Among the three members of the scouting team, Kevin who was as tall as a pole had the most experience in Arunvida.
Because of this, he couldn’t believe that their leader Felice had abandoned them, so he went to see him directly.
“Why did you abandon us?”
Felice nodded his head in response to Kevin’s question.
“Even if we are branded as criminals on the outside, it doesn’t make sense to entrust our lives to such a brat like that!”
Kevin believed his opinion was valid.
Of course, most of those gathered in Arunvida were either criminals or nobles driven out by the imperial family.
Wasn’t Felice also one of them?
However, Felice shook his head.
“Hmm, I can understand why you think like that. But you see…”
“Yes?”
“That kid didn’t come here just by chance, like we thought.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Here, this is the latest supply. Read this.”
Felice handed a letter to Kevin.
“This is… what?”
Kevin had no family or acquaintances in the outside world, so he never received letters, but Felice communicated with his family at times.
Though it happened only a few times a year, it was still a valuable opportunity.
There was no way to know what was happening in the outside world from here.
Anyway, Kevin who was touching the letter he hadn’t seen in who knows how long trembled with disbelief.
“Th-The cradle has opened? Elves? What is this…?”
“Well…. we can’t leave here anyway, so what difference does it make if the cradle has opened or not.”
However, news of the cradle opening was significant.
One of humanity’s great long-held dreams had been realized.
Even though they were cut off from the world, they knew how monumental this event was.
Additionally, the Empire held a grand festival to win public favor over this event, and in the -process, Arunvida also benefited from this.
Of course, it was just that more supplies than usual had arrived, but the residents of Arunvida didn’t know the reason.
But the reason for the increased supplies was this.
“The Great Mezaiya Forest… They say he made a great contribution to opening that cradle. I mean that kid.”
“My goodness…”
“You all saw it, right? The increased supplies this time. It all started because that kid published a good thesis, understand?”
“…”
Then Felice explained in more detail to Kevin.
At first glance, it seemed like this place was all about showing off violence, but surprisingly, politics were also important here.
In the past, such doubts would have been suppressed with violence, but those times were over.
It was another order that Anastasia had established.
“I’m not telling you to trust that kid completely. But don’t interfere. What’s our creed?”
“…Pay back what we owe.”
“Right. Anyway, the generous supplies this time are thanks to that kid struggling for months in the jungle.”
“Ugh…”
“My words shouldn’t be difficult to understand, right? Don’t hold any prejudices. After all, we know well how we were treated by newcomers from the outside.”
“…Understood.”
Kevin nodded his head but he wasn’t completely convinced.
Whatever Shane’s reputation on the outside was, it didn’t change the fact that he was a newcomer to Arunvida.
For now, Kevin decided to wait and see.
Even so, it seemed his resentment over being hit by Shane’s powerful magical projectile was easing a bit.
Let’s see what he’s got.
It wasn’t like there were no dispatched individuals who challenged Arunvida by relying only on their own abilities.
Some of them were even stronger than those who had lived in Arunvida for over a decade.
However, Arunvida was a harsh environment with an unpredictable monster presence.
Despite having considerable strength, their former team leader was injured by a monster that appeared during a rest and died shortly afterward.
Moreover, Kevin had seen many instances where poor leadership led the entire team into the jaws of death, so he planned to keep a close eye on Shane for now.
And just like that, their first scouting operation began.
From the outside, people’s views of the residents of Arunvida couldn’t have been more unfavorable.
After all, weren’t they criminals?
Although those in command were nobles who were demoted from central politics, this did not change the fact that most of the residents were criminals.
Originally, Shane would have been unable to escape such prejudice.
On the contrary, since he had seen the bottom of the organization, he knew all too well how far those cast out from human society could fall.
Despite this, Shane chose dialogue over inflicting violence on them because it was more efficient for getting things done. But there was a more important reason.
It was because of the loyalty they showed in Shane’s past life to the second princess Anastasia.
A rebellion couldn’t be staged alone; the cooperation of Arunvida’s residents was very important.
In Shane’s past life, they had participated in Anastasia’s rebellion and stayed by her side until the end.
This gave Shane the resolve to try dialogue.
At least they had remained loyal by the princess’s side until the end.
And indeed, the deal with Felice which other dispatched personnel hadn’t even attempted proved to be effective.
At the very least, the blatant hostility toward the dispatched personnel in Arunvida wasn’t directed at Shane.
Of course, this didn’t mean he could expect any goodwill from the residents, but Shane could be satisfied with the fact that there was no opposition to what he was doing.
Moreover, in two months’ time, even those hostile looks would disappear.
So, all he had to do was focus on his tasks.
“Hmm…”
The scouting team’s daily routine began early in the morning.
“Well, we’re all set.”
When the cold air of Arunvida filled his lungs, Kevin who was one of the three members of the scouting team approached and spoke. Shane nodded his head and answered.
“Let’s go.”
“Guys, let’s move out!”
“Alright.”
“How long has it been since the last scouting took place?”
“.……”
When the three members and Shasha set off, Shane unfolded the map he had received recently and began the scouting.
The scouting involved traversing a designated area each day, documenting the process, and sending the reports to the higher-ups.
However, due to Arunvida’s nature, the weather could turn bad at any moment and an unexpected monster attack could bring unforeseen consequences.
Most of the monsters in Arunvida were resilient enough to survive its harsh environment.
There were ice trolls with skin as hard as frozen ice, owlbears that were protected by thick layers of fat and muscle, and ice worms that burrowed beneath the snow.
None of them were easy to deal with.
“Stop.”
“Everyone stop.”
“Aye.”
“…”
While continuing the scouting, the team entered the owlbear’s habitat.
The biting knife-like cold wind blew from the forest where the owlbear resided.
At the entrance to the forest stood a line of barren trees with few leaves in sight.
The claw marks of the owlbear on the frozen rocks and trees were menacing.
Not to mention the rocks, the winter trees were as hard as steel, which is why the place was known as the Iron Forest.
The three members were usually reluctant to listen to Shane’s words and had no motivation, but their eyes changed when they reached the owlbear’s habitat.
“…Owlbear.”
The owlbear was an exceptionally dangerous monster.
Though slightly smaller than a typical ogre, it moved with great stealth despite its muscular appearance.
If anyone let their guard down even slightly, they could find themselves split into three parts by the owlbear’s powerful claws in the blink of an eye.
It was also incredibly fast for its size. To the point that some preferred to face an ogre instead.
The scouting team’s mission included gathering information on the number of such monsters and any changes in their ecosystem since the last scouting.
After observing the entrance of the owlbear’s habitat for a while, Shane resumed walking.
“Let’s move again.”
“Aye.”
After walking for a while, Shane who was now halfway through the habitat spoke up.
“Something is strange.”
MacGowan who was the largest of the three members asked in response to Shane’s muttering.
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“There are no signs of owlbear activity.”
“Oh, you meant that. Owlbears don’t usually ambush so easily.”
MacGowan started explaining as if it were common knowledge.
Originally, owlbears were known for their huge size and violent nature once provoked, but they were mainly nocturnal creatures.
“They don’t ambush easily during the day. They mostly do that at night.”
However, they were also very cautious creatures.
They instinctively knew that to survive in this place, they had to be in a favorable position for a safe hunt.
Yet Shane was also not unaware of this fact.
“Don’t you think it’s too quiet for that?”
“Huh? Now that you mention it, I can’t hear the night howls.”
At that point, the others stopped in their tracks.
Even though owlbears were nocturnal and cautious creatures that rarely made ambushes during the day, they wouldn’t simply watch intruders in their habitat.
At the very least, there should have been the unmistakable hooting which was their usual threatening behavior. It was also known to the people of Arunvida as the night howl.
But now, the forest was unusually quiet.
It was then that the three members, who were returning to the owlbear habitat for the first time since they lost their leader, sensed something was wrong.
“It seems like they’ve moved their habitat….?”
Kevin who had experienced this several times suggested the idea and Shane nodded his head.
“In that case, it means they were pushed out by something else.”
“Tch, this complicates things. We need to go back and report it immediately.”
“No, let’s look around a bit more before we go.”
“You mean to go without knowing what’s ahead?”
“Isn’t that the mission of a scouting team?”
“…. Listen here.”
“Speak.”
“You might not know this, but wandering around here with such a reckless attitude is a good way to get killed. The third ironclad rule of the Arunvida scouting team is to report if something feels off. That’s a basic rule.”
In this place, if you move with a heroic mentality, you won’t have a good end.
After all, strange events that humans can’t understand often occur in Arunvida.
Trying to dig into them would not only make it hard to stay alive, but it would also lead to only one inevitable conclusion.
“It’s a territorial fight between monsters anyway. The end result is always a monster wave.”
In reality, whenever such strange phenomena occurred, it almost always led to a monster wave.
They didn’t understand the principle behind it either.
The monsters of Arunvida were not ones to be judged merely by curiosity.
“So, instead of dying here for no reason, it’s much better to go and report it in advance and prepare for the monster wave. Got it?”
“Well… I have a different opinion.”
“Haah, of course, you wouldn’t understand nicely. Let’s hear it then.”
Despite Kevin’s crossed arms and his disdainful gaze, Shane didn’t reprimand him.
He understood that they had their own perspective and that, based on their experience, it was the best course of action.
“A territorial fight between monsters is quite common. But there are always warning signs preceding it.”
“…That’s true.”
Arunvida was one of the few areas where monsters existed in their natural state, and not inside a dungeon.
Because of this, territorial disputes were quite frequent, and Shane had conducted various investigations on this.
“The start of territorial disputes among monsters occurs when a stone is removed by an outsider. Then, massive movements of monsters can be detected.”
“That’s right.”
Kevin nodded in agreement up to that point, and Shane pulled out a thick document from his pocket.
“Look, these are the monster migration paths in Arunvida over the past month.”
“…? Where did you get that?”
“I became the team leader of a scouting team. Do you think I’ve been idle? Gathering information about the area where we’re deployed is the most basic task, isn’t it?”
“Huh.”
How many people had failed to do even such a basic task?
Kevin had never seen anyone among the dispatched personnel show such an attitude toward work.
Well, wasn’t he said to be one of the heroes who opened the cradle?
Surely, there was something about him that didn’t match his age.
Kevin quickly acknowledged this fact and waited for the next words.
“In particular, a monster powerful enough to drive out an owlbear would be an ice troll. Their regeneration and defense abilities are so strong that even an owlbear can’t deal with them. But over the past month, the ice trolls’ migration paths have been far from here.”
“……”
“Moreover, ice trolls don’t move in groups. So, it would take a considerable amount of time for one to drive out a group of monsters from their habitat. According to reports from other scouting teams, the owlbears were still active here as of last week.”
“……”
“This is also the same for owlbears, but it’s different during their breeding season. Now that the breeding season for owlbears has begun, they move around at least in family units. So it’s not a time when even ice trolls can easily approach them.
Kevin had no choice but to keep his mouth closed.
Everything coming out of Shane’s mouth was exactly what Kevin had learned from his superiors.
“Th-Then what is the point you are trying to make? Owlbears are disappearing so suddenly at the beginning of their aggressive breeding season. Aren’t you also saying this is something we can’t solve in the end?”
“Who said anything about solving it? I said we need to find out what the cause is, or at least find some clue if we can’t identify the cause. How long do you plan to move so complacently while relying solely on those castle walls?”
“……!”
Kevin and the two others couldn’t speak any further for a while.
“Bu-But in the past fifty years, that castle wall has never been breached….”
“You’re exactly the same.”
“……? What do you mean by the same?”
“I’m saying that you’re as complacent as the political nobles living comfortably in the empire.”
“……!”
“And how has their complacency affected you?”
Shane’s words left Kevin feeling as if he had been struck hard on the back of the head with a hammer.
Was he, who was living here now, really the same as those disgusting political nobles?
An impulse to rip off Shane’s arrogant mouth surged within him, but Kevin didn’t dare act on it.
Shane’s expressionless face and eyes seemed to carry an intention to test them.
Kevin understood this intention for a very simple reason.
That look was the same one they had shown to the newly dispatched personnel on many occasions.
It was even the same expression they had shown Shane when he first arrived here.
In the end, the three members could only remain silent.
“Let’s move.”
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