NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17: Lumber
Over a week had past and Naru was beginning to see changes in the forest. The trunks had gotten thinner and more of the forest appeared to have evidence of humans.
Naru would occasionally hear humans in the forest. Since she had better than average hearing she was better equipped to hide from the humans.
Still, she kept moving forward.
Naru’s plan was to blend in with humans.
In truth, it would make more sense for her to hide and live alone, but Naru for some reason couldn’t accept that future.
Naru had been a human in her past life, the idea of living alone was, well… Lonely.
She still wanted to be able to make friends and live a happy life even after the tragedy that she experienced.
Naru knew it was foolish but she wanted to do it anyway. Which is why she continued to move forward.
The undergrowth was growing less and less dense and now Naru was beginning to see tree stumps.
[I must be getting close to human settlement] Naru thought.
She spotted an opening in the tree in front of her. Walking beyond it she saw a field of fallen trees.
Now, Naru wasn’t much of an environmentalist, but even she felt a little sad seeing so many large trees reduced to mere stumps.
It was a sad fact of reality, humans needed lumber to live after all. Despite the experiences she had it wasn’t like she resented humans. She was one herself at one point after all.
The number of fallen trees was still abnormal and made her feel like this wasn’t just the lumber use of a single village.
[A lumber yard perhaps?] Naru thought.
Timber was a commodity after all. It would make sense that whoever lived her made a living off selling it. The forest was large enough to do it after all.
Naru ponder such thoughts as she wandered on the edge of the clearing. Although she wished to mingle with humans she didn’t think meeting them right now would be a good idea. She would have a hard time explaining why she was in the forest, as a young teen girl after all.
Naru looked around 14 to 15 years of age. Although she was sure she would mature in time it was still probably young enough that people would wonder why she was there.
Naru continued to edge along with the clearing which was in the shape of a large half-circle.
She began to see several trails of smoke in distance along with a grey wall of sorts. Once she got even closer she realized it was a town surround what appeared to be a castle town of the sort.
The castle town must’ve grown so large that people started building outside of it.
[So I’ve been near a city the entire time] Naru thought. She began to walk towards it in hopes that in the city she would be able to find a place to stay.
She didn’t have any money though which was cause for concern.
[I guess, I’ll need to find a job once I get inside]
Naru’s experience with looking for a job involved wearing a pantsuit. She was unsure of how to get a job in this world as well.
[At least I don’t have to write a resume. Not that I can anyway… I can’t even write this world's language after all, when I came to this world I could tell they spoke a different language but something is translating it for me.]
Still, she strode towards the city.
The town surrounding the walls was simple and looked much like a typical medieval town, with sloped roofed buildings and brick and wood construction. Naru paused on the outskirts of the town. The people seemed to ignore her. At the very least she looked human enough that she wouldn’t stick out too much.
Although her clothing was a little different than the clothing of the people of the town it was close enough to not stand out. Still, Naru could easily make adjustments and soon she looked just like every other girl in the town. Except for the hat on her head to hide her deer ears.
Naru’s deer ears were a curious thing. They were on the top of her scalp on the sides of her head. Despite being in such an odd spot it felt natural to have her ears there.
This also came with a slight problem. Where Naru would normally have “human” ears was instead flat skin.
This was a problem. So Naru tried to hide the spot with her long brown hair as much as possible and make it look as if her hair was hiding her human ears, that didn’t exist.
[Okay, let’s look around first]
There were no roads in this part of the town. Rather it was dirt that had been hard-packed town after so many people had passed through and Naru plodded along taking in the sights.
The buildings at the edge of the village were newer but also more rickety and rough than the building farther into the town. Obviously, it seemed like there was a wealth gap in the town. As Naru got farther in, she began to notice people in nicer-looking clothing and was increasingly aware that’s she stuck out.
