GalaxyTL
* * *
The Nanga Mountains in spring are bright.
The new buds of trees starting with the Kirkree have just sprouted.
The warm sunlight is unobstructed.
The underbrush is not overgrown either, making it easy to walk.
Only occasional Fukujaa grass and Fukkinot flowers can be seen peeking out from the ground.
While snow still lingers in shaded areas and the occasional gust of cold wind blows, it has a gentleness that makes one forget this is a magic boundary.
Two humans were walking through these Nanga Mountains.
One was Gonpeter, a hunter from Yamaok Village.
A burly young man with a square face and short hair.
His thick eyebrows seemed to symbolize his strong will and rustic upbringing in the mountains.
The other was the young girl who had just saved Gonpeter’s life.
A beautiful cursed child who had slaughtered the Assault Chiwanwan with extraordinary strength and instantly devoured it.
Her name was Emi.
* * *
Her abnormal behavior of greedily devouring her freshly hunted prey raw.
Combined with her inhuman strength and beauty, Gonpeter had initially judged Emi as a “monster disguised as a human.”
However, the fact that this monster had saved his life was undeniable.
He was uncertain how this ferocious yet beautiful monster viewed him – as her next prey, or a mere insignificant insect.
After recovering from his confusion and regaining his composure, Gonpeter thought:
To simply flee from her presence without any further action would violate the tenet “Return kindness with kindness” passed down in Yamaok Village, unbecoming conduct for a hunter and a man with honor.
Therefore, watching for when Emi had finished devouring even the Assault Chiwanwan’s bones, Gonpeter lowered his head to her and expressed his gratitude.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, my life was spared.”
This was the proper course for him.
Even if uncertain whether his words would be understood, he had to convey his respect.
“It’s fine. You were just caught up in my hunt. Don’t worry about it.”
“…………Eh?”
Gonpeter’s gratitude was met with those curt words from the young girl.
“?”
“Ah, can you…talk, no, are you able to talk?”
“Of course. What did you think I was?”
Incredibly, the monster before him not only mimicked human form, but could speak as well.
“W-Well, I’ve heard that long-lived monsters can acquire the technique to transform into human shapes, so I th-thought you might be some renowned mountain lord or…”
“I don’t understand. I’m human.”
The young girl before him claimed to be a genuine human, not a monster disguised in human form.
“M-My apologies——!!!!”
Gonpeter vehemently ground his head against the dirt in apology.
* * *
So the one who had saved his life was human.
If that was the case, parting with just a word of thanks would be discourteous.
Gonpeter insisted on hosting her hospitality in Yamaok Village with a proper meal, which Emi accepted, so they were currently heading toward the village at the mountain pass.
Incidentally, Gonpeter had two birds slung over his shoulder.
These slightly greenish-grey feathered birds called Uguusos were flightless, around the same size as swans on Earth.
They cried “Hohoke! Hokekyokkyo!”
Emi had casually hunted these birds along their path.
If Gonpeter glanced to the side, at a speed even his keen hunter’s eyes couldn’t catch, Emi would leap out, instantly decapitate a distant Uguuso, and return.
After she devoured the first bird before Gonpeter could stop her, he requested she refrain from eating them so they could use the meat for her hospitality meal.
Although his stamina had recovered somewhat after resting and his wounds were treated with the village’s secret medicine, the exhausted Gonpeter would be unable to hunt again that day.
He had considered whether it was appropriate to have the guest procure the meal ingredients, but Emi didn’t seem to mind, so Gonpeter decided not to worry about it either.
In fact, he even wondered if the scarcity of prey in this area was due to Emi’s overhunting, but dismissed that thought as well.
“Nn, nn, nn……”
That Emi was currently drinking the blood from the neck wound of the fourth Uguuso she had just decapitated, casually sipping it like drinking from a canteen as she walked.
According to her, this was a “rational bloodletting that quenches thirst.”
……Truly an anomalous existence.
(……Is this child really human………..?)
Glancing back at the following Emi, Gonpeter harbored those doubts anew.
However, wiping his cold sweat, he also considered:
(Regardless of the truth, it’s a fact that Emi saved my life.)
If so, he had to express his gratitude through action.
That was the proper way of living for one with the pride of a hunter.
Gonpeter……had a good-natured personality.
If he were a more suspicious person, he might have doubted: “Perhaps this Emi is actually a monster pretending to be human, guiding me to the village to massacre everyone there.”
However, he never entertained such thoughts.
He simply tried to act properly according to the village tenets handed down.
……In reality, thanks to absorbing the Time God’s remnant divine power, Emi’s ravenous hunger had considerably subsided compared to before.
So she definitely wasn’t thinking of devouring the village residents she would be guided to.
Without thinking too deeply, she simply gratefully accepted the invitation from this thick-eyebrowed bloke Gonpeter.
* * *
About an hour of walking while crossing several streams from where Gonpeter was attacked by the Assault Chiwanwan.
“Here we are. This is Yamaok Village,” said Gonpeter, dropping the unfamiliar polite speech as he prompted Emi, who was in the middle of “bloodletting” her tenth Uguuso, to look ahead.
“…………”
What entered Emi’s eyes as she raised her face was a wooden wall stretching along the mountain slope.
To repel monster intrusions, Yamaok Village was entirely encircled by this wall.
The surrounding trees had been thoroughly cleared, providing excellent visibility.
Naturally, Emi and Gonpeter’s approach from the forest was immediately spotted from the watchtowers, and a crowd of gawking villagers had gathered at the gate by the time they arrived.
“Hey, Gonpeter! Stop, stop!”
The gatekeep Sakitchi, a man brandishing a homemade spear, halted the hunter returning to the village with the unfamiliar young girl in tow.
“What is it, Sakitchi?”
“Don’t ‘What is it’ me! That’s my line! What is that filthy child?”
Sakitchi rudely aimed his spear at Emi, giving her a suspicious glare.
“She’s the one who saved my life! Don’t be rude!”
Gonpeter grabbed Sakitchi’s spear from the side, shouting angrily.
“…………”
Meanwhile, Emi remained expressionless.
Being a cursed child who had endured scorn all her life, this was nothing new for her to take expressive offense or sadness -she simply watched Gonpeter and Sakitchi’s exchange.
However, in her mind, she ranked Sakitchi as “someone who would leave her to die if anything happened.”
“Y-You were saved by a child, even you a skilled hunter like yourself?”
“That’s right.”
“Unbelievable! And that child has black hair and black eyes! She’s a cursed child, isn’t she!? We can’t let such an ominous existence into the village!”
“However, it’s a fact that she saved my life. She rescued me when I was about to be killed by a monster. To not show her gratitude would violate the village tenets! It would defile the soul of Yamaok Village!”
“Letting a cursed child into the village is what would defile the village’s soul!”
“Not only did she save my life, but as you can see, she has gifted us with this bounty of meat!”
Gonpeter placed the nine Uguusos he had been carrying at Sakitchi’s feet as he continued speaking.
Seeing the large quantity of meat, murmurs arose from the gathered villagers.
Emi had not intended it as a gift, simply entrusting the meat to Gonpeter when told “for your hospitality meal.”
……Well, the current Emi was not as ravenously hungry as before.
She only reacted with a slight twitch, deciding to ignore Gonpeter’s words as “Oh well.”
And for Gonpeter, born and raised in Yamaok Village, hunted meat was not the hunter’s personal property, but shared by the entire village once acquired.
So in his mindset, even if Emi had hunted the meat, it became communal property to be shared by all once hunted.
Of course, he intended to generously provide Emi with a larger portion for her hospitality.
In any case, his words carried no ill will.
“She is strong and compassionate! That is who she is! For the soul of Yamaok Village, we must extend her hospitality!”
“……No! Even so, no! We can’t let a cursed child into the village!”
“There shouldn’t be any such tenet, Sakitchi! ‘Return kindness with kindness’!”
“Hey, Gonpeter. Stop inviting unnecessary trouble into the village! You understand, don’t you? Everyone is already on edge because of Oyukipa’s situation.”
“Even so……”
“Hey, everyone? You don’t want a cursed child brought into the village, do you?”
Arguing with the stubborn Gonpeter was getting nowhere, so Sakitchi turned to address the other villagers.
“Of course not……”
“A black-haired, black-eyed child is disgusting……”
“Come to your senses, Gonpeter. You must have been bewitched by that cursed child.”
“We need a curse-breaking ritual.”
“In any case, hurry up and get rid of that cursed child somewhere! What if she curses the village!?”
Watching the Yamaok Village residents unanimously rejecting her, Emi let out a small sigh.
Well, figures.
Having grown accustomed to such cruel treatment, that was the extent of Emi’s reaction.
<Unforgivable!> and <Let’s just massacre these people!> – the voice in her mind was raging, but she gently soothed them with “Now now.”
Though she did decide to at least get the Uguuso meat returned.
It was at that very moment Emi began considering that when:
“……It’s fine.”
That masculine voice came from deep within the village.
The clamoring villagers fell silent at once, turned, and parted way.
After a while, the one who arrived at the gate was a man with a slender face and thin mustache.
He had a haggard expression with bags under his eyes.
“It’s fine, let her in.”
The man approached the gatekeeper Sakitchi and spoke those words.
“But, Sabrown……no, understood. If you say so, then fine……”
Following Sabrown’s words, Sakitchi dropped his earlier resistance as if it had been a lie, readily stepping aside.
Sakitchi then propped his spear against the gate, folded his arms leaning his weight against the wall, and sighed.
“Oh, thank you Sabrown! Thanks to you, the village’s soul remains unpolluted!”
Gonpeter said that as he lightly embraced Sabrown.
“It’s fine. Yeah……it’s fine,” Sabrown murmured in a soft voice.
However, his gaze was not directed at Gonpeter during their exchange.
Sabrown’s eyes remained fixated on the young girl Emi that Gonpeter had brought.