Akane's Patrol

(Akane's POV)

"I'm going to patrol, nibi!"

"Ok. Take care of yourself, Akane."

I'm going to patrol across the surroundings of the church. I don't know why but I feel like something happened close by. It's already night time humans won't come inside the forest, usually.

We have to stay hidden. As much as I want to show the greatness of Lady Kairi to everyone, we are not strong enough to protect Lady Kairi. Oscar and I are stronger than normal humans. He has a small number of spells he can cast right now and I only have my body to fight back.

We should find a way to get stronger or maybe relocate somewhere safer. But, we can't really leave the lake behind. It's troublesome.

I started to patrol around the church. The state of the church is bad. It's filled with trash and it almost collapsed. It's bad but this keeps humans away. We should add something to keep the lake hidden and protected just in case. Just the other day some humans walked in, we took care of it but we can't let it continue. I should talk with Oscar. He can use magic. Lady Kairi still recovering so we shouldn't burden her.

While patrolling I found some traces and a similar scent. This scent should belong to one of the humans who walked into the church the other day. He shouldn't be here.

"He was back, nibi? No... He seems like went somewhere else, nibi."

There are traces going further deep inside the forest. I should take a look at where did he go. Lady Kairi changed his memories but it won't hurt to be careful.

I searched along the way while following the traces. By the way, these traces are almost destroyed. Humans usually won't think of destroying their traces while moving. This human isn't normal. I should be careful.

I followed the traces and finally arrived at a small clearing. This clearing wasn't here a few days ago. What's going on? There is a faint smell of burnt wood? No, it's not just that... There were burnt humans too. There are also mana traces...

Was Oscar here? No, he doesn't have fire affinity. So... there is someone else who can use magic. This is bad news! I should gather any information I can. It will be useful for later. And maybe I can find traces of where this magician went. I carefully inspected every corner of the clearing.

Burnt and broken trees uprooted. There is fresh and different soil in some places. Also, I can smell the faint scent of human blood. I think there was a battle of some sorts that happened here. But... I can sense one more blood. It's different than anything I ever saw. Wait... I don't know if it's true or not but it is similar to the spirit mana Lady Kairi mentioned.

I tried to follow the scent for a while after that. It went into the city with a hidden road. But after the road scent was gone. The scent of pollution masked the scent. And there are so many traces of vehicle traces that I don't know which one to follow. Ugh... I should return and report this to Lady Kairi.

I immediately return to church. There is a hidden tunnel I dig to the underground of the church. I enter the tunnel and reached the cave. The cave had two big sections. One is where the lake and Lady Kairi usually stay and the other is where the hole from the stairs of the church's basement is.

Lady Kairi was submerged inside the lake. She is still trying to recover her mana. I don't know if this works or not.

"Lady Kairi, I have bad news, nibi!"

"Akane? What's happened?"

"I have found traces of magic, nibi! Possibly humans tried to cover them but my amazing senses still caught them, nibi. There were the scent of fire and burnt humans and mana traces, nibi."

"That's horrible. Someone used magic the hurt humans... Oscar doesn't have fire attributes and there shouldn't be anyone else who can use magic in Human Realm."

"...I am not sure but there was also the scent of some other creature, nibi."

"Other creature?"

"It's scent, I thought it was similar to that of the spirit mana you gave Oscar, nibi."

Lady Kairi fell silent. There was a frown on her face. She created several figures of different creatures with the lake water. They hovered around her. She was thinking deeply while observing the figures. After some time she finally opened her mouth and start talking.

"No other beings other than spirits should possess spirit mana. Even Oscar only had spirit mana for a day before it dissipated. We might have fire spirit or someone who made a contract with a fire spirit in our hands. Either way, there must be a fire spirit in this realm."

"What should we do, nibi?"

"We should look for it but if it can get caught by humans we can't be careless with this. I need a few days, it's slow but I'm recovering mana thanks to this lake. I want to be prepared for the worst."

"I understand, nibi. I will try to find further traces to determine the place this fire spirit, nibi."

"Be careful, Akane. We shouldn't inform Oscar, yet. His incomplete Aether Organ may cause difficulties we can't imagine."

"I understand, nibi."