The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 63

Chapter 63: Encounter! The First Villager! Slight Cannibalism

Alone in an unknown world.

No food, no sense of geography, and to make matters worse, I couldn’t even remember my own name or anything at all—it was the worst possible situation.

However, I was surprisingly taking it easy, thinking maybe things would somehow work out.

This wasn’t due to a dull sense of optimism but rather a calmness akin to a rule of thumb based on a strange sense of déjà vu.

“As long as I can manage food, I won’t have trouble living, so it’s not a big deal…” was the kind of composure I had.

…Normally, I would think this is one of the biggest crises one could face in life, so I started to become curious about what I had experienced before I lost my memory.

Still, the fact that I could be so composed because I had seen worse hells before was terrifying in its own right.

Anyway, thanks to this strange sense of déjà vu, I was able to maintain a surprising amount of composure.

But anyway, I’m starving.

If I don’t get something in my stomach soon, I feel like I won’t be able to move.

“I want to eat meat.”

Ah, that’s right. I want to eat meat. What kind of meat, you ask?

Meat is meat. I’m not too picky. In the worst case, I wouldn’t mind if it’s human meat.

…Huh?

Something feels off.

Is it really okay to eat people?

I’ve lost my memories due to amnesia, but I shouldn’t have lost common sense or education…

Have I become so confused that I can’t even tell what’s right and what’s wrong?

While driven by an oddly greasy craving for meat, I walked and then, across a beast trail through the bushes on the other side, a large animal appeared.

There was no sound or smell.

The sudden encounter left us both frozen for a while, but for me, starving with hunger, it was as good as a feast.

I don’t know the name of the animal, but it’s got a good amount of meat on it.

A stout and plump body with thick limbs to support it.

The fur is glossy black and beautiful, and while it walks on all fours, it stands about as tall as my chest.

Judging by its reverse-jointed legs, its running capability must be quite high.

If I can’t escape, I have no choice but to fight and make it food for my stomach.

Even in front of the huge beast, I was filled with an incredible sense of confidence.

No, it was more like conviction.

A calm feeling that I couldn’t lose because I had fought with stronger ones before.

Maybe the composure I’ve been feeling is what they call normalcy bias.

Anyway, there was an illusion that my body remembered how to fight.

Slowly advancing my pace, I approach. Pushing aside the grass and plants, I take my position on a slightly cleared animal trail.

We are still out of each other’s range, but the distance feels like a battle is about to erupt.

The enemy, wary of my approach, turns sideways to make its body appear larger.

Occasionally glancing away to feign disinterest, it still keeps a sideways eye on me, though.

It’s like the final ultimatum learned by a beast without words. I pick up a thick branch at my feet, call out, and provoke it.

“You really do look tasty, don’t you?”

At that signal, the jet-black beast lowers its body.

A sprint too fast for the eye to follow.

Revealing its hidden fangs and claws, it brushes past me sideways with its forelegs.

My body reacts before my thoughts, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The sharp claws slice through the air. The beast flips its body and comes back to gauge its next move.

Indeed, up close, the grandeur of its build becomes clear.

The thick, dense fur would likely deflect the blows of a wooden stick, leaving it undamaged.

My only weapons are the wooden stick and my own limbs.

In contrast, the enemy’s claws and fangs possess a sharpness that could easily tear through human flesh.

Its defensive capabilities and agility are on a different level. Despite the sudden, desperate situation, I remain calm.

My heart is not perturbed at all.

I braced myself against a nearby rock, waiting for the pitch-black beast.

With a growl, it charged again.

Clamping a thick wooden stick under my arm, I continued to face the beast head-on.

Staring straight at the massive body cutting the shortest distance towards me, I sharply exhaled as I checked the position of the rocks behind me.

“Come at me just like that.”

I had dodged it before, but this time, I would confront it head-on.

The battle was a one-shot deal. Everything was entrusted to the strength of the wooden stick and to luck.

The beast opened its gaping mouth.

Its forelegs pressed onto my shoulders as if to pin me down, and its heavy, long claws dug deep into my shoulder.

The claws pierced through my skin, and I involuntarily groaned, clenching my teeth.

Still, I did not let go of the branch.

The momentum of the charge, due to the overwhelming difference in body weight, was not just a mere collision.

It was only after the beast, and I crashed into the rock behind me that the inertia was finally killed. And that was my aim: to use the collision energy, the enemy’s body weight and speed, and concentrate it at the tip of the wooden stick, piercing through its abdomen with a stab.

As it turned out, my strategy was successful.

At the same moment, my head struck the rock wall hard, I felt a unique sensation through the branch wedged under my arm as it tore through flesh.

It had completely pierced the beast’s abdomen.

The beast, which had its mouth wide open, let out a gurgling sound from its throat, and the next moment, it spewed a large amount of blood from its mouth.

The enemy, resisting fiercely, let out a howl-like scream.

It seemed not to understand what was happening, flailing its legs and violently shaking its head.

I refuse to go down together.

I stirred the stick I had inserted, aiming to destroy the enemy’s innards.

In doing so, I targeted the heart to hasten death, but—for some reason, I could intuitively tell where the heart was, and within a matter of seconds, I managed to rupture it.

The beast let out a high-pitched cry and gave a feeble howl before slowly collapsing to the ground.

The light in its eyes faded, and the movement of its torso ceased.

Ah, it’s completely dead now.

Having witnessed the end of the large beast, I let out a light sigh and sat down on the spot.

Not because of a sense of accomplishment or guilt. It was simply due to fatigue.

(Something like, my body remembered how to fight. Who was I before?)

Who was I before I lost my memory?

Is it normal to be able to take down an animal larger than oneself with bare hands?

My common sense is slightly surprised, leading me to fall into meaningless suspicion and doubt.

“Well, whatever. Let’s eat the meat for now.”

I slipped my fingers into the gap in the fur on the abdomen and began to greedily devour the flesh inside.

I thought raw meat would taste bad, but it’s actually quite delicious.

A heavy sensation settled in my stomach, and I was enveloped in a sense of euphoria.

Having satisfied my hunger, I took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, the lazy time brought on by the feeling of fullness was not to be indulged, as a correction of my thought circuits by a strong sense of purpose took place.

“…That’s right. Head for the Holy City Sasfect.”

It wasn’t my voice but a calm, low male voice that compelled me to aim for the ‘Holy City Sasfect.’

About half a day had passed since I woke up in this forest, and I had heard ‘his’ voice so often that I was sick of counting.

At the same time, a noise-like voice of a girl, trying to drown out ‘his’ voice, could be heard.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but it felt like it was something very important.

“On the day of the Phantom Night Holy Festival, I have to be in the Holy City Sasfect.”

Controlled by impulse, I was about to leave the carcass of the beast behind when I heard a woman’s scream from the bushes behind me.

Turning towards the direction of the voice, what I found was a middle-aged woman who had fallen on her backside.

“Oh, a person! Just what I needed!”

I approached her to ask for directions to the Holy City Sasfect, but as I did, the woman crouched down, covering her head as if to hide.

Far from lending an ear to my words, her reaction was one of intense rejection.

Maybe she’s freaked out by the sight of me, covered in blood on my upper body.

Indeed, encountering a blood-soaked person in the midst of a dense forest would be frightening.

I pointed to the silent carcass of a beast at my feet and gently explained that the blood was from when I defeated it.

In reality, the blood was from when I had messily eaten the creature, but I figured it would be better not to scare her further by mentioning that, so I kept quiet.

“…You, you took down this magical beast by yourself…? I can’t believe it, am I dreaming…?”

“Magical beast? What is that?”

“…You, you don’t know what a magical beast is?”

The woman staring intently at the carcass of the so-called magical beast gave me a puzzled look as she glanced over.

It seems that ‘magical beasts’ are common knowledge.

This means right now, I’m in a state where I don’t even have a grasp of common sense.

Feeling suspicious in a different way than before, I decided it was futile to try to deceive her and chose to spill everything.

“Ah, um… actually, it seems I’ve lost my memory somehow… I don’t even know my own name, let alone what a magical beast is.

I just happened to defeat this one by chance, and as you can see, I got injured in the process.”

“Well, that’s―there are many things I’d like to question about that―but it’s quite serious. Anyway, we’ll talk later, we need to treat that shoulder wound right away! My village is nearby, come with me!”

“Eh, oh… Thank you very much!”

Frowning as she chewed over my situation, the woman began walking down the animal trail, all the while concerned about the state of my shoulder.

If I can get to her village, it seems I’ll also be able to find the way to the Holy City Sasfect. It’s an unexpected windfall.

Besides, the village should have plenty of food. Lots of meat. It’s all good news.

After walking for about ten minutes, the forest canopy overhead suddenly thinned out.

As I instinctively raised my hand to shield my face from the evening sun, I could see several small houses and cultivated land come into view.

A few villagers, armed with farming tools, approached me with tense expressions, but the woman from before—Makena, as she had introduced herself—stopped them.

“He’s a wounded man attacked by a magical beast. I’ll explain the situation later, so please let us through.”

“Poor soul, to be harmed by a magical beast… Though he’s an outsider, it can’t be helped, we must take him in. First, we need to tend to his injuries.”

“Boy, Makena-san is the best physician in the village. You can be at ease when treated by her.”

Several villagers give way to Makena-san and me.

Are magical beasts really such a dangerous presence?

Just by mentioning that I’ve been affected by a magical beast, everyone readily lets us pass.

A few children, seemingly curious, follow behind me. Eventually, a woman who appears to be their mother grabs them by the scruff of their necks, and the children disappear into the shadows of the buildings.

It’s somewhat hectic, but I thought to myself that it’s a village brimming with vitality.

Upon entering Makena-san’s house, I am stripped of my tattered, brown clothes.

As my shoulder injuries are exposed, so too are my clearly malnourished ribs and collarbones.

In addition, a mysterious scar that runs like a single line from below my Adam’s apple to the upper part of my navel is revealed.

I could see Makena-san’s face, mixed with white hair, tense up significantly.

Her lips are tightly sealed, and her hands, which had been moving briskly until now, come to a complete stop.

“…Have you been subjected to human experimentation?”

“Eh? No, I don’t really know that myself…”

I, too, had been concerned about these scars.

The eerie scars are not only on the torso but are etched all over the body.

Other than the scar along the median line, what stands out might be the left hand’s index, middle, and ring fingers, which oddly differ in skin color and size.

From the index finger, I can feel an immense sense of awe, from the middle finger, a hope filled with sorrow, and from the ring finger, a complex and bizarre emotion mixed with love and hate.

Ms. Makenna, who had been slightly stunned, seemed to regain her composure and resumed the treatment.

She pulled a jar from the cupboard, placed it beside her, and generously applied the ointment from it onto the pad of her finger.

Her movements were smooth and uninterrupted.

“Well, never mind. It might sting a bit, but bear with it, okay?”

“Got it—owww!?”

“There, endure it!”

There’s a big hole in my shoulder, already hot and swelling up.

It’s as if the wound is saying, “Don’t touch me!” but Makena-san mercilessly slathers on the ointment without any mercy.

The nerves are directly stimulated, and a pain like an electric shock spreads throughout my upper body.

My eyes roll back, and I feel like I’m about to lose consciousness.

Amidst this hellish pain, Makena-san tells me why she was there.

Probably to distract me. It seems she had come to gather medicinal herbs.

Hearing the screams of a magical beast, she came to check and found me covered in blood.

She seems to make medicine from herbs, which is why she’s called the best doctor in the village.

I realize this through teary eyes.

However, despite being a woman of a certain age, there’s no sign of family.

Sensing my curiosity about her personal life, Makena-san speaks up while wrapping the bandages.

“…Actually, I had a son.”

“A son?”

“Yes. If he were alive and well, he’d be about your age now… But he’s been missing for several years since he was abducted by the Heretics.”

“Heretics…? What’s your son’s name?”

I was taken aback when suddenly presented with the new word “Heretic,” but sensing that this was the time to listen to the story to the end, I decided to ask for his son’s name.

“Steve.”

She said.

Steve. It sounded like a name I had heard somewhere before.

“That boy, ever since he was little, loved to go out to the mountains to gather medicinal herbs. He often imitated me, trying to get me to drink his ‘medicine’ that he claimed to have mixed himself.”

Hearing that story, something in my heart was deeply hurt.