After reaching the hunter’s hut, the mayor knocked on the door a few times and the hunter came out, and apologised to him for acting like he had done in the morning.

And after a bit of talking, he agreed to be our guide and lead us to where he first saw the black shadow stalking him.

“While we are on the way to meeting this thing, can you explain exactly what you saw, hunter? The Mayor’s description was... lacking to say the least.” I asked the hunter, and his description of the animal or monster or whatever it was... was not better than the Mayor’s description.

But one thing he mentioned that the mayor had not was that this was not the first time he had seen the creature.

It all first started a week ago, when he felt the gaze of something on his back while checking his traps, but there was nothing when he turned around, but the feeling of being watched by the creature always put him on edge—almost as if its evil nature was scaring his very soul.

Then, after a few days of him feeling this weird sense of being watched, he started seeing the creature in the periphery of his vision, but whenever he turned to look at it, it disappeared.

At first, he wasn’t sure if he was imagining things or not, and mostly ignored the creature, but this morning, for the first time since the shadowy creature appeared, it did something else rather than standing in the corner of his vision, and looking at him.

It started moving towards him, zapping from tree to tree, and for the first time in his life, he was scared for his life, and ran towards his home in fear, and didn’t pay any attention to what the monster actually looked like.

“...Though, for some reason, whenever I think back to this morning, my memories fell almost fuzzy, and I don’t feel fear when I think back to it, only a weird sense of disconnection...” The hunter said, and ended his explanation of the last week.

I found his experiences... well, a bit hard to believe, as a shadowy monster stalking you for a week, instead of ambushing and killing you was a bit of a stretch.

Though, even if what he was saying was hard to believe, it was better to check it out nonetheless, and know for sure if he was just hallucinating or if there was some weird monster in the forest.

And, it was not like The Emperor hadn’t talked about even weirder monsters before.

From skin walkers who would kill people, and imitate their appearance and voice to kill their loved ones, to zombies, the animated corpses of the dead.

While The Emperor said that the monsters he talked about may or may not exist, and were simple speculations by him, he also said that he wouldn’t be surprised if there were monsters that were different from simple animals who had been enhanced by mana.

So, it was better to and check it out—even if the hunter was hard to believe... and we also had to find the 2 militia men sent into the forest by the mayor too.

So, in the lead of the hunter, we ventured deeper into the forest, and soon reached where he had first met the shadowy monster—and where he had seen the monster this morning.

“Stop where you are!” A man screamed as we were walking through the trees.

“Who goes there!” I screamed back, and as I turned around a tree, I saw a man with tattered leather armour, covered in blood, pointing a spear towards me.

His leather helmet was gone, and the other parts of his leather armour were covered in... stab wounds?

“Thank the goddess you are here! We have to save Joel! The monster has captured him! C’mon! We need to go, now!” The injured man said, but before he could do something stupid, and rush into the forest, I stopped him.

“These are... spear marks, are they not? What happened to you and your... friend?” I asked, grabbing him by the arm, and gesturing my men to apply some paste on his wounds to close them up for now.

“No! Don’t waste your time, my wounds are not deep enough to incapacitate me. Joel is in danger! T-the monster is controlling him!”

“The monster is controlling him? Explain. In detail.”

“We found the monster the Mayor send us after, but as Joel thrusted his spear towards it, the monster leapt to his neck, and bit in! A moment later, Joel turned towards me, and thrusted his spear towards me, instead of trying to throw off the monster that was now clinging onto his back!

“After a bit of fighting, I was able to throw Joel and the monster to the ground, but I lost my footing as well, and Joel ran into the forest with the monster before I could get off of the ground, and give chase!

“The monster must be controlling him somehow; we have to find them and kill it before it kills Joel!” The distressed militia man said.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“And what did the monster look like?”

“It was barely large enough to reach my knee, but was swift like a snake! But its pure black fur made it stand out in the forest, allowing us to easily find it—but it may have only allowed us to do so as, like I said, the fucker was fast!”

“So, it wasn’t really a shadowy monster, but instead a monster with black fur...” I thought to myself, and started thinking about what we should do next.

“...How long has it been since you’ve been separated from your friend?”

“No more than 10—perhaps 15 minutes. I tried finding them in the forest by myself, but I couldn’t.

“But with your help, we should be able to find him quickly!”

“...Sorry soldier, but we are going back. You need to get your wounds treated before they get infected.”

“What! I-I am fine! There’s no need for that! A man’s life is on the line here, I don’t care if you are a knight or whatever, we need to save him, now!” The militia man argued, but I simply moved close to him, and hit his neck with my elbow, knocking him unconscious and grabbed him before he could fall down.

“Administer first aid, now.” I told my men, and they moved quickly, and started by removing his armour and clothes and then applying some berry paste, and then bandages to the wounds.

He’d need to be taken to the capitol, or we’d need to bring a healer from there to the village, but he’d be fine the next morning, so no need to worry.

After my men were done treating the injured militia man, I told the hunter to guide us back to the village, which he obliged to after asking me if we were going to search for Joel.

We were going to—but not now. And with more soldiers.

We didn’t know anything about the monster that was controlling Joel, or perhaps his corpse. And there was always the chance that it had a nest somewhere close, with possibly many more members of its species around.

Going after it right now, with only 4 people would be a stupid action, as we’d simply be putting ourselves in danger for no reason.

The better option was to simply go back to the capitol, get reinforcements, and do a proper search of this part of the forest.

And if Joel was still alive, instead of simply his corpse being puppeteered by the monster, we’d need quite a few people to safely capture him too.

“...So, Joshua, you are telling me there is a monster near the village that is capable of either controlling people, or turning them into zombies?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“And you’ve seen this thing with your very own eyes?”

“No, your majesty. But we have 2 eyewitnesses if you want to question them yourself.”

“No need to. I’ll be giving you more soldiers to deal with this, in addition to sending Jonathanne with some soldiers of her own as well. If there is a nest of these things—don’t touch them. Only kill the one capturing Joel, and retrieve him alive, or at the very least bring back his corpse for burial.”

“By your will, your majesty. But may I ask a question?”

“Go ahed.”

“Why let these things live? Surely destroying their nest will be safer for the village, and we will not need to mount another rescue operation in the future.”

“Joshua, you were a hunter, right?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“Then, you must have at least seen the life cycle of the animals in the forest. Predators hunt down weak and sickly prey, thus keeping their population low and health.

“But as hunting in and of itself is dangerous for the predators, they get injured, die, or simply fail their hunts. Keeping their populations fit and healthy like the prey they hunt, as their weak simply die from hunger.

“Though, this is a gross oversimplification of the life in the forest. Even from the smallest bug to the biggest animal, every single one of them fills a role that is necessary for the forest to keep being fit and healthy.

“So, killing off an entire species or destroying nests just because they may prove problematic to us is incredibly selfish. As, even disturbing a single species too much now, will lead to the forest growing sickly over decades.

“Unless these new monsters prove to be proper threat to the people, they are to be left alone, lest we hasten the process of destroying the forest.”

“Thanks for the explanation your majesty but... hasten the process?”

“We have existed for merely 4 years, nothing in this world is prepared for us, so we have the ability to turn the whole world sickly lest we control ourselves.

“Sadly though, some parts of the world must be left to rot and then promptly cut off for us to prosper, and this forest we live next to will be the first part of the world that will be intentionally left to rot, as is the cost of progress.

“But I’d like to keep it alive for as long as possible—before we have to cut it down that is.”

“Thanks for the explanation your majesty. When should we set off and start our search?”

“As soon as possible—but give me a few minutes to decide which soldiers to send as we only have a limited amount, as you know.”

“Of course, your majesty, I’ll be waiting for your orders in the church—while I oversee the healing of the injured militia man.”

“Of course, go ahead.” I said, and watches as Joshua left my home.

I then leaned on my desk, with some paperwork in front of me, with a quill, some ink, a few fruits and a flask of water as snacks.

Some light poured in from the few small holes in the house that barely counted as windows, and then I straightened my back and turned towards Rae, who had stolen another one of my pears, and was busy gulfing it down.

“Rae, tell me what these monsters are.” I asked her, and she stopped chewing on the fruit, and simply pushed it down her throat with a single finger, seemingly with no resistance from her body but... she was also a goddess so breaking the laws of nature was to be expected.

“Hell no. Go figure it yourself.”

“I don’t want to bother with it too much. Just tell me if I should just exterminate them, or let them live?”

“I mean... your little speech back there about forests festering with illness was pretty correct. If you kill them, there will be unseen consequences in a few decades, and the forest will rot slightly quicker.

“But if you don’t, these problems with them attacking your people will continue, and people will definitely die. The choice is yours. Will you let the forest you are planning on letting rot, rot faster, or will you try to keep it alive for a bit longer?”

“...I feel like you are trying get me to kill them.”

“Eh, not really. Whatever your choice is, the future of your empire will still be quite entertaining for me, so I have no problems with what you choose to do!”

“...You are lucky I am the only person that can hear you, because you really do sound like fucking satan sometimes.”

“Wait? What’s wrong with brother satan?”

“W-wait, you are Satan’s fucking little sis—wait, why am I surprised. Of fucking course you are.”