"Umm~ yesterday I put it here if I'm not mistaken. Where's my scarf?"
After saying that, she turned to the right, saw me rolling my arms, realized something.
"Isn't that my scarf?"
Yeah, that's right, this is the scarf, the scarf I'm currently wearing to cover my handcuffs.
I nodded, and she came here with a confused face.
"What are you doing with my scarf?"
"So this is your scarf?"
Pretending not to know that I took her shawl from the table, I wanted not to make her suspect me of what I was doing. With this, she must have assumed that I had accidentally taken her scarf.
"Yeah... that's my scarf."
"I see."
"Why are you using my scarf to cover your hands? Oh~ yesterday you also used banana leaves to cover your hands, right? What are you doing that for? Is your hand okay?"
"My hands are currently fused. I purposely covered my hand so you wouldn't be disgusted when you saw it."
"Oh, I see. I understand."
"May I borrow your scarf for a moment—just for today?"
"Okay. But it's just…"
"Hmph? If you don't want to, I'll just find something else to cover my hand."
I don't know why her face looks like that, even though I didn't do anything bad to her.
Lifting her head to look at me after being relieved of something, she started to say something.
"That scarf is the magic repelling scarf. If you use it wrong, I…"
Well, I'm sure she would feel responsible if I used her scarf to do something bad.
But when I found out that this scarf was a magic repelling scarf, I thought I needed to use it.
"No, I won't do anything bad with your scarf."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Even if I did bad things, at most I can only strangle someone using this scarf. If the person I strangled died, it wouldn't be a bad thing for me.
Since I know what's good and what's bad, I can judge someone I deserve to kill. Given my previous job, maybe I'm used to judging someone and immediately choosing whether that person deserves to be "killed" or not.
Checking my hand, she opened her mouth while looking at me.
"Umm… well, I trust you."
When she held my hand, I felt a heat inside my body, like being exposed to radiation from a distance of 40 meters.
After I nodded and I didn't think I needed to say anything, she moved away from me and walked over to her reception desk.
When she got there, she was shocked to see that the plate had no more food on the table.
"What... even though I just made it, why did it just run out?"
Instantly she turned to me, suspecting me that the food she had made was wasted by me.
"Are you the one..."
"No."
Even though I'm hungry right now, I won't take other people's food. My mother always taught me not to steal food, because not necessarily the one who has the food is not hungry. Therefore, regarding food, it will not be easy to take.
"Then..."
"Hehehe, this food is delicious."
Being quite a distance from here, the girl who had bunny ears and had shoulder-length short purple hair laughed with her mouth still chewing food.
"Cindy..."
"Ugh... I was caught."
They were chasing each other there, fighting over the food the bunny girl had eaten, possibly the owner of this inn.
"Chase me if you can, Sarah onee-san."
"Watch out you..."
"Hehehe."
Without them knowing, I walked towards the exit of this inn.
When the sound of the door rang, they realized that I was there.
"O-Oh. Do you want to go there?"
Pausing for a moment without looking back, I answered the innkeeper's girl's question.
"Never repeat the same question. I've already decided what I want to do, so don't try to stop me."
"B-But over there..."
"No matter how dangerous that place is, according to your words, I will still go there. And besides, I'm not the type to be indebted to someone."
"..."
She was silent, and I stepped forward while looking back, right at her.
"If I don't come back… I think I need to thank you at this point. Thank you for helping. And for this scarf of yours, even if I die, I will return it to you."
Closing this door slowly, making her not see me, I made up my mind to go there.
***
Before haggling the price with a horse-drawn motorcycle taxi, I bought a loaf of bread to fill my stomach. Since last night, my stomach is always rumbling, hungry, and wanting something to eat, and I can only hold it in.
"Oh, are you new here, young man?"
I thought this old woman wouldn't say anything when she saw me, it turns out she's just like the residents in this city, asking where I was from.
Well, maybe because my face feels foreign to them, so I won't mind it and have prepared the right answer in this regard.
"Yeah, I came from out of town."
"No wonder it's the first time I've seen you. I understand."
Bartering bread with Zquid, completing this transaction, I left here and approached a man whose face was full of wounds.
"What is it?" asked the man as I arrived in front of him.
"Can you take me somewhere?"
Of course in this case I should not say my goal.
"Where do you want to go?"
"A place not far from here."
"Um..."
While he was thinking, I saw the horse behind him smell the drink, and at that moment I pointed at the horse.
"Is that your horse?"
"Yeah, that's my horse."
"I think your horse was forced to drink the water."
"Why?"
"We will see! Take good care of your horse!"
Watching the horse, he began to feel that something was wrong in pouring water into the bucket.
"Oh... It turns out that I even gave dirty water to Jeky, it's appropriate that Jeky doesn't want to drink."
Even from here, I know that the water in the bucket is dirty. It is not suitable for horses, because horses can detect which water is clean and which water is dirty, so the horse will not drink the water.
After changing the water in the bucket, he came back.
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me. In exchange, I will serve you. I will deliver to your destination for free."
"I guess-"
"It is okay."
"I'm not done talking yet."
"Take it easy, take it easy..."
Embracing my shoulders with his hands, he looked as if he was familiar with me.
"Since you have reminded me, I will return the favor by escorting you to your destination. How?"
I just nodded, and after that was silent for a while, letting this man talk to some extent.
Removing his hand from my shoulder, the man asked me once again my purpose.
"So where do you want to go? If it's close, I can quickly go straight there. This horse is special, a horse with strong leg muscles."
"So I see, the horse's legs should look big."
"Of course, Jeky's muscles are big, so you can see his legs look big."
His horse is named Jeky, I think this man respects his pet.
"Then take me to Wibowo Village."
"Why do you want to go there? Isn't there nothing there?"
One thing I need to pay attention to, I can't immediately say my purpose of going to the forest, because this man will forbid me to go there, just like the woman who owns the inn. Therefore, the only way could only be for him to take me to the nearest place from the forest.
"I have business there."
"Sorry for my impoliteness, but there isn't anything else there except the rubble of buildings. If I may ask, what did you go there for?"
"You talk too much, I don't like it. Everyone has privacy, you should be aware of that and not ask me this."
"Sorry, I'm sorry."
According to the information that the woman who owned the inn gave, there were several nearby villages from the forest and each of them had been destroyed, leaving only the ruins of the buildings, I wouldn't be surprised if he asked what I was going there for.
"Most importantly, do you want to take me or not?"
"Okay, I'll take you to Wibowo Village."
After he agreed, I immediately got into his horse carriage.
Rojali Forest, a forest that is so densely filled with trees. Because it was too dense, which prevented sunlight from entering, the forest was now abandoned by humans and became a den of several monsters. Because of that, many of the nearby villages of the forest were now destroyed due to the attacks of the monsters that were raging in search of prey.
It is said that, until now, no human has managed to get out of the forest after entering.
But for some reason, I felt odd about the information the innkeeper gave me.
Judging from the cat girl's letter that I read, it was written by a human hand. By only looking at the letter once, I could guess that in the forest there were still humans living there.
But if I think about the food I ate last night, the food made from orc heads, it's possible that the monsters in this world could write and speak.
Honestly, I don't want to think this is true, but this world I live in is a world I'm not familiar with. It could be that the monsters here also have thoughts like humans, or it could be that they have a purpose and reason to kidnap the cat girl's imouto. If I think like that, then it's no wonder that the writing on the letter resembles that of a human.
Yeah, it could happen.
With this horse-drawn carriage running, I set out for Wibowo Village, a village 1.3 Km away from the city, and hoped that the catgirl would not reach the forest before me.