I held the small leatherbound book upwards as I inspected its cover. There were no markings or etches along it. The spine of the book had no indication of what this was. Despite my lack of knowledge on what the books contents were, I couldn"t help but feel a bit excited at the concept that this may actually be a girls diary like Tael said."O-Okay… I know this is a breach of privacy and honestly we could probably be arrested for everything we"ve done so far, but let"s just keep going and see how it turns out." I said. Everyone looked at me embarra.s.sedly, but it seemed like we were all determined to read this book.
I cracked it open and saw the first page.
u003cDear Diary, my name is Rena. I am 16 years old and I want to be the greatest idol in the world!u003e I read aloud. I could feel myself blus.h.i.+ng the longer I went on, but I had determination so I powered through my embarra.s.sment.
u003cToday marks three months since my parents" disappeared. I don"t know where they are, but they probably aren"t coming back. I hope they didn"t abandon me...u003e I read out.
"Oh, how awful…" Erana quietly muttered while covering her mouth.
"Well… we have a reason for her being a bit crazy I guess…" I stated matter of factly.
"Keep reading Onii-san."
I turned the page and read the next entry.
u003cDear Diary, I just performed at the inn! My heart was racing like never before! The people at the inn were accepting of me and the innkeeper said I did a good job and he would pay me for performing there every night. I will get better!u003e
"So she only started this diary last month?" Tael asked.
"I guess. At this point she wouldn"t have a level in bard yet." Kany responded.
"Should I continue?" I asked.
"I don"t think we"ve learned anything important yet Kenji-san. So far it"s just been about idol things and nothing too personal. I don"t see a problem with us continuing… Also it"s a bit like gossip so I like discussing it with all of you!" Erana held her hands together and smiled.
I cleared my throat and read the next page.
u003cDear Diary, today I went into the forest to search for my parents. Now that I can support myself, I can dedicate my spare time into looking for my mom and dad.u003e
"Oh, that"s so sad!" Tael shouted. I looked at him with a confused expression.
"What? I can get emotional too!" He shouted in response to my face.
Surprised by this new side of my friend, I returned to the diary.
u003cAs I was searching the forest, I heard a woman singing! Her voice was beautiful, but I don"t know where she was. I looked around the forest for a long time but I couldn"t find her. I had to leave the forest because it was getting dark, but I will return to search tomorrow.u003e
"A woman singing…?" I muttered.
"Maybe it was Yasri." Kany suggested.
I shrugged and continued reading. This next entry is from a few days later.
u003cDear Diary, today I made a friend. I met her in the forest. Her name is Mully.u003e
"So… not Yasri." Kany stated flatly.
"Well… is there someone in the village that sings in the forest and is named Mully?" I asked.
"How should we know?" Tael asked me.
I shrugged "I guess we"ll need to ask Yasri about it." I said. I continued to read the pa.s.sage.
u003cMully gave me some pointers on how to sing. I think I"ll do what she taught me at the inn tonight. I hope everything works out well!u003e
We all looked at one another for a moment, but since we had no interruptions or things to say, I elected to continue.
u003cDear Diary, the inn loved my performance! I told Mully and she was happy for me! She said she"s going to give me more lessons in the future so I"m excited to learn.u003e
"I think this is the day she developed a level in bard. That would explain why everyone was so happy about her performance." Tael suggested.
"I agree with Mr. Sparkles."
I returned to the book and read the next page.
u003cDear Diary, today Mully gave me something to give to the people at the inn. She told me that it would be something like invitations to a concert so I should pick people I like to go.u003e
"Bingo." I said out loud.
"So these "invitations" were used on the people that went missing and they disappeared as a result." Erana stated.
"But this means that she wasn"t mind controlling people, but she was doing the bidding of this "Mully" person." Tael added.
"Well… this calls for a point by point a.s.sessment." I declared.
"Point by point a.s.sessment?" Kany asked.
"It"s pretty simple. We use the information that we already have and use that to extrapolate more information. It"s basically educated guesswork."
"Uh… that sounds pretty complicated, Kenji."
"I used it to find you when you got kidnapped by the goblins. I"ve always done this when I needed to figure something out. I"ll walk you through so don"t worry about it."
"Alright. I"m all ears, Kenji-san!"
"Okay. First: What have we learned from this diary so far?"
"We learned that there"s someone named "Mully" that Rena met and she taught her how to sing." Tael said.
"Correct. What else?"
"Um… We learned that Rena"s parents went missing 4 months ago." Kany added.
"Right!"
I looked towards Erana now to see what she would add. When our gazes met, she became fl.u.s.tered at trying to think of something.
"U-Um… S-She gained the level in bard after she met Mully-san?"
"Exactly! See? It"s not hard."
Everyone smiled at my rea.s.surance, so I continued.
"Now, from these three pieces of information, what can we extrapolate?"
"U-Um… This Mully person is a bard too?" Tael weakly asked.
"That"s certainly a possibility, but I doubt it. Rena made no mention of instruments alongside the singing and I feel like she would mention that. It"s more likely that this "Mully" person is just a good singer and was giving Rena pointers. Anyone else?"
"Well… Maybe it"s how she selected people?" Erana shyly asked.
"Possibly, but we don"t really have any indication of why she picked people other than "she liked them" so that"s not really useful."
"Okay Onii-san, what do you think it is?"
I rubbed my right shoulder and looked up as I thought to myself for a moment.
"Meeting this "Mully" person made Rena stop searching for her parents. After the entry that talks about meeting Mully there is no mention of searching for her parents anymore. I doubt Rena would not include any information pertaining to that."
Everyone gasped at that.
"Woah… I wouldn"t ever have guessed that…" Tael muttered.
"Well, I knew you wouldn"t!" Kany shouted.
Kany and Tael shot one another death glares for a moment before Erana interrupted them.
"Why would Rensan stop looking for her parents? I understand that she wants to be an idol, but you would think that searching for her parents would take priority…"
"Exactly! That leads me into point two: Why did Rena stop looking for her parents?"
"Because she got distracted?" Kany asked.
"Maybe temporarily, but this was a month long thing. It doesn"t seem like she was really concerned about her parents after she met Mully, otherwise she would have gotten back at it after she met this Mully person." I responded.
"Well… Maybe it"s because she couldn"t search for her parents. She was too busy being an idol to search for her parents so she procrastinated it." Tael suggested.
"I agree with Tael-san. That seems like the most correct idea."
"You"re all most likely right in some regard, but I think it"s something else. I think it"s because Rena herself was mind controlled in some capacity."
The group collectively looked at me in shock at this statement.
"How would the mind controller be mind controlled? This is like one of those twists in stories!" Tael proclaimed.
"Well, you"re right. It"s a bit strange but it"s possible. Let"s consider that Mully is capable of mind controlling people and somehow mind controlled Rena. Rena now is doing her bidding and mind controlling other people by proxy for some reason. We don"t know their reasoning, but we don"t need to know it exactly just yet."
"So then what is point three?" Erana tilted her head and asked me.
"Three: What is Mully?"
"How would we know that Onii-san?"
"We don"t need to know exacts, but we need an idea."
"Hm… I think it"s a monster, Kenji-san."
"I was thinking the same thing. A human would have been living in the village, but a monster would hang out in the forest." I replied.
"So there"s a named monster living in the forest near the village?" Tael asked.
"Most likely. This would also explain why this village hasn"t had many problems with things like other monsters despite the fact that this village has no walls around it. There"s a high likelihood that Rena meeting Mully opened the floodgates to people getting kidnapped."
"So then, if we get Rena, we can find this monster…" Tael began.
"And then we can find the people that went missing!" Kany finished.
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