Chapter 004
Even before the sun had risen, in the pre-dawn hours where darkness still clung to the Harbel estate, there was one room where the lights were uniquely on.
It was the office of Kirsten, the butler of the Harbel family.
Kirsten’s day began with sorting the mail received from the postman. Letters arriving at the mansion were usually divided into two types:
Debt collection notices and business investment proposals.
The collection notices were placed on the Viscount’s desk as if for show, while the fraudulent-smelling business proposals were sent straight to the incinerator.
As he flipped through the envelopes with an indifferent air, Kirsten’s hand stopped at one particular envelope. It was terribly worn out for a letter sent to a noble house, made of a cheap material that looked like it was sold at a common market.
What was unusual was that the recipient was not the Viscount or the Viscountess, but Kirsten himself. At the bottom of the envelope, there was only one name.
Nia.
It was the name the Young Lady used when she acted while hiding her identity. The handwriting was unmistakably hers. It was the first contact in four days since she had left the mansion.
<To Kirsten,
Hi, Kirsten. Has everything been okay? Are my parents doing well? Did Albio gain any sense yet? Of course he hasn’t.
Right, I know you hate it when people beat around the bush. I’ll get straight to the point.
I’m going to be away for a while. About six months?
I found a job. They said they’ll give me 20,000 gold if I work as a forest keeper for six months in a forest outside the estate.
The moment Kirsten saw the words “forest keeper” and “20,000 gold,” his brow furrowed. There was only one recent flyer offering an enormous reward for a forest keeper.
You’re frowning right now, aren’t you? I also planned not to do it once I realized what kind of job it was. But the amount is just too big.
For the record, it’s not a scam, so don’t worry. I guarantee it.
I also have a means to stay safe.
That’s all for the main point!
Please take care of the mansion.
You are the hope of our family, Kirsten!
I’ll earn a lot of money and give you a raise!
See you in six months.
PS. I received the down payment, so I’m sending it along.
Make sure Father doesn’t invest in any weird businesses, monitor Mother to stop her shopping, and just lock Albio up. It would be even better if you hit him. He needs to be hit a little, doesn’t he?
Oh, and if you’re planning to stop me, it’s already too late. By the time you see this, I’ll have already arrived!
— Nia.>
The postscript looked more like the main point than the body of the letter itself.
“Ha…”
He regretted reading the letter. Thanks to the reckless Young Lady, the amount of work he had to handle had doubled. Just as he was pressing his temples to soothe a stress-induced headache, the door burst open.
“Kirsten! Increase my dignity maintenance funds!”
“Kirsten, the dragon egg Gordon gave me just moved! Come and see!”
Looking at the Viscountess complaining without even knowing where her daughter had gone, and the Viscount holding an egg stained with red paint in excitement, Kirsten let out a blatant sigh.
It couldn’t be helped that he felt like he had been handed the heaviest burden in the world.
* * *
‘I wonder if Kirsten has seen the letter by now?’
Her heart felt much lighter knowing she had left the biggest worries to Kirsten. As she had written in the letter, Ponia had already left the estate and was inside Mirvan Forest.
Right in front of her was the back of a man who was in charge of guiding her to the lodging.
“Excuse me, Jerome? When will we see the cabin?”
“We are almost there.”
That’s the third time you’ve said that.
The man, who introduced himself as Jerome, hadn’t spoken first unless absolutely necessary during the three days they traveled by carriage. Still, the silence that had lasted for three days felt awkward, so Ponia spoke up.
“I heard that once someone enters the forest, they never return, but seeing you, Jerome, it seems those were just false rumors.”
“I am only in charge of guidance to the lodging. I do not know much about the other areas. I have no intention of going there either.”
“…Still, I’m looking forward to living while looking at the beautiful scenery of the forest.”
“Other people said things like that too. They are all gone now.”
Great, the stiff atmosphere has now become uncontrollably heavy.
After thirty more minutes of walking in silence, Jerome finally spoke.
“The cabin will be visible soon. If you look over there…”
His sentence trailed off.
However, Ponia, whose feet were starting to ache, didn’t notice anything strange and looked bright. She poked her head out to see the cabin hidden behind his tall frame.
“Oh, we’ve arrive—”
Then, she experienced the same symptom as Jerome.
A heavy silence, incomparable to before, settled between them. The clear chirping of birds felt exceptionally loud.
It was Ponia who broke the silence again.
“Where exactly is the cabin?”
The cabin where she was supposed to stay for the next six months revealed itself.
“All I see in front of me is a ruin.”
With the roof collapsed, no less.
* * *
Should I just quietly go back?
Looking at the one side of the roof that had caved in and the moss covering the cabin, it looked like it hadn’t been maintained for ten years. The logs visible between the moss also appeared ancient.
As if sensing Ponia’s freezing heart, Jerome explained with a rare, flustered expression.
“It seems lightning struck last night.”
“…Is that a common occurrence?”
“Not at all. This is the first time I’ve experienced this as well.”
I don’t believe you at all.
“Is this the only place to stay?”
“…Yes. I will call for someone to repair it. For now, let us head back.”
“How long will the repairs take?”
“I’ll have to see, but I think it will take about two months. Not just the roof, but the whole thing seems to need a complete overhaul.”
Two months.
After pondering deeply, Ponia soon reached a conclusion.
“I’ll just start staying here from today.”
“…Pardon?”
“This time counts toward the six-month period, right?”
The grace period until bankruptcy was only six months. She didn’t have time to wait until the cabin was fixed. Whether it rained or lightning struck the cabin again, Ponia had to stay in that cabin for half a year.
‘I can’t let the family disappear just for my own comfort, right?’
“… .”
“Jerome?”
Why is his expression exactly the same as the employees at the recruitment office?
“…I will find a technician as quickly as possible.”
Jerome, quickly composing his expression, handed over two large bags he had been carrying.
“These are basic supplies. One side contains food that can be stored for a long time and emergency first-aid kits, while the other contains comfortable clothes to move in.”
After pouring out the information rapidly, Jerome pulled a parchment from his robe.
“Now, I will explain what you need to do here for six months.”
When he spread the parchment on a flat rock, it became a large rough map. Ponia’s eyes began to sparkle.
‘Found it, my means of survival!’
“The triangles marked here represent cabins, and the circles mean safe zones. Consider the right side from the cabin as East.”
“What about these X marks?”
“Those are the habitats of wild animals identified so far. You can think of them as danger zones.”
“…Wild animals…”
Jerome’s words sounded plausible, but Ponia, who already knew the true nature of this forest, knew he was lying.
Caw! Caw!
Because there were no such things as “wild animals” in this forest.
In the novel, Mirvan Forest was famous by another name.
The Forest of Monsters.
Mirvan Forest was a habitat for monsters.
All monsters within the Empire were safely managed or subjugated by the Imperial Family.
Contrary to what they publicly announced, the Imperial Family was unable to subjugate the monsters of Mirvan Forest alone. This was because the population was so large and diverse.
Ultimately, they had to block access to the forest and station people to monitor the monsters’ movements. Since they couldn’t station important Imperial figures in a dangerous forest, the recruitment targets were ignorant citizens whose deaths would cause no trouble.
But it was fine. She had this map.
Ponia looked closely at the map. Various marks were left in different places. In the novel, Cionel used these marks to identify the monsters’ range of activity and conquer them. However, Ponia intended to use this a bit differently.
‘I will travel exactly in the opposite direction of the X marks.’
The goal was survival. She just had to monitor the monsters’ movements from a safe zone and report them, right?
‘Wait, this is a bit strange…?’
“Are these all the marks on the map? They seem very sparse.”
“That is exactly what you need to do.”
“Hmm?”
“This map of the forest is not yet complete, and our goal is to finish the forest map.”
She felt that something was going wrong, but Jerome’s explanation was faster than her realization.
“You are to patrol the areas excluding those marked on the map and leave your own marks.”
“…Excluding them?”
“Yes.”
“… .”
“If you have no further questions, then to the cabin…”
“No, wait! Just a second!”
“Yes.”
Jerome was substituting the word “monsters” with “wild animals.” So, in other words…
“So, my job isn’t to monitor the movements of the wild animals already discovered…”
“Correct. Your job is to find the habitats of wild animals that have not yet been discovered.”
The scattered puzzle pieces clicked together on their own.
Sparse marks on a large map, people who didn’t return, and Cionel, who subjugated the monsters based on the densely packed marks on the map.
Cionel owning the forest and conducting the subjugation was a future that happened after he became a Duke.
Ponia realized she had been completely mistaken.
In other words, this map, which would be perfectly completed in the future…
‘Was currently incomplete…’
That meant what the Imperial Family needed wasn’t a “scarecrow” forest keeper, but a living sacrifice for the monsters.
In short…
“I’m screwed.”
