Chapter 29

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The next morning, I felt the presence of a beast coming from outside the shed. Bringing my sword and bow with me, I went outside. I circled around the shed with my bow ready.

It turned out, it wasn’t a monster but an ordinary deer. The deer had gotten caught in the ankle snare trap, unable to move. I immediately captured my prey and hung it up on a tree to drain the blood and dismantled it. Freshness was the life of a liver so I immediately ate it.

Yeah. Delicious.

It’d be great if I could have sesame oil and salt with me. For breakfast, I had deer steak from the deer I had just caught. As for the meat I couldn’t eat now, I pickled them with salt to make dried meat out of it.

Now then. I’ve finished eating breakfast so let’s go out to forage again today.

I was thinking of going toward the direction of the forest today. However, since I recently had encountered a strong opponent like a kobold fighter, I was moving cautiously and prepared to run the moment I encountered an enemy that seemed impossible for me to defeat. 

While hunting slimes and other small fries, I focused on collecting plants I hadn’t appraised yet and the herbs I already knew.

Suddenly, something that looked like a stone statue caught my attention. Upon closer inspection, this stone statue was a goblin stone statue, and was very well made.

Wait. Or rather, could this be… A petrified goblin instead?

Cold sweat broke out in my forehead.

GIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

A high pitched shrill could be heard. It was obviously the cry of a monster. I crouched down out of fear, advancing toward the source of the voice cautiously. And then… There it was. I saw a strange looking monster.

From its appearance alone, the monster looked like a chicken. It was very big, about 5 meters tall and had the tail of a snake. It seemed the monster hadn’t noticed me yet and so I hid myself behind a tree and tried to appraise it but all I got was a plain ‘monster’ without any additional information.

However, I already knew what type of monster this was. It was a cockatrice, a classic monster that often appeared in RPGs. It was supposedly a powerful monster that could petrify its opponent and had a poisonous breath. With my back against a tree, I tried to calm myself down. And then I….

My apologies but I ran away. That was the best thing I could do. I left my carrier in the shade of a tree and ran away with all of my might. Snots and tears were dripping down my face as I ran as if my life was depending on it. 

Hey, you. Yes, you. Do you think YOU can take down that kind of a monster with a mere shortsword? Well, my apologies but that kind of feat is simply impossible for me. 

Once again, I made a dash to my shed. I locked the door and hid under the cover, taking refuge in the safety of my shed.

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As I was hugging my herb chicken while hiccuping as tears and snots were still running down my face to heal my wounded heart, I heard someone knocking at the door of the shed.

No one’s home.

I ignored the knock but the other person was more persistent. 

Just who is it? How annoying.

Since it couldn’t be helped, I finally relented and opened the door. There stood Sarasa. Sarasa’s gentle voice resounded in my broken heart. By the time I realized it, I was already clinging to Sarasa while crying. Sarasa looked surprised at first but she then started to stroke my head without saying anything.

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T/N: What a perfect timing! But I think Sarasa and Margo often come to MC’s place at this point already? ╰(o´▽`o)ﾉ