On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

"Follow me."

"Who the fuck is that?" I exclaim in English.

I look around to look for the owner of the feminine voice. I immediately realize where I am currently—on the uvula—which means there should be no one dangling up here other than me.

Moving my gaze to the tongue below me, I see nothing but debris. I quirk my eyebrow as I wonder if the voice was just my imagination, but I immediately shake my head at that thought.

"I don\'t feel that lonely yet to hear voices."

Kicking the uvula, I let my body fall down to the tongue below. The gravity seems to be different here since my body falls slower than it should.

The distance between the uvula and the tongue is roughly 500 feet, so it takes me 20 seconds to land on the tongue, even after giving my body a slight thrust.

Plop!

"Oh, it\'s wet down here."

As soon as my feet touch the tongue, I wonder how it can be wet but not slippery. I, after all, have expected it to be slippery since it was glistening under the light, so I am slightly surprised when it is just as slippery as a grassy ground.

Looking around the mouth cavity once again, I try to figure out where the voice possibly came from. It was reverberated through the whole mouth cavity earlier, so I couldn\'t exactly tell where it came from.

Spreading my meager Mana, I cover as much area as I can to scan the surrounding. As I expected, my Mana is not enough to even sense what is 30 feet in front of me.

Sighing lightly to myself, I retract my Mana and walk toward the entrance of the throat. Whoever owns the voice must be there, since there is no way she is standing close to the tip of the tongue—I would have seen her otherwise.

I keep looking around while walking; there is a possibility that she is hiding behind the ruins there. I will be more surprised, however, if that turns out to be the case, since she told me to follow her earlier.

How can I follow her if she is hiding?

Shrugging lightly as I ignore the thought, I focus on looking for the owner of the voice afterwards. Only after 2 minutes have passed do I ask myself why I am looking for the voice that may just be my imagination.

"Right... It\'s to prove my sanity."

I actually find whichever the outcome of my search worrying, so I have been avoiding thinking of the reason why I try to find the owner of the voice.

If I don\'t find anyone at the back of the tongue, there is a possibility that I have gone crazy, but if I find someone at the back of the tongue, there is a possibility that person is not a good news.

I am, after all, not very sure if this is not the trap the Earth Eater has set to finish off every living being that manages to stay alive even after entering its mouth. I don\'t even know anything about it—Valeria didn\'t tell me anything about it.

Regardless, I keep moving forward. Whether it is a bad or a good news, I will still keep moving forward; there is a hope of me getting out of here there, so I can\'t waste my time hesitating.

I might not look like it from the outside, but my spirit is burning brightly currently. I have a strong conviction that I will be able to get out of here, so I don\'t really care about what I should do to achieve that.

Just like that, 5 minutes passed. I spent the last minute running since I found it annoying walking slowly while looking around.

Lucky me, my decision to run in the last minute is not for naught. Upon arriving at the back of the tongue, I find something that may be the source of the feminine voice I have heard earlier.

"Hello there, little light."

It is a green Will O\'The Wisp that is as big as a golf ball. It doesn\'t give me any reaction when I talk to it, but I have a strong believe it is the owner of the feminine voice earlier.

I don\'t know if it really is a fairy, but from what Valeria has taught and showed me about fairies, it really resembles one. I don\'t even ask myself why a fairy would be here, because I know things just happen sometimes.

"My name is Luxia."

"Oh, my name is Layland."

Although I have expected this Will O\'The Wisp to be the owner of the feminine voice, I am still surprised upon hearing its voice once again. Its voice is so soothing, it reminds me of Valeria\'s.

"You can retract your hand—I have none."

"Oops. I did it out of habit."

While softly chuckling to myself, I retract the hand that I extended after I told my name to Luxia. She doesn\'t seem to be amused by it, but I can tell she is not angry in the slightest.

Looking at Luxia silently as I wonder what her reason for asking me to follow her is, silence descends upon us. It doesn\'t feel that comfortable after 30 seconds, but I can\'t find a way to break the ice ... Politely.

"What are you?"

"... Can\'t you tell?"

"A light bulb?"

"..."

At my way of breaking the ice, Luxia doesn\'t seem to be very happy.

For the time I have spent in this world, I haven\'t encountered anyone that I can have a proper talk with. Valeria doesn\'t really care about the crap I say recently, and I have never talked politely with Millonia.

I can be respectful when I have and want to—Valeria has taught me a lot about that—but my habit still affects how I behave mostly.

I don\'t normally joke with someone I have just met—unless that person is my enemy. I know most of my joke will sound really offensive to whoever who hears it, so I make sure to remind myself to treat everyone I just know seriously.

I really planned to treat Luxia seriously, but since she doesn\'t look human enough for me, I unconsciously decided it is okay to mess with her.

Silence accompanies us as we look at each other. It is rather uncomfortable, but I don\'t find myself hating it; I can keep looking at the Will O\'The Wisp without flinching.

"Hu-hu-hu... I find that joke funny, Layland." Luxia eventually speaks after a minute. "You really are as interesting as I thought."

"... I am glad that you sound genuine enough."

"Ah, I am sorry for the late response. I was doing something." Luxia implies to not worry about earlier.

"What were you doing?"

"I was preparing the way for you to meet me."

I quirk me eyebrow in curiosity. "Am I not seeing you currently?"

"No, Layland." If Luxia was a person, I can tell she had just shaken her head faintly. "This is not me. This is just a means for me to communicate with you."

"So, you are saying that your real body is somewhere else here?"

"That is correct."

"What are you then?"

"About that, do you really want to know?" If Luxia really has a humanoid body, I am sure she is smiling mischievously right now. "If you do, let\'s follow me. Don\'t worry—I mean you no harm."

I nod my head at the reassuring response Luxia has given me. Harmless as she may sound, after all, there is no guarantee she doesn\'t have any intention to harm me, so I am glad when I find her being honest.

My Indigo Rank Mask can see the flow of Mana—using it, I can conclude she is not lying. There is a possibility that she is just too good at lying, but I have a way to prevent myself from falling into her trap, so I don\'t have any worry.

As she moves, I follow a step away behind her. I still need to be careful in case she has prepared something for me, so I don\'t want to walk right beside her or closely to her.

Upon passing the entrance of the throat, instead of seeing the passage that will lead me to the stomach of the Earth Eater, I find a bridge connecting the back of the tongue to the other side of the throat.

Luxia moves to the bridge without stopping, and I follow suit after making sure it is really safe to step on.

The walk doesn\'t take even a minute, and by the time we arrive there, the flesh structure of the back of the throat immediately opens itself like some sort of a door. Checking for dangers first, I pass through it afterwards.

The flesh immediately closes itself as soon as I pass through it, and I experience a brief darkness before the tunnel I have entered lights up. Looking around, I find vegetation covering every surface of the tunnel, so it makes me wonder if it really is still inside the Earth Eater.

Whoosh!

Upon sensing the powerful, but calming presence in front of me though, my attention immediately turns to it. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, and wonder if it is the source of the powerful presence.

"We finally meet in person, Layland!"

Upon entering the hall the tunnel is connecting to, I am greeted by something I didn\'t expect. Today happens to be my first encounter with a Forest Spirit.