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The weather was perfect, making me feel optimistic about the examination.

Keith, who wouldn’t be going to the Ministry today since he had to help Father with his work, came to the garden to greet me before I left.

“Be very careful, Big Sister,” he said, for the hundredth time since yesterday.

“Don’t worry. It’s just like a little field trip to the country. There’s nothing dangerous about it! You’re too anxious, Keith.”

“It’s not that I’m too anxious, the problem is that you get yourself into trouble too often. Make sure not to go anywhere weird and not to talk to weird people. Even if they offer you snacks! Got it?”

I was slightly offended that he spoke to me as if I were a grade schooler, but I knew that talking back to him would just make the whole thing drag on longer, so I just agreed.

“Okay. I’ll be careful,” I told him.

I left the mansion (while Keith was still muttering “Be careful!”), and went to the Ministry. When I got there, the others on my team were already waiting. Sora looked aloof and carefree as usual, but Maria looked a bit nervous, and Dewey seemed to be as annoyed as he had been yesterday.

I greeted all of them, and then our (unique) examiners arrived on the scene.

“Are you all set, boys and girls? We’re going to leave very soon!”

Handerson (Laura?) was acting like the friendly boy (girl?) hosting one of the children shows from my previous life. Her makeup was perfect despite it being this early in the morning, and her uniform looked different from yesterday, with new frills and ribbons. How many does she own?

For some reason she had a rope in her hand, and to the other end of the rope was tied… Nathan Hart.

What? Why are these two connected by a rope?! I asked myself.

Laura, seeing me staring, explained. “This is just so Nathan doesn’t get lost! We aren’t into any weird things!”

I wasn’t really thinking of that, but still… didn’t her get-up count as a weird thing to be into, according to her criteria?

Hart, by the way, just stood there silently with a sad look in his eyes. After seeing how easily he got lost yesterday, I agreed that we needed some measure to keep track of him, but… the rope tied around his waist just made him look like an oversized pet.

“Now let’s stop wasting time and go,” Laura said, guiding us to the carriage that had been prepared for us.

This carriage was much larger than the one we had used when going to rescue Keith. Maria, Dewey, Laura, Hart, and I could all ride comfortably on it. Hm?

“Wait, where’s Sora?” I asked, realizing that he wasn’t with us.

“Oh, he’ll be driving. We asked for a carriage, but we forgot to ask for a driver! Whoopsie! I wouldn’t know how to do it, and letting Nathan do it would risk us getting lost. Thankfully, Sora offered to do it,” Laura replied.

I later heard that yesterday evening, when the carriage had arrived, Laura realized that she had forgotten to ask the Ministry to prepare a driver for her. Since he just happened to be there at the right time, poor Sora could do nothing but offer to help.

The fact that she would forget the driver was surprising enough, but what surprised me the most was that she wasn’t able to drive a carriage. Apart from the makeup and clothing, she looked like the type who was good at that kind of thing…

And Hart would get lost even in a carriage? I thought while looking at the man who was lowering his head apologetically.

After waking up to such fine weather, I’d been feeling good about the mission. But now, seeing my examiners, I was having second thoughts. The carriage started moving, and I wasn’t feeling so safe anymore.

At first we were all silent (mostly because we didn’t know what to talk about, given this unique crowd), but after a while, Laura started talking.

“Maria, you cutiepie, your skin looks so smooth. Do you use any special treatments?” she asked all of a sudden, going with a girly topic right off the bat.

Both Maria and I were a bit shocked, but my friend somehow managed to reply.

“No… nothing in particular.”

“What?! That’s not fair! I wish I could have that porcelain skin without putting any effort into it!” Laura said, pouting. Her mannerisms — and only those — were really cute.

Then again, the fact that Maria’s skin was as beautiful as it was without any treatment was surprising to me too… That’s a game protagonist for you.

Every day after I finished my bath, Anne would cover my face in lotions and creams (I certainly wouldn’t do that myself). Because of that my skin wasn’t half bad, though not as smooth and shiny as Maria’s.

“Dewey, love, are you using something to make your hair so fluffy?” Laura asked, smiling at Dewey, whose face was as still as if carved in stone.

…Did she just call him “love”?

“I’m not using anything,” he replied, but she didn’t seem to be offended at the coldness of his reply, just pouting while shouting “That’s not fair!” as she had with Maria, before finally looking at me.

Oh, first skin and then hair… What is she going to ask me about? Unfortunately I don’t even know what kind of treatment I use on anything, since Anne’s in charge of all that stuff. Or rather, Anne’s forcing me to use all of that stuff. How am I even going to reply?

“Katarina, my dear…”

I should probably just tell her that I’ll ask my maid when we’re back home.

“…What kind of sweets do you like?”

“…”

That question was so unexpected that I froze still for a moment. After all my worrying, her question had nothing to do with cosmetics. But wait a second, why am I the only one being asked about sweets? She even asked Dewey, who’s a boy, about his hair… Don’t leave me out of it, c’mon! Praise my hair, or my skin, or something! Of course those two are much prettier, but I am putting — Anne is putting so much effort into my looks! Why sweets?

“…Sweets? Why would you ask that?” I asked, confused.

“Hm… You just look like someone who likes sweets,” she said, bending her head sideways. Again, her mannerisms — and only those — were really cute.

But what did that even mean? I did like sweets, that was true. I periodically checked the snacks that the servants at the mansion bought to make sure that they tasted good, I went around town to look for good bakeries, and I considered myself a connoisseur of all things sugary. Did all of that just… show from my face?

“Don’t you like sweets, honey?” she asked with yet another cute gesture.

“…I do like them…”

“Just as I thought! Do you have any recommendations?”

“Recommendations? Well… What type are we talking about?”

“Let’s see…”

And that is how our discussion of sweets, which went on for quite a while, began. I wasn’t that good at talking about romance or makeup or other similar things, but when it came to food, I could keep at it for hours. I knew everything from the luxury patisseries that served the royal family to the small mom-and-pop bakeries. We even talked about Maria’s homemade treats, involving her in the discussion as well.

“And those cream puffs, you know, the shells are so soft that…” I said, just before my stomach growled loudly… All this talking about delicious things had made me hungry.

Hearing my tummy’s embarrassing sound, Laura giggled and then suggested that we stop for lunch in the nearby town. I wholeheartedly agreed, and noticed that I had been so enthralled in our conversation that I hadn’t noticed how much time had passed.

I wasn’t feeling anxious about the mission anymore, and even Maria no longer had the nervous expression she’d had at first. Dewey, however, looked as aloof as always.

Laura called out to Sora, who was driving the carriage, to tell him that we would stop for lunch.

Since we were so far away from the capital, the town that we stopped at was pretty small. But we were able to find a small tavern, probably family owned, which was just large enough to serve all of us. They only offered a few dishes, but they tasted good.

“Oh, this is so good!”

The bread was soft, the lettuce fresh, and the bacon crunchy. All of these textures, together, made for an incredibly tasty sandwich. I could go for another one… or two… or three…

I asked for seconds, and Dewey glared at me.

“Do you want one too? Here, take it,” I offered, thinking that he was envious and wanted to try out one for himself.

“N-No, thank you. Lady Claes… you don’t seem to disdain the cuisine of such places…” he murmured.

“What do you mean ‘such places’? It’s delicious!” I said, unsure of what he meant.

“I see…” he replied, taking his eyes away from me.

What was that all about?

I had spent almost half a day together with Dewey, and this was probably our first exchange. He looked like he hated me, and, if that was the level of conversations we were going to have, I would probably never find out the reason why. Well, he actually didn’t speak with anyone else either…

Since I’d realized that he was one of the main characters in FL2, I wanted to get friendlier with him so that I could get some useful information. But our eyes didn’t meet for the remainder of the lunch.

I wanted to get another sandwich, but Sora and Maria stopped me because we were running late. The old man in charge of the restaurant noticed how sad this had made me, and wrapped up a sandwich for me to eat later, saying that he was happy to see me enjoy the food that he made that much.

I thanked him from the bottom of my heart and left, ready to go back to the carriage… when something happened.

“Let’s get back on the road now,” said Laura, and we started to follow her when suddenly she jolted in terror.

“Wh-What happened?!” I asked her.

She looked at me with her blue eyes and said, “…I forgot to hold onto the rope… I was holding onto it as we went into the restaurant, but…”

Her voice was filled with nothing less than desperation, and her hand, in fact, wasn’t holding onto anything. We all tried looking around, but Hart wasn’t there.

It was like one of those scenes in manga where everybody is so silent that you can hear the wind blowing… Laura, however, got her cool back, and started giving orders clearly and efficiently.

“He can’t have gone that far. You two look over there, and you two over to that side. I’ll go and retrace our steps. If we split up, we should find him in no time!”

We all did as we were told, but… why did she have to pair us like this?

A passing glance at my teammate’s annoyed expression was enough to make me feel awkward. Laura had split us up depending on who was closer to what, so Maria ended up being paired with Sora and I with… Dewey.

Ugh… this is going to be so bad. I really hope we find him soon.

How did he manage to get lost after walking this little, and in a place with so few people around? I almost wanted to praise him for his talent at getting lost.

Is he trying to play hide-and-seek? If so, he could be hidden in some weird place.

I tried opening the garbage can near the restaurant, but he wasn’t in there.

“I… don’t think he would be in a place like that,” said Dewey, appalled, and I quickly put the lid back onto the garbage can.

We went back to searching for Hart, silently keeping to ourselves… But that wouldn’t do. Even after finding our lost examiner, we would have to perform a mission together… and we certainly couldn’t collaborate like this.

This was the perfect chance to find out why Dewey hated me so much!

“S-Say, Dewey…” I asked shortly before realizing that I hadn’t thought about how to actually ask him at all.

“Is there, like, uhm, anything you hate about me?”

All I managed to do was straight out ask him what I wanted to know. And if he replied “everything”? That’d be the end of it…

While I regretted not having planned a better way to get information out of him before opening my mouth, he looked at me, bringing his eyebrows together in a visibly troubled look.

“That’s…” He stopped for a second, then sighed loudly. “…I come from a destitute family, and I had to start working while I was still a child. I asked to be sent to a free school near my house, and I had to promise that I would keep working while doing that. I put my soul into my studies so that I could overcome poverty one day. My efforts were rewarded, and I graduated while skipping grades, eventually managing to reach a job in the most powerful organization in the kingdom — the Ministry.”

Of course I already knew all of this from reading that mysterious note, but hearing it straight from the source made it sound all the more intense.

“Work was hard, and I barely had any time left to study during the day, so I would often do it at night instead of sleeping. But I wanted to escape that sad state, and I kept going without looking back… That is why I’m here at the Ministry… But what about you, Lady Claes? How did you get into the Ministry?” he asked me, his blue eyes flaming.

“W-Well, I…”

I got into the Ministry because I owned a Familiar of Darkness, but that was top-secret. And the reason why I accepted the job was that I was too scared to marry Jeord right now, and this seemed like a good way to delay the marriage… But after hearing Dewey’s story, I could never tell him honestly. Now, I finally understood his feelings…

Dewey grinned at my lack of a reply. “Why would a duke’s daughter, without any particular magical skill nor outstanding results in a test, ever work at the Ministry?” he said, choosing his words to be as mean as possible.

So that’s why he hates me…

“I have come here to work using the best of my abilities,” he said, and then started searching for Hart once again.

I have come here to work using the best of my abilities too, I thought… but I couldn’t say it. After all, I had just chosen the Ministry as a place to run away to, and had managed to get in without any effort.

If I had shed blood and tears to get a job and then found someone there who wasn’t diligent about what she did and who got her position without even trying, that’d make me mad too. I’d turn sour.

I was reborn into this world as the daughter of a duke, and enjoyed all the benefits that came with that (as well as the doom, but that’s another story). Maybe that had made me too arrogant.

In my previous life I had been the daughter of an office worker dad and a part-time housewife mom, and I couldn’t take money for granted. I remembered going to the convenience store near my house and seeing a rich kid buying the premium ice cream, while I had to settle for the cheapest ice pop…

But now, not only did I eat all the sweets that I wanted, even getting seconds, but I even asked my servants to tell me when the bakery had any new products. Maybe luxury had turned me arrogant… at this rate, I would fall into doom like the Katarina in Fortune Lover.

I reflected that I had never thought about the comfort that being reborn had put me into. That was when Sora appeared, coming to tell us that they had found Hart.

After finding Hart, we went back onto the carriage and left for our destination. Laura kept talking to her fellow examiner, presumably scolding him for getting lost, but I was so shocked about what Dewey had said that I barely listened at all.

Maybe I really was spoiled and entitled… and that would explain why I still had to contend with the Catastrophic Bad Ends.

I tried to organize my thoughts in the only way I knew how: holding a meeting inside my head.

Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.

Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.

Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.

“Huff… huff… P-Please, everyone, sit down.”

“Huff… No, Ms. Claes, wait, we’re still missing someone.”

“Huff… You’re right… We still aren’t ready.”

“I agree. This meeting was so sudden that we couldn’t prepare in time!”

“I also feel that there have been too many meetings lately. We’re busy people! We can’t just spend all our time in meetings. I’m afraid we can’t do this today. Meeting adjourned!”

And so, the meeting of the Katarinas ended prematurely…

“Wait! Ms. Claes! Please! That won’t do! Let’s have a meeting, even a short one! Ah, Ms. Secretary, where are you going?! This is important to all of us!”

“…You have a point. It’s a drag, but I guess we have to do it. Oh well, what was today’s agenda again? Deciding what to eat for dinner?”

“Not exactly… We must discuss whether or not Katarina Claes is really entitled and spoiled.”

“Hm… Lately she’s been eating sweets all day, eating even Keith’s share, and even asking Maria to cook more for her… She does sound entitled.”

“Indeed. And after graduating from the academy, she has been eating so much that Anne was complaining about her dresses getting too tight. We have to do something about this.”

“A spoiled glutton… That’s not how a young noblewoman should be.”

“At this rate, she’s risking a catastrophe regardless of the Bad Ends…”

“It cannot go on like this.”

“We really have to do something.”

“Mm… What if we ate less sweets?”

“Would that solve the problem?”

“I don’t think so…”

“If Katarina is risking really becoming a villainess, she has to repent and mend her ways.”

“Oh, that is a wonderful idea! But how?”

“I don’t know.”

“…”

“…I remember that our grandma in our previous life used to say something like ‘When you don’t know what you should do, concentrate on doing the things that you must do, one at a time. Eventually, you’ll see the answer.’”

“Words of wisdom!”

“For the time being, let’s do what Grandma suggested.”

“It sounds really deep, so we might as well try it.”

“So the first thing we must do is… get rid of the tanuki and finish this examination!”

“Yes. Let’s concentrate on the tanuki for now.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

The emergency meeting of the Katarinas thus agreed on a course of action.

“By the way, about that grandma… She was the one really into soap operas who was always talking about hot actors, right? Where would she find words of wisdom like those?”

“I think she heard it, in fact, from a hot actor in a soap opera.”

“…Let’s just not think too much about that.”

Just as the meeting finished, and we decided that we would focus on getting rid of the tanuki, the carriage reached its destination.

I was expecting the branch office of the Magical Ministry to be of a size worthy of its name, but it was hardly bigger than a large-ish shop back in the capital. Inside, old men and women were sitting together at a table enjoying tea. This probably doubled as a meeting place for the elderly…

“Oh? Y’all don’t look familiar. Where’s y’all from?” one of them asked us.

“Hello. We have been sent here from the capital,” Laura replied for all of us.

“They make ’em different back in the capital! Look at how sparkly that fella is!” commented one of them.

To these old country folks, a buff man covered in makeup and wearing a frilly skirt was just “how people are in the capital…”

The atmosphere here reminded me pleasantly of my previous life. I was enjoying the sight of these men and women leisurely drinking tea inside the Ministry when a man who looked like an actual employee noticed us. He stood up from his seat and froze with shock as soon as he saw Laura, probably knowing that was not “how people are in the capital.”

However, showing the composure expected of a Ministry employee, he eventually got his cool back and welcomed us.

“That must have been a long trip! Thank you for coming all the way here,” he said before showing us some free seats and serving us tea, along with some sort of berries. “These are a local specialty. Help yourself.” He sounded like a kind person.

“Oh, thank you,” I said, eating one. Unfortunately I don’t know what kind, but, yup. It’s a berry alright.

We ate berries silently for a while, and then the man in charge of this Ministry branch walked into the room.

After taking a look at Laura, being surprised, and quickly regaining his cool, this middle-aged man — with a plump face that just screamed “nice person” — greeted us with the same exact words as his subordinate.

“That must have been a long trip! Thank you for coming all the way here!” After hearing about the examination from Laura and Hart, the man nodded with a smile. “Yes, headquarters contacted me about it. Thank you for helping us out.”

Hart then asked him to elaborate on the situation.

“We usually just set traps all over the place, and that is enough… but this year there are just too many of them,” he said with a sigh.

“Just how many?”

“Around three times as much as an average year. It’s probably because of what happened to the forest.”

“The forest where the tanuki used to live?”

“Yes. Someone from outside the village went into the forest, maybe to hunt or something, and made a mess out of it. So now the tanukis have all run out of it and into the fields. It’s not the first time this happens, mind you, but this year it’s so bad that we had to send people into the forest to fix it up.”

He explained to us that, during this time of the year, the villagers relied on what they gathered from the forest more than on what they could harvest from the fields. Since the village’s well-being depended on the forest, they had to prioritize that.

“So your people are busy there, and you cannot get rid of the tanuki yourselves.”

“Exactly. Which is why we asked headquarters for support,” he said with a tired expression on his face. The situation must have been worse than we imagined.

“Do you know who that outsider could be?”

“Unfortunately, we have no idea. All we can do is get the forest back to normal as soon as we can.”

“I see…”

After we had heard the explanation, the younger employee guided us to the fields that had been ravaged by the tanuki.

As someone who tended to fields myself, I should have been impressed at how large the one in front of me was, but…

“This is terrible…” I blurted out.

“Yes it is. All the farmers are distraught about it,” the Ministry employee said sadly.

The field was extensive, but all of its produce had been either ripped or bitten into, leaving nothing to be harvested. All the neatly aligned ridges were full of holes, probably made by the tanuki’s feet.

“They have tried putting sturdy nets over the plants, patrolling the fields at night, and all other sorts of countermeasures, but there are so many of those pests that it is a lost cause…” he explained, looking distraught.

I remembered that Grandma, in my previous life, used to put nets on the plants too… was that to keep the tanuki away? She had vehemently insisted that I didn’t help her (because I’d make the plants wilt), so I never noticed…

I had built fields both in Claes Manor’s and in the academy’s gardens, but there were no tanuki there, so I didn’t need to take any special measures.

I should probably use this as a learning experience in case I’m eventually exiled and have to live as a farmer.

The field in front of me looked terrible, but the culprits didn’t seem to be around.

“There are no tanuki anywhere, though.”

“Yes. They mostly come at night.”

Oh, of course. They’re nocturnal animals.

“Now that we have seen what they have caused, let’s come back at night to see how many of them there are,” said Hart after assessing the field’s condition. “For the time being, let’s go to our lodgings and discuss strategies,” he continued, and we did as he said.

The village was too small to have an inn, so we were all going to stay at the village chief’s house. Obviously it was much smaller than the manor I was used to, but the small countryside building felt cozy and nostalgic to me.

There were enough rooms for the men and women to sleep apart, so Hart, Sora, and Dewey were in a room, Maria and I were in another, and Laura was alone, in yet another room. The village chief’s wife probably couldn’t tell Laura’s gender, so she put her in a different room to not risk offending her.

I felt sorry that we were imposing so much and taking up three whole rooms, but to be honest, I didn’t think I’d be able to relax sleeping in the same room as Laura, and not only because she was my superior.

After bringing our luggage to our bedrooms, we all gathered in the living room to discuss the mission.

“Now you will all put your heads together and decide how to get rid of the tanuki. The two of us will only be observing, and will not intervene unless the situation becomes dangerous. You will need to plan for the mission and put that plan into action, all by yourselves… And Guy, we’re indoors, you don’t need to keep me tied to a rope…” said Hart, first talking to us and then to Laura, who was still holding tightly onto the rope tied to his waist.

“But I wouldn’t want you getting lost…”

“I am not going to get lost inside a stranger’s home…” he said, and was finally freed from the rope. “Now, discuss your plans,” he continued, and, together with Laura, started silently staring at us.

As the examiners had so obviously removed themselves from the meeting, we examinees turned to each other.

The only solution I had come up with was to trap the tanuki in cages and bring them back to the forest, but after seeing the scale of the damage they’d done in that field, I was sure that we weren’t talking about just a couple of animals here…

“I think that all we can do is make a lot of traps and try to catch them,” said Sora, the oldest in the group.

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” I quickly agreed, since his idea was pretty much the same as mine.

“The damage on the field hints at a very large number of tanuki. I do not think it would be feasible to make that many traps,” Dewey said coldly.

He had a point; if each trap could only catch one animal, we would need a lot of traps.

“What if we built traps that can catch multiple tanuki at once?” I suggested.

“And how would you do that? Do you have a specific schematic in mind?” he replied quickly, staring at me sideways and making me retreat in shame.

“So, do you have any ideas, Percy?” Sora asked him.

“We could just spread some trap-feed,” he replied calmly.

“Trap-feed?”

“Yes. Tanuki feed with delayed-onset poison in it. If the poison acted immediately, the one who ate the feed would die on the spot, and the others would realize that it was a trap. But if the poison only kills them after a certain amount of time, they could even bring that feed back to their den, effectively killing all of them at once,” he explained nonchalantly, as if it were nothing.

“That sounds too extreme… and the poison could also be dangerous for humans and cattle,” said Sora.

“Then we would just need to use a poison that poses little harm to humans and inform all farmers of our plan, giving them an antidote in case their cattle accidentally eat the poison,” Dewey replied without a second thought. He probably had it all planned from the start. “I believe that this is the fastest solution.”

I couldn’t deny that this would probably be fast, but…

“…But the tanuki came into the village because their habitat in the forest was compromised, right? It was humans who chased them out of their home… I don’t think they deserve being poisoned and killed,” I said, feeling compassion for the poor animals, but Dewey looked at me with contempt.

“So are you suggesting that we catch them one by one and bring them back to the forest? Do you have any idea how much time that would take? This is not the time to feel mercy for animals. Kindness cannot solve all of your problems, much less the problems of this village.”

He was right that I had no better suggestions, and I couldn’t argue with his point. I was clenching my fist, unable to reply.

“Percy, you don’t need to put it so strongly…” said Sora.

“I also believe that poison is too dangerous to justify using it from the start,” Maria followed. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it sounded calm and fearless.

“May I hear your suggestion then, Miss Campbell?” Dewey replied immediately.

“I do not have any practical ideas yet, but if we go to look at the field tonight, we will come up with something. There is no need to risk a dangerous solution so early,” she said, looking straight into Dewey’s eyes with the powerful stance of someone who would not retreat.

He remained silent, probably because he was so impressed by the strength of her words.

In the end, our meeting didn’t result in any actionable plan, but we decided that we would discuss our options again after checking the fields.

We all went to our rooms to wait until night time, and I went into mine together with Maria. I started thinking about what Dewey had told me about kindness not being enough to solve all problems. He was right… but I didn’t want to poison those poor animals.

“I’m sorry, Lady Katarina,” said Maria all of a sudden, lowering her head.

“Huh? What’s the matter, Maria?”

“Earlier, with Dewey. I am sorry he was so rude to you.”

“Well, that’s… Why would you apologize for him, anyway?”

“You see, Dewey and I grew up in the same town,” she said with a slightly troubled expression.

I didn’t know that! There was no mention of this surprising fact in the game itself or in the note I found in the book.

“Are you two childhood friends or something?”

The good old trope of falling in love with a childhood friend was very common in otome games, so that would have made sense. It wasn’t in FL, but maybe they used it for FL2. They didn’t really look like friends, but now that I thought of it in this light, I realized that Maria trying so hard to talk with Dewey wasn’t just because of her kindness — it was because she wanted to talk with her friend after being apart for so long. He didn’t really seem to be responsive to that, though.

“No, we lived in the same town, but our houses were quite far from each other. And he is much younger than me to begin with, so we did not know each other so well.”

We were 18 years old and Dewey was 13, making for a 5-year difference. For children that is very substantial, especially if they don’t live close by.

“…But I remember seeing how hard-working of a boy he was… I believe he used to have a warmer personality, but he had to go through so much adversity all on his own that he gradually became aloof, and now he treats everyone coldly,” Maria recalled sadly. Apparently that note hadn’t detailed all the hardships that Dewey had to go through.

This all started to sound like an otome game. Two childhood friends (well, she said that they weren’t, but still), one of which is a boy who goes through a lot of difficulties and slowly turns cold. The girl worries about him and eventually falls in love with him… No! This can’t be! Maria, my waifu, taken by another man?!

But she was the protagonist of a romance game after all, so I had to expect that she would fall in love with someone…

Maria, unaware of how much I was worrying about her being stolen from me now, kept on talking. “To me he’s more than a stranger… I also know how hard it is, having to fight on your own for so long…”

D-Did she really fall for Dewey already?!

“So, Maria, do you… What do you think of him?”

Don’t tell me you love him!

“I… really want him to open up his heart and learn how to rely on people more.”

Phew… This isn’t love, at least not yet. She’s just worried about him.

“Don’t worry, Maria. I’m sure that you’ll be able to help him. You’re the kindest, most wonderful girl I know,” I said, taking her hand in mine.

“Lady Katarina… I am so happy to have come to know you. I love you,” she said, slightly blushing after being complimented, and with her voice full of gratitude.

Having a girl this pretty blush while telling me that she “loves” me made me feel… weird. I knew that she was talking about love between two friends, but if I were a man, I would have gone crazy.

I was reflecting on that when, all of a sudden, something hit my head from behind.

“Wh-What?!”

Bewildered, I protected my head with my hands and looked around. Just beside me, there was a pillow.

It must have been this pillow… but why? Did it just fly into my head?

I was very confused, and I also started feeling someone staring at me. I turned around and saw…

“Why is this bear here?!”

Maria followed my gaze and noticed who was behind me. “You’re here? I told you to wait at home!” she said, surprised.

It was the magic (sentient) teddy bear that used to ride on Maria’s shoulder all the time back at the academy. Larna lent it to us, and it helped us find Keith when he was kidnapped. It was during that journey that it became attached to Maria and started following her around everywhere. It didn’t come with her to the Ministry, so it had been a while since I’d last seen it.

Pochi, hearing my surprised voice, came out of my shadow for just a second, looked at the magic plushie that had caused me to scream, and then, unimpressed, went back into hiding. He probably wasn’t interested in bears.

“You can’t just follow me like this!” Maria said, and the teddy bear looked sad at being scolded… However, when its eyes met mine, if only for a moment, I could tell that its sad expression had turned into a mocking one.

It’s not really feeling bad about being scolded… and it’s trying to make a fool out of me, as usual.

“I am sorry, Lady Katarina. He sneaked in my bag and followed me because he was lonely,” Maria said.

“Don’t worry, Maria, it’s okay,” I said with the kindest smile I could muster, just before giving a “try anything funny and you’ll regret it” look at the bear.

The bear, in response, sent me a “right back at you” look.

You cheeky bear…

Our two-girl room was now a two-girl-one-animal room… well, two-animal if we counted Pochi, who was still hiding inside my shadow.

Maria and I decided to lie down on our beds for a while, since we would have to go out to the fields during the night.

The bear smoothly sneaked into Maria’s bed, and, as she patted its head, it looked at me as if to say “Envious, are you?”

You awful bear…

I briefly considered calling out Pochi to annoy the bear, but that would have kept Maria from getting any rest, so I decided against it. I started thinking of ways to get back at that dreadful animal, and, before I knew it, I was completely asleep.

Later, Maria woke me up and said that it was time. I prepared in a hurry and went to the living room, where the others were waiting. Maria told the bear to stay in her room because it was dangerous outside, and it reluctantly obeyed.

“You’re going to wait here alone,” I taunted it, and immediately another pillow came flying my way.

You vicious bear…

I had to admit that throwing a pillow with those tiny arms was impressive, though.

Sora, Dewey, Hart, and Laura were already in the living room, ready to go. They were all wearing their uniforms except for Laura, who was wearing something that looked like a nightdress. Was she planning to wear something different each time we saw her? That would explain why she had brought so much luggage with her…

We made for the Ministry branch office, and since getting lost at night would be even more dangerous than during the day, Hart was now tied to two ropes.

Once there, a Ministry employee guided us to the field we had visited earlier. We had a lantern, but the dark road was making me feel uneasy, so I tried taking out the magnifying glass that I had borrowed from the Ministry. Just as I was told, its light was so feeble that it was completely useless, so I put it back into my pocket. I kept walking on the dark road, thinking of how convenient having a flashlight from my old world would be right now.

We finally reached the field, and we froze in our tracks… because what was in front of us was too shocking to keep on walking.

“Wh-What?!”

Hours earlier, the only things on the field were a few farmers. Now there were so many animals — not only tanuki, but also rabbits, foxes, squirrels, and more — rummaging through it. The field was so crowded that we couldn’t even take a step onto it.

The animals didn’t approach us. Naturally, being wild animals, they were wary of people. I got the feeling that getting any closer to them could be dangerous.

“W-Were they not supposed to just be tanuki?!” said a visibly shaken Hart to the Ministry employee.

“Y-Yes… Even last night, there were only tanuki…” he replied, shaken as well.

“I wonder what could have caused this to happen in a single day,” said Laura suspiciously. “Did something happen in the forest?”

“We checked it today, in the afternoon, and nothing had changed…” the employee replied.

“Something could still have happened between when you checked and now. We should go and check it,” Laura said.

“That is far from advisable. The forest is too dangerous at night,” the employee replied, shaking his head.

“Umm… Then all we can do is retreat for the time being and go check on the forest tomorrow. There are way too many animals for this to be normal. What do you say, Nathan?”

“I agree. It could be dangerous if we let the newcomers deal with things as they are. Let us get some rest for the night and investigate once the sun rises.”

“Yes, let’s get back before we stumble upon a dangerous animal,” said Laura, prompting us to start walking.

After a few steps, I felt a weird chill run down my spine. Immediately after, I heard Pochi growl from inside my shadow.

“Pochi, quiet,” I said under my breath, and he stopped. I was supposed to keep his existence a secret, and he had almost risked being found out.

“Anything the matter?” asked Hart, who had heard me, but thankfully not Pochi.

“N-No, nothing.”

I was so busy thinking about Pochi and worrying that he would growl again that I completely forgot about that chill from earlier, and I didn’t even notice that there was something wrong with Maria, who was walking right beside me.

We walked faster coming back from the field than when we’d headed towards it, so we quickly reached the village chief’s house.

“Everyone, go back to your rooms and sleep. We will go look at the forest tomorrow,” Hart said, and we all made for our beds.

“Hahhh, I’m so tired,” I said, feeling this hard day of work taking its toll on me as I spread out onto the bed. “It turned out to be more problematic than we expected, huh?” I said to Maria, who was sitting on the bed on the opposite side of the room.

“…Yes,” she replied with a weak voice that was very unlike her.

I turned around to look at her. Even in the poor lighting, I could tell that her face was unnaturally pale.

“Maria! What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked her, sitting up and seeing that the bear was already by her side, looking at me as if to say “How could you take so long to notice?”

Her hand felt cold to the touch. We had been walking side by side all the way from the field, but I hadn’t noticed how sick she looked.

“…I am fine,” she said, with a voice so feeble that it was obvious that she wasn’t fine at all.

“Should I call for Laura or Hart to get you some medicine?” I suggested, sure that the examiners would have something ready in case anything happened to us.

“Thank you… But I am fine, really,” she said, stopping me.

“But…”

“I am just not used to the air around here… I am sure that I will get better if I just sit still for a while.”

“What? The air?”

“Yes… The air around here feels… strange.”

I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but this wasn’t the best time to shower her with questions, so I just made her some hot tea and started rubbing her back.

After a while, color started coming back to her face and her hands warmed up. “Thank you. I am feeling better now,” she said with her usual smile.

“You said the air feels strange… what did you mean by that?”

“I cannot explain it well… It just feels heavy, like it did inside the mansion where Master Keith had been kidnapped.”

That mansion had felt weird because a Familiar of Darkness had been summoned inside it, so that made me think of something.

“Are you saying that someone’s using Dark Magic around here?”

“…I cannot tell for sure. Sora looked unfazed…”

Sora, who had become somewhat of a Dark Magic user, was also able to sense it just like Maria could thanks to her Light Magic. But he didn’t look troubled and, if he was, he didn’t say anything. And he wasn’t the type to hide something like that from us.

“…I will try to confirm it tomorrow. For now, I cannot say.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard, Maria.”

Of course, if Dark Magic really had anything to do with this, it would be a serious matter, but… Maria looked so pale just minutes ago…

“I don’t want you trying too hard and feeling sick again. We’re all here for you, so you can rely on us,” I told her, holding onto her warm hand.

Maria, like a stereotypical otome game protagonist, tended to shoulder all of her problems by herself. But she was my friend, and I didn’t want to see her suffer.

“Just rely on us, okay?”

I wasn’t exactly proud of it, but I relied on people all the time. Anne helped me get up and dressed, and she had even prepared my luggage for this trip.

Seeming moved by the strength of my words, Maria nodded. The color had returned to her face, so much so that her cheeks were starting to look red. That must have been because of the hot tea. I was glad that she felt better.

“Now let’s sleep. We have to rest before tomorrow,” I said, standing up from her bed to get back to mine, when I felt something lightly tapping my butt. It was the bear.

I looked at it, curious why it’d do that, but it just looked away. What was that?

I made sure that Maria had gone to sleep, and then I did the same. By that point I was so tired that I fell asleep the second I touched the bed.

I was dreaming of being at an all-you-can-eat sweets buffet. I kept stuffing my mouth with food, but, no matter how much I ate, more appeared. I was happy at first, but there was so much that I could never eat all of it, and I started getting nervous.

The sweets kept increasing and increasing until the whole room was completely full of them, and I started suffocating amidst a sea of marshmallows. The marshmallows were hitting my face one after the other…

Stop! I can’t breathe! I thought right before waking up and seeing a soft round thing hitting my face. Upon closer inspection, I realized that Maria’s bear was standing on top of me and hitting me with its squishy little arm.

So that’s why I was being hit by marshmallows in my dream…

Outside the window the sun was starting to rise, meaning that it was way too early to get up. Why would you wake me up, you heinous—

The bear was pointing at the bed on the other side of the room, where Maria was supposed to be sleeping. I say “supposed to be”because her bed was empty.

Where had she gone at this hour of the morning? I looked at the bear for answers, but it shook its head. It had probably just noticed Maria’s absence and woken me up immediately after.

Normally I would just shrug it off, thinking that she’d gone to the bathroom or something. But after seeing how she looked yesterday I was worried that she could have felt sick on her way there, so I went to look for her.

The bear jumped onto my shoulder, something that it’d never normally do… It must be worried about Maria. Okay, you can ride on my shoulder. But just this once, okay?

I tried going to the bathroom, but Maria wasn’t there. Where is she? Maybe she passed out somewhere! But where? I was looking around for ideas, and my eyes met the bear’s. It moved its arm to tell me where to go.

Why is the bear giving me orders now?! I thought for a second, but then I remembered that this insufferable bear was actually a wonderful magical tool made to search for people. The “insufferable” was so strong in my memory that I had forgotten about the “wonderful” part.

“Okay, just tell me where to go,” I said as I moved in the direction that it was pointing at.

It brought me outside of the house, behind it, and to a tree near the garden. Under that tree, sure enough, was Maria.

“Mar—”

I almost called out to her, but I stopped when I saw that there was someone else standing beside her… Dewey. The two of them were staring at each other with deep, serious expressions. It wasn’t the kind of meeting that you could barge into screaming “G’morning, buddies!”

I was trying to stop the bear from running to Maria when I heard someone’s voice behind me.

“What’s going on?”

I turned around, and Sora was standing there, watchful.

“S-Sora! Why are you here?” I asked him.

“I should ask you the same thing. What are you doing up so early?”

I explained why I had woken up so early (or rather, why I had been woken up so early) and had gone looking for Maria.

“I see… Well, you found her. Why don’t you go and talk to her?” he said.

“Th-They look so serious! I can’t just go in between them like that…”

They were still looking at each other and apparently discussing something, but they were so far away that I couldn’t hear what they said.

“Do you want to know what they’re talking about?” asked Sora.

“Yes,” I told him honestly.

Sora took something out of his pocket and put it against my ear.

“So, what is it?” I clearly heard Dewey saying.

I looked at the thing on my ear, surprised, and I saw that it looked like a megaphone. This thing is probably the reason why I can hear their conversation from this far away… but what is it?

Sora was grinning like a kid when he moved it away from my ear and asked me, “So? Did it work?”

“Yes, I could hear everything… What is this?”

“It’s a magical tool that lets you hear sounds from afar. It only works if you’re close enough to see what’s going on, though.”

“Was this in the warehouse?”

It would have surprised me if this useful tool had been amongst all of that junk, and I didn’t remember Sora bringing anything like this out.

“Oh no, a colleague from my department lent it to me after I asked for something better than all that useless stuff in the warehouse,” Sora explained casually.

I wish I could get better tools too, but I’d never have the courage to outright ask a colleague for something like that…

“I thought this could come in handy for the mission, but who knew it’d make itself useful at a time like this? You want to listen to them, right? Go ahead,” he said before handing me the megaphone, completely oblivious to how shocked I was at his brashness towards colleagues.

Anyway, I really wanted to listen, so I gratefully accepted the megaphone and put the small end on my ear, pointing the wide end towards Maria and Dewey.

“I just thought that you were being too hard on yourself, Dewey.”

“What would you know about that? You barely even know me! Leave me alone!” Dewey’s voice had lost any hint of calmness.

Their conversation sounded like something straight out of an otome game. Was this a scripted scene with Dewey? Was this when they’re supposed to fall in love with each other?

“What do you think of this?” I asked Sora, but he just gave a blank stare in return.

Oh, that’s right. He can’t hear them. I have to do something about that…

I grabbed Sora and pulled him so that his face was right in front of mine. “Can you hear too now?”

“…I can, but being this close is kind of…”

“Shhh! This is where it gets good! Listen!”

Sora and I went on listening while facing each other.

“…I was just like you…” Maria said.

I sneaked a sideways glance at her and saw that her head was drooping.

“I thought that I had to do everything on my own… I can’t leave you alone, Dewey, because you’re just like what I used to be.”

Spoken like a true otome game protagonist… Add the slightly teary eyes she sometimes shows and you’ve got yourself enough to make anyone, including Dewey, fall in love…

As expected, Dewey, who had been so motivated to contradict her, just fell silent at her words.

“You don’t have to do this alone. You can rely on us,” she said, grabbing his hand.

We weren’t close enough to see his expression, but I could tell well enough that Dewey’s cheeks had turned red.

He’s fallen for her. O, Maria, you incredible heroine! Best waifu!

I had to share my excitement with someone.

“Geheheh, we just witnessed the very moment someone fell in love! Maria really can’t help it, huh?” I said, looking at Sora.

He didn’t seem to agree, and instead looked perplexed.

“…Coming from you, that’s… Nevermind. Can you let me go now? This is starting to get hard to bear.”

“Oh, sorry. Did it hurt?”

I noticed that I’d been so thrilled that I had grabbed onto his shoulder, and was still holding onto it very firmly. So rude of me.

“It’s not that it hurts, but…”

“Look, they’re coming back! Let’s go back before they see that we’ve been snooping!”

I ran towards the house while pulling Sora with me.

“By the way, why were you out there?” I asked him.

“I had just woken up and was going to the bathroom, but then I saw you walking around alone and followed you.”

“Oh, I see.”

This explained why his timing had been that perfect… He was following me. But then, this meant that…

“Did you follow me because you were worried about me?”

“Well… I… was worried that you’d cause some other trouble, y’know,” he said, stumbling for words.

I was still grateful though. Say I went out alone and got lost… I could never make it back alone.

“Thank you, Sora. You’re so kind,” I told him, and for some reason that made him freeze still for a while before letting out a big sigh.

“Maria may be oblivious, but you’re on another level… No wonder the prince worries so much.”

“Huh?”

Maria? The prince? What’s he talking about? I asked him for an explanation, but he just grinned and told me to go rest in my room before the mission.

I went back to my room and thought about whether I should ask Maria about Dewey when she came back.

That was one romantic scene, though… My heart throbs just thinking back at it! The teary Maria and the blushing Dewey, staring at each other against the rising sun… It really looked like a picture from an otome game… Hm? What’s this feeling of deja-vu?

Ahh! It was exactly the same as one of the pictures from that dream!

I saw that scene with Maria and Dewey in one of the still pictures in the FL2 gallery that Acchan was looking at…

That could only mean that this very examination was also an event in the game, and that means that doom could be waiting for me around every corner!

I have to be careful, I told myself while ducking under the still-warm blankets.

I have to be careful, and watchful, and… Going back to bed after waking up feels so good… so good that I feel my eyelids getting heavy…

★★★★★★★

When I, Maria Campbell, walked through the fields that night, they were entirely different than when I had seen them during the day.

There was an incredible number of animals, and the air around them was so heavy that I felt like I could drown in it. I was so uncomfortable that I had to cover my mouth with my hand, but the others that were with me seemed unfazed.

In the past, when I was the only one able to feel how stagnant the air was, it had been caused by Dark Magic. Could that be the case this time too? I peeked at Sora, who, like me, was able to identify Dark Magic. If that really was the cause for this weird atmosphere, then he would react to it too… but he did not seem to notice anything.

Perhaps this had nothing to do with magic, and I had just been tired or ill. While I kept thinking to myself, the investigation was postponed to the next day, and we went back to our lodging for the night.

As soon as I came back to my room, the tension I had been feeling was released at once, and I started feeling even worse. I sat down on the bed to catch my breath.

“It turned out to be more problematic than we expected, huh?” asked Katarina.

I could only muster a feeble sound to reply to her. She immediately noticed and came close to me, asking me if I was okay. I thought that I would start feeling better after a while, and told her I was.

“Should I call for Laura or Hart to get you some medicine?” she asked me, concerned.

I declined and explained what had happened, struggling for words as I still felt ill.

Katarina kindly prepared me some hot tea. Drinking it, I noticed how cold my body had become. After making the tea, she started rubbing my back. I do not know whether it was because of her warm touch, but I instantly felt better. Warmth was returning to my body.

“Thank you. I am feeling better now,” I told her, and she gave me a pleasant smile of relief. She then asked me to explain more about what I had felt in the fields, and I, now feeling much better thanks to her, obliged.

“I cannot explain it well… It just feels heavy, like it did inside the mansion where Master Keith had been kidnapped.”

“Are you saying that someone’s using Dark Magic around here?”

“…I cannot tell for sure. Sora looked unfazed…”

I was sure that if he had felt anything, he would have told me about it.

“…I will try to confirm it tomorrow. For now, I cannot say.”

If Dark Magic was really involved, I had to be sure of it, and then report it to the examiners… feeling ill and becoming useless again was not an option.

I must try harder next time! I thought to myself.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, Maria,” Katarina said, looking worried.

What did she mean? It was possible that we were dealing with Dark Magic, so I had to give it all my best.

“I don’t want you trying too hard and feeling sick again. We’re all here for you, so you can rely on us,” she said, holding my hand. “Just rely on us, okay?” she continued with a smile.

I felt my face become red, and I replied with an embarrassed nod. Her smile became even more beautiful, filling my chest with a pleasant, warm feeling.

Now more than ever, I realized how much I loved Katarina Claes, the kind but strong girl who had changed my life — or rather, who was still changing my life, day after day. I wanted to be with her for as long as possible.

“Now let’s sleep. We have to rest before tomorrow,” she said, and I went to bed feeling so elated that the pain I had been in moments ago now felt like a dream.

My bear was starting to feel lonely after being neglected as I talked with Katarina, so I hugged him close to my chest and happily fell asleep.

My sleep was so pleasant that I woke up earlier than usual, but I didn’t feel like going back to sleep a second time. The sun shone through the window, showing a morning too beautiful to be spent in bed. Surely it wouldn’t be a problem if I just took a stroll in the garden.

I got up, taking care not to wake up Katarina and the bear. The air outdoors was so fresh that I felt like strolling a bit farther while taking it in. The birds had already woken up too, and were singing cheerfully.

“What a wonderful morning!”

I looked around to make sure that nobody was there so I could take a nice walk by myself, but I noticed someone not far from the house.

It was Dewey Percy, the boy who I used to know from my old hometown, although I had rarely spoken with him. To be exact, I used to avoid him. When I first tried to talk to him, years ago, he had sent me off abruptly.

“What would a chosen one, a Light Magic user, want to do with me? Leave me alone,” he had said.

After being treated like a nuisance in that way, I certainly did not look forward to more interactions with him… but now, I finally understood him.

Dewey’s family was very poor, so much so that even the children had to work and could not attend school regularly. The other kids would make fun of them, and Dewey was doing his best not to let that influence him.

Back then, I used to protect myself by shutting other people out, and all that I could think about was myself. But now I could understand, and I had Katarina to thank for it.

And now that I knew how he felt, I felt worried about how he had become… he was even more stubborn than he used to be, and his face always looked bleak.

Just looking at him, walking alone, reminded me of myself when I had just entered the academy and was trying to take on everything on my own. I had to help him. I had tried to speak with him several times after our reunion at the Ministry, but with very poor results.

This time probably would not be that much different… but still, I went after him. He stopped under a tree behind the house, and I gathered my courage and spoke to him.

“Good morning, Dewey.”

Noticing me, he first looked surprised, and then annoyed. “What are you doing here, Campbell?” he asked coldly.

“I was just strolling, taking in this beautiful morning, and then I saw you. I was wondering what you were doing.”

“You mean you followed me?” he asked, even more coldly than before.

I couldn’t let that get to me. “…Yes. I just wanted to talk a little bit.”

“About what?”

He sounded as if I was bothering him so much that he wanted to run away immediately.

“Well, you know, we grew up in the same town, but we’ve never talked much. I thought it would be fun to get to know each other.”

“What need is there for that? Is there any point in befriending your coworkers?”

“I think that maybe, if one is feeling down, or stressed about something, it can help to have someone to talk about it with.”

It was only the two of us now, and I had managed to draw a longer response from him than I usually did, so I tried to be as open as I could.

“I have no such problem. Please leave me alone. If that was what you wanted to talk about, there is no need for further discussion.”

“But lately you’ve been looking so much more tired than you used to…”

“If you are not going to leave, I will. Goodbye,” he said, turning around, but I grabbed his sleeve and stopped him.

“I just think that you’re being too hard on yourself, Dewey,” I told him. I had to let him know — I would not have another opportunity any time soon.

“What would you know about that? You barely even know me! Leave me alone!” he said, even stronger than before, shaking off my hand.

But his face did not look cold anymore… It was sad.

Of course. Being alone is hard, and it is sad.

“…I was just like you… I thought that I had to do everything on my own… I can’t leave you alone, Dewey, because you’re just like how I used to be,” I said, holding onto his hand, just as Katarina had done for me the day before. This time, he did not shake it off, and just stared at me silently. “You don’t have to do this alone. You can rely on us.”

Katarina had given me these wonderful words, and now I passed them onto Dewey. He looked at me, and, without a word, he nodded. His expression didn’t look as bothered anymore.

As usual, Katarina was incredible. Her words had reached into Dewey’s heart. I was so happy that I couldn’t contain a smile, and he awkwardly followed suit.

We then went back to the house together.

“Say, Campbell…”

“Just call me Maria. You don’t need to be formal with me.”

“Y-Yes… So, Maria…” he said, and I couldn’t resist giggling.

“Well, I wanted to ask you… why are you friends with Lady Claes?”

“You mean Lady Katarina?”

“Yes. This may be rude to say, but you two have very different ranks, and I heard that she is not that powerful of a magic user. I do not even know why she is in the Ministry to begin with.”

It turned out that Dewey did not think well of Katarina, and that made me sad, as I loved her so much. I could easily talk about how wonderful she was for a whole hour (not that that would be nearly enough), but then he might think that I was only being respectful because of her high rank. Before talking with her, all I had known about her was that she was the daughter of a duke, and the air of nobility around her made me feel uncomfortable.

“She’s amazing. Just talk to her and you’ll realize it,” I said. That would be enough.

“…Really?” Dewey asked doubtfully, but I was sure that, eventually, he too would come to love Katarina. How could he not?

We then went back to our own rooms, and I saw Katarina sleeping peacefully in her bed. Seeing her face was enough to make me happy.

★★★★★★★

This is weird.

I remembered feeling very anxious about the possibility of impending doom, but I had somehow fallen asleep and stayed like that for quite some time.

Maria had tried to wake me up, but she was so kind in doing it that it ended up taking very long, and, when I was finally out of bed, I had to hurry up and prepare to meet the others. When Anne woke me up at home, she would just violently take all my blankets off…

Unfortunately, I didn’t even have time to ask Maria about Dewey.

We ate a light breakfast at the village chief’s house and then made for the Ministry’s building to report about what we had seen yesterday and to coordinate our actions with the local employees.

On our way there, I told Sora what Maria had felt in the air yesterday. I wanted to tell Hart and Laura too, but Larna was very strict in telling me that Dark Magic is a sensitive topic that should not be discussed with anyone willy-nilly, so I hesitated.

Sora confirmed that he hadn’t felt anything out of the ordinary, but that he would try to pay more attention just in case. I told that to Maria, reminding her not to push herself too hard.

At the Ministry branch office, the employees were sitting around a table with preoccupied looks on their faces. They explained that the employee that had come with us yesterday had already reported on the situation and on how dire it seemed to be.

They even told us that now the animals — possibly because so many of them had come down into the village and no longer had places to hide — weren’t going back to the forest during the day anymore, which could be a serious hindrance to the farmers. Our examination had now become too serious for newcomers to deal with. The problem had to be fixed as soon as possible.

Of course, going back home because the examination had become impossible wouldn’t be very responsible, so it was decided that we would stay and help.

“As you said, Handerson, we also believed that something could have happened in the forest, so we sent a man to investigate,” said the branch director, wiping the sweat off of his face.

“That’s the most reasonable thing to do. If the reason for the animals gathering is not in the fields, for example some kind of chemical attracting them, then something must be going on in the forest,” Laura said while passing a hand through her hair, which was decorated, as usual, with a cute ribbon.

“Yes. Nobody has been using any weird chemicals, nor planting any unusual crops. Also, the animals are not gathering in any one specific spot… Most of the animals are in the fields nearest to the forest, so they are probably running away from whatever happened there,” the branch director was saying when another employee barged into the room.

“Director! It’s terrible! The forest…”

He was probably the one who had gone to investigate. He stopped, surprised by our presence, but his superior asked him for details and he started talking.

“The forest itself was just like it was yesterday. It did not look any worse. But… there were no animals. None at all. Usually there are birds flying around and squirrels in the trees, but it is completely silent now,” he explained.

It had all started with more tanuki than usual coming down into the village, but the situation had degenerated into something much bigger…

This meant that we had to go investigate the forest ourselves, together with the Ministry branch employees. Some of the villagers also came to help us, as the forest, while not particularly deep, was very wide.

I was worried about Maria feeling sick again once we were in there, but she said, “The air does feel slightly heavy, but nowhere near yesterday.”

Sora, despite being able to sense Dark Magic as well, didn’t seem to feel anything out of the ordinary.

“When we went to rescue Keith, I thought that my power to sense this kind of thing was as powerful as Maria’s, even if we sensed it in different ways. Did her magic get more powerful all of a sudden? Or did mine get weaker?”

Sora’s magic could have gotten worse, I figured, but it was more likely that Maria’s had gotten better, since it would be normal for a game protagonist to become stronger in the sequel.

We started our inspection of the forest. We were told that it would be dangerous to walk around alone since we weren’t sure what was going on, so we were divided into groups. I ended up with Sora and a Ministry employee, since the two just happened to be near me at the time.

I was concerned about Maria not being in the same group as me, but since she would be with Dewey and a bulky Ministry employee, I figured that she’d be fine. I told her to call out to me for help if anything bad happened, just in case, and then the groups all entered the forest and parted ways.

“There really isn’t a single animal around… it’s so quiet it’s giving me the creeps.”

“Absolutely true,” the middle-aged employee in my group said, looking around.

He looked like a kind, amicable person, but his chubby, relaxed appearance suggested that he wouldn’t be too useful if anything went wrong… on the contrary, we’d probably have to protect him. The huge guy in Maria’s group, on the other hand…

Well, I wasn’t exactly the best fighter around either, so I wasn’t one to talk. My magic powers amounted to Dirt Bump, and I didn’t fare much better with swords and knives.

All in all, the one we’d have to rely on was Sora. He’d probably have a hard time protecting both me and this other guy… If push came to shove, I’d have to bring Pochi out and make him bark. I started regretting not having taught him any tricks yet.

“…rina? Lady Katarina?”

“Ah! Yes?”

Sora had been calling out to me with a preoccupied look on his face.

“This is no time to spaz out,” he scolded me.

“I’m sorry…”

“If Dark Magic really is involved, this could be dangerous. Stay alert,” he warned me under his breath.

He was right. I had to be careful. I started looking around, taking in every last detail…

“I don’t know, it all looks normal to me…” is all I could say. Apart from the lack of animals, there was nothing off. It was just a… standard forest.

Back during the Keith kidnapping, the atmosphere in that mansion was so thick that even I could feel that evil was afoot. This time, however, everything felt normal.

Maybe it would have been different if we were surrounded by scary wilting trees, but all the plants were green and lush, and you could easily imagine the heroine coming here to pick flowers. No obvious evil here.

“I cannot find anything suspicious either,” Sora said, carefully choosing his words. He probably meant that he didn’t feel any Dark Magic.

“It looks as it always does…” said our puzzled Ministry companion, who had been to this same forest several times. “Maybe the problem is in another area,” he said with his shoulders slumped, maybe out of disappointment.

But not finding anything out of the ordinary was no reason to be disappointed! Though I did see him get all worked up about something big finally happening in his boring countryside life before we’d set out… so that explained his reaction.

What he meant by “another area,” by the way, is that we had divided the forest into four areas (east, west, south, north) to make it easier to search, and we were currently in the east one, while Maria’s group, for example, was in the north one.

I wondered if she was okay. If this whole incident was an event in the game, then it was likely that something would happen in the area that the heroine was searching, and that worried me a lot.

However, I had to follow the orders, so I kept searching the east area.

Sora probably noticed how troubled I looked, because he said, “Calm down. And don’t stray too far away, or I won’t be able to protect you if anything happens.”

That sounded like he was worrying about me, so I thanked him with a grateful smile… and he gave me a light bonk on the head with his fist.

Now that we had seen that there was nothing wrong with our area, I suggested to the other two that we go looking for Maria, since I was still worried about her.

“This area seems fine, so we should go check the other ones! We may be able to help the other groups if they need us to.”

Sora probably understood how I felt (possibly because I’d looked nervous this whole time), and he promptly agreed.

“You are right! They might need our help!” said the other Ministry employee excitedly, and we went back to the forest’s entrance.

The people who were keeping guard there were surprised to see us. “Are you finished?” they asked.

“There was no trouble in our area, so we came back to help with the other ones,” I explained, seeing the other man in our group lagging, short of breath, behind me and Sora. He was drenched in sweat… Maybe we should have taken it a little easier. Sorry.

However, seeing how tired he was helped the sentries understand how serious we were about helping the other groups.

“We have not received any report of trouble from the other groups either, so rest here for a while, please.”

Thankfully, it seemed that all the other groups, including Maria’s, were fine. That made me feel slightly relieved. Now that the worry was out of my head, I noticed that I was thirsty. Hurrying all the way here had made me sweat quite a bit, if not as much as our soaked teammate.

I got some water from the sentries, and after giving some to our Ministry companion, I drank some myself. I felt so refreshed as the cool water poured down my throat.

Ah, delicious. Maybe I’ll have another glass, I was thinking to myself when a man came running our way out of the forest.

“Hey! Hey! We got trouble!”

The relaxed atmosphere turned cold in an instant. What had happened?

“What’s wrong?” asked one of the sentries.

“The west area group…” said the running man with a terrified face.

“What? Did they find something?”

“No… it’s… someone got lost!”

“Did they find a lost child or something?! But we barred entry into the forest!”

“That’s not it! The Ministry employee that was in that group got lost!”

The sentry was at a loss for words, and the man from our group was just standing still with his mouth open in disbelief. Sora and I felt awkward.

Nathan Hart came all the way from the capital just to get lost in the forest… and during this emergency mission of all times…

“Unnghh, I’m so sorry! I let the rope slip! It’s all my fault…” said Laura with tears in her eyes. It could have looked endearing, except for the fact that she was huge and musclebound…

Sora and I immediately ran to meet the West area group, only to find our examiner wailing. “It’s not your fault,” I said to comfort her, but I was worried about what we were going to do next.

Since the trouble in the fields still had to be dealt with, we told the villagers and other Ministry employees that they could continue investigating the forest, but would we be able to find Hart? The forest, while not huge, wasn’t exactly small either, and I honestly wasn’t so sure we could succeed.

And of course we couldn’t just leave without him. I asked Laura if there was any possibility that he would find the way out of the forest on his own, and she promptly replied that it was utterly impossible.

We started searching the area in which Hart had gotten lost, but there was no sign of him. Why do we have to look for a lost colleague in a forest? And with a Dark Magic user potentially lurking around, at that, I thought, sighing.

“Oh, there you are,” we heard someone say. It was Maria, accompanied by Dewey. The two had finished investigating their own area and had come here to offer some much needed help. I was relieved that nothing bad had happened to Maria.

“We heard about Hart… did you find him?”

“Not at all. We don’t even know if he’s still in the west area. The worst thing about Nathan is that he can walk really fast,” said Laura, putting a hand to her face as she sighed.

“I cannot promise that it will work, but there is something that I would like to try. Do you have anything that belongs to him?”

“To Nathan? Well, all of his stuff is at the village chief’s house where we’re staying.”

“Could I go back there to retrieve some of it?”

“Sure, I guess. But why?”

“I just so happen to have a plush bear with me who is really good at finding people,” said Maria with a troubled smile.

Why, of course! The bear was originally a magical tool to search for people!

Maria quickly explained about the bear to Laura and Dewey, and we went back to the village chief’s house to borrow something that belonged to Hart.

We first went to the room where Maria and I were staying to get the bear, who was relaxing on the bed. We then went to Hart’s room and, while feeling guilty about it, looked through his luggage. I’m sorry, but this is an emergency…

We found a small towel which we could easily bring with us and let the bear smell it. Technically the bear was “sensing the person’s aura” or something, but it just looked like it was sniffing.

Maybe even Pochi could be able to find people by smelling for them… I should teach him to do it.

The bear raised one its short arms and pointed at where it thought Hart was, and we went in that direction. It worked for Maria this morning, so it might work this time too.

Following the bear’s arm we found ourselves near the forest, which was to be expected, and then we were guided into the west area.

“Oh, so he hasn’t moved that much. Maybe he finally learned how easy it can be to get lost if you wander around aimlessly in such a place,” said Laura, relieved.

Hart sure was being treated like a… No, I shouldn’t think anything bad about my seniors. That would be rude. But we had searched the west area quite thoroughly earlier. Just where was he hiding?

“Hm? Was this cave here all along?”

The bear had pointed us in the direction of a cave in the middle of the forest which I hadn’t noticed before.

“Maybe we just didn’t see it, considering it’s this deep into the trees…” said Laura, confused.

The weirdest thing was that, despite its location, it was a really large cave… How could we miss it?

I was still wondering that to myself while Maria called out to us in a stern voice.

“That place is dangerous.”

“You can’t mean…”

Is she talking about Dark Magic?

Maria read my expression and nodded, her face darkened. I looked at Sora to see if he was feeling anything, but he shook his head with a confused expression.

“Dangerous? What do you mean?” asked Laura, who wasn’t in on the Dark Magic thing.

“My Light Magic allows me to perceive dangerous powers, and I can sense them being at work there.”

“What dangerous powers?”

“I do not have permission to say more…” said Maria, troubled, following Larna’s instructions.

“Okay, I won’t ask any further,” replied Laura, surprisingly easily persuaded. Despite her flamboyant looks, she was a reasonable type.

“If it’s dangerous as you say, then we shouldn’t enter it… but your teddy is pointing towards it,” she added with her shoulder drooped.

I looked at the bear, and it was definitely pointing towards the cave, meaning that Hart was in there…

“If it’s a dangerous place, that’s all the more reason to get Nathan out of it as soon as possible,” she rightly said. We couldn’t risk leaving him alone in that cave.

“I wish I could just tell all of you to wait for me here, but going alone doesn’t sound very enticing… Will any of you come with me?” Laura asked.

“I will. I can sense those evil powers and I can heal light wounds with my magic,” Maria immediately replied.

“I’ll come with too. I’ve overcome my fair share of danger in life, and I’ll probably be able to help,” said Sora, raising his hand.

So, those remaining outside of the cave, would be…

I glanced at Dewey, who instantly looked elsewhere. This was going to be awkward, and I also didn’t want to stay here, worrying about them while I was doing nothing.

“I will be coming too!”

“I’ll come too!” we both said simultaneously. We were probably thinking the same exact thing.

In the end, we all went inside together. At least that made me feel safer.

We stepped into the cave. The ceiling had enough holes in it for enough sunlight to shine through. It wasn’t dark or scary — actually, it was shiny and beautiful. But this was no time to appreciate the landscape, not after Maria had said that she could feel Dark Magic.

The cave was very wide and full of branching paths, so Sora, who was probably used to this kind of exploration, started marking our path so we could get back outside safely. If I’d gone in alone, I never would have thought of it… And the person we were looking for was a genius at getting lost, so he’d never make it out of the cave by himself.

After a while, Sora whispered something into my ear. “I’ve started feeling the darkness too… we must be close.”

I looked at Maria, and her face was even bleaker than before. Maybe Hart was kidnapped by a Dark Magic user… that would be trouble. I hope he’s safe…

“Ahh!” Laura screamed all of a sudden, before starting to run.

We ran after her until she stopped.

“N-Nathan! We’ve finally found you!” she said, grabbing her colleague with one of her thick arms.

Hart looked really surprised — who wouldn’t be, if a femininely-dressed macho grabbed them all of a sudden? — but quickly understood what had happened.

“I am sorry… I must have caused you a lot of trouble,” he said, lowering his head.

“You have! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?!” said Laura, tying him with the rope. He realized that he was in no position to complain this time. “Why did you come into this cave? I know that you have no sense of direction, but isn’t this a bit too much?” Laura asked him.

“I knew that this wasn’t the way out of the forest, obviously,” he explained, a bit offended.

Laura, meanwhile, stared at him coldly… as if doubting that.

“Ahem…” he continued, slightly awkwardly. “After losing you people, I ran into someone suspicious and followed him here.”

“Someone suspicious?”

“Yes, there was a man walking alone through the forest. I sneaked after him and he eventually entered this cave, where, unfortunately, I lost him,” he said, sounding proud of his achievement.

“So what you’re telling me is that you got lost in the forest, followed someone to this cave, lost him, and then got lost again inside the cave?” said Laura, and now, as he nodded, he didn’t look so proud anymore.

“Mm… Maybe we should look for this person, but we can’t risk getting lost in here,” she continued, and I agreed with her. Of course I wanted to investigate the suspicious man, but I’d rather not get lost inside a cave.

“I do not know whether that will lead us to him, but I can sense the dangerous aura becoming stronger. I could probably pinpoint its origin if we went further into the cave,” said Maria with a serious gaze. Maybe the man that Hart had seen was a Dark Magic user.

The two examiners, after hearing what Maria said, looked at each other.

“I can look after two of them, I’d say,” said Laura.

“I can protect another one,” said Hart. “Can you look after yourself, Sora?”

“Yes, as long as it’s just me.”

“Good,” said Laura with a smile, “then it’s decided. I’ll take care of you, Maria, and you, Katarina. Don’t stray from me, got it?”

“Dewey, you come with me,” said Hart.

Dewey looked displeased, maybe because he had to be protected just like me and Maria.

“Make sure he doesn’t get lost,” Laura told him, giving him the rope that was connected to Hart, and Dewey hesitantly nodded.

We then started venturing deeper into the cave.

“Don’t do anything dangerous, and stay behind me at all times. And if anything happens, just run away, okay?” Laura whispered to us while we walked, and we nodded in agreement. “I may not look it, but I’m quite strong. Just leave it to me,” she then said, apparently unaware of how ridiculously strong she looked.

We walked through a narrow tunnel that forced us to walk into a single line, and then entered the large open space beyond it, which was darker than the rest of the cave.

“I think it is coming from there,” said Maria under her breath.

Laura led us into the open space, and we looked around while staying hidden behind a rock formation. I imagined that the place would be full of bad people scheming terrible things, like when Keith was kidnapped, but there didn’t seem to be anybody in this large area.

“There’s someone,” said Laura.

Following her gaze, I saw that there was indeed a man standing there. He seemed to be alone. Or is there someone else hidden from sight? We moved a little closer to him, but we still couldn’t see anybody else lurking.

The man wasn’t particularly tall or short, fat or skinny… he was very average. However, his face looked so distressed that we could easily tell how upset he was despite the distance.

“I think he’s alone, and he doesn’t look that strong, at least physically. Magic prowess being a different issue…” said Laura.

“He is likely to possess very strong magic. Coming in contact could be very dangerous,” said Maria, referring to how Dark Magic users could control people by touching them.

“So we’re fine as long as we don’t come in contact with him?”

“…Yes.”

“Okay. Wait here, all of you,” said Laura before launching herself towards the man.

“Wait!” I screamed, meaning to run after her, but Hart stopped me.

“Worry not. Guy is an incredibly talented magic user. They even call her ‘the flame witch’ at the Ministry.”

I was surprised to find out that people referred to her as “witch” and not “wizard,” but more importantly, I was surprised to know that she was hiding that much power. I’m sorry for thinking that you were just a weird macho…

Fast like the wind, she reached the man and stopped in front of him. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” she asked him.

Anyone would be surprised if a macho in girls’ clothes spoke to them all of a sudden… but the man didn’t even flinch. All he did was start muttering something to himself while staring into the distance.

Wow, this is even more suspicious than I thought. Is he on something?

Laura looked at him, confused. “Are you… alright?” she asked, but the man, once again, did nothing but mutter to himself.

Laura gave up and came back to us, her head hanging low. “This isn’t going anywhere… He’s so out of it that he won’t even look at me. I don’t see anyone accompanying him, and it’s too dangerous to leave him here alone. We have to bring him back to the Ministry with us.”

“I can feel a dangerous magic aura coming from that man… If we are bringing him back, I will do it,” said Maria.

“You say it’s dangerous and you think I’ll let you do it?” Laura said, but Maria shook her head.

“I wield Light Magic, so his magic cannot affect me. There is no problem. Please let me do it.”

She really was immune to Dark Magic, but that man looked like trouble regardless.

“If that’s the case, you and I will do it together. I assume I can’t touch him, but if anything happens, I’ll be there to protect you,” said Laura coolly before leaving the hiding spot behind the rock. She was probably thinking the same thing I was.

Maria nodded and followed her.

“Dewey, you still have Nathan’s rope, right? Let’s tie that guy up with it,” Laura said.

“Y-Yes,” replied Dewey, and stood up to give it to her.

Whoooooosh!

A gust of wind, so intense that I had to close my eyes, came from the direction that Laura and Maria were headed towards, accompanied by a deafening noise. The wind felt so strong even with the rock in front of us — if we hadn’t been behind cover, we probably would have been blown away.

Wait, what about Dewey, Laura, and Maria?! I tried looking past the rock to make sure that they were safe, but the wind was kicking so much dust into the air that I couldn’t see anything… and I couldn’t hear anything either. I hope they’re okay…

I waited, worried, and eventually the wind subsided.

“Are you guys alright?” I asked, jumping out from behind the rock, but they weren’t where I expected them to be.

Once the dust fell back onto the ground, I realized that they’d been blown away, Dewey and Maria to the right, and Laura to the left.

“Are you alright?” I asked again in both directions.

“Yes.”

“Yes!”

“Yes,” all of them replied in turn. Phew, they’re fine.

I looked at where the wind had come from. In the spot where the suspicious man had been standing, the dust was still dancing in the air.

What happened there? Was it an explosion or something? I stared, trying to find out what had happened, until the dust settled.

I saw a large figure standing in place of the man.

What’s that?

I squinted, and eventually managed to make it out. I held my breath and my eyebrows raised in shock.

It was… a dragon.

Before my very eyes was a beast that didn’t even exist in my previous life. It looked just like the dragons in movies or manga: long neck, scale-covered body, and bat-like wings. The only unexpected thing was that it wasn’t green, but black.

“…Wow.”

The unicorn I’d seen at the Biomagic Department in the Ministry was impressive, sure, but it had nothing on this huge, menacing creature. I never expected the day to come when I could say this, but I was sitting, frozen, staring at the dragon.

Sora and the others who were hiding with me, as well as those who’d been blown away by the wind, were also looking at it.

“What the…”

That reaction had probably been Sora’s, but everyone’s expression was just as surprised. Was it the first time they’d all seen a dragon? Maybe they were very rare, even in this world.

“…Let’s run,” said Hart, standing up and looking terrified.

Run? Why?

I was waiting, confused, when Sora grabbed my hand. “Pull yourself together! This is dangerous!” he scolded me.

Oh, yeah, dangerous. I kind of understood what he said, so I stood up. Maria, Dewey, and Laura had also stood up, and they were coming towards us.

“Let’s go back to the entrance! Follow me!” said Hart — who wasn’t tied to the rope anymore — before starting to run.

But the entrance is in the opposite direction…

“Not at a time like this! That idiot!” said Sora, loudly clicking his tongue with annoyance. “Get out of here, I’ll catch up to you later,” he told me before going after Hart.

I did as he said and started running, but I heard a loud sound behind me. I looked back and saw the dragon moving, making its way (smoothly, despite its huge body) towards the three that had been blown away by the wind and that were now trying to get back to where I was.

And then, it swung its huge arm towards Maria.

No!!! I tried to run and save her, but I could tell that I wouldn’t make it in time.

I was the closest one to her, so there was no way that Laura, who was at the opposite corner of the cave, would be able to help her. Nor could Hart and Sora, who’d gone off running.

“Maria!” I shouted. At the same time, I saw a small figure jump in front of Maria, pushing her away. That figure was hit squarely by the dragon’s arm and flew through the air, and then smashed into a large rock.

“Dewey!” This time it was Maria who screamed.

Dewey, who had saved Maria, was lying motionless on the ground. When Maria ran to him and lifted him up, he let out a small painful moan, which at least meant that he was still alive.

A faint light, probably created by Maria’s healing Light Magic, now shrouded the two, but it was too far away for me to tell clearly what was going on. I had to move closer…

The dragon started moving again, aiming for Maria and Dewey.

Wh-Why?!

Maria had noticed, but she didn’t move. Actually, she couldn’t move, because she had to bring the motionless Dewey with her. She hugged him as if to protect him and then stared the dragon in the eye.

I have to do something! If I don’t, they’ll both be…

I grabbed a small rock from the ground and threw it at the dragon. I was pretty good at throwing things after all those years of training with toy snakes, and my rock hit its target. I actually felt a bit proud that this talent had come in handy at a time like this.

I was afraid that the scales covering its body would be too hard for a single rock to matter, but it noticed me and looked away from Maria.

Perfect! I threw another rock (again, skillfully) at the dragon and shouted at the top of my lungs. “Hey you! Over here!”

Either because of the rocks or because I had shouted, the dragon did indeed start moving towards me, as smoothly as a snake. I knew I had to distract it from Maria and Dewey, but I had no idea what to do after that… so I just ran away.

“Lady Katarina!” Maria shouted.

I was a fast runner, but I was no match for a dragon, and I soon found myself cornered against a wall. I picked up a stick from the ground and held it like a sword, but I realized that wouldn’t help much. At least if I’d had a proper sword, I could have made use of all those fencing lessons…

Anyway, with a wall behind me and a dragon in front of me, I was in a very tight spot. Am I going to be doomed before even dealing with the routes in FL2?

I felt something warm in my pocket. Hm? I’ve felt something like this before. It was that mirror back then… Now all I had in my pocket was a magnifying glass, but why was it so hot? Maybe it had caught the sunlight and it was going to burn my clothes… that would be a serious problem.

“Call my name,” I heard a voice call out all of a sudden. I didn’t know that voice, but it sounded familiar for some reason.

“Call me.”

Who are you?

“Call me, and I will save you, Master.”

Oh, I know who you are.

I wasn’t sure why, but I understood who that voice belonged to.

I did it. I called his name…

“Pochi!”

My shadow started waving around, and out of it came… not Pochi, but the largest black dog I’d ever seen, around the same size as the dragon.

WH-WHAT?!

The giant dog looked at my shocked face and wagged its tail, just like…

“P-Pochi? Is that you?”

“Woof!” he said happily.

This frightening beast was Pochi, the Dark Familiar pup who lived inside of my shadow.

“Pochi… why’d you become so big? How are we going to play in the garden like this?” I asked him as he kept wagging its tail. He looked terrifying, but inside he was the same Pochi as always.

The dragon, which we had both completely forgotten about, roared, and we remembered what a dangerous situation we were in. Being able to play in the garden should have been the last of my concerns. If we didn’t do something, we wouldn’t even get to see our garden ever again.

The dragon, maybe offended at being ignored, raised its arm to swing it down as it had previously done to Maria. Pochi swiftly jumped in front of me and bit the dragon’s arm, making it cry with pain and back away.

Whoa, great job, Pochi!

He was growling menacingly at the dragon, who, with the pride befitting a beast its size, showed its fangs and roared in return before running towards him.

“Pochi! Look out!” I screamed, but he calmly dodged the dragon’s bite, jumping to the side.

Before I could feel any relief at the avoided attack, the dragon went in for a second bite, which Pochi dodged as well, but then it hit him from behind with its huge tail.

“P-Pochi!”

I ran towards Pochi, who was growling and grimacing, and the dragon showed its fangs again. He tried to dodge, but this time he was too injured to move quickly enough. The dragon scratched him, and Pochi writhed with pain.

I have to help Pochi before the dragon kills him…

I started throwing rock after rock at it.

“Stop! Stop hurting Pochi!” I shouted while throwing rocks, sticks, and just about anything I could find on the floor. I managed to catch the dragon’s attention, and it turned towards me.

Pochi took advantage of that and jumped incredibly fast at the dragon, biting its neck in a powerful critical hit. Even when the dragon fell onto the ground after letting out a deafening roar, Pochi kept biting, as if to finish it. Still on the floor, it twisted its body around a few times until it finally stopped moving at all.

Yes! Pochi won! He defeated the dragon!

“Pochi! You were awesome!”

He turned towards me and wagged its tail side to side with the same happy face he made when we were playing fetch at home, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. I patted his nose and told him that he was a good boy.

“Are you hurt?” I asked, and looked at where he’d been hit by the dragon’s tail, but there was no wound to be seen. He started jumping around, probably to show me that he was fine. I was so, so glad.

“You were so cool, Pochi! Really great!” I complimented him while still patting his nose. I’d usually hold him in my arms and pet him all over, but now he was definitely too big for that.

Will he be able to get back to his usual size? Will he even be able to hide in my shadow anymore? If he can’t do that, then I’ll have to keep him in the garden… Mother complained enough about the vegetable field, so this won’t make her happy… She’d probably tell me that I can’t keep him… What would I do then?

While I was busy thinking about this, I noticed smoke coming out of the dragon on the floor. I-Is it going to explode?! I thought, but the smoke quickly vanished, and the dragon with it. What? Where did it go? Why did it disappear? Can dragons just disappear?

That was surprising enough, but when I looked back at Pochi, I realized that he’d also gone back to his normal puppy-size.

I have no idea what’s going on anymore… is it some kind of trick?! Disappearing dragons, shrinking dogs… how does this even work? …Well, magic does exist in this world, so I guess it all makes sense.

“Oh, Pochi, I’m so glad you went back to normal! We’ll still be able to play in the garden!” I was so relieved that I wouldn’t need to build a house in the garden for Pochi, and he could still live in my shadow.

I patted his little head as he breathed with his tongue sticking out and his tail swinging from side to side. I noticed he was looking at my hand, which was still holding one of the sticks I’d grabbed to throw at the dragon.

“Do you want to play? Okay, try to catch it!” I said. I pulled my arm back, preparing for the throw, when someone grabbed it.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you while you’re having so much fun,” said Laura, who had appeared behind me all of a sudden, short of breath and with a troubled expression. “There are a ton of things that I’d like to ask you, but first… are you hurt?”

“No, I’m not.”

Pochi had protected me from the dragon, and I had come out of it without a scratch. And even Pochi himself, despite his fight just now, looked fine too. I checked him after he went back to his normal size, but I couldn’t find any wounds. Another thing to write off as a mystery of magic.

“That’s good. Now, Maria and Dewey…”

“Right! Maria and Dewey!”

Forget about throwing sticks!

I ran towards them, and Maria, with a pale face, asked me whether I was wounded. I told her I wasn’t, and her face instantly changed to show her relief.

“What about Dewey?” asked Laura, looking at him. He was being held by Maria, his eyes closed but visibly still breathing.

Maria let Dewey go and pushed him into Laura’s arms. “I used my Light Magic to heal him, but the blow was so strong that he lost consciousness, and it would be better if a doctor took a look at him.”

“Okay. As soon as we’re out of here, we’re bringing him to one,” Laura said, taking Dewey into her big, strong arms.

Maria, however, was looking down uneasily. He’d gotten hurt trying to protect her, so that would make it even worse if anything serious had happened to him.

Maria finally stopped looking at Dewey, raised her head, and walked towards me.

Hm? Does she need something from me?

She stopped in front of me, looking into my eyes and glaring. “I apologize in advance for being rude,” she said, bowing her head.

It was the first time Maria had ever looked at me like that, so I was surprised.

Wh-What? Why? I asked myself, confused, and Maria, as angry as I’d never seen before, started scolding me.

“Why did you lure the dragon your way?! You could have died! Did you even think about what could happen?! I bet not!”

“I… I didn’t, but… I mean, you two were in danger, so I just… I just went and did it without thinking about it too hard…”

I tried to excuse what I had done, but Maria’s expression turned even angrier.

“I am thankful that you tried to save us. But to use yourself as bait… If anything had happened to you, I… I…” Tears were now falling from Maria’s wide eyes.

“M-Maria!”

“If anything had happened to you because of me… How could I…” she kept saying, crying. She must have been so worried about me…

“I’m sorry I made you worry. I won’t do dangerous stuff anymore,” I said, sorry for what I had done, and I hugged her.

“…Please do not,” she said, blushing and hugging me back.

She was shivering and shedding tears, so I gently stroked her back. I felt terrible that I’d made her worry about me.

Maria eventually calmed down and stopped crying and shaking.

“Oh, you’re awake,” said a deep, manly voice besides us.

“Waaah?!” replied a different, terrified voice.

We turned to look, and saw that Dewey had just woken up in Laura’s arms.

The first thing he saw upon waking up was the face of a huge, muscular woman staring at him… I’d have screamed too.

Maria, who had regained her composure, left my hug and walked towards Dewey.

“Dewey, are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?” she asked, and he jumped up and out of Laura’s arms.

“I’m perfectly fine!” he said, flailing his body around.

He really looks okay. I’m glad.

Maria was relieved at seeing that he wasn’t hurt. “Thank you for saving me, but don’t do anything dangerous anymore, okay?” she said, stroking his head. Dewey’s face instantly flushed red.

Hehe, look at him. He’s completely fallen for her. This must be his first crush! Ahh, it’s too cute!

“Excuse me… can we leave already? We have caught the suspicious man,” said Hart, who had just come back after getting lost.

Behind him was Sora, holding the rope connected to Hart in his hand and carrying the suspicious man on his back.

“Uh? Is it okay to touch him, Sora?” asked Laura, surprised, remembering that Maria had warned her against that.

“He is unconscious, so I think there is no problem,” said Sora.

“Yes,” added Maria, “his aura is not as threatening anymore. It should be safe.”

“Fine then,” said Laura, reassured.

“We should leave before we run into anything else,” Hart pointed out, walking in the complete opposite direction to where the entrance was.

“This way,” said Sora, pulling on his rope. Who’s examining who, again?

“Dewey, if you can’t move well I can always carry you,” Laura kindly said to Dewey.

“Thank you, but I can move on my own,” he replied coldly.

Maybe waking up to Laura’s stare had been hard on him… He seemed to have no intention of being carried around.

While we were walking out of the cave, Sora also scolded me under his breath, calling me a “reckless idiot” and gently smacking me on the back of my head. He didn’t put it kindly, but his expression really looked worried, so I just apologized.

“Don’t ever do that again!” he said while giving me a noogie.

I had made so many people worry… I’ll have to be more careful from now on.

The cave wasn’t exactly dark, but when we stepped out into the forest, it was bright enough to feel dazzling.

“Oh? There are birds,” I said, noticing them flying over my head. There were none when we’d gone inside the cave. I wonder why…

“Maybe,” said Maria, “the animals had left the forest because of that dark aura I felt. It has almost disappeared completely now, so that could explain why the animals are back.”

“It disappeared? When?” asked Laura.

“When that large creature did. Maybe the aura was emanating from it.”

“I wonder if the animals left the forest for fear of that creature.”

“That seems likely,” said Maria.

They were right. We went back to the village, and, after a while, the animals started going back to their old habitat in the forest. At Hart’s suggestion, I sent Pochi after the few who had taken a liking to the crops and didn’t want to go back, and he quickly drove them back into the forest.

Hart also wrote a report on what had happened, lifting that responsibility from the rest of us, since we couldn’t properly explain all the things that had happened involving Dark Magic. He wasn’t very useful on the field (if anything, he was a burden), but when it came to administrative work, he was an outright genius.

Cleaning up after the mission would normally have taken several days and multiple people, but he managed to do all of it alone and in less than a day, giving out all the appropriate instructions and quickly finishing all the work we needed taken care of.

And so, a few days later, we were back at the Ministry.