127

After spotting the two women who looked like hunters, I watched them for a while… but nothing changed no matter how long I waited.

(…Strange. From the looks of them they did not seem like mercenaries, so I figured they were hunters, and with a two-woman team there should have been some deeper backstory or relationship going on—but nothing happened at all.)

If someone who made a living hunting wild animals chose to work not alone but in a more conspicuous group, I figured there had to be some reason.

However, judging from the fragments of conversation I could catch, they really did seem to be just coworkers.

In that case, it was only reasonable to assume they had just happened to end up together in this downpour.

There was no scene of friendship or affection that transcended gender like I had been hoping for; watching the two calmly exchange information, I let my shoulders sag in disappointment.

For the record, by my estimate, they were both a solid three on my personal scale. [TN: the narrator rates women on his own 1–5 attractiveness scale.]

Their looks were slightly on the pretty side—one with short red hair and the other with long brown hair—but otherwise very ordinary.

Maybe it was inevitable, but thanks to my now overly refined tastes, I did not really feel like messing with them at all.

So I chose to behave and stick to stealth, slipping out of their line of sight and heading elsewhere.

Taking the chance to test my abilities under the handicap of bad weather, I moved closer to the town while observing things as I went.

Heading a bit farther north, I saw a road where the forest opened up.

Apparently I had ended up near the northern highway leading to the town.

(Well, that works in my favor, doesn’t it? If I walk along the highway I might find something, and if there are wagons I have a few things I want to try.)

Because I could not see the sun, my sense of direction had drifted a bit more than planned, but this was not a bad outcome in its own way.

On the highway, with nothing to block the rain, visibility was terrible and I could barely see the forest ahead.

That meant my ability to scout with sight, hearing, and smell was all restricted.

In this situation, the only real concern I had about being discovered was magical detection.

Even though I had started training in magic, I was still a novice.

The knowledge I had picked up in the elf village was far from sufficient, and since I had no clear idea how such magic might detect me, there was nothing I could do but react after the fact.

Incidentally, I had found that when I used my mimicry ability in the rain, my body became invisible but its outline still stood out.

Using that, I came up with the idea of tucking my tail between my legs, wrapping it around my waist to hide it, and walking on two legs to make it look like “some invisible giant is stomping around!”, but in the worst case that might expose my ability, so I decided to restrain myself.

In any case, I continued north along the highway for about ten minutes—when the trees began to thin out, I came to a stop.

(Any farther than this and I’d be at risk of being spotted…)

It was the combination of forest terrain and bad weather that created this terrible visibility.

Once I stepped out of the forest, there would not be that big a difference between my detection capabilities and a human’s.

If someone was moving loudly, like a wagon, or shouting at the top of their lungs, that would be a different story, but there was not much point planning around rare cases like that.

On the contrary, the existence of magic might even give them the advantage.

So this time, I decided to focus on grasping positional information and put risk avoidance first.

Realizing just how troublesome bad weather could be was enough of a gain all by itself.

I shifted my course south, retracing my steps while keeping an ear on the highway, and before long the town came into view without me finding anything in particular.

Even at this distance, I could only just make out the faint silhouettes of sentries.

Even using my telescopic vision did not change much, which reminded me again how important the environment was.

Keeping the trees as cover, I circled the town a little.

To be safe, I activated my mimicry ability.

At this distance, even if someone looked my way, they would not notice me.

When I made it halfway around to the south gate, there was a crowd of people and what looked like an argument.

(Oh, maybe news about the magic insect swarm already reached them?)

I hoped things were going the way I wanted and left the area.

Having seen what I needed to see, I headed back to my temporary base.

I just hoped my gear had not gotten wet… but more than that, the sudden realization hit me that someone might come use the place for shelter from the rain, and I sprinted through the forest in a panic.

The next morning, the weather still had not changed, and the rain was coming down in an annoyingly heavy pour.

“Well, when it rains, it rains. That’s just how it is,” I thought, having reached a state of resignation.

When I had hurried back the day before, my luggage was safe and there were no signs of anyone.

Using scrap wood, I did some quick repairs and managed to secure a space where I could start a fire, then grilled up a rabbit I had caught on the way.

I spent the night burning the dry scrap wood as fuel.

My magic training was going well, but this base was too uncomfortable to devote another whole day solely to that.

So, even if it was inefficient, today’s plan was exploration and training under adverse weather conditions.

(If I found a spot better suited than this one, I’d move. If I didn’t, I’d just keep training—that was how it would go.)

That was what I had in mind, but before I knew it, I was attacking a lone wagon on the highway.

Crouched over the cargo bed and rummaging through it, I felt like I was wearing a wicked grin that said, “Heh heh heh, traveling alone is dangerous, kid.”

Ignoring the young man who had collapsed on his backside and could not move, I rifled through his cargo.

He was wearing rain gear, but since he was sitting directly on the ground, he was soaked through.

As for the cargo that mattered… the smell when I stuck my head in told me instantly it was a dud.

He was transporting materials.

Among the parts stripped from monsters, there were some that could be processed into weapons or turned into various tools.

He was probably hauling items that could not be processed in that town.

The food I found was all rations in the form of dried meat and hardtack, nothing that made me want to take it.

(I’d rather grill fresh meat than eat Canaan’s rations.)

With a deep sigh, I walked away without taking anything.

I was not worried about silencing him.

The truth was, I had turned back because there was a magic insect swarm blocking the highway, and that was when I ran into him.

Unfortunately, he and the horse pulling his wagon would end up as bug food.

“Seriously, hurry up and move, Canaan guy. With those things around, my options get limited too, you know.”

Grumbling like that, I went in search of prey for lunch.

Just like yesterday, finding anything was almost entirely down to luck.

Wild animals carefully moved to avoid me.

I knew I was making noise thanks to my massive body, but… it seemed I still was not wild enough.

Whenever I tried to focus on separating out sounds, my other senses got sloppy and I would bump my shoulder into a tree or something, making more noise.

It was pretty difficult, but if I could pull it off, I would definitely be leveling up.

Just as I psyched myself up and started searching for prey, what I found instead was clothing soaked in blood—and still not dry.

(Though with this rain I guess it wouldn’t dry anyway… but does this mean even the bones got completely eaten?)

The faint traces remaining around the area, a bow, a short sword, and a familiar-looking leather breastplate—it might have belonged to one of the two women I had seen yesterday.

(…So they had come over to this side. Or there were people on this side too.)

If that was the case, I had to consider another possibility.

Namely, that the swarm had been created artificially.

If so, I would have to ask, “Why did someone need to do something like this?”

(No, I didn’t need to ask.)

The answer was obvious.

“So they used bugs as a countermeasure against me, huh.”

In that mutter, admiration outweighed disgust.

“If you can’t beat something with humans, just throw something non-human at it”—a bold decision.

I did not know if this was their primary plan or just a long shot, but the information the human side would gain from the outcome was by no means small.

“Ha! Not bad at all. There are no treaties when you’re dealing with monsters. You don’t have to be picky about your methods!”

If this really had been done on purpose, I would have to reevaluate the Kingdom of Canaan.

I had thought of them as nothing more than something to be trampled.

But a country was still a country, however rotten.

At this point, I revised that understanding.

“I’ll gladly accept that challenge.”

Why did the simple knowledge that I had an enemy make my spirits soar like this?

Considering how I had been born, maybe it was only natural—but that also meant there was a chance the time I could remain human was being eaten away.

Things were not going my way, but my mood was sky-high.

I clearly needed an immediate mental checkup.

“Is there a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties with a killer figure, loads of sex appeal, and a white lab coat in the house?”