Approximately two weeks had passed since his departure from the spirit folk village.

Rio stepped onto Strahl soil for the first time in several years; his current location was the trade city of Amande, located in the western region of the Kingdom of Galarc. As it was a part of Duke Cretia’s territory, Rio had once stopped in this city on his way out of the Strahl region.

However, Amande had developed greatly since then, making it quite different compared to how it had been several years ago; it was actually still under development even now. From what Rio could see as he approached through the air, deforestation was occurring, which clearly secured more area for the city.

I guess I’ll go down and gather some information first.

Rio wasn’t about to brazenly land in the middle of the city, so he descended into the vast forest near Amande instead. Location-wise, Amande was close both to the Kingdom of Beltrum to the west and the Kingdom of Centostella near the south, so it was a good spot to gather foreign information.

After locating a deserted road, he exited the forest to see Amande within view and felt its growth even more strongly. It was a scenery he would have seen several years ago, but it was completely unfamiliar to him now; although with the size of the city expanding, it was only natural that the outer areas would grow larger, too. While he was flying, Rio had seen the sturdy castle walls that surrounded the inner city, but he outer city was only enclosed by wooden fencing.

He entered the city from the east road. There are so many buildings I don’t recognize. Or maybe I just don’t remember them?

Rio gazed at the city landscape with curiosity. He had only stayed in Amande for a single day all those years ago, so his memories of the city weren’t that clear to begin with. However, the overflowing energy within the city hadn’t changed at all. No — it was possible it was bustling even more now than it had been before, with several stalls set up along the main street, their vendors calling for customers’ attention.

As Rio walked along the road and fondly reminisced, he finally spotted a certain building in his view. It was the inn he had previously stayed at for one night.

This was where I stayed last time. What was the name of the girl in the inn again? Well, I’m sure she doesn’t remember me, either.

Rio smiled bitterly, remembering how a couple of drunks had bothered him and caused a scene. Unfortunately, he had no business with the inn right now, so he passed on by.

Suddenly, six pillars of blinding light shot up in every direction visible from Amande. The pillars of light seemed to be a phenomenon of sorcery or spirit arts, as they were spreading waves of ode and mana all throughout Strahl, even causing the air to tremble. As a result, not only did Rio notice the light pillars immediately with his excellent ode and mana detection abilities as a spirit arts user, but the residents of Amande did, too.
“Look at that!”

“There’s one there too!”

“They’re all different colors.”

“W-Wow, what is it?”

The city was instantly in an uproar; everyone was looking in every direction, gazing at the red, blue, white, green, brown, and yellow pillars.

Rio was staring at the pillars, too, when —

“?!”

Ba-dump. He felt something like an intense beat within his heart, making him open his eyes widely. He placed a hand against his chest reflexively, and felt a pleasantly warm heat rising within him.

Haruto.

...Haru... ...-er.

...-ve... them.

The strangely familiar voice of a girl echoed in the back of Rio’s head.

“...Who is that?”

Rio opened his mouth in amazement. He couldn’t make out what she had said, but it was definitely the voice of a girl. But, as far as he could see around him

He had no idea if the voice he heard was real or not, and it was possible that he had just misheard something. However, Rio had one possible explanation in mind.

Is it the voice of the spirit inside me? Rio thought. Perhaps the pulsing in his chest just before he heard the voice was caused by the spirit girl residing within him.

The voice had told him to go southeast, because there was someone waiting there. Could that someone be the owner of the voice? If so, it couldn’t possibly be the spirit within Rio.

...I don’t know. Rio shook his head uneasily. Just thinking about it wouldn’t give him any answers. But the truth was, the directions came from a girl who had saved him once before.

“...I’ll go and take a look.”

Rio decided to head southeast for now; he turned on his heel and weaved his way through the chaotic crowds, walking back the way he came to leave the city once more.
Several minutes after that, he entered the forest neighboring the city of Amande, and used his spirit arts to fly up into the air, heading southeast
.
◇◇◇

Obeying the order of the voice that echoed in his head, Rio proceeded southeast. However, after nearly an hour of flying at a steady speed and surveying his surroundings, he couldn’t find any particular oddities.

The direction to head southeast had been pretty vague to begin with, and he didn’t know how far southeast he needed to move. While he had been spurred into action by the situation at hand and the strange sensation in his chest, he had regained his senses by now.

Guess I’ll turn back.
Just as he thought that, with his senses that had been strangely sharpened since the events earlier, Rio noticed the ode and mana was heavily disrupted in a corner of the grasslands before him.

“...What’s that? The distortion is almost like the aftermath of time-space sorcery...”

Rio gulped and widened his eyes. Reflected within them was the light of significantly stagnant ode in the air; it was similar to the phenomenon characteristic of the aftermath of using time-space sorcery.

This amount of residual essence is unprecedented. Judging by the way it’s disrupted, not much time has passed yet... Did someone use teleportation sorcery? Rio speculated, taking into consideration the situation left before him. However, from what he could see in the air, there was no sign of anyone at the scene nor in the surrounding plains.

There don’t seem to be any spell formulas set up. In that case, the teleport sorcery was either to a random destination, or the destination was set to here... At any rate, not even the basics of time-space sorcery could be performed with the standard of sorcery in Strahl. The only possibility would be an ancient artifact. Guess I’ll go down and have a look first, Rio speculated, then decided to descend to the spot for now.

As soon as he stepped down onto the grassland, a cold wind noisily brushed against his skin and shook the endless expanse of grass. Rio carefully dragged his gaze over the surroundings, searching for any remaining traces.

This place is a fair distance from the road, and the perfect spot to hide away and do something, but these... are footsteps... Enhanced with spirit arts, Rio’s vision discovered the faint footsteps amongst trampled grass.
There were three sets of footprints. Each set headed directly south, right in the direction of Centostella, the kingdom located furthest to the southeast of the Strahl region.

There’s no mistaking the fact they arrived by teleportation sorcery. Could these be the people that voice was talking about before? I don’t think it could be a coincidence.
It seemed he would need to investigate further. With a small sigh, Rio flew up into the air and followed the footsteps with his spirit arts.