On the way to Trish's house, I encountered a panicked Chris and Leo, aimlessly looking around the place. There's also a large number of humans here as well.

It could be some kind of human gathering culture. And since Chris and Leo are here, I might as well call out to them and join them to whatever they're doing.

But upon doing so, Chris looked at me with wide eyes and ran towards me.

There's certainly something urgent that's going on here.

After pausing for a second, Chris then said to me what he wanted to say. Though I think I just misheard it so I asked again.

"Hm?"

"It's Trish, she wasn't in her house when we visited her!"

I'm sorry? I don't see the problem here.

Wouldn't that be normal? I mean, there are humans waking up early in the morning as well so...

"Why are you tilting your head for!? She's missing!"

Somehow, Chris got angry at me...

"Um... Wouldn't Trish have woken up early? And went out?"

"Trish never wakes up early. Never. Whenever we visited her home early, she refuses to wake up like a [bear] hibernating."

He nodded vigorously when she said that as if telling it's something very important.

Then if she never wakes up early in the morning, why is she gone? There's still a couple of things missing here.

"What did her mother say?"

"I don't know... She wasn't there when we got there... But strangely though, the door wasn't locked. Yeah, isn't it strange that she wasn't there either? I saw Trish's mom up early in the morning as well in the past so I didn't find it suspicious... But could it be, she also..."

This is more serious than I initially thought...

"Did you ask the village chief?"

"You mean my grandfather? Yeah, he said they'll look for Trish as well but he said that... Wait, he said that you were missing last night as well!? What happened to you!? Are you hurt!?"

Ugh... Not him too...

No, Leo, don't get needlessly worried like Chris as well!

"... Lily and Roosevelt were just too wor—no, it's because I did something wrong that they were worried like that."

I looked at away at Chris' worried eyes. It's somehow embarrassing and guilt-provoking if he stared at me like that. Though, unlike Chris, Leo's look isn't so.

It just looks like a normal sad face that's on the verge of crying.

"I don't think I understand but I'm just glad you were alright."

Sensing the mood turning into an unpleasant direction, Chris made a relieved smile as a way to console me.

I appreciated that he didn't ask for details.

To follow up with that, I turned the conversation back to the original topic.

"Then, what now?"

"Ah, that's right. We should inform grandfather that you were found so they could focus on finding Trish and her mom as well."

Hurriedly, Chris grabbed my wrist and headed towards where the village chief house is, which I presume to be the house where Chris is living in as well.

The house is much, much larger than any other house that I saw in the village. It's as large as three houses that Sun, Night and me are staying in.

But I didn't get to inspect it much as Chris impatiently pulled me in the house.

In the house, we saw a rather surprised old human male discussing something with a couple of humans which looked like the village guards.

When the old human, or rather, the village chief saw Chris and Leo, he didn't react much as if he expected this but when his eyes landed on me, he was very surprised.

The two guards as well, after following where the village chief is looking, they were surprised as well.

"Chris, Leo, you found Snow?"

"... N-no, she wasn't lost in the first place."

"Big Sister was safe!"

"Is that right? I'm glad but I presume you urgently came back with something to tell me?"

Chris meekly nodded.

"Ah... It's not good news, is it?"

After exhaling deeply, Chris began to tell the village chief about the added worry.

"It's Trish's mom... She wasn't there either. I only realized it just now. We need to search for her too."

"We already know."

"Huh?"

Oh? Did the village chief notice it as well?

"If Trish's mother wasn't missing, then she would have reported her own daughter's disappearance, it shouldn't have been you. So we're already working on her case as well."

After groaning for a bit, the village chief continued.

"It's strange... You said that the door wasn't locked? It seems it's not just that. Did you notice the back door broken as well?"

"Broken? No, we didn't check... We just hurried to tell you."

"Well, that broken door is a big clue. It wasn't because They didn't forget to lock the door, it's that it was opened from the Inside. And through that broken back door is where our [kidnappers] entered."

I assume the term kidnapper is what people call the ones that take away people for whatever reason.

And if that is the case...

"Wouldn't the kidnapper be a villager?"

I intruded in their conversation.

It's something that I asked just to confirm and it seems to be the most likely but what the village chief said was unexpected.

"No, I don't think it's the village's residents, Snow. We asked everyone already and searched their houses. Not a single one of them has a clue and no one was missing either. So we suspect that it was someone that isn't in the village but the guards haven't seen any [bandits] nearby so it's puzzling. And even if they are [bandits], I just can't see what they could gain from kidnapping a mother and a daughter."

"Bandits?"

"? They're the people that live dishonestly and steals from people often in groups. They're also a big pain for us as well as sometimes groups of bandits try to raid us."

So bandits are one of the bad humans then? And they didn't seem to be a candidate as a suspect.

Someone outside the village and isn't bandits... I can't think of any.

I don't have enough things to base on. I'll have to check the actual place if I can find anything that they still didn't know.

"Can we check the house again?"

So I requested and they were confused at first but the village chief gave me permission while Chris and Leo went with me back to where Trish's house is.

Upon arriving, I saw a few humans looking around the area of the house.

They must be here to investigate as well.

"Why do you want to check the house, Snow?"

"To see for myself."

Chris seems to doubt me.

Doesn't he think that they may have missed something?

And so we entered.

I went and looked at every room and every corner of the house.

I searched around the room of Trish to see if there's anything I can find there, and as well as the under the 'furniture' as Chris called it.

And all I found in those corners are just dust and a few items in them.

At least that's what I found that could be seen.

There's also the lingering scent inside the house.

Ignoring the many scents of humans inside the house, I've also picked up an extremely faint scent of goblin blood as well.

Specifically, I found it still lingering on the broken door.

From this, I can infer that the goblins have broken in the house and somehow took Trish and her mother to somewhere.

The goblins must have scratched their way in, evident with the numerous scratch marks on the fallen big pieces of the door, and while scratching, they must have cut their fingers or something, leaving behind a few drops of blood on the door.

There's also the fact that I found the scent in the air around the door as well. It was very very faint so I'm not too sure but assuming if I'm right, those goblins had been breaking their way inside the house through the door that is still locked for at least a few hours.

Though I can tell why they didn't suspect goblins for this as well.

And to confirm my assumption, I asked Chris on his opinions.

"Goblins are the ones that broke in? I can't see it. Isn't the hole that they made on the door too big for those small goblins? And it isn't like them to make any effort at all just to get to two humans, you know? They're really lazy after all."

I asked around the ones that are investigating the matter as well and they said the same thing.

It couldn't be caused because the hole is too big, it isn't in their nature to break down the door just to get inside a house. Goblins would rather look for a way to sneak in instead and if they can't find any, they'll give up and look for another house.

There's also the fact that there doesn't seem that anything was taken in the house as well, which shouldn't be possible as those goblins are 'kleptomaniac'(?).

There's that.

They all seem plausible reasons and I can't blame them for not suspecting goblins for this.

But what I smelled on that door is the real thing. I even confirmed it a few times by sniffing the damages in the door really closely, much to Chris' and Leo's confusion.

When I did that though, I found something peculiar in the smell. It's definitely the smell of goblins, no doubt about that, but it smells different than usual.

I guess it smells stronger? I can't really describe it any more than that. It's more disgusting smelling. It's something like that.

And I also tried to trace where they went with Trish and her mother but I wasn't able to pick up any other than from the door.

I suppose my nose isn't strong enough?

It couldn't be helped then.

Like that, we spent about most of the day searching around.

It was now afternoon and I saw Sun coming with a small box on hand.

"Oh Snow. What's with all this commotion?"

She asked me, though seemingly uninterested as well.

"Trish was missing and her mother."

"My! How horrible! If I remember correctly, Trish is your girl friend, isn't she?"

I nodded in response.

"You must have been really worried then, for your friend?"

Odd. Why does Sun look so happy about all of this?

I ignored that for the moment and answered her.

"Yup. We're searching to see who did it."

"If it's you, Snow, I'm sure you already know who did it by now~."

With Sun's misplaced cheerfulness, I looked at the two who just went towards us to see what's going on.

It's Chris and Leo of course.

With them here, I said my conclusion.

"I think it was the goblins."

"Huh?"

As I thought, Chris still thinks that the idea is wrong.

"Isn't all the evidence says the opposite?"

I nodded at that.

I already know that but I'd like to believe what I smelled is right here.

But I can't really make Chris believe me. As he said, all evidence points towards the contrary. I have no solid proof from claiming that it was goblins in the first place. I only have the thing that I smelled and I can't really present that to them as evidence.

So instead...

"I'll show you."

"Huh?"

Chris and Leo tilted their heads.

"I'll show you that the goblins captured Trish and her mother."

"Um... But do you know where it is?"

"No. That's why we'll go look for it, in the forest."

"Snow."

Sun suddenly called for me. Her voice is strangely cold to belong to Sun.

And when I turned my head to face her, I saw her brows furrowed and her eyes seem to scream disapproval.

It's seriously scary. Especially when Sun is making such an expression.

It seems that Chris and Leo sensed the chilly air coming from Sun as well as they momentarily became silent.

"Please don't spout dangerous ideas."

Her voice now back to the usual calm voice I always hear from her but I could still tell she disapproves my idea of going into the forest.

She also lowered herself to meet my eye level.

When I didn't say anything back, she continued.

"We already discussed this just recently Snow, and you promised us as well."

"But it's not really—"

"Even so! You might get hurt!"

If you make that kind of expression, I can't possibly...

"... Alright, I won't."

When I said that, her tearful eyes seemed to shine in relief.

"I'm so glad! Such a good girl!"

I don't want to make them worried again or else I'd feel guilty again.

And the thought of them crying like that again pained me even more than the news of Trish suddenly missing.

And I don't think it's reasonable if I compared the two. Trish's life and her mother should weigh more in my mind than the thought of upsetting Sun and Night.

But it's just what I feel. I'm sure that it's because they're my mothers.

That must be it.