The Desperate Princess of a Fallen Kingdom Was Looking for a Hero... So I (the Hero) Decided To Look With Her - Chapter 4

My consciousness slowly surfaced, like rising from the depths of water toward the surface.

The first thing I noticed was the suffocatingly dense scent of greenery. It wasn’t a single aroma, but a symphony of overlapping life. The moist earth right after rain, the faintly sweet fragrance of decaying leaves returning to the forest floor, and the honeyed yet fresh scent of countless unseen flowers asserting their presence. All these mingled into saturated atmospheric particles that filled my lungs completely, as if I were breathing in the world itself.

Next came the soft sensations enveloping my body. What touched my back wasn’t hard ground but an exquisite carpet of moss thick enough to sink my fingers into, cool and slightly damp. A refreshing breeze brushed my cheeks, carrying away surface moisture and leaving only pleasant coolness. With each gust through the trees, the rustling of dry leaves tickled my eardrums.

Listening carefully, I could hear the world’s sounds. Not far away, a stream babbled endlessly. Its clear tones painting vivid images of water shattering white against rocks or swirling quietly in eddies. Chap-chap, rustle-rustle, gurgle-gurgle. A musical announcement of life’s cycle. Against this backdrop, birds with unfamiliar calls sang a cheerful chorus—shrill sopranos, soft altos, rhythmic tenors calling and responding as if the entire forest were a grand concert hall.

Slowly, I lifted my heavy eyelids.

And what greeted me was breathtaking.

Towering toward the heavens stood nameless giant trees. Their trunks as majestic as ancient church pillars, so thick that multiple people linking arms couldn’t encircle them. Their deeply grooved bark seemed to hold stories of countless ages. These colossal trees stood in great numbers, their branches forming a massive green canopy overhead. Each leaf filtered light like stained glass fragments, creating shimmering sunbeams that painted swaying circles of light on the ground. With every breeze, these luminous circles danced like living things, constantly reshaping the forest’s expression.

“…Incredible…”

The words slipped from my dry lips.

The world I, Sato Yuu had lived in consisted of a monitor’s sterile blue light, the stained wallpaper of a six-tatami apartment, and the smell of oil and preservatives from convenience store bento boxes. Scenes overflowing with such overwhelming vitality only existed in open-world games played on high-spec PCs. But this was different. This was real. The scents, textures, sounds, and light all genuine.

“An isekai seriously the best…!”

I sprawled out, stretching my limbs. The moss beneath me gently conformed to my body’s shape. Taking a deep breath, I felt the forest air cleanse my city-polluted lungs, permeating every cell.

God, seriously, thank you. That rookie angel’s accidental misclick more like a brilliant move. Getting hit by that truck was totally worth it. In peak spirits, I sat up with a grunt then froze completely stone-still as I reassessed my situation.

“…Clothes?”

I was spectacularly, utterly naked. Birthday suit. Completely bare.

The previously pleasant breeze now took on new meaning as it mischievously slipped between my legs. The chill sent a full-body shiver through me. The birds’ beautiful chorus suddenly sounded like mocking laughter at my defenseless state. Their chirps of “tweet-tweet” became overdubbed in my mind with “Oh my, everything’s out in the open!” and “My my, it’s not even impressive!”

“That damn old geeeeeezer! If you’re reincarnating someone, at least give them standard equipment! Starter gear is basic! This is a privacy violation! Human rights—no, who knows if this world even has those, but I’m suing for divine rights infringement!”

My furious screams echoed pointlessly through the majestic forest, drowned out by the flapping wings of startled birds taking flight.

Well, shouting wouldn’t make clothes rain from the sky.

I sighed deeply and scratched my head. First, calm down. The first step toward civilized living is always assessing the situation and making plans. Food, clothing, shelter that’s what matters.

Food—well, I’d manage. Chewing on some non-poisonous-looking berries should stave off starvation. Shelter just find a cave to block wind and rain. The immediate problem was clothing. If I encountered some young elf maiden bathing in a spring like some cliché story in this state, I’d socially die. Well, die again but mentally annihilated. I’d instantly get branded a pervert and shot full of arrows.

“Alright, first I’ll make a loincloth from these fern-like leaves… Primitive, but better than nothing. Then, nights will get cold—fire! A campfire! For warmth, keeping beasts away, and maybe cooking something.”

I could feel the cheat ability that shady god gave me immense magical power burning hot like Earth’s core magma, brimming within me. A sensation akin to omnipotence, with strength welling from my core. According to light novel knowledge, creating fire with magic was basic. Shooting flames from fingertips should be as natural as breathing for an isekai protagonist.

Thirty minutes later.

I’d diligently gathered dead branches, stacking them neatly like a campfire, and now stood before them like a guardian statue. I’d selected relatively dry branches, placing thick ones at the bottom and thin ones on top with air gaps. Not bad craftsmanship, if I said so myself.

Alright, preparations complete.

“The issue is control…”

Crossing my arms, I groaned.

That god had said, “Your magic could destroy a few stars.” The strongest, invincible. In these situations, the trope was the reincarnated person not understanding their power and causing catastrophe with their first spell. I couldn’t follow that clichéd path. I needed extreme caution minimum power, truly minimal.

“Imagine a hundred-yen lighter’s flame. That weak little flicker. No, even smaller—matchstick-sized. Right, the spell name matters too. Saying ‘Fireball’ might obliterate the continent. Something safer. ‘Petite Fire’… no, still risky. ‘Baby Fire’! Yeah, that’d only produce cute baby flames. Safety first.”

After repeatedly psyching myself up, I slowly extended my right arm, concentrating every nerve, my entire soul, into my fingertip.

In my mind, I visualized as vividly as possible. A tiny, fragile flame, like a candle’s flicker that would vanish with a breath. Warm, ephemeral, adorable.

“Here we gooooo! ‘Baby Fire’!”

The moment I incanted those words.

Sound vanished from the world.

The babbling brook, birds’ songs, wind all drowned in pure white silence.

What erupted from my fingertip wasn’t a matchstick flame.

It was a colossal sphere of scorching heat, rivaling the actual sun in brilliance, radiating terrifying light and heat.

Several meters in diameter, its condensed energy incinerated surrounding air, warping space itself like heat haze as it instantly engulfed my carefully arranged branches—no, the entire majestic forest beyond.

My vision turned pure white.

Then came the delayed roar.

No, this transcended “sound.” If a star exploded, it might sound like this. Pure “destruction” became a violent torrent of energy, rupturing eardrums and shaking my brain directly inside my skull.

The tremendous shockwave sent my pitiful naked body flying like a leaf before a storm. I became a human cannonball, spinning violently through the forest crashing against countless giant trunks, bouncing across the ground like a rugby ball, before finally slamming back-first into a massive boulder with a sickening “squelch,” ending my chaotic flight.

“…Guh…”

A bubbly, unidentifiable fluid not blood gushed from my mouth. Every bone felt shattered, my body pulverized. A normal human would’ve died a hundred times over instant, undeniable death.

But I couldn’t die. That “never die” skill the god tacked on as “insurance” rapidly reconstructed my body. Snapped bones cracked back into place, shredded skin reconnected like fast-forwarded footage. Only the pain remained vividly, cruelly.

“…Hurts like hell… What was that?”

Staggering up through rising dust, I saw the surroundings like a super typhoon had pinpoint-struck. Trees uprooted, ground gouged deeply.

Then I looked where I’d been and lost all words.

Where a beautiful, ancient forest once stood now literally, completely, vanished.

In its place: an enormous, indescribably massive crater.

Its center melted by extreme heat into eerie, glossy black glass. From the crater’s edge to the distant horizon, trees lay felled radially, as if a giant had drawn a circle with a compass and erased everything inside. And in the sky a massive, ominous mushroom cloud rose slowly, threatening to pierce the heavens.

“……Huh?”

I looked at my index finger. Just a normal, unremarkable digit.

Then back at the apocalyptic scene.

“……My campfire… where?”

Gone. The dry branches, the tiny cute flame meant to light them everything.

That ‘Baby Fire’ I’d casually cast just to ward off night chill, maybe roast marshmallows had caused this Armageddon.

The sheer power left me beyond “shocked.” Terror, awe, and bizarrely, inappropriate excitement violently shook my brain.

I was only beginning to realize my power was an anomalous “bug” that could effortlessly crush this world’s physical laws and causality like twisting a baby’s arm.

From that day, tearful (and nightmarish for this poor planet) experiments began to gauge my “control.”

First, I solemnly vowed:

“Never actively use magic again.”

But the core issue was my body itself had already transcended all limits. A walking strategic-class weapon.

The next day.

The mushroom cloud had vanished, replaced by oppressive gray clouds. Soon, fat raindrops began falling, pitter-patter quickly escalating into a roaring downpour. The temperature plummeted, and with no shelter, my naked body lost heat mercilessly. Cold raindrops pounded my skin, shivers uncontrollable.

“…Ha… ha… choo!”

An unavoidable physiological reaction. One small sneeze.

Just that.

But what left my mouth wasn’t a cute exhale.

Rooooooooooar!

Not “breath” but a shockwave of ultra-compressed air unleashed. Less wind, more pure destructive violence.

Ahead, trees surviving yesterday’s disaster snapped at their bases like flimsy matchsticks no, “snapped” was too gentle. They exploded. Thick trunks became splinters instantly, countless leaves shredded without trace. The thunderous sound of toppling giants dominoed deeper into the forest.

Before me, a clean, fan-shaped clearing spanning 500 meters radius, 60-degree angle.

“………”

I quietly sniffled. Now I couldn’t even sneeze properly. A cold could endanger this continent.

Then, the day after.

Rain stopped, but hunger reached critical levels. Stomach twisting painfully, limbs weak. Wandering the wasteland I’d created, I miraculously found a surviving tree heavy with ruby-like red fruits.

“Whoa! Food!”

My joyous cry came out hoarse. But I quickly sobered. Climbing was too dangerous. If a branch broke under my weight, the reaction might launch this tree and the continental plate into orbit.

“Right. Just… gently, really gently shake the tree. Some ripe fruits should fall.”

This time, I took the utmost care. With a prayer in my heart, as if touching a newborn fawn, I gently. No, truly gently placed both hands against the tree trunk. Then, relaxing every muscle in my body, I let all my strength drain away and, with the gentlest of touches like rocking a baby in a cradle I gave the trunk a little shake.

The next instant, the sturdy tree trunk in my hands let out an awful, splintering creeeak, like wood screaming in agony.

Oh no, I thought but it was already far too late.

The massive tree I had shaken tore its deep-rooted anchors from the earth and bent at the base, collapsing like waterlogged tofu, soft and squishy. Then, with unbelievable force, it launched skyward soaring into the distance.

Its trajectory was far too steep to call a parabola. The tree, hurled into the heavens, soon shrank to a tiny speck before glinting like a star in the daytime sky and vanishing. It must have exceeded escape velocity probably now orbiting this planet’s moon.

All that remained was a gaping, enormous crater where the roots had been ripped clean out.

I looked up at the sky and silently wept.

My apple…

And then, the next day.

By now, my spirit was utterly broken.

No food. No clothes. No place to rest. And worst of all, the constant terror that every little thing I did might unintentionally trigger a cataclysm. I was genuinely worried that just breathing might be nudging the planet’s axis ever so slightly.

The sheer absurdity of it all finally drove me to despair. In a fit of reckless frustration, I kicked a pebble no bigger than the tip of my thumb lying in the muddy ground.

“I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMOOOOOORE!”

The pebble, launched from my boot—no, my mud-caked bare foot—sliced through the air with a sonic boom. The shockwave alone carved shallow craters into the surrounding earth as the pebble shot straight toward the horizon, leaving a white contrail in its wake.

Then, seconds later.

Far in the distance, beyond the hazy silhouette of a majestic mountain range the tallest peak, once crowned with eternal snow was struck by my kicked pebble.

A flash like the sun itself exploding.

Then, delayed, a thunderous BOOOOOOM that shook me to my core, rumbling like the earth itself was groaning.

The mountain erupted.

The summit blew apart. Black smoke billowed into the sky, forming a towering mushroom cloud. Rivers of molten lava, like crimson tears, streamed down the mountainside in fiery streaks all visible even from here, tiny as a speck.

“…………”

I slumped to the ground, boneless.

“I’m done for… Just by existing in this world, I can’t stop destroying it.”

Half-sobbing, I came to a realization.

This power God gave me, it’s no convenient cheat ability.

It’s a curse. My very existence is a walking natural disaster, a mobile apocalypse for this beautiful world.

But even in the depths of that absolute despair, I noticed something else sprouting in my heart an alien emotion, twisted and scorching black.

(…But seriously, isn’t this, like, totally OP?)

Apparently, my adventure was going to start by reshaping this planet’s geography from the ground up.

If possible, first, I’d really like some clothes.