I'm Not a Yeti!
This snowfield was uncharted land—a harsh wilderness where you could never afford to let your guard down.
Unlike Antico, where hunters regularly thinned the monster population, this place was pure, untouched nature. Monsters could appear at any moment, so constant vigilance was simply part of daily life.
Which meant that, every so often, you ran into one.
Like right now.
A monkey that looked like a sloth hanging from a conifer—a Skimago.
————KEEEE!!
The Skimago that had been watching us from the tree stretched out its claws and dropped.
“Hyaat!”
Pina threw herself sideways without a second’s hesitation, darting clear of the fight. She was surprisingly fast even with that heavy pack on her back. She fled without so much as a glance back.
I drew my dual blades, took a light step forward, and turned to face the Skimago.
I had already expected this kind of ambush from them.
Its claws raked uselessly across the ground. The Skimago failed to land cleanly, tumbled once, then scrambled upright.
————KYAAA!!
It bared its fangs and threatened me. Trying to cover the embarrassment of a failed ambush, by the look of it.
I snorted and raised my blades. As always, reverse grip in the left hand, forward grip in the right, crossed at the center.
Whatever nerve had made it try a sneak attack, it was about to pay the full price.
Calling what followed a fight would have been generous. It was a low-class monster—nothing more than one-sided violence.
My dual blades met it several times, leaving careful wounds across its body. The moment it faltered, I drove a blade into the nape of its neck and opened its windpipe.
————KYAAAKrr….
Blood poured from its throat as the Skimago collapsed limply.
I wiped a droplet of blood from my face with the back of my hand and muttered,
“Trying an ambush, of all things.”
The price of an ambush was death.
I wiped the blood from the blades with a cloth and slid them back into their sheaths.
“Alice-nim, are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It was nothing.”
“Maybe it’s only nothing to you, Alice-nim? Are all the people from the future like this…?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. Pina beamed.
“It really was nothing of a monster!”
“Yeah. Let’s just butcher it for now.”
There wasn’t much useful material, but maybe I’d take a little for collection.
I pulled out a skinning knife and peeled the hide from the Skimago. No essence, and the materials were only low-class—nothing I would ever use. Aside from proof that we had killed a Skimago, it had no value at all.
I took a little bone and hide and left the carcass. There was another guest who had business with it.
As soon as Pina and I stepped aside, Neveterde—who had been trailing us from a distance—took an interest in the body. She sat carefully in front of the carcass, bent to sniff it, then sliced off a piece of flesh with her sharp hands and ate a handful.
Watching, Pina said,
“She’s eating really well. She must have been starving.”
She had been following us since morning, so of course she was hungry.
Neveterde didn’t move an inch while she ate. If we left now, she wouldn’t be able to keep up. I had no intention of dragging a tail around with us.
“Let’s go.”
“Eh? Weren’t we waiting for her?”
“…Why would we wait for that? It’s a monster.”
“But she’s a little cute. Trotting after us like that. Maybe she was only born recently?”
Even if she was born recently, she was still born long before you…
I almost said it, then shut my mouth. Strictly speaking, I myself was a descendant born far later than Pina.
“…Still, she’s a clever one.”
You could see it in the way she ate. Neveterde didn’t bury her head in the carcass and gorge; she used her hands skillfully. Even with red blood staining her hands and dripping from her chin, she looked elegant for a monster.
“So let’s go. Clever ones are dangerous.”
“Yeees…”
Pina sounded a little disappointed. Had she already forgotten how wary she had been of Neveterde at first?
I glanced at Neveterde once more, then walked on without hesitation.
————♪ ♬?
Neveterde noticed we were leaving. She made a careful sound that wouldn’t carry far—a beautiful sound, full of something that felt like it was trying to hold us back.
“Uh…”
Pina turned her head slightly. I didn’t spare even a glance. I wasn’t free enough to wait around for a monster.
If she had business with me, she should have come with Neveumano instead of alone.
I didn’t stop walking. Pina’s hesitant steps quickened to match mine.
Tap— tap— tap—.
Soft footsteps behind us. I stopped. The footsteps stopped with me. I turned and looked at Neveterde, who had followed.
She was holding a piece of meat in her hand, trailing after us. Her blue eyes fixed on me. I blinked and met that gaze.
“What exactly do you want?”
I knew a monster couldn’t understand human speech, but I asked out of sheer frustration.
Neveterde just stood there like a dog. We kept a certain distance and neither of us closed it.
When I still refused to move, Neveterde moved first. She walked back to the Skimago carcass, tore free a bone, returned, and gently set it on the ground. Then she stood still and peeked at me.
Pina tilted her head.
“I think it’s a gift?”
How is that a gift?
I considered how to handle this. It was the first time anything like it had ever happened to me; I had no idea what to do.
A monster showing goodwill…? Receiving goodwill that was hard enough to get from people, from a monster of all things—it was almost funny.
I wasn’t the kind of villain who crushed goodwill. If anything, I was weak to it.
“Haa……”
I lowered my eyes and sighed. I looked at the footprints Pina and I had left in the snow, then at Neveterde’s at the end of the trail. Even both of ours put together were smaller than hers.
Neveterde was unmistakably a monster. Yet that attitude of hers made everything complicated.
I walked toward her. She didn’t move or react as I approached—just blinked and watched me carefully.
What a twisted connection.
What am I supposed to do with you?
I’m supposed to kill you together with Neveumano.
Before I knew it I was standing in front of the bone she had set down. Neveterde didn’t take a single step.
“…….”
Because I had ignored the meat and taken only bone and hide, she had decided that was the proper gift. We simply needed different things from each other.
Thinking it through calmly, maybe Neveterde had chosen me as a second Neveumano—like being chosen by a stray cat.
Does she think she’s some kind of stray cat?
I looked at her, then carefully knelt and picked up the Skimago bone.
“Hmm.”
I could feel Neveterde’s chill on it. I glanced up at her once, then stood.
The eyes watching me were bright and sparkling.
Normally I would have drawn the sword at my waist on the spot. Right now there was no reason to. No desire to, either.
Having Neveterde along wasn’t a bad thing. If she wandered around calling, finding Neveumano’s location would become much easier.
The only question was how far she would follow. If she trotted all the way to Lacrima Outpost, my position would get awkward.
Still, the way she acted so human bothered me.
Neveterde must have had a hard time avoiding other monsters while searching for Neveumano. I still clearly remembered how troubled she had looked because of that One-Eyed Luga-lac the first time we met. No matter how many times she called, guests other than Neveumano must have shown up.
Somehow that sight stirred a strange feeling in me. I had been alone once, too.
At the same time, she looked like a child searching for a guardian—even though she was far larger than me and strong enough to kill a human in an instant.
Struggling to survive was the same for humans and monsters alike.
————?
After I stared at her for a long while, Neveterde tilted her head.
Is this your choice for survival?
She herself probably had no idea what she was doing, but acting this way toward a hunter who went around killing monsters was deeply ironic.
Yet a hunter’s work isn’t only killing monsters. Leaving human footprints on the world and exploring the unknown beyond Cartadia—that is what we do.
In that sense, Neveterde herself was the unknown to us.
“…All right.”
I lowered the hand holding the bone.
But how was I supposed to convey my meaning to her? Gestures and signs would never get through.
While I fretted uselessly, the silent Neveterde reached out. Her hand hovered above my hair, then carefully pinched a strand between her fingertips and let it slip free.
“Heok—!”
Pina, watching from behind, made a sound as if she had seen something she shouldn’t.
What on earth is this?
I flinched right along with her and stared at Neveterde.
She had parted her lips slightly, the corners of her mouth lifted in a smile.
The moment I saw that smile, I suddenly remembered the Snow Woman and the Yeti from the game.
The Snow Woman and the Yeti—Neveterde and Neveumano—were top-tier monsters that had appeared in an additional update, just like Miteraos or Disastro.
In the update trailer back then, there had been a scene of Neveterde grooming Neveumano’s fur.
Neveumano was covered head to toe in white fur just like my hair……
.
.
.
I—I’m not a Yeti!