Living as a Recluse Deep in the Forest - Episode 12: A New Beginning

The air in the forest was thick, as always.

It was a heavy cocktail of mana and miasma that would give an ordinary person a pounding headache within minutes. But for Yuu, who had lived here for nearly eight years, it was simply "business as usual."

Until a few days ago, this place had been filled with lively voices. The blonde princess, her guards, and her maids. They had huddled around the iron griddle, scrambling for grilled meat, before reluctantly cleaning up and heading back to the edge of the sea of trees. Yuu had seen them off as far as the forest entrance using his Force Field and improvised barrier stones. Only after confirming that their presences had completely faded did he finally let out a long, deep sigh.

Now, Yuu sat lost in thought.

"Interacting with foreign nations, huh..."

He sat on the veranda of his log house, leaning his back against a pillar. The rustle of the forest. The cry of a magic bird in the distance. The swaying of leaves in the wind. The silence that follows the departure of human voices always felt a little piercing. But today, within that silence, there was a different kind of mental noise.

(...A country that sounds an awful lot like India.)

The foreign nation across the sea that Aurora and the others had described.

Deserts. Dry winds. Garments that draped over the whole body. Fleets carrying spices. The prayerful gazes directed toward cattle.

From the documents Aurora brought and the characteristics of the envoys' clothing and jewelry, Yuu had immediately associated them with a "model" from Earth.

(Climate, religious views, treatment of livestock... looking at the multiple elements, it’s definitely Indian-influenced. I don't know how close the match is, though.)

That was exactly why he gave that advice. Don't force your own common sense on them. Don't serve a guest's taboo while intending it as a "feast." First, confirm the "forbidden" things. How much that helped, and what was happening in the royal capital right now, he could only guess.

(...Thinking about it is a losing game.)

Yuu looked up at the sky with a sense of resignation. He wasn't a diplomat or a palace advisor. He was just an "unidentified mage living in the forest." He knew all too well that if he stuck his nose in too deep, an avalanche of hellish paperwork and responsibility would come crashing down on him.

"From here on out, that's their job. Yep. Right. I don't know anything. I'll pretend I don't know."

He spoke aloud, trying to force his thoughts to pivot. He was supposed to pivot, but a different, far more uncontrollable urge was slowly eroding his consciousness from another direction.

"......"

His stomach felt strangely restless. He had already finished breakfast and lunch, yet there was a discomfort in his gut. Not physical hunger, but a different kind of "thirst." Yuu grimaced and admitted one thing to himself.

"Crap... I really want to eat curry."

He had talked about the Indian sphere. He had gone and done it. As a result of keywords like "desert," "spices," "cows," "religion," "naan," and "chai" lining up in his brain—the answer his Japanese stomach eventually arrived at was painfully simple. Curry.

(Ah... this is why I hated bringing up the topic of an Indian-style region. I knew it would end up like this.)

Until now, Yuu had consciously avoided thinking about curry. There were several reasons, the biggest being that he had yet to find "rice" within this sea of trees. This great demon forest was no longer a normal forest; it was a type of dungeon, an otherworldly realm—a "separate environment" where massive amounts of mana flowed.

Within the forest, there were topographies that shouldn't exist. Small mountain ranges, deep valleys, caves, and even a literal ocean. An ocean where seaweed grew, fish swam, and shellfish hid in the sand.

(I actually laughed when I found that ocean... I mean, seriously, what is up with this dungeon?)

Thinking about it using Earth's laws of nature gave him a headache, but "because it's a dungeon" was the terrifying excuse that allowed almost anything in this world. Even so—

No matter how hard he looked, he could not find rice.

There were no paddy fields. There were wetlands, but he had never seen a place "clearly maintained as a rice paddy." He had found some wild grains—some similar to wheat, others close to barley. He had cultivated those to secure a base for bread and udon. He had potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beans. He had managed to find most root and leafy vegetables. Yet, the one thing that remained elusive was rice.

(There's no... rice...)

As a Japanese person, this was a reality that was very hard to accept.

Curry. Omurice. Fried rice. Zousui. Sushi. Rice bowls of all kinds. The vast majority of rice-based food culture was automatically sealed away.

Of course, he could substitute with bread or noodles. In fact, for the last eight years, Yuu had managed mostly with wheat-based carbohydrates. But—

(I want to eat curry as 'curry rice'...)

Curry is good with naan. It's good with bread. He knew that. Even so, his tongue, once having known the junk-food bliss of "pouring curry over white rice and shoveling it in," could not forget it. That was why he had pushed curry out of his mind. The more he thought about it, the worse the lingering regret and withdrawal symptoms became. But because he had talked about that Indian-style country—

"My stomach is... completely in the mood for curry."

Holding his head, Yuu could sense the state of his own stomach at the level of mana perception. It was a grave situation. However, he wasn't completely stuck. He had no rice, but that didn't mean he couldn't make the curry itself. He had known since about his second year in this world that plants yielding spices similar to cumin, coriander (both leaf and seed), and turmeric grew wild in the "western" part of this great forest. However—

(The problem is the location.)

Those spices grew in the "western side" of the forest. And that western area was where Yuu had once encountered it. A monster so unreasonably powerful it claimed the western sea of trees as its territory. A monster capable of speech. If Yuu went all out, he might—just might—be able to defeat it. But it was an opponent against whom "guaranteed victory" was hard to claim.

Such an existence ruled the western depths.

...Fortunately, that monster never bared its fangs as long as he approached it amicably. The possibility of combat was exceedingly low. At least, that was how it had been when they first met. But.

"What a pain..."

Yuu groaned, nearly face-planting into the sofa.

"I can't grasp 'that person's' values... well, not a person, but you know."

He believed it was a friendly species. Whenever he threw a question their way, they would answer. Stories of the forest's cycle, the history of the world, and the transition of ecosystems on a continental scale would come back in an endless stream. It felt like talking to a high-performance encyclopedia app. As knowledge, it was incredibly useful. It provided many hints regarding the world's formation and the fundamental principles of magic, stimulating his intellectual curiosity as a researcher to the limit. But—

(I still don't really know where the landmines are.)

A single normal conversation drained about half of his mental stamina gauge. The opponent wasn't human; it was a being of immense power. Just as Aurora had to be cautious in her interactions with a foreign nation, Yuu also needed to be careful. It was far too difficult to count them as "someone to go chat with casually."

(But well, they're not as bad as 'that' in the North... and unlike the one in the East, you can actually hold a conversation...)

Regardless. Currently, Yuu's stomach was demanding curry. Not udon, not ramen, not bread, but "curry." He had tried to think of various reasons, but in the end, it was his only choice.

"...Guess I'll go for the first time in a while," he muttered, as if resigning himself to his fate. "No use groaning about it here; the craving isn't going to go away."

He stood up and gave a light stretch. First, the preparations.

"If I go empty-handed, they'll probably just talk forever... ah, I need to bring a souvenir..."

Muttering to himself, he headed to his workbench. Several glass bottles lined the shelves, some filled with transparent liquids. With practiced movements, Yuu kneaded his mana and held his palm over a bottle. No magic circles were visible to the eye, but the arrangement of mana was clear. He specified the components, generated the required amount, and sealed them in.

In the language of this world, it would be called "high-level matter creation magic." In terms of Earth's science, it was "straightforward molecular-level synthesis using mana as an energy source." As a result—

Nitrogen (N). 

Phosphorus (P). 

Potassium (K).

A liquid filled with the three major elements that plants crave, extracted and adjusted by magic, filled the bottle.

"There we go... add a bit more K... and there, a luxury full-course meal."

The nutrient solution glowed with a faint bluish-white light. In this world, the concept of chemical formulas and fertilizer engineering did not exist. The very idea of "plant activators" or "soil improvement" was something even the alchemists of the Demon Country did not possess. That was why this was likely—

"Without a doubt, something only I can make in this world."

The result of combining magical skill with Earth's knowledge. Yuu wrapped several bottles in cloth and tucked them into his rucksack. He also filled a canteen with hot water and tossed in a simple cup and some portable rations. He packed extra food; while water could be handled with magic, food was another story. After all:

"Three days one way... so about a week for the round trip... well, it's good exercise."

Even at Yuu’s pace, traveling to and from the West required a significant number of days. Flying through the sky in this great forest was far too conspicuous an act; he would immediately become a target for forest monsters. Yuu wouldn't lose to them—they were basically all small fry—but:

(It's just a hassle. They swarm you, so in the end, going on foot is actually faster.)

It was like being endlessly pestered by gnats. It wasn't worth the trouble. He’d rather just run for three days. ...Of course, an ordinary human couldn't spend three days walking through this forest alone. And that distance was strictly "three days at Yuu’s speed." Normally, a one-way trip would take at least a week or more.

"...Next, adjusting the barrier."

He focused his consciousness on the barrier surrounding the log house.

Intrusion prevention. Monster warding. Presence concealment. Soundproofing.

He applied reinforcements to those control arrays at a level that "no one but himself could easily break." Even if Aurora and the others came, Yuu wouldn't be back today or tomorrow. She had said it would be a while before the next forest survey. Still, he couldn't shake the habit of preparing for the worst. He hung a small wooden sign on the inside of the front door.

— I'm out. Please don't wait in front of the house overnight.

The words were carved in a blunt, simple hand.

"...It's not like I'm looking forward to them coming or anything."

Correcting himself, he flipped the wooden sign over. On the back, another line was carved. — Don't do anything dangerous. I'm not here, so just go home.

"Yeah. I wrote it, but if anyone actually saw this, I'd die of embarrassment."

Grimacing, he left it as it was. He shouldered his rucksack, threw on his cloak, and stepped out the door. In the south, the air around the log house was calm, protected by his barrier. But the moment he crossed the boundary—the density of the air changed. The miasma grew thick, and a vortex of mana brushed against his skin.

Still, Yuu’s stride was light. His direction was West. Toward the territory ruled by the "monster capable of speech." In a corner of that domain lay an "herb zone" where mock-cumin and mock-coriander grew in clusters.

With a stomach demanding curry. With the possibility of a new spice field. And with a tiny bit of increased interest in this other world. He stuffed it all into his pack and slipped between the trees.

"...Well then, let's head out on a long trip for once."

his mutter was swallowed by the forest and vanished. Toward the west, where the shadows of the trees grew deep. Toward that realm where an exceptionally unique presence lingered, even within the demon realm.

The sound of a new page of the story slowly turning echoed in a place where no one could hear.

End of Chapter 1. 

Chapter 2 will be set in the West.

Prev            TOC            Next