So why didn’t she ask anything about it? I tried thinking it over, but I couldn’t find the answer. It was probably fine to ask Katou directly about her reasoning, but they did say not to stir up a hornet’s nest. Plus, if she had a bad reason for doing so, there was no way she would honestly provide an answer either. So there was no meaning in asking her.
It was somehow irritating. I had a mutual understanding with both Lily and Rose through our mental path. But above all else, I trusted them. This didn’t apply to Katou, so her existence was just a point of stress for me.
Having said that, I knew full well that traveling with a human would invite this result. I had no choice but to put up with it.
“Master?”
“Hm? Oh, umm, right.” I put an end to my useless thoughts and looked Lily in the eyes. “This hut had a barrier of sorts around it to keep monsters at bay, but that’s gone now. So, there’s no point in having such a conspicuous-looking base like this.”
It wasn’t just monsters I was being wary about. Humans were also my potential enemies. This hut stood out far too much. Now that Katou decided to go on the move, I had no reason to come back here. However, to guarantee her safety, I had to consider the need to come in contact with other humans.
The best outcome would be to discover a group of humans, confirm from afar whether they were the types to follow the law, and send Katou to them on her own without us having to interact with them. It was fairly unlikely it would go that well, though.
“Alright, let’s get going.”
“Mm!” Lily replied cheerfully.
“...Okay.” In contrast, Katou was a bit of a downer.
Thus, we left the hut behind and headed into the forest. Rose took the lead, while Lily, who was able to attack from afar, took up the rear guard. Katou and I were placed between them under their care.
“Katou. Walking through a forest puts a burden on your body. Tell me if you’re getting tired sooner than later.”
“I’m... alright.”
“Are you tired, Master?”
“Nope. I’m still fine.”
As one would expect, Lily was no longer clinging to my arm. She likely realized through our mental path that I regretted parting with her warmth. It was somewhat selfish of me to believe this connection between us was inconvenient only at times like these.
After walking for a few hours and taking breaks every now and then, we noticed an anomaly.
“...Something’s rotting?”
A powerful, putrid stench filled the air. I reflexively wrinkled my nose.
“What should we do, Master?”
“Hmm...”
I was the leader of our little group. I was a pathetic leader who was unable to protect himself in a satisfactory manner, but I had to at least make the decisions. This was one thing I couldn’t rely on Lily or Rose for.
It was fine and all that we sensed the anomaly, but what were we supposed to do about it? It would be undoubtedly dangerous to get any closer. However, everywhere in this forest was dangerous. There was also a chance that ignoring it here would bite us in the ass later on. We could sense where it was fairly easily, so it was possible to sneakily check it out. One could even say the degree of danger was relatively low.
I thought it over for several seconds and decided it was best to take action. “Let’s go. Katou, is that alright with you?”
“...Yes.”
We headed toward the rotten stench. It gradually pushed aside the thick scent of the forest. Before long, we discovered about five scattered corpses that appeared to be those of other students. I say “about” five because the corpses truly were a mess.
“This is quite extreme.”
Their bodies were nothing more than chunks of meat. We observed the situation from afar for a while before concluding that the threat had left the area. We drew closer.
As I was struggling to figure it out myself, Lily surmised the cause of their deaths. “Just at a glance, it looks like they were eaten and torn apart by a large creature, I guess?”
“Meaning, they were done in by monsters?”
“Probably.”
“We might be able to figure out a bit more if we investigate the area.”
I started walking toward the corpses, but I suddenly came to a stop. Unlike Mizushima Miho, these ones had been dead for quite some time and were already decomposing. Because of that, they were swarming with flies. After having already committed murder, I wasn’t scared of a couple of corpses, but these circumstances were somewhat different.
However, I had to do this. This tragic event was most likely caused by monsters. It could have been a monster I’d never even heard about back in the Colony. It would be too late to regret it if I ended up dying because I didn’t get some sort of hint here. There was worth in searching the area, even if the chance of finding something useful was just one percent.
“Okay. Then let’s take a look... Huh, what’s up, Rose?”
I pulled myself together and was just about to take a step forward when Rose thrust a wooden hand out in front of me. She stepped forth as I stared at her in wonder.
“Are you... saying that you’ll do it?”
An affirmative response came back to me through our mental path.
“H-Hey, Rose...”
In an unusual turn, Rose took action before getting my consent and started inspecting the corpses.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to be on guard duty while I investigate this, Rose? It’ll be easier to report to our master that way.”
Rose rejected Lily’s proposal and held her back. I felt a sense of duty from watching her that told me this was something she had to do herself. Rose gathered all the scattered corpses and quickly began lining up and confirming everything they had on them. The rest of us ended up watching her from a small distance away.
As that went on, my consciousness was completely focused on the corpses. In hindsight, this was a fatal mistake—one I just barely avoided death for.
Lily suddenly screamed in distress. “Master!”
Despite my focus being on something else, my wariness was at least working on a minimal level. My body just barely reacted to her warning.
“Wha—?!”
I turned around and caught sight of something jumping out of the hedges. By that time, Lily was already charging at it.
“I won’t let you!”
She quite literally rammed it. She didn’t have the time to use magic, and she didn’t use the spear in her hands because it wouldn’t be able to reliably stop the assailant’s charge.
“Grawr!”
“Hya?!”