Editing Failing Witch:Volume2 Episode2 (section)

===Part 10===

As the night wore on, not a single tent still contained the glow of a moonlight seal. For a professional(?) student, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to stay up all night studying, but none of their stamina had lasted after enjoying the great outdoors so much during the day. While they all slept like logs in their tents, Myousou Yagoro got to work all on his own, but then he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eyes.

It was Schanze Dwelling.

“So you noticed?”

“A number of things.”

As one of the lead instructors for the trip, it was that witch’s job to ensure the students were safe. Even as a salary-focused self-taught witch – or maybe because of it – she intended to do the job she had been given.

Without producing any light in the dark forest, those two used only the moonlight to sneak away from the campsite. After walking a short way along the river, they noticed something odd.

“…”

The plate Viocia had left on a rock was missing.

“You aren’t going to suggest that a supposedly-extinct elf totally took the food, are you? There are plenty of cool wild animals that will readily steal any food you leave out.”

“I’d agree if it was just the meat on the plate that was missing.” Yagoro spoke cautiously. “But with the plate and the parchment note gone too, it doesn’t feel like the work of an animal. And they aren’t lying on the ground anywhere around here either. And look over there.”

Yagoro crouched and pointed at a spot not far away, so Schanze quietly extended the end of her Formula Broom in that direction.

“Hey, don’t use me to test for dan- owww!!!”

Metal jaws snapped shut with a violent “clang!!”

That was a bear trap.

And it was installed with quite a powerful spring. If a human had stepped in it, they likely would have suffered a complex fracture in the leg.

“I see.”

This trap was more than just noisemaker or paint meant to deter intruders. Sharp shards of glass were attached to the end of a tightly bent tree branch. If the thin pot hanging by a rope were to fall to the ground, it would scatter honey and rotten fat so they would splatter across the victim and draw in all the violent animals with excellent noses. Seeing all that, there were likely unseen pitfalls as well. And those pitfalls would likely be the kind with sharpened sticks at the bottom.

Yagoro turned around.

They were less than 150m from the campsite where the students were sleeping peacefully in their tents. It made no sense for all this to be so near a well-maintained campsite. And with one trap specifically designed to draw wild animals to the victim, these clearly weren’t simply meant to keep animals away or for hunting.

There was only one other possibility.

“We can’t rely on the ''assumption'' that this is a safe campsite anymore.”

“So has something totally dangerous moved in here?”

The forest’s trees rustled in the night wind.

The Dazzling Forest’s darkness was still too deep to see through.