Dusk.
His vision was somewhat restricted, and deeply aware that moving around at night was unwise, Shinki still managed to encounter humans as he had hoped.
However, the circumstances seemed a bit off.
First, following the survival knowledge he had learned, Shinki was tracking the direction of a river in hopes of finding a few households.
Even just a place to stay for the night would be fine.
As a modern person, he really didn’t want to sleep in a tree.
The soft soil held his footprints as he used a branch he picked up to push aside the grass, and that was when he heard cheerful laughter like silver bells.
He emerged at the riverbank, and the beautiful scene before him captured Shinki’s attention.
In a pool of moderate depth, several cute girls were sitting or standing, roughly sixteen or seventeen years old by estimate.
One girl standing at the water’s edge had light brown hair in a ponytail, her back to Shinki.
The side of her exposed abdomen had not an ounce of flab, and she was currently waving her arms and legs, saying something to her companions that made them laugh.
Another was a small girl with twin ponytails, much thinner and more timid-looking than the first, giving off a cute impression.
Besides them, there were several other girls with slender figures.
Their trained bodies had no excess fat, which was nice to see.
“Sorry.” Shinki silently said a prayer of guilt in his heart.
Peeping on girls wasn’t a good habit, and besides, he hadn’t meant to.
He slowly backed away, planning to wait until they finished bathing.
On the surface, those girls didn’t seem like bad people.
But just as he was halfway back, the girls disappearing from his sight, he felt a sharp gaze behind him.
“Who are you?” The voice was as pleasant as an oriole in a mountain stream, instantly making one feel favorable toward her.
But the current situation didn’t allow Shinki to indulge that feeling.
He turned slightly, raising both hands, and looked at the woman who had drawn her bow fully aimed at him.
Stunning.
That was the first impression she gave Shinki.
The woman wore a rather fantastical military outfit—a blue-and-white long dress, her fair legs beneath the hem, gray stockings and shoes wrapped with leather straps covering her lower legs, a white robe hanging at her waist, and four golden bracelets on her arms.
A sword hung on her left side.
Her sky-blue long hair and intelligent face were currently frowning at Shinki’s every move, and she asked with a hint of disgust, “Why are you here?
Did you do it on purpose?” I really didn’t do it on purpose.
Shinki spread his hands.
But saying that now—whether she believed him or not was another matter.
“I did it on purpose.” Damn, wrong choice of words.
Twang!
The arrow flew from the bow, grazing Shinki’s hair and hitting a tree squarely.
The sky-blue haired girl’s expression turned even more hostile, clearly unwilling to let it go.
“Sorry, I’m lost in the forest and trying to find my way to Orario.
Then I heard those girls’ voices and walked over.
You saw what happened after that.” To keep things from getting worse, Shinki told the truth.
The girl lowered her eyes, as if thinking.
Seeing his strange outfit, his youth, and that he carried no weapons, she finally put away her weapon.
“I misjudged you.” The night forest was very dangerous.
There was no way this boy had followed them just to peep at her familia’s children bathing.
“I’m Himejima Shinki, an adventurer from my hometown.” After a moment’s thought, Shinki stated his identity.
The hostility gradually faded, and the atmosphere softened.
The girl, having put away her bow, brushed her bangs aside and said, “I’m Artemis.
If you don’t mind, you can come with us to Orario.” The aura she radiated felt very gentle to Shinki.
Moreover, some vague intuition told Shinki that this girl was not human.
She was something much more exalted.
That is—a goddess.
In this world, when deities descended to the mortal realm, their divine powers were sealed according to the rules, but even so, the very presence of a goddess was enough to inspire awe among lower beings.
Therefore, even without knowing which goddess she was, ordinary people could tell at a glance who was mortal and who was divine.
And Artemis…
Shinki gazed at the goddess’s exquisite features, recalling her future fate, and felt a twinge of melancholy.
“Artemis-sama, we’re back!” “We even caught some fish in the water.
Let Anna cook them for us tonight!” Just then, the girls’ voices came from behind.
They were wearing shorts and sandals, some of them with only simple cloth wrapped around their upper bodies.
“Artemis-sama, who is this man?” “Huh?
A man!” “It’s a man!” After noticing Shinki, the girls immediately broke into a chattering hubbub.