Proofreader: Xemul

As Loren and his group proceeded, the surrounding landscape gradually changed from grassland to forest-like.

The wind was warm and humid, and there was a strange smell, albeit faint, in the air.

“I forgot to mention something.”

While stepping on the huge black thing lying at his feet and using all his might to pull out the greatsword he had stuck into it, Loren told Leila and the others, who were watching him from afar.

“I heard that there are a lot of dangerous things around here, so be careful.”

“You should have told us that in the beginning.”

Loren pulled out his greatsword, which had been stuck quite deep inside the black thing, shook off the blood on the blade, and shrugged at Leila’s reproachful words.

“Yeah. My bad.”

“Really! That gave me a heart attack.”

Ange raised her voice in protest despite sounding tremulous with fear, and Loren meekly bowed his head. Indeed, not telling the group about the possible danger from the beginning could have put them all at risk. Loren was well aware that it was his fault for being negligent.

“Um, what is that?”

Laure asked, pointing to the object on which Loren’s foot was resting. It had slipped through the trees and suddenly jumped out from the side, and Loren had killed it with a single blow from the greatsword drawn from his back. Since it was bleeding, it was certain to be a living thing, but Laure and the others were still unable to identify the rather huge creature. The person who killed it, Loren, was also unsure of its true identity, as he only swung his greatsword reflexively at something that jumped out at him.

“I think it was a bear.”

“A bear?”

“A young black bear. Probably a male.”

Lapis, who was crouching beside the bear that Loren had killed and was investigating its true identity, seemed to have found the answer. She lightly dusted her knee as she stood up.

“It was a pretty ferocious and tough animal, but… With just one strike.”

The bear had attacked Loren, and he had intercepted it head-on with his greatsword, splitting and shattering the bear’s head with one single strike.

“Is it edible?”

“It is. It’s an animal.”

“Then let’s cut it up and take it with us.”

Loren pulled out a dagger from inside his jacket, feeling that it would be a waste to just cast the creature aside after killing it. It would be difficult to use every last bit of the carcass, but if it could help improve today’s dinner, it would be worth the time.

“I’ll take care of it. The rest of you can take a rest.”

“I can help too? It’s not like I don’t have any experience with it.”

Leila offered, but Loren rejected it softly but firmly.

“It’ll be troublesome if something strange comes out.”

“What kind of strange thing?”

“This is just between you and me.”

Leila stepped forward, and Loren leaned in a little closer, put his hand over his mouth and spoke in a whisper so that the other members could not hear.

>”It’s something the Lord who gave us this commission said. She mentioned that she gave similar commissions to several parties before us.”

>”What does that have to do with this?”

>”She hired us despite that, meaning none of the parties commissioned before us were successful in their requests. Do you understand?”

It was half a day’s walk from the town to the lake. It was not close, but it was not very far either. The parties that had left before their group had not succeeded in completing any of the commissions, even though they were only such a short distance away… Leila spent a short while pondering what it meant.

>”Could it be that none have returned…?”

>”I guess so. If they had been able to come back to the city, the Lord would have had some information. But she doesn’t, so they probably haven’t.”

There was no way of knowing what the fate of the parties that had failed to return had been, but at least there were no traces of them left in the vicinity of the path that their party had taken. But then, where the hell had they gone? Leila thought about it, then came to a horrifying conclusion and turned her attention to the black bear carcass lying on the ground.

>”We don’t know what happened, but just in case.”

Leila, who wasn’t able to deny the implication of Loren’s words, quietly walked back to where Ange and the others were watching over her. Laughing to himself that it was good to be honest with her, Loren quickly began to cut up the bear with his dagger.

“We can’t carry them all, so I’ll just pick the parts that look tasty. The rest will be… Well, let’s hope some empty stomach will clean it up.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Gula nodded and beat her chest. Although Loren was not referring to her by name, she was the only one present who could clean up whatever of the bear that was left over from the process.

Loren carefully removed the meat from the flanks, arms, legs, and back. He also checked the internal organs just to be sure, then cut out the heart and liver.

The large amount of blood that streamed out was mostly absorbed by the earth, but some of it was secretly sucked off as fresh food by Nig, the spider on Loren’s shoulder, without the other members noticing.

The bear’s stomach was nearly empty, and Loren didn’t find anything like he had worried. However, there was no way to tell if it meant that this bear had not fed on their poor predecessors, or if it had already digested them to the point that there was nothing left of them.

“That’s quite a lot of food, even with careful selection.”

Because of the size of the black bear itself, the chunks of meat he had cut out were also quite large and heavy. As Loren began to wonder what to do with the meat, Lapis quickly picked up some wide blades of grass and leaves from the surrounding area, packed the meat, and without any hesitation, shoved it into the large backpack that Klaus was carrying. This made the backpack even bulkier, but Klaus just smiled wryly without a single complaint.

After Loren cleaned his bloodied gear with a cloth, the group started moving forward again. Not long after, they came upon a huge lake on the other side of a thickly wooded area that was emitting considerable heat, humidity, and smell.

“This is probably the place.”

Loren stood by the side of the road, beyond the trees, and gazed at the scene spread out before him, his face contorted because of the damp, hot wind and smell that was blowing at him.

It was a lake formed by the accumulation of hot springs, the destination of their trip.

The lake seemed to have quite an intricate shape, with a large portion of it hidden by trees and such, making it impossible to view it in entirety. Even so, the distance from the shore to the other side of the lake was quite far, indicating how large the lake was.

The surface of the lake was indeed a dark reddish-brown color, and the smell of rusty iron mixed with the odor of decay was very unpleasant to the nose.

“So that eliminates the possibility that there is trouble somewhere in the waterway.”

Since the hot water in the lake itself was already showing the same symptoms as the hot springs in town, they had to assume that the cause was either in this lake or somewhere closer to the source than the lake.

“I guess so. Well, what should we do from here?”

A quick look around was not enough to tell anything, but at least as far as Loren could see, there was nothing on the lake or its shores that could possibly be causing the water quality to deteriorate.

Wondering if perhaps the cause was in the lake, Loren took off one glove, exposed the skin of his hand, then crouched down and reached out to touch the surface of the lake, only to withdraw his hand the moment his fingertips made slight contact with the surface.

Lapis, guessing that something had probably happened for Loren to move at that speed, tried to take his hand while preparing a healing spell, but he stopped her. He wiped his slightly wet fingertips with a cloth he pulled out from his luggage, then threw the cloth to the ground.

“Loren?”

“It’s really hot, and the water itself is strange – it has melted my skin.”

Loren did not know where the hot water was coming from, but he assumed that it must have cooled down somewhat when coming to the lakeside, so he touched the surface with his fingers. But the water was as hot as if it had just been poured out from a kettle over a fire. He also felt a slimy sensation on his fingertips after touching it, and when he rubbed them, the fingerprints disappeared, which led Loren to the conclusion that the surface of his skin had melted.

It would indeed be bad for business if this kind of hot water was used in the hot springs facilities.

“First, getting in there is out of the question. It’ll kill us.”

“In that case…”

“Let’s take a look around first and see what we can find.”

If they just came here, observed, then went home, they could hardly say that they had done their research. They must stay at this place for a certain amount of time, and they must secure a place for that purpose.

If they chose a bad location, the humidity and smell would be unbearable, so Loren suggested walking along the shore of the lake to find a good place to observe the lake, and no one objected.

A little while after they started walking, Loren noticed something: The reddish-brown water was muddy, but there was a part of the water that was clear.

“You said that hot springs are cloudy, didn’t you?”

Loren confirmed with Lapis, and she nodded.

“What do you think about this?”

“Maybe the cause of the impure water is in the lake itself, rather than in the source? Or maybe there is more than one source supplying hot water to the lake?”

If the cause of the current strange phenomenon was in the lake, a possible reason for the proportion of clear water was that there were areas where it had started to change and areas where it hadn’t.

Another possibility was that impure hot water and clear hot water were discharged from separate places, creating areas where the hot water did not mix.

Loren pondered Lapis’ opinion.

“But if hot water is discharged from two or more different sources, does that mean it has been like this even before the anomaly occurred?”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean so. It is possible that the relative density and viscosity of the muddy water has changed, making it difficult for it to mix with the clear water.”

“We can’t just report this without specifying the cause and call it an end, can we?”

“I don’t think they would pay us for that.”

As they talked, Loren and Lapis took the lead and the rest of the team members followed them along the lakeside.

“Loren, this place looks kind of nice, doesn’t it?”

Lapis pulled at Loren’s sleeve and pointed to a corner of the lakeside. It was like a cove in the middle of the lake, where the humidity and smell rising from the lake would miraculously be not much of a bother, and for some unknown reason, it seemed that only the clear hot water was flowing into the cove.

“That’s right…”

Loren muttered. He bared his hand again and crouched down by the lakeside to check the hot water. Strangely enough, the water there was only slightly hot, and there was no stinging sensation on the skin. Loren brought his wet hand up to his nose, and there was no unpleasant smell, so he thought it would be okay.

“It looks good. How about we set up camp here and do a full-scale survey tomorrow?”

“We have no objection. We agree with Loren’s proposal.”

Leila, after asking for Ange’s and Laure’s opinions, told Loren that there was no problem on behalf of their party.

Loren felt a tiny bit of pity for the fact that Klaus was so naturally ignored, but since it wasn’t going to be a problem, he thought that it would be fine to leave them as is. He turned his gaze to Gula to ask for her opinion. Although she didn’t look too thrilled, she nodded once she noticed his eyes.

“Then put your luggage down, clear the ground, and get ready to camp.”

Loren gave instructions after confirming that no one had any objections. In response, everyone began to make the necessary preparations.