How to Use the Lord’s Future Diary

Chapter 13

Surprisingly, beastmen existed in this world.

It was one of the elements that made me truly realize this place was a genuine ‘fantasy-like otherworld,’ beyond just mana or aura.

I had already known of the beastmen’s existence through Iron’s memories, but seeing them directly with my own eyes felt incredibly fascinating.

‘But why is a beastman here?’

The beastmen’s territory was in the north of the Ribella Peninsula, and beyond that lay the great plains.

If one went west past the Ribella Peninsula, the ‘Empire’ would appear, and the beastmen’s territory could be considered a buffer zone between the Empire and the Kingdom.

In other words, even by the standard of the Johnson Territory, the beastmen’s domain was still located to the north.

So discovering that a beastman lived in the Forest of Illusions was completely unexpected and baffling.

“What should we do?”

“What else? We should try talking. We’re on fairly decent terms with the beastmen, aren’t we?”

“Isn’t this your first time with the Rabbit Tribe? I heard each beastman tribe has a completely different temperament.”

“Still, it’s got to be easier than with lions.”

“Well, that’s true.”

The sworn enemy of the beastmen was the Empire.

Because the beastmen had escaped the Empire, where they lived as slaves, and built new homes in the great plains, the Empire and beastmen were bitter enemies.

In contrast, our Kingdom merely had a distant and indifferent relationship with them.

Since the Kingdom was practically half an enemy of the Empire as well, there was no real reason to view beastmen as bad.

There had been frictions along the borders, of course, but never major conflicts.

Honestly, the Johnson Territory had more frequent clashes with other frontier lords within the Kingdom than with beastmen.

‘That Mana Cannon too, we only acquired it for defense or siege purposes.’

After the Great Cataclysm, we entered into a more active cooperative relationship with the beastmen.

Monsters did not discriminate between beastmen and humans, and humans—who could at least communicate—were preferable to monsters.

Even now, the human survivors from the Empire and the beastmen were still enemies, but the Kingdom’s survivors actively interacted with the beastmen.

From the beastmen’s perspective, survivors from the Empire were not simply “humans.” As for us, since we were from the Kingdom, we managed to continue exchanges with them.

And I myself thought the beastmen were fairly decent.

Looking into Iron’s memories, I saw that he had often encountered beastmen during expeditions in the Monster Mountains, and surprisingly, they had gotten along well enough.

There was no reason to be prejudiced against beastmen.

‘Besides, that guy doesn’t look quite like the beastmen I knew. He doesn’t really feel like one. Is it because his tribe is different? They did say beastmen vary drastically depending on the tribe.’

The ones I had met were from the Lion Tribe, beyond the Monster Mountains, while this one belonged to the Rabbit Tribe. It seemed natural for there to be a difference.

“Radeta Rokuna? Roberasio Rijejesaije Nao? (Humans? Who are you?)”

“Ugh, here we go.”

Since it came to this, I wanted to at least ask why a beastman was here, and maybe whether he could help us. But the problem was—we couldn’t communicate.

It seemed this beastman couldn’t speak the human tongue.

The lion beastmen Iron had met before could speak human language, albeit clumsily, but in this case, things were really troublesome.

“You mean the beastmen’s language? I don’t know it.”

“Didn’t you call yourself a doctor? You said you traveled around a lot, so I thought you’d been up north too.”

“Eh, these days, even if you go to the beastmen’s tribes, most of them understand human speech well enough. Not all, but a lot more can communicate now.”

“Ah, I see.”

This guy was really useless.

Calling himself a doctor, yet not even knowing the beastmen’s language.

Well, considering that exchanges with humans had become more common, it wasn’t strange that more beastmen learned our language.

The lion tribe I had negotiated with probably learned our tongue through that same process.

“Ah, right. Now that I think of it.”

While I was worrying about what to do, an old memory surfaced.

One of the beastmen I had met back then had taught me something.

What was it again… some kind of welcoming greeting exchanged when beastmen first met?

“Ah, let’s see… Dekramela Roberasio Lurude Saiya Rwekeya? (If you don’t wanna die, raise your hands and drop your tail, you bastard?)”

“…H-hiiik!”

I smiled as kindly as I could while greeting him, but his reaction was anything but normal.

He suddenly threw his hands up and muttered something, his pupils darting wildly in panic—it was clear his state was very unstable.

“Hu… huuuuuh…”

And then, tears started pouring down.

I found myself in an extremely awkward situation.

“What on earth did you say to make him react like that?”

“It was just a friendly greeting. Why is he like this?”

“Oh, come on. If someone as scary-looking as you suddenly grins weirdly while saying that, anyone would react like that.”

“What? Me?”

“Exactly. It’s like some thug suddenly puts a hand on your shoulder and says, ‘Nice to see you, you bastard.’ That’s basically what you did.”

“That’s not it. Where could you find someone with such a kind face like mine?”

Seriously, what the hell had that lion bastard taught me?

Why did I have to hear this kind of comment from Rudick?

Honestly, that guy suited martial arts novels more than fantasy settings.

Places like the Southern Beast Palace or the Eighteen Strongholds of the Green Forest.

Not only did I have to put up with Rudick mocking my appearance, now even this beastman had burst into tears.

It felt like everything was getting tangled up, leaving me exhausted right from the start.

It seemed the Forest of Illusions wasn’t a place that suited me at all.

---

The rabbit beastman finally stopped crying after some time had passed.

That was when an elderly rabbit beastman approached us and opened a conversation.

Fortunately, this elder of the Rabbit Tribe could speak human language, and we were barely able to clear up the misunderstanding.

“So, what I said was…”

“‘If you don’t wanna die, raise your hands and drop your tail.’ That’s what it meant. It’s something a belligerent beastman would say when threatening an opponent.”

“Ah, I see.”

So that damned lion beastman had tricked me by calling that a welcoming greeting.

If a group of heavily armed humans suddenly showed up and said something like that, no wonder they were startled.

It was a relief we found a beastman who understood our language, or the misunderstanding could have grown worse.

“So, you’re the human chieftain, is that correct?”

“By beastman standards, yes. If you go northwest out of this forest, you’ll find our territory.”

“Ah, that place…”

When I explained the location of the Johnson Territory, the elder of the Rabbit Tribe, Luxa, nodded.

It seemed he knew at least something about the Johnson Territory.

The atmosphere wasn’t particularly bad.

If his expression was a little stiff, it was probably because our side’s forces were too overwhelming.

The fact that we were having this conversation at all was already a good sign.

“But why is a beastman here? Don’t beastmen usually live further north?”

Curious about the situation, I asked the question that had been on my mind.

I wondered why a beastman would live here of all places.

As it turned out, the Rabbit Tribe had lived here for a very long time.

“…So that’s what happened.”

It was before the Great Cataclysm, back when the Johnson Territory was just being established.

Originally, this area was under the control of the Boar Tribe, a pig tribe of beastmen.

And the Rabbit Tribe had lived under them, almost like slaves.

Later, when the Kingdom secured this region to stabilize the borders, the Boar Tribe was driven north, and the Rabbit Tribe escaped along with them and settled in this forest.

‘The Boar Tribe, huh. That’s absurd. Beastmen themselves escaped slavery from the Empire, only to treat other tribes like slaves. No wonder beastmen can’t unite.’

I’d heard the reason beastmen—who were naturally adept at mana and had many warriors at the level of human knights—became slaves to the Empire was because of inter-tribal conflict.

What a farce.

Even now, they said, there were still tribes who didn’t get along.

“You must have gone through a lot.”

“When monsters suddenly appeared, it was chaos. Even now it’s hard. That’s why some of our tribe went down to live among humans.”

“Is that so?”

If it had been before the Great Cataclysm, maybe, but after the Cataclysm this forest was declared a forbidden zone. Yet they had managed to keep living here.

What incredible people.

And the more I listened, the more impressed I became.

“So you lure monsters into fighting each other, or use traps to shake them off? And then live in dugout tunnels?”

The Rabbit Tribe were natural masters of evasion. To prepare for emergencies, they set traps and snares everywhere.

On top of that, they lived in scattered family units in underground burrows.

Their adaptability was insane.

At this point, they were as tenacious as the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

After all, they had fought guerrilla warfare against monsters throughout the entire Great Cataclysm.

“You farm?”

“Yes, alongside gathering.”

“Ah, right. I saw fields.”

“Of course, sometimes we also go outside to sell medicinal herbs. For things we can’t get in the forest, we have no choice but to obtain them from outside.”

Even under such conditions, they still practiced small-scale farming.

They collected herbs and sold them in human territories, but their core livelihood was still farming.

The human territories they traded with were likely to the south.

After all, the regions specializing in fabrics and things hard to get from the forest were mostly in the south.

‘Truly impressive.’

The more I heard, the more amazed I was.

Simply surviving for decades in this forbidden Forest of Illusions alone made them masters of survival.

But to think they even farmed under such extreme circumstances?

‘Wait, farmers who can cultivate land even in the Forest of Illusions? Wouldn’t the southern lands of Johnson Castle seem like peaceful farmland to them?’

It made sense when I thought about it.

The area south of Johnson Castle had frequent monster appearances, but it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as living with death hanging over you in the Forest of Illusions.

More importantly, that agricultural instinct—plowing fields even in such a place—was exactly what our territory lacked most.

Our own people had an almost suspicious lack of interest in farming.

“Say… would you consider migrating to our territory?”

“…To the Johnson Territory?”

“Of course, our land isn’t exactly abundant either, but surely it’s better than here.”

“Well, that’s…”

I thought it was a pretty good offer, but his response wasn’t very positive.

His face showed a mixture of emotions.

It was clear he was deeply conflicted.

After thinking for a while, Luxa finally shook his head.

“Migration would be difficult. This is no simple matter.”

“I see. Well, I guess you couldn’t decide something so important right away. But still, give it some thought. The Johnson Territory is not a bad place.”

“Yes, thank you for your consideration.”

Ah, so it won’t work.

Well, I suppose it’s not easy to secure workers of such master-level skill.

But I had no intention of giving up.

Even if not now, someday—I would definitely bring these people into our territory.