I Became the Keeper of a Suspicious Forest - Chapter 4

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 4

Before dawn broke, in the darkness that enveloped the Harbel Family estate, there was only one room with lights on.

It was the office of Kustin, the Harbel Family’s butler.

Kustin’s day began with sorting through letters received from the mail carrier.

Letters arriving at the manor usually fell into two categories.

Debt collection notices and business investment proposals.

Collection notices went conspicuously to the viscount’s office, while suspicious business proposals went to the incinerator.

Kustin, who had been carelessly flipping through envelopes, stopped at one particular letter.

For a letter sent to a noble family, it was terribly worn and made of cheap material you’d find sold at the market.

What was unusual was that the recipient wasn’t Viscount Harbel or his wife, but Kustin himself. At the bottom of the envelope was just one name.

Nia

It was the name the young lady used when hiding her identity. The handwriting was unmistakable too.

This was contact after four days since she left the manor.

To Kustin

Hello, Kustin. Nothing unusual happened, right? Are my parents well? Did Albio mature a bit? Of course he didn’t.

Oh right, you hate beating around the bush. I’ll get straight to the point.

I’m going to be away for a while. About six months?

I got a job. They’ll pay 20,000 gold for just six months of forest keeping in a forest outside our territory.

As soon as Kustin saw the words “forest keeper” and “20,000 gold,” his brow furrowed.

Recently, there was only one flyer seeking forest keepers with such enormous compensation.

You’re frowning right now, aren’t you? I also knew what kind of work it was and tried not to do it. But the amount is too big.

By the way, don’t worry because it’s not a scam. I guarantee it.

I also have means to stay safe.

End of main point!

Please take care of the manor.

You’re our family’s hope, Kustin!

I’ll earn lots of money and raise your salary!

See you in six months.

PS. I received an advance payment too, so I’m sending it along.

Stop Father from making strange business investments, monitor Mother so she can’t go shopping, and just lock up Albio. It’d be even better if you hit him. He needs to get beaten up a bit, doesn’t he?

Oh, and if you’re planning to stop me, it’s already too late. By the time you read this, I’ll have already arrived!

Nia.

The postscript seemed closer to the main point than the actual message.

“Hah…”

He shouldn’t have read the letter. Because of the reckless young lady, the things he had to handle doubled.

As he pressed his head due to a stress headache, the door burst open.

“Kustin! Please raise my dignity maintenance allowance!”

“Kustin, the dragon egg Gordon gave me just moved, come and see!”

Looking at the viscountess complaining without even knowing where her daughter had gone, and the viscount excitedly holding an egg with red paint on his hands, he openly sighed.

It must be his imagination that he felt like the heaviest burden had been dumped on him.

* * *

‘I wonder if Kustin has read the letter by now?’

Having left her biggest worry to Kustin, her heart felt much lighter.

As written in the letter, Ponia had already left the territory and was inside Mirban Forest.

Right in front of her, she could see the back of the man assigned to guide her to the lodging.

“Um, Jerome? When will we be able to see the cabin?”

“We’re almost there now.”

That’s the third time you’ve said that.

The man who introduced himself as Jerome hadn’t initiated conversation unless necessary during the entire three-day carriage journey.

Still, finding this atmosphere that had been quiet for three straight days awkward, Ponia spoke up.

“I heard that once you enter the forest, no one has ever returned, but seeing Jerome, I guess it was just a false rumor after all.”

“I’m only assigned to guide people to the lodging. I don’t know much about other areas. I have no intention of going there either.”

“…Still, I’m looking forward to spending time enjoying the forest’s beautiful scenery?”

“Other people said the same thing. They’re all gone now though.”

Great, the stiff atmosphere just became uncontrollably heavy.

After walking for about 30 minutes with reduced conversation, Jerome opened his mouth.

“You should be able to see the cabin soon. If you look over there…”

His words didn’t continue.

However, Ponia, whose feet were starting to hurt, didn’t notice anything strange and brightened up. She craned her neck to see the cabin hidden behind his height.

“Oh, we’ve arrived…”

And then she experienced the same symptoms as Jerome.

A heavy silence incomparable to before settled between them. The clear chirping of birds felt particularly noisy.

Once again, it was Ponia who broke the silence.

“Where exactly is this cabin supposed to be?”

The cabin where she would stay for the next 6 months revealed itself.

“All I can see in front of me is a ruined house.”

With its roof collapsed.

* * *

Should I just quietly go back?

Looking at the collapsed roof and the moss covering the cabin, it seemed like it hadn’t been maintained for about ten years. The logs visible here and there through the moss also looked old.

As if sensing Ponia’s coldly dampened spirits, Jerome explained with a rarely flustered expression.

“Lightning must have struck last night.”

“…I suppose that happens often?”

“Absolutely not. This is the first time I’ve experienced such a thing.”

I don’t find that very believable.

“Is this the only place to stay?”

“…Yes. I’ll call someone to repair it. Let’s go back for now.”

“How long would the repairs take?”

“We’ll have to see, but I think it would take about two months. It looks like we’ll need to work on the whole structure, not just the roof.”

One month.

After thinking deeply about something, Ponia soon came to a decision.

“Let’s just start staying here from today.”

“…Excuse me?”

“But this counts toward the 6-month period, right?”

The grace period remaining until bankruptcy was only 6 months. There was no time to wait for the cabin to be repaired.

Whether it rained or lightning struck the cabin again, Ponia had to stay in that cabin for half a year.

‘I can’t let the family disappear just for my own comfort, can I?’

“…”

“Jerome?”

His expression is exactly the same as the employment office staff?

“…I’ll get a technician as quickly as possible.”

Jerome, who quickly composed his expression, handed over the two large bags he had been carrying.

“These are basic supplies. One side has long-term storable food and emergency first aid medicines, the other has clothes that are easy to move around in.”

Jerome, who had rattled off information like a machine gun, pulled out parchment from his chest.

“Now, I’ll explain what you need to do here for the next 6 months.”

When he spread the parchment on a flat rock, it became a large rough map. Ponia’s eyes began to sparkle.

‘Found it, my means of survival!’

“The triangles marked here represent the cabin, and the circles represent safe zones. You can consider the right side from the cabin as east.”

“What about these X marks?”

“Those are habitats of wild animals identified so far. You can think of them as danger zones.”

“…Wild animals…”

Jerome’s words sounded plausible, but Ponia, who already knew the true nature of this forest, knew he was lying.

Caw! Caw!

Because there are no wild animals in this forest.

In the novel, Mirban Forest was famous by another name.

The Forest of Monsters.

Mirban Forest was a habitat for monsters.

All monsters within the empire are safely managed or subjugated by the Imperial Court.

Contrary to what was publicly announced, the Imperial Court couldn’t subjugate only the monsters of Mirban Forest. This was because there were so many and such a variety of them.

Eventually, they had to block access to the forest and station people to monitor the monsters’ movements.

Since they couldn’t station important Imperial Court personnel in a dangerous forest, the recruitment targets were ignorant citizens whose deaths would cause no trouble.

But no problem. She has this map after all.

Ponia examined the map carefully. Various markings were left scattered throughout.

In the novel, Sionel used these markings to understand the monsters’ behavioral patterns and strategize against them. However, Ponia plans to use this a bit differently.

‘I’ll just go exactly opposite to wherever there’s an X mark.’

The goal is survival. I just need to observe the monsters’ movements from safe areas and report back, right?

‘But something seems a bit strange…?’

“Are these all the markings drawn on the map? They look pretty sparse.”

“That’s exactly what you need to do.”

“Hm?”

“This forest map isn’t completely finished yet, and our goal is to complete the forest map.”

She felt something was going wrong, but Jerome’s explanation came faster than her realization.

“You need to patrol areas excluding the marked spots on the map and leave your own markings.”

“…Excluding them?”

“Yes.”

“…”

“If you have no more questions, let’s head to the cabin…”

“No, wait! Wait a moment!”

“Yes.”

Jerome had been replacing the word monsters with wild animals. So in other words.

“So what I need to do isn’t observing the movements of already identified wild animals…”

“Yes, it’s finding the habitats of wild animals that haven’t been identified yet.”

The scattered puzzle pieces fit together on their own.

The sparse markings on the large map, the people who never returned, Sionel who subjugated monsters based on the densely marked map.

Sionel owning the forest and conducting subjugations are all futures that happen after he becomes a duke.

Ponia realized she had been completely mistaken.

So this map that would be perfectly completed in the future is right now.

‘Incomplete…’

In other words, what the Imperial Court needed wasn’t a scarecrow forest keeper, but a sacrifice for the monsters.

Just to put it simply.

“I’m screwed.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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