Satellite City-State of Alto, Central Street, Knight Order Headquarters
──I’ll prepare everything, so you two, make sure you’re ready for the fight ahead.
After an intense meeting, Ur and the others were given an hour’s grace period and concise instructions before disbanding.
Diz hadn’t given them specific instructions on what to prepare. No matter how capable Diz was, she couldn’t know what Ur and the others were capable of or what they needed. Only they knew that. They had to do what they could themselves.
“Preparation, huh… But the consumables are being taken care of by Luck Bird’s shop, right?”
“Yes. So it’s everything else.”
Now, the question was what to do. Unlike the Great Sin City-State of Greed, Alto wasn’t a country with labyrinths. There weren’t as many shops catering to adventurers as in Greed. Upgrading their equipment, for example, was probably out of the question.
Still, there was no point in worrying. There had to be at least one shop for adventurers. With that in mind, Ur and the others started walking. Then,
“You two! Thank goodness! You’re safe!”
A girl pulling a cargo cart with an old horse waved at them from across the street. Seeing her, Shizuku smiled and waved back.
“Lady Minne, it’s a relief to see you’re safe too. How’s Kona?”
“He’s with the knights. Things have gotten really tough for them…”
Minne was the girl Ur and the others had rescued on the Island Devouring Turtle. When they first met, her face had been pale, on the verge of panic, but now she seemed much calmer. Her naturally bright smile had returned.
As Minne rushed over, Shizuku took her hand, flashing a smile that would have melted any man’s heart.
“Thank you for the magic book. It saved our lives.”
“N-no, it’s me who should be thanking you!!”
Even for Minne, a fellow girl, that smile was overwhelming. Her face turned bright red as she nodded repeatedly. Ur couldn’t help but chuckle, but it was true that the magic book had saved them. Disposable as it was, its power was intense—
“──Hey, Minne. Are those magic books for sale?”
“Huh?”
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Satellite City-State of Alto, East Street, [Magic Equipment Speciality Shop – Under the Star Lantern]
Magic books, as the name suggests, are a type of magical tool.
Their covers, or sometimes the pages themselves, are engraved with magical incantations, allowing various magical effects to be activated by channeling a small amount of magical energy into them.
Due to their convenience, they were particularly popular among adventurers. Though they tended to be expensive, even those without extensive knowledge of magic could use them by simply channeling a bit of magical energy.
“Sorry, my parents are in the hospital right now, so things are a bit hectic.”
Minne, the daughter of the shopkeeper who dealt in these magic books, was bustling around the shop. The goods she had brought back from the Island Devouring Turtle were piled up, leaving the place in disarray.
“Are you sure it’s okay? We’re asking a lot.”
“No! It’s fine! You’re my saviors! Take any magic book you want!”
Despite the clattering and banging, she spoke firmly. But her face showed clear signs of exhaustion. She had been working non-stop since the attack.
“Well, we’ll pay for them.”
“Eh, but—”
“Lady Minne, you’ve been through a lot because of this incident. And you’ll continue to be busy.”
Shizuku gently took Minne’s hand and smiled.
“We don’t want to burden you financially. Please don’t worry about it.”
“Shizuku…”
Tears welled up in Minne’s eyes at Shizuku’s kind words. Watching this, Ur couldn’t help but think, She really does look like a saint…
“That said, magic books are pretty bulky, so we can’t carry too many.”
Aside from the cost, the main issue with magic books was their size. Since the covers and pages were engraved with spells, they were inevitably large. Disposable magic books were powerful, but even so, one person could only carry two or three at most.
“I’d like that fire magic book. It was effective against the undead soldiers.”
“No problem! We still have those in stock! How many do you need!?”
“We can’t carry that many… What else do we need?”
“Do you have any exploration-type magic books?”
When I asked Shizuku, she responded immediately.
“To quickly conquer the labyrinth, I want to understand the situation of the fortress.”
Even with prior research, we couldn’t figure out what the inside of the fortress was like. Considering our roles, we wanted to locate the hostages as soon as possible after entering the site.
“Hmm…”
However, whether such a convenient magic book existed was another matter. Minne groaned in frustration.
“Don’t have one? Then I won’t force it.”
“No… we do have an exploration one, but…”
“But?”
What she pulled out, after some fumbling, was indeed a magic book. It had a splendid white and blue binding and looked beautiful. However, for some reason, Minne seemed a bit embarrassed to show it.
“This is called ‘Footprints in Fresh Snow’… It’s actually an original magic book from our shop…”
“Well, it’s a pretty book.”
It wasn’t based on existing methods but was something her father had devised himself. When Ur opened it to take a look, he tilted his head in confusion.
“Blank pages?”
Inside, there was nothing written. Just blank pages, one after another. Most other magic books had spells or magic circles inscribed, but this one didn’t.
“It consumes almost no magic and is reusable. As for its effect…”
Minne touched the cover and closed her eyes. The book began to glow, and the blank pages I had seen earlier flew out from ‘Footprints in Fresh Snow.’
“Whoa!?”
“This is…”
The blank pages spread out in front of us like a large sheet of paper, and something resembling a drawing began to appear. No, to be precise, it was a map drawn using several lines—
“A map of the surrounding area?”
“Yes. It’s a magic book that maps out the space perceived by the user.”
This was indeed a detection-type magic book. Considering that mapping the terrain of a labyrinth during exploration is an important task for adventurers, this would certainly be useful.
“Pretty interesting… but…”
The problem was,
“…Yes.”
“It’s… too narrow a range.”
“………………Yes.”
At his observation, Minne nodded with a shrunken voice. The range depicted by ‘Footprints’ was far too small. If the three “dots” indicated caster location, only a tiny area around them was mapped out.
Even if it consumed little magic, this was too limited. Given that their goal was to map unexplored areas, it didn’t align with their purpose.
“S-sorry. It’s no good, is it?”
Minne looked embarrassed and quickly tried to put it away. But Shizuku gently stopped her hand.
“Excuse me.”
She took the magic book and poured magic into it again. The map that appeared was similar to the one Minne had shown. However,
“—”
Shizuku let out a short, beautiful sound from her throat. Then,
“Whoa!?”
The next moment, the map’s details began to be etched with terrifying speed.
Shizuku’s enhanced ‘Super Hearing’ detected the surroundings, and the information was visually mapped in real-time. In an instant, a detailed map of the shop and even the area outside was vividly drawn.
“Miss Minne, your father’s magic book is wonderful.”
Shizuku praised the detailed map, causing Minne to widen her eyes in surprise. Minne blushed and looked down again, but this time, it wasn’t out of embarrassment. Ur could tell.
After that, they finished purchasing the magic books they could carry for this expedition. A significant amount of money flew out of my wallet in an instant, and Ur felt a momentary pang of fear but decided not to dwell on it.
“Next is equipment maintenance… Minne, are there any blacksmiths around?”
“Hmm… There are a few blacksmiths, but they’re not big shops.”
Her gaze flickered toward the dragon fang spear on Ur back. Indeed, the dragon fang spear was a rare and specialized weapon. It was questionable whether a small-scale blacksmith could maintain it.
Of course, Ur had prepared for such situations by learning some maintenance skills himself. At worst, he could handle it himself, but he’d prefer to leave it to a professional.
“Oh, but now that I think about it…”
Minne clapped her hands as if remembering something.
“I think a craftsman from the Blacksmith Guild was on the Island Devouring Turtle.”
“The Island Devouring Turtle?”
“Yes. And now, he’s set up a temporary shop at Alto’s open-air market.”
Since they had no other leads, Shizuku and Ur headed there.
After saying goodbye to Minne, they made their way to Alto’s open-air market. Every city-state has an open-air market, though their sizes vary. However, Alto’s was quite large for a satellite city-state. Given that it was a docking port for mobile fortresses, there was a lot of foot traffic.
However, since the incident had just occurred yesterday, the market was eerily quiet.
Several stalls were even closed.
And there—
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