Chapter 230. Childhood Friend – Butterfly
“Uhtcha.”
The boy set down the basket filled with mushrooms. He poured them into the cart with a clatter and returned to where he came from.
He placed the basket beside his younger sibling and grandmother, who were resting their arms for a moment, and began picking mushrooms from the logs again, one by one.
Even though summer wasn’t over yet, this cool place was the mushroom cultivation site of the Uena tribe. In the middle of the dense forest, thousands of logs cut to chest height were set up at an angle, with trees casting green shadows every five steps.
Mushrooms blooming like fluffy clouds.
Mushrooms of various sizes were hanging from the logs. Before the main harvest, the Uena tribe members were busy picking the well-grown mushrooms first. Euta, Enen, and their grandmother also worked diligently with their hands.
It was a very bountiful scene. They could pick mushrooms the size of a fist, with good aroma and quality, as they pleased.
It was a luxury that the Uena tribe, with their rare mushroom cultivation techniques, could enjoy. But Euta, who was busy with his hands for a while,
“Ah-ham~”
yawned.
He was bored and tired of the repetitive work. His younger sister, Enen, looked at him with eyes that said, “That’s so typical of my brother.”
Their grandmother did not scold her grandchildren. She just kept picking mushrooms with her aged hands, so it was the granddaughter who spoke up.
“What brings you here to help? Aren’t you practicing archery today?”
She folded her arms and lifted her chin so high that her nostrils showed. But she was so small that it wasn’t scary. Euta finished his yawn with a loud “Ah-ham…” and lightly flicked his sister’s forehead without any reason.
Enen clutched her head and whined to their grandmother.
“Don’t fight, children,” said the grandmother, without stopping her mushroom picking. Enen’s cheeks puffed up.
How can I get back at him?
She pondered and then took revenge by throwing a stag beetle onto her brother’s head as he slowly resumed picking mushrooms.
After the brief commotion subsided, Enen, Euta, and their grandmother pushed the cart back to the village. The sun was setting early in the forest, and along the way, they encountered a noisy group.
“Wow, the leader’s hunting skills are quite something! I thought you couldn’t hunt since you grew up outside the tribe.”
They were travelers.
A burly man with thick eyebrows was tearing into a freshly cooked deer leg. From the smoke rising from the campfire and the arrangement of the group, it seemed there was a leader among the dozen young men.
A young man with light brown hair.
His skin was healthily tanned, and he was sitting in the center, obviously the leader, while the much larger man served the leg.
“Here you go. But you should have left the hunting to us. Both Ban and I are hunters. Just let us know anytime…”
“Ruben, quiet. The villagers are passing by.”
Among them were three women. One of them, a slender woman, reprimanded the large man. Following her gaze, the travelers looked towards the siblings and their grandmother pushing the cart.
Worried about unnecessary conflict with the outsiders, Euta pushed the cart faster. At that moment, the young man with light brown hair stood up and approached.
“Is something wrong?”
“Forgive me for the delay in greeting you, grandmother. Here, please take this. I feel ashamed to have hunted in your forest without permission.”
The young man offered a large deer leg. Enen gulped at the sight of the steaming meat. The smell was amazing.
“Who owns the forest… Thank you. Shall I give you some mushrooms in return?”
“That would be appreciated.”
A generous exchange of goods took place.
Euta watched the young men now grilling mushrooms with the meat, then pushed the cart away. His sister, excited by the meat, annoyed him, so he lightly flicked her forehead again.
“Ouch! Why again?”
“Why are you drooling over food in front of strangers?”
“But this is my first time tasting meat. It must be delicious, right? It must be!”
“You fool…”
The meat they ate at home was delicious. The fat from the meat dripped over the mushrooms, and his sister’s small mouth was busy chewing. Euta, however, felt strangely displeased.
Meat side dish… tch.
I wanted to provide that.
The next day, Euta did not go to pick mushrooms. Instead, he went hunting, having practiced his archery a bit.
This was his second time out hunting. Since the Uena tribe did not hunt, there was plenty of game in the forest.
However, just like before, the boy did not succeed in hunting. As soon as he got close, the game would sense him like a ghost. Hitting them with an arrow was not easy either.
Once, he managed to hit one.
But the creature ran off with the arrow in it. Euta chased it for a long time but ended up with nothing. It wasn’t common for game to die instantly from a single arrow, especially not with a toy-like bow and arrows like the boy’s.
“Do I need to aim better?”
How much better? He thought he had aimed pretty well… Euta couldn’t hide his disappointment as he left the forest, wondering how the outsider he met yesterday had hunted.
“Should I ask?”
It was the older brother who had been suspiciously hovering around him and his sister. At first, Euta had thought he was a strange person and avoided him, but after yesterday, he didn’t seem so strange. He was polite too… However,
“He’s a bit scary.”
The outsiders were armed. There were rumors among the villagers that they might be knights hiding in the forest.
Approaching them might not lead to anything good. However, being a young boy, Euta thought, “Just asking should be fine.” As it happened, the young man with light brown hair was out at the foothill overlooking the village.
Whether he was out for a walk or had nothing else to do, Euta approached the wandering young man.
“Excuse me…”
“What’s up?”
Though there wasn’t much of an age difference, Euta found it hard to speak to him. He felt the young man was very adult-like, so Euta used formal language.
“Um… how did you catch that yesterday?”
“The deer? I caught it with a trap.”
“A trap?”
“Yes, a trap.”
What’s a trap?
For the boy who didn’t even know the term, Lev demonstrated by making a ‘sky snare.’ It had been a long time since he’d done this, and the feeling was nostalgic.
“Here, this is a sky snare trap. When an animal passes through here and triggers this part… it gets caught in the noose and hangs in the air.”
“Wow! How does the tree spring up like that?”
“Want to make one? It uses the elasticity of the wood. You make a notch under the branch like this…”
[Leo, you became an excellent hunter and lived happily with Lena. As a result of your achievement, some of Leo’s {hunting} skills are inherited.]
Lev taught Euta how to hunt.
He showed him how to set traps according to their type and purpose, how to read the terrain to guess where the game would be, how to track them, and everything else he knew while wandering the forest together.
Enen will live happily with this boy. Thinking it might be the last time, he put in extra effort. He also occasionally called Ban and Ruben to teach them a thing or two.
One day, a merchant caravan arrived at the Uena tribe. The merchants loaded their carts with the piles of mushrooms the tribe had gathered.
It was autumn, which meant Enen’s death was near.
From that point, Lev always carried his sword. He stayed close to the siblings as much as possible…
It was an ordinary day.
While Euta was engrossed in practicing the traps Lev had taught him, a butterfly fluttered in. It was a white butterfly scattering something like flower pollen in its wake.
“Wow…”
Enen, entranced, followed the butterfly, and Lev ground his teeth.
[Achievement: Baptism of the Saint – The ability {Divine Perception} is granted to Leo.]
The butterfly carried the power of a god. Enen’s death was not a coincidence or an accident.
Cursing under his breath, Lev followed Enen into the depths of the forest. He recognized the place as he went. It was where Enen would be brutally killed.
The butterfly gently landed on a tree trunk. There was someone else watching Enen as she approached the butterfly with fascination.
It was a roaming beast, ‘Oantahu.’
It had green fur like a monkey. Its arms were longer than its legs, and its skin was red. It looked agile overall, but its size was enormous, like a beast. It was surprising that the tree it clung to didn’t break.
“Heh…”
Enen crouched down and held her breath as she reached for the butterfly. Oantahu also extended its long arm towards Enen, while Lev quietly circled behind it. Just as he was about to draw his sword,
“Enen!!”
Euta’s shrill scream was heard.
Oantahu’s head snapped around. Startled just like the creature, Lev acted without further thought and sprinted. He aimed to slice its neck as it clung to the tree, but it climbed up, causing him to only graze the arm that was reaching for Enen.
– Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak!
Lev shielded Enen’s eyes and hugged her tightly. Looking back, he saw Euta, Ban, and Ruben running towards them.
“Ban, take the kids away! Ruben! Let’s attack it together…!”
– Whoosh!
Before he could finish speaking, Oantahu lunged. It didn’t charge from the ground but leaped to a nearby tree, swinging its arm from a high position. The massive, intricate palm shot towards Lev’s face.
It was large enough to cover his entire field of vision.
But Lev held his ground. He yelled as he positioned Ban and Ruben to protect Euta and Enen.
“Haaah!”
A blinding flash. Lev’s sword glowed with aura. The sharp, radiant blade sliced diagonally, and the palm descended on the four of them. However, none of them were struck.
– Squeal!
Blood gushed out. A chunk of flesh with four fingers rolled on the ground, leaving Oantahu with only a thumb. Most of its palm was severed diagonally.
“Ban, take the kids away now. We’ll deal with this thing.”
Lev flicked his sword and looked up. He pondered how to catch the creature as it clung to the tree, hesitating.
As long as it stayed in the tree, there was no way to get to it. The frequent high jumps wouldn’t last forever.
While Ban took the children away, Lev finished his plan. If the problem was that it was above, then all he had to do was bring it down.
– Crack!
Lev decided not to spare his aura blade. He cut down the tree to which Oantahu clung. As it attempted to leap to another tree, Lev sliced through that one too.
Flailing comically in mid-air, the creature fell to the ground with a thud. Terrified, Oantahu shrieked and bared its lips in a threatening manner, but it was short-lived. Recognizing the much stronger male approaching, it… presented its rear in submission.
“Ugh.”
Its rear was as large as its body.
Though it meant to show submission, it was nothing but disgusting to Ruben and Lev.
In truth, even if it had knelt and begged, they wouldn’t have spared it.
Feeling slightly repulsed, Lev looked for a place to stab the creature, avoiding its exposed rear…
– Flutter.
A white butterfly fluttered by.
The butterfly circled the prostrate Oantahu before diving into its nose.
Oantahu’s eyes shot open.
– Squeal, squeal, squeal…! Squeal!
“What, what’s this?”
Oantahu’s long arms swelled as if they would burst. Its previously short and thin legs bulged tremendously, making it resemble an orangutan more than a monkey.
Its green fur turned red, and its already red skin darkened, covered with numerous hideous protrusions.
– Hohohohohaha! Ughaha!
Now as gigantic as Ajinugab, the beast based on Migas from long ago, Oantahu couldn’t control its power and slammed its elbows into the ground.
Feeling the earth tremble, Lev spoke.
“Ruben, go… get the kids.”
Then he added,
“We can’t handle this alone.”
