Clearly, Matsurize couldn't reason with the two wild boars chasing him, and even if he could, they wouldn't listen. His only option was to run. As soon as Matsurize started sprinting, the two large boars, followed by their three young, charged after him.
Matsurize ran blindly, darting around in every direction, knowing he couldn't keep running in a straight line. He weaved between trees as he fled, and this tactic helped him create some distance between himself and the boars. The trees in this dense forest were tall and sturdy, far too tough for the boars to destroy, and the obstacles slowed the animals down.
However, Matsurize's body was far too weak. His stamina was quickly draining, and he had little energy left. As he glanced back at the boars chasing him, he realized that while weaving through the trees helped him dodge them temporarily, it was also exhausting him, and the distance between them was shrinking again.
With no better ideas, Matsurize kept running, even though his strength was nearly gone. He had considered climbing a tree again, but given how poor his climbing skills were, he quickly dismissed the idea.
Desperation drove him to keep fleeing, but after running for a while, he realized he had circled back to the same patch of bushes where the wild boars had been earlier. The shrubs, though shorter than the tall trees, were still taller than Matsurize.
Without much time to think, Matsurize noticed that only one of the large boars was still chasing him. He assumed the other one had stayed behind to look after the three little ones.
Matsurize cursed under his breath, "Why can't you just stay and take care of your kids, stupid boar?"
With that, Matsurize tucked his hands close to his chest and charged into the bushes. There was a path through the shrubs, likely trampled by the wild boars, but it didn't make his escape any easier. The thorns from the bushes tore at his clothes, leaving them in tatters and cutting his skin.
By now, Matsurize didn't bother looking back. He could hear the boar crashing through the bushes behind him, drawing closer and closer.
He wasn't sure how he had managed to keep running. He felt like he was a complete disgrace to the "time-traveling heroes" in stories. The past few days had been a living nightmare for him. His body was weakening fast, and the boar was catching up.
Then, suddenly, Matsurize's vision blurred, and his body collapsed forward. He had run himself into unconsciousness.
Fortunately, his fall took him out of the bushes and into the open. Behind the bushes was a fast-flowing river. Matsurize had tumbled straight into it.
In a stroke of luck—or misfortune—his fall had saved him from the wild boar, but the current swiftly carried him downstream. His fate was now in the hands of the river.
It was midday, and the sun was shining brightly.
Not far from the dense forest, a small village was bustling as its inhabitants prepared their midday meals. At the far western end of the village, a young girl, having finished her lunch early, stepped out of her home with a basin of laundry. She was heading to the river to wash clothes.
The girl's name was Ayane. Her family had lived in this village for generations. Ayane's life had been filled with hardship. She had once had both parents, but her father had grown tired of the monotonous village life and had left to seek fortune at sea when Ayane was still a child. Not long after, her mother passed away in a tragic accident, leaving Ayane to fend for herself.
Now, at eighteen, Ayane had grown into a young woman, living on her own and relying on her family's ancestral home to survive.
Carrying her basin, Ayane walked to the riverbank near her village. As she was about to start washing her clothes, she noticed something unusual: a person lying near the riverbank not far away.
Alarmed, Ayane quickly set down her basin and ran over. She found a man lying face down in the sand by the river. His clothes were torn and ragged, and his body was covered in wounds, some of which had been worsened by exposure to the water. It was a gruesome sight.
He was barefoot, of medium build, and his face, though battered, seemed to be about the same age as hers. Ayane checked his breathing—it was faint, but he was still alive, though barely. It seemed he could die at any moment.
Ayane, with her kind heart, resolved to save him.
The unconscious man, of course, was none other than Matsurize, who had collapsed into the river after being chased by the wild boar.
Unlike many other girls her age, Ayane was no stranger to hard work. With surprising ease, she lifted Matsurize by the waist and hoisted him onto her shoulder. Holding him in place with one hand, Ayane picked up her laundry basin with the other and calmly walked back toward the village.
In the bright sunlight, the scene was somewhat bizarre: a young girl, who appeared fragile and delicate, effortlessly carrying a grown man on her shoulder with one hand and holding a laundry basin in the other.
Had Matsurize been awake, this would have been a harsh blow to his fragile male ego.
Ayane's village was small, home to fewer than twenty families, with barely a hundred people in total. There were no doctors in such a tiny settlement, so Ayane had no choice but to take Matsurize to her own home to tend to him.
On her way through the village, some of the older women at the entrance saw her carrying the unconscious man and teased her playfully, "Oh, Ayane! You've grown up, bringing a man home with you, I see!"
Blushing with embarrassment, Ayane quickened her pace, grateful that her home was close to the western edge of the village.