Surviving a Cruel Fairy Tale

5 – Act 1. Little Red Riding Hood Forest – Prelude (2)

After defeating the wolf’s pursuit.

Following the hunter, he contemplated what would happen in the future.

Rumpelstiltschen said.

He only showed me my own ending.

In the process, encountering various fairy tales and changing their development and ending was a condition for reviving me in modern times.

That’s why I think.

In what way do I really want to change the world of fairy tales?

The thing that placed a condition on me didn’t tell me what it wanted.

Therefore, it is meaningless to infer its hopes, and if so, I have no choice but to draw a crystal of a fairy tale with my personal hopes.

A third-class fairy tale writer who failed.

What kind of fairy tale do I want to draw?

“It took a long time.”

While thinking about it for a moment, the hunter stopped taking long steps and turned his head to point in front of him.

“Welcome to our village.”

It was a pretty small town.

A residence mainly composed of cluttered, boarded up buildings.

It was difficult to say that the build quality was good, and it was difficult to say that it was developed by looking at the lifestyle and environment of the residents in general.

But wouldn’t this be the limit for self-sufficiency in a place like this?

On the contrary, it was somewhat surprising to live in such an environment in a forest where it is difficult to grow crops.

“Let’s go inside.”

I also appreciated it for a while.

First of all, as I walked along the road following his guidance, I could see that the people in the village were looking at me from the sidelines.

Are foreigners rare?

Well, I don’t think there are many outsiders in a forest like this.

To be honest, even I would not have entered the forest without the information that this forest holds a strong mystery, so there is nothing that I cannot understand even with this gaze.

“Everybody seems interested in you.”

The hunter must have noticed that aspect as well, and smiled awkwardly and shook his head.

“It could be.”

“I hope you understand. Everyone was hungry for people in many ways. Isn’t it in the forest like this?”

Listening to that, it was clear that the population movement in this forest was extremely low.

This raises a question.

At first glance, you can understand that it’s a small town, but that’s just a judgment based on common sense.

It was easy to infer that the population consisted of between fifty and one hundred people by grasping the overall number of buildings and people walking around here and there.

Then, how can this large population live self-sufficiently in a forest like this?

Survival through hunting has clear limits.

Even as I walked beside the hunters, the proportion of women and children was high. In such a situation, even if a small group of men supplied food through hunting, everything would not be satisfied.

In addition, this village was also shaded by the branches of a tall forest.

Then, the crops that can be grown in this forest are very limited, and if the village is formed after overcoming all such adverse conditions, it would be insufficient to evaluate it as great.

“How long has this village been here?”

“Hmm? It’s been twenty years.”

“Then… ….”

I was about to ask more here, but I bit my lower lip.

I am an outsider here.

The hunter was very kind to me, but it’s difficult to forget my situation.

20 Years in remote areas.

If it is a place where there are extremely few outsiders coming and going, it is correct to say that it is a virtually closed society.

Exploring more than necessary in an exclusive place is not good.

“…… It must have been difficult.”

When I turned around, the hunter nodded.

“What if it’s hard work?”

“From building this village to enduring it.”

“Well, I did a lot of hard work.”

He raised his head with a faint expression.

“Actually, it wasn’t like this at first. This forest wasn’t as dreary as it was 20 years ago, and everyone was holding out hope.”

After that, he shook his head and took another step.

“Eggplant. Even if we talk more like this, nothing pleasant will come out.”

In fact, even in this conversation, questions remain.

If the forest of the past and this forest are different, what is the cause? Also, if it is a barren environment to live in, why did they not leave this forest?

There are various questions, but it is not a good habit to open the first chapter of a book and try to clarify everything.

There’s nothing wrong with being in a hurry, but if you act too hastily in a relationship between people, it can lead to unwanted deviations.

As we walked along the road while chatting for a while, we arrived at the largest and most comfortable house in the village.

“This is my home. Go inside and dissolve your travel poison. Oh, have you eaten?”

“There was no time for that.”

“Then I must prepare a meal for a guest after a long absence. Even for a meal, it’s a soup made from animal meat, but that won’t be too bad.”

He naturally guides me to his house with an expression and behavior close to that of a typical good friend.

It was a strange kindness.

Why does he do this to strangers? It’s not that I’m unconditionally suspicious, but I felt that the favor that started from defeating the wolf and continued to this point was quite excessive.

How much should I believe?

“It won’t be cold, but it’s a bit humid here. The temperature is also not cold. If you’ve been outside for a long time, it’s not bad to bask in the fire for a while.”

A hunter who gives a warm impression through small considerations in the meantime.

From what I’ve seen so far, this man is undoubtedly a good person, but he was very uncomfortable with kindness being shown from outside.

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“Thank you.”

“What? In fact, I’m also a little happy to have Jin-deuk talk like this with an outsider after a long time.”

I accepted the favor and sat down on the sofa to light a fire.

And then I looked around the room, and what I felt there was that this man’s house, unlike other places, gave off a fairly well-organized feeling.

The exterior of the building was the same, but the interior was slightly different from the civilization outside, including clocks, carpets, and iron tools.

How much time had passed while warming up like that?

“I’m back. …… Oh my, are you a guest?”

I heard the creaking of hinges and a woman’s voice, and I got up.

A middle-aged woman with a graceful impression was looking at me and her hunter in turn as if to her surprise, and her hunter naturally beckoned to her.

“Yes. I still need something to treat this guest, so I hope you prepare it carefully today.”

“Okay. Then please wait inside for a while.”

She smiles softly and heads for what appears to be her kitchen.

She looked at the hunter and asked a question at the woman’s natural behavior.

“…… Are you going to be the hostess?”

“Huh? Ahahahaha! Nope He’s just a helper with housework. Unfortunately, men alone do not turn their hands in that direction.”

Are you like a housekeeper in such a poor mountain village?

Then the question deepens even more.

As a hunter who handles shotguns that don’t require reloading and won’t back down even against dozens of wolves, he deserves some treatment, but…….

No, this is not my concern.

It’s not strange to be treated to a certain extent if you’re capable in such a rough area.

And the hunter’s position in the village is high, so there is nothing bad for me.

So far, he has been quite friendly to me, and if such a person has a high position in this town, it won’t be bad to melt into this town later.

Of course, I had no intention of staying long, but there was nothing wrong with the number of cards in my hand.

If I consider this village to be a group of cooperative survivors, it would be the right decision to build friendly relations with them.

After organizing my thoughts like that, I waited in silence for a while, then headed to the table at the woman’s call.

“You showed off your skills today.”

“You invited me as a guest. Then I can’t help but show my skills.”

He said it was about soup, but for that matter there was quite a bit of food on the table.

The soup, which looks like it has been boiled with meat, has a dark brown color that would be difficult to make without seasoning.

“I don’t know if people from out of town will be satisfied, but please enjoy it.”

“No, I just want to thank you.”

The soup that I opened with the first spoon and rolled it in my mouth was, as expected, quite salty.

Certainly, it was a rare meal in such an environment.

Soup oozing with the scent of spices and seasonings, but most of all, isn’t bread more precious than meat in a forest where self-sufficiency in crops is impossible?

It was easy to notice that he was being treated generously in the part where he gave it up without any hesitation.

I wonder if he took another spoonful like that.

A chunk of meat was caught along with the soup, but its appearance was different from what I usually see, so I took a closer look.

It seems too thin and long even though it might be the neck…….

“The Traveler.”

After observing the part of the meat accidentally caught, the hunter called me with a gentle smile.

“Yes?”

“How did you come to this forest? No matter how much you are a traveler, there won’t be anything special here.”

In response to that question, I first put down my spoon and faced him.

“I was wandering around looking for mysteries.”

“I see. After all, it’s not strange to long for something like that when you’re young. Even so, it’s too reckless. Didn’t you hear that the forest is dangerous?”

“I heard that wolves live.”

At my answer, the hunter let out a small sigh.

“Wolves are wolves, but as I said, witches live in the woods. Besides, there are woodcutters, so it’s even more dangerous.”

“How about a woodcutter?”

“A tool made of tin. At first it was just a machine that cut down trees, but at some point it couldn’t tell the difference between trees and humans.”

The Tin Woodman?

That must be a character from The Wizard of Oz.

No matter how much fairy tales are mixed, the Wizard of Oz is intertwined in Little Red Riding Hood’s realm?

“Then are there any lions?”

“A lion? …… I’ve never seen such a creature. In the first place, isn’t a forest like this not very suitable for lions to live in?”

“I guess so.”

Are they simply falling apart?

I was a little puzzled that the same fairy tales weren’t woven together, but there was nothing I couldn’t accept if this world was a twisted influence.

“Anyway, have a good rest here today. Tomorrow, I’ll look for a building for travelers to stay in.”

“It’s okay if you don’t do that.”

No matter how much it seemed like it was too much to accept, I tried to decline it, but the hunter rather firmly shook his head.

“You don’t have to hold back. This is all because I love it.”