「I'm going to the forest.」

「Watch out for bears and wolves.」

It's been a week since I first brought home those guinea fowl, and lately, my father has been in high spirits. I think it's fair if I take a lot of the credit for that.

Even though I am still a seven-year-old child, and am generally considered to be immature, I was contributing more than my fair share to the family.

Everyone originally thought that I couldn't be helpful, but now I go out hunting every day for guinea fowls, which are known to be difficult to hunt (even for professional hunters). I also forage, often finding wild strawberries, yams, wild edible plants, and a few other interesting ingredients.

Ever since I started coming home with a bounty every day my reputation with my family has dramatically improved.

Ever since we expanded the farmland, most of the villagers have been assigned farm work. As a result, fewer people have the requisite free time to be able to hunt and gather in the forest.

The fact is that bread is the staple food of our people, so we need to ensure that we have a good wheat harvest each year. When Father considered that in conjunction with the growing population, he felt it necessary to reallocate workers from hunting and foraging to farming. The territory can't afford to have its precious labour force dying in the forest, after all. As such, I am pretty much the only one that is allowed to enter the forest.

All of the other children are busy helping out in the fields or are otherwise occupied by the family business.

I don't know what to think of nobles that have to rely on the earning power of a seven-year-old, but I would wager that this is a daily reality for lots of families in this world, not just in the poor, low-ranking noble households like my own.

Nonetheless, I will continue to hunt and gather, if for no other reason than to add some variety to my own diet.

If I persist, I can guarantee that I will always have a guinea fowl for dinner with a side of wild veggies. I can also use the wild strawberries to make jam for that brown bread.

Besides all the food that I can gather, I am free to practice magic as I please in the forest.

I can't really practice flashy《Attack Magic》spells as I may attract unwanted attention towards myself so I mainly stick to《Support Magic》that reinforces and strengthens my body, and《Healing Magic》to replenish my energy when I am exhausted.

Recently, I learned a new《Support》type spell, called《Detect》, of 《Gou》level and actively use it looking out for threatening wild animals when I advance into the depths of the forest.

Detection magic allows me to sense the presence of anyone and anything within a certain distance. The guidebook suggests that very few have the aptitude and ability to successfully master it.

I can use it, but my accuracy is far from perfect. True masters of detection magic can sense movement within a 10-kilometre radius. They also have pinpoint accuracy.

While less exceptional users may only be able to sense that there are living beings in the area without being able to discern any specifics, advanced users may be able to sense how many beings there are, and even the size and sort of beings they are (e.g. they can tell humans from monsters and monsters from animals).

What's even more amazing is that true masters can remember the unique signature of each human and monster that they have detected at least once before. They're basically human radar detectors that can identify anyone or anything that enters their range.

I've heard of a person that had such terrifying precision at detection.

So far, my training has only progressed to the point where my range is about a one-kilometre radius from where I stand. I can, however, discern the size and number of the lifeforms that I detect, so I consider my progress to be quite a success.

Because of my new ability, I am now able to detect humans and wild animals such as rabbits, wild boars, and bears.

Today, I decided to try a new spell out of one of the books of magic from the study.

This new spell is a《Support》type called,《Report》, of《Gou》level and is supposed to inform the user if something of value enters its range.

After activating the spell I noticed that a dim, thin light sprang into being in several places. Upon closer inspection, the light shone from the vines of wild yams that stretched from the ground around the base of a tree up into its branches. Some aconite grew naturally around the area as well.

It seems that the spell highlights the location of certain valuable items by dimly illuminating the physical body of any items in the user's field of vision.

Although wild yam is a valid food source, aconite isn't particularly useful. It's a poisonous plant that would often be used as an ingredient in poisons that were popular among assassins.

I had heard that certain poisons had medicinal uses if prepared correctly, or if the proper dose was administered, but I decided to leave it for the time being given that I can't find a useful purpose for it at this time.

Instead, I dig up the wild yams using another《Support》type spell,《Dig》, of《Gou》level, a spell that I found in my Intermediate spellbook. 《Dig》is a form of earth magic, but I have improved on it by adding some custom flourishes of my own design.

If a seven years old kid started digging up a wild yam in the morning, in the absence of tools or other help it would be dark by the time he finished.

Once I finally managed to get it out of the ground, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the yam was quite large, with a length of about two meters. This really reinforces the fact that not that many people come into the forest. Even though it's a stunning wild yam, it's so large that it is cumbersome, and it would be inconvenient to try to carry it as is.

There is no point in selling it either, so I break it into halves and put the pieces into my backpack.

Next, I come across two guinea fowls, which I skillfully take down and collect. My only other task is to fill my backpack with edible wild plants.

「But I can't understand the ecosystem in this forest...」

I can't say it's shocking that this forest feels alien to me. It's not like I expected to find a proper forest. But this place has some bizarre flora or fauna that I doubt is even listed in my book. Those anomalies aside, the pine, cedar, and broadleaf trees; the rabbits, wild boars, bears, and wolves; the wild yams and edible wild plants—these were immediately recognizable.

Yet even these sights that should be so familiar to me are presented against a backdrop rife with subtle idiosyncrasies that make the whole scene feel like chaos. Still, the forest is lush and bountiful. Some might call it the blessing of being in nature.

With nearly every villager busy farming, the only people that frequently hunt and gather (besides me) are the professional hunters.

Because the more aggressive local fauna poses such a threat, many would argue that it is impossible for just one man to safely gather anything in the forest alone. As such, the professionals only enter the forest in groups of two or more.

「Even the professional hunters seem to hunt in a different forest near their home.」

So yeah, other than the few times each year that the villagers gather together into groups and go foraging en masse, people seem to rarely enter this forest.

It's a waste, but because it's possible to predict the yields from farms with relative accuracy, and because those yields turn into valuable tax revenue, it makes sense to prioritize farmwork. The bounty of the forest, on the other hand, is considered to be the blessings of nature. For that reason, it's difficult to tax, so I don't blame the nobles for not giving it a priority. I guess it's a pretty rational move for a noble.

Because our territory is isolated on the frontier, and trade with other territories is rare, we can't afford to be anything less than self-sufficient without raising the realistic possibility of starvation.

「Next is...」

I continue to scan for items highlighted by《Report》, and eventually happen across a tree that contains some sort of fresh fruit that looks a lot like loquat.

It certainly looks like it came from the loquat family.

I scan the fruit for poison using《Detect》and, detecting none, I peel the skin and try a bite.

The sweet taste of fruit juice gradually spreads across my palate.

Moving on, I gather several fruits that resemble persimmon. Given that the fruit is ripe on the trees, I would expect it to be autumn, but it doesn't seem to be. If I had to guess, I'd say it's late spring or early summer.

When I check in my reference book to see which trees should be bearing fruit, all that I find is a short sentence:『The season in which each tree bears fruit vary depending upon the tree's species.』

In other words, trees bear fruit in the spring as well as in the summer. Moreover, some trees wither up in the winter (even without snowfall), while others only bear fruit in winter.

This is not totally unexpected given the climate in the southern part of the continent. However, I do feel that the diet is unusually monotonous given the abundance of ingredients available in the forest.

But I can't do anything about it as a kid, so I rush home in time for my harvest to be used for tonight's dinner.

「Good work!」

I hand over the harvest to my mother. As I enjoy dinner with two additional side dishes, my father abruptly begins to speak.

「Hunter Emmanuel claims to have seen a Goblin leader being beaten to death by other monsters.」

「Is that really true, Father?!」

My eldest brother, Karl, couldn't contain the surprise in his voice.

「Yeah.」

「Why did they do so...?」

「Nobody knows. At first, we thought that it was the usual territorial feud between monsters but after killing the Goblin leader, no monster seems to have occupied that area.」

It's common knowledge that monsters don't leave their domain, but the territorial feud is an exception.

After explaining a bit more to my elder brother Karl and Ralph. My father turned to me.

「And you too, Claude, that's why you need to be careful when you enter the forest. In the end, there is a possibility that the monsters may wander out of their territory.」

While listening to my (surprisingly irresponsible) father's explanation, I felt the spark of fascination within me. However, that spark only stayed for a moment as I lost myself munching down the delicious bird kept in front of me on the table.

◆◇◆◇◆

I meet with Aiden today. Yesterday after resolving our issues, we could play normally now. Because Aiden is my best friend and I trust him, I opened up and told him that I could use magic.

At first, he didn't want to believe me. Well, I just showed him a few spells and he was in awe. Currently, he is the only one who knows that I can use magic. I told him to keep it a secret to which he agreed.

We usually play together with magic when no one is around. Of course, I only use spells that won't cause harm to anyone.

「Hey, Aiden! Did anything interesting happen while I wasn't present?」

Because I was under house arrest for 1 month, I didn't know what was happening in the village. As such, I just wanted to confirm, just in case, if I might have missed out on something.

「Ummmmm......no, not really. There was this news that was delivered by the merchant that came to trade with us during that time period though.」

「What was it?」

「Apparently, the 1st princess of Zariya has gotten engaged to a Duke or something. I heard she was about our age too. I don't really remember much as I didn't pay much attention to it. Sorry.」

「....I see」

Damn those rich bastards, getting a fiancé at such a young age. I have even heard rumours that the 1st princess of Zariya is lovely, pleasing and above all insanely attractive. 

Didn't that Duke guy hit the jackpot?

And then look at me! 

All village girls don't even wanna associate with me. They run away with a 'Kyaa!' in disgust if I even try to approach them. The only reason they even come close to me is because of my guy, Aiden.

Aiden is rather popular in the village. Actually, let me rephrase that, Aiden is very popular within the village. He gets invited by the village children to play with them all the time. But the moment I try to join them, they run away!

It's due to my face, isn't it?

Even though Aiden says that I am handsome and that it's just them being shy, it probably due to his goodwill. 

What a kind guy! Go for it Aiden! Even if you get a girlfriend before me, I still have got your back.

「Ummm.....Claude, you have got that weird face on you again.」

「Ah! Its nothing, I was just thinking about this Duke that you mentioned just now.」

「.....O-ok.」

I keep cursing that lucky Duke in the back of my mind while playing with Aiden. We play like this until it gets dark.