Episode 145: Mystery of the Past
Elceed Headquarters.
As the sun set and many employees left for the day, a man was watching recorded footage in an office room with the lights dimmed.
“Ishikawa, aren’t you going home yet?”
It was Tennoji who called out to him.
“Yeah, I still have a lot to look into. You’re heading to Hokkaido tomorrow, right?”
“That’s right. I’m going to the airport first thing in the morning.”
“Don’t waste your time here, go home already!”
As Ishikawa said that, Tennoji offered him a canned coffee.
He chuckled and accepted it, placing his finger on the tab to open it. Next to him, Tennoji was gulping down the same canned coffee.
Ishikawa also sipped his coffee while watching the video on his computer.
It had always been decided that the two of them would drink black coffee.
“Did you find anything?”
Tennoji sat down on the desk and spoke to him. Ishikawa shook his head slightly.
“No, not at all. No information about the Black Lord is coming up. It’s hard to believe that such a conspicuous Monster has no witnesses…”
Ishikawa was investigating the Lord’s combat footage and the security camera footage around Seeker’s Town. The police had already conducted a thorough investigation, but he was checking himself in case anything had been missed.
“Conversely, that might be a clue to finding the Lord.”
Ishikawa frowned.
“What do you mean, Tennoji?”
“I mean, there’s a possibility that it’s changing its appearance to avoid being discovered.”
“Mimicry!?”
Among the Monsters in the Black Dungeon, some mimic other Monsters. However, since most of them are weak Monsters, Ishikawa hadn’t even imagined it.
“So, it could be transformed into another creature… But what is it disguised as?”
At that moment, the worst thought crossed Ishikawa’s mind, and he said aloud, “Could it be…”
“Yes, if it’s mimicking a human… it would be extremely dangerous and troublesome.”
“But is that even possible? It has many abilities. Unprecedented power and speed. A terrifyingly hard outer shell with a defense that doesn’t allow magic to pass through… On top of that, mimicking a human? Aren’t you overthinking it?”
Ishikawa raised both hands and shrugged. Tennoji also replied, “Maybe.”
“I might have been getting a little naive. Things haven’t been good lately.”
“Indeed.”
Ishikawa looked at the monitor while sipping his coffee.
“Where it went is a problem, but where it came from is also completely unknown. On the day, the security cameras in Seeker’s Town didn’t capture the Black Armor entering. It really appeared out of nowhere… Well, it could have entered from a place without cameras.”
Ishikawa placed the canned coffee on the table, crossed his arms, and groaned.
No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t find an answer. To Ishikawa, who was frowning, Tennoji called out, “About that…”
“I have a guess.”
“Hmm? What is it, a guess?”
“Do you remember when Hell Garm first escaped?”
“Of course I remember, you and I were the ones who tracked and investigated that Hell Garm.”
Ishikawa wondered what he was getting at now.
“That’s right. And it turned out that Hell Garm died in the suburbs of Tokyo. Leaving behind only the mystery of whether it was killed by someone.”
“…Wait a minute, could it be!?”
Tennoji stared at Ishikawa with a serious look.
“The Black Armor killed Hell Garm… If you think about it that way, it makes sense.”
“No, no, that’s too much–“
Ishikawa shook his head, but Tennoji didn’t budge.
“Think about it carefully. First of all, it’s unnatural for Hell Garm to have moved from Ibaraki to Tokyo. Mana is overflowing only around Seeker’s Town. It was initially thought that it would never leave that area.”
“That’s… true, but…”
“But it actually moved. Unless there was a very good reason, it wouldn’t risk going to such a place.”
“You’re saying that reason is the Black Armor? That’s too far-fetched.”
“No, Hell Garm is a Monster with excellent senses of smell and perception. It followed some kind of trace and reached the Black Armor. And it was defeated and killed.”
Ishikawa sighed at Tennoji’s story.
“Tennoji, you’re free to let your imagination run wild, but where did the Black Armor come from in the first place? Are you saying it was living among humans?”
To Ishikawa’s exasperated face, Tennoji replied with a straight face.
“It came out of the Black Dungeon.”
“Hey, hey, don’t say such absurd things again… The Black Dungeon disappeared, right! The Self-Defense Forces who were monitoring the entrance didn’t say anything about Monsters coming out. It definitely disappeared along with the Monsters inside!”
“…Is that really the case?”
“What!?”
“There are few reported cases of Dungeons disappearing worldwide. There are still many things we don’t know about the specific effects.”
“That may be true, but…”
Ishikawa was unconvinced and frowned.
“Unique Monsters are said to be different from the boss Monsters at the bottom of the Dungeon. If that’s the case, when the Dungeon collapsed, the Black Armor was inside the Cave. And a crustal movement occurred, creating an exit to the surface somewhere, right? It came out to the surface through there.”
“Ugh…”
Tennoji placed his hand on Ishikawa’s shoulder, who was groaning.
“The Black Armor came out to the surface, but it can’t move freely in a world with thin Mana. It had no choice but to hide, and when it noticed the Mana release from the Red Dungeon, it went all the way to Ibaraki.”
“Well… it certainly makes sense. But there’s no way to prove it, right?”
“That’s right. It’s just my imagination.”
Tennoji raised the can and drank the remaining coffee.
“Anyway, I’m going to Hokkaido tomorrow. I’m counting on you to search for the Black Armor! Ishikawa.”
“Yeah, leave it to me.”
Tennoji left the room, and Ishikawa, who saw him off, sighed deeply.
“Where did the Black Armor come from, and where did it go… If I knew that, I wouldn’t be struggling.”
Ishikawa stared at the computer monitor again. It showed the black monster fighting them.
–Where it came from is just speculation. But where it went, if you think about it logically, you might find the answer.
Ishikawa recalled Tennoji’s words.
“If it’s mimicking a human, it would be extremely dangerous and troublesome…”
The concern was repeated over and over in his head. If that’s true–
“This could be… the greatest threat to humanity.”