19. Hunting Requires Preparation (2)
19. Hunting Requires Preparation (2)
"Not many animals in this forest, huh."
"Plenty of rabbits."
"Ah, right. Rabbits... wait. If there are plenty of rabbits, why are you eating bugs?"
"They're good for you."
"Oh, right... I suppose they would be even better for you..."
If the choice was pork belly or a nourishing meal, the nourishing meal obviously won, didn't it? Between pork belly and samgyetang, samgyetang came out ahead: a spoonful of piping-hot broth, that refreshing heat, then tearing meat from a chicken leg and dipping it in salt. Not that pork belly tasted bad, but... ah, hell. I wanted both.
I wanted any Korean food at all.
Whatever it was, it would at least be a taste I missed.
"Rohan."
"It's Yohan."
My name wasn't that hard to pronounce. Reni got it wrong surprisingly often. According to her, she'd never been good at remembering names. Come to think of it, I vaguely recalled her profile mentioning that she was poor at reading and often misread words. It was probably less a matter of intelligence than the fact that, as an orphan, she'd never had the chance to learn properly...
But how were we even talking when I didn't know the language of this world?
Had I been given something like Auto-Translate without realizing it? I was certain I was speaking Korean, yet our conversation flowed without interruption, and the dissonance was intense. Everyone looked Western, but to my ears they spoke Korean, making it feel as though I was being filmed for an elaborate hidden-camera prank. For all I knew, this entire world was one enormous prank.
"Ah, sorry. Anyway, Yohan, where are we going right now?"
Hadn't I said? Ah, I hadn't said it. I'd have to tell her, then. It was better to share the plan ahead of time so things went smoothly.
"To the rabbit clearing."
"I thought we were scouting?"
Reni looked at me in confusion. Apparently I needed to explain. I'd assumed that someone with so much battlefield experience would understand a rough outline, but this situation was new to her, so it was only natural that she couldn't read my intention. I pointed toward the rabbits' clearing and explained.
"To catch rabbits."
"Rabbits? Why rabbits? Weren't we going to scout the area where the snakes live? Why are you suddenly catching rabbits?"
"Because it helps with scouting."
"What on earth does that mean..."
Was my explanation inadequate? I thought her mercenary experience would make the idea obvious, but apparently she wasn't picking up what I meant. I organized my thoughts and summarized the plan in one sentence.
"I plan to use the rabbits for scouting."
"Ah, right. That's all you had to say. But how?"
"You don't know...? You catch a rabbit and bring it. Then... you throw it."
"What? Throw it? The rabbit?"
Why was she looking at me like that? Bait was obviously necessary for reconnaissance. Was it really so strange? Reni looked as though she couldn't understand a word I was saying. If explanation failed, I could simply demonstrate. I picked up a shrieking rabbit from the clearing filled with snares.
"Catch it, and throw it. Simple, isn't it?"
Crunch.
The rabbit's neck snapped in an instant, and it went limp with a bizarre squeal. I handed Reni the rabbit killed by my clean neck snap, and she took it by the scruff with a deeply uncomfortable expression.
"...You snapped it pretty damn hard. You're using rabbits as bait? Don't people normally test things like this with rocks?"
"Rabbits are more efficient, and there are plenty of them. Hold on to it. We need a lot."
I picked up one more rabbit from a snare.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
The sound of death echoed again and again through the peaceful forest. Each crunch brought another change to Reni's expression, which was surprisingly entertaining to watch: profound conflict, a glare that asked whether I'd gone too far, and finally a grimace at the pile of rabbit corpses in her hands. She might be more fun to tease than I had expected.
Seeing this new side of Reni was strangely moving. Was this what communication felt like?
I wiped my welling eyes with the soft fur of a neck-snapped rabbit.
"How many are you planning to take?"
"A ton."
I took another sack from my leather bag and stuffed the rabbits inside. It quickly filled with carcasses. A haul this big would normally have counted as a bumper harvest, which made using them as bait feel wasteful. For a moment, I considered taking a few home for jerky.
...No. If I was going to do this, I had to do it properly. Even thorough preparation might not be enough, and skimping because the rabbits felt wasteful could get us into trouble. Preparation was best when it felt slightly excessive. I slung the sack of rabbits over my shoulder and looked at Reni, who clutched a mass of rabbit ears.
"...Don't I get a sack?"
"Can't you just tie them to your belt?"
"That's a bit much. I don't have some weird habit of hanging animal carcasses from my belt."
Fine, if she didn't want to. I pulled another sack from my bag and held it open for her. Destined to become someone's daily rations, the rabbits dropped inside one by one like Isaac Newton's apples. Rabbit hunting would be difficult for a while.
"You practically wiped out the rabbits."
"It's fine. After about a week, there'll be as many as we caught."
Those beasts were obsessed with breeding. In another week, their young would be roaming everywhere and devouring every green thing in sight. There was a reason I'd considered turning them all into jerky: even if I caught rabbits every day for a week, they'd still overflow the area. Perhaps the bears and snakes had avoided a full territorial war because rabbits fed everyone.
With plenty of food and enough territory, there wouldn't be any need to actively fight for dominance.
"Let's move out."
"...We're not doing anything else before scouting, are we? Right?"
"We're not."
What else would we do? We already had a long walk to the snakes' territory ahead of us.
We just needed to get moving.
----------------
By the time Reni and I reached the boundary of the forest where the snakes had been, the sun was sitting right overhead.
We grimaced at the foul stench of rot wafting from the snakes' territory and the ground stained purple.
"What the hell happened to turn a normal forest into this? Even a slime colony wouldn't ruin it this badly..."
"I don't know either."
I gave a diplomatically neutral answer. I hadn't done this to the forest. The Hydra had caused the disaster while trying to stop the zombies. Admittedly, I'd led those zombies straight into the snakes' territory, but they'd followed me of their own free will.
Therefore, I was innocent.
"Let's move along the perimeter here for now. Going straight in would be too dangerous."
"Fine. I don't know the terrain anyway, so I'll follow your lead."
We followed the boundary and examined the purple forest. The land was so horrific that no one would have believed it had been lush and green only days earlier. Faced with the catastrophe created by the Hydra, neither of us could speak.
"The interior is total hell..."
"Getting inside looks difficult."
Even shoes made from tough bear hide wouldn't survive those poison pools. If I accidentally got any of it on my skin... Karina had already saved a critically injured patient saturated with drugs and poison by pouring healing magic into her, so I probably wouldn't die. I'd still suffer horribly.
"So what do we do? Whether it's scouting or whatever, we still have to check the interior, don't we?"
"First, we throw a rabbit. Then we think."
I pulled a rabbit from the sack, its broken neck soft and floppy in my hand, and threw it into a pool of poison. The bundle of yellow fur hit the liquid and melted almost instantly, releasing a stench fouler than sulfur.
"Ugh, whatever's in there, you definitely can't step in it..."
Hmm.
I pulled out James, a rabbit who loved baseball and had always brainwashed himself into believing he was happy, then threw him into another pool.
If there'd been a hoop, it would've been a three-pointer. Unfortunately, no artificial structure like that existed in this shit-filled wilderness. I clicked my tongue as James, launched overhand, vanished as though dissolved in sulfuric acid.
Maybe I should throw one somewhere else. I had plenty of friends to spare.
And so Momo, McCree, Colin, Macbeth, and Deokchun joined the pool family.
"A tear-jerking display of family love..."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"It meant there was no way through by ordinary means."
"We're speaking the same language, right?"
The reaction was odd. I thought we were definitely communicating. Had that translation skill I wasn't even sure existed gotten lazy and started slacking off?
Or perhaps the drugs hadn't fully worn off and Reni was hearing things.
"Why are you looking at me with pitying eyes?"
"You should've stayed home. You're still not fully recovered."
"What do you mean? Say it so I can understand..."
Reni now looked half out of her mind and raked her fingers through her hair. The fumes rising from the poison pools seemed to be clouding her thoughts. I decided to drag her away from the boundary for the moment.
"Let's put some distance between us for a moment."
"What? Why? Why all of a sudden?"
Without a word, I took Reni by the wrist and led her away from the boundary. She resisted at first, then apparently realized something was wrong with her and followed quietly. We stopped where the boundary was barely visible and sat on a nearby rock.
We needed a short break.
Our original plan—to find a safe area, scout the interior, and establish an escape route—was already impossible.
In a forest littered with pools that looked as though someone had poured hydrochloric acid everywhere, searching for a safe area was too much troub—
...Search for?
Oh.
Come to think of it, I didn't even need to search.
I watched Reni drink water while sitting on the rock. She noticed my gaze and met my eyes uneasily. After choosing my words, I asked her carefully.
"Reni. Could you move around in heavy armor?"