Out Of The Godforsaken Forest

I opened my eyes.

'...Huh?!'

I closed my eyes and opened them again.

I stared in shock at the wooden ceiling above me.

Then, before I knew it, I started crying.

"I'm... alive. I'm... actually alive."

I sobbed. Snot started running down my face. I tried my best to wipe away both my tears and snot, but they just kept coming.

'I lived. I LIVED!'

I clenched the blanket that was on top of me. I covered my face with it.

"Hick. I... I'm alive. Hick. I survived."

I cried. I couldn't stop crying. The relief I felt at that point wasn't something that could be explained in words.

It was so painful. It was so scary.

But I had survived.

"Ah, how pleasant it is... to be alive."

***

I opened my eyes.

It took me a bit to process the situation.

'Did I... fall asleep while crying?'

Yes, that is exactly what happened.

After taking a look at the bed, I could see that it was a mess. And not only that, some parts of it were wet and covered in snot.

'Oof. I'm sorry to whoever is going to have to clean this.'

Anyway, after getting everything out of my system ― I probably cried for like 10 minutes straight ― it seemed like I could think properly again.

First things first, I was in a wooden house.

The bed I was sleeping in was semi-comfortable. Though, compared to what I had in the forest, it might as well be heaven.

I looked out the window. The sun was just starting to rise and the sky was a pleasant orange.

'Pleasant, huh? Yeah, it is indeed pleasant.'

I stared at the scene outside the window for a bit. Something about it just felt soothing to the heart.

I could see multiple other wooden houses all around.

'Looks like a village.'

I got up from the bed. It was only then that I noticed that I was completely naked. Like, not even boxers.

After looking around for a bit, I noticed my clothes lying on a table.

I put them on, surprisngly, they were completely fresh and dry.

Now that I thought about it, I was completely clean too, along with my hand being healed.

'Magic?'

There was no other explanation.

My left sleeve was still torn apart though. It seemed like magic couldn't fix that.

I tried to move around my left hand, but it didn't feel quite right.

"Seems like, while it is fully healed, it still needs some time to adjust."

'Holy moly, I can talk now too!'

And it didn't hurt! My throat was healed too!

I kneeled and bowed all the way to the floor.

'Oh, thank you to whoever healed me! May you be blessed!'

I stayed like that for a bit. Talking and not being in pain felt so nice that I couldn't not pray to the person who healed me.

Anyway, I stood up and studied the room for a bit.

It was nothing special. Just a table with a chair next to it, a bed, a window, some drawers and a closet.

A regular room with nothing out of the ordinary.

My backpack was on the floor, it seemed to be in fine condition.

I walked through the door I neglected to mention.

The room I found myself in looked like a kitchen.

Right next to the door I just went through was another door, probably to another room similar to the one I just exited.

The kitchen had another door, which lead outside.

After walking through it, I was hit with the fresh, calming air.

And also with the horrific sight of the forest.

I shivered a bit, remembering everything that happened to me.

I turned away from the forest, just looking at it was making me get goosebumps.

I instead breathed in the fresh air, trying to calm myself down.

'Was air always this tasty?'

For some reason, the air here felt especially fresh and nice. Perhaps it was because the air back in my old world was always full of pollution, so this one felt much better.

I walked around the village a bit. Everyone was still sleeping, it seems.

After walking to the edge of it, I sat down and looked at the rising sun.

'Hm... I lost my phone, huh?'

It seemed like at some point in my journey, I had lost my phone. It wasn't too bad though, there was no way it could be useful to me in any way. It had already lost all of its battery, and I didn't know how to charge it in this medieval world in the first place.

'Or, I at least hope that this is a medieval world. Otherwise, losing my phone is a big problem.'

Whatever, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that. After all―

'I'm out of that godforsaken forest. Finally.'

I breathed a sigh of relief. My struggling wasn't for nothing.

I had lived, and I was now safe. I wasn't bleeding and I wasn't hungry nor thirsty.

Everything was fine now.

...But―

'I expected this, but not on this scale.'

I felt empty. Beyond empty.

I knew the reason for this, of course.

...I missed my old world.

I missed my friends, my parents.

Hell, I even missed my phone and my computer.

I missed a lot of things about my old world.

'It's... time to think about my direction going forward.'

I had a couple of choices right now.

1. I completely forget about my old world and start fully living in this one.

2. I search for a way to return to my old world, completely disregarding this one.

3. I try my best to live in this world, while at the same time searching for a way to go back to my old one.

This was a hard choice. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that my whole life would depend on this.

'...Option three it is.'

I had decided my way of life.

I would live in this world, try to make friends, make relationships and such, but at the same time I wouldn't give up on going back to my old world, constantly searching for solutions.

'Heh, I'm so pathetic.'

I couldn't help but chuckle at how indicisive I was.

After all, both options one and two required strong determination. The willpower to completely disregard one of the two worlds... that's not something I had.

So I went with the safest of the choices, number three.

"Well, it's fine to be pathetic, right?"

With that remark, I got up, stretched, and walked back to the house I woke up in.

I sat down on one of the chairs in the kitchen and started waiting.

'Well, let's see the people this world has to offer, shall we?'

I expectantly looked towards the only door I hadn't opened yet.

***

After waiting for quite a long time, the door finally opened.

In walked a burly, muscular and mostly naked man.

He looked sleepy, and only realized the situation he was in after a couple of seconds. His eyes opened in shock.

He closed the door as fast as he could.

'...A naked burly man is my first impression of people in this world... What a comical situation.'

Luckily, it wasn't a naked woman. That would've been a disaster.

'...There's almost no soundproofing in this house, huh?'

I could hear every single movement from the other room. How the man was walking, how he was opening drawers and the closet.

This meant that everything I did had to be very secretive. If I planned to live here, that is.

'Noted. No crying aloud anymore.'

I didn't even want to think about the embarrassment I would feel if someone heard me crying from another room.

Like, crying right in front of people was fine, but hearing someone else cry from another room? That was way too weird.

Anyway, after waiting for a while, the man opened the door once again, this time fully dressed.

He sheepishly scratched his bald head.

"Krugz, kilatunau."

Suddenly, my brain exploded with pain.

"Kha!"

I fell from the chair straight to the floor.

Suddenly, a pool of blood started spreading on the floor.

I touched my nose and my hand came back bloodied.

'A nosebleed?!'

My head hurt, and I could hear the burly man running around in surprise, but I couldn't quite tell what was happening.

I was on my knees, unable to do anything but stare at the bloody puddle beneath me.

Eventually, the pain slowly started receding. Not only that, there was a soothing sensation around my head, almost as if someone was caressing it with love.

After all the pain went away, the soothing sensation still continued.

"I-I'm fine now. You can stop."

The sensation stopped just as I said that.

I looked up and saw the concerned face of a beautiful woman who looked like an angel. She had blonde hair and blue eyes.

I slowly stood up.

"Sorry for all that. I made a mess."

A booming voice suddenly resounded in the room.

"No worries, you can explain everything one by one. Why don't we sit down?"

It was the man. He was now sitting on one of the chairs, looking at me in worry.

'I can... understand him now?'

I tried to hide my confusion as best as I could.

"Yeah, I will answer any questions you have."

I stood up ― glanced at the puddle of blood ― and sat down on the chair opposite to the man.

The woman gracefully sat near the man.

They both looked at me in confusion. It seemed they were just as lost as me in this situation.

Suddenly, the man smiled from ear to ear.

"Alright, first things first, introductions! I'm Jagon!"

Jagon was a tall, big muscular man. He was bald, but had a beard that went all around his mouth. Strangely, his beard was green. His skin was also very tan, making it clear that he spent a lot of time under the sun.

All in all, he was the definition of what you'd call a warrior.

Then, the angel next to him smiled too.

"My name is Angelica."

Angelica ― as it was previously stated ― had blonde, almost golden, hair and blue eyes. Her skin was pale, but instead of giving off the feeling of sickness, it gave off the feeling of otherwordly beauty.

Even though she looked like an angel, she had the aura of a... clumsy girl. That was the best way I could describe it.

'Now's my turn to introduce myself...'

I thought about it for a bit. The people in front of me were definitely kind people. Who else would save a dying kid from the woods?

But even though they were kind, I couldn't risk it. I couldn't trust them completely... no, more accurately, I couldn't trust this world yet.

So I opened my mouth with a smile and said―

"My name is Faun. It's nice to meet you two."

Faun ― me ― was a young boy with black hair and black eyes. I was pretty short for people my age, and I had a weird constitution where my adam's apple wasn't visible. Other than that, I was a completely normal boy.

"Faun... that's a pretty weird name."

Jagon looked at me with interest.

"Come on, don't be like that. Jagon is one hell of a name too, you know?"

I smirked.

"Heh! That, you're right about!"

We both grinned at each other.

'He's easy to talk to.'

Anyway, now that I somewhat knew the personality of Jagon, there was one thing I had to do.

I got off my chair, walked over to Angelica and kneeled in front of her while bowing all the way to the ground.

"I sincerely thank you for healing me, Angelica. I will never forget what you have done for me."

"Eh?!"

"If there is anything troubling you, I will help you with it. I will never forget this gratitude."

"I-I didn't even do much! Please don't bow to me!"

I looked up at her.

She looked just like an angel. I could even see a halo and white gorgeous wings behind her back.

She was a true angel, one that had to be revered, one that could never do any bad.

Just gazing upon her majestic being was hard for me, her holiness was too much.

Even her name perfectly matched what she was. Ah, how lucky I was to reciece her healing.

"So humble of you. Truly, your grace knows no bounds."

"What are even talking about?! Why are you talking like I'm a―?!"

Ah, sorry mom. I don't think I will be able to remain christian anymore. I have someone else I must pray to.

***

Eventually, Angelica and Jagon managed to calm me down.

Well, more accurately, I decided to calm down. Their reactions stopped being funny after about 3 minutes, so there was no reason to continue. I was fully faking my attitude after all.

That didn't mean that I wasn't thankful to Angelica, no, quite the opposite.

I owed such a big debt to her, that I would probably never be able to repay it.

'Well, that's fine. I'm not the type of guy to care about debts either way.'

The only reason debts work is because there are threats behind those debts. If there is no threat, there's no reason to repay the debt.

Anyway, back to talking with Angelica and Jagon.

"Sorry about that little performance of mine. Now, I'm sure you have questions for me. Just ask any you want."

We were back to sitting at the table.

Angelica had a troubled face, still not fully over what had just happened, while Jagon was regaining his breath from laughing too much.

'Laughing because your wife...girlfriend?... is troubled. What a personality.'

Well, I could understand him. Angelica's reaction was truly wheeze-worthy. I almost laughed myself.

Jagon took one final deep breath and looked at me. His emotions made a complete 180 flip, he now looked beyond serious.

It was almost jarring how fast his face changed.

"Let me ask you first, then. How did you end up in Zelen?"

"Um... What's Zelen?"

He raised his eyebrow at me. Looks like he didn't expect me not to know this.

"Zelen is the forest I found you in. You don't even know the name of where you were?"

I give him a wry smile.

"Honestly, I don't know anything about the world. I was raised quite... weirdly. To answer your question: one moment I closed my eyes, the next moment I found myself in a forest."

He looked at me, suspiciously.

"So you're saying that you have no idea how you got here?"

"That's right."

He stared at me for a bit. I could see his brows furrow a bit.

"You... How easy of a life have you led?"

'That's... an unexpected question.'

I was pretty confused on what prompted him to ask that question, but I didn't care much. I just continued to answer honestly.

"Very easy. No danger, no life-threatening situations... almost. A dangerous-free life."

"Just like I thought..."

He stared at me for a bit. This time around, his eyes narrowed.

We stayed in silence for an uncomfortable while. It seemed like Jagon was thinking up a question, but couldn't find a correct one.

While Jagon continued thinking, I glanced at Angelica. She wasn't concentrated on the conversation at all. Instead, she was more focused on the puddle of blood that I had left. She was frowning, she clearly didn't like what she was seeing.

Noticing my gaze, she looked at me with the same serious expression.

"We can ask you questions, right? Then can you please explain what made you have a nosebleed so suddenly?"

"To that, even I have no idea."

I shrugged. If I had to take a guess, I probably got that headache because the knowledge of this world's language was forcibly inserted into my head.

I mean, before that headache, what Jagon said sounded like complete gibberish. After it, I could perfectly understand what he was saying.

'Why so forcefully though? If a God gave me language comprehension, why did such a terrible headache have to accompany it?'

I wanted to think further, but I understood that it was useless. I had too little information.

I didn't know who sent me to this world, nor why I was sent. What point thinking why knowledge acquisition was painful, if I didn't even know the first step?

Suddenly, a voice brought me back to reality.

"I didn't want to ask this question, but... where are your parents?"

Jagon had a painful grimace on his face.

"Ah, y'know... very, very far away. So far away, that I can only... hope... to meet them again."

I didn't know how much grief was shown on my face, but both Jagon and Angelica started looking at me with pity.

'Pity, what a funny thing it is. When was the last time pity was directed at me?'

I couldn't remember. It was way too long ago.

I was pretty sure I was gonna have to get used to being pitied in this new world, though.

Jagon sighed heavily. He was about to say something, but Angelica hit him in the chest while glaring. It didn't look like she held back, but Jagon didn't even flinch.

They started staring into each other's eyes. Angelica looked mad, while Jagon looked sad.

'Haaa, what a pain.'

A family disagreement was the picture in front of me. If I had to guess, Jagon wanted me to go away, while Angelica wanted to take me under her care.

They shared information with each other through their eyes, leaving me completely out of the loop.

Eventually, Jagon started losing the staring contest, his expression was becoming uncertain.

'I don't want to sit in this atmosphere for long. How 'bout I wrap it up?'

"You are losing your point, Jagon. Just give up already. You can't win against Angelica."

Jagon got a bit startled by what I said. From his perspective, it must've looked like I read his mind.

After his momentary confusion and shock passed, he sighed. He patted Angelica with a resigned expression.

"Alright, fine. But I'm asking some more questions."

He turned to me.

"You don't have anywhere to go, right, Faun?"

"Mhm. Absolutely zero places. Unless you count the forest as one. It'd be pretty cruel to count it as I would die there in a couple of days, though."

I was trying to act cool and nonchalant here, but even I could tell that my mask was slipping. My acting wasn't good enough to hide all the turmoil I was facing right now.

'I'll use their pity then.'

If I couldn't act, then I would just have to use my failed acting.

I would allow my mask to slip more and more, making Jagon and Angelica pity me more and more. Thus, increasing the chances of them letting me stay with them.

Jagon opened his mouth with a resigned expression.

"Faun, we will take care of you for now."

'Jackpo―'

"But! You will have to live by yourself in six months. We can't take care of you after that."

'A timer, huh? Welp, nothing I can't handle.'

"Honestly, I'm thankful you're letting me stay with you at all. If I was in your situation, I wasn't sure how I'd act."

Letting myself relax a bit, I smile.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely be able to live by myself in six months. I'll try my best to repay the debt I owe too, though I can't promise that."

Angelica's face was full of... sadness and understanding. She probably wanted to take me under her care without a time limit, but she understood that what Jagon said was the right decision... for some reason.

I didn't know what was so important about six months, and it wasn't my job to find out.

All I cared about was making sure I had a stable life by the end of these six months.