“Damn it! I told you to keep a close eye on it!”

“If you’re so dissatisfied, why didn’t you manage it yourself? Do you think I wanted to take my eyes off the luggage?”

“Stop it! At this rate, we won’t even be able to dream of staying at an inn until we take on a new job. How long are you two going to keep fighting?”

I heard three different male voices. The conversation was quite heated, and I debated whether to let them know we were nearby or wait until they calmed down.

“If that bastard hadn’t insisted on dividing up the shares right away!”

“You kept rushing me! As if I was going to skim something off!”

“How the hell did they clear everything out? It’s not like we were careless about it.”

I had heard that thefts had been frequent in the Terrariums around here recently; it seemed they hadn’t escaped it either.

“Unnie, what should we do?”

When I stood still in place, Rowella looked toward the campsite and asked me in a worried voice. Right, I couldn’t just stand here forever.

I deliberately made loud noises as I approached. The three of them abruptly stopped their conversation and all turned to look in our direction.

Their eyes, scanning us, were full of wariness. Having been through a theft, I thought it was only natural.

“Hello? We just arrived. The campsite looks pretty well set up. There’s even a campfire pit.”

Rowella greeted them cheerfully. But there was no greeting in return. Well, did we really need to exchange greetings and get chummy? We might only be seeing each other for tonight anyway. I had no intention of offering comfort to complete strangers based on overheard conversations.

“Let’s go over there.”

I pointed to a spot far away from them. Then Rowella dashed off and began to tidy up the place where we would stay.

“Let’s do it together.”

She had said she would do her best during our travels together, but now she moved urgently as if trying to hog all the work to herself.

I crouched down next to Rowella and threw out the stones scattered on the ground where we would lie down. Meanwhile, Siedling cleared away the broken tree nearby.

While we busied ourselves, the other group kept their mouths shut, watching us out of the corners of their eyes. Except for the rustling sounds and the crackling of the firewood they had lit, there was a heavy silence.

Occasionally, the gentle sound of waves rolling in from afar brought with it a faint drowsiness. We had been traveling nonstop for a whole day, so it was only natural to be tired.

Once the setup was all done, Rowella came over, snapping off branches from the tree Siedling had cleared away to use as firewood for the campfire.

Since we were near the beach, the sea breeze hitting my bare skin felt quite chilly once the sun went down.

“I don’t carry any fire-starting tools with me. Do you happen to have any?”

“No.”

“Then should I go nab some fire from nearby? Ah, right, you said there was no fire around earlier. I’d probably have to go pretty far.”

“I’m hungry. So, should I take a quick look around for some thistles? I’d rather get something to eat fast than deal with the fire…”

“I can’t let you go alone. Let’s just eat first and then go together.”

I sat on a flat rock that could serve as a chair and pulled out some emergency rations from my pocket. Just as I opened my water flask and was about to take a sip, someone from the other side approached us.

“Hello, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to greet you properly earlier. We were caught up in a bit of a crisis and not quite ourselves.”

He deliberately greeted Siedling, who was sitting with his back turned. It seemed he thought Siedling was the leader of our party.

But Siedling ignored him without a word. He didn’t even turn around to look at him. It struck me as odd, considering how he had tried to strike up a conversation with me when we first met.

The surroundings were dark, and since the campfire was in the opposite direction, the face of the person greeting us was completely hidden in backlight, making it impossible to tell what expression he wore. Maybe, like Rowella, he was making a face of awkwardness after being completely ignored?

Oh, could it be that Siedling was taking revenge for how Rowella had been ignored?

Since the greeting was directed specifically at Siedling, not at all of us, I felt no need to step in and respond. So I just silently drank some water and then shared my emergency rations with Siedling and Rowella.

“If you need a fire, shall we offer you some embers from our campfire?”

He finally directed his words at me and Rowella, rather than at Siedling.

“We’d appreciate that, thank you.”

“Well… I know it might be an impudent request, but could you spare some food in exchange for the fire? On our way here, we were robbed of everything, including our food and even our diamonds, so we’ve been starving all day. I can’t even guarantee we’ll manage to eat tomorrow… So, I humbly ask for your compassion and consideration, as fellow travelers.”

“Hmm…”

Since I had stockpiled emergency rations in bulk, my pockets were full enough that if I ate just for myself, three meals a day, I’d have enough to last about a year. Sharing wouldn’t be a problem, but the attitude they had shown was too subtle to ignore, and it bothered me a little.

But from what I heard, it seemed they had most of their belongings stolen, and they might have been flustered. They even said their food, which is directly tied to survival during travel, was all taken. I felt a sense of pity that could ease the subtle irritation from the phrase ‘fellow travelers.’ I might as well show some kindness.

“Oh dear, that must be very troubling. Since you’re offering to share the fire, we fellow travelers should help each other out.”

“Thank you so much!”

I was pulling emergency rations and water out of my pocket to give to him, when the two men who had been behind came walking over. One was holding a burning branch, but did all three of them need to come?

But before I could stop them, the three of them naturally sat down in our spot, as if they had been travel companions from the start.

“Ah, what a relief. I thought we’d be starving all day. Thank you so much!”

“You should be careful too. They really cleaned us out in an instant.”

Seeing them talk so freely, it seemed any wariness toward us was gone.

“Did you see what those wicked thieves looked like?”

Unlike me, who felt a bit uncomfortable, Rowella seemed unfazed. She had even forgotten being ignored earlier and kept chatting with them. What a bright kid.

“If I had seen them, I’d report it, but I saw nothing. The items just vanished without a trace.”

“I heard they only took jewelry, but it seems they steal food too.”

“With all these thefts lately, fewer people travel around here, and those who have to go gather in groups of six or seven. It seems stealing has gotten harder for them, so now they just take whatever’s in sight.”

“They’re so elusive that it’s said they even pull rings off a dryad’s fingers.”

Whoa, they even steal dryad accessories? Is that possible? I thought of my own dryads wearing rings and got worried preemptively.

“If all the theft victims were traveling around here, they probably weren’t weak. How did they get robbed so defenseless? Don’t you think so, Siedling? You can sense energy when something approaches, and there must be others like you who can notice too. Plus, there were three of them…”

“They couldn’t have been robbed while fully alert. Trained druids can detect abnormalities in their surroundings.”

“So, you mean they suffered some kind of mental attack?”

I looked at them, meaning to ask if they had noticed anything after hearing Siedling’s words.

“Everyone was fine even up to the moment they realized the items were gone.”

“We sometimes keep things in our pockets when sleeping, but we were robbed while moving around normally like this. Ha, it feels hopeless to find them—what’s to become of us?”

“We should be careful too.”

If their testimony is correct, they are truly a ghostlike thief. There are also people who handle fire freely, so could there be someone using a specialized ability to steal things? Even those three who travel together fell victim, so there’s no guarantee we won’t either.

I trust the Seelie with its keen instincts like a Mesquite, but if a ring can be taken from a Dryad’s hand, can it really be guarded against?

“With the theft incidents and the sudden annihilation of the nearby colony, things are unsettling around here, so please be careful.”

“What do you mean by that? Annihilated?”

“Did you not know about this? Well, it’s just a rumor we heard. You must be travelers who haven’t been in this area long. You seem to have come at a bad time. Unless you have urgent business at the 31st Terrarium, why not skip it and go somewhere else?”

“Was the colony hit by fire?”

“If it were fire, that would be more understandable. I heard it was a small place barely worth calling a colony, but everything withered away—plants of the colony and natural Dryads alike—all dead.”

“Is it an epidemic?”

Memories of what happened in the 16th Terrarium suddenly surfaced. The worst pestilence born from alchemy so powerful it could even kill a branch of the World Tree. Surely alchemy isn’t causing trouble around here too, is it?

“It’s not an epidemic, they say the plants near the colony are fine.”

“They said it looked like an attack, right? Didn’t they mention all their fluids were drained? Dried up and withered.”

“It’s creepy. Against plants… yeah, it must be something like a vampire roaming around.”

A vampire targeting plants. Not all the Terrariums I’ve passed through have been peaceful, but the further back I go, the stranger things get.

“Unnie, they said vampire. That’s no joke, right?”

Rowella chimed in with a grim voice, glancing around as if something were there.

“But a vampire that targets plants wouldn’t harm people, right?”

“We’re Druids, called little World Trees, so shouldn’t we be careful too?”

“Little World Tree is just a metaphor… Still, Dryads should be cautious. Seelie, do you know anything?”

“No.”

They advised us to avoid the 31st Terrarium, but since the Elder’s butterfly last pointed to an unclear direction—whether it was the 31st or 41st—it seemed difficult to bypass it.