In the early hours of the day, Lola let out a tired yawn and nestled her chin in the fur of one of Zalroth's tails. Zalroth raised the tail that Lola was laying on and lifted her to his eye level. Lola slightly opened her baggy eyes as her ears slumped sideways.

"What's wrong, fluffkins?" Zalroth asked as he lifted her face by her chin with a single finger.

"I kept having nightmares." Lola tiredly explained as she pushed herself up and sat down. Zalroth watched Lola as she attempted to, but struggled to, keep her eyes open. Zalroth sighed before he placed his hand on Lola's head and ruffled her hair.

"Well, try to get some sleep now since no one else is sleeping," Zalroth recommended. Lola slowly nodded, with her eyes closed, before she faceplanted into Zalroth's tail. Zalroth sighed as he covered Lola with his tail and moved it back to its original position. Scarlett and Snow watched Lola fall asleep before looking over at Zalroth.

"What do you mean by since no one else is sleeping?" Scarlett asked while climbing on top of Zalroth's head.

"It has to do with... well I don't want to spoil it, so I'll have Lola explain it when to you later.". Scarlett, and to a lesser extent Snow, intently stared at Zalroth with a smug expression before she hurried back to Snow.

"Oooh, a mystery," Scarlett whispered to Snow. The two of them continued to murmur to each other about what Zalroth could have meant. Zalroth rubbed his eyes as Nola slowly poked her head out from one of Zalroth's tails. Nola let out a small yawn and rested her chin on Zalroth's tail.

"Zalroth I'm hungry," Nola mumbled before falling back to sleep.

"Kusana requires sustenance too." Kusana pleaded as she clunge to the back of Zalroth's head and emitted a high-pitched hum, causing her to vibrate. Zalroth exhaustedly sighed before suddenly darting his head up. He hopped off the wagon's roof and walked off into the forest.

Right as Zalroth left the campsite, Sophia with Charlotte and the others arrived at the campsite.

"My, who would have thought we were so close to so many people," Elizabeth commented as she placed Star on the ground. Charlotte looked around at the camp.

"Are you sure it's ok for us to be tagging along with you?" Charlotte asked.

"Of course, I even got permission from the village head which would have been difficult if Akari hadn't been there.".

"They must be a real hard head..." Alex said before she abruptly stopped talking when she layed eyes on Mikou. Ruby rested her arm on Alex's shoulder.

"Hey doesn't that guy look like the boy you always teased in elementary school because you had a-?" Ruby tried to ask before Alex elbowed her in the stomach. Mikou happened to glance over at the group and his tail became super fuzzy as it stood up. Alex's surprised expression quickly turned to a smug grin. Mikou noticed Alex's grin and quickly raced off, catching Alex off guard before she raced after him.

"Should we be concerned?" a slightly nervous Charlotte asked. Ruby slowly staggered to her feet while letting out the occasional pained laugh.

"There's nothing... to worry about, probably..." Ruby replied through multiple heavy breaths. Charlotte wasn't convinced by Ruby's words and defeatedly sighed while blushing as she covered her face.

Zalroth whistled as he strolled through the straight trail in between the trees of the Whispering Woods. A perplexed Scarlett and Snow looked around at their surroundings while Kusana was glaring directly at the area ahead of the group.

"Umm, Mr Zalroth why are we leaving the others when we're are about to leave?" Snow asked.

"There's something I need to check out but while I'm doing that can you figure out what's wrong with the surrounding?" Zalroth remarked before he resumed whistling. Scarlet and Snow pressed their foreheads together and methodically discussed amongst themselves. They nodded at each other and accidentally headbutted each other, snapping Kusana out of her focused state while the two were rubbing their heads.

"We've got nothing," Scarlett said as she rubbed her forehead. Kusana looked around before looking at the ground.

"Kusana believes it has to do with the unnaturally straight trail," Kusana stated while pointing at the ground. The two sisters leaned their heads over the edge of Zalroth's tails and looked in the direction Kusana was pointing. The trio stared at the unnaturally straight and well-kept trail with a range of coloured flowers lining the edge of the trail.

"Why are there so many flowers lined up, I wonder?" Snow said. Snow asked Scarlett what she thinks but Scarlett only shrugged. Kusana attempted to answer Snow's question but before she could answer faint angelic singing caught her attention. As the group drew nearer to the singing, the singing became clearer and the trio realised that the singing matched Zalroth's whistling.

Zalroth arrived at a small clearing filled with a large flower bed. At the centre of the flower bed was a sitting hooded figure, which looked like a golden version of a soul reaper cloak, who seemed to be the one singing.

"That's a nice singing voice you got there lady," Zalroth said as he stopped before the edge of the flower bed. The hooded lady stopped singing and let out a relieved sigh. The woman muttered to herself as she slowly levitated off the ground. The woman turned around revealing she had super transparent skin, with a glowing skeleton inside.

"Greeting and salutations legendary heroes...". The lady abruptly and violently coughed for a few seconds.

"I mean, I know I'm pretty great but isn't that a bit much?" Scarlett remarked while rubbing the back of her head. The transparent lady chuckled at Scarlett's remark while occasionally coughing.

"Sorry, it's just the only people who ever visit me are heroes from another world; although I believe the term is otherworlders nowadays given the lack of demon lords and the such." the lady remarked. Snow noticed that the woman had a necklace around her neck with a small lantern filled with a small white flame.

"A-are you the Death Reaper?" a stunned Snow asked. The woman nodded her head. Snow, Scarlett and Kusana didn't know whether to be excited or worried. The trio murmured amongst themselves while Zalroth continued to talk with the Death Reaper.

"So, you're the Death Reaper, huh; do you have any idea why the soul reapers were acting so strangely the other day?" Zalroth asked. The Death Reaper sombrely looked at the ground.

"It is regrettable to admit, but an individual managed to take control of many of the soul reapers in the Whispering Woods and making any of the uncontrolled soul reapers became agitated and violent.". Zalroth nodded his head and inquired if she knows what the individual looked like. The Death Reaper nodded her head.

"Indeed, though it would be easier to just say they were the person who attacked the village of the villagers you are travelling with.". Zalroth tilted his head with a confused expression.

"Don't you mean, they are the person?". The Death Reaper shook her head.

"Sadly for the attacker, after they fled the destroyed village; they tried to climb a cliff and encountered a group of soul reapers. The soul reapers chased after the attacker and during the chase one of the soul reapers managed to destroy the ground beneath the attacker revealing a cluster of angorthite. The soul reapers then sliced the angorthite into pieces and the pieces got all over the attacker and soul reapers, leading to them all getting infected.". Zalroth nodded his head as he contemplated what the Death Reaper said.

"So that must be how the fire girl came into contact with the angorthite.".

"Indeed, I was quite worried about her but was relieved when you saved her.".

"So I guess the previous description won't be of any use anymore, so do you have any information about the... ex-attacker.". The Death Reaper shook her head.

"Sadly due to all the mana that was radiating off the attacker as they were mutating, I couldn't get a clear view of them and by the time I could see the area again they had fled. However, I did manage to find this.". The Death Reaper present a bronze pocket watch and an azure gem to Zalroth. Zalroth took the pocket watch and inspected it before talking the azure gem as well.

"I hope you can get closure for the villagers' loved ones by bringing their attacker to justice or at least stop them from hurting anyone else.". the Death Reaper bidded Zalroth farewell before he went on his way. She slowly descended back to the ground before resuming to sing.

Zalroth stopped in the middle of the flower trail and looked at the azure gem and pocket watch.

"I'm not really good at the whole detective and tracking thing, I'll have to get Sophia to have a try... or maybe one of her friends might be a tracker." Zalroth thought to himself before he continued walking.