By the time the sun was high overhead, Allen was walking through a place where the light couldn’t reach. He was deep within a dense forest, the very one where he’d been told mandragoras could be found. But when he stopped to look around, he let out a weary sigh.
Hmm... Come to think of it, I’ve never actually seen a mandragora before...
To put it bluntly: Allen was lost. Not in terms of the path. He knew exactly where he was. What he wasn’t sure about was how to find a mandragora in the first place. They were so famous, he’d assumed he knew all about them. But once in the forest, it dawned on him that he’d never actually seen one with his own eyes.
I’m sure I’d know if I pulled one out...but honestly, I can’t tell them apart just by looking. And I can’t exactly start yanking things out at random...
There were plenty of plants that looked like they could be mandragoras. The problem was, if he happened to pull up the real thing, things could get very bad. He’d heard their scream could travel quite a distance. If someone else was within range when that happened, it could be fatal.
And the worst part is, I have no idea how far that scream actually goes...
This part of the forest was said to be isolated, rarely visited, but not completely off-limits. In fact, Allen could sense the presence of a few others nearby even now. If any of them were within range of a mandragora’s scream, it would be a disaster.
I was planning to set up a barrier to block the sound, but that’s really only for when you’re harvesting them in bulk...
The forest was vast, and putting up a barrier every time he wanted to test a plant would be too much of a hassle. He’d save that as a last resort.
Maybe I should just ask someone.
Thankfully, he could sense a few people nearby. Maybe if he asked, one of them might help point him in the right direction.
Then again, even if they describe it, I probably still wouldn’t know what I’m looking at. And it’s not like I can ask them to come help me search.
Still, it might be worth trying, or so he was thinking when something suddenly caught his attention as a loud crash rang out through the forest.
Huh? What was that?
He felt a slight tremor underfoot and instinctively turned his gaze toward the source of the sound. What his senses picked up was the presence of a monster—and someone fighting it. That, in itself, wasn’t all that unusual. If they were here, they were probably with another adventurer. Or at least Allen thought so at first, but something made him pause. He sharpened his senses, and the moment he grasped who it was, he let out a resigned sigh.
He knew them. He hesitated for just a second, then sighed again.
Can’t be helped. It’s probably not a good idea for all sorts of reasons, but...
There was no way he could just leave it be. He muttered to himself again, narrowed his eyes, and took off running toward the source of the sound.
Toward Anriette.
Allen arrived just as another thunderous crash rang out, the third or fourth since he’d first heard it. A tree-trunk-sized arm slammed into the ground, tearing up the earth with a low, rumbling quake.
If it had hit dead-on, it would’ve been fatal, but Anriette, facing it, managed to dodge just in time and let out a loud, frustrated click of her tongue.
“Seriously?! Nobody said anything about this thing being here! The guild needs to do better pre-mission scouting!”
She hurled curses as her arm swung out, seemingly on impulse. The sword she wielded struck the creature’s thick arm—which was about as wide as her entire torso—but it bounced off with a high-pitched clang.
“Ugh! What the heck?! Is that arm made of iron or something?!”
Judging by the sound alone, one could easily believe it was metal she’d hit. And yet it wasn’t a golem or a machine. It was, without a doubt, a living creature. Its massive single eye swiveled in its socket, locking on to her form as if to make that fact perfectly clear.
“A cyclops, huh?”
As if responding to Allen’s quiet murmur, the creature’s massive arm came crashing down once again, shaking the forest with a thunderous boom. The spot where Anriette had just been standing was reduced to a massive crater, but she was already gone, having dodged away just in time. Confirming that she was unharmed, Allen narrowed his eyes.
Hmm... I never heard anything about this type of monster being here either. In fact, it’s clearly out of place...
He’d already encountered a few monsters in this forest, but this thing was on a whole different level. Even if it was an apex predator around here, it was too strong—strong enough to completely disrupt the forest’s ecosystem.
Well, I guess sometimes you just get unlucky and run into something like this...
But given that the situation involved Anriette, it wasn’t too surprising. Allen didn’t know for sure, but there was something about her that gave off that kind of vibe.
“Why is this happening to me?! I’ll have you know, I’m actually a very decent person with excellent karma!” she cried.
She probably just had bad luck. Allen considered what to do. From the outside, it looked like she was holding her own—shouting and cursing as she fought—but he could tell she was just trying to psych herself up. She was managing to dodge the cyclops’s attacks, but none of her counterattacks seemed to be having any effect. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before she ran out of stamina and collapsed, and no one understood that better than she did. That was why she was doing everything she could to push through, but it clearly wasn’t working. If this kept up, she’d fall before long.
Allen, despite understanding all of this, was still doing nothing because he was hesitating. He’d come all the way here, and yet...the girl was an adventurer. She was here as an adventurer. That meant she had accepted the risks, and Allen felt that stepping in recklessly would be an insult to her determination. Of course, if he really believed that, then he should’ve just stayed out of it altogether.
I can’t just leave her.
He understood all of that. And still, he couldn’t abandon her, couldn’t turn his back on Anriette. Even if she didn’t know him. Even if she was not the Anriette he once knew. That was that. And this was this.
Well, anyway...the real problem is figuring out how to help.
Choosing not to abandon her was a given. The real dilemma was how to assist her. Should he intervene openly? Stay hidden and support her from the shadows? Try to take down the cyclops himself? Or help her escape? There were too many possibilities and no clear best option.
Is she looking for an opening to escape? Or is she determined to take it down? I can’t even tell what Anriette’s stance is right now.
Truthfully, she probably didn’t have the luxury of thinking about strategy at all. She looked entirely focused on dodging the creature’s attacks. And yet, she still counterattacked, because she understood that not fighting back would only make things worse. There’s a world of difference between an opponent who resists and one who simply runs away. Any attacker would find the latter much easier to crush.
I’d like to help in a way that lines up with Anriette’s own intentions, but...
At this rate, by the time he figured that out, it might already be too late. Which meant there was no choice but to act.
Yeah, she probably won’t thank me for this.
If anything, she might even resent him. Helping her now meant just that—stepping in uninvited. It was a gesture that said I don’t trust you to handle this and could easily be taken as an act of forcing a favor on her.
At the very least, Allen knew that was how it might come across. If he truly cared about her feelings, he would wait, jumping in only at the last possible moment. If he saved her when there was no other way out, when she was truly about to fall, Anriette wouldn’t hold it against him. She might not be happy, but she’d accept it. She’d understand it was necessary.
But that meant waiting until things got truly dire. And Allen didn’t trust himself to read that line correctly. One misstep, one moment too late, and it would all be over. He didn’t have that kind of confidence or the self-control to hold back that long. And if he couldn’t hold back, then when he stepped in didn’t matter.
So Allen made up his mind. He wasn’t doing this for Anriette’s sake. It was selfish. Purely his own ego. Fully aware of how self-indulgent it was, he kicked off the ground. In a single heartbeat, he closed the distance to the cyclops, whose arms were raised high, and swung his sword.
Sundering Slice.
“Huh?”
A stunned voice rang out behind him as the cyclops was split cleanly in two and collapsed. It crashed to the forest floor, motionless.
Confirming it was no longer a threat, Allen exhaled, slowly lowering his stance and releasing the tension in his body. Then he turned around. “Hey. You okay?”
This was a selfish decision on Allen’s part. He didn’t want to make Anriette feel like she owed him anything, so he spoke casually, as if it had been no big deal.
Maybe that approach had the desired effect. He watched as the shock on Anriette’s face slowly shifted into something more irritated. Seeing her brows beginning to furrow as her mood turned, Allen felt a mix of relief and guilt...but still, a small smile tugged at his lips.