Chapter 3: Inspection

In the early morning, the forest was just touched by a hint of white light.

Hamoyin had already packed his wooden bow and poisoned arrows and took some dried meat as rations before leaving his treehouse. It was the third day since the women had escaped. Four of the escaped women had been caught, and the tribe had given up searching for the rest, so the matter was considered settled.

Hamoyin continued his daily routine of hunting. He needed to collect fifteen large animal pelts and three more types of seeds before the season ended. After leaving his house, he checked his traps in the forest. Out of six traps, only one had caught a small horned ferret. He sighed, broke its neck, and tied it to his belt with a vine.

After checking the traps, Hamoyin followed his usual path to the river. If the timing was right, he could catch some animals coming to drink water. He planned to wait by the river all morning, and if there were no prey, he would try his luck in the western forest.

Thinking this, Hamoyin climbed a tree with the best view and waited motionlessly among the branches. He didn’t expect to see today’s first “large beast” so soon. After a few small herbivores came to drink, Hamoyin finally noticed some significant movement across the river. Based on his experience, it should be his target prey coming to drink, but soon Hamoyin realized he was wrong. The one cautiously emerging from the bushes to drink was not his prey but a clumsy human girl who couldn’t even get over the tree roots.

—-

Hamoyin watched the disheveled girl sitting on a tree root opposite him, gnawing on dried meat: “Have you been in this part of the forest these past few days?”

“Uh-huh…” Nagu, with her mouth full of tough meat, stared at Hamoyin as if he were a long-lost relative.

Nagu knew that it was safest to leave Azuran’s territory as soon as possible, but she really couldn’t get down the waterfall. Trying to find another route would surely lead to getting lost in the dense, maze-like forest and dying there.

So, for the past few days, Nagu had been wandering in the forest near the water. She found a tree hollow without any animal inhabitants to use as a sleeping place. The tree hollow was half-buried in the leaf litter, just big enough for Nagu to squeeze in while sitting. At night, she would wrap herself in a large leaf and force herself into the hollow, then reach out to stack some large stones she had dug out from the riverbed to block the entrance. Although she got many red bumps from unknown insects in the hollow, she managed to settle down for sleep and rest.

After that, Nagu naturally encountered her first major problem: food. Although she often heard animals rustling in the forest and saw plump berries on the surrounding plants, none of it mattered to her. She couldn’t hunt, make a fire, or distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous berries. She had tried using ancient wisdom to make fire by friction. Confident in her idea, Nagu collected some branches and relatively dry dead leaves and sat at the hollow’s entrance, rubbing them furiously.

In the end, her palms were rubbed raw and bleeding, but no sparks appeared.

Two days ago, driven by hunger, she couldn’t resist picking some green berries from the bushes. She had seen several gray birds eating these berries, so she thought they might be safe. After eating a few, she felt dizzy and had to induce vomiting to get rid of the berries.

Eventually, Nagu found something barely edible: tuber-like things growing in the soil near the tree hollow. Although their taste was hard to describe, at least they didn’t cause any adverse reactions.

Unfortunately, she only found five of these tuber-like things, her only food source, so she had to ration them. Over the past few days, besides drinking water, she only ate two or three tubers, which was quite disheartening for someone trying to emulate Mr. Robinson.

Then, when Nagu was so hungry that she felt faint and desperately drank water from the river, Hamoyin appeared again. He crossed the river with his bow and knife, looking like Noah’s Ark carrying the hope of life through the flood.

When Hamoyin took out dried meat from his bag and handed it to Nagu, she saw him as if he were glowing with a golden light.

The reason Hamoyin automatically took out the dried meat upon seeing Nagu was because she looked so pitiful, with her yellowish face and green eyes, like a long-clawed monkey trapped in a snare for two or three days without food.

“I should have already told you how to leave Azuran’s territory,” Hamoyin said as Nagou wolfed down three pieces of dried meat. “Why are you still here?”

“…Thank you for the food.” After finishing, Nagu felt ashamed for repeatedly accepting Hamoyin’s help. “I wanted to leave but couldn’t get down the waterfall.”

“Couldn’t get down? There’s a ladder carved out there.”

It might be a ladder for you, but for me, it’s no different from an execution platform.

Nagu bitterly twisted her fingers. She was genuinely grateful for Hamoyin’s unconditional help in her escape, guiding her and now giving her food. Normally, she wouldn’t have the face to ask for more from such a kind person. But given the current situation, Nagu could only muster the courage to hesitantly ask, “Is there any other way to leave here besides the waterfall?”

Even though she didn’t know where to go after leaving.

“The other border areas of the territory have more guards patrolling. Only two others and I are here by the waterfall,” Hamoyin said, looking at Nagu. “You’re lucky you haven’t been discovered these past few days.”

What? There are other people around here? Nagu felt a chill down her spine. If she had been discovered…

“So leave quickly,” Hamoyin said, standing up and slinging his bow over his shoulder. “You managed to escape; don’t waste it.”

“Are you leaving?” Since arriving in this dreadful place, Nagu hadn’t relaxed for a single day. Seeing Hamoyin had given her a rare sense of relief, so now she felt a bit panicked seeing him leave. But she didn’t dare ask him to stay, as he seemed to be hunting.

Hunting must be essential in this era, right? She shouldn’t take up too much of his time.

Nagu smacked her lips and lowered her head. “I’ll leave as soon as possible. Thank you for helping me so much.”

“Okay.” Hamoyin didn’t leave immediately. He took the leather pouch from his waist, which he used to store dried meat, and handed it to Nagu.

“There are a few pieces left inside. Take them.”

“Th-thank you!”

This should be the last time they meet, Hamoyin thought to himself as he sighed and turned away from the riverbank. Helping Nagu had been quite unexpected. Because he had heard that the women were brought back from the monsters, Hamoyin often hid in the woods at the edge of the execution ground to observe the situation. Of course, Hamoyin didn’t know what the point of this action was. He wouldn’t risk openly rescuing these women and breaking ties with the tribe, but due to his position, he was very concerned about this matter.

Hamoyin had a rough idea of the suffering these women had endured at the hands of the monsters, so he hoped Azuran would spare them and allow them to settle in the tribe. After all, they were all human. However, considering Azuran’s usual practices, these women were likely to be used as ritual tools. Even though he knew the women’s fate, Hamoyin still took some time each day to hide near the execution ground, thinking that someone might try to escape. If they could create some commotion, he might be able to help secretly without revealing his identity.

However, a few days passed, and the women remained quietly in their cages, sleeping. They had really placed their hopes on Azuran. If that was the case, his daily visits to the execution ground were meaningless.

Just as Hamoyin was about to give up, he made an unexpected discovery.

In the second wooden cage, a girl, under the cover of night, was desperately digging out stones from the soil outside the cage and secretly distributing them to the other women in the cage.

That girl was, of course, Nagu.

This discovery made Hamoyin abandon the idea of leaving. That night, he didn’t return to his house but kept watching the execution ground. This was why he could later protect Nagu and also help the other escaping women to some extent. Although the tribe later questioned him about why he was near the execution ground at that time, it wasn’t a big deal. He used the perfectly legitimate excuse of checking hunting traps to get away with it.

Seven women escaped that day. Four were later caught and killed. The two surviving women, besides Nagu, should have already left Azuran’s territory. So now, as long as Nagu left, this matter would be completely over.

“…” Having said this much, she should leave today, right?

Near sunset, Hamoyin pulled his poisoned arrow from a giant gray bird. Since meeting Nagu by the river in the morning, he had been thinking all day about whether the girl would leave. Hiding in this forest was very risky, and she had to move near water sources frequently. Even if she didn’t encounter patrols, she could easily be attacked by animals coming to drink. She had managed to escape, so why not flee further?

Hamoyin sighed, looked up at the sunlight filtering through the canopy, then slung the bird’s carcass over his back and walked quickly towards his treehouse. He decided not to worry about Nagu anymore because interacting with her might be seen by other tribe members patrolling the border.

By the time he hung the prey under his treehouse, the rainforest had completely darkened. Hamoyin wiped the foul-smelling blood from the bird’s wound off his face and looked at the dirt on his hands in silence for a while.

Never mind. I’ll check one last time to see if she has left. After that, it really won’t be my concern anymore.

Thinking this, Hamoyin gripped his stone blade and headed back into the dense forest. He remembered Nagu mentioning that she had been sleeping in a tree hollow these past few days. As a hunter familiar with this area, Hamoyin knew which spots had tree hollows large enough to accommodate a person.

So, he quickly moved through the forest under the cover of night. After checking about four tree hollows, Hamoyin found Nagu’s. He was certain it was hers, not because she was sleeping inside, but because the stones she had described using to block the entrance were scattered around. The edges of the hollow were gnawed, and there was a faint smell of blood in the air.

Hamoyin bent down and picked up the leather pouch he had given Nagu that morning. It was covered in blood, and the bottom was unnaturally torn.

“…”