Chapter 3

I am currently in transit.

And so, my adventure began. My current situation: I was being held in the mouth of a giant wolf and transported to parts unknown!

…I wonder why I was feeling so hyper? Maybe it was because when an experience gets this bizarre, you just stop being able to process it normally.

I had no idea where we were heading, so I figured I’d try asking.

“Um… exactly where am I being taken?”

“To the forest.”

Which forest? There are plenty of those.

“Which forest would that be?”

“The forest at the center of this continent. I don’t know what you humans call it.”

The forest at the center of the continent? If I recalled correctly…

“Are you talking about the forest where high-ranking dragons and high-ranking spirits live?”

“That’s the one. Also, stop talking like that already; I don’t like it.”

Ah, sorry. But could you please stop biting down harder on me? It’s genuinely terrifying!

“Got it, I’ll stop. But why? I heard you high-ranking monsters have a lot of pride.”

“…It’s just my personality. Everyone is so reserved around me that it’s boring. It would exhaust me if even my own pet was walking on eggshells.”

Humph. So she had a pretty straightforward personality, or rather, even monsters get tired of people being overly polite.

“That’s unexpected. I had this image of you all being more… how should I put it? Arrogant? Or looking down on humans. So this is a surprise.”

“Oh, that’s not wrong. Humans have shorter lives than us and no power. It would be stranger NOT to look down on such beings.”

“Then why am I okay? Just because you ‘took a liking’ to me?”

“…Just because.”

“Just because” isn’t an answer! Good grief.

Still, I suppose I understood the feeling of wanting to be with someone you just happened to like. I was a lonely person myself, with a sad past where my only friends were cats and dogs.

“We’re almost there.”

Hm? Ah, she was right. It was the “Great Forest.”

The “Great Forest”—more accurately known as the “Great Forest of the Central Continental Spirits, Monsters, and Dragons.”

It was a massive forest inhabited by a deadlock¹ between spirits, monsters, and dragons.

While the name for the Great Forest differed depending on the country, “Great Forest” usually got the point across.

Basically, those three types were said to get along poorly.

“Spirits” supposedly popped into existence from trees, lakes, and the earth. Humans found the trees that served as the spirits’ bodies difficult to cut down, but they were sometimes eaten by insect-type monsters or parasitized and turned into nurseries, so the spirits hated monsters.

“Monsters” were said to be the closest to living creatures because they hunted prey and reproduced. One of their characteristics was the sheer variety and number of species, including beast, bird, insect, and fish types. However, because they were so much like normal animals, they often fell into food chains within their own category if the species were different.

Finally, there were “Dragons,” but I didn’t know much about them. Apparently, dragons reproduced like monsters, but they didn’t seem to have originated from natural evolution. Historically, dragons appeared suddenly and used their immense power to destroy towns and countries, though their reasons for doing so were unknown.

And this was about to become the place where I—a commoner who wasn’t a warrior, let alone a hero—would live.

…I wasn’t going to die instantly, was I?