"Oh, yeah. Taketo, here we go. Keep your phone with you whenever you go out."
When I leave the room, the commander calls me and throws me something. When I opened my palm, the sole looked like a wooden tag.
Card size wooden bill made of dark green unfamiliar wood. It was about one centimeter thick, and on its surface something like a crest was largely engraved with silver lines. I recognize the badge as well as the tacket.
Because I see it everywhere in the royal palace.
"It's called 'King's Way'. Proof of those who serve the royal palace. Witness It's made of special wood that only grows on King's Land. If you show it, it will not only enter the King's Land, but also the Protected Areas and the territory of the approximate lord, and it will be convenient somehow."
I see, is your identity, or is it your property?
"The King's Property" Since it is the King who has sovereignty in this country, all the people working in the royal palace must be aware that it is the King's property. It's a bit similar to what public officials used to say about 'public servants' and 'public servants' in the original world.
Turning the wooden tag upside down, it had Taketo Himkai's name and Royal Office of the Magic Beast Poacher dug up where he belonged.
It's like a police notebook.
When Taketo put the wooden tag in his pocket, he thanked the commander and left the room.
Immediately afterwards, they set out for the royal palace toward the Philippine harbour where the beast called the carbuncle was found. This time, I was with Criston at the Magic Biological Sanctuary.
Because of the large number of people, Taketo, Bridgetta, and the three people in Criston were on a coach ride. Chante boarded Ur to Philippine and met at the entrance to the woods outside the city. Karon, who had left the Royal Palace for another job, said he would come to the Taketoes as soon as your job was over.
The journey to Philippine. During the carriage break, the tacket lowered its hips to the shoulder trunk and opened a book borrowed from the commander. It was a Magic Beast atlas.
The drawings illustrate various beasts that have been confirmed to exist in this world. When Taketo drew the name "Carbuncle" from the index, he turned the page. On the page in question, there was an illustration of a beast very similar to that depicted in the scroll that arrived to the commander.
A creature that looks a lot like a squirrel, but has a thicker and fluffier tail. It has a green hairline, and a red stone-like thing fits in its head. This is the carbuncle.
The cuteness of the shape makes it popular as a pet of the rich, and it seems to be of high value as an item that brings luck to the stone above its head.
Wow, that's cute.
Sure, there are a lot of people who want pets. I honestly think so. On the other hand, I think that's why they tend to overtake me. With that in mind, a small head peered into the atlas from the side.
"Carbuncle has long been popular with noble ladies and wives. I've seen Walawa take care of the mansion a little bit, but it was kept. Even so, I heard that there have been a lot fewer of them lately.
"How old was it?
Brigitta leaned her neck against her chin and said, "That's right," to Taketo's words, which she was intrigued by.
I wonder if it was a hundred years ago.
Tackets open their eyes to unexpected numbers. I almost dropped the atlas I accidentally had in my hand.
"... eh. Huh!? How old is Brigitta now!?
Unexpectedly, Brigitta peeled her face and peeled at the impudent question she answered.
"Don't ask the lady how old she is. What kind of discipline has Sochi received so far? I'd like to see your parents' faces. Or is that another world courtesy?
They say ironically.
"No, I'm sorry... I apologize for being rude. I can't believe everyone in this world lives so long..."
Brigitta shook her neck to the side, pointing her finger at the face of the tacket.
"Good thing. Next time you ask the same question, I'll petrify it and sink it in the river.
The person who did not wear the eyeballs stared at him and apologized for the tacket. I just want to avoid being turned into a riverbed stone.
Brigitta must have lost even more anger because the tacket was too shoulder-stretched. A small sigh lowered her hips slightly next to the tacket.
"Normal people can't live that long. At best, fifty or sixty years. Warawa... survives the Medusa tribe. So the speed of growth and the speed of aging are different from normal people. Even so."
Brigitta looks away and says.
"Walawa is the son of Adam between man and Medusa. Half. So, unlike the pure Medusa, I suppose he's halfway there. A halfway house that can neither be human nor live as a medusa."
Her voice is indefinitely weak and I can't imagine it from Brigitta, who is usually high up and gazing from above. I didn't know how Taketo would react to Brigitta looking at such a different side, but I just listened in silence.
As Brigitta descends from the pion and stump, she flips her ruffled purple skirt and turns around. At that time, I was back on my usual bridge.
"But I'm glad this is happening now. If Warawa's eyes were both Medusa's, they would have to be hidden from each other to survive in human society."
According to Brigitta's story, the birth Medusa has those anomalous eyes in both eyes. And it petrifies what it sees in an instant. Having both eyes would be inconvenient to live with.
At that time, I heard the voice of the lord of the carriage. It's about time we finished our break. Looks like we're headed for the Philippines. I got tired of thinking about having to endure that cramped and rocking carriage again for a while.
After rendezvous with Chante, who had been in the woods near the Philippine city, the four men headed to the Vigilante station where the information was provided. Ulu left a message hiding in the woods as usual.
Philippine is a large city downstream of the Great River called the Phil River. On the banks of the Phil River, stone houses were spread out. The Phil River is a hub for transportation and a hub for commercial shipping. Various sailboats, large and small, crossed the river.
Wow, wow.
Waterways ran endlessly across the city. There are bridges across the city to cross the waterway. From one of those bridges, the tacket peered down.
Yellow turbid water is flowing quite a bit in the waterways where water has been dispersed until the edge. When I looked up, I saw a turbid stream of water flowing into the Phil River. Is the width of the Phil River as wide as the Arakawa River in Tokyo? The river water is yellowish because it contains a lot of mud.
"Somehow, it's more water than when I came here before."
Surely Brigitta deserves Chante to be strange, right? Put your hands on your hips and answer.
It's early spring now. More upstream from the mountains, there's a lot of meltwater flowing in here. "
"Oh, I see. That's Brigitta, I know something."
"Besides"
That's what Brigitta's expression looks like for a moment.
"I wonder if the heavy rains last month are still affecting us. I heard that this river is becoming more watery and that there are flooded towns and villages... but it seems that the city is built to be somewhat flooded."
It turns out that all the buildings in the city were made of tough stone, two floors taller. There is only one door on the ground floor, and there is no window. If it is not flooded and watered, the first floor will be structured to be closed and evacuated upstairs.
I'm sure the water is dragging quite a bit, but there's still plenty of overflowing water in the canal. Something like a wooden board or tall was flowing from where it came from.
"If I fall here, I'll do it...."
I've been watching the river for so long that I'm worried about accidentally slipping my feet. The tacket trembled and followed Brigitta and the others.
Brigitta and the others knock on the wooden door when they get to the front of a building near the port. It's a three-story stone building.
Next to Kido was a sign saying, "Philippine Port Vigilante Station."
A vigilante with his face out the door takes him inside and takes him to a room like a conference room upstairs. As soon as I entered the room, I saw a small cage placed in the back. Criston rushes fast.
In a small cage fitted with iron bars in a wooden box were creatures with green hairs about 30 centimeters in length. Silky tail, big black almond-shaped eyes. And the characteristic is something like a bright red ruby between the eyebrows. The creature looked up at Criston in front of him with its big eyes and looked at him strangely with his small neck tilted. You don't seem very vigilant. That lovely expression is so cute.
Yes, this was the carbuncle.