After several attempts, my dad finally gave up on knocking on the workshop door—the blacksmith wasn’t coming out or answering.

“Hmm… seems like this will be a waiting game,” Dad muttered, sighing deeply.

So, the letter from Akane had some effect, but something else was clearly pressuring this blacksmith even more. But what could it be?

We wouldn’t get any answers without talking to him. Judging by the look on his face when I mentioned the Immortal Realm, though… could this “urgent matter” be somehow connected to it?

Maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see. To clear my mind, I took a few deep breaths, glancing back at the well where the monster had emerged.

“Hey, Dad, why was that monster so hard to kill?” I asked.

“It’s because of the dense magical energy here. For both humans and ‘monsters,’ magical energy acts as life force. With so much of it in the air, it becomes… harder to die.”

“Oh, I see,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure if that was good news or bad.

The enhanced magical energy had boosted my spells, so healing magic might be stronger too. But even if the monster’s head and body had been severed, it was still alive! No amount of magical energy would allow a human to survive that.

But it’s not unusual for monsters to be ridiculously resilient—Raikou Douji had once survived a direct hit from a meteor strike spell barehanded.

Maybe because he was Sixth Rank. But if he could do that, then monsters in this magical hotspot might be just as tough.

Just as I was starting to feel a bit unnerved, Dad sighed in resignation.

“For now, we’ll report this to Kamiarizuki,” he decided.

“Are we heading back to the inn?”

“Yes. Time to regroup and strategize.”

With a frustrated sigh, Dad turned on his heel. We’d cut our sightseeing short to come all this way… and for what?

Aya-chan and Nina-chan looked like they had something to say but held it back, silently following us down the trail.

They both seemed a bit sulky, and I could guess why. It was frustrating for them; the blacksmith had refused our requests twice and hadn’t even explained himself.

For Nina-chan, who had mentally prepared herself, it must’ve felt like a slap in the face. I could understand why she was upset.

With these mixed feelings, we climbed into Dad’s car. The engine rumbled to life, and soon we were on our way.

We turned off the two-lane road onto a narrow, leaf-covered path without a guardrail when—

“…Huh?!”

There, standing smack in the middle of the road, was a single-eyed boy.

Dad hit the brakes, and I instinctively spun a spell.

“‘Flame Spear!'” I shouted, sending a flaming lance directly at the boy.

But the boy wove his fingers in a swift pattern, leaping into the air to dodge the attack.

Watching his movements, I gritted my teeth. “…”

My silveit spell… I couldn’t see it. The lens I’d crafted to block magical interference was obscuring it.

Quickly adjusting the lens’ filtering, I turned my gaze back to the sky, tracing the faint lines left by his threads. I could make out the boy swinging from tree to tree.

Good, I could see his silveit now.

Just as the boy touched down, I struck.

“‘Wind Blade!'” I shouted.

“Whoa!” the boy yelped.

My invisible blade slashed through the boy’s leg, stopping him in his tracks. I immediately began preparing the next spell when he reached toward me.

“W-wait, let’s talk this out! I’m telling you, we can work this out!” he pleaded.

“‘Flame Spear!'” I retorted, sending another spell his way.

The fiery lance struck the ground, exploding in a cloud of dirt and debris. The monster managed to dodge the worst of it but was still caught in the blast, his battered body skidding to a halt.

Dad finally brought the car to a stop, and I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt, practically tearing it off as I jumped out of the car.

This time, I wouldn’t miss. As I prepared another silveit spell, the boy yelled.

“Do you always attack people without even talking first?!”

“You’re a monster.”

“Y-you’re using the Western term… kinda cool…”

Is this guy for real?

“Anyway…! Sure, I’m technically a monster. I used to be a bit wild, I admit, but…”

“So?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I’m basically reformed now! Like, a domesticated pet!” he said earnestly.

That didn’t make much sense, but just as I was about to launch my attack, he screamed.

“This isn’t the time for fighting! If I’ve woken up, it means the Gatekeeper is down. If we don’t hurry, monsters from the other side are going to come flooding in!”

“…Huh?”

His words were confusing, but something about his urgency felt genuine.

“If monsters come here, what’s the big deal?” I asked.

“It’s a HUGE deal! My boss would chew me out! I’m a last-resort kind of guy, called in only when there’s an emergency!” he replied, slamming his head to the ground in a strange bow.

“So… like a familiar?”

“Yes, exactly! You’re sharp, kid! I knew you looked smart from the moment I saw you!”

While I was still processing his unexpected response, he continued, “Please, I’m begging you. For now, could you just hold off on the spellcasting? There should be a blacksmith living around here. Could you… take me to him?”

I’d seen plenty of monsters in my time, but this was definitely the first one that had ever bowed down.

And there was one thing that really caught my attention: this monster wasn’t using silveit.

“If we don’t take you, what happens?” I asked.

“Then monsters from the other side are going to come flooding over here. But it’s worse than that—the balance between this world and the other is already shaky. We need to fix it fast. Time is ticking.”

He stayed kneeling, his voice tense.

“What happens if we don’t restore the balance?”

“The second the ‘Other Side’ touches this world, they’ll merge. That’ll be the end—humans are going to die in droves!”

There didn’t seem to be any lies in his voice.

“And this ‘Other Side’… what exactly do you mean by that?” I asked, still cautious.

The boy raised his head, his single eye looking surprisingly earnest as he said,

“The Other Side… is the Immortal Realm.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep