306 - - a fountain of confusion

The majority of the monsters that swarmed into the village during the outbreak were insects, probably because they were led by a demon tribe that imitated a flower.

Flies larger than a human head, stag beetles with triple jaws, and a swarm of poisonous red-spotted centipedes.

And the giant praying mantis that slit Sora's throat.

All of these insects had died near the spring, leaving behind their distinctive shells and sickles.

Strangely enough, the overlapping carcasses showed no signs of injury or damage.

It was as if they had all died of natural causes.

"Is the water poisoned?"

Sola mutters a plausible reason to the monster wreckage gathered around the fountain.

To confirm this, Thor approaches the water's edge, activating his .

Since there were no dangerous images, he bends down and puts his hand in the water.

He felt a numbing coldness, but that was all.

I lifted my finger and put a few drops on my tongue, but there was no funny taste.

It was just clear groundwater.

"Moo, is that the shiny thing that makes you itch?"

That's right, Tor.

"It's all very suspicious, but let's check it out."

Saying this, Thor once again activates his .

Then he stopped moving.

Raindrops of images filled his vision.

Most of the images were of himself running along the stepping stones.

The rest are either tilting their heads or folding their arms and scratching under their chins.

Not one of them has reached the shining circle, or has any future in their hands.

The center of the fountain is less than ten steps away by eye.

It takes less than five seconds.

"Is something wrong?　Mr. Toll."

No, I'll be back in a bit.

If the need arises, there is always acceleration and retrogression.

Thor carefully takes a step toward a white stepping stone.

He continues on to the next stone.

Keeping the luminous object floating in the center of the fountain in his vision, he paces at a brisk pace.

In no time at all, the shining circle is approaching - or so it should be.

However, Thor finds that his toes are stepping on the ground on the shore.

"Hmm?"

The two feet should definitely have been in front of each other.

But before he knew it, Thor had turned his back to the fountain.

He hurriedly turned around to see an object still floating in the center of the water, silently glowing with a silver light.

As Thor scratched the bottom of his chin, Yuril and Mu approached him.

"What's wrong?　Mr. Thor."

"P-p-please, Tor-chan, you made a mistake..."

"No, I didn't mean to. ......"

Thor felt even more uncomfortable because he had no sense that anything strange had been done to him.

He puts his foot on the stepping stone again to check.

This time, he carefully fixed his eyes on the luminous body, and took one step at a time without fail.

"Huh?"

Strangely enough, the distance between them does not seem to be closing.

No matter how many times I put my foot on the stepping stone, the silvery circle never comes close to me, keeping a certain distance between us.

A cheerful child's voice came to Thor's wondering back.

"Tor, is that a new game you're playing?　Moe's gonna do it too!"

With these words, the child jumps onto a white stepping stone.

He tried to approach Thor via the stone, but somehow landed on the soil on the shore.

"What?"

Moe's expression of surprise is followed by Sola's surprised voice.

Yuril, too, seems to have realized the abnormality of the situation, and calls out to Thor while quickly looking around.

"Thor, you seem to be moving back and forth between the left and right stones since a while ago.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, you can't move forward."

"I think I'm making progress. ......"

"Can I try it too?"

"Moo, one more time!"

They each choose a different stepping stone and try to get as close to Thor as possible.

But for some reason, they cannot go in the direction they want and end up going to different stepping stones.

"What the heck is this?

"Interesting. No matter how I try, I can't go in the direction I want to go."

"It seems easy enough to get out of the fountain, but that glowing thing--"

We'll never get there.

Oh no, not again. Why?

We tried for about ten minutes, but no matter how hard we tried, we could not make it to the center of the fountain.

Leaving Moe to continue jumping on the stepping stones with a merry laugh, Thor and Yuril decided to return to the shore to collect their thoughts.

"It seems that the distance and the direction are not correct in that fountain."

"That's what I thought, so I tried going forward and backward, but it all ended up the same."

Yes, because all but one of them are incorrect.

Considering that the stepping stones might have some tricks up their sleeve, Thor tried putting his foot directly into the water, but the result was the same: he was left with a cold feeling.

The space covering the fountain itself seems to have some kind of trick.

Or perhaps the light emitted by the silvery circle had some kind of effect on our senses.

With this in mind, I closed my eyes and asked him to guide me, but this did not work either.

Picking up a pebble at his feet, Thor lightly flexed his wrists and fired it toward the center of the fountain.

However, the pebble went off the target and flew in an unexpected direction.

He knew this, but it seemed that the fountain did not accept any interference from a distance.

"If we go inside, our senses will be displaced and we won't be able to touch it from the outside, will we?"

"Even Mumu-san, whose senses are more acute than anyone else's, can't think of anything to do if it's so severe.

"Hey, Thor, you know how many of these monsters are dead? ......"

Sola, who had been quiet up to that point, spoke to Thor and the others as they pondered.

"Yeah, I guess they didn't make it to that shiny guy and fell to their deaths just like us."

"...... after all."

"When the miasma is low, the monsters can't keep their shape for long."

"So maybe it's not just a coincidence that the outbreak happened because of that thing?"

The only monsters that rarely wander into the village are dogs or rabbits transformed by the miasma, but I have never seen or heard of such a huge demon tribe.

One day, they suddenly attacked us in a vicious pack.

Oren wondered if there might have been some other reason.

"I can't deny that."

"Then that thing messed up the village, and everyone died. ....... Grandpa and Thor are in a lot of trouble ......."

Thor's hand was gently placed on the girl's head as she turned down.

He lightly stroked Thora's hair several times, as if to make her bounce.

"You know, Thora. You know, Thora, it was indeed very hard for me to save you. To be honest, I almost gave up several times. But the only thing that kept me going in the end was that I wanted you to live longer. That's what I wanted and that's what grandpa wanted. So don't make me feel responsible for you. We did what we did because we wanted to. In fact, be proud of yourself for making us do it."

"............ Hmmm, is that so?"

"Yeah, that's a lot better than regret."

The girl, who had been chewing on the idea for a while, looked up and nodded straight to Thor.

"Well, I'll go get that.

"Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I kind of know what you mean. The road to there."

So saying, Sola placed her foot lightly on the stepping stone of the fountain.

With calm steps, the girl walks toward the center of the water.

In front of the stunned Thor and Yuril, Thora easily reaches out her hand to an object that shines with a silver light.

The girl turns around with the round shining object in her hand, smiling with a smile of her own.