The Vegan Troll's Cabin, Part 7
The reason the pure-blood troll had raided the human village was because of his Coming-of-Age Ceremony.
"Trolls are a single race, but even within the same species, cultures vary greatly from tribe to tribe."
"It's the same for us. There are countless tribes within the Great Forest."
Falco nodded in agreement with Billy's explanation. Come to think of it, she also ran away from her own tribe,Yohan thought, glancing at Falco sitting beside him.
That aside, the story had taken a turn that even Yohan, who had suffered through all kinds of hardships in this world, couldn't just brush off.
"You have to kill someone to be recognized as an adult? Those guys are completely out of their minds."
Yohan spoke with genuine disgust. Billy and Falco nodded repeatedly in agreement.
"My father and all the other adults in the village took up arms."
Billy's father was certainly much stronger than an ordinary human, given that half the blood flowing through his veins was troll blood. However, it wasn't enough to face a pure-blood troll—a literal killing machine trained in the art of slaughter since childhood.
"And that day, everyone in the village, including my parents, was slaughtered by his hands. I was the only survivor—"
"Whoa, hold on a second."
How could he talk about such a horrific tragedy so casually? Yohan instinctively jumped up from his seat, almost tempted to cover Billy's mouth.
"Is something wrong?"
"I literally told you that if it's a painful memory, you don't have to force yourself to tell us."
"Ah. It's fine, really. It happened when I was very young, after all."
Billy replied in a perfectly calm tone. But Yohan could tell he hadn't actually overcome his past trauma. Billy was detached, speaking of his own history as if it had happened to someone else. It was likely the only way his mind could cope with the sheer weight of it.
"Why did he spare only you?"
When Falco asked, Billy pointed a finger at his own face.
"He said, 'Even if you're a half-breed, you're still a child of our kind.' My father was an adult who fought on the side of the humans, so he was considered an enemy."
"What kind of twisted, bullshit logic is that?"
Yohan clicked his tongue. Billy could only offer a bitter smile.
"And then, he took me back to his village."
Yohan's eyes widened at Billy's next words.
"Wait. The bastard who slaughtered your entire village and kidnapped you that day..."
"Yes. That's right. The pure-blood troll who underwent his Coming-of-Age Ceremony that day is the current chief of the nearby Troll Village."
He had massacred innocent villagers just to be recognized as an adult. Yet, he had spared Billy, who was a mere child, claiming they shared the same blood.
"Back then, he told me this: 'If you resent me for killing your parents, grow up and take my position from me by force.'"
“How utterly bizarre,” the Unnamed Goddess chimed in, unable to listen in silence any longer. “To take in the child of an enemy he personally slew, intending to raise him as his successor.”
Yohan silently agreed with her.
"Of course, I had absolutely no intention of becoming a member of the troll tribe or playing the part of his successor."
From the time the newly initiated troll brought young Billy to the village, the Troll Village had maintained the 'custom' of eating humans captured from nearby settlements. Billy refused to assimilate with his so-called 'kin.' However, that didn't mean he had completely rejected meat from the very beginning.
"Since I was a child, my mother taught me all kinds of knowledge. She said a day might come when I'd need it, and she was right."
"Knowledge is power, after all."
"Yes. I believe so too."
Armed with nothing but a hand-crafted stone axe, Billy had built his own house. While this was partly thanks to the basic construction knowledge he had learned from his mother, it was also made possible by his innate physical capabilities as a half-troll.
"At first, it was literally just a shack. There was no concept of rooms, and the entrance was just a piece of cloth instead of a proper door."
But after years of relentless effort, Billy finally completed the cabin that Yohan and Falco were currently visiting.
"Once I had a proper roof over my head, my mind felt much more at ease. So, I started growing plants as a hobby."
"Ah, no wonder there was a flower bed near the house."
At Yohan's remark, Billy nodded gently.
"Now that the soil is soaked in troll blood, the flowers and potatoes will grow exceptionally well."
"..."
However, at Falco's subsequent comment, Billy wore an expression as if he had just witnessed something horrifying.
"Anyway, things got a lot better once I started living in this cabin. At least I didn't have to watch my family or friends die right before my eyes anymore."
Billy lived without belonging to either the Troll Village or the Human Village. He refused to go near the trolls on his own accord, and even when he occasionally visited the human settlements, it was impossible to form any friendly bonds with the residents.
"Do you know what the funny thing is?"
Breaking away from the heavy tone, Billy suddenly asked Yohan in an oddly excited voice.
"What is it?"
"How did the villagers react when you two first arrived at the Human Village?"
"I felt like they could have killed us with their glares alone."
"Exactly. That's it. The very first day I went to the Human Village, I had to run away immediately."
Yohan felt a wave of dizziness wash over him at Billy's response.
"Did they throw stones at you, calling you a man-eating monster?"
Falco asked instead. Billy shook his head.
"No. From the villagers' perspective, if they laid a finger on me—even if I was just a young troll—their entire village would be wiped out in retaliation."
"Then what did they do?"
"The moment they saw me, everyone ran and hid. The children just collapsed on the spot, crying their eyes out."
Until not too long ago, Billy had been a recognized member of the village, even if his unusual appearance occasionally caused friction. But to the residents of the Human Village, who lived under the tyrannical rule of the Troll Village, Billy was no longer just a local kid. He was a man-eating monster.
Billy had never done anything wrong. But the villagers had no way of knowing that, nor did they have any reason to care.
"..."
Yohan and Falco fell silent. At this point, it was impossible to even crack a joke.
Billy had done absolutely nothing wrong. Yet, swept up in the tyranny of a single troll, he had lost his family and friends before his very eyes, only to end up branded as a man-eating monster by everyone else.
"I think that's why I isolated myself even more. Still, living here did have its perks."
Unlike the two villages, Billy's Cabin was situated in a location where travelers passing through the region would naturally stumble upon it. Thanks to this, whenever lost travelers stopped by to ask if there were any nearby villages, he could warn them about the man-eating trolls and urge them to flee immediately.
The rumors spread by one of those travelers had eventually reached Yohan's party through Wilhelm.
"The villagers never came anywhere near my cabin. Except for one person."
"One person?"
Yohan asked instinctively. Billy nodded with a faint smile.
The one who had visited Billy's Cabin was a young girl from the Human Village.
"It was right around dusk. I was resting inside when someone knocked on the door."
The girl, who had suddenly appeared at Billy's Cabin, had been wandering through the darkening forest before finally stumbling upon a house.
"Did she think it didn't matter whether she got eaten by wild beasts or trolls while wandering the woods?"
"Ah, probably not. There are barely any wild animals around here to begin with."
Come to think of it, we couldn't even find a single rabbit earlier, let alone a deer or a boar, so we had to catch fish from the river. Recalling this, Yohan glanced sideways at Falco.
"S-See? It wasn't because of my lack of skill. The forest elf is innocent!"
Sure enough, Falco rattled off excuses without even being prompted.
"Hey, don't ruin the mood right when things are getting interesting."
A village girl visiting Billy, who was misunderstood as a monster—what a sweet, heartwarming development. However, Yohan could immediately tell that their story hadn't ended happily. If it had, that girl would be sitting in the empty seat across the table right now.
"She was younger than me, but there wasn't a huge age gap."
Billy stared blankly at the ceiling as if lost in the past, continuing his tale.
"I asked her why she had come to the home of a green-skinned monster so late at night. She told me she had run away from home, got lost when the sun went down, and spotted my house while wandering around."
"She ran away?"
"Yes, she ran away. Isn't that funny?"
The residents of the Human Village faced total annihilation if even a single person was caught escaping. The fact that the girl had run away anyway meant one of two things: either she truly didn't care if everyone died, or that brutal rule didn't exist when Billy and the girl first met. Circumstantially, the latter was far more likely. Thus, Yohan didn't pry any further.
"Anyway, I gave her some food, let her sleep inside, and personally escorted her back to the village at dawn the next day."
Billy had previously been deeply scarred by his encounters with the villagers. The fact that he still chose to accompany the girl back meant he cared more for her safety than his own emotional distress. Recognizing this, the Unnamed Goddess quietly admired his heart.
"Naturally, the village was thrown into an uproar. A man-eating monster had brought a human back to the village. Still, they didn't freak out quite as openly as before."
After safely returning the girl to her family, Billy immediately headed back to his cabin.
"A few days passed. Out of nowhere, someone knocked on my door again. It was the same girl who had run away."
Having realized that Billy's Cabin was not a dangerous place, the girl began visiting him regularly from then on.
"At first, I told her to go back because her family would worry, but she kept coming back over and over. Eventually, I just threw up my hands and gave in."
"Ah, now we're talking."
Unlike Falco, who listened to Billy's story with a stoic expression, Yohan let out exclamations of satisfaction here and there, as if tossing back a cold beer.
"About three years passed like that. Before I knew it, I had built a table for four and four chairs."
How wholesome. How sweet. Yohan imagined the nameless girl and Billy sitting across from each other at the wooden table, chatting away.
"It felt like I had gone back to my childhood. I was just so happy to have a friend I could talk to comfortably."
Of course, even during those years, one villager was sacrificed annually. That grim reality was the ultimate reason Billy could never truly integrate into the village.
"In the meantime, the bastard who had kidnapped me and brought me to the Troll Village rose to become the next chief."
Suddenly, Billy's expression grew heavy.
"It's widely believed that the annual sacrifices sent to the Troll Village are chosen at random by the trolls."
"So they mask the sheer injustice of being eaten alive under the guise of a 'fair' selection process."
"Yes. Exactly. And in truth, it wasn't random at all."
Suddenly, Yohan got a very bad feeling. He inwardly hoped his suspicion was wrong.
"The authority to choose the sacrifice for that year rested solely with the chief."
Yohan squeezed his eyes shut.
"And the moment that bastard became chief, as if he had been waiting for the chance, he chose her as that year's sacrifice."