Chapter 29
That must be the giant tree that houses the spirit king.
And around the giant tree were many other spirits. From a distance, they looked like gathered fireflies.
“Miss…”
“It’s fine, you stay here.”
After calming the frightened coachman and porter, Riette approached the tree to first check its condition. That condition… couldn’t be called good even as a lie.
‘Hmm. This giant tree is dying.’
Spirit kings are born once every few hundred years, receiving spiritual energy from within giant trees, but this giant tree seemed to have gone wrong by housing a spirit king while its spiritual energy was greatly diminished.
In the middle of the tree trunk was a small life form emitting faint light, buried as if embedded inside.
This must be the spirit king that was half-born.
It had already grown enough that it could live if forcibly extracted, but if left like this, it would be reabsorbed into the weakening giant tree and die.
The spirits were fully aware of this fact too.
[Please take our king out.]
[The giant tree is sturdy. We need human strength.]
The spirits were talking as if humans were omnipotent creatures, but actually it would have been impossible for human hands alone to tear out this trunk entirely… It was extremely fortunate that Riette had found Cedric’s sword again.
Riette rolled up her sleeves and drew the sword from its sheath.
“I’ll try for now.”
[Thank you!]
[We’ll find your friends quickly too.]
“Yeah. Thanks.”
After the atmosphere became warm and Riette smiled brightly, she gripped the sword. She tried to gently scrape and cut the tree’s surface, but it was tougher and sturdier than expected, not even leaving proper scratches.
If strong Cedric had been there, the work would have been a bit easier. In the end, she began chopping at the tree trunk with force, even though it was a bit dangerous.
Since she had to be careful not to hurt the spirit buried inside, it was work that required more concentration than expected.
“Huk, miss, we’ll do the dangerous work.”
Then the coachman and porter who had been watching from behind quickly approached and tried to stop Riette. They seemed nervous watching from behind, worried she might get hurt.
Riette made an ambiguous expression.
‘These gentlemen would be stronger than me.’
The problem was skill in handling swords. Moreover, since she couldn’t hurt the spirit, it wasn’t something that could be solved just by using brute force.
“Have you handled swords before?”
“Ah, well…”
“I’ve held kitchen knives in the kitchen!”
“Right. I’ll just do it myself.”
At Riette’s cold refusal, the two men’s shoulders drooped.
The work continued. Though night deepened, thanks to the light from the spirit king and spirits, it didn’t feel dark.
Since the spirits kept bringing food, the coachman and porter were grinning foolishly as if they’d never been scared.
After briefly watching them, Riette nibbled on fruit while looking in the direction where one spirit had gone scouting.
That spirit still hadn’t returned.
‘I wonder if those two are okay…’
She was nervous that bad news might come.
Though the spirits comforted Riette saying they could feel monsters’ deaths but not humans’ deaths, she couldn’t be at ease at all.
That day she cut at the tree trunk until dawn before finally falling asleep, and Riette, who opened her eyes early the next day, approached the giant tree as soon as she woke up.
Since the spirit king was buried between the tree gaps and wrapped around multiple trunks, removing one trunk wouldn’t solve everything.
‘I won’t be able to finish this today…’
Is this really okay? Are Edgar and Cedric… even alive? Feeling impatient with such thoughts, Riette’s movements were becoming rougher.
[Human! Human!]
Around that evening, the spirit that had gone scouting finally returned. And it brought much more welcome news than expected.
[Your friends are alive. I saw them together.]
“They were together? Really?”
[Yes. The blonde human was washing at the waterside.]
Giggle giggle, the spirit’s laughter could be heard.
[They seem to be staying in a cabin near that waterside.]
“Ah…”
Riette felt her tension completely release for a moment.
‘Thank goodness.’
If Edgar and Cedric were together, that was truly the most reassuring situation possible.
As relief washed over her, her anxiety calmed down. The pressure to hurry and finish this to go find the two disappeared, and her stiff shoulders relaxed.
“If it’s okay, could you tell them about my situation and ask them to wait there? And since unexpected circumstances might arise, I’d like you to keep track of their location continuously.”
[I understand. It’s not a difficult request!]
The spirit spun around in the sky before departing beyond the forest again. Riette felt her motivation revive.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
With the goal of finishing this work within the day after tomorrow if possible. Riette made a small fist with her delicate hand.
* * *
The third day since Cedric and I were stranded.
The morning sun rose over the cabin again today.
‘Ugh… is it morning?’
Bright sunlight streaming into the cabin.
I moved my stiff body to look out the window once and rubbed my eyes. Last night I slept leaning against the wall to let Cedric sleep on the sofa, so my butt and back hurt.
I quietly yawned and also sneakily checked on Cedric, who was still sleeping. His breathing was even and his face peaceful.
His condition looked fine today too.
‘…His eyelashes are really long.’
Since they’re lowered, their length is even more noticeable. Having nothing to do, I was observing his sleeping face when suddenly Cedric, who seemed to have woken up, took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes.
I pretended not to be looking and rubbed my face for no reason. Cedric, who got up rubbing his eyes with a face still drowsy from sleep, glanced at me and mumbled in a low voice.
“Good morning, Eddie.”
“Oh, good morning.”
“Did you sleep well last night?”
…Is it because he’s still drunk with sleep? His voice was more gentle than usual as he gave a warm morning greeting, making me feel embarrassed.
“Yeah, sort of.”
Without realizing it, I replied awkwardly and jumped up first. Then I quickly grabbed the water container I could see.
“W-want some water?”
“Yeah.”
I passed the water container to him as he yawned, carelessly brushing back his messy hair. Then I quickly left the cabin and breathed in the fresh forest air. After stretching, both the strange feeling and the stiff energy seemed to completely disappear.
‘Phew, good. I should light a fire today too.’
Someone might discover the smoke and come looking for us. While Cedric was taking his time inside the cabin, I crouched in front of the campfire that had gone out during the night and added kindling.
I was then lighting the fire with flint when—
‘Hm?’
I suddenly felt a glowing mass wavering in my vision and looked up. Before I could properly recognize what it was, the light mass rushed right to my nose first.
[Human!]
At that moment, I was really, truly startled.
“Waaah!”
When I reflexively screamed after hearing the small whisper-like voice, Cedric came running out of the cabin.
“Eddie!”
But when he discovered something circling around me, he hesitantly stopped.
“Eddie, it’s okay. It’s not trying to harm you.”
Only then did I calm down and quietly observe whatever was moving cutely in front of me. Looking closely, it was a life form similar to humans flapping two pairs of wings.
[Human! I came because I have something to tell you.]
The voice was also coming from this creature.
“Something to tell me…”
Around then Cedric approached my side and muttered while looking at the creature in front of us.
“This is definitely a spirit.”
While I was briefly looking at Cedric, the ‘spirit’ delivered very important news to us.
It was the amazing story that Riette, the coachman, and the porter were alive and currently unable to come because they were helping the spirits, but would come soon so please wait in the cabin.
‘Everyone’s safe.’
The spirit said it would go back to report to Riette that it had delivered this information. I watched its retreating figure blankly as it came like wind and left like wind, when Cedric, who had crouched beside me, lightly pressed the water container against my cheek.
“That was good news. Here, water.”
“Ah.”
“Let’s rest a bit then go look for food.”
“…Mm-hm.”
Now he treats monsters as food.
Anyway.
This means one worry has disappeared.
‘…Ah. What a relief.’
Gradually feeling reality and deeply relieved, I first moistened my dry throat and relit the dead campfire.
Now there wasn’t necessarily a need to keep smoke going, but fire itself was needed when grilling meat.
After confirming the fire was lit, I looked back to see Cedric working on a tree, probably to get thick branches to use for making weapons.
He must be trying to make weapons to use when catching monsters more easily.
With my anxiety considerably diminished and nothing to do, I sat on a tree stump made to substitute for a chair and watched Cedric make weapons.
“What that spirit said earlier, it’s true, right?”
“Spirits don’t lie, so it’s fine.”
“Really?”
Since he says so, I feel even better. I smiled brightly with relief. Cedric looked at me and softened his expression.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
