Assessing the Situation

[Tier-Group 3, 1st-Floor Hall]

The Iruma Daikan, Yoshida Nishinoichinojō, who had rushed over upon learning of the disturbance, was shown to the 1st floor of Tier-Group 3, close to the heart of the Library-City Dungeon.

"When I heard the urgent report from the Senba folk, I was astonished."

"In her present state, there's no telling whether she's conscious or not, so I'm afraid we couldn't come down to receive you below."

Marie, loaded onto an automated guided cart, and her attending physician, Sapien-sensei, were there to greet him. As always, the Dungeon Master was absent for reasons of safety.

"Is there any prospect of recovery?"

"Regrettably, I cannot say for certain. But, fortunately, an Asura is in a sense crudely made, so she's easier to handle than a human patient would be."

"As for the situation: the Kozukappara Execution Ground Dungeon, which arose near Hiratsuka in the Toshima Magistracy, sent its headless dead surging right up to the checkpoint; these were repelled, and since dungeon conquest by adventurers seemed impractical, dungeon fought dungeon directly and subdued the enemy Dungeon Core, whereupon the Kozukappara Execution Ground Dungeon went into a runaway state. The damage was somehow held to a minimum, but various aftershocks arose. Have I got it right?"

"Just so. Fortunately, the runaway was of a dungeon-natured sort, so we were spared a catastrophe in which the surroundings were physically blown apart. However, because far too much power flowed into the dungeon, that power ran wild. The Daikan-dono may have noticed it himself, but the area over which the blue light spread, this portion here, was swallowed into the dungeon's sphere of influence."

"So the dungeon's excess power widened the sphere of influence."

"It's not only dungeons. Towns and villages also have something like a 'sphere of influence' of their own, and that is the reason inhabited land does not get swallowed by a dungeon. But around Hiratsuka the residents had evacuated, and the aftershock of the Kozukappara Execution Ground Dungeon's collapse left their sphere of influence dispelled at the very moment our dungeon ran wild, so the area was swallowed into the dungeon's sphere. Living there poses no problem, of course. Everywhere else, only uninhabited places were taken in, but a stretch of the highway has ended up inside the dungeon's sphere of influence."

"At a time when we sorely need the Director of Books-dono's political acumen, this is a nuisance. So Hiratsuka was swallowed by the dungeon. Had it been Kasumigaseki, we might at least have made paddies of it."

"Water is produced only at the Core, but indeed, were Kasumigaseki within the sphere of influence, drawing water there would be feasible in terms of distance and terrain. Still, if the same thing had happened at Kasumigaseki, Senba Village would have been destroyed for sheer proximity, so Marie the scribe would never do it deliberately."

"Ah, the Director of Books-dono would certainly never do such a thing."

"And the dungeon has grown taller again, I see."

One of the Iruma Daikan's duties was to measure the height of the Library-City Dungeon every morning and confirm any abnormalities.

"In keeping with the size of Tier-Group 1, more or less every library larger than ten jō square has now been summoned. As for the books, the third tier-groups of university libraries, the fifth and sixth tier-groups of large municipal libraries, and above all the entire collection of the Imperial Library have all been summoned."

Even reading ten volumes a day, it would easily take ten thousand years. Of course, one could employ a human-wave tactic, using hundreds of trained people and many scanners to read and digitize the books and pour them into the World Tree. Human or Asura, the brain forgets, but the World Tree does not.

"I don't quite follow, but it's a great many, then. At any rate, a great many, a great many books summoned."

"That said, if books were summoned in libraries already in use as housing, the residents would be crushed under them, so the aide-de-camp scribe-dono had set the behavior for a sudden influx of dungeon energy in advance. The trouble this time was not the amount but the speed exceeding the limit."

"So the amount is no problem."

"In terms of amount, the Library of Congress is on file, so a bit more would be quite all right. But its cultural sphere is utterly different, so it apparently can't be incorporated into the main body, and besides, if we incorporated everything into the main body it would grow so tall that going to and from the surface would become difficult, so separate land has been set aside for it."

"All I really gather is that it's something tremendous."

"But until Marie the scribe recovers, there's little to be done. The dungeon's routine operation deliberately avoids being dependent on any one person, so that's fine, but anything new is hard to manage."

"And so, is there any plan to open the new roads to Fuchū in Musashi, Kōnodai in Sō, and Sōja in Ke as proper highways?"

"For the Kōnodai route, we'll rebuild the road from Heta to Hiratsuka, then extend it as far as 'Ichikawa Bridge' just short of Kōnodai in Sō. Two post-towns will be set up along the way. The others, however, present problems for conversion into highways as things stand, so for the time being travelers to Fuchū and Sōja will be routed by way of Kasumigaseki."

"Hm. So forcing a straight line does cause trouble after all. The future aside, it seems Kasumigaseki won't be left a ghost town just yet."

"The Fuchū route crosses Minuma by an enormous bridge, which is ill-suited to travel by horse or on foot. The Sōja route is long, and it would require many post-towns and warrior bands along the way, which is beyond our reach at present. That's where matters stand. Whether we can manage all that next year or in ten years' time, I can't say, but in any case, if we ever do, this dungeon's economy itself will have grown several times over what it is now."