Nadan staggered along with difficulty, clutching his chest.
Toward the direction where the dimension traveler had disappeared. Aimlessly.
“Alone... you can’t... dangerous.......”
The night was deepening, and the pain continued to worsen.
Furthermore, the dimension traveler who had gone off alone to subjugate Luna showed no sign of returning.
It might be possible with two people, but alone, it was impossible.
Even if he somehow caught up to Luna, if Luna discovered that he had set out in pursuit alone, she would attack him instead.
GRIND.
As he moved, a creaking sound came from his ribs.
“Kh!”
He was intermittently paying the price for forcing himself to move while seriously injured.
The intervals at which he felt pain grew shorter and shorter, and more and more metallic rasping mixed into his breathing.
Even though his body had been tightly fixed in place with bandages, this was how it was.
“Haah, haah. Because I said something useless.......”
He thought carefully about why Jo Seong-jin had pursued Luna alone.
Then he reached one conclusion.
Jo Seong-jin had probably judged that even if they retreated like this, they would not be able to handle Luna if she attacked them on the way back.
Their fighting force consisted of one injured person and one beginner.
Before they reached the base camp, Luna would get them.
In that case, it would be better for the person whose body was at least still intact to exchange attacks and defenses with Luna and buy time for the injured person to reach the base camp.
It was the correct judgment.
But it was too much for a novice to handle.
Nine times out of ten, he would be counterattacked and taken down instead.
“Haah, haah. If I had not hesitated for the past year, something like today would not have happened.”
Over the past year, he had cornered Luna several times.
But every time, at the decisive moment, he could not bring himself to shoot the arrow.
Even if she had transformed into a monster, his younger sister was still his younger sister.
After losing their parents early and having no relatives or kin, he had lived until now with his younger sister, his only blood relative.
Whether what was inside her was a monster or not, to Nadan’s eyes, she looked like the little sister who would cry loudly in fear if her older brother disappeared.
There was also the fact that Luna had never once eaten a human.
For the past year, there had been zero human casualties in Cat Forest.
He had rationalized it, telling himself that Luna had not yet crossed the line... that she had not truly shed the label and been reborn as a monster in the real sense.
Though soon, he might not be able to rationalize even that anymore.
To think the first victim caused by Luna would be a dimension traveler.
That must not happen.
As the guide who had brought him into the forest, with what face was he supposed to look at the others?
Nadan braced himself for pain and desperately called out to the dimension traveler.
“Jo Seong-jin! Where are you?! Do not do anything pointless and come back!”
If Luna heard his voice and came this way, that would be welcome in its own way.
If she was going to eat someone, then let her eat him instead.
If her stomach was full, perhaps she would not touch the dimension traveler.
Of course, he had no intention of being eaten so easily.
If he pushed himself, he should be able to shoot at least one arrow.
He could only pray earnestly that the one arrow he put his soul into would be effective.
He shouted, hoping his voice would reach either the dimension traveler or Luna, but contrary to his expectations, entirely different creatures were drawn in.
Fluorescent eyes began dotting the darkness in every direction.
One pair of eyes, two pairs, three pairs... There seemed to be at least six pairs.
Of all things he could meet, to think he would encounter individuals specialized in group hunting.
Nadan slowly backed away and made a joke.
“Are you all sure about this? If you eat an unwashed old man like me, you will get an upset stomach.”
He was not the type to cling to the manner of his death.
A hunter was originally a profession in which one often went out emptily for trivial reasons.
He was not attached to life, but leaving while still having work to do left him feeling unpleasant.
As if they did not care about Nadan’s circumstances at all, the monsters in the darkness leaped out and revealed their sharp fangs.
“GROOOAR!”
Two monsters came out of the darkness first.
Each had one drill-shaped horn growing from its forehead, was about the size of a wildcat, and had black spots scattered all over a yellowish base.
A level 15 monster, Leocon.
Stopping them with one arrow would be difficult.
Just as he sensed the end and was about to resign himself to it, two arrows came out of the darkness.
The arrows drew trajectories almost perfectly straight and pierced the necks of the two Leocons.
“Kiing!”
“Kyaoo!”
Nadan tilted his head.
“Jo Seong-jin? You came back? How did you shoot two arrows at once.......”
There was not just one question that came to mind immediately.
In the darkness beyond his sight, the fluorescent dots vanished two at a time.
Each time the fluorescent dots disappeared, the death cries of Leocons could be heard faintly.
A moment later, when all the fluorescent dots had disappeared, someone walked out of the darkness.
While throwing out a joke with easy shamelessness.
“No matter how busy you are, you should wash at least once a day. Men our age have a hard time being treated like people if we go around unwashed.”
After confirming that the dimension traveler was perfectly fine without a single wound, Nadan’s face brightened.
“Jo Seong-jin! You were safe! You bastard, do you know how worried I was when you ran off on your own without listening to anyone?”
His joy at welcoming him lasted only a moment.
Because after the dimension traveler, someone else walked out of the darkness.
Seeing the person walking out with arrogant steps, Nadan could not hide his shock.
“Huh? Huuuh? Huuuuuh?!”
***
[Level increased. Level has risen from 14 to 15.]
-Current remaining skill points: 2
I had taken down three Leocons, yet all I gained was one level.
They were monsters with levels similar to mine, and as my level rose, the amount of required experience points also increased, so my leveling speed had noticeably slowed.
Still, it was undeniable that my pace was overwhelmingly fast compared to ordinary people of this other world.
I learned this later, but a person with aptitude for hunting would supposedly take half a year to reach level 15 by hunting monsters suited to their own level.
I looked around at the monster corpses scattered about and tossed out a silly joke.
“Somehow, it feels like the main job of a hunter is digging rather than shooting a bow.”
I wondered whether a hunter’s main tool should be called a shovel instead of a bow.
I had gone to the trouble of making a joke, yet Nadan paid me no attention and was busy pointing at the person standing beside me.
“You! You! You, you, you!”
“You are too surprised. It is not as if we need introductions.”
“How did Luna... ugh! Suddenly, my ribs.......”
Nadan clutched the area around his side and sank to one knee.
It seemed the aftereffects of moving too much and the shock of seeing Luna and me return together had struck all at once.
It looked like we needed to move Nadan somewhere he could rest right away.
I supported Nadan and asked Luna to handle the cleanup.
“Luna, we will go ahead, so please take care of the cleanup. You know where the base camp is, right?”
Luna had been standing by at ease, and in response to my words, she nodded with sharp discipline.
“Is it the same location as before?”
“Probably?”
“Then I can find it by myself.”
When Luna spoke in human language, Nadan stammered as if he might stop breathing altogether.
“Luna is talking... Huh, huh, our Luna is talking.......”
“I will tell you what happened once we arrive at the base camp.”
“I cannot wait until then. Tell me while we move.”
“If that is what you want, I will tell you as much as you like. About what happened with the person who broke your ribs, Mr. Nadan.”
“Do not tease me. Enough, hurry and tell me.”
Perhaps because we had hunted quite a few monsters yesterday and today, not a single monster appeared on the way back to the base camp.
Throughout the entire time I took Nadan back, I told him what had happened below the cliff.
The part about there being a path leading below the cliff, the battle fought in Luna’s den, and how, after winning the battle, I made her my familiar.
Only after quietly listening to my story to the end did Nadan open his mouth.
“Heh. A perk that turns my little sister into a familiar. That is a masterpiece.”
“I was glad it could end without killing her.”
“Even though you had been hunting monsters left and right from the start? At first, I suspected your heart might be made of steel.”
“Luna is your younger sister, Mr. Nadan. She is not just a monster.”
Nadan looked at me with a blank expression, then turned his head the other way and kneaded the space between his eyes with his hand.
“You really are a strange one.”
“Are you crying?”
“Who is crying? I am tired, tired.”
His choked voice spoke of how much his heart had suffered all this time.
He must have been carrying Luna’s matter alone and aching over it.
While Nadan gathered his emotions, we arrived at the base camp, a fortress of iron walls surrounded by anti-monster traps.
After sitting Nadan on a tree stump, I was lighting a campfire when Luna, who had been in charge of the cleanup, entered the base camp.
Luna approached the log where I was sitting, then naturally took the seat beside me.
Very close.
She sat so close that our shoulders were almost touching.
“Master, as you ordered, I buried all the monsters.”
I shrugged toward Nadan beyond the campfire.
“As you can see, she considers me her master.”
Nadan clutched his side and laughed little by little, taking care not to hurt the injured area.
“Kk, kk-k. Do not make me laugh when it hurts.”
“Was there a part to laugh at just now?”
“There was for me. Quite a lot, too. Anyway, it is safe to consider her human, right?”
“It is safe to consider her human in the mental sense. The contents are still a monster, though.”
“That is enough. What does it matter if she is a familiar, or if her contents are a monster? If she thinks like a human and acts like a human, that is enough.”
“There is something I have not told you yet. Since she is my familiar, I will have to keep taking her with me from now on.”
Nadan forgot even the care he had been taking to prevent pain and laughed loudly.
“Hahahaha! Cough, cough! Ouch, my side. Even if my ribs had not been injured, my side would have cramped.”
“You must have wanted to live together with your sister, but things turned out like this.”
“Do not say such horrifying things. If someone heard you, they would misunderstand. As long as she lives safely and well wherever she goes, that is enough. That is enough.”
“I said it just in case. Depending on the person, they might not want to let her go.”
“There is no~thing like that at all~, so take her with peace of mind.”
“I have been thinking about it, and while taking her with me, I will look for a way to turn her contents human.”
If humans could undergo monsterization, then conversely, it should be possible for monsters to undergo humanization.
Of course, perhaps I was saying something naive because I did not know much about this other world.
As proof, Nadan did not seem to expect much.
“If a way to restore her exists, there would be nothing better. But do not overdo it. You have your own journey too, so you cannot spend all your time on my sister, can you?”
“I will look into it little by little.”
“Yes, that is enough. But I am sorry in another sense. You have experienced it yourself, so you know, but she is so unsociable that even if you take her with you, it will not be particularly fun.”
The corners of Luna’s eyes rose.
It seemed being called an uninteresting person had touched Luna’s nerves.
Soon after, Luna changed form. From her human form into the form of a small black cat.
Luna climbed onto my lap, yawned as if melting, and skillfully settled into a loaf.
“Mwaaow~.”
She had personally refuted the harsh criticism that she was no fun through action.
I freely stroked Luna’s fur without restraint and threw a line at Nadan, who wore an expression as if he had been struck once.
“I’m already having fun, though.”