In a slightly open area in a corner of the Spirit Forest, I sat down on the roots of a large tree and opened the lunchbox that Zeke-san gave me.

''Oh........''

　Inside was a simple sandwich and some light side dishes, and while it looked delicious, what a cute, feminine bento it was.
　As expected of Zeke, or should I say Zeke, the crusts of the bread are neatly removed, and the sandwiches are arranged in a size that seems just right for eating.
　The filling is........what is it?　I can vaguely recognize the eggs and lettuce-like vegetables, but there are also some sandwiches with some meat in between, perhaps taking into account that I'm a man who doesn't eat well.

　It looks bird-like, but this...what kind of meat is that?　
　No, even if it was some kind of huge worm or snake meat, I would have a hard time with it, as I grew up on Earth, but to the people of this world, it might be a very common ingredient.
　Yes, it's already cooked, and I don't know what kind of meat it is, so let's not think about it... And since I have a bad feeling about it, let's not even ask about the ingredients.

　I switched my mind, which seemed to be leaning in a strange direction, and took one of the sandwiches in my hand and brought it to my mouth.

'.........delicious.'

　That sandwich was "delicious!" the moment I ate it. It wasn't the kind of strong flavor that would make you scream "Oh my god!", but every time I chewed, the carefully cooked meat would melt and become soft and tender, filling my mouth with a gentle flavor.
　It's not a dish from a fancy restaurant, but a taste of home, which is just the way I like it.

　And then I tried the other side dishes.
　Perhaps because they are eaten with bare hands, all of the side dishes were made into bite-sized pieces and then stuck on wooden skewers, so they could be easily eaten with one hand.
　While feeling my heart warmed by Zeke's typical meticulous attention to detail, I was moving my gaze to see which side dish to eat first when I noticed something.

''Mini hamburgers........''

　It seems that a dish called hamburger has been handed down in this world as well, and when I see a skewer with a bite-sized hamburger sticking out of it, I can feel myself getting excited.
　No, what can I say, I'm slightly embarrassed to sound like a child, but.......I'm not exaggerating when I say that hamburgers are my favorite dish and my favorite food.
　As I recall, Zeke asked me once before what my favorite food was, and I remember telling him about hamburgers, but it seems he remembered me.

　As it is, I reach for a mini hamburger skewer and bring it to my mouth, a simple one with no sauce or anything else on it.
　For me, a simple salt-and-pepper seasoned hamburger is supreme, and I don't remember eating many restaurant hamburgers with demi-glace sauce on them.
　That's why I can say that the hamburgers made by Zeke-san are my favorite.

''........''

　Delicious ... really, really delicious.
　The soft crunchy texture, the juices seeping into my mouth, and the simple seasoning of salt and pepper accentuated the flavor of the meat, and the flavor was so delicious it was like it was sinking into my body.
　Ah, this is it.......this is what I like best.

　It's a good thing that you're able to get a good idea of what you're looking for.


--You'll be able to find out what's going on.　Isn't your mother's hamburger delicious!

-- or rather, my mom's cooking. Except for the hamburger, it's not very good.

--I'm not very good at cooking.

--You know, my dad said the other day, 'Mom, you're the perfect woman for everything else, but...'

--Hey, you!　And then he got away!　Hey, wait!


　Mom, you were a terrible cook... You were so careless that you burned yourself easily, and you used the knife improperly, so I remember being nervous as a child.
　I couldn't make elaborate dishes at all. I often made mistakes in seasoning and measurements.
　

　I was feeling a little pensive as I remembered the old days.......and before I knew it, there was a genie in front of me, staring at my lunchbox with interest.

''........Do you want to eat it?''
....!

　When I asked him, thinking that he wanted to eat his lunch from the looks of it, the spirits.......no, the spirits shook their heads vigorously.
　Umm, hmmm. What should we do?　Even if each one of them is small, when there are so many of them, it's impossible to give them all away.
　But it's a pity to give them away to some of the children, because it's a pity for the others.

'....Oh, that's right. There are plenty of cookies, but can't we use these?
!

　When I took out a large quantity of jam cookies from the magic box and showed them to them, the spirits looked at them with interest and looked at me expectantly all at once.

Then let's eat them all together. We'll hand them out in turn, so line up properly.
!

　It seems that they could be jam cookies, and the spirits follow my words and line up neatly in a row.
　For me, it's a bite size cookie, but for the spirits, this jam cookie is as big as their faces, and it seems hard to eat one whole one, so I break it in half and give it to them one by one.

　It takes a while to finish handing out the cookies when there are more than 100 of them, but they all make it through, and the spirits eat the cookies little by little as I eat my lunch, waving their faces in the air with happiness.
　I've heard it said that little things are cute, and the spirits eating jam cookies is a very cute and comforting sight.

　Thanks to the spirits, my mood is lifted, and I am able to eat my lunch with many of them.
　The light shining through the trees illuminated our surroundings in a magical way, and I felt as if I had wandered into a fairy tale.



















　We finished our lunch, and just as we were about to resume the harvest, the spirits suddenly changed their behavior.
　They begin to fly around in a restless manner.
　At first, I was worried that the jam cookies I gave you were causing some physical problems, but the sensorium magic conveys not pain, but a mixture of joy and surprise.

What the hell is going on here?
!
'What?　You want me to follow you?
!
Okay, all right.

　I wasn't sure of the situation, but the spirits seemed to be trying to lead me somewhere by pulling my hand and beckoning me to join them, and even though I was confused by the sudden change in their appearance, I followed them accordingly.
　Unlike the time when he led me to a place where there were a lot of berries, he seems to be in some kind of hurry... yes, if I had to say so, it's like he's 'not going to be able to make it' to something.

　I've been following the spirits, they seem to be advancing deeper into the forest, and the wide, easy-to-walk path they were on just now becomes more and more like a rough beast path.
　But the path I'm walking on is not so much that I can't advance because the spirits are clearing the weeds ahead of me.
　However, I feel like I'm being led to an unexplored region, and I'm a little anxious about where it's going to take me.
　Well, if there are this many spirits, it's probably safe to a certain extent, but.......really, where in the world are we going?


















　It's probably about 10 minutes or so, and as I follow the spirits on the beast path, the scene in my eyes changes dramatically.
　The fact that it's a forest hasn't changed, but I can see a tremendous number of spirits ahead of me.
　It's a ridiculous number compared to the number that was following me just a few minutes ago, there are clearly more than a thousand spirits gathered here.
　While tilting my head at this strange scene, I recommended my feet further, and then.......there was a tree.

I'm relieved.''

　I can hear a voice that sounds like it's echoing but I can't see a person.
　I mean, if my ears aren't out of whack I just heard a tree in front of me that sounded like it was talking?

Oh?

　

What?

　The tree moved as if it were looking back, and a voice involuntarily leaked out at the sight that met my eyes.
　 Rather than being buried........it appears as if her hands and lower body are fused with a tree.

　By the way, the reason why the entity fusing with the tree is a woman is because it is so bountiful and bulging that you can clearly see it even on top of the loose, ethnic dress style clothing.
　It's not that I'm not a fan of this, but if you're a man, please forgive me for not being able to look at that vicious bulge.

　Anyway, that woman was, how should I say it, an existence with an incredibly mysterious atmosphere.
　Her eyes were a beautiful emerald green like jewels, and her long fresh green hair shining in the sunshine......................eh?　No, that thing, if you look closely, it's not hair. It's a leaf!　The small leaves are strung together in layers to form a long hair-like shape.
　A body united with a tree, and hair of leaves. It looks a lot like a monster called 'Doriade' from an RPG I used to play.
　........at least it doesn't seem to be a human being.

''........''

　The woman stares at me quietly with eyes like jewels.
　Perhaps it's because the woman's face is fused to the tree, but she is quite high up in the air, and I can't help but feel uncomfortable with the composition of the scene, as if she is looking down on me.

　Who is this woman?　If you're in the Forest of the Spirits, does that mean you're a genie?　No, but something is clearly different from the spirits I've seen so far, yes, something like rank.
　If I had to put it into words, would it be a sense of presence?　The tremendous atmosphere, as if a tree so large it pierces the heavens exists in front of me, leaves me speechless.

　The woman continued to stare at me for a while, and then spoke to me in a calm voice.

''.........Are you, Miyama Kaito-san, perhaps?''
What?

　What a strange thing to say about that voice as well, the woman's mouth wasn't moving and it sounded as if the sound was coming from her whole body, not from her mouth.
　But what was even more shocking was the fact that she said my name when we were supposed to have never met before... who was she really?

Well I'm certainly Miyama Kaito, but what about you?
"I beg your pardon. I'm terribly sorry for something I did without coming forward.

　Hearing the question that spilled out of her mouth, the woman bows her head once lightly and then smiles gently.

''My name is Liliwood........'Liliwood Yggdrasil'. In the demon world, I'm the one known as the 'World King'.
...What?

　My thoughts completely stopped this time as I heard the words that were calmly announced to me.

　Dear Mother, Father - in the depths of the Spirit Forest, where the spirits had taken me to reach - I encountered the World King.