Chapter 415:
The Reason Behind That Judgment
“WAIT, THAT DOESN’T make sense. Everyone thought it was a monster; there must’ve been a reason why they believed that.”
My dad had a point. Monsters weren’t the only creatures that rampaged in the forest—animals did that, too. The village leaders wouldn’t just decide it was a monster unless they had proof. Or maybe magic had warped their sense of judgment…
“The anomaly in the forest popped up last winter. It was a very small disturbance, so not many adventurers were worried about it. Then again, a lot of adventurers were trapped under the spell, so that might be the reason why…”
“What was this anomaly?” my father asked.
“I’m told it was noises and the sound of something crying out. I didn’t hear it myself, though. People did say it was a voice they’d never heard in the winter, though.”
Noises and a crying voice?
Arly patted the head of the sharmy on the desk. “I guess it was about when the snow started to melt that adventurers kept getting attacked in the forest, day after day. And all their testimonies were similar: ‘I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t sense its aura. But when it attacked me, I did sense something.’”
“Wasn’t there an investigation?” my father asked.
“Well, when the snow started melting, we… Ah? Wait a minute, I’m sure I remember we formed a scouting party. How weird, I know I was in that party…or was I? Huh, not sure why, but I can’t really remember.”
“It must be the summoning circle’s magic. Better let it go,” my father said.
Arly nodded. “We did investigate. From what I can remember, they didn’t find anything out of the ordinary… I think our usual scouting party would’ve been on the case. I’ll check later. Wait, what were we talking about again? It was…oh, why we decided it was a monster, right? Well…it was because of the scars.”
From the way Arly spoke, he clearly wasn’t confident in his memories. When that dawned on him, there was a look of bewilderment on his face.
“You okay?” my father asked.
Arly gave him a pitiful look. “They did tell me there would be strange gaps in my memory, but I think it’s even more messed up than I thought.”
“Can I give you some advice as someone who’s gone through it?”
“Yes, please.”
“You’ve just gotta give up and accept it. My lost memories never came back, and I never recovered the ones that were tampered with, either. So you have to make the effort to re-remember everything.”
“Got it… Oh dear, I’ve gone off topic again. What was I saying?”
“You were just telling us that they decided it was a monster because of the scars.”
Arly took a deep breath in and out. Then a look of peace came over him and he smiled at us. “Sorry about that. I’m okay now. So, the people who saw the wounds on the attacked adventurers said they contained some magic energy that didn’t belong to the adventurers themselves.”
Meaning that whoever attacked the adventurers must have used magic. It would have been only natural for people to think it was a monster.
“Hey, Dad, do animals ever use magic?”
He shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard of. Ciel, were there any other monsters or animals out there besides the sharmy? If there were, say something.”
Ciel just stared at my father, saying nothing. In other words, the sharmy was behind everything.
“Oh, and you mentioned this sharmy looks different than it’s supposed to. In what way?”
“Its fur. Sharmy typically have longer fur, but all the ones who attacked us had short fur. Also, the claws aren’t usually this long. They’re normally quite adorable.”
I looked at the sharmy sitting on the desk. Its fur was short and the three claws on each of its feet were long and sharp. It would be quite scary to be attacked by them.
“Their personalities are also completely different. Sharmy are friendly creatures. Although they sometimes pull pranks on the adventurers, they’ve never come close to attacking anyone until now. But as soon as we spotted these sharmy, they attacked us. It’s never happened before. And I’m ashamed to admit it happened so suddenly that we got badly wounded.”
A change in personality and appearance… Just like the monsters who got driven berserk by the magic energy at the dump. When Sol sucked the magic energy out of the berserk monster, I was surprised by how different it looked afterward. And from what I was hearing, it sounded like these sharmy were berserk.
“Do you think the magic energy at the dump caused it?” I asked my father. “It makes friendly monsters go berserk, after all. Some of the monsters even looked different, too, remember?”
My father thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, they did change. But animals don’t have a core to store magic energy, so they shouldn’t be able to be influenced by the magic energy at dumps.”
Oh, right. From what the captain said, it sounds like you can’t store up magic energy without a magic core. But maybe animals actually do have magic cores? Oh, wait, if that were true, they’d just naturally store up magic energy and turn into monsters.
“Knock, knock, coming in…”
Nalgath and Piarre entered the room, and their faces twisted when they saw the sharmy sitting on the desk.
“Did you tell them?”
“Yeah.”
Nalgath walked over to Arly and looked at the sharmy. “What do you think?” he asked my father.
My father shook his head. “I have a lot of ideas, but they’re all just theories with no proof to back them up. All we do know is that the animals who attacked you were sharmy.”
“To Hataka, the sharmy are cute little spring mascots. We’ve always been friendly with them, so it’s hard to believe.”
I realized it would be a shocking truth for Nalgath’s party and everyone else raised in this village to accept. All three adventurers looked quite gloomy.
I stood up. “I’ll just go make us some tea. May I use your kitchen?” I’d decided everyone needed some time to calm their nerves and turn the mood around. They told me where the kitchen was, and I walked out of the room.
“I’ll come with you,” Piarre called, running after me. As we walked to the kitchen together, I stole a glance at him. He looked like he was going to be sick.
I got out the tea leaves while I put the kettle on to boil. They also had a magic pot that would produce hot water instantly, but sometimes you needed to take things slow, and this was one of those times. I only hoped everyone would be calmer by the time the tea was ready.
“Should I get some snacks?” Arly asked.
“Yes, please. Something sweet always hits the spot when you’re tired.”
“Agreed. Oh, that reminds me—have you tried Hataka’s sweetest confectionary yet?”
The sweetest confectionary? “No, sir. What’s it like?”
“Well…let’s just say it does a real number on your mouth. One bite was more than I could handle.”
Wow, does such an incredible sweet really exist? You know, I think I did hear about one that did a number on your mouth after one bite… Where did I hear that?
“Something wrong?”
“No, sir, I think I remember hearing something like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Another confectionary that’s terribly sweet.”
“Ohh, neat. Yeah, the one I’m talking about is called danzu.”
“That’s the one!”
Ahh, that’s right! Now I remember, that was the sweet they had at that shop where we caught Mira and her party. I never ended up eating anything there, so even now I don’t know what danzu is like. But since they have the same name, it’s probably the same thing? Rattloore did say it was “sweet enough to kill.” Now I kinda want to try it…
“Unless you’ve got a mighty sweet tooth, I advise you not to try it. Juggy’s face turned green just from one bite.”
Uh-oh. Now I really want to try it.
“Ivy… Can I call you Ivy?”
“Sure, we’re all friends now.”
“Thanks. You know, talking about it has really made me want to eat it. I think if we split one between all of us, it shouldn’t be too much to handle. But not right now, okay? It’s just too much.”
There was a mischievous twinkle in Piarre’s eyes. Thank goodness his gloom is gone now.
“Thanks, Ivy.”
“No problem, sir. Well, the tea’s ready, so let’s go back.”
“All right.”
“Oh, and once all of this is over, do treat me to some of that danzu.”
Piarre’s face crumpled into a smile and he rubbed my head. “I’ll buy you as many as you’d like.”
“Oh, no, sir, one is plenty. I’ll share it with my father.”
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