Encounter

I did say this was going to be easy, but it was just a delusional statement from a guy who hadn't fully realized the situation he'd been put through at all.How long had I been walking? I came to a halt, my face stretched beyond recognition.I was starving and thirsty. Relying on only prusians as my means of survival was a mere fantasy. This was a forest, so there would be chances of life here—and I did encounter some—but I didn’t have it in me to hurt or kill any species I laid my eyes upon. Still, there wasn’t any time to waste.I would die of hunger if I continued this way.I wasn’t fully aware how long I had been walking, but I could approximate it to at least three hours at most, and there was no sign I’d be exiting this place anytime soon.“Skill, Navigation!“ My eyes glowed, my pupils replaced with the shape of a small compass. It looked rather cool and befitting for a skill. Just as the name suggested, it was meant to guide me to the perfect and best route no matter the path—but I had been doing nothing but walking.It did feel like I was getting somewhere, but there wasn’t much progress I could make.I slumped myself next to a massive tree, hoping to catch my breath.“Skill, Teleportation!“ I screamed out loud, but nothing happened.I had been trying this so-called skill, but it didn’t seem to work. That wasn’t necessarily a problem, but you would think Anita’s skills were more useful than this.I was ready to fall asleep at any moment, but I didn’t have the leisure to do such. This world was at stake. If it ended, it would be my fault, and that would mean I betrayed my mother’s words.I got up on my two feet, clapped my own cheeks to snap out of my weakened state, and continued walking.The forest was quiet. As I moved along, I laid eyes on multiple strange animals living here.A deer—more precise, an antlered one—but twice the size with bigger horns. Birds that seemed straight out of a fantasy story, which made sense considering I was in one.Even though I had only been here for a short period of time, I found this place—this world, Esteria—beautiful.It was hard to believe such a world was on the verge of destruction.But all my walking bore fruit when I made my first encounter with a stream wide enough for me to jump across. It didn’t matter. I dashed right at the running stream and immediately started gulping any ounce of water my body could contain until I felt refreshed.“Ahhhh, it’s awfully sweet…” I clenched my mouth shut from the sudden taste.Maybe it was due to eating so many sour prusians.But I made sure to drink my fill—I had no means to store water anyway.“Based on my Navigation skill… the kingdom isn’t far anymore.” I felt a surge of comfort spread through me.I had been walking for a long time, and it didn’t take a clock to tell that darkness would fall earlier than I anticipated.With the pressure strong, I continued walking.The further I went, the thicker the forest unexpectedly grew.This once beautiful forest now looked completely different—almost isolated.It was depressing.“How long have I been walking?” I yawned, my body lazily dragging itself. I had lost all hope of even trying to get out, but I still kept moving.I was on the verge of giving up for the day until I bumped into something soft and hard at the same time.It was barely beneath my waist. Did I bump into an animal?I assumed so and looked downwards.But to my shock, it was a little girl—an actual human.She was blonde, her hair reaching all the way to her knees. Her eyes? Dead, yet still managing to show a little bit of emotion—fear.Her dress was tattered, which looked rather odd, but it was still decent enough to wear.I was surprised. My body instinctively shifted to kneel, making sure I was at her height.“A-are you alright?“ I asked, leaning closer.“Don’t come near me!“ she screamed in horror, throwing her hand across my cheek.I fell silent and just stared at her, confused.Out of fear, she ran down the forest.“Damn it! This place is dangerous for a kid!“ I spat and ran right after her.Compared to me, she was short and nimble, slipping easily through gaps between the trees while I struggled.The forest grew even denser, but I kept chasing after her.“Oi! Why are you running!?” I called out, but she didn’t respond. She just kept running further in.I eventually closed the distance and lunged at her, successfully tackling the girl.“L-let me go!” she cried out, and I instinctively released her.But this time, she didn’t run. She looked right into my eyes, and then… a faint blush crept out.“I-I’m very sorry. I thought you were a bad person,” she said.All I could do was scratch the top of my head in utter confusion. I wasn’t offended by her words—in fact, I understood. I approached her out of nowhere, so it was natural she’d react that way. Simple survival instinct.At that moment, I had made my very first encounter with an actual human in this world.It was practically late. The sun was gone, and the moonlight shadowed over the forest, revealing a scarcer, colder picture of the area.I managed to make a fireplace for both me and the little girl and tried to communicate with her.She went by the name Anastasia, a rather intriguing name for a girl. Apparently, she was just twelve years old and on a journey because she had run away from home.She didn’t drop any details on why, and I didn’t want to pressure her.“Um… uncle,” she called out suddenly.“U-uncle?” My eyebrow twitched at her remark.Do I look that old?!“Just call me Renji.” I didn’t think it mattered if I used my real name in this world. Besides, Anita never gave me a persona I should have been under.“R-ren?” She struggled pronouncing it, then pouted. “R-r-re… s-sorry, I’m not really educated…” she apologized, bowing repeatedly.“It’s fine.” Seeing her try so hard to pronounce something as simple as Renji was cute. And she said she wasn’t educated. No matter how far I looked, she seemed beautiful—like something out of royalty—but her behavior didn’t reflect that at all.Either way, she was running away from home, and I didn’t know much about her.“U-um, R-renka—”“It’s Renji! …you know what, just call me Ren.” I sighed.“T-then Uncle Ren.”“Uncle Ren?” It felt as if my heart shattered. Did I really look that old to her? No way! Maybe she was just being respectful.“A-are you strong, Uncle Ren?”“Strong? Why ask?”“You give this aura. I can see it. You look strong but at the same time have quite a soft face,” she said, leaning closer—but not too close.All I could do was tilt my head.“Is that a compliment?”“I tried my best to.”“…”The fact she said it with a straight face was honestly brutal.“I want to hire you to be my bodyguard!”“That’s nice, princess, but…” I had my own problems. Child or not, this world was on the verge of collapsing. If I focused entirely on her, I’d have to carry her along my own journey—and I didn’t think I could handle that.“I have my own issues.”“You’re weird, Uncle Ren!”“Quit with the uncle!”“First of all, you look different from the others here. You look so innocent and nice!”“Don’t you find nice people around—”“No.”Her blunt reply left me speechless.What if she was actually one of the Gauntlets? The thought of a little girl being the cause of a global-scale annihilation sounded absurd, but still—somewhere inside me felt the need to stay with her.“Fine… I’ll think about it.”It looked like I wouldn’t be lonely for the time being.