"Of course not. I'm just a traveler passing through. Although I'm staying as a guest at the Greyrat family's place right now, that is Boreas Greyrat."
"Boreas? Traveler? May I ask your name?"
"Ash, hm... No Boreas, and no suffix."
"Someone like you is actually... actually a commoner?"
Without a surname, the hunter found it somewhat hard to believe. After all, how could someone capable of casually using King-class healing magic normally be a commoner?
"I'm not interested in that sort of thing. It's about time I went back to eat."
Ash did not linger here. Before the villagers could run out to thank him, he simply turned around and left in a carefree manner.
Meanwhile, the family he left behind still had not recovered from the sudden change from despair to hope.
Sarah was even so ashamed of what she had initially thought that she wanted to bang her head against a wall. After all, Ash was not even the irresponsible noble who had arrived late; instead, she had...
For a moment, Sarah was filled with overwhelming disgust toward herself.
Neither this family nor the entire village had yet recovered from the grief of some of their neighbors and relatives dying, but within a few days, they heard from a passing traveler that, the Boreas family, or rather, the entire Fittoa Region, had suddenly disappeared.
In other words... everyone, including their benefactor, had vanished in an instant.
———
What happened was somewhat sudden.
Before evening, just as Ash was preparing to head back and had used flight magic, intending to take another look at the situation within the Fittoa Region, he noticed something in the distant sky.
Around the area where that sphere of light was located, the surrounding clouds suddenly changed color.
The originally dark clouds turned into a seven-colored, dark vortex, while the very center was pitch-black.
There were unexpectedly many vortices. Not only was there a large vortex centered on the sphere, but seven somewhat fainter and smaller ones also appeared around it.
"What on earth is going on?"
Ash frowned and immediately used teleportation to arrive at the sphere of light he had visited before and left a coordinate at.
But before he could take any measures, the sphere of light suddenly contracted, and in the next instant, expanded outward.
He immediately retreated backward. Following that, the colors of all the vortices began to change to a unified hue, even continuously shifting, and in the next moment.
A pillar of light stretched from the sky, which had suddenly turned white, toward the ground.
The moment that pillar of light touched the ground, it began to expand and transform into a flood of light, swallowing everything.
Ash continued retreating out of caution, while the light followed behind him... More precisely, it should be said that it swept in all directions like a tsunami.
Wherever the light reached, whether flowers and grass or trees, everything disappeared in an instant.
"No... This isn't disappearing. This is... spatial teleportation? But why?"
Based on his judgment, aside from some external factors such as fate and other chaotic things, this seemed more like something was being summoned.
But since he could not figure out the exact nature of this thing that had probably been created by a coincidence, while he could tell that the light was randomly teleporting things away, he gave up trying to resist or escape.
Instead, he activated the Fate Magic that he had not studied very much and set the condition as, to have himself randomly teleported to the person who had the deepest connection with him and needed his help the most.
He could not estimate how much effect this magic would have... but if the destination was completely random, perhaps it could have a significant interference effect.
Then... having not resisted, he was swallowed by the light, and the light continued expanding outward, soon covering the entire Fittoa Region.
Thus, at the very end, the entire Fittoa Region disappeared.
———
And the next moment Ash opened his eyes again, that land once covered everywhere with green vegetation had already become a barren wasteland, mainly composed of gravel, with not a blade of grass growing anywhere.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but coarse sand, gravel, and exposed rocks.
"What a nice view. But... where exactly is this?"
He glanced around, completely without a clue... and soon used teleportation magic again, going to where Sylphie and Eris were.
But... he had only delayed for a moment. When he went over again, both sides had already disappeared.
Whether villages or cities and fortresses, everything had vanished without a trace from where they had stood, leaving behind only a stretch of yellow earth.
After returning to this wasteland once again, Ash could not help muttering troubledly as he simultaneously spread out his magical detection:
"This is troublesome. I need to first confirm the range of this random teleportation, and also... where exactly is this place? Hmm? There's not only a strange person wandering around nearby, but even a tribe. And Eris's reaction... very close. But, a monster is nearby?"
———
Eris had originally been quietly staying at home, holding her sword and carrying a strong desire, to surpass Ash. For this reason, even after Ghislaine had gone to rest, she still remained alone in the courtyard, tirelessly practicing swordsmanship.
However, on this day that should have been an ordinary one, a change occurred without warning.
A dazzling light, so brilliant that it seemed as though it would swallow the entire world, suddenly lit up without any warning.
The light came fiercely, instantly filling every corner. It was so bright that it was almost impossible to open one's eyes. Eris did not have time to react at all; she had not even had time to form the thought of running away in her mind before her entire body was mercilessly swallowed by the surging light.
And when her vision returned, she discovered that... for some reason, she was standing in an unfamiliar wasteland.
Sand and rocks stretched endlessly around her. Under the scorching sun, they gave off heat that burned, while the distant horizon looked somewhat distorted under the rising heat waves.
"W-What happened? A D-Dream? But... but wasn't I practicing my swordsmanship? Ghislaine! Ash! Grandfather!"
Eris was filled with confusion and bewilderment. Looking around, she instinctively shouted toward her surroundings.
However, no one answered. Only her uneasy voice echoed around her. The entire wasteland was so silent that it made her feel uneasy. Only the howling hot wind swept past, carrying grains of sand that struck her face and brought little stinging pains.
Then, just as she was panicking, a series of heavy footsteps suddenly came from a small hill not far away.
Each sound seemed to step directly onto the ground, making the earth tremble slightly. It was obvious that some enormous creature was rapidly approaching her... clearly attracted by her shouting.
An ominous feeling welled up in Eris's heart. She tightened her grip on her sword and warily looked toward where the sound was coming from.
She saw a huge lizard, five meters long, rapidly approaching her.
The lizard's entire body was covered in hard scales that flashed with a cold metallic sheen under the sunlight, resembling an impenetrable biological armor. Its eyes were like two enormous lanterns.
Its huge mouth was slightly open, revealing two rows of sharp fangs inside. Drool dripped from the corners of its mouth onto the sand and gravel, instantly evaporating and leaving behind only a small dark mark. It looked quite frightening.
Although she did not know that this was an A-rank monster, Eris could tell from its size that... this was definitely not something she could deal with.
Her little face instantly froze, and her heart began pounding uncontrollably. The hand gripping her sword also trembled slightly from tension.
"W-What kind of place is this? Why did I have to run into something this scary?"
In this isolated and helpless wasteland, a fear unlike anything she had ever felt surged into Eris's heart, almost drowning her and making her voice tremble noticeably.
She instinctively took several steps backward, but the sand and gravel beneath her feet made her stumble. She fell hard onto the ground, only to immediately jump back up because it was hot.