Chapter 25 : The Wild Girl of the Great Forest

Lena was able to hear many stories from the Lady Knight, whose name she belatedly learned was Celine.

“Where is this? Is it still the Great Forest?”

“Great Forest?”

“…Do you perhaps not know?”

“I don’t know.”

“How can you not know…”

“Well, this place is some distance away from where you collapsed.”

“Haven’t we left the forest?”

“No.”

“Then it must be the Great Forest.”

First came the explanation about this place.
The Great Forest, teeming with monsters, where strange phenomena occurred due to concentrated Mana—a notoriously infamous place, or so she said.
Lena listened quietly but inwardly disagreed.
This place is that dangerous? Here?
She’d struggled on the first day and until she adapted afterward, but it wasn’t that bad.
Celine was exaggerating.
Then again, Celine was someone who’d had trouble with a mere Lizardman Chieftain.
She also called herself a rookie knight, so Lena supposed a non-expert camper might feel that way.
Isn’t it like how everyone claims their military service was the toughest when you hear their stories?
People liked to exaggerate their experiences like that.
It must be something like that.
Lena just played along, nodding vaguely like, “Oh, is that so?”

“What happened to your body?”

“Huh? What about it?”

“When I checked, you were definitely seriously injured. It wasn’t the kind of injury that could heal in a day. How did you recover so quickly?”

“I slept well and woke up better.”

“?”

“It’s true. I’ve always been like this.”

It was the effect of physical stats increasing after a TS (not really).
Sure, she’d bled quite a bit, but it wasn’t exactly a serious injury.
The ointment only accelerated skin regeneration; the wounds would’ve healed on their own even if left alone.

“The Mana is dense in the Great Forest. Perhaps it’s that influence. If you have a constitution sensitive to Mana, it might be possible.”
Celine muttered to herself and then seemed convinced.
This was fortunate for Lena, who had parts of her story she couldn’t easily confess.

“However, that doesn’t mean I should take lightly the dedication you showed in saving me, even getting covered in blood.”
Although they hadn’t had a deep conversation yet, Lena could already grasp the general outline of Celine’s personality.
She had quite a serious disposition.
Knightly, if one were to describe a knight.

“We were both stranded in this Great Forest not long ago, so it must have been hard enough just taking care of yourself.”

“Huh? That’s not right.”
I let her talk because it seemed like she was muttering to herself, but she keeps saying wrong things.
“I’ve lived here for a long time.”

“Indeed, even I have survived in the Great Forest for about fifteen days now, which is close to a record. Since you’re my senior, it’s certainly worth boasting about. Ordinary people usually become unreturnable guests within a day.”

“Fifteen days? It hasn’t been that short. I haven’t counted properly, but it’s been at least a few years.”
Lena had long given up counting the days, but she knew roughly several years had passed.

Celine smiled faintly.
She didn’t seem to believe it.
Her attitude was like indulging a child’s wildly exaggerated tale of heroism.
“Is that so? A day must feel like months, so emotionally, it wouldn’t be wrong.”

“It’s not a feeling, it’s real.”

“?”

“?”

Celine’s expression hardened, seemingly finally grasping the plainness in Lena’s reply.
“…That’s absurd. You must be mistaken about something.”

“I built this house. It’s old, being my former home, but still.”

“Is that true? I was certain it was a temporary shelter abandoned by a previous expedition or adventuring party that explored the Great Forest.”

“And there are several like this in the forest. Building each took at least a few months back then. Isn’t that enough proof that I’ve lived here a long time?”
Nowadays, she could whip up a house in less than ten days.
It took longer back then.
No matter how dexterous one was, getting used to it and learning the tricks were separate matters.
Anyway, this refuted Celine’s logic.

“…”
Celine’s expression hardened further.
People don’t readily believe the truth just because they’re told.
The reasons are usually half denial due to incomprehension—because it’s impossible for them—and half refusal to admit it because their pride is hurt.
Celine was likely the latter.
Not even five minutes had passed since she’d warned how dangerous the Great Forest was.
Lena had directly contradicted that.
Celine, a knight, had been battered after just a few days, while Lena, an ordinary person, had lived perfectly fine in the Great Forest for a long time.
It must have been hard to accept.
Though from Lena’s perspective, she wondered if it was really something to get so prideful about.
Lena was a survival expert, a certified wild naturalist according to the status window.
In contrast, Celine, despite being a knight, was just a non-expert in this field.
Lena was entirely correct.

“…You.”
After a long silence, Celine spoke.
“Just how long have you been living in the Great Forest?”
Fortunately, she didn’t seem that stubbornly closed-minded.

Lena answered truthfully.
“I’ve lived here ever since I opened my eyes, right?”
That was right.
Ever since she woke up as Lena, she had always been here.

“Then since birth? No, memories from infancy are usually non-existent, so… does that mean you were abandoned in the Great Forest when you were young?”
Celine’s eyes held a peculiar glint as she muttered to herself again.
It was the look one gives a pitiful child, or the sympathy shown to an abandoned animal.
Hmm, objectively, her situation might seem unfortunate.

“You’ve been asking all the questions, so now it’s my turn.”
Lena felt somewhat embarrassed and changed the subject.
“Is there a village if you leave this Great Forest?”

“Of course.”

“If there is, what’s it like? It wouldn’t be concrete—maybe brick houses? Does the smell of baking bread waft through the streets?”
Civilization exists!
Lena’s face brightened instantly upon confirmation from the local.
Unable to contain herself, she poured out a barrage of questions.
Of course! The person, the village she’d longed to meet, existed.
Lena had just as many questions as Celine.
Celine’s curiosity stemmed from a mere fortnight, but Lena’s had accumulated over several years.
As Lena fired off questions without giving Celine a chance to answer, Celine’s expression remained rigidly fixed, unmoving.

Celine mulled over the many questions that arose from her conversation with Lena.
First, she spoke of her own name as if it belonged to someone else.
It made sense.
If she’d been abandoned in the Great Forest as a child, her own name wouldn’t be familiar.
Monsters wouldn’t call a person by their name.
Considering that, it was remarkable she remembered her name clearly at all.

Second, she knew nothing about the Great Forest.
More accurately, while she was knowledgeable about the internal geography of the Great Forest, she was ignorant of common knowledge like its name or reputation.
This also made sense.
Nobody would’ve taught her.
Instead, the Great Forest was the land where she grew up.
Would an Imperial administrator, no matter how brilliant, know the local situation better than the village chief of a hamlet?
It was normal for her, having lived and settled in the Great Forest, to be knowledgeable about its geography.

Third, she was very curious about the outside world and talked incessantly, as if starved for conversation.
Figuratively speaking, she was a bird raised in a cage.
She must’ve longed for the vast open sky and friends to share warmth with.

After reviewing numerous other oddities about Lena, Celine reached a conclusion.
Lena was a wild girl.
There was a common legend passed down in every village:
There was an abandoned child.
The child was coincidentally taken in by wolves and grew up like a beast among the wolf pack, surviving in the harsh wilderness.
Thus, when the villagers found the child, she was said to be closer to a wolf than a human.
That was the gist of the folklore.
Besides wolves, details varied from village to village, mentioning bears or tigers.
In Celine’s judgment, Lena fit this description.
The difference from the folklore was that Lena had been abandoned after learning language and establishing her identity as a human, making her closer to human than beast.
It made sense why she constantly asked obvious questions and lacked common sense.
Her time had stopped when she was abandoned in the Great Forest as a child.

However, one question remained unanswered.
The Great Forest was a demonic realm where even she, a knight, couldn’t guarantee survival.
How did that girl survive there safely for over ten years?
Could it be that, like in the folktales, a monster actually took her in…?

“Ah.”
It was just as she thought.
There was the wolf.

“Say hi. This is Badugi, the guard dog protecting our house.”
Lena introduced the monster, the wolf.
It was the creature that, unlike a typical monster, hadn’t eaten Lena but had even applied ointment and stayed by her side.
What if that wolf had taken Lena in and raised her like its own child?
A monster raised a human!
It was a touching true story that would overturn academia.
For a monster from none other than the ferocious Great Forest to suppress its instincts.
Celine was confident nobody would believe it.
She herself was half-doubting it even while seeing it with her own eyes.

…More than that, Badugi.
It felt like an unfamiliar, yet rustic, yet old-fashioned name to call such a monster.
Grrr!
The wolf called Badugi tilted its head slightly, gave Celine a peculiar glance, and then vanished smoothly, as if melting into the shadows.

“Hmm, looks like he’s still sulking. Big Sis, you should apologize later. Hearing Badugi’s side, it seems you misunderstood and started the fight. Even if the opponent is an animal, a person should know how to admit fault and apologize.”

“Ah, yes, I will… Huh? Big Sis?”
While Celine was dazed by the unexpected address, Lena paid her no mind and urged her on.

“If you’ve packed your things, come out quickly. Let’s go.”

“Go? Go where?”

“Where else?”
Lena spoke with an expression full of excitement, like a student just before a field trip.
“We’re going to the village.”