The enemy’s attack ended with the fire devil. I didn’t detect any more changes in magical energy, so I decided things had calmed down enough for me to work with the Demon King and his people to clean up the mess. To no one’s surprise, the overall damage was considerable. In terms of casualties, thanks to everyone acting swiftly to evacuate people, the number was pretty small when you considered the scale of the explosion, but it still wasn’t zero. In particular, the first of the two explosions had taken place in a completely unexpected location. Those two blasts had also destroyed the airport’s control tower and the adjacent building. Well, technically, the building’s collapse had been less because of the explosion and more because of my magic... An acceptable loss, though, since I’d managed to prevent further casualties.
Two of the airships docked nearby, the one the Demon King had come on and another that was there for maintenance, had both sustained a moderate amount of damage. They weren’t so bad that they couldn’t be fixed, though. Engineers had already started repairs on the Demon King’s ship, and they estimated it’d be back in operating condition within a week. Apparently, that was his personal vehicle and not just a regular passenger airship, which was why they were treating it as a top priority. If push came to shove, I would’ve offered to send him back to the demon world through my door, but it didn’t look like I’d have to go that far.
The country’s police and fire departments had also shown up about twenty minutes after I’d blasted the monster all the way to the moon, figuratively speaking, and were currently very busy removing rubble and investigating the scene. They’d said they wanted to interview us too, but to be honest, it was a hassle dealing with them right now. Plus, the Demon King and I had a whole heckuva lotta stuff to discuss, so I decided to postpone their questioning until later. No point in having power if I couldn’t abuse it, right?
“Goodness. We managed. Somehow. Certainly couldn’t have done it without you, Yuki. Thanks to you, we were able to limit the damage a great deal.”
Now that things had calmed down, the Demon King breathed a sigh of relief.
“Look at it from another angle, and all this is possibly my fault.”
“Any fool who tries to blame you shall have a very long conversation with the entirety of the forces under my command. I’m sure they can be persuaded to see the light.”
“Ya know, normal people would call that intimidation, not persuasion.”
“Is that right? Learn something new every day, as you say.”
The Demon King shrugged nonchalantly, and I burst out laughing. Ladies and gents, my very considerate friend.
“Well, I suppose we add this incident to our growing list of troubles. I truly didn’t expect such a well-executed terror attack. However, the bigger the scale, the more evidence there is. For example—”
At that moment, one of Fynar’s demon subordinates came over to make a report.
“My lord, we’ve found the remains of an explosive.”
“Excellent timing. Yuki, shall we take a look?”
His people had discovered charred residue of some kind. It was so blackened that even Analysis wasn’t much help. All I could make out were vague symbols.
“Hmm. You there! A moment of your time?”
But Fynar seemed to have figured something out. The man he’d called out to was a soldier from the Reauxgard Empire. He seemed to be high up in rank—a commander, maybe, by the way he was issuing orders rapid-fire to the other soldiers around him. He immediately walked over when Fynar asked, though.
“How may I be of service, my lord?”
“This, right here. If memory serves, I believe this is a control number, the type imprinted on this country’s weapons. What do you think?”
The man’s cheek jerked slightly when he realized the meaning behind Fynar’s words while he inspected what we were looking at. And then, he nodded.
“You’re likely correct. We won’t know for certain until we investigate, but it’s highly likely that this is the Magic Burst Dust explosive that was supposed to be stored in the weapons depot.”
“Magic Burst Dust?” I repeated.
“Yes. It’s an explosive that requires a special magical mixture. Since it can only be made by researchers working for the military, it isn’t in public circulation...”
Meaning somebody’d misused it here.
“Do you understand, Yuki? What this explosive means, in conjunction with the monsters...”
“Management liability, I guess?”
Fynar nodded.
“Indeed. Those who commit terrorism are, of course, denounced, but if an attack involves the theft and use of items under the government’s jurisdiction, then naturally, those responsible for overseeing them will also be singled out for criticism—in this case, us.”
“Huuuh.”
A person in charge was there to take responsibility. And the people in charge of this country—specifically, its military—were Fynar, the other rulers, and me. No, as the emperor, even if only in name, I was the one ultimately in charge of the whole shebang. While my first instinct was to say, “I don’t give a crap,” the world probably wouldn’t like that.
“Looks like our enemy wants to see us fall as far as we can, huh?”
“Agreed. I have to commend them for devising such a rational way to ensnare and defeat us. Quite an evil scheme. However. This time, they’ve gone too far. Perhaps they were hoping to eliminate me. Instead, they’ve given us a clue to narrow down the list of possibilities as to their identity.”
“Thinking about it logically, maybe it’s a high-ranking official in this country with access to military supplies?”
“Yes, a strong possibility. We also have to consider that it could have simply been stolen, but only a limited number of people have access to the weapons storage facility. If we can obtain those names, the rest won’t be that difficult...”
Then, an expression flashed across Fynar’s face like a light bulb had gone off above his head.
“Whatcha thinking, Demon King?”
“The rest won’t be that difficult... No. It can’t be that easy. Would someone who went to such sinister lengths with this crime leave behind any clues that would lead to their identity?”
Fynar seemed to fall deeper into thought.
“The enemy’s movements were, in a word, flashy. Monsters. Military-grade explosives. But we failed to notice in time and stop them. They must have planned everything carefully, with countless disguises. And yet, they left behind evidence at the scene that links back to them. Much too convenient for us, no?”
The Demon King muttered to himself for a while, as if trying to organize his line of thinking, before turning his gaze back to me.
“For now, we work with the information we have and do our best to trace it back to the mastermind. Yuki, I know I asked for your help earlier, but I need a little time. Could you give me a week to gather information? I’ll need you to take action once I have things in order on my end.”
“Sure. Gonna be honest, I wanted to check in on my peeps back at home, so this is actually perfect.”
It wasn’t like I hadn’t been back to the dungeon, but I’d been spending most of my time here because of how busy I was. I wanted to see how Lefi and the others were doing. And, okay, it’d be nice to relax at home for a while too.