Trees are scattered on the flat, round stones.
　This must have originally been a shrine.
　It barely retained its original form at the base.

　From what I can see, it looks like a not so big shrine.
　Maybe the original was only about the size of my waist.
　The dust and dirt on the fragments suggest that it had been neglected for many years.

　The people in the village of Pagos knew of the shrine, but....
　He really didn't think there was a demon sealed in there, and he must have left it alone.

''Nya.......did it break naturally?''
It's a wreck, and maybe that's part of it.

　Kanade and Sora spilled those impressions when they saw the remains of the shattered shrine.
　However, Axe shook his head in response.

'No, I suppose not.'
Meow?　Why?
Look at this guy.

　Axe picks up a piece of the broken shrine.
　It must be the framework of the shrine.
　It's battered from the effects of exposure to the rain and wind, but...
　Part of it had been cut cleanly in half.

'If it had decayed naturally, it wouldn't have been damaged like this. It must have been broken by a sword or an axe ... or a blade.
Oh.
That's surprising. I didn't expect Axe to be able to see that.
Can you not be cruel?

　Axe was a bit teary-eyed, as he seemed to have a weakness for verbal abuse from girls.

'Are you sure about that?'
Oh, come on, you can't tell me that, even Rain.
Just checking. No offense.
"Well I'm afraid Axe is right.

　Cell said as he followed up.
　In his hand, he held a gem-like stone.

'What is it?'
The warding that protected this shrine from the demons is what's left of it.
There's no such thing as warding?
There are demons in this area. It seems that a ward was put in place to protect them from that. However, they couldn't protect themselves from the wind and rain, and they were torn to shreds...
''You mean........because of the wards, normally, demons can't touch it. Only people can break the shrine...?
''That's what it comes down to. Well, if the demon tribe came out, they could have broken the wards... never, I'm not sure.
Hmm....

　We've figured out that it's very likely that someone destroyed the shrine...

　What is it?
　What was the purpose of it all?
　Did you know about the devil, or did you not?
　There's still a lot I don't know.

Any other kind of clues?
I don't see anything that looks like it but what about the cell?
This one's gone, too. I don't see anything but the remains of a broken shrine.
Well that was a waste of time.

　The shrine may have been destroyed artificially, although we know that....
　There's no information on the key demon.
　I was hoping that if I came here, I might be able to find out how to reseal it or something, but apparently, I came up empty.

'....No, it's not a waste of time.
Luna?
Rain, guys. Come on over, I found something really interesting. Uh, Nina, you stay here. Tina, you're to keep an eye on Nina.

　Tania was beckoning her to stay a little ways away.
　But ... why is Nina away?

"?　Well, uh ... okay,
'I don't know, but I should just stay home with Nina, right?　Okay.

　They didn't seem to object and stayed where they were.
　We moved a short distance away ... to the steep mountainside.

　Did Nina make us wait because our foothold was in danger?
　

'This is.........'
'Lane and the others were checking out the shrine, weren't they?　So me and Luna were looking around and we found this guy.

　

''Ugh, this is........''
That's terrible.

　Axe and Cell frowned.
　The two A-ranked men would not often encounter a dead body.
　It's enough to make two such people frown.
　I hope you can somehow guess what it is.

''Unya this is........a bit harsh.......''
It's quite a thing to see...

　The body must have been left there for days.
　

　Seeing such things, Kanade and Sora turned blue in the face.
　Tania called out to the two of them with a worried look.

''Are you two okay?　If it's too tight, you'd be better off resting with Nina.
Tania is just so calm, isn't she?
No, I'm not totally fine with it. I'm just a skinny kid. I'd really like to get out of here right now.
''Then I'll put up with it too. I can't give Tania a hard time just because of her.
'Yeah, well, if you two want to do that, fine, but if it's too hard, don't push it. All right?　It's not that I'm worried about it, okay?

　For what it's worth, Tania seemed to have a bit of leeway.

'Was that.... a stab wound?'
Yes. Maybe it was the sword.

　Axe and Cell were calmly observing the body.
　They've already figured out the cause of death. That's as good as it gets.

　Cell puts his hand to his chin and makes a gesture as if he is thinking.

''Why is there a corpse in this place...?
I don't know, but I don't see how this is an unrelated issue.
Yes, I suppose. An artificially destroyed shrine and a corpse in the vicinity it would be natural to assume that there's some connection.
"Hmm.

　I'm going to try to sort through the information in my head, too.
　What's the connection between the destroyed shrine and the bodies found near it?

...or a witness?
Meow?　What do you mean, Rain?

　I tell the curious Kanade about the possibilities that suddenly come to mind.

'No, I don't have any proof, but... it's just too good to fall down here, isn't it?　One would think there would be a connection to the broken shrine.
Yeah, I guess so.
'Then what's the connection?　Did this man destroy the shrine?　But I didn't have any weapons that I could see, and it didn't make sense that he would kill himself after destroying them. Then I thought it was safe to assume that he witnessed the crime scene, found out about it, and was killed to keep his mouth shut...
Well that's interesting.

　Cell, who had been listening to me, nodded deeply.

'It's just a guess, there's nothing to base it on, okay?
Still, it does make sense, to a point. I don't think I'd have a problem considering it as a possibility.
And that body was obviously murdered.

　Axe added.

'How do you know that?'
The stab wound was from behind. You don't go through all that trouble to kill yourself, do you?
How do you know that...?

　As expected of an A-ranked adventurer.
　I thought we had grown up in our own way after being trained by Suzu-san...
　There's still a lot to be said for the knowledge and experience of these adventurers.
　I need to learn from the two of you.

''Well that's about as far as I'll go with the investigation.

　There's nothing more to look into.
　Let's turn back to Pagos and sort out the information there.

　........what a thought.

"Rain. Shall we have a look at the body?

　Luna started to say something like that.

''Come to think of it, I remember the two of you being able to use memory-seeking magic. But is that something that can be used against corpses as well?
It's a bit of a pain in the ass, but there's nothing we can't do.　If we work together, we're a tiny little thing.

　He misspoke again.

'So, can you ask?'
I'm in charge!
I'll take care of it.

　Sora and Luna tensed up, unfurled their wings, and began chanting magic.
　Seeing the two of them, Axe and Cell were surprised.

''Oh, it really is the spirit race...''
'I've heard it all but it's true. I'm surprised.

　The two of them chanted a spell as they met Axe and Cell's startled gaze.
　Light was sucked into the corpse.

''Mmm~''
....

　Luna lets out a strange growl.
　Sora is quiet and silent as she controls her magic.

　Somewhat....
　They gently opened their eyes.

'How did it go?'
Well I was able to do a memory search on the body. So I was able to see the killer, but...
Yeah?　It's kind of crunchy, but... what's going on?
It's Rain. Are you not surprised?　The person who killed this person and the person who destroyed the shrine there were the same person. And that guy was ... a brave man.