"And what is it?" Arin asked, already suspecting that whatever Lilian had discovered was serious enough to justify her sudden return. He had a fairly good idea of what it meant if she had chosen to run through the town instead of waiting at the entrance to the road leading toward the mine, as they had originally arranged. Lilian was not someone who would abandon an investigation without a reason, especially when she had deliberately chosen to explore the forest rather than enter the unpleasant settlement. Seeing her pale expression only strengthened his suspicions that the problem involved something beyond the ordinary dangers of the surrounding wilderness. Nevertheless, he waited for her to explain what she had encountered before deciding how to proceed.
"I don't really know, but the forest feels wrong," Lilian answered, still looking unsettled by whatever she had experienced. "You have much more expertise with this sort of thing, so please go and scan the forest yourself." She explained that the animals were far more aggressive than any she had encountered before, behaving in ways that seemed completely unnatural even for creatures living in a dangerous forest. More disturbingly, the trees themselves were not reacting as they should, making the entire environment feel fundamentally different from what she expected. She could not identify the precise cause, but she was certain that something was seriously wrong, and she trusted Arin to understand the situation better than anyone else in their group.
"Great. You two should come with us," Arin said, turning toward the representatives of the Great Houses. "Perhaps you will learn something, and if the situation really is serious, you will be useful when it comes to commanding the townspeople." He did not wait for them to debate the suggestion before heading out of the room, expecting them to follow if they understood the importance of the situation. The two men exchanged uncomfortable looks as they joined the others, neither appearing particularly pleased with the sudden change in their plans. Until that moment, they had regarded the idea of a conscious forest as little more than an interesting theory, and they had mostly humoured their guests rather than genuinely believing their claims. Unfortunately for them, it seemed they might have been the ones who had underestimated the situation.
"This doesn't feel good," Bill muttered as they reached the edge of the town and began attempting to establish a connection with the forest. He concentrated on the trees beyond the settlement, trying to extend his awareness into the surrounding wilderness, but the process proved far more difficult than he had expected. After five minutes of struggling and wasting a considerable amount of mana, he finally managed to establish a connection, only to discover that its quality was absolutely terrible. The awareness he gained was so limited that the area he could perceive around himself did not even extend a full metre. For someone who had previously learned to connect with the forest through the Sonnenbergs' breathing method, the experience was deeply unsettling.
"Tell me about it," Arin replied, his expression becoming serious as he prepared to investigate the problem himself. Unlike Bill, he did not intend to rely on the weak connection he could establish from the edge of the town, because he needed to understand what had happened to the forest as a whole. He sat down and assumed a meditative position, preparing to reach beyond the shallow awareness that ordinary practitioners could establish. If the forest itself was unwilling or unable to communicate what was wrong, he might never discover the cause, because he was not yet powerful enough to search for every answer independently. Although he was reasonably confident that there were no mortal beasts in the area capable of posing a serious threat to their entire group, he knew better than to mistake that for safety.
The forest remained genuinely dangerous, even without creatures powerful enough to threaten an experienced fighter directly. A mortal man could easily be killed by the wildlife, poisonous plants, treacherous terrain, or any number of hazards that became more difficult to recognise when the environment itself behaved unpredictably. Arin therefore wanted to determine what was wrong before allowing anyone to wander deeper into the trees. If the forest's unusual behaviour resulted from an imbalance in its natural systems, the danger might extend far beyond a single aggressive animal or an isolated patch of unhealthy vegetation. Understanding the underlying problem was essential if they wanted to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
"Right, let's establish real contact," Arin murmured, preparing himself for the deeper connection he intended to make. Before beginning, he completed his breathing method twice, allowing the carefully regulated flow of mana to circulate through his body and strengthen his concentration. The technique had been developed to help practitioners connect with the forest, even if their natural physique did not possess the qualities that made Arin particularly suited to such work. It also enhanced the physical abilities of those who practised it, allowing their bodies to benefit from the controlled circulation of mana. For Arin, however, the most important advantage was the way it prepared his mind and senses to reach deeper into the living network surrounding him.
As he sank into a meditative trance, his awareness began to travel along the connections he had established with the forest. Rather than limiting himself to the immediate surroundings, he attempted to reach deeper into the collective memories and will of the trees scattered throughout the woodland. It was not a simple matter of seeing through hundreds of individual trees, because the forest's awareness did not function like a collection of ordinary human senses. Instead, he had to follow scattered impressions, fragments of memory, and the faint responses of living things connected through the forest. By carefully examining those impressions, he hoped to identify what had changed and determine whether there was anything he could do to help resolve the problem.
The deeper he searched, the more difficult the process became, as the forest's condition interfered with the very connections he depended upon. The trees did not provide him with a clear explanation or a neatly organised sequence of events, but their scattered impressions gradually allowed him to piece together what had happened. He had to move beyond the first layer of connection and search for individual trees, comparing what he could sense from one part of the forest with the impressions coming from another. It was exhausting work, requiring him to concentrate on fragments that were often incomplete or difficult to interpret. Nevertheless, Arin continued until he believed he had gathered enough information to offer a reasonable explanation.
Nearly an hour passed before Arin finally opened his eyes and returned to the outside world. By then, darkness had settled over the surroundings, and his family members, along with the two representatives of the Great Houses, were standing nearby with concerned expressions. They had waited while he investigated the forest, uncertain whether he would discover anything useful or whether the attempt would leave him too exhausted to continue. Arin took a moment to collect himself, feeling the mental strain of forcing his awareness through the damaged connections that linked the trees together. Whatever had happened, it was clear that the forest was not in a condition that allowed him to investigate it comfortably.
"That is interesting," Arin began, speaking slowly as he organised the information he had gathered. "The forest is not particularly upset about the road passing through the wolves' territory, although the wolves themselves certainly won't be pleased about it." He looked toward the representatives of the Great Houses, making sure they understood that his conclusion did not mean the road was safe or that the wolves would simply tolerate its existence. "I would still recommend closing that section off, because the wolves are not going to be happy about having their territory disturbed." The forest's reaction and the wolves' likely response were two separate concerns, and Arin did not intend to let one obscure the other.
"However, that is not the real problem," he continued, his expression becoming more serious as he moved to the discovery that mattered most. "From the scattered senses and images I managed to gather, someone or something has cut off the water supply to part of the forest." He explained that the resulting disruption had forced animals to migrate and compete for the resources that remained available, leading to fighting and increasing aggression throughout the affected area. As those disturbances spread, the forest had become increasingly unsettled, with the consequences extending beyond the location where the original change had occurred. The situation had effectively placed the entire woodland on edge, making it far more difficult for him to establish a stable connection with its living network.
Arin was exhausted by the time he finished explaining what he had discovered. The forest had not been particularly welcoming to him, or to anyone else, and the damaged connections had forced him to work much harder than he normally would have. Instead of relying on the first layer of awareness, he had needed to reach deeper and search for individual trees whose impressions could help him understand the larger disturbance. The process had placed considerable strain on his mind, leaving him mentally drained after nearly an hour of concentrated effort. Even so, he was relieved to have identified a likely cause, because a problem involving the water supply was something they could investigate and potentially correct.
"Have you seen any reports indicating that the person in charge deliberately cut off the water supply to part of the forest?" Bertho asked, looking toward Alex with a questioning expression. He understood that the situation would only become more chaotic if the underlying problem remained unresolved, particularly if the animals continued migrating and fighting over the remaining resources. The longer the disruption lasted, the greater the chance that the effects would spread into other areas and make the forest even more difficult to manage. If the change had been caused by the mining operation, they needed to identify exactly what had been done before the situation became considerably worse. Bertho therefore wanted to know whether the accounting records or administrative documents contained any indication of such a decision.
"I haven't come across anything like that," Alex answered thoughtfully, searching his memory for the relevant details. He had spent a considerable amount of time examining the accounting books and the records left behind by the former management, so he was familiar with many of the decisions that had affected the mine's operations. However, he could not immediately recall any report mentioning the deliberate interruption of a water source or the construction of something that might have caused the forest's current condition. He fell silent as he continued thinking, unwilling to give a definitive answer until he was certain he had not overlooked an important document. The others waited for him to finish reviewing what he remembered, hoping that Luckes might have encountered something different during his own investigation.
After about a minute, Luckes finally spoke, his expression changing as a forgotten report came back to him. "I know what it is. I read a report that the former mine manager put together." He explained that the man had become tired of wasting valuable manpower on the daily task of transporting water up to the mine entrance. Rather than continuing to organise the work, the former manager had ordered a dam to be built so that workers could pump water from the lake that would form behind it. The decision had apparently been intended to make the mining operation more efficient, but no one had properly considered what diverting or restricting the water might do to the surrounding forest.
"Right, then I recommend restoring the water source," Arin said firmly, making his position clear. "Otherwise, you may have to wait at least a year before the nature around us recovers and adjusts to its new limits." He believed that the forest would eventually find a new balance if left alone, but allowing the disturbance to continue would mean accepting months of unnecessary disruption. They did not have that kind of time, especially when their purpose in coming here was to ensure that the mining operation could function properly. Restoring the water flow was the sensible choice, and they could investigate alternative methods of supplying the mine once the forest had begun to recover.
The problem illustrated how much the relationship between humanity and nature had changed since mana arrived. In the past, people had often treated the environment as something that could be modified whenever doing so offered a practical advantage, assuming that the consequences could be managed with sufficient planning and resources. That assumption had become far more dangerous in a world where natural systems could react in ways that humanity did not yet understand. Even changes that appeared minor from an administrative perspective could trigger consequences that extended far beyond the immediate area. The former manager had considered the effort required to transport water, but he had apparently failed to consider what the forest would lose when its supply was disrupted.
The same principle applied to other problems humanity had previously believed it understood. For example, the Earth had once stockpiled antivenoms to prepare for emergencies, providing medical facilities with treatments that could save lives after dangerous bites and stings. Yet since the arrival of mana, some of those remedies had become far less effective, with people needing roughly ten times the previous amount to achieve worse results than before. Worse still, such supplies were only available in cities protected by cultural-energy barriers, which prevented valuable items from being destroyed by the changes affecting the world. Outside those protected areas, people could not simply assume that familiar medicines and established emergency procedures would remain reliable.
Arin had no idea how people in Australia would survive under those circumstances, because the thought of facing such dangers without dependable treatments seemed almost like a death sentence to him. The changes had made it increasingly difficult for people to rely on the knowledge and resources that had once allowed them to live safely, particularly in places where the environment was already dangerous. Nevertheless, worrying about every distant region would not help him solve the immediate problem in front of him. His task was to identify what had disturbed the forest, help restore its natural balance, and ensure that the Sonnenbergs could obtain the mana stones they had come here to secure. Whatever else was happening in the world, that was the responsibility his family had given him, and he intended to see it through.