“All right, I’m done connecting the last line. Eve, get ready to re-activate the magic circle.”

Eve salutes on my palm, and the bamboo buildings in Putaresque glow dimly.

It’s a faint, soft light, but pretty much all the buildings here are shining.

This light covers the entire town, and it feels like the town is hovering amid the darkness of the night.

It’s a moving sight, especially for the people standing behind me, who are at a loss for words.

I start to hear a rumbling as they touch the walls of their shining houses.

“Pretty…”

“What is happening?”

“Isn’t this light warm?”

The ground planing is done, and so is the removal of earth and sand. That means the Hipopo Brothers and Eve’s separate bodies, that I’m calling bamboo shoot armies because their movements are so well-ordered, are all standing in a line and watching.

In the palm of my hand, the miniature Eve makes a circle with its arms.

It looks like it’s ready to re-activate.

Once I get this confirmation, I raise my right hand and declare.

“Eve. 『Execute』 the re-activation of the magic circle.”

The miniature Eve starts moving its limbs like it’s dancing.

Each pose is actually an order that’s transmitted to every rhizome around Putaresque.

Eve’s dance is becoming more and more intense, and the light surrounding this territory is becoming brighter.

Eve opens its legs, puts its small right hand on its lower back, raises its left hand, and strikes a pose.

The light covering this territory looks like it’s gathering in the nearest bamboo building, and then falls strongly to the ground through the buildings.

Magic elements that look like many stakes of light thrust into the monster repelling magic circle.

Having so many magic elements forcibly flow into it at once re-activates the magic circle, and it lets out a brilliant light.

Magic elements are flowing nicely on the portion that was repaired too.

“Hm? Uh?”

But just as it looks like the magic circle is stabilizing, it starts expanding.

“Eve. Isn’t something getting bigger?”

I reflexively ask Eve, who is still posing on the palm of my hand.

Eve just keeps silently posing, but it starts moving its body to the side, like it’s turning away.

I twist my right hand and turn Eve my way again.

It stops posing, and touches the tip of its bamboo shoot with its hand like it’s going ‘tehe’.

In the meantime, the monster repelling magic circle is still expanding, but it looks like it’s finally stopping.

Apparently Eve managed to hold it back with its frantic dancing.

The magic circle expanded so much that I can’t see it anymore, but it then starts coming back, and settles a bit further than where it was.

But what I’m failing to notice at this point, is that the appearance of Unknown by the shaman’s hand changed the ecology of the monsters in this area, and this accelerated it even further.