And the public order seems very good.

A settlement came into view on the aerial feed.

It was less of a village and more of a fairly impressive town. The outer walls, cleaved clean in two, were painful to look at.

The original walls and buildings had been sliced in half, flipped over, and left in ruin, with rubble scattered across the roads. Here and there, trees and shrubs were scorched black, probably from fires that broke out as secondary damage. Still, people armed with shovels and saws were hard at work trying to clear it all away.

Several Golems were there too, hauling timber and stone. Golems were originally an Alchemia specialty, after all. These ones must have survived the destruction or been repaired well enough to run again. They seemed to be pulling their weight as heavy machinery.

"Looks like reconstruction's going pretty smoothly, nya."

"More like, the walls are sliced clean in a straight line. What the hell do you even do to wreck something this neatly…?"

Well, you know, I went swoosh and it went slash. Yep. Spatial Magic. Yep.

"Hmm, doesn't look like there are any bandits running around, nya?"

"Everyone's expressions look pretty upbeat, too. Things seem well organized…"

And the public order seemed very good… So it's not lawless, huh. Hmm.

I was expecting more of that post-apocalyptic "Hyahha!" sort of situation.

"That's gotta be it. Someone strong must be keeping everyone in line."

"Exactly, nya! As long as there's a strong leader at the top, nobody's gonna rebel, and any bandits get pummeled on the spot, nya!"

"Hmm. A leader, huh…"

Well, nobody was explicitly killed besides that old geezer who called himself the Chaos God. If there was a second or third in command still kicking, it wouldn't be hard for them to take charge and start rebuilding.

"… Huh? Wait, is that Blade-senpai?"

Out of nowhere, I spotted a familiar face among the people working on reconstruction.

"Hm? What's up? Someone you know, Karina?"

"Yeah. That guy carrying rubble over there. He should be an adventurer from Solasidor, but what's he doing all the way out here?"

"If he's an adventurer, he can go wherever he wants, right? Maybe he took an escort job for a materials shipment or something."

That's possible. And knowing Blade-senpai, he probably picked up a reconstruction request on-site while he was at it. Actually, it wouldn't be strange at all if he was just straight-up volunteering.

"Could also be intervention from Paverkant Kingdom. Whether they're building goodwill by helping with reconstruction or going for a straight-up land grab, I dunno."

"I see, I see… Since we're here anyway, maybe I'll drop by and ask about the situation."

"Hm? You're heading down now?"

"I'll land a bit away, make it look like a chance reunion, and casually ask him about it!"

"Oh, if that's the case, I'm coming too, nya!"

Needlessly enthusiastic, aren't you, Misha? There's no bonus in it for you, you know?

"I'll stay behind. Call me if it looks like there'll be some bandit hunting."

"Sure thing. Well then, we're off."

"Nyahaha! Heading out, nya!"

And with that, Misha and I touched down in Alchemia.