“A druid?”
Was it the druid I knew?
Druid.
The people who usually appeared in games as guardians of nature.
To put it nicely, protectors of nature; to put it badly… extreme environmental activists.
That was the impression lodged in my head.
I’d muttered it in a low voice, but somehow he heard me, and an answer came back.
“Yes, that’s right. Are you the ones who are lost?”
A neutral voice, tinged with a clear, pleasant tone.
He was definitely human. His pronunciation was precise, and his sentences flowed smoothly.
The problem was his appearance.
His entire body was tangled in vines, moss, and plants I couldn’t name, and the hand that had been holding a dead rabbit just a moment ago was caked with mud and green moss.
Only his face wasn’t covered by plants, but that was a problem in itself.
Because over that exposed face was a mask made of wood, shaped like a small animal.
It looked like a mask modeled after a forest creature, something like a raccoon or a deer.
Thanks to that, I couldn’t tell his age, let alone his gender.
He looked less like a human and more like a guardian of the forest in human form.
Or else… a spirit born from the forest itself.
Since I couldn’t tell what he really was, I felt uncertain whether to trust him or stay on guard.
Rustle.
With no other choice, we awkwardly stood up with both hands raised.
For now, we showed that we had no hostility, and there didn’t seem to be any need to keep hiding.
“…Yes. We lost our way while traveling.”
I answered as I slowly rose from where I was.
He nodded lightly.
“It is not rare for people to lose their way in this forest. And… these days, this place is especially chaotic.”
His manner of speech and attitude were certainly calm, close to human.
But I still couldn’t let down my guard because of his appearance and the atmosphere around him.
He took a step forward and introduced himself once more.
“My name is Bellan.”
“Ah, yes. I’m Liv.”
He quietly held out his hand.
I hesitated for a moment, then awkwardly accepted the handshake.
…Mm. Is this a vine, or a human hand?
It was too rough to be called skin, yet somehow too slick to be called a hand.
I felt as if the plants in his palm were wriggling slightly, and my body flinched on instinct.
“You’re a little… unusual.”
When I said that vaguely, Bellan gave a faint smile.
“If you live together with the forest, it cannot be helped. I have been part of this forest for a very long time.”
I couldn’t tell whether that was a joke or the truth.
Aileen, too, couldn’t quite remove the wariness from her eyes.
Neither of us knew nearly enough about beings called druids.
But one thing was certain.
If there was anyone who knew the deep roots of the “abnormal signs in the forest” Mr. Braveil had spoken of, it would be this person.
“By any chance… do you know about what’s happening in the forest? Things that look like this, or…”
I questioned him while describing the monsters we had seen in the forest.
At my question, Bellan slowly nodded.
“Yes. I call those beings ‘errors of the forest.’”
Errors of the forest.
It sounded kind of impressive, but at the same time, it was an ominous phrase.
“They are beings that deviate from the essence of this land. Cracks that have strayed from the order of nature, and wounds left behind.”
“…Then are those wounds opening up again?”
“For now, they are nothing more than the edges of the wound. But if it festers all the way to the center, this entire forest may collapse.”
A chill ran down my spine at those words.
If those things were only a small part of it, I could feel how serious the situation was.
“Is that why you are staying in this forest?”
“That is correct. To reverse this rift, and… in the hope that there will be no more sacrifices.”
He let out a short sigh and raised his head.
Strangely enough, there was a trace of sorrow in his eyes.
“By any chance, do you know what caused it to happen—”
“I do not.”
Before I could even finish the question, his firm answer cut me off.
His tone was gentle, but there was a clear line drawn within it.
A quiet warning not to ask further.
Mm, I’d better not touch on that part.
I hadn’t wanted to get that deeply involved in the first place, either.
We were only people passing through the forest.
“The fact that you arrived here may be a coincidence, but perhaps that coincidence may bring about a small change.”
At his incomprehensible words, I asked back.
“Pardon? We’re planning to leave right away.”
He shook his head.
“I have no intention of forcing anything upon you. However… until you leave this forest, it would be best for both sides if you were careful.”
I silently nodded for a moment.
I felt a certain weight behind his words, the kind only someone who had spent a long time with this forest could speak with.
“We plan to head out toward the north. Is this the right direction?”
At my question, Bellan looked up at the sky.
He gazed at the thin rays of light falling between the dense leaves, then slowly closed his eyes.
And after a moment, he quietly opened them and said,
“Yes. The direction you are heading in now is correct. If you keep going straight this way, you should be able to leave the forest.”
“Whew… Thank you.”
Fortunately, it seemed the direction I remembered hadn’t been wrong.
“How much farther do we need to go?”
At my question, he looked around once more and quietly said,
“It depends on how steadily you can walk, but… it should take a full day, roughly.”
“Ah, I see.”
It wasn’t as close as I’d hoped, but it was within the range I’d expected.
We had spent a day at the temple, and since we had taken a roundabout path, time was bound to have been delayed.
Even so, if it was only that much, it was actually a relief.
If we tried to hurry any more, we’d collapse from exhaustion along the way anyway.
I let out a short breath and looked around.
The forest was still quiet, and a cold dampness lingered in the air.
Now it was time to walk again.
“We’ll be on our way, then. Thank you for the useful information.”
“Yes. I hope you return safely.”
He didn’t try to hold us back any further.
Whether he truly wanted nothing from us, or had judged that letting us go was the best choice.
Unlike his bizarre appearance, he definitely didn’t seem like a strange person.
***
“Behind you!”
A green shape flew toward Aileen’s back.
At my shout, Aileen reflexively twisted her body, and thanks to that, the sharp fangs only snapped through the straps of her armor as they passed by.
If she hadn’t dodged, they might have sunk all the way into her spine.
With her armor loosened by the sudden impact, Aileen quickly pulled herself away.
“You crazy mutts!”
I gritted my teeth.
There weren’t only monsters in the forest.
Of course, there were also beasts that made this forest their home.
Like these green wolves currently surrounding us.
“Grrrrrrrr—”
Green fur like leaves reflecting light.
Brown, solid muscles showing through the gaps.
As if they were part of the forest itself, they approached soundlessly, and because of that, they were that much harder to detect.
It had been half a day since we started walking north, just as Bellan, that druid, had told us.
Until then, the grass had been quiet, without the slightest hint of threat.
But suddenly, as if they had moved on some signal, packs of wolves burst out from every direction.
Low growls. The eyes of predators holding their breath.
The teeth and claws of beasts that tore through the silence of the forest rushed toward us.
I didn’t hesitate.
I immediately threw a water bomb at the large one that looked like the leader.
Boom.
“Yelp!”
With the sound of bursting water, the creature screamed.
The exploding current stabbed at its eardrums, and muddy water mixed with dirt covered its eyes.
The creature staggered, then fled, and when the rest of the pack saw their leader fall, they quickly tucked their tails and ran.
I slowly breathed out and muttered,
“At least they’ve got some brains, these guys.”
“Y-yes, they do.”
That was a relief, at least.
Compared to monsters that couldn’t be reasoned with, beasts that could at least read the situation were far better.
If the fight had continued to the bitter end, it definitely would have been disadvantageous for me, especially with my wrist not in one piece right now.
“…Can we make it out safely?”
When I asked as if muttering to myself, Aileen answered firmly.
“We definitely can.”
At those words, I forced myself to nod.
“…Yeah. We have to.”
That was what I said, but honestly, it was getting harder to hide how worn down my mind was becoming.
Even now, I could feel my wrist throbbing.
More swollen than yesterday, and hotter.
It literally felt as if my body was slowly breaking down.
Even holding my mace made me cautious, and every time I clenched my fist, that sensation grew clearer.
“It’ll be fine.”
I repeated that to myself again and again.
To begin with, maybe it was stranger for my mind to remain intact after being dragged to another world and thrown into a situation like this.
Eating, washing, sleeping, even relieving myself—none of it was familiar.
There wasn’t a single thing that wasn’t uncomfortable.
And in that kind of environment, I had to fight every day.
To always make the right choices in the middle of all that… was nonsense.
I had only been an ordinary office worker.
Combat, adventure, death… those were things that only existed in imagination.
For someone like me, this world had been too harsh from the very beginning.
Maybe surviving in the dungeon, killing monsters, all of it had simply been because I’d been lucky.
Not skill, but constantly scraping by through coincidence.
Most of the things I had done were, in the end, largely thanks to the people around me helping me.
Getting caught up in the quarrels of nobles and throwing myself into reckless matters—had I perhaps, somewhere deep down, thought I was some kind of protagonist?
Or maybe it was just my foolish sympathy rearing its head without even properly understanding my own situation.
I had mistaken it for surviving through skill, but looking back, it was only because I’d been lucky…
…Wasn’t there a saying that a sound mind dwells in a sound body?
Because of my wrist, which was growing worse and worse, it felt like my mind was collapsing too.
I had thought I was doing fairly well, but my self-reproach only kept growing.
Maybe my expression looked quite dark from the side.
Aileen was looking at me with worried eyes.
Sigh. Even at her young age, she’s enduring silently all by herself…
And here I am, at my age, acting miserable for no reason.
Pathetic. Truly pathetic.
Smack. Smack.
I slapped my cheeks hard twice with both hands.
I had to drag my mind back up by force if I had to.
Now wasn’t the time to grow weak.
Barely managing to pull myself together, I hurriedly started moving my feet again.
From beside me came a small sigh of relief.
……How embarrassing.
***
“……Shit….”
“Oh no….”
After marching late into the night, the next day.
We arrived at the edge of the forest we had longed for so much.
The spaces between the trees grew wider, and light began to seep in.
I thought that now, we could truly see the end.
But what we faced there wasn’t freedom.
Outside the forest, at the edge of a field spread out like rolling hills—
“……Guaaaargh.”
A group of ghouls, at least fifteen or so by the looks of it, was wandering around.
Rotting while still alive, they slowly roamed through the grass, and it seemed they still hadn’t noticed us.
We hid behind a tree and held our breath.
The forest was now at our backs, and if we wanted to move forward, we had to pass through them.
But in our current state, breaking through from the front was impossible.
My wrist was still throbbing, and Aileen’s stamina had hit rock bottom too.
“What do we do…?”
Behind the tree, I quietly agonized while wiping away my sweat.
We had come all this way around; I hadn’t expected to be stopped at the final threshold.
Was there a way to lure them away? Or should we go around and detour farther north?
I held my breath and was trying to rack my brain as much as I could.
“Stay still over there, and keep quiet.”
“……!”
An unfamiliar voice came from right behind us.
A calm but firm tone.
I was about to turn around reflexively when the other person added first,
“I don’t mean any harm. You just… want to get out of here, don’t you?”
Beyond the vines obscuring my sight, someone revealed himself.
The cloth wrapped around his body fluttered in the wind, and a short bow hung over one shoulder.
His eyes shone clearly even in the deep darkness.
“I’m in the same situation as you.”