The next morning, I stomped through the forest.

“Hey.”

“Hey!!”

I shouted out into the open, hearing my own voice fill the quiet of the early forest air. Other than a few birds flapping from the tree branches, my calls received no response.

My mouth twisted into a bitter smirk. This monster… Don’t tell me, it’s avoiding me?

I looked down at my feet. I cupped my face in my hands, hunching my shoulders. Then, after a few moments, I began to sob.

“Aaaaaaah, how can I live from now on??? Someone I don’t even know touched my chest!* His hand was on my intimate parts!** How am I supposed to marry after this…?!***”

 

*Because I forced him to.

**Again, because I put it there.

***No one cares if a man’s chest was touched.

 

I cried wretchedly into my hands.

Above me, the trees rustled as a gust of wind blew. Several minutes passed, and throughout the entire forest, the only thing a person could hear was the sound of my wails.

Then, a deep, rumbling voice emerged:

“You… made me…”

The low growl sent shivers down my spine. Carefully hiding my reaction, I rubbed at my eyes and sobbed, “That doesn’t change the fact that you did it!”

“....”

“Aaaah, how will I face my family? What will my parents say when they hear that their son’s innocence has been taken by a stranger? I’ve been so horribly shamed, I’ll no longer be able to live in society… I might as well just die right here, right now…”

“....” The silence felt pressured.

“Of course, if I at least saw the face of the man who had touched me, maybe I would keep enough dignity to live on…”

Choosing to act this way was risky. After all, the monster could just say, ‘Augh, you’re so noisy, shut up!’ and silence my life in an instant.

Yet, as I had hoped, a shadow silently fell from the treetops.

Now that I saw him in daylight, he really was a monster, wasn’t he. This creature that was twice as large as a normal man, with dark iridescent skin that gleamed almost like an underwater shadow. Enormous hands which ended in sharp claws, and long hair which obscured a face that was certainly not human. A glint of a many-toothed jaw peeked from behind the curtain of that hair.

So this was the monster of Everglace Forest.

My eyes were drawn like magnets to the center of his legs.

As I had thought! Even that loincloth covering it could do nothing to hide such a fierce presence!

A predatory sparkle shone in my eyes. Under my gaze, the monster of the forest seemed to shrink back nervously.

“Now… now you can go back... “

He almost seemed to be begging me, ‘Please leave!’ as he spoke.

But who would I be, if I left so soon without completing my negotiations? I wouldn’t be able to call myself an expert trader if I did! Thus, I pretended to wipe away a few more mock tears.

“Aaah, so now I know your face… I’ll still be able to live… but without knowing your name, how can I possibly go back? Should I tell everyone that I was touched by a man whose name I don’t even know?”

Look at me, so pitiful. The tears I wiped away shone on my fingers like morning dew.

“...”

The monster seemed overwhelmed by my words. I encouraged, “Won’t you tell me your name?”

“...” The monster carried the weight of a large burden on his shoulders. “Don’t… have one…”

“Oh, dear. Well, that won’t do at all.” I looked up at him. Such a large monster, he must have lived for at least two or three decades. He had never taken a name in that entire time? Or rather, no one had ever called for him?

‘Demon’, ‘monster’, ‘murderer’, those were likely the only words that had ever been used to describe him. Had he never been given the chance to define himself as anything other than what others feared him to be?

That was such a truly sad life. “Then, in that case, let’s find a name for you.” I knew the names of millions of people from all around the continent, but rather than having him borrow someone else’s name, it was better for him to choose one for himself. “Have you ever thought of a word that you wanted to be called?”

The monster seemed to look at me in confusion from behind the veil of his hair. He shook his head. Of course. If people did not speak to him, why would he need to be called anything?

“Then tell me about some of your favorite things. What do you like?”

“Like…?”

“Mm!” I nodded with a smile. “Something that makes you happy, like this!” I pointed at the brilliant and beaming expression on my face.*

*Don’t ask where the tears of two minutes ago went.

The monster thought for a while, shuffling on his haunches. After thinking of something, he turned around and rummaged through the forest bushes. “These…” He faced me again, and unfurled his fingers. There, nestled in the palm of his large and clawed hand, were a few round and ripe berries.

“So you like berries…” How unexpected. Though the monster had such sharp teeth, he actually enjoyed these tiny and sweet little fruits. Did that mean he had an omnivorous diet? I smiled. “That would be a good name for you. ‘Berry’. How does that sound?”

“Ber...ry?” The monster repeated the world slowly. “That’s… me?”

“Mhm. That’s right. Berry. Do you like it?”

“Like…” The monster looked down. “I... like…”

I beamed and clapped my hands. “Wonderful! Then from now on, your name is Berry. Isn’t that great?”

“...” The monster shuffled a little. Maybe he was happy at receiving a name, or maybe he was just uncomfortable. Either way, he picked right back up on our previous conversation, showing that he wasn’t as easy to distract as I thought. “You know… my name… so…”

‘So please leave!’ It was obvious that he really, truly, wanted me out of this forest. The only thing was, rather than a grisly monster guarding his forest, he acted more like a newly-married wife who had just received guests at her home for the first time, and whoaaa, just how long did these aunties have to talk, it’s already been eight hours since they arrived, didn’t they have things to do? Why were they still here? How much did they have to talk?! And they kept eating all her snacks and drinking her tea… Aaah, but she didn’t know how to ask them to leave, wasn’t it rude if she told them they were overstaying their visit? But they really didn’t seem to get the hint…! She really wanted to relax at home, you know…! Please notice the hint…!

Y’see, the thing is, if you allow yourself to be taken advantage of, then unscrupulous people like me will definitely take advantage of you. Brutally ignoring his hints, I let out a troubled sigh and placed a hand to my cheek. “Aah, but even if I know your name, we’re still strangers, you know. That doesn’t solve a single problem at all!”

“...”

“You know, in order for two people to move from ‘strangers’ to ‘acquaintances’, they have to get to know each other. I know your name, but you still don’t know mine. If we don’t even know each other’s names, aren’t we strangers?”

“...” The monster let out a palpable aura of resignation. “What is… your name…”

“My name is Klue.” I reached out my hand with a smile. “When two people introduce themselves to each other,  they shake hands to form an acquaintance. Hold my hand.”

The monster hesitantly extended his claws and gently held my hand between two of his fingers. Of course, he could have easily chopped my hand off my wrist with those claws of his, but… it seemed like, for a monster, he really wasn’t interested in that sort of thing, huh?

What a curious ‘monster’.

Smiling, I moved my hand up and down while holding his fingers. The skin was tough and leathery, but also exceptionally warm. “Nice to meet you, Berry. Let’s get along well from now on, okay?”

“From… now on…?”

“Of course! We’ll have to talk and meet so much more for us to become friends, after all!”

“.....??!”

Thus, I taught Berry, the monster of Everglace Forest, an important lesson: don’t give a scammer an inch, or he’ll take a whole mile.