Contrary to my worries, the situation did not become urgent right away.
I was spending my days as before, handling miscellaneous requests.
The money piling up was less than before, but in exchange, I was definitely gaining peace of mind.
Of course, that did not mean the village had no worries at all.
The rumors I had heard before about missing people had now begun to creep even into the restaurant.
The reason there had not been a major commotion was because most of the missing were outsiders or vagrants who had been wandering outside the village.
If there was no direct harm among the people inside the village, matters like this were usually buried quietly.
This was that kind of world.
Honestly, even if a villager went missing, unless an official request was posted, there was little chance we would move.
No request meant no responsibility.
Once I had a little more time to spare, I threw myself back into magic training.
“Huuup—”
Today’s training was what you might call “selecting water.”
It was practice in separating only the relatively clear moisture from polluted water, and it was far more difficult than I had expected.
I had felt it back during the battle at the city wall, when I pulled water out of muddy water, but the more impurities there were, the more concentration and time it took.
Still, there was some progress, little by little.
Compared to before, both the speed at which I could draw it out and the amount had increased.
But blood, for some reason, would not budge at all.
I did not know for sure, but… was there some other mechanism in the human body, especially in blood?
Moisture was still moisture, after all.
…This was why I wanted to read a magic book.
If I could get my hands on even one book related to magic, I felt like I might be able to get a bit of a grasp on things.
In this world, books were worth their weight in gold.
Not only were they expensive, they were hard to obtain, and even if I did manage to get one, the contents written inside might turn out to be useless.
It was cheaper and more practical to spend that money on equipment instead.
At times like this, there was one book that came to mind.
Inside the hut where I had first opened my eyes in this world, sitting atop an old desk, had been Liv’s diary.
Those writings I had skimmed over at first.
Back then, I had thought of it as nothing more than a simple diary.
Thinking back on it now, though, I felt like it had contained quite a few meaningful sentences and strange drawings.
Considering what I had heard at the information guild, perhaps that forbidden magic had something to do with that diary.
Honestly, if I thought about it that way, it might be better not to know.
But from the standpoint of someone who had already been caught, it only felt unfair to have been caught because of magic I had not even seen.
Should I go back there now?
But in the first place, I did not even remember the exact location.
Besides, the place itself was dangerous.
…Above all, there was a high chance the guards had already gone there first, cleaned it up, and taken everything away.
When I snapped out of the thoughts surging one after another through my mind, I clearly heard the sound of strained shouts.
They were the voices of Saileon and Aileen, who were training in swordsmanship beside me.
Recently, after I had started training in magic alone in an empty lot near the village,
Aileen had followed me first, and before I knew it, Saileon had joined as well.
The two of them could not use magic, so they each picked up a sword and began training,
but since they had no proper model to follow and no one to teach them, in reality it was closer to playing at sparring.
They were around the same age, and their personalities overlapped in certain ways, too.
Even while bickering with each other, the time they spent together was gradually becoming more natural.
“Argh! I told you not to hit the head!”
“You should’ve dodged.”
Really, I heard things like that several times a day.
Fortunately, though, it had yet to turn into a real fight.
Both of them seemed to know where the line was.
In any case, Aileen definitely had the basics down.
Traces of having learned swordsmanship were infused into every movement, and compared to Saileon, she was a little more flexible and composed.
Of course, I could still see where she was lacking in terms of physical limits and technique, but at the very least, she did not seem to be merely imitating things clumsily.
If she refined herself a little more, she might be able to hold out to some extent in actual combat.
I turned my gaze back to the small droplet of water floating above my hand.
My own training still had a long way to go.
“Hey, you guys! We’ve got trouble!”
Just as I was about to resume training, Baldik, who had been leisurely drinking at the inn, came running over, panting for breath.
Startled by the shout, Saileon reacted a beat late and was struck squarely on the head by Aileen’s sword.
“What’s going on?”
“That Bill kid disappeared!”
“What?”
Bill.
The son of the owner of the inn where we were staying.
He was the kind of boy who felt like the default setting for boys his age, with a common name and ordinary behavior.
“He disappeared? Where did he…”
Aileen asked back, frowning.
“They say he went out for a bit this morning to play, then ran outside and hasn’t come back since.”
“Could he have gone toward the mountain, maybe?”
“I hope so… The problem is, the village dog that followed him out came back perfectly fine on its own. That dog usually doesn’t go far without him.”
Baldik caught his breath and continued without stopping.
“The innkeeper said this. Every time the kid heard talk about the recent disappearances, he got scared stiff. But for some reason, today he seemed oddly excited.”
“…Could someone have lured him?”
When I trailed off, the expressions of everyone in the group hardened all at once.
“Do you know where he was last seen?”
“Yeah. The empty lot near the market. They said he was last seen there talking to an old woman.”
“An old woman?”
“Yeah. I thought that was strange too, so I ran over as soon as I heard it.”
At the words “old woman,” I frowned without realizing it.
There was no one in this village who could be called an old woman.
There had been exactly one, but she had already passed away last week, and her funeral had been held quietly.
In other words, there was currently no one in this village who could be called an old woman.
An outsider from beyond the village?
But an old woman wandering the village alone and speaking to a child was, given the atmosphere of this village, quite unusual.
At that moment, a word flashed through my mind.
…Lure.
And missing people.
“Could this be related to the recent disappearances?”
“I thought of that too. But to be honest… there’s nothing certain.”
Baldik shook his head as he caught his breath.
“The innkeeper suddenly grabbed me and started going on about it, so I ran out for now. The situation hasn’t been sorted out or anything. It’s just that there’s a possibility.”
“I suppose so. Maybe everyone’s just making a fuss over nothing.”
Saileon added cautiously.
“For now, should we look around a bit ourselves? We were going to make a round anyway.”
“…Shall we? Then let’s grab our equipment and head out right away.”
At my words, Baldik nodded and got to his feet.
The innkeeper had looked after us in subtle ways all this time, and the little kid named Bill was a fairly familiar face as well.
That much was enough to make one search worth doing.
‘It’s not exactly an obligation, but still…’
I quietly picked up my staff and tightened my belt again.
Just in case. In this world, there was nothing less trustworthy than the phrase “an ordinary day.”
***
When we headed to the market’s empty lot, where he had supposedly last been seen, we were not the only ones searching.
Here and there, people had gathered in groups of three or five, looking around the area.
It seemed the innkeeper had been quite urgent about it.
I had thought people were only worried in words, but I had not expected the matter to grow this big.
Thanks to that, the atmosphere itself was already clearly different from usual.
I spotted a familiar mercenary I often ran into at the mercenary guild, so I spoke to him.
“Uncle Nas, have you found anything?”
“Hm? Ah, Liv. No, we haven’t seen so much as a rat, let alone an old woman.”
He scratched his head and shrugged.
Unlike his thick beard, rough armor, and fierce-looking face, his way of speaking was unexpectedly gentle.
“They said he ran out this morning. Did you check that side?”
“Yeah, I went around the nearby outskirts and the warehouse area, and Bernel is looking by the stream down there. We haven’t checked beyond the fence yet.”
Most of the people gathered nearby were either staying at the inn or were regulars who frequented it.
Since Bill was such a well-known face in the village, it seemed everyone was looking for him with a fair amount of sincerity.
“…No traces or anything?”
“No. That’s the problem. The footprints aren’t clear either, and the dog that followed him came back just fine on its own. We need to know whether the brat hid somewhere by himself or whether someone took him.”
He let out a deep sigh and swept his gaze over the surroundings again.
“With things like this, it usually gets harder once a full day passes after the disappearance, but not much time has passed yet, so there’s still hope for now.”
The atmosphere was definitely unusual.
Children going missing from the village was not a common occurrence. At least, not in a peaceful village.
I closed my mouth and stared at the empty lot.
This is taking a strange turn.
“Hardly anyone has gone toward the outside of the village at all, right?”
“A few guys went out earlier, but well… there hasn’t been any news.”
In that case, we might have to look around ourselves.
“Then we’ll take a look outside the village.”
“Got it. If you find anything, make sure to let me know.”
After saying goodbye to Uncle Nas, the three of us gathered again and briefly summed up the situation.
“It looks like they’ve already searched all through the village.”
“Yeah. At this point, I’m starting to wonder if something really did happen.”
“The one fortunate thing is that there are almost no dangerous demonic beasts around here. Of course, that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down.”
“Ha, damn it. One little brat is turning the whole village upside down.”
Baldik grumbled, but his eyes were anxious.
We quietly turned our steps toward the forest outside the village.