Chapter 19

I was alone thinking inside my office.

'If Magic Particles can really influence people's abilities, then that might be the hint that will allow us to fight against the monsters. If not... we will definitely be wiped out sooner or later.'

"Colonel Sakamoto, 140 refugees came from Nagano."

A refugee report came in. Recently there were a lot of people from the Kanto region who, in hopes of surviving, had rushed towards our base. That number has grown exponentially in the last couple of days.

Due to this base having a refugee camp, we're able to house them for a couple of days. After which we send them off to cities like Osaka in the Kansai region.

"Also, there are people among the refugees who say some interesting things."

"Interesting things? What exactly?"

"Apparently in Nagano, a lot of people had been saved by a person who wielded Magic. Currently among the Self-Defense Forces, the topic of magic is really starting to gather attention, so I thought that I should report it."

"Magic..."

'Magic again huh... If there really is a person who can freely wield magic then...'

"I want to hear that story first hand! Escort me to the refugees."

After being escorted through the maze of tents put up by the refugees, we finally reached the place where the refugees from Nagano had settled in. After which, I asked a couple of them to tell me about what had happened.

"So the person who wielded magic, was he a commoner or was he a soldier?"

"A commoner! He didn't seem like he was part of the Self-Defense Force...."

"What kind of person was he?"

"He looked like a typical guy. I think he was in his mid 20's..."

"It was really amazing! He freely wielded fire and lightning to slaughter monster after monster. It was so freaking cool!"

It seems like it was true that there was a person who could use magic. After summarizing all of the stories, it appeared that after the shelters in Nagano were attacked by monsters, a normal guy had suddenly appeared and killed dozens of monsters by using magic.

'Is this the reason why the casualties in Nagano were so low? But it's hard to imagine that only one person could do it... Perhaps there are several people that can use magic.'

While thinking that, I headed towards the General Staff Headquarters of the Gifu Airbase.

'If there really is a person who can use magic, then he'll become a huge asset.'

I really wanted to contact the Self-Defense Forces in Nagano and have them search for him, but due to communications being cut, I couldn't. The only option I had was to send a search squad from here. And in order to do that...

..............................................................................

I knocked on the door of one of the offices.

"Come in."

"Excuse me."

The person inside stopped his pen as it was moving across countless documents on top of the desk and looked at me.

"Is there something you need, Sakamoto?"

In order to carry out the search, I first had to get permission from Major General Yamamoto, the person currently in charge of supervising the whole Gifu Airbase.