In a small, open area at the edge of the Spirits’ Forest, I sat down on the root of a large tree and opened the bento that Sieg-san had made for me.
[Whoa…!]
Inside was a simple sandwich and a few light side dishes. It looked delicious, but also kind of feminine and cute.
I guess that’s to be expected from Sieg-san. The crusts of the bread were neatly removed, and the sandwiches were arranged in sizes that seemed just right for eating.
As for the filling… I wonder what this is? I can make out some lettuce-like vegetables, and perhaps, she took into consideration that I’m a man who doesn’t eat vegetables that much, she included some sandwiches with meat in between as well.
It kind of looks like chicken, but… what kind of meat is this? It’s a little hard to tell. I mean, after that run-in with the tyrant worm… What I’m trying to say is, ever since I unknowingly ate that giant caterpillar skewer, I’ve become a little wary of meat here in this world.
No, even if that giant worm meat turned out to be snake meat, I’d still have a hard time eating it, just like back on Earth. But to the people of this world, it might be a totally normal ingredient.
Anyway, it’s already cooked, and I have no clue what kind of meat it is, so let’s just not think about it… And since I have a bad feeling, let’s not ask about the other ingredients either.
Shaking off those thoughts and steering my mind in a different direction, I grabbed a sandwich and took a bite.
[……Delish.]
This sandwich isn’t anything outrageous—nothing that would make me rip off my clothes and shout “Delicious!”—but with every bite, the carefully cooked meat becomes soft and tender, filling my mouth with its gentle flavors.
It’s not like the kind of food you’d get in fancy restaurants or anything like that. It’s more like the kind of home-cooked meal where you can really taste the care and comfort in it… A flavor I really enjoy.
I then moved on to try the other side dishes.
Perhaps because they were meant to be eaten with bare hands, each dish had been carefully cut into bite-sized pieces and skewered on wooden sticks, making it easy to eat with one hand.
As my heart warmed from Sieg-san’s usual meticulous attention to detail, I was about to choose which side dish to try first when something caught my eye.
[Mini burger steaks……]
(T/N: He actually just calls them mini hamburgs, but I think he’s just referring to the patty, like in most anime.)
It seems that burger steaks have made their way into this world as well, and seeing the skewer with bite-sized burger steaks on it made me feel a rush of excitement.
I know it’s a bit embarrassing to sound like an excited child, but… it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that burger steak is my absolute favorite food.
I recall Sieg-san once asking me what my favorite food was, and I remember telling her about burger steaks. Looks like she remembered after all.
I grabbed a mini burger steak skewer and popped it into my mouth. It turned out to be a simple one, with no sauce or extras.
For me, a basic salt-and-pepper seasoned burger steak is the best. I don’t recall eating many burger steaks with demi-glace sauce when I dine out.
That’s why I can confidently say that the burger steaks made by Sieg-san are my favorite.
[………………]
Delicious… really delicious.
The soft, crunchy texture, the juices filling my mouth, and the simple seasoning of salt and pepper—everything about this burger steak enhances the meat’s flavor, making it so good it feels like it’s sinking into my body.
Ah, this is it… this is what I love the most.
As I slowly savor my burger steak, my eyes grow a little misty, and a wave of nostalgic memories floods my mind.
——Kaito, what do you think? Mother’s burger steak is delicious, right!?
——Well, Mom… Aside from the burger steaks you make, your cooking isn’t exactly great.
——Ughhh… Uuuhhh… I guess I’m not that great at cooking after all.
——By the way, Dad said the other day, “Other than her cooking, Mom would’ve been the ideal woman…”
——Hold on a second, dear!? Tsk, he ran off!? Hey, stop right there!!!
Mom was a terrible cook, wasn’t she? She was so careless that she’d even burn herself sometimes, and she’d hold the knife all wrong. I remember being nervous as a kid whenever she was in the kitchen.
She couldn’t make any elaborate dishes at all, and she often messed up the seasoning amounts…
But despite all that, the food she always served with a smile—her small chest puffed out proudly—was always so warm…
I was getting a little lost in these thoughts from the past when, before I knew it, a spirit had appeared in front of me, staring curiously at my lunchbox.
[…Do you want to eat?]
[……….!]
When I asked him, thinking he might want to try some of my bento, I looked at him, and the spirit… no, the spirits all eagerly nodded their heads.
H-Hmm. What should I do? Even if each of them can only eat a small piece, there are so many of them, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to divide it up fairly.
But if I give it to just a few of the children, the others will feel left out… Hmmm.
[…Ah, that’s right. If it’s cookies, I’ve got plenty, but I wonder if they’ll like them?]
[!!!]
I pulled out a large batch of jam cookies from my magic box and showed them to the spirits. They stared at them with interest, then all looked at me expectantly.
[Alright, let’s eat together. Everyone gets some, so please line up properly.]
[!]
It looks like jam cookies are a hit too, as the spirits obeyed and lined up neatly in a row.
For me, they’re bite-sized, but for the spirits, these jam cookies are as big as their faces. It seems it would be too much for one of them to eat a whole one, so I broke them in half and handed them out one by one.
It took a while to finish handing out the cookies—there were more than a hundred of them—but I finally handed them all out, and the spirits happily nibbled on the cookies little by little as I ate my bento, their faces swinging in the air.
I’ve heard from others before that little things are cute, and it seems they were right. Watching the spirits munching on jam cookies is incredibly adorable, and seeing them enjoy their treats is oddly comforting.
Thanks to the spirits, my mood was lifted, and I found myself eating my lunch surrounded by many of them.
The light filtering through the trees bathed our surroundings in a soft, magical glow, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had stepped into a fairy tale.
After lunch, just as I was about to get back to the harvest, the spirits suddenly started acting strangely.
They began flying around restlessly.
At first, I worried that the jam cookies I’d given them might have caused some kind of issue with their bodies, but my Sympathy Magic told me that they weren’t in pain. Instead, I felt a mix of joy and surprise.
[What’s going on with you all?]
[ ! ? ! ? ]
[Eh? You want me to follow you?]
[!!!]
[A-Alright.]
I didn’t quite understand the situation, but the spirits were clearly trying to lead me somewhere. They pulled at my hand and gestured for me to follow them. Even though I was confused by their sudden change in behavior, I decided to go along with it.
Unlike the times they’d led me to berry-filled spots, they seemed to be in a hurry… It was almost as if they were thinking, “We won’t make it in time” for something.
I kept following them. They seemed to be heading deeper into the forest, and the wide, easy path we had been walking on was gradually becoming a rough, animal-like trail.
The path wasn’t impassable, though—thanks to the spirits clearing the weeds ahead of me.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were leading me into unknown territory, and I was getting a little anxious about where they were taking me.
Well, with this many spirits around, it should be safe to some extent… but seriously, where are we going?
It’s probably been about 10 minutes or so, and as I follow the spirits along the animal trail, the scene before me changes drastically.
No, the fact that it’s still a forest hasn’t changed, but… there’s an overwhelming number of spirits ahead of me.
It’s ridiculous—definitely more than a thousand spirits gathered here, far more than the handful that was following me just a few minutes ago.
While I tilt my head at this strange sight, I take another step forward… and there, I spot a single tree.
“…It seems that it hasn’t affected you all that much. That’s a relief.”
A voice echoes from somewhere… but I can’t see anyone at all.
Wait, if my hearing isn’t going out on me… I think the tree in front of me just spoke?
“Oya?”
As if in response to my question, I hear the tree’s voice again… and it seems like the trunk of the tree is rotating before—Eh?
[Wha!?]
The tree shifted as if it were turning to look back, and my voice involuntarily escaped at the sight that met my eyes.
In the trunk of the tree… right around the center, there was a woman whose appearance reminded me of a certain tribe, who was “buried.” N-No, that’s not quite right. Rather than being buried, it seemed as if her hands and lower body were fused with the tree.
The reason I assumed the entity fused with the tree was a woman was because of… well, those voluptuous curves, clearly visible even under her loose, ethnic-style dress.
I wonder to myself why I’m thinking like this in such a situation, but if you’re a man, you’ll understand. It’s hard not to keep my eyes on those enormous curves.
Anyway, the woman had… how should I put it? An incredibly mysterious aura about her.
Her eyes were a beautiful emerald green, like jewels, and her long, vibrant green hair shimmered in the sunlight.
Eh? No, wait—on closer inspection, those aren’t hairs. They’re leaves!? Small leaves strung together in layers to form a long, hair-like shape.
A body fused with a tree, and hair made of leaves. If I had to compare her to something from the RPGs I used to play, she looks like one of those “Dryad” monsters.
…Well, at least she doesn’t seem human.
“…………….”
The woman silently stared at me with her jewel-like eyes.
Her face was high in the air, and perhaps because she was fused with the tree, it gave the impression that she was looking down on me, which made me feel uncomfortable.
Who could this woman be? If she’s in the Spirits’ Forest, does that mean she’s a spirit? No, there’s definitely something different about her compared to the spirits I’ve encountered so far—something about her presence.
If I had to put it into words, it’s the sense of something immense, like the atmosphere of a colossal tree that pierces the heavens. The sheer weight of it left me speechless.
“…Are you, by any chance, Miyama Kaito-san?”
[Eh?]
How should I describe it… There was something strange in her voice. Her mouth didn’t move, and it felt as though the sound came from her entire body, not just her mouth.
But what really shocked me was that she knew my name, even though we had never met before… Who was she really?
[……Errr, I’m certainly Miyama Kaito, but… who are you?]
“Forgive my discourtesy. It was quite impolite of me to ask your name without introducing myself.”
Upon hearing the question slip from my mouth, the woman lightly bows her head once, then gently smiles.
“My name is Lillywood… ‘Lillywood Yggdrasil.’ In the Demon Realm, I am known as the ‘World King.’”
[……Huh?]
As her words were calmly spoken, my mind came to a complete standstill.
Dear Mom, Dad—In the depths of the Spirits’ Forest, after arriving at the place the spirits had brought me—I encountered the World King.
<Author’s Notes>
Incidentally, Lillywood is the first person to properly introduce herself as one of the Six Kings.
T/N: Kaiou-sama (World King-sama) and her big tummy. edit: site still unstable on my side so couldn’t post the bonus chapter earlier