197 - - a legendary monster

"Welcome!　Mr. Thor."

The person who cheerfully greeted me at the Adventurers' Bureau was Mikaki, a new receptionist with short hair.

The usual Miss Enna seemed to be out of the office.

Mikaki smiled carefree, not at all intimidated by the silver adventurer's tags.

However, as soon as his steady gaze moves to the bottom of the counter, his round eyebrows lift wide.

"What's wrong?　Mr. Mumme."

He held Thor's hand tightly and spoke to the downcast child as if he were surprised.

If it was the usual Mu, he would draw a mysterious picture in the corner of the bulletin board or tap the counter for no reason while talking to the child.

Now, however, he remains silent and does not move away from Thor.

Apparently, the fear of witnessing the witch and the embarrassment of leaking the contents still lingered in her mind, and she was scared and sulking at the same time.

When asked the reason, Moo looked down at the floor and did not seem to answer.

When his question was blatantly ignored, Mikaki did not change his attitude and continued to speak.

"Did he get angry with you for eating too much?　Oh, did you use too many magic stones again?"

Moe looks sideways in a smoky manner at the chatter that does not capture the mood of the room.

Mikaki, who has been thinking about it for a while, claps his hands and speaks up with an idea.

"Okay!　You wet the bed, didn't you?"

Moe's shoulders shook as he was told exactly what to expect.

However, her glassy, beautiful eyes remained downcast.

The receptionist's face turned thoughtful again, and she turned her questioning gaze to the girl standing behind Moe.

Sola, who was standing close to the child, nodded her head, her eyes widening lightly.

The two began to talk dexterously, exchanging only glances.

Thor, who had always been impressed by how many acquaintances Sola had, seems to have become friends with Mikaki before he knew it.

The girl suddenly moved at the attention of the receptionist.

She put her hand under the child's armpit from behind and lifted her forcefully up to the counter.

Normally, Moe would have been excited and screamed, but today he was limp and at her mercy.

Mikaki holds up a raised index finger to the child.

The receptionist's index finger is pressed precisely against Moe's whip as the people around her look on, wondering what to do.

Then she began to draw a small circle with her finger.

"Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm!　Mmmmmm!"

Immediately the child's eyes widened and a strange voice escaped from his mouth.

He looked as if he was trying to hold something back, but finally he couldn't take it anymore and started laughing.

At first glance, it looks like a bizarre scene of a child being held in one's arms and having the receptionist at the Adventurer's Bureau knead the whip of his head with a single finger.

But as soon as Moe lets out a laugh, the distant colleagues all burst into a laugh of relief.

It seems that the child who had been playing freely every time he came here was more popular than expected.

"Moo, I was already depressed!"

"You're looking better, Mummeme."

Miss Mikaki, with a big smile on her face, gently pats Moe's head as he laughs and gets angry.

Thor thought that she was a flustered newcomer, but she seemed to be surprisingly familiar with handling children, which changed his evaluation.

Then, she suddenly starts to explain what she came to the counter to do.

"Are you ready to go?　I'd like you to tell me a little bit about that thing in the swamp."

"Swamp?　That thing?"

"Yes, that one."

"Hmmm, that thing?"

The receptionist, who had been ruffling Moe's curly hair like a loving dog, turns to face Thor with her head tilted back.

Then, perhaps having given up on the idea, she turned to her boss behind her.

"Chief, Chief Sheikka!　Master Thor says something about that thing in the swamp."

"Hey, Mikaki, you're talking too loud!　If you turn the volume down a bit, I can still hear you."

A man from the Red Tail Tribe rushes to the scene and quickly corrects his subordinate.

"Is that so?　It's normal."

"And just in case, I'm at work right now, so please moderate. I'm sorry to disturb you, Mr. Thor. It's about the swamp. This way, please."

With Siecka's quick response, Thor and the others were quickly ushered upstairs.　

At a moderate pace, Siegka walked down a deserted corridor and stopped at a thick oak door at the end of the corridor.

She knocks lightly twice and opens the door without waiting for a response.

Noticing a slight furrowing of Thor's brow, she gave her reason as an excuse.

"I hope you don't mind, I'm basically a person who doesn't answer. This is the authorities' archive. Please ask Oren there for more information. He is the head of this office.

Inside the room was a forest of books lined with tall shelves.

There seemed to be an armored window at the back, but it was blocked by bookshelves, and the room was generally dimly lit.

Perhaps intimidated by the unique atmosphere, Moe reached out his other hand and grasped Thor's palm again with both hands.

There was a large desk near the entrance where a man with dark hair and medium height sat reading a book.

He looked up at Thor and the others as they entered, but they did not seem to welcome him.

Conversely, the man who had repositioned his unusual round glasses let out a breath of air in a troublesome manner.

"I'll be waiting for you outside, just give me a call when you're done," he said. Please do not be rude to me, Mr. Oren.

Sheikka, who had warned Oren with a deliberate frown, bowed and closed the door behind her.

While Thor and the others who were left in the dusty room were puzzled, it was Yuril who stepped forward.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Oren. May I see a few documents?

"Ah, the ash-eared tribe. You're the wrong kind of person to ask for directions.

To the man's rude remark, Ulil responded with a gracious smile.

"If I tell you that all roads lead to the central country, there will be no problem.

Oren lifted his chin in a slightly curious manner and nodded his head in agreement.

"What do you want to know?"

"What was that?"

"Just a little joke, Mr. Sola."

Thor also vaguely remembers that it was a kind of joke that made fun of the characteristics of the six races.

When asked for directions, the impatient Red Tails would tell you before you even ask, while the talkative Midoriha would start talking about where they were going and then get into an unrelated conversation.

And in the case of the Ashmiris, who serve the god of search and respect knowledge

Don't ask them for directions. They don't want to tell you they don't know, so they will tell you a random lie."

I heard it is said.

And all roads lead to the central land, which seems to be an old saying that any truth can be reached in the central land, which once boasted great wisdom.

"What can you tell us about the Witch of the Swamp?"

"Oh, you saw that. How was it?

"They looked different from just spirit giants."

I knew it. Mmm-hmm. Here it is.

The manager of the office pulled out from the shelf an old stack of papers bound together with a binding string.

He blows the dust off the cover with his breath and turns the pages at random.

He seems to know where everything is written.

"What's that?"

It's a part of the scattered Central History of Japan. Look, there is a description here."

According to what Oren read out, there have been many sightings of witches.

The earliest mention of a witch is over two hundred years old.

It is said that a black shadow lurking in a small swamp tried to drag a soldier in search of her through the mud.

That was the end of the story, but there have been many more stories of swamp monsters since then, and the details of what was seen and heard have changed each time.

The black swamp gradually grew larger and larger, and the monsters controlled strange balls of light and cowered at the mere sight of them.

And then, a vast swampy area was born at the end of the marshes.

The place became known as the Swamp of Monsters because of the eerie monsters that inhabited it.

Of course, before this happened, several attempts were made to defeat the monster with an army, but all of them ended in defeat with a heavy loss of life.

After all, the story ends with the fact that they had to build a fort on the bank of the swamp and keep watch over it.

And here is the rest of the story. Here is a journal left by an adventurer of that time.

Perhaps noticing Yuril's gaze, Manager Oren, his glasses glinting, preceded to announce the name of the second book.

The book was a memorandum-like document that described several forays into a supposed noxious gas field by a person who claimed to be an adventurer after the army had retreated from the area.

They tried to go deeper into the marshes many times, but they were unable to go beyond the swamps and gave up.

The reason, of course, is the master of the mysterious swamp.

The adventurers who came before them left the swamp in fear of the monster, which looked like a huge human made of mud and used bewitching techniques such as summoning a giant snake or a giant spider.

Afterwards, there was a lot of speculation about the identity of the black monster because of its many behaviors that are not typical of spirit monsters.

A corpse of a high-ranking magic-user, transformed by inhaling a miasma (a miasma that causes noxious gas).

A special mutant of the spirit type, etc.

Whatever the identity may be, there is one major fact that has come to light.

"Legendary monsters of folklore."