I gathered the equipment Elysia had given me and began searching for Azrael. 'He must still be looking after them.' All elves are mindless.
To restore the mindless elves, I needed the memories Azrael held. The problem was, when I moved all of humanity to the underground city— I never moved him. Assuming he couldn't have died, the only way he could have survived— would be the same as mine.
"..."
I cast Tide Sense deep underground. Injecting seawater into the earth to catch even the tiniest vibration, I searched the space. For me as I was now, it was rather simple.
Before long— I knew my intuition had been right.
'Found him.'
An underground cave, is it. The fact that he'd hidden in a place like this meant he'd probably foreseen something was coming. Or Dersia had tipped him off.
I immediately threw myself into a puddle and moved to the cave. —Splash!
"..."
The moment I emerged from the puddle— soft soil met my feet. I looked around and was a bit surprised. It was far larger than I'd expected.
The size of a small city, and no matter how I looked at it, this wasn't naturally formed. The cave floor was covered with deep soil instead of rock. And, in the very center of that soil, an old man was digging with a hoe.
"Heave-ho..." —Thwack!