Published: August 25, 2025
Today, five chapters are posted simultaneously.
This story is the fourth chapter.
That magical beast was born from mana.
Since there was no parent individual or blood relation, it is more accurate to describe it not as a living creature but as a "phenomenon" or something that "occurred." It had no awareness of being born—it simply recognized that it was there when it became conscious.
Deep within the Tree Sea, the magical beast awoke in an abandoned mansion, with no particular purpose. From the start, it did not understand what it needed or what it should do. It did not even comprehend what it was.
On the other hand, it did understand some things. It knew the long history from the founding of the village to its downfall, swallowed by the Tree Sea. It did not possess a clear self-awareness even then; relying on faint and vague memories that occasionally came to mind, the awakened magical beast spent its time within the mansion.
Being born from mana, its body differed from ordinary living beings and did not require food or sleep. It could live perfectly fine without doing anything, and so it spent its time after awakening.
...It captured the souls of the villagers who wandered, unable to ascend to heaven, recreated false bodies and their former lives, and when a living thing occasionally wandered into the mansion, it welcomed them as new residents.
The magical beast noticed Ryoma’s presence shortly after Ryoma and his group arrived at the village. It became aware that the undead it had released into the village had become noisy but did not feel threatened. On the contrary, it was excited at the thought that there might be new residents.
“What is this? Will they come inside?”
The next morning, it spotted Glen running around and became even more excited that humans had come. It was rare for people to venture so deep into the Tree Sea. The only memories of humans entering were a few adventurers or outlaws who had recklessly gotten lost and could not return on their own. Now, with the undead roaming freely in large numbers, it was even less common for any living creature of the Tree Sea to stray in.
“When was the last time? What kind of people are they?”
When Ryoma and his group began gathering undead as preparation, the magical beast secretly watched from the mansion’s windows. It knew humans actively hunted undead, but it had never seen anyone draw such a large horde as the two did. From the perspective of the human common sense remembered, such behavior was extremely dangerous, but the magical beast understood that these two were powerful survivors.
This understanding turned into caution when the two drew near the mansion. It hurriedly closed the gate tightly, summoned as many residents as possible, and strengthened the defenses. However, they were almost entirely powerless against Ryoma and his companion. Even more perplexing was that it could not recover the souls.
“They’re not coming back.”
It wasn’t unusual for residents to be defeated. In the dangerous Tree Sea, encounters with magical beasts outside often caused casualties. But since souls could be reabsorbed and the temporary bodies regenerated endlessly, residents could continue living and hunting in the Tree Sea. In fact, the magical beast itself had set things up that way.
So why didn’t the souls return? The magical beast was confused and decided to open the door after some time. It planned to lure the two in and make them residents. By peeking into their memories and showing illusions, it hoped to learn why the residents’ souls weren’t returning.
“!?”
But here the magical beast encountered an unexpected problem. Ryoma’s memories were more difficult to read than those of any living creature that had wandered in before. The fragmented memories contained nothing but unfamiliar cities and human activities.
That alone was shocking to the magical beast, who only knew the past Korumi Village and the Tree Sea, but it was even more stunned by the request Ryoma received from the gods.