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230. Childhood Friend – Butterfly

“Uhp-cha.”

The boy set down a basket filled with mushrooms. He dumped them all out of the cart and returned to where he came from.

He placed the basket beside his resting younger sister and grandmother, then resumed popping the mushroom caps off the logs, clicking away.

Despite summer not being over, the coolness of this place was the mushroom cultivation ground of the Uena Tribe. Thousands of logs stood tilted in the heart of a dense forest, towering up to chest height, with trees spaced every five steps providing a green canopy overhead.

Fluffy, blossoming mushrooms.

Mushrooms of various sizes hung abundantly from the logs. With the main harvest approaching, the Uena Tribe members were diligently picking the well-grown mushrooms first. Euta, Enen, and their grandmother were working busily.

What a bountiful sight it was! They could pick mushrooms as big as fists, fragrant and of good quality.

It was a luxury only the Uena Tribe, with their rare mushroom cultivation techniques, could enjoy. However, Euta, momentarily engaging his hands, suddenly let out a yawn.

“Ah-hmm~”

He was bored with the repetitive task and could find no fun in it. His younger sister, Enen, gave him a look that said, “That’s just like you, big brother.”

Their grandmother didn’t scold her grandchild. She continued picking mushrooms with her wrinkled hands, and the granddaughter ventured forth.

“What’s with you helping out today? Aren’t you going to practice archery?”

With arms crossed and her head held high, she spoke in a way that made her tiny self seem fierce. But Euta, knowing how small she was, found her not scary at all. He let out another yawn and then, bong! Smacked his sister right on the head. For no reason at all.

Enen grabbed her head and whined, reporting to their grandmother.

“Now now, don’t fight, you two.” Grandmother didn’t stop picking mushrooms. Enen’s cheeks puffed up.

How could she pay him back?

After pondering, she decided to take revenge by throwing a stag beetle onto her brother’s head, who had returned to his slow mushroom picking.

Once the commotion settled, Enen, Euta, and their grandmother drove the cart back to the village. The sun was setting early over the forest, and halfway through their path, they encountered a rowdy group.

“Wow, Captain, your hunting skills are quite impressive! I thought you couldn’t hunt being from outside the village.”

They were travelers.

A burly man with thick eyebrows tore a sizeable hind leg off a freshly cooked deer. With smoke rising from the campfire they surrounded, it looked like among the dozen young men, there was a superior.

A young man with light brown hair.

His tanned skin suggested health, sitting centrally as if he were a captain, while a much larger man handed him the hind leg.

“Here you go. But why didn’t you let us handle the hunting? Vann and I do a bit of hunting ourselves. Hahaha. Just say the word, and we can help anytime…”

“Ruben, be quiet. The villagers are passing by.”

Three women were among them. A slender woman chided the big man, and at her gesture, the travelers’ heads turned toward the siblings and their grandmother.

Worried about unnecessary conflict with outsiders, Euta urged the cart to move faster. Then, the light brown-haired young man stood up and approached.

“What’s the matter?”

“Sorry for the late greeting, grandmother. I just thought I should bring this for you to eat. I feel ashamed for hunting in someone else’s forest.”

The young man presented a hefty deer hind leg. Enen swallowed hard at the steaming piece of meat. The smell was truly delightful.

“Who owns the forest…? Thank you. Would you like some mushrooms?”

“Then I’d be grateful.”

A generous exchange was made.

Euta now watched the young men begin roasting the mushrooms as he continued to drive the cart. Seeing his excited younger sister getting a bit too cheerful, he randomly smacked her on the head again.

“Hey! Why again?”

“Does this brat think she can get all happy about food in front of strangers?”

“Ah, but it’s my first time eating meat! It should be delicious, right? Right?”

“You little…”

Back home, the meat was delicious. The oil dripped from the meat piled atop the mushrooms, and his younger sister busily munched with her small mouth. Euta felt somehow uneasy.

Meat side dish… tsk.

I was the one trying to give it to her.

The next day, Euta didn’t go to pick mushrooms. He practiced archery a bit and then went hunting.

This was only his second time going out to hunt. The Uena Tribe didn’t hunt much, so there was plenty of game in the forest.

However, just like before, the boy had no luck in hunting. Whenever he tried to approach, the game seemed to sense him like a ghost. It wasn’t easy to hit them with arrows.

Once, he did hit one.

But that rogue escaped after being shot with an arrow. Chasing it for a while, Euta ended up with nothing. It was rare for game to drop dead from just one hit. Especially not with a toy-like bow and arrow like his.

‘Do I need to aim better?’

How much more? He thought he aimed just fine… Euta hid his disappointment as he exited the forest. How had that outsider hunted so well? He pondered.

‘Should I ask?’

The older brother who had been suspiciously hovering around him and his sister. At first, he thought he was odd and kept his distance, but after yesterday, he didn’t seem that strange anymore. He was friendly enough… but,

‘A bit scary.’

They were outsiders with weapons. People in the village speculated, “Maybe he’s a knight.” It seemed like he was hiding in the forest.

Getting too close might not end well. However, Euta, being a young boy, thought, ‘Asking isn’t going to hurt.’ Just then, the light brown-haired young man appeared at the foot of a mountain that overlooked the village.

Whether he was out for a stroll or just had nothing better to do, Euta approached him, who was loitering.

“Hey…”

“What’s up?”

They didn’t seem to differ much in age, yet approaching was hard. He felt the young man was very adult-like, so Euta spoke formally.

“Um… how did you catch that thing yesterday?”

“The deer? I caught it with a trap.”

“A trap?”

“Yeah, a trap.”

What’s a trap?

Not knowing even the term, Euta watched as Reb demonstrated with a ‘sky trap.’ It was quite nostalgic, reminiscent of something from long ago, and he was filled with strange emotions.

“Here, this is a sky trap. If an animal passes through here while touching this… it’ll get caught in the noose and hang up in the air.”

“Wow! How does the wood spring up like this?”

“Want to try making one? It uses the elasticity of the wood. If you just scratch the underside of a branch like this…”

[ Leo, you have become a great hunter and lived happily with Lena. Due to that achievement, you inherit some of Leo’s {Hunting} abilities. ]

Reb taught Euta how to hunt.

He taught him how to set traps according to their types and uses, how to read the terrain to guess where game might be, how to track—everything he knew as they roamed the forest together.

Enen was sure she would live happily with this boy. Thinking this would be the last time, he put in extra effort. He also called Vann and Ruben from time to time to teach him a thing or two.

Then one day, a merchant group arrived in the Uena Tribe. The merchants loaded the piled-up mushrooms from the Uena Tribe onto their carts to take back.

It was autumn, signaling that Enen’s death was near.

From then on, Reb carried a sword at all times. He stayed as close to the siblings as possible…

It was an ordinary day like any other.

While Euta was absorbed in reviewing the traps Reb had taught him, a butterfly fluttered in. It was a white butterfly scattering something like pollen as it danced in the air.

“Wow…”

Enen, entranced, chased after the butterfly, while Reb gritted his teeth in frustration.

[ Achievement: Holy Woman’s Baptism – Leo gains the ability of {Divine Insight}. ]

The butterfly contained the divine power of God. Enen’s death was neither coincidence nor accident.

Muttering curses under his breath, Reb followed Enen as she ventured deeper into the forest. After about ten steps behind her, he noticed the place was becoming familiar. It was where Enen had been brutally killed.

The butterfly gently landed on a tree trunk. And something was watching Enen, who was stealthily approaching the butterfly.

It was the roaming monster, ‘Oantahu.’

This creature, with green long fur, resembled a monkey. Its arms were longer than its legs, and its skin was red. Overall, it had a sleek appearance, but as a monster, it was enormous. It was astonishing that the tree it hung from did not break.

“Heh…”

Crouching down, Enen held her breath as she reached out towards the butterfly. Oantahu also stretched its long arms towards Enen, while Reb quietly snuck up from behind. Just as he was about to draw his sword,

“Enen!!”

Euta’s shrill scream rang out.

Oantahu’s head whipped around. Reb, equally startled, dashed forward without a second thought. He had aimed to strike the creature’s throat that hung from the tree, but as it climbed higher, he only managed to nick the arm that was attempting to grab Enen.

– Caw-ca-caw-caw-caw-caw!

Reb shielded Enen’s eyes and embraced her. Looking back, he saw Euta, Vann, and Ruben rushing over.

“Vann, take the kids away! Ruben! Help me hit that thing…!”

– Woom!

Just before he finished his sentence, Oantahu lunged at them. It didn’t leap down; rather, it jumped to a tree near Reb, swinging its arms from a high place, its palm adorned with jagged fingernails shooting towards Reb.

The palm was so large it nearly obscured his vision.

But Reb held his ground. Shielding Vann, Ruben, Enen, and Euta behind him, he yelled.

“Haah!”

A brilliant flash. The aura glimmered on Reb’s sword. The sharply shining sword slashed in a diagonal line, but no one was hit by it.

– Caw-caw!

“Gyaaaak!”

Blood poured out like a fountain. The paw with four fingers tumbled, and only the thumb remained attached to Oantahu. The palm was sliced at an angle, and the remaining portion was less than what had been removed.

“Vann, quickly take the kids away. We’ll handle that thing.”

With a swift flick, Reb wiped his sword clean and looked up. He pondered how to capture that creature that was still hanging there and hesitating.

They couldn’t do anything while it clung to the tree. Leaping high like that was only a temporary trick.

As Vann took the children away, Reb finished making his plan. If the problem was that it was above him, then he just needed to bring it down.

– Crack!

Should he save the Oblivion Blade for dinner? Reb swiftly chopped down the tree where Oantahu hung. Just as Oantahu leaped to another tree, Reb cut that tree down too.

The creature hilariously flailed in midair and then thudded to the ground. Terrified, Oantahu shrieked! It gnawed at its lips, attempting to threaten Reb as it began to flee, but for a moment, it acknowledged that he was a much stronger male and boldly strutted toward him…

“Yuck.”

With its big body came a correspondingly large rear end.

In its own way, it seemed to show a posture of submission, but for Ruben and Reb watching, it was nothing short of repulsive.

In truth, even if it knelt and begged with all its might, they wouldn’t spare it.

Feeling a hint of embarrassment, Reb sought the spot to plunge his sword in, avoiding the presented butt…

– Flap.

A white butterfly fluttered in.

Keeping its eyes tightly shut and raising its rear in the air, the Oantahu, bowing its head to the ground, had the butterfly flutter right into its nose.

Oantahu’s eyes widened in shock.

– CAW-caw-caw-caw! C-caw-aw!

“What, what’s happening?”

Oantahu’s long arms swelled as if about to burst. Its once short and thin legs exploded outward, making it resemble an orangutan more than a monkey.

Its green fur turned red, and its previously red skin became charred black, sprouting countless hideous bumps.

– Hohohoh!

The newly gigantic Oantahu, based on a bygone monstrosity called ‘Ajinugap,’ could hardly contain its own strength as it slammed its elbows into the ground.

Feeling the earth shake, Reb opened his mouth.

“Ruben, go… get the kids.”

Then he added,

“Those two won’t be able to handle it.”