Shujinkou Janai!

[O- Oi, Old man! I thought you said you had all the ant holes sealed up! If by any chance the ants come through here to the town……]

As he looked at the hole in the center of the abandoned house, Radd raised his voice.

His concern is understandable.

Although no one was killed as a result of the quick response, the monster raid on a supposedly peaceful town left a shadow over the hearts of the people.

If the ants were to spring up because of this hole that remained, they worry that something irreversible might happen this time.

However……

[Don’t worry. This hole has long since been sealed up.]

[Huh……?]

I beckoned Radd, who had frozen up at my words, to look into the hole.

[Eh? Isn’t this…… connected to the cave?]

As Radd tilted his head in confusion, just as mentioned earlier, the end of the hole has long since been filled in.

All that remains now is a few meters of the entrance to the hole that once led to the <Great Hollow>.

But for my purposes, that was already enough.

[Come on, stop with those faces and come here already. You’d think you can’t use a <Recall Plume> here, right?]

Leading everyone into the hole, which led nowhere, I activated a <Recall Plume>.

※　※　※

[T- This place is……]

The original entrance to the “Ants’ Burrows”, which we had come to earlier, was reached by <Recall Plume>.

[H- How? The cave wasn’t supposed to be connected……]

Nuku, who sees things logically, was wide-eyed and confused, but well, that’s understandable.

The <Recall Plume> is an item that “teleports the user, when used in a dungeon, to the point designated as its entrance”.

To explain things to the extreme, there isn’t really any need for the entrance to be connected to the place where the <Recall Plume> is used, but this is something that people with no knowledge of games would not understand.

[Now, we’re going to walk a bit from here. There’s a possibility that there are still ants in the area, so stay alert.]

Without further ado, I urged Radd and the others to move on.

Well, even though I told them to be on the lookout, I had already cleaned up the ants in this area once.

B&B’s system makes it so that there’s a finite number of monsters, so a day passing wouldn’t make this place overflowing with ants.

We followed the same path we had taken before to the “food” transportation route, where we had been caught off guard by the Hounds in the past.

[We’re almost there. Don’t stray away.]

After briefly calling out to them, following the same passageway, we stepped into the center of the Ant Burrows.

[H- Hey.]

[Hmm?]

Hearing that call, I looked to the side and saw Radd standing next to me.

He was looking up at me, seemingly anxious.

[By any chance, are you planning to advance through the Ant Burrows and get out from the entrance in the Royal Capital? No, I think it’s amazing that we were able to reach the border of the region in an instant, but it’s about a week’s distance from the mountain to the Royal Capital by carriage, right? In that case, wouldn’t it be better if we just used a carriage……]

After hearing his words, I finally realized what Radd is misunderstanding.

[Well, I guess it would be alright to do that around here.]

Instead of correcting him, I took out an item from my inventory.

That is……

[A <Recall Plume>? Eh, but won’t that just send us back to where we came from……]

[Now then, I wonder about that?]

After returning a smile to the bewildered Radd, I used the <Recall Plume>.

As a dazzling light wrapped around us, when we opened our eyes again, we were standing in a different place than before.

[This place is…… the entrance to the nest, right?]

Rather than go into a lengthy explanation, I think it would be better if I just prove my point.

I just answered Radd’s puzzled question by pointing to the entrance of the cave.

[You’ll know where we are when you check out what the outside is like.]

[……Well, if Old man says that much, I guess I’ll take a look.]

After looking at me with a skeptical gaze, Radd still obediently walked toward the outside of the cave.

And then, when he brought his face outside, he let out a loud cry.

[H- Haaaaaahhhhhhhh!?]

However, I guess that’s understandable.

As his mouth opened and closed, he frantically pointed his finger outside.

There, in the distance, was a place that would have taken 10 days to reach even by carriage from Frelia, the <Royal Capital, Bright City> in all its glory.

※　※　※

[I- I can’t believe this. We’ve actually reached the <Royal Capital> in less than 30 minutes……]

Looking quite dizzy, Nuku voiced his surprise.

I don’t know if it’s just he, who sees things logically, couldn’t believe what had just happened or not, but he was frequently shaking his head.

However, the logic in all these events isn’t that complicated.

[I told you that the entrance to the Ant’s Burrows is different in different regions, right? So, even when the whole place is referred to as the Ant Burrows, if you use the <Recall Plume> on the Frelia’s side, you’ll be teleported to the vicinity of their mountain, but if you use the <Recall Plume>after proceeding to the Royal Capital or Niebuhr’s side, you’ll end up teleporting to a location near the respective cities.]

The biggest reason I chose the Ants instead of the Bees for the Grand Raid Event was to search for the “Hero” at the award ceremony.

However, that’s not the only reason I chose the Ants.

The dungeon <Great Hollow> created by the Ants in the Grand Raid Event can be easily reached from Frelia, and therefore can be used as a shortcut to move from one area to another.

[Well, the only time you can use this shortcut is when you go from <Frelia> to the <Royal Capital> or <Niebuhr>, but not when you want to go back.]

[E- Even so, just being able to shorten a round-trip’s travel time by half is revolutionary.]

When I informed them so, Nuku, who still looks like he’s still in shock, frantically answered.

Though I say that, it seemed like it was just Nuku who was that shaken.

Prana, who was quietly walking beside me, was unperturbed, saying “I had predicted this when we came to the abandoned house”, while Mana seemed surprised for a moment, but she immediately put away the “Traveler’s Guide” she was carrying and began reading through a book titled “<Royal Capital> Sightseeing Guide”. Seriously, she may have been the most brazen in their party.

Meanwhile, Radd, who had been the most shaken before, seemed to have gained some sort of incomprehensible understanding, saying “Well, that’s certainly just like Mast…… the Old man.”, and Nuku himself also seemed to have calmed himself down.

In any case, we have only just arrived at a place where we can see the <Royal Capital>, a field where monsters can appear.

We had better not let our guard down.

However, the monsters that appear near the city aren’t very strong.

On the way from the Ants’ Burrows to the <Royal Capital>, we had several encounters with monsters, but they weren’t that strong of an opponent for Radd and his party, who had increased their level.

(……However, it was obvious that the level of the enemies had increased.)

I remember the monsters in the area around the <Royal Capital>.

When I looked at the enemies we encountered with <Inspect>, I could see that they weren’t enough to be a threat for the current team, but there were certainly monsters that would never have appeared in the game’s initial state.

It seems safe to say that the level of monsters in the world has risen by a level since one of the <Twelve Dark Ruins> has been conquered.

But other than that, there was nothing of note, and we easily made it to the city, the center of the world, and set foot in it for the first time.

[S- So this is the Royal Capital……]

[W- Whoa! Amazing! Look at that! That signboard magically floats!]

Watching Radd, who was looking around like a country bumpkin, and Mana, who was excitedly waving Prana’s hand around, I pleasantly smiled, but my mind was still thinking of my next plans.

[Leave the frolicking for later. Let’s go to the Adventurers’ Guild first.]

Using the time before our departure, I asked Verteran to write a letter asking the Adventurers’ Guild here to cooperate in the search for the aforementioned “Ruin Conqueror”.

I don’t know what kind of person they are, but as long as they’re an Adventurer, I’m sure they’ll eventually come to the Guild.

And once I found someone who looked like them, it would be my win.

(The current me now has a “trump card”.)

That <Demon Lord> didn’t just leave us with EXP.

If I only had that, I would surely……

Ah, I suppose it would be bad to think too deeply while walking huh.

I almost bumped into someone in a corner.

[Oops, I’m so———–]

[Ahh, my apolo————]

We both bowed our heads lightly and tried to continue on our way but……

[……Huh?]

[Arehh……?]

I stiffened.

When my eyes met his, we both froze with our mouths half-open, as if we had seen something strange.

An indescribable silence.

However, the one who broke free from that moment of silence was the other guy.

[————-Rex! If it isn’t Rex, it’s been a while!]

With a pleased expression on his astoundedly good-looking face, he happily called out my name.

(Oi, oi, what kind of coincidence is this?)

Luxurious golden-colored hair that even a woman would be fascinated at, and a sweet mask with a kind smile on his lips.

I’ve personally never seen his face before, but I’ve seen it so many times in the game that my mouth naturally spoke his name.

[Ain……]

It’s only been 2 minutes since I arrived in the <Royal Capital> for the first time.

And here, I met Rex’s friend and the most important person in the <Royal Capital>, no, in this country, he who is known as the <Cheat of All Cheats>, the <Prince of Light, Ain>.