Chapter 152 - Slave (2)

Greetings! A strong and mighty morning to you!

If you ask me, I am Grylls!

SAW! SAW! SAW!

And a slave to life, hard at work the moment he wakes up!

“Ugh. Fuck.”

I cursed at the sawdust flying up with every stroke. I'd been shaping timber since morning. Despite all the swearing, the pile of prepared logs kept growing.

'I should've just asked the dwarf.'

I'd decided it would be better to do it myself, since I needed to account for the width. But that decision had been insane. Working alone made for truly astonishing efficiency.

What made it even more irritating was that everything was coming together exactly as I wanted. You might wonder why that would make me angry. If I messed something up, at least I'd have an excuse to quit. When everything was going well, I couldn't even do that.

Eventually, I moved beyond stubbornness into resignation and simply worked the wood like a machine.

“Kyuu! Kyu!”

“Kiii!”

While I worked my ass off, Roundfur and Baby Raccoon were busy playing in the yard. Roundfur seemed to have a decent grasp of how to handle the raccoon now and was playing without causing trouble.

Admittedly, part of me wondered how he could have so much fun while his owner worked so hard.

'Well, they're kids.'

It would be strange to scold kids for playing. Besides, hadn't I chosen to do this myself? Getting angry for no reason would only make me the weird one, so I had to hold it in.

'Just being able to work without any interruptions is enough.'

Really, I could only do this because I had some breathing room. If I were desperately fighting for survival every single day, work and everything else would be out of the question.

Besides, winter had ended completely yesterday, so I needed to keep an eye on the animals' movements. The raccoon family had been attacked by a huge snake right before winter ended, after all.

'Today could be my last day of peace.'

There was no way to know exactly what animals lived in the Forest of Four Seasons. I'd seen quite a few by now, but something new could still pop up. An actual unicorn might appear, or something even stranger.

I hoped nothing like that would happen, but that was wishful thinking. I'd just keep working and prepare myself whenever I got that ominous feeling.

SNAP!

Like right now, when the sound of a twig being stepped on rang out unusually loudly.

And that wasn't all. The entire forest had gone still. There should have been some sound, however faint, but all that hung in the air was a heavy silence.

“...”

I stopped working and listened closely. I also checked the others' reactions to see whether I'd misheard.

“Kyuu?”

Roundfur had stopped playing and was looking around. He must have sensed something, because he even drew back a little. He was on guard.

“Kii?”

“King. Kiiing.”

Baby Raccoon, on the other hand, just kept tilting its head, perhaps because it was still so young. But when the more seasoned Mama Raccoon took it away, that confirmed there was danger.

'Who is it?'

I slowly backed toward the cave, keeping watch on my surroundings. Whatever it was hadn't shown itself despite being detected, so it must have been watching our reactions.

Meanwhile, I went inside and armed myself. The speed-sloth must have realized how serious things were, because it climbed onto my back.

RUSTLE, RUSTLE.

Just as I finished gearing up, the bushes in the direction of the river shook violently. Then the intruder slowly emerged. Apparently, it hadn't intended to hide.

RUSTLE.

“...”

“...”

The intruder came fully into view. The first thing that caught my eye was its fur: white, in stark contrast to its surroundings. Not the soft, downy fur of a baby. Just white fur.

That alone made it stand out, but its eyes were stranger still. Merely looking at those blood-red eyes felt menacing.

'... A gorilla?'

The animal with those distinctive features was a gorilla. White fur and red eyes. Was it an albino? That mutation occurred in people as well as animals.

My surprise at the mutant gorilla's appearance lasted only a moment before I recalled something Allfather had told me.

'Lais Kraone died after being attacked by an albino gorilla.'

Whatever its reasons had been, this gorilla had a history of harming humans. Naturally, that put me on even higher alert.

There was something else to check: the speed-sloth's reaction. When it saw the gorilla chief, it had actually scowled, something it rarely did. But not at this albino gorilla.

Its reaction was closer to, Who the hell is this asshole? Had they never met?

'Considering it showed itself openly instead of ambushing us...'

Was it lost, or had it merely come to scout the area? If it was lost, I planned to scare it off.

Meanwhile, the albino gorilla thoroughly surveyed my shelter before looking straight at me.

“Ha piria ppajua.”

“...”

“Ni Wild Grylls ia? Wo bini Wi Baek.”

Then, just like the gorilla chief, it spoke in the language of the Central Plains. I'd seen the chief speak before, but this was hardly something I was used to. I couldn't help feeling flustered.

'... Should I actually learn the language of the Central Plains?'

That was how far my thoughts went. All the while, the albino gorilla kept talking. It was all in the language of the Central Plains, so I couldn't understand a thing.

I asked Heavenly Demon to translate for me directly. She readily agreed and kindly acted as my interpreter(?).

[Heavenly Demon: A fine home. Are you Wild Grylls? My name is Wi Baek.]

[Wild Grylls: ??? It was introducing itself?]

[Heavenly Demon: So it seems. Like the gorilla chief, it uses quite an antiquated manner of speech.]

An albino gorilla that introduced itself as Wi Baek. The mere fact that it had a name was absurd. That meant the gorilla chief had a name too... but the atmosphere back then had been so threatening that asking hadn't even occurred to me.

Meanwhile, the albino gorilla, Wi Baek, kept speaking gently in the language of the Central Plains. Once again, I asked Heavenly Demon to translate.

[Heavenly Demon: It says it came after reading the notice. It will lend you its strength, and asks that you lend yours in return, my honored friend.]

Had it mistaken the notice for a job ad? Someone who didn't know the situation, especially an animal, could certainly misunderstand it. But who could have known there were animals besides the gorilla chief that could read?

After a brief moment of utter disbelief, I made a request of Heavenly Demon.

[Wild Grylls: Could you write out a question asking what it needs help with?]

[Heavenly Demon: Wait a moment.]

As I had with the gorilla chief, I wrote what I wanted to say on the ground with Heavenly Demon's help. The albino gorilla gazed at the writing.

“...”

It spent a very long time squinting at it, even craning its neck forward. I wondered if it couldn't read, but thankfully, that worry proved unfounded when it opened its mouth.

I asked Heavenly Demon to translate again. The process repeated.

[Heavenly Demon: It says its hypocritical brother leads the troop. It appears to be the gorilla chief's brother.]

[Wild Grylls: Oh... And?]

[Heavenly Demon: If you help, it will defeat the gorilla chief. If you refuse, it will defeat you, my honored friend, and use this place as its base.]

They say you should never take in a black-haired beast. Apparently, that went for white ones too.

I'd thought it was a relief that it could talk, but a beast was still a beast. The gorilla chief was better than this. At least he'd acknowledged my territory.

I snorted and asked Heavenly Demon a question.

[Wild Grylls: Thank you. Could you show me how to write “fuck off”?]

[Heavenly Demon: I could give you the worst insult in the Central Plains instead.]

[Wild Grylls: What is it? I want to say it myself.]

If possible, I wanted to say it out loud rather than write it. It took a little while, but I somehow mastered the pronunciation.

And what came out of my mouth was...

“Chao ni ma.”

“...”

It was the strongest insult against someone's family in the Central Plains. Every time I heard that language, it sounded so much like Chinese.

I could put up with everything else, but I didn't like the way it was trying to bully me with force. You might ask what I expected from an animal, but its being an animal meant I could curse at it all I wanted.

'And it's already harmed a human before.'

That was the deciding factor. Cooperation, my ass. This thing had a history of attacking people. Besides, the fact that it wanted to wage war against the gorilla troop showed how out of touch with reality it was.

Maintaining the status quo was my best option right now, and it wanted me to upset that balance?

HUFF! HUFF!

The albino gorilla's nostrils flared after that vicious insult. It looked ready to pounce on me at any moment. Well, an insult about your mother would be hard to swallow.

But it was the one that had crossed the line first. There was a limit to how much bullshit you could pull before it stopped being mere bullshit. The albino gorilla's proposal—no, its coercion, or threat—had gone well beyond that.

“Jjeui sinseu bu.”

It spoke as it took a fighting stance. Something along the lines of “You're courting death,” probably.

I snorted and raised my sword and shield in front of me, keeping a close eye on its movements.

I hadn't noticed before, since both its fists had been planted on the ground, but now that it had taken its stance, I could see its palms. I didn't know what it had done to them, but they were blood-red. The mere sight was ominous.

'That stance, those palms... It might be as skilled as the gorilla chief.'

This wasn't an opponent I could underestimate. Rushing in would be dangerous.

At least I had the advantage of information. I'd already taken a thorough beating from the gorilla chief. That meant I could respond to some extent, while this guy knew nothing about me.

THOOM!

While I was thinking, the albino gorilla lunged at me. There had been a fair distance between us, but a single leap closed that gap in an instant.

An enormous, blood-red palm came flying toward my face.

'I can't block it!'

Even if I blocked, I wouldn't be able to deflect all that force. I'd either be knocked down or left open to its next attack. That was something I'd learned from fighting the gorilla chief.

So when its palm was right in front of my face, I quickly ducked beneath it. Then I thrust my sword into its completely exposed torso.

CRACK! SHUNK!

With the sound of something breaking, the tip of the Heavenly Demon's sword barely pierced its abdomen. Normally, it should have gone straight through, not merely sunk in. But the albino gorilla's hide seemed tougher than I'd expected.

HISSS...

Blue energy scattered from the point where the sword had entered. I'd expected it to use mana, and it looked like it had employed a defensive technique.

Only the Heavenly Demon's sword's absurd performance had made that possible. Any other sword wouldn't have done a thing.

“Ooo!!!”

Had the albino gorilla not expected its body to be pierced? It let out a startled scream and leaped backward. The wound wasn't particularly deep, but the fact that it had been wounded at all seemed to come as quite a shock.

That lasted only a moment, though. Looking even angrier than before, it charged me again.

It attacked with another palm strike. Its attacks were surprisingly repetitive.

But...

CRAAASH!

“Ah. Fuck.”

Its destructive power was as terrifying as its attacks were simple. I barely dodged the strike, but there was no ignoring the aftermath.

The logs I'd been shaping since early that morning shattered one after another in the wake of its palm strike.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

A flurry of wild attacks followed the palm strike. Apart from that first blow, its accuracy was terrible. It was trying to use martial arts, but every strike missed.

It felt more like it was thinking, Just let me land one hit, which made this rather underwhelming.

'What? What's wrong with this guy?'

Even stranger was what happened when I put some distance between us. After some time at a distance, it would leap toward me and unleash a palm strike. Those attacks were accurate enough to send a chill through me.

Of course, the attacks that followed were awful.

'It's practically blind...'

As soon as the word “blind” came to mind, I looked at the albino gorilla. That fierce scowl really did seem less like anger and more like it couldn't see properly.

'What if that first strike only had such good aim because it was concentrating with everything it had?'

What if its follow-up attacks were so terrible because it was afraid of a counterattack?

Above all, this thing was an albino: an animal with white fur and red eyes. And one of the traits of albinism was...

'Extremely poor eyesight.'

I'd found the key to taking it down.

'I'll personally make a slave out of you.'

I'd inflict suffering worse than death.

I gradually accelerated the mana inside my body. The cold energy I'd condensed into a sphere fully seeped into it.

HISSS...

Time to subdue this bastard.