ACIEL'S DIARY : INDIGO
CHAPTER 2.13: THE SAVIOR OF THE FOREST

Tik— Tik— Tik—

The sound of water droplets reached my ears, bringing my consciousness back. I lifted my body which strangely felt quite heavy, opened my eyes which strangely looked blurry, and touched my body which was strangely wrapped in leaves.

What the hell's going on? Ah, true.

I was attacked by something before entering the cave on the cliff, it looks like my chest got a medal for it.

Was that deer spirit attacking me? First, I need to listen to his explanation.

I got up from the straw bed, looking around. I was in a closed room with a few holes built on a neat black stone arrangement. The smell of fruits tickled my nose, with some screaming sounds on the outside.

"Where's this? And where is everything? It's a little cruel because not a single Spirit is waiting for me to come to my senses and leave me. I'll teach them a few things about the importance of morals."

With my upper body only wrapped in leaves, I walked out of the stone room and into the hallway. It looks like a cave, but it doesn't feel damp.

Is this the residence of Rune and the others? They built something nice as a place to live.

A light appeared on several meters ahead, I immediately passed through it and most of the light was blinding my eyes.

"Drink!! Drink up!! It's party time!!!"

"Don't leave a liter of drink!! Spend all the fruit!!"

"I also have plenty of roots and pickles for a snack!! Come here!! There is too much to spend here!!!"

"Woooo!!! Enjoy everything!!!"

And when I opened my eyes next, what appeared there was a plains of green grass that was quite vast, filled with many Spirits feasting along with wine and fruits. The sound of screaming filled my ears but it soon disappeared.

"Hm? What's?"

All those Spirits were looking at me, silent on the spot.

I also saw the Master a few meters ahead, who was asleep with a jug bearing the words 'Heavenly Arak' beside him, the little black cat actually looked comfortable there.

First, I have to get to him.

But—

"Well, isn't that Mr Aciel? When did you regain consciousness?"

I heard a voice from the other side and turned towards him. A raccoon with a sizeable body look like an old man was there, he was also surrounded by Arak jugs.

"Rune. I just realized a moment ago ... Can you explain the situation here to me? I really can't understand what's going on here."

Rune rubbed her beard, then looked towards Master with her raccoon face. Then he turned back to me.

"Of course I will explain the situation to you but first of all—"

Rune raised her hand and pointed towards me, I can't understand the meaning.

"Eh? What's?"

"Everything!! The one there is the savior who sacrificed himself to restore our beloved forest!! Aren't there some things you guys should do?! Lift her!! Don't let him go before eating a single fruit!!"

"uh? A savior? Lift it? What does .... ?!!" mean .... ?!!"

Before I could process it all, the pool of Spirits in front of me instantly ran towards me simultaneously and lifted my body, throwing it upwards many times.

"Oh!! So this is Mr. Aciel!!"

"Thank you for setting our forest free!!"

"I thought you would never wake up again, bwahahaha!!!"

"Hey bastard, what did you just say?!! Are you insulting our forest savior?!!"

After that, because Rune who did not want to explain anything to me before I ate the best fruits he had provided, I decided to eat them all first.

All of the fruits he took tasted very tasty and juicy, it was obvious that all of these fruits were high grade which would definitely sell quite expensively in the market. Does this forest indeed hold a lot of fruit with this high quality?

Well, let.

I decided not to think too much about it and ate it all up. They also offered me Arak but since I was underage, I decided to reject it with a heavy heart.

Fortunately, they all understood that.

____________________________________

The clear blue sky, giving the warm light of the sun, perfected the festive atmosphere of the spirits who danced happily, talking about many things among themselves.

I who had already finished business with those fruits, brought the Runes and Masters to one lonely side. We sat around, looking at each other.

"Alright, Rune. Can you start the explanation right away? First, how long have I been unconscious? The sky looks bright and quite different at the moment, have I been sleeping for a few days?"

Rune nodded slowly, answering my estimate.

"To be precise, you've been asleep for two whole days. Healing from the wounds you got before must have taken a little long, it's natural."

I had already prepared myself for it but the word that said two days still shocked me, my heart rate increased.

"Two days, huh? Then, haven't I not been home that long? What happened to the family that supported me?"

"Oh, if that's the case you can calm down. Wasa represents himself to replace in order to make amends for letting you hurt before. Right now he's disguised as you by his physical form, so there's no particular problem."

"Oh that? So he can do that too, huh? I-i understand. Well, I don't have to worry about anything if Wasa replaces me. Next, explain the situation about that fuzzy Spirit."

"Good."

The rune explained everything that happened, right after I didn't hit myself because of the hole that went through the left chest, caused by the attack of that goddamn reindeer spirit.

Right after I got the attack, Master came and exterminated that Spirit quite easily. It seemed that the Spirit itself did belong to the Intermediate Level.

For Wasa, she immediately treated the wound on my chest by looking for a Warming Leaf, it was a leaf commonly used by Spirits to refresh the human flesh that they were about to eat.

But at the same time, the leaves also have a healing effect if paired on the body of a living human.

Whether I should feel happy or scared because of this leaf that wrapped around my body, my feelings are quite complicated about that.

But because of this wound, it seems like I am beginning to be considered a savior to the Spirits inhabiting this forest. They think that I've tried my best to get rid of that reindeer spirit.

Despite what actually happened, I was completely useless and lost my self-awareness due to one attack. But since it's already happened, I can't do anything about it.

And because of my slightly elevated reputation in the eyes of the Spirits inhabiting this forest, there were quite a number of new Spirits that began to ask to join Frouya's society.

Related to that, Rune gave a tanned wooden paper with a lot of script writing that I could not read on the front and back.

"This is a list of the names of every Spirit who intends to join your company. In total there are twenty-one Spirits, I hope you will meet them after this."

So this is a list of the names of the Spirits, huh?

"I understand, I'll do it later."

I rolled up the paper and put it in my pants pocket.

I also checked the leaves that were wrapping around my body as well, there was no pain in the slightest. Maybe the wound on my chest has healed? It was indeed a little unbelievable, if using normal treatment.

All right, because the situation is under control. It is time to make a decision about what to do next.

First of all I will give this success news to Uncle Gen, it is not good to make him wait too long.