The Great Wetlands

In the southeastern part of the continent, a vast wetland spreads out.

This is the kingdom of the lizardmen. Many tribes live across the wide region, maintaining contact with one another.

It has never been invaded by humans or demons. Not only is it difficult to move armies through the marshland, but there would be no benefit even if it were conquered and turned into territory.

There are areas where monsters dwell, so trade isn't completely nonexistent—they exchange materials and magic stones hunted there with human merchants.

However, introducing human civilization is difficult because the wetland is too vast and hard to develop. Since before recorded history, this region has preserved lizardman culture unchanged.

And now, Sei and the others were walking.

Lavi had teleported them close to the wetland, and from there they stored the carriage and proceeded on foot, leading the horses.

Ideally, they would have teleported closer to where the map's dot indicated, even within the wetland, but Keios had opposed that.

"There are many bottomless swamps in the wetland. If we teleported into one of those, we'd be unable to move and would die."

That made sense. Even if Sei was immortal, falling into a bottomless swamp would… well, she thought she could probably manage with earth magic, but it would be terrible for everyone else.

So with Keios at the lead, the group was traveling across relatively solid ground.

"This is… it's not just a matter of different civilization levels…"

When Mako said this, Sei nodded. Compared to other countries they had seen before, this place was different. There were only lizardmen.

And what surprised Sei was that their language didn't work here.

Of course, there were lizardmen who could use the common language. But those who never left their settlements still used their own unique language that had been in use for over 6,000 years.

Keios could speak it, naturally, and as a hero, Mako could converse using the Universal Translation Gift.

But the other four couldn't speak it. Lavi could use mind-speech, a kind of telepathy, so she had no problem, but still, half of them couldn't communicate.

Keios led the way through the marshland. They soon encountered a lizardman tribe, exchanged words, and moved on.

"What were they saying?"

"Nothing much, they just asked why other races were here. But there's no problem. Apparently, word of the hero in question has been spread to all the tribes."

"Huh, even though it's such a wide area, they have that kind of network?"

"No, an oracle from Rana-sama, the Water Dragon, was conveyed to the priestesses of each tribe."

The Water Dragon Rana. Just as Ria looked after Ogress, that divine dragon protected the lizardmen.

The original reason was already lost to time, but in any case, Rana was worshipped and granted her blessings accordingly.

It seemed Rana had ordered them to immediately protect the hero when they arrived via teleportation.

Though it wasn't Keios's tribe, the hero was currently being protected by a tribe he knew.

"This is rough…"

Sei muttered while eating dinner.

"Indeed, it would be quite difficult."

"I don't really like it either…"

"Yeah, me neither…"

Gantz was silent, but his expression showed something like pain.

The only one who seemed completely unaffected was Lavi.

Sei had decided to camp, but lizardmen from a nearby settlement had offered to let them stay in their village.

Figuring it was better than the damp marshland, they accepted the offer, but the lizardman lifestyle they witnessed was, honestly… primitive.

Their diet centered on foraging and hunting, and they basically ate their prey raw.

Seasoning was either nothing or salt.

The hero who had been sent here was quite unlucky, aside from being protected.

Keios understood that lizardman life was far removed from that of other races.

The next day they walked through the marshland again, trying to plot their course using the map, but it wasn't going well.

With so many swamps, ponds, and pathless areas, they couldn't head straight toward their destination.

"We'll reach my settlement first. I'll ask there if anyone can guide us."

Having returned to his homeland, Keios seemed to be in quite a good mood.

However, wouldn't it be hard to leave this environment, travel foreign lands, and then return to it again?

"Keios, are you really going back to your tribe?"

Keios took Sei's question in a slightly different meaning.

"Don't worry. I'll escort you to where the wetland ends."

Keios's journey was coming to an end.

That was to be expected. His journey had originally been to compensate for an abnormal deficiency—being a lizardman who couldn't use water magic.

This warrior was supposed to hunt in his settlement and end his life within the wetland.

In other words, this was where they would part ways with him.

A battle-hardened warrior, a reliable big-brother figure. He would be gone.

Not just Sei, but everyone probably shared the same feelings. Well, Lavi was hard to tell.

"Hot…"

Sei muttered while fanning air into her collar.

Ten days had already passed since they entered the Great Wetlands, and the temperature had gradually risen.

She was deeply grateful to Ria for adding temperature regulation to her armor.

There were also some jungle-like areas scattered about, and monsters were said to dwell in them.

The horses were also starting to struggle. They had properly prepared fodder, but there wasn't much of the green grass they usually ate. These animals weren't meant to live in such hot and humid regions to begin with.

If Keios hadn't been with them, they might have gotten lost and been done for.

And then, fifteen days after entering the Great Wetlands, Sei's group finally made contact with Keios's tribe.

Keios called out to a member of the settlement in a language Sei didn't know.

The lizardman responded in kind, but she still couldn't understand.

"What are they saying?"

"Hmm, something like, 'It's been a while, aniki. You've returned, little brother.' That sort of thing."

So those throat-rumbling sounds actually had such meaning.

Without a Gift, it might be impossible for humans to converse in the lizardman language. Thinking about it that way, Keios was impressive for speaking the common language so fluently.

"Everyone, follow me. I'll speak to the chief."

Led by Keios, the group headed deeper into the settlement. Incidentally, the lizardman from earlier followed along.

The lizardman asked something in that throat-rumbling voice. Keios shook his head.

Mako grimaced, so Sei asked what it meant again.

"He asked if those horses are food…"

Indeed, there probably wasn't any way to make use of horses in this kind of marshland.

Sei thought about how differences in living environment led to differences in values.

The chief's dwelling was built almost the same as the others. At most, there were some plant decorations at the entrance.

It wasn't very spacious, so only Sei, Mako, and Kukuri went inside. Lavi and Gantz stayed to watch the horses.

The chief couldn't use the common language either, so naturally Keios served as interpreter.

"The hero is being protected in a settlement about a week's distance from here."

"However, whether it's illness or exhaustion, they don't know, but apparently he's in poor health."

"Lizardman healing methods haven't worked, so they're troubled."

"There's someone who can guide us to that settlement, so let's depart tomorrow."

The group agreed with Keios's words. Living in this environment as a Japanese person would be truly difficult.

Unlike Sei and the others who had come prepared, that person had been teleported here with almost no mental preparation.

Lizardmen, honestly speaking, had scary faces.

Living as the only human among them would cause considerable stress.

Afterward, they apparently offered to hold a simple feast to celebrate Keios's return, but Keios had stopped them.

He said he wanted to protect the hero and see them return home. Then, when he came back to the settlement after that, he'd definitely want to celebrate then.

From the Great Wetlands to the City Alliance's territory, they could use Lavi's teleportation.

In other words, they would part ways with Keios once they returned the hero.

Early in the morning, already feeling the oppressive humidity, the group set out.

The lizardman guiding them was apparently Keios's brother. However, that didn't necessarily mean they were actually brothers.

Having come this far, they learned that lizardman culture was truly completely different from human culture.

First, they had no concept of parents.

All children hatched from eggs during the same breeding season were siblings, and all the lizardmen who laid eggs that year collectively raised them as mothers.

They apparently understood the problems of breeding within the same tribe, so most lizardmen joined another tribe as a groom or bride once they came of age.

Even though Keios had returned, he would probably join another tribe as a groom.

Their fundamental values were different from humans, so he had been truly confused at first, Keios laughed.

On the way to their destination, Keios was talkative.

He spoke about many things—lizardman culture, Sei's swordsmanship, and more.

Normally, lizardmen used spears. They rarely used metal, so Keios wearing armor was actually unusual.

That same Keios had already removed his armor and returned to the traditional tribal style of wearing just a loincloth.

Sei nodded absently, thinking that of course they would wear at least a loincloth.

And then a week passed.

Along the way, there were incidents where they were attacked by monsters and dangerous wild animals, but combat-wise, they didn't struggle much.

At the entrance to the settlement, Keios grabbed a lizardman and asked about the hero in question.

The group was, as expected, led to the chief's dwelling and received a brief explanation.

Following the Water Dragon Rana's oracle, they had protected the hero.

They had given him a dwelling and provided food, but since lizardmen eat different things, he had been gradually weakening.

Since they couldn't communicate through language, they had been using spirits as intermediaries for simple exchanges.

Now he could barely stand and was lying in the dwelling they had given him.

When Sei checked with her map and Identify together, the hero's status showed "Weakened."

"Just barely made it, huh."

Sei was immediately guided to the hero's dwelling.

She already knew the location. And the Gift too.

"Absolute Magic Defense"

A Gift that defended against any and all magical attacks—according to Ria and Carla, a completely useless Gift.

"Completely useless… you say?"

"I mean, you could just punch them physically and they'd die, right?"

"Um… if you maxed out close combat abilities, wouldn't it be somewhat useful?"

"Then let me ask you—if you could use magic and anything else freely, do you think you could beat me with just a katana?"

"… No."

"Just to tell you the counter-strategy: create a giant pitfall beneath their feet. Even if they can block the magic itself, terrain created by magic is meaningless to their defense. Kill them with the height difference."

Not just Ria, but Carla had the same opinion. Of course, it could be somewhat useful when fighting as a group, but in one-on-one combat, it posed no problem.

If this Gift were combined with Seal to seal away one's own magic, it might become quite formidable, but Seal was already a powerful Gift on its own.

"Hero Gifts are mostly designed for one-on-one combat. Infinite Magic Power and Death Gaze can be used against multiple opponents, but…"

Either way, they were completely useless against evil gods or demon gods. How foolish of the sealed benevolent gods, Ria had said with a dry smile.

In the end, this Gift didn't even need countermeasures.

"Takeda-kun, are you okay? You can go back to Earth!"

Mako called out strongly to the boy with hazy consciousness.

"Ah… Tsubaki-san? What is this… a dream…?"

As Sei pressed the return stone to the boy's forehead, she also shouted in his ear.

"Think about wanting to go home! You're going back to Earth!"

"Ah… I want to go home…"

He murmured quietly but clearly, and then the boy's figure vanished.

"Is it over?"

Keios peered into the dwelling. In response, Sei let out a long breath.

"It's over. We managed to send him back."

"I see…"

Keios called out to the two who had come out of the dwelling.

"Then, this is where we part."

The gentleness in his voice made Sei and Mako feel like crying.

"Teleportation, will you be okay?"

"If it's a path I've traveled once, no problem."

Lavi answered in her usual flat voice when asked.

"Kukuri, you're the most experienced traveler among them."

"I know. Leave it to me."

Kukuri understood exactly what Keios's words meant.

They had people with sufficient combat ability, but travel required more than just that.

"Keios…"

Sei, Mako, Kukuri, and Gantz all shook hands with Keios in turn.

Lavi only briefly gripped his fingertips.

"Thank you, Keios! Take care!"

"Thank you too, my friend!"

"Okay, going now."

With Lavi's announcement, the group teleported away.

Keios gazed at the now-empty space for a while. A lizardman called out to him, asking what was wrong, little brother.

Nothing, Keios replied. Because he thought the lizardman language probably couldn't express these emotions.

There is a tale called "The Knight of the Divine Dragon."

The original is apparently a halfling poem, but the story of the knight who traveled the world adventuring was widely and long beloved among humans.

In it, a lizardman appears as one of the knight's companions.

Though his name was forgotten in lizardman society, ironically, it was passed down among humans for ages.

That name was Keios. A brave and proud warrior.

End of Lemdria Arc