Meister limped on a leg swollen from bruises and thought.

"Demon bastards, they really screwed it up spectacularly."

When he only heard about it, he was half in doubt, but seeing it for himself made it feel real. The sentence that half the city and the coastal area had been deleted, that is.

"There's not even a need to go to the Magic Tower."

No, at this point, even finding the spot where the Magic Tower used to be was a problem. Indeed, there wasn't a single street or building left to serve as a clue to gauge the exact location.

If you were to show just that scene to someone who didn't know what happened here, they wouldn't even recognize it as a place where a city once stood. It was practically a rocky desert.

"I'll have to give up on finding magical materials..."

Still, since he had come this far, he couldn't return empty-handed.

Meister picked up a stone rolling on the street and repeatedly tossed it up and caught it. Tap. His leg reached the edge of a suddenly severed path.

"Even slicing through a block of cheese with a knife wouldn't be this smooth."

He closely observed the boundary between the intact portion and the severed portion. He didn't know how the hell it happened, but he could clearly see that a cliff several meters deep had been formed.

The cross-section of the severed part was so smooth that there was nothing to grab onto to climb down, which was a bit of a problem.

"Hmm."

Even so, it was the perfect height to break a leg if he jumped down—especially since his leg wasn't currently in perfect condition anyway. Even if by some chance he landed without injury, getting back up would also be an issue.

So, instead of going down, Meister crouched at the top. Thud. The bag he was carrying on his back flopped onto the ground.

"Is the coastal side dug a bit deeper? By the looks of it, some of the submerged part was blown away too..."

It was a bit distant, but he could still see the layered tiers. He noted that the coastal side was dug much deeper and judged it to be a piece of good news in its own way.

It made sense, as the last he remembered of the castle walls, they were swarming with Mermen. Plus, there was also that giant turtle... or snake pretending to be a turtle, or whatever it was.

In contrast, it was now flawlessly clean. This meant there was a high probability that they had been swept up in this and killed.

Even if those bastards—since there was testimony that the turtle definitely burned to death in the flames, there was no need to consider it further, so thinking only of the Mermen—had thrown themselves into the sea to escape the fire, the result would be the same.

According to the testimony, the attack occurred in a matter of seconds, so he figured at least half of them had to be dead. And if half of them died, the Mermen would be too busy cleaning up the aftermath to even entertain the thought of attacking them.

If it was good news, it really was good news.

"Seeing as how they aren't attempting to land again even when the city is in this state, maybe they didn't just lose half their numbers, but died in droves...?"

But then, he saw something glittering on the coastal side. It was an unnaturally excessive cluster of light to just be a reflection off the sand.

"What is that."

Could it be a Merman? He hurriedly brought the magnifying glass he had taken from his grandfather up to his eye.

"... Glass?"

Fortunately, the glittering objects didn't seem to be Mermen scales. Though their true identity was just as unexpected.

"Is it really glass?"

He adjusted the magnifying glass and examined it closely. However, no matter how much he observed, the transparently glittering fragments only looked like glass.

The voice of a man who knew how difficult it was to make glass grew bewildered.

"... No joke. Glass has practically been mass-produced."

He heard that the culprit who blew away the city manipulated fire, but it must have been an incredibly high temperature. Meister's hand scratched the back of his own head.

"It'll be useful for smelting metal."

That was the entirety of his reaction to the surprise.

His body slowly stood up.

"Meister! Are you still far off!?"

"No, I'm done."

Since he had seen all he needed to see, it was now time to work on the real reason he came here.

"The requisition of the workshop street is nearly complete. If you have anything to pack, please pack it quickly."

"I will."

Meister considered it truly fortunate that the workshop street, including his own workshop, had narrowly escaped the evaporation zone.

He wasn't just thinking that way strictly from the perspective of a workshop owner. Even considering the citizens who had become refugees, it was the same conclusion.

Of course, an artisan with equipment can craft more things, and more efficiently, than one without. In this situation where everything is scarce, that difference will save several lives.

Clatter.

In that sense, he prioritized packing tools like saws, hammers, carving knives, and rulers into his bag. It was a choice made considering that, given the circumstances, woodworking would be needed more than smelting.

"Meister, may we pack the metal scraps and kindling?"

"Show them to me first."

He didn't mind them taking the items, but since there were metals that could explode upon contact with water, he needed to inspect them once.

Meister casually checked the things the soldiers were dragging over in boxes. Sure enough, a few dangerous materials had been mixed in.

"Are the books okay too?"

"I don't mind."

Books, meaning paper, really were some of the best kindling. Though they were... very expensive.

However, books could be bought again, but human lives could not be bought back. He set aside only a few books that could never be obtained again and granted them permission to move the rest.

Flip. It was when he sent off the second box of books that an unfamiliar cover caught his eye.

He picked up the book titled [The Broken Horn] and checked its contents. A memory regarding this belatedly came to mind.

"This was still here."

A few years ago, a dreamer he occasionally ran into at a pub—someone who had a lot of money in his family and could afford to live like a layabout—had gifted him this book, claiming he wrote it based on a recent experience.

The reading class was limited to nobles or mages at best, and since he had no connections with mages, he had probably added a request for Meister to promote it on his behalf.

He wondered if that idiot had survived. Meister placed it into the line of books to be given away as kindling.

"Are we moving this too?"

"Yes."

But right then, a corner of his heart felt rough. There was no particular reason. Gray hair. It was because a word that brushed past in the text reminded him of someone.

"A demon... is it."

He ruminated on everything that supposedly happened after he passed out—things he had heard from his grandfather.

Coupled with the ending of the novel he had just remembered, his mood turned even more foul.

"Tsk."

The story of [The Broken Horn], in summary, was a tale of going unrewarded.

It was a story about a protagonist who, yearning for human warmth, mingled among people while hiding his curse. He saved others even at the cost of giving up hiding his curse... but rather than being rewarded, he was ultimately driven out by the people who mistook him for a demon.

"I need a smoke."

Yet, in his eyes, the current situation wasn't all that different from that story. Even knowing that there was an insurmountable wall between the Broken Horn, who could control himself, and that guy, who seemed completely uncontrollable.

Honestly, it felt a bit shitty.

"Ah, and I don't even have a light."

He wanted to smoke.

* * *

"Urg."

"Gasp, Great Sage!!"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, so mind your own business."

Surging Blue Coral vomited up about a fistful of blood. It happened immediately after he returned to his post after fulfilling the Lord's request—to check on the adventurer's condition.

"It seems my internal injuries have flared up."

He restrained the rushing mages with one hand and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his other hand. It was a good thing his clothes were enchanted with automatic cleaning magic. The blood heavily smeared on his sleeve slowly began to disappear.

"Please do not move from now on."

"I was planning to do exactly that."

In the first place, immediately after the healer's advice to take absolute rest, he had neatly folded away any thoughts of running around to resolve the situation. This time, he had only made the trip inevitably because the Lord urged that the Great Sage's guarantee was needed.

"They just have so many doubts anyway..."

However, if they truly shared the same perspective as him, such a thing would have been unnecessary. Blue Coral clicked his tongue as he recalled the moment the demon exited with a cunning mockery.

"I think that if you, Great Sage, had clearly explained the reason why we could relax our guard, neither the Temple side nor the mages would be anxious anymore..."

"Do you think I'm staying quiet because I don't want to speak? If you were in my position, you would have done the exact same thing."

"That's the problem. The only one who sees the true nature of things is you, Sir Blue Coral."

Blue Coral himself could be certain. He knew that as long as things were left as they were, there would be no need to worry.

However, this kind of intuition was quite far removed from the logic and reason that mages favored.

If he had to pull out solid logic, it wasn't that he couldn't, but the problem was that there were some... circumstances on that end. A rather serious headache that he couldn't carelessly speak of based solely on his own judgment.

"Since I've served you for a long time, Great Sage, I know you wouldn't say things without reason... but the priests of the Temple are different, aren't they? When I checked on them earlier, they were even doubting whether that 'bet' was actually some kind of contract."

"... Is that so."

"The mages are similar. Seeing you spare your words like this, Great Sage, I saw them discussing whether it really is a contract."

"To a serious degree?"

"Hmm... It doesn't seem to be at the level of taking a hardline stance just yet. But their patience is definitely running out. To the point where, even if it's not full persuasion, I feel we should start giving them at least one reason to endure and wait."

Yet, he couldn't ignore those words either. From his point of view as well, there was no way the mages, who loved proofs, would hold out until the end without evidence, nor would the priests endure until the end without a proper excuse.

After all, for mages, logic was their top priority, and for the Temple, it was their hostility toward demons.

"I know."

So, in the end, he could only pray. He could only hope that before their patience ran out, he would be able to prove the innocence of that shining soul.

"More importantly, what are my tasks?"

Separately, the tasks that required him to laboriously move about were now finished. Leaning against a makeshift chair, he looked for work he could do without moving.

"I don't think the healer's instruction not to move meant you just had to keep your ass glued to a seat..."

The guard and chore-handler watching him let out a sullen remark. It was a guard with a remarkably tough lifeline, someone he had managed to reunite with even amidst that chaos.

"Who doesn't know that? The situation is a total mess, so I'm just bearing with it."

"The healer would grab the back of their neck in shock if they saw this. For their part, they probably made time they didn't even have to give you a diagnosis."

"If they're pissed about it, tell them to split their body in two. If I had someone to delegate to, I would have handed the work off and rested ages ago."

"True..."

However, making the guard's worries pointless, Blue Coral pushed ahead with his work. The guard also knew the situation well, so they didn't voice any more complaints.

"More importantly, do you have any stimulants?"

In the first place, Blue Coral wasn't the only mage working while suffering from internal injuries. In such a situation, how could he possibly enjoy resting just because he was the leader?

The reason they were prioritized and protected all throughout the previous night was ultimately because it was known they would be of vital use in moments like this. Knowing that fact, he couldn't just neglect his duties as he pleased.

"Shall I give you one?"

"Yeah."

Also in that same vein, Blue Coral accepted the stimulant and popped it into his mouth. The stimulant, made from a small black fruit and the extract of red and white nuts, left a pleasantly bitter taste lingering in his mouth.

"How many stimulants are left?"

"We handed some out to the soldiers earlier... so about fifty lumps?"

"Everyone just brought stimulants instead of catalysts, it seems."

"That's unfair. You know everyone originally carries stimulants as a given."

That was true. When conducting research, there were moments when stimulants were urgently needed, and going out to buy them every single time was annoying.

Furthermore, the mage who sold the stimulants wasn't the type to have set selling hours. On top of that, they monopolized the technique, so there was nowhere else to get them.

Thus, it was common for the mages of Bemurhen to carry three or four stimulants in their pockets, and in extreme cases, they would even carry dozens of lumps around.

Well, in the latter case, one had to wonder if it was being used more as a snack than for its awakening effects...

Setting that aside, for this moment at least, having a lot of stimulants was not a bad thing.

It might be different for ordinary civilians, but for high-end personnel like mages, knights, and soldiers, right now was a time where even sparing a moment for them to sleep felt like a waste.

"What about the preparations for communication?"

"The magic circle is prepared, but we lack catalysts. If we attempt it like this, there is a high probability of failure."

"Tsk."

Blue Coral clicked his tongue at the mages' report.

Was it a bad move to send even the mages skilled in communication magic to the ward just because they could use healing magic? But then again, the situation in the ward was far too wretched to ignore.

"How are things going with forming the walls?"

"We've mostly blocked the windward side for now."

"Good. Then let's shift focus to erecting pillars intermittently among the people. Don't forget to space them out so we can set up tents."

"Understood."

If possible, he wanted to erect earthen walls in all four directions to protect the people, but... the clouds in the sky looked ominous for that. It might even rain.

"I'd like it if the rain held off until at least the tents are pitched."

If it came after the people had a place to take shelter from the rain, they would be able to catch the rainwater and use it for drinking. However, if it came before that, it would likely just result in an increase in casualties.

"Hmm. Come to think of it, we also need to manage the people who evacuated to the west..."

Since the personnel useful for rescue operations were mages, the Lord had even sent a messenger asking him to decide who to send.

So he would have to select the personnel for that side as quickly as possible too. The problem now was that there were hardly any people left to spare.

"It's one mountain after another."

Even with running rotations for mana recovery and grinding them to the absolute limit, personnel were still severely lacking; who on earth was he supposed to pull from here?

He quickly calculated while recalling the roster of available personnel.

"Ah, they're here!"

It was around that time that the group sent to find some catalysts returned.

"You're late."

"Old geezer, can't you see all this stuff loaded on my back?"

"Hmm."

Among them, his grandson threw a fit, using words he hadn't used in a while.

Since the grandson couldn't use magic without tools, sending him out wasn't a waste of manpower, yet he was still a mage, so he had the ability to recognize catalysts. On top of that, he had good stamina—even though he injured his leg, wasn't it fine as long as he could walk? The healer also said it was just a simple bruise—so Blue Coral thought he was perfect as a city scavenger and sent him, but... it seemed that had annoyed him quite a bit.

However, it brought back some old memories. 'He was just as rude when we first met.' Even if it was a somewhat strange nostalgic recollection.

"What are you so annoyed about?"

"... It just, kinda feels like crap."

"Is it that much of a shame that the equipment you gathered disappeared?"

"...? What are you talking about. I used it to survive, why would that be a waste."

"Then what?"

He shook off the faint sorrow and agreed. True, there was no way that brat would consider such things a waste.

He was the guy who knew best that no matter what was sacrificed, as long as you were alive, the opportunity to get it back would come.

"Then what are you so angry about."

"... Because the guy who saved the city but is now on the verge of death himself is weighing on my mind?"

"Such a, what— Pfft, pff, cough."

Wait, what did he just say?

At the truly unexpected answer, Surging Blue Coral choked on his own saliva.

The mages around them were the same. They too were caught by surprise, making a series of blunders like dropping things.

"... You? Worrying about someone else?"

"Do you want your nose broken? What room is there to question that?"

"If you look back on your personality, you'll find the answer."

"You're really pissing me off."

The grandson's expression became that of someone genuinely enraged. So Blue Coral decided to leave it at that.

If he fought with his grandson, he would be the one to lose. In any sense of the word.

"Well, alright. But you know it can't be helped, don't you."

"I know. That's why I'm not doing anything."

Meanwhile, the grandson set the bag and luggage he was carrying down on the floor.

Catalysts, seemingly scraped together from workshops as much as possible, could be seen in glimpses inside the bag. Tools like saws and carving knives were with them as well.

"Ooh, catalysts!"

"They're all low-grade... by any chance, is this everything?"

"I don't know. But from the buildings on the workshop street, this was it."

"What about the Magic Tower...?"

However, amidst all that, someone asked about the Magic Tower. It was a mage who had fainted while defending the southern gate and hadn't seen the Magic Tower get blown away.

"There wasn't even a trace that the building existed. Why ask when you know?"

"... What?"

But the grandson didn't know that. Actually, even if he did know, he wouldn't have cared.

At the merciless remark, some mages dropped their jaws and fell straight to their knees. Every single one of them were people whose research had reached its final stages, and who would have gotten results with just a little more effort.

"... Not a single thing?"

"Not a single thing."

However, with their laboratories and everything they had written during their research process blown away, would they really be able to complete their research? Blue Coral figured the answer was probably no.

Thump.

People grabbing the backs of their necks and fainting cropped up one after another.

It was the result of the fatigue that even the stimulants couldn't mask mixing with the sudden mental shock, snapping their consciousness.

"The personnel available to send has decreased even more."

But their mental shock was not his concern.

Blue Coral coldly expressed his regret only over the fact that the manpower he could mobilize had dwindled.

Regret over the vanished Magic Tower? It wasn't that he didn't have any. If one tallied up all the various materials and equipment stockpiled inside the Magic Tower, it would amount to an astronomical sum, and all of it had essentially evaporated.

However, lamenting over what was already gone wouldn't bring it back. Blue Coral decided to be thankful that the Magic Tower was blown away only after the demonic energy purification formula was completed.

"More importantly, what are you going to do now."

"I need to make a filter."

There were truly a great many things the people who had become refugees needed, but few things took precedence over clean water. At his grandson's pinpointed remark, Blue Coral was reasonably convinced.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because a request for rescue personnel came from the western gate, but there's no one to send."

"It'd be meaningless even if I went, so I'll just stay here."

"Do as you wish."

Then who am I supposed to send. Blue Coral's face scrunched up further.

"Great Sage! We have established contact with Kirchenrn!"

"What did they say?"

"They said they would not only send reinforcements, but they will also send word to Dorfmain, Dubanchih, and Bergart!"

However, the news of reinforcements heard amidst all that improved his mood, even if just a little.

He figured it would take about a week for the reinforcements to arrive, but it was a hundred times better than having none.

"It seems God hasn't completely abandoned Bemurhen."

Sunlight shone brightly through the clouds, casting down upon the people.