Someone had died?
Kiseki Tokito's heart clenched, and his breathing involuntarily slowed.
Could an elderly person living alone have passed away... no, not with so many patrol officers here.
Something else must have happened.
With that thought, Tokito squeezed a little farther toward the front of the crowd.
The hushed conversations around him
also reached his ears in scattered snatches.
"Have you heard? A bear in these mountains has tasted human flesh. Now it even dares come down the mountain in broad daylight to attack people."
"That's terrifying. What about the hunters? Aren't they going to do anything?"
Several women huddled together, their necks drawn in as they whispered gossip.
"Can't the hunters hurry up and organize a party to go into the mountains and kill that man-eating bear?"
"Didn't you see? The hunters' leader is standing right over there."
"I heard they're already discussing it."
Kiseki Tokito frowned slightly.
Others nearby were quietly discussing the victims' identities.
Their voices held both pity and lingering fear. "That poor family."
"I heard he and his wife, along with their two young children, all fell victim to that bear."
"They couldn't piece together even one complete body from all four of them."
"What? That's just awful."
Hearing the shopkeepers talking like this,
Tokito's frown deepened.
A family living in this direction, with two children... he could more or less guess who it was.
A tailor who had bought firewood from him before.
Since both households happened to have two children,
the two of them had once spent some time sharing their experiences raising children.
The man had been a penny-pinching merchant with a sharp tongue.
But he was actually quite talkative, and he wasn't a bad person at heart.
An acquaintance he had seen around so often was suddenly gone.
Sorrow wound