My Daughters Are Regressors

Chapter 183: Mother and Daughter (3)

It means an environment so terrifying that humans cannot set foot in it.

This great forest was called by that name on the Pangea continent.

So humans, who like to develop and destroy nature, couldn't touch it carelessly.

Brigitte then said.

"You know,  There was a rumor that a high-purity gold vein existed in this great forest. This caused all kinds of people to enter the forest aiming for the gold, but they all had to retreat in a miserable state."

"I think I know more or less what happened."

I saw a terrifying carnivorous plant in front of me.

Its serrated leaves looked like they would perfectly suit the name Venus flytrap. But its size was enormous.

A carnivorous plant big enough to swallow a tiger or lion in one bite.

What should we do?

While I was wondering if I should ask Brigitte to burn them all, Naru picked up a stone from the ground.

She then threw it into the wide-open mouth of the giant Venus flytrap.

Pat—

The Venus flytrap closed its mouth with a fierce sound.

Pat— Pat— Pat— Pat—

Naru kept throwing stones and closed all the mouths of the Venus flytraps.

"Now we can go!"

I see.

Naru seemed to have quite a wealth of knowledge about this forest.

In the first month after arriving from six years in the future, she passed through this forest on her journey to my house located in the Ordor Kingdom.

It was a very dangerous journey.

But if she hadn't passed through this forest, it would have taken young Naru about two more months to get to the Ordor Kingdom.

What would have happened if my meeting with Naru had been delayed by two months?

"Look at this! It's a wild strawberry!"

Swish—

Naru picked something as big as a fist from the bushes.

It looked like a wild strawberry as Naru said, but it was so much bigger compared to the thumbnail-sized wild strawberries I knew.

Brigitte, who took a bite of it, said.

"It's delicious. I guess it's true that the soil in this great forest makes everything fertile. The size is huge too. Everything is massive."

That's right.

As Brigitte said, everything in this great forest was massive.

Flowers, trees, wild strawberries, and even bees!

Buuuuuung—

I saw an enormously large giant hornet flying towards us. Did it smell the wild strawberry Brigitte was holding?

The giant hornet was about the size of a Golden Retriever, so its momentum was quite intimidating.

At this point, shouldn't we call it a king hornet rather than a giant hornet?

Buuuung— Buuuung—

The king hornet circled around us making an extremely threatening sound. Then, more king hornets popped out of the forest and completely surrounded us.

"King hornets...! Bad guys...! The raccoon dog said so!"

Naru growled.

I was surprised that these creatures' names were really 'king hornets'.

The name was quite intuitive.

"Naru got stung on the leg by a king hornet before and it hurt for three days!"

"Really?"

It might sound like I'm bragging about my daughter, but Naru was a strong child.

If you ranked all 6-year-olds in the world from top to bottom by combat power, Naru would definitely be in the top 3.

For such a Naru to be stung and in pain for three days.

It must mean these king hornets are that strong.

In fact, each of them seemed to have subjugation grades of copper to silver rank. Their armor also looked tough.

Click— Click— Click—

The forest became very quiet except for the sound of their wings and teeth, probably because the sound of their clashing teeth echoed loudly through the forest.

If you imagine steel-plated lancers appearing with wings on their backs, you would understand the current situation.

"Ugh... There weren't this many last time. Too many king hornets...!"

As Naru said, there were really a lot of hornets.

There seemed to be over 100 of them.

They don't seem to be charging in easily, so they must instinctively sense that my presence is threatening to them. But due to their strong belligerence, they eventually charged at us.

Buuuung—

It can't be helped.

I was about to draw my dagger to deal with them lightly when Brigitte grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Wait. Even if you kill them, they'll keep swarming in because of the pheromones."

Brigitte took out a long pipe from her luggage and put it in her mouth. Then she took a small breath and exhaled with a "Hoo─."

A thick smoke puffed out of Brigitte's mouth and soon reached the hornets. The scent was quite refreshing, making my head feel clear.

However, the king hornets seemed to really hate this smoke, as they flew far away into the sky with a buuung—

No one was hurt, and even the hornets weren't hurt.

"Amazing! You drove away the king hornets without fighting!"

Naru opened her already large eyes even wider in surprise.

Naru circled around Brigitte, and she looked truly impressed.

Of course, Brigitte scratched her nose bridge awkwardly saying, "This is nothing special."

"Teach Naru too! Naru wants to drive away hornets and mosquitoes!"

Naru hugged Brigitte's waist tightly.

Of course, Brigitte replied firmly.

"Smoking at a young age is not allowed."

"Uuung..."

Naru looked dejected as if disappointed.

"What's not allowed is not allowed."

Although she spoke firmly, Brigitte also seemed to feel a bit of heartache. Come to think of it, hasn't Brigitte rarely scolded Naru?

She had never restrained Naru from doing anything.

I thought she would let Naru grow freely like grazing, but unexpectedly there seemed to be a 'line' that existed.

She then added.

"Instead, I'll teach you a type of barrier magic to drive away insects. Go pick some wildflowers and grass you see nearby. If you tie knots like this and bind them in a pentagram shape─."

"Ugh, it's not working well...!"

#   #   #

Crackle— Crackle—

A campfire blazed in the summer forest.

Naru threw the wildflower barrier she had worked hard to make all day into the campfire, and as a result, smoke billowed up into the air.

It meant success.

"It worked! Now mosquitoes and king hornets won't come!"

"Naru, you're amazing. When I first made this barrier, I had to camp out in the Mukemuke Forest for a month before I finally succeeded."

Pat— Pat—

Brigitte patted Naru's head.

Then Naru circled around the campfire as if she was in a very good mood, even though she had walked through the forest all day, she was not tired in the slightest.

Kids really have overflowing energy.

"In the end, we didn't meet the big raccoon dog."

I muttered softly as I looked at the night sky that had already darkened. One day has passed like this out of the two days given to us.

Tomorrow we'll have to explore the forest even more diligently.

Swish—

At that moment, Brigitte raised her head high.

"Shouldn't we go north tomorrow? There were a lot of insects like hornets in the south. My intuition tells me that insects and mammals seem to be forming their own forces, so if we go north, the chances of meeting raccoon dogs might increase."

Swish—

When Brigitte pointed north with her finger, Naru was surprised.

"How do you know which way is north? We don't even have a compass!"

"Huh? Well, I can tell by looking at the stars in the sky. Look there. That bright star there is Polaris, the brightest star in the north. By looking at that star, you can tell which way is north."

Brigitte's explanation was simple.

However, Naru trembled as if she had discovered a great secret of the world and was deeply moved.

"I see! Naru didn't know!"

"Really? Well, they only teach this kind of thing theoretically in school, but you have to experience it in practice for it to sink in. I only learned to read the stars when I was 14 and doing adventurer activities."

"Adventurer!"

Naru raised her hands excitedly.

The word 'adventurer' must have sounded cool to Naru.

Even I, who had been on all sorts of adventures on this Pangea continent, still had parts of my heart that fluttered at the name 'adventurer'.

Of course, Brigitte slowly shook her head.

"It wasn't all pleasant experiences. Magical tools and materials are generally expensive things, you know? For poor magicians like me, we have to go on adventures ourselves to gather those materials and tools."

That's right.

Silver spoon-type magicians were mostly indoor researchers. They received support for materials, tools, necessary manpower and places for their studies.

If something was lacking, they could just place an order with an adventurer party to get it.

But for poor magicians like Brigitte, they had to physically go out and gather materials themselves. This was the reason why magicians participated in adventurer parties.

Brigitte had quite a bit of experience as an adventurer since she was 14 years old.

Even I didn't fully know what kind of adventures this person had been through.

I only vaguely knew that she had gone through a lot of hardships.

"Then do you know how to make a campfire without magic?"

Crackle— Crackle—

Crackle— Crackle—

Naru asked while poking the campfire with a branch.

Brigitte nodded lightly.

"I do. Magicians can't always rely on magic to survive. It's good to know how to start a fire. If you split soft wood like this, you can see the white flesh inside, right?"

"Ung, ung!"

"If you carve a groove in this flesh, and rub it quickly up and down with something like a branch, friction will occur and a spark will appear. It takes quite a bit of effort though."

Brigitte skillfully started a fire without magic.

I focused more on imagining what hardships Brigitte might have gone through to acquire that skill rather than the fact that she started a fire.

Swish— Swish— Swish— Swish—

Meanwhile, Naru tried hard to start a fire mimicking Brigitte, but unlike how she was usually good at everything, this time it didn't work well.

"Uuung... Naru is sleepy..."

Eventually, she must have gotten tired as she went into the sleeping bag, hugged Molumolu, and curled up into a ball before falling asleep. Her appearance was undeniably that of a young child no matter how you looked at it.

"She finally got tired and fell asleep. Then shall we take this out now?"

Brigitte chuckled and took out a ceramic water bottle from her bag.

It was about the size of a water bottle you'd get at a restaurant.

Slosh— Slosh—

My sensitive nose smelled the scent of alcohol made from grains inside.

"Alcohol?"

"That's right."

Brigitte slightly heated the ceramic bottle over the campfire and then poured the warmed alcohol into my old and dented cup.

Even though it was summer, this forest was quite chilly, so it tasted quite good.

"It's nice."

"Right? I don't really like camping outdoors, but I quite like drinking alcohol warmed over a campfire like this."

"Yeah, I remember. When we first met and camped together, we lit a campfire and grilled various things like this. I also remember being surprised when Baldy grilled and ate meat."

Brigitte and I had done quite a bit of this kind of adventuring and camping. At the time, I thought we went through a lot of hardships, but thinking back on them now, they were pleasant memories.

No, actually I thought it was a bit enjoyable even back then.

"Was it fun?"

I asked.

But she firmly shook her head.

"No. It was nothing but hardship."

"Really?"

"But Naru seems to like that I was an adventurer. Even though there might be some enjoyable things, there's only one good memory amidst 99 other hardships."

"Memories like drinking alcohol warmed over a campfire like this?"

"......"

Brigitte closed her mouth and looked at Naru's sleeping face. It was a careful gaze as if trying to find parts that resembled herself.

I wonder if she found any?

Brigitte opened her mouth again.

"You know, when I first saw you, Judas, I didn't like you. I didn't have good memories of partying with thieves. The me back then definitely wouldn't have imagined that we would end up like this."

That's right.

Brigitte was cold when we first met.

Well, it's understandable since it would be strange not to be cold towards a thief in the party.

I also spoke gruffly.

"I liked you from the moment we met."

"Liar."

Brigitte retorted saying "Liar-" but my words were the truth.

I felt a will akin to wild grass that had grown strong after all sorts of hardships in Brigitte's eyes.

Should I call them eyes that overcome fate?

Independent and strong women are admirable.

I couldn't help but fall for her at first sight.

And in my opinion, Naru's eyes also resembled Brigitte's a lot.

So now I could say for sure.

"Brigitte, even if you had grown up pampered in the Walpurgis family, you would have become an adventurer and ended up sleeping outdoors like this."

"What? How do you know that?"

"You're sleeping outdoors with me like this even now when you don't need to go through any hardships at all. This is your innate nature. And Naru, who resembles you, would be the same. Naru is a child who would jump in if there's one enjoyable moment, even amidst 99 hardships."

I wasn't such a cheerful hard worker in my childhood. I was rather the type to find things bothersome and give up easily.

Therefore, Naru took after Brigitte.

"......"

Brigitte's lips quivered as if she wanted to say something.

But then she closed her mouth.

Her face looked slightly displeased, as if she was pouting a little.

I gently placed my palm on the back of her hand. Usually, Brigitte would have pulled her hand away, but she didn't today.

The atmosphere was warm like the campfire in many ways.

I was thinking it was a shame that today wasn't the day Naru would be created in this world.

Rustle—

The bushes rustled.

Soon, a four-legged animal with impressive brown fur and a plump body came running towards us with a pat—

It was a raccoon dog.

"What's this."

While I was slightly taken aback, Brigitte caught the raccoon dog with her hand. Then she frowned and said in a serious voice.

"It's completely tattered, isn't it? Looks like it was intensively attacked by bees as its whole body is pierced with stingers. It's amazing it's still alive until now. Did it come to this campfire to escape from the bees?"

It was as Brigitte said.

This raccoon dog, about the size of a small dog, was in a critical condition after being attacked by hornets.

Just as I was feeling somewhat pitiful, the raccoon dog spoke.

━Mo...mommy....