Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 426

Chapter 426

“In my opinion, El seems like a noble. Maybe even a prince from some country. He barely escaped from the royal palace, but was ambushed by enemies, collapsed, and then lost his memory.”

“R-really?”

“Yes! There was a story like that in the fairy tale I read. The first prince, jealous of his smarter younger brother, tries to boil the second prince in a pot but fails? The second prince barely escapes but loses his memory and is sold as a slave…….”

What on earth are the adults here doing to the fairy tales that children read? I had to listen to the whole story of the second prince, who was sold as a slave, awakened his unknown talent for swordsmanship, miraculously escaped, and went to take revenge on his brother. This gruesome story ended with the second prince, who stormed into the royal palace, putting his brother, who had become king, into a pot and boiling him alive. He even distributed the boiled meat to the people. It was a brutal fairy tale with a questionable target age.

“Um, Ransi? Shouldn’t you read other fairy tales…….”

“Ah, I know other fairy tales too. I also read the mermaid story.”

“Mermaid story?”

“Yes! It’s a story about a gourmet mermaid. Mermaids enjoy eating children’s eyeballs, but the gourmet mermaid has a weak stomach and can only eat pretty eyeballs. One day, she meets a girl who has a unique eye color…….”

“……No, I think I’ve heard enough.”

Moreover, I think I know why Ransi was trembling when she saw me. A child who grew up reading stories about mermaids eating eyeballs would naturally be scared when faced with a being who might be a mermaid. It was a wonder she didn’t faint on the spot.

But surely mermaids don’t really eat people, do they? Fairy tales are sometimes made to give children lessons, so I couldn’t just laugh it off. If that’s the case, I take back what I thought about it being better to be a mermaid. I’m really, really glad I’m human.

“If you don’t like this, shall I tell you another story?”

“No, thank you, I’m good with fairy tales for now. More importantly, which way should I go to get to the nearest village from here?”

“Village? Just follow downstream from here.”

“I see. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. But will you be okay going to the village? What if you meet another assassin?”

Ransi didn’t seem to have given up on the theory that I was a prince. I don’t know who the original author of the fairy tale is, but I have a lot to say if I ever meet them. I tried not to sigh and forced a smile.

“It’s okay. That won’t happen.”

“You never know. This Root Forest is also called the Monster Forest. The fact that you came into a place like this might be proof that you were being chased.”

“Monster Forest?”

“Yes, El, you’re really lucky. This is the safe zone. If you go a little further inside, monsters start to appear. Especially if you meet the Snake-tailed Beast, it’s hard for an ordinary person to survive.”

The direction Ransi pointed was exactly the way I had come. At that moment, a premonition came to my mind. A very, very strong feeling that I might already know the beast Ransi was talking about.

“That Snake-tailed Beast, do you know what it looks like?”

“Yes, of course. The Snake-tailed Beast is a beast-type monster with a goat’s head and an ape’s body. It lives alone and has low intelligence, so its grade is Caliga [a mid-tier monster rank], but in terms of strength alone, it’s Manates-class [a mid-tier monster rank]. It’s called the Snake-tailed Beast because its tail looks like a snake.”

“……Isn’t that an alligator tail?”

“Pardon?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I quickly shook my head at the bewildered Ransi. I couldn’t bring myself to tell the person who was warning me about the danger that I had already met that monster several times. Even more so that I had crushed it every time. I had just proved that I was human, and I didn’t want to cause any more misunderstandings.

“I know very well how dangerous this place is. But I don’t think you need to worry about my safety. If I had been attacked, I should have been injured somewhere, but as you can see, I’m fine? So, I must have lost my memory due to some other problem. I think I should go to the village to find out what’s going on.”

“Well, your family or friends might be looking for you.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Of course, that’s unlikely. Ransi, who had no way of knowing that I had never lost my memory in the first place, seemed to agree with that. Hearing her sincere words of concern, my guilty conscience pricked my heart.

After that, Ransi fetched water as she originally intended. She skillfully filled both water buckets on the A-frame carrier and carried them on her shoulders. But it wasn’t a sight that suited a child. Especially a girl who was only thirteen years old.

“Then I’ll go home now. El, please be careful.”

“Ah, okay.”

“I hope you regain your memory soon.”

“Yeah, thank you.”

With a big wave, Ransi turned around. Her body swayed wildly as she moved, weighed down by the weight on both sides. I watched her for a moment and then sighed deeply.

I received help, so it would be okay to be this nosy. It’s not like things will work out smoothly just because I go to the village right away, so it’s okay to take a little detour. As soon as I made up my mind, I quickly followed Ransi and grabbed the water carrier. Surprised by the sudden lightness, her small face turned around with wide eyes. My face, with its still unfamiliar colors, was reflected in her black eyes that resembled the night sky.

“Let’s go. I’ll carry you home.”

* * *

The log house was built on a low hill. A well-tended yard and a small garden in one place, a neatly organized shed and barn, and a sturdy fence surrounding the area. Everywhere you looked, you could see signs of life, enough to know that someone lived there. It felt so out of place to have such a normal house in the dense forest. It was as if only this place was a different world.

“Thank you so much for your help.”

Ransi repeatedly thanked me, not knowing what to do, as I put the water carrier down in the designated place. I gave her a light smile and then looked around. I expected a small house because she said she lived alone with her mother, but the building was quite large. Roughly estimated, it seemed to be three stories high.

“It used to be an inn.”

Ransi explained the origin casually. It was strange to build an inn in this kind of forest, so I asked, and as expected, it wasn’t for ordinary people. The main customers were hunters who came to the Root Forest. Residents avoided the forest, but mercenaries and professional hunters visited steadily. This was because monster byproducts were traded at high prices. Ransi’s inn was a shelter for those who were tired of camping. It seemed to be a kind of base camp where hunters from various regions gathered to exchange information and build connections.

“My mom is also a hunter. She retired after she had me and built an inn for hunters here. But after my dad passed away, it was hard to run, so she quit.”

“I see.”

It wasn’t a particularly strange story. First of all, the distance from the house to the stream alone was over forty minutes. Round trip, it was close to two hours. No matter how much I considered Ransi’s pace, the fact that it was too far didn’t change. If there were more people, they would need more water, so they would have to repeat this process several times, and that alone was already hard labor. It wouldn’t have been an amount she could handle alone. There were probably other reasons as well, but I stopped myself from thinking about it because it didn’t seem right for someone else to guess.

“Then go inside. I’ll be going now.”

“Ah, just a moment, El.”

“Yeah?”

“Um, would you like to stop by the house? I’d feel too sorry to let you go without anything after you carried the carrier for me. It’s nothing special, but please have a meal before you go.”

“Huh? Is that okay? Shouldn’t you get permission from your mother first?”

“Mom isn’t home right now. She’s back as a hunter and goes hunting at this time every day. She’ll be back around this afternoon.”

In other words, there was no guardian. Would it be okay to go into a house with a child alone? I would have declined normally, but I was hungry. The rabbit meat I ate yesterday had long since worn off. I was wondering if I should hunt before going to the village, but it was hard to turn down the offer of food.

“Um, then can I take you up on your offer?”

I didn’t know I was so weak to hunger. Ransi just smiled brightly at me, who had finally succumbed to reality. “Of course, come on in! I’ll prepare it quickly!” As I listened to her voice, which had risen a tone and flowed like a song, I cooled my burning cheeks with both hands. Ah, living as a human is so difficult.

As soon as we entered the house, Ransi started a fire in the fireplace. Contrary to my expectation that she would take out a flint, the tool she used as kindling was surprisingly familiar in a different sense. A round head with a brownish tint and a slender wooden body. It was a more crude form than what I knew, but it was definitely a match.

“You use matches?”

At my surprised question, Ransi, who was putting a pot on the fireplace, tilted her head.

“Matches?”

“The thing you just used.”

“Ah, you mean Inita?”

“Inita? You call it Inita?”

“Yes, it’s what we use to light a fire.”

“Is that a common item?”

“I think so? Everyone in the village uses it. Nobles and the wealthy might use magic tools, though.”

The fact that there were magic tools meant that magic also existed. I thought it was a world that had developed around technology because matches were common, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. But there was something more amazing than matches. I was late to notice because I was just glancing, but now that I looked, the firewood wasn’t wood. In the middle of the fireplace was a reddish lump of unknown origin.

“What is this?”

“It’s the entrails of a Giant Fire Toad.”

“Giant Fire Toad?”

“It’s a monster. It looks like a toad, but it’s the size of a boar and attacks by spewing fire from its mouth. Its entrails have a lot of oil, which makes it easy to light and burns for a long time, so it’s mainly used as firewood.”

“That’s amazing. Is this also commonly used?”

“There are better materials, but this is the easiest to get. Giant Fire Toads are common and are Arma-class [a low-tier monster rank], so the supply rate is high. You can cool it down and reuse it several times, so it’s economical.”

“Arma? Is that the monster grade?”

“Yes, it’s the lowest grade.”

Come to think of it, when she explained the Snake-tailed Beast, she used unique names like Caliga and Manates. In Arkadon, monsters were roughly divided into upper, middle, and lower grades, but here, the way they divided and used grades seemed more systematic and diverse.

According to Ransi’s explanation, the only disadvantage of the Fire Toad’s entrails was that its firepower was weak. As she said, it took quite a while after the fire was lit for the air inside the house to warm up. In the meantime, Ransi began to prepare the meal in earnest. I wondered if ingredients I had never seen before would come out, but fortunately, the food was similar, and most of it was what I knew. I tried to help, but she strongly refused, so I had no choice but to sit quietly in a chair and watch Ransi cook. The table that was set was quite impressive. Black bread and smoked meat, properly grilled corn, and stew with potatoes and cheese. Dried fruit and warm milk. It was an excessively generous meal to receive in my penniless state.

“I’ll enjoy the meal. But is it okay to prepare this much?”

“Mom said to treat guests generously. Moreover, I owe you a debt, El, so it’s natural to serve you good food.”

“Hmm, I think I owe you more. Thanks to you, I learned a lot of things I didn’t know.”

“Oh, that’s nothing compared to carrying the water carrier. Thanks to you, I saved a lot of time. I’m always done with the morning after fetching water, but I was so surprised to arrive so early today.”

“Ahaha, I’m glad I was helpful.”

“It’s not just that. I often have to put down the water carrier and rest when I carry it. Mom said she rests once or twice too. But you didn’t rest even once while coming here. You didn’t sweat and didn’t seem tired at all, so I was so amazed. You seem to be really, really strong.”

“R-really?”

“Yes, maybe El is a hunter. Is that why you came into the forest?”

I wondered if I should have pretended to be moderately tired, but fortunately, I didn’t feel like she was suspicious. At least, it seemed like I was being considered to be a certain profession. Well, if it’s a world with magic tools, there must be espers and superhumans too. Or maybe anything is okay as long as I’m not a mermaid. I clenched and unclenched my fist slightly. Anyway, it seemed like I could use this.

“Hey, Ransi. You said the Snake-tailed Beast was Manates-class? How strong is that?”

“Manates? It’s about in the middle of the monster grades. It goes Legia, Axis, Machina, Equus, Barus, Manates, Caliga, Arma. But it’s incredibly strong for ordinary people. An ordinary person needs several people to work together to catch even an Arma-class.”

“Then what about for hunters?”

“Um, wouldn’t it be a manageable level for hunters? There are many Manates-class in a hunter guild that’s a bit big.”

The hunter’s grade was determined by the grade of the monster they could catch alone. Based on that, I was also Manates-class. No, I caught it easily without any proper weapons, so wouldn’t it be fair to say I was Barus-class? Anyway, I felt excited because I seemed to have found something I could do here. I was wondering what to do in the future, but it wouldn’t be bad to live as a hunter for a while.

“What about monster byproducts? Can you sell Snake-tailed Beasts?”

“They sell like hotcakes. The eyes and heart of the Snake-tailed Beast are often used as alchemical ingredients. The horns, tail, and claws are used for weapons and accessories. You can live for a week just by catching one.”

A week’s worth of living expenses for one. They were more valuable than I thought. The corpses I left in the forest flickered before my eyes. If I had a bag to put them in, I would have cut off at least the horns. My mouth felt bitter when I thought about leaving money on the floor. As expected, knowledge is power.