Chapter 389 – Checking out the Site

I gave up on trying to push Femm to mark the territory and asked Vi-Vi,

「Hey, isn’t this the ruins of the mansion where the army housed the generals or something?」

「Yeah, I think so…One of the Twelve Heavenly Disciples or something? Can’t remember.」

She was one of the Four Sub-Bosses…well the fifth one.

Of course, that was way back when the demon lord’s army was at peace in Elkay.

When Cruz, I, and the others showed up and raided the place, the town was prepared for war.

Vi-Vi looked at me like she was recalling something in the past and said,

「I was one of the Sub-Bosses, but I wasn’t in Elkay much.」

「You were in charge of improving the crops.」

「Yeah, I was. I would show up occasionally if there was an important meeting or something, though.」

Vi-Vi actually lived in the kingdom, right on the border of the Demon King.

Thats why she didn’t know a lot of what was going on at Elkay.

Even so, then, she had her own place in Elkay.

「So, Vi-Vi what happened to your place here in Elkay?」

「I went to go check it out myself because I was wondering about it…but someone burned it down.」

「I see. That might have been our fault.」

It probably burned when we fought the demon army.

I and the magicians of the enemy got in a magical battle the burned a lot of things down.

So I felt that I was responsible in a way.

「Don’t worry. I hardly saw the place and didn’t feel any attachment to it.」

「Ah…okay.」

As we were talking about it, the beasts were sniffing around everywhere.

They said nothing was here, but they still kept sniffing.

Even Femm was examining the place closely.

「ryaa ryaa」

「Do you want to sniff, Shiggy?」

「ryaa」

I guess she wanted to imitate Femm.

I put her on top of Moofy’s head.

「ryaa ryaa」

「Mooo!」

And so they started sniffing around together.

I said to the beasts,

「If there’s nothing there, you don’t need to keep smelling, right?」

「Mooo」「PiGggiii」

Moofy and Chel looked a bit troubled.

Femm then said to me,

『I think nothing’s here, but…』

「What is it? You noticed something?」

『I think so.』

「Hm.」

I did a light scan for magical sources, just in case something was around.

「Allow me to search too.」

「And me.」

So Timi and Vi-Vi searched in their own ways.

If something magical was there, we couldn’t overlook it.

As I was searching magically, at that moment,

「RYAAA!」

Shiggy cried out loudly from the top of Moofy’s head.

「What is it, Shiggy?」

「What did you find?」

「ryaa」

Shiggy had just dove off Moofy’s head and grabbed a mouse on the ground.

She happily showed it to us with both of her claws.

It was quite large, almost as big as Shiggy.

She held onto it tightly so it couldn’t flee.

「Ｋｉｉｉｉｉｉｉｉ!」

The mouse cried out loudly.

「Wait a second!」

I got closer and scooped the mouse up myself.

It was obviously not a normal mouse, but a magical one.

「ryaa ryaa」

Shiggy looked upset that the mouse wasn’t in her claws anymore.

「You did well to catch this, Shiggy.」

I patted her head.

「But this mouse is dirty and quite dangerous.」

「ryaa」

I used magic to kill it.

「Very strange to see a magical mouse on the street. I guess Elkay has a long recovery ahead.」

The guild was trying to clean things up, but it was still very early.

They didn’t have time for things like cleaning up nests of magical mice.

「Maybe there’s a sewer around here?」

I asked Femm.

Femm’s tail stood up and looked serious.

『No entrance here?』

「You sure?」

『Oh yes. If there was one nearby, I could smell the stench.』

「Okay. Yeah, I guess it would stink…」

I think people could cover the stench so that it wouldn’t bother the people outside.

But that may not be possible to the level that Moofy and Femm couldn’t find it.

Timi came over and looked at the mouse, petting Shiggy,

「Shiggy, good job hunting. You have such a bright future!」

Then she looked at Vi-Vi,

「If there’s no sewer, where would they come from? Do you have any idea, Vi-Vi?」

「None. From what I know of Elkay there should be no magical mice here.」

So she also wondered where the mouse had come from.

And these mice were enemies of the people of the town.