The sunlight was bright.
In a port city on the southern edge of the Dragon Bone Continent, there were lots of goods and people moving about.
On a pier of the port, there was a youth gazing at the flow of people in envy.
He wore short sleeved clothing and thin-fabric trousers. Even so, around here, that was dressing warmly.
Just a sword hung at his waist, and although he gave a slight martial impression, he was a man that gave a generally calm feeling.

Someone approached him.
Dressed in a hooded mantle, the person completely attracted everyone’s attention. From the thin figure he could easily make out, he thought it was probably a woman.
“I’ve arrived.”
Her voice as well, it was definitely a young woman.
“Yeah, good work. Going so far must have been unfortunate. From here on is the most interesting part of our task…”
“No, responding to His Majesty’s summons is a matter of course for this retainer. Rather, having His Majesty trouble his own hands, we realize the shortage of our ability—”
“No, no, it couldn’t be helped.”
The youth waved his hand dismissively.
“There’s no choice but for a person who can do it to do it. If that is true, I want you to be in the country too.”
“Your kind words are more than this one deserves…”
The youth smiled wryly. Even though he was accustomed to it, their behavior had become exaggerated after being separated for a short while. These beloved retainers.
“And so, since you’ve come, I want to investigate a few relevant things.”
Just a little, the youth’s atmosphere became serious.
“Here I go. There appears to be a human who defeated the Ogre King.”
“The Ogre King—!? No way, the hero?”
“No, no, he should still be in the imperial capital, it’s a different human. Moreover, although I say he was defeated, it’s not that he was killed. For that reason, he wasn’t caught in my magic.”
If it were the hero, there was a high possibility of the Ogre King being killed due to stereotypes.
Moreover, the magic applied to the Ogre King was one to let them know if he died. If they didn’t periodically check, they probably wouldn’t have known even now.
“After that, the party left and conquered Labyrinth’s labyrinth.”
That fact alone was enough to shake the woman.
Conquering the labyrinth, even for the Ogre King alone that was unreasonable. Moreover, time is time.
The millennium is near, this time.
“The location is closer. Is it the same person?”
“I don’t know the details well. However, since it’s spread to this town, it’s a story of a month ago already.”
Labyrinth City was one of the nonaggression areas for the youth. For that reason, he had no choice but to rely on hearsay.
“Having been conquered, Labyrinth’s power is sure to have fallen as well. If you go now, you should be able to conquer it as well. Then when you meet Labyrinth, I want you to hear the full story. If you can receive even a little power from her and she is able to, it should be easier to progress from here on.”
Though reincarnators were capricious, he didn’t believe they would obediently give away their power.
“Then what about the person who defeated the Ogre King and those that conquered the labyrinth?”
The youth shook his head at the question.
“Do not contact them. However, do ask what kind of human it is. Use someone, be beyond careful, make sure they don’t find out our ident.i.ties.”
“Should we deal with them now, before they are unmanageable?”
The youth smiled wryly with the va.s.sal’s dangerous tone.
“First, the question is whether or not we could deal with them. They are someone at least stronger than the Ogre King. It would be too dangerous to fight them head on. Moreover, the person did not kill someone of the Ogre race… well, it might not be a person, but maybe we could win them over.”
If they’re not a person, they might be a demi-human. That possibility was taken into account.
However, he didn’t consider it being a woman.
“To be our comrade?”
“Is that strange?”
The woman didn’t think it was normal. She didn’t say it though.
What she said was quite the opposite.
“Certainly, that possibility exists.”
Saying that, it appeared that she agreed. At any rate, she held the words of her lord with respect.
“Then, Your Majesty, I will immediately head to Shashmeer.”
“Yep, I’ll entrust it to you. Even so—”
The youth poked the woman’s forehead.
“It’s not ‘Your Majesty’ out of the royal palace, haven’t I told you to call me by my name?”
“S-sorry, Ars-sama!”
The moment she vigorously bowed her head, the sea breeze blew and exposed her face.

Silver hair. Dark brown skin. Long ears extended from her head.
A dark elf. Amongst demons, it was the race most proficient in magic.

Since Ars quickly fixed the hood, none of the humans noticed.
“Be careful. Also make sure to properly use transformation magic. You’re a scatterbrain sometimes aren’t you?”
Though she was treated like a child, she wasn’t displeased.
Living for hundreds of years, she couldn’t match up to her lord that knew her from childhood.
“T-then I’m off.”
Her form disappeared. Then, she rode the winds toward the distant northwest part of the continent.
Seeing her off, the youth sighed slightly dejectedly and headed toward land from the pier.

His work in this country had completed its first stage. Since he moved quietly from the shadows, he wasn’t found by dangerous adversaries.
However, the following task would be different. Not only adversaries, but all strong people on the continent would find out.
Still, it was necessary to carry out. The millennium. In order to avoid tragedy at its conclusion.
In the busy port city, he quietly entered a back street. Careful to not be seen, he used magic to teleport.
s.p.a.ce-time magic.
If Serge saw him, he would probably been astonished at the precision of its composition.
Fearing the eyes of his enemies, the youth faced his destination. This continent’s core, the imperial capital.
Knowing his purpose, he was still by himself.

In front of her eyes, there was a ma.s.s of muscle.
Over many years, that muscle had been constantly strengthened.
She felt it was even beautiful.
Facing that muscle, Ria—pierced it with a needle.
“Uoh.”
The voice Vargas unintentionally leaked out wasn’t an unpleasant one.
Ria pierced needles along the line of Vargas’ backbone. These needles were also produced from genesis magic.
The needles’ heads were beaded to stimulate.
“U~mu.”
Sound continued to leak from Vargas’ mouth.
“D-do you really not feel any pain?”
Shizuna inquired while watching fearfully. Similarly, the other members who were watching questioned with their looks.
“Muuu, it doesn’t hurt. Rather… the pressure feels good.”

It was the third day after finishing their first exploration.
After Dark Labyrinth exploration was considering recuperation from fatigue, equipment repairs, about ten days of rest from start to finish. That was Thunder’s Fangs pattern.
However, Ria objected.
“Generally speaking, three days is enough for recuperation.”
When she said to recover with magic, the members of Thunder’s Fangs had already considered that.
Certainly, magic could recover fatigue. It could also recover wounds and the like.
But if you did that repeatedly in a short time, the amount of fatigue recovered and the recovery speed of the wounds would decrease.
This was a natural phenomenon for explorers. Carlos, who had been on marches on the battlefield, also knew this.
Ria didn’t know. She strove to exterminate all demons in the vicinity in one day. It was because she could disregard damage in Labyrinth City to some degree. Above all, her fatigue recovered quickly and due to her const.i.tution her wounds would as well.

However, she felt that a rest period of ten days was really long. For this, Shizuna held the same opinion.
Accordingly, Ria decided to try out acupuncture from her previous life.
Ria hadn’t given acupuncture treatment in her previous life of course. Neither did she have a license for it. [1]
However, having received it herself, she was very grateful for it. In any case, a martial artist wasn’t someone that could be separated from injuries.
Sprains that should have taken two months to recover with scientific treatment would be cured with just a few days.
Acupuncturists with magical arms, qigong therapists, seitai masters. She had visited them many times in her previous life. [2] [3]
And although it hadn’t gone to using needles, she had been taught how to stimulate vital points to promote recovery to some degree.
As for her acupuncture treatment, she just used her experience and intuition.

Of course, at first, no one wanted to receive a treatment they’d never heard of before.
In front of everyone, Ria calmly pierced thin needles into her own hands and feet.
… she pierced a pain point at one point by mistake, but she endured it expressionlessly.
Then Vargas became interested in it and stepped up as a guinea pig.
And with that, she pierced him with needles on his back, where there were few pain points.
(Unexpectedly, didn’t this become magical power manipulation training?)
Like dragons had the pulse of the world, humans had blood vessels.
In this world, magical power flowed.
By taking a specific posture and meditating, she was able to hasten her magical power recovery. She could even do this at Casalia.

Dozens of needles spanned from the waist of his back, to his shoulders, to his neck.
“I’m surprised. My body really feels light.”
Since Vargas said that while waving his arms, the warriors also asked Ria for acupuncture.
Ria willingly treated them while making disposable needles.
Finishing all of the men, Ria thought next would be the women for her to enjoy.

Ria’s knees fell out from under her.

“Eh?”

Her body trembled. From the tips of her toes to her hair, her entire body.
“W-what’s happening?”
She wasn’t afraid. Nor was she trembling with excitement.
Maal and Lulu drew close to Ria from both sides while panicking. However, after a moment Maal and Cell felt an abnormality.
“The spirits are clamoring…”
Spirits dwelled in all things. They were making noise as if the world was trembling.
The wizards also noticed it before long. In a faraway place, some extravagant magic was being used.
“Anise… no, it’s a little different… farther?”
Lulu muttered. Why could she feel magic from so far away? Just how much magical power was used?

But what Ria felt wasn’t something like that.

Something was lost.

A puzzle piece necessary for this world… fell away.
She didn’t know just what was lost. However, something was lost. Something that should never have been lost.
With that gigantic feeling of loss, Ria could do nothing but tremble.