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Chapter 12
“……So, you’re saying you’re a repairman?”
He couldn’t be more than a year or two older than Ponia.
For someone claiming to be a repairman, he looked tall but otherwise ordinary, with a physique that didn’t seem particularly strong.
“Yes, I don’t really look the part, do I……?”
The man fiddled with his curly hair, as if aware of how he appeared.
Was he thinking that his curls made him look less like a repairman?
Ponia stared at his hair, and the man hesitated, then pointed to her left hand.
“By the way, why are you holding a hammer……?”
When Ponia casually looked at her left hand, the hammer was indeed visible to him.
“Ah! Crap!”
She blurted out a curse in shock and immediately covered her mouth.
Thanks to this, the man’s previously neutral curiosity shifted into confusion and suspicion.
It was all because of the foul-mouthed neighbor constantly muttering curses nearby.
“This is…… I mean……”
“……”
The longer the silence, the more suspicious he would become. Ponia quickly racked her brain, and then her eyes landed on the ladybug perched on the man’s shoulder.
“I was trying to catch the bug!”
“……”
“Some huge cockroach appeared out of nowhere, and I got so scared that I really……”
“……”
It was a terrible lie, even by her own assessment.
As expected, she felt a piercing gaze from someone inside the cabin, staring at the back of her head.
‘Should I pretend to be crazy and at least make a show of swatting the cockroach?’
She glanced around, and the man suddenly brightened.
“A hammer is definitely effective for killing bugs!”
Huh?
“I’ve killed quite a few myself while working, with a hammer.”
“……”
“Of course, each time I ended up breaking what I was repairing too, doubling my work. Haha.”
Surprisingly, the man dropped his suspicion after this flimsy lie.
‘Is this guy an idiot?’
Whether naive or just innocent, he believed her words outright and responded enthusiastically.
She suddenly thought of the Count in Harbelga, who couldn’t comprehend suspicion.
“Why do you ask?”
Ah, right.
Ponia snapped back to her senses.
She had almost let her guard down by unconsciously overlaying her father’s face onto the man.
Confidently, she stepped outside the cabin.
The determination not to lower her guard was clear in her wide-open eyes.
“But, you came to the forest in the middle of the night?”
“Oh, I set out three days ago. I entered the forest this morning, but I got a bit lost finding the path.”
“You didn’t see anything else in the forest……?”
“In the forest?”
The man seemed to ponder briefly before answering.
“The forest is truly beautiful! There were so many fireflies it felt like something out of a fairy tale.”
He wandered around alone from dusk until dawn?
The reason Shionel nearly died wandering the forest at night wasn’t just bad luck.
Monsters naturally had senses far sharper than humans and never missed intruders in their territory.
Moreover, walking through a forest where the number of monsters was unknown, without protection, was suicidal. People only stick to safe paths for a reason.
Her suspicion of the man grew even more.
“Fortunately, I eventually found the path marked on the map. I would have been walking until tomorrow otherwise.”
The man took out a piece of paper to show her.
It was a map detailing the path from the forest entrance to the cabin, with nothing else marked.
It was clearly different from hers, but it was still a forest map.
“Where did you get this?”
“Jerome gave it to me before I set out.”
Ponia’s eyebrows twitched at the familiar name.
“He specifically told me to follow only the paths on the map.”
“……”
“Come to think of it, he also said I had to leave the forest before nightfall, but none of that was followed.”
He knew Jerome’s name and followed advice that only Jerome, the forest guide, would give.
But there were still more than a few things to be suspicious of.
“You didn’t come together, right?”
“Oh, no. He said he had urgent business and had to go to the capital. Normally it’s against the rules to send someone alone, but he said it couldn’t be helped……”
“You don’t know what kind of business it was?”
“Just that it was important…… Is that a problem?”
“No, not really.”
There was nothing technically wrong with his answers. But their completeness actually made her more suspicious.
It felt as if he had memorized his responses. Too smooth, too convenient.
If he really was a repairman, Ponia would apologize, but after the numerous scams her father endured in Harbelga, she suspected any stranger by default.
The most concerning were people whose faces screamed innocence.
‘They always end up stabbing you in the back.’
A prime example was Gordon Ram, who had recently tried to scam her father.
She ground her teeth thinking of him, as the man spoke again.
“Ah! Jerome also asked me to tell you this if I met the forest caretaker!”
“……”
“He said to check if patrols are happening daily, and to follow the map once in the forest……”
Chills.
Ponia shivered and stepped back.
It was Jerome. Only Jerome would say something like that.
“He also mentioned that there was a high chance you wouldn’t meet the caretaker at all, and not to bother looking, just fix the cabin. What does that mean? The caretaker isn’t going to suddenly disappear.”
He could easily disappear.
Many predecessors had perished in this forest at the hands of monsters.
It was likely advice given in case Ponia died before even repairing the cabin.
‘A heartless brat.’
Ponia carefully observed the still-confused man.
‘Which means this man really is the repairman sent to fix the cabin.’
“Even so, isn’t it rude to come at this hour?”
Ponia deliberately spoke bluntly to provoke him.
Yet the man bowed his head without a hint of offense.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Jerome told me to check the cabin as soon as I arrived.”
“Just knocking without a word?”
“I came first, but I didn’t want to wake anyone. If you were in a deep sleep, I would’ve come back tomorrow morning……”
“Why are you holding a saw?”
“It’s just… my job, it’s more comfortable to carry it around. I’m sorry.”
Unlike earlier, his energy seemed subdued now, and Ponia felt a twinge of guilt.
She realized she looked like a difficult client interrogating a diligent worker.
The man’s clothes were damp and stained from wandering through the forest.
“This forest has many dangerous wild animals; you shouldn’t wander at night. As for somewhere to stay……”
“……”
“There’s obviously nothing, so I’ll open the storage under the cabin for you.”
“Thank you! That’s very kind!”
Her hand holding the hammer flinched slightly in conscience.
“Alright, let’s go down first……”
As Ponia stepped fully outside and closed the door, the man held onto it.
“But……”
“……”
“I thought I heard a sound inside earlier.”
“……”
“Is someone else in there?”
His round glasses gleamed as he peered through the small gap.
When she glimpsed the small kitchen and green carpet through the crack, a tiny figure blocked his view.
“No, I’m alone.”
“……”
“Just me.”
“……”
“Let’s go down then.”
Though her reply was dry and casual, her heart raced faster than ever.
‘He didn’t see anything, right?’
She carefully studied the repairman’s expression. To her relief, he relaxed easily.
“I see. Must have misheard the bug noise.”
Then, without lingering, he descended the stairs. Ponia watched his back briefly, confirmed the door was firmly shut, and followed him.
Feeling reassured, she failed to notice the foreign substance on the saw handle.
