"How… am I supposed to open this?"
I muttered as I stared at the Kaltsheim pattern carved into the floor.
I had gotten my hopes up because it was called a hideout, but no matter how I looked at it, this was just an ordinary stone floor.
There wasn’t so much as a common handle in sight, and when I tapped the floor to see if there might be a hidden door, all that came back was a dull, heavy sound.
"Maybe… it reacts to magic?"
Aileen asked cautiously.
I gave a small nod and gathered mana at my fingertips.
Then I carefully condensed a tiny droplet of water and let it fall onto the pattern on the floor.
Drip. Srrrrk.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
At that moment, the pattern at the center of the floor began to glow faintly and slide open to the side.
It reacts to mana… Do priests use mana too?
Thinking back on the white light I’d seen then, it did feel somewhat similar in nature to mana.
"It opened."
"What… do you think is inside?"
I slowly descended beneath the floor.
It was a narrow passage with low, wide steps that could barely be called stairs.
It was a little damp, and the inside was filled with darkness… but it wasn’t blocked off.
After carefully feeling my way forward, I reached the innermost part of the cramped space.
"Someone was here."
Just as Aileen said, there were clear traces that someone had used this place.
An old blanket and a thin bed, a few moldy loaves of bread sitting in the corner, and a half-burned candle stuck into a holder.
And most of all, the books neatly arranged on the floor.
‘Paper is disgustingly expensive, so are priests around here loaded or what?’
I opened the thin notebook lying on top.
Dense handwriting filled the aged paper, and on the inside cover, a faintly written name could be seen.
"The Kaltsheim Order, Fifth Pilgrim Rahar…"
"...I think he was from the same order as Mr. Brayvil."
"Did he live here?"
"...Looks like it. But the candle’s completely cold, and the food looks like it’s been here for months. I don’t think anyone’s been here recently."
There wasn’t as much inside as I’d expected.
A note saying he had been dispatched for reasons similar to Mr. Brayvil’s,
and brief records about encountering several monsters and ultimately having no choice but to flee.
There were no warnings about danger, no magical analysis, and no deeper story connected to this temple.
Only a few lines advising caution, tinged with helplessness.
My hand stopped as I turned the pages.
The records abruptly ended on a certain date.
That day was far earlier than the great subjugation operation Brayvil had mentioned.
‘That was quite a while ago.’
I flipped further, hoping I might find an answer somewhere, but soon a sigh escaped me.
The pages were damp, and mold stains had spread across them, blurring the letters until they were almost impossible to recognize.
Did it mean no one had visited this temple after the day the records stopped?
Or did it mean someone here no longer even had the leisure to leave behind records?
I slowly closed the book.
"Then did this person participate in that subjugation back then and fail to return?"
I pulled out an old scrap of paper tucked into the book as a bookmark.
Only a single sentence was written on it.
‘The heart of the forest is still awake. It simply is not hungry yet.’
"...That’s an unpleasant thing to say."
"Yeah… and something we should keep in mind."
I moved the bed and old blanket aside to make some room.
It was cramped and damp, but as a place to get through the night for now, it wasn’t bad.
"Let’s rest here tonight. Moving right away is… not exactly ideal, is it?"
"...Yes."
And so, amid the traces someone had left behind before departing, we quietly unpacked our things.
The space that had been the floor of an unfamiliar temple until just a moment ago soon became a hideout steeped in the remnants of old memories.
***
It was definitely a hideout.
Unlike when we had roughly curled up with our backs to the ruined temple, I was able to sleep like a human being for the first time in a while.
The air was relatively settled, and the dampness was tolerable enough.
In the hushed space, in the place where the chill of dawn had lingered and gone, I even felt somewhat refreshed.
...Though that freshness was quickly blown away by the sharp pain in my right hand.
"Kgh..."
Without realizing it, I clenched my teeth and wrapped my hand around my right hand.
The back of my hand was bruised blue, and a faint, prickling pain crept up from my wrist joint.
I couldn’t rely on magic alone.
My stamina and body had to keep up too if I wanted to survive long in this harsh world.
Thinking that, I clenched and unclenched my hand a few times as though loosening it.
"Are you all right?"
Aileen, who had been quietly taking a sip of water, saw me and asked carefully.
"Yeah, it’s just a bit stiff. Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, thanks to you. This place… is cozier than I expected."
I nodded at that.
For a hideout, it was quite decent.
"Is that statue the god the Kaltsheim believers worship?"
"I think so."
In the corner of the room, beneath the wall, sat a small stone statue.
There was nothing particularly elaborate about the carving, and no decorations around it.
It was simply a shape that looked as if someone had roughly hewn a stone and set it upright. Faint facial features, and a strangely expressionless face.
To be honest, it was too plain to be called an idol.
Usually, if people make a statue of a god, they give it wings or add some sort of radiance… but this just felt like someone had crudely copied the face of a passerby.
Apparently, they weren’t into beautification.
‘This order seems pretty honest.’
I stared for a moment at that strangely familiar-looking statue, then tilted my head.
It looked ordinary, but for some reason, its structure kept drawing the eye.
It felt as though it was giving off a strange gaze, silently saying, “Take a look before you go.”
"They said this person used to be human, right?"
Aileen spoke cautiously.
Her gaze, too, was fixed on the statue.
"Yeah. They said he was a demigod. Someone who began as a human and rose to the seat of a god."
"...Is that why he looks so human?"
"Maybe. But I guess you don’t know much about religion either."
"I did believe in the Church of Sereon, but I wasn’t that devout."
Aileen looked at the statue and smiled faintly. There was a strange mix of longing and weariness in that smile.
"I only went along during the appointed rites, and the only prayers I knew were a few I memorized as a child. It was just… something I naturally picked up because I lived in a castle. It’s hard to say I truly believed."
"Same here."
I chuckled and nodded.
Even before coming to this world, I had never deeply believed in any god.
When I was young, a friend once took me to church, saying, “They’ll give you a chicken gift coupon,” but that was the end of it.
Religion had always been like that.
For some, it might be the center of life, but for me, it was still a distant story.
"But the people here seem quite devout."
At Aileen’s words, I looked around.
An old incense burner sat before the small altar, and in a recessed corner, there were traces of someone having knelt there.
Dust had piled up, but the signs that someone had tried to protect this place for a long time were unmistakable.
"I suppose they have no choice. In a world like this, if there’s anything to lean on, it would ultimately be a god."
After saying that, I looked back at the statue.
That stone face was still looking at us with an indifferent gaze, as if it didn’t care whether we believed or not.
"Maybe so."
A brief silence flowed between us.
I slowly rose and said,
"Let’s get going. If we stay any longer, we’ll get attached for no reason."
"Yes. Though it is a little too frightening a place to get attached to."
I lowered my head for a moment, then stood.
I had no particular faith, but I figured there was nothing wrong with showing respect.
"All right, shall we head out?"
I picked up my bag again and took the mace leaning against the wall, fastening it at my waist.
My wrist still ached, so it would be hard to use… but there was nothing quite like it when it came to protecting myself.
We came out of the temple and succeeded in figuring out the direction.
Since the temple had been built here, some of the surrounding trees had been cut down, so sunlight entered this area, which was rare in these parts.
Thanks to that, I could use the position of the sun to roughly estimate where north was.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a small gap I’d have passed by without much thought, but in this forest, even such a gap was a precious guidepost.
"Oh, north was this way?"
Beside me, Aileen asked in a voice of admiration.
I could feel her sending me a look that said, “As expected,” but I turned my head and avoided her gaze.
In truth, I wasn’t sure myself whether this was the right direction.
It wasn’t as if we had a map, and even when the sun was high overhead, this forest wasn’t all that bright.
Still, for the moment, this direction seemed the most plausible.
"Yeah. If it’s north, it should be this way."
As I moved forward while pretending to know, Aileen quietly followed without asking anything.
‘...If I’m wrong about this for no reason, that infinite trust is going to shatter.’
I silently sighed inwardly and took the lead.
Fortunately, in that direction, the forest was gradually growing thinner.
The dense trees were spreading out with more space between them, and it felt as if a little more light was coming in.
"Doesn’t it feel like things are a little better now?"
Aileen said softly from behind me.
"Yeah. I think we’re going the right way."
Of course, it was only a feeling.
But so her words wouldn’t feel awkward, I nodded slightly as well.
We walked like that for quite some time.
The air was gradually changing.
From air weighed down by dampness and darkness, the scent of leaves and the fresh smell of earth were slowly returning.
With each step I took, the ground beneath my feet felt softer, and thin beams of light began to seep in between the dense trees.
‘Are we finally going to see some light?’
Since we had been walking in darkness for so long, even that small change was enough to put my mind at ease.
It felt as though I were slowly rising toward the surface from the depths of the sea.
Just being able to glimpse, however faintly, the color of the sky through the gaps in the black leaves overhead was enough to revive my spirits.
The farther we walked, the more rewarding it felt.
The pitch-dark forest that had continued from the entrance path was now gradually regaining its green, and before I knew it, shadows were following behind us.
Aileen also seemed to have recovered a little of her energy, walking beside me with a brighter expression.
Rustle, rustle.
At the sound coming from the thicket ahead, my body instinctively stiffened.
I lowered my stance and kept my left hand near the mace, while Aileen also held her breath and quietly stepped back.
In this forest, there was no telling what might jump out of the grass.
After going through all sorts of things, even the smallest sound sent tension surging all the way to the top of my head.
Swish!
What burst out through the grass was…
"......"
A small gray rabbit.
With its fur puffed up and bristling, it looked around in every direction, then spotted us and kicked off the ground once more, disappearing back into the undergrowth.
"...It’s a rabbit."
Aileen said, letting out a breath.
"Yeah. Scared us for no—"
"Kiiiiiiik!!!"
From beyond the thicket came the death cry of something dying.
"......!!"
In an instant, every muscle in my body stiffened again.
As if the brief relaxation from moments ago had been a lie, this time I could sense the scent of a real threat approaching.
I moved Aileen behind me and whispered,
"Hide."
I quickly scanned our surroundings.
A crevice between rocks draped in vines, beneath a large fallen tree covered in dead leaves.
It wasn’t ideal, but it was enough to get us out of sight for the moment.
We swiftly hid ourselves beneath it.
And a short while later.
Rustle. Flutter.
Something slowly appeared from the direction where the rabbit had vanished.
It was standing upright on two legs.
Its entire body was covered in green plants like vines, moss, and leaves, and even its hair was tangled like underbrush.
At a glance, it looked as though a part of the forest had walked out on its own.
In its hand was the rabbit that had just bounded away.
The small creature, its neck twisted and body hanging limp, was still dripping warm blood as it dangled in the grasp of that bizarre being.
What is that? Some kind of young monstrous leaf tree?
"..."
I instinctively held my breath.
The being slowly turned its head, then stared directly toward the place where we were hiding.
"......"
It neither moved nor spoke.
It merely tilted its long, slender neck slowly, cocking its head as though trying to confirm something.
At that moment, cold sweat ran down my spine.
It felt as though I had to be careful even with the sound of my breathing.
But the being soon withdrew its gaze and quietly set the rabbit down on the ground.
Then, with one hand placed on the small corpse, it began to recite something in a low, monotonous tone.
"—O forest, return this life to the soil once more."
That voice was unmistakably human.
The resonance of the voice, the way of speaking, even the choice of words were all human.
I looked at Aileen with startled eyes.
She, too, was wearing a bewildered expression at the fact that this unidentified being was speaking in human language.
At that moment, he lifted his head and said,
"You there. You need not hide any longer."
“......!”
Having pinpointed exactly where we were hiding, he slowly walked toward us.
Seeing him up close, I could tell for certain.
He was not a monster. He was definitely human.
However, perhaps because he had spent far too long with the forest, his appearance looked less human and more as though he had half-assimilated into the woods.
"Might you be pilgrims? Or… are you people who have lost your way in the forest?"
He stopped and slightly raised both hands, as if to show he had no intention of harming us.
"I am Bellan. A wandering druid who lives in this forest."
There were still more beings in this forest that we did not know.