Roy and Huckle went to Wigan, south of Ellander. The boy hunkered down on a gigantic boulder jutting out on the riverbank and brushed his finger across a pebble. He looked at the gleaming river before shifting his gaze toward the rustling bamboo forest standing on the other side.

Wigan flowed toward the south, merging with Ismena after the sewers ahead. To the north, Wigan merged with Pontar. The river was less than twenty feet wide and gleamed green because of the algae and microorganisms in it. Roy couldn’t even see the bottom.

“Do you see anything, Roy?” Huckle was wearing some shabby clothes. He was holding a rickety fishing rod, looking nervous. “Any clues?”

“Calm down. We just got here. I need more time.” Roy dusted his hands off and looked around. “This is the boulder Berschel sat on whenever he fished here?”

“Yes.” Huckle nodded. “I came with him many times, and he never changed spots. Berschel’s an honest kid, so he doesn’t change once he’s made a decision.”

“Did you also find Emti on this boulder, then?”

“Yes.” Huckle stabbed the fishing rod into a hole below the boulder. It was an easy spot to fish. “I found it right here.”

Roy could imagine Berschel enjoying the breeze on the boulder as he fished before disaster had struck. “Let’s search the place.”

“But my friends and I did that yesterday, and we found nothing.” Huckle shook his head. “It’s useless.”

“If you want to save your son, then you’ll do as I say,” Roy commanded. “If you find any scales, I want you to give them to me.”

“Scales?” Huckle was confused. “I need you to look for my son, not fish! If you’re craving fish, I can give you one for free. Grilled, stewed, doesn’t matter! Heck, I’ll even throw in a loaf of bread!”

“You know nothing!” Roy shook his head. He didn’t want to tell Huckle what he had in mind, but he had no choice. “Drowners have scales too, but it’s different. Their scales are harder and heavier than any fish’s scales, and there’s a protrusion in the middle of it. Also, you can smell the stench of rotting flesh if you see one.”

Huckle paled. Everyone who lived near a river knew there could be drowners lurking in the waters. If anyone were to be attacked by them, their chances of survival were slim. Huckle didn’t want to believe it, so he retorted, “But Berschel’s been fishing for eight years! There’s no drowner here!”

“Everything’s changing. There might not have been any drowners in the past, but there are no guarantees now. Your son might be torn apart as we speak!”

“Oh no. I’ll search the place!” Only humans or drowners could have taken someone away at a riverbank. If they could find any traces or the scales of drowners, then Berschel was probably taken by drowners.

Roy was no longer the weakling he’d been. He had Dancing Stars and Dragon’s Dreams in his inventory, as well as a crossbow that could fire in quick succession. He could take the drowners on as long as they didn’t gang up on him.

However, he didn’t get to fight them. After searching the riverbank for an hour, Roy found nothing. There were scales, but all of them belonged to the fish in the river. There were no drowners or any torn clothes in the river. Since monsters always left traces wherever they went, Roy was sure the river was free of drowners.

On the other hand, Huckle heaved a sigh of relief. If there were no drowners around, that meant his son could still be alive. But if it’s not monsters, then why did he go missing?

“Did you find the rod here?” Roy gave it some thought. “That means he was taken away when he was fishing.” There wasn’t any cover at the riverbank, so ambushing Berschel on the rock was unlikely. Roy looked back at the dense bushes not far from them. It was a remote place, so if the culprit ambushed Berschel from the bushes, they could’ve covered their tracks and saved a lot of time.

“Did you search the bushes yesterday?”

“Yes.” Huckle hesitated for a moment. “But not thoroughly, since I had to post the request this morning. I was going to come this afternoon.”

“I see.” They spent half an hour going through every single bush. Thanks to his perception, Roy picked up a faint scent of urine from a shrub. Ah, that’s a clue. “Huckle, does anyone else fish in this river? Any women who wash their clothes here?”

“No, as far as I’m concerned.” Huckle shook his head. “They live in the north, near the temple. The swamp is in the south, so nobody ever goes there. Only Berschel comes here, most of the time.”

So Berschel probably peed here. Or Huckle’s friends. Roy looked in the direction of the scent and expanded his range. He parted every shrub with his hand and checked the ground. Thanks to his hard work, Roy finally found some dried blood an hour later. It seemed the blood had been splattered instead of bled out naturally. It was as if something caused it to spurt.

He knew how the blood of nekkers, drowners, leshens, and humans smelled like. Even though he wasn’t as strong as a witcher, he was slightly confident that it was human blood. And probably spilled around three days ago or less. That’s when Berschel vanished. This must be a clue.

***

“Did you find something, Roy?” Huckle parted a shrub and hunkered down beside Roy. He looked to where the boy was touching and saw the blood, much to his shock. “B-blood? I-is my son dead?”

“Calm down,” Roy told him without even turning around. “We don’t know whose blood this is yet.” But he was sure Berschel was attacked by something when he peed in the bush. That something was too fast for Berschel to defend against.

“Come with me.” They followed the trail of the blood and noticed a blob of white that was cotton-like. Roy picked it up to take a whiff, but it was odorless. He pushed it together and pulled back, and the ball turned into sticky strings.

“This is mixed in with the blood. What is this, anyway?” Roy had a feeling the ball of sticky item was a clue to what the culprit was. Is it a monster? Can’t really remember which monster produces this.

They kept following the trail of blood. Roy and Huckle noticed some dried blood after covering some distance. The trail led them deeper into the forest, and eventually, the trail became thinner and thinner.

Finally, they stopped at a clearing in the far east of Ellander, where shrubs grew wild. The faint scent of flowers wafted across the air, while turnips surrounded them. There wasn’t anyone around, so the turnips weren’t taken. Roy and Huckle looked ahead and noticed a deep hole in the field ahead of them.