Chapter 135: From Separation to Speculation (1/2)

“Anyway, we have to find the culprit of this incident and deal with them.”

Lapis went deeper into the forest with Loren accompanying her.

She actually also wanted to bring Klaus along to increase fighting power, as he was still able to behave normally under this circumstance. But if she did, the three girls who were affected by this phenomenon would become a problem. Of course, they couldn’t leave them and carrying three unconscious people would seriously affect their mobility. If something were to happen, it would become troublesome. As a last resort, Lapis had ordered Klaus to watch over the girls and gone into the forest with Loren, or rather Shayna.

As Loren’s physical strength and stamina were pretty much retained, Shayna was able to move fast enough to keep up with Lapis, who was leading the way.

“Onee-san, I’m sorry but-“

“Would you stop with that ‘onee-san’?”

Interrupting Shayna’s attempt to talk to her, Lapis stopped and turned around. The expression on her face somehow looked like both anger and perplexity.

“Onee-san, I can’t call you that?”

“Ah no, it’s alright if Shayna-chan calls me that, but your appearance is now Loren-san’s, isn’t it? To be called ‘onee-san’ by a well-trained swordsman bigger than me is in no way comfortable…”

The tone of her voice had returned to normal. Lapis told Shayna in an embarrassing voice, as she didn’t seem to notice it.

“But onee-san, I can’t speak like onii-san.”

“I won’t tell you to imitate him, but… Can you manage somehow?”

Not sure if it was discouraging or motivation-dampening but to Lapis, Shayna’s way of speaking was a more serious problem than the strange phenomenon happening in the forest right now. Unless she managed to do something about it, she didn’t think she would be able to muster up the energy to face the culprit of all this.

“I-I’ll try?”

“Please do. It directly affects my spirit.”

“So, uhm, Lapis-sa…san? There’s something I think we have to do before we deal with the culprit.”

Even though she still stuttered, Shayna seemed to have really considered her words. Lapis could accept it more or less, and prompted her to continue.

To be honest, Lapis didn’t really enjoy being called ‘san’ by something with Loren’s face, but when she thought about it, she didn’t really want Shayna to address her without any honorifics either, so she couldn’t say anything.

“The villages and soldiers, if we don’t find them first then with their number, they will be a hindrance later when we face the culprit, won’t they?”

“I don’t think so.”

Lapis immediately rejected Shayna’s suggestion. It was so decisive and immediate that Shayna tilted her head and wondered if there was any reason behind. Lapis explained to her:

“This strange phenomenon doesn’t seem to be caused by people being manipulated. I think we won’t be able to make the villagers and soldiers move at will under the current circumstances.”

“This is like a hive mind behavior. So they’re not being controlled?”

Shayna examined the current happening in her own way. After all, this was something that could easily incapacitate her host Loren. For her own safety as well as for her host to be able to return, she had to figure out what exactly had attacked the villagers and soldiers by affecting their minds. She was wondering if those affected were being controlled, but Lapis seemed to disagree.

“This is not a systematic mind control, I think.”

Lapis had started walking again; she told Shayna, who was walking behind her, in a preaching tone.

“When controlling others, if the ones under control are not in a stable state by themselves, it’ll become a laughable situation even if the control is good.”

It was impossible to control someone who was acting wildly. If one could be controlled, they wouldn’t act wildly, and it would be strange if they didn’t move in some sort of order. From Lapis’ point of view, Loren had seemed to be trying to endure something out of control before switching with Shayna; it was difficult to imagine controlling him in such a state.

“So it’s some factor that makes everyone act wildly?”

“That information doesn’t remain inside Loren-san, does it?”

Lapis tried asking with some anticipation, and Shayna shook her head.

“I rarely synchronize with onii-san’s senses. I could feel that onii-san was very flustered before we switched, but I don’t know anything about his state of mind.”

“I see. I’ve anticipated this… It’s just like my guess.”

“So you guessed it.”

Hearing that, Lapis puffed up with just a tiny bit of pride. Loren would have said something about this, but unfortunately it was Shayna in Loren’s body now, and Shayna just intently waited for her next words. After keeping her proud expression for a while, Lapis just gave up and quietly sighed.

“This is so difficult…”

“Eh? Eh? Did I make a wrong reaction just now?”

“If I make such an expression, Loren-san would interrupt and say something like ‘I know’, or ‘don’t do useless things’.”

“I’m sorry, Lapis-sa…san… I-I will try harder.”