Chapter 74

During the night, Zara had spread out the uniform near the fire to dry it.

"Thank you, it really helped."

The uniform was wrinkled and stiff, but just having dry clothes made me feel happy. I also went to retrieve the underwear I had thrown away yesterday. It was still crumpled but had dried. I put it in my bag. The inside of the bag was almost dry too, probably due to the fire's magical effect. I changed into the spare underwear.

After changing into the uniform, Zara made a suggestion.

"Mel, you said that you could find Amelia's location through the mark on your hand, right?"

"Yes."

"Since she's probably with everyone else, can you check?"

"Sure."

I touched the mark on the back of my hand.

"---Huh?"

For a moment, I shared Amelia's vision. What I saw was Rieselotte, bound by vines in the forest.

"No... Why!?"

"Mel, what's wrong?"

I explained the situation with Amelia and Rieselotte to Zara.

"I see... I thought the captain was searching for us."

I never imagined they would be restrained.

"I'm sorry. I should have checked earlier."

"No, without weapons, hungry, and with wet clothes, there was nothing we could do."

What should we do now? Zara put her hand to her chin, thinking.

Since this is downstream of the gorge, it will be difficult to climb up to the cabin. It will take more than half a day at the earliest. The nearest village is about an hour by horse, but there's no knight base there. The knights are stationed in a town about three hours away. If we leave now and arrive smoothly, it will be evening or night. We can't move at night because there are too many monsters. So, we won't be back until around noon tomorrow. We don't know if the captain and the others are safe until then.

Zara seemed to have made up her mind and spoke calmly.

"This is just a guess, but when we entered the mountain, we might have fought spirits, not monsters."

"Spirits?"

"Yes. It's strange that Gar, Mel, and Amelia didn't sense anything until the last moment. Also, monsters can't use magic."

I see. That makes sense. But why?

"Maybe... we angered the forest spirits?"

"I remember someone saying that the Magic Research Bureau came to investigate before."

If that's the case, calling for help from the knights might be counterproductive.

"What do you think, Zara?"

"Probably, it's better if we go by ourselves."

"I agree."

However, there's a problem. How do we appease the forest spirits?

"The way my village does it is not acceptable."

---Human sacrifice. Offering lives and magic power to beg for forgiveness.

We can't do that. I shook my head vigorously. Zara also firmly stated that she wouldn't do such a thing. But we can't go empty-handed.

"Then, how about offering the food Mel created with the magic wand Gura?"

If the food created by my magic is acceptable...

I gripped the magic wand Gura and concentrated.

"......"

No, it's impossible. The spell didn't activate.

"Maybe the hunger is the trigger?"

"That could be it."

This ability is useless!! I fell to my knees, dejected.

We can't waste time. We moved on to the next topic.

"Mel, can you roughly tell where everyone is?"

"Um..."

I touched the contract mark again. The location was in the deep forest south of the gorge. Then, Amelia's feelings flowed into me.

---What are you doing, spirit!!

---Don't eat Rieselotte's magic power!!

---I'm so hungry...

---Mom Mel... I want to see you...

Hearing Amelia's words, I started crying. She's hungry, and she wants to see me...

"Mel?"

"S-Sorry."

I took out a handkerchief to wipe my tears, but it was actually underwear. But at this point, I didn't care. I want to see Amelia too. I felt sad. But crying won't help. We need to discuss what to do.

"It seems the spirits are behind this. Zara, what do you think we should do?"

"Hmm..."

First, Zara advised that going in knight uniforms might not be a good idea.

"Indeed, merchants who passed through the forest weren't attacked, so the spirits might be looking at our clothes."

The design of the knight uniforms and the Magic Research Bureau uniforms are very similar.

"Then, we should go back to the base of the mountain, get a horse, and go to the nearest village to change our clothes, right?"

"Yes. But the problem is---"

First, Zara doesn't have any weapons. If we encounter monsters, we'll be at a disadvantage.

"I'm sorry. One knife isn't enough to protect Mel and Sura."

"No... I'm useless too..."

What should we do? As I was thinking, the flask containing Sura started shaking violently.

"Sura...?"

"It seems she wants to tell us something."

Last night, she tried to tell us something but ended up apologizing and being ignored.

"Zara, do you think it's okay to let Sura out?"

"I'm not sure... Gar isn't here... But she seems to be trying to tell us something more strongly than yesterday."

"Yes."

I haven't known Sura for long, but she doesn't seem like someone who would run away or do bad things. After discussing with Zara, we decided to open the flask.

When I opened the lid, Sura came out with a plop. She created tentacle-like things and tried to communicate with us through gestures, but we couldn't understand.

Finally, Sura started shaking. Her transparent body glowed, and a magic circle appeared. Then---

"Huh?"

"This is!"

A faintly glowing water started flowing from the magic circle. This is---holy water!

"Sura, this!"

"It's holy water!"

Amazing. She can generate this.

If I pour holy water over my head, it will protect me from monsters. I asked if it was okay to take it, and Sura made a circle with her tentacles, indicating it was fine.

Zara and I sprinkled the holy water on ourselves. This should solve the monster problem.

"Still, Sura is amazing. She can create holy water."

Sura shook her head.

"You can't create holy water?"

She made a circle with her tentacles.

"What does that mean?"

"Hmm. Oh, maybe she can extract something she has consumed?"

Sura did a victory pose and made a circle with her tentacles, indicating Zara was right.

"So, there's no more holy water left?"

She made four tentacles on her head. It seems she can produce holy water four more times.

"Maybe when you were making food, you were trying to give us something?"

Sura made a circle with her tentacles, confirming it. When she shook, a magic circle appeared, and out came a piece of citrus, a spoonful of salt, and two mint leaves.

"These are the ingredients for the water Sura drank yesterday. She was trying to provide us with seasonings."

"Wow, that's amazing."

The second squad's drinking water contains herbs with antibacterial properties, squeezed citrus, and salt. It seems she can break down the ingredients of the drink.

"Thank you, Sura!"

I thanked her, and she puffed out her chest. I bowed deeply to her.