Her large, round eyes snapped open.

　At first, the girl's eyes, which were vacant as if she was dreaming, woke up at once when she caught sight of me.


"--?


　The next moment, the girl, who had screamed inaudibly and was about to jump up, covered her face with a look of astonishment.

　She must have realized that she could not move at all.

　I spoke as slowly as possible to the girl, who moved her face from side to side in a panic.


''Do you understand what I'm saying?''


　There was no response to my question.

　But the girl who heard my voice had a clear expression on her face and her lips were pursed into a tight line.

　Maybe you understand this.


You....well, neither do I. I was attacked by a demon called the Lord of the Flies and brought to this nest. Do you remember that?

.....

　The girl closes her eyes tightly. Apparently, she is remembering the time she was attacked.


'I defeated the demon. The body is over there.


　She points to the Lord of the Flies, whose wings and legs have been ripped off and whose head has been severed.

　The girl, eyes wide open, freezes.


'I think we're probably in a mountain somewhere, but there's no side hole that could be an exit. In order to get out, you have to get out through that thing up there, that's where you have to go.


　Pointing above her head, the girl looked in that direction as if she were tripped up, too.

　In the sunlight coming in - the night had long since dawned while she was crushing the maggots - the girl narrowed her eyes glaringly.

　Her face stiffened as she realized the distance between herself and the hole above her head.


'I'm going to get out of here now.'


　The girl, she rolls her eyes and looks at me.


'Boy, do you have a way out of here?'


　The girl, her eyebrows furrowed as if to say, "Don't be ridiculous.


'I'll carry you on my back to get out of here if you want, and if you don't want human help, then I'll leave you here. What are you going to do?


　Girl, averts her gaze as if confused.


''Yeah, by the way, I don't think the body's paralysis will go away for at least a day. Well, it's just my experience, so I don't know what will happen in the case of demons.


　Girl, the moment you hear the word demon, you glare at me in alarm.




　--You're quite a versatile girl, being able to talk to a human with just your expression.

　Well, I can understand why you are wary.

　I held out my hand. It's her decision whether or not to grab that hand.


I'm going to take a test climb up the wall. I'll come back down when I'm about halfway up, so you'll have time to decide on an answer for me.


　With that, I moved away from the girl and bent down lightly to attach myself to the wall.

　The wall is almost vertical, but there are countless protrusions that provide clues, footholds.

　The problem is that it's slightly angled in places. The problem was that in some places, the wall was slightly angled, and I would have to use both hands to climb it, almost like a pull-up.

　No matter how much strength you have in your body, you can't just stick to the wall at a negative angle like a bug.

　I began to climb the wall with a lot of energy.

　I'm not going to be the only one who can do this.





　--And an hour later, I had successfully escaped by piggybacking the girl.

　It was an escape that had nothing special to say. No, since there's nothing to talk about, it's not an escape play, but an escape line.

　The exit was atop a small cliff.

　The vast Titis Forest spread out below us, and a strong wind blew against our faces with a whirlwind.

　And as if the sound of the wind was lost in the sound of the wind, I heard a small voice thanking me.



''Ah, um... thank you, thank you...''

You're welcome.


　She casually responds to the vague voice that comes from behind her back.

　Incidentally, this is the first time the girl has spoken.

　I'm sure it's because of the fact that I've been climbing up and down the wall - she just nodded her head in amazement when I double-checked to see if I was carrying her on my back the other day.


"So, do you have somewhere to go?　If you know where the house is, I'll give you a ride there.

...it's


　You sound puzzled and hesitant.

　Well, I'm hesitant to tell you where the house is, even if it's the person who pulled me up from the bottom of the hole.


'You could point me to a mountain or a tree or a rock or something like that, though.

Then to your left, on the third largest camphor tree....

"I'm sorry. As far as I can see, they all look the same size?


　I can see roughly ten of them.

　The girl pondered what was going on, then used another expression to explain.


'Uh, Jiria Ooks, sir.

"I'm sorry. Jiria Oaks?　but I'm not sure which one.

I'll explain it to you when we get off the cliff, right?

Thank you for your time.


　I nodded my head in a daze, and the girl giggled at me.


'Why is the person who helped you apologize?

'I wonder why?　Well, be that as it may, I'm going to run down from here, so be careful not to bite your tongue.


　After a word of refusal, I hobbled down the cliffside with the girl on my back.

　Several times along the way, I thought I heard what sounded like screaming in my ear, but I didn't care.

　The screams began to sound like a child screaming for joy on the playground equipment, but we decided not to worry about it.





　After that, we arrived at the Jiriah Ookus, which is not a landmark, but a tree nut that apparently works to neutralize the toxicity.

　They are too sour to be edible, but their sourness is said to be effective against poisoning.

　In fact, the girl who ate the nuts with her mouth full of "x" did not immediately learn to walk - as expected - but within an hour her fingertips were able to move.

　It's a good thing that you're able to get your hands and feet free in another hour, and then recover to stand up on your own in another hour, it's just like magic.

　Jiriah Ookus is amazing. I thought so.



◆◆◆



　The girl, who had recovered, gave me directions to the city of Ishqa and we headed home.

　The girl told me that I should just go down the river and I'd be fine.

　In the end, I didn't even know the girl's name, let alone her house, but I was quite satisfied.

　It was the first time in a long time that I'd felt like I'd been able to help someone.

　For the past few months...well, years, I've been mostly gathering medicinal herbs. It's the first time in a long time that I've felt this kind of satisfaction.



　By the way, when I was waiting for the girl to recover, I wasn't attacked by demons or monster monsters.

　Speaking of the depths of the Titis Forest, this is a dangerous area where even experienced adventurers can lose their lives, but why is this?

　To be honest, I'm in the mood to try out the mind-dressing a bit more.................well, okay. But for now, let's focus on getting back to the city.

　As I increased the amount of juju that I had spread throughout my body, I put more force into my legs as I kicked the ground.