Surviving a Cruel Fairy Tale

19 – Act 1. Little Red Riding Hood Forest – Third-rate writer (2)

A fairy tale writer.

I always remember what I dreamed of.

We spin a story and draw a dream. A creator who imagines a beautiful and warm story that cannot exist in reality, but is possible because it is a fairy tale.

A dream that could not come true in my lifetime.

What does it mean that I, who was just a failed third-rate writer, fell into the world of cruelly twisted fairy tales?

Rumpelstiltschen said it was just a coincidence.

The reason why I was chosen and called to this world was because I just caught my eye.

However, in my narrative, it is not just a coincidence.

A cruelly twisted fairy tale world faced by a failed fairy tale writer.

I wouldn’t call it fate, but it was another opportunity for me, and the connection between the author and the fairy tale was perhaps more inevitable than fate.

So let’s think about it.

With all my capabilities as a writer.

The victory conditions and restrictions in this forest right now. Limit. After judging all the hunter’s strengths and weaknesses, what would be the surest method?

What are the advantages of a forest?

Or the advantage in the setting of Little Red Riding Hood’s fairy tale?

It’s not something you can carelessly touch either way.

In the fairy tale forest, you can’t burn the whole forest to beat the hunter who receives correction, who always reigned as a strong person, and you can’t change the existing fairy tale from the root.

Then, how about adding a story?

“…… Ugh.”

A tingling pain spreads from the head.

Being repulsive just by imagining it was a sign that I was far beyond my limits.

I can’t change much.

But it is clear that I am also the one who holds the key to change things in this forest.

If neither Little Red Riding Hood nor the Wolf can do anything about it, then the environment must be changed, so what kind of method can be used to bring the hunters down from their absolute position with limited means?

“…… If the area is limited. Maybe it is possible.”

I thought it would be possible to twist the concept itself once the condition of the forest reached a really specific area.

A basement, for example, or an empty lot.

If you can lure hunters to such a place, you can temporarily deprive and reorganize the concept of a place called a forest within that limited area.

Then what is the means to defeat him?

Neither Little Red Riding Hood nor Wolf is impossible.

If this is an established fact, what kind of spear should I prepare to stab him?

“…… Ha.”

He sighed in a way that didn’t come to mind clearly.

A vacant lot is also a well-spoken vacant lot, where to prepare an empty vacant lot without a trace of a forest, and even if there is an underground cave in this forest, how should the hunter be guided?

Moreover, the most important thing is that there is no sword to pierce his heart, and it bothers me.

“…… I won’t.”

In a physical battle, it seems that the hunter will be pushed back even if there is no topographical correction in the forest.

Of course, I can’t be sure because I haven’t seen all of his true face, but just seeing him completely fooled by him once in the village, his superiority and inferiority were obvious.

What immediately comes to mind is the locational constraints and the person who can directly subdue him.

“Gureureung?”

After thinking for a moment, I stopped my hand that was caressing the wolf, and the bewildered beast could not stand it and raised its head and stared at me as if asking what it was doing.

“Oops. Yes, yes.”

By the way, how do these wolves get their fur soft to take care of?

No, I wouldn’t say the fur is completely soft like a dog or cat, but it still flowed through my hands to the extent that I couldn’t believe it was an animal wandering in the wild.

As I was stroking the wolf that occupied between my legs for a while, I thought for a bit, and then several other wolves who had been watching this place also came here.

“…… The wolf looks good too, so it’s cute.”

Like a dog.

Not swearing, but the way he gently left his hair reminded me of that of a puppy.

* * *

It’s already been three days since we came up with this and that plan, supplemented each other, and consulted with Little Red Riding Hood.

To summarize what has been said so far, first of all, the advantage of forests is taken away from hunters.

Up to this point, it was a common opinion that we mutually acknowledged, but after that, we diverged from each other in the part of attacking him.

“You said no.”

“If I am the only one who can do it, I will do it.”

“You must have said it was impossible with your own words.”

“Better than those kids. The wolf in the fairy tale legend was killed by the hunter, but I only have the narrative that he rescued me.”

That, too, will remain a weakness in the world of fairy tales that rolls with the power of narrative, but Little Red Riding Hood continued, saying that it is not a disadvantage that cannot be countered at all.

“I’m content with depriving him of the topographical advantage of the forest. In any fairy tale, the forest hunter was strong. You can do it just by getting rid of that narrative fix.”

“…… Is it really possible?”

“If not me, who does it? You? Or those kids? If no one else can do it, it’s better for me to play.”

I do think that Little Red Riding Hood is better than a wolf with a record of being killed by a hunter, but that alone made me very uneasy.

In Little Red Riding Hood’s fairy tale, the hunter is the solver.

He was more like a fairytale savior who overcame all obstacles to save Little Red Riding Hood and his grandmother.

You can’t get rid of this fairy tale narrative.

How do I get rid of the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood, which is the basis that makes up this entire forest, including her and her hunters in the first place.

So I recognize that this part is an insurmountable difficulty, but I keep thinking about whether there is a slightly better way.

“…… First of all, that being said, the important thing is to first bring the hunter down to a place that has nothing to do with the forest.”

“They said it was a cave, a clearing, or something like that.”

“Is there a place that comes to mind?”

The role of actually dealing with the hunter is important, but this work was just as important.

If a hunter in the forest does not know defeat, it is to bring him down to a place other than the forest. Thereby depriving him of one of his absolute superiorities.

“…… If it’s an empty lot, there’s a place I know.”

“Where?”

“You know that.”

“Can we bring you here?”

At that, Little Red Riding Hood shook his head.

“This is obviously an empty lot, but on the contrary, this is a place where the protection of the forest is strong. Source of vitality. Can you deny that a place where the sun is shining and the vegetation is blooming is not a forest?”

“…… That’s impossible.”

The deprivation of the concept of a forest that I am talking about was based on an extremely limited environment that could not be seen as a forest.

The scent of the forest here is too strong.

Of course, the forest itself was so dense with trees that it was hard to find a place that couldn’t be seen as a forest, but among them, Little Red Riding Hood’s cabin was especially like that.

“Then where are you talking about?”

The vacant lot I know is here or…….

“…… Wait for a sec.”

“That village. There were thick trees all around, but you said you would limit yourself and him to the limit, right? If you narrow your horizons, you could consider that village as a place that deviated from the concept of a forest.”

…… It doesn’t seem impossible.

Yeah, the color of the forest was deep there too, but conceptually, it was more like a village than a forest, so if I could reinforce that color a bit more.

But there are not only hunters there, but also villagers.

“There are too many people there. What about that?”

“Kill them all.”

He brings up the word “Killing” Too calmly.

Little Red Riding Hood’s answer slightly frowned, but she instead looked at me as if something was wrong.

“Why, don’t you like it?”

“These are unrelated people.”

“No relationship? How?”

That’s…….

“They sympathized with the hunter’s actions. Would you have just agreed? Rather, an accomplice who actively cooperated with the hunter. If you blame the hunters, they deserve to be punished as well.”

“But didn’t they say they were ruled by force?”

“I had no choice but to be threatened by someone. It sounds so easy, but can you actually say the same thing to the innocent people who were killed by them?”

She openly expresses hostility toward hunters and villagers.

“A truly innocent man should have rebelled against the hunter and died there.”

“…… Isn’t that a bit much?”

“Crimes are punished. If you really wanted to be proud, you should have died at the hands of a hunter. At least for their own survival, they shouldn’t have cut the flesh of the same human race and drank their blood.”

She couldn’t argue with that.

It is an undeniable fact that they murdered and cannibalized innocent people under any circumstances.

It’s okay considering it’s the same crime, but I felt a sense of rejection at the unilateral killing of those who didn’t have the ability to fight.

“…… The village filters.”

“Why?”

“It’s hard to deal with the hunters, but I don’t have time to deal with all the villagers.”

“You can ask those kids for that.”

At Little Red Riding Hood’s insistence, she shook her head and held out her hand.

“That’s the next best thing. First of all, we need a place where we can focus exclusively on the hunter.”

I don’t know the true purpose of Little Red Riding Hood.

If she wants the annihilation of all humanity in this forest, it will be indispensable for her to kill the villagers, but there is no reason for me to help until then.

My goal is to secure the mystery and escape this forest.

You can think of it as remorse, but I also didn’t want to give an extra variable by getting involved in unnecessary things.

“So another place. It’s better if it’s somewhere the hunter doesn’t know, and even better if it’s somewhere he can’t escape.”

Gongteo is a bit annoying in that respect.

It’s good to completely transform the concept of the place from the forest to another place, but if it’s a clearing, it’s just a matter of the hunter leaving the place.

“…… Then, there is a place to pick it up.”

“Where is it?”

“The Mother Tree.”

The mother tree?

But there…….

“That’s the forest itself.”

It is safe to say that it is the source of the forest.

I thought it would be rather self-inflicted to send hunters there, but after that, Little Red Riding Hood shook his head and continued.

“There is an underground space under it.”

“Underground?”

“My mother’s tree has taken root deep into the earth. As the roots spread densely and widely, the ground became weak, and that created a fairly wide pupil along with the forest’s deterioration.”

The underground pupil.

At such a place, it seems like you can definitely trap the hunters by attracting them, but how does Little Red Riding Hood know that?

“From the outside, there was no sign of that.”

“Sure.”

“If you say it, I will believe it first, but how do you know?”

At this, Little Red Riding Hood slightly bit his lower lip and looked at me, then with a sigh he lowered his head and opened his mouth.

“…… Because I lived there when I was young.”

Mother’s tree.

It was the only place where she could avoid her body for her, who was still young and weak.