Atrocious— That"s what I immediately thought at the scene before me.
There was the Grand Grizzly"s corpse lying here, the monster that Rose told me to defeat. Noticing its distorted limbs as I got closer, I also saw a mark on its body; it appeared to be a large and raw bite wound.
Additionally, a Blue Grizzly was next to it in a similar state.
"…This isn"t right."
"Kyu…"
"This is.. just too much isn"t it…"
It was a one-sided and cold-blooded slaughter, where the dominating side probably got provoked or irritated. It wasn"t an act of a predator seizing its prey and trying to eat them.
There was also something of much more concern than just my feelings of anger.
"…Rose, she"s going to kill me for sure."
I didn"t personally see how the bears were killed. However, almost anyone can tell to some degree that the other side"s intent was to completely break them.
In this area, there"s only one opponent that comes to mind that would be capable of such an act. It"s that tsuchinoko-like snake.
I was thrown into this forest to defeat a Grand Grizzly. Now that it"s dead and I can"t bring back proof to Rose that I took it down…
"Kyu…"
"…This is bad, this is bad this is bad…!"
I considered taking the bear"s fangs and showing it to Rose as a trophy, essentially deceiving her that I cleared her condition. However, it"s that ridiculous woman after all… If there"s anything suspicious about my behavior, she would go investigate it herself and immediately see the truth.
As if trying to disagree with myself, I punched a tree with my fist. I heard a conspicuous rustling sound but I was so disordered that I paid little attention to it.
At the moment, my composure and thoughts weren"t back to normal yet, but the rabbit gave a loud squeak beside my ear to warn me.
"..! Is it that snake!?"
I immediately put strength into my legs and got ready to run, but because it was so sudden, I didn"t realize that there was no real danger. I dropped my guard when a small, blue figure appeared.
"Gwu…"
"Is it the Blue Grizzly"s cub?"
What appeared was a Blue Grizzly about one meter in diameter.
The little one looked at me with distant eyes, and then it got closer to the two bears" remains.
The cub raised a sorrowful cry.
"…….Gwu…."
I"m not a particularly praiseworthy person.
I have never helped others with good intentions, nor have I ever stopped others that had ill intentions. I"m merely an ordinary boy in high school. Despite getting a little stronger from Rose"s torment, my true nature is still the same.
No matter how much I struggle, I"m still the same high school boy who hates to lose.
Because I"m a sore loser, I don"t like admitting defeat to Rose.
I don"t like that my prey was taken.
I don"t like the fact that my determination was in vain.
However, above all those…
I don"t like the scene of the bear cub raising its sad voice right in front of me.
"Hey."
"Gu!?"
I know I"m contradicting myself.
Originally, I was supposed to defeat the Grand Grizzly next to you. I might even be using the current situation as an excuse.
However—
"I"ll defeat the enemy. That"s why, take a look. I"ll gift you the most supreme snake meat."
This is just for my own self-satisfaction, as a person who hates to lose, I"ll be the one to defeat that snake.
This time I won"t run away, I will fight.
—With a clear conviction, I turned my back on the cub.
I walked away to oppose a malicious enemy for the first time.
s.h.i.+ru: I’m working alone again now, I’ll also be taking a short break (2 weeks, maybe less) to sort some things out.