"Congratulations, Host! Achievement Unlocked: [A Dog Bites You—Think You Can Bite It Back?] Reward: Portal Energy +5%"
"Shut up!"
Fortunately the squeamish Beatrice had yanked her away in time—otherwise Yimi would have bitten the dog to death.
...Well. It was already dead, wasn't it?
Beatrice, nose wrinkling in distaste, pinched the puppy by the tail between two fingers. For reasons she couldn't explain, the creature had been reduced to pure skin and bones—its muscles withered so completely they could barely move its own skeleton.
"Puppy!" The innocent children let out mournful wails, eyes glistening.
"Crying over a dog that bit someone—children really are a nuisance." Muttering this while looking down at kids who stood about the same height as herself, Beatrice pinched the corpse and tossed it toward the fence.
"Should I call it youthful fearlessness? Playing around a dangerous Witchbeast as if it's a toy—this is no ordinary pup. Let me see."
Beatrice took Yimi's hand and examined it carefully. Yimi's small, fair paw bore no wound that should have been there—yet Beatrice had clearly seen the bite connect, and hard.
The Wolgarm. A Witchbeast prowling the forest outside Arlam Village, shaped like a vicious dog. And this creature was no ordinary Witchbeast pup; it was the Shaman that commanded the rest of the Wolgarm—or Boss Dog, if you preferred the blunter term.
What made it interesting was that the Shaman could place a Curse on anyone it bit. When the caster grew hungry, the Curse activated and frantically drained the victim's Mana until they were sucked dry—yet here it had died by Yimi's own Famine.
Beatrice looked toward the fence, then swept her gaze across the gathered children. "A Barrier was placed around this area. Witchbeasts shouldn't be able to cross into the village under normal circumstances, and they certainly wouldn't stay in one spot and let children pet them. Something was controlling it."
"Count yourselves lucky. If this Witchbeast hadn't died, you'd have been the ones in trouble next. Now go home, all of you. Honestly—I step outside for once and this is what I run into."
Beatrice took Yimi's hand to lead her away—and stopped. Yimi was staring straight at the blue-haired girl who had been holding the dog.
"Something wrong?" Beatrice narrowed her eyes.
"The girl who didn't know the way!" Yimi recognized her immediately—the same girl she had asked for directions while chasing the triplets.
"Why are you... here too? I thought you were in the city."
Meili's gaze wavered. She hugged herself, seeming almost timid. "I came here with my mom and dad. I don't think we've met before?"
Claiming ignorance was impossible on Meili's end. She had followed someone she treated like an older sister to the Royal Capital on a job—the Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert, the very one Yimi had taken down with Fantasy Nature. But the direction-asking had happened in a previous loop, so Yimi's recognition drew only a blank stare.
Beatrice fixed Meili with a look. "An outsider? She's just a child, but she seems suspicious."
"Meili is innocent!" Seeing her friend accused, Petra rushed to stand in front of her. "She was the one who found the puppy wandering alone and rescued it!"
"..." Beatrice had only been suspicious before. Now—
Petra caught herself and quickly scrambled to correct course:
"B-but the dog was acting strange, so she didn't bring it into the village—she put it over in the forest to let it roam free! Yesterday we all went there to pick catnip to play with the kitty, and there was this mud-covered person who could back us up—we left it right beside him! He even got bitten!"
"..."
Beatrice vaguely recalled it: yesterday, Natsuki Subaru had come home armful-deep in catnip, covered head to toe in mud, sporting a fresh dog bite.
She patted Petra on the head—they were about the same height. "Thank you for the evidence."
Meili shot Petra a glare, then spun around and bolted, already starting to act—
"Shamak!"
Beatrice caught her before she'd taken two steps.
——————
Not far away, out in the open wilds, a white-haired young man stared at his own right hand with a bewildered, uncomprehending expression. A severe wound marked his palm—the unmistakable impression of canine teeth.
"Hey, hey. Is this a joke?"
He looked left. He looked right. Searching for whoever might have caused this.
Of all those who had ever been struck by Yimi's redirected misfortune, his confusion ran the deepest. His name was Regulus Corneas—Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, [Greed]. To put his Authority in simple terms: he could render his own time completely, utterly immovable.
In that state, how could he possibly be injured?
"What happened?"
Drawn by curiosity after the White Whale's death and wandering out in search of whoever was responsible, the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony—[Gourmet]—twisted his face toward Regulus. "Ah~ you got hurt. Such a vivid, delicious flavor~ Why'd you suddenly get hurt~? This Greed Archbishop walking beside me—wouldn't happen to be a fake, would he~?"
Regulus's expression tightened slightly. He fixed Gourmet with a cold look. "What exactly are you implying? Branding me a 'fake' out of nowhere—are you deliberately trying to violate my personal dignity?"
——————
"This is unusual," Puck said, arms folded, speaking to a Natsuki Subaru who could not cast magic at all. "Your Gate seems to have developed a problem."
"So that's why I feel stiff sometimes?" Subaru sighed and resigned himself to it. He had vaguely hoped he could pick up magic for critical moments—at least enough to sneak into Diego's room without the two maids catching him.
"No, I don't think that's entirely it either. I just have this feeling, hmm..." Puck gave him a puzzled look.
"Why are you giving me that meaningful, trying-to-say-something look? What is—oh, Betty and Yimi are back, and there's also... that's terrifying!"
Mid-sentence, Subaru spotted Beatrice arriving with a blue-haired little girl bound up and gagged with what was very possibly a sock, muffling her protests through the cloth.
"Looking at Betty like that is awfully rude, you know. She almost had you killed." Beatrice walked directly over to Subaru and took his hand, examining the bite mark.
The caster was dead. The Curse was void.
"She was trying to kill someone?" Yimi poked Meili's cheek.
"You were a victim too. If you hadn't bitten it to death with your Famine, it would have drained your Mana dry—and all of that was under her control." Beatrice looked down at Meili.
She wanted to kill the little cat?
Yimi raised her small boot and gave Meili a solid kick. Then she looked at Beatrice. "Then why... not just kill her?"
"Kill her? Hold on—" Subaru stepped in, looking down at Meili.
He didn't fully understand what had happened, but she was still a child. They'd gotten along well enough yesterday.
Yimi crossed her arms unhappily. "Cat doesn't know her. She still tried to kill cat. Why... not just kill her?"
"Congratulations, Host! Achievement Unlocked: [Super Macho Kitty] Reward: Portal Energy +5%"