Chapter 522 - 465. Kouyouju Fairy
Our exploration, which started from the top floor, was now on the 5th underground floor.
The 9th floor consisted of the office and data room. The data room was piled high with books and pamphlets that looked like operation records. Naturally, we didn't have time to read them all, so we skipped them.
The 8th floor was the administrative office. It was a vast room with office desks arranged like a staff room, but there was nothing new.
The 5th, 6th, and 7th floors had many private rooms and were apparently collections of research labs, according to Hitomi-san.
We wanted to see all the rooms, but that would take too much time, so we only looked at one room per floor and moved on.
Here, books on Applied Magic, Grimoires of Spatial Magic, Barrier Magic, Gravity Magic, and Magic Engraving Pens were left, so Bell took them back.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors were production rooms. We had already seen these, so we skipped them and went down.
The 1st floor was the core section and storage, but it was just thick pillars and an empty storage area. According to Hitomi-san, these pillars were packed with mana transmission lines.
We moved to the basement via the elevator.
The 1st and 2nd underground floors were refining rooms, and it seemed the ingots produced here were transferred to the production rooms above.
Quite a quantity of Magic Steel ingots were left on a Transfer Magic Circle (send-only), so it was decided to collect them later.
The 3rd and 4th underground floors were large workshops, but they felt like expanded production rooms, so we just looked and moved on.
And then, the 5th underground floor's Large Transfer Room, which I was curious about. According to Hitomi-san, this Large Transfer Magic Circle was send-only.
"Hmm, I wonder where and what they were sending from here."
"That's an interesting question."
"Ah, you should be able to find out the destination by asking Hitomi-san. Probably..."
We found out when we asked Nina on our island, after all.
No, perhaps 'found out' is a misstatement? It was more like we found out the name of the transfer destination.
"Is that so? Um, Hitomi-san, could you please check where this Transfer Magic Circle is connected?"
"Yes. Querying positioning information... Query complete. The transfer destination is the Northern Large Magic Shipyard. The coordinate information is..."
"""Huh?"""
While we were surprised, Azure-san seemed to be lost in thought, as if something came to mind.
"Sorry. It's probably a Dragonkin-controlled area, but I'll ask Argenta too."
"Oh, yes, please do."
It was decided that I would be contacted as soon as they knew, and for today, we would return.
It was almost 10:30 PM, and the 6th to 9th underground floors were mining areas.
"Brother. Contact Mion."
"Roger."
I took out my Guild Card and spoke into it.
"Mion. Are you free right now?"
"Oh, yes. Are you finished?"
"We rushed through, but for today, yes. We're about to head back, how about you?"
"Um... there's a lot I want to talk about."
Did something happen?
From the sound of her voice, she seemed fine, but...
"Let's head back."
Even with El-san as a guard, White Dragon Princess was there, after all.
...
...
...
"Shou-kun."
"Mion, good work."
As we exited the Ancient Ruins and descended the stairs, Mion and her group seemed to have just returned.
White Dragon Princess was being held in El-san's arms, seemingly asleep. That's fine, but...
"Um, those children with you are fairies, right?"
"Yes. They are Kijimunaa-kun and his companions."
Next to Shal were boys with red hair and green eyes. Their leaf clothes and nut necklaces suited them well.
[Kijimunaa: Friendly]
Kouyouju fairies. They possess eyes that discern good and evil, said to grant happiness to the good and retribution to the wicked.
...
They seemed like pretty impressive fairies, but then again, if you started on an Uninhabited Island and played normally, you'd probably befriend them.
"Nya-nya."
"Juju~♪"
"~ ~ ~ ♪"
"Yeah, nice to meet you."
Shal introduced me as "the master of our island."
They all seemed to have become very close, including Sweee, but Bell and Seth both had expressions of 'what just happened?'
Naturally, Azure-san did too, but his gaze was fixed on El-san.
"Everyone was gathering and eating Armra Fruit, but..."
El-san spoke in a lowered voice, careful not to wake the sleeping White Dragon Princess.
Apparently, while they were all enjoying a peaceful snack time in the Armra grove, the Kijimunaa had been peeking from afar, looking envious.
And then, as usual, Sweee invited them over...
"I see. Um, are the Armra trees owned by these children? We even took saplings."
"~ ~ ~ ♪"
"Oh, you talked to them and got their permission."
Hearing that, I was relieved.
Apparently, Mion shared the sweets she brought, and they even ate Shal's dried sardines, so they seemed to get along well with True.
"Then, I'll have to bring them souvenirs next time we visit."
"Yes."
Ah, wait a minute. Kijimunaa, it's not just these children, right?
The Southern Island is probably the same size as our island, or even larger, so it can't be just these few.
When Sweee translated for me,
"Juju~"
A lot...
She spread her arms wide, so I figured there must be quite a few.
"Brother. Shall we call it a day for now?"
"Ah, sorry. Sweee, can you tell them we're going home?"
"~ ~ ~ ♪"
"Ah, they came to see us off."
Mion said she told them she'd be back tomorrow night, so we'll have to talk more properly then.
*
We returned to the living room for a debriefing session. Though we didn't really 'debrief.'
Yata-sensei was still tipsy and went to wash the dishes.
"Oh right. Mion, do you remember the name 'Theo Macdil'?"
That name was on the documents I found on the 9th floor. I felt like I'd heard it somewhere.
"Um, the name on the Guild Card found in Nina-san's data room..."
"Ah! Ah-ha!"
As expected of Mion!
I told Bell and Miki, who had no idea what I was talking about, about the Guild Card I found in our Ancient Ruins' data room.
I think, but I'm pretty sure, it belonged to the original owner of the 'Azure Moon Ring' I have...
"I see. In that case, it makes perfect sense that Brother's 'Azure Moon Ring' opened the document box."
"Originally, one might have found it but couldn't open it, and would have been at a loss trying to figure out how to open it, perhaps."
The two's opinion was that me bringing the 'Azure Moon Ring' and immediately coming to the top floor was effectively going backward through the intended route. I can't deny that.
"More importantly, what about the Kijimunaa-kun and his companions? Are they moving to Shou-kun's island?"
"Eh? No, that's as expected..."
I can't exactly say no either.
Shal and the others practically moved from Ramune-san's original island to ours, and there are other fairies living on the mainland too.
"I'll talk to them next time we visit, but I won't force them to move from the Southern Island."
Mion next to me nodded in agreement.
I'd be happy if they came to visit our island, but...
[Update History]
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