Groundwork

The next day.

"Ilya's putting in a commission?"

Reading over the submitted commission request, Desiree sounded surprised.

After the tyrant spider incident, Ilya had reflected on her own conduct and stopped filing commissions herself, so this was the first time in quite a while she'd put one in.

"Yes. There's something I'd like delivered."

"A transport commission, then. Did you fill everything in?"

"Yes. If you would, please."

"Roger that."

Taking the form with the easy reply that came of being family, Desiree checked what Ilya had written and let her gaze settle on one particular point.

"Um… your desired rank is A, so we'll have to put up an additional reward. Is that right?"

"Yes. That's right."

Even as they went through the exchange, both of them already knew the other understood. They were simply confirming what had to be confirmed, just as procedure called for.

"… Hand-to-hand delivery, then. Yes. I've received it for processing."

"If you would."

After this, Frank's signature would be added, a commission slip drafted from the application, and the slip posted on the bulletin board. Once the wind keseki and the letter were handed off to whoever took the commission, what Ilya needed to do today would be finished.

After that, she just had to finish her break and get back to her real work.

But before that, Ilya turned her gaze toward the women's changing room adjoining the office.

"… They're still at it, huh."

When she opened the door, through which boisterous kyaa-kyaa voices could be plainly heard, the women of the branch were gathered inside around Haku.

Clothes were laid out around her so thickly there was barely any space to move, and every last one was a small size meant for an infant.

Like the school, the daycare was attached to the church, taking in the infants and children of households too busy with work to look after them. Named in imitation of the elementary and upper sections, it was called the nursery section.

They weren't leaving Haku there as a ward, but Sophia had said, "Please, please come and play sometime!", so for the time being they were going just to show their faces.

The problem was the outfit.

Haku usually wore a uniform of the same design as Ilya and the other female staff. They couldn't very well take her along in that, so the plan had been for Ilya to generate various outfits and let Haku try on whichever ones she liked… or that was how it was supposed to go.

"… Yeah, that's good! This one's good too!"

"It's a problem when everything looks good on you…"

"Aahn, no, I can't take it, she's too cute! Ah, crap, nosebleed…!"

"H-hey, calm down. But I get it!"

Elizah and the others were running higher than Haku herself. Very, very high.

Maybe she should ban a few of them from coming near again.

So thought Ilya, quite seriously, but figuring she couldn't let them keep treating Haku as a dress-up doll forever, she scooped Haku up and made an emergency exit.

"I asked you to help, but I don't recall asking you to play, y'know."

"Eh, Ilya, your smile's scary…"

She let the rude protest pass with a half-lidded look, then turned to Haku.

"Haku, which outfit did you like?"

"Umm…"

Haku looked around.

Surely she hadn't actually tried on every single one.

When Ilya turned that thought into a glance at Elizah and the others, they pointedly looked away.

"This one!"

What Haku pointed to was the uniform she always wore.

Ilya had wanted something as ordinary as possible to keep her from standing out, but from Haku's manner there was no trace of any ulterior thought.

"You always wear this. Is this really the one you want?"

"Uhn. Same as everyone."

(… Yeah, well, fair enough.)

Said with that artless, angelic smile, there was no arguing with it.

Peeling off the staff who clung to Haku in fits of kawaii kawaii, she headed for the kitchen.

The lunch rush had passed and the kitchen was settled enough that they lent her a corner, where she set about making sweets.

What she was making today was a snack for children. Potato starch, sugar, milk, and egg yolks. Those were all the ingredients.

First, beat the egg yolks and sugar well with a whisk.

"This one doesn't use egg whites either, huh."

From who knew where, Elizah had caught wind of it and poked her face in from the side.

"You can use them, but they turn out a bit hard if you do."

"Heeh～"

With just the yolks, they came out crisp; the potato starch would make them fluffy. Once the sugar had dissolved, she added the potato starch. Mixing it well with a spatula, she worked in the milk a little at a time. When the dough came together, she rolled it into a long stick, then pinched off pieces and rolled each one into a ball.

"Wanna try too, Haku?"

"Roll roll!"

And so the three of them (Elizah included) set about rolling the dough between their hands, turning out countless little spheres. Maybe it was the way the shape kept changing that made it fun, but Haku was rolling them with her whole heart, and was very cute. Elizah, enjoying it just the same, was also cute.

That aside, with the pieces finished, they went into the oven. At 160 °C the guideline was around seventeen minutes; at 170 °C, about ten.

What came out completed were tamago bōro, a snack safe even for children.

"Heeh～, fascinating. It's delicious, isn't it, Haku?"

"Uhn! They're crunchy～"

The sugar had been kept on the low side for the child (Haku), but Elizah ate them without issue… or rather, she was popping them into her mouth at a pace that kept up with Haku.

(Well, since they're small and light, I get how your hand just keeps going.)

Ilya wasn't the only one watching that scene with a warm smile.

"Ilya-chan, this is interesting. Teach us too, won't you."

"Ah, I was watching! It's kinda like shiratama, and easy too…"

"And we learned a new use for leftover egg whites, didn't we～"

The kitchen ladies who cooked for the children took to it well, and once everyone began sampling them they vanished in no time, so another batch had to be made. This time they tried different flavorings, made some for children with egg allergies who couldn't eat the regular ones, wrote letters on them, and so on. Noisily and merrily, the pleasant little while seemed to fly by.

She wished a time like this could go on. Even though she knew, given what the Apostle had said, that such a thing was impossible, she couldn't help wishing for it. And so the peaceful time passed.

 

*

 

… And then, it happened.

What she first noticed was the sound.

Catching a faint sound that resonated from the pit of her stomach, Ilya turned her eyes toward the window.

It was shaking.

The instant she registered that, she stepped outside and called out to those who looked frightened or had crumpled where they stood.

"You're safe inside the branch. Can you stand?"

She kept her voice as calm as she could manage.

"Ohhh, this is bad."

Someone who'd sensed the abnormality and come out of the branch said it with strange casualness.

Among lower-rank earth magic there were spells that shook the ground to throw an opponent off balance, so guild members who lived by fighting weren't particularly startled by an earthquake itself. Even so, with the whole town shaking like this, they did seem taken aback. When Ilya asked them to help guide people to shelter, they accepted readily.

After the nearby residents had been evacuated, she paused for breath and watched.

A considerable amount of time had passed since the shaking began, but intermittent tremors were still rattling the town.

"It just keeps going, huh…"

"You'll be fine if you stay inside the branch."

Anxious mutters drifted over from those staring at the windows, but as Ria and the other staff called out to them, the unease subsided. The barrier Ilya had laid over the branch held up perfectly against earthquakes too, so this was, without question, the safest place in town.

That fact was the foundation, but the staff's composed handling itself had a considerable effect on the evacuees.

In the first place, in this world (where earthquakes existed as a man-made disaster caused by magic) countermeasures had been developed to match. Among the various measures, including simple barriers, the most foundational were earth keseki.

Fire keseki were used in lighters and lighting, water keseki in pumping and filtering groundwater, wind keseki in stoking fires, drying laundry, ventilation, and other climate-control purposes. All close to daily life.

So what was the remaining earth-attribute keseki used for?

The answer: stabilizing the earth. They were buried along the perimeter of each fief as a barrier that absorbed and dampened earthquake waves.

They were also put to soil restoration and reinforcing walls, but the stability of habitations was high-priority and got first dibs.

In Rondéville's case specifically, the placement of the Crystal Pillar of Earth made it stable land, so naturally-occurring earthquakes from earth-factor activity were rare. Intermittent earthquakes even more so.

(Which is exactly why something feels off.)

If this earthquake were the work of an evil god's magic, it wouldn't have been strange for it to carry enough force to collapse buildings in an instant. Yet it didn't have that kind of power. It was possible to deliberately drop the destructive force, or to drop the force in order to widen the area and produce a similar phenomenon, but the intent behind doing so wasn't clear.

"… Ah, it stopped."

While she was thinking, the shaking stopped.

"Sorry to ask in the middle of your break, but could you join up with the patrols and check on the damage situation?"

"""Got it."""

She felt bad for the Patrol Group (Lunévraus) on their break, but with the emergency at hand, she had them move. And of course, Ilya wasn't leaving everything to others; she got moving herself.

(First, organize the damage situation and report to Frank-san and Hector-san.)

Checking inside the town she could leave to the patrols; that left the area around Lunéville.

"Ilya."

The voice calling her was Frank's.

The bedhead in his hair suggested he'd woken from a nap to find a commotion underway. Sensing she'd noticed it, Frank pressed down on his head. The spot he was pressing was off, and (whether out of embarrassment) his face had gone a little red.

(What's this, that's cu—)

No, that's not it, she snapped her head back into gear.

"Um, a large-scale earthquake just hit. The Lunévraus have gone to ascertain the situation."

"Y-yes, I see… All right, then I'll take command from here. Ilya, ask Desiree to check with the nearby branches for any reports of unusual events."

"Yes, understood. Should I go to Hector-san directly?"

Frank thought for a moment, then rejected the idea with a "no."

"I'll go in person… In any case, we'll probably end up meeting up anyway."

"That's true."

That lord, devoted as he was to his people, was never going to sit still in a situation like this.

"… I'll have to set those ones some work too."

Frank's gaze had drifted to Ria and Cynthia, who were both grinning at something rather odd.

"Should I rough something out for them?"

"Please do."

For the pair who'd had the leisure to peek, no mercy would be shown.

After that, thanks to the patrols' efforts and the kitchen ladies' information network, they managed to gather fairly accurate information. As it turned out, while there were people with minor injuries from falling over or being struck by tipped furniture, fortunately there were no serious casualties. The fact that many buildings were newly built also helped; there were reports of broken furnishings and the like, but not a single catastrophe such as a collapsed house.

But all of that was, truly, fortune within misfortune.

The real damage lay outside the town.

 

*

 

The next day.

Gathered in the reception room of the lord's manor were Lord Hector, Branch Manager Frank, public-relations officer Charon, and Ilya. Four in all.

"First, let's hear the report."

Hector's heavy words carried a trace of agitation; one could tell he had little room to spare.

Perhaps because of that, Charon, in his reply, lacked his usual breezy air, his face serious as he opened his mouth.

"Large tremors accompanied by ground fissures have occurred across Rondéville, isolating many cities and villages. Beyond that, there are missing persons, and confused monsters appear to have left their habitats and shown themselves in inhabited areas."

Ilya inferred that this must be the situation the Apostle had spoken of.

Considering the talk about hordes of monsters and the like, the more likely explanation was that the monsters hadn't left their habitats so much as simply increased in number. On the other hand, since there had been no sighting reports at all, it might also be that no evil god was present.

If that inference was correct, the absence of an evil god was something to be glad of. Even so, with monster increases occurring in more than one place, that much area would have to be covered, and the trouble wasn't going anywhere.

The fissures cutting off transport meant a split in fighting strength, and self-sufficiency would worsen, only compounding the problem.

"I see… Has there been any directive from Guild Headquarters or the kingdom?"

"No. The royal capital was directly hit by the earthquake and ground fissures and is in disarray. Rondéville Headquarters also seems to have its hands full sorting out that confusion."

"Understood. Thank you."

Frank exchanged glances with Hector, and the two nodded before turning back to Charon.

"We at Lunéville Branch will not wait for instructions or decisions from Headquarters. We will begin acting independently. Convey to Headquarters that saving lives and repairing transportation routes are our top priorities."

"Understood."

Next, Frank turned to Ilya.

"Ilya, first I want a detailed picture of the situation. On top of the damage, please find out as much as you can about stockpile status in each area."

"Understood."

Like a proper branch manager, Frank made his decisions firmly. The recent troubles had, perhaps, become good experience for him; though if he stopped bringing people who weren't decision-makers along to important meetings, the impression would be even better. Mainly with regard to Ilya, granted.

In any case, with Frank and Hector starting their discussion of patrol-group operations, Ilya took her leave. As she headed back toward the branch, she thought about what she needed to do from here.

First, she should start by drafting commissions to secure personnel to head out for surveys, plus materials for road repair and reinforcement, and mages.

Before her thoughts could come together, she arrived at the branch, where the hall was packed with people. They were all bewildered by the abnormal events unfolding, but as the situation was explained and they found things they themselves could do, the unease gradually settled.

Still, the reality was that the only thing to do at the moment was wait. Resting one's body was also important work, and to carry that out properly amid an emergency was not as easy as the words suggested.

(I need to do my own job too.)

But even with that resolve, the situation didn't stop there.

 

*

 

Most everyone had begun what they could do at the moment, clean-up and surveys, and once those were processed, the reception desk had grown a little idle.

"Ilya, come here."

Called by Frank from the back, she headed to the office, and was a little startled by its uncanny atmosphere.

If she had to name it, it was a strange quietness.

The office work, starting with the information coming in from Headquarters and other branches, should still be busy for some time. Yet that bustle was absent.

To Ilya's unspoken question, Frank gave the answer.

"Right now, we can't get in contact with the other guilds."

If you took the words alone, you might think, "Because the fissures cut things off?" But there was no point bringing that up at this stage, and more than anything, his expression told her the situation was more serious than that.

"… You mean the communication network has stopped working?"

"… Yeah."

We've been had.

Ilya muttered it silently in her chest.

She hadn't thought they would go that far.

The Apostle… she'd misread the world tree's seriousness, taken it lightly, and at her own shallowness she let her head drop a little. To her, Frank continued.

"The others don't know… Then again, they don't even know about the 'communication network' to begin with."

The communication network.

In a word, it was a network system using the world tree's roots, a closely-guarded secret known only to a very limited portion of the guild's upper echelons.

Yet his manner of speaking presumed Ilya knew of it.

(Well, I do know, but…)

As its name suggested, the communication network was used for exchanges between Headquarters and other branches, and for rapidly sharing information. Even now, after it had come to light that excessive exchanges would induce a swell in the monster population, the rule that had been established was:

"Limit it to important matters affecting the kingdoms, the guilds, and humanity as a whole, to commissions where speed of sharing is critical, and to passing the success or failure of such commissions to nearby guilds. No more than that."

But it was thanks to this function that the Guild had managed to win the best possible outcome in the old guild-state war: "coexistence with the nations."

It was that effective, and that important a function.

But now that the world tree, owner of those roots, had rendered the communication network nonfunctional, the Guild's greatest advantage, "the swiftest information sharing," had been lost.

If, as the Apostle had said, the same problems (or worse) were occurring in places across the world, the loss of the communication network was no small wound.

It meant not only a split in the chain of command, but the inability to share, in real time, where reserve forces and supplies could be diverted, where damage was occurring, and to formulate countermeasures. If their response slowed, "wound" wouldn't begin to describe it; it could very well become a death blow.

And Ilya's intended schedule was forced into revision.

… Truly, they'd been had.

As Ilya gnashed her teeth at her own ineptitude…

"Keeping the lines of contact tight is top priority. So is securing the personnel for it, and explaining things to them."

… she heard Frank's voice and lifted her face.

"I'll handle preparing the reasoning. Ilya, please handle securing personnel and explaining to the staff… Ilya?"

"Ah, yes. Understood."

"What's wrong, you're stiff."

Her brief stunned moment at being lightly patted on the head passed quickly.

Was this a slip on her part, or should she be honestly grateful?

She tasted a touch of embarrassment, but thanks to it, her head cleared.

(I might've been getting a little too dragged along by the Apostle-san's intentions.)

She might have been stubbornly fixating on it: refusing to let them have their way, refusing to do what they wanted. But just because an unexpected situation had befallen her, just because she couldn't act as planned, that didn't mean there was nothing left to be done.

The kingdom had been thrown into confusion, its head not working, in functional shutdown. The Guild had had its ears and eyes taken, frozen in place.

Even so, they hadn't lost the ability to move. Nothing had been decided yet.

Maybe she'd been looking down on them. Maybe she'd been underestimating them.

Maybe, even unconsciously, she hadn't fully believed in them.

"Thank you."

"… Did I do something?"

"No, just… you really are someone I can rely on."

She covered it with a tone that hid her true feeling.

"All right, I'll get to it."

"… Yeah. I'm counting on you."

"Yes. Let's do our best."

With everyone's strength, let's stand against this.

When she conveyed that unspoken meaning, Frank, too, smiled.

"Yeah. Let's do our best."

Firmly, just so.

(… So, how long are you going to keep your hand on my head?)