The Mysterious Voice

"Mmm..."

Inside the house, the unconscious girl slowly opened her eyes on a simple wooden bed and let out a faint moan.

Suddenly, her eyes flew wide open and she sat up, finding a thick black coat draped over her.

It was Chiba's coat.

Like a startled little animal, she hurriedly looked around.

But there was no one in the house.

A little panicked, she climbed straight out of bed and pushed open the wooden cabin's door.

"Whooo~"

The frigid wind slipped in through the opening, making the girl shiver all over. After losing her magic power, even her resistance to the cold had declined considerably. Though compared to an ordinary person, she could still withstand the cold quite well.

But the sight before her left her stunned.

Outside stood countless trees weighed down by snow. They were packed so tightly around the house that there wasn't even a path a person could squeeze through. Ultear couldn't imagine how the house had come to be there.

She closed the door and looked around the house.

Several thick but not particularly tall trees grew in twists and turns around the edges of the room. Their lush leaves were so green they hardly looked like they belonged in a cold place. Beside the trees were several piles of hard rocks, with scorching lava at their centers.

The lava's heat was also what provided the warmth and light inside the house.

Ultear knew Chiba might have done this.

She said "might" because she could see the piles of lava, but had he also made the trees inside, the house itself, and the grove surrounding it?

When had he gained the ability to control trees, too?

"Creak~"

The wooden door opened, and a boy in simple clothes walked in through the howling wind.

"Big sis, you're finally awake?!" Seeing Ultear standing in front of him, the boy's eyes flashed with delight, and he broke into a grin.

"You..." Ultear's gaze went unfocused for a moment before she asked, "Did you... make all this?"

Chiba looked around the house, then walked over and sat on the bed at the other side. He patted the bedboard and smiled. "What do you think? Not bad, right?"

Ultear suddenly fell silent.

Something stirred in Chiba's heart, and he asked, "What's wrong? You don't like it?"

Ultear shook her head, then pursed her lips. "Why didn't you abandon me? I've already... lost the power to restrain you... Why haven't you left?"

"Abandon you? Leave? Big sis, didn't you save me? Why would I abandon you and leave?"

Chiba was a little surprised. "Big sis, has the cold addled your brain? Isn't it good to be alive?"

Ultear gritted her teeth. "But... I'm from a dark guild. I don't even know how many innocent people I've killed. Don't you hate me?"

"Hmm..." Chiba pondered for a moment, then smiled. "But you've never killed an innocent person in front of me. And from what I've seen, big sis, you're not bad by nature. It's just... hmm... how should I put it... you seem to have some obsession that leaves you no choice but to act this way."

Ultear's delicate body trembled, and she fell silent.

"Whatever you're burdened with, it doesn't have anything to do with us being friends, right?" Chiba said with a faint smile.

"Speaking of which, I hunted two snow deer, but the ones here seem quite a bit bigger than normal... Oh well, I'll drag them in and roast them first..."

Chiba muttered to himself, then went back outside.

"Friends..."

A lost look appeared in Ultear's eyes. Then she shook her head and quickly rejected the thought.

She didn't need friends. In this false world, all she needed were partners with shared interests, or pawns. Friends... how could she possibly have friends?

Just then, Chiba dragged in a snow deer twice the size of a normal one. There was a bloody mark on its neck; it seemed to have been killed in a single blow.

Ultear pushed the thoughts out of her head and changed the subject. "You've never seen a snow deer this size?"

Chiba hesitated for a moment. In fact, he had never even seen a snow deer before. Still, he nodded.

"The animals back in my hometown are all quite a bit smaller than this," Chiba said.

Ultear explained at length, "The plants and animals of today are very different from those in the past. Perhaps because magic power has grown increasingly abundant, people, plants, and animals now all have some degree of magic power within them. Mages absorb magic power through special methods and use magic; ordinary humans retain magic power that strengthens their bodies to a certain extent; and magic power naturally becomes incorporated into the cells of plants and animals."

"So... once you leave areas inhabited by humans, it's easy to encounter monsters whose bodies have fused with magic power in the wilderness. Monsters aren't always larger than ordinary animals; they may just have different features in certain places. As a result, ordinary animals are extremely rare, and their market prices have remained high. Whenever hunters encounter one in the wild, they scramble to claim it."

"If there are so many monsters, wouldn't ordinary people be unable to go anywhere?" Chiba asked.

Ultear shook her head. "That's not the case. Generally, when beasts fuse with magic power, their intelligence improves to a certain degree. Most beasts generally won't attack humans of their own accord. For one thing, most beasts aren't interested in humans and usually have their own prey. For another, once they attack ordinary humans, the Magic Council will arrange for mage guilds to hunt them down. Over time, the number of monsters that attack humans has fallen considerably."

"Other than monsters that are extremely confident in their strength, those with special reasons, or bloodthirsty monsters interested in humans, beasts basically don't attack people."

"No wonder the bear and pig I killed last time sold for so much..." Chiba muttered quietly.

He hadn't sensed any magic power in those beasts. Presumably, they hadn't been infused with magic power, or had so little that he couldn't detect it.

Perhaps Mira's hometown was in a special location, with an abundance of ordinary beasts. It was also possible that the demon had devoured all the beasts with magic power, or had directly extracted their magic power.

All in all, he'd been lucky back then.

Not only had he killed beasts to sell, he'd also eaten several of them himself.

But now that he thought about it, no wonder he and Hodrian had spent so long at it that night, and the old man had nearly torn down the entire mountain before they caught a few wild boars.

He might not be so lucky in the future.

Still, Mira had all the money from the sale. He didn't have a penny.

That was fine too. With that much money, their livelihood had some measure of security.

Ultear's magic power was sealed, and she couldn't restrict his freedom anymore. It was time to go find Mira and the others.

Should he take her with him?

He would. It was dangerous for a young girl who had lost her magic power to stay out in the wilderness.

"Pah! Scumbag!"

Suddenly, a clear, pleasant female voice rang out in his mind, its tone full of disdain.

Chiba jolted, nearly scared half to death...

The source of that voice...