The Blond Tanned Delinquent and the Sea Dragon
A strangely delinquent-like, lounging posture.
Perked golden fox ears and six tails fanned out in a lavish cascade.
On top of that, healthy-looking brown skin that looked like it had been tanned?
And to top it all off, a crop-top-style hanbok design that put the underboob on full display, with not a scrap of modesty to be found anywhere.
That was just plain Six-Tails.
It didn't make sense any other way.
"…"
"…"
Whether she was sizing me up too, her words had jammed right in her throat.
What on earth was she thinking?
The end of that gaze was clearly…
my chest, but, um…
Embarrassing.
I wish she'd stop staring.
Her eyes, every bit as blatant as most men's, brushed over my horns, my chest, and my tail as if licking them.
"None other than the Six-Tailed Fox! This is Lady Hari—a real, living existence, and one of the strongest fox divine beasts ever observed by humans!"
And the assassin from the Assassin Gate, completely failing to read the room between us, prattled on and on.
Let's roughly list the specs of the one this guy called 'Hari,' the Six-Tails…
"She's wiped out over five factions in the Jiangnan region alone, and the disciples of those five factions torn apart by her hands—just the disciples of those disciples would easily number in the thousands more."
"Shut up already? It's not that much. I've been carefully managing my rep north of the Yangtze so I don't pick up any weird notoriety, and you're trying to shit all over my path."
"Isn't seizing the initiative important? Seizing the initiative. We've spent money bringing you along too."
"Oh? Talking back? You crazy?"
"A-ahem."
Hari scowled hard at the assassin's words and started pressuring him to shut up already.
Of course, the assassin muttered like he still had something to say.
I eavesdropped on the two of them through my pointy elf ears.
Sea dragons have sharp senses, after all.
Hearing a little whispering from this distance was easy.
And Hari, being a fellow divine beast, would naturally know that.
Sure enough, a look that said You heard that, right? shot my way.
I answered with a small nod.
"You lot handle the rest. I'll take care of that one."
"Of course. Leave hunting a divine beast to a divine beast."
Hari casually shoved aside the assassin standing next to her and charged in, flinging that fox fire from earlier as she came.
"Ah, fuck!"
I'd figured the signal to play along meant she'd go easy on me, but the scorching heat rolling off the fox fire was just as intense as before.
Every time it grazed my hair I could feel it burning with that savory smell of scorched strands.
"Miss Hae!"
Namgung Lin shouted as the situation turned frantic, but even her eyes held no real certainty.
She was probably thinking the same thing I was, right?
That has to be the Six-Tails, doesn't it?
Well, even if she wasn't at the full-certainty stage yet, it didn't matter.
As long as she'd even considered the possibility, Namgung Lin was less likely to panic.
"It's fine! Nothing major's going to happen!"
In the most serious voice I could muster right then, I sent the signal that this fox divine beast looked an awful lot like the Six-Tails.
Even if Namgung Lin and I hadn't outright confessed to being a top predator and a Murim Alliance security guard, it was fine.
Namgung Lin had already figured out I was a top predator; she just lacked certainty on whether the Six-Tails was Hari.
My declaration now was filling in that missing two percent of certainty.
Giving her the trust that we two fellow Murim Gallery users would handle it just fine.
"Yes—I believe you!"
In the end, Namgung Lin declared she would trust me.
It looked like a setup where only Hari and I could talk was forming, and I did my absolute best to dodge Hari's fox fire and run for it.
But.
"It's a fire punch, you bastard!"
"Ugh!"
I eventually got caught, and threw up a guard just in time against Hari's fist wreathed in fox fire.
The defense itself succeeded, but the impact didn't get reduced by much.
Lacking technique, I went flying and tumbled across the rough dirt.
The forearm that had blocked the fire punch burned hot, and the moment my tumbling body stopped I licked the cooked arm with a tongue that leaked cold air, soothing it.
"Why—why are you doing this? Seriously. You noticed too."
"Yeah, I noticed. But I still wanted to test how strong you were once…"
Shrug.
Hari answered my question by shrugging her shoulders, then spoke again.
"Yeah, better not force it with raw power. Maybe 'cause you're a dragon—your reactions are solid even though you haven't been here long."
"So you evaluated me even though you clearly recognized me?"
"I didn't attack with intent to kill, so don't get all serious. It was just a test."
Hari's completely casual tone made my head throb for a second, but at least she wasn't taking an openly hostile stance, which was a relief.
If that fox fire and fire punch just now weren't her being serious, the firepower when she actually got serious would be terrifying.
"So, are you the Six-Tails?"
"And you're the Ice Water Dispenser?"
"I told you I'm not an ice water dispenser."
"Confirmed."
Honestly, I didn't think she had a whole lot she wanted to ask me.
Better to seize the initiative from my side.
"So, why are you here? Gotten bored of just humans and come to eat me instead?"
"I told you it was just a test. Why the hell would I eat a fellow gallery user?"
"Huh?"
"I've eaten a lot of people, sure, but I've never been crazy enough to eat a gallery user. If they verified as gallery, I let every last one of them live. Why do you think I post verification shots one by one on the gallery?"
"Because you're a gore freak who posts gore pics?"
"No, fuck. I'm looking out for you guys, water-dispenser bitch. Just look at right now. Huh? If I was some ghost gallery user who hid and never opened my mouth, would you have recognized me?"
"Is that how it was…?"
"Obviously. How else would I have recognized you?"
"Because of the photos you posted?"
"Yeah, you bitch. When you openly post pics of that blue hair and those watermelon-sized tits, it'd be harder for gallery users not to recognize you."
For a second I was stung speechless.
Well, I figured I'd be stuck in my nest for life, so I posted the photos.
How was I supposed to know my first nest would be on stinking land where Blood Sect goons loitered?
"Anyway, you were dumb enough to post those pics and enjoy the reactions from the dickheads, but I'm different. I at least wanted to warn the Murim Gallery users, so I posted that stuff every day."
A Six-Tailed Fox lives in Murim.
The Six-Tailed Fox uses Murim Gallery.
If you ever run into the Six-Tailed Fox, mentioning Murim Gallery might let you live.
"That was the signal I was sending."
"Couldn't you just… not kill people?"
"Augh, you dumb lizard brain."
Bam, fuck!
Hari raised a fist like she was about to take a swing, then shook her head and spoke.
"Hey. Look at me. What do you think?"
"Blond tanned delinquent?"
"Not that. Tell me what I am."
"Fox divine beast?"
"Right, fox divine beast. And what do foxes do? They've got the image of seducing people, yeah?"
Well, yeah?
"Under this face of mine, there are more than a few lechers who get seduced and come crawling without knowing their place. And even if it's not as much as me, those watermelon lumps of yours are pretty damn attractive too."
"Thanks for the compliment?"
"It's not a compliment. Think objectively. How are divine beasts like us supposed to survive among murim people who only see us as either tonic medicine or a good-looking bitch for a snack?"
The conversation had been circling for a bit, but this much I could answer for sure.
"By getting stronger."
"Yeah. By getting stronger. And the most efficient method I chose is eating people. At least I've never attacked civilians. And today, I'm going to let you live too. So I'm proud of myself."
"So we don't have to fight?"
"Yeah. Do whatever you want. If you want to head back over there right now and help your party, go help."
Patting, patting—Hari plopped down on the grass and thumped the pile of weeds that had grown just cushiony enough.
"If you want to drag me over to your side too, come here and take some abuse from me."
"Take abuse? No—more importantly, you said you took money from the Assassin Gate. Is this okay?"
"If I say the lizard divine beast they hired me to kill is actually my acquaintance so I'm quitting, what the hell are they gonna do about it?"
Hari was talking like a delinquent with zero business ethics, but for now it felt like I was community friends with that delinquent, right?
Was there any reason to turn down free help?
I had no idea what she meant by taking abuse, but I went and sat next to her anyway.
Allies are better the more the merrier.
And then—
"Hey, you fucking bitch."
"Wh-what?"
An immediate stream of curses slammed into me.
She was actually going to curse me out…?
"Didn't I tell you to say where the Blood Sect guys are? What's with the 'it's a secret,' 'it's a secret'? Who said I was gonna catch you? Blood Sect are total pieces of shit anyway, so just sell me the location."
"No—if I sell the location where I met the Blood Sect, my location gets sold too."
"You fucking— I dug up posts from a year ago just to start a conversation and answered diligently, so you could at least tell me a little. Even the mods don't know if I delete posts."
Yeah. There had been that time.
Last time, to make it easier to judge how to treat Namgung Lin, I'd asked this and that and then ghosted like a freeloading freeloader.
After that, no matter what posts I made, she never left a comment—so she must have been holding a serious grudge.
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about. You're going to help me anyway. So with the cursing just now, we're roughly even."
"Huh? Help with what?"
"Well, since we roughly settled it with that just now, shall we head back? Act as you see fit. You can do that, right?"
"Don't worry about that."
Separate from Hari's delinquent words and actions, our party had a Murim Alliance security guard in it.
If I openly took Hari's side, Namgung Lin would take my side too.
"Good. Let's go. I was wanting to wrap up life in Jiangnan anyway. Perfect timing."
And just like that, the Six-Tailed Fox suddenly joined our party.
Meanwhile, left alone near the waterway after the divine beasts peeled off, Namgung Lin and the senior and junior Taoist brothers…
"Who will take three? There are seven enemies in sight right now. Splitting two-two-three is most efficient."
"I'll take three."
"Senior Brother, is your knee all right?"
"Hmph. Even if I have a chronic condition, do you think I'd be eaten by mere Assassin Gate assassins? If we couldn't handle Assassin Gate assassins in the first place, would Elder Mihyeon have simply sent us?"
In a serious atmosphere they quickly divided roles.
Especially the senior Taoist brother—who had been itching with restlessness while recuperating at Wudang Mountain until now—burned with enthusiasm.
Stay calm, Lin. That fox divine beast is definitely the Six-Tails. In this world, with that slutty outfit. There's no way an original Murim divine beast would walk around in clothes based on a hanbok.
Lin entered mind-control mode, telling herself to stay calm.
This was absolutely not a disadvantageous setup.
As long as top predator Hae Suah persuaded the Six-Tails Hari and bought time to return, it was over.
Conversely, she refused to consider the despairing possibility of Hari persuading Hae Suah to join the other side.
She just had to hold out here until Hae Suah brought Hari back and they formed a setup to sweep the Assassin Gate assassins with two divine beasts leading the charge.
Yeah. She just had to hold out, but…
No. I can do better.
Unusually, Namgung Lin started burning with real motivation.
No—motivation had always come first.
Motivation always came first; she just couldn't create the desired results and prove her sincerity.
Then this time, for sure.
"Holding out would be fine, but still…"
She would prove her strength.
That she wasn't a liar—that she sincerely wanted to protect you.
She would prove it to Hae Suah right here, today.
"It should be fine if I smash them first."
Namgung Lin's brown eyes blazed with fighting spirit.
Slowly but steadily, she was becoming a true murim person.