---
A grassland.
There was no other way to describe it.
It was an unremarkable grassland, but for some reason, it looked familiar.
I spent a few minutes trying to figure out where it was.
Then I remembered.
This was the southern part of the
Near the town where I'd once stayed.
Back then, I'd been studying the Water God Style in that town.
In other words, near the homeland of
This must be a dream.
That was my immediate thought.
Still, what a nostalgic place.
How long had I lived here?
A year? Or two?
I remembered only that it hadn't been all that long.
All I could recall were things from the dojo.
The senior disciples came to mind.
What an insufferable bunch.
All talk and no substance.
They'd suppressed a talented guy like me, barking orders not to dare surpass them.
I hated hierarchy.
The reason I'd left home in the first place was because my father kept me under his thumb.
But at least Father was tolerable, in his own way.
Whatever else you could say about him, he had power.
Those senior disciples had none.
They were a dime-a-dozen nobodies with nothing but big mouths and inflated pride.
When I reached the intermediate level, they were still shuffling around near the beginner's exit.
Low-caliber, the whole lot.
The dojo master was no better — barely a senior swordsman of the Water God Style at best.
An old fossil who preached mental discipline while ignoring his own lack of ability.
I'd always planned to show them what real power looked like someday.
But in the end, I never got the chance to prove myself to those guys.
I grew tired of putting up with everything, and in a fit of spite, I slept with Lilia and ran.
Sure, part of me had been aiming for that all along, but I'd also wanted to trample the thing all of them cherished.
They came after me with a vengeance starting the very next day.
I fled the country, mocking them all the while.
Looking back, I really was just a kid.
I don't care about the senior disciples anymore, but I know I did Lilia wrong.
"...Mm."
The wind blew.
Something got in my eye, and I grimaced.
Then I felt someone tugging at the hem of my clothes.
"Daddy... where are we...?"
"Hm?"
I realized I was holding
She was looking up at me with an anxious face.
Only then did I notice I was standing in the middle of the grassland in my loungewear.
I could feel solid ground beneath my bare feet.
Norn's warmth.
This wasn't a dream.
"...What the hell?"
I had no idea why I was here.
If I'd been alone, I'd have assumed it was a dream the whole time.
But Norn was in my arms.
Norn, who had been born just three years ago.
Little Norn.
My adorable daughter.
I rarely held my children.
I was trying to be a strict father, so I avoided physical contact.
So why was I holding Norn...
...Right.
I remembered now.
Yes, just a little while ago, I'd been at home talking with Zenis and the others.
Just idle chatter.
"You should hold her while you still can. Once girls get older, they don't want physical contact with their fathers."
"No, no, I intend to be a dignified father. Norn seems pretty ordinary compared to
"Aren't you just like the father-in-law you hated so much?"
"...You're right. Okay, hold her then."
That kind of conversation.
Nearby, Lilia had been teaching
It seemed like Lilia intended to give Aisha an elite education.
I'd objected, saying we should let the kids grow up more freely and naturally, but Lilia had been so intense about it that she'd steamrolled me.
Aisha was a fast learner.
She picked up whatever you taught her quickly and started walking early too.
Maybe it was thanks to Lilia's teaching, but she was so capable it made me worry Norn might be slow by comparison.
Lilia had said, "She's nothing like Master Rudeus. Young Miss Norn is about what's normal."
Normal or abnormal — I didn't really care either way.
But thinking about Norn being sandwiched between an exceptional brother and sister in the future did make me feel a little sorry for her.
That was when it happened.
Suddenly.
I was enveloped in white light.
Ah, I remember.
My memories are continuous.
The proof was right there — Norn in my arms.
Norn, who could walk perfectly well by now, cradled against my chest.
...I realized instantly that something had happened.
"...Daddy?"
Seeing my expression, Norn's voice wavered with worry.
"It's okay."
I gently stroked Norn's head.
Then I looked around.
Zenis and Lilia were nowhere to be seen.
Were they nearby, or had I been the only one transported?
Norn was with me.
Why?
...I had a vague recollection.
A vicious trap I'd stumbled into once in a dungeon.
A teleportation circle.
It was similar to the time I'd accidentally stepped on a teleportation array.
Back then, I'd been lucky — it only sent me a short distance.
But Elinarise, who'd grabbed my hem at the last second, had been furious.
One wrong move with those things and it meant instant death.
The blame fell on the scout monkey who failed to detect it, but...
Never mind that.
The point was, teleportation only transported people in physical contact.
That was why Norn had come with me.
But why?
Why had this happened?
It was far too sudden.
Who was behind this?
I had enemies all over. None of it would be surprising.
But teleportation — that was a different matter entirely.
Teleportation spells didn't require incantation.
Which meant you needed either a magic circle or a magic-infused item.
Teleportation artifacts were forbidden goods on a global scale.
The technology behind teleportation circles had been designated a forbidden art and lost long ago.
Why would someone go to such lengths just to get revenge on me?
And why send me to a place with absolutely nothing?
No way...
Was it one of those old disciples?
They remembered what happened back then, and teleported me away to get to Lilia.
This location was deliberate — a mockery.
What if, when I got home, Zenis and Lilia were being violated by some savages?
Damn it — that was exactly the kind of thing those bastards would do.
"Hey, Daddy."
"Norn. It's okay. We'll head home right away."
I said it more to reassure myself as I started walking toward town.
Fortunately, I'd tucked some Asura gold coins into the holder on my sword's scabbard — just in case.
Old adventurer habits died hard. I always kept my sword on me.
I never took it off, even when I slept.
The only time I removed it was when I was with a woman.
The scabbard holder also had my adventurer card attached.
For times exactly like this.
I headed to the adventurer's guild to exchange currency.
Nine silver coins and eight large copper coins.
The fees had gone up at some point.
But this was enough.
I glanced at the available guild quests and took on an emergency delivery request.
When the receptionist channeled mana into my card — which hadn't been updated in so long the text had faded — and confirmed it was ranked S, she was stunned.
Then she was even more shocked that an S-rank adventurer would take on a quest like this.
Emergency requests were open to any rank regardless, but this was normally an E-rank job.
I had no reason to hide anything, but explaining was a hassle, so I was vague about it.
With one silver coin, I quickly got my gear together.
When was the last time I'd prepared for a journey?
It had been ages, but I knew what I needed.
Done in no time.
Then I borrowed a horse from the adventurer's guild.
Good thing the emergency delivery request existed.
S-rank privileges let you borrow a horse for free.
Of course, you had to return it as soon as the quest was complete.
This time, though, I was heading in a different direction from the delivery.
I felt bad for the client, but my situation was urgent too.
The horse they brought me was quite a fine steed.
Lucky. It must have been a truly urgent matter.
This could cost me my adventurer's license.
But that was fine.
I had no intention of living as an adventurer anymore.
I put Norn on the horse and jumped up behind her.
Then we left town immediately.
--- Along the way, Norn fell ill.
I'd pushed too hard.
Norn had never ridden a horse before.
She was still too young for nonstop travel day and night.
Nursing her cost me a great deal of time.
By the time I reached the Fittoa Region, two months had already passed.
I wished I'd just taken a carriage from the start.
The delivery request had failed long ago.
The penalty wasn't a huge sum.
But I was devastated.
Before I could even reach
Because I finally understood the gravity of the situation.
The Fittoa Region was gone.
I was in a state of total confusion.
What had happened?
Where was Buena Village?
Where was Zenis?
Where was Lilia?
The fortress city of Roa had vanished too.
Did that mean Rudeus was gone as well?
No way...
I hadn't even realized I'd sunk to my knees.
"Teleportation trap — total annihilation."
Those words swirled through my mind.
Back in my adventurer days.
After I started dungeon-diving, I'd heard it time and again.
The trap you had to be most careful of was teleportation.
Parties got scattered, their positions became unknown.
One of the absolute worst traps to fall into.
I'd heard stories of parties wiped out by that trap more times than I could count.
The whole party caught in the magic circle.
Somehow one person reunites with another and makes it back to the entrance.
Only to find every other party had been annihilated.
I'd seen men staring blankly, muttering stories like that.
But surely not here not me...
"Daddy... are we not home yet?"
Those words snapped me back to reality.
My three-year-old daughter was tugging at the hem of my clothes.
Without a word, I pulled Norn into a tight embrace.
"Daddy? What's wrong?"
That's right.
I was a father.
A dad.
My daughter didn't understand what had happened yet.
But she felt safe because I was there.
I was a father.
A father.
I couldn't show weakness.
I had to carry myself with resolve.
Yes.
Teleportation was a terrifying trap, no question.
I didn't know how this had happened.
But I was alive.
Zenis had been an adventurer too.
Lilia had aftereffects, but she could still wield a sword.
Aisha was...
Think. That moment, that instant— Was Lilia in contact with Aisha?
...I couldn't remember.
No — don't give up.
At that moment, Lilia had been holding Aisha's hand.
For now, that was what I'd believe.
--- I returned the horse at the nearest town and gathered information.
The teleportation disaster had struck across the entire Fittoa Region.
Philip and Sauros were both missing.
Philip's brother was now acting lord.
But Philip's brother was being held responsible for the disaster and was on the verge of being ousted.
He was so focused on self-preservation that he hadn't lifted a finger to address the catastrophe.
Protecting his people came second to protecting himself.
That was why I couldn't stand Asura nobles.
While I was gathering intelligence, an old man named Alphonse approached me.
He'd been one of Philip's butlers.
He'd sworn loyalty to the
He'd been using his own funds to begin setting up a refugee camp.
Alphonse wanted my help.
When I asked why me, it turned out Philip had told him about me.
According to Philip: "He's the type who shines in a crisis, but he lacks foresight — the dangerous kind who creates crises through his own mistakes."
What a backhanded compliment.
Alphonse had been hesitant to reach out to someone with such a low opinion of him.
But factoring in that I was Rudeus's father, he decided to ask for my cooperation.
He'd been asking for updates through letters, but it made me glad that even this butler — someone my son likely had little contact with — held me in some regard.
I readily agreed and followed Alphonse's directions.
A month passed.
Alphonse was well-connected.
He pulled strings everywhere to gather manpower and established the refugee camp.
It was an impressive operation.
I gathered the young volunteers and organized them into the "Fittoa Region Search Party."
We teleported to various locations and rescued people who'd become refugees.
Of course, my goal wasn't to save strangers.
It was to find my family.
By then, the power struggle in the royal capital had apparently been resolved, and reconstruction funds were being sent to Alphonse.
I left a note at the refugee camp and set out for the Millis Holy Land, where the adventurer guild headquarters was located.
Control Asura and Millis, and between the two, information had to come through eventually.
That was my reasoning.
We'd find everyone soon enough.
That's what I thought at the time.
Naive.
--- I operated in Millis for half a year.
A huge number of people had been teleported to the Millis continent.
I rescued them one after another, systematically.
Some had been sold as slaves.
I decided to save them all.
Forcibly freeing slaves technically violated Millis law.
But what if Zenis or Lilia had become slaves?
That thought made the legality irrelevant.
Save everyone.
That was the principle.
If I maintained that stance, I'd have moral justification no matter who or what situation I encountered.
I wouldn't set a precedent of turning a blind eye.
With that in mind, I reached out to Zenis's family.
Zenis's family was a powerful noble house in Millis, a prestigious lineage that had produced many outstanding knights.
I relied on them to lay the groundwork for freeing slaves.
Refugee rescue went smoothly.
Thanks to swift action, I found people in distress quickly.
A massive number of people had been teleported to Millis.
I helped them all.
Those who wanted to return home under their own power received travel funds.
Those who volunteered to help with the search were welcomed into the search party.
The elderly and children were given shelter.
For slaves, I paid their price when money would do it.
When it wouldn't, I used the influence of Zenis's family.
When even that failed, I waited for an opening and spirited them away to safety.
Of course, problems arose.
The Millis nobles resented us for forcefully taking slaves.
Some even attacked me with private soldiers.
Members died because of it.
But I didn't stop.
I had a righteous cause.
The cause of saving people.
That was why the members stayed with me.
I used every tool at my disposal — the name of House Greyrat, one of Asura's highest noble families; Zenis's family connections; the reputation I'd built as an adventurer.
Anything and everything to solve each problem.
But the information about Zenis and Lilia never came.
Not a whisper.
And Rudeus, too.
Even information about that son of mine — the kind who stood out wherever he went — never surfaced.
--- A full year had passed.
In the blink of an eye, a year.
By this point, reports of refugee discoveries had tapered off considerably.
We'd essentially found everyone we were going to find on the southern Central Continent and the Millis continent.
There were still a few villages we hadn't checked.
A handful of slave owners who refused to let go.
That was about it.
Slave liberation was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Once we had them secured, they were ours.
I knew I was being heavy-handed.
I understood that certain nobles despised me and had me marked.
Members had been attacked, killed, or seriously injured because of it.
Some members blamed me for it.
"If you'd done a better job, this wouldn't have happened."
No matter what they said, my course wouldn't change.
I couldn't change it now.
Lately, death reports had outnumbered refugee discoveries.
No — "lately" was vague.
Death reports had been plentiful from the very start.
To be blunt, the dead far outnumbered the living.
Et, Chloe, Rawls, Bonney, Lane, Marion, Monty...
Each time I heard a death report for someone I knew, a chill ran down my spine.
Some broke down in tears upon hearing the news.
There were cases where we arrived just moments too late, only to find someone already dead.
Some members confronted me angrily.
"Why didn't you search that location sooner?"
Each time, I felt nothing but helpless.
And the longer time went on, even the death reports became vague.
Maybe dead.
They'd seen a body that might have been this person.
They'd found something belonging to that person deep in a forest.
Half the time when I went to investigate in person, it was a dead end.
And still, not a single piece of information about my family.
Maybe I'd made a mistake.
Maybe I should have searched the Demon Continent and the northern Central Continent first.
Even if they'd become slaves, that didn't mean their lives were forfeit.
I should have prioritized the dangerous areas and left the rest for later.
No — that wouldn't have worked.
Most of the search party members weren't fighters.
The majority had been farmers or townspeople.
There were a few adventurers, but they were few in number, and by my standards, the ones from the Asura Kingdom were barely seasoned.
That roster couldn't have survived the Demon Continent, the northern Central Continent, or the Begaritt Continent.
They'd have been the ones needing rescue.
So I didn't think I was wrong.
Thanks to that decision, we'd saved thousands of refugees.
If only the folks from Black Fang's Fang were around, they could have searched the Demon Continent and Begaritt for me.
But only one of them had ever reached out.
And after a single contact, that person vanished without a trace.
I had no idea what they were doing now.
I didn't think they were heartless.
We'd never gotten along, and we'd had a vicious falling out.
It was the worst possible parting.
It wouldn't be strange if all of them bore a grudge against me.
Why did I have to part with people that way back then?
I knew why. Because I was a kid.
Still, regretting it now wouldn't change anything.
--- A year and a half had passed.
By now, I was drinking more than ever.
I couldn't get through the day without alcohol.
From morning to night, I was drunk.
I was never sober.
I knew this couldn't go on, but the moment the buzz faded, I just couldn't take it.
I'd start thinking my family was dead.
How had they died? What happened to their bodies?
That was all I could think about.
Even my exceptional son — not a single word.
I didn't want to think about it.
I didn't want to, but they were probably no longer alive.
They'd all spent this year and a half waiting for my help, crying as they died.
That thought nearly drove me insane.
Why was I still here?
I should have abandoned everyone else from the start and searched the dangerous places first.
At worst, I could have managed on my own.
A mistake in judgment, and the thing that was right beside me was lost.
The most precious thing, torn from me cruelly.
I drank because I couldn't face that.
Only when I was drunk was I happy.
Work was impossible.
Six months later, a plan began to repatriate the people found on the Millis continent back to the Fittoa Region.
The elderly, women and children, those too sick to travel.
People who might not survive a long journey even with money.
But people who longed to return home.
The plan was to escort them back to Fittoa.
Even as this plan moved forward, I — the supposed leader — skipped meetings and spent all day drinking.
The key members, myself included, would remain in Millis, but this operation would be the last. Search activities would be scaled down.
Two years.
After just two years, the search was being called off.
It felt too soon, but a part of me accepted that this was how it had to be.
Continuing the search beyond this point would only waste resources.
In the end, I hadn't found a single member of my family.
What a failure of a man.
Why was I so useless?
Why could I never grow up?
The members kept their distance from me, the drunken wreck.
Can't blame them.
Nobody wanted to deal with a bumbling drunk.
With one exception, or rather a few.
One of them was Norn.
"Daddy! Hey, guess what? On the road just now, there was this big guy!"
No matter how drunk I was, Norn always came up to me, chattering happily.
Norn.
Norn was my last family.
The most precious thing I had.
All I had left was Norn.
Right.
The reason I hadn't gone to the Demon Continent or Begaritt was because of Norn.
How could I leave behind a four-year-old daughter?
How could I abandon her and go to places where I might die?
"Oh? What happened, Norn? Something interesting?"
"Yeah! I almost tripped on the road, but a bald guy helped me!
And then — look! He gave me this!"
Norn held up what was in her hands with a beaming smile.
It was an apple.
A bright red apple.
It looked incredibly delicious.
"Is that so? That was nice of him. Did you say thank you?"
"Uh-huh! When I said thank you, the bald uncle patted my head!"
"Good girl. But don't call him 'bald' — it might bother him."
Conversations with my daughter were always enjoyable.
Norn was my treasure.
If anyone laid a hand on Norn, I'd pick a fight with the Pope of the Millis Faith himself.
I was thinking something along those lines when— "Chief! We've got a problem!"
One of the members burst into my room.
Being interrupted mid-conversation with my daughter made me a little irritable.
Normally I'd have yelled at them to get out.
But in front of my daughter, my pointless pride kept me calm.
"What is it?"
"The guys who went out on a job got attacked!"
"Attacked?"
Attacked.
By whom?
Obviously — those worthless nobles.
The ones who refused to let go even when I explained that these were Asura Kingdom citizens reduced to slavery by the disaster.
I was pretty sure today's job was to rescue one of those slaves.
"All right, everyone gear up! We're moving out!"
I grabbed the first rough-and-tumble members I could find.
They weren't especially strong, but the enemy wasn't dungeon-diving caliber either.
More than a match.
I led them toward the location where the trouble had erupted.
It was close — practically next door.
One of the search party's warehouses, where we stored members' clothing and supplies.
They'd caught wind of it.
This was bad.
We might need to change our base.
"Paul, there's only one enemy, but he's strong. Be careful."
"...Does he use a sword?"
"No, he's a mage. Probably a kid, but he's masking his face."
A kid mage...
And a capable one — enough to take down several adult members.
Probably a dwarf.
Those little bastards looked like children and could fool adults without batting an eye.
A seasoned dwarf mage.
Drunk as I was, could I win?
I was confident I could handle any common thug, but...
No, it was fine.
There were plenty of ways to fight.
With that thought, I entered the warehouse.