Meanwhile, as for the ritter order searching the underground facility beneath Egeera Mine:
"Hey, he's nowhere to be found!"
"Then isn't there a hidden room or a passage leading downstairs somewhere?"
...They were still frantically searching.
However, within the Second Battalion of the Second Ritter Order was Garth, alias of Regulus 25—one of the Quinta units dispatched by Laojun.
Incidentally, his rank was that of a common soldier.
"Message!...Where is the First Battalion Commander?!"
The Second Battalion was a mobile unit, and he took advantage of that position to volunteer as a messenger.
"The battalion commander returned to the surface to deliver a report. Your run was a redundancy."
"Ehh..."
Scratching his head, "Garth" turned back. But this was all according to plan.
Out of sight, he sprinted at a speed impossible for humans and returned to the first basement floor.
In truth, to reach the floor where Garrison Yack Aux and the other ringleaders of this incident were hiding, one had to go through a hidden door located on the first basement floor.
Laojun had sensed this long ago, but since the members of the Second Ritter Order were only focused on heading deeper down, it was clear that matters would never be resolved at this rate.
Returning to the first basement floor, Garth pretended to take a wrong turn on purpose and headed down the passage with the hidden door.
It was a dead end, and the hidden door was not at the very end of the corridor, but slightly back along the wall.
"Ah, darn it, wrong way."
Garth deliberately spoke aloud in case anyone was watching.
Then he turned around and intentionally stumbled.
What lay ahead of his stumble was the hidden door.
Garth used "Crush" on the hidden door with the hand he thrust out to catch himself.
"Oh? Ohhh?! Th-There's a hidden passage in a place like this!"
Raising a theatrical cry, he called out to a colleague stationed on the first basement floor.
"I'm going to go report this, so please keep watch around the hidden door!"
And without waiting for a reply, Garth dashed off.
"Report!...Hidden door discovered on the first basement floor! Still no passage discovered on the fourth basement floor! Repeating: Hidden door discovered on the first basement floor! Still no passage discovered on the fourth basement floor!"
Garth delivered his report to the ritter commander waiting on the surface.
"...Ngh?! What?!"
"A hidden door has been discovered on the first basement floor! We still cannot find a passage on the fourth basement floor!"
Garth repeated the report.
"...Hmm, that hidden door found on the first basement floor smells suspicious....All right, the standby Third Battalion is to head to the first basement floor....Messenger..."
"It's Garth, Sir!"
"All right, Garth. You lead the Third Battalion and head for the hidden door on the first basement floor....If you want, you may go beyond it with them. What do you say?"
"I would like to go, Sir!"
"I see. That's the spirit....Third Battalion Commander, temporarily add this Garth to your subordinates."
"Understood!"
Partly as a reward for discovering the passage, the Second Ritter Order commander temporarily assigned Garth to the Third Battalion upon hearing the report. This was precisely what Garth—and Laojun—had hoped for.
Now, around that time, in Toka Village where the race was underway:
"It's extraordinarily lively, Grandmother."
"It truly is. If I had known such an event was being held in neighboring Toka Village, we would have returned much sooner."
The ones conversing were Freddie Nido, a descendant of Jin and current lord of Kaina Village, and Eris Nido.
The two of them had traveled to the Kingdom of Egerea on Freddie's suggestion to fully enjoy the summer sea.
Having regained her full health ever since her heart condition was treated with Healing magic, Eris had been traveling to various places accompanied by Freddie to make up for all the years she had been unable to go out.
"It seems this was also Jin-sama's idea."
"Yes....Apparently, he couldn't bear to see Toka Village decline, as it was once the territory of House Fahlheit, comrades of the previous Magi Craft Meister... or so I heard."
"That sounds just like Jin-sama."
"Yes, Grandmother."
"Eris-sama, Freddie-sama, would you care for a drink?"
"Ah, thank you. I'll have some."
Attending them was Anne, the blue-haired automata whom Jin had hastily dispatched.
"Oh, this is delicious."
"I am told it is juice made from Toka Village's specialty, Aisugo berries."
The Aisugo berry was a close relative of the blueberry, but raw, the fruit was astringent and unfit for consumption. However, by turning it into juice and allowing it to settle, using the supernatant liquid as dye and the pulp for juice yielded a drink of refined flavor.
Aisugo berries could be harvested in large quantities for dye, and since the supernatant liquid alone was sufficient for dyeing, utilizing them for both juice and dye killed two birds with one stone.
This method of consumption had just been discovered four days ago by Saki.
When she processed the berries in a blender and let them settle to produce Aisugo dye, she found that the supernatant liquid contained a high amount of blue pigment, while the sediment contained a high amount of purple pigment.
The blue supernatant was used for dye.
And the settled portion could be used for a rich, pulpy juice.
The recipe called for fifty percent pulp. Diluting it with water and adding a small amount of sugar made it pleasant to drink. Honey could also be used.
After this tournament, it would surely become a new specialty product of Toka Village.
"Saki-san, thank you very much."
Lishia expressed her gratitude to Saki.
"Kufu, it was just by chance."
Both of them were drinking Aisugo juice while watching the race unfold via a magi-screen.
"Now, the race has entered its eighth lap, and the remaining number of laps is dwindling!"
The venue was buzzing with excitement.
"In the lead is the immovable Bib #9! In second place is Bib #2! However, Bib #1 has moved up to third place!!"
"Bib #1's machine performance is also outstanding. Tight turns alone wouldn't allow for that kind of pace increase."
Just as Maquina explained in the commentary, Lordtoss's Bib #1 seemed to have held an explosive burst of speed in reserve for the critical moment.
However, because the craft was small, putting a heavy strain on the propulsion system and ether converter, he had likely conserved it until the latter half of the race, Maquina added.
"(In this regard, the technology is still unrefined,)"
Mentor, who was piloting Maquina, and his superior, Laojun, seemed to think.
"Bib #9 has maintained a solo lead from start to finish, hasn't he, commentator Maquina-san?"
"Indeed. That is likely thanks to that craft's extraordinary power. A design thoroughly skewed toward speed has clearly paid off."
'(If it were My Lord, would he build two types in parallel—one prioritizing speed and another prioritizing maneuverability?...Or perhaps...)'
Laojun entertained such possibilities.
"Ohh?! However, Bib #2 in second place isn't giving up either! Have they unleashed a final spurt?! The gap to Bib #9 ahead is gradually closing!!"
"It is a thoroughly lightened craft, after all. If they intend to push it, it can certainly achieve high speeds. However, with concerns regarding structural strength, they were likely testing the waters until now, one might say."
Furthermore, the pilot was an automata. It had probably been flying while sensing the craft's behavior and performing Analyze, Maquina explained.
"But Bib #9 has also increased its speed! The battle for the lead is between Bib #9 and #2!...No, Bib #1 is mounting an even fiercer pursuit!"
As the air race entered its final stages, the battle for the lead began to unfold among the three crafts: Bib #9, #2, and #1.