Before Departure: Stella & Rio
“This is the carriage rental shop, you see.”
“This is it. It’s surprisingly ordinary, and there aren’t many.”
“Considering maintenance costs and such, it’s better to buy a horse and carriage. If we could take care of them, we’d buy one ourselves, but Lulu is the only one who can manage it, you see.”
“Can’t push it on her.”
“That’s right, you see, we’ve already pushed a lot on her.”
“Mm.”
“Well then, shall we make a reservation?”
Stella and Rio were walking through the town.
Unlike their usual battle dress, which emphasized ease of movement, they were dressed in outfits that could blend into the town, except for their outstanding appearances.
Stella was dressed like a typical town girl in a loose jacket and a long skirt, while Rio was dressed like a young girl in a frilly light blue dress, walking with a friendly and sisterly atmosphere.
“Welcome, what can I do for you?”
“We’d like to rent a fast and sturdy carriage, do you have any reservations available?”
“We have military horse-drawn carriages available. When are you planning to start using it?”
“We’d like to start using it within two or three days. We’d like to use it for a maximum of about a month, how much would that cost?”
“For about a month… it would be this much. If you need feed for the journey, it would be this much extra.”
“I see, then we’ll take it. Here’s the payment in advance.”
“!? …Understood. Please show us this stub when you come to use it, and we will hand it over to you then.”
“Understood, then we’ll be going.”
“…It ended so quickly, is that okay?”
“It’s fine, you see. Military horses are fast and durable, and that amount of money is not a problem to lose, you see.”
“Is that so?”
“The reward Ferno-dono is paid is dozens of times that amount, and more importantly, lying in the customer service business would result in greater losses, you see.”
“…”
“It seems difficult, doesn’t it? We’ll learn about this later, you see.”
“Mm.”
The reason why the two were walking through the town like this was to prepare for the schedule given by Ferno and as part of Rio’s education.
They were teaching her how to negotiate and choose shops in town, how to choose products, how to talk to shopkeepers, etc., starting with renting a carriage. This was one of the educational activities that had been taking place since Rio joined.
Stella had decided that it would be useless to teach her how to deal with nobles from the beginning, so she was teaching her slowly, starting with these everyday scenes.
“Now then, where do you think we should go next?”
“…A pharmacy?”
“Why do you think so?”
“It’s better to leave weapons for last so they don’t get in the way. Lulu is in charge of food, and Fana is taking care of exploration equipment, right?”
“You’ve thought it through well, you see. But, you’re wrong, you see.”
“…Mm, is that so?”
“Yes, Ferno-dono said he would take care of the medicine. We’re going to the library now, you see.”
“…The library?”
“Yes, the library, you see.”
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“Welcome to the library, do you need an explanation?”
“It’s okay.”
“Understood. Then please be quiet.”
“Okay. Well then, let’s go, you see.”
“Mm.”
The two moved to the Royal Capital’s Grand Library.
It was the place with the most books, judging by the types of books on display. It was an unusually large space expanded by magic, where similar scenes stretched out in all directions, and people sometimes got lost.
After exchanging a few words with the languid-looking woman sitting at the reception, Stella and Rio walked deeper into the interior, where bookshelves and books lined up.
“…Why are we here?”
“I thought you wouldn’t ask, you see.”
“I wasn’t going to ask, but I remembered that I was taught to ask if I had a question.”
“You remembered well, you see.”
“Mm… So, why?”
While stroking Rio’s head, who had honestly voiced her question, Stella spoke as she walked towards the place where the desired book was, following her memory.
“Because there’s information we need to know, you see.”
“…Information?”
“The Elves, the Great Forest, the ecology inside the Great Forest, these are obvious, but there are other things we should investigate rather than just know, you see.”
“…The reason why Ferno prioritized the Elves?”
“You’re very observant, you see. That’s right, you see.”
“Mm.”
The reason why he prioritized the Elves.
The Elves, a race with high combat abilities and high pride, for better or worse. Stella and Rio knew this, and there was no way Ferno didn’t know this information. On top of that, Ferno had decided that they had to be prioritized over the Harpies and Dwarves.
The anomaly occurring with the Elves.
The worst-case scenario that Ferno was likely anticipating.
In order to obtain the end of the information needed to determine the truth of these two things, Stella came here because it would fulfill the secondary purpose of teaching Rio how to collect information from paper media.
She was also concerned about Ferno’s behavior. She was concerned that he had chosen the Disaster Classification Night Beetle, which had few threatening elements other than its hardness, over the Wyvern and Flame Boar, which were likely to become uncontrollable if they went on a rampage.
“I don’t know what kind of worst-case scenario Ferno-dono is anticipating, but I want to gather information to estimate my own worst-case scenario, you see.”
“…What?”
“The possibility that the Night Beetle is not the main body of the Disaster Classification, you see.”
“…A parasite?”
“That’s right, you see.”
The worst-case scenario that Stella thought of while listening to the story.
It was that there was a parasite inside the Night Beetle, and that it was the true identity of the monster designated as a Disaster Classification. On top of that, the worst-case scenario was that the parasite was targeting the entire Great Forest, including the Elves, and trying to turn the forest itself into a puppet.
It might seem impossible that such a creature could exist, but Stella knew that a Roper that met certain reproducible conditions could do something like that.
That’s why she was trying to investigate parasites that could parasitize a wide variety of plants and animals. She wanted to find out if they lived inside the Great Forest and if they could continue to live there.
She was about to explain it in order, but Rio quickly came to the same conclusion that the parasite was the main body, so Stella omitted that part of the explanation.
“First, we’ll investigate the Elves, then we’ll investigate the Great Forest where the Elves live, and then we’ll investigate the ecology inside the Great Forest, you see.”
“Mm. What should I grasp?”
“Everything, you see.”
“Mm, understood. What will Stella do?”
“I’ll start by investigating the parasites, you see. There are a lot of parasites, you see.”
“Mm… I was thinking, is it okay to limit it to insects?”
“We’ll expand it if we have time, you see. If we expand it to parasitic organisms, we won’t be able to investigate everything in about half a day, you see.”
“I see. Then, where are they?”
“Let’s try to find them ourselves, you see. The contents of that bookshelf are only related to the Elves, so if you investigate it, you’ll find the information you’re looking for, you see.”
“Understood.”
“When you take a book from the top, please move that ladder and go get it, you see?”
“Mm, it’s okay. I’m not that lacking in common sense.”
After a brief conversation, Stella and Rio each faced the bookshelves, picking up books and putting them back, picking them up and putting them back, and when they found the book they were looking for, they held it in their arms and placed it on the floor nearby before looking for another book.
In conclusion, the two did not obtain much new information in this investigation.
Rio had investigated information about the Elves and obtained information about the ecology inside the Great Forest, but she could not find anything that connected to the anomaly that was occurring.
Stella had thoroughly investigated information about parasites, but there were no parasites that had the power to freely control monsters. Even when she expanded it to parasitic organisms, there was no information in the library books about parasitic organisms that could mentally interfere with others.
Two of the few new pieces of information. The two pieces of information they had obtained and compared, and as a result, they determined that two monsters related to a unique Elven ritual were possible.
One was a cell-type monster called Hifa.
It was an abnormal monster with the characteristic of adapting to all kinds of environments, mixing into the cells of other living things, and necrotizing all the cells of that living thing with a delay of several days to several years.
It was not considered a threat because it would die on its own due to blood activity and cell activity, and it was a type of monster that did not parasitize because it had an independent ecology.
However, in the Elven ritual, it was a rare existence that was used in a ritual to pray for fertility, in which a cultured individual was swallowed by a priestess along with the sap of a great tree, and she was made to pray for seven days and seven nights.
The other monster was called a Tree Spirit.
A strange spiritual entity, classified as a monster, with a unique ecology of absorbing nutrients from plants and causing nightmares to the living.
A monster that, while resembling an Undead, is not an Undead but a normal creature, and therefore ages, grows, and evolves.
An entity used in Elven rituals, where it is made to absorb the nutrients of a great tree, and then killed by a warrior at the base of the tree’s roots, as a ritual to pray for prosperity.
These two bits of information were the results of the two of us today.