PH1RE'S P.O.V
"Just like who planned?" Maya asked, confused.
"You expect me to believe Ethan is actually some genius mastermind?" I said, almost at the same time.
"Ethan? Yeah, I don't buy it," Maya added, crossing her arms.
Bryn smirked as he began walking off. "Yeah, I figured you guys wouldn't."
"Hey, where are you going?" I called after him, hurrying to catch up.
"To find the genius mastermind," he answered over his shoulder, not breaking stride.
I glanced at Maya, who gave a small shrug before nodding, and together we followed Bryn out of the forest.
We eventually made our way to the construction site. The place looked like it had been the scene of another battle. The bodies of direhounds were scattered across the ground, blood staining the dirt. Some of the hounds had deep slash wounds; others were decapitated entirely. Direhounds—reddish-brown creatures with segmented canines and sharp bones protruding from their backs—were known for their aggression, but even for them, this was extreme.
As we took in the scene, we spotted Ethan talking to some of the workers, gesturing toward the carnage.
"Hey, Ethan!" Bryn called out, waving him over.
Ethan turned at the sound of Bryn's voice, wrapping up his conversation with the workers before strolling over to us with a casual smile.
"What happened here?" I asked, eyeing the bodies littering the ground.
"Direhounds attacked," Ethan replied with a shrug. "I dealt with it."
"By yourself?" I added, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep," he said, puffing his chest out like he was proud of it.
"Keeping all the fun to yourself, huh?" Bryn grumbled, clearly disappointed.
Ethan chuckled. "I'm sure Leo was a great fight," he said, teasing Bryn.
"Yeah, but it's not fun fighting someone who doesn't want to," Bryn muttered, folding his arms.
"So, how was it?" Ethan asked with a knowing smirk. He was probably referring to our encounter with Leo.
"It was... interesting," Bryn admitted. "You were right about Leo being turned against us, at least."
"I still can't believe you knew," Maya chimed in, shaking her head in disbelief.
"I thought that was pretty obvious," Ethan replied, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Obvious? To who?" Maya asked, frowning.
"Well, animals are going wild. We leave a powerful creature like Leo unsupervised, and he goes wild. Simple conclusion," Ethan said, shrugging again like it was basic logic.
"Right, I guess that makes sense," Maya muttered. "But why are you both so calm about this?" She glanced between Bryn and Ethan, her frustration evident.
"Hmm," Ethan said, scratching his chin. "I guess it's because there really isn't much to be worried about."
"Are you sure about that?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
Ethan nodded, his expression confident. "Yeah. This sort of thing happens all the time as an adventurer. Winging it is the most important part of the job."
"This isn't just some small issue though," I argued. "Someone is controlling the animals, turning them against us. Leo wasn't acting of his own free will."
"Speaking of which, how exactly did you come to suspect it was a person controlling all these creatures?" Maya inquired, raising a good point. I had only come to the conclusion that it was a person because Bryn's alpha skill hadn't worked on Leo, but how did Ethan figure it out?
Ethan gave us both a knowing look. "What do you think I've been doing since we got here?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Being a deadbeat," Maya responded dryly.
"Fair," he said with a sigh, accepting her jab.
"Anyway, neither of you need to worry about that right now. I'll explain everything tomorrow," Ethan added, making an odd expression that Bryn seemed to mirror. They were clearly in on something.
"Right now, we already know someone's behind this. Whoever's controlling the animals has to have some sort of base of operations. We just need to figure out who's been in contact with Leo and track them down."
Maya crossed her arms, looking skeptical. "And how do we do that? Just start interrogating everyone?"
"More or less," Ethan replied casually, as if that was a perfectly reasonable strategy.
"Sounds so boring," said Bryn grumbling once more.
"You're not serious," I said, my disbelief growing by the second.
"Dead serious," Ethan said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "We track down everyone who's had access to Leo in the past few days. One of them will lead us to the culprit" he finished as Maya let out a groan.
"That, or we could just use the [Seek] spell from this talisman I used on Leo," he finished while throwing a blank piece of paper at us, which was the remains of a used talisman.
"You could've just lead with that," I stated catching the thick slab of paper.
"But it was more fun seeing the looks on your faces," he said in response.
"That, and we'll also have to interrogate all those people anyway," he added after a brief pause, once our frustration had subsided.
"But you just said—"
"I know what I said," Ethan interrupted, "but it's better to be safe than sorry. I even cast presence concealment on the [Seek] spell, but I refuse to leave anything to chance."
"Wow, I never realized you could be so... thorough," Maya admitted, surprise in her voice.
"Well then," Ethan said, dusting his hands off, "I'll leave you two to spend the rest of the day however you like. I'll oversee the construction today." Without waiting for a response, he started walking toward the workers.
"Maya, that's strange, right?" I asked, still processing his sudden shift in behavior.
"It's definitely strange. Since when is Ethan so hardworking and competent? Willow would have a heart attack if she saw this," Maya replied, equally perplexed.
"That's how he is on missions," Bryn chimed in. "He gets this weird leader mindset out of nowhere."
I watched as Ethan engaged with the workers, directing them with uncharacteristic focus. It made me wonder just how much he had changed since our days at the orphanage. I'd never really thought about it before.
"Anyway, I'll see you both later. I'm sticking with Ethan. Maybe I'll catch some action before the day's over," Bryn said with a wave as he headed off toward Ethan.
Maya and I stood there, the quiet stretching between us after Bryn had gone. Neither of us was entirely sure what to do next.
"Well," I said after a moment, scratching the back of my head. "Since we don't have anything else on our plate right now, what do you want to do?"
---------------------------------------------------
"Of course she makes us come here," I grumbled, standing in front of the butcher's shop.
Walking inside, we were greeted by the sight of yesterday's butcher hard at work, focused on chopping slabs of meat. That is, until he noticed us.
"Oh! It's you two again," he exclaimed, slamming his cleaver down one last time and leaving it stuck in the cutting board before walking over.
"So, are you done yet or what?" Maya asked immediately, cutting right to the chase as soon as he got close.
"Actually, about that…" he said, his face twisting into a complicated expression.
And that's how we found ourselves in the butcher's cold room, surrounded by carcasses waiting to be processed. The temperature was low, clearly maintained by some kind of magic, though I had no clue how it worked. It felt eerie being in a room like this, even with Maya beside me.
"You didn't tell me they were still alive," the butcher said, chuckling darkly.
He was referring to the sparkhogs we brought in yesterday. Unlike before, they weren't acting like crazed beasts; they just stood there, calm, like regular animals.
"We didn't tell you they were dead either," Maya snapped back, her patience thin. "You're a butcher, aren't you? Shouldn't they be dead by now?"
"I'm a busy man," he retorted. "I told my apprentice to handle it, but imagine my surprise when he comes running to tell me they're walking around in the storeroom like nothing's wrong!" His voice rose, as if trying to justify his negligence.
"Don't give me that crap. You said it would be done today," Maya shot back, hands on her hips, clearly unimpressed.
I cut in, sensing that they were about to start arguing in circles. "Wait, did your apprentice mention if the sparkhogs attacked him when he saw them?"
The butcher blinked at me, momentarily taken aback. "No, actually. That's what's been bugging me. I thought all the animals from the forest were supposed to be raging and ravenous, tearing everything apart."
"They are supposed to be," I said slowly, glancing at Maya. Something wasn't adding up. The sparkhogs we fought yesterday were feral, rabid even, but now they were docile?
"You still get animals from the forest, right? All dead?" I asked, my eyes fixed on the sparkhogs in front of me.
"No, I don't just chop up dead animals, you know," the butcher replied, wiping his hands on his apron. "Sometimes an acquaintance wants to have a magical creature appraised."
"And they're always wild and crazy?" I pressed, narrowing my eyes.
"Yeah," he said, nodding. "This is the first time I've seen docile ones in a long while."
"That rules out distance from the forest as a factor," I muttered under my breath, piecing together the strange behavior we'd witnessed.
"Something wrong?" Maya asked, her brow furrowed in concern.
I stepped closer to the sparkhogs, careful to keep my movements slow. Normally, they would growl or charge the moment I got near, but these ones didn't even flinch. They just stood there, their eyes locked on me, eerily calm. It was as if none of the chaos we faced earlier had ever happened.
I needed to check something. My mana sense wasn't as refined as those who learned it through talismans or formal training, but I'd developed it well enough to notice oddities. However, since my sensing wasn't fully honed, I had to physically touch them to get a better read.
I reached out to the nearest sparkhog, resting my hand on its coarse fur. Immediately, I concentrated, feeling for any traces of mana. At first, it seemed like there was nothing—completely still, like a normal animal. But as my hand moved towards its neck, I felt something. A faint, almost hidden pulse of mana under the skin, deeper beneath the muscle, as though it was embedded there.
"Hey," I said, turning back to face the butcher. "Can you cut them open now?"
The butcher blinked, a little surprised by my urgency. "Now?"
"Yeah, start with the neck,"