Chapter 123

We were all gathered together, sitting in a circle in Sister Sabina’s bedroom.

“So, regarding that logistics hub,” Dominic said, his sharp gaze shifting back and forth between me and my sister. “They had a high-ranking priest capable of using divine power stationed there permanently.”

My sister’s eyes grew equally sharp. “Is that really true?”

“Yes.”

Nodding, Dominic began listing out the suspicious details he had noticed one by one. “You all know how rare such high-ranking priests are, and then…”

Monsters appearing the moment they arrived at the logistics hub. A priest who dispatched the monsters without blinking an eye, and workers who looked entirely too accustomed to them.

“I casually asked the coachman on the way over, and he said monsters appear there quite frequently,” Dominic continued in a grave tone. “At least once a month, and during peak times, they’ve even been spotted once a week.”

Sabina frowned. “Isn’t that far too frequent?”

“Indeed. At this rate of occurrence…” Dominic concluded heavily. “It’s almost on par with the Western region where I used to serve.”

“… .”

“… .”

A chilly silence fell over the room.

I instinctively narrowed my brow.

‘I don’t like the feel of this.’

Glancing around, I saw that both Dominic and Sister Sabina wore the exact same expression as I did. It meant we were all thinking of the exact same variable.

“Could the supplies provided by the Main Temple really be the problem?”

At my cautious question, Sabina nodded heavily. “I think so, too. The only problem is that there isn’t just one or two types of supplies that were provided.”

The target of the problem was clear, but the list of suspicious suspects was far too broad. Sabina let out a long sigh. “Farming tools, seeds, seedlings, fertilizers… there are simply too many things we need to examine.”

“For now, I brought back everything I possibly could.” Dominic placed the items he had brought on the table. They were mostly small-volume items like seeds or fertilizer samples. Thanks to Dominic’s thoroughness, there was a fair variety of them.

We began examining the samples intently.

Sabina used her magic.

Dominic used his aura.

And I used the heightened, sensitive senses unique to a familiar.

As we were deep in concentration—

‘Huh?’

My eyes blinked for a second. It was because one of the items gave off a strange, heterogeneous energy.

It was… these fertilizers.

Yes, the fertilizers sitting right in front of me. The countless fertilizers stored at the Main Temple’s logistics hub.

Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind: the farming households in the Count’s territory stacking sacks of fertilizer in every single home. The Main Temple had been distributing fertilizers across the empire under the guise of helping farmers. For instance, even in the Western region, notorious for being plagued by monsters…

‘Didn’t they say the Main Temple periodically sent supplies there, too?’

Which meant… the common denominator among areas with high monster activity was that “fertilizer had been supplied.”

At that exact moment, Sabina snapped her head up.

“This…”

“Did you feel it too, Lady Sabina?” Dominic looked at her with a sharp gaze.

Sabina nodded seriously. “Yes. This fertilizer has the property of absorbing mana, even if it’s only in very small amounts.”

“It’s absorbing aura as well.”

Ordinary fertilizer had no business absorbing mana or aura. My guess was that this fertilizer had undergone some kind of special treatment to absorb external energy. If so, could that absorbed energy cause the fertilizer to transform into something else entirely?

“Come to think of it, regarding this recent wave of monster attacks…” Sabina spoke cautiously at the same time. “The damage is far worse in rural areas.”

“What does that mean…?”

“It means that large cities are suffering relatively fewer monster attacks.”

At those words, Dominic and my expression hardened in unison.

“Is it because priests were dispatched there? Well, maybe.” Sabina shrugged lightly, continuing right away. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to assume that a variable has emerged causing massive monster outbreaks in rural areas instead?”

“That makes sense,” Dominic nodded heavily. “Besides, fertilizer… generally isn’t supplied to large cities.”

“Right. We definitely need to investigate this part.”

However, even though we had found our first real clue, my sister’s expression didn’t look all that relieved. And I felt like I knew why.

‘If we aren’t careful, the Main Temple could kick up a massive fuss.’

Simply wandering around the Count’s territory wouldn’t give the Main Temple any grounds to meddle or interfere. But collecting every single fertilizer sample and conducting a full-scale investigation was a completely different story. They might get overly sensitive and accuse us of suspecting the temple. Especially since a portion of those fertilizers were supplies sent directly by the Main Temple itself.

“At least Dominic brought some back with him, so that’s a relief, but…” Sabina trailed off, her expression turning helpless.

And understandably so.

Right now, we had to figure out how that fertilizer influenced monster outbreaks, while simultaneously checking whether those exact fertilizers had been supplied to the Cameron County.

…And on top of all that, we had to do it while dodging the Main Temple’s gaze. It was a terribly difficult situation.

I clenched my fists tightly.

‘Isn’t there a way I can help my sister?’

I wanted to help her, no matter what. Especially because I knew how deeply invested she was in this matter.

And right then—

‘Wait.’

An idea flashed through my mind like lightning. My eyes began to sparkle.

‘If I play this right… could this actually work?’

There was a way. A method that only I, a familiar, could pull off.

***

Late at night, with the bright moon hanging high in the sky.

I stealthily slipped outside. In my hands, I clutched a stack of magical pouches that my sister usually used when collecting samples. I had spotted an empty, secluded vacant lot nearby earlier.

‘Ah, right here.’

Arriving at the lot, I set the magical pouches down on the ground. Then, I pulled out a pair of scissors and snipped off a handful of my hair.

Ah, you ask why I cut my hair?

It was to use a familiar’s innate ability!

If you imbue a medium with mana, you can create duplicates of yourself!

The only drawbacks were that the clones couldn’t be maintained for long, and for them to move properly, I had to stay continuously connected to them.

‘I never managed to pull it off before regression, but who knows, maybe this time?’

With that thought, I nervously blew a puff of air across the cluster of hair resting on my palm.

The silver hair fluttered into the air—

Poof! Puff-poof!

One by one, the silhouettes of cats hopped down onto the ground.

Snow-white, fluffy fur like clouds. Twitching pink ears. Blue eyes. Even pink noses and paw pads. They were cats with appearances identical to my true form in every single way.

‘It worked!’

Screaming with joy on the inside, I put on a solemn expression on the outside.

“Alright, everyone, come sit down.”

“Meow.”

“Mya.”

At my call, the clones sat in a neat, disciplined line in front of me. I leisurely swept my gaze across my duplicates’ faces. Their eyes, twinkling in the darkness, looked just like a cluster of stars.

‘For now, they seem to be following my orders well, but just in case, I should check.’

Thinking to myself, I gave my clones a command.

“Hey guys, give me your paw.”

Tap.

The clones all held out one front paw in unison.

I commanded again.

“The other paw.”

Tap.

The opposite front paws popped out.

“Roll to the left.”

Lying down on the ground, the clones flipped their bodies sharply to the left.

“Now to the right.”

At that command, the clones rolled right back to the right.

‘What is this, I feel like a military drill instructor.’

Suppressing my awkward feelings, I nodded to myself.

Well, this should be more than enough to help my sister.