Chapter 74: The Mystery of the Misty Forest
ㅤ（This is a bit surprising.）
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ㅤAfter returning to my room, I think to myself.
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ㅤ（Adventurer, please cooperate with the investigation of the Dream Weaver! Of course, without pay! … I thought I would be told something like that.）
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ㅤIn a role-playing game, I would almost certainly be told that.
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ㅤBut I am a traveler from a foreign country, a civilian.
ㅤThere’s no way Sherry-san, with her strong sense of responsibility, would ask me to do such a thing.
ㅤIf she were to ask, it would be as a request to an adventurer, but since she’s leading the Knights on a mission, she might not be able to easily borrow the power of an outsider.
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ㅤ”Dream Weaver… I wonder if they’ll appear in my dreams one more time?”
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ㅤIt would be great if I could get some clues from there.
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ㅤI tried sleeping while thinking about such things, but unfortunately, the （?） Dream Weaver did not appear.
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ㅤHowever, instead of that, I came up with a good idea as soon as I woke up.
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ㅤ”Let’s map it out.”
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ㅤI suggested to Sherry-san at the breakfast table.
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ㅤ”Mapping… what do you mean?”
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ㅤ”Well, it’s like this.
ㅤWe mark the locations where Awakened have appeared on a map.”
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ㅤ”Awakened are appearing all over the Mist Forest. What’s the point?”
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ㅤLewis-kun immediately interjects.
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ㅤ”They’re appearing all over. That’s true, but there might be a bias in the locations where they appear. In the first place, I’m also curious why Awakened don’t appear outside the forest.”
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ㅤ”I see. It might be worth a try…
ㅤBut there’s one problem. The settlements in the Mist Forest confirm each other’s locations by saying things like, ‘Go north for an hour, west for two hours, along the river for an hour and a half.’
ㅤIn other words, there is no map that can show the entire area.”
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ㅤ”Could it be…”
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ㅤLewis-kun said, putting his hand to his mouth.
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ㅤ”The Dream Weaver chose this forest, where there are no maps, as the scene of the crime to avoid having their location identified?”
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ㅤ（That’s a pretty sharp observation.）
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ㅤI mutter that to myself, as I’m reluctant to say it out loud.
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ㅤ”Conversely, if we had a map, we might be able to identify the Dream Weaver’s location.”
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ㅤSherry-san looked up at my words.
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ㅤ”I see! I never thought of that! I just thought it was because the fog delayed the discovery of the Awakened…”
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ㅤ”That might be part of it. The Dream Weaver’s purpose must be to create confusion.”
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ㅤ”Hmm? The Dream Weaver’s purpose? What are you talking about, adventurer?”
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ㅤLewis-kun glared at me.
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ㅤ”Ah, shoot! I haven’t told you about the second time I saw the Dream Weaver’s dream!”
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ㅤI hurriedly explain the conversation from the second dream.
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ㅤ”I see. You’re saying the Dream Weaver has a 『superior』.
ㅤIf that’s the case, the Dream Weaver’s actions are not just random acts of mischief, but planned sabotage.
ㅤThat’s useful information, Minato!”
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ㅤ”…I wish you had told me such important information sooner.”
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ㅤ…Yeah, this time, Lewis-kun’s opinion, expressed with a glare, is correct.
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ㅤ”So, Sherry-san. Do you have any idea who the 『superior』 might be?”
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ㅤ”…I don’t know. If we suspect the work of a neighboring country, any country could be a possibility. If we consider organizations other than countries, or intelligent monsters, we can’t rule out any possibility.”
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ㅤ”Then it’s going to be difficult to take down the 『superior』 first.”
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ㅤ”Indeed. Then, making a map…
ㅤBut this is not going to be easy either. The people of the settlements don’t want the country to know where their settlements are. Because of the tax collectors.”
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ㅤI’ve heard that even in Japan, there were many hidden rice fields before the Taiko Kenchi land survey. It would be even more so in this foggy forest. In the case of this forest, it’s lumber instead of rice fields.
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ㅤ（Oh, by the way…）
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ㅤ”How do you transport the lumber you cut down?”
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ㅤHamuto-san answered my question.
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ㅤ”It wouldn’t be profitable to carry it through the forest bit by bit. We use waterways.”
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ㅤ”Waterways… in the forest?”
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ㅤ”We use the rivers that are on the surface, but to transport it from the hinterland, we use underground waterways. Well, even if I say transport, it’s just a matter of floating the lumber down the river and damming it downstream.”
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ㅤ”That’s, how should I put it, quite a convenient underground waterway you have there.”
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ㅤ”I’ve heard that a long time ago, this forest was a huge dungeon. The Dungeon Master of that dungeon was defeated by a hero long ago, and the dungeon became just ruins. It collapsed here and there, and huge holes opened up, but that dungeon was a strange one that was completely filled with water, and that water became the nutrients for the forest and the cause of the fog that covers the forest.
ㅤI don’t know how much of it is true, but that’s the story that’s been passed down around here.”
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ㅤ”So, the forest is on top of the dungeon. And the underground waterways are the remains of that dungeon.”
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ㅤ”The underground waterways run from the center of the dungeon to the outside. Originally, it was a rather spectacular system that threw out clumsy adventurers who fell into the water.”
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ㅤHmm. That’s common in games, water dungeons.
ㅤThe scenery in dungeons doesn’t change much, so you have to add some variety or it gets boring.
ㅤI’m sure you’d raise and lower the water level and use rafts to move forward.
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ㅤHuh? But,
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ㅤ”How long has it been since it stopped being a dungeon?”
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ㅤ”I don’t know. It must have stopped being a dungeon before my grandfather’s grandfather’s time. It must have been a hundred years or so ago.”
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ㅤThen, Lewis-kun interjects.
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ㅤ”That’s impossible. According to the country’s records, the forest started producing lumber even earlier. In the first place, since the country calls itself the Tree Country, the Mist Forest must have existed at the time of its founding.”
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ㅤ”That’s strange. Because when the master of a dungeon is defeated, the circulation of Ether stops and it collapses. The mechanism to expel adventurers from the center to the outside should also stop.”
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ㅤ”Ah!”
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ㅤLewis-kun exclaimed at my words.
ㅤ…Everyone else has a “?” above their heads.
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ㅤ”In other words, the dungeon under the Mist Forest is still alive. Maybe not perfectly, but partially alive.”
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ㅤSince monsters don’t appear around here, that part isn’t functioning.
ㅤBut the dungeon’s water flow gimmick is still working.
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ㅤThen, Sherry-san, with a perplexed look on her face, said,
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ㅤ”B-But, how does that relate to the Dream Weaver?”
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ㅤ”Well, I can’t say for sure, but… maybe the Dream Weaver is using the dungeon as a base. They might be using the water flow gimmick to move around and cast their spells.”
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ㅤ”I see. That’s a more natural way of thinking about it. Even if they appear in dreams, since it’s magic, there must be a range limit.”
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ㅤLewis-kun adds that.
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ㅤ”I see. Then, we can start to see a picture of the Dream Weaver.
ㅤFirst, they are not an elusive being like a god, demon, or ghost.”
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ㅤ”That’s an important point for you, Nee-san.”
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ㅤLewis-kun said mischievously.
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ㅤ”Don’t be sarcastic.
ㅤAnyway, even though it’s a fact that the Dream Weaver is an exceptional magician, they are a real human being. They need a hiding place, and they need a means of transportation. Even the technique of appearing in dreams is not something they can do freely, and there must be various limitations.”
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ㅤ”Since this forest has many edible wild plants and few monsters, it seems possible to hide for quite a long time without going out to human settlements.”
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ㅤ”As Minato says. Of course, we can’t deny the possibility that collaborators are supplying them with supplies.”
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ㅤ”I don’t think so. From the feeling I got during my second dream, the Dream Weaver wouldn’t want to have people around them as much as possible.”
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ㅤ”So, it’s highly likely that they are acting alone. Although there is a being called the 『superior』, contact with them doesn’t seem to be frequent either.
ㅤBut how do we pinpoint their location?”
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ㅤ”We could trace the lumber transport route backwards. Since you said they dam it downstream and ship it out, we just need to draw the location of the shipping points and the direction of the underground waterways on a map.”
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ㅤTheoretically two, and practically speaking, if we investigate several shipping points, the intersection of the extended lines should be the origin of the water flow gimmick.
ㅤIf they are using the water flow for transportation, the Dream Weaver would probably set up a base near this origin.
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ㅤ”━━Alright. We’ve decided what to do.”
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ㅤSherry-san said with a fearless smile.