Winter in the Forbidden Forest is incredibly short—just about a month and a half.
That’s half the length of winter back on Earth, where it stretches close to three months.

Because of this, some unique natural phenomena occur here...
For one, the trees in this forest don’t shed their leaves in the winter.

Normally, trees drop their leaves to conserve energy.
With less sunlight in the winter, the energy gained from photosynthesis isn’t enough to sustain the leaves.

So, it’s common for trees to “strip down” during the colder months. That’s the trend, after all.
If they don’t, they lose too much energy and risk dying.

But there’s something the trees didn’t account for:
Nature follows the law of survival of the fittest, and it takes time for leaves to regrow in the spring.

So, when all the other trees are whining, “It’s too cold, I’ll just hibernate for a while,” you occasionally get a tree that says, “Screw that, I’m doing things my way!”

And if one of these tough-guy trees survives the winter, an interesting thing happens—it monopolizes the sunlight that returns in the spring.

As if rewarded for its resilience, the tough-guy tree grows even taller and stronger, shading the weaker trees with its leaves.
The result?
The other, less resilient trees lose access to the sunlight they desperately need to grow.

In the end, the weak trees suffer more. They lose in the competition for survival and their numbers dwindle.
Thus, over time, the tough-guy trees came to dominate the Forbidden Forest.

If winter had lasted three months like it does on Earth, the tough-guy trees might have withered away. But here, a month and a half was just enough time for them to endure.

And so, the trees of this forest keep their leaves year-round, hardly shedding at all.
Natural selection favored the tough-guy trees.

Honestly, when I first noticed this, I thought, What kind of ridiculous environment is this?
Trees that never shed their leaves and grow endlessly. No wonder people don’t want to come here.

But now, I found myself appreciating the environment for the first time in a long while.
Why? Because those leaves were currently doing me a big favor.

“Haa... Where is he?”
“Came all the way here to see him, and we can’t even find his cave.”

Looking down from the trees, I spotted two female adventurers wandering around, glancing here and there.
Luckily for me, it didn’t seem like they thought to look up.

Even if they did, though, it wouldn’t matter. The leaves shielded me from their view.

It had been five weeks since that attempted assault.
In that time, I’d seen a surprising number of uninvited guests.
I wasn’t sure how many people had watched that damn stream, but a lot of them seemed eager to come to this dangerous place just to catch a glimpse of me.

“Ugh, forget it. Let’s go.”
“Why? Let’s look around a bit more.”
“No way. I didn’t take out my gear for this. If I die, I’m done for.”
“Aww, come on.”

Thankfully, this batch of uninvited guests left soon after.
That made five groups I’d scared off so far.

Once I confirmed they were gone, I climbed down from the tree and let out a deep sigh.

“Huu...”

At least none of them had come with malicious intent, like that first one.
Most of these visitors seemed to have the vibe of tourists trying to talk to a local.
Not that I had any reason to entertain them, of course.

The second bit of luck was that they didn’t seem to have mapped out a proper route to my cave.
Even if they found the forest, most couldn’t find my exact location.

It helped that the Forbidden Forest lived up to its name.
Every adventurer who’d come so far had been a stealthy thief-type, so it wasn’t exactly becoming a major tourist attraction.
For now, I was managing to live peacefully, albeit with a bit more caution.

Damn, if it weren’t for that stream...

Every time this happened, I couldn’t help but blame that streamer, Yoo Chaerin.
If it weren’t for her broadcast, I could’ve kept living my peaceful life.
Now, my life had become more “colorful,” but not in the way I wanted.
If I ever met her again, I’d give her a piece of my mind... maybe a slap on the back of the head.

How long is this going to last?

As I walked back to my cave, peace finally restored, these thoughts crossed my mind.
Life was hard enough without this added stress. Sometimes, the temptation rose...

Should I just... meet with them?

All these people seemed to want was a conversation.
Sure, it felt like they were treating me like some sort of zoo animal, but their intentions didn’t seem harmful.

And to be honest, I craved conversation too.

Living in isolation for so long, I couldn’t deny how much I missed human interaction.

...No, I can’t.

But I quickly pushed those thoughts aside.
I had limits when it came to relationships, and I couldn’t forget that.

Besides, I still didn’t fully trust these otherworlders.
I didn’t know how they’d react to the fact that I had Demon’s Blood or what they’d do if they found out.

To me, this was reality.
But to them, it was just a game.
Who knew when they might change their minds and decide to kill me for fun?

Today, as always, there was no clear answer.
If it came to it, I could always camouflage the cave...

“Huu.”

After my little game of hide-and-seek with the otherworlders, I trudged back to the cave.
The sun was still up, but I didn’t have anything else to do for the day.

I had enough food, and the monsters... well, I should probably leave them alone for now since the otherworlders needed something to fight.
I was running low on supplies, but a trip to the city would take some preparation.

So today was just a day to rest.
I headed back to the cave, expecting some peace and quiet... but was greeted by a surprising sight.

There was an uninvited guest sitting inside my cave.

“Hehe... oh, uh, hello?”

And that uninvited guest was someone I recognized.
The woman with silver bobbed hair and violet eyes—Yoo Chaerin—was sitting there, waiting for me, her hands neatly in her lap.

In front of her, she had laid out what looked like a bribe—or perhaps a housewarming gift—a few pieces of fruit.

Her posture and expression were clearly meant to show goodwill, but to me, she was the source of all my problems.

The moment I saw her, I couldn’t help but curse.

“You—! You fcking btch—!”