Episode 235: Territory Eroded
Several days after the destruction of Reidia Kingdom’s capital and other major northern cities, the Fenrir parent and child, driving away the surviving people, began to slowly move towards the Demon Forest, adjusting their pace to match the juvenile’s.
＜The Tree＞ regularly monitored their movements via satellite imagery. Ideally, they would have liked to keep a drone in the sky, but they had to abandon the idea due to it being outside the microwave power supply range.
While deploying a Solar-Powered Reconnaissance Aircraft (Swift) was possible, the information it could gather was not much different in resolution from the reconnaissance satellite due to the limitations of its onboard equipment, so it was decided against.
“It looks like they’re moving, but are they going back to the Demon Forest?”
“Unknown, Ma’am. The route they are taking is different from when they attacked the capital. They may simply be moving their feeding grounds.”
The ecology of this Threat Creature, which they had named Fenrir, was almost entirely unknown. In the first place, they were only able to observe it from a satellite orbit with limited resolution.
They couldn’t even determine what it was eating from the images.
“We were able to confirm scenes where the juvenile was preying on humans, so it is definitely carnivorous. We can assume that it is a Threat Creature based on wolves or canids. It may have some omnivorous tendencies, but we haven’t confirmed that yet.”
“The parent, as far as we can observe, hasn’t eaten anything for over a week, huh?”
Threat Creatures also need to eat.
This was confirmed with the initial ＜Rain Croin＞, and the ＜Wyvern＞ also seemed to be preying on Big Moths.
However, when calculating the creature’s activity level and calorie intake, the balance simply didn’t add up.
“We should probably assume that they are using Maso in some way to sustain themselves. At least, the adult Fenrir doesn’t seem to have any change in its athletic ability even after not eating for a week. It doesn’t even seem to be looking for prey.”
There were hardly any confirmed facts, and they could only speak in speculation. Commander (Eve) and ＜Ringo＞ were both aware of this, so it was just a casual conversation.
“We have no choice but to continue observing. The Prawa Theocracy seems to have started reorganizing their front lines as well, so there probably won’t be any major movements for a while.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I will report any changes in the situation as soon as they occur.”
◇◇◇◇
Three days after the Fenrir family returned to the Demon Forest, Fenrir was sighted again. The number was one. Based on size comparison, it was believed to be the male parent, ＜Froz＞.
“＜Froz＞ seems to be going around the villages it destroyed in order. It’s possible that it’s patrolling its territory. It seems that it has incorporated the area it advanced into in the Reidia Kingdom into its own territory.”
＜Ringo＞’s prediction was proven to be almost entirely correct by ＜Froz＞’s subsequent movements.
＜Froz＞ went around the villages, then spent the night in a relatively large city ruin, presumably the city of Trariquin. Incidentally, it scattered the residents of the city who were returning here and there.
The next day, it went all the way to the Royal Capital Argasta, again scattering and driving away the humans, and then returned to the Demon Forest.
“It seems that the northern part of the Reidia Kingdom has been completely claimed as territory by that ＜Fenrir＞.”
When the scattered residents somehow managed to return, ＜Fenrir＞ would chase them away again. ＜Fenrir＞ didn’t seem to be willing to allow humans to live in its territory.
“Heeh. It was fine until now, but suddenly this. This is pretty hard, this fantasy world.”
“Yes, Ma’am. However, even after analyzing the information we have gathered so far, we have not found any stories in the historical records of Threat Creatures like this moving south from the Demon Forest and eroding human habitation areas. At most, there are only fairy tales of dubious authenticity. There are no clear records left. If that’s the case, then we can assume that a rather irregular event has occurred.”
＜Paraiso＞ was collecting information, but it was difficult to gather information about Threat Creatures. This was predicted to be because the current human habitation area was not adjacent to the Threat Creature’s territory.
Conversely, it was thought that if they were adjacent, they might have been destroyed by something. In other words, humans and Threat Creatures were already living separately.
However, that prediction was being shaken by the actions of this ＜Fenrir＞.
“＜The Tree＞’s military strength is outstanding compared to the nations in the southern part of the Northern Continent. It would be easy to conquer a country with just a portion of our forces. However, the Threat Creatures we have encountered so far are the ones who can directly compete with our strength.”
“No, when you put it that way again, I really don’t want that. They attack us even if we don’t provoke them…”
However, it was also true that they had enough military strength to adequately counter those Threat Creatures. For example, if they were dealing with ＜Rain Croin＞, the 1st Fleet, the defensive force of Fortress ＜The Tree＞, would rush to the scene and be ready to quickly eliminate it.
Similarly, the ＜Wyvern＞ could be shot down unilaterally by deploying a large number of air forces.
However, despite having such a system in place, the fact that another uncertain factor, ＜Fenrir＞, had appeared was what made the irrational (fantasy) world so terrifying.
Could the deployable ground forces eliminate that Threat Creature?
“However, if it’s just patrolling its territory, we probably don’t have to worry about clashing with it for the time being. Rather, let’s be happy that the Prawa Theocracy’s invasion route has narrowed. Depending on the movements of that ＜Fenrir＞, the Prawa Theocracy will need to allocate some of its forces. The pressure on the front lines will be greatly reduced.”
As ＜Ringo＞ analyzed, the issue that needed to be resolved now was stopping the Prawa Theocracy’s invasion.
It was not an element that could be ignored, but for the time being, it would not only have no impact, but would also have a positive effect.
◇◇◇◇
The third time ＜Fenrir＞ patrolled its territory. The 10th day since the attack.
Significant changes were confirmed in the satellite imagery.
Relatively large villages and cities were becoming noticeably greener.
Trees with a height of several meters were already growing, and the ruins of the cities were rapidly beginning to sink into a sea of green.
This phenomenon had already been observed in another location.
The Fairy Circles that appear in the Demon Forest, created by the larvae of the Big Moth. It is a phenomenon in which plants grow rapidly inside.
In other words, the ruins of the cities in the Reidia Kingdom were becoming Fairy Circles.
“Onee-sama, this is really interesting! Do you think the city became a Fairy Circle, or was the city built in a place that was originally a Fairy Circle!?”
“Eeh… The sample size is too small to know… If we could have measured the Maso Density beforehand, we might have known something.”
Asahi (Asahi) spoke with high tension, and Onee-sama (Eve) was seriously keeping her company.
“However, we have a clue from the survey in the Afrasia United Kingdom! It seems that cities are built on Fairy Circles where Maso springs up!”
“Oh, is that so? Not that Fairy Circles are created later?”
“Yes! It seems that the humans in this world like places with high Maso Density, or rather, they feel aversion to places with low Maso Density!”
That was the first time she had heard that report. When she checked with ＜Ringo＞ with her eyes, she shook her head. Apparently, the content was still under verification.
“It’s like, ‘This place feels kind of bad…’! It seems that if the Maso Density is high to some extent, they don’t feel anything in particular!! Interesting!!”
Regardless of the truth of that story, Fairy Circles would be a key word. Fairy Circles are places where Maso springs up. This was a fact that had been revealed in a survey in the Afrasia United Kingdom.
And ＜Fenrir＞ was accurately going around the locations of the Fairy Circles.
It was not yet known whether the humans came first or the Fairy Circles came first, but ＜Fenrir＞, which happened to be within the detection range, was attracted to the Fairy Circles and jumped out of the Demon Forest.
It was dangerous to jump to conclusions, but it might be a good idea to analyze the information so far from that perspective.
Eve decided to do so and forced Asahi to do the consideration.