Side Story— The Forest Goddess

Part 1

Half a year after the territory Fedoa disappeared.

Roxy finally reaches Fedoa, she opens her eyes wide to look at the empty [Grasslands].

She is dumbfounded.

Roxy is now standing at the main road that the Asura kingdom had maintained with stone paving.

The stone-paved road extends from one end to the other.

It should have been like that.

But, the road in front has disappeared from sight, as if nothing existed there.

There are only grasslands here.

[...…]

There was something here. That point is understood.

What happened here. That point is not known.

What she knows is only the conclusion.

The conclusion that only the Fedoa territory disappeared and the village Buina disappeared.

That youth called Rudeus, and the warm family who easily accepted a Demon race like herself, have all disappeared.

That is the only conclusion that she knows.

She has heard this story many times on the way here. She thought that it was impossible and she was being lied to.

In any case, she had never believed in it.

Until she had seen the truth with her own eyes, she bet on the last sliver of hope.

Roxy crumbles down to her knees.

[Did you lose your family member too?]

Before she knows it, the driver who brought her here is standing behind her.

[An excellent student.]

[Student hmm, but if it's a magician's student, you should have already been prepared that he would lose his life anytime right?]

[He is only 10 years old.]

[That's really... very young...]

The driver pats her shoulders as if to comfort her, and sighs while saying.

[Actually there's a survivor camp for Fedoa. Do you want to go there? Well, it is difficult for a 10 years old to survive, but there's the possibility that he's there.]

Roxy raises her head.

[I'll go!]

Rudeus and the others are surely fine.

He definitely survived with his quick wit, and must be living happily in the camp.

Roxy once again hangs onto this sliver of hope.

Part 2

The camp is made up of several wooden houses. Rather than say it's a survivor's camp, it looks more like a village.

But this place has a depressing atmosphere.

(To think I would experience such an atmosphere in the Asura Kingdom.)

The Asura kingdom that Roxy knows is a country that's very abundant.

It is a place where everybody's face is full of energy and smiles.

The food is plentiful and the Monsters are very few, it is a place that's like a paradise.

But right now, there are no smiles here.

Even though there are no hungry people here. This is a place of abundance, you can even pull up grass to eat and not starve.

These people who are not starving should be smiling. Even though there are things that make people unhappy, but it isn't like the atmosphere in the Magic continent full of killing intent.

It should be something like that.

But the scenery in front of Roxy only makes her frown.

The temp adventure's guild in the survivor camp.

In front of the notice boards for making requests there's an incredibly gloomy atmosphere.

The men who lost their family members and their homes have been crying and shouting for half a year on the way back, asking why this had happened.

A priest has thrown the Milis cross, which is the definition of his work, onto the ground.

He no longer believes in anything.

A merchant tries to slit his throat with a knife, but the surrounding people stop him.

He has lost something more important than life.

This is a living hell, and it's probably hopeless.

Roxy gets affected by the atmosphere, and starts gathering information in a mood as if she's about to break into tears.

Part 3

In about an hour, Roxy has gathered enough information as to what happened.

After the sky's unusual phenomenon, a huge area Mana Calamity started.

With something that resembles a giant area-of-effect spell, but not a huge explosion, all the people in Fedoa were randomly teleported all over the world.

The buildings and forest simply vanished, only the people were hurled everywhere.

And the people who made it home after so much trouble found that nothing was left and despaired.

Roxy looks at the notice board. Right there is a list of dead people, and on the other side is a list of missing people. Another notice board has messages left for family members.

[If you see this person during your travels, please send them here], numerous requests similar to this message are lined up together.

The dead and the missing.

Perhaps people who journeyed here have seen them.

But because the contents of rumors about hurling people through the air are too ridiculous to believe, no one has paid attention to this.

Roxy starts looking at the list of dead people. They aren't too many, and she doesn't know any of them.

In comparison, the number of missing people is overwhelming to the eyes.

They have been teleported to everywhere, and it is very likely that many have been killed by Monsters without leaving even a single bone behind.

There are many people who probably died immediately after they were teleported to the mountains, air or sea.

It is already considered to be good enough just to be able to gather information about the dead.

[I found them...]

Roxy knits her eyebrows, and finds Rudeus and the others in the missing people list.

Rudeus Greyrat.

Zenith Greyrat.

Lilia Greyrat.

Aisha Greyrat.

She knows about the incident where Lilia became Paul's wife. Rudeus's letter had mentioned it before.

This person called Aisha, probably should be the sister, and there should be one more sister.

After discovering that Paul and Norn are not on the name list, she ponders with sadness in her heart, and checks the list of dead people again.

They are not there after all.

They are probably alive. No, it's possible that some information could have been omitted, it's too early to be happy.

[In any case, I should be happy that they didn't die...]

Roxy looks at the message board in a daze. From the contents she can imagine how much effort everyone has put into it.

She feels slightly envious of them, if she is the one missing, no one would come to find her with their utmost efforts.

She thinks about her parents. It has been a long time since they quarreled and she rushed out from the village.

To the Migurd's race, this isn't very long ago.

Time really flies. She thinks that it's better to write a letter.

[This is...…]

She finds a message, and the author is Paul Greyrat.

[To Rudeus

Zenith, Lilia and Aisha are missing, Norn is with me.

Though I don't know where you are, but I think you will find your way here. So I have pushed back the thought of finding you.

I'm going to Milis continent, that place is where Zenith was born.

I also left a message at Lilia's hometown, go ahead and search there. If you find them, go ahead and contact me with the method below.

If you're Zenith or Lilia, use the same method to contact me too.

Also, if you know me or my family members, or you're a former member of the [Fangs of the Black Wolf], please help me find them too.

The former members of the [Fangs of the Black Wolf] still remember me right?

I won't say something like "forgive and forget". It's fine if you scold me too.

I'll lick your shoes if you want me too, but all my properties are gone so I can't pay you.

Please, I beg of you, help me find my family.

Contact Details.

Milis continent, capital of the Milis holy kingdom, Milishion's Adventurer Guild.

Party Name [Buina's Search party]

Clan name [Fedoa's Search group]

From Paul Greyrat]

Paul is still alive.

Roxy feels a little more relieved to know that Paul is still alive.

Even though Rudeus has described him as worthless in his letters, he's still quite reliable under this situation.

She carries on thinking whether she should join a party.

That family had taken her in and she had lived with them for 2 years. Even now she still has fond memories of them.

On various levels, there's no need to hesitate on whether to help them.

(Alright, I'll join a party to find them.)

Roxy decides.

But how will she find them?

[Fangs of the black wolf] is probably Paul's old party . They probably haven't met with Rudeus before. They probably didn't meet with Lilia too.

She considers finding Rudeus first.

Paul seems to think that Rudeus is capable of coming back, and that boy is capable of adapting very well.

He might even have settled down somewhere else before the teleportation.

If that's the case, she needs to tell him what happened and bring him here.

Still, where will she look?

Paul has gone to the capital of the Milis Holy Kingdom. Which means that he would have left behind messages along the way.

Asura's borders, the dragon king's country's East Port, Milis Holy Kingdom's West Port. At least these 3 areas will probably have messages left behind.

Then, it will probably be best to search around there.

The northern area of the central continent, Begaritto's continent, the Magic continent. It should be around these few areas.

Even though she has never been to Begaritto's continent, she has heard that there are many Monsters and dungeons there.

She's a little familiar with the Magic continent, but it's dangerous to travel alone. To be safe she should go to the northern area...

No, it's because it's dangerous she should go there.

The reason is because very few people will explore because it's dangerous.

(I'll slip into a party for those two places.)

Alright, since I have decided I won't stay very long here. I'll go to the Dragon king's country's East Port.

And from there, I'll find a party to travel to the Magic continent from Begaritto.

Roxy decides with that plan, and travels to the south.

Rudeus is alive.

She firmly believes that.