episode_0003

“Where is the soap?”

“Next to the water jar.”

I sprayed water mixed with vinegar on my head and wet my face, picked up the soap that still had some foam left in it, and washed my hair cleanly.

It’s refreshing. It’ll break soon though.

I roughly shook out my hair, dried it with the towel my father used earlier, washed it again, and hung it on the clothesline. Although it is a bit dirty to reuse used towels, this is the norm here.

After that, I returned home, took coarse salt out of the salt jar, and brushed my teeth. Normally I would have been sleeping, but yesterday I talked to my father and decided to learn how to hunt.

‘I need to learn a skill as quickly as possible and become independent.’

Since hunting is a family business, my father readily agreed. The dream of many fathers is to do the same work as their children and pass on their skills.

Thanks to this, my father seemed more excited than usual.

The smiles became brighter and the words became more common.

“I’ll go first. Take care of yourself today as well.”

“You too, be careful.”

“Mother, I will come back safely.”

“Dad, have a nice trip~.”

“Rian, Damian, you both need to take care of yourself?”

“Mom too.”

After saying a cheerful goodbye, my mother left the house first.

After that, it took quite a while to get ready to go out.

Because it was my first time hiking, I was busy getting ready.

I have climbed mountains several times, but I only went on paths taken by people.

Today is my first real hike.

When I finished preparing and came out of the house, I saw my father sitting on the stairs, cleaning up the crushed arrow feathers.

“Ready.”

“Okay. Then shall we go?”

“Father! I want to go too!”

Damian complained, but his father shook his head.

“No. Stella is alone, right?”

“For about a day—!” “No.”

My father put the arrows he was organizing into my quiver.

“I promise. After your birthday, I will take you with me.”

“···Yes.”

I said teasingly.

“Hey! I’ll grab something delicious instead!”

“Wow.”

Damian sighed and entered the cabin.

* * * * * *

“Rian. Do you know why hunters don’t take the paths people travel?”

“Animals avoid people.”

My father nodded.

“That is correct. But there is one more reason.”

“······Do you want to get used to hiking?”

“It’s a by-product.”

It probably refers to medicinal herbs or edible mushrooms.

This is why there are many edible vegetables such as greens and root vegetables on the table.

“Depending on the type, by-products can be much more expensive than meat. For example, honey. What we are eating right now is an expensive herb that is hard to find outside.”

“If it’s expensive, shouldn’t you sell it?”

“Health is more important than money. Thanks to you, you are several times healthier than your peers, right?”

‘I’m stuck in the mountains every day, so I must have seen people of the same age.’

That was correct.

This is a place where there is no hospital.

When I think of the two children who left before me, those familiar words carry a different weight. Because I know how scary illness is.

I draped the mangtaegi handed to me by my father over my shoulder.

Because it rained a few days ago, the mountain was humid.

‘It’s a mountain covered in early morning fog.’

Isn’t it nice?

The moment you take that step.

Ahhh!

I tripped on a wet leaf and fell.

“Wow—?!”

Damn the luck!

“Phew···! Are you okay…?!”

“······Yes.”

The hike that began was painful itself.

‘If it had been Damian, I would have failed in the middle.’

Men grow more slowly than women.

Then, rapid growth began at about age 12, so it was common to learn skills from age 14.

Still, it’s hard.

How many times would a modern person climb a mountain without a hiking trail?

In addition, in some places, the slope was so steep that I, with a short stride, had to use my hands to climb the mountain like an animal.

Sometimes, when I touched fallen leaves, I caught things like earthworms, spiders, and centipedes behind the leaves, which gave me goosebumps.

“Puhahahaha!”

My father was busy laughing.

While shaking off bugs, I fell backwards twice.

It’s creepy to think that what you caught is a venomous centipede or a snake.

‘That’s why you made the gloves.’

Around the time I climbed the hill in a half-asleep state while holding on to a rotten tree.

My father, who was leading the way, reached out his hand to me.

As I was climbing up a small hill, holding my father’s outstretched hand, my father stuck his head in.

” Come up quietly and bow down. ”

Small, low voice.

It hasn’t gone up that much, but has something already come out? I didn’t care about getting wet, so I laid down on the floor.

“There is a feather rabbit in front of you.”

The feather rabbit was a strange-looking rabbit that my father would sometimes catch. Even though it is a rabbit that runs on all fours, it has feathers on its tail and front legs.

Of course it can’t fly.

However, it is quite long and has good elasticity, so it is used as an arrow quill or quill pen. But…there isn’t one?

“Where is it?”

“In front. Do you see a tree that is much darker than the others?”

This is the tree that my mother told me about half a year ago.

It is said that the resin of that tree catches fire particularly well and is used as a material for torches.

“Black hump wisteria?”

“Okay. Look closely at the bottom.”

There was nothing at the bottom.

“···There isn’t one?”

As soon as I said that, the outline of a feathered rabbit came into view.

Because I was trying to focus my gaze and then moved, my moving vision caught it.

It was the perfect camouflage color, almost like a snake.

So much so that if you look elsewhere, you lose the outline.

I looked at the rabbit with concentration.

The sight of them washing their hands while preening their feathers is quite cute.

“···I can see it now.”

“Those are really hard to find.”

My father took out the bow from his chest and quietly put an arrow on the string.

“Usually you shoot the prey’s body, but since their feathers are expensive, you have to shoot the head.”

Pop!

The loud noise he heard made the rabbit’s body jump.

As it is a cold weapon, it is natural for the sound to be heard first and the arrow to fly later. So, it makes no sense to put their heads together in the first place.

Bye!

The rabbit was startled by the sound and ran away, and as if predicting its actions, the arrow shattered its head.

‘It doesn’t make sense, but it works?!’

My father even predicted the rabbit’s movements and escape route!

The rabbit was twitching.

This was my first time actually seeing an animal being killed.

This natural order of nature was disgusting and unfamiliar, and I was thrilled by the ridiculous bow skills.

It doesn’t seem like reality, so it feels like it’s far away.

At the same time, it felt good to know that rabbit was delicious.

Stella especially liked the meat because it was tender.

“Bring it with you. Don’t put it in the netting machine.”

I slid down the slope and picked up the rabbit’s ear. My head exploded. If this were the case, he would have easily died instantly, right? The moment I thought,

Rattling!

The rabbit, whose face had disappeared, struggled with all its might.

“────────?!!!”

Seeing that scary sight, I ended up throwing the rabbit away.

‘If your head was blown off, would you have combed it out?!’

“Puhahaha!!!”

My father laughs uproariously, wondering what is so funny.

I guess he was expecting me to be surprised.

After calming down my anger, I picked up the rabbit again.

‘This is the postmortem cramps I’ve only heard about.’

I have seen many postmortem convulsions in mosquitoes and cockroaches, but this is the first time I have seen postmortem convulsions in a furry animal. When I looked closely, my brain was shattered and shaking.

I climbed back up the slope I came down with the rabbit with both feet and one hand. When I presented the rabbit to my father, he pulled out the arrow stuck in the rabbit’s head and covered the hole with a cloth.

“Why are you covering the rabbit’s head with a waste of cloth?”

“When the smell of blood spreads, carnivores come. Please know. The brain spoils the fastest among organs, and when it does, it smells really bad.”

Ah, carnivores.

We weren’t the only ones on this mountain.

“Are there a lot of carnivores on this mountain?”

“Okay then! My father saw more than ten bears and tigers while climbing this mountain. There were also a few kobolds. There are no wolves as there are mountain owners, but…”

It was a threatening tone.

‘Common sense tells us that if there were ten bears and tigers, what would be left on this mountain?’

Ten of them are not enough for carnivores to eat each other.

My father even got lucky when he saw the look in my eyes.

“······Instead, I definitely saw the kobold.”

─Kobold.

Even though he is smaller than his father, he will eat anything that is weaker than him. Like a frog that loves to eat.

Because they are demi-humans, they are intelligent, and they are grouped into large tribes within the nuclear family.

Although hunters make a lot of money, there is a reason why they do not hunt.

This is because humans are not apex predators.

In other words, there is a limit to profitability, and if you do something wrong, you will be caught.

Game is sometimes plundered.

If you have the intelligence of a human and the five senses of an animal, and are asked to compete with cannibals who eat people in a forest, who on earth could do that?

The mountain suddenly felt unfamiliar as I thought that it was not at the top of the food chain, but somewhere in the middle.

‘Thank goodness this is the mountain owner’s territory.’

Because the mountain owner chases away all carnivores and demi-humans that enter his territory.

“But the mountain owner is Terub, right? When I asked my mother, I heard that food is offered to Terub. Do you eat it?”

The corner of the face’s mouth turns up as it looks down at me.

“Who do you look like and only eat meat?”

As I walked ahead, I smacked the twitching buttocks with my palm.

Ok──!!!

The bird on the tree is startled by the sound of flesh exploding and flies away.

It was sticky. Fits nicely in your hand. It made me want to hit him again.

I can guarantee that even your mother won’t be able to get along without hitting your father’s butt. My father, who had been hit on the buttocks, smiled heartily and moved forward.

This is a place where the educational process is not developed.

Deep down, I thought everyone was going crazy.

There are bad stereotypes somewhere, or there is no basic knowledge.

It wasn’t so. I am learning about the world.

My father and mother knew almost everything necessary for living conditions and today’s civilization.

Mushrooms that bloom inside rotten trees and their benefits, herbs that are good for treating ear poisoning and wounds, and medicinal herbs that have a synergistic effect.

I thought there must be some advantage that only I have.

However, I was the stupidest person to look at the world through modern eyes through colored glasses. Although I learned little by little, I still had a lot left, so time passed really quickly just by learning.

At the same time, the mangtaegi gradually became heavier.

“Father, how do you find traces of by-products or animals? No matter how much I look, I can’t see it.”

“After spending a long time in the mountains, I started to see it at some point. You will too.”

I see I thought I had the know-how.

This seems to be the insight of an expert I have only heard about.

“Now! Look over there!”

‘I don’t know what you’re looking at.’

Concealment and protective colors were useless in front of my father. It shows things that we don’t know what they are and even finds out that they are the footprints of a bear and a tiger and how much time has passed.

They say that if you go in front of that, a bear might smell it and come towards you.

It’s tiger territory in front of you, so you could be attacked.

If you shoot a bow within 24 cubits*, you can attack the opponent before they react to the sound.

[1 cubit* = 50cm]

I remembered them thoroughly.

Sometimes my father seemed like something more than a hunter.

“Since when did you start hunting?”

My father glanced at me.

After a brief pause, he opened his mouth.

“I started right away as soon as I became an adult.”

The age of adulthood in this world is 16.

If so, my father spent almost half his life in the mountains.

“Who did you learn it from?”

“I learned it from my grandfather. He was a popular hunter in this neighborhood.”

Since I’ve never been down to the village, I haven’t seen anyone else except the two of you. Because there were no other houses around the cabin.

I have never seen any relatives or neighbors.

I didn’t even see anyone passing by.

It felt like a disconnected world, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“Was your grandfather as good at hunting as your father?”

“Of course! He was a great hunter. But you were so confident. He climbed the mountain with his bare hands. A year before you were born, he died after being bitten by a poisonous snake.”

…Wouldn’t it be better to run away to the city right now?

“The name is so scary.”

“Because they are very aggressive, they chase and bite. It’s a poisonous snake that kills the most hunters. You must not lose your mind while on the mountain.”

“Yes.”

This means that you should come to your senses and not lose your mind like you are now.

What my father said was right. It never occurred to me that there would be a specialized hospital in a place like this, or that even if there were, there would be antidotes for each type of poisonous insect.

Just because I’m climbing a mountain for the first time today doesn’t mean wild animals or snakes will avoid me. This is a world where death is familiar.

“There are especially many widow poisonous snakes on this mountain.”

“Widow viper?”

“It is the snake that kills the most hunters. Can you see it under the rock by the stream over there?”

At the edge of the stream, something long and black was swimming toward the ground.

30m is a distance away.

No matter how much I looked down on the terrain, my eyesight was not very strong.

“Is that a widow viper?”

“That’s right. It’s really tricky to deal with them because they change their body color to match their surroundings.”

If you just listen to the words, it is no different from a chameleon.

However, the color blue was out of sync with the color of the water.

Or is it that the water appears black because it is cold, as snakes see temperature?

“Do you remember the story I told you yesterday? The Rectalians were at war with the wolves. The Rectalians used that poison on their weapons and arrows. If a human is bitten, even an adult dies within 30 minutes, so you should never be bitten.”

30 minutes. It takes 30 minutes just to get home from here.

‘What if I get bitten?’

If you get bitten, it would be a wise decision to lie down and collect your mind. ‘What will I be born with in my next life?’ Like this.

“Can’t you catch that and sell it?”

My father shook his head and looked down at me with an expression telling me not to dream.

“The poison is too strong to eat, and the skin is so thin that it is worthless. You don’t have to worry that much. Widow vipers usually have small fangs, so as long as you wear proper shoes and gloves, you will be fine.”

My father continued downhill to the stream.

Then, he approaches the poisonous snake appropriately and pulls the bowstring.

puck!

I shot the widow viper in the middle of its body and pinned it to the ground.

The poisonous snake, which had barely escaped the stream and was heading toward the forest, was pierced by a bow and writhed like a stepped on earthworm.

A thick-heeled boot falls on him, trampling his body, and a stone falls on his head.

Kwasik!

“Don’t stay there, come down.”

My father retrieves the stuck arrow and gestures to me.

“Ah… Yes.”

I carefully walked down the slope to the stream, and my father came towards me holding a dead snake.

“Can you see it? This point. You must know that even if the color changes, the black dot between the eyebrows will not change. Since it’s a poisonous snake and slow, just kill everything you see like my dad did.”

···You bring something with a crushed head and teach it to be a snake like this?

It reminds me of old times.

When I was in the military, I killed snakes several times.

This is because there was an accident where a successor had his ring finger amputated after being bitten by a pit viper while working.

I foolishly tried to catch it and let it go, but I got bitten.

He was a promising successor.

To the point where I thought he was someone who shouldn’t have lost a finger like that.

After that, I started killing snakes around the unit.

Me too, but how would a father who lost his parents to a snake feel?

The color of the snake in my father’s hand gradually changed from black to brown. The snake was left on the floor.

‘No matter what, it’s still a little pitiful.’

So he walked down the river a little bit.

The sound of flowing water and the river breeze cools the body.

A rope tied to a tree could be seen from afar.

‘You put down a fish trap.’

I was wondering where you catch the fish.

My father pulled a long rope tied to a tree near the river.

When a huge fish trap the size of a human’s torso was pulled out from a deep part of the upstream, the fish inside struggled and shook violently. The corners of my father’s mouth rise.

“I think I caught a salmon.”

Soon, several fish traps tied together using stones as weights appeared.

Inside, there were several small fish and two large salmon about the length of my torso, shaking their bodies as if they were going to destroy the fish trap.

with a splash! Splash!

Except for the salmon, he released all of them as if he didn’t like them. My father took out the feathered rabbit tied to his belt and the salmon in the fish trap, and quickly began slaughtering them.

The salmon’s head was discarded and the intestines were placed in a fish trap.

The grooming of rabbits was unusual.

When cutting the stomach, he cut it open with a knife, but after that, he used his hands to tear off the fur, stitch by stitch.

When I take this fur home, my mother will remove the remaining fat that sticks to the skin.

After peeling off the fish’s scales with a dagger, my father fumbled to untie a female feather rabbit hanging from his belt and handed it to me.

“I’ll teach you how to peel the leather, so give it a try.”

···It has come.