21 – The Wild God
“The Wild God?”
I wiped the blood on my cheek and looked at Shizu.
Shizu finished off the fallen troll and replied to me.
“Yeah. That weapon has blue mana swirling around it. That’s the mana of the Wild God, Mahesar, for sure.”
It seemed that the being that helped me was the Wild God.
I lowered my head and quietly examined the chainsaw.
The blade that had turned into shark teeth and the body that had fused together like a living creature.
The chainsaw looked vicious at a glance, but the blue mana it held was nothing but warm.
It felt like the god’s will was saying, ‘Since the Goddess of Nature doesn’t care about you, I’ll have to look after you.’
[Gaul! Doesn’t this mean that the Wild God has acknowledged you?]
I nodded vigorously at the words of Pii, who poked his head out.
A druid, who was called the guardian of nature and wildness.
I had been hated by nature all this time, so I was worried that the wildness would also dislike me, but seeing him bless me like this, it seemed that it was an unnecessary worry.
It was a ray of light in my hard druid life.
I knelt on the ground and shouted to the sky.
“Mahesar! I will do my best!”
There was no response, but I could feel it instinctively.
The fact that the wild god, Mahesar, was watching me!
“What a bullsh*t and pathetic thing.”
[Gaul! What’s changed? Show me in detail!]
I ignored Siz’s words and examined the chainsaw with Pii.
The chainsaw had shed its original appearance and changed a lot.
The color that turned blue from receiving the wild mana. The saw blade that sharpened like an animal’s claws and fangs. The sturdy body that seemed to never break.
Just by looking at the appearance, I could tell that the wild god had paid a lot of attention.
But the real important point was elsewhere.
I carefully pulled the trigger of the chainsaw.
―――!
“Wow!”
[Wow!]
Mana was sucked out of my body and the chainsaw’s motor rotated violently.
The output itself had increased tremendously, and it exerted such a strong force that it even made the wind blow with just a slight pull.
This meant that I didn’t have to worry about the fuel of the chainsaw.
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I was thinking of getting an axe if the chainsaw lost its function, but I felt more comfortable when I didn’t have to worry about that.
[Heck! But can you handle it? It eats mana like a glutton!]
“Right? The mileage is a bit bad, I guess.”
But the blessed chainsaw had a downside too.
It was possible to use mana instead of batteries as fuel, but the energy efficiency of that fuel was too terrible.
Every time I pulled the trigger, mana gushed out of my body, and I had to feel the sensation of barely hanging on in the battle just a while ago.
It even took away the mana I needed to enhance my body, and I almost died several times.
A weapon that was powerful in terms of instantaneous explosive power, but seemed disadvantageous in sustained combat.
That seemed to be a fair assessment of the blessed chainsaw.
‘If only I had gasoline, everything would be solved.’
It was unlikely, but if I had gasoline, I could solve all the drawbacks.
I sighed with regret and picked up the chainsaw.
I felt uncomfortable after facing dozens of gnolls and getting blood all over my body.
I thought it was more urgent to get a cloak that would block the blood during combat than gasoline.
I shook off the blood on my clothes and muttered.
“Let’s wash up first and think. I saw a stream nearby earlier.”
At my suggestion, Shiz, who had finished cleaning up the surroundings in no time, flinched and looked at me.
Then he made a noticeably flustered expression and said to me.
“Wash… up?”
Ah, why is he like that again.
* * *
“Shiz. It’s not a good thing to peek when I’m washing up.”
“Hmm! I, I was just monitoring you.”
“Why are you monitoring me… I’m not a criminal anymore.”
“……You might do something that doesn’t suit a druid.”
We washed our bodies briefly in a nearby stream and started moving towards Pii’s main body again.
There was an incident where Siz peeked at my body while washing, but the overall atmosphere was much relaxed and not too bad.
“Then can I also monitor if you suit the hunting leader?”
“……Don’t. I’ll kill you.”
We left early in the morning, but the sun was already high in the sky.
According to the travel route that Siz told me, we had to pass through three elf villages to reach our destination.
How far away is Pii’s main body?
I asked Pii, who was rolling around on my head.
“Pii, where did you root yourself?”
Pii answered lazily, lying on my head.
[I’m at the western edge of the Great Forest. If I were to compare, it would be no different from the front line.]
“Front line?”
[Yeah. It’s a region where I often clash with the humans who invade the Great Forest. I don’t know how I rooted myself in such a place.]
The place where I was attacked by the elves when I first came to this world was also the western edge of the Great Forest.
It was close to the human village, and far from Eldenore.
Doesn’t that mean it’s a dangerous place for a tree spirit?
I asked Pii with concern.
“Not that it’s my place to say, but isn’t it dangerous if there are many humans?”
[It’s extremely dangerous! The woodcutters come over and try to cut me down all the time?]
“Hey, what are we going to do then! Don’t we have to move it somewhere else?”
[Phahahahat! It’s okay, it’s okay. The elves will protect it safely.]
Pii said it was okay, but I was not reassured at all.
As a former woodcutter, I knew too well how easily and quickly trees could fall.
I poked Shiz’s back as he walked beside me.
It meant ‘Are you sure Pii is safe?’
Shiz grabbed my finger and twisted it as he answered.
“Don’t worry. The west side of the Great Forest is close to humans, but it’s also a place where the elves’ power is concentrated.”
“So it’s really the front line.”
“Yeah. But as long as there is no frontal war with humans, you can relax. Adventurers who sneak in are nothing. Even non-high elves can catch and kill them.”
“Ah… I see.”
I started to feel nervous at Shiz’s words that regarded humans as enemies.
Come to think of it, when and why did the elves become hostile to humans?
I glanced around and quietly asked him.
“By the way, how did you get on bad terms with humans?”
Shiz scowled his pretty face and answered.
“There’s no reason to like them. Woodcutters who cut down the Spirit Trees and slave hunters who kidnap elves. Those human bastards only see the Great Forest as a place to make money.”
“Oh.”
“They even set fire to the forest to expand their territory. We’d like to declare a full-scale war on them, but we can’t because of the powerful Histanias Empire.”
“Hista… what?”
“The Histanias Empire. A huge country where humans gather.”
Shiz growled lowly with a face that looked like he had frozen his anger.
I felt a pang in my heart because I was also human, but I could clearly understand the anger and hardship of the elves.
They must have suffered a lot because of humans. It would be nice if we could all get along well.
I sighed deeply, feeling sorry for the way the world was.
Then, Shiz glared at me coldly and spoke calmly.
“Just in case, I’ll tell you this, but you should also get rid of your human traits and act as a druid. The west side of the Great Forest is sensitive about that. Radical elves might try to kill you.”
“……”
“Act like a druid. If not, there is no reason to keep you alive. The goddess would also want that.”
It was a word that I didn’t know if it was advice or a threat.
I looked at Shiz’s back as he went ahead and quietly sank into thought.
Act like a druid.
It was hard to define an ideal behavior, but there was a common perception that ‘a druid would do this’.
That is, to stand on the side of the Great Forest, not humans.
Since I decided to be recognized as a druid, I had to antagonize humans from now on.
“Ha… It’s hard.”
A woodcutter who cuts down a spirit tree. A slave hunter who kidnaps an elf.
They were human figures that I would encounter at least once in a while as a druid.
When I met those humans, what reaction would I show?
Would I rage as a druid and cut their throats? Or would I empathize as a human and try to compromise?
I couldn’t possibly know at that time.
I wanted to act like a druid, but I couldn’t bring myself to kill a human.
It made sense, since my weapon was nothing but a chainsaw.
How could I kill someone with a chainsaw, when I’m not a crazy murderer from Texas.
“This is insane.”
[He, hang in there….]
All I could do was hope that such a situation would never come.
Please, any human, don’t catch my eye.
I quietly followed Siz, praying for that.
* * *
And three days later.
When we arrived at the elf village that we planned as the first stopover, we were greeted by the elves’ fortress stained with urgency.
“Quick, we have to chase them! We’ll lose them if we stay like this!”
“Where do we start chasing them, when they disappeared without a trace!”
It was a clear atmosphere that a serious problem had hit the village.