BSS 105

Chapter 105

“I just don’t understand.”

How could this happen?

[What now? Again?]

“I’m such a beautiful, wealthy, and talented modern woman of this era, right?”

[……Ah, yes.]

“I’m capable and intelligent, with a few but devoted followers, and my personality… is good too.”

[You seem to have hesitated there.]

I do have a shred of conscience, after all.

“Anyway! But! Why!?”

And my conscientious self was on the brink of a stress-induced breakdown.

No, maybe I was already in the middle of one.

“Someone like me! Has to wander in this wilderness for ten days straight! This is a loss for humanity!”

[Even if you say that to me…]

“Ugh! I’m sick of this, rabbit meat and all!”

[You’re not really lost, right? You’re following the compass…]

“This piece of junk!”

I hurled the compass, which had been endlessly pointing in one direction without fail, onto the grass with all my strength. Rai let out a startled “Oops!” and quickly picked it up.

Rai was in the middle of transforming into an ogre.

[Master! Without this, we’d truly be lost!]

“Who cares!”

[If you’re going to pretend to be nice, you should do it all the way…]

“Shut up! I want a proper meal! I want to sleep in a bed! I want dedicated service! I want civilization!”

Perched on Rai’s ogre shoulder, I howled and threw every tantrum I could think of—but even so, the fact that we were endlessly wandering the forest didn’t change.

Everywhere was just grass.

Grass here! Grass there! No matter how far we went, it was all forest.

How much further would it take to get out of this damn forest?

“When will we reach a place where people live?!”

My fifth outburst seemed to annoy Rai. He muttered something with an exasperated look that clearly criticized me.

[You should have agreed to the warp when I suggested it.]

“Do you want me dead or something?!”

[You’re not going to die.]

“You don’t understand my suffering!”

Filled with rage, I struck Rai’s head—but the ogre’s head was harder than a stone, and I immediately regretted it.

Hitting a metal spirit proved that my mind was unraveling.

My fragile fists ached to the bone, but showing pain was something my noble pride wouldn’t allow.

“Ughhh.”

[Oh dear, that must hurt.]

“You insolent brat.”

[Huh? What did I do? Master, you always do this to me!]

“When the master hits, it should naturally soften!”

[How can metal soften?!]

“Why not! It’s a metal spirit! It should respond on its own!”

[No, there are limits to ignoring the essence! You wouldn’t tell a water spirit to burn paper, would you?]

Ugh!

On the tenth day since leaving Magi’s lair, my long period of wandering had made my already sharp personality even more prickly.

Fatigue and anxiety constantly aggravated me.

Of course, I wasn’t exactly kind-hearted to begin with.

“This isn’t even a temperament test. Is this compass really pointing the right way?”

[There’s no end in sight, but we have no choice but to trust it.]

“Is it broken like Toka’s orb?”

[Ah! Master, maybe that dragon hat absorbed a lot of gems on purpose to mess with us?]

It sounded plausible for a moment, but I quickly shook my head.

“No. The compass… I got it before receiving gifts, so it’s not about stealing gems.”

Magi had given me three gifts:

A gem called Dragon Heart—essentially a sea of mana, a one-handed sword Magi personally forged using Rai’s special alloy, and one more unspecified gift.

To me, the sword was a masterpiece, but Magi called it a failure and threw it away, so I picked it up for my future.

Since the dragon gave it as a token of friendship, presenting it to the king would surely make him overjoyed.

Where else could you get such a bribe?

“Magi really did give generously, huh?”

[Well, he was foolish, but a decent guy.]

“Yeah. He gave so many gems too.”

[Ugh, he keeps insisting on giving so much.]

The last gift was a huge amount of gems given the day I left.

They were clearly gifts, not stolen. They were given because he offered them.

Even though it was about two-thirds of the gems in the storage…

“…It was a bit much, huh?”

[Yes, just a little.]

“The mountain’s gone, though.”

Still, I left some behind to prevent him from looting humans again.

I really have foresight. I’m considerate too.

Most of the gems Magi had scooped up in the empire probably ended up inside Rai.

To an outsider, it would seem odd that Rai could generate gems at will yet hoarded them greedily.

But for a spirit, the difference between nothing and something was huge.

It was far more efficient to expel what he had already absorbed than to create new.

So absorbing a lot beforehand was nothing but beneficial.

Unlike before, I had more mana now, and Rai had his own mana from the Dragon Heart, so expelling absorbed mana hardly consumed any energy.

In short, Rai was a walking treasure chest.

And…

“A boar!”

He was also my loyal hunter.

“Catch it, Rai!”

I leapt off the ogre’s shoulder, pointing to the direction the boar had fled.

Rai quickly transformed into a wolf and sprinted after the prey at lightning speed.

He became more multifunctional with each passing day.

In a good light, a highly skilled assistant; in a bad light, a handyman.

Now, he was finally somewhat useful.

I gathered dry branches, lit a fire, and sat nearby, waiting for Rai to return.

Though the forest was cold, I wore a cloak that regulated body temperature, keeping me comfortable.

Of course, that cloak was also a gift from Magi.

I hadn’t asked for it, so he must have given it.

If needed, I could return it in 20 years. That’s what friendship’s about.

Our relationship started with a kidnapping, but over time, I had grown fond of him, so I didn’t dislike him as much as before.

By preparing Magi’s meals, I had become more skilled at hunting and could now do things I previously couldn’t.

I had no problem looking at monster entrails anymore.

Maybe because I had watched him tear into them raw, my tolerance had improved.

“Anyway, where has he gone?”

I wouldn’t tell Rai, but I felt very empty when he wasn’t around.

It was like losing a hand.

‘He’s so chatty that his presence is impossible to ignore.’

Bored, I poked the fire with a long stick and looked around.

Darkness fell quickly in the forest, and being alone here was normally suicidal.

Deep forests had many monsters and other dangers, like bandits.

Right now, even bandits would have felt welcome.

“I’m starving.”

When I first left the academy, I never imagined being alone like this—but now I was calm.

Maybe it was because I had faced the final boss, the dragon.

Now, even the most terrifying things barely fazed me.

Well, I had gotten quite strong for a human.

Traveling alone in this world meant being that strong.

Thinking suddenly of that Rovenin kid was unpleasant.

Sometimes I recalled how he had wiped out several orcs alone in an instant.

He moved like a dark wind, cutting only the monsters’ heads, barely missing a breath. I could barely follow the afterimage of his sword.

Could I beat Rovenin now?

[Huff, huff, Master!]

I had been spacing out when Rai returned, carrying a wild boar as large as himself. He looked exactly like a wolf—except golden.

“You’re late.”

[This one’s fast! Running in the forest is hard too.]

“Anyway, good job.”

When Rai was a wolf, if I stroked his head, he would close his eyes, fold his ears back, and widen the space between them.

As if asking for more pets.

Snake, ogre, or wolf—Rai was always Rai.

My one-and-only spirit.

My idiot. My friend.

My first subordinate.

[Master!]

“Hmm?”

Half-asleep, I rubbed my mouth in a hurry.

I had been riding on ogre-Rai by sitting on his clasped hands while he carried me—a method I used when I wanted to sleep while moving.

Rai didn’t need to sleep or eat, making this possible.

[There’s movement.]

“Over there, huh.”

Rubbing my neck to wake up, I looked in the direction Rai indicated.

The compass was pointing that way.