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[AI CENSORSHIP BLOCKED THIS CHUNK - RAW ENGLISH RETAINED]

It was six months after the Fittoa Region vanished. Roxy had finally reached the area, only to be greeted by nothing but grass-covered plains. She took in the sight wide-eyed and dumbfounded.

She was standing on the main highway, a stone-paved road. No other country had a road so magnificent that far from its capital. Asura Kingdom had developed it and laid it out, stretching from one end of the kingdom to the other.

But that was how the road had been when she last traversed it. Now it was gone, abruptly cut off in front of her. There was nothing else as far as the eye could see. Nothing but grass, spread far and wide.

“…”

Something had happened. She knew that. But she wasn’t sure what. All she knew was that the Fittoa Region had disappeared, Buena Village was gone, and Rudeus, his kind family who had accepted her despite her race, and everyone else, had disappeared.

Roxy caught wind of the story several times during her journey here. She was sure it couldn’t be true, sure that people were just trying to deceive her. At any rate, she chose not to believe what she heard. She believed that Rudeus and his family were definitely alive. They were just fine and nothing had happened to them. She staked everything on that one sliver of hope.

At least until now, when she finally saw the reality spread out before her.

Roxy’s knees gave out from under her.

“So, you lost someone too, eh?” the driver of the coach she took said from behind her.

“An exceptional apprentice,” she answered.

“An apprentice, huh? Being a magician’s apprentice, he must’ve been prepared for the possibility of losing his life anyway, yeah?”

“He was only ten.”

“Well…that is too soon.” He patted her on the shoulder as if to soothe her.

For a while, Roxy could do nothing but stare at the earth at her feet. She didn’t want to think about anything; she couldn’t. She wasn’t even sure what she should do from here.

The driver watched her silently before he spoke again, his words measured. “Actually, there’s a Fittoa Region refugee camp. Want to go see? Well, it’d be difficult for a ten-year old kid to survive what happened, but you never know.”

Roxy’s head jerked up. “I’ll go!” This was Rudeus after all. Surely he was all right. No doubt he’d used his quick wits to survive. He was surely in perfect health, living in that settlement.

Once again, she clutched firmly at a sliver of hope.

The refugee camp comprised numerous wooden buildings and was roughly the size of a village. A great number of people bustled about. They were anything but carefree; a dark, heavy mood hung over them.

I never thought I would see something like this in Asura Kingdom,Roxy thought.

The Asura Kingdom Roxy knew was the wealthiest country in the world. The people there had faces full of optimism, and there were smiles everywhere you looked. Food was plentiful and monsters were few. It was the easiest place to live.

There were no smiles to be found here.

The settlement didn’t seem to lack for food. This was a fairly bountiful area. They wouldn’t starve, not so long as they could pull up the grass and eat it. As long as they weren’t in danger of starving, they should have been smiling. Even if a disaster had taken place, things weren’t nearly as dire as they were on the Demon Continent. Or so she thought, but she couldn’t help frowning at the sight before her.

The refugee camp had a temporary adventurer’s guild. It was there, in front of the bulletin board that normally had various requests pinned to it, that the melancholy dwelled the thickest.

A man who had lost his house and family stood there wailing. “What the hell, what the hell is this! Six whole months, it took six whole months for me to get back here, dammit! Laura, Francis, why are all of you dead?!” He lost his family, and not just them, but his house, his land, the tools of his trade, everything he had. His heart-wrenching screams were difficult to hear, but no one could stop him from lamenting.

“God! Is this all your fault?!” A priest threw the tools of his trade, the symbol of a Millis religious organization, onto the ground. “I won’t believe anymore! You’re not gods—you just ridicule and kill us! You’re cruel demons!” Face full of hatred, he looked up at the heavens and cursed. There were other Millis believers present, but none of them were praying to the gods.

A merchant was trying to slit his own throat, only to be stopped by the people around him. “Don’t stop me!”

“Hey, knock it off! What good does dying do? Good things can still happen to you if you’re alive!”

“I-If I live?! Do you seriously believe that? Dammit, I-I lost something more important than…than my own life! Please, just…let me die! Dammit, dammit, dammit!” The man squatted and began crying, his face contorted in despair. His entire body trembled.

This was a horrible place. Everyone’s faces were grief-stricken.

Roxy had never known a place so dominated by sadness before. She had watched many people die, had even escaped scenes of carnage herself numerous times. This was the first time she had ever seen a place of such pure anguish.

This might be a pointless endeavor,she thought.

Pulled in by the heavy atmosphere, she felt close to tears, but she pressed on and began her hunt for information.

An hour passed.

Roxy learned the gist of what happened. After the sky turned strange, a large-scale mana calamity occurred over the Fittoa Region.

It was not an explosion exactly, but it did spread far and wide. Everything in the Fittoa Region was enveloped by it and teleported randomly to locations all over the world. The buildings and trees disappeared entirely, scattering only the people that had been there. Some of them had managed to return to the region, but realized nothing was left of their hometowns and lost all hope.

“Truly terrible,” Roxy muttered as she looked at the bulletin board. There were rows of names listed as either deceased or missing. Posted beside them were messages to family members and requests such as,If you see this person in your travels, please bring them here.

The most eye-catching part of the notice board was a request that was pinned under the name of Fittoa’s liege lord, asking for information on the missing and deceased, an unprecedented number of people.

As an adventurer, Roxy had done her fair share of work. Never in her life had she seen a bulletin board this full of requests, nor one that was so desperate and so heart-wrenching. It was clear just how widespread the damage of this calamity really was.

Perhaps she had run across someone on the list of the deceased and the missing on the way here. She heard rumors about people suddenly reappearing. Of course she hadn’t paid it any mind at the time; there was always idle gossip like that. If only she could remember something, she might be of some help to the people here.

“No…” She shook her head, stopping her train of thought right there. She’d taken the biggest highway across the Central Continent to get here. Any information she had, someone else had probably already reported by now.

“…”

Roxy instead turned her gaze to the list of the deceased and began going through the names in order. Despite the scale of the disaster, the list of deceased was relatively short, and she didn’t recognize any of the names.

By comparison, the list of missing people was so long it was painful to look at. It made sense given they had all been transported elsewhere. Surely some of them had been attacked and killed by monsters, leaving behind no remains by which to identify them. There were many places that could kill one instantly: mountaintops, mid-air, or in the sea. It was incredible that some of the deaths were even confirmed.

“There it is.”

Roxy furrowed her brows. She found the names of Rudeus and the others in the missing persons column.

Rudeus Greyrat. Zenith Greyrat. Lilia Greyrat. Aisha Greyrat.

She knew that Lilia had become one of Paul’s wives; Rudeus had written as much in one of his letters. Paul and Norn’s names had a line drawn through them. She took another look at the list of deceased just in case. They weren’t there; that meant they had to be alive. Then again, it could have also meant there was no information on them. A short-lived moment of relief. “At least I can rejoice in the fact that they’re not dead for now.”

Absentmindedly she looked over the message board again. The desperation of the writers was so clear.

Roxy wondered if her own parents were doing well back home. Quite some time had passed since she fought with them and left her village. Until recently, she hadn’t paid much attention to the flow of time, in part because she was a member of the Migurd race. The months passed quickly. Perhaps she should at least send a letter.

“That’s…”

She found a message on the board. The writer was Paul Greyrat.

To Rudeus,

Zenith, Lilia and Aisha are missing. Norn is safe in my custody. I don’t know where you are right now, but I’m sure that even if you’re alone, you’ll make it back here. So I’ll search for you last.

For now, I’m headed to Millis Continent. That’s where Zenith was born and raised. I’ve sent a message to Lilia’s hometown and house as well. I want you to search the northern part of the Central Continent. If you find any of them, contact me with the info below.

Zenith, Lilia, if either of you see this, please contact me as well.

For anyone that might know me or my family, or former members of the Fang of the Black Wolf, please help me search. I’m sure the members of the Fang of the Black Wolf may have mixed feelings about me. I won’t ask you to sweep it under the rug. You can scream at me all you want. If you ask me to lick your boots, I’ll do it. All my assets are gone, so I can’t pay you, but please. Help me search for my family.

Contact information:

Millis Kıtası, Kutsal Millis Ülkesi'nin başkenti Millishion, Maceracılar Loncası. Parti Adı: Buena Köyü Sakinlerini Arama Timi. Klan Adı: Roa Bölgesi Kayıp Kişileri Arama Derneği.

—Paul Greyrat'tan

Paul yaşıyordu. Bunu bilmek ona büyük bir rahatlama getirdi. Rudeus mektuplarında Paul'dan şikâyet etse de, böylesi durumlarda Paul'un özellikle güvenilir olduğu anlaşılıyordu.

Roxy durup düşündü. En doğrusu, arama çalışmalarına yardım etmek olurdu. Ne de olsa o aileye borçluydu. Hâlâ, onlarla geçirdiği iki yılı birçok nedenden ötürü sevgiyle anıyordu. Yardım etmeye fazlasıyla istekliydi.

"Pekâlâ, bunu yapacağım," diye karar verdi. Kararını verdiği an, düşünceleri zihninde dönmeye başladı. "Ama kimi ve nasıl aramalıyım?"

Kara Kurt'un Dişi, muhtemelen Paul'un maceracı partisinin adıydı. O insanlar büyük ihtimalle Rudeus'u, hatta Lilia'yı tanımıyorlardı. Ama Paul, Rudeus'u en sona bıraktığı için, Roxy onun yerine Rudeus'u aramaya karar verdi. Paul, Rudeus'un Fittoa'ya döneceğini düşünmüş gibiydi, ancak o çocuk fazlasıyla uyumluydu. Işınlandığı herhangi bir yere yerleşmiş olması da aynı derecede olasıydı. Eğer durum buysa, ona olanları anlatıp geri getirmesi gerekiyordu.

"O zaman Rudeus'u arayacağım. Peki, şimdi nereden başlamalıyım?"

Paul, Kutsal Millis Ülkesi'nin başkentine gitmişti. Bu da muhtemelen yol boyunca benzer mesajlar bıraktığı anlamına geliyordu; özellikle üç yerde: Asura Krallığı'nın sınırlarında, Ejderha Kral Krallığı'nın doğu limanında ve Kutsal Millis Ülkesi'nin batı limanında.

Bu durumda, o yerlerin ötesinde aramalıydı. Bu da Orta Kıta'nın kuzey kısmı, Begaritt Kıtası ve İblis Kıtası demekti. Bu üçünden biri. Begaritt'e daha önce hiç gitmemişti, ancak oranın labirentler ve canavarlarla dolu olduğunu duymuştu. İblis Kıtası'nın coğrafyasına bir miktar aşina olsa da, oraya tek başına yolculuk etmek tehlikeliydi.

Eğer güvenli bir rota isteseydi, o zaman kuzey bölgesi en iyisi olurdu. Ama tam da bu yüzden diğer ikisinden birine gitmesi gerekiyordu. Bir parti bulup bu iki bölgeden birine yolculuk edebilirdi.

Güzel. Kararını verdiğine göre, burada oyalanmanın bir anlamı yoktu. Ejderha Kralı'nın doğu limanına doğru yola çıkacaktı. Oradan da Begaritt Kıtası'na ya da İblis Kıtası'na giden bir parti arayacaktı.

Bu karara vardıktan sonra Roxy hızla harekete geçti. Yolculuk hazırlıklarını tamamlayıp mülteci kampından ayrıldı.

Garip bir şekilde, sadece yola çıkmak bile üzerindeki hüzün perdesini kaldırmaya yetmişti. Üstelik, Rudeus'un hâlâ hayatta olduğuna dair inancı her adımla daha da güçleniyordu.

"Hepsini tekrar, sadece bir kez daha aynı masada görmek istiyorum," diye düşündü adımları onu güneye taşırken.

Bu, Roxy Migurdia'nın uzun yolculuğunun başlangıcıydı.