Under the gaze of the three of us, the guy in front of us seemed on the verge of tears.

This guy's name was Ammon, level 31, a swordsman. At first glance, he seemed quite ordinary, just a bit of a goof.

"You see, we didn't want it to come to this. You guys decided to rob us and ended up getting taken down by us. What were you after anyway? In the end, you got defeated by us, isn't that right?" I said to him warmly.

"You... You're right..." He nodded incessantly, looking like a mess with snot and tears, as if he was some poor girl abandoned on the roadside.

Well, even though this guy had nothing to do with being a poor girl abandoned on the roadside.

"Speak up! What exactly happened on this island?" Aliyah's mood wasn't as nice as mine. She directly placed her dual swords on his neck, staring at him and asking.

Are you using a sword as scissors? Even if you want to retaliate against someone holding a blade to your neck, you don't need to use two swords, right?

"We... um... well..."

"Don't babble! Do you believe that I can make sure you never speak again right now?"

Hey, miss, you seem to have a talent for villainy, should we just become bandits and get it over with? Although, apart from not targeting good people, we're not that different from bandits right now.

"Sorry! I... I just couldn't recall it all of a sudden! Actually, we're not entirely sure what happened here. We only know that one day, we left our base to find those stranded smuggling ships at sea, and then... when we came back, the island had already become like this!"

"How long were you out?"

"About ten hours... I guess, left in the early morning and returned right before sundown."

"And then? Any other details?"

"... um, aside from the people from our group who went out, everyone else on the island disappeared, including those who were supposed to stay back at our base, not a single one left. At that time, we didn't pay much attention, assuming they might have gone to the town on the island to have fun... but when they didn't return the next day, we sent someone to check, and he came back in a panic, telling us the whole harbor had turned into ruins."

"Oh~"

Aliyah nodded, then pulled out her dual swords.

The guy couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, clearly relieved.

"But you guys sure have guts. In a situation like this, seeing people on the island and your first thought was to come rob them? Have you even thought about how the people on the island disappeared?"

"Well... it's a habit of our occupation."

"..."

That's naive, has nothing to do with your occupation.

"Fine, so basically the entire island's population disappeared like that? When was this? And why didn't you leave when you encountered such an incident?"

I continued to ask.

"Well... we didn't know what to do. But you see, even though strange things were happening on the island, there were still a lot of precious items left, like jewelry and such, so we planned to collect some and leave. The incident happened just three days ago, and we happen to have food and drinks on our ship, so it didn't matter."

"So, the island only has some precious metals, but no food?"

"Exactly, we're puzzled too, why are the houses which were fine before now suddenly in ruins, and the storage rooms and food shops are all empty."

"..."

We looked at each other and nodded.

"It seems to be time magic... but why would someone do this?"

"Who should I ask? Well, I'll go look around, you guys continue questioning this guy."

Aliyah shrugged, then headed towards the nearby house.

What is this guy... really thinking?

"Anything else? Any other special details?"

"Details? I... I really don't know if you ask me like that."

He seemed quite helpless.

"We lead simple lives every day. Even if something is different, if you don't pay attention, I really can't say."

"Well, if that's how you put it..."

But at that moment, suddenly, a shrill whistle sounded from a distance.

We jumped in surprise, looking around frantically, but found nothing.

"What's that sound?"

"Sounds like a pirate attack alarm, right? It's usually on commercial ships, and well, whenever they get attacked..."

The pirate explained.

"Uh-oh! Uncle Mont and the others!"

I immediately realized what was happening.

"Oyado, go find Aliyah. I'll go straight back to Uncle Mont and the others!"

"Got it!"

I said and swiftly spread my wings, flying straight towards the sky.

As I ascended, I knew what was happening.

On the sea in the distance, not far from Uncle Mont's ship, a massive creature, the nature of which was unknown, was rapidly approaching Uncle Mont and the others' ship!

"Ice Fall! Ice Totem!"

I quickly summoned a massive block of ice to smash towards the creature, and simultaneously, accelerated the ice block with the ice totem above, speeding up its descent!

"Ice Castle!"

At the same time, before the ice block hit, I summoned an ice wall between the creature and the ship, both to prevent it from attacking the ship after taking my hit and to prevent the ice block from splashing into the sea and causing a huge wave.

"Uncle Mont! Full starboard!"

Simultaneously, I used the amplified Sonic Demon technique to shout loudly, then cast a wide-area wind magic towards the ship, to push them away from the unknown creature.

And at that moment, the ice block hit the creature... on its back, because after being struck, the thing emerged directly from the sea!

What on earth is this?

I looked at the thing surfacing from below the sea for quite a while.

This creature, its physique resembling that of a turtle with a shell, the same as the creature we saw earlier, but instead of having limbs and a head, it had four tentacles and a dragon's head!

"Oh my god..."

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly.

"Dragons in this world dare to be anything..."