Awooooo—
Dawi woke from sleep at the cry of a beast.
“Ugh…”
Thanks to the campfire and the leather blanket, he wasn’t too cold, but after sleeping outdoors, his whole body was stiff.
“Prrr! Prrr!”
Malmari stamped his hooves in front of Dawi, blowing hot air through his nostrils.
It was as if he were urging him to hurry up and get up.
“Urrrrgh!”
Dawi stretched widely once, then said,
“Malmari, what’s wrong?”
Just then, the cry of a beast rang through the forest once more.
Awoooooooo—!!
“…No way.”
If there were enormous cattle like the Bighorns, then of course carnivorous animals would exist in this other world as well.
However, the language knowledge Merlin had crammed into Dawi’s head only let him communicate; it did not teach him about this world’s ecosystem or even its basic common sense.
Dawi sprang to his feet, threw dirt over the campfire, and rubbed it out with his foot.
Darkness fell in an instant.
Click—
Dawi carefully loaded one slug and one buckshot shell.
Dawi draped the blanket over the saddle and took Malmari’s reins.
“Malmari, let’s go quietly.”
Dawi cautiously moved forward.
Then,
Grrrrrr—
A low beastly growl.
The bigger problem was,
Grrrrrr—
Grrrrrr—
It was coming from several places at once.
‘Damn it, they’ve surrounded us…!’
“Malmari!”
Dawi stopped Malmari for a moment, then climbed onto his back.
“Hngh! Let’s go!”
“Prrr!”
Malmari snorted once, then kicked off powerfully.
Clop-clop! Clop-clop!
As Malmari began to run with all his strength, wolves burst out from both sides.
“Graaah!”
A black wolf leapt at them with its jaws stretched wide.
It was larger than a wolf on Earth, and its muzzle was bigger too, but in this other world, this was an ordinary wolf.
Dawi managed to pull the trigger from atop the shaking horse.
Bang—!
Though his aim had wavered, buckshot was scattered shot, so it was enough to hit the wolf.
“Keng!”
The wolf went flying, bleeding.
But there were still many wolves chasing after them.
Dawi hurriedly fired the remaining round as well.
Bang—!
But the remaining round was a slug, and it failed to hit a wolf, instead slamming into the ground with a burst.
“Damn it!”
Dawi hurriedly broke open the barrel and summoned two buckshot shells into his hand.
Clatter! Clatter!
But the horse’s back was shaking so violently, and his hands were trembling from tension, that loading was not easy.
“Ah, damn it…! Classic shotgun, my ass!”
He should have bought a pump-action shotgun.
Regretting it over and over, Dawi barely managed to insert the shells into the barrels one at a time.
Click!
Once he raised the broken-open barrels, it was loaded.
Dawi immediately released the hinge and pulled the trigger.
Bang—!
“Yelp!”
“Bang—!”
“Keng!”
Two wolves went flying.
Only then did the wolves realize that Dawi and Malmari were not easy prey.
“Awoooo!”
When the wolf that seemed to be the leader let out a long howl, the wolves stopped chasing them.
They had probably given up on Malmari and Dawi and turned back to find the Bighorn carcass Dawi had killed.
“Let’s go, Malmari!”
“Prrr!”
Malmari kicked off with all his might.
Clop-clop! Clop-clop!
Dawi loaded more shells into the shotgun, preparing in case wolves or other carnivores rushed at them again.
Clack!
“It’d be better to just keep it loaded all the time.”
Dawi adjusted the sling of the loaded shotgun over his shoulder.
“Malmari, should we slow down a bit now?”
When Dawi lightly tugged on the reins, Malmari slowed his pace.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
After going through the tornado, and then the situation just now, Dawi felt that his riding skills had improved dramatically.
Dawi looked around at the scenery.
It was still a jungle filled with tall conifers.
“I think I need to get out of here…”
Dawi had briefly considered building a rough wooden house and ranch in the clearing where the Great Mage’s pyramid had been.
But now he had learned that, aside from Bighorns, dangerous beasts like wolves also existed here. No matter that he had a shotgun and the sturdy Malmari, building a ranch in this jungle would be madness.
“And Bighorns definitely don’t seem like cattle that can be tamed…”
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
“I really need to get out of this forest fast. After that… I’ll find civilization.”
According to the Great Mage, humanity definitely existed.
Though he had said only one-third had survived because of the zombie virus…
“Still, civilization can’t have completely collapsed.”
He wasn’t expecting a metropolis like those on Earth. The very existence of such a dense primeval forest was proof that civilization had not developed as much as on Earth.
“Judging by that old man’s clothes… it seems like a world with a medieval fantasy sort of feel…”
Even so, wouldn’t there be at least a medieval-style castle or village?
If he found such a place, he could build a ranch somewhere suitable nearby.
Thinking that, Dawi looked at the back of Malmari’s neck. Even there, Malmari’s muscles stood out clearly. He was large, muscular, strong, and had excellent stamina. In other words,
‘The best breed…’
And he was even a stallion. He could become the perfect stud horse.
‘If there’s even a medieval level of civilization, and I run a horse ranch with Malmari as the stud…’
He should be able to make quite a lot of money.
Though, since it took five years for a horse to fully grow, it would be a fairly long-term investment.
In any case, what mattered now was finding civilization, whether a castle or a village.
‘Damn old man. He could’ve at least given me a map…’
Cursing the Great Mage who had skipped off to another continent once again, Dawi lightly tapped Malmari’s side.
“Giddyup!”
Clop-clop! Clop-clop!
Even in the dense forest, Malmari found gaps and ran freely.
Crack!
He snapped small roots and thin branches with sheer force.
After running like that for quite some time,
“Oh…! That’s…!”
Dawi spotted an old wooden house.
On one side, a large pile of cut trees was stacked up, and next to it were pieces processed into firewood.
An axe was lodged in a tree stump that seemed to have been used for chopping wood.
“Is this where a woodcutter lives?”
Then that meant he had reached the edge of the forest.
If he went just a little farther, a village or castle might appear.
Filled with expectation, Dawi pulled on the reins.
“Whoa, whoa.”
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
Dawi slowly rode toward the wooden house.
“…Is no one here?”
There was no sign of anyone in the old wooden house.
“Hup!”
Dawi jumped down from the saddle and approached a little closer.
When he got closer, he saw that the house was rotted or broken in many places.
“An abandoned house…”
Dawi looked at the axe stuck in the tree stump. The axe was heavily rusted.
It looked as though it had been left lodged there for a very long time.
But Dawi had no bladed tools at all, so he quickly took even the rusty axe.
“It’d be nice if there were a rope or a bag…”
He had nothing to store the axe in.
Holding the axe with both hands, Dawi approached the door of the wooden house.
“Is anyone here?”
As he spoke, Dawi carefully opened the wooden door.
Creeeak—
Behind Dawi, Malmari let out a single prrr.
A musty mold smell drifted out from inside.
Just as Dawi was about to conclude that it was an abandoned house,
“Guuuuuuuh!”
A man with rotting flesh dangling from him suddenly sprang out.
“Uwaaaah! What the hell!”
Crash!
Dawi violently shoved the wooden door away and fled outside, then turned back to check the man again.
“Guuuuuuuuh!”
The man was tied with a rope and could not get out the door, only stretching his arms toward Dawi with all his might.
Dawi realized at once what it was.
“A zombie…”
Dawi examined the man closely.
Yellowed cloth clothes and leather gloves.
“He must have been a woodcutter…”
He was probably the original owner of this wooden house.
It looked as though, realizing he was turning into a zombie, he had tied himself up.
“Thinking about what that old man said, it doesn’t seem like you get infected just by being bitten…”
The Great Mage Merlin had not explained the route of infection in detail, but judging by what he had said about antibodies and such, he seemed to treat it like an ordinary infectious disease.
“But does it still have aggression toward people…?”
Dawi didn’t know the details, but that was almost exactly correct.
The zombies of this other world did not infect others through bites. The exact route of infection was unknown, but it spread like an ordinary contagious disease.
Afterward, those who became zombies regarded other people as food.
They obtained calories by tearing into and eating uninfected people.
Thus, just as Merlin had said, the one-third who had antibodies did not become zombies, but that did not mean the remaining people were maintaining civilization in any proper state.
An enormous number—two-thirds of the population—had become zombies and attacked people, so this world’s civilization had collapsed far more than Dawi expected. To the point where no human group that could be called a “nation” existed anymore.
The woodcutter who had lived here had tied himself up the moment he realized he was infected, so that he would not harm others.
“Please… I hope you went somewhere good…”
After a brief moment of silence, Dawi aimed his shotgun at him.
‘Since another world exists, maybe there’s a world like heaven or hell too?’
Thinking that, he prayed that this woodcutter had gone to a good world.
Bang—!
The buckshot splendidly shattered the zombie’s skull.
Thud.
The headless zombie collapsed weakly and stopped moving.
‘I didn’t kill a person. I killed a zombie…’
Repeating that to himself, Dawi cautiously approached the corpse.
Then, with the rusty axe, he cut the rope that had bound the zombie.
The rope the woodcutter had used to tie himself up now became a rope for tying the axe and leather blanket.
After that, Dawi carefully searched the woodcutter’s house.
Unfortunately, the food had long since rotted away, and nothing remained in good condition.
The rusty axe Dawi had found was the most intact thing there.
Dawi climbed back onto the saddle and led Malmari onward.
“Let’s go, Malmari. Still, since there was a woodcutter’s house here, if we go a little farther, there should be a castle or village or something.”
With that hope in his heart.