Chapter 3: Gathering meat and going towards a village.

For the sake of helping the girl, he went ahead and defeated the rabbit-like beasts.

“Thank you very much for helping me… Mr. traveler”.

The girl covered in light wounds on her limbs conveyed her thankful words. Those words she spoke were heard in proper and fluent Japanese.

“Don’t worry about it. It was really nothing”.
“To say ‘It was really nothing’ after defeating those Big Rabbits…”

At his choice of words, the girl got somewhat surprised. But he felt very thankful because she seemed to understand his words.

By the way, the name of the rabbit-like beasts that she was desperately struggling against was Big Rabbits.
In order to help the girl, he was the one who had killed all of the Big Rabbits.

He was surprised when he first saw the rabbits. After all, they had a cute little face while at the same time were relentlessly attacking this girl with their sharp fangs.

But, after looking closely, their movements were very monotonous. And they also looked somewhat slow.

That was what he felt while he was observing them as he was hiding among the bushes.
『I might be able to win, if they’re that slow. 』Those thoughts filled his mind as he jumped out and slashed the neck of  the Big Rabbits. The weapon he used was the survival knife he was carrying on my waist.

“But those were pretty much only oversized rabbits, weren’t they?”

Speaking those words, he turned his gaze over to the corpses laying on the ground. To him, the Big Rabbits were just a size bigger than ordinary rabbits, jumped higher and attacked people.
But he perceived their movements as slow, and if one was careful with their mouth and fangs, they felt not much different from ordinary rabbits.
Somehow, I felt as if my body and movements were light, so I took them down easily.He thought.

“The Big Rabbits are beasts that even the adults of the village have problems dealing with. Moreover, there is nobody in the village who could defeat several of them at the same time.”

To his carefree reply, the surprised girl explained.
With their quick movements, they usually aimed to the feet or neck of their victims, attacking them with their sharp fangs. The Big Rabbits were fearful foes whom were omnivorous, but they would never let go of the chance to eat raw meat.

“To call that quick…”

But the girl’s explanation seemed weird to him.
Even though he was familiar with outdoor activities, he was no master of fighting nor martial arts. He never thought of him as those masters who seemed to perceive movements in fights as if they were stopped and still.

Due to the influence of his adventurer parents, he had acquired some techniques with the knife and in self-defense. But the fight with the Big Rabbits was not a difficult one and he had cleaved through them with ease.

However, his fighting ability was something worth bragging about.
If he was to fight against a real martial artist in a dojo, he felt confident he would lose one hundred percent of the times. But apparently it was another story here in these forests.

“Excuse me, I’m…   kind of lost. If possible, would you take me to the village where you live?”

His current priority was to seek for a place to rest temporarily.
And a moment ago, this girl had said the word “village”.
In other words, there was people living not far from here. And above all, people like her, who could speak and understand Japanese, living with her in that village, so he decided to ask.

“Someone strong like yourself is always welcomed. There are some circumstances, and now “Urd” is just a poor village with a food shortage.  Is that ok? ”
“But it’s still safer than this forest, right? ”
“Yeah, leaving aside the food situation, it is a safe place to rest and drinking water is available.”

That was very helpful for him.
At this rate, night would fall while he was still wandering inside the forest. There was nothing more frightening than spending the night in some unknown, unfamiliar forest.
And regarding food, his thoughts were, I’ll just have to deal with it myself.

“By the way, can these Big Rabbits be eaten? “

He asked her about the lumps of meat and fur lying at their feet.

“Yes, their meat is a nutritious food, and the fur is also valuable at the village. And according to the village rules, they belong to the one who hunted them.”
“And that would be me, right? ”
“Yeah…”

His food issue was then soon settled too.
With this amount of meat, him starving wouldn’t be a problem for a while.

“Then, I’ll take only half. You can have the rest. Please, think of it as a payment for letting me stay the night.”
“You mean half of the Big Rabbits!?　Ok, Thank you very much! “

Apparently the Big Rabbits were considerable valuable in her village. The girl was delighted, wearing a joyful expression on her face.

“Well then, let’s get ready and return to your village.”

And so, the negotiations were finished.
After that, they proceeded to drain the blood of the Big Rabbits, and prepared some sticks to hang them on, and started walking on their way to the village.

“You seem pretty skilled in draining their blood.”

Although she looked like a weak girl at first right, one couldn’t help but to admire her figure as she worked hard without even being splashed with blood despite being a young girl.
Incidentally, the internal organs and bleeding technique she used were very similar to that of Japanese hares.

“Yes, even if I look like this, I am a hunter. Speaking of which… It’s Liscia.”
“Hmm? ”
“My name is Liscia… Excuse be for being rude, but Mr. Traveler’s name is…? “

The girl who he had helped introduced herself as Liscia and was asking for his name.
He had only noticed now, but since a while ago they have been referring to each other as “you” (kimi) and “Mr. Traveler” (tabibito-sama). I guess we never introduced ourselves properly, he thought.

“My name is Yamato… just Yamato is fine.”
“Yamato-sama… what a wonderful name…”

“Yamato is fine, no need for honorifics, Leesha-san.”
“Yamato-sama… Yamato-sama…”

No use… She’s not listening.
Perhaps, even if he corrected her, she would still use the “-sama” out of habit towards adults. Guessing it would be useless, he decided to forget about it.
She looked like the kind of child who escalated things in order to use “-sama” more and more. Of which he had have similar experiences in the past.

“Then, can I ask you to lead the way towards Urd Village, Liscia-san.”
“Yes, Yamato-sama. “

Therefore, as he followed the girl he recently saved, Liscia, they decided to head towards the village called Urd.
As she described it, the village was a small settlement in the basin of the mountainous region, and they still needed to walk a little while to get there.

As the two of them carried the drained corpses of the Big Rabbits on sticks over their shoulders, they advanced forwards while being wary of their surroundings.

“Let me do it. I’ll help you out a bit.”
“I’m extremely sorry, Yamato-sama.”

Since it was slowing them down, he decided to help with her share of the Big Rabbits, in order to pick up the pace a little. After all, he wasn’t feeling tired at all.

Even so, despite their size, these Big Rabbits are extremely light…

It was a somewhat mysterious feeling.
The Big Rabbits were the size of a medium dog.  And despite carrying a few of them, he did not feel like he was carrying that much weight.

As his parents had a hunting gun license, he had hunted with them in the mountains before.
And from those experiences, he could ascertain that “Animal corpses are heavy”.
The dead bodies of animals were covered with heavy fur and the meat was still attached to the bones, making them heavier than what people imagined.

Each one of the Big Rabbits seemed to have a weight of a few dozen kilograms. However, even though he was carrying several of them, he still had plenty of strength left.
He found this to be a truly a mysterious phenomenon.

It might be, that the gravity is weak in this world?　Or is it that my own strength is growing?

While they walked, various assumptions came to his mind. But he couldn’t only be optimistic.
People were weak creatures, even if they gained a little strength. The weakest of creatures, that couldn’t overcome beasts without the use of weapons or tools.

Anyway, gathering information can wait until after we arrive at Urd Village.

While following the hunter girl Liscia, he headed towards Urd Village in search of a place to rest.

◇

They followed an animal trail for about an hour while moving towards the village. Coincidentally, he was sure of the time they had spent since he had been secretly measuring it with his wrist watch.

Up to this point he had made several discoveries on their way to the village.

Every now and then he told Liscia to stop, then he went on to collect various plants and mushrooms nearby.
She had a strange look on her face while she watched him go collect them, but that didn’t bother him. He felt those might be helpful in the near future.

After a while, they finally reached the village.

“Yamato-sama. That’s Urd Village, where I live.”
“Ohh, so that’s…”

One could see a small village a short distance away from the forest. It was a settlement stablished at the basin of the mountains.
Smoke was rising from a few rooftops, signaling it was the time to eat dinner.
From this distance, it looked like a medieval-style primitive village similar to those one could see in the books or the internet.

So this is a village from another world. I wonder how things will go from here…

After firmly grabing the Big Rabbits, he strengthened his vigilance.
As he asked Liscia go ahead, he secretly changed his weapons and tools in his belt for something more suitable for “interpersonal” use, without her noticing. The weapons he had equipped until now were for use against animals.

Liscia had welcomed him warmly.

But he had already experienced traveling though undeveloped lands around the world. And sometimes, there was nothing more terrifying than the inhabitants of a remote village.

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