After everything flashed mana blue for a moment, I found myself in a completely different place. Instead of a small cavern, I was inside a hollowed-out tree, a fairly large one… To my surprise, there was no one around.

  I suppose placing guards to protect something that you are trying to hide would be giving away its position…

  Still a most cute plush, I walked out of the teleporter and looked around. There were no traces of the group of beastfolks from before–It seems like they had covered their tracks… If they were smart, then the teleporting array was certainly a fair distance away from their hideout.

  Well, not that I care about that. They aren’t my targets or anything. I was just going to wander Heldinot and do the same stuff I had been doing back in Rootiska. Torment, kill, eat, and seek opportunities to commit acts of great larceny.

  I was not very familiar with the ways of Heldinot apart from some basic stuff. They are a nation of beastfolks. Ranging from those who just looked like humans with some nifty animal ears and a tail, to those who were literally just a beast that happened to actually be sapient. I believe it even includes therianthropes.

  They don’t really accept monsterfolks, though. They are very concerned with their bestial and animalistic identity. That’s why they don’t really have knights here. Warriors are supposed to use their feral traits to fight without the need for a forged weapon or even armour.

  Heldinot had remained standing for a long while throughout history, so that method naturally worked out for them, I suppose… Still, I have heard that this often meant that beastfolks with very few feral traits were often disregarded. The more animalistic you were, the more bestial strength and attributes you had–Hence, the less human-looking ones were naturally stronger in the beginning, and would often remain stronger throughout life and training.

  I couldn’t help but notice that all members of the beastfolk group I had encountered had been somewhat… Lacking in such traits, some were impressively animalistic, but only in part. As in, some were the kind who only had an animal head and nothing else. Whilst some others were completely scaled or furred, but without an adapted physique, rendering them akin to just very fancy-looking humans.

  So while the group had looked diverse, they actually all belonged to the same category of people. In short, I assumed that their little revolutionary theatre performance was in rebellion against the way they were viewed as ‘less powerful’, ‘less useful’, and ultimately ‘less beastlike’.

  Unfortunately for them, when it came to averages–This was all factual, so their revolutionary attempt was almost certainly doomed to failure without some assistance from outside forces, such as Beelmart… Or perhaps they had some absolute genius who was a combat devil or something.

  In any case, I just picked a direction and started walking. Since they hadn’t been gone for that long, I stayed in my ‘Plush Form’ despite its lack of mobility, as it offered the best stealth out of all my forms. Not only was I more akin to an actual plush than a living being when using it, but it was very small. Someone could probably walk right past me without even noticing the strange plush.

  I soon heard voices in the distance… Were they members of the revolutionaries, or had the array been hidden near a place where people lived? It would be smarter than hiding it out in the wilds, that’s the sort of place that would be expected for something so important to be concealed in…

  Holy moly.

  Peeking out of a bush, I caught sight of what was clearly a white-furred, man-goat. Only that this guy was huge, his shoulders and upper back were just absolutely enormous, especially when compared to the rest of his body. If I knew no better, I would assume that he was a monster or some devil.

  But no, I knew enough to realise that this therianthrope–Whether it was the kind that transformed into this, or the kind that was always like this, I couldn’t tell… I don’t know why those two very different groups have the same name. I blame the scholars.

  The man-goat was chopping wood with an axe. He had humanoid hands for some reason, and soon enough, who I presumed was probably his wife, stepped out of their cute little cabin.

  …She was a woman-wolf with black fur, not a therianthrope, but still very much on the more bestial aisle of beastfolkery. She was completely covered in fur, had a head shaped just like that of a wolf, and even limbs that were not a match for those of humans–The Legs in particular, she had those weird reversed knees or whatever they were usually called on quadrupeds.

  This woman did have a rather expressive face, though, so it was pretty damned easy to tell that she was an actual thinking person, much easier than with the goat, who very much looked like one in the face.

  Neither of them wore clothes, but why would they be? The entire point of having fur was to serve as natural clothing. I watched them for a little while. They were speaking softly and with a horrendous accent due to the shape of their mouths, making it impossible for me to understand a single word, despite the fact that they should be speaking the same language as me.

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  In any case, after stalking them for a little while, I realised that they had children. Two goats and three wolves. Definitely not children they had together, that’s not how this worked, so I assumed that this was a sort of blended family, stepfamily or whatever.

  I’ll admit, little beastfolks that are very similar to the animal or beast they are akin to look quite cute, but that was cheating, baby animals look cute in general, and are far less annoying than the hellspawns I was more used to.

  Welp… I waited until night and proceeded to mark the entire family with ‘Remember Me?’ while they were asleep before making my way out of the area. It seemed like this family lived quite remotely, as it took me a long while to find a town, even after I went back to my ‘Base Form’.

  One thing of note compared to Rootriska was that there were far more beasts and monsters in the wild here. I had to squash way too many goblins, and got into a fist fight with some sort of troll–It was far less big than I had thought trolls to be, but I guess I was once again lied to and told that trolls were one thing when the word actually referred to a hundred different things.

  It didn’t even regenerate! The ugly thing got boxed to death without being able to fight back. The flesh was quite good, though, definitely worth a fair bit more than human.

  The town was of a notably different style than what I knew. Rootriska mostly built stuff with either wood or grey stone bricks. The only colourful things were the fronts of shops or the roof tiles.

  Here, everything was immediately far less grey. I don’t know what they used exactly, but their stone bricks came in red, orange and yellow, seemingly at random, creating a sort of mosaic pattern all over the place. If I were still a human, such a sight would have probably hurt my eyes, far too used to grey.

  The people were quite colourful as well. I don’t have the faintest clue how Heldinot managed this feat, but the various species and variants of beastfolks all lived mixed together. I didn’t know this country’s history well enough to know if something specific had been done to achieve this result, but it was definitely impressive. Sapients would usually stick to their own.

  For the various variants of beastfolk that took after the traits of the same species, I could see how they might get along, but a rabbitfolk and bearfolk walking around together? A mousefolk and a catfolk seemingly in a relationship? Utter madness. The kingdom might actually be using mind control on its people.

  Mmh… The only beastfolk spirit I have is this Faelan guy. He isn’t part of the gang, though, and I doubt that even once I ‘fix’ him that he’ll actually be normal, so… Might I get myself a cute little sister around here?

  The fluffier, the better. I want to rub a soft belly like how you rub a cat’s belly. Where to find a good candidate for sisterhood, though? I can’t just pick someone random. She needs to evoke something within me as Anathema did.

  Welp, I guess I’ll see when I meet one. For now… Let’s plant some ‘Remember Me?’ around this peaceful little town.

  The town was not heavily guarded. The only problem was that the large diversity of beastfolk species meant that there were–Literally, in some cases–Night owls. I needed to be extra careful, as the odds of running into someone or being given away were much higher than they had been in Rootriska.

  It was good that I had picked the ‘Quietness’ upgrade in the past. A keen-eared beastfolk would probably be able to hear any of the small squeaks of my steel otherwise… Not that it was the only issue.

  I thankfully didn’t smell like anything, at most, I smelled like… Steel, which anyone with a sensible mind would assume was just coming from some inanimate steel and not from a murder machine stalking the streets and breaking into houses.

  I was also found out by a mole-man who came to check after sensing the vibrations of my heavy steps through the ground. Not just that, but he had to be a goody-two-shoes and come to his neighbour to tell them that something was off.

  Can’t you be like a normal person and ignore the issues that don’t concern you in the least? Damnit. Be self-centered, bastard.

  Regardless, I was able to sow quite a few ‘Remember Me?’ around the town before retreating back to a nearby patch of wood on an elevated terrain. I was just going to enjoy the show from a distance and try my hand at cooking some curses in the meantime.

  At least, that’s what I was planning.

  A nightmare trial is about to begin soon. It seems like the range for those to be reachable has increased since you ate all of those curses… This should be the final trial for someone from the city we were in prior

  …Let’s go in, then… But I wanted to ask, could I just not accept going into the trial? What would happen?

  I am not quite certain, but I believe that if you have the option to go, it means that it will be a final trial, no matter what and that if they survive, they’ll be freed. If you are too far away to receive the offer, then no final trial will ever trigger

  That’s what I presume

  Makes sense.

  Moments later, I vanished from my position entirely, entering the nightmare world once again, but this time, I found myself in a cramped space. It looks like I am on the inside of one of those lockers I saw on that steel boat.

  I didn’t move and waited for the panel telling me what this trial was about to appear.

  The special Nightmare Trial’s goal for the prey is as follows:

  Don’t let her in. A woman is prowling the facility. Use the tools at your disposal to impede and prevent her from getting to you before seven hours have passed

  Oh, I feel like I heard about this type of nightmare before… I guess my prey is stuck in a single location, huh? I need to figure out where they are first…

  The nightmare projection of me in the regular nightmares was just a monster, but I was a very smart, beautiful, and most pleasant woman. So, I should be able to find clues to lead me to my prey.

  I cracked my knuckles and stretched my limbs.

  Here I come.