Strings Wrapped Around A Bone

Di! Ding! New Quest Acquired

Shiori hums in acknowledgment, flicking dust from the box beside the shed's door. Repositioning herself, she crosses her legs, patting her thigh to signal to Ningyo to sit down on it. The doll did as told, snuggling herself between the soft skin of her creator. As she repositioned herself on the uncomfortable wooden crate, the doll suddenly spoke, "Ningyo - Also - Detected - Gluttonous - Underground - Mana - Waves - On - Lonely - Field - Of - Village."

Lonely farmland? Was Ningyo referring to the empty land Enri pointed out?

Then, as though fate could hear her thoughts, a voice called out to Shiori. A voice that rasped from excretion.

"Bijou-san? Are you still inside the shed?" The tired but lively voice perks with the accompanying sounds of feet thumping against the ground, sounding louder with each passing second, signaling that the person is jogging and fast approaching.

Tucking the small doll behind her, she turns to face the golden-haired girl. Shiori could see slight concentrated sweat on her forehead. Those chickens were no joke, and she could hear them clucking in protest from their pen.

"I'm alright, just tripped and fell. You guys seriously need to renovate this shed, the leaking inside makes it look abandoned or something." She hopes that Ningyo's body doesn't make too much of a noticeable bump on her veil as she steps down to the shed's dirt flooring.

"Oh," Enri's tone fell almost into a dejected one, but quickly hid it with a forced smile, "Well, with the king raising the taxes, the budget for building repairs hasn't been made yet."

"I see," Shiori replied, having not discerned the discontent in the other's mood. Gazing outside the shed's small window, she views the farmland with quiet focus. Aside from potatoes and tomatoes, there were also garlic and sweet potatoes, but one sectioned-off plot of soil caught her eye. "Enri. You said something about the far west field being eroded?" The crops are all low-rotation crops, meaning that they can be planted in the same field multiple times without damaging the soil or the plant itself.

Enri took a moment to remember, placing her index finger on her chin, "Yes, the fields were plowed three times, but the ground was still too hard for the roots to penetrate. So the town's been putting in extra work to help the family living there, ever since that acre became unusable." She grimaces as she explains to Shiori, worry stretched across her face.

"Cover crops?" Shiori chimed in as she reviewed her limited knowledge of agriculture. She had found interest in plants when stumbling upon it on the internet. Fresh and... alive, albeit the photos were grainy and pixelated, a clear sign of it originating from the era before green clouds and fume-filled air.

Enri rouses from her stormy mind, and her frown deepens. "No dice either, legumes of all kinds, even rye for the dirt to heal during the winter. Worse, they all wilted, we couldn't even use them for fertilizer," Her lips tense into a straight line, "There was... too much rot."

"That can't be right," Shiori holds her chin. If the villagers correctly cared for the soil, then what would explain the plant rotting? Something was outside the known variable, and with the report Ningyo gave her, Shiori may have an idea as to what the cause is.

Mandrakes.

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The sun was really starting to set now, evident from the horizon's orange hue. Enri left a while ago, saying that she had to go help run some last-minute errands for her mother, which was a bit troublesome as Enri might have forgotten to tell her where she'd be staying for the night. By the time Shiori thought to ask, the girl was already long gone. Seeing as there's nothing she can do about that. She brought out Ningyo to chat with after making sure that there were no prying eyes.