The Blue Monster's Shell Volume 1 Chapter 2 part2-3
Translated by iseuli
Part 2
Perrin gave up trying to learn magic, and decided to look around the forest instead.
He was a strong child, not physically, but mentally. He didn’t fear traveling around alone in the forest.
“Don’t follow me.”
He has grown so shameless that he would tell me outright not to follow him.
“It’s not good to go out too far alone in this forest.”
He would ignore my warning and leave by himself. I was the master of this territory, but there were still many monsters lingering around the area. If he were a normal child, he would not have lasted longer than an hour. But this child had already adapted to the life in this forest. Though, this didn’t change the fact that he was still at the bottom of the food chain in this forest.
“Perrin, it will be better not to stray too far from my lair.”
“Are you telling me to stick around the lair all my life?”
“No. You should tell me when you will travel a ways away. I will go with you. Then you will be safe.”
“No need.”
Perrin adamantly rejected my offer. The child wasn’t so foolish to uselessly put his own life at risk. He was just simply truly confident to travel around the forest by himself.
Perrin Egloff was abandoned in the Forest of Monsters at 7. He had been able to adapt to the variety of poisons in this forest all these years. After he started wandering around the forest alone, his true hidden abilities began to shine.
“It seems like you… know where the monsters are.”
I said to him one random day.
“Do you have a technique to detect them?”
“No.”
“But whenever you’re about to run into monsters, you will turn onto a different direction. You turn even though the path looks clear…”
Yes. Perrin would be running with all his strength, then suddenly halt. I wondered what was wrong so I perked up my sense of hearing and I immediately sensed a monster waiting for Perrin just ahead. It was waiting for its prey to come closer before making its surprise attack.
It was hiding within the shadows of the forest, so there was no way that a human could see it with the naked eye. Even so, Perrin would look directly into its direction, then turn to travel a different route. Other times, he would be resting leisurely on a boulder, then suddenly get up and hide behind a tree. Then in a short moment, a flying monster would appear in the sky. It was difficult to consider all these moments as mere luck or chance.
“I wish to learn that technique. That technique is very useful in a forest like this.”
“What kinda technique are you babbling on about?”
“The technique to detect other monsters. Teach me how you find them.”
Perrin looked at me with a confused expression. He looked taken aback and seemed to suspect the hidden motive behind my question.
“Would you ever have a use for it, though?”
“I need to survive as well.”
“You can get by perfectly as you are now. You’re the strongest in this territory. Are you trying to make fun of me?”
“Perrin, you’ve mistaken one thing. Survival isn’t guaranteed just because one is strong in this forest. The strong monsters in this forest commonly fall under the tiniest and weakest monsters.”
I earnestly tried to convey the reality of this forest. If strength was the only important factor of survival, then I would have died battling against the deer monster. Perrin furrowed his brows, confused. I continued to further explain so he could understand.
“Cluster type monsters, don’t have any significant strength by themselves, but when they group together in the thousands to attack at once, then it’s not strange for one to die against them.”
There are many annoying monsters to deal with such as wolves, ants, bees, and the like.
“They do not know how to give up until the leader falls. It’s very difficult to find the leader of the pack… so if possible it’s best to just avoid them from the start.”
His detection skills would be highly valuable in this forest. Perrin had a complicated look on his face. That might mean…. Yes. He must have been shocked that I asked him for help. He must have thought it was interesting that a strong monster like me would have such a weakness. But this forest had always been this way.
The strongest monsters in this forest cannot always win. There is no assured safety through strength. Just one wrong decision could cost one’s life. It was common for monsters to die due to weaker monsters. It had been so in the deer’s case when he decided to invade my territory.
“Perrin, I hope you can teach me your technique. Think about it. I protect you. You can only live a long life if I’m able to live a long life. So this is…. Yes. A symbiotic relationship.”
“Symbiotic…”
Honestly, symbiosis wasn’t the right word. Perrin didn’t help my survival in any way. He was just that weak. This wasn’t symbiosis but parasitism. Perrin was a one sided benefactor between the two of us. He should also be aware of this, but I still used the word ‘symbiosis,’ to describe our status. I might have just wanted to protect what little pride he had of himself.
“That is why I wish you can teach me. How do you detect the monsters that are hiding in this forest?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re asking me to teach you…. I just have a bad feeling and avoid going that way.”
A place that didn’t feel good. I gave up trying to learn after hearing his simple explanation. I could generally guess what Perrin was trying to explain to me. It was a type of ‘sense,’ which was hard to explain with words. Perrin’s senses had just somehow become bizarrely strong while surviving in this forest.
The cursed energies of this forest might have somehow twisted his senses, and he constantly lived on the edge of death’s door day by day. In any case, Perrin’s senses had developed and adapted that he now had a chance of surviving in this forest.
“It’s too bad it’s not something I can learn.”
He looked very strange when he heard my honest words once again. I’m not sure what he might have been thinking at that time. He looked at me in a strange way then turned away. Afterwards, Perrin continued to wander around alone in the forest, but he never failed to return to my lair before the night fell.
“I don’t like the fact that this is the only place I can return to.”
He would tell me time to time, but he wasn’t so stupid to try and run away from home. Perrin understood that the only place for his survival was my lair. He was a clever child that knew how to use what was available for him.
“Perrin….”
Cannot abandon me like father. He cannot escape from this forest. No matter how much he wanders around, he will return. When I realized this, I felt very happy for some reason.
Perrin would be by my side for his whole life. Perrin had no say in this at all. Back then, I wasn’t sensitive enough to realize those small details. I was simply………
“Perrin. You must live with me from now on.”
I was so happy that I had to tell Perrin.
“You cannot leave here. So you have to live here for your whole life.”
I wonder why I had chosen to say and such horrible things in the past? I cannot forget the way Perrin had looked at me with a sighed.
Part 3
The landscape of the Forest of Monsters undergoes change very frequently.
There were many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because the trees would uproot and move themselves. Sometimes it would be only a few dozen trees, other times hundreds of trees would just move locations at once. On the day the trees migrate, the forest is always ridden with small and large earthquakes.
It was a common sight to see trees moving about, but this would be the first time Perrin would see so many trees moving all at once like this.
“Huh…?”
The rumbling sound of the ceiling crumbling sounded. The interior surface of my lair cracked while small and big rocks fell from above. I could hear the outside earth splitting and cracking as well.
“The trees are migrating once again.”
It didn’t sound like just a few dozen trees based on the intense sound coming from outside. I could tell many of the hundred-year-old trees were uprooting themselves from the earth in order to migrate elsewhere. The ground rumbled violently causing earthquakes to wave throughout the whole forest.
“They are very close to my territory.”
I could see huge trees slowly moving about in the distance from my lair. It seemed that my territory would be one of the most affected by the sudden migrating trees. I was amazed that my lair was holding up.
“Perrin hasn’t returned yet.”
I wouldn’t worry if everything ended with just an earthquake, However, various monsters survived in the dark hidden shadows of this forest. The monsters in hiding would wake up all at once due to this earthquake, resulting in pure chaos. The monsters outside roared angrily.
“Perrin.”
I wondered whether how Perring might fair outside. I sprinted out to find Perrin before my mind could fully register that Perrin could be in danger.
I searched for the child’s sweet scent. I tried to listen for the child’s voice. I looked around for where the child might be.
“It’s okay, I can find him.”
I had confidence in tracking. My bones were that of the 7 meter giant dog monster after all. I had been surgically modified with the bones of the best trackers in the Forest of Monsters. So I had complete confidence in finding him.
“What if he’s dead?”
I wondered about what I would do if I found him stuck under a boulder, smashed. What was I to do if monsters were eating him? I felt nauseous just imagining the scenes happen in my mind.
I had not understood whyI had felt rage rise within my heart. Even after all that had happened, I had been a stupid fellow who had no understanding of anything hidden in my heart.
“He must be alive.”
For how long? I couldn’t tell. There was no telling how long a human child would be able to survive. Even so, I had somehow felt he would still be alive. The most important thing in this forest was survival. Whether one’s legs or arms were cut off, it didn’t matter as long as we had our life. I didn’t worry that he might be a bit hurt as a result of the earthquake, I just hoped with all my heart that he would still be alive by the time I found him..