SHORTCUT STARTS HERE
There was a signboard right there, so I followed it obediently. The road was too narrow—in fact, it wasn't much of a road at all, more like a simple trail—so I couldn't use my broom. I could have insisted on flying if I'd really wanted to, but I didn't want to deal with the constant twisting and turning.
With no other option left to me, I walked along the unpaved road that wasn't a road, trampling grass underfoot. The grass, damp with morning dew, flung water droplets at me as I pressed on. The hem of my robe was already weighed down with moisture.
This might be a shortcut if you're walking, but I'm using a broom, so this is obviously a longer way around. Shoot.
Anyway…I wonder what kind of place the next country will be.
Trade must not have been big there, if this path was so undeveloped.
Meaning a country just as undeveloped as this forest. Well, that's just my guess. Hmm… Suddenly my desire to go there had vanished. Let's turn back, shall we?
Just joking.
I walked on for some time, complaining all the while in my head.
Finally, a change appeared in the otherwise uniform forest scenery.
"…Oh my."
A tree had fallen—a big one, maybe several hundred years old by the look of it. And it wasn't the only one lying wearily on its side; there were a whole bunch.
Whoa. What a roadblock.
However, I could still proceed onward. I crossed over the fallen trees, spreading out both arms as if I was walking a tightrope, then caught sight of a black shape moving in the shadows of the forest.
Oh, a bear?
Alas, it was just a human.
A giant one, with rippling muscles. Scary.
"I knocked down all the trees around us with my own two hands.
How about that? Pretty impressive, huh?"
With a grunt, he struck a pose to show off his muscles. Plenty of people could fell trees with raw strength, but I kept that thought to myself.
"Would you happen to be a resident of the country up ahead?"
He spoke while taking a different pose. "That's right. I come from that country. How did you know? Could you tell from my muscles?"
"Huh? Do you mean to say that your homeland is full of musclemen like you?" Maybe I should turn back.
"No, not at all. They're all scrawny little bean sprouts there."
"What were you trying to say, then?"
"Doesn't matter. How about these muscles?"
I don't think I'm going to get very far with this guy. I tried to humor him. "Oh, what amaaazing muscles. Can I feel them?"
"Go right ahead!" The huge man offered his arm to me with another grunt and flexed.
I didn't really know how best to touch it, so I tried poking it with my index finger. "Wooow, amazing." It was as hard as a rock.
"..."
"Um, why are you turning red?"
"…Forgive me. It's the first time any girl has ever touched me, other than my little sister, so…"
By that logic, do you mean you're fine with your sister touching your arms? I see. Seriously, what's with that twisted rationale? Go die.
After shaking off my dark thoughts, I asked, "By the way, what are you doing out here in the forest? Are you working?"
"No, I'm actually in training right now."
And then he told me his story.
A few days earlier, his younger sister had been kidnapped by a strange group. The muscleman hadn't been around, and so he hadn't been able to rescue her.
He had heard from an eyewitness that the people who kidnapped his sister were a bunch of burly men. In order to take them on, he had taken up training here and knocked down all the trees one by one.
…And he had also incidentally taken a part-time job as a lumberjack to make money.
"…So you're just knocking trees down for money, then?"
"What are you saying? Making money isn't the point. I need more muscle—so much more," he denied with heaving breaths. Something about this was strange.
"Isn't your goal to rescue your younger sister?"
"That'll happen sooner or later. I don't have enough muscle to fight the burly men who kidnapped her."
Um, you're already superhuman, so please go ahead and save your sister already.
…It seemed like I might meet the same fate as the fallen trees if I said that aloud, though, so I just gave an exaggerated nod.
"First of all," he continued, "I've got to take down the champion of this forest—the bear. This is my first objective."
"A bear…?"
"Yes. A scary one, too. He can grab fish out of the river with his bare paws. I'm nowhere near that dexterous."
"Uh-huh…"
"After that, they say there's an ax-wielding oddball living deep in the forest, and I have to duel him, too. I've heard that he wrestled the bear to the ground. He's one to be feared."
"Uh-huh…"
If the bear has already been defeated in a wrestling match, then hasn't it already lost its "champion of the forest" title?
"After that—"
He made me listen to his plans for about an hour, but the words little sister never once came out of his mouth. I had to wonder if he really had any intention of going to help her. Maybe his overtrained muscles had started constricting the blood flow to his brain. He'd completely lost sight of his original goal. In the end, rescuing his little sister had become less and less important.
I wonder when he'll remember why he's doing all this in the first place.
Well, that story has nothing to do with me.