190

The day after leaving Eilqueel, I arrived without trouble near the first planned point, and with the map marked with circles in one hand, I walked while surveying the surroundings.

I searched for a while, but there was nothing that seemed to correspond to the ruins of a military supply depot, nor was I able to discover any research facility.

Unfortunately, this place seemed to be a miss.

(Well, it is close to the facility where I woke up. If someone told me there was nothing here, I could accept that.)

I lowered my gaze to the map and confirmed the direction of the next point.

This time it lay a little southeastward, and if I kept going for a while, I would be entering a completely unexplored region.

As for me, I believed that the blank area east of the desert of the old Imperial Capital ruins had once been a major factory district, and that there might be some kind of gain to be found around there.

That was precisely why I wanted the Furon Council-State to refrain from pushing north, and why I wanted to delay the Kingdom of Seizeria’s advance westward.

The Empire’s territory was vast.

I could not even begin to estimate how long it would take to complete an exploration of the entire surrounding area.

I remembered waste and pollution being featured in the news, and that left me with a bit of unease, but it had been two hundred years since that factory district had ceased operation.

With the optimistic view that the situation could not have become too serious, I broke into a run.

I wanted to finish exploring the remaining points and head toward the area around the old factory district as quickly as possible, but I was also curious what Gust could put on the table in a trade.

Surely he would not have anything that could do something about the Nemesis Code, but if he had magic items useful for wide-area exploration, or things that could simply strengthen my combat ability, then I was leaning toward the policy that I ought to obtain them even if it meant accepting some risk.

It was not decided yet, but I was almost settled on that course.

Swaying back and forth in that in-between state, I arrived at the second point.

The surroundings were already completely dark, but I lit a light with magic and carefully searched through the forest for traces of buildings.

The first thing I found was asphalt so badly cracked that it would hardly be an exaggeration to say it had already been crushed apart.

Seeing the grass and trees stretching from it made it painfully clear that nature had completely swallowed it.

“Well, that is within expectations,” I muttered, and first carefully surveyed the surroundings in search of other traces.

In the scenery, which had become a complete forest, there was not the slightest sign of any man-made structure.

This place was a miss too, I thought as my shoulders slumped, but I resumed the search.

At times I even crawled across the ground so as not to overlook anything, searching with the utmost care.

And the thing I obtained for all that effort was this.

“…A sniper rifle, huh.”

A rusted gun tangled thickly with grass—judging from how much dirt clung to it, there was no way it could possibly meet the standards for trade.

Still, it made one thing clear: there were military weapons here.

I tried taking apart the sniper rifle I had picked up from the ground just to confirm it… and it crumbled apart.

Seeing the collapsed form of an old Imperial weapon, I felt my hopes for this place dim.

I was sure I had not simply misjudged my strength.

But a few minutes later, I discovered a section where rubble was piled up in an unmistakable way.

In other words, a structure had definitely existed here.

And beneath the dirt and rubble I cleared away, there was a damaged box buried there that looked like an ammunition crate.

When I opened it, there were unmistakably bullets inside.

They had corroded because dirt had gotten in, but there was no doubt that this place had been some kind of military facility or something related to one.

Just when I thought it was a miss, it turned out to be a hit.

There had been more than enough chance that all three places would miss in the worst case, so I took the opportunity to praise my own powers of insight.

The problem was what exactly I might find… but now that it had come to this, the reduced efficiency of searching in the dark night started to bother me.

No matter how good my night vision was, it was difficult to distinguish colors in darkness like this.

“Right, let’s switch gears.”

I clapped my hands once and suspended the search.

I would spend the night here today.

I had already slept before leaving Eilqueel, so tonight I would spend my time on magical training and honing my abilities.

In particular, switching into Assault Mode was still not going well.

At present, I had somehow managed to make both hands turn black at the same time, but I was stuck from that point onward.

And there was one point I had to be careful about.

When I concentrated on Assault Mode, I became unable to use magic.

Maybe all my awareness was being drawn there, but no matter how many times I tried, it did not work.

As with the other matter, the only answer was practice until simultaneous use became possible.

The fact that the only thing that seemed to be progressing properly at present was the increase in my magical proficiency made me, as an Imperial citizen, feel that this was somewhat questionable, and I let out a sigh at the frustrating result.

I wanted to start working on efficiency soon, but the one who seemed likely to teach me was far away in the west.

I wanted to hear Number Six’s voice again after such a long time, and make fun of Dame Oppai.

I shook my head to dispel the stray thought that had surfaced.

I had decided to train until dawn—so I had to focus.

Steady effort bore fruit.

Do not rush, I told myself, and lit light one finger at a time.

I repeated lighting and extinguishing them, and next used magic in accordance with the movement of my fingers.

By doing that, I improved both speed and precision.

Sadly, however, my magic reserves were low, and if I performed this training, I would run out of magic after only thirty minutes.

I stopped the training before the symptoms grew serious, and next focused on switching into Assault Mode.

Staring at my own hands turning black in the dark forest, I repeated that act again and again until my magic power recovered.

Was this really counting as training?

I had thought that several times, but the discolored area really was increasing little by little.

Since I was able to change as far as the ends of my wrists into Assault Mode, I ought to be making progress, at least.

(But at this pace, when will I ever get there…?)

Once my magic recovered, I returned to magic training again.

When I kept repeating that until dawn, sunlight finally began filtering faintly into the forest.

All right, now it was time to search.

After standing up, I first looked around to see whether there was anything newly noticeable.

Well, nothing was found just because the forest had begun to brighten, so I silently resumed the search.

Then I immediately discovered a gun buried a little distance away in the ground.

After all, investigating after it got light was more efficient.

When I dug it out, what emerged was a handgun.

Something around this size was exactly what I had wanted, but… there was no way it would be in good condition, so I tossed it aside as useless.

“Ah, I should gather the worthwhile finds in one place.”

If things were scattered around, there was a risk I would lose track of where I had already searched.

Stay neat and organized, and keep your room clean.

If you have an older sister and a younger sister, you can guess the reason.

So then, with the search made more efficient, I went on finding one buried supply after another.

Judging from the tendency of the things being unearthed, this really did seem to be a military facility after all.

Otherwise there was no way weapons and ammunition would keep turning up like this, and as I searched thinking this might actually be promising, strength entered my hands as well.

And so, after tossing the junk I had accidentally crushed onto the pile of unearthed items and continuing to inspect the area for another hour.

I ended up discovering a familiar gun packed inside a rotted wooden crate.

“Oh, this brings back memories.”

I gently stroked one of the guns I remembered so well from training that the words slipped out before I knew it.

Type Thirty-Six Rifle—a single-shot old model, but since it was a mass-produced type officially adopted by the military, many of them had remained usable even in my era thanks to their sturdy construction.

For that reason, trainee soldiers had used these grimy things, stained by who knew whose hands, for shooting practice in order to learn the basics of handling firearms.

By the way, the latest model I knew of was the Type Seventy-Two assault rifle.

As for single-shot rifles, if I remembered correctly, the Type Fifty-Nine had been the newest.

There was only one thing that difference signified: long live assault rifles.

“Six rounds in the magazine, huh,” I said, looking at the worn-out rifle that had once fit so well in my hands.

Even if it would not be the ideal choice for a trade, it was a gun worth considering as a candidate.

If I chose the one in the best condition from among these, what might I be able to draw out of Gust?

It was worth considering, but that too depended on whether I could find one in good condition inside this crate.

Careful not to break them, I gently took the rifles out of the wooden box one by one.

Packed inside the wooden crate were eighteen Type Thirty-Sixes in total.

Among them, though rusted, two that had been wrapped in cloth had retained their original form well.

After comparing the two, I picked one up, took cloth out from my backpack, and wrapped it carefully so it would not break.

If I found something even more suitable, I would replace it, but I would probably not find anything in better condition than this.

That was what I had thought, but then I found a handgun in the drawer of what appeared to be the remains of a desk.

What was more, since it had been inside a metal case, it was in remarkably good condition.

On top of that, it had ornamentation on it, making it possibly a one-of-a-kind item, and the name of its apparent owner was engraved on it.

“Hamilton Urd Wenteria.”

Reading the engraved name aloud, I let out a dry laugh.

Maybe this middle-name-having aristocrat’s piece ought to be taken south instead?