The silhouette of the lone minia, walking across the sea of hot sand, rose into view, outlined by the sunlight behind him.
He had a small wooden box on his back, and there was a strange instrument dangling from a belt around his neck.
His plump, round face was hidden beneath a traveler's hat to block out the sun. Though he was a part of the caravan recently raided by lycans, he had been completely left behind by the group doubling back to the nearest settlement— because among those in the caravan, he was the only one who didn't retreat from the spot of the raid, heading in another direction instead.
"Whew… Yeaaah, this temperature's pretty brutal. I might seriously end up dying out here. Is my body gonna last…?"
Although he dabbed his forehead with his handkerchief, largely out of habit, the sweat that appeared on his brow immediately evaporated in the hot, dry air.
"I shouldn't have come out here. Can't gather any data; the caravan's been raided… Haven't had a failure like this in a while."
"…Is that ooze all right? How can it survive in an environment like this?" Though the man had appeared to be speaking to himself, there came a reply.
The second voice rang out from the wooden box on the man's back.
This Gokashae Sand Sea was a remote area that not even radzio transmissions could reach, and the box that the bantam man shouldered wasn't even big enough for a leprechaun to fit inside. Everything about the situation seemed unusual.
"I'm not too knowledgeable myself, but oozes apparently have the same sort of perspiration system that lowers cell temperature through heat vaporization. But with ooze, that regulatory function isn't automatic, you see… Apparently, if the ooze isn't accustomed to arid climates, they won't even last half a day before shriveling up. I don't have a clue about that ooze, though."
"Hmmm. You're well-informed, aren't you?"
"I mean, I've been doing this work for a long time. I am a pro, after all." "But didn't you fail this time?"
"Ha-ha-ha, well, you can expect some ups and downs when you've been at it
this long."
He was looking for an ooze. A shura that surpassed the strength of the world- renowned First Party. From where the armed caravan had been attacked, he followed after the lycan's cleverly hidden tracks… And then arriving at the Zehf tribe's village, Yukiharu learned his trip to collect material would be a fool's errand.
He needed only to watch from afar to see the person he needed to question get laid low.
"…Neft the Nirvana. I was just a bit too late, huh."
"There's one other person left behind from the First Party, right? I've heard that Romzo the Star Map is living in Aureatia."
"Romzo, huh? Ha-ha-ha. Yeah, well… He's not gonna work."
The man laughed dryly in response to the voice from the wood box. When it came to negotiating and bargaining, Romzo the Star Map was in some ways an even more dangerous person than Neft the Nirvana. Something the man was confident about.
"If the survivors of the First Party aren't going to work...that only leaves The Land of The End, huh? Boy, I'd really like to avoid going there if I can help it…"
"If Romzo won't do, then there probably aren't any other leads on the True Demon King. I mean, witnessing the Demon King first is one thing…and then to live to safely tell the tale. No one but the First Party's done it."
"…The Land of The End is a scary place, y'know."
The Land of The End, rumored to be the final resting place of the True Demon King. A mysterious unknown monster was said to lurk there, thwarting any and all reconnaissance teams sent out by both the New Principality or Aureatia.
"You know Alimo Row? It's a village right next to The Land of The End, see. Nothing but one terrible, brutal incident after another out there… But I mean… That's really the only place we're gonna find a lead."
"Someone's a coward."
The unidentified voice coming from the wood box was tinged with exasperation.
"…But whenever you start talking like that, you usually go through with it anyway, Yukiharu."
"Ha-ha-ha, guess so."
A turning point for the world, with legends and champions fighting each
other—and the minian realm under control by Aureatia. Arresting the advancement into this tumultuous age with an overwhelming power was something completely unknown to anyone, yet simultaneously a singular terror that no one could ever forget.
There was someone in this world who was trying to investigate the Demon King's true form.
"I'm a pro, after all."
The man was a visitor. His name was Yukiharu the Twilight Diver.