While March was having a great time making new friends in the brand new ecosystem of the second battleground, Rose's investigation team had arrived at the crime scene.
"Ugh... This feels so creepy!" (Catears)
"Right, right! It's almost like a ghost will appear at any moment now!" (Sora)
Bump!
A fist smashed each of the two girls heads at the same time as Ivy appeared behind them. Instead of the usual soldier clothes, Ivy was now wearing maid uniform but because of the scar covering half her face, she appeared to have come directly from a terror movie.
""Kyaaa~~~~!!!! It's here!!!!!!""
"Shut up, both of you. Pay more attention. We don't know if there are enemies around."
The playful Ivy that loved to smile and play pranks was dead, now all that was left was a husk of her old self. The cause was the loss of her bestfriend/sister Iris, who had taken a strike in her place to protect Ivy's life during the last battle against the Oni troops.
Looking at all the dead Oni laying around, Ivy felt emptiness. She didn't blame the Oni for what had happened, they were just following orders like her and her sisters so there was no use to blame them. Maybe she blamed a bit their leader, but he was already out of their reach, and there was no way she would blame Apollo as he was just trying to defend them...
If anyone, the person she most blamed was herself. Had she paid more attention, had she trained harder, maybe Iris would still be alive. Unfortunately it was impossible to go back to the past, so no matter how guilty she felt or how many theories she raised, none of them would ever became real, making it a useless waste of time.
Ivy's conclusion was simple, it's impossible to change the past, but it's possible to change the future, if by playing around and not taking things serious resulted in her family dying while trying to protect her, then she would do the exact opposite to ensure such situation never repeat again.
Boara turned back into human form and started checking the camp's equipment. Aside from the dead sentries who were carrying lances and swords, everybody else was empty handed. They had set a bunch of tents which she investigated, discovering a lot of weapons and conserved food that had been left untouched.
"The weapons are still here. And the food here seems to be all right as well." (Boara)
"Bring it back to the camp, but make sure the nurses check everything before storing them. If they are not poisoned, it would be a waste for us to not use them."(Rose)
"All right." (Boara)
"Sora, Jun, help loading these on Boara's back."
"All right." "Understood."
As the three started moving and Boara turned back into boar form, a voice called Rose's name from the other side of the camp.
"Rose, I think I found a trail." (Mint)
"What? Show it to me."
"Over here."
Mint pulled her long skirt up as she walked over the tall grass, trying to prevent the plants from messing her nurse uniform. In front of her there was an arm and a trail of blood leading further inside the forest.
"Look, it's a severed arm."
Seeing the severed arm, Rose recognized it right away as there was only one servant alive with traces like this, because all his brothers had been killed during Jaylee's betrayal.
"...Hayate...so it was really you..."
A feeling of fury took over Rose making her bit her lips so hard that blood started to spill out of her mouth.
"Ivy, Mika, come with me. If he has already lost an arm, he shouldn't be much of a threat, but we still shouldn't be careless. The rest of you wait for Master in Negi's camp and report what we found."
""Understood!""
(Damn you, Hayate. Even though I didn't like you, I still respected you. How could you betray Master like this!?)
The three advanced at fast pace following Hayate's trail. While it appeared like he had stopped the bleeding somehow, there were still traces of his steps as if he wasn't much worried about being followed at all.
(Is this a trap? ...No, there is no reason for him to be hostile to us. Maybe he was just chasing down someone who evaded his plan by luck or otherwise. )
As Rose's heartbeat intensified, she sped up even more, leaving the two maids who had not still adapted to the new job behind.
After passing through Negi's base and Jaylee's base, Rose finally arrived at a hidden mining cave completely engulfed by darkness.
She slowed down her steps and looked around, only to notice that her two supposed assistants had bitten her dust and were left behind.
(Should I wait for them? Or maybe a quick scout wouldn't be bad... But the cave is too dark, I can't see anything.)
After thinking for a minute, Rose decided in her curse of actions. Leaving behind the cave, she concentrated in finding dry wood so she could make a torch while waiting for the other two. The plan couldn't have worked better, just as Rose finished making her torch, two tired maids appeared from behind the trees.
"Rose! You are too fast!" (Mika)
"I'm still lacking..." (Ivy)
"Great, you are both here! Mika, caught!"
Saying so, Rose threw the torch to Mika, who held it with a confused face.
"The trail leads to a dark cave over there. We will enter together and you will be responsible for the torch. Do you understand?"
"...Yes!"
"Ivy, you protect Mika while making sure nobody get close to her."
"Understood!"
"I will lead, both of you stay three steps behind me."
""All right.""
The trio entered the cave in a triangle formation with Rose in front, Ivy right behind her, and Mika on Ivy's side, close to the wall. The tension increased on every step they took until an acute scream freeze the three in place so hard that even an expect would mistake them for ice sculptures.
----//----
Noon soon arrived, and so arrived Apollo on Negi's base.
Apollo was starving, it had been over twelve hours since his last meal, but despite all the protests of his stomach, he ignored everything to finish this investigation if only a minute faster so that everyone could finally rest.
Taking a look around, Apollo found some boar girls, some cat girls, some plant girls but no signs of Rose. This felt odd as he thought Rose would be the one leading the investigation as she usually took the lead role in the camp, which led him to question right away.
"Where is Rose?"
The girls looked at each other, trying to find words to describe what had happened, but as the silence prolonged itself, the feeling that something was wrong started to sprout on his heart.
"Did something happen? Say something!"
"Hmm, Master, well, you must be hungry, let's eat something first."
"Right! Let us prepare your table. Please, wait a second."
"Hey, bring some food here. Master wants some food!"
(Are they evading my question? What happened!? Is Rose all right!?)
The feeling of urgency grew stronger, making Apollo turn to his bracer, which he had not done since last night.
Changing to the job allocation summary window, he noticed the number of maids had gone down by 1, so in an outburst of anguish, Apollo, who was already sitting on the prepared table raise both his hands and smashed them against the table, making a loud noise that echoed through the whole camp.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO ROSE!?"