[No title provided]
No wonder my body felt heavier than usual this morning—it must have been foreshadowing this moment. Standing at the center of the dining table, chilled by the cold aura hanging in the air, I couldn't bring myself to meet the heavy, wordless gazes pressing down on me and just stared holes into the food. Even someone as oblivious as me could instinctively sense that raising my head recklessly in this situation would spell big trouble. If those stares had physical pressure, I'd already be riddled with holes, spurting blood everywhere.
"Here you go, Mars. Ahh~"
And the culprit behind all this was right beside me, acting all coquettish and trying to feed me. What the hell is going on?
When I woke up, there she was, sitting demurely beside me like a newlywed bride. Before my brain could even kickstart with morning coffee, Polo burst in, and suddenly everyone knew that Lillia—the lady of the house—was in my room first thing in the morning. Just like that, I'd become the human scum who spent the night with another man's wife(?), unable to make a proper excuse as I ate breakfast while getting an eyeful of glares.
"Oh my, Mars. Are you sure you don't want more?"
"N-No, I'm good. I'm full."
Don't worry, I'm stuffed to the brim from all the verbal abuse. I probably won't need to eat for the next three days.
"Is that so? But it looks like you could eat a lot more..."
It'd be rude to compare her to a grandma force-feeding her visiting country grandson, insisting he looks half-starved. Lillia gazed at me with pitying eyes and subtly reached toward my stomach. Thanks to consistent training and sparring, my abs were lean and trim, but to her, they must've looked gaunt from not eating enough.
I hesitated, unsure whether to swat her hand away, when—
"Excuse me, Lady Lillia."
My savior, the princess, intervened, halting her advance.
"Yes, Your Highness? What is it?"
"Even if you see Mars as like a son, isn't clinging to him like that a bit unbecoming for a noblewoman?"
Spot on. Even with no one else around, her behavior was blatantly scandalous.
"Besides, as a married woman, shouldn't you feel a little ashamed acting that way toward a man so much younger than you?"
"...Grk. This milky little bitch thinks she knows everything..."
"Pardon?"
"Hoho, nothing at all~ But I hope you understand it was all from a pure heart. And wouldn't it be good for Mars if a beauty like me treats him kindly? He didn't refuse or push me away, so he doesn't seem to mind~"
Oh crap. Huge misunderstanding.
I hadn't stopped her approaches just because she reminded me of my mom. From the moment we first met yesterday, a sweet, cloying scent had been wafting from her—like something that clouded the mind. I'd noticed it the instant we arrived at the estate. It was different from the sticky, dark power I'd sensed in the cult executives before, so I'd been waiting for her to touch me first to investigate closer. It'd look weird if I grabbed a married woman's hand or body out of nowhere.
That's why I'd let her get close without blocking her, acting all awkward... but.
"What? For real, Mars?"
"...Uh, ahaha..."
To explain my actions, I'd have to spill everything—which would tip off Lillia, the prime suspect. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, all I could do was flash an awkward grin, which only hardened the squad members' faces further.
Damn... what kind of ordeal is this...
* * *
...Awkward.
After lunch, we headed out to investigate the village's anomalies, starting with the back mountain where monsters were supposedly sighted. The path wasn't too rugged, so scouting wasn't hard, but what exhausted me was the squad's eerie silence.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Were they that pissed that I'd gone gaga over a beauty like her when we came to solve the village's problems?
"Um, everyone. I think there's a misunderstanding."
"What misunderstanding?"
I swallowed hard under the princess's piercing glare, vowing to choose my words with utmost care. Just tell the truth as best as I could, right?
"Truth is, from the moment we met yesterday, Lady Lillia had this suspiciously pleasant scent. It was unlike anything I'd smelled before, so I deliberately let her get close to check it out."
"...You crazy bastard."
Huh? What...?
Why did it feel like the three of them were distancing themselves even more?
"Uh... that is..."
"My head hurts. Let's just watch the path ahead... Talking more's just gonna make me boil."
"Y-Yeah..."
Why? What did I do wrong? I just described the suspicious circumstances exactly as they were.
"Who knew he had tastes like that..."
"Does he like smells or something? Sniff sniff. Maybe it's the sweat from walking, but..."
"...Lady Saintess, you have such a lovely fragrance. Do you use a special perfume?"
"P-Pardon?! N-No, I don't even wear makeup...!"
"So it's your natural body scent? Damn..."
Feeling unjustly downcast, I ignored the three women's chatter behind me and approached Polo, who was diligently searching.
"Polo. Any luck?"
"Nah, not really. Looks like a normal mountain on the surface. Nothing stands out."
"Figures..."
No ominous aura or anything. It was just an ordinary mountain as expected, which left me a bit deflated.
"But this forest feels off somehow."
"...Huh?"
Polo dropped a meaningful comment. Had he noticed something?
"Where's it off?"
"Look closely. If monsters lived here, there'd be signs of territorial fights with other animals or traces of them fleeing. But nothing."
Scanning around again at his words, sure enough, there were zero clues. Even docile monsters akin to pests like moles or boars couldn't avoid friction with wild animals. They're living creatures too—they need places to stay and sleep, which would lead to clashes with the local wildlife bosses. The mountain wasn't that vast either, so traces of turf wars, fur, scat, or footprints should be everywhere. Yet it was unnaturally quiet, with nothing to find.
"...Yeah. We've searched this much; even wild animal tracks should've shown up by now."
"Hm. Maybe washed away by rain?"
"It's possible like Her Highness says, but even if it rained the day before we arrived, the animals wouldn't have stayed indoors all yesterday. Plus, the soil's pretty dry—hasn't rained in at least a week."
Polo answered the princess, who'd approached unnoticed. As he said, it wasn't rainy season lately; precipitation was rare. Rain here would've been obvious right away.
"Guess we should head back. Not enough clues."
"Shame."
In the end, we found nothing on the mountain and had to retreat.
"Brother. Instead of going back empty-handed, how about asking around the village? The locals might know when the monsters came down."
"Good idea."
Not wanting to return totally empty-handed, we decided to stop by the village we'd seen yesterday and gather info from the residents.
The desolate village. In the middle of the day when people should be bustling, the empty streets felt like a ghost town, giving me chills for no reason.
"A whole village this quiet feels kinda creepy..."
"Looks like all the women are out working again. Where the hell are all the men?"
We knocked on a few houses, but only silence answered. Just as I wondered if we'd have to track down the women at the fields, the fifth house responded.
"D-Darling?!"
The woman calling for her husband at our knock came rushing out joyfully and flung open the door.
"Darling, you're ba— Eek!!"
Seeing it was us instead of her husband, she gasped in shock and stumbled back.
"S-Sorry. We just had some questions... Are you unwell?"
Looking closer, her leg was splinted. But having run out oblivious to the pain, she only now winced as agony hit, grimacing.
"Ah... Ow... Sorry. I thought my husband was back and got too excited..."
"No, it's our fault for showing up unannounced. We'll take our leave—you need rest as a patient."
"It's fine. More importantly, are you outsiders?"
Come to think of it, she wasn't in yesterday's work group.
"Yes. We came to discuss compensation for the monster incidents from a few months ago in this territory... but things seem off around here."
"...I see."
She peeked outside, confirmed no one was around, then opened the door wider to usher us in.
"I'm Elin, the lady of the house. I have something urgent to tell you all."
And so, we accepted Elin the villager's invitation and entered her home.