Walk down an unpopular hallway to contain the agony you still want to rush out. It wasn't that I didn't want to expose my ugliness, it was a sign of my willingness to try and be calm. It is a critical situation that requires us to have a broad horizon and work our heads to find a way to open it.

(Although, as it stands, the only hands I hit are impoverished)

With that in mind, but unable to come up with a solution, Elle reached in front of a certain room. I take a small, deep breath trying to calm my anxious mind just a little.

The moment I imagined myself as usual and tried to knock on the door...

"What are you doing in front of people's rooms"

"Whew!"

That's what he was called, and Elle turned to jump, raising a really surprising voice that didn't even seem like it.

That's exactly who I was trying to ask right now. Harold stood looking surprised.

"Boy, you look good."

"Five days of sleeping. Is that sarcasm for me?

"I'm not disgusted with my life enough to sell you a fight."

I don't consider myself a person as dangerous as I say with my mouth, but I firmly understand Harold's strength in itself. Even though he is an unimaginably moderate figure from words and deeds, if he were mistakenly touched by that inverse scale and directed at that overwhelming violence, he would, at the end of the day, disappear equally to dust, such as his own life.

I'm prepared to risk my life for the achievement of my grief, but I'm not going to die in such a pointless place.

"Hmm, okay. Come in, I think you're here because I need to talk to you."

"I'll let you do that. It's a pile of things I have to report."

This one is so disgusting.

Discussions began on how many things could make me smile in a simple room with only beds and tables and chairs except carpeted.

Well, I've only seen a mockery of the smile of a man sitting across the table.

"Now, which one of these stories do you want to hear from that lacks fun but is a little bad with the set questions, and that is pretty bad and very bad?

"I didn't know you could buy one of the good stories. You lost your arm."

"The good and bad of an informer is not whether or not you get good ear information. Whether or not you have accurate information."

Harold sighs loudly. I know very well that considering his mood does make me want to say one of his stupidity as well. Because I was badly injured, unconscious for five days, and when my body finally started moving, stories like this came in.

Nevertheless, it was also started by Harold if you trace it back, and as for Elle, there is no such thing as a complaining muscle.

"But well, you are. If you tell us what happened to the liners first, you won't be guilty of assaulting the Harrison Mansion."

It was quite a riot, but there was a big nickname for taking back what was stolen, and the family names of Arklite and the famous Smeragi, who are even royalty in circumstances where there are none, are big cards.

Well, based on the fact that it wasn't the Knights that hit the response, but the military officials, and the fact that the liners weren't pursued in large measure, I guess Harrison was the one to be truncated from the beginning when something happened, as Harold told me.

"Especially around here. He didn't seem worried."

The liners had been informed in advance about the possibility of breaking into the Harrison Mansion. Make it Harold's prediction. Make it his prediction of the future, given that he didn't touch on any post-raid fears, there seems to have been some certainty that he won't be captured here.

Instructions were given if the raid did not stop, and to seize the weapons that Harrison allegedly collected after the raid. It was quite a challenge, and I started Harrison to negotiate and gathered quite a bit of trump card information for everyone involved, but I was able to get a good handle on it.

(How far are we supposed to go? I don't know...)

Harold himself wasn't supposed to put a cross spear in that fight. But the truth is that the liners had no choice because they acted at a speed that went against expectations.

There is no reason for Elle to know about the difference between the picture he was drawing and what he was actually drawing.

"The seizure of weapons is a success. And then I was going to look at the timing and give this to the liners...?

"I just don't have to give it directly anymore."

"Things are like that, right?"

Handing it over from Harold would have been the smoothest way if trust had been built. But in this hostility, it collapsed.

There will be no total hostility because there is a Reefa who is somewhat familiar with Harold's circumstances, but it is also conceivable that the party leader, Reiner, will create discord while remaining distrustful.

That wouldn't even be desirable as Harold.

"Whether I give it to you or you give it to me, the result will remain the same."

"I hope so...... and it's time to get down to business, but first its a bit of a bad story about those liners"

Speak quickly, and Harold's eyes will prompt you first.

"There is a danger that a large group of monsters will come to Travis. [M] They said they'd let the liners and the knights handle it... but there might not be much respite."

"What do you mean?

"The monster movement is getting pretty active. No wonder we're moving right now."

This was also informed by information from Harold about which direction the monsters would invade. Based on that, it was about ten days ago that Giffelt's information network and Frieri were summoned together to discover a large group of monsters in advance.

The situation is close to what was happening on Smeragi territory, but the problem was where the monsters were lurking their breath.

That's a huge ruin where high level monsters spread and not many countries banned exploration. The constant scratching of the eyes of the glowing Royal Army surveillance and the members of the Frieri managed to confirm at the stake that the sight of so many monsters hitting each other was rather shocking.

"Even so, his arrival at Travis should be faster. What's happening to the Knights guys more than that?

"You're serious at the level where you're trying to secure a lot of personnel and pull up to an empty ship."

"... you mean you got your back on Yustus' suspicion?

"I don't know that far, but at the time the Knights stepped in the other day, the Doctor's lab seemed to be in a mushroom. And I'm guessing this move is likely to mean that."

A large group of monsters began to enliven at the same time that Justus disappeared. It would be natural not to leave the realm of speculation but to be more vigilant.

"Though I don't think the man will leave any plausible evidence."

"The data doesn't erase the facility itself anyway."

If it were to be a human experiment, it would require a lot of equipment. Unless you blow the lab to pieces of wood dust, the physical evidence will remain.

And the plan should be seen as progressing to the point where the fact that Justus tolerated it would only be trivial, such as a chaser from the Knights.

"... Whatever it takes, it's within our expectations. Not so much a bad story."

"Hmm, next then. I've confirmed another group of monsters."

To this one word, the movement stiffens whether or not Harold just ate it as well.

And to see this reaction. This one seemed unexpected to him, too. It still doesn't seem complete, even if it predicts the future.

"... is that 'a very bad story?

That's what Harold's been asking me since I've been free for a long time.

In contrast, Elle returns the answer soberly and clearly.

"Too bad. This is a pretty bad story."

"Chip."

Harold contemplates as he openly strikes his tongue. It's a man named Harold who never stops thinking when he's in a desperate situation.

I opened my mouth for the information I needed to see if I immediately changed my mind.

"How many of them are there?

"Visually, about five thousand. It's less than what's supposed to be going to Travis."

That said, it is not a very negligible number. Directly, it would be quite difficult, but it would be devastating if some measure were not taken.

A large group of monsters present in two locations. They can't be irrelevant.

"I sent the Knights the news in your name, but I don't know if it's a good idea to crack down on people there in response to Travis."

"It's better than nothing."

"Well, yeah. But let's talk about something really bad here.

That's what Elle took out of his bag were two maps. One is a note of the entire kingdom. And the other one belongs to a certain town.

First, spread the map of the entire kingdom over the table.

"The name of the city where a large group of new monsters have been discovered is Burston. It's a mountain town in the northwest of the kingdom."

That's what Elle explained as he glanced through the map with his fingers, a deeply natural town in a land even deeper than Attis, where he met Harold and Reefa.

The latest record showed a population of about 3,000, but that was also a few years ago, so it would be a little less now.

"In the mountainous town as you can see on this map. You can't use an empty ship if something happens."

In other words, defend the town, evacuate the inhabitants. It is difficult to transport personnel and materials.

The only way to ensure safety is to use a plain that extends to the south side of Attis, but from there but at a straight distance to Burston it is roughly seventy kilometers. Both are hard to say realistic, but if you still choose, evacuation will likely still work better.

"Is that what's causing the bad story?

"It's one of the reasons, except for the real thing. Look at me."

Another one I had prepared, spread the map of Burston on top of each other.

"Burston is never a big town. And there's no place around here where a lot of monsters can hide themselves."

So where and how are thousands of monsters lurking?

The answer was firmly on the map.

Platinum "But Burston is a mining town that thrived in the mining of rare ores, including once. Until the rock crash, there were endless digs, and so many tunnels passed through the mine as well as the town's basement."

Burston, which now follows a path of decline due to the crash and the depletion of resources visited several years later, naturally, there is no way that the pits dug in the past have been filled.

"I mean, you think all the monsters are hissing deep in the pit?

"Discover. But here's what you thought." If it was used as a pit, it wouldn't be possible to get in and out of large monsters. "

"Don't you dare answer me. Just say what you need."

"After the closure of the mountain, there were signs of hands on the pit and its interior. Specifically, there are big holes deep underground that I don't think were made of mining."

"Is that where the monsters sleep?"

"That sort of thing. Besides, I checked with mine records and I wonder if I should say the earliest passage that shouldn't exist... is that size. I found some of those things. Most monsters would be able to get through."

Nor is it an environment where nature and monsters gather in artificial passages like the Smeragi area, which was an open land.

It is obviously prepared for some purpose by human control.

"... there are a few things I care about"

"I'll answer what I can answer."

It's usually a scene where one of my dislikes flies "naturally" here, but I guess it's also an emergency as Harold to see where he starts asking questions right away.

"He said there were signs of hands on the mine, but since when?

"I don't know if I can find out more, but I think it was about ten years ago due to the deterioration."

"Did you have the same temper as Smeragi in the pit?

"There it is. Most of them accumulate in big underground holes, and if it's a pit, it's pretty deep enough to drift away."

"How big would it be if those guys were to gush out on the ground?

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure the monsters are under control, but it depends on how much control you can take... Yeah, but I've been able to confirm three aisles so far where the monsters are likely to come in and out, so it could be a three-sided operation to intercept them."

Besides, I can't do that, but I can put in the implication. Naturally.

Assuming it's Harold, you might be able to deal with five hundred or a thousand of the monsters that gush out, but the other two responses are impossible. And if regular people, including the Knights, are going to deal with that many monsters, they're going to need at least three hundred people.

I can't even gather the Knights, or a total of six hundred human beings who have excelled in mass combat at the same level as them, while Travis is in imminent crisis.

"... how long does it take to complete the evacuation?

"Two days in reckoning. It could take a little longer because of the high percentage of the elderly"

In short, we didn't start evacuating the monsters in time after they started moving.

"If it was once a mining town, there must be a transport facility that carries resources to the foot of the mountain."

"It did happen. Until the landslide a few years ago, when the truck tracks were flushed."

In an inconvenient land, there were people who did not move their dwellings, either financially or in difficult circumstances, because they were able to get out of nearby towns relatively cheaply using their hauling vehicles.

But it also went away, especially when the young man left Burston. On the other hand, older humans who had lived in that land for a long time seemed less attached to inconvenience or to move on and away.

"... Harold? What's the matter, man?

Harold, who had managed to patrol his thoughts in order to open the situation, stared to eat in with a map of the entire kingdom in his hand if he noticed.

I can't think of anything Elle would have thought of that would have tipped me off.

"Elle, from here to Burston, how many days each by horse and carriage?

"Three to four days if you're a horse. The carriage depends on what you load, but around seven days. But it's a long way from Burston by horse or wagon, and it'll take a whole day to climb the mountain path from there."

"Then get the horses as ready as you can. I'll take the Frieri guys."

"Are you kidding me now?

"Collect what you need before you do. I'll be out as soon as I get the numbers."

Copy that.

Rapid action is a beauty, but it breaks bones inside to accompany it.

That's my fate I bet Harold on, so I can't help it.

(And, well, it's far more than twisting your head in a clogged situation.)

The look on Elle's face, who was so convinced that he started running to arrange supplies, was only a little relieved even before the emergency.