Monaka and Kotone ran up through the gaps between the giant flopped turtles. Half their faces were relieved. Half looked ready to cry.
"Leo-kun! ...Thank goodness!" "I am glad you are unharmed, Master."
I wanted to stay with them. I could not. The real guards would hear the noise and come running.
"Listen, both of you. A state of emergency means something bad happened around here. I'm going back to the house now, so you go home too. And do not leave Onesco and Tomoe. Not for anything."
Monaka and Kotone had surely slipped their attendants' eyes to come here. To drive that in, I said something I did not mean.
"I only deal with excellent people. If you sneak out of the residential district and drop a rank, I quit being your master. So stay quiet at home during the state of emergency. Got it? That's an order."
They looked like children their parents had abandoned, and it stung. I left them with Onesco and Tomoe, who arrived late.
Then I left the residential district before the guards came. Walking home through the forest at a fast pace, my mind was more unsettled than usual.
"What is going on...!?"
I reached the house out of breath and emptied the canteen from my coat in one go. Water on a dry throat. I let out a breath and frowned.
"I'm thirsty...?"
Quite a few days had passed since I entered this academy, and this was the first time I wanted water. Which meant...
"The range magic Unthirst has worn off. But three days ago at morning assembly, the vice principal said they would do maintenance...?"
And getting this thirsty all at once was unnatural. Even if it wore off, a range magic's effect should fade little by little...
"Is it tied to the state of emergency?"
Either way, I needed a way to get water. For a day like this, I already had a water source marked.
I left the house without even sitting. I took Mark and Tom and headed for the pond in the forest.
Then I froze.
"Th-the pond is filled in...!?"
Earth was heaped on the pond, like a grave marker. Not nature. Clearly human hands.
A sign stood on the peak of the mound. Sorry. In that instant, I understood all of it.
"Right. That's it...! The Unthirst maintenance meant they limited the range to the school building and the residential district...! And on top of that they filled the pond. The principal and vice principal mean to thirst me to death...!"
A person can go a while without food. Without water, you do not last a week. With a Ranger's Survival skill, you can get water from plants and the like.
And there should be plenty of clean water if I go to the school building. Taps, fountains, a pool.
The school building would be crawling with guards under the cover of the state of emergency. With my skills, getting at the water inside would still be easy.
Yes. If it were only me, I could manage somehow. Only me...
I looked at the animals gathered around the pond. All of them were looking at the filled-in pond with faces like, this one's no good either...
They had been pulled in with me, and their water had been taken. Animals can ease thirst with morning dew and the like, but that has a limit too.
I looked them over for a little while. Then I climbed the mound, yanked out the joke of a sign, and threw it away.
"Everyone. The pond ending up like this is my fault. I'm truly sorry I took your water."
I did not know if the words reached them. I said it with my whole heart.
"I'll find a new water source for all of you. I want you to trust me and follow. If you do, you should be able to get water."
I came down off the mound and started walking deeper into the forest. Only Mark and Tom came with me.
"Can't be helped..."
I could raise Charm and take them with no choice left. I did not want to do that.
"If this pond is filled in, every other water source might be ruined too. I might walk as far as I like and never find one. So I only wanted the ones who trusted me to come. But... telling animals I've hunted over and over to trust me is a waste, isn't it..."
Either way, I meant to find a water source for them.
"But how do I even look...?"
Wild animals should be the professionals at finding water, more than me. If they were crushed with despair, this area had to be wiped out.
"Which means I have to look a long way. Walking at random won't find anything..."
Then I remembered something. Before, when I was looking for stone for clay so I could do pottery.
There is volcanic rock with no volcano. Maybe there used to be a river around here? If I look, there might be a source nearby.
"...Right! I just have to follow where the volcanic rock is! Then I might find a branch of the river. If I'm lucky, the source!"
I took the nearby map from my coat pocket. From the first place I found volcanic rock, I walked, reasoning out the land.
Then I found a hollow that looked like there had once been a river.
"Good. I'll follow this toward the back of the forest."
There was no guarantee a river was ahead. A thin hope, like a spider's thread.
"But right now, that's all I can hang on to...!"
I walked for hours with a feeling like prayer. The hollow was buried in dirt and cut off dead.
I was not tired, but the mental waste dropped me to my knees.
"The only lead, gone...! What do I do...!"
Then I felt countless footsteps behind me and turned. Mark and Tom noticed it too, something off, and turned the backs of their fluffy heads toward me.
Step, step, step, step...
It was an animal legion, led by one fawn...!
The fawn in front looked familiar.
"Are you the first one I tamed...!? Did you talk the others into it...!?"
The fawn cried, like a nod, and hopped in front of me. Will I had been about to lose came back up.
Then a miracle happened.
Leopin
Job: Axe Battler
LV 17 → 18
HP 1010
MP 1010
Status
Life 101
Endurance 101
Toughness 1001
Spirit 101
Resistance 101
Agility 1001
Focus 101
Strength 101
Magic Power 101
Divine Power 101
Intelligence 101
Education 101
Five Senses 101
Sixth Sense 101
Charm 1
Luck 5
Dexterity 400 → 500
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