"Wondering why I decided to tag along?" Farah asked, sensing Lucas' curiosity.
Seeing no reason not to ask, Lucas nodded back. He really was curious about why Farah had joined him and even worried that something might be amiss.
However, to Lucas' surprise, Farah simply said, "No reason. Work was done, so I figured I'd head back."
It took quite a bit of effort for Lucas to stop his face from cramping, in the end just shaking his head.
After that awkward exchange, the pair just walked back in silence, though that wasn't odd considering Farah didn't like speaking much and Lucas wasn't one for idle chatter either.
Night had almost fully fallen by the time Lucas and Farah made it back to the Town Lord's Manor, with Farah immediately handing over the cart to Lucas at the back gate and then limping off.
Seeing this, Lucas finally understood what was going on and nearly smacked his head for being so insensitive. Farah hadn't recovered yet from her injuries, but had just spent the last day helping with the harness project.
Obviously, she needed to rest and recuperate.
She could have just said she was tired, Lucas grinned wryly before grabbing the cart and wheeling it back to the Manor's parking lot.
While dropping off his handcart, Lucas ran into a pair of acquaintances who were driving over a large covered wagon. This in-and-of-itself wasn't odd, seeing how this was a task Lucas had assigned to Gabe and Joel.
"Boss!" Joel, the more outgoing of the pair, called out as soon as he spotted Lucas, waving at him with a big smile, "What are you doing here?"
Infected by the older boy's cheerful nature, Lucas smiled and called back, "Just making a food delivery to my dad and the other craftsmen."
"Oh! Food sounds good. We should get some too," Joel mused, practically drooling as he sniffed the air.
The kitchens had basically not stopped prepping food all day, so there was a rich scent of stew and bread lingering around the entire Town Lord's Manor.
It was enough to stimulate anyone's appetite, especially a growing teenager like Joel who had been running around all day.
Gabe, on the other hand, being a bit older and more responsible, smacked the back of Joel's head before bringing the wagon to a stop, "We have a job to finish. You can eat after we're done."
"Aww… come on, Gabe, can't we grab a snack at least?" Joel protested.
Sighing at his colleague's usual antics, Gabe, jumped off the wagon and began unhitching the horses in a practiced manner while reporting, "Boss, this is the sixth large wagon we found out in town. Together with the rest of the search teams, we've managed to gather about 20, on top of the 30 we were using before."
"Good," Lucas nodded, appreciating the serious Gabe's concise summary but still advising, "We don't need the extra wagons for another few days, so there's no need to rush. Get some food and then get some rest, there'll be plenty of work to do tomorrow."
""Yes, Boss!"" The two young men acknowledged the order before continuing to deal with the harnesses.
Done with what he needed to do, Lucas turned and left, thinking he might be able to turn in early for the first time since the explosion occurred.
Today had been especially busy for Lucas, having to deal with his regular responsibilities, planning the evacuation, and handling the violent princess from the capital.
As Lucas was walking past a certain covered wagon though, he stopped in place when he noticed something odd; there were small icicles hanging off of it.
The winters in Redwood Town were generally mild, but it did occasionally snow, so Lucas wasn't unfamiliar with freezing temperatures.
His inherited memories also had plenty of examples of snow and ice, with everything from harsh frozen worlds where the temperature never rose above negative 100 degrees, to fun winter activities like snowboarding down freshly-powdered slopes.
The strange thing was it was just late September, and nowhere near cold enough for icicles to form.
Lucas didn't recognize this particular wagon, so he figured it must have been brought back by one of the search teams he had sent out tonight. As for where the teams found it, there was nothing to indicate that.
There was also no one else around, so Lucas had no one to ask to satisfy his curiosity.
If he wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, he would need to investigate it himself.
Of course, he could have just ignored this and walked off, but that simply wasn't Lucas' style. His innate curiosity wouldn't let him ignore something that felt was out of place.
Additionally, ice forming when it wasn't freezing outside might be the sign of an anomaly, and any anomaly under the current circumstances might be a sign of danger.
Following the mantra of 'it never hurts to be cautious', Lucas began circling the wagon, trying to figure out how these icicles had formed.
Lucas quickly realized that the icicles only appeared around the rear of the wagon, and only on its lower boards. Everywhere else, water was dripping from both the cover and the body of the wagon.
Seeing how it was definitely getting cloudy, but it hadn't started raining yet, Lucas figured this condensation was from ice that had already melted, though it could also be that this wagon had just gotten wet by driving through a puddle or something.
Scratching his head, the young boy couldn't figure anything out from just observing, so he walked up and tried to break off one of the icicles. However, the moment Lucas touched one of the larger frozen pieces, he let out a yelp and hastily recoiled.
Staring down at his hand, Lucas muttered in shock, "How is that possible…"
Even though he had only touched the icicle for the briefest of moments, his entire hand actually felt numb and frost had appeared on his fingers.
Glancing back and forth between the icicle and his hand, Lucas couldn't help shivering slightly, and not just from the cold. From how quickly his finger had gone numb, it was clear that if he had held onto that icicle for even a few seconds, his entire hand would have frozen solid.
Now somewhat alarmed, Lucas released and focused his Soul Sense to examine the strange icicles and was shocked to discover they actually contained a large amount of frigid World Qi.
Whatever these icicles were, or however they were formed, they were clearly not ordinary, and certainly not something Lucas had ever seen around Redwood Town before.
Certain something was off now, Lucas hurriedly swept the entire wagon with his Soul Sense, but he still didn't detect anything else out of the ordinary.
Knitting his brow, Lucas was now completely confused about what was going on, and the lack of answers was only further stoking his curiosity.
Not finding anything outside the wagon to explain this situation, Lucas decided to climb inside and do a more thorough inspection.
While his Soul Sense could perform the equivalent of a quick visual sweep of things, it wasn't powerful enough to substitute for a hands-on investigation.
Once he was aboard the wagon, Lucas looked around but only saw a bunch of ordinary crates, causing him to scratch his head in frustration. With no other options, he began opening the various boxes one by one.
Some of the crates were sealed shut, so Lucas had to pause his investigation and go looking for a crowbar-like tool to pry their lids off with. Fortunately, the parking lot was intentionally located near the Manor's tool sheds, so it didn't take long for Lucas to get his hands on the appropriate equipment and return.
Time passed by quickly, and soon Lucas had opened over half of the crates, but all to no avail.
So far, all he found was stacks of firewood, charcoal, or empty boxes.
Obviously, this wagon was used by someone who ran a charcoal yard, but that didn't tell Lucas anything new.
Just as he was starting to lose hope, Lucas came across a certain crate that felt noticeably colder to the touch than the others he had opened so far.
Thinking he might finally have found a clue to explain the unusual icicles, Lucas tried lifting the crate's lid and was surprised to find that it wasn't sealed. This wasn't the first crate he had come across that could be easily opened, but it was still a bit of a rarity.
Encouraged, Lucas peered into the box but was again disappointed when all he saw inside was a bunch of old, dirty animal furs.
Maybe there's something under these that explains all this, Lucas thought to himself as he set the wooden lid aside and reached into the crate; but just as he was about to start removing what he thought was a small, brown fur, it actually leapt up and bit his fingers.