Chapter 7
The forest at night is incredibly dark.
That's stating the obvious. Without modern conveniences, this place had very few sources of light to rely on.
At best, there was moonlight from above, fireflies, and the glowing eyes of monsters and beasts.
The glowing eyes of monsters are a sign to run away immediately so that's out, and fireflies mainly come out in summer so that's out too.
The only thing to rely on was moonlight, but today happened to be when the moon was transitioning into a waning moon.
Most of the moonlight was obscured by darkness, meaning the amount of light reaching down was drastically reduced.
Moreover, this was a super weird land where leaves didn't fall even in midwinter.
In other words, it was really freaking dark.
Darkness has something that instinctively triggers human fear. Since ancient times, humans were vulnerable at night, so if you wanted to live, you had no choice but to stay indoors.
The ancestors who feared the night survived, while those who didn't all returned to dust.
Fear of darkness is encoded in our genes.
I was also pretty scared of this forest's nights at first.
Though after more than 10 years, it doesn't bother me anymore.
Still, as a senior who experienced this place first, I could understand her reaction.
"Hic, uuugh...! I can't see anything and the sound is like...! The monster howls are like...!!"
[Chaerin... you look so uncool right now....]
[How can a great warrior end up on their knees like this?]
[But it's so scary ;-;;-;;-; Why do the beast howls sound so real? ;-;;-;;-;]
[So the howling was real fr...]
[Well... maybe the scary oppa is better than monsters...]
[But going back to someone who told you to leave is kinda... he'll obviously reject you]
"...Alright, come in then."
So I decided to let her enter.
[Oh?]
[This actually worked lol]
[Gets to sleep with a man just by kneeling once wow Chaerin you're the real warrior]
[This guy's playing 4D chess wow]
It wasn't just because I felt sorry for her.
I also had many questions about her.
More specifically, about Otherworlders.
Since I've been discovered anyway. Then it would make sense to at least learn about the other side.
"What are you doing? Aren't you coming in?"
"Ah, y-yes! I'm coming in!"
And so began an uncomfortable night of sharing space.
*
As she entered the cave, Yoo Chaerin briefly fantasized.
Whatever the situation, she was still a "woman" after all.
Though the atmosphere was scary, she would be sleeping in the same space as an attractive man. With desires, certain thoughts were inevitable.
After all, thoughts themselves are something that can't be controlled.
She wasn't hoping for anything special on this special night.
But maybe they'd have to share a blanket since there weren't any extras, and their bodies might touch in the process...
Even trying to suppress them, such thoughts kept coming.
"Sleep here."
Of course, such fantasies ended when the man assigned her sleeping spot.
Blanket? There was no such thing. All that lay before her was the cold stone floor...
"Sorry. Don't have any guest blankets."
The man saying this was leisurely laying out his own blanket. Unlike his apologetic words, his expression clearly said "So what?"
"Y-yeah......"
She had expected him to at least give her a thin cloth...
She sat down disappointedly. But she couldn't complain. After all, she was the one who forced her way into his home.
She thought they would at least sleep in the same area, but apparently not.
Leaving her behind, the man went deeper into the cave.
Though there was a campfire lit, the thick darkness swallowed the man after just walking a few steps away.
For a moment, fear washed over her as she was left alone with just the campfire.
He wasn't really going to leave her alone like this, right...?
"Um... excuse me...? Could you at least stay with me?"
"Don't worry. I won't go anywhere. I'll be nearby."
That seemed to be true.
His voice came from beyond the darkness.
Based on how little the sound echoed, he hadn't gone too far.
She'd noticed from their first meeting, but he was someone with extremely thick walls around him.
Still, she let out a sigh of relief internally.
'Phew...'
Though it wasn't quite what she had hoped for, at least she wouldn't be left alone in this darkness.
His voice was somewhere out there.
Of course, strictly speaking, there were thousands more people here too...
[wtf show your face]
[Like if you think Chae-rin's hopes just got crushed lol]
[lol]
"......"
It felt wrong to count people who only communicate through text as real people. Though chatting with them wasn't boring, it wasn't enough to shake off the fear.
Besides, she was going to end the stream soon anyway.
"...Well then, everyone, it's been fun."
[?? Wait what's with this sudden]
[No no don't go]
[You're ending the stream just like that?]
"Time for bed now."
[You're gonna sleep in-game anyway you crazy]
[Why is she sleeping in the game tho]
[Our streamer didn't bring fatigue potions so she has to sleep in-game~]
[So dumb wwww]
[How about keeping the stream on while sleeping?]
"No way. That would be embarrassing."
[ugh]
[This is driving me crazy]
[She really knows how to ask for a smack]
[You little shi-]
Click-
Chaerin ended the stream before more curses could flood the chat. The final viewer count was 3,000.
It was a huge success.
Of course, the viewers would be frustrated by the sudden end... but that wasn't her problem.
She had quite a talent for making streams blow up like this.
"You sure talk to yourself a lot."
As she was lost in thought, a voice came from the darkness.
It was the man's voice.
Yor thought to himself.
'Good...'
He had been wondering how to start a conversation when she provided an opportunity.
"You seemed to be talking to someone earlier - what was that about?"
To be honest, he wanted to directly ask "Is that a chat window next to you?"
But wouldn't that be too suspicious?
He wasn't sure if others could see it besides himself.
With the stream still on, there was no reason to reveal anything unusual about himself.
So he was quite grateful when she ended the stream. Not only did it give him something to talk about, but now the gazes watching Yor were gone too.
"Oh, you mean just now?"
As he was thinking this, Chaerin spoke up.
"Ah, it's called streaming. Where people connect and watch what I'm doing... how should I explain this."
You can learn more from people than just their words. Their attitude and atmosphere can reveal hidden information.
In that sense, Yor's current position was quite satisfactory.
He could see her while she couldn't see him.
Having lived here so long, his night vision was much better than others'.
Yor nodded at her words.
'And here I thought it was supposed to be secret.'
She explained without hesitation. Apparently "streaming" was fairly well-known in this world too.
Well, there must have been plenty of people talking to themselves on the streets. Hard to keep it hidden.
Next, Yor asked:
"You said you're an Otherworlder. Where are you from? A different world from ours?"
Though it seemed like a casual question, it was extremely important to him.
His future attitude would depend on the answer. If it was the world he was thinking of, maybe... he could dream of returning home.
"Oh, you mean where we're from? It's completely different. A place called Earth..."
And Yor couldn't help but be surprised by her casual response.
'...!'
He internally rejoiced. A connection he thought severed decades ago had appeared before him again.
Of course, he wasn't sure if that Earth was exactly the same as where he used to live... but he had found a civilization similar to his own.
Just that alone made Yor feel like he'd found a huge connection.
After that, Yor asked many things. How she came here, what her world was like, what surprised her about this place, and so on.
Chaerin, who thought she'd go right to sleep, was flustered but answered his questions sincerely.
Of course, she tried to work around things like "game" that locals wouldn't understand.
Realizing the other person was quite talkative, she regretted thinking 'I should have kept the stream on...'
She wasn't just answering questions. She gathered her courage to ask him a few things too.
"Um, could you tell me your name?"
"......Yor."
Thanks to that, she learned the man's name. As a bonus, his name tag changed from [Unknown NPC] to [Yor].
Then once while excitedly asking questions, this happened:
"Come to think of it, why does Yor live in a forest like this?"
"......Hey."
"Yes?"
"I'm currently providing you shelter for the night. In this dangerous forest. I think I've shown enough goodwill, don't you?"
"Ah, yes that's true."
"Then don't ask for more. Don't dig any deeper."
"...Yes sir."
Yor's demeanor was sharper than ever as he said this. As if warning her not to cross this line. As if saying don't ask about this. At his heavily weighted voice, she could only nod fearfully.
Just when she thought they'd gotten comfortable, apparently not...
After that, Chaerin had to restrain herself from asking questions.
As a result, the conversation mainly consisted of Yor asking questions. He would ask, Chaerin would answer, then he would react. Though it ended up feeling like an interview, it was still somewhat fun.
After all, Yoo Chaerin had barely ever talked with men like this before. In that sense, though conversation with him was a bit scary, it was also secretly exciting.
After talking with Yor for a while like this, Chaerin eventually fell asleep.
*
"Hey, you. Wake up."
"...Mm, mmm?"
Poke- Poke-
A few hours later, Chaerin woke up to someone prodding her body.
Opening her bleary eyes, she saw Yor poking her shoulder with his foot.
"It's morning. Time to leave."
Hearing this, she looked around. The cave that had been pitch black was now bright.
Everything happened quickly after that. After getting up, she received some venison from Yor before being practically chased out.
Kicking her out right after waking up... well, at least he fed her breakfast.
"Thank you for yesterday. I survived thanks to you."
"Get lost. And don't come back."
Yor remained cold until her departure.
It couldn't be helped. Though last night's conversation was quite fun for him too, once was enough.
Getting any closer would only cause trouble for Yor himself. As a Manifestor of demon's blood, he was rejected everywhere after all...
Yor watched somewhat regretfully as she disappeared deeper into the Middle Layer.
He sighed thinking of last night's sky.
"Haah..."
It was definitely a waning moon. A darkening moon.
Which meant the New Moon would soon arrive.