Surviving a Cruel Fairy Tale

8 – Act 1. Little Red Riding Hood’s Forest – Twilight Village (2)

After that, the villagers tied my arms and legs and took me inside a warehouse-like building at the corner of the village. Quarantined

Fortunately, it was a rope that restrained my body, so I spent my time quietly waiting in the warehouse in a situation where it was easy to escape if I wanted to.

How long has it been like that?

The outside, which was dimly visible through the cracks in the wall of the warehouse lined with wooden boards, became slightly brighter and darker several times.

The hunter, who said he would talk as best as possible when the day dawned, only repeated the words to hold on a little while with a cryptic attitude.

Occasionally, a middle-aged woman who was said to help him with housework came and gave him adequate water and food. Except for her, no one visited the place at all.

Water drops fall through the cracks in the ceiling.

One drop after another.

I raised my head listening to the sound of dripping water drops dripping over a small puddle on the floor.

It’s quiet.

Inside the warehouse, there is only silence. My hands and feet were tied, but there was no anxiety.

There is also a way to escape, so it wouldn’t be bad to stay here for a while and relax, but the disgusting fishy smell wafting from somewhere bothered me.

I don’t get used to that smell that stings my nose no matter how much time passes.

From my experience, even though I had been here for about three days, the smell continued to emanate, making my head throb.

In a situation where everything is not clear, if you escape here on your own, then coexistence with the village will be impossible.

So I wouldn’t run away blindly, but I couldn’t stand this disgusting smell at all.

I was thinking of talking to her about this the next time she visited, but contrary to my thoughts, it was the hunter who opened the door and entered.

“How have you been?”

“To be honest, I feel very uncomfortable.”

“It can’t be helped.”

He brought out a wooden chair with a mischievous smile, placed it in front of me, and sat down.

“I talked a lot about you. I tried to trust you as much as possible, but everyone was angry about this incident, so the heat didn’t subside easily.”

“Is that so?”

“…… I thought you would be mad.”

I can’t help it even if I get angry.

I can’t help but doubt it if I’ve seen that scene. In the first place, I was contemplating how far I should trust this man before that.

A man who didn’t even shine his face for three days.

If you simply think about it, you can see that she was busy handling this job, but the middle-aged woman, who seemed to have a close relationship with the hunter, was extremely reticent whenever asked about it.

In the first place, this man gave off a strange sense of heterogeneity from the first time I saw him.

In the village, he enjoyed a better life than other villagers, and everyone had a particularly difficult time dealing with him.

Looks good.

But what about the inside story?

I would rather not have felt a strong sense of alienation if I had been that kind of person from the beginning, but his actions so far have been nothing more than a good person.

Because he is such a person, there is no choice but to be even more suspicious.

“So, what about me?”

“Please stay here for the time being. Because I want to ask you something.”

“Is it related to witches?”

At this the hunter nodded his head.

“Nothing. Come to think of it, weren’t you having a tryst with the Little Red Riding Hood witch? Overlapping your body.”

That’s a misunderstanding.

Her attitude must have been a little manly, but that was nothing more than her unilaterally talking to me, crushing me.

“That was a misunderstanding.”

“But there are eyewitnesses. You don’t know, but the people who live in this town don’t lie to me. Never.”

So he sticks his head in saying that it must be the truth.

“So, how was it?”

“What do you mean?”

“That witch. What was the inside of a young girl like? How about the texture? Wasn’t it vivid?”

What…….

“Again, that never happened.”

“It must have been nice. Alas, then. I can tell all right That girl must have grown up to be a good woman. She betrayed humanity in a nasty way, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t a good woman.”

Are you not listening to me?

Haven’t you deviated too much from the subject? Moreover, his expression was clearly different from that of the person who was questioning him.

A hunter who mentions a woman’s last name.

But I don’t know why he’s obsessed with it. Could the hunter have fallen in love with Little Red Riding Hood?

“Ah! Thinking about it makes me angry.”

“The Hunter.”

“It only ran away for a while, but it belongs to this village in the first place. I don’t know how you seduced that, but you did it without me first!!”

A loud vibration echoes with his shout.

His right foot rolled down and the ground caved in. Because it was a damp ground, there was no dust, but the vibrations were accurately transmitted to my body sitting on the ground.

“In this village, in this forest, everything is mine. By the way, by the way, how dare you touch that girl first? How dare you treat a foreigner!?”

The figure of a good man he had shown so far has disappeared.

I can’t read anything from that expression.

I know you were angry, but the content is a mess. There is no sense of intelligence in the glinting eyes.

Just like that, once and again.

The hunter stomped his feet in succession as he was in his sitting position, screaming that his voice would go away.

And how long has it been?

“…… Hmmm, I got a little excited.”

The hunter finally came to his senses, catching his breath and returning to his usual smile, but it was too late to reverse his actions in front of him.

The hunter pointed to the red cloak and said it belonged to the village.

No, what an arrogant thought to go further and say that everything that exists in this village and forest is his own.

An obvious twist.

Here I understand some of what Little Red Riding Hood said.

“Anyway, I have so many questions about you. I looked a little unsightly, but I hope you understand my true intentions with this.”

“…… Seriously, I mean.”

I don’t want to understand.

I don’t mean to say that pursuing s*x is ugly, but I can’t help but say that the desire to dominate others by stepping on them and controlling them is dirty.

“How you met that girl, and how you seduced that human-hating child. I have to be honest about it all.”

“What if I told you there was no such thing?”

“I still have to consider it hard to be honest and stay here for a long time.”

What is the point of telling more to those who don’t want to believe?

In addition, considering the hunter’s true colors now, I couldn’t feel any attraction in staying and interacting here any longer.

Is this far?

“Then get some rest.”

“Because there is a foul smell somewhere to take a good rest.”

At my words, the hunter pulled the corner of his mouth and sneered at him.

“You’d better be obedient if you don’t want to smell that too.”

* * *

A long time has passed since the hunter left.

After that, a middle-aged woman came to take care of my meal, but the quantity and quality of her meal was obviously different from before.

Are you planning on putting pressure on me like this?

It was funny to try to tame people with food, but he didn’t feel the need to argue, so he stared at the woman with a gloomy expression.

“Are you a hunter too?”

“…… Have a quick meal.”

“The hunter said that this whole village was his, do you agree?”

She doesn’t answer.

However, seeing that she was shaking the spoon she was moving to my mouth, I was able to roughly infer the answer to her anxious behavior.

Just like that, time passes again.

It would be better to act at night to move without being noticed by others, but this forest was basically covered with darkness, so it was difficult to tell the difference between day and night based on the light and shade outside.

The fortunate thing is that this forest is humid, and water droplets periodically form and fall through the cracks in the ceiling.

So far, I have been counting the cycles of water droplets while staying in the warehouse, and although it may not be accurate, I have seen that they form and fall at about 2 to 3 minute intervals.

If it rains or becomes more humid, the cycle will change, but if it’s not such a variable, you can figure out the time to some extent with just this.

The woman who delivers the rest of the meals visits at regular intervals, and when she doesn’t visit for a long time after her visit, it can be considered the start of the night.

Thinking and thinking like that, finally she wants the woman to leave and the water drops to fall 93 times.

With the judgment that enough time had passed, the ropes tied to her wrists and ankles broke weakly just by pulling up the mystery inside her body.

“…… Whoa.”

First, I caught my breath and slowly opened the warehouse door.

As expected, there was thick darkness outside.

You can’t feel the presence of people at all, and you can’t even hear the chirping of insects.

In such a situation, I walked slowly, muffled footsteps, and was about to head outside.

“Ugh.”

As I passed the building next to the warehouse, I smelled a disgusting rotten smell and fishy smell that I could feel enough to sting my nose.

A strong stench that naturally makes you frown.

I wondered if it would smell like this if the meat was rotting raw, but it happened that the entrance to the building was open so it was easy to look inside.

I happened to be passing by, so I stood at the entrance of the building with careful steps.

“…… This.”

I can’t see it properly because it’s covered in darkness, but the stench has become clearer.

I took a step forward and focused on the barely visible outline, and saw an elongated part hanging off the wall.

I wondered if it was hanging meat, so I took a step closer and saw it more clearly…….

“Are you curious?”

I immediately turned my head at the voice I heard.

There was a hunter looking at me with a shotgun slung over his shoulder with a very natural look on his face.

When, or rather, how?

“This is the first time I see your surprised expression.”

“…… How did you know?”

“Knowingly, you were not afraid even when you lost your freedom and lost the right to live and die. I couldn’t help but know, because I’ve been killing lives for the rest of my life.”

Only with that?

But he couldn’t have known when he would escape. There was no one watching over this place, no way…….

“Did you keep watching?”

“Patience is a natural quality for hunters. It’s not just about waiting for days.”

I can only think of being victimized.

Should I have been a little more careful?

But from what I’m saying now, I feel that the hunter wouldn’t have caught my guard until he got something from me or killed me.

It’s like they’ve completely taken over the board.

If you were already caught, there was no option to withdraw again. If they surrendered here, there was a risk that they would probably be forced into a worse situation than they are now.

Maybe like what I saw inside.

“Are you going to fight?”

“…… I don’t like dying like this, but being eaten by the same humans is even worse.”

“Have you seen it?”

It was clearly a human leg hanging on the wall of this building.

Not only that.

I could only see a vague outline, but the cuts and incisions inside them clearly looked like slaughtered humans.

I could now understand the thin bones in the soup that hunters used to treat me to.

It was too thin to be considered an animal bone, and with long joints, it was probably a human finger.

“Are you eating the same human?”

“Because this place is barren. If anything can be used as a resource, wouldn’t it be right to use it?”

I bit my teeth at his words.

Now there is nowhere to retreat.

The fact that an abnormal hunter is in control of everything is enough reason to leave, but even more so if everyone is sharing that fact, even dealing with human flesh.

“You seem to have made up your mind.”

“…… It didn’t seem like a place for me.”

“That’s the part I liked about you. You were chased by wolves and never once shuddered in fear. I didn’t panic. That’s why I wanted to accept you as a member of this village.”

With that said, the hunter shook his head.

“I can’t do that anymore.”

The hunter, who expressed regret, was laughing with his mouth tearing up contrary to the words.