“Hairpin…?”

“Yes. It was the one Imelen always wore. Probably during the process of the monster k*lling her…”

In other words, the hairpin got caught in its fur during the ‘meal.’

My body shuddered at the horrifying thought.

‘With such evidence, no wonder he was so certain.’

For a moment, I wavered, wondering if my judgment yesterday had been wrong, but.

‘There’s plenty of prey in these mountains.’

Just yesterday, Allen had easily hunted rabbits despite saying he’d just stepped out.

Yet the monster specifically came to the village to take people?

Let’s say that much was possible.

‘But it doesn’t make sense that such a bold creature wouldn’t show itself after harming Imelen.’

It would be more natural for it to appear frequently and take people. But there didn’t seem to be any other people who had been eaten by White Ears.

My thoughts were right after all.

White Ears didn’t eat Imelen.

‘The problem is how to convince Allen of this fact.’

The current Allen seemed to have no room to consider anything else due to his obsession with revenge.

Moreover, even I felt something was lacking in the explanation.

‘It feels like I’m missing some important fact…’

Seeing my worried face, Allen smiled weakly.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you gloomy too, mother- ow ow!”

“Oh my, I’m dying to encourage you. Cheer up!”

Thwack thwack!

“Ack, mother! Aack!”

Sure, I’m playing the role of Noah’s mother, but! Isn’t he calling me mother too naturally!

I mean, I’m not even married, hey!?

As I was relentlessly raising the Saint’s faith because I couldn’t stand it anymore.

Thud.

Suddenly, something dropped.

It was Noah, who had dropped a bouquet with a shocked expression.

‘Oops, was I being too violent?’

I quickly stopped my punching and picked up the flowers Noah had dropped.

“What are these flowers for?”

“……”

Noah was glaring at Allen, who was groaning and rubbing his shoulders where I had hit him.

“Noah?”

When I called again, his eyes quickly softened.

Hmm, I’ll pretend I didn’t see that.

“These flowers were in front of the door.”

“In front of the door?”

The flowers weren’t in very neat condition. The stems were torn and crumpled here and there.

‘What’s this? Why are the flowers wet? Don’t tell me it’s saliva?’

Hearing Noah’s words, Allen explained with a smile.

“Ah, the animals left them again.”

“Wild animals bring you flowers?”

Are you a Disney princess?

“I leave food near the house for them. Then one day, they started leaving flowers and pinecones as thanks.”

Allen took the flowers from me and smiled.

“They often bring these flowers in particular. They’re my sister’s favorite flowers, and they grow abundantly around here.”

“……”

After thanking Noah for bringing them, Allen arranged the flowers in a vase.

Animals showing gratitude – it’s the kind of story you’d see in an animal documentary, but it felt a bit too coincidental.

‘White Ears can find its way to the Saint’s dwelling too.’

“…!”

Suddenly, an incredibly outlandish but chilling hypothesis crossed my mind.

‘No way. That wasn’t in the original story either. Even if it were true, there’s no way to verify-‘

No, wait.

‘There is a way to verify it!’

“Mother?”

Allen called out to me questioningly.

“Oh, yes?”

When I came to my senses, Allen picked up his bag, relieved.

“Um… yesterday I said you should leave when the day changes, but if you’d like, you can stay longer.”

“That’s what I was planning.”

“Ah, I, I see.”

“But where are you going?”

“I’m going to look for traces of the White Ears monster.”

His expression hardened.

“I can’t stand letting it live another day. I have to move. Well, I’ll be back.”

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

“Was there any food your sister liked? Since I’m staying here, I thought I’d make something.”

Allen was surprised by my sudden question but answered cheerfully.

“She loved mushroom omelets. She really loved mushrooms.”

After Allen left the cabin, I went to the kitchen and rummaged through the ingredients.

Fortunately, there were plenty of ingredients. I took out all the stored mushrooms and rolled up my sleeves.

To confirm my suspicion, I first needed to lure White Ears out, so.

“Let’s make some bait.”

If my hypothesis was correct, I wouldn’t need to convince Allen anymore.

I could just show him directly.

“……”

Noah, who had been staring at me, suddenly ran off somewhere.

* * *

‘This could be dangerous.’

Noah was convinced that an obstacle had appeared in his ‘Operation Make Lady Calliphe and Duke Close’ plan.

‘Lady Calliphe showed affection to the seaweed mister.’

It definitely happened yesterday. Lady Calliphe said she hits people because she likes them.

Noah had seen Lady Calliphe hit bad people, but also good people like the maid sister.

Each time, the maid sister would cry out in pain but still giggle with joy.

As for the Duke, well, that was a bit unclear…

‘Anyway, the seaweed mister is similar.’

He was screaming, but it didn’t seem like he truly disliked it.

But it was still okay for now.

According to Noah’s cold observation, the two were just slightly close, nothing more. Less than with the maid sister, you could say.

So it seemed fine to just give a slight warning that they needed to exchange affection more frequently with the Duke.

The Duke would surely understand.

‘After all, the Duke is my… f-father candidate.’

Father – it felt too strange.

Noah shook his head vigorously and headed to the bedroom where Lynen was.

* * *

—I’ve found the past records you requested, my lord.

It was Heron’s voice.

Lynen, with his eyes closed, was controlling his magic while sitting cross-legged.

His blackened arm twitched, resisting, but the affected area had clearly decreased compared to yesterday.

While pulling those reins tighter, Lynen quietly opened his mouth.

“Report.”

—Yes. These are investigation reports of villages that suffered monster attacks. I had to go through all the materials to find records matching your specified conditions. The cost was my sleep and skin health.

“If useless additional information is attached, you’ll pay an even higher price.”

The North originally had many monsters due to its proximity to treacherous mountain ranges teeming with them.

So it wasn’t uncommon for remote, small villages to be attacked by monsters. Most cases were resolved at the level of the local lord who governed the area.

Nevertheless, Lynen personally visited attacked villages to search for his missing niece.

Though he ultimately found no clues.

As Lynen’s mood sank, Heron reported.

—I’ll only mention the common factors among the affected villages. There were almost no survivors, and no particularly suspicious traces. However, the mercenaries in charge of monster subjugation thoroughly collected valuable parts from the monster corpses.

“……”

—Including the monsters’ cores.

“Is it common for regular mercenaries to collect monster cores?”

—As you know, it’s not common. But it’s not particularly rare either. They take all sorts of requests from various people.

He had seen mercenaries who collected and sold monster cores before. It was during the sensitive time right after Lumen’s heart disappeared.

So Lynen watched where the mercenaries sold the cores, even without specific evidence.

He ended the investigation after confirming they were just selling them to cheap general stores and black market dealers.

The reason this forgotten information came back to him now was simple.

—The affected villages mentioned in these records were all found based on the conditions you specified.

Official records were supposed to contain only objective facts as a principle.

However, the records Lynen had ordered included unofficial annotations.

—Remember the areas where you said you ‘detected an unpleasant air’? When I compared those locations with the list of villages attacked by monsters…

Heron swallowed dryly.

—They matched. All the villages in areas where you felt unpleasant were attacked by monsters.

A very faint and dirty resonance that even those with considerable training would find difficult to detect.

It was also what Lynen had sensed as soon as he entered this village.

And just now, with Heron’s report, Lynen could be certain that his intuition had never been wrong.

“…Back then, we couldn’t find any evidence or basis to confirm that ‘unpleasant air.'”

But this time, an opportunity had come.

Because this village hadn’t been attacked yet.

“I’ll need to investigate.”

Lynen slowly opened his closed eyes.