Chapter 11

“…Alright, if it comes to that I’ll take it. Thanks, Sompara. I’ll wear this until it’s worn to tatters.”
“No need to go that far… you’re not a beggar.”
“I am a beggar, though….”
I am a beggar. This is the only clothing I have.
“Ahem, don’t worry. If I can taste that heavenly apple pie one more time, I’ll do my best to make clothes for you, Miss Zoe.”
“That was all it took? Haha, I’ll make you another. So it’s a kind of deal then. Barter. Okay? Don’t go handing them out to other people for free — you’ll pick up bad habits.”
“Understood, I’ll remember. Miss Zoe!”
It was a cool, businesslike agreement punctuated by a compliment on manners.
I took Sompara’s tentacle as he offered a handshake.

[<System> Congratulations! You have tamed a ‘Great Monster’.]

• Tamed monsters are automatically registered in the player’s monster compendium.

• The title ‘Monster Tamer’ levels up from 1 -> 3.

…Wait, I just tamed a great monster with a single apple pie?
I let out a hollow laugh at the system message and prepared to head home.

“Miss Zoe, are you sure you’ll be alright on your own? I can escort you home, really…”
“Oh, you know I’m fine, right? I’m strong.”
I refused the golem’s kindness and hefted up my massively increased load.
“Ugh. Golem, Sompara — I’ll bake lots of pies and come visit again.”
“Of course. I swear on the honor of the Sompara people that I’ll make clothes to your liking, so do come by!”
“Miss Zoe. Stay safe! Always watch the water, watch the fire, and watch out for monsters!”
Receiving the golem’s nagging and Andre Som’s enthusiastic see-off, I trudged home.
“Aigoo, Ruby. You sleepy?”
“Guuuu…”
Maybe due to post-meal sleepiness, Ruby — my plump pup — dozed in the basket, looking out of it with droopy eyes. Our chubby dog… it’s fine, even if Ruby gets fat she’s still cute.
But I…
I bowed my head slightly. Beneath my lowered gaze my chubby cheeks were visible.
I really had put on some weight lately — must be from eating well.
…Good. At first I was all skin and bone and pitiful, but now my complexion’s better.
Besides, if I’m going to be digging, I need stamina, right? So let all this become muscle.
While I indulged in such pointless thoughts, my home sweet home came into view.
But…
“Hmm…? What’s that?”
A dark shape seemed faintly visible a little away from my house.
I squinted to get a better look, but with the sun setting it was hard to identify.
“…What is it, could it be a monster?”
At that moment the golem’s warning flashed through my mind: “Miss Zoe, there are quite dangerous monsters deeper in the forest. I will always be on guard, of course, but your house is close to the Demon Forest, so be careful.”
But I’m never scared. A girl’s got to have guts.
I comforted myself with that and decided to call out.
“…H-hello! Ahem ahem, hey. Who are you?”
My voice came out barely steady, but no answer came back.
“Uh, hey?”
The shadow drew closer and finally came into view. To find out what it was, I gripped my basket tight and blinked as my eyes adjusted.
“…It’s — a person?”
What revealed itself was a person — collapsed, lying on the ground. A young-looking man about my age. I flung my things down and ran to him.
“Hey, are you okay? Come on, wake up!”
Up close he looked terrible. His clothes were badly torn; intermittent thin groans and ragged breaths made it seem like he could die at any moment.
‘Oh my, what a state. Did monsters attack him?’
Sensing the urgency, I scooped him up in a princess carry and dashed home.
‘Could this person be another game player like me? Or a character from the game world?’
The game I’d been possessed into — Animal Park — was a farming-style healing RPG, but like any RPG it had NPCs who gave quests. The kind, neighborly farmer who ran the chicken coop, or the merchant who bought and sold crops — typical NPCs.
Anyway, whoever he was, he was the first person I’d encountered here who wasn’t a monster.
Even if he wasn’t another possessor, this was my only chance to ask someone about this world.
But, but!
“Hey, wake up!”
The man I had carried flopped limply.
Is he… dead?
Meeting someone and parting already? What kind of 0-confession 1st-encounter is this?
There’s no funeral home here either, so I’d have to bury him myself…
“Wake up… gah! Hot!”
I laid him on the bed and pressed my hand to his forehead — he was burning up like a furnace.
This was a life-or-death situation that could lead to me digging in the backyard with a shovel if I didn’t act.
“Don’t die, please…”
Hoping to prevent that fate, I wiped his damp face and body with a cloth.
His face, hidden beneath his messy bangs, was revealed.
“…Not really the time to say this, but…”
Staring closely at his distinct features, I murmured.
“He’s really handsome.”
For someone on the brink of death, he was truly good-looking.
Jet-black hair, long neat eyelashes, a tear spot at the corner of his eye, a sharp nose.
Even his reddened, full lips…
“Wow… He looks like a romance novel’s male lead description, doesn’t he?”
If my friend Yaeun, a romance novel fanatic, had seen him she would have swooned.
She’d say, “He looks cold on the outside and experienced in love, but actually clumsy and shy, and tender only to his woman — definitely a strong northern duke type,” and go nuts.
Huh. I wasn’t into those novel characters; I was crazy about animals…
Still, with a face like this I could get into obsessing over him.
If I had to describe him in my own way, he looked like EcoLand’s famous handsome leopard ‘Pyodori.’
I paused to imagine his eye color.
Would he have red eyes like the trope of the northern duke with black hair?
Or would he break the cliché with clear blue eyes?
…Well, one thing’s for sure:
This guy is definitely not the friendly neighbor farmer. Absolutely not.
“Uuu….”
His fragile groan snapped me out of my daydream.
“…I can’t be daydreaming at a time like this. What am I doing in front of a dying northern duke — I mean person?”
I pulled myself together and opened my item menu.
“See? Nothing beats this!”
I took out a healing handkerchief and wiped the reddish bruises and cuts on his body; the wounds disappeared cleanly.
But the healing handkerchief can only heal visible injuries, so I wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Hmm, then… rely on consumables.
I tore the house apart looking for helpful items.
“My stamina potion I saved… oh, and this too.”
With the house full of supplies, I hurried back and gently shook the man awake.
Force-feeding an unconscious person is risky — what if it gets lodged and I become a criminal…?
“Hey, please wake up! Or at least open your mouth, come on!”
“Uuu….”
At my nagging, he parted his lips slightly, and I carefully poured in a stamina recovery potion. Not enough, I also fed him a pill made from the modified bergamot recovery herb the golem had once gifted me.
“There we go… good job.”
Like tending a child, I wiped the corners of his mouth with a cloth.
That was all the first aid I could do.
Honestly, with his condition it would be appropriate to take him to a hospital, but…
There’s no hospital nearby, only open fields swarming with monsters.
In this no-solution situation I decided to watch over him until he regained consciousness.
“This bedding has a stamina recovery effect, so you’ll be fine soon.”
I whispered as I covered the still-groaning man with the blanket.