A few hours after I left the hideout.
As we walked down the roadless path, we arrived in front of a forest lined with many great trees.
The woods, which were growing countless large enough trees to block even the sun's rays, were surrounded by overall dim and creepy signs.
"This is the entrance."
"That's an amazing forest..."
Leaks an exclamation at Linka's words.
In the woods we have walked so far, there has been sunlight, but from here on out we are so in the dark that we have to punish our eyes.
Sure, I wouldn't normally stop by a place like this.
Instead, if they tell you to go in alone, you have to come prepared to see enemy beatings.
Amako looked up at this one, wondering if nature and her face were cramping.
"I know it's creepy, but it'll be bright soon"
"Really?"
"Yeah, because that's how it's made"
Is it made?
Some kind of magic guide, no. Is there anything close to it?
It seems that the Orcs build a different culture than humans, so it's possible.
"Let's move on. In my opinion, if you go in from here, you'll get to the back gate."
Into the woods in a way that follows Linca.
I would only rely on the light to plug me in from behind, but it was difficult because I was about to hit a tree or catch my leg at the root.
Proceed here and you will reach the back door of the kingdom of the Beast Man.
… for once, be careful.
"Nair."
"What?"
"Stay the owl while you're in the kingdom of the Beast Man"
"... yeah, I get it"
"It's helpful to know."
At times like this, I use my position as a user demon well.
In addition to being very rare, human-shaped demons rarely become user-demons, so let Nair enter the kingdom of the beast as the owl user-demon and refrain from doing so as a trump card in times of need.
Amako grabbed the sleeve of my uniform as I relied on Linca to walk forward in the dark.
"Hmm?"
'Cause I don't want to get ripped off.'
Sure is a hassle to get rid of.
But when I'm doing this...
"Don't feel like a father with children. The same thing happened to Nair. Oh!?"
Impact on calves and back of head. It doesn't hurt, but all of a sudden I was surprised.
Apparently Amako kicked me in the leg and Nair slapped me in the head with his wings.
Whatever Nair is up to Amako......
"I'm not a child"
"Sorry. Sorry."
Apologize to Amako for leaking a rotten voice.
There's something childish about it, but even adults lose face in its behavior.
"... Usat, I have something to tell you right now"
"What's up, all of a sudden"
"I believe in Usat, no matter what."
Don't say the same thing about Nair.
Does this mean we're both gonna talk about the same subject? Do they think they don't trust you if you don't tell them in words?
"I trust Usat's training, including all the stupid, brain-muscled, blunt, favorite, good and bad... more than Nair"
"hehe!?"
I don't know where I got it out of. A scream emanates from my shoulder.
Were you listening to me with Nair...... a little insulting to Amako's ear goodness? But some parts of you didn't want me to trust you.
Oh, my God. He said he trusts his brain muscles. They told me, and I was about to flush it normally.
"That's just what I wanted to say"
"I trust you, too. Anyway, we've been traveling together."
Of course, Mr. Alk, Nair and Burlin are the same.
If anyone was missing, I wouldn't be here - I've sent enough journeys to be sure.
But the journey will be over someday, too.
We must return to the kingdom of Ringle, the last of the kingdoms of the beasts.
... will Amako remain in the kingdom of the beast man then, or will he return to the kingdom of Ringle...
"What will Amako do if she helps her mother?"
……
Breathtaking reaction next door.
After a brief silence, her voice, unleashed to squeeze out, was somewhere uneasy.
"Hopefully, I'd like to go to the kingdom of Ringle with your mother. This place is too breathless for me to live."
"... if you want to, I can help you with anything."
"Yeah......"
I can't breathe in my own hometown.
It should be unusual in itself for words like that to come out. The situation surrounding Amako is so difficult by now that she won't be allowed to lead a normal life.
"... ugh!?"
Walking with a contemplative look on my face, I almost snap at the roots of a tree.
Nair laughed at me like that, and Amako grabbed the sleeve of her uniform so she wouldn't fall off.
Going down the dark road as it was, it finally brightened in front of me.
"Eh, glare..."
My eyes glare at the sudden light.
Be the light, and look in front of the brightened eyes again, and the huge wooden doors and stone walls were reflected in the full view.
An artifact that has never been in the woods I've walked in.
And a wall that's built to cover something.
"Finally, you're here"
"... Amako?"
Amako groaned so heavily.
She continued to squeeze out and spin the words as she grabbed the hem of my uniform.
"A country that was not even allowed to reveal its name to humans. The kingdom of the beast man, Hinomoto... here is my mother"
……
Until now, I thought the kingdom of beasts had no name. [M] Even the people of the castle called it the kingdom of the beasts, and so did Amako, who was no other.
But the name now revealed from Amako's mouth was something I... No, it was something that could never be ignored by me, Senior Dog and Kazuki.
"Hinomoto... Nippon Book, Japan"
The knife, the name given to the beasts, and the name of a country called Hinomoto.
Seniors and those summoned before Kazuki are Japanese, which in addition means that they have come to this world since the time when the sword existed.
No, maybe there's a possibility of a modern man familiar with that aspect, but he's definitely Japanese.
"Mmm, Amako. I'm here at the back door, but you're welcome, aren't you? There's nobody here."
"Indeed."
Amako tilts her neck at Linka, who has a door but wonders that there is no one around her.
At that time, a large door made a heavy noise and slowly began to open.
"... eh"
Suddenly the door opened, moving in front of Amako.
The door opened completely and came out of it -, a man in his thirties or so with wolf ears similar to Linka's. There were two other beastly women with spears, staring at me and Mr. Alk as if they were on guard.
The man who looked around at us smiled softly, pulling out his shoulder to relieve him when he finally turned his gaze to Amako behind me.
"I've been expecting you. My name is Hayate, and I'm the assistant chief."
"... Ah, er. My name is Usat Ken. Thank you for letting us in."
For once, I'm the leader of the journey, so I'll introduce myself.
Still embarrassed by the following salutation, the man of the beast, Mr. Hayate, when surprised by my words, immediately gave instructions to his men to smile back and refrain next door, as he had done earlier.
"Both of you, it's okay to put the spear down"
"But the other person is human. And Blue Grizzlies..."
"I have no hostility, and I miss her. There will be no harm in the blue grizzlies there either."
"... Got it"
Two beastmen speared down with a look that seemed uncomfortable.
The stuck air was slightly soft, and Mr. Hayate walked over to Amako and me.
In the meantime, just take one step back behind Amako on guard and move to make it easier for her and Mr. Hayate to talk.
"The last time I looked at you was when you were four... do you remember me?"
"Excuse me... I don't remember"
Seeing Amako apologize for looking sorry, Mr. Hayate hurriedly waves to the side.
"No, no, you don't have to apologize. Rather, I don't remember. I'm a natural old man."
Hayate, who seemed happy, turns himself aside to gaze at Amako.
Mr. Hayate nods when he sees her from toe to head.
"Yeah, yeah, you've come home a lot. I'm relieved it hasn't changed since the last time I saw it.... Yeah, it hasn't changed at all from two years ago. It was you back then."
"... Usato"
"Enjoy it, there should be no offense..."
Maybe because this guy is really happy for me.
Raise your hand at the height of Amako's head and warn Mr. Hayate, who is caught in emotion. Its courage to keep smiling without realizing it even as you trample on a mine deserves respect.
As I stopped Amako looking up at me with his swordswallowed eyes, Linka, who was looking at Mr. Hayate from the side, kicked his tibia.
Mr. Hayate, who fell to the ground with a wild voice called "Gyan," shifts his gaze to Linka with tears as he presses his tibia.
"Li, Linka! I haven't seen your father in a while!"
"Still no delicacy! Amako cares about height! And I want you to emphasize your height! Dad, Amako, come on!"
"... Usato, you look beautiful"
"No, you can't."
That's what Linka says with her hands on Amako's head, the least delicacy, but she should be mad at me for Amako for once.
So Amako, don't just grip my uniform in a thousand slices. After the battle between Evil Dragon and Mr. Caron, the uniform that never broke is cut a thousand times.
... but they don't look alike, but they have similar fundamental personalities.
Watching Mr. Hayate interact with Linka, one of his men standing behind him made a deliberate cough.
"Dear Co, Cohon and Hayate"
"Huh!? Oh, I'm sorry. Let's get down to business."
He stood up, paying the sand, pointing toward the door.
"Let's talk on foot. We want to avoid the eyes of the people as much as possible, so hide your heads, Mr. Usato."
"Okay."
I wear the hood of my uniform, and Mr. Alk wears a white coat from his horse's luggage from his head.
From the side, it's extremely suspicious, but it's more important than that that that they know we're human, so let's put up with it.
Oh, I have to ask if Burlin can get in like every time.
"Do you mind if Blue Grizzly stays inside?"
"Yep. If you can keep me from rumbling"
I have little to worry about rumbling, so I step into the kingdom of the beast man, Hinomoto, as I stroke the brulin.
The sight that was spreading at the end of the door was in no way the same as the places we had visited before.
"Wooden architecture, because?"
At the end of the door stood wooden architecture as if it had time-slipped to Japan a long time ago.
It was a fairly dense building because it came in through the back gate, but I could still understand that it was fundamentally different from the country I had visited so far.
Mr. Hayate, who saw us looking around, has spoken proudly.
"You know the structure is different from the one you're building?"
"Yeah, I'm surprised"
"All the buildings inhabited by the Beasts are made of wood. Buildings made from the great trees that surround the country are rugged and don't even let the rain pass."
"Heh..."
As far as I'm concerned, it's kind of familiar to me. The shape of the standing buildings is close to the wooden houses as seen in the countryside, and the larger buildings can be described as mansions.
Mr. Kagari said that the previous brave men had given knowledge to the beast man, but is this also true?
"And..."
Looks like the two of us aren't the only ones watching.
I don't know where it is, but I feel a lot of gaze watching us. Just in case he notices when he turns a slight gaze at Mr. Alk, he nods small.
Depending on what you do, you may think you're instantly hostile, so you can't do anything far-fetched.
… just in case, would you like to ask Hayate a few questions?
"Mr. Hayate. Are the people here informed that we're coming?"
"Yeah, of course. In the early morning I informed the people that Amako and the human princes would enter the country. But the vast majority of the people don't have very good feelings for humans, so we're going to welcome them in this way."
"I didn't care because I knew I was going to be alert. How did the chief react to letting us in?"
Mr. Hayate, who walks in the lead, was only puzzled for a moment by the questions he continued to ask, but he answers them immediately.
"The chief wasn't favorable because of his awkward personality, but he managed to convince me to get permission"
Isn't the chief in favor of us unlike Mr. Hayate?
... That's hard.
I'm going to have to meet that chief and negotiate to help Amako's mother, but I don't want her to get caught up in the weird.
That would suck if they said, "I don't know how to borrow a human hand!"
At least we can hope he's not a hard-headed person -
"-"
Thoughts are interrupted by the feeling of intense gaze, like piercing behind the neck.
It deserved to be described as murderous. A frozen gaze all over your body, a feeling of your whole body getting gross as if falling from a high place.
With a flash of cold, I made a healing magic bullet with a caged hand that unfolded in my sleeve, and I look back in the direction of my gaze.
"Hino!?"
Behind me, however, was a woman soldier of the Beast who had seen my face and a wooden building.
Looking down at the female soldier with her right hand made of healing magic bullets hidden behind her back, she was shivering her shoulders even more and knocking down her ears like a dog growing on her head.
Killing comes from behind.... You're not this guy, are you?
?
"Ha, don't eat!"
No, I'm not eating, what kind of monster do they think I am?
But it's not this guy who's been trying to kill me.
……
"Yes, what's wrong all of a sudden"
With Nair over his shoulder talking like that in a whisper, the tension finally interrupts and slowly leaks his breath.
Mr. Hayate and Amako, who were walking in front of me, noticed, and they turned their surprise gaze at me.
"... sorry I surprised you"
"Huh!? Yes..."
I'm sure you're entering the realm of the Beast Man and being too sensitive to the signs.
Kasha, and put his caged hand back on his bracelet, and let him stand with his hands up to the man with the lump. The female soldier, who stood up looking at me with fear, took a distance from me.
"Um."
……!?
... Something shocks me, though I deserve it.
Linka, with a strange face and a deep nod, approached the female soldier who was frightened just by speaking up.
"I know, you're scared. You don't think I'm human... I thought so too"
Hey.
I didn't speak up because I was the one who was so bad.
I was a complete villain in front of a female soldier who snorted in front of me, crying over the words of Linka's consolation.
I saw Mr. Hayate speak to me. [M]
"Um, I ask you to refrain from acting like that here"
"Shh, excuse me. I felt a deliberate gaze..."
"Like bothering...?"
As far as Mr. Hayate and Mr. Alk's reaction is concerned, it was directed at me alone.
Instead, why are you targeting me alone?
Was it mistaken, as it was when Linka again?
"... I'm anxious to go ahead..."
Hate for humans, or maybe they just sold the fight.
I mean, there are people here who want to kill me like that.
I hope it ends without a fight, if possible, but when it does - I just have to respond.