Meeting Noah
The one who stepped forward to speak for the four was a woman in light armor.
"Thank you."
The first words out of her mouth were gratitude. And she didn't stop there—she chattered on eagerly.
"I'm Noah. What's your name?"
"...Alice."
"Alice, huh."
"Yeah."
This was the first time I'd spoken to anyone in this body, and even as the words left my mouth they felt awkward. Maybe this body just wasn't built for conversation. Then again, the player character in the game never talked either.
The important thing was that in Hunter Land, the protagonist truly never spoke a single word. Honestly, most games were like that. The protagonist was the silent hero, and the NPCs never found it strange. Maybe that was the problem here.
I could think all I wanted, but the words still wouldn't come out smoothly. On top of that, speaking in this voice—a voice that didn't feel like mine—gave me a visceral sense of rejection. Talking to strangers was a little uncomfortable too. It was a problem both for the character and for me personally.
Alice was the name I'd decided on after falling into this world. My character username had been Bunny Princess, but introducing myself as Bunny Princess felt... wrong. So I'd fretted over a name on my own, and Alice in Wonderland had suddenly come to mind. A leap of association from Bunny Princess. It was a thoroughly satisfying name.
"Um, does it hurt?"
"It hurts."
Noah was a strikingly attractive woman—the stretch fabric visible beneath her blue outer garment was particularly appealing. Her abs, honed by a hunter's life, stood out in sharp relief. She looked like the kind of person who'd have zero body fat if you touched her. And with those abs, she still had a cool, refreshing beauty to her face. She was taller than me—and it wasn't just height. Her arms and legs stretched long and lean. Her eyes and hair were unexpectedly dark, ordinary.
"...Um, Alice?"
"Yeah."
"I have some medicine. Want me to put some on?"
"Sure."
Noah turned to look at her party.
"For now, let's skin the Luga-lac. Hmm... that should be fine, right? Set aside Nab's share separately. It was a capture mission, but... well, it can't be helped. Us being alive is what matters. Let's at least take the materials."
Wait—we were supposed to bring it back alive? If you'd told me earlier, I wouldn't have beaten it to death. Killing the target on a capture mission was basically trolling. Well, neither of us had known the situation, and I had saved their lives, so it should be fine.
"Come on, let's head over that way for now."
"...Can't we just do it here?"
"...No. Your clothes are completely ruined."
Noah touched the hem of my clothes. Fair enough—it was hard to even call them clothes anymore. Torn and tattered beyond recognition, they were more like scraps of fabric. Noah must have been conscious of my exposed body. Grateful for her consideration, I went behind a tree.
Noah set down her bag, rummaged through her gear, and pulled out a cloth first. I wondered what she planned to do with it—then she wiped the blood from my face. Most of it was the Luga-lac's.
"Mmph..."
"Just bear with it a little. There's a lot of blood on your face."
She scrubbed my face without mercy.
Somebody save me...
Apparently satisfied that most of the blood was gone, she draped the cloth over her shoulder and pulled out recovery medicine and bandages. I thought she'd start treating me right away, but that wasn't it. Noah stared at me for a moment, then swallowed hard.
"...There seem to be wounds under your clothes too. Can I lift them?"
"I don't mind."
Noah looked a little embarrassed. Did she not like seeing another woman's bare body? Well, even guys hated seeing each other naked, so I understood. Honestly, I was embarrassed too. I used to be a guy, you know. Still, I did my best not to show it.
She smeared medicine over the small cuts on my stomach and legs. She treated the older wounds too, then wrapped them in bandages. A stinging pain flared up now and then.
"Ngh..."
"You okay?"
"It hurts a little."
Noah wiped away the blood with the cloth. The pain was sharp enough to make me flinch and grimace hard. I could count on one hand the times I'd been hurt this badly in my life. The worst injury I'd ever had was falling down as a kid.
"Just a little longer."
"Mmngh..."
Wow, this actually hurts so bad I could die.
I chewed on my lip and endured it. I hadn't noticed during the fight, but putting medicine on the wounds was pure agony. From now on, no more close-range greatsword fighting without armor. The beating power was great, but my body couldn't take it. Couldn't this world just work like a game, where drinking a potion filled your HP right up?
Noah finished dressing the wounds with bandages, pinned them in place, and only then let me go.
"In a day, the wounds should all be gone."
"Thanks."
"We're the ones who should be thanking you."
Noah chuckled and started packing her things. I moved my body, checking the bandaged shoulder and stomach. The bandages didn't restrict my movement at all. Then I noticed Noah staring at me intently.
"What?"
"...You don't have spare clothes?"
"Nope."
My fluttering, ruined clothes must have been bothering her.
"Want to borrow some of mine?"
"If you don't mind."
Noah even pulled spare clothes from her bag and handed them to me.
Noah... is she an angel?
I set the clothes Noah had given me down for a moment and started pulling my ruined top up from the bottom. But Noah was still looking at me. Even though she'd given me the clothes, putting them on right then was awkward. Changing in front of a woman was embarrassing. I pulled the top up to my chest, then lowered it again and looked at Noah.
"...Hey, Noah."
"What's wrong?"
"Could you, uh, let me change..."
"Ah! Right... S-sorry!"
Noah hurriedly gathered her things and left. Only then could I change. Noah's clothes were bigger than I'd expected. The, uh, chest size had room to spare...
Of course, as a guy, that didn't bother me at all!
Noah looked at her companions as they skinned the carcass.
"So the commission's a bust after all..."
"Well, at least we didn't die. The lab director's going to be disappointed, though."
Having escaped the brink of death, the party members seemed to have let their tension go—they chuckled as they peeled the hide from the Luga-lac. That said, they weren't carving the Luga-lac into pretty star shapes or anything. Skinning only what was needed was standard practice. Taking the entire carcass was illegal. It was heavy, for one thing, and there was the custom of returning the body to nature. That was the stated reason, but in truth it was a warning against indiscriminate resource harvesting. Processing a large corpse was also a hassle. Leave it like this, and other monsters would scavenge it.
What they took from the skinning was just enough large parts for each person to carry their share. Even that was plenty of material for each of them. Noah joined the skinning late. The One-Eyed Luga-lac was a first for them, so securing materials was important. She cut into the hides her companions had already peeled back, tearing free the bones and parts she needed.
Then something like a glinting light caught her eye.
"...This is—"
"Ah, you mean the essence?"
The essence of power the Luga-lac had carried. It was the driving force behind their endless capacity to fight, but most shattered during combat, making it nearly impossible to recover one intact. Fortunately, this one's condition was excellent. The monster itself had survived so many years that its essence was hard and resistant to breaking. It was remarkable that no one had taken such a rare essence. It would have been tempting, but as if by unspoken agreement, they'd all left the essence alone.
"We felt weird about taking that one, so we just left it."
After all, Alice was the one who'd actually killed the Luga-lac. They'd left it for her. Noah nodded at their words.
"Let's hand this over separately."
No one objected. Noah extracted the essence from the Luga-lac's body, set it aside, and took only her own share. And they left the rest of the carcass where it was. This body would be eaten by other monsters and return to nature.
"So, uh... where's Alice?"
One of her companions asked Noah.
"She's getting dressed."
"...Yeah, her clothes were completely torn and worn out. Does she live out here?"
"Looks like she's hunting some kind of monster."
For hunters, long camping expeditions were nothing unusual. They'd come prepared for that when searching for this Luga-lac, and finding it in just a week was actually faster than expected. From their perspective, Alice had probably been in the Forest of Illusion longer than they had. She'd appeared suddenly from deep inside the forest, and her light clothing and various other signs pointed that way. She probably had some specific monster she was after.
But Noah thought differently.
...Those scars.
Alice's slender body was white as jade and beautiful even to another woman's eyes. Noah had stared so openly that Alice had gotten embarrassed. But the moment she'd lifted Alice's clothes, those thoughts had vanished completely. The scars covering her body told the story of how she'd survived. She must fight like that all the time—throwing her body into the fray without holding back, just as she had against the One-Eyed Luga-lac.
To Noah, it made no sense at all. For a hunter, life came first, and life came second. When your work was a matter of life and death, you were sensitive about that sort of thing. But Alice had driven herself forward without sparing her own life. In the end, she'd managed to take down the Luga-lac alone—but she'd been left in tatters herself.
What was driving her so hard? Why was Alice alone in the Forest of Illusion? One thought led to another. Noah soon shook her head. They'd only exchanged a few words. Noah could never know.
Alice's wounds had come from the various hardships after waking up in the forest. There had been scars from the start, but more small cuts had piled up from stumbling around, getting scraped by branches and underbrush, and hunting monsters for meat. There was nothing heroic about her activities. Just a desperate struggle to survive.
"Noah, I've got a good idea."
"...Huh?"
A companion cut through the chain of thoughts in Noah's head.
"If she's been operating out here for a while, she's got to have a campsite, right?"
"...Well, probably?"
"Let's impose on her for just one night."
"Ask even more of the person who already saved our lives?"
"We're not in good shape to head back as we are."
"..."
"Nab's still not doing well either."
"...Sorry."
Noah furrowed her brow, but her companion was right. They had no tools, and one of them had a critical wound that made moving difficult. If they ran into a monster on the way back like this, it would be dangerous. Was there no other choice? Noah groaned. Even she had to admit it was right. There was no room for argument.
Before long, Alice emerged in her new clothes. It was thin gear meant for forest operations, but the size was too big on Alice, making her look rather adorable. When Alice waved her arms, the sleeves were so long her hands didn't even come out—only the fabric fluttered. Noah smiled and approached her.
"Alice. Do you like it?"
"Except for how long it is."
"Good. I'm glad."
"There's room in the chest too."
"...Right."
That wasn't the important part. Noah smiled and bent her knees slightly to meet Alice's eye level.
"Hey, Alice. Do you live out here?"
"...What about it?"
"We're in a bad spot for heading back right now, so... could we come with you?"
Alice blinked at Noah's question.
"...It might be a little uncomfortable."
"We're fine with that! It's just—we have an injured person. We'll leave first thing tomorrow."
"Mm, okay."
Alice nodded. Only then did color return to the hunters' faces. It was as good as finding a safe zone in the dangerous forest. They could rest easy for a day there.
What kind of place would Alice's campsite be? The hunters imagined a wide clearing with a campfire. Usually you scattered monster dung to mark out a perimeter. They figured she'd set up in a safe spot like that. But the further they followed Alice, the deeper into the Forest of Illusion they went. They had a map, so getting lost wasn't a concern. But doubts began to grow about whether this could really be a safe zone. Alice, on the other hand, didn't hesitate in her steps. She seemed to know the way.
"We're here."
What they arrived at, in the end, was a cave.
"Ah..."
A campfire burned down to embers. An animal hide spread on the floor. Damp, clammy air. Bones piled in a corner, and a heap of chewed-and-spit-out grass. Even scratch marks of some kind. It was a brutally harsh environment. And somehow, Alice had been living there alone.
Everyone felt ashamed. Even while barely surviving on her own, she'd shown them consideration. They'd done nothing but take, and hadn't been able to help at all. The atmosphere turned solemn in an instant.
"...Why's everyone looking like that?"
Everyone except Alice.