The Sea Dragon's Sense of Smell
"What exactly do you want me to do?"
"There's a senior colleague who came with me to gather information when I was searching the banks of the Yangtze River."
Ah.
"If that senior of yours stayed behind after you were ambushed and fell into the river..."
"A battle must have broken out. A fight to the death... They probably attacked with the intention of taking his head. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of separating us."
"How crafty. Are bandits always like that?"
"Have you never dealt with them before? They never face an opponent alone. They swarm you in packs and wear you down."
"I suppose that's true."
Even Eom Gutaek's gang, who had swarmed this cave just the other day, had come in dozens to capture me.
Fortunately, the ones who came after me seemed to be weaklings, but if they had been even slightly stronger, the sheer weight of their numbers would have been overwhelming.
Besides, I was in a position where I only had to block the cave entrance from the inside, which allowed me to fight relatively safely. On the other hand, Rin's senior had likely been lynched by a mob in the open.
"That sounds beyond just 'a little dangerous.'"
"Yes. That's why I need to at least check the scene to figure out what to do next. But going alone makes me too anxious. Is there any way you could come with me?"
"Hmm..."
Let's think about this rationally.
I had no real reason to help Rin.
Why?
After all, I just needed to hide out here and live my life.
I could just massage my belly and chest, pop wild raspberries into my mouth with my other hand, browse Murim Gallery, and kill time.
The safest, low-risk option was to send Rin away and keep squatting in the cave as planned.
But.
'If we're talking about high-risk, high-reward, the story changes.'
Even if the Murim Alliance and the orthodox sects were passive, self-preserving groups that only cared about defending their own territory...
They were still armed organizations carrying swords and moving in groups.
A sort of vigilante group.
In that case, what if I used this opportunity to help Rin and establish a pretext to move into the Murim Alliance's sphere of influence?
If worst came to worst, I could unlock the option of becoming a Sea Dragon living in the cave behind the Murim Alliance headquarters.
I could slip into the role of a stray yard cat or a loyal guard dog, enjoying a life of special protection like a natural monument.
'Given that the local bandits are hunting for divine beasts, I need to prepare an escape route of my own.'
As the saying goes, a clever rabbit digs three holes.
I'd be paying her back for the clothes I took, naturally easing my guilt while putting her in my debt instead.
And who knows? Maybe nothing even happened at the scene.
"Alright, let's go together."
"Really?"
"In return, if I turn out to be helpful, you have to give me something too. Deal?"
"Of course. I'll prepare a suitable reward."
"Great. Let's get moving then."
Since I didn't know much about how the Murim worked, we didn't decide on the details of the reward right away. We just went to our respective beds and closed our eyes.
We would wake up early in the morning and head to the place where Rin had been thrown into the river.
The next day, I woke up naturally around sunrise.
Having lived as a Sea Dragon for a few days, I noticed that my circadian rhythm was incredibly healthy.
You might wonder what I mean by a "healthy circadian rhythm," but there's a very specific feeling to it.
Waking up naturally around six in the morning, feeling slightly drowsy after lunch, powering through the day, and then passing out like a light around ten at night. That kind of feeling.
"She's still asleep."
Glancing at the bed next to mine, I saw Rin sleeping soundly, letting out soft, quiet breaths.
"Now that I think about it, I think she asked me to buy bandages."
It wouldn't take long to get to the town from here, so I decided to go buy them quickly.
I had promised to get them, and if Rin was going to reunite with her senior, she'd probably want to be wearing her bandages as usual.
Since we had agreed to move together, this was my way of showing some consideration.
It wasn't like I was buying them with my own money anyway.
I naturally swiped the coin purse sitting by Rin's head, tucked it inside my wide-open collar, and didn't forget to stretch thoroughly on the way out.
Maybe it was because my chest was so large, or maybe it was because the bed was unfamiliar.
Either way, I always woke up feeling incredibly stiff.
"Hup, hup, haaa. Whew."
I had to loosen up my body thoroughly like this to start the day feeling refreshed.
Especially since I had to walk around outside today searching for traces of Rin's senior, warming up beforehand could only help.
I jogged lightly to a nearby village to buy the bandages as a warm-up. By the time I returned, Rin was rubbing her eyes awake. I naturally handed over the bandages and the coin purse.
She took off her top, wrapped the bandages around her chest, and put her clothes back on. The entire process happened so naturally that before I knew it—
"Whoa, you're completely flat now."
"Are you making fun of me?"
"No, I just think it's fascinating."
"...Go ahead and be fascinated then. Sure."
Rin, her expression turning slightly sour, irritably tossed some wild raspberries into her mouth and stood up.
No, I mean...
I was genuinely impressed, but since I didn't know what counted as rude among women, communicating wasn't easy.
Was that comment the female equivalent of going to a water park with a guy, watching him change into swim trunks, and saying, "Whoa, that's tiny"?
'Hmm.'
Yeah, that would definitely feel bad.
It was 100% pure mockery.
I should be careful next time.
"This is enough food for me. Shall we head out right away?"
"Sure, let's go."
Anyway, after that minor awkwardness, we left the cave.
Aside from brief visits to the village yesterday and today, it had been a while since I'd walked outside the cave like this.
"For now, we'll keep moving upstream. First, we need to find the spot where I fell in and drifted down."
"Do whatever works for you. I don't know the area."
"By the way..."
"What?"
"What does it feel like to have a tail?"
She didn't forget to make small talk as we walked toward our destination.
Honestly, most people would find it fascinating to walk alongside someone with a tail and wonder what it felt like.
It wasn't a difficult question, so I answered honestly.
"I don't really think about having a tail."
"Pardon?"
"Seriously. It looks like I'm moving it on purpose, right? But it actually just moves on its own."
"A reflex? Like an instinctual response?"
"Oh, you know what a reflex is?"
"...Most people do, right? Yes, even ordinary martial artists use expressions like that."
Rin seemed to be trying to cover her tracks, as if she had let something slip.
Her behavior was a bit puzzling, but I kept talking.
I didn't want to dig into it and make things awkward for no reason.
"Look at this. Even if I walk with my eyes closed, my tail keeps me moving in a perfectly straight line."
"That's amazing. For martial artists, losing their balance even once in a fight to the death can be fatal. But you don't have to worry about that at all."
"I guess so? I don't have much combat experience, so I wouldn't know for sure."
"Incredible. Divine beasts really are amazing. You're definitely different from humans."
"Mmh, yeah."
I was definitely different from humans now.
Ever since I became this body, I could feel that my way of thinking, my personality, and most crucially, my gender had changed.
Plus, I had magical abilities that humans could never wield.
I already knew all of this, but hearing it from someone else really drove the point home.
"Phew..."
Feeling a bit strange, I silently followed Rin's lead after that.
And then.
"It's here. This is the place, but..."
"It's worse than I thought..."
We arrived at the scene of a battle, and it didn't look good.
"This spot. I remember it clearly. I was standing right here, walking."
Rin calmly reconstructed the events.
Right behind where she stood, there was a deep footprint of an adult male, looking as if an elephant had stomped there.
"Did they leap from afar, land with a thud, and push you?"
"Yes, exactly. Either they didn't have a weapon, or they underestimated me. They used a palm strike to hit me in the back."
"You remember all of that?"
"I didn't at first. I pieced the memories together after I woke up. Maybe I'm misremembering. I said I was hit in the back, right? My spine bent slightly as I was sent flying, and my head was shaken up pretty badly."
"Ah."
The distance from where we stood to the middle of the river was easily over five meters.
Getting hit by someone capable of blasting an adult woman five meters away, there was no way she could have kept her wits about her.
"In that case, we shouldn't just stand here. We need to search the area. Your memory isn't what's important right now—the scene itself is."
"You're right. Could you keep watch? I'll look around for clues."
"Sure, will do."
That was the role I came here to play, after all.
I naturally left the tracking, investigating, and deducing to Rin, focusing instead on keeping watch.
I had no desire to get tangled up with bandits a second or third time.
I wanted to quickly find what we needed and get out of here, but...
"Ah."
"What is it?"
"There's... a smell..."
Twitch.
Twitch.
My nose twitched on its own, locking onto a specific scent.
It was a familiar smell.
Not one I smelled often, but one I had caught a whiff of when fighting the bandits a few days ago.
"Ah...!"
The scent of blood.
The moment I was sure, I immediately moved toward the source of the smell.
And there, lying on the ground...
...was a severed arm, still tightly gripping a broken sword.
The blood had already dried, indicating it had been severed some time ago, but we could easily guess that the arm belonged to Rin's senior.
After all, at the base of the sword's hilt...
...was an ornament engraved with the Chinese character for Alliance
And this character...
"It's our standard-issue sword."
It was the "Alliance" from the Murim Alliance.
It seemed highly likely that Rin's senior hadn't made it out alive.
And as for me...
'Should I start looking for a new place to live...?'
I could feel it instinctively.
The elephant ivory poachers who had caused the bandits to raid my cave...
No, the Sea Dragon horn poachers.
The Sea Dragon tail soup hunters.
They were the ones who had severed this arm.
'If I keep living here, I might actually end up dead.'
"..."
In the midst of this ominous situation.
Rin and I stood in silence for a long time, each agonizing over what the best course of action would be.