Rosa's party walks by the fence.
Cows moo in the distance as the grass rustles against their feet.
"Werewolf… huh?"
A wolf as big as a man standing upright is painted clearly in Rosa's mind.
Black fur, red glowy eyes, baring its teeth as drool drips out.
A picture exactly like a book she and her sister read countless times.
Described alongside the dragon, forest great ape, and the long-necked monster of the lake.
"Do those creatures really exist? Werewolf?"
Lilia paces up, catching up with both Rosa and Akira.
"I don' know… but I swear I saw it that night. Even when I was drunk, my memories are quite vivid."
Werner lowers his voice.
Pauline also paces up as she joins the trio.
"Or a new species of human legged wolf! We never know!"
"Or someone wearing a costume to confuse us. That might also be true."
Erika mutters.
"I won't be so quick to dismiss them, actually."
Akira cuts in.
"The tales among them might've been bollocks, yet those creatures exist in that kind of book for a reason. Often a good one."
She shrugs as her tail swishes behind her.
"Either way, be the creature real or not, it still gives ya some details bout the beast."
Werner seems to repeatedly glance at Akira, before he finally looks behind.
Still walking ahead.
"Akira, was it? Excuse me for asking, but are you by chance a kemomimi? It's rare to see folks from the eastern island of Nichigetsu coming here."
"So ya knew. Ever seen another before I assume?"
"Sort of… Just a glimpse."
His gaze darts away as sweat trails on his cheek.
"Caught a liking for the ears, mayhaps? Or the tail?"
Akira asks with a smirk as she playfully wiggles her tail as she eyes Werner.
Werner laughs awkwardly.
"Of course not, nothing like that, hahaha…"
"Really, Akira? Here? Now of all times?"
Rosa's bemused voice pierces equally cold as her flat gaze.
"I'm telling Karla tonight."
Erika sighs.
"Like I said, it wasn't like that!"
"So the ears and tail were real!?"
Pauline asks with widened eyes.
"Well, yeah? She's a kemomimi after all."
Lilia tilts her head, looking at Pauline's bewildered expression.
"S-so, those maids on the cafe at Triveli! Were they also-"
"No… no they're not. Those are the fake ones. Decorations and such."
Rosa maintains her flatness as she corrects Pauline.
"They're not!?"
Rosa's eyes fill with pity for the poor girl.
"Anyway we arrived."
Erika cuts them as she stretches her arm toward the rows of green stretching across brown.
Pauline joins beside Erika, stretching her arm out.
"Welcome to our cabbage field!"
Their palms meet with a clap as they giggle.
Rosa eyes the vast lines of green, notices some of the areas have grown nothing but weeds.
She now understands why chemical issues were their first thought.
Though the possibility of void creatures—or the element itself—still lingers in her mind.
"I assume that's where the wilts are?"
She points at the empty patch.
"Exactly there."
Erika replies as she waves at one of the farmers.
The farmer walks closer towards Erika.
A woman with black braided hair.
"Erika! You're here! Checking on your crops? Freiss and Grouss are doing alright!"
"Freiss and Grouss? Who's that?"
Werner raises an eyebrow.
"Unimportant! Anyway, Heidi! These people want to know everything about the attack!"
Erika waves dismissively.
Rosa recognizes the impulse. She did the same thing.
Schunne is the name that pops in her mind as she pictures the sunflower in her garden.
"The attack? Ah, you meant the night a few weeks ago! It was terrible! The cabbages wilted in a trail! I thought I spilled some herbicide or something! I was sooo scared that I actually killed them and wasn't able to face Ursula at the time!"
"Um, actually-"
Rosa tries to direct the conversation, yet the farmer keeps going and going.
She notices a twitch in Erika's eyes as color drains from her face.
Pauline sighs with the farmer's rambling in the background.
"Aaaah… you've done it…"
A hand grabs Rosa's shoulder.
"Seems like ya got this one, we'll survey the other place. Good luck both of you!"
Pauline taps Erika's shoulder before the party walks away from the two with the farmer still on her word spree.
"We'll meet at… sheep pen, probably by the time she's done."
"How rude! I am not going to take that long! Where was I? Right! I was relieved when they checked the soil!"
The farmer continues.
This is the second time this week she wishes the gods to strike her down right there.
The sun rises considerably higher as they continue to listen to the farmer's story.
No, a story would be mildly more entertaining than whatever verbal avalanche comes out from the woman's mouth.
Terrible chronological order, the pacing is a mess, and she doesn't even know who was who.
On top of that, she can't just close the page and move on.
The woman finally sighs in relief as if she'd been holding it in for days.
"You're… done now?"
Erika's face is as drained as Rosa's. Spent and exhausted.
"Mmhm! Any questions?"
The farmer's voice is even brighter now with a warm smile blooming.
"Y-yes! The cabbages! You said something about the wilt earlier!"
Rosa doesn't remember if the woman actually said that.
But she takes the shot and prays it doesn't turn into another ramble.
"How did you know it wasn't some kind of herbicide? And what was the time frame again?"
"My… did I speak too fast? Well, that night I was-"
Erika puts her hand on Heidi's shoulder.
"Heidi… please, for me, keep it brief. We're short on time."
"Of course I am aware! How rude! So like I mentioned, after Erika here checked the soil content, no poison was found. We tried to grow weed on the soil sample and it had no problem."
Heidi puts a finger on her chin as she looks up.
"Let's see… for the time frame, I was checking for pests in the evening."
She brings her gaze back down, looking at Rosa.
"Then by the morning, some of the cabbages were uprooted and rolled off the ground. Nailroot cabbages are not supposed to do that!"
"She's right, we had to cut off the plant and kill the root at harvest since it's practically impossible to pull them off completely from the ground."
Erika adds.
Looking at the rows of greens in front of her, curiosity piques her.
She swallows the thought. Probably not wise.
"You'll end up ripping off the leaves and leaving the roots intact."
Rosa's gaze snaps to Erika.
"Wh— I wasn't going to—"
"It was obvious."
"Speaking from experience?"
Heidi adds, smirking towards Erika.
"That's! You don't have to bring it up!"
Erika turns to Rosa.
"And you don't get to laugh either!"
Rosa tries her best to hold back the curve of her lips.
"I wasn't trying to…"
Trying to shake the image of Erika yanking a cabbage leaf, Rosa walks towards the patches of green in front of her.
She looks down, noticing the pattern. The gap of the wilt almost always adjacent to one another.
Her eyes trace from one gap to the next, then further.
"Looks like a trail, right?"
Erika walks beside her with a sigh.
"Honestly, I don't buy the werewolf explanation in the slightest."
She extends her hand at the trail of gaps between rows and rows of half grown cabbages.
Her finger then points at the swirl of a path it forms.
"It forms an erratic, wandering trail."
She returns her gaze to Rosa. Her eyes grow more irritated.
"They know how to kill plants using unconventional way, draining mana from the area. I didn't think that was possible."
"How did you know it was mana drained?"
Rosa asks, even more intrigued by how they managed to figure out such a roundabout way to kill a plant.
"Well, we casters racked our brains day and night when we discovered the soil was fine."
A vein throbs in Erika's temple.
"Honestly, if Pauline hadn't bought that figurine, we'd probably never have figured it out."
"Figurine?"
Rosa raises her eyebrow.
"Aaah, you're talking about miss Pauline's toy."
Heidi joins in as Erika nods.
"She bought one from wandering peddler. Said it was rare and has a unique property."
Rosa's eyes widen as two things rose in her mind.
One is the basket Lilia brought to the festival, completely filled with the said figurine.
The other is a dark cave with ore hermit swarms.
She still remembers the cold. Her knees weakening. Her mana draining away.
"You okay, Rosa? Your face went pale."
Erika bends towards her with a softened gaze.
"My, the cold must've gotten to you. Wanna sit over the bench?"
Heidi gestures at the wooden bench not too far from the edge of the fence.
"N-no, I am fine. Truly…"
Rosa shakes her head and looks back at Erika.
"Let's sit ladies, I'm also getting tired. Especially AFTER someone kept us here for HOURS, possibly."
"My, my, you're exaggerating, Erika."
"The sun rises all the way up, Heidi! It's right above us now!"
Heidi giggles as she walks towards the bench.
Erika begrudgingly follows.
Rosa sticks behind her as she lets out a long sigh.
"So, the figurine. What happened?"
Rosa walks faster, keeping the pace with Erika.
"Right, Pauline lost it. She scoured all across the farm and won't stop fussing about it."
Heidi sits on one side, Erika takes another. Leaving Rosa the awkward middle.
Rosa eyes the spot with a grimace. No escaping this.
Reluctantly, she lowers her hips and sits. Trying her best to be comfortable.
"What does it have to do with the mana drain as a cause?"
"Allow me."
Rosa turns to face Heidi.
"I heard it was found days later when whoever tending the watermelons found a dead crop. Her figurine is lying next to it."
"That's not all."
She swivels back towards Erika.
"The surrounding plants also yellowed."
"Right, that's also true. The watermelon shriveled right before the harvest. Even if it was as big as a dog."
Again, Rosa turns towards Heidi.
"Mana rich plants are mana rich for a reason. They use magic after all."
She swivels back towards Erika.
"Right! Like the nailroot cabbages for example. They use magic to nail their root to the ground! No mana, no magic, no firm root. They'll die."
Reluctantly, she turns again towards Heidi.
"C-can you guys stop talking in turns like that?"
Rosa weakly asks as her eyes begin to spin.
"Right, sorry."
Erika's voice.
"My! Seems like we made our friend dizzy."
Heidi's shortly after.
Rosa stifles a groan.
"So, need to ask more or do we move on?"
Erika's…
Rosa sighs, piecing it together.
"Just one more. Pauline said the mana gradient was thinner after the attack. When did you have the time?"
"At first, we were also skeptical of the theory. But when Clara came to the dorm crying the next few days, we made sure to check the mana gradient of the orchard."
Erika exhales.
"That attack was terrible. Trees across hundreds of meter were wilted. Trees weren't able to maintain their structure because the resin was breaking."
She points at a distant building.
"I'll show you the record when we get to the dorm. Ambient mana was almost nonexistent."
Rosa racks her brain.
Mana drain as the cause seems to be confirmed for now.
Which means either the creature, or someone did something to drain the mana of the entire space overnight.
She fought void creatures before, it wasn't off the table yet despite what Erika said.
The soil from the cabbages could grow grass.
Means there's probably little to no trace of void elements there.
Otherwise the soil area would have low mana and nothing can grow.
"Still need more clues. Let's join Lilia and the others shall we?"
Rosa stands up, stretching her arms upward.
"Leaving already?"
Heidi calls.
"Well, come here again, you hear me? Especially you, Erika. I know you're eager to see them."
"Like I said, you don't have to bring it up!"
Erika snaps with a slight flush on her cheeks.
She definitely named them.
…
By the time Rosa and Erika arrive, Pauline and Akira are talking to a farmer.
On the field just beside them, chaos ensues as bleating overlaps.
"Hya! Ouch! Hey!"
Lilia's yelps hit Rosa's ears as she sees her best friend mobbed by fluffy white bodies.
"You each will get one, so be patient, okay!?"
The sheep don't listen as more of them swarm her.
Some of them stand up to reach the white stick-like thing on her hand.
"I said be patie- ouch! My foot!"
A sheep managed to snatch the treat… along with her finger.
"Ow ow ow ow! Hey, cut it ou-hahahaha!"
Of course, some sheep couldn't help herself.
"Hehehe! S-stop it! No licking!"
She tries to push the sheep away, only for the others to join in.
"Hiiiii!"
"Ah, right! Make sure you don't sweat much around them! This bunch likes salt!"
The farmer calls out.
"Hahahaha! Say it earlieeeer!"
Lilia uses both of her hands to push away the sheep, spilling the treats on the ground.
The sheep waste no time to graze down.
"Rosieee! Heeeelp!"
Rosa drags her hand across her own face, and decides to completely ignore her.
Lilia? She doesn't know any Lilia.
"Ah, yer back! Done with the rambling lady?"
"I couldn't believe you'd just left me like that!"
Rosa snaps, cheeks puffing.
"Hey, now. No need to get worked up over that. It means I trust you with her, kay?"
Akira turns to the old man, hunched with sparse hair cloud-white.
"Sides, I got some interesting clues."
Rosa raises her eyebrow.
"Interesting how?"
"Ya better hear it from him."
"Hans, can you tell us what you saw by that morning?"
Pauline softly requests.
"Yeah, the fellas was bleating loud. So I went to check the pen."
He points to the opened barn door with an empty pen visible inside.
"The door was forced open. The thing shredded it like paper."
He walks in front of the door and starts to jab his fingers downward.
"Pieces of wood were here, there, and there. Everything was in small pieces."
Akira hands over a parchment.
"Also, take a look."
Rosa grabs the paper.
Lists of names and descriptions. The door logging system, very same one from the mansion-like house earlier.
She gazes at something interesting.
Uknown. Beast, jet black fur, 03.11 AM.
Warning : Intruder detected.
Hans. Human, white hair wearing white tunic with sleeveless jacket, 03.21 AM.
Hans. Human, white hair wearing white tunic with sleeveless jacket, 03.40 AM.
There's indeed no exit log of the creature.
Not to mention how quick it was.
"Wait, when you went to check, the sheep was already gone?"
The farmer nods.
"Yea. Not only that, there was a char smell in the pen. Something was burnt and one of the sheep was missing."
"Strange isn't it? But that ain't all."
Akira gestures towards Pauline.
"Show her the wood pieces."
Pauline steps forward and hands her the wood pieces.
The pieces were indeed shredded, but with clearly different causes.
One was burnt on the edges, while the other was cleanly cut.
Clear evidence of magic. Two distinct types.
"So? Still thinking it was a beast?"
Erika cuts in with a knowing face.