After leaving the Crystal Territory, the two Monsters continued south.
Jill, in the form of a blond man with luxurious clothing.
Jack, in the form of a silver-haired boy with icicles dangling from his clothes.
They ran through the forest with an inhuman speed, but suddenly Jill stopped and leaned on a nearby tree.

“Jack……I can’t……..I think this is as far as I can go…….Hah.”

That ‘Hah’ on the end sounded rather intentional, but Jack looked up at Jill with concern.

“Jill, you look like you’re about to die……”

“I don’t want to get my shoes any dirtier than this. I hate having unpolished shoes.”

“We went wrong the moment we decided to walk down the mountain. We should have flown instead.”

“Also, there’s this……”

“*Haah, haah,” forcing out a series of ragged breaths, Jill undid a button on his shirt and revealed his bare chest.
His body, which mimicked a human form almost perfectly had a diamond-shaped crystal embedded in it.
In order to leave the Crystal Territory, this device to restrict the power of Monsters known as the Crystal Rivet was, as the name implies, a rivet made of crystals.
There were several thorns on the back side of the diamond-shaped crystal, which had been embedded into his skin.
Leaving his chest bare, Jill whinged.

“This Crystal Rivet feels so awful~. It really hurts, and it keeps sucking up my mana. Why couldn’t he make it more comfortable to wear!? That worthless Chancellor!”

“You’re especially strong, Jill. It has to suck a lot more, you know?”

“Yes, yes, that. Ahh, just because I’m too powerful!”

A dry cracking nose could be heard from Jill’s chest as he complained.
Shocked, the two of them stared at the source of that sound. It looked like a crack had formed in the Crystal Rivet embedded into Jill’s chest.

“It’s only a matter of time before this thing breaks~. This sucks~, I’m going back to the Crystal Territory!”

Jill mimed sobbing sadly as he redid the button on his dress shirt. Then he looked wistfully in the direction of human settlement.

“Aww……I guess I’ll have to leave playing with the cute little humans to you, then. What’ll you do, Jack? Will you come back with me?”

“I think I’m still good to keep going. Summer just ended and I’m still in a weak state, so the burden must be a lot lighter on me.”

“Right, your true power only comes out in Winter, huh.”

Yep, Jack nodded, then spun around in place like a little dance.
Spinning, spinning, with each rotation of the boy’s body, the icicle-coated sleeves swayed and specks of ice sparkled as they flew off into the surroundings.
Jack stopped spinning, realized something, then whispered.

“Oh right, I brought some spare Crystal Rivets.”

“Oh, you little rascal. You know I just love bad kids?”

“Since I came all this way, I might as well try using them on some magical beasts, huh?”

Jack smiled mischievously and took three Crystal Rivets from inside his sleeves.

Since leaving the Wedge Tower, Tia and the others walked at a leisurely pace for about an hour or two before arriving at the forest they were headed to.
This place was farther to the south from the forest where Tia took the entrance exam.
At that exam, when acting as a test official, Röhm had told her “If it gets dangerous, run south!” This was the south she had been talking about.
The mages of the Investigation Office all carried large bags on their backs. From those, they pulled maps, logbooks, and an unfamiliar device.
The device was a round palm-sized clock attached to a rod. The tip of the rod had been sharpened to a dull point.
Tia waddled up and inspected it.

“Mister, is that a clock? To measure the time?”

“Nope, this is a mana density indicator. We use it by stabbing it into the ground, like this.”

The Investigation Office mage pierced it into the ground, then the needle on its clock-like face slowly began to move. By reading the mark where the needle came to a stop, he could learn the place’s mana density.

(Humans……. Can’t tell the difference between mana densities with their senses.)
 Monsters couldn’t live without mana. They were magical creatures. As a result, they had an acute ability to sense changes in the mana density.
Places with high mana density felt good, and places where it was low felt suffocating.

(The mana density around here is about the same as the Wedge Tower, I guess.)

Just like the Wedge Tower, the mana density around here was a little high for humans—about as high as one could comfortably live in, while it was quite low for Monsters.
It was almost impossible that a Monster would come all the way here—thought Tia, a Monster who was standing right here.
Tia was an exception. She doubted any other Monsters were in the same circumstance as her.
Wren and Sevil mixed in with the Investigation Office mages and compared the changes on the mana density indicator and the numbers on the map. Both of them seemed deeply interested in the mana density survey. Otto, from the Protection Office, watched them from a distance.

“Are you not interested in this kind of thing?”

Hütter asked Tia. Tia grumbled.

“Not that I’m not interested, but……Erm, I was just wondering why they had to go to that much detail, it seems weird.”

“Ooh, good question.”

Tia was at a loss. She didn’t know what was ‘good’ about her question.
Tia looked up at him quizzically, to which Hütter folded his arms and spoke.

“It’s good to keep asking questions like ‘why?’ whenever you can. Next, try thinking what the answer to that ‘why?’ could be. Why do you think they need to go to that much detail?”

“Umm……Because they like numbers?”

Humans loved numbers. Things that Tia was fine labelling as ‘a lot’ or ‘a bunch,’ they will make sure to record with precise numbers.

“Less that they like it, and more that they’re convenient. Numbers make it easier to communicate information accurately. For example, what if the mana density here was super high. High enough that humans couldn’t live here?”

“That would be a problem!”

“Yeah, it would, right? So whoever realized that has to let everyone else know. The mana density in this place is really high, it’s dangerous!……But if that’s all they say, there would be people out there who think ‘it’s not a big deal if the density’s a little high’.”

“That would be more of a problem!”
 “That’s where you show them the numbers. You can say ‘If the mana density is above this number, people will die. Right now, we’re above that number.’ In that case, people can understand just how much of an issue it is, you know?”

Sharing information accurately. That would definitely improve the survival rate of the flock……she imagined.
Harpies could communicate danger levels and other emotions to other Harpies with detail depending on the tone of their sining voices. Humans had no such ability. That was why they used numbers to share information.

“On top of that, if you show precise numbers, it becomes easier to get important people involved. You can tell them ‘These are unprecedented numbers. We need support, give us money.’”

“Ohhh…..”

She recalled the first time she was taught how to read a clock.
As a Harpy, Tia had no need for clocks or mana density indicators.
She could work out the time just by looking at the sky, and could know the mana density just from the feeling on her skin.
However, when she received the candies that allowed her to return to Harpy form, she understood the need for a clock for the first time.
Tia’s hand unconsciously drifted to her pocket.
Just in case, she had brought a small palm-sized bottle of the candies that turn her into Harpy form. She only had five of them with her.
Each one only let her return to that form for five minutes.
In order to memorize how long five minutes felt, Tia had to use a clock for the first time in her life.

“I see, uh-huh……I get the answer to that ‘why?’ now.”

Tia felt satisfied, and nodded vigorously.
When she did that, Hütter clapped his hands together loudly.

“Hold on, don’t just stop once you feel satisfied.”

“Pyoeh!?”

“The answer I gave you was just one of many. There are countless answers to the question ‘why?’ so don’t stop looking for other answers.”

“Pyoehhhhh…….”

Even though Tia was fine after finding one answer, Hütter told her not to stop thinking.
“Pefuu, pefuu…..” Tia made a displeased voice, but Hütter just shrugged his shoulders.

“You know there’s always a chance the things I tell you could be lies or just plain wrong? You especially have a tendency to leave the thinking to Wren and Sevil. You should try using your own head for once.”

“Pefuu……..I’ll try…….”

Then good. Hütter nodded, then glanced around their surroundings.

“Oh, I’m going to go water the flowers for a bit.”

“You like flowers, Mr. Hütter?”

Tia asked, prompting Wren to elbow her. “Dumbass, he means he’s going to piss. The bathroom, you know?”
Hütter made the cool wingtips pose with two fingers in front of his face, and spoke with a confident face.

“That’s right, I’m going to go water a huge flower, so don’t worry about me if I’m a little late. Hey, Otto! I’m going off for a bit, so I’ll leave these guys to you!”

With that, Hütter ran off to where the trees were most densely packed together.

Running to the depths of the forest, once he’d built up enough distance, Hütter glanced around in all directions.
This was the reason why he had proposed this extracurricular lesson in the first place.

“Hey, Poppo Three, are you there!?”

Poppo Three. That was one of the pigeons Hütter used for his sleight-of-hand.
There were five pigeons in total. From One to Five, he called them the Poppos.
Number Three of the Poppos hadn’t come home in a few days.
Mages of the Wedge Tower weren’t exactly forbidden to leave, so he could have gone out to search for it, but he would have to pass through the gate under the watch of the gatekeepers. It would look too suspicious if he went in and out too frequently.
He wanted to avoid actions that would lead someone to realize his true identity—the con man Smoke Fox who worked under the orders of the Black Lion Emperor—as much as possible.
That was why he suggested this extracurricular lesson to give him a natural excuse to go outside.

(That said, it would be a big issue if I couldn’t find it here…..Ah~~, after I tried so hard to care for it~~)

He could hear the call of a pigeon going kururuppo, kururuppo from somewhere in the forest…..but he wasn’t certain whether it was Poppo Three or not.
Regardless, Hütter held out Poppo Three’s favorite food in his hand and pursed his lips.

“Poppoppo!! Poppoppo!!”

It sounded ridiculous, but this was how he called the Poppos.
Holding food out in one hand, he continued to imitate a pigeon’s call.

“Poppoppo!! Poppoppo!!”

Please come back home soon, Poppo Three. Before I die of heartbreak! Hütter sincerely prayed.

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