I Want to Get Out of Here — The Forest of Skeletons (1)
I jolted in shock, hurling the mask away and collapsing onto the floor. I stared at it, wide-eyed and frozen.
“The mask… just talked?”
The mask lay on the ground, staring up at the ceiling. I crept toward it on all fours, reaching out slowly.
“Ugh…”
Ready to yank my hand back at any second, I extended one finger and gently touched the mask.
Hey! What the hell, you can’t just throw me like that!!!!!
The instant my finger made contact, a sharp voice pierced straight through my skull.
“Aaaagh!!!!!”
I snatched my hand back immediately. The voice vanished.
“Holy crap… the mask really is talking?”
A flicker of fear ran through me and I scooted a little farther away. The mask somehow gave off the distinct impression that it was pissed off.
“…Okay, fine. At least now I have someone to talk to. That’s better than being completely alone, right?”
I comforted myself with that thought and pushed up to my feet.
“Huu…”
After taking a deep breath, I picked the mask back up.
You really put on a whole show, huh? Are you that scared of me?
“W-who the hell are you?! If you’re a g-ghost… then begone… uh… I mean, rest in peace! …Wait, is that even right?”
Contrary to what I’d planned, my mouth was trembling like a leaf. Laughter burst out from the mask.
Ahahahahahaha! Relax, relax. I’m not gonna eat you.
“…”
The mask laughed so hard it sounded like the world was ending. I felt a little awkward and my trembling finally stopped.
“So… who…?”
Before that, isn’t it polite to introduce yourself first?
The mask sounded a bit curt. I hurriedly introduced myself.
“Uh… my name is Lee Siwoo…”
…What did you say?
The moment it heard my name, the mask suddenly grew serious and asked again in a startled tone.
“My name is Lee Siwoo… I’m twenty… a college freshman…”
Your name is… Lee Siwoo? Where are you from?
“Huh? From? Uh… Seoul, South—”
Seoul? I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere… What country are you from?
“Country? …The Republic of Korea?”
Hmm… I wonder if they even know about Korea in another world.
Republic of Korea…? Wait… do you happen to know anything about ‘Neo-Joseon’?
“Neo-Joseon…? What the hell is that weird name? The only Joseons I know are Old Joseon and the Joseon Dynasty.”
Just as I thought! You were summoned from another world, weren’t you? Are you the Hero?
The mask suddenly grew excited and started bombarding me with questions. I answered in a daze.
“Hero…? Now that you mention it, some pretty girl who called herself a Saintess or something earlier kept saying ‘Hero-nim’ this and that…”
I knew it! You really are the summoned Hero!
“Uh… I’m not sure if I’m actually the Hero, but yeah, I think I was summoned to another world…?”
I recalled being shoved down the stairs, waking up in a pure white space, and eventually falling all the way down here as I answered the mask.
What are you talking about?! Obviously the only thing summoned from another world is the Hero!
The mask sounded completely dumbfounded. I had nothing left but excuses.
“No… I didn’t know anything. I just suddenly fell down here…”
Suddenly? And now that I think about it… how did you even get into this place?
“Huh? I just fell.”
Fell?
“I’m serious. The floor opened up and I dropped through.”
Come to think of it, that person in the white armor had pulled some kind of lever and the floor had opened…
The mask fell silent for a moment, as if thinking over my answer.
The floor opened? I don’t understand what you mean…?
“It’s true…”
Whatever. So… which Hero are you?
After muttering that it had no idea what I was talking about, the mask suddenly asked a completely random question.
“Which Hero?”
Exactly what it sounds like. Which number Hero are you?
“There’s more than one Hero?”
What? Isn’t there usually only one?
You really don’t know anything, do you.
The mask sounded genuinely shocked.
“I told you… I fell into this other world and landed straight here almost immediately.”
Sigh… I get it now…
The mask went quiet, seemingly lost in thought. I carried it out into the hallway.
“I’m so tired…”
I sat down in the middle of the corridor and let my exhausted body slump. The mask stayed completely silent the entire time I was moving.
“Hey…”
In the end, I was the one who spoke first.
“So… who exactly are you?”
I finally asked the question that had been bugging me the whole time.
“Where is this place… and why are you here?”
Right. I haven’t introduced myself yet.
The mask paused for a moment, then continued.
…My name is Momotani Himeko. I was the second Hero summoned to this world.
“The second Hero?”
Yeah… Even though I failed and ended up like this…
I figured “like this” referred to being sealed inside a mask. I stared blankly at the mask that seemed to have her trapped inside.
Stop staring so hard…
The moment I looked at the mask, her voice came again.
“You can feel my gaze?”
Yeah. A little, but I can sense almost everything.
Fascinated, I turned the mask this way and that.
Hey! Don’t spin me around like that! I’m getting dizzy!
A sharp voice immediately rang out from the mask.
“Ah… sorry.”
After my apology, the conversation that had been flowing so well suddenly died and things grew awkward again.
“Um… Momo? Do you maybe—”
…What did you just call me?
“Ah… well… your name is kind of long…”
……Keep talking.
I got the strange feeling that some indescribable emotion was radiating from Momo.
“Uh? Oh! I was wondering if you might know the way out of here…”
“……”
“……?”
“Momo?”
The moment I called her Momo, she reacted noticeably.
Huh? Ah… sorry. What did you say?
“Do you know how to get out of here?”
That’s right! You said you fell in here earlier, right? Tell me exactly how that happened first.
Momo hurriedly asked for the details of how I’d ended up here. I recounted the story of the beautiful woman’s signal, the floor opening, and falling into this place—naturally editing out the embarrassing chuunibyou introduction I’d given.
Hmm… The woman you saw was probably the Saintess…
“Yeah, she said she was the Saintess of the Goddess Church or something…”
Even thinking about it again, she had been unbelievably beautiful, and the way she’d casually commanded the knight in white armor with a single gesture made her seem like someone with immense power.
“But why would the Saintess…?”
Why would she drop someone like me—a Hero summoned from another world—down here?
…You’re still hiding something, aren’t you.
“…Well, um…”
In the end I had no choice but to confess everything to Momo—including that cringey self-introduction.
Are you an idiot?
“It’s not like that…”
Sigh. Whatever.
“…”
But… I hadn’t been able to stop myself from saying it…
She probably thought you weren’t the real Hero.
“Huh? What do you mean? You said anyone summoned from another world is the Hero!”
Exactly. To the Saintess, you must not have looked like the Hero.
“I didn’t look like the Hero?”
If I’m not the Hero… then what am I?
From what I’ve heard, when the Saintess summons a Hero from another world, a few impurities get dragged along too.
“Impurity? Me?”
Well… it’s possible, isn’t it?
…I’m not the Hero? For real? Seriously? No way?
I fell into despair at Momo’s explanation. So it had come to this again. I had repeated the same mistake from my childhood… again! Again!!! And now I was going to rot and die in this damp, dark underground prison full of nothing but bones.
If I hadn’t said that stupid line! No—why was I even summoned in the first place? I’m just an ordinary student! Damn it… damn it! DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!
I was violently denying the reality I found myself in.
It’s fine. The Saintess will probably notice something’s wrong soon.
“Really?”
Impurities are usually obvious at a glance.
“For real? You’re sure?”
Yeah. I heard that those kinds of things either attack the moment they’re summoned or say something obviously dangerous right away.
I had the distinct feeling her gaze had flicked toward me for a second in the middle of that sentence, but I chose to ignore it.
Since they’ll keep summoning more impurities until the real Hero appears, they’ll probably come looking for you soon.
“Really? You’re sure?”
Yes. I told you I was the second Hero, didn’t I? I heard it directly from the Saintess who was my companion, so you can trust me.
Momo spoke as if it were obvious. I had no choice but to let go of my doubts.
“Alright! Then it’s time to escape!”
What?
“We have to get out of here! Since you’re with me, it should be easy, right?”
You… you were barely able to handle a single skeleton and you think you can just stroll out of here that easily?
“W-well… that’s…”
Momo brought up how I had barely managed to knock over a moving skeleton earlier and pressed me hard.
Do you even understand how dangerous this world is? This place is completely different from the world you lived in! It’s a world where hundreds of people can die in the blink of an eye and no one bats an eye! You almost died just a little while ago!
I didn’t know exactly how Momo was speaking—through the mask or whatever—but she was hitting me right where it hurt and lecturing me.
“Y-yeah, that’s true… but we can’t just stay here forever. Waiting around for rescue feels kinda pathetic…”
I offered a small bit of resistance as I voiced my opinion.
“I… I just want to go home… ugh…”
Haa…
I swallowed the emotions welling up inside me and looked at Momo.
“Momo… seriously, ugh… is there really no… way…?”
…Stop crying, it’s pathetic. Get up.
“Y-yeah?”
Hurry!
“O-okay!”
At Momo’s sharp command I reflexively shot up into a straight posture.
This isn’t an underground prison. It’s an underground sanctuary—one of the seven sanctuaries dedicated to the Goddess.
“Ah… so that’s why there were Goddess statues everywhere.”
Exactly… It was originally a secret place known only to a select few in the Goddess Church, but after I was sealed it seems to have been forgotten and turned into a dumping ground. That mountain of bones and the skeletons you saw probably appeared because of that.
But doesn’t the Saintess know about this place…? Well, there must be a reason…
“The bones I can understand, but the skeletons were dumped here too?”
Think before you speak! Undead monsters like that are born when corpses absorb negative energy! It would actually be strange if they didn’t appear near a mountain of bones like the one you described!
“Ah… I-I don’t really know about that stuff…”
When I hurriedly made excuses, Momo seemed to remember my situation and stopped talking.
…Fine. For now let’s focus on getting out of here.
“Yeah! Got it!”
I put Momo on my head, made sure she was secure, and started walking down the corridor.
Stop in front of the door and sit down. I need to prepare something.
Following Momo’s instructions, I stopped in front of the door and sat roughly on the floor.
“I’m sitting. What next?”
You understand that if you go out like this you’ll die immediately, right?
“Yeah…”
I shuddered as I remembered the terror I’d felt when I first saw the skeleton.
That’s why I’m going to teach you one technique that will at least guarantee your survival.
“A technique?”
Yeah. It’s the perfect skill for staying alive.
“Ooh! What is it, what is it?”
My eyes sparkled as I tried to roll them upward to look at Momo on my head.
Momo spoke in a solemn tone, like a god bestowing a blessing upon a believer.
I will teach you the most powerful evasion technique among all evasion skills that exist in this world.
“The most powerful evasion teeechnique!!!”
The words “most powerful” struck a chord in my heart and I swelled with anticipation.
Its name is… Emergency Dodge Maneuver!!!
Momo spoke in a dramatic voice, like a character pulling various tools out of her pocket.
“Woooooooooow!!!!!!!”
The Emergency Dodge Maneuver is a legendary technique that lets you avoid every single attack.
Momo spoke with immense confidence, as if she were showing me a rare treasure that only I was allowed to see.
“It avoids every attack?”
Huh? But is something like that even possible?
“But… realistically, is it possible to dodge ‘every’ attack?”
Of course. That’s why it’s called a legendary technique.
“As expected of another world! It’s full of incredible stuff!”
Well… there is one tiny side effect, but it’s nothing major.
“Side effect?”
Well, a technique that sounds that amazing having no side effects would be weirder.
The Emergency Dodge Maneuver is a legendary technique that avoids every attack. However, the one side effect is that it completely ignores the user’s personal circumstances in the process.
“Ignores the user’s circumstances…?”
I asked again because I didn’t understand. Momo answered with a slightly troubled tone.
Well… the Emergency Dodge Maneuver only focuses on moving in the absolute optimal direction to evade… It doesn’t care what happens to the user’s body. So if an attack is flying at you and the optimal direction is to twist your neck 90 degrees backward…
“No way…”
Exactly… The Emergency Dodge Maneuver will twist your neck 90 degrees, dislocate your shoulder or pelvis, whatever it takes. It will avoid the attack no matter what…
The picture Momo painted was horrifying.
“That’s… that’s not a tiny side effect at all!!!”
Calm down… It’s still better than having nothing, right? And the case I just described almost never happens. The optimal direction will usually be one that protects your body as much as possible.
“But…”
I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.
So… are you not going to learn it?
“Haa…”
But right now I didn’t have any other choice. I took one deep breath and answered.
“I’ll learn it. A dislocated shoulder is better than dying.”
Smart choice. Then close your eyes and focus.
“Huh? I can learn it just by doing that?”
Yeah. I have my own teaching method, so just stay quiet and concentrate.
I closed my eyes as Momo instructed and focused my mind like I was meditating. The moment I concentrated, I felt something starting to fiddle around inside my brain.
“Is this right? It feels kind of weird…”
It’s correct, so focus.
A moment later my mind grew whiter and whiter until the entire space around me was filled with pure white.
‘Whoa, this is amazing!’
As I was experiencing that sensation, I began to see a small dot moving slowly in the white space inside my head.
‘What is that…?’
I focused harder, trying to figure out what the dot was. The dot gradually grew larger, stretched out, and began to take on the shape of a person.
‘That’s…!’
The person had their back turned, but I could tell immediately. The man wearing slightly rusted iron armor and leather pants, with messy, somewhat long hair, looked like he had been born in this world and had adapted to it perfectly from the start.
When I got a little closer, the man suddenly turned around. His face was covered in faint scars and he stared at me with a cold expression.
‘…Me?’
It was exactly the same as me.