Blessed Side Quest 5
The Blessed Forest was, quite literally, a forest that had been blessed.
"…If this is a forest, then what's inside the Tower might as well be called a den of evil."
"This is the Goddess's grace…"
The trees grew thick, but never so dense as to block the path, so we could press forward as if strolling along a woodland trail. Dense branches blanketed the sky overhead, yet warm sunlight filtered through the leaves and left our vision bright and open — it felt less like wilderness and more like a well-tended park.
And with every breath, crisp air filled our lungs while the chirping of nameless mountain birds drifted to our ears. The beauty of this place put those monster-infested thickets to shame.
"Those berries — they're all edible… and pretty plump, too. Think it's okay to pick some?"
"Good heavens. Even the raspberry bushes have a faint trace of Holy Power on them."
Tiny birds pecking at tree fruit, bushes heavy with jewel-like raspberries, squirrels scampering along the branches — every little creature was here. Personally, I was half-convinced we'd wandered into a Disney princess's forest.
Given how beautiful everyone in the party was, all we needed was a fawn to trot up and the picture would be complete.
"Oh, come on. You look at scenery this beautiful and the first thing out of your mouth is 'let's catch and kill a squirrel'? Is your brain literally made of zeros and ones, or what?"
Of course, the viewers couldn't have cared less — they were just curious about hunting outside the Tower. The game was so freeform and realistic that a fair number of people started their journeys out here rather than inside. From players who enlisted as soldiers to learn basic martial arts, to ones who joined mercenary companies and marched off to war — plenty of them tuned into Han Se-ah's stream for information, and their heads were full of nothing but bloodlust.
Looking at a forest more beautiful than movie CGI and asking whether killing a squirrel gives experience points… honestly.
"The little animals aren't afraid of people, so I doubt there are any orcs nearby."
"You can tell that much?"
"Yeah, well. Animals learn, too. They remember the paths hunters use often, and traps and snares. If they're not scared of people, it means they've never seen a two-legged hunter before."
While the chat window filled with bloodthirsty conversation, Grace and Irene chatted quietly among themselves. She had a point — if orcs had been around here, the underbrush would be torn up and rabbits and squirrels would be skulking in hiding. Those brutes never bothered covering their tracks.
The peaceful woodland scenery seemed to melt the tension right out of them; the party looked less like they were on a search and more like they'd come for a picnic. They whispered and made small talk, but I didn't sense any real danger, so I let them be.
Even if they looked relaxed, Grace would detect any orcs long before the orcs noticed us. No need to worry.
"Okay, lighting up the minimap… about two percent filled. Does it tick up little by little and then jump all at once when you hit certain spots? Guess I need to grab my staff and stick next to Grace again…. I was trying to keep Roland and Grace paired up, too. Dang."
As we walked on to the sound of birdsong, I could hear Han Se-ah muttering behind me. I'd been web surfing instead of watching her stream, but apparently she'd opened the quest window.
While Han Se-ah fretted behind us — suspiciously invested in shipping me with Grace — the party followed the forest trail and naturally emerged into a wide clearing.
A round, open space where the view stretched free in every direction. Without a single branch to block the sky, a shaft of sunlight poured down — the kind of place where you could plop a little mushroom cottage and use it as a storybook illustration. Naturally, there wasn't a single orc track in sight. Just pure, peaceful quiet.
"I'll mark this clearing with some mana for now."
"If it'll take a while, should we rest a bit?"
"Huh? Oh — no, no, it won't take that long."
Han Se-ah quietly raised her staff and stepped into the center of the clearing. Of course, gathering a faint wisp of mana at the tip of her staff meant absolutely nothing. The quest progress had simply jumped about ten percent the moment we arrived at the clearing.
Still, she'd at least put some thought into selling the act for the party's sake — she did gather mana at the staff tip. Skills only activate if you shout their names, so just pooling mana without calling anything out made it look like she was working some kind of condensed-mana technique.
The peaceful atmosphere had the party nice and loose — but the chat was the complete opposite. Admiring beautiful scenery was fine, but that admiration couldn't last five hours, let alone ten.
Songbirds and little animals frolicking around was lovely, sure, but if no orcs ever showed up in this forest, the stream would end with half a day of nothing but tree-watching. Viewers wouldn't be happy, and Han Se-ah wouldn't be thrilled with that flow either.
I closed the video I'd been watching and switched back to Han Se-ah's stream window, only to find the chat packed with talk of "walking simulators" and "VR hiking logs."
"Come on, you really think we're just gonna check the forest and nothing happens? Something's bound to pop out around the fifty-percent mark. We just hit ten percent — stop freaking out already."
Even Han Se-ah, staff still raised as she bantered with her viewers, looked a little uneasy. Judging by the forest's vibe, a baby deer like Bambi seemed far more likely to come bounding out of the brush than any orc.
The viewers, sensing her anxiety with uncanny precision, just laughed off her unconvincing reassurances.
Is nothing actually going to show up…?
Call it a bad premonition coming true — as the quest ticked from ten percent to twenty, then thirty, everything we encountered was small animals, not monsters. Squirrels, rabbits, deer, tiny birds with brilliant plumage, a fangless grass snake—
By the time the sun hung high overhead and we sat down in the fourth clearing to prepare a meal, the most dangerous thing we'd met all day was a buzzing beehive.
"This forest is… really peaceful. Not just no orcs — no tracks of large animals or predators either."
"I know. It feels less like a commission and more like a vacation. A forest like this, children could come play without any trouble."
"That's exactly why the royal family uses soldiers to keep it guarded. We've been walking quite a while, and I actually feel more refreshed."
Unlike Han Se-ah, who was fretting about whether today's stream was about to flop, the rest of the party looked perfectly sunny as they lit a fire in the open clearing and got lunch ready.
Even if they made their living hunting monsters as adventurers, at their core they were lovely young women. The same way they enjoyed sweet macarons, gossip, and shopping, there was no reason a beautiful stretch of nature and cute little animals would put them in a bad mood.
Even now, a few curious squirrels were boldly sidling up to Irene without a hint of fear. Probably drawn by the smell of the beans and grain flour she was putting into the stew — one of them twitched its nose and hopped right up onto her shoulder without hesitation.
"Oh my. These little ones aren't just unafraid of people — they seem downright used to them."
"Hmm. Maybe some noble young ladies who came to the forest for convalescence took care of them before?"
A squirrel perched on Irene's smiling shoulder, industriously gnawing away at a bean. Everyone's tension had melted into that peaceful scene — until Grace shot to her feet and the mood flipped in an instant.
"Someone's coming. Pushing through the brush."
I wasn't sure whether to think of it as bad timing that someone showed up right at mealtime, or convenient that we were meeting them in a clearing. Grace snatched up the bow she'd set down and fixed her eyes on the undergrowth beyond, and the party fell into position as naturally as breathing.
I picked up the gear I'd set aside and stepped forward as well. I could already tell it wasn't an orc — but I didn't let my guard down.
Common sense said that if anyone other than an orc was in this forest, it would be knights on assignment or high-ranking nobles here for convalescence. But given Han Se-ah's side quest, things outside common sense were entirely possible.
A chieftain orc using a pyramid to open a dimensional gate and invade the kingdom's Blessed Forest wasn't exactly a common-sense scenario either. Orcs that don't assault female knights, orcs that use dimensional gates… saying it out loud just made it weirder.
"…We are an adventuring party currently carrying out a commission from the knight order. Identify yourselves before coming any closer."
"……"
Unless some other adventurers happened to be in this forest, if the other party was human, they almost certainly outranked us. I called out toward the brush where I could sense a presence, and the rustling grew louder.
Judging by how freely they were making noise, they weren't planning an ambush — more like they'd been startled by us speaking up… so who was this, really?
"Ahem, ahem… Pardon the intrusion. I was wandering the forest and seem to have lost my way for a moment."
What burst through the brush was a man built like a bear. He stood a full head taller than me — easily two meters, give or take.
An expensive leather coat plastered with leaves thanks to that bulk, short silver hair thoroughly mussed from shoving his way through, and a intimidating face scored with scars running from cheek all the way down his neck. A thoroughly rough-looking figure.
"Wait, what — the Northern Grand Duke, popping out of the royal forest in the heart of the continent…?"
Han Se-ah, having naturally read the NPC's information, muttered in pure shock. After ten years living in this kingdom, I'd never even heard rumors of a Northern Grand Duke — and even when I'd gone north at Kayden's request, I'd never once heard a word about him.
…This kind of person was in our kingdom?