Chapter 9

"I'm going to the forest."

"Be careful of bears and wolves."

A week after I caught my first Holoholo bird, my father, who was unusually in a good mood, saw me off as I headed to the forest as usual.

I was still just a six-year-old, considered useless, but I had contributed to enriching the family's dining table.

Originally, I was an extra, and I thought it was still impossible for me to help with the land reclamation. However, I had started to catch the Holoholo bird, which even professional hunters found difficult to hunt, every day.

Moreover, I collected various edible items such as wild strawberries, mountain vegetables, and yams. Because I accurately gathered edible ingredients, my family's reception of me had improved recently.

Indeed, everyone was tired of the meals consisting only of black bread and salted vegetable soup. However, life in this village was not particularly comfortable.

Due to the increasing population, most of the manpower was allocated to new land reclamation and farming, which reduced the number of people and the time available for hunting and gathering.

The basic food to feed people was wheat, the material for bread. Adhering to this principle, my father managed the manpower.

Sending a child might be dangerous, but I was just the eighth son, and if I died, it wouldn't have a significant impact.

Other children, being peasants, were busy helping with farming and other work. Moreover, it would be problematic if these valuable laborers died, so I was the only child who entered the forest.

I wondered if it was right for a noble to expect a six-year-old child to earn a living, but this was the reality for many people in this world, especially for poor lower nobility.

I hoped that the urban areas I planned to go to when I grew up would be much better.

Still, I continued my hunting and gathering activities to improve my diet. I liked the side dishes made with Holoholo birds and mountain vegetables, and the jam made from wild strawberries that I could spread on the tasteless, crumbly black bread.

There were many other things to gather, and above all, I could practice magic freely in the forest.

"The magic generally known as 'Report' is..."

Since I couldn't practice flashy attack magic, I mainly practiced auxiliary magic to temporarily enhance physical functions and other life magic.

I confirmed that no large wild animals were approaching using detection magic and decided to try the new magic written in the new page of the magic book as I moved deeper into the forest.

This new magic, 'Report,' literally reported something to the user.

When I tried it, several spots in my field of vision were faintly glowing. Upon closer inspection, these were the vines of yams growing from the roots of trees and aconite growing naturally.

Indeed, it reported the locations of things by making them faintly glow. However, while yams were useful as food, aconite had little use in this world.

It was often used for assassination because it was poisonous. Although I had heard that poison could be used as medicine depending on how it was used in my previous world, I didn't know how to use it, so I decided to leave it for now.

First, I dug up the yams using a digging magic I had improved from earth magic. In my previous world, a six-year-old child digging up yams on their own would take all day.

So, I used the 'Digging' magic, which was recorded in the intermediate magic book, to dig up the yams without damaging them.

A magnificent yam, about two meters long, was dug up. This forest, where people rarely entered, naturally produced excellent yams. However, they were too long to carry, so I broke them in half and tied them to my backpack.

Then, as usual, I hunted two Holoholo birds and gathered other mountain vegetables and akebi, stuffing them into my backpack.

"However, I can't understand the ecosystem and vegetation of this forest..."

Of course, it wasn't the same as the forests in my previous life in Japan, but this place had a mix of plants and animals I had never seen before, such as pines, cedars, broadleaf trees, rabbits, boars, bears, wolves, yams, mountain vegetables, and akebi.

The natural bounty was quite abundant. However, most of the manpower was allocated to farming, so there were few people who frequently went hunting and gathering, except for professional hunters.

Moreover, it was common to enter the forest in groups of adult men to avoid bears and wolves, but it was practically impossible to gather multiple adult men due to the labor environment.

"Besides, those professional hunters are hunting in other forests closer to their homes."

Therefore, except for a few group hunts each year, this forest was rarely entered. It was a waste, but it was understandable that crops, which provided a stable income and could be calculated, were prioritized over the unstable natural bounty.

After all, this was a remote area with little interaction with other territories, and self-sufficiency was essential to avoid starvation.

"Besides..."

I searched for a new spot that was faintly glowing and found a fruit that looked like a loquat on a tree. It was a type of loquat called a loquat in this world.

I cast a magic to detect poison and then peeled and bit into the fruit. The juice was sweeter than a loquat and spread in my mouth.

I also gathered fruits similar to akebi and persimmons. I thought it was autumn because I could gather fruits, but it wasn't. It was between spring and summer, and according to a book, "The fruiting period varies by individual tree."

So, some trees bear fruit in spring, while others bear fruit in summer. Moreover, in this region, where it doesn't snow in winter and only some trees wither, some trees bear fruit in winter as well.

It was indeed a climate typical of the southern part of the continent.

Despite this, the diet seemed poor.

However, as a child, I couldn't do much about it. After using many magics and securing the required amount, I hurried home.

"Good work."

I handed my mother the fruits of my labor and enjoyed dinner, which had two more side dishes. Then, my father suddenly said:

"Hunter Evens saw a 'Talking Dead.'"

"Is that true? Father!"

My eldest brother, Kurt, exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, it must be the victims from five years ago."

Five years ago, my father, who had requested the liberation of a part of the demon forest inhabited by monsters, and the army of the Breichleiter Margrave, who had been lured by the rights, suffered significant casualties.

Fortunately, my father, who was busy maintaining order with the 2,000 troops from other territories, did not have to go to the demon forest. However, the 100-strong army led by my uncle, who was one of my father's vassals, only 23 returned. Naturally, my uncle did not return either.

The death of 77 adult men in the Baumeister Knight's territory, which had a gradually increasing population, was a significant loss.

The current extreme allocation of manpower to farming and the fact that I could hunt and gather in the forest without any comment were largely due to this situation.

Moreover, the Breichleiter Margrave's army, including the previous lord, did not return 1,925 people. It was almost a total annihilation by the world's standards.

"We will be troubled by undead monsters for a while..."

"At least it's a Talking Dead, which is better than a zombie, which is difficult to eliminate."

Monsters, which were known to never leave their territory, were the exception with undead monsters. Since they were originally human, a certain number of them would instinctively try to return to their hometowns even after becoming monsters.

According to the encyclopedia, undead monsters like zombies, which move only by instinct, are troublesome because they harm humans. They need to be eliminated urgently.

However, they move slowly and are extremely weak to fire, so they can be burned with oil.

The Talking Dead, on the other hand, required a case-by-case response. Some were aggressive due to the fear of death and needed to be burned like zombies, while others could be pacified by talking to them and fulfilling their requests.

Those who could talk to them were usually priests, but ordinary people could also pacify them if their wavelengths matched.

"Should we ask the priest?"

"Master Myister is old and has a bad back. It's impossible for him to find a Talking Dead whose location is unknown."

Although this remote area received a priest dispatched from the headquarters of the church in the capital, there was only one priest, an elderly man over 80 years old. There were no sisters, so several old women in the territory helped with the church's chores.

Moreover, there were almost no devout people in the Baumeister Knight's territory, and I had only reluctantly attended mass a few times.

Most likely, a new priest would not come from the capital until the old priest passed away.

"Given this, Vel, be careful when you enter the forest. There's a possibility that they might come out of our territory."

While listening to my father's rather irresponsible words, I couldn't help but become interested in the Talking Dead.