Trapped in a cave, a Harpy and two humans started a hush-hush discussion.
I wonder what they’re going to do Jack moved his gaseous form closer to the Harpy, but the moment he did so, her Amber eyes stared directly at the location where his consciousness was.
She was right, she definitely knew where he was.
In that case, he no longer wanted to be anywhere near that Harpy.
The closer one was to a Harpy’s song, the more effective it became. Not to mention a Queen who can manipulate the directionality of her songs.

(That Monster-destroying song…….I don’t want front-row seats to that one.)

Thankfully for him, the foolish Harpy appeared to be so engrossed in warming up the humans’ bodies that she forgot to sing.

(I don’t know how long the Monster-destroying song would take to kill me.)

Since that Harpy’s time in her original form was limited, the Monster-destroying song was no longer a guaranteed attack mechanism.
Harpies were creatures that could ordinarily keep singing for hours on end. Their tendency to form together as a flock and attack with their songs in unison was especially fearsome. This Harpy, however, was alone in addition to being on a time limit. That left him an opening.
At that moment, the black-haired woman stood up and began pounding on the piled rocks with the hilt of her curved sword. Was she planning on breaking through the rocks and making a break for it?

(If so, that’s futile.)

Jack blew cold air into the cracks between the rocks and stones, freezing them shut. It wouldn’t be so easy to crack through now, would it?
The black-haired woman cut through the earth near the exit and opened up a hole. In that moment, she seemed especially concerned about the angle for some reason.
The boy with golden hair, enveloped in the Harpy’s wings, was giving precise instructions.
Eventually, upon digging a fist-sized hole, the black-haired woman called out to the Harpy. 
”Tia, you’re good to go!”

“Piyo, roger that!”

Harpies were bird Monsters, but they had a part that resembled a human hand at the tips of their wings. That hand was holding something.
That was the red butterfly brooch that launched a fireball at Jack not too long ago. One of those toys humans called ‘magical devices.’

Is she planning on launching another fireball? No, that thing doesn’t have the mana to let off multiple shots……)

The Harpy clenched the brooch, and flowed mana into it. Jack started. Could it be that this brooch could be reused by sending a large amount of mana into it?
If so, it could be bad news.

(Before that happens, I need to freeze the brooch……)

At the same time as Jack approached the brooch, the Harpy placed it into the recently dug hole.
Was it going to launch a fireball? I have to freeze it quickly—The instant Jack’s gaseous form got close to it, the brooch emitted a strong, blinding glow.

(…….Eh?)

The next instant, the brooch exploded. It did not release a fireball; it exploded from within.
Jack knew of the magical devices that humans used, but he hadn’t known what would happen were Monsters to use one.
The ice in the cave shattered, and Jack’s form was blown to pieces.
At the same time, The Harpy stretched her wings to cover the two humans. They made it through almost without a scratch. That was why they had been so precise about the angle.

“Now’s our chance! Outside!”

The black-haired woman shouted, pulling the Harpy and boy with her hands and jumping outside.

(Crap, crap, they’re going to get away…….!)

Regardless, he had to think of a way to keep his body together. At this rate, Jack’s form would scatter in the wind and disappear.
However, the moment he thought of maintaining his own form, the Harpy began to sing.

—A song for the spirits.

Just as the song began to reverberate, dedicated to the spirits, lesser wind spirits began to gather.
A gust set forth by those lesser spirits picked up Jack’s body and took it away.
I can’t be taken by mere lesser spirits! Jack lamented. Had the explosion of that brooch not blew his form to pieces, he would have been able to hold himself together!

(Ah, it’s no use now. My body is all over the place now……)

A formidable drowsiness assaulted Jack’s mind. His body has reached its limits.
It would no longer be possible for him to return to the Crystal Territory and report what he had witnessed.
Therefore, Jack used the last of his strength to speak to the Harpy.

“Good night, and farewell. When winter comes, we will meet again.”

Then, closing his nonexistent eyes and dissipating into the sky, the Monster of Winter thought.
A Harpy Queen that ordinarily should have had beautiful, colorful wings.
A pitiful Monster whose feathers were stolen so she could no longer fly, who relinquished her color and reproductive abilities, and who pretended to be a human.

(The situation that Harpy has been placed in……I can sense someone’s malice.)

It must have been a deep, heavy, and irreconcilable malice.
Whether that malice was directed towards that Harpy in particular, or to the race of Harpies as a whole, he could not tell.
Regardless, he could sense that dark, weighty, and paranoid malice screaming at her: Suffer! You must suffer!
That white-winged Harpy will crumble in the not-too-distant future. Everything had been planned for that to happen.

(Oh, you unfortunate Harpy. If you survive to see the next Winter, I will see you then.)

Around the same time as Tia and the others fled the cave, they heard a crumbling sound from behind them. The cave had collapsed.
Tia stayed on alert for her surroundings. She could no longer feel the strong, cold mana of that Winter Monster, Jack. Most likely, the wind spirits scattered him into the air.
Just as Tia finished the last stanza of her spirit song, the effects of the candy wore out.
Her wings collapsed into her body. Her feet transformed. \

“Ugyuuuuu…..urghhh”

Tia Collapsed and writhed on the ground, and Wren and Sevil ran up to her.
Wren’s eyebrows shot up as he watched her arms and legs.

“Oi, are you going to be okay, doing this? Your arms are all torn……”

“Pefuu……uuuhh, turning into a human, hurts, a lot……but I’m fine. I won’t die…….”

Pefuu, pefuuu Coughing, Tia felt her body get pulled into an embrace by Sevil.

“You can stay like this for a while.”

“No way, Sevil. I’m, strong, so, you might get hurt. I, don’t wanna hurt Sevil.”

“……I’ve trained for it. I will be fine!”

Sevil laughed indomitably as she inspected Tia. Seeing her face, gave Tia an inexplicable yet powerful sense of calm. She squeezed in and hugged Sevil tightly.
Sevil’s supple, muscular arms wrapped around Tia in response.
It was different from the cold embrace of that Winter Monster. It was a warm, happy, and comfortable embrace.

(But, this might be the last time. My secret’s out, after all…….)

Crestfallen, Tia clung to Sevil.
While patting Tia on the back, Sevil spoke to Wren.

“Now, Wren. Quickly, think of an excuse to explain what happened while concealing Tia’s identity!”

“You’re shoving it all on me!?”

Wren responded with an angry shout, but gave Tia a wink.

“Don’t worry. If push comes to shove, I’ll say the Monster ran away thanks to my pretty boy aura!”

“Pirororo…….I don’t think that’s gonna work…..”

“Then help me think!”

Wren leaned in and added, in a whisper.

“…..You want to learn flight magic at the Wedge Tower, don’t you?”

“Yep! ……Yes!!”

Wren’s words made her happy, and Tia nodded repeatedly.
Eventually, Tia’s feathers completely retracted into her arms. Her feet also transformed into those of a human girl.
“Here.” Wren said, offering the barefoot Tia her shirt and boots. Somehow, he managed to pick them up as they fled from the cave.

“Thank you, Wren!”
 “Just put them on already! Geez!”

Wren spoke quickly, averting his eyes for some reason.
Tia slipped her shirt on, then moved to the boots.
While she did that, Sevil analyzed the corpse of the Snow Boar that had collapsed next to the cave.
Once she confirmed that Tia had finished changing, Sevil asked a question.

“Tia. Did you take down this Monster?”

“Yep. With the song that kills Monsters. I can’t sing it unless my emotions are like ‘grrr.’ Also, the mana cost is a little big.”

As she answered, Tia looked at the Snow Boar’s corpse.
This Snow Boar was the one that died after Tia’s song collapsed the mana that composed its body. As a result, there were pretty much no obvious injuries on the outside, but if you looked closely, there were a couple signs of impalement around its chest.

“What caused this?”

As Tia approached to look at it, Wren and Sevil followed her gaze and looked at the wounds.
Fearfully, Wren inspected the open wound and spoke.

“Do you think one of the Investigation Office mages hit it with magic, or maybe Otto, from the Protection Office? Especially Mr. Otto, he was using a magic sword and all.”

“That would be peculiar.”

Sevil rejected his hypothesis on the spot.
Sevil fearlessly peeled back the fur covering the Snow Boar’s wounds.

“This is a boar that runs ferociously on four legs, no? Wounds on its back or sides would be conceivable, but it would be exceedingly difficult to pierce it with a sword in the chest. In addition, Sir Otto’s magic sword was one of a fire element. If it had received a blow from that, I would expect to see at least some indication of burning.”

Tia agreed with Sevil.
The wounds on this Snow Boar’s chest were unnatural somehow.
As they searched for any clues that stuck out, the three of them heard the sound of something moving through the trees.
Sevil steeled herself and reached for the hilt of her curved sword. However, Tia immediately recognized whose footsteps those were.

“Mr. Hütter!”

With the hem of his robe billowing behind him, Tia’s assigned Instructor came running towards them.

“Hey, what are you guys doing here……. Whoa, what’s that white thing!? A boar?”
 Hütter was shocked to see the corpse of the Snow Boar that lay in front of them. Somehow he had managed not to encounter one of these Monsters until now.
Tia had all sorts of things she wanted to say to Hütter.
That the knowledge of evaporation that he had just taught her had come in handy. She moved to tell him all about it, but Wren poked her in the waist and whispered to her.

“Hey, Tia. Come and help. We need to move this rock so Mr. Hütter doesn’t find out.”

“Pyoeh?”

Wren pointed his finger towards a rock from the collapsed cave. It was relatively large, but it wouldn’t be hard to move it with Tia’s strength.
While Tia and Wren snuck away to move the rock, Sevil started a conversation with Hütter.

“As you can see, we have encountered a Monster. The three from the Investigation Office and the Protection Office’s Sir Otto attempted to put their lives on the line to allow us to escape. However, we then encountered a different monster in the process of our escape.”

“I see. Then, we should light the emergency smoke signal……Ah, wait, there’s already a smoke signal over there. That color would be the Investigation Office’s. We should meet up with them instead.”

As Hütter looked up at the smoke signal in the sky, Tia and Wren moved the large rock close to the Snow Boar. Wren erased the tracks the rock had made moving across the ground by mixing dirt around with his feet. 
At that timing, Hütter turned his attention towards the Snow Boar.

“But I’m impressed……..You guys managed to defeat such a huge Monster all by your……”

“This magic beast was not the only one we encountered. There was also one that looked like a human. Likely a greater Monster.”

Wren glanced at Tia and Sevil as he spoke.
His eyes said keep your stories straight.

“We were attacked by that greater Monster and this gigantic boar you know, and we thought it was totally hopeless, but we fought them back with Sevil’s brooch. You know, the one that released fireballs.”

“It really was a weapon……Alright, I’ll add fifty points to Sevil’s answer.”

Hütter mumbled that to himself, before looking quizzically at the Snow Boar’s corpse. “Hm?”

“But this guy doesn’t look burnt at all? Did you really defeat it with a fireball?”

Sevil stepped forward so he couldn’t see Tia’s face tighten behind her back.
“We hid in that cave to hide away from this magic beast, but then the cave collapsed. and trapped us in.”

“Ah, so this guy must have been slamming into the rock.”

“Then, as a last-ditch effort, when we tried to use the magical device brooch one more time, it went and blew up! And, well, we just barely made it out.”

“You guys did well to make it out of there alive.”

Hütter’s eyes widened, to which Sevil declared “We always do well!” with pride.
Wren pointed at the large rock they had just moved into position.

“I think that boar might have been hit by that rock over there when the magical device exploded?”

“Oh, I see. It must have hit it in the wrong spot.”

Tia was impressed. Wren truly was a brainy pretty boy.
Hiding in Sevil’s shadow, Tia sent Wren a look that said Amazing!, to which Wren smiled confidently. His face said That’s because I’m a brainy pretty boy!
Sevil folded her arms and spoke with the authority of a commander.

“Be it a lesser or a greater, the fact that a Monster has appeared in this area cannot be overlooked. I believe it would be best to return to the Wedge Tower post haste to deliver a report and enlist the support of the Extermination Office.”

“Well, even still, don’t you think we should go towards the smoke signal and link up with the Investigation Office……Hold on, before that.”

Hütter cut himself off and smirked.

“You three have worked very hard and overcome great danger. Well done. A hundred points to all of you.”

“Piyopp! I’ve been complimented!”

“It’s all thanks to my pretty boy power!”

“It was thanks to my quick wit and magical device.”

“No, hold on, when did your quick thinking play in to it at all, Sevil? I was the one who did all the mental labor!”

“I employ my quick wit subtly with every move I make during battle. You simply lack the talent to perceive it, Wren.”

“Pirororro! It’s my happy song! Piroro! Piroro!”

Beneath the orange glow of the evening sky, Wren and Sevil playfully bickered while Tia’s song echoed through the forest.

Good grief. Hütter smiled bitterly.

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