A few days after the northern major cities—including the Kingdom of Redia’s capital—were annihilated.
After scattering the surviving people, the <Fenrir> parents and child began moving slowly toward <Demon Forest>, matching the child’s pace.
<The Tree> periodically confirmed the situation through satellite photographs. If possible, it would have liked to keep drones directly overhead, but that was abandoned because the area lay outside the range of microwave power supply.
Dispatching the solar-powered reconnaissance aircraft Swift was technically possible, but it was being passed over because limitations in onboard equipment meant it could only gather ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) information at a resolution not much different from the reconnaissance satellites.
“Looks like it’s moving... Do you think it’s going back to <Demon Forest>?”
“Unknown, Commander Ma’am. The route differs from when it attacked the capital. It may simply be relocating its feeding ground.”
The ecology of the threat organism that had been designated <Fenrir> was almost entirely unknown. In the first place, observation was limited to satellite orbit, with all its resolution constraints.
Even what it ate could not be determined from the footage.
“We have confirmed scenes where the juvenile appears to prey on humans, so it is likely carnivorous. It can be assumed to be a threat organism based on a wolf, or at least a canid. It may have some level of omnivory, but nothing has been confirmed so far.”
“And the adult... from what we can tell, it hasn’t eaten anything for over a week.”
Threat organisms did eat.
That had been confirmed with <Rain Kroin>, and that wyvern also seemed to prey on Big Moth.
But when calculating in terms of the organism’s activity level and caloric intake, the balance simply did not add up—no matter how it was considered.
“It should be assumed that it uses mana in some form to sustain life. At minimum, the adult <Fenrir> shows no change in locomotion performance even after a week without eating. It shows no signs of searching for prey.”
Almost nothing was a confirmed fact, so the conversation could only be inference. Commander Eve and <Ringo> understood that, so this was simply everyday talk.
“We can only keep observing. Looks like the Prava Divine Kingdom has started reorganizing its front, too, so there probably won’t be any big movement for a while.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. I will report as soon as there is any change.”
◇◇◇◇
Three days after the <Fenrir> family returned to <Demon Forest>, a <Fenrir> was confirmed again. The count was one. By size comparison, it was believed to be the male parent, <Froze>.
“<Froze> appears to be visiting the villages it destroyed in sequence. The most plausible explanation is territory patrol. In other words, the portion it advanced into within the Kingdom of Redia has likely been incorporated into its territory.”
<Ringo>’s prediction was then proven to be almost exactly correct by <Froze>’s subsequent movements.
After circling the villages, <Froze> spent the night at the ruins of a relatively large city—presumably Traliquin City.
And, as a bonus, it scattered the city residents who had begun trickling back.
The next day, it went as far as the royal capital Algasta, again scattering and driving off the humans, then returned to <Demon Forest>.
“It looks like the Kingdom of Redia’s northern region has been completely claimed as that <Fenrir>’s territory.”
When the residents who had fled in all directions managed to return, <Fenrir> chased them again. <Fenrir> seemed to have no intention of allowing humans to live within its territory.
“Huh. Things were fine until now, and then suddenly this. Fantasy worlds are pretty brutal.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. However, even after analyzing the information gathered so far, we found no account in historical records of threat organisms moving south from <Demon Forest> and shaving away human habitation. At most, there are fairy tales of uncertain authenticity. No clear records remain. That suggests a highly irregular phenomenon has occurred.”
<Paraiso> was conducting information gathering, but details about threat organisms were difficult to obtain. The current hypothesis was that this was because the present human habitation zone did not border threat-organism territory.
Conversely, if an area had bordered such territory, it might have been wiped out by chance at some point.
In other words, humans and threat organisms had already been separated into distinct habitats.
But that assumption was being shaken by <Fenrir>’s behavior.
“Compared to the southern-north-continent nation cluster, <The Tree>’s military power is outstanding. Even with only part of our forces, subjugating a single nation would be easy. However, the threat organisms we have encountered so far are capable of confronting our forces head-on.”
“Yeah, hearing it put like that again, I really want you to spare me. They come after us even when we don’t poke them...”
Still, it was also true that the forces were sufficient to counter threat organisms. For example, if dealing with <Rain Kroin>, the First Fleet—the fortress <The Tree>’s defensive force—could rush to the site and take up a posture for rapid extermination.
The same went for the wyvern: by committing a large amount of air power, it could likely be shot down one-sidedly.
And yet, despite being prepared, an additional uncertain factor like <Fenrir> appearing was exactly what made this unreasonable fantasy world so frightening.
Could the deployable ground forces really exterminate that threat organism?
“However, if this is territory patrol, there should be no need to worry about clashing with us for the time being. Rather, we should be glad that the Prava Divine Kingdom’s invasion route has narrowed. Depending on <Fenrir>’s movements, the Prava Divine Kingdom may be forced to pin down some of its forces. Pressure on the front will decrease significantly.”
As <Ringo>’s analysis indicated, the issue that needed to be dealt with right now was stopping the Prava Divine Kingdom’s invasion.
It was not an element to ignore, but for the time being it would not only have no negative impact—there would be a beneficial effect.
◇◇◇◇
The third territory patrol by <Fenrir>. The tenth day since the initial attack.
A striking change was confirmed in the satellite photos.
Relatively large villages and cities had become conspicuously greener.
Trees with heights of several meters were already growing, and the remnants of cities were rapidly beginning to sink into a sea of green.
This phenomenon had been observed elsewhere.
The fairy circle that appears inside <Demon Forest>, created by Big Moth larvae—where plants undergo rapid growth.
In other words, the ruins of the Kingdom of Redia’s cities were becoming fairy circles.
“Big Sis, this is truly fascinating! Do you think the city became a fairy circle, or was the city built on a place that was already a fairy circle!?”
“Ugh... We don’t have enough samples to know... If we’d been able to measure mana concentration ahead of time, we might’ve learned something.”
Asahi spoke with high energy, and Big Sis Eve engaged seriously.
“Even so, we already have a strong lead from the investigation in the United Kingdom of Aphrasia! It seems cities are built on fairy circles where mana wells up!”
“Oh? So it doesn’t become a fairy circle afterward?”
“Yes! Somehow, the humans of this world either prefer higher mana concentration... or they feel disgust toward places with low mana concentration!”
That report was news to Eve. Eve checked <Ringo> with a glance, but <Ringo> shook its head. It seemed the matter was still under verification.
“It’s that thing where you go, ‘This place kind of feels bad...’ right! With a sufficiently high mana concentration, it seems people don’t feel anything in particular!! Fascinating!!”
Whether that claim was true or not, it suggested that fairy circles were likely to become a key.
A fairy circle was a place where mana welled up. That was a confirmed fact from the investigation in the United Kingdom of Aphrasia.
And that meant <Fenrir> was precisely circling the locations of fairy circles.
Whether humans came first or fairy circles came first was still unknown, but it could be that a <Fenrir> happened to enter sensing range, was drawn to a fairy circle, and burst out of <Demon Forest>.
Jumping to conclusions was dangerous, but it might be worth analyzing the information gathered so far through that lens.
That was Eve’s judgment—and Eve proceeded to dump the theorizing onto Asahi.
