Episode 314: Understanding the situation

“Luck, do you know where the Saint is?”

“Won!”

 I ask Luck while showing it the map, and Luck deftly taps its forefoot at a point slightly north. The thought is also sent at the same time, so I understand the place clearly.

 It seems that she is in the middle of the wilderness in the north.

 It’s absurdly suspicious. I hope they didn’t do anything cruel to her, but …

 She is a pretty girl, so I’m afraid she’s had something strange done to her.

“Everyone, the Saint’s location has been found. At this time, we’ll enter Luck’s shadow and infiltrate to confirm her situation.”

 After receiving the information from Luck, I am worried about the Saint’s whereabouts, so I immediately take action.

“Can Mira scout from the sky with the bats?”

“Umu, leave it to me!!”

-Kiiin!

 I ask Mira to explore the area from the sky as we talked about. Mira nods, and then makes a high-pitched sound.

 Immediately after that, out of nowhere, a horde of bats gather, and she transforms into a bat and flies away.

 Eh? She can transform into a bat?

 If she didn’t try to rival Luck’s shadow abilities and showed me that part, I would have praised her normally?

 I am speechless.

 For the time being, the general public won’t notice it because it’s hidden in the darkness, and even if the explorer notices it, she looks like a normal bat, so it shouldn’t matter.

“Let’s go too.”

“”Roger.””

 After seeing Mira off, we also sink into Luck’s shadow and start moving towards the middle of the wilderness.

“Then, it seems that the Saint is being held there.”

 We arrive at a place covered by a simple wire mesh fence. The wire net continues as far as the eye can see.

 It surrounds a fairly large area.

 The sun has already set and it’s dark, but since I became an explorer, my night vision has improved, so I can see quite well. There is a hut inside the fence, and beyond that is a vast field.

 Everyone also puts out their heads and looks beyond the fence.

“What’s that? isn’t that field strange?”

 As soon as Amane looks inside the fence, she whispers softly.

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong, why is there such a grown field in such a wasteland. Isn’t it strange.”

“Ah ~ , now that you mention it, that’s true.”

 When Nanami tilts her head at Amane’s murmur, Amane expresses what bothers her, and Nanami responds by clapping her hands.

 As Amane says, all the fields inside the fence are growing green and bearing moderately ripe grains. This is found to be an anomaly because there are no plants other than the fields around.

 Of course, I can’t generalize it, but if I think about it simply, there’s a high possibility that the Saint is involved with those fields.

 The Saint probably has a rare magic that can grow crops in a field, or has a similar skill. If she’s not good with that, she might have something to do with plowing the fields themselves.

“Shia, what is Mira’s situation like?”

“Nn. Got a message in my head. She doesn’t see any suspicious people or devices around.”

 Shia answers my question.

 It seems that by making a contract with Mira, she was able to form a connection like with me and Luck, and was able to have a telepathic conversation in her brain. Apparently, there is no one watching over here.

“Is that so. That seems rather troubling.”

 Then, another question arises.

 Normally, you should keep an eye on the person you kidnapped so that they can’t escape. Not doing so means that you are confident that they absolutely cannot escape.

 It’s possible that the people who kidnapped her have some kind of tool that can restrain the Saint, or they have hold of some kind of weakness.

 I also expand my detection ability and check.

 There is only one sign inside the fence. That means there is probably only the Saint.

“Luck, are there signs of anyone.”

“Won!”

 I receive a reply that there is no problem after checking via Luck’s Kagema.

“From checking the sky, detection, and Luck, I found that there seems to be no people around. I’m going to actually break in!!”

“”Roger.””

 We dive into the shadows, bypass the fence, and enter the hut.

 The interior that can be seen from the shadows is very simple and has almost nothing. It feels like the bare minimum.

 As we move towards the direction of the presence, we see a person lying on the bed. In order to confirm the person’s condition, we approach and move the shadow to the wall to confirm the person from above.

“Terrible …”

 Just as Nanami says when she sees her, even from a distance, the person seems so haggard and emaciated that it doesn’t look like the photo. Her cheeks are sunken, she has dark circles under her eyes, and she breathes shallowly.

 I can’t imagine how cruel of things must have been done.

“It seems that the situation is not very good. I want to help her as soon as possible, but if there is no surveillance, there is a possibility that it will not be good if we take her without permission. Let’s get in touch and get information.”

“Right. I’m sorry for this child, but let’s wake her up and listen to her.”

 We confirm that the girl lying on the bed is the Saint and decide to actually listen to her story.

“Who will talk to her? Isn’t it better for people of the same sex to do it?”

“Hmm, right. No, I’ll ask Satou-kun to do this.”

“Eh!? It’s better not to be a man, right?”

“It’s okay. Please.”

“O, ou.”

 After discussing who would talk, for some reason I end up being the one to talk to her. It’s not good to spend too much time, so I’ll talk with her.

“Hey, wake up!!”

 I shake the girl.

“So … rry, desu …”

 The girl is a girl who earnestly apologizes while leaking a sob and shedding tears.

 What the hell happened …

“Wake up!!”

 I shake even harder.

“Nn … Nnnh …”

 Then, the girl opens her eyes.

“Fue? Yuusha-sama?”(TN:Yuusha = Hero.)

 As soon as the girl sees my face, she mutters something like that.