In a slightly open area in the corner of the Spirits' Forest, I sat down on the root of a large tree and opened the bento that Sieg-san gave me.
[Whoa...]
Inside was a simple sandwich and some light dishes, and while it looked delicious, it was also kind of feminine and cute.
I guess that's to be expected of Sieg-san huh, the crusts of the bread are neatly removed, and the sandwiches are arranged in sizes that seem to be just right for eating.
The filling is... I wonder what this is? I can vaguely recognize eggs and lettuce-like vegetables in it, and perhaps, she took into consideration that I'm a man who doesn't eat vegetables that much, there are also some sandwiches with some meat in between.
It kinda looks like chicken but... what kind of meat is this? It's kinda, errr, because of that tyrant worm... What I'm trying to say is that since I ate that huge caterpillar skewer without knowing it, I've become wary of the meat in this world.
No, even if that huge worm meat was actually snake mean, I would still have a hard time eating it just as I did back on Earth. However, to the people of this world, it might just be a very common ingredient.
Yes, it's already cooked, and I don't know what kind of meat it is, so let's just not think about it... And since I have a bad feeling about it, let's also not ask what the other ingredients are.
Switching my mind, which seemed to be leaning towards a strange direction, I took one of the sandwiches in hand and brought it to my mouth.
[...Delish.]
That sandwich isn't that outrageous that it would strip all my clothes while screaming "Delicious!", but every time I bite into it, the carefully cooked meat will belt and become soft and tender, filling my mouth with its gentle flavors.
It's not like the food you eat in fancy restaurants or anything like those, I guess it was as if you could taste the gentleness of home... A flavor I really like.
And then, I tried the other side dishes.
Perhaps, because they are eaten with bare hands, all of the side dishes were made into bite-sized pieces and then stuck on wooden skewers, so that they could be easily eaten with one hand.
While feeling my heart warmed by Sieg-san's typical meticulous attention to detail, I was moving my gaze to see which side dish to eat first when my attention was caught by something.
[Mini burger steaks...]
(T/N: He actually just calls them mini hamburgs, but I think he's just referring to the patty-like dish shown in most anime.)
It seems that the burger steaks have been handed down in this world as well, and when I saw the skewer with bite-sized burger steaks stuck on it, I can feel myself getting excited.
Well, what can I say, I'm slightly embarrassed sounding like an excited child but... It wouldn't be an exaggeration when I say that burger steak is my favorite food to eat.
As I recall, Sieg-san asked me before what my favorite food was, and I remembered telling her about burger steaks. It seems like she remembered it huh.
Reaching for the mini burger steak skewer and putting it in my mouth, I noticed that it was a simple one with no sauce or anything else on it.
For me, a simple salt-and-pepper seasoned burger steak is the best, and I don't remember eating many burger steaks with demi-glace sauce when I eat in restaurants.
That's why I can say that the burger steaks made by Sieg-san are my favorite.
[......]
Delicious... really delicious.
The soft crunchy texture, the juices seeping into my mouth, and the simple seasoning of salt and pepper accentuated the flavor of the meat, making the flavor so delicious it was like it was sinking into my body.
Ah, this is it... this is what I like the best.
As I slowly and frugally savor my burger steak, my eyes heat up a bit and some nostalgic memories come flooding back in my mind.
——Kaito, what do you think? Mother's burger steak is delicious, right!?
——Rather than that, Mom. Aside from the burger steaks you make, your cooking isn't very good.
——-Uggghhh... UUuhhh… I'm not really that good at cooking after all.
——–Speaking of which, Dad said the other day that "Other than her cooking, Mom would have been the ideal woman...".
——–Wait right there, dear!? Tsk, he ran away!? Hey, stop right there!!!
Mom was a terrible cook, isn't she...She was so careless that she would even carelessly burn herself, and she would even hold the knife improperly, so I remembered being nervous as a child whenever she's in the kitchen.
She couldn't make elaborate dishes at all, and she would often make mistakes in the number of seasonings...
However, the food that she always served with a smile on her face while she puffed out her small breasts... was really warm...
I was feeling a little pensive as I remembered the past... and before I knew it, there was a spirit in front of me, staring at my lunchbox with interest.
[...Do you want to eat?]
[...….!]
When I asked him, thinking that he wanted to eat some of my bento when I looked at him, the spirit... no, the spirits vigorously nodded their heads.
H- Hmmm. What should I do? Even if each one of them could only eat a small piece, when there are so many of them, I don't know if I will be able to distribute it to everyone.
However, if I just give them to some of the children, the other children would be quite pitiful... Hmmm.
[...Ah, that's right. If it's cookies, I have lots of them, but I wonder if they will like it?]
[!!!]
Taking out a large number of jam cookies from my magic box and showing them to the spirits, they looked at them with interest before all of them looked towards me expectantly.
[All right, let's eat together. Everyone would get some, so properly get in line.]
[!]
It seems that jam cookies are good too, as the spirits follow my words and line up neatly in a row.
" "
For me, they were bite-size cookies, but for the spirits, these jam cookies are as big as their faces, and it seems like it would be hard for one of them to eat one, so I break it in half and give it to them one by one.
It took a while to finish handing out the cookies when there were more than a hundred of them, but I finally finished giving them to everyone, and the spirits happily munch on the cookies little by little as I eat my bento, swinging their faces in the air.
I've heard from people before how little things are cute, and it seems that it is as they say, as the spirits eating jam cookies are very cute and watching them eat is quite a comforting sight.
Thanks to the spirits, my mood is lifted, and I'm able to eat my lunch with many of them.
The light shining through the trees illuminated our surroundings in a magical way, and I felt as if I had wandered into a fairy tale.
After lunch, just as I was about to resume the harvest, the spirits suddenly looked unusual.
They began to fly around in a restless manner.
At first, I was worried that the jam cookies I gave them earlier had caused something wrong with their bodies, but my Sympathy Magic conveyed not pain, but a mixture of joy and surprise instead.
[What's the matter with all of you?]
[ ! ? ! ? ]
[Eh? You want me to follow you?]
[!!!]
[A- Alright.]
I didn't understand the situation, but the spirits seemed to be trying to lead me somewhere by pulling my hand and beckoning me to follow them, and even though I was confused by their sudden change, I compliantly followed them.
Unlike the time when they led me to the places where there were a lot of berries, they seem to be in some kind of hurry... Yes, if I had to describe it, it was like they're feeling as if "they won't make it in time" to something.
I've been following the spirits... They seem to be advancing deeper into the forest, and the wide, easy-to-walk path we were just traversing before had become more and more like a rough animal trail.
However, the path I'm walking on isn't so much that I can't advance because the spirits are clearing the weeds ahead of me.
However, I feel like I'm being led to an unexplored region, and I'm a little anxious about where they're going to take me.
Well, if there are this many spirits, it's probably safe to a certain extent but.... Seriously, where in the world are we going?
It's probably about 10 minutes or so, and as I follow the spirits through the animal trail, the scene in my eyes drastically changes.
No, the fact that it's a forest hasn't changed but... I can see a tremendous number of spirits ahead of me.
It's a ridiculous number compared to the number that was following me just a few minutes ago, as there are clearly more than a thousand spirits gathered here.
While tilting my head at this unusual scene, I stepped my foot even further... and there, I found a single tree.
"...It seems that it hasn't affected you all too much. That's a relief."
I can hear a voice resounding somewhere... but I can't see anyone at all.
I mean, if my ears aren't out of whack yet... I think I just heard the tree in front of me sound like it was talking?
"Oya?"
As if to answer my question, I heard the voice of that tree again... and it seems like the trunk of the tree was rotating before—— Eh?
[Wha!?]
The tree moved as if it were looking back, and my voice involuntarily leaked out at the sight that met my eyes.
In the tree's trunk... just around the center, there was a woman wearing an outfit that was reminiscent of a certain tribe somewhere "buried"... N- No, that's wrong. Rather than being buried... It appears as if her hands and lower body are fused with the tree.
By the way, the reason why I thought the entity fused with a tree is a woman is because of those bountiful parts bulging that they can be clearly seen even on top of her loose, ethnic dress-style clothing.
Well, I wonder to myself why I'm thinking like this in this kind of situation, but if you're a man, you'll have to forgive me for not being able to turn away my eyes from those atrocious bulges.
Anyway, that woman was, how should I say this... an existence with an incredibly mysterious atmosphere.
Her eyes were a beautiful emerald green like jewels, and her long vibrant green hair glitter with the sunlight... Eh? No, looking at them closely, those aren't hairs. They're leaves!? Those small leaves are strung together in layers to form a long hair-like shape.
A body united with a tree, and hair of leaves. If I were to base her with the RPG I used to play, she looks like those "Dryad" monsters.
...Well, she at least doesn't seem to be a human.
"...…."
The woman quietly stared at me with her jewel-like eyes.
The woman's face is quite high up in the air, and perhaps because she's fused to the tree, it kinda looks like she's looking down upon me, which makes me uncomfortable.
Who could this woman be? If she's in the Spirits' Forest, does that mean she's a spirit? No, but something is clearly different about her from the spirits I've seen so far, yes, something status.
If I had to put it into words, would it be a sense of presence? The tremendous atmosphere, as if a tree so large it pierces the heavens exists in front of me, leaves me speechless.
The woman continued to stare at me for a while, before calmly speaking to me.
"...Are you, by any chance, Miyama Kaito-san?"
[Eh?]
How should I say this… There's something strange in her voice, and the woman's mouth didn't even move and it sounded as if the sound was coming from her whole body, not from her mouth.
However, what was even more shocking was the fact that she said my name when we were supposed to have never met before... Who was she really?
[...Errr, I'm certainly Miyama Kaito but... who are you?]
"Forgive my discourtesy. It was quite impolite of me to ask your name without introducing myself."
Hearing the question that spilled out of my mouth, the woman lightly bows her head once, before she gently smiles.
"My name is Lillywood... "Lillywood Yggdrasil". In the Demon Realm, I'm the one known as the "World King"."
[...Huh?]
As I heard the words that were calmly announced to me, I felt my thoughts completely stopped this time.
Dear Mom, Dad—– In the depths of the Spirits' Forest, arriving in the place where the spirits brought me—— I encountered the World King.
//==========
Incidentally, Lillywood is the first person to properly introduce herself as one of the Six Kings.