The Town of Millennia

Taking a shortcut through the forest, they returned to the highway. Less than half a day later, the group arrived at Millennia City.

Just as Kukuri had said, it was an old town. Not that it simply felt old, it actually was old.

The city walls had crumbled in places and had not been repaired. Ivy crawled up them, so if one were so inclined, climbing them would be easy.

The gate check wasn't strict either, and upon entering, old houses built from wood lined the streets.

"Even though it's a human town, it's not all that different."

Laila commented, but this town was an exception. It only looked that way because of all the wooden buildings.

Despite being located along the highway where merchants should frequently pass through, there was strangely no vitality.

"What a peculiar town."

Even from Kukuri's experience, the atmosphere of this town was unique. They found an inn for now, and as expected, the high-end inn had newer construction.

"Now then, about this town's hero…"

Six people gathered in Sei's room. With so many girls present, Sei's heart was racing a bit. Even though she was currently female herself.

"His name is Shingo Sugata. His Gift is [Mind Control]."

"This one, huh…"

Mako crossed her arms, troubled.

"Sugata-kun seemed smart, but we didn't really get along. He was kind of… isolated…"

This Gift had been tested back when they were in Onesis.

At Level 1, one could control the mind of one person or monster. However, it had no effect on high-level people or monsters.

As the level rose, the number that could be controlled increased. Since it was two at Level 2, now that it had risen to 10, it was probably 10 people. The power of control might have become stronger as well.

"Honestly speaking, it's the kind of Gift a villain would have."

Based on Sei's common sense and intuition, a pattern where he controlled the town's influential figures and essentially ran things from the shadows was conceivable.

"Well, that's true… His base level hasn't gone up either, so it seems he hasn't been fighting monsters."

A base level of 43 was less than a third compared to Mako.

During testing, he could only control those at roughly the same level as himself, so it probably wouldn't work on Sei or Mako.

Even so, since the Gift's level itself had risen, there was still danger of being controlled.

"For someone whose base level hasn't increased, he has a surprisingly large number of resistance skills."

Sei found this curious, but immediately arrived at an explanation herself.

"Did he have someone make him Gift orbs and use those?"

To actually control someone, it seemed one needed to get within face-to-face distance.

Another important point was that controlling monsters was easier than controlling humans, and even at the same level, it wouldn't work on humans with high mental fortitude.

"Hmm, maybe it's not about level, but about whether the mental stat determines if control works?"

"Probably. Anyway, shall we investigate and see what his situation is?"

"Hmm, in this case, that might be dangerous. For example, if he's controlling 10 adventurers around Level 40… well, we could handle that."

Sei and Mako right now could easily sweep aside Level 40 adventurers. In that sense, Kukuri, who usually gathered information for them, would be the most at risk.

"Even if we say he's controlling people in the ruling class, it would be difficult to even meet with them in the first place… Me and Mako and Lavi… actually, never mind Lavi. Gantz, you wait too."

"Huh? What about me?"

"What about me?"

Sorry to say to Kukuri and Laila, but the two of them had somewhat lower levels. Considering the difference in mental stats against the opponent from Identify, they should probably be fine, but there was a slight chance of danger.

Lavi was insurance just in case. If either of them happened to be controlled, Lavi would surely do something about it.

This time, it would be Sei and Mako acting together.

"Even so, why doesn't he level up? There's so much more you can do…"

Mako seemed puzzled, but Sei had already figured it out.

"Hey, did you guys learn principle magic at Neosis?"

"Of course we did. They said it was the basics of basics."

"What about Identify?"

"… We didn't learn that."

"So even if you wanted to level up, you wouldn't know your opponents' strength or special abilities, right?"

"Oh, that's right. The first thing Carla-san taught us was Identify, wasn't it?"

To be precise, Sei had learned it from Carla and then taught it to Mako.

She had wondered why bother when they had Omni-Identify, but normally that was probably just the order in which one learned these things.

"Without Identify or Discernment, this is a hard world to survive in."

Saying that, Sei opened the door to the Adventurer's Guild.

"Welcome. Are you here to accept a quest?"

"No, to make a request."

Just to be safe, they would avoid direct contact for now.

"I want you to find someone. The name is Shingo. Or Shingo Sugata. A Nihon-looking face, around the same age as us. He should be living in the northern part of this town, or being taken care of there."

"I see. What would be the reward and timeframe?"

"The reward is 10 Ogress gold coins, and the timeframe is two weeks."

That was apparently well above the market rate. The receptionist's face stiffened.

"… If he is found, what would you like us to do?"

"Please deliver a message. Tell him that Mako Tsubaki is waiting."

She then told them the name of the inn where they were staying. After that, they would actually confirm his identity themselves.

The hero seemed to be living in an annex of a fairly large merchant's mansion. And the mansion's owner along with several others were under the mind control status effect.

"He's not really doing anything bad, is he? He's mooching, sure, but it's not like he's living in the lord's mansion or anything."

"If he went as far as the lord, there would definitely be people with Identify or high-level individuals around. Considering that, I guess he's right at the limit."

It wasn't Mind Control, but when they had learned about the existence of mental magic, Carla had said this:

You should know that such things exist, but you should absolutely never use them.

In some countries, using them on humans was outright prohibited, and even where it was permitted, it was only allowed for questioning criminals and such.

Since it fundamentally denies a person's humanity, it should not be used except when information is absolutely necessary.

"I'm back～"

"Welcome back～"

Laila, who responded, appeared to have just come out of the bath and was vigorously rubbing her hair with a towel.

"Ahh, warm water feels so nice. Elves basically only bathe in cold water, so this was refreshing… What are you doing?"

They were simply moved and excited by the freshly-bathed elf. Both Sei and Mako, equally so.

"So, how did it go?"

"Nah, I heard Mind Control and thought it might be bad, but it seems like it'll be fine."

"Hmm, so what do we do starting tomorrow?"

"We'll wait for two weeks… We're going to have some free time."

"Since we're here, show me around the human town. That's okay, right?"

"Well, sure. I want to see elven spirit arts too, so let's take turns going around."

As Sei said, the group began their activities.

One person would stay at the inn, and the rest were free to act.

However, Lavi and Laila were at risk, so they had to be with someone.

Kukuri was mostly singing at taverns and the Adventurer's Guild.

Gantz was apparently training at the Adventurer's Guild training grounds, looking for sparring partners.

The four girls were walking around the town. However, there didn't seem to be any particular tourist attractions, so except for Laila, it was all rather ordinary. Of course, Lavi was the same as always.

And three days passed.

"Oh, he's here."

Sei confirmed on the map. There was a response in what served as the inn's entrance area.

A boy sitting on the sofa, fidgeting nervously. He wore glasses, which was rare in this world.

(Come to think of it, people who wore contacts must have had a hard time. Oh, I guess magic could handle that. The quality of glasses probably varies by country too.)

While Sei was thinking about such trivial things, the other party seemed to have noticed them.

"Tsubaki-san!"

He came running toward them with such enthusiasm he was about to embrace them, then stopped when he saw Lavi and the elf.

"… A lesbian harem?"

Mako's fist dug into his solar plexus.

They moved to the inn room, and the conversation began.

"So, Tsubaki-san, how have you been surviving?"

"Huh, me?"

"Yeah. It's been pretty tough over here. I might have a reasonably high level, but I don't actually know how strong the monsters are, and forming a party rashly is scary too. And trying to use Mind Control like a villain—there are too many countermeasures, you know?"

"Ahh, that's true."

"So, sorry about this, but I had a somewhat wealthy merchant accept me as the son of someone who helped him in the past, and then I just worked normally."

It was exactly as expected. Despite having such a mid-boss-like Gift, he wasn't able to use it at all.

No, from a self-preservation standpoint, maybe that was for the best. At the very least, if he got caught using Mind Control on a noble, he'd be executed.

"I was picked up when I was half-dead, taught various things, trained, and now I'm on a journey to send everyone back to Earth."

"Huh!? We can go back!? Seriously!?"

Sei sent a gentle gaze at the hapless hero who stood up in joy.

"So, what are you going to do? Are you going home soon?"

"Huh, it's that easy?"

"It's quick. You just press this Return Stone to your forehead and think about wanting to go home."

The hapless hero literally jumped for joy, but then got a thoughtful look on his face.

"No, I can't just leave without saying anything to the old man. Let me go tell him."

"Oh, then we'll come along. He'll probably feel more at ease knowing you have companions."

They had paid for two weeks at the inn, but that went to waste. Well, that was the usual, so they didn't worry about it and headed to the merchant's mansion.

What they saw there was a sort of farce, and yet, his life had indeed been there.

They left the town by carriage. They wanted to go somewhere out of sight, but there was a fair amount of traffic, so they decided this was fine and agreed to do the return here.

"Tsubaki-san, aren't you going back?"

"Ahh, we need at least one hero or the map won't work."

"Then… shouldn't I be the one to stay? I mean, I'm a guy."

"Sugata-kun, your level is 43, right?"

"Y-yeah, it shouldn't have changed since the last time I checked."

"I'm at 187."

"Huh?"

"187."

"What? Seriously!? But even the strongest mage in the kingdom was only around 100!"

"Well, it was harsh training and… the power of Gluttony, I guess. The more I eat, the stronger I get."

"Haa, I thought it was a hard-to-use Gift, but that wasn't the case at all."

The impressed hapless hero seemed to realize he'd just be a burden after hearing that.

"Well then, I'm counting on you."

He pressed the Return Stone to his forehead. Without even a moment's pause, the boy vanished.

"How anticlimactic."

Laila, who might have been expecting some adventure drama, said with a deflated expression.

"We do prepare quite a bit, but in most cases everyone just goes home obediently. There have been times when the people around them didn't want them to go back, though."

"Hmm, so where to next?"

Laila peered at the map Sei was holding from the side. For some reason, Lavi was already peering in from the opposite side.

"Yeah, we're planning to head to Istria's capital."

There was probably a hero there. And after that, they planned to head to the frontier of Istria.

"Istria, huh. I hear it's a beautiful city."

Kukuri said happily, and everyone's faces brightened.

To avoid being seen, they used the carriage during the day. Then, after sunset, they repeated Lavi's teleportation and landed near Istria.

"Oh my…"

Laila sighed at the sight of that ancient city.

They had arrived at Istria, with its stone-built royal castle.