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After finishing our preparations, we decided to head towards the hut. While there were only two fields between us, each field spanning for around a hundred meters made it quite a big distance for us.

That hut was crammed in the second one, so it was roughly two hundred meters straight. That said, we had to take a detour at the Cosmos fields so we actually had to walk for three hundred meters.

If the situation called for speed, then I wanted us to depart as promptly as we could. However, Cortina stopped before our restlessness won.

“Wait, Nicole. Take this too just in case.”

Saying that, she handed over a thick and fluffy something the size of a human’s head. In other words, the Carbuncle Kabby.

“W-Why is it here…”

Last I checked, I should’ve thrown it out of my rucksack. I obediently accepted the big hamster that was acting all smug.

“It seems to have slipped into my rucksack without me realizing it.”
“Squee!”

Kappy squealed with a face saying “got you!”. You should’ve noticed the weight difference, Cortina! You really are a clumsy girl.

“W-Well, can’t be helped this late in the game.”
“Yeah. I was getting strangely tired from the weight after we departed, and it turned out it was because of this guy. Took me by surprise.”
“I’m not sure if that’s helping your case.”
“Well, either way, it’s not a bad thing in the present situation. Kappy can use basic magic, so it can be of use if you take it with you, don’t you think?”

Now that she mentioned it, when Mikey was trapped in the cave, Kabby cast Purify on him all night long. Despite its looks, it was still part of the Dragon species, so while it could only use low-level spells, its actual skill at magic power manipulation was excellent.

It was still young and couldn’t use high-level magic, but its control itself was nothing short of a first-class magician.

Among us, only Letina could use the practical magic properly, so I could expect our overall ability to go up with Kabby aboard.

“Fine then. Better listen to everything I say, got it?”
“Squee-squee!”

I gave it such warning as I lifted it up, and it returned a vigorous response. Seeing that, Letina covered her mouth. Did she have a hay-fever or something?

“Nicole, you look kinda sly.”
“Huh, why?”

Hearing her remark, I took a look at my own appearance. I had my rucksack on my back in case it came in handy later, and was in a school tracksuit. So far there was nothing out of ordinary.

I also had the knife and katana on my wait and back respectively, but other than those, there was nothing that felt off.

“I mean hugging Kappy like that, I wanna hug and take it home too!”
“Wait, that’s your problem!? And you can’t take it back, we have work to do!”
“Okay!”

Her answer was good and all, but lately her worldly desires have been increasing. At any rate, searching for the missing person came first. I put Kabby on my head and started walking towards the hut.

When we neared the hut, I immediately went to peek inside. I couldn’t feel anyone’s presence inside, but in case there was someone with a Stealth Gift like me or that kidnapper assassin, my perception might not be enough to detect them. As such, I lift opened the folding window a bit and looked inside.

It was pitch black inside, and as expected, I couldn’t sense anyone there. We approached it by pure coincidence, so there was a low chance that someone had been erasing their presence and lied in wait all this time.

“I don’t sense anyone inside. I’ll try going in, but you two stay on guard at the door.”
“Understood.”
“Got it!”

If they entered with me, it could become a confined battle. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, but it was better to be safe in the off-chance.

I opened the door and walked inside while erasing my footsteps. It was quite messy inside, but not to the level where you’d think something happened. It was more or less what an average all-male house would be like.

I felt a bit relieved to find out that he didn’t seem to have collapsed due to an illness.

“There’s no one here.”

I called out to the two that were staying alert at the door and started investigating the room. The windows were closed so the inside was dark. They didn’t have enough luxury to have glass windows it seems. Though, if you gave glass windows to a hut, that’d stand out like a sore thumb.

“Kabby, please.”
“Squee!”

Heeding my request, the Carbuncle lit up the room with Light magic. This magic simply produced light, so it wasn’t part of the interference system, and as such I couldn’t use it.

Minimal bedding, tableware, firewood and cooking range. Behind the hut was the storage shed, well and stable.

Oops, I found some lewd books too. Let’s secretly confiscate them, shall we?

There were no writings anywhere in the hut, so the owner probably didn’t know how to read and write. Even the book I seized was just a picture book.

“Hmm…”
“If he can’t read, maybe he didn’t realize that we were arriving today?”
“That can’t be.”

Letina arrived at the same conclusion after seeing the room and made a hypothesis. But I immediately denied it.

There was a coarse clay tablet in the room, and it had several X marks carved on it. Perhaps he used it to count the days.

“If he used this as a calendar, he should’ve been able to predict the day of our arrival. Rather, he probably remembered it better than us since he looks at it every day.
“Ah, I see.”

Letina obediently nodded to my explanation and returned back to inspecting the room. But at that moment, I noticed a presence that was approaching the hut.

Author’s note: After this, Nicole may or may not have failed to put the book she stole to use and have fallen to her knees in despair…