Volume 1 - CH 11

Talking about keeping in contact with fellow humans, I know that it’s a double edged sword.

On the one hand, humans could be said to be gregarious animals, so communicating with them could bring in many huge benefits as well as greatly aiding you on your personal growth.

On the other hand, after some careful thinking, it’s not necessarily a good thing to be in contact with the humans in a different world. You have to understand that it’s not as simple as meeting a moe girl, who would bring herself to strike up a conversation with you randomly, then give you a free starter kit or the likes. (TLN: Some kind of RPG reference?)

Instead of meeting moe girls, the real challenge lies in knowing if the people that you meet is kind or not.

Oh, how I hoped that I had some kind of superpower or something. If I couldn’t act cool in my world, then at least give me the chance to try it once in this world goddamnit.

Unfortunately, I have tried this a few times in secret. Though I focused so hard, to the point where I had even farted, things such as fire or electricity didn’t appear from my hands. The tree that I couldn’t chop still remains, and I still panted heavily after running a few hundred meters.

Thus, I had put off the matter of getting in contact with other humans for a long time. Furthermore, I spent a number of days being busy with the flooding and farming issues. By the time I wanted to have a serious discussion about that with her, it was already the 29th day.

When I pointed at a picture that had the aerial view of a certain town to try and convey my thoughts to her, I could sense her hesitation just from seeing the space that formed between her brows.

Just as I expected, the difference between monsters and humans is just too great. Once again, this reinforced my view: logically speaking, in this world, it is impossible for monsters and humans to have a life together.

Of course, by that I meant the ‘humans of this world’. After all, I’m not a ‘human of this world’.

I tried my best to convey my intentions of purchasing things to her as well, but she kept telling me that it’s too dangerous.

Of course, I had already considered the risks. However, even if it’s dangerous, it was still worth a try. If we don’t interact with other humans and buy some better tools, there was no way the eave for our home could be built.

“Then, only can go there……”

“Un……?”

“Dinarnia².”

Although it was the first time I have heard that word, Dinarnia sounded like something that is related to the meaning of the word “night”, though I’m not entirely sure. But by pulling the words apart, I quickly understood that the word can be translated to ‘Nightfall Town’.

Through her explanation, it seems like the cities in this world can be categorised into 3 types; first is Niya³, a term for small towns or villages. The second one is Kanya³, used for cities that had more buildings and a larger population size. The last one was called Ouzaina³, which had a different pronunciation than the other two. Based on the book’s illustrations, which showed a gigantic city, the word should have the same meaning as ‘Capital’.

No matter what they are called, whether we are heading to a village or the capital, it completely suited my intentions.

Seeing my determination to go, she passed me the short hatchet she normally used, probably to give me a way to protect myself should I ever be in danger.

When I held the hatchet, it didn’t take that much of an effort to wield it. Perhaps, because I have been labouring continuously for many days, it’s made me think that I have become stronger.

“It’s fine.”

Hanging the hatchet off my pants, I gave her a somewhat relaxed smile.

“……”

But she didn’t respond to me as she tightened the bowstring on her bow and carried the quiver on her back. There were 10 arrows in the quiver——I have never seen her bring so many arrows with her before. She also had a machete with a scabbard on it, which I had no idea where she took from.

That’s right. The type of machete that was only used to hack at people back in my village⁴.

“Uh…that.”

“I already said, very dangerous.”

My long-gone sense of fear returned to overwhelm me again. No matter how cute and gentle she was in our daily lives, when faced with danger, her cautious personality would instantly reveal itself.

Taking a look at my small hatchet, I couldn’t help but feel like I am not fated to be described as ‘efficient with both brains and brawn⁵’’. But if she has decided to play the role of the guardian, then I could only play the role of the communicator.

I practiced the sentences that I felt were useful in such situations such as: ‘Hello. We want to buy tools’. ‘Hello. We are not hostile’. ‘Hello. We need help’. ‘Hello. We want to buy a pot.’.

Oh, and the most important one——‘Please don’t hurt us.’

As soon as it felt like we were appropriately prepared, she draped on her black cloak, and we both set out on the journey to the human village. En route, we never held hands, not even once, as we kept our guard up for the whole journey.

Still, isn’t the journey a little too long? It felt like I had walked halfway through a city. If I really had to describe it, I would say it that it was the same as walking from the hotel in the centre of the city to the North Grand Canal⁶…….

When I saw a big wooden sign that was on the verge of crumbling, I knew we had reached the so-called Nightfall Town. After sticking my face close to the sign, I could only barely managed to make out the unrecognizable letters and illustration of a house which represented a village.

The well trodden dirt road wasn’t as dusty as I expected. And, as I walked towards the Southern entrance of Nightfall Town, I could see that the building in front of me was a wooden two-storey building.

Based on the open sliding door and the plaque with a liquor bottle on it, it wouldn’t be hard to guess that it was some kind of bar or something similar to that.

Steeling myself, and forcing myself not to think about the hatchet on my waist, we walked in side-by-side, and entered the bar that was located at the outermost end of the town.

“Hello……”

I swallowed the words I was going to say next, because I was being stared at by a hostile crowd without a trace of goodwill on their faces. It made me feel so nervous that I felt sick.

I took in the surroundings with much difficulty; there were more than 10 tables with the number of people in the room totalling up to more than 14. Including the bartender, there were 15 of them.

A quick glance told me that there were around 7 flintlock pistols, with hands ready to shoot them at any moment.

I still started to dry heave, having nothing in my throat when throwing up blurred my vision. However, my mind was still clear. After counting down from 3 in my heart, the first words that come out of my mouth were ‘Please don’t hurt us.’

To be honest, that was the first time in my life that I had disgraced myself in front of a woman.

But as long as I’m still alert, my body would go through the necessary motions. My left hand started pulling hers in, as I readied my right hand on the handle of the hatchet. The reason I hated silence so much was because, the longer the silence was, the worse the situation will become.

The silence among all of us had lasted for almost half a minute. It should be more than enough to cause a bloody bar fight.

“First, I’ll attack the brown hair dude, and then use him as a meatshield…”——As I was working out my plans, an unbelievably tall person with impossibly broad shoulders stood up from behind the shadows of the bar counter.

“Aohoo~Look who came to our Nightfall Town bar? A Medusa, and a human beside it!”

As I was still thinking about whether ‘Aohoo~’ meant an onomatopoeia for being surprised or the howling of a wolf, a wolf started towards me, it’s nails rapping against the floor. It was about 3 to 4 heads taller than me, and was wearing a top hat.

That’s right. That’s a wolf. A wolf who wore a short-sleeved western suit and a five-cents trousers⁷.

Maybe calling him a wolf isn’t polite. Let’s just call him Mr.Werewolf for now. After all, wolves wouldn’t know how to take off their hats.

“Hello.” I struggled to swallow a mouthful of saliva.

“Un~Hello, weird Mr.Human. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am the humble Wolflang⁸, a xx.”

As I have never learned honorifics before, it took me 5 seconds to listen to that sentence, 10 seconds to decipher it and, roughly, get the meaning of those words.

Un, Hello Wolflang, I’m……”

I hesitated for a moment.

“Sorry, I am Lao Wu.”

“Oh~you’re Mr.Lou Woo.”

I introduced myself as Lao Wu because I didn’t think that he will understand me even if I said my Chinese name. In addition to that, I couldn’t even remember my English name, so I just told him my ranking amongst the male students that were in the same college course as me⁹.

Although my classmates were more than willing to call me Brother Wu, I couldn’t very well let a werewolf call me ‘Brother Wu’.

As I was smiling along with him, I tried to think of a way to interact with this Mr.wolf without coming across as having any malicious intents.

“Okay, Mr.Lou Woo. What are you¹⁰ here for?”

Although I was quite shocked that a wolf with a mouth full of fangs could speak so fluently, I still had to reply quickly.

“Oh~that’s right. Rather than that, everyone here, including me, wants to know why are you holding Miss Medusa’s hands?”

Honestly, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but based on the the gazes of the crowd and the way the top hat in his hands was angled, I guessed that that was the question he asked.

Right, because I was so nervous, I had been grabbing her hands tightly this whole time. Grabbing her with my sweaty palms.

Still, I could only explain it like this, even though I didn’t really want to expose it.

“We live together.”

She and I said that at the same time.