Chapter 10. The Old Man

A voice buzzing back in her head, Clara suddenly turned her head to find the origin of the sound. But again found nothing. Hearing strange voices around her made her confused again.

"Actually, what's with all this?"

"I don't even know why I was thrown into this girl's body," she complained

Various kinds of questions filled her head again, looking at the memory of the previous owner of the body, she never even knew what kind of place this world was. Trying to go back to sorting out the memories of the previous body owner, but nothing strange, it's just memories of her entire life in the Zu kingdom, only memories of her childhood life until calamity befell her. It was not much different from the life she had before she entered this body.

The only clue she found in the memories of the previous body girl was the forbidden forest. A very dangerous forest, no human has managed to get out of the forest, whether she is eaten by wild animals or something else. No one knows.

However, what it finds is completely different, inversely proportional to what is felt. She didn't even see an animal approaching her let alone bother her. Only the sound of birds chirping, rustling leaves in the wind and now a very beautiful river flowed in front of her.

"Dangerous only a place like this had existed in my previous life, it would be more suitable as a place to travel," she muttered to herself in amazement at the memory of the owner of this body.

Standing dazed, still unable to accept everything that was happening to her, the sound of footsteps breaking the dry leaves on the reflex ground made her alert, her violet pupil observing the surroundings. A few meters from where she was, someone walked towards her. Seeing that figure getting closer immediately made her get up looking for a large rock to hide.

Silently observing, it was a short old man with a gray robe clinging to his body.

'Looks like the old man is alone,' she thought trying to guess as she couldn't find anyone else around the old man.

"Why are there old creatures roaming in this forest?" she muttered still observing the figure who was standing right before she was.

***

His brows furrowed faintly, it was clear that he had sensed someone's presence here before, but now he didn't even find a single creature.

He was really curious about what happened last night.

The night when he had just entered the forbidden forest in search of some rare plants, the unexpected was witnessed by his own eyes, the light forming tendrils of life energy filled the entire forest, the light that came from all the plants and animals. The light was headed to a place that he also didn't know where.

Even though the energy expended was very small, if that weak energy was combined with all that was in the forest, it would become energy which even if it was absorbed by someone's body would make it explode.

Curiosity made him forget his main purpose of entering this forest, thinking that perhaps he might find a treasure. Decided to turn around looking for the source of the oddities that had occurred until the early morning.

When he was desperate for a search that could not find results, he faintly felt someone's presence.

And it is a human.

"Maybe there is hope," he thought.

Even though it was a human, but who knows if the human might know something about the strangeness last night. He didn't even bother to think about what humans were doing in this dangerous forest. And there he was, by the river where he felt the strong aroma of a human presence.

Suddenly his gaze was diverted by a footprint on the sandy ground not far from where he was standing, following where the footprints were, his gaze then ended on a large rock. the corners of his lips lifted, smiling meaningfully. Took his eyes off the boulder and choose to look at the blue sky that stretches wide.

His smile hung, his hands slowly raised to caress his long beard which had turned completely white.

"Hmmm, it looks like this little creature has no intention of showing itself. Well, let's see how long it will stay in its position," he thought, then chose the right stone for him to lean on.

***

While on the other hand, Clara, who saw the behavior of an old creature not far from her, made her eyebrows raised one side, confused.

All this time she had cursed herself for being completely reckless, a mistake that had never occurred in her lifetime.

Now because of her carelessness, she truly believed that the old man already knew of her existence.

Suddenly the things she never thought of happening before her eyes made him stunned. Immediately all the vigilance that had been done before suddenly became useless when she saw the old figure now sitting leaning against a rock, relaxing, enjoying the morning sun which was slowly becoming increasingly hot, as if she did not become a significant threat to creatures that old man.

"Strange old man."