Monsters That Taint the Land

I returned to the cottage with Elza and Evalin.

The wooden puppet that had been here earlier was nowhere to be seen.

When we entered the cottage, Azu and the others had already woken up and were waiting with the blankets and such all tidied away.

"Welcome back."

"I'm back. I found Elza and Evalin-san and came back. Let's get some food in our stomachs before going to see the monster."

"Understood. I'll get out the bread, cheese, and smoked meat."

The adventurer's standard menu.

Enough to fill our bellies for now.

I'd prepared reasonably good quality stuff, so it would taste good.

"Is that what you all eat for breakfast?"

"Yes, it is. When it comes to food that keeps well and is easy to eat, this is what you end up with. Would you like some too, Evalin-san?"

"No thank you. I'll pass. When there's plenty to eat all around, why bother with preserved food? You really should eat more natural foods."

Heavy footsteps approached.

This was… it seemed like the wooden puppet had returned.

But it stopped in front of the door.

… Did it want someone to open it?

I looked toward Evalin, but she didn't react.

"Azu, go take a look."

"Okay."

I asked Azu to open the door.

If something happened, Azu could handle it.

When she opened the door, the wooden puppet was standing there with a mountain of food cradled in both arms.

The way it had been waiting patiently for the door to open was, how should I put it, kind of cute.

At first I'd found it eerie and even frightening, but I suppose when your perspective changes, so do your impressions.

It came through the doorway.

Some nuts spilled and fell, but it didn't seem to care.

Orleans and Azu picked them up and followed behind.

It set all the food it had been carrying onto the table.

A mountain of fruits and nuts.

Azu and Orleans added the ones they'd picked up.

"That's an incredible amount. Are you going to eat all this by yourself?"

Was the elf a big eater?

I couldn't imagine it from her appearance, but given the energy expenditure involved, it wouldn't be strange.

"… Not really. I don't need to eat that much. I can convert magical power into life force anyway."

"I see, that's convenient. Then what's all this for?"

"Well, you people did come all the way through the forest to visit, and it's human manners to serve guests a meal at least, right? It's not like elves are rude."

So it seemed Evalin had instructed the wooden puppet to prepare this food for us.

I found myself genuinely impressed that she had feelings of welcome.

"Besides, you seem willing to help deal with the monster, so this much is only fair."

"Thank you. I hadn't expected to be able to eat fresh fruit while out traveling, so this is a pleasant surprise."

"I see. Good for you. Go ahead and eat."

Evalin picked up a ripe bunch of grapes and started eating.

What generous hospitality. Let's dig in.

I picked up one of the nuts and ate it.

Some nuts are astringent and inedible unless you boil them or remove the bitterness.

But this was something else entirely.

When I bit into it, a fragrant flavor spread through my mouth, and I could taste sweetness too.

"This is delicious."

What Azu handed me was a green apple.

I thought it might not be ripe, but apparently this was just the variety - it was sweet and tart.

The grapes were also delicious enough to be sold as a product on their own.

This forest had such wonderful food in abundance.

I could understand why Evalin cared about it.

If the mine's influence ruined it, restoring it would be difficult.

Perhaps she was worried about that, not just the monster.

We savored the food for a while.

It was an excellent breakfast even without cooking.

"Thank you for the meal. It was delicious."

"You can find this stuff anywhere around here. Animals and monsters alike share and eat it here."

"You really like this forest, don't you?"

"Well… maybe I do."

I felt like I was starting to understand this person a little better.

I'd imagined she would be much more unreasonable at first, so I was relieved.

But the problem still wasn't solved.

We hadn't even seen the monster Evalin was talking about yet.

If it really was something caused by the mine, she would never agree to reopen it.

I could sense her strength of will - or perhaps stubbornness.

And if she became our enemy, we couldn't win.

This time we would have no choice but to give up.

I could only hope it wouldn't come to that.

The mountain of food was completely finished off by Azu and the others.

"Humans really do eat a lot, don't they? I just had them bring everything they could find."

"Well, they're adventurers, so they eat well. Their bodies are their capital."

"Hmm."

She seemed indifferent.

With her at least, there seemed to be no point in overthinking the meaning behind her words.

She was probably just saying what she meant directly.

If all elves were like this… well, being straightforward isn't necessarily a virtue in human relationships.

She must have said things that didn't need to be said.

I figured she'd have a rough time of it.

"Then let's move out. Thanks to the barrier, I can pinpoint the location."

"Understood. Please lead the way."

She led us to where the rumored monster was.

We walked behind Evalin.

Her translucent gossamer garment swayed, making it hard not to stare at her from behind.

After walking for a while, the air changed noticeably.

Until now it had been fresh and clean, but now there was a sense of stagnation.

"Ugh, this feels awful."

"This is what it's like outside the barrier? It must be a monster with quite powerful environmental contamination."

"There's a slight smell of rot. This is the stench of death leaking through."

Their opinions were uniformly grim.

But I agreed.

Inside the barrier, the soil was rotting, and toxic-looking fumes hung thick in the air.

"Is everything inside the barrier like this?"

"Until recently, only the source area was like this. I'm surprised too. It's spreading faster than I expected."

"Mosquito Monsters, you said?"

Alexia asked Evalin.

She gave a nod of confirmation.

In a word, the inside of the barrier was a land of death.

If monsters had caused this… without the barrier, eventually this entire forest would die.

After that, they would be released into the world…

We needed to deal with this here.

"If they're multiplying, then maybe the mine isn't related after all? You've sealed it off and everything."

"… Maybe not. Here they come."

The sound of buzzing wings approached from the distance.

As it drew closer, it grew louder and more numerous.

It rang out like a deafening noise.

"What the hell is this?"

Finn looked up at the sky.

Outside the barrier it was blue and clear, but inside the barrier it was pitch black as if night had fallen.

Swarming mosquitoes blotted out the sky.

A weakened deer came stumbling toward us, trying to get out of the barrier.

The Mosquito Monsters wouldn't allow that. They clung to the deer, and before I knew it, they pulled away.

"Eek!"

Orleans screamed.

What remained was the deer's corpse.

It had been gruesomely drained of all its bodily fluids and was completely desiccated.

But that wasn't all. Eggs must have been laid inside it, because new Mosquito Monsters began emerging from the withered flesh.

All that was left were fragments of bone.