Chapter 5 : The Path of the Fallen Trees

There was something I learned from the red whale, the red shark, and the red aura I saw in the forest.

I could sense and track their red aura.

The evidence was the red auras that were still detectable in the forest. The varying sizes of the auras suggested there were various entities like the red shark and the red whale.

But I couldn’t bring myself to think of killing them.

“Just stay away for a little longer.”

It was because they often roamed close to the village.

The only human I’ve met so far is the little girl, Rachel. Even the villagers who came to the cliff to look for her couldn’t find me.

And a week after studying psychokinesis, I realized that Rachel hadn’t said anything about me.

If they had heard anything, they would have sent at least one person.

Or maybe they simply ignored the story about me as a child’s exaggeration.

Whatever it was, it was good news for me.

“First impressions are important, first impressions.”

The beginning is half the battle.

In other words, if the beginning is f*cked up, you can move halfway into the negative realm, not the positive one.

Moreover, judging from Rachel’s reaction, dragons don’t exist in this world.

Maybe if there was a dragon that didn’t fit the world view.

So, from my perspective, a simple approach could lead to me being seen as an object of fear, a target for subjugation. I want to be a mysterious being who spreads wisdom to humans······.

·········! ········!

“?”

I heard a sound. It was coming from the forest.

I slowly raised myself and peered over the cliff.

Under the moonlight shining on the forest, someone was being chased by something.

Was one of the villagers drunk and being chased by an animal?

“······Oh, dear.”

It wasn’t.

The man’s mind was clear. His two feet stably touched the ground and quickly lifted off. The occasional look back was full of venom.

And what was chasing the man was not an animal either.

!!!!!!

A bear-like creature, roaring and charging at the man. It was spewing red energy like the shark and the whale.

While observing the two and considering when to intervene, I noticed something surprising.

The man was dealing with the red bear chasing him very calmly. He used rocks or fallen trees to confuse and conceal himself, and he even occasionally shot arrows to attack the red bear, showing a calm demeanor.

Of course, calmness didn’t bridge the gap between the two. The arrows fired from the wooden bow couldn’t pierce the bear’s thick hide and bounced off. Even if he briefly escaped its sight, it quickly caught up.

After watching the man being chased for a while, I could finally predict the future of this chase.

“He can’t win.”

And the man will die. He will die a painful death, his whole body shattered by the red bear’s claws and teeth.

The red entities show no mercy. They attack wildly, regardless of whether their prey lives or dies. That’s how many marine creatures suffered.

Would a human be any less?

No.

The man seemed to know this too, and his complexion was gradually worsening. It was as if he had seen the end of someone who had been finished off by a red entity.

“I have to save him.”

But the man’s death is only possible if I don’t intervene.

I will intervene.

The way he acts like he knows a lot about the red entities… that alone is enough of a reward for saving this person.

But I learned one more thing, and I decided to help him.

“Rachel.”

That man, he was the one who carried Rachel when she came to the cliff.

He’s probably Rachel’s father or someone close to her.

If such a person dies and Rachel becomes sad, the dragon’s face will be ruined.

“Then how should I help······ Yes, that would be good.”

I slowly closed my eyes and opened them.

A similar phenomenon occurred a few days ago when I finished off the red whale.

The speed of the falling leaves slows down, the breathing of the forest animals diminishes, and the wind across the trees gradually stops.

And when it finally felt like all time had stopped, a tree far away began to fall.

!!!!!!

“Phew······ phew······.”

The red bear was roaring and searching for its lost prey. Jonan had entered one of the burrows dug by animals in the forest and was catching his breath for a moment.

But he couldn’t rest for long. That red monster would surely soon realize his presence and come charging with its huge mouth open.

‘Damn it······.’

Ignoring his bursting lungs, Jonan forced himself to catch his breath and took something out of the pouch at his waist. He began to spread the white powder that poured out of the small pouch inside all over his body.

After that, he chewed on the medicinal herb Sophie had prepared for him this morning and peeked his head out slightly.

······!!!

This time, the camouflage seemed to have worked somewhat, as the sound of the red monster was gradually fading away.

‘I wish it would just go away.’

But even so, he couldn’t just leave the forest immediately.

With the ‘Red Moon’ approaching, the night forest is like hell. Even nocturnal predators disappear, so you can tell how dangerous it is.

The residents of Eastel village are also currently prohibiting entry into the forest.

As one of the hunters, he was allowed to enter the forest entrance under the pretext of patrol.

So how did he end up in the deepest part of the forest?

It was because of the mercenaries hired by the village. Some of the mercenaries who were supposed to take turns guarding were drunk and entered the forest.

In the process, they even beat up a young man from the village who tried to stop them.

‘If I had my way, I’d just let them die······.’

But if the mercenaries brought the red monster to the village, a big incident would occur. So Jonan went with some hunters to save them.

After that, the mercenaries were found safely sleeping face down in the bushes, and while carrying them back, they encountered the red monster.

And as one of the best hunters, he volunteered to be the bait. It seemed that he would have to hold out until tomorrow morning to return safely.

“······I promised to read Rachel a book.”

Jonan thought of his daughter at home.

He pictured his daughter, who would be waiting for him endlessly with the book she recently bought from a merchant who visited the village. He had already scolded Rachel severely for going into the forest alone a few days ago, which was a major incident.

Thinking of his daughter, who had shed tears like chicken droppings when he scolded her, his heart still ached with guilt.

That’s how precious Rachel was to Jonan.

“Get a grip.”

Yes, he had to get a grip. If you just get a grip, heroes can enter the dragon’s lair, kill the dragon, and come out safely, right?

Jonan himself is not a hero, and this is not a dragon’s lair, but he believed it was possible.

But as Jonan was adjusting his posture to reduce the fatigue in his body, he sensed something strange.

‘······It’s too quiet.’

He couldn’t hear the sound of the creature that had been roaring in anger. It was too soon for it to have disappeared far away.

······Thump.

······Thump.

Jonan noticed a small vibration felt above his head.

The creature was right above his head.

And a moment later, the vibration felt from above disappeared.

“!!!”

At that moment, Jonan instinctively threw his body out of the burrow.

Thud!!

!!!!!!!!!

The creature appeared, crushing the burrow with its front paws.

“Ugh!”

Jonan gritted his teeth and started running again in the restarted chase. The powder and herbs he had applied all over his body were replenishing his depleted stamina to some extent.

But it was literally only a little, and Jonan’s stamina was gradually decreasing.

“Haa······ haa······.”

!!!!

“······No.”

And as his stamina decreased, his concentration decreased. The red monster opened its mouth at that moment and kicked off the ground, charging towards Jonan.

This is it.

Thinking so, Jonan squeezed his eyes shut.

But Jonan’s neck was not pierced. Instead, there was a sudden sound of something breaking.

“······?”

When he opened his eyes, the red monster was lying under a tree, roaring.

Why did a perfectly fine tree suddenly fall down?

He couldn’t think about it for long.

‘It’s an opportunity.’

He had regained a chance to survive. Anyway, that monstrous creature would soon remove the tree and come running again.

So it was better to put as much distance as possible between them and hide again.

But he soon had to abandon that thought.

“What is this······.”

Not only the tree that had just fallen, but also the nearby trees began to fall one by one. They weren’t trees that had been weakened by lightning or were rotten, but they were all perfectly fine trees.

But they started to fall down collectively.

The trees near the red monster somehow all fell in a way that covered the red monster.

“······Is God helping?”

As Jonan stared blankly at the fallen trees, he could read a special rule in the direction the trees had fallen.

The fallen trees were connected like a path. As if telling Jonan to come.

!!!!

The red monster was still screaming.

“I have to go this way for now.”

Jonan followed the traces of the trees on the ground and began to enter deeper into the forest.

‘Come to think of it, this seems to be the way to the cliff where Rachel was.’

The scenery of the forest looks the same everywhere, but for Jonan, a hunter, there was a slight difference. And Jonan realized that the cliff where he had found Rachel was nearby through that slight difference.

‘Could something have happened?’

Rachel said she just went alone because she wanted to see the sea. But Jonan thought there were many strange things about a child being alone. And he wondered if those strange things were related to these fallen trees.

!!!!!

“Monster b*stard······.”

The red monster that had fallen began to chase again. It was already out of sight, but considering the speed of the two, it would surely catch up soon.

Still, Jonan didn’t give up and ran along the fallen trees. If this was God’s help, there would be a way to escape from that creature at the end of this path.

Jonan ran and ran and finally reached the end of the tree path. And Jonan had no choice but to despair.

The place Jonan arrived at was a cliff. The cliff that cut down to the sea, where he had found Rachel.

There was no way to deal with the red monster here.

Jonan quietly looked down at the cliff below.

The moonlight was breaking on the night waves.

“Don’t tell me······ you want me to commit suicide.”

Was reducing the pain God’s blessing?

Jonan lost the will to think.

!!!!!!

And finally, the red monster appeared. Unlike when it was rushing furiously in anger, it was now approaching with a leisurely pace.

The bow he was holding so tightly that his fingers turned red fell to the ground.

‘To die like this here.’

It felt sudden and insignificant.

“No, I won’t die.”

‘Rachel is waiting for me.’

Jonan made a vow. That he would somehow survive. So that he could finally read Rachel a book.

Jonan pulled out the dagger tied to his back.

“Uaaaaaah!!”

And he screamed and ran forward.

!!!!!

The red monster also roared and began to charge towards Jonan.

At the moment the two were about to clash…

The red monster’s body floated in the air.

“·········Huh?”

And the trees that had guided Jonan until now began to emerge from the forest and pierce the red monster’s body one by one.

The red monster’s body, which had lost its life in an instant, went limp, and Jonan collapsed to the ground at the sudden sight.

And only then did Jonan realize that the moonlight that had been shining on him was no longer visible.

When he slowly turned around, Jonan could see two blue eyes looking at him.