I Became a Druid whom the Different Races are Obsessed With chapter 10

10 – The Goddess of Nature

“Krrrgh!!”

I gritted my teeth as I endured the transcendent pressure on my body.

It felt like everything would crumble at any moment, and if I relaxed a bit, my whole body would explode.

The woman in front of me was undoubtedly a divine being. I should not resist and look up to her.

My instinct warned me and shouted to suppress my hostility.

『I don’t like your eyes.』

But I couldn’t do that.

The goddess in front of me was the one who dragged me into this world. She gave the elves the trust to chase me and made me go through a terrible experience. She was the culprit.

Facing such an enemy-like existence, my pride and resentment overcame my fear.

I didn’t care if I died like this.

I wanted to curse at her, but I had no air in my lungs to make a sound.

I glared at the goddess with my blood-stained vision.

“Whatever.”

Then, the goddess who was watching me waved her hand and withdrew her power.

The heavy pressure that was crushing me disappeared, and the surroundings regained their mysterious atmosphere and peace.

It was a situation where I was about to break in every place, but she really pulled back her strength at a delicate timing.

I collapsed in the shallow pond and breathed heavily.

“Cough! Hic!”

Oxygen circulated in my body and my blurred vision became clear again.

Only then did I see the goddess’s appearance properly.

The goddess of nature, ‘Trias’, was sitting on a low rock and looking down at me.

“So. You came here for the trust.”

Her bright green hair that reached the floor. Her deep and mysterious eyes that harbored a feeling of disgust. A pair of horns made of branches that sprouted from her head.

She was beautiful.

Her appearance could only be described as beautiful.

Trias, who wore a graceful green dress, showed her goddess-like features without any reservation.

“You are a druid. How ridiculous and laughable.”

But it was unlucky.

She looked like a perfect goddess if she opened her eyes a little more kindly and closed her mouth, but she only spewed hatred from her words and gaze, so she looked unlucky from my perspective.

I frowned and got up from the pond.

Then I walked to the dry land and sat down with a thud and opened my mouth.

A life that I had already decided to die. I had nothing to fear, even from a goddess.

“I didn’t expect you to descend directly.”

It was a sincere remark.

I was going to curse alone here and then go back to the elves.

Since the goddess of nature would not entrust me with anything, I was going to just spend some time and go back to deal with the elves.

But the goddess descended out of nowhere.

This was a situation that I had not anticipated at all, so I was really flustered.

Did my emotions show on my face?

Trias chuckled and opened her mouth.

“What. It’s just a small amusement. I didn’t come here with any special intention.”

Fortunately, no divine punishment fell for speaking casually.

Even the face of Trias looking at me had a ‘do you have anything else to say?’ expression on it.

It seemed like she was telling me to ask now if I had any questions.

That was what I wanted.

I brushed up my wet hair and asked a question.

“Why did it have to be me?”

It was the most unfair and curious thing.

Why did it have to be me?

Out of so many people, out of so many woodcutters, why did he choose me to make me suffer like this?

When I looked at him with a face full of resentment, Trias frowned and answered my question.

“I just chose a transmigrator because it was my turn among the eight gods. I intended to choose the most unpleasant human and make him pay for his sins.”

“Unpleasant human?”

“Who else has killed as many trees as you? You have been logging for generations. You should think that the karma that was piling up exploded on your turn.”

“Ah.”

“It was good that you were dying anyway, so I didn’t have to wait. Are you satisfied with the answer?”

The fate of the woodcutter was stacked against him.

Trias’s expression was really hateful.

When I narrowed my eyes and showed my displeasure, Trias crossed his smooth legs and continued.

“But if you think about it, didn’t I give you a new opportunity? I saved a dying man, whatever the intention was.”

“That’s true, but.”

“So change your attitude. I’m very annoyed.”

He saved me from death and gave me an opportunity.

Of course, that was not a lie.

Except for the fact that he entrusted the elves to kill me again.

“You gave me an order to kill me, and you call that an opportunity?”

I grumbled with a scowl on my face.

Then Trias bowed his waist and answered softly.

“I never told you to kill him. I just entrusted you to do as you please since you summoned the transgressor.”

“……”

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“Well, I expected the elves to be hostile to you. That’s why I gave you a vague trust.”

I almost died because of that vague trust.

“But wasn’t it fair because it was vague? I didn’t say to save him or to kill him.”

“Fair?”

“I just minimized my intervention. If the elves had spared you after seeing you, I would have turned a blind eye to your sins.”

“Are you saying you left the judgment to the elves?”

“I left it to all the kin. Revenge and punishment are things that the parties involved should do themselves. I just provided an opportunity as the goddess of nature.”

He just laid the board and watched.

The way Trias treated me seemed like a kind of amusement.

I remembered a metaphor that I had heard from Pii sometime ago.

He compared me to a dog trainer who entered a wolf cage.

I twisted that metaphor slightly to express the current situation.

“It was like throwing a rabbit among the wolves and watching.”

He threw a rabbit (woodcutter) among the wolves (elves) and observed their reaction.

If the rabbit was eaten, it would be natural, and if the rabbit survived, he would respect the will of the wolves.

It was really a wicked entertainment.

When I made a timid criticism with a metaphor, Trias snorted and said as if he was absurd.

“Comparing yourself to a rabbit is the most ridiculous thing ever. You’re a monster that swallowed the whole forest.”

Even the goddess in this world treats me as a monster.

As I frowned at the unfamiliar monster treatment, Trias clicked his tongue and said.

“So I can’t understand it even more. What made you forgive this monster-like guy?”

Forgive? Who forgave me?

“What are you talking about?”

“The tree spirit who exchanged names with you. Didn’t she forgive you?”

The tree spirit who exchanged names with me was Pii.

Come to think of it, Pii was friendly to me from the first time we met.

I didn’t know if she was biased or on my side, but she didn’t try to kill me like the elves.

I nodded slightly, recalling Pii’s cute face.

Then, Trias scowled and spoke in a low voice.

“Forgiving the woodcutter who cut you down. That’s a hard-to-understand generosity for me.”

What? What did I just hear?

I couldn’t react at all, feeling like I was hit on the back of my head.

As I blinked with a stiff expression, Trias added an explanation.

“By your reaction, it seems you didn’t know. She was a tree spirit brought from the same world as you.”

I knew that.

Pii had told me that herself.

“She had hundreds of roots in that world, but she was unlucky enough to be cut down by you alone.”

But I didn’t know this fact at all.

Because Pii didn’t tell me, because he only showed me a bright side in front of me.

“You have to atone for that child for the rest of your life. I descended like this because I was impressed by his heart.”

Pii was cut down by my hand and died in the previous world. And he met me in this world and forgave me.

Trias was deeply moved by Pii, and so he respected Pii’s mind and descended in front of me now.

I couldn’t believe it, but it was a story I had to believe.

Because the goddess had no reason to lie to me.

As I was blankly frowning, Trias got up from his seat and said.

“Well, let’s get to the point. What are you going to do from now on?”

I lifted my head and looked at Trias.

He kicked the ground and made a displeased expression.

“I descended to honor the will of the child named Pii, but if I let you go like this, you will be regarded as a druid. It must have been known to the whole forest that I descended.”

Trias shuddered and shivered.

He hated being called a druid, the guardian of nature.

“If you want, I can throw you into the human village as you are. It would be a violation of the unwritten law among the gods, but it would be better than making you a druid.”

He hated it so much that he even offered to send me to the human village.

I could get out of the situation where my life was threatened and go to the human village.

It was a shocking proposal that made my mind clear.

I swallowed my saliva and asked him.

“Is that true?”

“Yes. I don’t want to ignore the will of my clan and let you die, nor do I want to regard you as a druid.”

Thanks to Bii, I was saved from death once again.

I nodded quietly and thanked Bii, who was in Eldenore.

Then, Trias showed me his fingers and forced me to choose.

“Now, what will you do? Will you leave the forest as it is? Or will you go back to Eldenore?”

To run away or to face it.

It was an easy choice to make with my head.

But it was not an easy choice to make with my heart.

I got up from my seat and faced Trias.

And after a short hesitation, I spit out my decision.

“Then I will stay in the forest.”

I will stay in the forest.

There were many reasons for that decision.

I had no confidence to live well among humans, since I couldn’t live as a woodcutter anymore, and I didn’t fully trust Trias’s offer.

But if I had to name two of the biggest reasons, they were these.

“I haven’t repaid Bii anything.”

First, I had to meet the little tree spirit, Bii, who had forgiven me.

I had to apologize for the past, and I had to express my gratitude for the forgiveness.

If I left without repaying the favor, I felt like the frustration in my chest would stay forever.

And,

“I think this way would be more fun.”

I had lived a boring life as a woodcutter in my first life, so why not live a spectacular one in my second life?

The advent of Trias had spread throughout the entire forest, so the elves would not openly antagonize me anymore.

If safety was guaranteed, the forest would be much more fun and livable than the human villages in the medieval era.

I could also be with Pii, which was a win-win situation.

“Like someone said, I don’t want to live a pig-like life again.”

I smiled cheekily and looked at the goddess in front of me.

By the way, the phrase ‘pig-like life’ was what the goddess had said to me.

“……”

The expression of the goddess of nature, Trias, was adorably distorted.