Put simply, casting a pure spatial spell is a pain in the ass. Blowing up the barn’s door or cutting through the piece of wood blocking it would a far simpler task… Unfortunately, Sincir already told Eleanor he could do it, and so he’ll do it, for his pride as a mage.

  …Well, it’s hard, but not that hard; At least not for him. In spite of the fact gravity manipution is far from his area of expertise, after a couple of seconds of formu writing, Sincir manages to create the spell and cast it, though it takes a good chunk of his mana to do so…

  Once he raises his finger, the wooden beam blocking the barn’s door slowly raises from its supporters, floating in the air for a brief second, before he releases of his spell and allows it to fall toward the ground.

  Seeing what happened, the girls become tense, holding their weapons at the ready, while the farmers watching them from a distance begin to whisper among themselves, with impressed looks on their faces.

  “…Should I try to bring it out?!” Sincir asks the girls.

  “Do it!” Eleanor shouts back.

  Sincir nods as he considers for a moment how to get it done without damaging the barn… Filling it with smoke seems the easiest solution, but it is not guaranteed to work, considering they’re not dealing with a normal animal…

  Having decided for a course of action, first, Sincir casts a wind spell strong enough to blow the barn’s doors open, which causes a loud enough noise to have Ena jump; Then, he casts a second, much more complicated wind spell to search within the barn, immediately realizing it is indeed not empty.

  The information the spell provides him isn’t particurly clear, but it is enough for Sincir to know something big and very much alive is inside, and considering he can spot half of a partially dissolved cow in the barn’s dimly lit insides...

  “It’s there! Be ready!” he warns the girls.

  He shouldn’t have bothered, however, since in the next second, a frog-like creature, about the size of cow, suddenly jumps into the light of Itera’s morning sun, croaking loudly…

  “Hey, ugly thing!” Eleanor immediately shouts, attracting its attention.

  Sincir can tell the moment she activates her speed buff, before jumping aside and running away, once the frog monster hops toward her…

  Now that he can take a good look at it, Sincir realizes that although comparable to a frog, including its green skin, the monster is far from the real thing; Its legs are longer, it seems to possess no arms, and its mouth is even bigger, comparatively speaking, than what a giant frog would have a need for… In simple words, no one would ever mistake the thing for an actual frog, after taking a good look at it.

  “Ena!”

  Once Eleanor shouts at her, Ena also activates her buff, immediately dashing toward the monster, which now has its back turned toward her...

  And the half-elf's sword cuts true, causing the creature to shriek loudly; However, the blow doesn’t seem to do much damage, and the monster jumps away before Ena can swing again.

  “You were supposed to aim for the leg, idiot!”

  “…Fuck! Sorry!”

  Eleanor is waiting for the frog as it nds, and unlike Ena, she doesn’t waste her opportunity, immediately cutting off one of its legs and causing it to shriek loudly again.

  “Eleanor, back off!” Sincir warns as he spots the creature’s throat beginning to grow bigger.

  Thankfully, Eleanor doesn’t wait to see why he told her to back away, immediately rolling to her right side; As she does so, the frog monster shoots its tongue across the pce she previously occupied.

  “Die, bastard!” Ena screams; Impressively enough, having ran into its path, she swings her sword through the monster’s tongue midair, cutting a rge piece of it off before it could retract it.

  The creature screams, red blood flies through the air, and Eleanor doesn’t wait to see if it’ll be able to recover or not before jumping over its back and thrusting her sword downwards, piercing cleanly through the beast’s head...

  Still, only once the monster stops writhing completely does Sincir release sigh of relief; Although he let the girls fight on their own, he was ready to interfere at a moment’s notice, and tense throughout the whole thing.

  “Is it… Is it dead?” Ena asks as he walks up to them.

  “…Looking at that cow, I think it had some sort of acid or poison in its saliva. We should check our swords,” Eleanor says as she rises and pulls her sword from the monster’s dead body.

  “Good job, the two of you… Though that surprise attack could’ve used some more thought, Ena. You barely scratched it.”

  Ena blushes, gring at him. “I was nervous, okay?! That thing was a lot scarier than a bunch of goblins!”

  Sincir raises his palms in her direction, snorting. “Fair enough, fair enough… I was impressed by the way you cut its tongue, to be honest. Good job.”

  Ena grumbles something about doing better next time and how she’ll show him...

  While her and Eleanor begin to clean up their swords, they’re approached of the man and woman from earlier.

  The farmers express their thanks, offering them breakfast and asking Eleanor to stay and chat for a while, which she is about to refuse, when Sincir accepts it, receiving a gre from her in response.

  Laughing, Sincir shoos away the girls, sending them toward the houses to have coffee as he kneels next to the now dead frog monster in order to inspect its body.

  …At a first gnce, the creature’s body doesn’t seem any different from what a real cadaver would. It bleeds, and its composition is realistic enough. However, after a couple of minutes of poking around, Sincir realizes something strange; Albeit slowly, the hard parts of the body are beginning to decompose already, almost as if melting, and it’s liquids are also evaporating...

  “…If you’re looking for a crystal, son, I’m afraid the monsters who make it outside hardly ever have it.”

  While the girls and the children went back to eat, and most of the men headed to start their work for the day, some of them stayed behind to clean the barn, including the one who seems to be their leader.

  “…Have you dealt with many of these over the years, Mister?” Sincir asks.

  The man shakes his head. “Thankfully, our worst problems usually come from goblins, but some of our neighbors weren’t as lucky.”

  Rising, Sincir nods. “I see. Do you happen to know how they usually deal with the bodies?”

  The man shrugs. “As far as I’m aware, they don’t… Heard the accursed things usually take a about a day to disappear completely once they’re dead, and the only thing they’ll leave behind is those crystals... But like I said, not likely to find any out here.”

  After hearing the man’s expnation, Sincir gnces at the frog’s body once more.

  Possessing no mind…

  Disappearing on their own after death…

  Mindless aggression, and a ck of fear…

  Considering how these nests suddenly began appearing all over a hundred years ago, everything points to the creatures they produce being some sort of magical construct which uses those crystals as a source of energy.

  But the question is: Who created them? And why?

  Also, is there somebody controlling where the nests spawn, or are their queens some sort of sentient creature, unlike their minions?

  …Some many questions, but no answers.

  Sincir considers for a brief moment if he should look for an experienced adventurer who has dived deeply into a nest to ask some questions, but then discards the idea... He’ll be doing his own dive soon enough, anyway, and if they have stayed for the past hundred years, Sincir doubts the nests are going to disappear anytime soon…

  “…Thank for answering my questions, Mister. I’ll leave you to your work now.”

  The man shakes his head. “I’ll the one who should be thanking you for the job well done... To be doing this sort of work at your age, it is certainly impressive. If only my boys would show half of that willpower…”

  After saying his goodbye, Sincir heads toward the houses, where he saw the girls disappearing earlier.

  Now that the danger is gone, the farm seems much livelier than before, and several of the workers nod toward Sincir with smiles on their faces as he walks by… He guesses they’re relieved nobody was hurt, and that the damage to their property has been retively small.

  Finding the girls is not hard, as they’re surrounded by a small entourage of mid-aged wives and children near one of the houses’ porch. Eleanor has a carefully neutral expression on her face as she is bombarded by questions regarding their life, how they became adventures, where are there parents, etc... While Ena seems to have started some sort of pebble game with the children, having left her sword belt resting against a rge stone nearby.

  Once he approaches their group, one of the women turns in his direction and quickly approaches with a steaming cup in her hands... Since she is too old to be considered one of the children, but also too young to be one of the wives, unless she has been very recently married, Sincir assumes she is somebody’s daughter who has yet to be send off to one of the neighbors.

  …Is he being too biased?

  “Thank you for your work,” the girl murmurs as she approaches him, smiling weakly while offering him the cup.

  Their proximity has so Sincir realizes her eyes are red and swollen, in spite of her smile, and after considering it for a second, he throws her a look of sympathy as he accepts the cup of coffee she offers. “I’m sorry for your cow.”

  Lowering her gaze toward the ground, she nods. “Betty was our milk cow. She had never hurt a fly…”

  Sincir contains a chuckle by sipping his coffee, which he finds pleasantly bitter. “I can see you were quite close to her.”

  She smiles sadly. “You probably think I’m silly for crying over a mere animal… Most of the ones we raise are killed and butchered for food, anyway, so what makes a cow in particur so especial…”

  “I confess I’ve never cried over a cow myself, but the fact she was important to you, even if to no one else, makes it a sad thing that she has passed… Don’t worry, I wasn’t thinking you are silly,” Sincir lies.

  The girl smiles again, this time thankfully, while wiping away a tear. “T-thank you…”

  “Name’s Sincir… Wow, this coffee is really good.”

  The woman blushes slightly. “Oh… T-thank you. I’m Sira.”

  “Were you the one who made it, Sira?”

  “Y-yes...”

  “It’s awesome.”

  “T-thank you…”

  As he sips from the coffee, Sincir watches the women forcing Eleanor to sit, and Ena growing increasingly incensed with the kids about some sort of rule breach in their game… When did she get so into it, anyway?

  “I’m sorry; When they get like this…” the girl murmurs after noticing the direction of his gaze.

  Sincir isn’t sure she means the children or the farmer wives, but he nods regardless. “It seems it might take a while.”

  “…I-it seems so.”

  “…You know, I’ve been struggling to become a decent cook in recent years, and I’ve always wandered what it takes to make a good coffee…”

  As he meets her gaze, Sira’s eyes perk up. “Really? My house is right there, and I wouldn’t mind taking the time to teach you, Mr. Sincir…”

  Sincir snorts. “Please, Sincir will do… And if you really don’t mind it, then I’ll gdly accept the offer.”

  Sira quickly nods, her sadness seemingly forgotten as she giggles and grabs his hand, pulling him toward one of the houses nearby… Sincir notices Eleanor throwing him a murderous look as he is dragged away, but now it’s too te to tell Sira he changed his mind, so he ignores her.

  Sira is still smiling by the time they reach her house, of which the first room is the kitchen, and she quickly begins to move things around while blushing slightly.

  “S-sorry for the mess! We weren’t expecting… Well, we knew you were coming, actually, but-”

  “It’s fine, Sira, don’t worry,” Sincir interrupts the flustered girl, signaling for her to slow down in fear that she might break something if she keeps going like this, “It’s obvious most of the mess comes from the coffee you’ve made for us, anyway.”

  In fact, it wasn’t an easy feat to keep his cup from spilling when she dragged him away all of a sudden, but partaking in countless parties in the past taught Varzath how to keep his drink from spilling, no matter the situation… Experience really does show up in the most unexpected ways, sometimes.

  Speaking of which, now that he is taking a good look at her, Sincir would pce Sira around te teens or early twenties… She is plump in the right pces, but lean around her midsection, and he wagers this easygoing, eager attitude is her real personality.

  “How much water do you usually use?” Sincir asks once she is about done cleaning.

  “Oh, I guess… Around this much? But your boiler might be a different size…”

  For the next minutes, Sincir follows Sira around her kitchen (which she goes out of her way to expin, is in fact her mother’s kitchen, at some point), while taking tips about coffee making.

  Since he is honestly trying to learn, it isn’t hard to demonstrate interest, and the conversation flows easily…

  After a while, Sincir realizes she is holding his gaze for a bit longer than necessary, in spite of the fact her cheeks grow slightly redder every time it happens.

  Though he knows many a man who’d still miss the signs not matter how obvious, he is not one of them, and since she is so obviously flirting with him, Sincir decides to go along.

  “…So, now you just have to wait for it to boil?”

  “Y-yes, but I think I got a bit too excited… I might’ve ruined this one by using too much sugar…” Sira expins, looking dismayed and ashamed as she does so.

  While they both stand next to her oven, Sincir steps forward in order to lean in and gnce within the boiler filled with dark liquid, softly pcing his hand against Sira’s lower back as he does so.

  “Uhm… Nonsense, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

  “Ah… M-maybe. I hope so, a-anyway...”

  Smiling at her innocently as he steps back from the oven, Sincir pulls away his hand, pretending it was a completely natural thing to use her body as a way to maintain his bance.

  As expected, Sira is so red her face could be compared to a tomato, but she doesn’t seem bothered, exactly, and she doesn’t step away from him, either.

  “…Mr. Sincir was telling me about how this is only his second job at the Explorers Guild,” she murmurs, after a moment of sustaining his gaze in silence.

  “Yeah, me and Ena started not a week past… Isn’t it ridiculous we’re called adventurers, even though the guild is called the Explorers Guild?”

  “The Guild’s activities have changed since it has been created, so it can’t be helped…”

  Sincir sighs softly while stepping away and averting his gaze from hers. “I suppose you’re right. Here, why don’t we sit for a bit while we wait for the coffee?”

  Softly grabbing her hand, he leads Sira toward the chicken table, though they end up leaning against it, rather than sitting over one of the chairs.

  “Actually, there’s something which has been bothering me, Sira…”

  “O-oh,” after taking a quick gnce toward their still tied hands, Sira meets his gaze worriedly. “Please tell me what it is, Mr. Sincir.”

  Sincir smiles at her. “Only if you call me as Sincir.”

  Sira blushes, but for her credit, she doesn’t avert her eyes away while asking again, “F-fine… S-Sincir, please tell me what has been bothering you…”

  Seeing the serious look on her face, Sincir ends up chuckling. “Well, it’s just that I’ve been wondering how come such a lovely girl is still single, when she must have dozens of pretends…”

  Sira blinks, and it seems to takes her a second to realize he is talking about her, moment which she bites her lower lip and smiles coyly.

  “Lovely? Now you sound like my mother…”

  Sincir chuckles again. “Oh, I’m not rushing you… I was just wondering, really. A clever, beautiful girl who knows how to cook…? It amazes me you have yet to marry…”

  “W-well, in between the farm and the housework, I hardly ever have the time to do anything else… And most of the boys around are distant cousins…”

  “Really? But I wonder if none of the neighboring farms have anyone… Do you not show up to festivals? Parties? Birthdays?” Sincir stares into her eyes as he speaks, softening his voice as to make so she understands this is not an interrogation. “Forgive me if I’m intruding too much, but you look rather lonely to me…”

  Sira averts her gaze. “…Do I? I suppose I wasn’t able to hide it. It’s just… Everything here is always the same. Nothing happens, nothing changes…”

  Ah… The adventurous type, this one.

  “…Wasn’t it less than an hour ago that your farm was attack by a giant frog?”

  Sira chuckles, throwing him a sidelong gnce. “And it’d have been done for if not for the brave heroes of the Adventurers Guild…”

  “You’re exaggerating…”

  She giggles. “No, I’m not. I watched the fight from my window, and looking at how fast that thing moved, I’m not sure the men would’ve been able to take it down, even if all of them went at it together… I think you and your friends are really brave for choosing this job, Sincir.”

  “Maybe…”

  “Oh, I think the coffee is ready!”

  Sincir ughs under his breath as Sira suddenly moves toward the oven, having obviously used the chance to escape from the increasingly growing tension between them.

  After gncing outside to confirm that the girls are still caught up in their interactions with the people of the farm, he looks thoughtfully toward Sira’s plump ass, considering how far he wants to push this.

  Sira seems a nice girl, and he doesn’t want to break her heart… But damn it if she is not making it hard for him to simply walk away.

  …Well, it wouldn’t hurt to teach her a bit about these things, right? And he can always warn her about not taking their retionship too seriously…

  “…Ew! I knew I used too much sugar! Stupid!”

  Seeing Sira staring at the cup of coffee in her hands with disgust, Sincir ughs. Walking up to her, he gently takes it from her grip before sipping from it himself.

  …Ugh.

  “Hey, it’s not that bad...” he lies.

  Sira sighs. “You don’t need to lie to make me feel better… My family is sure to ugh once they taste this.”

  “…Sorry.”

  “It’s fine… Just remember to use about half of the sugar I did, and that’s everything I can teach you about making coffee, Sincir...”

  Sincir tries to take another sip, but then shudders, setting the cup of coffee aside as he smiles apologetically toward Sira. “…Well, I’m disappointed about having to leave so soon, honestly, so I was wondering if there isn’t something else you would like me to see before I go.”

  “S-something else…? Well…” Sira quickly gnces around her kitchen. “T-there are other recipes I could teach you, if you’re interested, but I’m afraid it might take too long if we start something now…”

  Sincir hums thoughtfully. “In this case, I suppose I could teach you something instead, as a thank you for having taught me how to make coffee.”

  “Oh… Oh! That’s a great idea!”

  Seeing the eager look on her face, Sincir almost backs off at the st moment, but then he gnces toward her breasts, and the idiotic part of his brain speaks for him, “Well, since you haven’t had the chance to meet any suitable suitors yet, I was thinking I could teach a couple of things, so you’ll know what to do when the time comes…”

  Sincir allows his voice to trail off, and Sira blinks, her eyes widening slightly… Clearly, she is not stupid, and the implication in his voice was obvious enough.

  “I… I’m not sure…”

  Sincir shrugs. “I’m not trying to force you to do anything; I just thought it might be something fun and different from your usual routine to try out… If you don’t want it, I take it back, and we can talk about something else.”

  “No! I… N-not in here, let’s go to my room…”

  Once Sira blushes and grabs his hand, beginning to lead him deeper into her house, Sincir smiles.