Upon seeing Kouhi stop for a moment, Kousuke tilted his head inwardly.
However, since there seemed to be no apparent danger, Kousuke continued on without hesitation.
Then, after passing through the place that felt suspicious, Kousuke stopped in his tracks, just like Kouhi had earlier.
“――――Wow, this is amazing.”
Before Kousuke’s eyes now spread a scene of a forest that seemed to have existed since ancient times.
Both Kouhi and Kousuke were so captivated by the surrounding scenery that they couldn’t help but stop.
The three people who entered following Kousuke and Kouhi, Silvia, Floria, and Mitsuki, also stopped.
This forest, unlike what they could see moments before, was clearly showing its true form.
Even Kousuke, who wasn’t knowledgeable about trees, could tell that the ones standing around had existed for a very long time.
“It’s a barrier that visually deceives those who enter the forest, isn’t it?”
Kousuke spoke, as if voicing everyone’s thoughts as they stood speechless, gazing at the beautiful forest.
Kousuke could only give a bitter smile at Silvia and Floria, who were looking around their surroundings even after hearing his words.
He understood their feelings all too well, so he didn’t scold them.
He had only seen a forest of this magnitude in the old forest centered around the World Tree.
Unlike that elf forest, this one seemed untouched by human hands, giving it a more natural feel.
Of course, whether that was the truth or not was something they could only imagine.
In any case, staying in the same place forever was pointless.
Above all, it was unlikely that a being capable of erecting such a barrier would indefinitely leave intruders unattended.
While he didn’t know what kind of response they would face next, standing still at the entrance wasn’t a good option.
With that thought, Kousuke urged Silvia and Floria to move forward.
After walking through the forest for several tens of minutes, Kousuke and the others were still captivated by the beautiful scenery.
“What can I say… it’s so surreal that it feels like we’ve wandered into some kind of artificial world,” Kousuke mused, and Floria nodded in agreement.
“That’s true. Or rather, it’s probably intended to make us think that,” Kousuke added.
Floria’s point was that by captivating those who saw this forest—or at least drawing their eyes—it aimed to make them forget their original purpose, a secondary effect.
Of course, Kousuke and Silvia had no objection to this and, in fact, wanted to agree with all their might.
Indeed, Kousuke and the others were already feeling calm and satisfied just by looking around the forest.
As a side note, the fact that they were only mildly affected was because it was Kousuke and his companions; any ordinary person who stumbled in by chance would truly be mesmerized and sent back to their original location. Old tales of spirits in the forest misleading people often spread from those who recounted their experiences in such places.
The reason Kousuke and his group weren’t completely mesmerized was because they had all evolved (or deified), allowing them to resist captivating influences.
“In times like these, I’m glad I evolved,” Floria commented, to which Silvia added a word of caution.
“It’s not solely for that reason, is it?”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“Yes. While I understand for Kousuke, Kouhi, and Mitsuki, for Silvia and me, the blessings we’ve received from the gods are a significant factor.”
Silvia believed that the divine blessings they had received enabled them to counter the mesmerizing (or perhaps enchanting) power emanating from the entire forest. In fact, Silvia, with her enhanced powers as a shrine maiden, had been sensing an increase in Kousuke’s divine power for some time.
Kousuke nodded as well, agreeing with Silvia.
“You might be right. I can feel all of you using the power of blessings myself.”
It was because Silvia and Floria were nearby that he could clearly sense the divine blessings being utilized to such an extent. By the way, Kouhi and Mitsuki, while not possessing Kousuke’s divine blessings, were his familiars, so a similar power was at play for them.
While discussing these matters, Kousuke and his group were steadily heading towards what appeared to be the center of the forest (and the barrier). They weren’t getting lost not only because they weren’t mesmerized but also because they were accompanied by those who could grasp the direction accurately (Kouhi & Mitsuki).
After walking through the forest for several hours, they finally reached their destination.
…However,
“Hmm. As expected, it wasn’t that easy.”
Kousuke said with a hint of disappointment, his shoulders slumping slightly. He had assumed that at the center, if not the Divine Tree, there would be a being creating (or managing?) this forest, but all he found were trees similar to those they had seen before.
Kousuke looked around the area again, but he couldn’t find anything particularly unusual.
“Given that there’s a barrier, I thought there would be something…” Silvia said, and Kousuke agreed. It was natural to assume that with a barrier encompassing a certain area, something that served as its mechanism would exist at its center. However, there was no sign of any special tools or installations.
Deciding that finding the barrier’s mechanism wouldn’t be easy, Kousuke decided to examine the forest more thoroughly. Regardless of whether it was intentional, the existence of a barrier implied that something was there. At this point, Kousuke had forgotten his original objective and was engrossed in investigating how the barrier was formed. The women who had accompanied him noticed this but didn’t point it out. At times like these, Kousuke could be unstoppable even if told to stop, and more importantly, what seemed like a detoured path might surprisingly be the only route to the correct answer. For some reason, be it intuition as an Avatar or some kind of ability, things tended to unfold in a way that was convenient for Kousuke.
Of course, just because Kousuke was absorbed didn’t mean Silvia and Floria were passively watching. As they followed Kousuke, they each did what they could. It was about an hour after arriving at the forest’s center that Silvia noticed something before Kousuke did. The answer awaits in the next chapter!
