"Is anyone hurt?" Erana asked.
"I'm good." Tael declared.
"She means anyone that could have been hurt, dingus!" Kany shouted out from behind the bear.
"I'm fine. We handled the bear before it could really do anything to us anyways. Speaking of, good job everyone." I looked over the party. Handling a creature like a grizzly bear with next to no issues is an impressive feat. I can tell that we'll only improve as time goes on.
"Okay, that's good. Now we need to search the cave for Rensan." Erana declared.
"Can I shout out for her? Are there any more bears that we'll need to worry about?" I asked Erana.
"No. It seems like this was the only bear in the cave. I don't know why it was alone, but we don't need to worry about any more than that one."
"Whew! I was super nervous when I was gonna stab it! I got flashbacks to the hobgoblin for a moment!"
"Don't remind me…" Tael muttered as he clutched his stomach.
I observed the interior of this s.p.a.ce that we were in. Though this seems to go around 15 meters deep, there is only the one s.p.a.ce that we are currently occupying. I don't see or hear Rena, but it's entirely possible that she's either hidden from us, or is hiding from us actively.
I cleared my throat and took a deep breath.
"RENA? ARE YOU HERE?" I shouted at the top of my lungs into the cave. The echo reverberated throughout the s.p.a.ce for a few moments before finally losing its power. No matter where you were in this s.p.a.ce, there was no way that you wouldn't hear this.
We stood still for a moment waiting for any signs of movement and listening for any sounds that may have come from something moving around, but they never came.
"So… she's not here?" Tael asked.
"Just because she didn't respond doesn't mean she's gone, Tael-san. Remember that she could be trying to hide from us specifically."
"Ahh… Right…"
I began to walk deeper into the s.p.a.ce of the cave. I approached the back of the interior of this cave and began to check the floor.
"Hm…" I let out.
"What's up, Kenji?"
"I don't see any signs that anyone other than that bear has been here! Erana, are you sure that Rena would have been here?"
"I'm positive. Whoever left that house was brought here."
I sighed in exhaustion at this. Now that I think about it, I'm actually rather tired. I understand that I just fought a bear and all, but the fatigue I'm feeling is actually rather surprising.
"H-Hey, Kany… Why am I so tired?" I asked her.
"Huh? Well, maybe it's because you used your strike skill. Using skills takes a lot of energy at once, but you weren't very tired after killing that one goblin…" Kany looked at me with slight concern before she asked a question quietly.
"Are you putting on weight again or something Onii-san? I hope I don't have to see how you looked before again, that would just be sad!"
"I-I'm healthier than I've ever been!" I shouted out. My shout echoed throughout the cave once more.
"Huh? What's this about you being healthy, Kenji-san?"
"N-Nothing! I just um… I'm feeling a bit tired is all!" I could feel myself blushing. I absolutely cannot let Erana or Tael know about my prior condition. I don't want Erana to pity me and I know I would never hear the end of it from Tael.
"Oh, maybe it was because you cast firebolt." Tael declared.
"Why would that do it?" I asked.
"Well, spells have been found to link to physical ability somewhat. Casting spells can draw from your stamina at times so maybe it was just that. You've only cast firebolt once before anyways. You're probably still just finding the correct feel for it or something." Tael explained.
"Oh, that probably explains it. Yeah… I just need practice." I brushed my forehead off.
"Everyone, I think I found something!" Erana shouted out as she crouched in a corner of the cave.
We all approached Erana's position to investigate what she found. Her face showed a morose expression. I could tell that she felt awful about whatever she was seeing.
"T-This fabric… Does anyone recognize it?" Erana held up a small bit of cloth towards the rest of us. A small part of it was covered in blood, but the rest of it was a deep pink color.
"Hey wait… Isn't that…" Tael began.
"What? What is that?" Kany was nudging Tael and myself out of the way to get a good look.
"That's a piece from Rena's dress. I remember seeing it last night when she performed." I looked downwards towards the ground as I said this. I can't describe it, but I felt a serious sense of failure when I said this.
"Wait so… What does this mean?" Tael asked Erana and myself this question. His head fluttered between the two of us quickly.
"Tael… do you see Rena anywhere around here?" I quietly asked him.
"No…"
"Well, why do you think that is?"
"Don't tell me the bear…"
"Oh jeez…" Kany whispered.
"Yeah. It seems like the bear ate her. Look around the ground here. There's a big blood stain. I think I know what happened now." I began to explain.
"Essentially what happened is, last night Rena found out that we were adventurers. Since she knew that it was only a matter of time before her cover was blown, she ran away out of her house in the middle of the night after she performed at the inn. She was probably looking for her friend Mully, but was intercepted by the bear. Simply put, the bear won and dragged her into this cave to eat her. This is the result…" I finished saying.
"Jeez Onii-san. That's pretty awful."
"Life isn't always kind, Kany." Erana stood up and said.
"Well, what's our plan now then?" Tael asked.
I pulled out my broadsword from its sheath and began to walk towards the bear's corpse.
"I'm curious about something." I declared as I raised my broadsword.
"W-Woah wait Kenji-san! We needed to kill the bear to protect ourselves and search for Rensan, but it's dead now! We don't need to disturb it anymore!" Erana ran towards me and got between myself and the bear.
"I thought you didn't care about that 'preserve nature' stuff!" I shouted out in protest.
"Taking down a single bear and mutilating its corpse are two separate things! Leave it alone, please?" Erana pleaded with me. I could tell that this is seriously bothering her, so I let out a sigh and sheathed my broadsword back into its hilt.
"Whew…" Erana exhaled in relief as she lowered her arms.
I closed my eyes and reflected on our current situation. We don't know who Mully is, Rena was devoured by a bear, and we have no idea where the missing people are. This is pretty much a worst case scenario. What do we do now?
As I was thinking to myself, I was interrupted by Kany.
"Yo Onii-san, what were you going to do with the bear anyways?" She asked me as she tilted her head.
"Oh… Well I was going to cut open its stomach and investigate its contents." I stated matter of factly.
Kany looked at me in horror. Tael also followed suit soon after.
"W-Why would you do that? That's so gross!"
"Oh, well I was curious about something." I shrugged.
"About WHAT?" Tael shouted.
"Well… I dunno. I just feel like this is a bit too… clean. You know?" I asked.
"Huh? What do you mean by that, Onii-san?"
"Well, there was a clear trail out of Rena's house and then from there we were able to follow a super clear path straight from there to this place. After we handled the bear in here, we were able to find some d.a.m.ning evidence of the person that we were tracking being Rena. I dunno, it just feels like it's being set up or something…" I stated.
"Man Kenji, you're still super paranoid, huh?" Tael brushed off my concerns with that simple statement. I could feel frustration build incredibly quickly in response to this.
"W-Well, let's deal with what we know. Right now, we need to go and inform the village. Specifically we need to tell Yasri-san. From there, we will be able to find out what to do afterwards. Okay?" Erana looked at the whole group as she asked this.
"Okay." We all said in tandem. We began to head outside of the cave, past the bear's carca.s.s, and went back towards the village of Mulbik.
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