Raising the Lowest-Ranked Adventurer, the Heroic Girl – Wasn’t I Just a Substitute Old Man?

Raising the Lowest-Ranked Adventurer, the Heroic Girl – Wasn’t I Just a Substitute Old Man?

Volume 5 Chapter 23   Mizuki: Gate and Dragon

“——Ah.”

Among the three possibilities, they were discussing what to do when Haruka raised her voice again as if she had noticed something.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen again?”

“It’s… subtle. I saw someone suspicious.”

Haruka had spotted someone she found suspicious, but the person wasn’t clearly engaged in any specific activity. Therefore, she couldn’t make a definite judgment and it remained a question.

“A suspicious person? Do you think they’re related to this?”

“Well, I’m not sure. Even if I say they’re suspicious, I haven’t seen exactly what makes them so.”

“That’s true…”

“Should we go check it out?”

“Yes, that might be the best option since we don’t have any other leads.”

With Haruka as their guide, they followed the suspicious person since Mizuki and the others, who hadn’t seen the person, couldn’t make a judgment without actual confirmation.

“There they are.”

“They’re really suspicious, aren’t they?”

“I mean, who wears robes and masks like that nowadays? It’s beyond strange.”

“Yeah, if someone dressed like that were in the middle of the city, it would definitely cause a commotion.”

“…Come to think of it, nobody seems to be noticing them.”

Despite the ongoing commotion caused by explosions everywhere, there haven’t been any explosions in this area, and some people around are observing the situation with concern, yet seemingly detached from it.

In such a situation, someone in a masked robe stands out conspicuously.

In this day and age, if such an individual existed, they would quickly be reported or captured in photos, which would spread across the internet. But surprisingly, no one seems to react to this robed figure.

“Ah.”

“Could it be perception inhibition?”

“Could it be due to the mental defense magical artifact we have?”

They might assume that’s the case, but they have no concrete evidence to support it. Even if they don’t know exactly how they’re concealing themselves, the fact that they are invisible to others should be sufficient.

However, during unusual situations, the interactions can be unpredictable, so they learned from Koosuke’s teachings to investigate and gather any information, no matter how trivial it may seem.

“It seems so.”

Therefore, after informing her companions about what to do in case she lost her sanity, Mizuki temporarily deactivated the mental defense magical artifact she was wearing.

Immediately, the robed figure became invisible. Confirming this, she quickly reactivated the magical artifact, making the robed figure visible once again.

This confirmed that the opponent was manipulating their appearance by interfering with the minds of others.

“So, what should we do? They’re clearly behaving strangely, but should we contact the police?”

Kana’s suggestion was perfectly reasonable for any ordinary citizen. In an abnormal situation like this, it would be natural to contact the police and leave it to them.

“It would be great if we could do that, but I’m not sure if they can handle it,” Mizuki replied.

“Yeah, and even if we contact them now, there’s no guarantee they’ll arrive in time, and dealing with this situation might be beyond their capabilities,” Kana added.

“Probably impossible for regular police,” Mizuki agreed.

The opponent seemed to have gathered enough magic to nullify all the magic present in the surrounding area. If they had accumulated such a substantial amount of magic, it wouldn’t be surprising if they could launch an attack powerful enough to endanger even special-grade individuals.

Mizuki’s current unit, with Koosuke accompanying them, might be able to handle it, but the standard equipment used by ordinary police, which had only minimal supernatural countermeasures, wouldn’t be enough to deal with this situation.

After all, the police were an organization designed to deal with “ordinary people.”

Understanding this, Haruka shook her head, indicating that it was impossible.

In that case, a specialized supernatural organization should be the one to handle this, but Mizuki considered it unlikely while shaking her head.

“That’s true, but if something is happening on Igami-san’s side, and they knew about it in advance, they would probably allocate their resources there.”

“In the end, they don’t have the luxury of diverting personnel to our situation, so telling them would be pointless, huh…”

“It might be.”

However, even while saying so, Mizuki took out her phone to report the current situation to the police.

By reporting to the police, they would assess whether it was a regular or supernatural case. If necessary, they would then inform the specialized supernatural response organization.

“But let’s make the call just in case.”

So Mizuki tried to recall the number for the country’s police, but…

“No time for that, it seems.”

“Huh?”

Her actions were interrupted by Haruka’s words.

Then, with a somewhat absent-minded voice, Mizuki looked at Haruka, only to find her casting magic toward the suspicious person with her staff.

“Haruka!?”

“Hold on!?”

“Haruka-chan!?”

Without any signal, they were taken aback by Haruka’s sudden action, but they quickly transitioned into a state of alertness, having grown used to such situations.

“Arrghhh!”

Haruka’s flames hit the robed figure—a likely male based on the voice—and his scream echoed in the surroundings.

However, it didn’t end there.

“They’re coming!”

After receiving Haruka’s magic, the robed man certainly stopped moving. But just before that, Haruka shouted with a bitter expression, indicating that something was unfinished.

“Stay alert!”

In response to Haruka’s voice, Mizuki tightened her guard, following Haruka’s lead by unsheathing her sword and shouting.

Mizuki had her sword drawn, while Haruka and Yuzu wielded their staves. However, Kana was struggling a bit.

The reason was the difference in weapons.

Thanks to Koosuke’s prior warning about the possibility of something happening, the four of them were armed. However, they were also here for sightseeing.

Kana’s usual weapon, the large mallet, would undoubtedly be an obstruction during sightseeing, so she hadn’t brought it on this trip.

But even during a vacation, she couldn’t simply part with her weapon. On the other hand, her sub-weapon, the metal knuckle dusters, had its limitations.

Thus, she prepared a weapon that could be transformed into a staff-like structure and brought it along for this trip.

However, due to the unfamiliarity with the weapons they rarely used, they took a few moments to prepare. Nonetheless, it only took a few seconds, and they managed to arm themselves before any anomaly occurred.

As the four of them held their weapons, maintaining vigilance in case of an attack, the space where the robed man had been began to distort, and the distortion kept growing.

“…A gate?”

“Was it because there was no magic here?”

“But, we didn’t receive any warning, right?”

Normally, when a gate appears, it takes several days for the magic in the surroundings to gradually decrease. Therefore, once the signs are confirmed, warnings are issued in the vicinity. However, this time, they hadn’t received any such information.

While the occurrence of spontaneous gates was rare, it wasn’t unheard of. In fact, Mizuki and her group had encountered them before.

But this particular situation felt too…

“The timing is too perfect. Could this be… artificial?”

“Artificial? Can gates be created so easily?”

“Not exactly… but still, a gate appearing here in this situation is definitely strange.”

Gates are supposed to be natural occurrences, appearing unpredictably anywhere. At least, that’s what they had been taught.

“And besides, something is probably going to come out of it.”

In the case of a spontaneous gate, most of the time, monsters emerge from the gate into the real world shortly after its appearance.

“Well, yeah. Otherwise, if this were artificial, it would make no sense to create it,” Kana remarked.

But that was within their expectations. They were surprised by the sudden appearance of the gate, but even if it wasn’t artificial, they understood the possibility of monsters emerging the moment the gate appeared. If the gate’s creation was indeed artificial, they would be even more prepared.

Kana adjusted her weapon, feeling a slight difference from her usual self. Yuzu layered multiple barriers around them, preparing for a sudden attack. Mizuki and Haruka, capable of using magic, readied their spells in a state of vigilance.

They were all thinking, “Come at us anytime.”

They had the confidence and power to back it up.

However, although they anticipated the appearance of monsters, Kana and the others had no idea about the environment beyond the gate or what kind of monsters would emerge.

Normally, as soon as the monsters came out of the gate, they would immediately launch an attack once they identified their opponents.

Yet, Mizuki and her group didn’t attack. Instead, they gazed in awe and disbelief as the monsters slowly emerged from the gate, uttering words that were a mix of astonishment and hesitation.

“Dr-dragon?”

Who spoke those words in a dazed and faltering manner? Was it one person or all of them? They couldn’t tell.

However, those words succinctly captured the current situation.

A dragon. It was undoubtedly a dragon—the creature that legends across various countries unanimously held as the pinnacle of strength in the realm of imagination.

It was a dragon.

For an ordinary adventurer, whether they were third-class or first-class didn’t matter. They would all be reduced to mere beings easily trampled upon.

And now, such a being stood before Mizuki and her companions.