When we arrived in Peshmet, Tiriya received the same grand welcome Shumar had enjoyed everywhere else. He was beloved by his Merca tribe and had become a bit of a celebrity at the school Valkel had established in Peshmet.
After leaving Peshmet, we reached the werecat village at the base of Mount Kayankaka. Thanks to the palace’s support, the village had grown significantly since my last visit. There were new houses everywhere, along with a brand-new assembly hall. The population had grown as well, and I spotted many children running around. It was easier for families to have more kids with a stable income and steady food supply. Somehow, this remote village had managed to achieve this better than Japan.
“Veight!” one of the werecats shouted upon seeing me, and ran over.
“Elmersia!” I waved to her with a smile.
After I’d won the one-versus-one-hundred melee against the werecats, she’d come to Meraldia to study under Master. As fellow disciples, we’d studied a lot together over the past decade. A few years ago, she returned to her village to teach the werecats what she’d learned. The most promising youngsters were sent to Master for training or to the royal palace to become guards. And right now, she looked more relieved to see me than happy, as if she desperately needed my help.
“I need your help, Veight!”
Perhaps the phenomenon of asking me for things has reached as far as Mount Kayankaka.
“What happened?!” I asked.
“The elders want me to be the next village elder!”
Uh, okay? That’s a good thing, isn’t it? I had also become the elder of Meraldia’s werewolves.
During the welcome banquet, I managed to convince Elmersia that taking on the role of elder wouldn’t be that bad. When she finally agreed, the older werecats thanked me profusely, lavishing me with food and alcohol. Why am I always stuck doing this stuff?
“I still think I’m too young to be an elder...” Elmersia grumbled.
“There are plenty of people who became elders when they were still young.” I pointed out. “I had to take the role when I was in my thirties.”
“Oh yeah, you did. I asked the wrong person for help.” Elmersia hung her head.
“I know it can be a pain, but someone has to do the job. Besides, don’t you want the elders who’ve protected the village all these years to have a peaceful retirement?”
“I guess so,” Elmersia said, smiling a little. “I’ll be counting on you for advice, Veight.”
“Leave it to me. My first piece of advice is to train your successor as soon as possible. It’ll make life easier down the road.”
“Ah, good point!”
I eagerly awaited the day I could pass the reins of leadership down to Friede and the other youngsters.
“By the way, what do you make of the situation on the other side of Mount Kayankaka?” I asked.
“I’ve only explored the areas within a day’s travel of the village, but I’m certain magic is involved somehow. It’s slight, but the mana in the region is draining at a steady rate. I’ve been taking measurements.”
“Oh? Nice work.”
Master Gomoviroa thoroughly drilled the importance of a scientific approach into magic in all her disciples. Taking periodic measurements and recording any changes was the foundation of good experimentation. This meant I had one fewer job to do here.
Elmersia took out a sheaf of papers. “I was planning to send these in a report to Master, but since you’re here, you should look them over for any mistakes.”
“Will do. Let’s see... I think you should graph these data points. Hey, Friede! Get over here—I need your help with something! Parker, you too!”
Bar and line graphs hadn’t existed in this world until Friedensrichter and I started using them, but now they were pretty commonplace. Admittedly, they’d been a military secret within the Demon Army until Meraldia became a commonwealth and we were integrated into the nation properly. Friede, Parker, Elmersia, and I ignored the ongoing festivities and started making graphs. It reminded me of my first time in Rolmund.
“All right, perfect.”
Graphed out, it became clear that the decrease in mana over time followed an exponential curve.
As we stared at the graph, Parker said gravely, “This does not bode well...”
“At this rate, all these regions will be completely drained of mana in a few years,” Elmersia said, nodding.
Every living creature in this world possessed mana, even if they didn’t use magic. They absorbed it from the air they breathed, the food they ate, and so on. My guess was that cells in this world needed it to function. When the mana in a region dried up, it became uninhabitable for most plants and animals, causing the entire ecology to collapse.
Friede gave me a worried look and said, “Is this why the forest is withering away?”
“We haven’t proved causation yet, but that’s the most likely possibility. This needs to be investigated right away. We need to find out why the mana is disappearing too.”
If the forest vanished, the Mejire would eventually dry up, which would bring an end to all agricultural production along the river delta. If that happened, Kuwol would collapse, leading to knock-on effects for Meraldia as well. Our economy has grown thanks to trade with Kuwol, after all.
Friede looked over the graphs and said, “We have a lot of data points for a few regions already. For this investigation, we should probably fan out and take measurements across wider swathes of land.”
“Hmm? Oh yeah, definitely.”
“We could ask the people Prince Shumar brought with him to do that, right?”
“I was afraid you were going to say that...”
Loath though I was to admit it, Shumar had made the right call in ignoring me. My students were getting to the point where they were beginning to surpass me. I guess we do need the people, huh?
The next morning, we set off for the far side of the mountain. Thankfully, Elmersia had made the journey numerous times for her measurements, so navigation wasn’t an issue. That said, we were still trudging through tropical forest, so it wasn’t easy going.
“Werewolves, werecats, advance in single file!” I shouted, and all the werewolves and werecats transformed before stepping into line.
“Clear a path!”
“Hraaaaaah!” Using their sharp claws, the werewolves and werecats cleared the ivy and undergrowth.
“I’ve never seen such a dense forest...” Joshua said, scratching his head. He was from Rolmund, so he’d never seen a jungle before.