CHAPTER 66. If I Can Remember the Tree
A morning with the sun fully risen.
“Phew……”
I patted my full belly and leaned my body against a tree trunk.
Chirp, chirp.
Even the Hamelin Great Forest has birds.
Because the rumors you hear are so ominous, and stories spread around like it’s a place that rivals the Demon Realm, people talk like that—but there’s a beautiful side too……
Crunch!
“……”
I stopped thinking when I saw the bird that had been singing on a branch suddenly spread its beak wide and swallow the bird next to it in a single bite.
Anyway.
Even in the Hamelin Great Forest, nature’s beautiful ecosystem……
Crunch, munch.
……must exist.
Somewhere.
‘……I just haven’t seen it yet.’
Right then, as I was enjoying that leisurely morning.
“Um, are you really planning to catch the Swamp Ruler?”
“Why—so you can run away again?”
“Kkhm, ahem! Yesterday I wasn’t trying to run away; I seriously had to use the bathroom urgently……”
Last night.
Our loyal slave…… no, Pathfinder Raileigh tried to escape.
- Kkhm, ahem. Tomorrow you’ll be really busy, so I’ll stand watch.
Even though, thanks to Oberon’s barrier, there was no need to force ourselves into an all-night watch, he volunteered for it.
- What’s that?
- Ah, haha. This is an herb that purifies the mind and body. If you put it into the campfire and burn it like this, it works better.
He even tossed some suspicious herb into the campfire.
Of course, the claim that it “purifies the mind and body” was a lie so obvious it wasn’t even worth arguing.
The moment smoke started to drift out……
- Mm, suddenly I’m getting tired……
Oberon slumped over and fell asleep.
- Why are you covering your nose and mouth?
- It doesn’t really agree with me……
And that bastard had his nose and mouth covered, holding his breath as hard as he could.
Me too, I played along with that rhythm.
If you don’t know, you don’t know.
But if you do know, there’s no way I’d get taken out by poison or sleeping incense or the like.
The moment my eyes closed, I immediately heard the loud rustling of someone packing up.
And what did he say again?
- Have fun breaking your backs, you bastards. I’m out.
How he planned to break through the Hamelin Great Forest, where monsters were swarming in a tangled mess, I didn’t know.
‘No—he probably thought breaking through that path was better than fighting the Swamp Ruler.’
So, what happened?
- Want to die?
- ……N-no, um.
- What.
- I really have to use the bathroom……
I let him run to a suitable distance, then went and dragged him back.
Of course, it goes without saying that I beat him like a dog.
That was why, this morning, a deep blue bruise was clearly blooming across Raileigh’s face.
Anyway.
“Which tree do you like.”
“……Yes?”
“Pick one tree you like from these.”
Raileigh tilted his head at my words, then soon pointed with his finger to a tree at a moderate distance.
“That one?”
“Yes.”
It was a tree of a reasonable size.
By outside standards, it was beyond huge—borderline absurd—but by the standards of the Hamelin Great Forest, it felt like it was right about the middle.
“……But why are you doing this?”
“If you run away next time, you’ll become nourishment for that tree.”
“……”
“And I’ll look at that tree and think of you. ‘Ah, right—there was a bastard like that back then.’ Of course, that’s only if I can remember that tree.”
“……I will be utterly loyal.”
After leaving Raileigh with a simple warning, I dusted off my backside and stood up.
“Hup.”
I’d eaten a solid meal.
My condition was at its best.
Raileigh is……
‘Out of the equation, so ignore him.’
His specialty is pathfinding, and since he’s got the seasoned experience of having lived as a mercenary, he can swing a blade to some extent—but not to the point of counting him as real fighting strength.
Now the most important one is Oberon.
“You okay?”
“……”
Oberon, who had been sitting there continuing his breathing method, softly opened his eyes.
Judging by how he opened them right away, it didn’t seem like it was a breathing method after all.
More like he was steeling his resolve before the decisive battle.
“Are we going now?”
“Yeah. You ready?”
“I……”
Oberon half-lidded the eyes he’d opened.
“……I’m ready.”
At that resolute expression, I nodded.
“Good. Then—let’s go.”
The moment my declaration fell, Raileigh hurriedly finished packing.
Oberon also gathered his things and, in his own way, prepared himself.
As for me—well. All my stuff was in Subspace.
After some time like that.
We returned to the wetland.
“Huff, huff……!”
While Raileigh was breathing deep like his heart might burst, Oberon lightly bit his lip and looked at me.
“You’ll stay farther back, right?”
“Yes! Understood!”
“Oberon, you too.”
“……Yes.”
Raileigh answered as if he’d been waiting for it, then quickly crawled beyond the bushes.
Oberon followed after him.
The only one going into battle is me alone.
Raileigh, like I said, is out of the equation.
And Oberon is……
- While maintaining Overclock, a high level of concentration is required. If I fully awaken the Gift, it’ll be fine, but……
In a way, he’s taking on the most important role.
Anyway.
“I’m starting.”
I said it so they could hear, but I wasn’t saying it expecting a reply.
With those words, I simply……
Splash!
Went straight into the wetland.
‘You said it senses it like a ghost the moment something enters its territory, right?’
As for tracking, it’s presumed it follows the scent it’s released into the water, but……
No one knows how it notices territory intrusion so quickly.
But.
‘Hmm. Is it still weak?’
I recalled what Raileigh had spat out the day before, forced into it with tears in his eyes.
- If it’s chasing other prey, you’ll need a stronger method.
A small dagger I pulled from Subspace.
Slash!
When I cut my palm with it, vivid red liquid dripped in thin threads onto the murky surface of the wetland.
The change came immediately after.
Gwooooo—!
A terrifying howl echoed from far away.
That pressure—like I’d felt once yesterday—was enough to make even my goosebumps rise.
A thrill right before battle that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
At that, I smiled.
“Welcome the guest.”
No—this isn’t it.
“Get beaten up by the guest.”
Right when I finished saying that.
Shraaaak—! Shrak—!
The sound of violently cleaving through the water.
Thump! Thump!
It was faint, but it almost felt like the ground itself was trembling.
As those various roars and impacts rang out, the area fell into a silence so deep it felt like sound had vanished.
And then.
Far off.
It wasn’t long before the Swamp Ruler revealed itself from the wetland.
I watched that figure for a moment, then signaled when it came close enough.
‘Start.’
In an instant, an unknown vigor flooded through my entire body.
As a brilliant, radiant white light settled into my flesh, I clenched my fist tight.
‘This is……’
Overclock.
It’s nothing compared to my previous life, but……
‘It’s been a while.’
It was a sense of liberation I truly hadn’t felt in a long time.
The Swamp Ruler.
Its appearance isn’t much different from a giant (巨人) you’d only see in ancient records.
A massive body reaching four meters.
Bipedal.
Its fists are hard like iron, able to smash even huge boulders in a single blow, and its feet are so enormous that a grown man would be crushed to pieces from nothing more than a forceful kick.
But.
What’s truly terrifying about the Swamp Ruler wasn’t this overwhelming physique.
According to what’s passed down in records, one adventurer described the Swamp Ruler like this:
‘Its two eyes are Demon Eyes (魔眼); merely looking upon them freezes your breath, and its cry disrupts the principles of the world. Its hide is sturdy enough to block even the blade of a valiant knight, and its sense of smell is as keen as a hound that climbed up from hell…….’
Putting aside all that flowery description, the most distinctive thing was its pupils.
Demon Eyes.
They said ‘your breath freezes,’ but it wasn’t that your breath literally froze.
It was the power to freeze the target’s magic power the moment their gaze met.
The principle is unknown.
It’s simply one of the special abilities an ancient species possesses.
And what about that monstrous cry?
When this ancient species truly commits and unleashes that shriek, it twists the mana in the air.
‘Disrupts the principles of the world.’
……That expression refers to exactly that.
To mages, it couldn’t help but be an existence you might call a natural enemy—yet that didn’t mean it was weak against knights, either.
The thick fur covering its entire body.
And the hide hidden beneath it.
‘Sturdy enough to block even the blade of a valiant knight…….’
Literally—even a knight’s blade that releases Aether in streams can be stopped.
A mage’s spells, of course……
And even a knight’s sword won’t work—a monster that’s practically impregnable.
That was the Swamp Ruler.
Of course, it wasn’t as if there was absolutely no way to deal with it.
In reality, mercenaries studied the Swamp Ruler over long years and even devised methods for subjugating it.
But……
‘It’s difficult. If the Swamp Ruler never leaves the Swamp of Death, it’s best not to provoke it.’
They simply designated the Swamp of Death as forbidden ground (禁地) and ended it there.
Raileigh, who understood the situation better than anyone, swallowed hard.
‘I-it started…….’
Oberon was already concentrating, eyes closed, to maintain Overclock.
Charging across the wetland, the Swamp Ruler looked no different from the giant in legends.
That body—four meters.
With a presence so overwhelming it dwarfed even the towering, sky-reaching giant trees, it felt as if the whole world was being sucked into it.
But what about the one standing before it?
A frame not even half that size.
A body wrapped in a robe.
The physique glimpsed beneath the robe looked sturdy in its own way, but in the end, it was still within the realm of human.
“M-mage! Be careful, be careful! If you stare into those eyes for more than three seconds……!”
Raileigh shouted, belatedly realizing too late.
They’d already drilled the precautions in beforehand, but once people enter real combat, how many don’t freeze in fear?
Raileigh had seen plenty of such half-wits during his half-life working as a Pathfinder in the Hamelin Great Forest.
From promising mages and knights of prestigious houses to disciples of famous people—
How many of them, despite their renown, froze before the brutality of a monster they’d never faced, only to have their lives end in an instant?
“……Ah.”
In the end—three seconds.
The mage looked straight at the Swamp Ruler, and now the thing had already approached to point-blank range.
Raileigh grew frantic.
‘E-even now, I should run…….’
The Swamp Ruler chases anything that steps into its territory.
Raileigh hadn’t set foot in the wetland, so logically, he didn’t need to worry—but is the human heart ever that rational?
It simply writhes on instinct, desperate to flee the overwhelming terror right before its eyes.
But then—at that moment.
Gwooo—!
As a faint, monstrous cry came through, and that brutish hand was about to tear the mage’s body to shreds.
Ssss……!
A strange cluster of light rose over the wetland’s murky surface.
That light was endlessly red and vivid, and like black ink spreading through clear water, it soon expanded its territory.
It seemed like a kind of magic……
‘H-how?’
For a brief moment, doubt spread through Raileigh’s mind.
If their eyes met, it should be impossible to use any magic.
So how could that mage……
‘Ah!’
Raileigh realized the situation.
The eyes visible through the gaps of the mask—no, he couldn’t see the pupils at all.
‘His eyes…… were closed.’
If he wasn’t frozen by fear, then that was truly unbelievable nerve.
Who in the world could calmly close their eyes with the Swamp Ruler right in front of them?
By the time Raileigh grasped that.
“Overclock, huh……”
A voice reached them, low and clear.
As if time were flowing slowly, everything turned in sluggish motion—and yet that voice alone rang sharply in the ear.
“……Thanks to it, I punched through a wall.”
It was right then that flames surged up from the wetland.
KWAANG—!
Ferocious flames shooting up from that red cluster of light!
It made no sense.
No matter how much it’s magic, it can’t completely escape the principles of nature.
Flames rising while piercing through water?!
No—possible.
The Scarlet Flame’s Mental Image (心想), burning alone in lofty solitude.
If it reached stage two—Achieved Fire (成火).
Gwooooo—!
As the Swamp Ruler writhed in pain from the sudden flames, the area around Aster blazed so fiercely it looked like a blazing hell.
“This…… isn’t bad.”
No—rather, it was good.
I’d been laying out various plans to catch the Swamp Ruler.
But I’d unexpectedly punched through a wall.
“I can enjoy this a little.”
Beneath the mask, a deep smile bloomed at the hidden corner of my mouth.