Chapter 53
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Big Bad Wolf
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"Sage!"
A girl's voice, not the kindly old man's.
"Hm, for now, call me Muna."
Muna replied in a deep, resonant tone.
"Muna!"
Just from the sound, it was like a reunion between a girl and a sage.
In reality, it was a kiwi bird meeting a witch.
"I'm Gretel!"
"Gretel?"
The kiwi flapped in Gretel's hand.
Having no wings, it was more of a waddle than a flap.
"Hm, sorry. Lately, I can't recall my old memories well."
"...I see."
Gretel set the sage back down on the chair.
"I never imagined you'd end up looking like this, Muna."
SungSung and I held our breath, focusing on their conversation.
Was Muna's secret finally about to be revealed?
Right, there's no way the sage was really a kiwi bird.
"You used to be bigger and plumper than this."
Huh?
So the kiwi guess was spot on?
A massive kiwi?
Given how much smaller he'd gotten lately, his prime must have been enormous.
No, but really a kiwi?
Not some cursed sage or anything?
"Hm, that time... Sorry, I can't recall that either. I must have written it in my journal, but I lost that too."
"I see. ...Still, I'm glad we could meet again, Sage."
What on earth was the sage's true identity?
Poking at this Gretel woman might yield more info.
"But who are these two...?"
Gretel pointed at SungSung and me.
"They're with me."
They could be called comrades.
To me, these guys were fateful encounters.
Muna lifted his beak and introduced us one by one.
"That girl's name is Rebecca. She's shy and wary of strangers, so don't expect to get close right away."
"Shuuuung."
Huh?
Rebecca?
Sure, SungSung had that name, but I didn't expect Muna to say it outright.
Come to think of it, calling her SungSung would be weird too.
SungSung was just my nickname for her—or more precisely, what I thought of her as.
But how did he know her real name?
The ghost bride told me, and Muna wasn't even in Skarnas back then.
"Ah, Rebecca. Pretty name."
"Shuung!"
"And the one next to her?"
Now it was my turn.
What would Muna call me?
He knew SungSung's real name, so maybe mine too?
I thought it impossible, but a sage might know.
"Hm, a little wind."
"A little wind?"
"Yes. A little wind that tickles the fruit."
Muna's cryptic speech was starting up.
Why did he keep comparing me to wind?
"If you need a name to call it... Hm, Raven would do nicely."
Raven?
It sounded cool, but it was actually pretty lazy.
Raven meant crow.
It was no different from just calling Muna a kiwi.
Whether crow or Raven, it was the same to me.
"Raven! Nice name. I thought it looked a bit like a crow."
"Kawk?"
It was a crow, yeah.
"...Wait, it really is a crow?"
"Kawk kawk."
You didn't know yet?
"It definitely looked human earlier. Hmm... Now that I look closer, it does seem like a crow... And next to it, a ghost...."
Gretel finally pieced together our identities.
"What an odd group, but it's Muna, so I guess!"
She didn't seem too surprised.
Especially since Muna was a kiwi bird himself.
"But Gretel, what were you doing here?"
"What else? Waiting to see if any lost kids like us from back then show up."
"Not to eat them?"
"Such a joker! As if I'd eat people. I'd sooner eat a bird... Oh, sorry."
Come to think of it, Gretel hadn't done anything really bad.
From a human perspective, eating two birds wasn't that awful.
Though from my crow viewpoint now, my face twitched a bit.
Still, it was surprising a witch could be this pure and kind.
Her only flaw? Her tastes ran like Muna's.
"Don't mind it. But didn't you just say 'we'? Is there someone else my forgetfulness has taken from me?"
Muna didn't remember who, but I—a stranger to Gretel—knew right away.
If Gretel was here, who else had to be?
"Hansel, my big brother."
Yeah.
Of course it was Hansel.
"Hansel. I don't recall that name either."
"It's fine. Hansel would understand. But...."
Gretel's bright smile darkened.
"The problem is he hasn't come home in quite a while."
No wonder he wasn't at the house; he was out.
Her subdued tone suggested it wasn't good.
"...I'd go look for him if I could, but I'm bound to this house, so I can't even search."
"That's unfortunate. Tell me more details."
"He went hunting, but no word yet...."
Gretel explained the last time she'd seen Hansel.
Hansel was a hunter.
He hunted local beasts and monsters for meat and hides to support his sister—an upstanding guy.
Of course, hunting monsters meant he wasn't your average hunter.
Probably a hardcore macho type.
Not like the Hansel I knew, but her description painted him that way.
He had to leave home to hunt, but this time it had gone way longer than usual.
"A hunter gone this long without returning...."
"He hasn't died. I can feel it."
Sibling intuition, huh?
Or maybe because she was a witch.
"Then something happened during the hunt. Did he say what he was after?"
"A wolf. He said he was hunting a wolf."
A wolf?
I could take a wolf now, right?
I didn't know my exact strength, but a wolf should be an easy win.
At worst, a bit bigger than a curs hound.
"To be precise, the big bad wolf."
...The big bad wolf!
That changed things.
The boy who cried wolf, the seven kids, Little Red Riding Hood.
The villain in those tales was the big bad wolf.
"Its name... Black Fang, I think. As you know, Muna, named monsters are dangerous."
And it even had a name: Black Fang.
That was enough to know.
Hansel had gone after a ridiculously strong wolf.
Black Fang—what was that? Black Fang.
Just "black wolf," but those two syllables hit hard.
No way something with that name was weak.
"Black Fang... Big bad wolf.... Hmm...."
Muna wore a thoughtful expression.
"Hic... My brother must be missing his favorite snacks... What to do...."
Gretel sniffled.
She subtly lifted her head, glancing between Muna and me.
"If someone rescued my brother... I could reward them... Hic hic...."
Now she was staring straight at me.
Was it my imagination, or did she look like an NPC starting a forced quest?
"A witch's knowledge or items would help a lot... Ehic...."
Still, no meant no.
Witch's knowledge?
We had a sage.
Witch's items?
Already snagged a few and stuffed them in SungSung.
"Little wind, the choice is always yours."
Muna left it to me.
Truth be told, if Muna had insisted on going, I'd have followed without complaint.
Well, maybe after a nibble on his butt, but I'd have gone to save Hansel anyway.
Because it was my comrade's decision.
Muna was the same.
He'd yielded to me, and he'd follow my call.
Gretel's story was touching, but no real reason to help.
If we spotted Hansel on the way, sure, but no need to fight Black Fang.
So my decision was...
【Big Bad Wolf】
You rested at a cabin during your journey.
While eating a feast fit for kings, you learned the owner, Gretel, knew the sage.
In chatting happily with the sage, Gretel brought up Hansel.
Hansel went to hunt the big bad wolf and hasn't returned.
Gretel asked you and the sage to find him.
Whether to continue on or help her is up to you.
🎁 Quest Clear Reward: Random Skill Enhancement
It's not like I lost my head over the reward.
The key was how strong this Black Fang wolf was, but no need to kill it anyway.
Just rescue Hansel.
"Shuaang!"
SungSung suddenly sharpened her cloth.
Why was she acting up?
Seemed like she was on guard.
Well, she glitches like this sometimes, so no big deal.
"Shuaang... Thresh...."
Now she was making threshing machine noises too.