Chapter 289

Translator: Kell | Editor: Weasalopes

The Basement

No records were left of just how big the city of dreams, Lands Harvest, was . As such, Hikaru could only make a guess . It had to be smaller than Dream Maker, but not that small . People wouldn’t call it “founding a nation in a new continent” if the population wasn’t at least a few thousand .

「Let’s go . 」

Trees had split the cobblestones open . Houses were destroyed . The townscape became clearer as Hikaru went deeper inside . Rusty, metal signboards lay on the ground . Dust piled up inside buildings that still had a little roof left . Dogs as tall as Hikaru prowled the main street, which was wide enough for a number of carriages to pass by one another .

「Can you tell where the guild is?」

『It stinks . 』

Drake had been saying nothing but that for a while . The stench was only natural as they were deeper in the forests now .

From north to south, the ruins were located right in the middle . Dream Maker was situated way south .

After exploring for a day, Hikaru didn’t find any noteworthy places . First, no objects were left inside the buildings, most likely carried out when the monsters attacked . There were too many empty houses . Second, more than half of the structures had collapsed . Some crumbled from the passage of time, some destroyed by monsters . Even monsters fought each other .

「Hmm, let’s call it a day . It’s not like there’s an Adventurers Guild here for sure . 」

『Really?』

The city had fallen completely silent . Hikaru found a place to sleep on the second floor of a relatively undamaged building, its stairs already destroyed .

Hikaru started early the next day . He narrowed his targets down to the bigger buildings as there were just too many small houses around . He didn’t have the time to check them all . First, he made his way to the lord’s—or perhaps king—residence . Located in the middle of the city, it had expansive grounds . The level of destruction was worse here, however .

Almost all the walls had crumbled down, and weeds grew thick and wild on the yard . A few pillars still stood, but that was it . Unless you carefully examined the place, you wouldn’t know this was the lord’s mansion .

Hikaru’s next destination was the town hall . Or what seemed to be a town hall . It was much taller than the other buildings, three story’s high . Although the third floor had collapsed, the first and second floors were still relatively fine .

「Oh… these look like official documents…」

Unfortunately, most of them had decomposed .

「I guess it’s not like the underground dungeon . 」

Despite being located deep within a cave, there wasn’t a lot of moisture there, and facilities to preserve the place were also running . But Lands Harvest was located between a forest and the sea, speeding up corrosion . Hikaru didn’t really care much for official documents, so he ignored them and proceeded inside .

「This safe’s damaged . 」

Hikaru found a safe as tall as his waist, its door wide open . It was empty, what was inside probably taken when the monsters attacked .

「Not a lot of human bones here . 」

Hikaru expected the ruins to be riddled with bones, but he barely found any . Sometimes he’d spot one in a house . Either monsters took them, or insects devoured bones, or perhaps it was simple weathering . Five hundred years seemed too fast for the last one, however . There weren’t a lot of residents killed indoors . Most probably escaped by sea and some were killed outside .

Hikaru checked the second floor only to find it as devastated as the first floor .

「Hmm?」

A sound came from downstairs . Hikaru activated his Mana Detection and noticed something . He normally only deployed his detection Skill in a horizontal direction . While in the forest he activated it to include what was above him as well . Running it in all directions put too much stress on his brain .

The sound came from something that fell over . He didn’t sense any living creature .

「I see . A basement . 」

『Basement?』

「There’s a basement down here . 」

Hikaru barely used his Mana Detection directly below him so he missed it initially . There was mana coming from down there .

It took some time before Hikaru found the entrance to the basement . Eventually he examined a storage room and entered through a secret passage that led underground .

Dust rose as he opened the door . Covering his mouth with a piece of cloth, he descended down the stairs, magic lamp in hand .

The walls and ceiling were slippery, and so was the floor . He had to proceed carefully . Soon he arrived at an open space .

「Oh…」

『A storage room?』

「Looks like it . 」

Shelves were installed on the wall, although it had long since collapsed from decay . Only traces of what seemed to be blackish wood remained . There was nothing in the middle of the room, but deeper inside, a magic item sat by the wall .

「I knew it . 」

It was a stone slab as tall as Hikaru’s waist . Pens—he didn’t know if they were rusted—lay scattered under it .

《Emergency . Monster attack . Too many of them, defending Lands Harvest is difficult . Notice from His Majesty to abandon the capital . Requesting assistance from the Vireocean navy . 》

《…re… state… notice… vy… mons… Vire…》

Although quite different from the ones Hikaru had seen, it was no doubt Linga’s Quill Pen .

「I wonder if it works . Highly unlikely after all this time…」

The second message appeared to be the reply from Vireocean . Due to failure in transmission, however, the words weren’t properly displayed .

「Maybe I should try it . There’s some catalyst left anyway . 」

Hikaru picked up some golden-colored powder piled up beside the pens with his fingers . This Quill Pen—although not quite shaped like an actual quill pen—appeared to work by rubbing catalyst on it . Using the fingers didn’t cause any problem . Hikaru detected mana coming from the pedestal and the catalyst .

「This is Lands Harvest…」

The golden letters glowed for a moment then turned black, indicating that the message had been sent . Hikaru wasn’t sure if it would be received or not .

「………」

No response .

『Let’s get out of here . The air here is stagnated . 』

「Okay . Whatever . 」

Hikaru planned to wait for a bit longer . Considering the amount of time that passed, however, he left the room with little hope .

『Oh, you’re all right . 』Gin said as Hikaru returned . 『You don’t seem to be injured or anything… You’re covered in dust, though . 』

Hikaru wiped the dust of his clothes with his hand .

「I got nothing . Surprisingly, there were barely any monsters in the city, probably because there’s nothing to eat there . 」

「Did the forest grow inside the city as well?」Wakamaru asked .

「Trees grew around the outer edges of the city, but the inside is fine . The state of the houses is awful, though . Most, if not all of them, had collapsed . I didn’t find anything valuable either . 」

「I see . I’m surprised you made it back unscathed . I heard you could move without being noticed, but Gin and I weren’t exactly convinced . 」

「Haha . I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t have any chance of success . 」

「All right, then . Let’s head to the tower . 」

「Of course . 」

「Actually about that…」Wakamaru said . 「After you headed to the ruins, Gin and I went to see this tower, but we didn’t find it . 」

「I thought so . When we first passed through, no one noticed it . I’m sure it’s invisible from the sea . 」

「So it’s visible only from land? How is that possible?」

「The army uses something similar, doesn’t it?」

Hikaru told Wakamaru about the optical camouflage

「Oh, that thing . But that technology…」Wakamaru wore a frown .

「What’s the matter?」

「I think you should know . 」

Wakamaru went to talk to Gin . At first the man looked surprised, his gaze darting at Hikaru, and then back at Wakamaru, before nodding .

「Gin has agreed . I’ll tell you about it . 」

「About what?」

「The traitors . 」