005. The Forest Where the Elves Live
The next morning.
I, who had spent the night at the temple, was facing Anubis, who came to meet me in front of the temple.
“Anubis, thank you for your hospitality yesterday. I’ll be on my way now.”
“……You know. There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Yes.”
“What’s with those funny-looking glasses?”
“They’re not glasses, they’re sunglasses.”
“I know that, but why are you wearing them? I remember telling you that you don’t need to hide your face.”
“Well, there were some incidents yesterday that could have blinded me. I looked around the shop and they were only 200DP, so I bought them to protect my eyes.”
“I see….”
I just bought them because I needed them.
She reluctantly agreed when I said it firmly.
After all, the first eye strain was caused by Anubis’ summoning, so she had no right to complain.
“Anyway, take care of yourself and let me know if you have any trouble. I’ll help you with all my heart.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, then good luck~!”
The brief and empty farewell.
I watched Anubis go back to the temple after saying his piece and wondered if I made a mistake becoming an agent.
Should I challenge Anubis to a duel with a poker face and earn some DP?
“Agent.”
As I was thinking of ways to annoy Anubis, the woman who came to greet me, just like Anubis, called me.
Anubis’ priestess who took care of me all day yesterday.
She, who wore a white veil and a black blindfold, smiled brightly and handed me a large backpack.
“This backpack is filled with equipment and tools that you will need for your trip. I also packed enough food, so you won’t have to hunt and gather in the local area.”
“Oh, thank you!”
“Please express your gratitude to Anubis, not me. This backpack was prepared by Anubis himself, not me.”
What? He prepared such a gift and then pretended not to care and left?
He looks like a puppy, but he acts like a cat. That’s what I thought, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
He’s keeping his promise to spare no support from the start. Anubis’s warm heart made my heart warm as well.
“I’ll send him a thank you message later.”
“Yes, and this is my gift, although it’s nothing compared to the backpack.”
The priestess reached into her open cleavage and pulled out a card.
I was more surprised by the priestess’s cleavage than the card she pulled out.
Is that the four-dimensional pocket that only women can have? It looked very tempting.
“Huh? What is this card?”
“This is a card with my power. I saw your excellent duel skills the day before and thought my card might help you, so I prepared it.”
[Anubis’s Priestess]
Level: 4 / Attribute: Light (Divine) / Race: Magician
Attack / Defense: 1200 / 800
The effects of ⑴ and ⑵ of this card name can only be used once per turn each.
⑴: You can activate this when this card is Normal Summoned / Flip Summoned / Special Summoned. Special Summon “Anubis’s Avatar Token” (Beast-Warrior / Earth / Level 4 / ATK 1500 / DEF 1500) to your field.
⑵: Once per turn, by sending the top 3 cards of your deck to the graveyard, you can perform 2 normal summons this turn.
I didn’t know about the other three divine cards, but the Priestess was definitely suitable for my deck as a mercenary card.
It had a cost, but it was also possible to summon alien plants twice with normal summoning without magic cards.
The created clone tokens were good for using as the cost of Phineas’s destruction and immunity effects.
It was possible to deploy with two hands under the assumption that there was no interference card.
These days, there were many themes that could be deployed with one hand, but two hands were also among the strong ones.
In that sense, the Priestess card was a grateful support.
“Thank you. I’ll use this card carefully.”
“If my clone can be of any help to the agent, even if it’s weak, I’m satisfied with that.”
I opened the menu and carefully put the card I received from the Priestess into the deck.
I didn’t know when it would be, but there would be a day when I would use it in a duel later.
In that sense, I wanted to fill it up with three cards, but it would be a bitter word for the listener.
I couldn’t do anything ungrateful to the person who helped me, so I smiled with my mouth shut.
“Then I’ll go now.”
“I hope you have a lot of luck in your future.”
With the warm blessing of the Priestess, my adventure in another world finally began.
***
Chirp-! Chirp-! Chirp-!
The forest where the birds were chirping like crazy from all directions.
I thought the forest where I walked while drinking clear and clean air was the best environment.
But it wasn’t really like that.
Unfortunately, it was a tropical rainforest, filled with sweltering heat and stifling humidity, so that sweat dripped from my forehead after just five minutes of walking.
‘Damn. I came here thinking it would be easier to wander around than the sea or the desert…’
It was a fifty-fifty chance.
If the open desert was a place where you could never see the end no matter how much you walked, the dense forest was a place where you doubted whether you were going the right way.
As I avoided dozens of trees and crossed the grassland, I naturally wondered.
Did I come back to where I came from?
In the end, I, who used to be a basement duelist, leaned against a tree and stopped after less than two hours of walking.
“Huff…! Huff…! It’s so damn hot!”
Sweat pouring down like rain.
I took off my backpack and rummaged through it to find the canteen.
The backpack, filled with tents, sleeping bags, food, and other survival items, reminded me of the full military gear I had during my service.
It was only natural that I would be hot carrying such a big backpack.
‘But I can’t just leave the items behind…’
According to Anubis, after getting out of the forest, I had to walk along the road for about a day to reach a village.
In other words, I had to assume that I would have to walk in the wilderness for at least two days to encounter a village in this world.
Therefore, there was nothing among the items that Anubis had prepared for me that I could leave behind.
“Where the hell did you put the canteen?”
“It’s right here.”
“aaah!!”
A slender hand suddenly reached over my shoulder.
The surface of the water bottle that was held in the outstretched hand touched my cheek, and I was startled.
“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Even if there was no bad intention, it was too much to suddenly appear from behind and reach out a hand.
Because of that, my heart was pounding like when I was playing a horror game and got a jump scare, and the sweat that ran down my cheek felt like cold sweat.
It would have been better if there was at least some sign of presence.
“Ah, please be careful from now on…!!”
“Yes!”
With a shaken heart, I opened the cap of the water bottle I received and brought it to my mouth.
The cool water went down my throat and relieved my thirst.
My heart that was thumping also calmed down a bit, and I was finally able to face the person who handed me the water bottle.
A woman with dark hair and bright red eyes.
But the black wings and tail that humans don’t have revealed that she was a monster.
“That……”
“I’m Phineas!”
“Phineas?”
“Please call me Phineas comfortably!”
“…Okay, Phineas. Why are you here?”
“That’s a strange question. I’m your card, isn’t it natural for me to be by your side?”
“Sorry, I asked the wrong question. What I mean is, we’re not in a duel right now, so why are you out?”
“Well, how should I say it~?”
Instead of answering my question, Phineas asked me back with a playful expression on her face.
I thought she would be a haughty and tongue-tied monster at first, but it seems I was mistaken.
As we talked face to face, I realized she was unexpectedly lively and mischievous.
“Don’t joke around and tell me honestly. Depending on the situation, I might have to challenge you to a duel.”
“Are you the type of person who challenges your own card to a duel?”
“I heard a warning from Anubis. There are some monsters in this world who hate being used by their cards. Sometimes they try to forcibly take their cards from their opponents.”
“That damn bastard said something unnecessary….”
“Huh…?”
“I didn’t say anything. Anyway, to make my position clear, I have no complaints about you using me. I’m actually grateful for it! So please use me a lot in the future!”
For a moment, it seemed like Phineas’s expression was twisted, but was it my imagination?
I blinked and looked at her again. She was smiling faintly.
“You got that?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
From Noble mtl dot com
Phineas’s attitude of being proactive from the start made me flustered.
Was it a fanatic level of trust? I felt scared by the way she called me ‘master’ and blindly followed me, even though we just met.
The only relief was that I didn’t feel any hostility from Phineas’s actions.
I guess I had to be satisfied with that for now.
“In that sense, if it’s okay with you, can you allow me to come closer to you?”
I still needed to be wary of Phineas, but I wanted to rest comfortably.
I nodded and silently allowed her to approach me.
Phineas approached me with light footsteps and sat down gently next to me.
She began to stare at me with her captivating red eyes. It was a rather oppressive gaze.
“Master.”
“Why?”
“You don’t have to be so wary of me, as I said before, I am your card and your ally!”
“…Sorry. I still find it hard to trust you easily.”
“I won’t ask you to believe me right now. Instead, I will work hard to meet your expectations in the future, so please don’t abandon me.”
“Don’t worry about that. I won’t discard or misuse my cards.”
“I see.”
Phineas smiled brightly with a slightly flushed face.
‘…She’s pretty.’
I was so shocked by her appearance at first that I forgot for a moment that Phineas was a beautiful monster.
A beauty like a red comet in the night sky. It was hard to look away from her charm that seemed to draw me in.
What about her figure?
A sculpted silhouette with no excess curves.
Her ample chest looked soft, her buttocks were tempting, and her waist was slender.
She wore a black dress that exposed her navel over her lovely body, making her look like a noble lady.
‘She definitely has a beauty that humans can’t have.’
I bought the card after seeing its performance, but when I saw it in person and looked closely, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
How could such an outstanding appearance not be popular? I wondered why I didn’t remember her.
Voices coming from a nearby tree.
Phineas burned down the tree without any hesitation, the source of the noise.
“Ouch, hot!!”
“Are they crazy, setting fire in the forest?”
“Both of you, be quiet and get down quickly.”
Those who couldn’t withstand the heat of the burning tree came down from the tree.
Their identity was a person with dazzling blond hair and pointed ears, an elf that is always mentioned in fantasy.
“I thought you were a rat bastard who used dirty tricks, but it turns out you were an ear freak?”
“Watch your mouth, intruder.”
“Yeah! We are not ear freaks, we are proud elves!”
“We are the elves who are entrusted with the role of protecting the forest from scoundrels like you!”
“How dare you talk about pride when you attacked us sneakily? The word pride must be crying.”
Before I could argue, Phineas had already dealt a massive blow on my behalf.
Somehow, her back looked reliable.
After all, I was only good at dueling, and if I got involved in that situation, I would only get into trouble.
“We will not forgive any more insulting words towards our race.”
The elves who frowned and aimed their bows at us.
On their bowstrings, there were cards that were sharply forged.
‘Are they insane?’
I had seen guns that shoot cards or characters that attack with cards, but I had never seen anyone who shoots cards instead of arrows.
It was so absurd that I was speechless.
But the others, except for me, were acting as if it was a critical situation.
No one found it strange that they used cards instead of arrows. This was a crazy world.
“Intruder. If you don’t want to become a hedgehog, tell us your affiliation and purpose.”
At the elf’s words, who seemed to be the leader, Phineas glanced at me sideways.
He looked like he was asking for my opinion. There was no reason to hide it, so I accepted his demand.
“I am an agent of Anubis from the nearby Anubis temple. I came into the forest for the sole purpose of passing through it. Could you please put away your bows?”
“Anubis?”
“Anubis, you say…”
They seemed to know.
Well, it was right next to them, so it would be strange if they didn’t.
Maybe this would end the situation peacefully. I thought so and tried to relax.
Suddenly, the elf clutched his stomach and started laughing loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Puhahahahat! What is this, I thought you came from some great place, but you’re just a kid from the Anubis temple?”
“hahahahaha!! Anubis is pathetic, right? And among the pathetic, the most pathetic!”
“Haa… I feel stupid for being tense for a moment.”
As soon as I revealed my affiliation, I was met with countless scorn and ridicule.
I realized how much Anubis had fallen in this world.
But he was still a god, and they laughed at him like this. Weren’t they afraid of divine punishment?
Even though it wasn’t my business, I felt strangely dirty.
“As the agent of Anubis is trying to cross the forest, we should quickly make way for him!”
“Am! Am! Let’s be nice and guide him if we can! We should be considerate of him!”
“Both of you, stop teasing him so much. It’s a waste of time.”
I finally realized why I felt so dirty.
Anubis, who had received such harsh criticism from the world, had gathered all his belongings, with or without, and offered to support me.
I was angry, of course, because I had insulted my patron.
“They are all so rude and impolite. What should we do?”
What do you mean, what should we do?
“Let’s duel them and slaughter them.”
We should wipe them all out.