Gonpeter's Ordeal

Arc 11 begins.

It's a short one.

“Guh! Aaah!!”

At the sharp pain shooting through his left arm, the hunter Gonpeter couldn't help crying out, stumbled, and tumbled.

His large body, now covered in wounds, was smeared with dirt, making him look all the more wretched.

“A, hah...... hah, hah......”

Breathing raggedly, Gonpeter desperately tried to stand up again and escape.

“Chiwawawawa...... Chiwawawawa......!”

There was a monster watching him, letting out a strange cry and wearing a revolting, gloating smirk.

This monster was the very culprit that had driven Gonpeter to this point!

A small face that looks squashed flat!

Ears that stand straight up in triangles!

Large, round eyes that are always moist!

If a human who had been reincarnated or transferred from Earth saw this monster's face, they would undoubtedly declare this!

‘Ah, it's a chihuahua!’, just like that!

But still, this monster is no chihuahua.

It is a Chiwanwan.

To be more precise, it is a subspecies of Chiwanwan, an Assault Chiwanwan.

Normally, Chiwanwans are creatures that sit at the very bottom of the combat power hierarchy in this world.

For example, if a Chiwanwan were to encounter a wild dog, it would cower just from being growled at, without even fighting, and might even die from sheer terror in the worst case.

If it tripped over a weed and fell, it would die of shock from the surprise.

That's just how weak a creature it is.

The phrase ‘eaten alive by a Chiwanwan’ has even become an idiom for mocking the feeble.

And yet, that fragility does not apply to this Assault Chiwanwan!

Behold!

That muscular physique, which surely stands well over 2 meters!

The muscles running from its shoulders to its back, developed out of all proportion to its small face, bulge up like a mountain!

Its waist is cinched as thin as an ant's, but its rump is once again clad in armor-like muscle, bulging out!

And those sturdy forelegs and hind legs are just like clubs!

Truly, a beast born for battle.

That is the Assault Chiwanwan......!!

But, this Assault Chiwanwan.

What makes this beast frightening is not only its high combat power.

A personality as sadistic as a devil's, shared by its entire species!

That, precisely, is why they are called the “Mountain Devils”!

“CHIWAWAWAWAAAA!!!”

“A, AAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

The Assault Chiwanwan lunged at Gonpeter again, wounding his body with its sharp claws, but it never dealt a fatal blow!

He could still get away!

Surely, he could escape!

Making its prey believe exactly that, it takes its time toying with it until it dies.

That is the Assault Chiwanwan's way of hunting.

The prey's expression, gradually stained with despair.

To the Assault Chiwanwan, that is a feast greater than any other!!

“Ah...... guh...... ah......”

And this prey had grown quite weak.

Tumbling again, he tried to stand up, but his limbs slipped in the mud and he couldn't manage it.

The slip sent him rolling a little way down the mountain slope.

Rolling over and over, he tumbled onto the snow that still lingered in the shade.

The snow was being defiled by his blood and mud.

Blooming beside him was the Fukujaa flower, the very symbol of spring here on Mount Nanga.

Snow stained with blood and mud, and a simple yellow flower stretching its small body to the fullest in search of the spring sunlight.

Death, and life.

The two seemed worlds apart, but in truth, they were two sides of the same coin.

A place where death and life alike lay strewn at one's feet: that was the demon realm, the Ranrananga Mountains, and that was Mount Nanga.

(I guess, this is the end for me too......)

The hunter Gonpeter exhaled raggedly and lay on his back on the cold snow, gazing at the blue sky peeking through the gaps in the branches of trees whose buds had only just sprouted.

‘Beyond the village lies the half-netherworld’ was a saying handed down in Yamaok Village, where Gonpeter lived.

Yamaok Village sat at a pass on Mount Nanga, in other words, inside the demon realm, which made it a village with a relatively rare location on the Golden Continent.

Step outside the village, and there was the demon realm.

A world where people could not live, always side by side with death.

A world where life came with no guarantees.

For generations, the people of Yamaok Village had described it with a peculiar turn of phrase, the ‘half-netherworld’, and passed it down.

Going out of his way into that ‘half-netherworld’ to bring back meat was Gonpeter's job as a hunter, and naturally, he lived each day fully prepared for the fact that he could die at any moment.

(But, for it to happen now, of all times...... Oyukipa, I'm sorry......)

Oyukipa was the daughter of Gonpeter's best friend Sabrown, a lovely girl turning 9 this year.

This time, for a certain reason, Gonpeter desperately needed meat for Oyukipa.

And unfortunately, his usual hunting grounds hadn't given him anything worth taking, so he had roamed the mountain far beyond their bounds, and that was how he had ended up being chased by an Assault Chiwanwan.

“Chiwwawawawa......!”

The devil's revolting, gloating voice reached the ears of Gonpeter, who had no strength left and could barely move.

Shifting only his eyes to the side, he saw the Assault Chiwanwan peering into his face, drool dripping from its jaws.

Then the devil smiled in satisfaction, unhurriedly and deftly rose onto its two hind legs, and raised its sturdy right foreleg high.

With a Ja!, the claws of the raised right foreleg shot out.

Putting the momentum of its falling body behind the blow, it was poised to slit Gonpeter's throat with those sharp claws.

The Assault Chiwanwan seemed to have fully enjoyed its human hunt.

It was likely going to end it now.

“......!!!”

Gonpeter widened his eyes and grit his teeth, desperately resisting the terror of death!

Death in the mountains.

It was something Gonpeter, as a hunter, had always been prepared for.

At the very least, as a hunter of proud Yamaok Village, as a man with nothing to be ashamed of, he had meant to die.

But, it happened in the next instant!!

Dogo!!!

Making that dull sound, the Assault Chiwanwan's body went flying!

A shadow about the size of a child had slammed into the devil's giant body at incredible speed!

Dosa!

Go!

“Chiwawa......!!”

Goki!

Those sounds rang out beyond Gonpeter's field of vision, and then silence settled over the area.

............No.

Buchi.

Buchi buchi.

Mogu, mogu.

Mogu mogu mogu.

Mogu mogu, mogu mogu.

Next came the quiet sounds of something being torn off and chewed.

Gonpeter managed to lift his body and turned his face toward where the sound was coming from.

What was being eaten there was the corpse of the Assault Chiwanwan.

The mountain devil that had been toying with and cornering Gonpeter until a moment ago seemed to have had its neck twisted with tremendous force.

With eyes that had lost the light of life, it stared vacantly in an impossible direction.

That twisted neck dangled, jiggling in little jerks, because the being that had so effortlessly slaughtered the Assault Chiwanwan was holding up its corpse, sinking its teeth into the mountainous muscles of its back, and going on with its meal.

At first, Gonpeter had thought that a new monster had appeared, ambushed the utterly complacent Assault Chiwanwan, and killed it.

But, the truth was different.

Looking closely at the predator's form, Gonpeter was aghast.

It was a girl.

The girl, who had a blood-stained pelt wrapped around her body, looked to be about the same age as Oyukipa.

A small body.

But with a strength that body gave no hint of, she held the Assault Chiwanwan's meat, which had to be heavy, with ease, greedily devouring it raw.

Together with her ominous black hair and black eyes, it was ghastly.

Gonpeter felt disgust and terror.

And yet.

The girl's bare skin, where it wasn't covered by the pelt, was white as snow.

And the features of her expressionless face were tremendously, beautiful.

For Gonpeter, who had lived only in the narrow world of Yamaok Village, that beauty was something he had never seen before, and he even felt something sacred in it.

A ghastliness that made him want to look away, and a beauty that made him want to gaze forever.

Before this girl, who held both within her without contradiction, Gonpeter was utterly dazed and could not move.

Confused, with no idea what to do, he could only go on staring blankly as the girl fed.

It's no longer winter, season-wise, so she isn't in her perfectly round furball state.