It was a strange sight.
About six golems were walking in front of me, knocking down trees, tying them up with ropes, and bringing them down from the mountain. I can feel their magic power, although it is weak. However, I can feel something else too.
I quietly peek out from behind the trees to watch, and when the biggest of the golems finishes its work, it walks into the depths of the bushes with a rustle and comes back with what looks like colorful fruit in the palm of its hand.
Then he placed a banana leaf in front of the tree where I was hiding and laid it on the ground.
“Are you offering this? To me?”
As I stayed still while hiding, I felt a sign of a person…
“What’s wrong? What are you doing?”
“What…what’s going on?”
“The golem, the fruit…”
“Fruit?”
Six men have come and are asking here.
“Did the golem put the fruit there of its own volition?”
“Yeah.”
“Is anyone there?”
No, no, no, don’t come.
I was about to drop backwards in a hurry, when I tripped over a tree root and nearly fell backwards as it was. Suddenly, Golem-kun moved with unexpected swiftness and scooped me up. Hey, hey, thank you……not!!
The men who were looking at us with stunned expressions suddenly fell to their knees and prostrated flat…Eh?
““““““It’s Princess Mori!”””””” (***T/N: ‘Mori’ also means forest, so ‘Princess Mori’ can also mean Princess of the Forest/Forest Princess)
That’s not true!
In the exchange that followed, I heard what they were saying, but they couldn’t understand my words.
Somehow, the golden choker I had was translating what they were saying to me.
At any rate, Golem-kun came over with me on one arm and pulled some fruit over to me. I picked it up.
It was fairly large with yellow lumpy skin, thick like a pumpkin, and had an interesting shape with pointed ends. I looked inside and see many cubes of sticky white fruits within as Golem-kun broke off the top part with his finger.
I unraveled one of the cubes with my finger, took it off, and put it in my mouth, where the sweet and sour flesh moistened my dry mouth. The fruit itself was small because of the large seeds, but it had a fresh, sweet, lychee like in texture, and was extremely delicious.
Ah, this is like a cocoa fruit. It’s the first time I’ve ever eaten something in a pod.
The white pulp that surrounded the fruit is the pulp, but I believe the seeds were actually used to make chocolate, which is very valuable. I was told that the seeds had to be dried through a special fermentation procedure while the pulp was still intact in order to make a more aromatic and delicious chocolate.
I went on and ate some of them, not behaving elegantly, but instead dropping the seeds into the ground below me in a pile.
I don’t think the people who live here have any knowledge of chocolate or anything like that.
Then strangely, the seeds that I dropped on the ground sprouted immediately.
“““It’s the Princess of the Forest (Princess Mori)! I knew it!!”””
It’s not!!
The soil here seems to have a property that blends well with the magic power of the Western Country.
The six people here also have a little bit of magical power and seem to specialize only in earth magic.
Maybe not all of the land is like that, and it’s only limited to a few places…
Besides, only this Golem-kun who gave me the fruit earlier, has a nucleus inside his body. And he surely has a will.
It’s strange. I don’t know what the closest way to describe it is, but maybe it’s like having a piece of a spirit inside a body of earth.
The people here all have black hair and dark brown eyes, and their skin color is a bit olive-toned. While it’s not that there are no asian-looking people in Elementia, there are very few of them.
And what they wear is also a type of front-fitting kimono. In Elementia, it’s called a Samue.
As I found out when we went down to the village together, Princess Mori was not just a folk legend, but it was a god worshiped by this tribe who protected and raised plants with green eyes and white clothes…
I was curious, so I sent an image of making a small golem by kneading magic power into the soil. Then I was able to make a miniature golem the size of a hand towel. It’s amazing.
Then suddenly, a small firefly-like light came and was drawn into the mini Golem.
The mini golem, dubbed Mini, suddenly got up and bowed, and after that, it never left my side, just like a little servant.
As I roamed freely in the village, I heard an argument from outside the village. Mini and I stealthily approached, and when I peered through the shadows of the buildings, I saw men with soldier-like weapons poking and prodding at the villagers.
“Listen to me, you mud puppet master! My lord is ready to go to war! You can use mud puppets, so I’ll take ten of you as spearheads!”
“If you do that, the village will collapse! It’s impossible!”
“Shut up! I’ll kill the hostages if you don’t do what I say!”
“That’s cowardly!”
“Shut up! I will not allow you to challenge me, you mudslinger! I expect 10 men to report for duty the day after tomorrow!”
They beat the villagers with the sticks they were holding and the soldiers left. What a terrible thing to do. My clenched hands trembled with anger.
But if I used my magic to get back at them here, there would be a big mess. I must be patient.
With this small tribe of people, 10 hard-working golem handlers is impossible.
Perhaps, there are only a limited number of people who can make golems, and while doing forestry work with the golems, they are able to be self-sufficient for the rest of the tribe. In any case, it is the same as saying that they should die. How arrogant. Moreover, they even resorted to taking hostages. Ah, I see…they’re taking hostages because they’re afraid of the golems.
But you know, even if I save the hostages, if the lord comes to me with an army, I won’t be able to escape unscathed even if I fight back with my golem, so where would I live? Unless I am prepared to go along to an unknown land with this whole tribe, it’s impossible.
For now, I must at least take some of the pain away.
Mini and I went to the fallen villagers and healed the men’s wounds and pain. This will hopefully make them feel a little better.
I held my hand over the injured villager’s affected area and took away the pain.
Everyone’s passionate gazes…they seemed to say, “I knew she was Princess of the Forest” which was very difficult to deal with…
With this, I was worshipped more and more by the villagers, and now I had been taken to a building for noblemen on stilts. The room was piled high with fruits, dried meat and fermented wine, where they praised me again and again…
“Mini-kun, what should I do about this?”
Then Mini-kun turned his whole body at an angle as if thinking about what to do. Kya! So cute~
As I was doing this, two beautiful golden snakes came sliding across the floor from who-knows-where. They had the presence of someone I knew very well. I wasn’t afraid.
When they came to my knees, they tilted their heads to look at me. Then one of them wrapped around my wrist as it ran through my clothes and turned into a beautiful gold bracelet of perfect size. When looking closely, I saw a series of ancient letters with no gaps between them.
“…Zak.”
There’s no doubt about it, these were Zak’s bangles. I pressed it to my cheek and closed my eyes.
The other one sloshed over to the wall and disappeared, just as it had come and gone, melting into the air.
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T/N: Haha, barely a day and she’s already being worshipped. I guess Fii will be getting some help sooner than I thought!
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