Episode 50: “Off for a Walk”
“Fiine, where are you off to at this hour?”
“…Just going for a walk.”
In the end, Fiine and the others had ended up staying at the inn Helena had recommended — a fine place with delicious food and a large communal bath included.
Dinner and the bath were already finished; there was nothing left to do but sleep.
And yet, at that hour, Fiine had been trying to slip out of the inn.
“Are you actually going to check on the fields?”
“…I guess.”
“You really are kind, Fiine, aren’t you.”
“It’s not like that.”
She was simply preparing in case the commission actually ended up being accepted. Even as she insisted on that point, Yuria only laughed.
◆
Leaving the inn, she headed toward the fields.
Adam had mentioned the field owners took turns handling the night patrols, so she wanted to see exactly what that involved firsthand.
The residential center of the village had plenty of streetlamps installed, but the fields themselves went dark once night fell.
Lighting the tip of her wand, she made her way down a narrow path.
Scarecrows stood at even intervals across the fields, with a ditch marking the boundary against the outside. Scattered here and there were also traps meant for monsters.
Even so, every one of them looked equivalent to standard pest-control measures — nothing specialized against monsters specifically.
Walking further, she spotted three men carrying lights.
From a distance, they looked to range anywhere from late teens to their forties.
(I wonder if that’s the patrol group.)
She approached without a sound.
They walked along, swinging their lights around rather indiscriminately.
(What monsters actually dislike is the light from light-attribute magic specifically — ordinary light doesn’t really bother them at all.)
Erasing her own presence, she followed behind them. After about an hour of walking, they each headed home.
◆
(So in the morning, they check inside the traps.)
The next morning, Fiine arrived at the fields even before eating breakfast at the inn.
Same as the night before, three men had gathered at the fields, though the faces were different from the previous night’s group.
They checked the traps set throughout the field, one after another. When they opened the third one, one of the men called out.
“There’s a monster caught in this one!”
“Got it. I’ll get the fire ready right away…”
Just as he began preparing to strike a flint and start a fire, Fiine found herself darting forward without meaning to.
“W-wait, um!!”
Seeing Fiine suddenly appear out of nowhere, the three men tilted their heads.
“J-just now… you were about to burn the monster, weren’t you?”
“Yeah. It’s dangerous, so you’d better keep your distance, little miss.”
Being called “little miss” was rather rude, considering Fiine had long since come of age — but she supposed she should take it as a compliment that she still looked young.
More importantly, right now, she needed to address the actual issue of burning the monster.
“Um, the correct response really depends on the monster’s type and strength. Burning can be effective in some cases, but…”
Crouching down, she checked inside the trap.
Caught within it was a monster closely resembling a rat, called a big rat.
Roughly three times the size of an ordinary rat, distinguished by its sharp, pointed teeth.
A classic monster type known for damaging crops.
“You shouldn’t burn low-ranking monsters like big rats. Doing so just attracts more monsters with the smell. With higher-ranking monsters, there’s sometimes an effect where lower-ranking ones get scared off after sensing a strong monster’s defeat — but that doesn’t apply here with a big rat.”
If anything, it would only alert other monsters to the presence of food.
“…Then what should we actually do? If we kill it, is it fine to just bury the body in the ground?”
“I wouldn’t recommend that either. The best method, by far, is to eliminate it using light-attribute magic.”
She hadn’t intended to get actively involved, but this was some kind of connection, she supposed.
Drawing her wand, she aimed a simple light-attribute spell at the big rat.
Wrapped in white light, the big rat vanished without a trace.
“The monster disappeared…?!”
“Little miss, you can use magic?!”