Page 22

(Walson)

We all enjoyed the celebratory feast.

"... Walson, you're squashing me..."

"Hey hang on, didn't you volunteer for this?"

Both Grace and I were lying on top of Melon's legs, enjoying the soft feeling of her body.

Initially, it was just me. But Grace didn't like being left out and decided to join me.

We all look like young siblings vying for the attention of their elder sister. Which technically isn't false, since Melon is two years older than us.

I suppose there are some of us that look up to Melon.

"Thank you both for the wonderful feast." Melon was still smiling, and I noticed some traces of unshed tears in the corner of her eyes.

I will feel content so long as she keeps smiling.

Melon has already started to wear the chainmail I gifted her, and she also has a pair of lizard leather gloves on her hand.

Grace was the person who gave the gloves to her. It seems like she used all the money she gathered for a month to buy it.

The gloves are made out of Desert Lizard's skin, which is not native to our region. It must have cost quite a penny.

The reason Grace thought it was a good gift was because she noticed that Melon preferred to fight with her bare hands.

... I should probably enchant those when I get the chance to.

______________________

I want to temporarily abandon the cheerful atmosphere from our previous subject.

Since what we are going to talk about now would not be so cheerful.

Well, I have been smuggling some food from the secret base into the Orphanage granary.

The Orphanage is going through a tough period since we had a bad harvest this year.

Despite not liking the Orphanage a lot, I was still raised in it, and I wish to help them.

I can't bring any meat, and I have to limit the number of potatoes that I want to bring, otherwise they might become suspicious.

I have brought my own food reserves to help the Orphanage, which is why the food reserves in the secret base had lowered sharply. This has been going on for several months now.

The stuff that we had in the secret base was enough to feed the three of us for an indefinite amount of time, but it couldn't sustain the Orphanage for long.

I have tried to supplement our supplies by using lots of [Bone Meal] to help produce more crops. But this method requires tons of [Bone Meal].

And I have officially run out of [Bone Meal].

The source of the [Bone Meal] comes from bones. It could be bones from the undead, or even normal animals.

But if I want to get those bones then I have to go hunting. And going hunting when we had a bad harvest isn't really a good idea.

The bad harvest also made the monster population decline since food is scarce. If I go hunting for enough bones to supply enough [Bone Meal] to feed everyone, then I might as well kill off everything. That is not a productive thing to do.

Also, who would have enough time to hunt for bones all day, then smuggle food into the Orphanage during the night? It's a pretty time-consuming operation.

By the way, the reason we had a bad harvest this year is not related to the weather conditions. We didn't have a drought this year.

It's because the land has become less fertile.

But when I say "less fertile", it's also not caused by overcropping. Because it's not just the farmland going less fertile, the entire region is experiencing the same problem.

It's enough that even the plants in the forests are wilting by the dozens, something that is normally impossible.

Something must have happened. This isn't natural.

The village has sent out bounties for adventurers to come investigate. "Find out why the mana of the land is running out" was what was written on the bulletin board.

Since I am not very sensitive to magical energies, I consulted Grace on what that meant, and she told me more about it.

Essentially, the mana in the soil is disappearing for some reason. And since all life requires mana, the life that lives off from the land is starting to decline.

The adventurers local to our village are already preparing to launch an investigation, but they cannot go further into the mountains.

Mainly because they are mindful of the Golden Phantasmal Wolf that resides there, not wishing to encroach Arkon's territory.

... It's also thanks to Arkon that my secret base wasn't discovered by the investigation since it's inside his territory.

The other village closest to our village is two days away on horse and carriage travel. It's called the Totoku village.

Both Sadin (our village), and Totoku village are in the very remote part of the kingdom. To our east is the "Great forest of Nakula".

The adventurers have to travel to Totoku village, then make their way into the great forest of Nakula in order to avoid Arkon. But the Totoku village wasn't hit as hard by this incident as we are.

I have begun my own investigation as well.

I have noticed that the closer it is to my secret base, the wilting and decaying also gets more severe.

After a week of observation, I did not take any actions, since I have come to the conclusion that the source of the problem was definitely not in our forest.

_______________________________

*Sniff sniff*. I snuggled my face into Melon's thighs and inhaled her scent.

It has a slight fragrance to it. I am very glad that I still remember how to make soap from my previous life.

___________________________________

Anyway, the great forest of Nakula.

In the ancient language, "Nakula" means mysterious beauty, and is also the name of the patron guardian of the forest.

The forest is big enough to cover 5% of our region, and it's literally a sea of green when you turn your head to look to the east.

Only the outskirts are counted as true 'forest' since the deeper you go, the more and more it starts to resemble a jungle.

The monsters that inhabit the jungle are very strong. They would have been an ideal target for me to raise my level if it weren't for the fact that it was too bloody far away.

Despite the fact that my secret base is located in the deeper parts of the forest, it's still only a small section of it. Arkon lives here after all.

If we try to compare the great forest of Nakula with an apple, then the forest I am living in is counted as the apple skin.

The Nakula forest is filled with mysteries.

I have determined that something must have happened in the jungle-like part of the forest.

The distance is pretty far, but I think it would be manageable if we take advantage of Grace's ability to teleport.

But I shouldn't rely on that completely. One rule of going into the jungle is to go prepared.

The closer we get to the center, the more plants that could decrease visibility will appear. There are also swamps and bogs which are dangerous in their own right.

In that case, Grace's ability to teleport will be restricted by the terrain. Which is why I have been doing my best to prepare for our campaign.

This has forced me to double my efforts on finishing the chainmail that I wanted to give to Melon.

___________________________

"Master, it tickles." Melon was starting to blush, but her facial expression didn't change too much.

Melon is cautious when it comes to emotional display. It's kind of endearing.

"... Walson, don't screw around."

... I really wish that Grace could stop poking me with her staff so threateningly.