The inspection of the city walls and ground, which began from the northern side of the city, progressed smoothly and had finally reached the eastern side.

On the eastern side of the city lies the Knight Order’s training grounds. This area is frequently used by adventurers heading to primary hunting grounds and such, so adventurer-focused facilities have gradually started appearing near the city wall.

Building anything outside the city walls in this territory is somewhat risky… but thanks to the proximity of the training grounds, no monster-related incidents have occurred so far.

When the church district’s usage was being debated between the Adventurer Guild and the Merchant Guild, the Adventurer Guild had suggested building a dismantling facility here. And well… seeing this place now, it does kind of feel like that would’ve worked too.

As I thought about that, I kept watch over the work… and since things seemed about to wrap up soon, it didn’t look like there would be any more trouble from here on out.

With that in mind, I figured I’d go check on the river, as Seriana had asked me to.

It’s been about two hours since we started work past noon. If I take it too easy, it’ll get dark in no time—it’s that season, after all.

I’d like to wrap this up while the sun’s still out.

“Hey—”

“Hm? What’s up, Vice Commander?”

“I’ve got a place I need to check out. Mind if I break off here?”

I said that to one of the soldiers standing nearby, who was also keeping watch on the work.

They exchanged glances and discussed something briefly…

“Got it. This is from the lady, right? We’ll keep watch from here, so you go ahead.”

Seems they’d already heard about Seriana’s request.

I hadn’t said anything, so maybe they were told by the soldier who came to fetch me?

They only seem to know that I’m checking the river on Seriana’s orders, but hey—less explaining for me, which is great.

“Exactly. Well then, I’m counting on you.”

“Yeah.”

Leaving the rest to them, I headed off toward the eastern river.

◇

The capital of the domain, home to many residents, naturally produces a large amount of wastewater.

In small villages, they’d just dump it into the waterways or river, but with this much population, the river would get polluted. So instead, there’s a treatment facility just outside the city that purifies it first.

The treatment method is simple—burning it all at high temperatures. But since this world doesn’t use chemical substances, that seems to be enough.

However, that only applies to regular household wastewater. For things like wastewater from alchemists who create potions and the like, it’s apparently treated differently.

I don’t know much about that, but supposedly, regular treatment methods can’t purify water imbued with magic.

If that kind of water were just dumped untreated, it could negatively affect the surrounding ecosystem.

Those special facilities take considerable effort to build and manage, and small villages can’t afford them. That’s one reason alchemists tend to settle in big cities.

Now, this city meets those conditions—but recently, there was a bit of an irregularity.

That church district incident.

It only lasted a single day, but it generated swarms of undead.

There haven’t been any reports of abnormalities since then, but it’s still not something we can ignore.

That’s probably why Seriana told me to go take a look.

Soldiers dispatched to monitor the forest or adventurers might pass nearby, but they’re not going to stop and carefully watch a river where nothing’s happening.

I, on the other hand, might be able to spot even small abnormalities with the 【Fairy’s Eye】 and the snakes’ vision.

Nufufu… I won’t miss a thing!

…Or so I was all pumped up thinking, but—

“Hmm… doesn’t seem like anything strange is going on?”

I reached the river where the channel from the capital’s wastewater treatment facility flows in, and carefully examined the water’s surface and both banks starting from a little upstream—but there were no signs of any changes.

This river isn’t particularly wide, and water-dwelling monsters apparently don’t live here in large numbers.

On the flip side, monsters like goblins and other weak ones from the forest’s edge, who can’t go deep into the woods, often come out to drink water here.

If there were any abnormalities in the river, even those weak monsters would be affected, which could in turn impact the surrounding monster territory, and eventually lead to attacks on the city.

That’s why I gave it a thorough check—but at least in this area, things seemed fine.

“Maybe I should check downstream too…?”

If you follow this river downstream, it merges into a larger river that flows into the sea.

Up here, the river isn’t very wide yet, but the river it joins is much wider and filled with water-dwelling monsters.

They say if you carelessly get close, you can get dragged in—human or monster alike—so people generally stay away. But if there’s trouble down there, that’s a big deal.

The sun’s starting to sink, but there’s still time until sunset.

“Alright… let’s go!”

Firing myself up again, I turned south and sped up in one go.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Sera ・Blessed Item・【Hideout】+1【Prayer】【Mira’s Blessing】【Wind’s Garment】

Beneficial Items・【Floating Orb】+1【Shadow Sword】+1【Scarlet Bee Needle】【Fairy’s Eye】【Lung of the Dragon】【Amber Sword】【Danrem’s Thread】【Serpent’s Tail】【Ankle Bracelet】【Amber Shield】【Purple Wings】【Red Sword】【Monkey’s Arm】・8 cards

Seriana・【Area Identification】・【】・0 cards

Elena・【】・【Green Fang】【Amber Sword】・4 cards

Alec・【Strong Strike】・【Red Shield】【Fierce Horned Trumpet】・10 cards