020 – Old Rookie Ha Ildo and the Strange Animals # 2

Boing, boing—.

The dog-squirrel Keongkeongi tore around the office as if the place belonged to him.

"Kyaaah!"

"What on earth is that!"

The sight of the women who had been quietly typing away at their computers shrieking and shoving their chairs back to leap to their feet made my head spin.

The bespectacled civil official handling my case shouted at me in a voice of sheer desperation.

"Um, do something about it!"

Do something about it. Fair enough. That was the right thing to say. I did, after all, need to get the bouncing, springing Keongkeongi under control right now. If I could manage him here, it would prove that we could watch each other's backs and pull our weight in a C-rank rift.

So I whistled a sharp little note—fweet!—with a peanut clutched in my hand.

"Keongkeongi, come here. Right onto my palm."

━Keong-keong…!

Keongkeongi, who had been rampaging all over the office, hopped onto my palm as if nothing had ever happened and accepted the peanut. Honestly, I hadn't expected a wild-natured dog-squirrel to climb so obediently into my hand, so I was a little surprised myself—even moved, if I'm being honest. It really felt like we'd bonded.

The civil official, on the other hand, was looking at me as if I were an F-rank idiot. The way the corners of her eyes cranked up behind those glasses was distinctly unnerving. I braced myself for a fresh round of yelling, but the woman simply adjusted her glasses and began tidying the area around us, speaking with surprising calm.

"So that's a dog-squirrel? Not just an ordinary squirrel, but a dog-squirrel?"

She was calmer than I'd expected. I'd assumed civil servants these days were all crushed under civil complaints and paperwork, counting the minutes until quitting time—but it seemed my assumption had been wrong.

Forming a cage with both hands so Keongkeongi couldn't go on another rampage, I answered evenly.

"This fellow is almost certainly a new species of squirrel that slipped out of a rift. They call it a dog-squirrel because it barks like a dog. Keong-keong."

━Keong-keong…!

When Keongkeongi barked again, even the official's expression gained a bit of color. Before long, the people who'd been flustered by the squirrel's rampage began drifting over toward us one by one to get a look at him.

"He's cute."

"Look at those stripes. Should we give him a snack?"

For the most part, it was the women who adored the squirrel. And even the men past their forties watched him with quiet fascination, muttering, "Wow, I've never seen a squirrel take to people like that."

Coming to think of it now—isn't the squirrel an animal everyone loves? When Keongkeongi was running wild through the office, my head spun, but looking back, he'd sprinted across all those desks without knocking over a single thing or breaking a single cup. Skrrt, skrrrt—. Now he was climbing up people's arms and perching on shoulders, moving about with boundless curiosity.

"Ms. Ina, I want to hold him too! Come here!"

"He's so soft and warm!"

"Check out that fluffy tail."

Everyone loved Keongkeongi. Which meant I could probably say it now.

"This dog-squirrel, Keongkeongi, is my registered weapon equipment. I'd like to test his power—would it be possible to borrow a training ground? It would be even better if someone could verify the results directly."

Institutions that handled awakener business usually had some kind of open lot, indoor or outdoor—a place where awakeners could give their powers a light test run. This one had an open space near the outdoor parking lot, with tire-stacked scarecrows lined up in a row. The setup had a rather homely charm to it.

"He's using a squirrel as a weapon?"

"How does a squirrel even become a weapon?"

"No idea. Let's go see."

Civil servants began gathering at the outdoor test ground, easily a dozen or more. Even the awakeners who'd been using the grounds stopped what they were doing to watch the murmuring crowd.

"Quite a crowd."

━Keong-keong…!

How long had it been since I last showed my strength in front of people like this? They call me D-rank now, but back when I became the world's very first re-awakener—back then, I'd demonstrated everything under the sun on grounds exactly like this one. It was a little embarrassing, but perhaps because those days were surfacing again, petal by petal, it felt like some long-unused corner of my brain was creaking open. Like oil being worked into a rusted body, joints groaning back into motion.

"Hoo—."

I steadied my trembling body and drew a slow breath. The scarecrows lined up before me each had an iron plate strapped across the chest like a breastplate, stamped F, D, C, B, and A in turn.

Thud, thud—.

A civil official with a conspicuously thinning crown of hair walked over to me.

"The F-grade plate is made from dire hound bone. The D-grade from the carapace of the Bashkir hornet. The C-grade from two-headed crocodile hide."

Each material was genuinely tough. The structure was such that an F-rank awakener's weapon couldn't punch through D-grade carapace, and a D-rank awakener's weapon couldn't easily pierce C-grade hide. In other words, if we could split the C-grade hide and damage the scarecrow here, then the combined power of me and Keongkeongi would officially qualify as C-grade weapon-level.

"Keongkeongi. Over here."

I whistled for him as he sprinted freely around the wide outdoor lot. When he scrambled up my leg, over my knee, and onto my palm, I channeled mana into him as I stroked his fur. Sssss—. His fur began to glow. Soon a low murmur rippled around us—"Ooh." "Is something happening?"—but I paid none of them any mind, focusing solely on the scarecrow in front of me. When about three seconds had passed, I shouted.

"Go!"

━Keong-keong…!

Pwat—!

Keongkeongi tore across the ground with that blistering speed unique to squirrels. Then he hurled his body straight at the C-grade scarecrow.

KRA-KOOM—! Kkajejeok—!

The C-grade scarecrow, reinforced with tires and two-headed crocodile hide, split clean down the middle with a hideous shriek, toppling apart to either side.

What devastating power! Everyone watching—including me—was floored!

"Wow, the squirrel really IS a weapon. I thought nothing could surprise me anymore, but here we are!"

"How did you even do that? What's the principle?"

"Ms. Ina, did you get that on video!?"

After transferring between subways and buses several times, I walked a good long while before finally arriving home. Moving out here had been a good call, but the neighborhood being tucked so deep into a backwater made the transportation situation a bit of a drawback.

"Oinoi, are you still at it?"

When I stepped into the yard, Oinoi was still spinning round and round over the spot where she'd planted the seeds. She was so absorbed she didn't even hear me come in—no answer at all. I approached her, and only then noticed something strange: little shoots, unlike anything I'd seen, had already sprouted from the seedbed. Could a tree seed really grow this fast?

"Aaah, the master of the house has returned…! This Oinoi was so engrossed that she failed to notice the master of the house returning…!"

Snapping out of her trance, Oinoi finally recognized me. I'd gifted her a yellow tracksuit, and she'd been over the moon about it.

"This 'training wear' is an exceedingly nymph-friendly garment…! Surely no nymph has ever worn anything so comfortable, so active, and so sturdy…!"

Yeah, she really did love it. I headed inside. The moving boxes had apparently all been unpacked and arranged by the honey ant Angangi, because the house was remarkably clean and tidy.

Sitting down at my computer, I searched my own name on the awakener social network, as always.

Well then. Not exactly a shock. But on a wild whim, I searched for one more thing.

About two seconds ticked by. Then text rose up on the white screen.

I knew it. A scene that spectacular was never going to stay untalked-about. With that thought, I quietly dropped a comment under a fresh anonymous account.

Deeply satisfying. Before long, comments like "A living bioweapon?? whoa" and "Where do you even GET one of those squirrels? Asking for a friend, what's your address?" came flooding in beneath mine. Getting a bit of attention for the first time in ages put me in a good mood. Sure, the attention was for the dog-squirrel Keongkeongi and not for the human Ha Ildo—but still.

"If I'd brought Angangi the ant along too, the whole place would've flipped upside down."

Anyway. It had been proven today that Keongkeongi the dog-squirrel possessed at least C-grade potential. Now I could stack up C-rank rift commissions and make some serious money. I was in the middle of that pleasant thought when—

━Keong-keong…!

A bark rang out from the yard. Wondering if he was calling for me, I stepped outside, and there beneath the deepening dusk Keongkeongi was frolicking about with a brown-furred squirrel.

━Keong-keong…!

━Keong-keong…!

"There are two Keongkeongis?"

I was thoroughly flustered. Two Keongkeongis romping around my yard! Did dog-squirrels, by any chance, have a splitting property? While I was entertaining that absurd fantasy, Oinoi let out a mhehehe snicker.

"It is surely another dog-squirrel come to meet Keongkeongi…! As this Oinoi senses it, there are now ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠five or more dog-squirrels dwelling in this village…!"

"Really? Were they living here all along?"

Even as I asked, something nagged at me. The village elders had marveled at Keongkeongi, saying they'd never in their lives seen such an uncanny squirrel. Their reaction had been proof that no dog-squirrels lived in this village.

"It is this Oinoi's belief that they are being drawn to Keongkeongi, the Prime Dog-Squirrel…! Given time, the number of dog-squirrels in this village will surely only grow…! A nymph-friendly village is an exceedingly good place for animals to live…!"

This was completely bizarre. A village where dog-squirrels spontaneously spawned like monsters in a video game? Astonished on every front, I looked again—somehow there were now three dog-squirrels, boinging and springing around together. They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠really were copy-pasting themselves!

For a moment, greed stirred in me. Could I tame those other two squirrels as well?

"Hey there, little guys—."

━Krrrung…!

━Keong-keong…!

I spread my palm out with all the curiosity I could muster, but the newcomers, sensing my presence, streaked off into the distance. They were far too fast for me to do anything at all.

"…So the extra dog-squirrels can't be tamed?"

"Dog-squirrels are fiercely wild creatures that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠live without depending on humans…! And because they are territorial animals, they may play together, but another dog-squirrel being tamed alongside is surely impossible…!"

Figures. Since our house already had the Prime Dog-Squirrel Keongkeongi holding the territory, taming another one was out of the question—that was the gist of it, apparently.

Either way, the village filling up with dog-squirrels was happy news. They were adorable, and they'd chase off the insects that were one of the great trials of country living. Who knows—if things went well, this neighborhood might become a Dog-Squirrel Hotspot, and the local economy might perk right up. Like how Sokcho suddenly boomed back when Poogemon GO dropped.

"Hieeek…!"

Just then, Oinoi let out a strangled yelp. I wondered if she'd suddenly caught some kind of chill—but she went streaking into the house at top speed. What on earth was that about? As I pondered, I saw a single taxi come gliding in through the village entrance in the distance, headlights cutting through the gloom.

Vrrrrum—. The taxi pulled up right in front of our house, and a pair of long legs popped out, followed by a face I knew quite well.

"Sunbae, is this the place you moved to? The air is amazing here!"

It was Yu Ari, draped in a long white puffer coat. Seeing her staggering under enormous plastic bags in both hands, I was taken aback on several fronts.

"You—what brings you here? How did you even know where I live?"

"I asked Yerim! I called her for the first time in ages to catch up with our second-generation classmates, and you came up in conversation."

I had no idea why I would've come up, but if it was a story out of Seo Yerim's mouth, it surely hadn't been a flattering one. While I was thinking that, Yu Ari shook the plastic bags and chirped.

"You're not busy this evening, are you? If you haven't finished unpacking, I could help! I bought dinner too, so if you haven't eaten yet, let's eat together!"