Milforth sighed. "Before that, the Barrier shrank again. By our calculations, if we can't find a solution, Rewa Island will hold out for less than ten years before it's swallowed completely."
The problem had first appeared a century ago, but it hadn't been this severe. Everyone had taken it for a minor storm. Later, they realized the storm wasn't going away. It grew worse and worse until it nearly surrounded Rewa Island, and only then did they grasp how serious it was.
But it had happened only on Rewa Island, nowhere else, so it hadn't caused much alarm.
During the investigation that followed, however, they discovered that the Magic Formation covering the entire Thirteen Misty Islands—the thing they called the Barrier—was slowly shrinking at a rate almost impossible to see. If they hadn't marked its position beforehand, they would have struggled to notice the change.
The discovery was terrifying. It made them realize that unless they did something, the Thirteen Misty Islands, which had endured for thousands of years, might one day disappear. If they couldn't solve the problem, their only choice would be to move everyone before the end came, leave their homes and the Misty Sea behind, and find somewhere else to live.
"So that's why the Thirteen Misty Islands suddenly appeared on the continent?"
Milforth shook his head. "That isn't the main reason. People from the Kabu Continent have been studying on the Thirteen Misty Islands for years. I don't know whether they noticed something, but they once mentioned, as if in passing, that there's a Lost Domain on the Raila Continent connected to a realm beyond. If we could find it, the Thirteen Misty Islands might have a chance."
Finding another place to live without coming into too much conflict with the Wovart Empire was a