Satou Here. Reading through myths on earth, it"s not rare for G.o.ds that had been wors.h.i.+ped since time immemorial to degenerate into lower-ranked evil G.o.ds by later belief that got popular.
And, perhaps such thing isn"t an exception even in another world where G.o.ds physically exist?

“A pick up? Ya picking me up? Ooh, yer" makin" me blus.h.!.+ It was worth it turning into a teen after a whole lap ssuyo!”
“Shut up, 116 year–”

The good-looking young man who was with the underling-sounding beauty, whom herself was in high tension and looking bashful, dragged her to the back.

“–I haven"t seen you around before, and you don"t look like an inquisitor either. I won"t stop you from trying if you"re really going to woe this age-falsifying hag, however I"d advise against it if you don"t want to be shocked in the bedroom.”

The good-looking young man who got between me and the beauty had a callous look on his face.

“Yer" so mean Rakero! I"m gonna tell you on Frost Tree-chan ssuyo!”
“Do as you wish. It will be you that mentor will scold anyway. Also, if you"d please refrain from calling my mentor, 『Witch of Frost-covered Forest』, with a weird nickname.”
“Then call me 『Witch of Ice Field』 instead of "you" ssu!”
“You is good enough for you.”
“So mean ssu~. Even like this I"m the great witch who rules over the 『Source of Ice Field』 ssuyou, just you know?”

According to the AR readings, the underling-sounding beauty"s name and t.i.tle is [Witch of Ice Field].
If what she says is true, she"s a witch who rules over at least one of the Sources.
I"m a bit intrigued by ways to rule over a Source without a City Core.

“Think this skit ever gonna end?”
“Probably not?”

After replying to the tired-looking Arisa, I called out to the one of the waitresses, ordered for their shares of food and drinks, and decided to interrupt these two"s skit.

As a side note, other girls besides Arisa and Zensan are enjoying their meal at their own pace.

“–Excuse me. Rather than standing around like this, how would you like eating together with us?”

I invited the two to a vacant seat while offering the wine cup the waitress brought.

“Ehehe, this sure makes me blush ssune.”

For some reason, the underling-sounding beauty–Witch-san is sitting on my lap.

“Mwu.”
“Guilty!”
“That place is Tama"s~?”

Faster than I could, Mia, Arisa and Tama voiced their objection.

“Lose–”
“The stuff about pick-up is a misunderstanding.”

Before the witch could talk and make things get more complicated, I put her on the next seat and cleared the misunderstanding.
If it took too long, Sera and Princess Sistina would join in and the situation would get out of control.

“Really?”

Witch-san looked disappointed somehow.

“Yes, I"d like to know more about your talk earlier, 『Demon G.o.d is the forefather of modern magic』.”
“Did that pique yer" interest? I"ll tell ya anything you want ssuyo! But but, it"d be nice if you could add 『Sama』 suffix with respect on Demon G.o.d-sama"s name ssu!”

The witch seemed happy when asked about her opinion, she got into high tension once again and pounced on my back.
She looks like a transient beauty outwardly, but her behavior is kinda like that of an old man somehow.

The good-looking young man sitting opposite to the witch sipped his wine cup after saying, “What a curious guy.”

“One night won"t be enough to talk about everythin" ssu. For now, do you have anything to ask me ssuka?”
“Could you tell me the basis for the belief that 『Demon G.o.d is the forefather of modern magic』?”
“Uun, there a whole lotsa to it, but the most famous one was about a sage from long ago finding a slate detailing about how Demon G.o.d-sama taught humans magic in the ruins of Lalakie Dynasty located at Tokiswolk Kingdom ssune.”
“Hmph. But the Larukeria Slate left in the ruins of ancient civilization after Lalakie civilization in the age of G.o.ds, and the Toro Kuro"s golden tower definitely negated that.”

The good-looking young man denied witch-san"s explanation.

“How did those two negate it?”
“On the Larukeria it"s written that, through a subordinate under his control the 『Dog-head Demon Lord』, demon G.o.d ma.s.sacred sorcerers in the entire world, and then gave magic skills and magic letters to his followers after the genealogy of ancient sorcerers had gone extinct. While on Toro Kuro, he attempted to do the same to priests, however he incurred G.o.ds" wrath and got sealed deep in the underworld.”

The young man smoothly narrated his story.
He too seems to be the type that loves to state his knowledge.

“Hold it ssu! I"ve been telling ya, Toro Kuro looks  fabricated as heck! There are excerpts in Saga Empire"s founding emperor"s autobiography about his audience with Demon G.o.d-sama ssu! Same with Larukeria, it was a huge incident about a ma.s.sacre of sorcerers in the entire world, and yet there"s absolutely nothing about it written on other ruins from the same era ssuyo!”

This time the witch reb.u.t.ted.
History is difficult.

While listening to the heated debate of the two, I use s.p.a.ce magic [Telephone].

『Satou!』
『It has been awhile, Aze-san.』

Telephone magic carried a comforting voice to my ears.

『I heard this talk about [Demon G.o.d being the forefather of modern magic] in my journey, do you know anything about it?』
『Modern magic? Hold on a bit, I should find out once I connect to the Memory Vault. Wait for me okay.』
『Thank you. Then, I"ll call you back later.』

I reluctantly cut off the call.

Since the debate is still heating up, I try to call another recipient with Telephone.

『–Hero-sama.』
『Heya, Reiane.』

Reiane is a girl belonging to an unusual [Half-Ghost] race I met when I went around [Floating Island of G.o.d] Lalakie during the Divine Punishment, she"s the last queen of [Lalakie Dynasty] that has been appearing as a topic in the two"s discussion.

I get down to business after asking about her recent states.

『Demon G.o.d-sama? I"m sorry, I had some experience intermingling with the seven pillar G.o.ds during my coming-of-age ceremony, however I had never done so with Demon G.o.d-sama and Dragon G.o.d-sama.』

She didn"t know about the sorcerer ma.s.sacre incident either when I confirmed her about it.
I also tried asking about the transition from primeval magic to modern magic but did not get a favorable response either.

『One thing I heard about, apparently Demon G.o.d-sama often mingled with people in the mortal world.』
『Mingled?』
『Yes, I heard that he was dispatched to increase the number of mortals in order to offer a vast amount of prayers and supplications to G.o.ds.』

–Dispatched?

『By whom?』
『I have no idea which, but I think it was by someone amongst the seven pillar G.o.ds.』

Looks like demon G.o.d was treated like a gofer by the seven pillar G.o.ds.
Come to think of it, Aze-san told me something along the line, [He took on the project to build a floating castle in exchange for divinity and authority from G.o.ds] while I was investigating the shadow castle at Rumooku Kingdom.
He probably took on this errand boy-like job in a similar fas.h.i.+on.

After thanking Reiane and ended the call, I connected to Aze-san once again.

『Forgive me, Satou.』

She went straight to apologizing.
Judging from her tone, it must be the Demi-G.o.d Aze-san.

『Information about the pioneer of modern magic has been put under cla.s.sified information by the seven pillar G.o.ds, so I cannot speak about it to anyone.』
『Please don"t apologize, Aze-san.』

Rather, the fact that the G.o.ds has put restriction on it means there"s really a chance of [Demon G.o.d is the forefather of modern magic] being true.
I thanked Aze-san and, although it pained me to do so, cut off the call.

◇

“Liffe I saifdh, Demon G.o.d-sama"s someone br.i.m.m.i.n.g with kindness ssuyo!”
“Shh it, you demon G.o.d fanatic. He"s a G.o.d that spread miasma and fear through demons and demon lords, whaft kind of kindness ifh thaft!”

The witch and young man"s articulations are getting weirder as their discussion reached an impa.s.se.
Despite their eagerness in opening liquor bottles, neither could hold theirs it seems.

“Hey hey, master. Listening to these two, doesn"t it make you think that there are two demon G.o.ds?”
“Good point.”

I half-heartedly gave an affirmation to Arisa who seemed to seriously consider that possibility.
It"s not rare to arrive at a completely different interpretation after a.n.a.lyzing information through filters.
Fortunately, it doesn"t seem like the seal of demon G.o.d sealed in the moon will get unraveled anytime soon, so there"s no need to think so hard about–.

–Wait.

That"s right.
The myth in this world states that [Demon G.o.d is sealed in the Moon].
I know that"s nonsense since I"ve personally been on the moon, however that is not a common knowledge. To the point that even the Weasel Emperor and those Brains bunch didn"t know about it.

And yet they said Demon G.o.d was sealed in the underworld.
Perhaps, these guys know the true information regarding Demon G.o.d"s seal.

“Witch-dono–”

I tried to throw a question, but the witch and the young man are already snoring in sync with red faces.
I could rouse them up right now with magic, but looking at their blissful sleeping faces makes it hard to do that just to answer my doubt.

I ask the waitress, rent two rooms for these two drunkards and shove them in.
Answering my doubt can be postponed after these two are awake.
I"ll put Markers on the two just in case.

“Well then, let"s split up the job.”

After taking care of the drunkards, I announced the candidates for the unsolved problems I"d like to solve and then we decided to split into five groups.

First group is Mia, Princess Sistina and Zensan as their guard.
The girls are going to challenge the problem, “How do you achieve chantless magic?”

The second group is Arisa and her guard, Liza. I"m thinking of having Hikaru join this team later.
They"re going to research about [The transition of primeval magic to modern magic and variations].
Our two acquaintances from earlier could be a big help in this problem.

The third group is Sera, with Nana as her guard.
They"re, or rather, Sera is going to investigate about [Denying the irreversibility of the transformation from living being into undead].
If all goes well, we might be able to turn the Tokiswolk vampire children back.

The fourth group is Lady Karina, Pochi and Tama.
The three of them are going to trail-blaze the way to sightseeing spots in Kariswolk city.
It may looks like they"re goofing around, but this is the most important job here.
Lady Karina had this mixed look on her face, but private Pochi and private Tama were full of motivations.

“Yep this is, don"t you think Lizsan is better off managing Karinsama and the girls instead?”

Arisa whispered to me.
True, there"s a 90% chance of incidents happening with just these three.

That said, having Arisa alone without a guard would weigh down on me.

“Oh Master, you"re such a worrywart. If anything happened to me, I could just tell Master with the 『Familiar Powah』. You"re gonna rush headlong to help me right?”
“I guess that"s true.”

With my agreement, Liza moved to Lady Karina"s group per Arisa"s suggestion.
Just to be safe, I handed over equipment with anti status effect buff to her.

As for me, I"ll be investigating the topics 『For what reason do Labyrinths exist?』 and 『How does a Dungeon Master produce magical items and monsters?』.
Both should be relatively easy to solve for a Dungeon Master like me.
Though since I cannot disclose my position as one, I wouldn"t be able to announce the answer even if I had one.

I plan to join Arisa and Sera"s groups once I"m done investigating these problems.

“『For what reason do Labyrinths exist?』, is it?”

I fetched Core Two at the Solitary Island Palace and went with her to the [Dungeon Master Room] in the lowest layer of Dejima Island"s [Phantasmal Labyrinth].
The one giving that question earlier was the blinking Dungeon Core.

“Yes, that"s right. Any idea?”
“It"s unknown.”
“I see–”

It would have been simple were Dungeon Core knew, but apparently this was no easy mode.

“Master, do you know the answer to 『For what reason do Humans exist?』”

I reply to Core Two, “You have a point, I don"t.”

“Master, the answer to that earlier question was 『unknown』, however, it is possible to surmise contenders to that.”
“Really?”
“Yes, the previous master muttered that 『Manufacturing plants equipped with an abundant of mana, miasma and souls』, and 『Cleaners that collect miasma on the surface』 might have been the roles of dungeons.”

I agree with the former, but I wasn"t even aware about the latter.

“Do dungeons have a function to collect miasma on the surface?”
“No, they do not directly collect the miasma. It comes as a secondary side-effect from dungeons" function of collecting miasma inside them. The previous master hypothesized that the items Weasel Empire used to collect miasma, 『Evil Thought Jar』 and 『Grudge Pot』 might have been created using hints taken from dungeons.”

I affirm Dungeon Core"s words.
If you can do something about the souls part, it should be possible to turn dungeons into plants by creating a magic to collect miasma.

One of the problems, [How does a Dungeon Master produce magical items and monsters?], can be mostly explained with what Dungeon Core told me earlier, [Manufacturing plants equipped with an abundant of mana, miasma and souls].

“Core, are you able to to explain how a dungeon produces monsters and items by making use of mana, miasma and souls?”
“It is possible.”
“Then, do tell me.”

That"s surprisingly easy.

“By supplying an ample amount of mana, miasma and souls in accordance to the recipes into the Creation Furnace inside Theory Circuit of a Dungeon Core, the virtual factory will produce the desired item. If Master wishes to check on the production process, please refer to the Theory Circuit by operating the Dungeon Core"s control panel.”

It"s not very detailed, but it should be simple once I know the search keywords.
As taught by Dungeon Core, I operate the control panel and read the Theory Circuit.

I try my best to read it.

It"s quite complex.

And most importantly, the circuit area is tremendously vast.

I feel the helplessness of a junior high school student who"s just finished soldering a radio and tried to read the schematic of the latest CPU.
The scale is such that even with my maxed out INT, reading and understanding everything would take at least several months or even a year.

However, it"s worth all that labors, thus I plan to a.n.a.lyses the downloaded schematic whenever I have time.

“Now then, guess I really can"t announce the answer…”

I think what Dungeon Core said earlier would be acceptable as an answer, however, there"s just one little problem.

If the fact that dungeons need souls to create items is known, I could see greedy people in power sacrificing innocent people and demi-humans to dungeons.
Even if it didn"t get that bad, I"m afraid of the possibility people intentionally increasing mortality rate of rookie explorers.

I let out a sigh, went to Solitary Island Palace to fetch Hikaru and went back to the city-state Kariswolk.
Right when I got there, I could hear Tama"s and Pochi"s fl.u.s.tered voice from below me.

“Big trouble, big trouble~?”
“Master, there"s a big trouble nanodesu!”