Chapter 31: The Forest That Did Not Die

“It’s an herb called Melas from Gold Base, east of the empire. Roll it up and smoke it, and it lifts your mood.”

A narcotic…

“No, it’s not like that. That sort of thing is a poisonous herb that ruins a person’s mind and body. This is literally a medicinal herb. As long as you don’t smoke too much, it heals wounds and removes toxins.”

Melas was an herb anyone could smoke, from children to old people. Smoking five or fewer a day caused no major problems.

Knights especially would enter a room where Melas had been burned before going to war and stay inside for a long while. It was effective for disinfection and wound healing, and it was one of the herbs beloved in the Islem Empire.

“Do you know what that thing beside it is?”

What he pointed to with his finger was a paper-board game that had swept through the Islem Empire since last year. Once people fell for it, they played day and night.

“Like Melas, it’s a pastime harmless to humans. You could call it a game, and it’s also a battle of wits. Instead of crudely throwing bodies at each other, you set tricks here and there to confuse your opponent and lead yourself to victory. It’s quite worth playing.”

Luti’s eyes sparkled. She was confident in anything that involved her head. She had actually learned numbers from Ru and had even read books filled with difficult words like physics.

“You’ll come to learn this gradually, but Islem excludes everything related to superstition, including mages and shamans. Superstitious practices cannot occur in this empire. Only realism, clear theories, and scientific and systematic scholarship are practiced. So, in other words.”

“…”

“It means I can never acknowledge that you are an associate of the witch, and the guess that you survived in that forest because you are something other than human would never be accepted as plausible.”

Jerond gazed steadily into Luti’s eyes. Unlike when she had first entered the castle, her eyes, full of curiosity, were unusually bright.

She had drooped as if she might cry at any moment, but within two days she had adapted, and now her eyes held even a desire to learn everything in the world.

Jerond reached out toward Luti. He wanted to touch those eyes and that skin, but when he reached out, her small face flinched and drew back.

“Do you dislike it?”

Luti still rejected his touch. Even after the light physical contact during the escort, her wariness remained.

“Well, I held your wrist like that that day, so I suppose it’s only natural you’d dislike it.”

Another woman would have liked it. She would have blushed, acted shy, and then played coy to draw the man’s interest, but this woman was different.

She was afraid yet met his gaze. When his hand touched her, she flinched and stiffened, but she pressed her lips together to protect herself.

She seemed dull, but her defense of herself was good, and her senses and reactions were quick, so she did not fall easily into his hands. Having lived alone in the forest, it was only natural she was a virgin, but it bothered him that she acted so innocently even with a man like him beside her.

Jerond furrowed his brow slightly. Then, staring hard at Luti, who only lifted her eyes with a frightened face, he muttered as if to himself.

“…She’ll be a handful.”

To make her realize it herself and come into his arms, he would have to put in effort. He would have to spend time and sincerity, give gifts, and utter sweet words to teach her the feeling called love.

Every time her hair swayed, every time her flat chest rose and fell, every time she lifted her eyes straight and pressed her lips to pronounce words, he wanted to touch her and could not. At this rate, he would soon develop a hobby he had never had.

“And I can’t even find a woman to replace her.”

At Jerond’s words, innocent eyes looked at him. Those pure eyes looked as though she had no idea what purpose a woman meant to replace her would serve.

Jerond could not stand the two eyes staring at him and groaned softly.

“…Keep looking around.”

“…”

“Don’t look at me.”

At Jerond’s sharp rebuke, Luti’s chest gave a sudden painful throb.

Don’t look at me… He had stared at her so much it was burdensome until just before, and now he turned his eyes away as if avoiding her gaze. She felt somehow rejected and her mood sagged.

She had been excited by the luxurious, splendid scenery outside, but hearing the man’s cold voice made her feel as if she had been scolded severely.

Luti looked out the window with a slightly deflated face. Since he had told her not to look at him, she did not and instead took in the outside world, and before long they had left the noisy market and reached a quiet street.

Unlike the earlier place where goods had been spread all over the ground, it was clean and smooth.

Buildings surrounded by glass walls had flashing signs, and men stood guarding the doors. They were all tall and handsome.

They wore brightly colored shirts and feathered hats, and stockings that revealed long, firm thighs.

Luti took in those men. It was strange because Jerond did not wear clothes like that.

Jerond did not wear stockings that revealed his whole legs, nor did he wear an outfit that barely covered his embarrassing parts and exposed his buttocks.

But those men wore pointed silk shoes like Luti’s, as if they had no intention of fighting on a battlefield.

“Is that your taste?”

His quiet voice was heard.

“Those frail-looking men are your taste?”

Jerond’s eyes were raised. He looked ready to draw his sword at any moment, as if something displeased him.

“They may not even be ashamed of being born male. They don’t know what a battlefield is and live by clinging to people with money. They show their bodies without hesitation to nobles and ladies and have become sexual playthings.”

“…”

“They put their natural good looks forward, never do a single day of hoeing, and read nothing but erotic tales and magazines. They wake in the morning, dress themselves up, and pay no attention to housework. Far from protecting their wives and children, they pretend to be unmarried for the sake of their beautiful looks. They play lewdly with nobles until dawn and only return home in the morning.”

“…”

“Do you still like them?”

Just from hearing about them, they did not sound like human beings. How could they have a wife and children and still pretend they did not while playing with other women? It was hard for Luti’s sense of morality to understand.

Instead of shaking her head, Luti stared at Jerond.

She knew those men and Jerond were different. He was not carefree like them, nor did he spend time decorating himself.

He rose before dawn and trained knights until late evening, and he said he signed miscellaneous castle duties and dozens of approval documents. He said he received reports on taxes collected from serfs and resolved disputes.

There was no way such a Jerond would deceive his wife and children.

But that did not make Jerond a good person. He was the one who had burned the forest to death.

He had invaded the forest and set it on fire, cutting down innocent animals and people. He had probably held the sword himself and cut them down, fired the shells, and maybe he was the one who had reduced Ru’s home to ashes.

“Why are you looking at me like that again?”

What kind of look am I giving you?

Jerond narrowed his eyes slightly at the shape of Luti’s mouth.

“You’re looking down on me.”

“…!”

“You were afraid, then lied, and now you even look down on me. I don’t understand why I should be treated that way by you.”

I gave you a new identity and did not report it to my superiors. I brought you into my castle to live and gave you clothes and a maid. Yet you act impossible to pin down.

Even while looking at me with frightened eyes, you looked down on me inside, and when our skin touched you flinched and avoided my gaze. And you were casting your eyes toward those handsome men.

“You could not have lived in that forest. If an imperial search party other than me had found you, you would likely have been shot dead on the spot. Even if you hadn’t been found, you would soon have burned to death in another raid.”

“…”

“The emperor finds the forest’s existence troublesome. We raided it eight years ago, so he is only fulfilling his responsibility for that. At least, under the emperor’s special order, we have conducted regular reconnaissance. Be grateful that evil spirits and demons carrying poison did not drift in.”

Cruel, but true. As he said, if someone else had found her, she would have been killed on the spot.

And it was also fortunate that wandering evil spirits and demons carrying poison had not entered the forest.

The forest… did not die.

At Luti’s words, Jerond’s eyebrows rose.

“It did not die?”

The forest wept and poured out its fury. It shuddered as if it would truly die and brought thunder and wind, but that was only a process for coming back to life.

The forest, no one knew when or by whose hand it had been made, never breathed its last. There were still living things in the forest, and the earth that had absorbed blood was going through self-regeneration and producing new soil.

“So it pretended to be dead and then came back to life?”

It was an accurate statement. It had pretended to be dead. No, it was correct that it had died and was coming back to life.

Isn’t that why the empire has been conducting reconnaissance? Because it knows that?

At Luti’s precise mouthing, Jerond answered with slightly darkened eyes.

“Right. A forest that harbors strange organisms would also have self-regeneration ability. I wonder how long it will remain a dead ruin. From what I observed, the forest continuously circulated air and let water flow. It was in such small amounts that it went unnoticed, but if a little more time passed here, strange spores and microorganisms would gather and create new life.”

“…”

“And if a human like you has endured and lived there, that possibility only grows. Which means there will be another raid on the forest before long.”

At Jerond’s words, Luti caught her breath for a moment. Talking with the destroyer about the forest’s future made her chest feel as if it were splitting in two.

May I ask why you are hiding my existence?

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