Thank you for the drafts and comments! Chapter 77
26. Magical Beasts and the Inhabitants of the Bewitching Forest #1
━ What kind of freaks are you?
I asked the beast standing next to the sign, which could probably be called a monkey or something like that.
But the creatures just stared blankly at me and didn’t say another word.
━ What the heck are they?
It seemed like they didn’t care about me or Leaf at all.
They just stood dumbly next to the sign.
━ Those are the, um, inhabitants of the Bewitching Forest. Seeing them means we’ve really reached the Bewitching Forest.
Leaf whispered to me.
━ So these are the famous monkeys, huh.
I flexed my front claws and cracked my joints.
I was trying to be intimidating, but the monkeys acted as if I was invisible.
━ Hmph. They must be feeling pretty confident in themselves.
As I growled, one of the monkeys finally opened its mouth.
━ Are you going to…
━ …the Bewitching Forest?
Each of them took turns speaking three syllables to complete a single sentence.
I frowned at their bizarre language and behavior.
━ What’s up with these guys?
In response to my question, Leaf whispered again in my ear.
━ Monkeys are usually a little crazy. Don’t try to understand them.
━ Crazy, huh…
I thought they had a different kind of madness than the rabies I had, and snorted in amusement.
━ Guess I can just ignore them. Or can I eat them instead?
As I smiled faintly at the creatures, they suddenly flinched as if they had seen my fangs.
Just then, Leaf grabbed at my fur.
━ Ah, no, don’t! Not a good idea. We need to ask these guys for the way to Mother Tree’s roots.
━ Don’t you know the way?
Leaf nodded at my simple question.
━ The Bewitching Forest changes paths and trees every month. Only the residents know the way. If we try to wander around ourselves, we’ll get lost.
━ Then how about we catch these guys and threaten them?
━ That doesn’t sound like a good idea…
Leaf trailed off, sounding displeased. Then the monkey on the left side of the sign spoke up.
━ If you want to go to the roots, solve this problem.
As if echoing that, the monkey on the right continued.
━ The unchosen cannot go to the sanctuary.
Their hands pointed at the “letters” written on the sign.
Though, to be honest, it looked more like abstract art than actual letters.
I grimaced at the sight of a broad wooden board haphazardly smeared with a red substance.
━ So we have to solve a problem to move forward, huh?
━ That’s right.━
The monkeys all spoke in unison, almost like a choir.
Are they telepathically communicating? Or maybe they practiced that line a thousand times before we showed up.
“A maze-like forest where you have to solve a problem to move forward? Sounds familiar.”
I was reminded of a game book I read as a child.
It was a book where you answered a question and turned to different pages based on your answer.
“If you think the answer is number 1, turn to page 5. If number 2, turn to page 10. That kind of thing.”
Depending on the answers you chose, the branching points and endings varied, stimulating a reader’s interest.
Looking back now, it was a pretty clunky and sloppy book, but back then, when computer games weren’t a thing, it was a decent form of entertainment.
━ This is interesting.
I couldn’t believe I would feel nostalgic in a place like this, grinning as I did.
━ So, what does it say here?
I tilted my head, looking at the letters drawn on the wooden board.
Leaf beside me went, “Um, um,” trying to think.
Then, the monkeys opened their mouths again.
━ If you think the elder is right, go left.
━ If you think the younger is right, go right.
━ Wait, you need to be able to read the question first.
As I was grumbling, Leaf calmly began to read in a quiet voice.
━ Yan-Mite ascended the hill on Mother’s errand. It took him 3 hours, walking at 3 km/h going up and 4 km/h going down while traveling 5 km farther than when he went up. What are the distances he ascended and descended?
━ Wh-what?
━ The elder says the ascended distance is 5 km, and the descended distance is 2 km. The younger says the ascended distance is 3 km, and the descended distance is 8 km.
It seems Leaf could read this bizarre writing on the sign after all.
━ Oh, is that what it says?
I blinked at the sign.
━ Really? You’re not pulling my leg, right?
━ Yep. It’s similar to that number game you asked me about before. Sounds fun!
Leaf was clenching his fists, fired up with excitement.
“There’s a math problem written here?”
It had been years since I distanced myself from the headache that is math.
I thought I would never encounter it again after graduating high school, and now here it was, posing as an obstacle in front of me, with the monkeys serving it up. I was dumbfounded.
As I frowned in distress, the monkeys watching me smirked, tilting one side of their mouths up.
“Are they laughing at me?”
Sure, I might’ve been bad at math, but I thought I wouldn’t get mocked by monkeys for it.
“It’s gotta be an equation, right? An easy one, at least.”
I racked my brain to remember the question I had barely half-heard and turned to Leaf again.
━ Hey, what was that question again? Read it back to me.
━ Hold on a second. I’m almost done solving it.
Leaf rolled his eyes as if calculating the answers in his head.
Then he exclaimed brightly,━ Got it!
━ Did the younger get the answer right? He said to go right, right?
Leaf seemed confident in his mental calculation.
I couldn’t even remember the problem at this point! I just listened dizzily to Leaf.
“Back then, this little rascal solved multiplication problems in a flash.”
I was thinking about the time I tried to stump him with a tough question.
I wanted to set this kid straight, but it ended up being a moment where I realized his math talent instead.
“If he says it’s correct, then it probably is.”
━ Does the younger think he got it right?
The monkey on the right asked in a serious tone.
Leaf nodded confidently, saying,━ Yeah.
Then the monkey pulled something out from behind its back and handed it to Leaf.
━ Take this and go right. It will lead you down the path of your chosen answer.
━ What is this?
Leaf looked puzzled at the object in his hand, a blue piece of glass.
━ Is this supposed to guide us?
He tilted the blue shard from side to side, looking perplexed.
━ Give it here.
I took the thing from Leaf.
Up close, it looked like a flat, shiny rock that resembled a shard from a broken beer bottle.
━ Go on.
The monkey on the right rustled the bushes behind it.
And just like that, a sunny path appeared behind the foliage.
*
━ Those were some strange fellows.
Leaf muttered as we walked down the path to the right.
━ Who, the monkeys?
I asked, and Leaf nodded. I recalled the tricky monkeys we had just met.
They were definitely strange.
━ Strange, but they handed out experience points, and they’re tasty.
I patted my trusty ship and smiled contentedly.
Now that we figured out the answer and that business was over, there was no reason to keep them around.
“They probably learned not to laugh at people just because they’re good at math.”
The cost of mocking a dropout like me would be their lives.
Now they would become a part of me, in bl**d and flesh.
━ But what do they mean by this thing shows us the way?
Leaf kept peering at the flat rock in his hand.
I hadn’t come up with anything either, so I just kept looking at the changing scenery as we walked.
The straight path turned into a winding trail lined with trees that grew taller, casting shadows.
The deeper I ventured into the Bewitching Forest, the more refreshing the cool air felt against the scorching sun.
After a while of walking down the right path, we soon came upon a fork in the road with three paths leading left, right, and straight ahead.
━ Another fork? Which way do we go?
This time, there were no signs or monkeys in sight, just the three paths blocking our way.
━ Hey, where do we go now?
Leaf asked me.
I wanted to ask him that very same question because I sure didn’t know the answer.
Leaf sniffed around, trying to get a whiff of any hints from the paths.
My gaze fell on the stone in his hand.
━ Hey, give that stone back to me.
━ This stone?
━ Yeah, we’re supposed to use it somehow.
━ Use this? How?
Leaf was puzzled but handed it over.
I took it and stared through the opaque material.
━ This is supposed to show us the way, right?
━ Technically, it will guide you down the path of your chosen answer.
━ Same difference. Hmm.
I gazed at the stone for a good while, trying to think of a clever way to use it.
I tried tapping it, placing it in front of each path, and listening, but it didn’t seem to guide us at all.
“What the heck?”
Even if I wanted to go back and ask if it really showed the way, the monkeys had long since vanished into my belly.
“If I’d known, I should’ve left one behind.”
I twirled the glass shard in my hand.
The opaque blue material allowed sunlight filtering through the leaves above to shine through, forming a glowing spot on the ground.
“Could it be like a magnifying glass?”
What if its opacity was a hint of some kind? The thought flashed in my mind like lightning.
I began shining the flat glass around, catching the sunlight filtering between branches and leaves onto the ground.
━ What are you doing?
Leaf was watching me with intrigue. Instead of answering, I focused on directing the light towards the ground.
“Oh!”
I discovered something and held the flat stone up to my eyes like sunglasses.
With the world now bathed in a blue glow, I noticed red dots scattered only along the left path.
I approached and stirred the red dots with my front paw.
They were little pebbles that shone a peculiar red hue.
When I pulled back the stone that was blocking my view, it was just an ordinary rock like any other found anywhere.
Bringing the opaque blue lens back into view made the stone in my paw glow red again.
“How peculiar.”
━ What? What’s going on? What’s special about that little rock?
Leaf leaned in behind me, curious.
I handed him the blue shard and quickly said,━ Look through this.
Leaf complied, holding the blue lens up to his eyes.
━ Wow, what is this? There are red markings all along this left path!
Curious, he looked around as if checking the other paths.
━ It’s only on this left path! Must be the way! How did you know?!
Leaf was overly ecstatic about it.
━ Amazing! You’re a genius!
━ Nah, it’s not that big of a deal.
I felt a tickle at the back of my neck.
For anyone who enjoys adventure games or watches movies like Indiana Jones, this would be a deviously simple task.
The only difference would be how quickly or slowly one figures it out.
But it’d be odd to correct Leaf, who marveled at my triumph.
I decided to relish this moment of brilliance while puffing up my chest.
━ If I catch you, this sort of thing gets solved in no time!
━ Then let’s hurry up! This is so fun! Are we just following this red path?
Leaf spirited ahead, eyes glued to the glowing red trail through the blue glasses.
Walking along, we soon spotted another sign right in the middle of the path. Yet unlike the last sign, this one had nothing drawn on it.
━ Huh?
But Leaf, wearing the lens, frowned as if he saw something.
━ What does it say? Can you see anything?
In response to my question, Leaf clearly read out each letter.
━ It says, “Do not move the rock.”
━ What rock? Where’s the rock?
I stood in front of the sign, looking around.
Soon I spotted a massive rock hidden in the bushes beside the path.
It was about twice my height.
A boulder the size of a gigantic refrigerator.
━ I guess that’s what it’s referring to.
I nodded silently at Leaf.
“Wait?”
My ears perked up as I noticed a faint sound.
━ Do you hear that?
I asked Leaf.
A barely audible, tiny voice reached my ears.
━ Hooray! Finally, someone is here! Please, move this for me!
