Tourists from Abroad
There are countless tourist destinations across the world.
Ruins that hold centuries—sometimes millennia—of history. Places whose natural beauty wrings gasps of wonder from even the most jaded traveler.
Nations blessed with such attractions are commonly called tourism powerhouses.
Korea was one of them.
Though there was a peculiar twist: the tourists who flocked there were less interested in ruins or scenic vistas than in gawking at the people themselves.
And today, once again, such visitors poured into the country.
"Ooooh…"
Liam, traveling through Korea, could not stop marveling.
"Nyaa! Let's play over there today!"
"Hyaaam. Take it slow."
Even the ordinary sight of a cat-eared girl and a dog-eared girl dashing off hand in hand was pure fantasy to him.
"Wow, they're actually adorable!"
His friend Caleb grinned ear to ear as he said it, and Liam agreed wholeheartedly. He would have loved to try his luck flirting—but unfortunately, that sort of thing never worked in Korea.
Korea kept foreigners at arm's length, somehow. You could build a certain level of acquaintance, but no one ever truly let you in deep.
"Alright, everyone—this is the Imperial Palace."
At the smiling words of their long-eared beauty of a guide, Liam turned to take in Korea's Imperial Palace.
Walls painted in vivid patterns. An ancient, dignified palace complex. And four trees soaring sky-high, planted at the four corners of the grounds, impossible to miss.
"Whoa, how tall are those?"
"Aren't those the guardian pillars or whatever? I think I saw them online."
The guide watched their awe with a smile, then began her explanation.
"The World Trees that grow at the four cardinal points of the Imperial Palace handle everything from minor tasks like purifying the air to serving as one of the core pillars of our most critical defense."
"Defense?"
"Yes. High Elves stand perpetual watch at the very tops of those World Trees."
Hearing that, Liam craned his neck again to stare up at the World Trees. They pierced beyond the clouds; there was no telling how high they truly reached.
People live up there? The wind must be brutal.
The next part of the explanation answered that doubt.
"It would be dangerous for ordinary people, of course—but for superhumans like the High Elves, it's no trouble at all."
"Is there any way we could go up?"
"It's legally prohibited, and physically impossible besides—there are no stairs or elevators."
Caleb looked disappointed, but contented himself with snapping a few photos.
"Lingering too long around the palace isn't ideal, so shall we head lightly into the mountains next?"
"Eugh—hiking? I'm not really…"
Liam recoiled. Beside him, Caleb shook his head just as hard. Both men were extreme indoor types.
Even coming to tour Korea had taken a serious act of will. Just walking around outside was exhausting enough—now they wanted them to climb a mountain?
The guide had clearly said nothing would be hard. Had that just been the usual sales pitch merchants always spouted?
"Ahaha, don't worry. You won't need to climb the mountain yourselves. We have a method prepared for travelers."
Her waist-length golden hair shifted slightly as she laughed, bright and delighted, and whatever complaints the two men had been nursing melted into puddles on the spot.
"Ahem. I actually love mountains, as it happens."
"Me too!"
The two men who hated every form of exercise on earth launched into a torrent of praise for hiking.
"Well, that's fortunate."
They followed the guide in a daze—and only snapped back to full awareness once they arrived at a nearby mountain.
Grrrrr…
An absurdly enormous tiger sat staring at them, drool dripping from its jaws.
It was easily twice the size of a normal tiger!
And for the record, it wasn't in a cage. It was sitting right there at the entrance to the hiking trail, plain as day.
It also looked hungry!
"…Uh, is that… okay?"
"There's not even a leash or anything?"
The two men scrambled backward. The elf guide, by contrast, strolled right up to the tiger without a care in the world.
"Long time no see."
She reached out and began stroking it. The eyes that had been fixed on the two men softened, and its tail began to sway lazily back and forth.
"Ooooh… so it's a tamed tiger."
Caleb breathed in admiration—but the elf shook her head.
"No. This one is a wild tiger that lives in nature. Today, he'll carry you all the way to the summit."
"What?"
"Wild?"
The two men took several more steps back and exchanged looks.
She's joking, right?
No… I think she's serious.
"I heard that in Korea, people coexist with wild animals."
Liam dredged up a scrap of knowledge he'd picked up online. He'd assumed it was a metaphor, or a friendly way of saying they kept a polite distance—but apparently it was simply fact.
He checked the hiking trail beside them. Koreans were walking past without the slightest concern, even though the tiger was sitting there in plain view.
"Let's race to see who gets up first!"
A girl with slightly folded ears shouted, her tail wagging furiously, at the girl beside her whose ears stood straight up.
"What a pain, nya."
"Come on! Please? Come oooon~."
"Ugh, I'm never doing this again!"
Unable to shake off the friend clinging to her arm and shaking it wildly, the second girl grumbled and took off running up the mountain.
There was a massive tiger right beside the path, and the Koreans paid it no mind at all. The two American country bumpkins could only keep gasping in wonder.
"…But is this really wild?"
"Well, people aren't actually raising them, so technically yeah, wild."
"As you gentlemen said, we live in coexistence with animals. Tigers and bears that had nearly gone extinct in the past were restored and released back into the wild—and this one is the result."
At the elf guide's words, a brief silence fell between the two men, along with a perfectly reasonable question.
They released apex predators into the mountains?
Korea barely has any place without mountains. There are mountains right next to cities—or even inside them. This mountain is inside the city.
What happens when people die…
"Heheh, you little glutton! You've put on weight."
The elf playfully tugged at the tiger's belly fat.
Kwaaang!
The tiger gave a small, protesting roar and shoved her hand away with its head.
"Ah, it's the Mountain Lord!"
"Waaah!"
Hearing the sound, little children came running and threw themselves at the tiger.
Even so—if kids charged in like that, there was no telling how an animal would react. That thought flashed through Liam's mind, and he opened his mouth.
"Look out!"
He shouted and started forward—then froze in place.
"Kyahaha! That tickles!"
The tiger was nuzzling its head against the little children. Just as it had with the elf guide.
"Uh, maybe I could try too…"
Emboldened by the sight, Caleb edged closer—and the tiger's bright yellow eyes locked onto him, raw ferocity blazing in them.
Caleb retreated at once.
"Don't poke it for no reason."
Liam said it contentedly, satisfied just to have witnessed something so rare. By Korean standards, apparently, even tigers and bears didn't count as dangerous beasts.
Well, what country would release apex predators into mountains right next to cities? Something that unrealistic simply couldn't exist!
Unless they had no intention of taking responsibility even if their citizens died!
"Foreign visitors should be careful not to go near the mountains without a guide—it can be dangerous."
The elf said it with a gentle smile, and the two men grinned back.
"Yes, ma'am!"
Under the elf guide's direction, they carefully climbed onto the tiger's back and took a light stroll up the mountain. Next, they visited a factory.
Why put a factory on a tourist itinerary?
Both of them had wondered that—until they arrived, and understood immediately.
Clang! Claaang!
"Be careful with that!"
"Isn't the tank I made awesome?"
"Hmph! Mine's bigger!"
Dwarves who looked like adorable little kids giggled and hammered away—and tanks came tumbling out.
They were bolting on various materials as they worked, but the whole scene defied comprehension.
"How is that even possible?"
Caleb put the question to their all-knowing guide.
"Most dwarf superhumans possess production-type abilities."
"Ah—so they're superhumans."
Both men nodded in understanding. The miracles worked by superhumans—the so-called modern aristocracy—were famous enough.
"I heard dwarves love soju."
"Oh! They're selling specialty soju as souvenirs here!"
The tourists, faces full of wonder as they looked around, opened their wallets. Before long, they followed the guide on to the next stop.
"They gone?"
"They're gone."
Once the two foreigners had left, the dwarves flung their hammers aside.
"Ugh, why do we have to do this crap?"
"This is what they call image-making."
"I don't get why anyone buys that tasteless soju."
Dwarf girls who proudly averaged 140 centimeters in adult height chucked the cheap soju into a corner and pulled out fantasy-grade liquor instead.
Alcohol made by science and alcohol touched by magic and the hands of spirits were simply different in quality!
The guide led the tourists to the designated sites.
"This is a place that once suffered under China…"
"Here is where we fought the cruel Japanese army…"
She introduced each one with a somber face. Sometimes she even dabbed lightly at the corners of her eyes.
They continued touring various places after that, and by the time they were ready to leave Korea, both men were overflowing with goodwill toward the country.
"Let's come again."
"Yeah."
They waved back at the guide waving from afar, and made a firm resolution.
If we keep coming back, maybe someday we'll form a real connection…
Both of their faces went soft and dreamy as they pictured a future of raising children with an elf and living happily ever after.
"Japan and China really are awful countries."
"Forcibly occupying other people's land, or bullying cute, beautiful Koreans like that—they have no shame."
As a bonus, a fresh hostility toward wicked Japan and China had been born. This was the power of the Korean Wave.
Back home, Liam powered on his computer as usual and started browsing the internet.
"…Huh?"
A post he would normally have scrolled right past caught his eye.
He could tell at a glance it was a Chinese poster. Coming all the way onto a foreign site to spread that kind of false information…
"People like this are always the problem!"
Liam clicked the post and, without even reading the body, wrote a comment.
Beneath Liam's comment, similar replies piled up thick.
"The world is still worth living in."
Liam gazed with satisfaction upon this triumph of justice and diligently hit every dislike button as well. At the same time, Caleb was doing much the same thing.
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People who had toured Korea like them tended to become friendly toward Korea—and hostile toward China and Japan.
It was simply the natural order of things!