[21st Round] What about Lanuvel?
▶ Worry: With you in charge, there shouldn’t be any problems anymore, but try not to kill the archaeologist in charge of summoning the students, please.
‘Don’t worry, Trainee Teacher.’
If she didn’t pretend to be cute, everything would be fine.
I thought about where to start.
But I couldn’t find Lanuvel by myself, especially not without any information.
I had a rough idea of where the other companions lived and what they did, but I didn’t know anything about Lanuvel.
In the present timeline, she was always with the Hero from the moment she summoned them, so there was no need to guess where she was.
However, here in the past, I could only guess.
Since Lanuvel was a looter who dug through ancient ruins and dungeons, she always travels across continents.
Which dungeon was she in now? I wasn’t even sure she was on the Central Continent.
“For the record, I don’t know her whereabouts either, cowardly hubby.”
“I’m not surprised.”
There were so many things in this world that its creator couldn’t do.
“If the system were in good condition, we could summon her directly to us. However, it will take decades before it can be restored, and that’s assuming nobody else will further damage it.”
I only had one year.
I couldn’t just roam every dungeon looking for her.
PIP!
I contacted the Western Continent directly through my mollanphone.
“Oh! It’s only been 1,999 years, my benefactor. There should be a year left before your resurrection, but the wave of power that passed from the south of the Central Continent to the Western Continent is undoubtedly yours!”
Shakespeare, who received my call, quickly understood the situation.
It was quite convenient.
He was the Connoisseur for a reason, after all. However, if it had been just that, our conversation wouldn’t have been so laconic.
“What about the data I sent?”
Mollanphone’s power helped me with this.
“Haha! I’ve already checked it and found out it belonged to me since it was sent through my future self’s secret network. It had information stored within it that had been accumulating for 110 years. I’m even willing to bet that this data, mined throughout the span of 110 years, is far more useful than all the advances I’ve made in the past 1,999 years.”
Right.
While I wrestled with the director for a century, Shakespeare busied himself with his research.
And before the world rebooted, he sent the collected data to my mollanphone.
In the end, a total of 110 years’ worth of data were collected.
However, I didn’t know why he rated them higher than his 1,999 years’ worth of studies.
“That’s interesting. Why is it much more useful?” I asked the happiest married man in the world as I spread the wings of the righteous hero, soaring up into the sky.
Shakespeare provided an explanation.
“The battle between the Demon Lord and the Goddess who oversees Fantasy lasted for 100 years, and it left a lot of interesting data as a result. You may not know this, but it looks like my future self went straight to the battlefield in search of truth. Due to that, I now have a huge amount of accumulated information in my hands.”
“Not bad.”
“In 3 years, I will show you even more interesting things.”
“Take your time. There’s a much more pressing matter to focus on right now anyway. I came back a year before the heroes’ starting point. Do you know what that means?”
“Of course, Lord of Demons and Hope. You mean to say an important moment will soon occur that would put the world in an endless loop of time?”
“Yes.”
There was no need for detailed explanations, considering the truth was always with the Connoisseur.
“What can I do for you and the world?”
Soaring through the skies above the Dumpling Kingdom in search of Lanuvel, I replied.
“The Western Continent of Fantasy must become the last bastion that no hero can invade. If necessary, I need it to turn into a prison within which the heroes can be eternally trapped. I must also have Information networks on all other continents. Lastly, and most importantly, we need to develop a mollanphone that will allow heroes to use Wi-Fi on a limited basis. Of course, all this needs to be done within a year.”
“On a limited basis?”
“Yes. To prevent them from receiving any data from Earth, we need to launch sites and messengers readily available only for mollanphone users. Naturally, we’ll have full control over all of that.”
I had been keeping this plan in my head for a long time now.
And it had finally become possible to execute it.
The classrooms weren’t connected to each other, but Wi-Fi would connect them through the intermediate bridge called Earth.
I had done it before.
After taking a photo of Ssosia’s pelvis at Class A using my mollanphone and posting it online, my clone from Class B exclaimed, “Oh! That really is a cowardly pelvis!”
“Did you really take a photo of my pelvis, despicable hubby, or is that just an example?”
“Of course I did.”
I even photographed it at a beautiful angle.
“What?!”
“While you were moaning on all fours in front of me, I took a test shot and uploaded it onto the messenger.”
“You’re a pervert!”
“Why are you shouting? Your husband just took a couple of pictures of you. There’s nothing wrong and out of the ordinary in that.”
“A couple of pictures?! What if someone else sees it?!”
“What’s wrong with taking family photos? Everybody does it.”
“What you photographed has nothing to do with family photos!”
Ssosia gave it her all to convince me to delete it.
“Wife’s pelvis… Hmmmmmm!”
Shakespeare, quietly listening to us, took a step closer to the truth.
“Did I present my plan clearly enough to be understood?”
“Yes. Everything will be ready soon. Haha! Do you have any other requests for me besides the information network and the mollanphone, my benefactor?”
“I want to know Lanuvel’s current location.”
“I can say for sure that she isn’t here on the Western Continent. Other continents are outside my jurisdiction, so I have little to no information on them, especially the Central and Eastern Continents. ”
“I see.”
After ten years of researching and experimenting with Shakespeare on the Western Continent, I came upon a realization.
The dragon aura of my dear comrade Noebius, who had built a nest in the form of a mountain range right in the heart of the Central Continent, completely negated all types of detection.
It was the same with the Eastern Continent, home to the largest number of dragons in this world.
In other words…
Noebius = all dragons.
My friend was truly unique.
Anyway, I didn’t really expect Shakespeare to immediately pinpoint Lanuvel’s location.
If only she were on the Western Continent.
However, I still benefited from this, considering its elimination from the list of possible places she could be at, which reduced my search range by 20%.
“I’ll gradually explore the Northern and Southern Continents in search of Miss Lanuvel. Benefactor, do you have any other requests?”
“We will deal with the rest as we go.”
“I see. I’ll start developing the information network and will contact you again once I’ve found Lanuvel or when the new model of mollanphone is ready.”
“Thanks.”
“For the Demon Lord and the world.”
PIP!
It was a shame I couldn’t find Lanuvel, but it didn’t matter. She’d be back at the Dumpling Kingdom within a year…
… to kidnap social outcasts from other dimensions.
“Are you thinking of distributing mollanphones, hubby?”
“Why?”
“I hope you’ve given this a lot of thought. Separating each dimension is a method conceived during the early days of the Fantasy Institution.”
“Hmm…”
‘It was most likely to ensure the students would grow more independent by blocking information?’
In part, I agreed with that.
Because of my 200 years of experience here in Fantasy, I now held a lot of knowledge, but in my 1st round, I had to gain valuable experiences through trial and error.
The ability to solve problems without needing to rely on others was extremely important.
Perhaps spreading the mollanphones among the heroes would prove to be a rash decision.
“Ahem, husband? There are no such grandiose intentions behind it.”
“Huh?”
Why then?
“It’s to make the heroes feel special and one of a kind, making them think they’re the only ones that can prevent the destruction of this world, and ultimately making them feel responsible and proud.”
“…”
They exploited the concept of the eighth-grade syndrome.
Funny.
“There’s nothing wrong with making them think they’re special and that only they can prevent the destruction of this world.”
“That still sounds like eighth-grade syndrome to me.”
If one thought they were one of a kind and a cut above the rest, then they had already developed an incurable disease.
“Aren’t you like that yourself?”
“Is it because I consider myself the only normal member of society among all these outcasts? Isn’t that just the purest truth, though?”
I wasn’t a social outcast, and that was made evident when I defeated Demon Lord Pedonar without the dastardly power of friendship and love.
It didn’t mean I was special. On the contrary, it was just a system error that got me kidnapped with these losers.
Of course, there was a time when I lamented why I was kidnapped into this barbaric world.
But even then, I didn’t think I was special.
Any normal member of society could do what I had done.
I was normal.
Simply put, there were enough talented people on Earth who could achieve even more than I did.
“Do you seriously think so?”
“Why ask if you can read my mind anyway?”
“Fair enough. However, if the system were working, we’d be able to see evidence that my cowardly husband— Huh?! Husband! Someone has infiltrated this world!”
“Infiltrated?”
“This wave of power… Spatial movement! Someone arrived here through the Hero Summoning Magic Circle, but they’re not a hero! There’s still a year left before the Hero’s arrival!
“Where exactly did they appear?”
“At the Northern Continent— Kya?!”
I grabbed Ssosia’s cowardly waist and took her in my arms.
My cowardly wife let out a squeal that was unusual for her, but I paid no attention to it.
The Hero-Summoning Magic Circle.
Chances were high that Lanuvel would be there.
“Teleport us to that place.”
Ssosia was the creator and developer of Fantasy.
She could ignore causality.
“No.”
“Why?”
“The system is broken! We should use the spatial transportation magic circle instead— Kyaaaaa!”
We didn’t have any time to waste talking.
My cowardly wife offered to use the spatial transportation magic circle at the nearest Mage Tower, but flying to the Northern Continent would be much faster for me.
Holding Ssosia in my arms, I soared into the sky.
“Get to work.”
The Wind Spirit King, rubbing his cheek against my armpit, lifted his head lazily.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
He summoned lower-ranking spirits, who immediately went to work.
They removed the air resistance in front of me and added speed to my flight.
I wasn’t fooling around either.
[Darkness]
Fshuh! Fshuh! Fshuh! Fshuh!
I caused short-distance spatial jumps by shrinking space itself.
We reached the Northern Continent in about 10 seconds.
If I were at the peak of my strength, I would’ve gotten here in an instant, but in my current state, that was my limit.
“Woah, that’s amazing. I think you control the Demon Lord’s power better than my father did.”
“Thank you for the compliment. Now give me exact coordinates.”
I thought I would instinctively know where to go when I got to the Northern Continent, but that was an arrogant mistake.
I wasn’t sure if the energy being emitted was being concealed or not, but I couldn’t locate it.
If Ssosia hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t even have known that someone had trespassed in this world.
“There.”
Ssosia pointed her finger somewhere in the distance.
“An intruder? Lanuvel?”
Those two could be in the same place.
“I’m not sure. Whoever they are, they’re moving east of the magic circle at high speeds— Kyaaaaah?!”
“Tsk!”
Fshuh! Fshuh! Fshuh! Fshuh!
Narrowing the space, I quickly darted to the eastern part of the Northern Continent.
“Aren’t you going to track them, hubby?”
“That won’t be necessary.
I used to be the Northern Continent’s lovable emperor.
Like a 3D map, I had every nook and cranny of it preserved in my memory.
I had already figured out where the attacker was heading.
A small estate located in a kingdom bordering the Magic Kingdom. It was south of the Snow Mountain M in the middle of the Northern Continent.
“Ah! That place!”
Ssosia, reading my mind, seemed to have finally realized it as well.
“Yes.”
They were heading to where the cruel duke’s daughter, the Sword Princess, and her son Haris lived.
▶ Correction: His name is Chris.
