First Footprints in This World
Everyone else had finished eating and was bundling up their gear, but I had nothing to do in the meantime.
All I had to take with me was a single greatsword. Even that only needed a spot on my back. Beyond it, I owned nothing. I was completely bare.
So I simply waited outside the cave for them to emerge.
If it were up to me, I would have left that very second.
My heart was pounding. Excitement surged through me.
But I didn't let it show. Broadcasting your feelings like that is the mark of an amateur.
A true expert savors even the waiting. Reaching that state of mind, the entire world looked beautiful.
I was finally about to leave my first footprints in this world.
If I was going to be a hunter, I would go all the way.
Just as I had in my original world, I would dare to aim for the very top.
That was the ambition I carried into this place. Even if the goal was absurd, you needed at least one like it to make things fun.
With my shallow knowledge and gritted-teeth control, I would somehow make it happen.
Nab was the one who charted their path out of the forest.
He was the best navigator among the four, and as an injured man it made sense to leave the wayfinding to him.
Map in one hand, Nab carefully considered each stretch of trail, determined not to lose them in the Forest of Illusion.
There was no guarantee, however, that the shortest route would be free of monsters.
And if that monster happened to be a Luga-lac, hunters who had already suffered a crushing defeat were bound to freeze up.
KRRRrrr…….
"Shut up."
Alice, though, felt none of that fear.
Before the hunters could even start calculating a response, she charged to the front.
This time she didn't thrash her body around the way she had before. Her attacks grew more restrained as a result—but that didn't mean she stopped attacking.
Slash—
She struck only the gaps between patterns, driving the Luga-lac back.
Wounded on one side only, the beast soon whined and fled.
It was a clever creature. It understood that the monster with the cherry-blossom eyes was simply beyond its reach.
"…It's running."
Alice did not give chase.
It wasn't their target. Driving it off was success enough.
It wasn't even a One-Eyed—just an ordinary Luga-lac—yet Alice had brought it down with nothing but a single greatsword, no tools of any kind.
It was nothing like the way a normal hunter fought.
Traps, snares, bombs… none of that applied to her.
She met the monster head-on, testing whose blade was harder.
How she could fight like that was beyond them.
Every movement rested on absolute confidence that she would never be hit.
And in truth, Alice never allowed the Luga-lac a single clean strike.
Even the attacks that did connect she parried and redirected elsewhere.
Her movement was efficiency itself, taken to the extreme.
Could I ever copy that?
Noah tightened her grip on her one-handed sword. If she could follow even a fraction of Alice's movement, it would help her in combat.
But deep down she already knew it was impossible.
Instinct told her so. That was a different realm entirely from theirs.
Perhaps Alice… was comparable to those few elite of elites the Association called Masters.
Noah dared to think it.
She had never seen a Master-rank hunter, yet nothing in her suggested Alice would fall short of them.
Still, she couldn't shake a lingering bitterness.
The reason Alice always stepped forward first was that she didn't trust them.
From her perspective, they were people who needed protecting. That rankled Noah.
Having Alice as an escort was reassuring, yes—but she hated simply receiving.
"Alice."
"Yeah? What?"
"Don't try to fight everything alone."
"Mm…"
Cheiler was worried about her too.
He didn't like how she tried to shoulder every burden by herself. If you were a hunter—or wanted to become one—trusting each other mattered.
So he meant to tell her to put a little faith in them, but—
"I'm more comfortable alone."
From the start, Alice was on a different wavelength. The direction she thought in wasn't theirs.
They decided she must be afraid of fighting alongside anyone.
They could understand that. If you failed to protect someone, how crushing must it be for the one who survived?
That a girl with no memories acted this way must mean she had lived through something like that.
"…Even so, next time we'll back you up. Look—you're hurt again."
"It's a scratch."
"If you leave something like this, it'll get infected."
With a bitter expression, Noah dabbed medicine onto Alice's cheek. Alice squinted one eye and accepted the touch.
Noah managed a faint smile, but there was nothing else she could do for her.
It was shameful. Mortifying. Hunters, of all people, being protected by someone who wasn't even a hunter. She had never imagined such a thing would happen in her life.
"There. Done."
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Don't mention it……. Let's move out."
At Alice's words, Noah couldn't lift her head.
She couldn't bring herself to look at the girl walking ahead of them—blunt, expressionless, feeling nothing at all.
This commission had been to capture the One-Eyed Luga-lac.
The commission had failed, yet it had delivered a meaningful shock to the hunters.
A sense of powerlessness lingered among those who returned to the village.
The source of that powerlessness was the overwhelming gap.
They had been helped twice.
Until now, the hunters had rested easy on their experience and skill. They had believed that doing things the usual way was enough.
But Alice, appearing like a comet, had jolted them awake.
Since when had hunters been the ones receiving protection?
Hunters were the ones who protected.
In a way, the commission could be called a success. The capture had failed, but what they gained from it was an experience nothing could replace.
The four hunters who came back alive had witnessed, with their own eyes, combat that could rightly be called the pinnacle.
It was only natural that the experience rekindled, in their chests, the longing for the summit that had long since gone cold.
"We're here."
Noah said it with a hollow sort of tone.
Well, she had offered to help, but no monsters had shown up on the way, so in the end she hadn't gotten to help at all. I was a little disappointed myself.
I was the only one fighting monsters the whole time, so of course they were jealous, right? No matter how much they pretended otherwise, they were hunters down to the bone.
If I'd known, I wouldn't have taken down that Luga-lac by myself.
I'd only meant to repay them for the good food and the warm night's sleep. Looking back, maybe I'd been the only one having fun. That was a shame.
The mood had been off the entire way here. Because of me, right? Yeah?
I didn't know what to do about it either, so I just hustled along at the very front.
And then, before I knew it… we had arrived at the outpost.
This was the forest city of Antico.
A city built around a colossal tree. Even in the game its atmosphere had been spectacular, but seeing it with my own eyes left me speechless.
Leaves rustled. Instead of monster roars, I heard people talking and dogs barking.
This was a world entirely apart from the forest.
Red and blue birds chirped as they wheeled through the air. I followed them with my eyes as they rode the wind.
The people of Antico lived in harmony with nature. They dressed the trees like houses, twisted ropes and wove bridges between them, and formed whole districts that way.
Commerce, workshops, restaurants… each district had its own character, and the atmosphere shifted from one to the next.
It was a city dense with people.
The ancient tree designated as the Association district, in particular, rose so high that looking up revealed no end.
Branches swayed in the breeze. One by one, leaves drifted down on the wind. I reached out and caught one. When I opened my hand, the broad leaf caught the air again and floated away—like a traveler drifting across a quiet sky.
It was an impressive sight. More so even than the scenes I had seen in the game.
I had never imagined a living world, not graphics, could be this vivid.
"…I'll go report the commission. What about the rest of you?"
Noah's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
"Training."
"Same."
"…I need to rest for a bit."
Cheiler and Scudo chose training; Nab chose recovery.
Should I say something too? But I had nothing to do. As I hesitated, Noah held out a hand.
"Alice, want to come with me?"
"…Sure."
As I was now, clinging to Noah was my only option.
A sad life that owned nothing but a single greatsword.
The party split up. They were hunters who had gathered for a commission. Parting once the job was over was only natural. If they kept hunting without dying, they would meet again someday.
There was something almost romantic about that.
Noah and I made no other stops and headed straight for the central ancient tree that housed the Association district. The Association zone clung to the massive tree like a nest, visible even from a distance.
They had attached stairs so people could climb the great trunk, and built houses out along its thick branches to claim the space as their own.
"What do you want to do now, Alice?"
"Be a hunter."
I answered Noah's question without a second of hesitation.
"Yeah. Figured as much."
She must have expected it; she only nodded.
"I'll help you until you become one."
"You sure that's okay?"
"Yeah."
Noah smiled.
"You're my benefactor, after all… and it never hurts to build connections early."
"Connections?"
"Heh. Never mind."
Noah said something I couldn't quite parse.
I was glad for her kindness. Having someone to stand shoulder to shoulder with was far more comforting than rising alone.
I was an outsider. An outsider who knew how to fight and nothing else. I had only just begun to take my first steps in this world. I needed someone to teach me how it worked.
"Let's go!"
"…Yeah."
To me, Noah was a lifeline heaven itself had dropped.
This world is warm. The proof is standing right in front of me.