Well, well, well… This place is better guarded than I would have imagined. Why the hell do people need a pass to go and get themselves killed in some lawless, feral land? Isn’t this beastfolk country? Why do people need authorisation to go into the wilderness and embrace their bestial side?
There was a rather tall wall standing in my way before I could cross the border separating Heldinot from the Northern Wildlands. Apparently, only people with a pass could get through, such as state-sanctioned explorers, and adventurers venturing to gather some resources before quickly returning to avoid the adverse effect of the feral region upon the mind.
According to what I had heard, beastfolks had it worse off than other species. They inherently had a portion of wildness within them, so they could succumb to the Northern Wildlands faster than most, hence the greater security.
Apparently, a person who fell to the effect would tend to want to return to where they had come from, so it was to prevent too many people from returning as nothing more than aggressive animals. It filtered people in and stopped those who fell from getting back in.
Walls were simple and effective like that, just plop a bunch of bricks in a field, and there you go, a perfectly functioning checkpoint.
Leou wouldn’t have minded dropping me off directly inside the Northern Wildlands. Trade flights weren’t allowed. Tamed beasts had a tendency to no longer follow orders inside this region, and she was still missing some winged creatures due to the Nightmare Plague–It was a good thing she didn’t know I was responsible for that. She might not be willing to let me touch her fluff anymore, otherwise.
In any case, I was currently at a nearby town, the main source of revenue here was the adventurers and explorers who needed a place to stay, and who sold some of their findings. The trade here was so juicy that there were even some rather luxurious residences belonging to merchants who did nothing but make business here specifically.
I wasn’t the most knowledgeable, but clearly, the resources available inside the Northern Wildlands were valuable, and the danger of going inside only pushed the prices upward. The rarer the item, the more ridiculous the price increase, to the point that certain things ended up being worth twice their actual physical value.
Since these materials weren’t readily available anywhere else, everyone had to cope with it. For me, it was a good thing as it meant that there was a lot of traffic, many adventurers wanted to try their luck discovering an especially precious item, and apparently, the adventurers familiar with the Northern Wildlands actually made quite a lot of money, and since anyone could feel the strain of the region upon their minds, few people actually turned feral.
Nonetheless, due to the risk, I would definitely be told to turn back if I tried to get through the border on my own. They only let teams through. As such, I had assumed my knightly form and was currently looking for what looked like adventurers who were somewhat of rookies to get in with them.
Xlown had stayed at the tower alongside Mari, but she had participated in creating a new look to the knightly form for this mission. Hence, I had forgone the usual stylish dress completely, and the ‘fabric’ portion of my transformation was instead a simple grey cloak covering a slightly altered suit of armour compared to the basic appearance of this form.
The chestplate had an eye carved upon its surface, and the helm was completely different, shaped like the head of a wolf, to imply that a wolffolk was hiding beneath it all. The black hair, usually cascading out from a gap in the back of the helm, had been made grey to add to the effect.
I just needed to find the ones whom I would latch onto and promptly ditch once I was on the other side.
Mmh… Surely, there are some easily impressionable young adventurers somewhere…
I could probably use some pre-recorded voice lines like I had done to get close to Hulil, but it was too risky in this scenario. I was too likely to engage with people who were going to run their mouths, so I was just going to stay mute, as the knightly form was intended to be.
…Do you feel what I feel, Nara?
I do, Big Sis. It seems like the Northern Wildlands are full of useful riches for you. The curses we are sensing the most certainly come from the Blood-Cursed Tree, but I can also sense some other things peeking through it… A bit hard to decipher what they are exactly, but there are definitely more points of interests
Oh? You can sense more than the curses? I myself can’t feel anything else at all, but I guess that is to be expected–Wait, I think I spotted a good candidate.
I noticed a young man with floppy rabbit ears and a small piece of bandage over his nose, looking around as though he was looking for something. He was asking around, but everyone was just shaking their heads at him, so I casually approached him by pretending to just be walking in his direction, and as I wanted, he spoke up to me.
“Excuse me, judging by your armour, you must be a knight, right? It is a bit embarrassing, but my team and I were thinking about venturing into the Northern Wildlands for the first time today, but we didn’t research things properly, and since we are all inexperienced with the region, we need one more person to be able to get through. Would you be willing to fill that empty spot?”
Ah, very well spoken, this young man… He was wielding a typical longsword and was rather upbeat.
I nodded affirmatively, and he instantly perked up.
“Great! What is your name? I’ll bring you to the rest of my team!”
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I pointed to the mouth of my helm and signed a cross with my arms.
“Oh, you can’t speak?”
I nodded again.
“I see. That’s not an issue!”
He remained enthusiastic and led me to the other members of his adventurer group, and something immediately stood out. The others were all women, a catfolk, a coyotefolk, a crowfolk, and a snakefolk. All of them were like the young rabbitfolk, very light on their bestial sides–Except for the snakefolk, she did have legs and all, but her entire body was covered in scales, and her head was shaped a bit weird, a cross between human and serpent.
She also had a very thick tail dangling behind her.
They all looked at me as the rabbitfolk introduced me.
“I found someone! Mist-”
I put my hands on my hips, causing my cloak to slightly open, which caused the bunny to stop for a second.
“-Miss Knight is mute, but she agreed to come along with us”
Oh, did he assume I was a man? I guess the cloak makes it harder to figure out with just a glance. The moment this happened, his fellows went from mildly curious, pouring so many negative emotions into my face that I legitimately struggled to tell what was what for several seconds until the young rabbit man waved his hands around in the air a bit and calmed down his lady friends.
I see what kind of ‘adventurer party’ this is. Mister is a little playboy, the shy, somewhat clueless kind, I would assume, judging by his rather innocent reaction just now. According to him, they must ‘not like knights’. Right. This guy is drowning in gold and has no idea.
Those girls literally locked onto me, but don’t seem to have any of that energy for each other! I hope my floppy-eared buddy has inherited some of his titular beast’s well-known talents. Otherwise, I would worry about his physical safety.
“Sorry again about this. I hope this won’t discourage you from joining our team, though! We really need someone else!”
The fucker didn’t know that his words only made them more upset, but I nodded my head. Why would I refuse such a buffet of negative emotions? It’s been a little while since I had the occasion to acquire too much.
The so-called Nightmare Plague had yielded incredibly large quantities thanks to ‘Remember Me?’ being capable of sending all surrounding negative emotions and energy directly to me, but since then? It was as dry as a desert.
Not that this short period of lull had in any way harmed my stocks, I was just greedy to accumulate more and more. My consumption of it would definitely only keep increasing as time went on, as I grew stronger, and as I acquired new abilities that had the potential to require them as fuel.
Thus, I stayed, and casually outstretched my hand to pet the bunny on the head, scratching his ears.
“I- Huh… Alright, then let’s go!”
He really isn’t messing around. I felt strong embarrassment come out of him just now… He really is just that clueless. It is almost endearing since he is a rabbitfolk.
I would have figured that you would be mad that such an idiot was allowed to live for so long
What can I say? He looks like a young commoner to me. I think he genuinely doesn’t comprehend that any woman who isn’t also a rabbit like him could be interested in him romantically. I remember Leou telling me that she didn’t know different kinds of beastfolks could get together until she was a teenager. I think that’s a cultural thing with Heldinot and beastfolks in general…
Also, his floppy ears are funny, and he is very polite. He may be lacking the cute factor due to not being a girl, but I say that he has enough good points to be allowed to stay alive. I was planning on slicing up whatever group I would end up joining, but I think I’ve found something funnier to do than crude violence.
I think you’re going to like it, Nara.
Mmh?
Let’s do some matchmaking.
Ooh… Are we matching him up with one of his teammates?
I knew you would be immediately interested… Why just one? They seem weirdly non-aggressive toward each other despite clearly disliking competition, you know what this means, right?
Ohoho, this is indeed funny! Many people will be extremely jealous of him by the end of it, don’t you think?
Those scraping the end of the barrel are always jealous of those more successful, Nara. This bunny seems to have some great charisma for attracting the ladies, I mean, they must be ridiculously in love with him to manage to accept the presence of each other, don’t you think? Usually, it does the opposite, but I guess they love him so much that it all looped around.
It’s a shame that I can’t summon my ghostly little darlings right now. I kept them inside the Mindscape due to too many mages being around for me to be comfortable, and in my knightly form, I couldn’t bring them out.
Regardless, I began farming their intense hatred by doing the simplest thing and just stepping close to the rabbitfolk as he walked toward a gate in the border wall. A guard looked at everyone present and then at the somewhat short bunny–I don’t think he was short for his kind, but he was short to basically everyone else.
“Make sure not to have too much fun in the Wildlands, it is a dangerous place”
“Fun? We are adventuring, Sir! There is too much danger to goof around!”
“In any case, you can get through, Kid. Come back in one piece”
The guard looked back down at a piece of paper. The thing seemed to be enchanted as it drew a picture of everyone in the team by itself after we were handed a pass. A way to track who went in and out, I would suppose.
He only lifted his head to lift his helm at me.
“Ma’am”
I acknowledged him, but I felt a tinge of disappointment coming from him. In what world does he live, where he thinks a guard who does nothing but hand out passes can just be successful with a knightess on the first try? Some of these people are really superbly optimistic. They must be happy all the time with such an outlook on life.
Anyway… Nara, how do you suppose we can set these guys up together–Hold on a minute…
We crossed the border, and the adventurers showed a reaction as they presumably felt the influence of the Northern Wildlands, but me? I felt something, but it definitely wasn’t the usual stuff.
How in damnation didn’t I realise this until I stepped inside? The freaking influence on the mind is due to a mixture of countless negative emotions and an absolutely giant mass of negative energy.
…I think I love this place.