By Zephyria 
The size of Pipina and Popo was so large that a quick look would reveal the spot where they had been sitting. There would certainly be traces of Aska walking while dripping water, but they found nothing.
“Why the hell did that suddenly break?”
“Maybe lightning struck while we weren’t looking? If someone had sneaked in, there’s no reason to break the lake ice so loudly.”
“Or maybe it really is a Magical creature?”
“Do you think Magical creatures are like neighborhood uncles? Appearing so easily? And the mountain range is a safe zone.”
“I heard rumors that a Magical creature that eats people appears, so maybe it came to play.”
After a long discussion, the men eventually gathered in one place without any gains.
“Still, just in case, search again with a wide range, and you two go to the village and see if there are any strange movements.”
“Understood.”
“How many people are in the village now?”
“Seven people left recently, so I think there are about twenty left now. I don’t think we’ll be able to make it past this year.”
They muttered and left quickly in formation, just as they had come.
“…….”
I already felt uneasy when I saw the village, but hearing that conversation made me even more disturbed. They’re checking the number of people in the village and even outsiders, so there must be something going on.
“They’re gone now.”
Aska said, lowering his hand that had been covering my mouth. I had a feeling I was going to get tired, so I couldn’t help but sigh.
“The Ruins are near here, right?”
“I think so.”
“Aren’t the people who came earlier investigating? They didn’t seem like ordinary hunters.”
“I don’t think so? The location is impossible to find by ordinary means… Just in case, should I tell Pipi to follow them? And find the Ruins too.”
That would be nice, but… Their systematic movements were unusual. They seemed like trained soldiers or mercenaries.
“Some of them had bows.”
“Bows?”
“Then tell him to watch from a distance without being noticed, and to run away immediately if he senses anything strange.”
At my words, Aska seemed momentarily flustered, his lips moving slightly, but he sent Pipi into the sky without saying anything.
“But where’s the cat? I don’t see him. Was his name Chichi?”
“I told him to stay near the village just in case. Shall we go now?”
When I nodded, Aska skillfully wrapped me up in his robe. Since we had been here before, it didn’t take long to return to the village.
I thought the hunters might still be there, but I didn’t see anyone like that.
“Theodore.”
As we entered the barn, Abyss and Zero approached as if they had been waiting. I looked around the cluttered barn and first handed the necklace to Zero.
“Take this first.”
“Is this the necklace you mentioned?”
“They said it seems to absorb blood when you drop it, but I don’t know the details. Investigate it and let me know.”
“Huh? Blood? Okay, I understand.”
Zero received the necklace with both hands and carefully put it in his arms.
“Has anyone come? Like hunters.”
“Hunters? No, no one came. Did you meet anyone in the forest?”
“I didn’t meet them, but I saw them… They didn’t seem like ordinary hunters. But why is the luggage unpacked like this? We have to leave tomorrow.”
“Ah, I was wondering if anything had happened while you were gone, so I shared some food and asked them about various things.”
Before I could listen to Abyss’s words, I sent Aska to the carriage to change his clothes first. Aska left the barn, and Abyss said to me.
“The first Magical creature was discovered in the mountain range about five years ago. A giant Magical creature with wings took its place on the top of the mountain range and indiscriminately killed and ate merchants and villagers.”
The timing and the fact that it had wings made it clear that it was Pipi.
“Has it been happening ever since?”
“Yes, some people say they’ve seen Magical creatures in the form of wolves or dogs… Anyway, it seems that there has been continuous damage until recently.”
Five years ago was roughly the right time. But he said that after only about a year, he never came back. There are no Magical creatures in the mountain range, so why are they still suffering damage? Is it really a Magical creature?
I was worried about the group I saw earlier, so I asked.
“Are there any hunters in the village?”
“Most of the villagers made a living by hunting or gathering herbs. But since this summer, the damage caused by Magical creatures has worsened, and many soldiers who went out to subjugate them have been injured, so the residents are leaving the village one by one.”
“So there are still hunters?”
“Yes, but no one has entered the forest since the summer.”
No one has entered? Then who were those people earlier? Of course, they didn’t look like ordinary hunters, but… What the hell is going on?
“I saw people in hunter’s clothes in the forest. Are they soldiers sent by the lord?”
“They said all the soldiers have withdrawn? They must be short of manpower there too.”
“…….”
Ah… I was going to leave with Aska first, but I felt like I had to stay longer.
The hunters in the forest probably already knew that we had entered the village. Then, if we head to the Ruins, the location will naturally be exposed.
Their intentions are unknown, and everyone’s words are different, which is too strange. I don’t know how the soldiers dispatched by the lord were injured in a forest without Magical creatures.
As I pondered, I suddenly became curious and asked.
“Magical creatures have been killing people for so long, why is the country doing nothing? It seems like it’s been long past the stage where a single lord can handle it.”
“I don’t know about that. Shall I find out?”
Suddenly, my head throbbed. It’s not my country, and it’s not my business to worry about, but it’s hard to just ignore it because there’s something to investigate in that forest.
But whatever their identity, if they disguised themselves in the first place, there must be a reason. They must have something to hide, so they wouldn’t reveal themselves easily.
My head hurt, so I decided to stop thinking about it.
If there’s a conflict, I’ll just say I thought they were bandits and just subjugate them all.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
The next day, we left for the Ruins that Pipi had found.
It wasn’t far from the village, so I wondered why no one had discovered it yet, but when I saw the entrance, I understood why.
“Is this it?”
“Yeah.”
“……How do we get in?”
“I don’t know that far.”
I frowned as I looked at the empty field. In the white snowfield covered with snow, grass was growing in a circular shape about the size of a palm.
“Is it really the Ruins?”
“This is my first time coming this far, but there’s something underground. Or should I just break the floor?”
I shook my head, recalling Aska smashing the ice on the lake.
“No. If it gets damaged, there’s no point in coming here. Are the hunters still there?”
“Pipi hasn’t said anything, so they probably are.”
According to Pipi, the hunters had all entered a cave somewhere. When I heard that, I initially thought that they might really just be bandits, but no matter how I looked at it, that didn’t seem to be the case. I just had a feeling.
Still, Abyss and some of the guards, including Pipi, are constantly patrolling nearby, so they’ll know quickly if something goes wrong.
“Theodore.”
At that moment, Zero approached me from among the group setting up a tent on the plain.
“Why?”
“I’ve been looking at the necklace in my spare time, and there’s something strange about it.”
“What’s strange?”
Zero showed me the necklace and said.
“You said this necklace absorbs blood. That’s… how should I put it… like a trigger condition…”
I had expected that to some extent. Unless the necklace itself was a blood-eating monster, that would be natural.
“And?”
I didn’t think he would be so incoherent with just that, so I asked again. Then Zero hesitated for a long time before taking out a monocle from his pocket and putting it on.
“It’s ambiguous to say that this is simply a trigger condition for blood, and it seems to be a kind of declaration. So, like, it’s okay if I lose my life…”
“……?”
What are you talking about?
The glass of the monocle faintly glowed blue, as if it were a Magical tool. Zero stared at the necklace for a long time, closing only the eye that wasn’t wearing the monocle, and then looked at me.
“It’s designed to absorb the life force of the blood’s owner when blood is dropped. But the part I don’t understand is that the person who injected their own blood can arbitrarily stop that series of processes.”
“So?”
“If this necklace is related to the rift, isn’t it a bit strange? They have to open the door somehow, but they don’t have enough Mana, so they forcibly extract people’s lives to replace it, so they made this Magical tool.”
When I nodded, Zero continued.
“Then, of course, there should be coercion, but if you can stop it yourself, what’s the point? In the first place, a group that tries to summon Magical creatures by consuming people’s life force is so kind? Anyway, if Magical creatures are summoned, the world will be a mess, and if they know that and still do it, they’re likely to have malicious intent.”
“…….”
“If they made something like this, of course… well, wouldn’t they target slaves or people who don’t matter if they die? But even so, there’s a strange order that requires you to drop blood first before extracting life force…”
That was true. I pondered for a moment and said.
“Is there a possibility that there are several of these necklaces and they’re meant to extract and collect only a little life force from each other?”
Zero frowned and tilted his head.
“People who try to summon Magical creatures will inevitably have the purpose of disrupting the world for some reason. I keep wondering if a group that recognizes that it’s an act that will clearly have a bad influence rather than a good one would proceed in such a gentle way.”
That’s what I thought too. In fact, it’s impossible to talk to or interact with Magical creatures, and they can’t be controlled. They’re highly violent, so if Sa Dillin’s barrier hadn’t worked properly, there would have been many casualties.
A group that sacrifices even people’s life force to summon such Magical creatures cannot be normal. They’re similar to fanatics with a corner of their minds broken, only thinking about one purpose, so there’s no way they would use such a gentle method.
So, as Zero said, the step of dropping and absorbing the user’s blood first, which must be done in advance, contradicts the group’s ideology.
Or was this Magical tool really made by a fanatical group? When faith is excessive, people can’t properly distinguish things. So sacrificing my own life might not be that difficult.
“How many of these necklaces would it take to create a rift the size of the one that appeared in Actan’s sky? I mean, assuming everyone sacrificed enough life force to definitely die.”
At my question, Zero pondered for a moment and said.
“I’ll have to investigate further to know that… In my estimation, there would have to be at least hundreds of thousands. And that might not be enough. It’s not a simple teleportation magic, but a dimension must be crossed… Ugh, in the first place, that’s not a human domain.”
“…….”
Then the probability of them being fanatics also decreases. This is because it’s logically impossible for a group of at least hundreds of thousands of people to secretly gather and plot something like this.
The probability of success was close to zero unless at least one country was determined to move.
“I have to investigate further, but there are too many strange things, so I told Theodore…”
Zero’s gaze, who was speaking with only one eye closed, reached Aska. Even though he was wearing a hood, so his face couldn’t be seen, I could see Zero’s eyes shaking for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
Zero opened his eyes wide with a surprised expression. And the moment he was about to say something, cracks appeared on the monocle and it shattered.