“This oddly reminds me of the Four-Legged Rainforest...”

Jio looked around.

“They really do look alike.”

PEEP.

“You even agree with me. You have the makings of a friend.”

PEEE...

“Yes, yes.”

As the two exchanged remarks, Honey popped out of his hood.

GURGLE?

“You’re my child, Honey.”

COO.

Satisfied, Honey went back into the hood.

‘Was I always destined to have so many animals in my life?’

He had often encountered wild boars and water deer even in that peaceful, close-knit mountain village in Gangwon Province, but somehow he seemed to meet animals more often since becoming a portrait.

“This, too, must be part of nature’s cycle.”

Having spouted some nonsense, Jio thought,

‘Could the Four-Legged Rainforest have originated here somehow? They really do look alike.’

But Arjio himself knew better than anyone that this was a separate dimension from the Four-Legged Rainforest. Returning to his homeland after so long, he marveled at its picture-perfect devastation.

“... What on earth happened?”

The Black Forest had always been dense. But its infamy came from the tightly packed trees soaking up rainwater and showering down poisonous rain at all hours. That arrangement could never have worked without exposure to the sky.

The questions only kept multiplying.

“...”

Jio looked at the ceiling.

‘... The Four-Legged Rainforest ended up inside a cave when it was transported between dimensions, but I can hardly guess what happened here. This place merely perished. It shouldn’t have moved to another dimension or received a displaced one...’

Was his only option to look around some more?

“Want to come along?”

“...”

The deer tilted its head, then disappeared.

“Hmm.”

What a shy friend.

“Leaving without so much as a goodbye.”

It could have spared him a word.

“It’s just the two of us again today, Honey.”

GURRR.

Honey called as if nothing else mattered so long as he had Daddy. Jio gently cupped and stroked the little bird, which had settled back on his shoulder before he knew it, and resumed walking. The more he saw, the more he would learn.

The atmosphere was markedly different from the Four-Legged Rainforest, which had at least been fresh and green. True to the name “Black Forest,” every plant was stained black and deep blue-green, and the dense leaves cast oppressive shadows.

“This hasn’t changed.”

In the Black Forest, it was essentially impossible to tell day from night.

“At least back then I could tell the time by how hot or cold it was. Now that it’s entirely underground, even that is difficult. Don’t you think?”

COO...

“Is it just cold all the time now? I suppose we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out... Though I don’t know how it could generate heat underground.”

Unlike the Four-Legged Rainforest, whose vegetation at least looked like ‘plants,’ the Black Forest was filled with bizarre life-forms twisted into abstract shapes. They were quite familiar friends to Arjio.

“How lovely to see you.”

Eating that one damaged your organs and made you vomit blood.

Touching that one covered your entire body in hives and left you laughing for weeks.

Unless you removed that one well in advance, it spread spores that sprouted in your airways.

Plants were supposed to grow in sunlight. There had been a time when he repeatedly wondered whether these were a kind of demon, growing so vigorously even in the shadows. They did not seem to have changed much.

“...”

Jio blinked.

“... Still, I can definitely see better than before. Something similar happened in the Jewel Vein. I could see perfectly clearly in darkness that should have made seeing anything impossible...”

COO-COO?

“Yes, I couldn’t see this well before. Once I acquired that wicked divinity, I became mingled with various personalities and gained all manner of powers, so mere darkness posed no obstacle. But I thought I was closer to human now... Perhaps not?”

Hmm. Was it because he was a portrait after all?

“How nice to be able to see!”

As always, Jio’s conclusion was straightforward.

“I was at a loss over what to do if the world was as murky as it used to be. Of course, I have you, Honey, but always relying on your help wouldn’t do much for my dignity as a parent.”

COO-COO-COO...

Honey grumbled, as if to say, Why weren’t you going to use me when I’m right here? But Daddy had his dignity, too.

‘More importantly, some of these plants explode like bombs if you shine a light on them.’

Arjio was delighted that the world was brighter than it had been when he lived in the Black Forest.

“But something is strange.”

He had walked quite a distance.

“Why aren’t there any beasts anywhere?”

GURRR?

“Where has all my Black Forest family gone?”

They said this world had perished. Had every living thing truly vanished, leaving only these taciturn plants that would not even answer him? He doubted it. If that were true, beasts could not have kept crossing over from beyond ‘Animal Kingdom.’

‘Then could they be hiding somewhere?’

But that hardly suited the beasts of the Black Forest. In this environment, survival depended on becoming stronger and more vicious as quickly as possible. Hiding would only hinder that.

“...”

Things seemed to have changed considerably in his absence.

“This is awkward.”

At this rate, he would never find whoever had called Arjio. He even wondered whether these pitch-black plants had developed selves during the world’s destruction and called him, but they gave no response whatsoever.

‘Something intelligent definitely called me.’

For some reason, he had even felt a sense of nostalgia.

“For now... we should head deeper in. There’s a home where I once lived with my family. It’s full of traps and poison, and it isn’t the most comfortable place to eat and sleep, but back then there was nowhere better.”

COO?

“Yes, it was home. Though it’s a set of old, battered ruins that collapsed long ago...”

Still, anywhere you made your home was home.

The path to the ruins of the saints sacrificed to the Black Forest was treacherous. But with Arjio’s lifetime of experience living here and Honey, a little ray of sunshine that purified everything, it was not entirely daunting.

“Here we are.”

They soon arrived at the ruins.

“Surprisingly, this place is still standing. I thought it might have been damaged when it sank underground, but it must have been sturdier than I expected. Well, that would explain how it’s retained this much of its shape even after I died...”

For the record, Arjio had fallen to an attack by fire. Though the entire Black Forest had been burned, its plants were not merely unchanged but stronger, and the ruins still stood firm. It was nothing short of wondrous.

“Heroes must have been invited here afterward, too, and destroyed parts of it.”

GURRRR...

“You seem to like it here, too. Yes, these ruins are quite a sight.”

Arjio ran his hand down a pillar that still stood firm.

“...”

It bore marks recording the growth of several young humans.

“... I wonder what became of them.”

Sometimes, when he left the forest to indulge in plunder and amusement, living beings were offered to him. Some clasped their hands and begged him to take them away. Others caught Arjio’s fancy and were abducted.

This place had been not only a den for beasts, but also a prison for humans abandoned even by their fellow humans.

‘As I recall, they all ran away.’

The invaders had made a great racket about plagues and such, so perhaps they had been killed as soon as they left the forest. If not, they might have died without escaping the burning woods.

‘They were far too weak to flee past the forest’s poisons and beasts, after all.’

Sadness drew Arjio’s face into a woeful expression.

“Since I’m here, I should at least make them gravestones.”

GURGLE?

“Even if those people I once knew escaped the forest and the army through some stroke of heavenly luck, they must have died eventually, trapped in a dying dimension. Whether from age or illness or something else, they will have passed on. It’s only right that I see to their endings, too.”

He lifted the hem of his cloak and called to his daughter in the shadows.

“Dana, are you awake?”

MRRP.

“Find the lost children who never made it home.”

“...”

The cat blinked eyes that resembled the cosmos, then gave a clear cry.

MEOW.

Then she seeped into another shadow and spread through the Black Forest.

“Now, Honey, shall we explore some more while your little sister finds all the lost children? Considering the animals that came through the frame, some of my beast family must still be here somewhere...”

GURRRRRR!

Honey called happily. Exploring Daddy’s old home was fun, and making new friends was fun, too, of course. Caught up in that excitement, Arjio smiled.

“Where might my friends be?”

Then Jio encountered something.

“...”

“What are you? One of the fox folk?”

“...”

“... No, wait. You’re not a fox...?”

A wolf the size of a house.

“... A ghost?!”

“No, I’m alive.”

“It’s a ghost!!”

A talking, cowardly wolf, at that.

‘They weren’t like this in my day. Do beasts these days fail to live up to their size?’

Arjio had unwittingly found himself thinking like a crotchety old man.

* * *

He already knew that the beasts of his homeland had acquired ‘language.’ Even just before the heroes sealed away the mass of wicked divinity named ‘Arjio,’ the beasts had laughed, spoken, and told stories.

‘But I never actually interacted with them, so it feels rather novel.’

Would a Divinity maddened by rage and hatred bother exchanging words with mere talking beasts? He had hardly been in any state to converse.

If he had done anything resembling ‘conversation’ after the human Arjio died and became an evil god, it would have been denouncing the heroes who came to him.

‘To think that was the entirety of my interaction with others. Even now, it seems so... foolish.’

Or should he call it making an ass of himself?

“...”

“... H-h-human... you say?”

“Yes, human. Can’t you tell I’m alive just by looking?”

“I’m not sure...”

The wolf, as large as a truck on Earth, studied Jio while repeatedly flinching and shrinking back. It could have come a little closer to look, but whatever frightened it so badly kept it far away, merely tilting its head from side to side.

Arjio spoke in disbelief.

“How can you tell whether I’m alive or dead from so far away? My friend, you may come closer. I’m not someone you need to fear so much.”

“Why on earth do you get to decide that...?”

Looking equally baffled, the wolf nevertheless crept closer.

“... Can I sniff you?”

“By all means.”

“Then just a moment...”

The enormous wolf cautiously lowered its head and sniffed Arjio, pressing its nose to his much smaller body. Then, whether reassured or catching a delicious scent, it began gently nuzzling into him.

“Oh dear. Are you going to eat me?”

“...?! N-no! No! I’m not going to eat you!!”

“If not, then not. Why leap like that? Such energy.”

“I-I-I just, just liked the smell...”

“A delicious smell?”

“That’s not it!!”

The wolf defended itself, sounding deeply wronged.

“You smelled nutty and sweet. S-something soft and squishy... a warm smell.”

“... Ah, do you mean the smell of sunshine?”

“... Sunshine?”

Its voice rose in pitch.

For some reason, the wolf looked delighted as it approached again, gently wagging its tail. Its characteristically sharp wolf eyes rounded with surprise and excitement. Arjio thought it might be quite young.

After hesitating, the wolf asked,

“Did you come from the sunshine?”

“That’s a question I’ve never heard before.”

Jio pointed upward, as if asking what it meant.

“Isn’t there a sun up there, too?”

“That one’s fake.”

“Fake?”

“... You are a ghost after all!!”

“Can you not even hear my heartbeat? Are you really a wolf?”

“Then why are you the only one who doesn’t know something everyone knows?!”

The wolf looked thoroughly aggrieved.

“Besides, humans are extinct!”