a bit of time as we had to go through the process of confirming whether it happened due to causality.

Still, even excluding the time I wasted on those things, I visited a lot of places, but in the end, I wasted nothing.

To unwind and take a break, we headed to a cafe with the best view in Akti city. The fact that it is a cafe with the best view seems to be no lie. Drinking tea while looking at the beautiful view made me feel like the fatigue of the day was relieved.

‘The tea tastes good too.’

I knew it as soon as I took a sip.

It’s a top-quality car.

It was a car of a quality that I could not even dream of when I was alive.

“Wow… It’s so delicious.”

Hiria also couldn’t hide his surprise after drinking the tea.

She seemed quite happy, as if she also liked tea.

As I continued to drink tea, a question suddenly occurred to me.

‘How delicious is the tea made from the leaves of the world tree?’

The World Tree is God.

The god who created the elves.

Although she is infinitely inferior to a goddess.

However, this did not mean that the World Tree was of low status.

It’s just that the Goddess of Light has an overwhelmingly higher rank.

She was also a very high-class prudent, as she was a god with mythology and power that was one of the few among the gods of creation.

‘What makes him different from other gods is that he has descended into this world.’

Elves are basically people who get along with nature.

The World Tree created a huge tree called the World Tree in this world and put its soul into it in case the elves were unable to find a home.

The world tree created in this way created a huge nature around it, and the elves came to live there.

In some ways, it can be said to be the advent of a transcendent person who violates the law of causality, but it is different from the general one.

Since the tree is a body and the purpose of its descent is to create a home for the elves, it does not exert much power.

All the World Tree can do is purify and preserve the surrounding nature?

As such, he could be said to be the only god who descended into this world where causality was not a problem.

‘Because it is a tree that contains God, it produces leaves with God’s power.’

With those leaves we can kick…

Just thinking about it made my body tremble.

How delicious is tea made from leaves made with the power of God?

‘Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get it since I can’t meet him.’

We had a relaxing time just imagining it.