Ch 69 - Nice

Inside a forest full of large trees, Rintarou could be seen wielding a bow as flashes of blue light periodically appeared from time to time while trees rapidly fell down in rows.

"Phew, bow training finish" I muttered while I stored my bow inside my storage space and looked around the broken trees around me.

I then took out my sword that looks completely normal because it is, if you can't see the enchantments that is.

As I envisioned an enemy that I was fighting like something similar to shadow boxing, I swung my sword around while dodging the air which makes me look insane if they don't know how shadow fighting works.

While I rolled along the ground, I went to swing my sword towards the feet of this invisible enemy but he blocked my sword in response, and holy fuck, my imagination is so vivid I actually stopped my swing by hitting that imaginary sword.

"HA!" I shouted while exploding the air below my feet so I get launched up towards the air and swung my sword towards its head which he narrowly dodges.

And as he swung his sword towards me, I blocked the sword by rapidly changing my blade's direction and imagined sparks appearing from the point of impact while I fell to the ground in response.

As I landed on the ground on my back, I rapidly rolled away sideways and dodge a series of slashes towards the ground and as my imaginary enemy's sword got stuck on a tree, I swung a crescent beam towards his head as he finally died.

"Phew!" I said and stood up from the floor and watched my clothes rapidly cleaning itself and looked at the destroyed forest around me and pointed my hands towards the broken rows of trees.

"Regrow" I muttered and controlled the trees to reattach to their trunks and healed them at the point of destruction and in just a few seconds, all the decimated trees around me got fixed.

"Status," I said as a floating window appeared in front of me and looked at my progress.

[Race: Ice Dragon Bloodline]

[Class: Adventurer]

[Cheats: 3 No's Magic, Magic Tool Creation]

[Skills: Luck(S) Mana(A) Charisma(A) Stealth(A) Magical Mastery(A) Acting(B) Charm(B) Calm Mind(B) Sword Mastery(B) Agility(B) Endurance(B) Strength(B) Animal Handling(C) Beast Taming(C) Beast Riding(C) Cooking(C) Bow Mastery(C) Bartering(E)]

"Bow mastery finally C, my progress in skills is really slow if I'm not fighting anything, I'm already good at swords but my bow is getting a bit stagnant with the lack of an imaginary enemy. Hmm, I wonder if the search for me in the capital is already finished? I've been here for a few days already, so maybe I could go back in a few days later?" I muttered while rapidly running through the forest towards my house in the distance.

"Oooh, some potatoes have already grown, maybe I could make some mashed potatoes?" I muttered while I went on top of my farm and pluck out some potatoes and chop one up so I could grow multiple potatoes from one and poured some water on top of my tilled soil.

As I went inside my house, I went to put my potatoes inside a container where I could keep them fresh for a long time by using magic and grabbed some sweet potatoes that I could munch on.

"Yawn, I really feel like a monk right now, finding my inner peace has really been making my mind quite peaceful" I muttered and plop down on my soft bed while nomming on the sweet potato.

As I just lay down on my bed eating a boiled sweet potato, I looked towards the open window which is just a wall cut open so the cold fresh wind could enter my bedroom and wondered if there is something special inside this forest.

No kingdom is near this forest full of large trees, and I haven't encountered a monster yet, maybe it's because of my luck, but I'm pretty sure something cool is hidden inside this place.

"Welp, the heroes seem to have other pressing matters on their hands so maybe I should just explore this forest for now" I muttered and decided to just do it until night so with that, I put on my adventurer gear, and with that, I jumped out of my window while taking the last bite from my sweet potato and finally put on my mask.

As I traversed through the forest, I put some marks on some trees so I don't get lost.

But after a while of running around for a few solid minutes, I realized that it wasn't worth it so with a kick to the ground, I stopped my rapid sprint.

"Sigh, luck isn't really that reliable for some of these things, if I want potatoes I get them in a couple of minutes. But if I want some cool stuff I get nothing" with a regretful face, I turned back and rushed towards the beautiful cottage I made out of some all-natural wood.

As I slowly neared my house and already hear the sound of a river in the distance, I notice the appearance of footprints?

"What?" I muttered and crouch down on the ground and it was footprints, two different sets of footprints.

"Thieves!" I muttered and instantly activated my stealth and used invisibility and rushed towards my house in the distance.

As I neared my house preparing to either meet a human or thieves, I was greeted by the sight of…

The witch and Lute?

As I looked at them looking around my farm in curiosity, I enhanced my hearing to hear what they were talking about.

"Huh, how is there a house here in the forbidden forest? Didn't you say there is a dangerous monster inside the forest who used to rage upon the land years ago?" said Lute as he dare pluck an unripe potato from my garden!

"Mmm, this was a beast who grazed the continent a long time ago, a disaster if you will. The forest is uninhabited due to the subconscious pressure the beast brings upon those who go here. You can feel it right Lute? It makes you want to be not here, the place looks so dark and decrepit" said the witch as my face became full of confusion.

WHAT!? This place is called the forbidden forest!? I should feel uncomfortable being around here!? Heck! I've been living here for almost a week!

Wait, if there are no monsters, how are their fish! Conspiracy!? Or… fish are just so stupid they don't even notice the weird feeling people should presumably feel, probably that, I remember that a fish's memory gets wiped out every few seconds so maybe they don't even remember the pressure.

"Mmm" nodded Lute as he looked at my house in confusion.

"But how is someone living here? I could see that the crops were recently watered" said Lute as he looked at the wet ground.

"Well, why don't we ask the person himself," said the witch as a magic circle suddenly appeared that was pointing at me with a gigantic ball of fire appearing that shot towards me at a rapid pace.

As I looked at the ball of fire with a blank stare, I secretly sighed in my mind, and with a single snap, the ball of fire dissipated into nothingness as the witch looked at me in shock… because what I have done is a thing that is considered impossible.

"W- what?" said Lute by the side in surprise while he drew out a sword and I finally noticed that he looks drastically different from before, it seems like he underwent some training under the witch.

"Careful Lute, he was able to do something near impossible," said the witch as Lute nodded and raised his guard up.

"Hello there, I didn't expect two unexpected adventurers to appear at my humble abode," I said while my Acting started to come to life as this is one of the greatest skills I have which I honed for years in my life with my demeanor changing into one full of mystery.

"Sorry for the sudden attack, we have been feeling very strange since we entered the forest and it just puts us on edge," said the witch with an amicable smile.

"Well that's not a problem, it's not like I'll die in the first place, well what may I help you two with?" I asked while I walked towards them as Lute backed off.

"We're just wondering who you may be and why are you living inside the forest? We just stumbled towards this forest and it must be hard living here with how weird it feels" said the witch as I went to fix my farm which is still luckily intact with only a couple of crops broken.

"Oh, it's not that hard really, I could live by some fish and a couple of potatoes here and there, but what brings you two here? I rarely get any visitors, nor encounter anyone else at all" I said while replanting the crops that I can.

"Well we were looking for an ancient beast that raze the continents ago, we just think it's a fake legend to scare the children away so we thought it would be fun to go here," said the witch as I could feel that she was feeling fear because who could just casually dispel a very strong fireball like that with a snap.

"Oh, well you're looking straight at it," I said with a chuckle as I stood up from the ground and troll them a bit as they were taken aback.

"W- what!?" said Lute in shock from the side as the Witch looked at me with wide eyes.

"Did that scare you guys? I'm just joking, I'm just a person living inside the forest in peace, I don't know any monsters living here, in fact, I don't think monsters even live here, you guys can stay at my place if you guys want to, I'd want some company even if it's only for a while" I said while slowly entering my house as they looked at me with confused eyes, heh, amateurs, they now probably think I'm a mysterious guy living in this presumed forbidden forest.

"A- are you sure? We don't want to disturb someone like you" said the witch while Lute looked at me in surprise while holding his sword in a very amateurish manner compared to my mastery of the sword, but if he was to be compared to someone average, he should be above average with his technique.

"Oh no no no, it's fine, I could even cook you guys a treat I recently made, it's chopping some sweet potatoes into this rectangle things and frying them with some oil and adding some sugar, it tastes great," I said with a nonchalant tone as my face behind the mask subconsciously transformed into one that is calm.

"T- thank you mister…" asked the Witch.

"You may simply call me… K" I said towards them as that name could go two ways, either Kaleido or Kyouma, one of the personas I haven't used in a while.

"Thank you, mister K," said the witch as she looked at Lute with weird eye movements that seems to say something I can't understand but that doesn't matter, it seems like the Witch is convinced I could defeat her when in reality, she could probably defeat me if she just uses some traps or something like that.

But she can't break my enchantments though, I already protected them because if wise men learned from their past mistakes, sages learn from other people's mistakes, a wise quote if I dare say so myself.

AN: This is 1966 words, you're welcome.

Uh oh, what's this!? A Plot Point!? How will Rintarou's fate get entangled in the misadventures of the mysterious witch and the vengeful boy on the hunt against the nine reincarnates summoned to another world?

What is the beast of legends that has razed the continents? What is Rintarou truly planning from his point of view? Till next time, in the next chapter of me fucking your cute femboy brother inside the closet as I watch you read this from the small little slit in your walls.

The Sword of Damocles hangs above each and everyone one of you with its ever present threat of despair, so send me some power stones with your power of friendship and save the thousands perhaps even millions to come who will read this masterpiece immortalized in the tunnels of time.

(March 29, 2022 – 125th day of writing)