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Chapter 26 – The Preceding Hero and the Rare Bird Silber
We continued down the long Yohel highway that extended from Luxeria as if we were married to it for about two weeks.
Still in the class of being a young bird, Silber didn’t have the stamina, and although it took some time with its distance after running a whole day being so little, Silber and I safely caught sight of “The Forest of Bewilderment”, the forest that spread out near Lizwadia.
By the way, Silber is the silver type Kulkel that I’m riding.
Being a word that means silver, it’s a good and simple name to take pride in.
「Seeing as how going around it is a pain, why don’t we go though it? Since the main road continues through, if we don’t stray from it, there’s no way we’ll get lost.」
「Kukeh?」
Having reached here while touring many villages, I became more or less detailed on Lizwadia.
Three years ago, since most of the Demon Lord’s army progress was headed towards Leezelion, we started at Leezelion’s outskirts and, without taking any detours, advanced to where the Demon Lord was.
Therefore, starting with Lizwadia, we mostly travelled ignoring many of the cities.
Even Luxeria, since we only visited the Forest of the Fairies, I didn’t enter inside the royal capital.
For me at the time, I had heard about the Lizwadia Academy in one of the villages that I went to, and along the way, I more or less came to know some of the points to make note of when it came to Lizwadia.
One of those was the Forest of Bewilderment.
The Forest of Bewilderment that had magic that throws a person’s sense of direction off kilter cast upon it.
Like it was also a sector for the sake of the students’ fieldwork, it was made so that if you didn’t freely use magic, you couldn’t escape it.
If you continue on as you like without confirming your direction with magic, it seems that you’ll be brought back to the entrance after you’ve taken a terrible amount of steps.
Looking at it from the place I’m at now, if you entered the forest from the school that just interposed the forest, you could still be saved, but if one came from Luxeria just like me and kept going north, entered the forest and got lost, it would be a story that you couldn’t laugh at.
But, it seems that if we continue on the Yohel highway that continues on to the academy without straying from it, there should be no problem.
Or, it will be a detour but, if we make a huge circumvention around the forest, it seems we’ll be fine.
Since monsters won’t appear and because it’s safe, for peddlers, the detour plan is a sure thing.
「Well, seeing as how I want to quickly get to an inn……Let’s go just like this, Silber!」
「Kukeh!」
Silber returned my words with a Kukeh cry. Recently, with this Kukeh cry, I’ve become able to understand Silber’s mood.
Right now, he seems to be in a pretty good mood.
「Uwah, this forest is pretty dark. Is this what you call a ceiling of trees? For it to be this dark even though it’s midday……」
As we entered the forest, I was surprised by the gloominess inside the forest.
The trees are overgrown, and when you look up, you can only see the sun’s light flickering. I had heard that it was really, really dark but, it was much darker than I had expected.
The torch that I bought from the Ossan of the inn that took care of me yesterday will be useful!
「It isn’t just magic. This forest itself is an environment that’s easy to get bewildered by.」
I thought it was strange. Even if it was magic, it would only be at the level of derailing one’s sense of direction………It shouldn’t be getting you bewildered by showing illusions.
That’s why if you confirm the direction with the sun’s rise and fall, you should be able to confirm the direction even without something like magic.
But, if you try to tell ahead of time, the vicinity is dark, and you can’t look up at the sky.
This will really get you lost.
I fastened the torch to Silber’s head with a cord.
「It became considerably brighter didn’t it.」
「……Kukeh……」
Crying *Kukeh* in a slow voice, Silber began walking, and after a bit, stopped.
「……Ah? What’s wrong Silber?」
Did a monster come out or something? Thinking that, I gazed ahead but I couldn’t find such a thing.
「Silber?…………Oh?」
Silber restlessly looked around the area. Getting hooked on to that, I also restlessly looked around.
When I did, there was a small red fruit growing on a tree.
「So it’s that. What kind of fruit is it? Is it edible?」
Moreover, when I looked closer, the same thing was growing on the surrounding trees.
Silber got close to a nearby tree and began eating the fruit that had fallen to the ground.
「Ooh, you sure are eating a lot. Is it really that delicious?」
Since he began eating with a splendid vigor, when I asked, Silber lowered his posture and let me down, and once again began eating.
「So you’re telling me to check it out myself, eh.」
It looks like he doesn’t want me interrupting his meal.
Maybe it was because in these two weeks he only had beans, it seemed he was engrossed with the fruit.
It seems that even birds get tired of things.
「Hamu (Glomp). ……Ugeh, what the heck is this.」
When I open wide and hold a fruit in my mouth, a sweetness that I can only describe as violence came flooding out.
The flavor itself is to my liking but, maybe because the amount of sugar is insanely high, it conversely feels bitter.
「So you like this kind of stuff, huh. ……?」
Silber, who was greedily eating the fruit, suddenly raised his head, and restlessly surveyed the vicinity.
「What? Did you find another fruit or something? ……Ow, don’t peck at a person’s hair!」
It looks like he got mad.
「Then what is―――…Just now, it was faint but…」
「Kukeh!」
When I rubbed hair that Silber pecked at, from somewhere, I heard a sound similar to a tree being broken.
Although I say tree, it wasn’t the sound of a branch being broken, it was a *Boki Boki* sound that was similar to a large tree being broken.
It was too faint for me to catch the direction, but definitely made a sound.
「Is it a monster?」
「Kukeh」
Silber stepped away from the fruit, and nuzzled his head on my arm.
It was a sign that said to get on Silber’s back.
「Certainly, making it an opponent would be a pain. Why don’t we quickly get going.」
As I ride on Silber’s back, we continue on while being vigilant of the surroundings.
「……There it is again. It’s closer than before………」
Trees intermittently being broken……the sound that you could already pretty much say was trees being mowed down, came louder than before. Loud enough to where you could specify the direction.
And then―――,
「Mana, hurry!」
「U, un……!」
Being chased in terror, I hear the voices of two young girls.
「Silber!!」
「Kukeh！！」
Silber began running several blinks faster than my shout.
On that Silber’s back, I get on one knee in a half-rising posture, and position my right hand close to my waist.
「……I see them…!」
As I concentrate my senses on my vision, two young girls clad in robes, were being chased by a gigantic boar.
The intermittent sound of tress breaking I heard was probably because this guy was striking them down while it went straight on ahead.
It was endowed with a large build that looked like it could easily break the trees in the area.
「Kyaa!」
「Mana!?」
One of the young girls tripped and fell.
Seeing those girls’ faces dyed in terror, I let loose a shot.
『Invisible Eraser』
It was a mid-range specialized technique that I had acquired after returning to this other world.
With a technique that could be called a finger bullet, by flicking my finger at ultra-high speed, it’s a move that fires off a bullet of compress air that closes in at ultra-high speed.
Originally, this was fired in place of the eraser during the times I would throw eraser scraps at my friends while in class, but this time, since the opponent is a monster, there wasn’t a restraint placed on the power.
Together with the sound of air exploding, the boar’s large build lifted, and on the second shot, that boar was sent flying.
「Are you alright?」
Still riding on top of Silber, I got down in front of the girls, and pulled out one of the knives of the 750f five piece set of throwing knives that I bought from a merchant that I got to know on the journey here out from the tool bag on my waist.
「Hah, hahi…!」
「Mana!」
The young girl that fell down some time ago. She wore glasses, and while correcting those slipping glasses, she replied to me with a nervous voice.
The ponytailed young girl ran to the spectacled girl.
「……Hou, so you able to withstand that just now. Are you the Lord around here? ……ッ!」
The huge boar that stood up after taking two of my finger bullets, even while foaming at the mouth, glared at me and groaned *Gurururu*.
Into the crown of the head of that huge boar, the throwing knife that I threw deeply pierced through.
Making a huge thud sound, the huge boar collapsed.
Even if it could withstand my finger bullet, I guess you could expect that it would be finished by getting stabbed in the head with a knife.
「You’re not hurt, are you?」
As I turn around and ask the two young girls, the two nodded their heads with a *kokukoku*.
