The Fog-Shrouded Forest and the Village of Strange Rules (Mutobashi)
The ground vanished beneath their feet in freefall.
A plunge from the realm of superhumans into the ranks of ordinary mortals.
The loss of leaving behind a world that had grown familiar.
"Ugh."
"Nngh… The aftereffects of dimensional travel. No matter how many times we go through it, I don't think I'll ever get used to this."
Lily and Laha sprawled on the ground, groaning through the backlash of the crossing. The Hero swept his gaze across their surroundings, vigilance sharpening.
Everything was white. Through the heavy, dense murk of the fog, only scattered patches of forest undergrowth and bare earth showed themselves.
"A forest… I've got a bad feeling about this."
Ever since the disaster on Mount Taeo, the Hero had come to hate the very sensation of being in a forest. He kept watch while he waited for the others to shake off the dimensional aftereffects.
"A-ah… I'm all right now."
Only once Lily—the frailest of them—had managed to push herself upright and stand did Goddess Ribbon, who had been lost in silent thought with her eyes closed, finally speak.
"Listen carefully, all of you. The information I read while crossing into this world is… nothing. There is none."
"None? Does that mean no one lives in this world?"
It was Unia who answered Lily's innocent question.
"I don't think that's it. If there were no people and no trace of civilization, she would have read that much. The fact that there's no information at all means… someone—or something—is interfering so that nothing can be read."
"The little elf is right. This world… is sunk in the same thick fog you see before you. There was nothing resembling useful information to be drawn out of it."
All the party had learned was that the fog did not merely cloak the space immediately around them.
"A place like this couldn't be the Hero's homeland…"
"No. My homeland is an utterly ordinary world—no mysteries, no magic, no anomalies."
"Th-that's right! It's a shame, but let's keep our spirits up a little longer, Hero!"
The Hero gave a bitter smile at Lily's attempt at comfort and stared into the fog beyond. Visibility was fifteen meters or less. Aside from his companions, the nearest things he could make out were trees and the dirt floor.
"So… what now, Hero?"
Sakaha's question left him sunk in thought. Deciding the party's direction was a leader's duty.
What if we just dig in here for fourteen days without looking for a village?
The trauma of Mount Taeo still cramped his instincts. Yet the more he considered it, the less terrible the idea seemed. Through the ten years spent toppling the Demon King, travel, camping, and survival had been daily life. Everyone carried preserved rations enough to last roughly three days, and they were all skilled at making camp. Endure a week and their power would begin to return; by around the tenth day they would once more be superhumans who needed neither water nor food.
It's actually solid… as long as no sudden variables crop up. All right.
Having settled on a course, the Hero looked at the others.
"We'll make this place our base camp and carefully scout the surroundings."
"What about water and food? Our bodies are at ordinary human levels now, so we'll need to forage locally to some degree."
Unia's point drew an unhesitating reply.
"Fog this thick means either heavy rainfall or a large water source nearby. We'll stretch the preserved food we have as far as it goes, and if we spot any game, we hunt it to supplement."
"Ah. Understood."
None of the party looked pleased. No matter that they were the Hero's party—veterans of countless hardships who had saved the world—everyone except the Hero and the goddess was now merely human. Mere hours earlier they had been living in a VIP suite of a luxury hotel; now they were expected to camp in a forest choked with fog and moss.
Realizing as much, the Hero lowered his head.
"You all trusted me and followed me here, and all I seem to be doing is making you suffer. I'm sorry."
"Don't be! Choosing to follow you was our decision! We were prepared for hardship like this!"
At his apology, the very companions who had worn disappointed faces a moment before sprang up to reassure him. One person alone watched the exchange with leisurely amusement.
"This one was the one the Hero begged to come along… Heh. You need not apologize, Hero. Husband and wife are bound by fate, are they not?"
The women studiously pretended not to hear Goddess Ribbon's airy remark.
Afterward the Hero's party set about making camp. They wove branches and leaves into a roof, dug and leveled the earth, then spread spare cloth and hides to form a place to sleep. Last came the fire—
"It just won't catch."
"The branches are soaked, and the humidity around here is high."
Fire was everything in camp. When the temperature dropped it became the heat that warmed chilled bodies; it let them boil or distill water of uncertain purity. If the hunt succeeded they would need it to cook. Fire was indispensable.
"We'll stop here for today and rest while we think of a solution. For now we have enough cloth and hide to cover ourselves."
The weather was fundamentally hot. With ample fabric and leather, even if the temperature plummeted at night they would not freeze to death. The primitive shelter was so cramped and shabby that all six of them could barely fit by pressing shoulder to shoulder—better than nothing, and nothing more.
"Let's eat."
They made a meal of their preserved rations. Preserved food was, for the most part, dry, salty, and hard. Every breath left their lungs clammy with moisture, yet there was no water to drink, and faces stayed grim.
"If it doesn't rain while we sleep, the first thing we do when we wake tomorrow is find drinking water."
Everyone nodded in agreement with Unia.
"Shall we turn in?"
The fog was so thick and dark that day and night were impossible to tell apart. The heat, the humidity, and the labor had left them all with a mild fatigue. They lay down side by side in the crude shelter with the Hero in the middle.
"Haa… It's hot."
"Sticky. I want a bath."
From either side the dense scent of women rode the fog. The slightest movement brought a thigh brushing his, a breast pressing close; little by little the Hero's desire began to rise.
Should I suggest we do it in this atmosphere? And if I do, who do I ask first?
The crude notion of a group free-for-all never entered his calculations. Yet singling out only one person in a situation like this would inevitably leave the others feeling slighted.
"Excuse me a moment."
"Me too. I'll come with you."
While the Hero wrestled with the dilemma, Lily and Sakaha rose. Goddess Ribbon joined them as well.
"I'll go too. It might be dangerous to send just the two of you."
The Hero was not foolish enough to ask where they were going. In their present circumstances, where else but to relieve themselves? There would be no latrine in this fog-bound forest; they would simply step a short distance away.
"Ah—!"
An unnameable anxiety seized him and he reached out.
"Did you call, Hero? Was there something you wished to say?"
"Ah… No. Just be careful."
In the end he swallowed the unease. He could not forbid them from going, nor could he demand they do it right there. Lily, Sakaha, and Ribbon vanished beyond the fog. Once the mist had completely swallowed their retreating figures, they did not return.
"…How long have we been walking?"
"Dunno."
"…Aren't you scared, Sakaha?"
"Of what?"
"We've been wandering for two hours—maybe far longer! What if we don't reunite with the Hero for over a week?"
"Is that such a big problem?"
"Of course it is! While we're gone, Laha and Unia will get ahead of us! Especially that lecherous elf! From the very first meeting she latched onto him calling him Seobang-nim! I refuse to fall behind that old-maid elf!"
"…You're worrying about that in a situation like this. You're a hopelessly lewd saintess. You're even more shameless than I am."
They had stepped away from the Hero only long enough to answer nature's call. The distance had been a mere thirty to fifty meters. Over that short stretch they had lost the path completely.
"Goddess. Don't you know the way either?"
"Regrettably, no."
Three hours. Four. The felt time spent wandering the fog stretched longer and longer, yet the scenery never changed by so much as a single leaf. Lily's once-lively chatter gradually fell silent.
Six hours. Seven.
Conversation ceased entirely. Every ability had dropped to ordinary human levels. Their bodies were soaked through with sweat; their legs felt weighted with sandbags. They tried sitting on stumps or large rocks, but the fatigue never lifted.
How much more time passed? At some point when their sense of hours had begun to numb—
"Wait. Look up ahead!"
The fog thinned and a new landscape opened. A massive rocky mountain, and cut straight through its heart an artificial tunnel. Beside the path into the tunnel stood a rusted iron bulletin board. On it, written in red, were the village's name and the rules that governed its interior.
That you have encountered this path and this board means a Higher Existence has guided you here.
Before entering the village, commit the rules to memory.
Do not wander within the fog. If you have come from beyond the fog, do not return to it.
When the bell rings, prostrate yourself and offer worship.
Never defy a Higher Existence.
The entire village must cooperate in the preparation and conduct of the Mutobashi Festival.
Mutobashi Village accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any misfortune that arises from breaking the rules.
"What… should we do about this?"
Circumstance suggested a village lay beyond the tunnel. Yet that village contained something grotesque called a Higher Existence, and a set of bizarre rules.
"We turn back, of course. Best to rejoin the Hero and tell him this place exists."
Lily, Sakaha, and Ribbon turned without the slightest hesitation and retraced their steps. Wandering beyond the fog seemed safer than stepping into a village that reeked of ill omen.
But—
"…Again?"
No matter how far they retreated into the fog, they always arrived once more at the village entrance. After they had repeated the meaningless circuit any number of times—
"Any more of this is a waste of strength. Let's go in. I want a look at the face of this Higher Existence that's been herding us here."
"…All right!"
Dying while lost in the fog, or entering a village of strange rules and hoping for unexpected aid—they chose the latter, and stepped into the dark tunnel.