I Don’t Like Being Alone
The girl strode up to me and came to an abrupt stop.
She gave me a quick glance, then asked bluntly, “Are you the one?”
“...?”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
That was only natural, really, because the girl’s appearance was so far from what I had expected that I was too startled to react.
For one thing—
Her ears were pricked up stiff in a neat little triangle, an argent tail swayed at her waist, and her large, glittering eyes seemed to take up half her face.
Wait a second...
A beastfolk?
A race from beyond humanity.
And among them, beastfolk were famous for their ferocious temper.
In other words, they were born for battle.
No—more accurately, they were a race practically obsessed with combat from the moment they were born.
They loved conflict, worshiped strength, and never bowed their heads to anyone.
Because their nature ran completely opposite to that of humans, who valued harmony, they generally lived in their own communities, far removed from mankind.
That made the current situation even harder to understand.
A beastfolk known for traveling in packs, wandering around all alone like this, was extremely rare.
Especially in Blackmore, of all places, a land known as a living hell.
“Hmm.”
I stood still and studied her.
No matter how I looked at her, she was a textbook fox beastman.
As far as I knew, there was no way their territory bordered this place.
Had her pack cast her out?
But she looked too young for that, and her arms and legs were perfectly fine.
Or had someone taken her as a slave and she’d escaped?
Who was she?
I mulled it over again and again, but nothing came to mind.
I have no idea.
No, really. I had no idea.
Just as I was thinking that, her cool voice came flying over.
“Didn’t you hear me?”
“Huh?”
“I asked if you were the one.”
“The one for what?”
Tap, tap.
She pointed at the broken signboard dangling at her fingertips.
“This sign. Wasn’t it you who stuck it in the ground?”
“It was.”
“I helped too.”
Rudine said that with obvious pride.
Yes, good job.
I patted her head lightly, and her face instantly turned bright red.
“...Found you.”
But the fox beastman ignored that and lifted the corners of her mouth.
Then she said—
“You’re responsible.”
What?
“Responsible for what?”
“Because of you, I couldn’t die.”
“???”
Couldn’t die?
Because of me?
Surely she didn’t mean—
“Suicide?”
“...”
The silence told me I’d guessed right.
Now that was unexpected.
I’d seen plenty of beastfolk who fought, bled, and died in battle, but I had never seen one trying to die by her own hand.
“So what you’re saying is, you came all the way here to die, and that sign I planted kept you from doing it?”
“...”
Nod, nod.
With a face full of resentment, she admitted it.
Rudine watched her and widened her eyes before whispering to me, “That sign really works, huh?”
“Told you. Once they see it, even people who came here to die lose the will.”
“But why is she saying you have to take responsibility? Is she asking you to kill her or something?”
“Shh! What if she hears you?”
“Hey! I can hear everything!”
Oh dear.
As expected of a fox, her ears were sharp.
“Do you have any idea what kind of state I was in when I came all the way here?!”
“Nope.”
“Then I’ll explain it to you now!”
“I’m not interested.”
“Grrr...!”
The fox beastman clenched her fist in outrage and growled under her breath.
Her silver tail, which had been swaying lazily before, shot straight up as well.
It was so fluffy that I suddenly wanted to touch it once.
“Anyway, take responsibility!”
“Why should I?”
“I already told you, you interrupted me.”
She thrust the sign right into my face.
The words Can you swim? jumped out at me.
I stroked my chin and thought it over.
Why was she reacting so violently to that one line?
Unable to curb my curiosity, I asked her outright, “Don’t tell me you can’t swim?”
“...!”
“So that’s why you couldn’t jump?”
“......”
Her face was crimson. Her eyes were murderous.
Aha. So I’d been right after all—she’d actually been scared off by the sign.
Suddenly, I felt absurdly satisfied.
As I’d expected, the sign’s effect was no joke.
It had been worth taking the time to place it everywhere, without missing a single corner.
Still, separate from that, I couldn’t agree with her accusation.
“How is that my fault?”
At that, she looked momentarily flustered.
“How is it not...! If you hadn’t put up a sign like that—”
“Or maybe you’re just a coward?”
“What?”
A sharp grinding sound rang out.
“...How dare you.”
Her voice was full of fury.
Both in tone and expression, she was unmistakably hostile now.
At the same time, a faint killing intent brushed against my skin.
The fine hairs along my arms and neck began to stand on end.
Oh?
Only then did I realize I’d stepped in it.
For a beastfolk, wasn’t being called a coward one of the greatest insults imaginable?
I’d hit the exact button I shouldn’t have, so her anger was only natural.
That was when Rudine tilted her head.
“Luke.”
“Yeah?”
“Enemy?”
A short question, but a loaded one.
Before Rudine had even finished speaking, the air around us suddenly grew heavy.
Gooooo—
The pressure was so immense it felt hard to breathe, and for an instant my legs nearly gave out beneath me, as though my shoulders had been shoved down by a mountain.
What the hell is this...?
And it wasn’t just me.
The fox beastman in front of us twisted in pain as that overwhelming pressure bore down on her too.
What kind of killing intent is this...
A dense, oppressive murderous aura seemed to swallow the entire area, and in response my heart began to pound violently in my chest.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Startled, the fox beastman’s gaze slowly drifted in one direction.
When she saw Rudine, whose mouth had curved into a frighteningly wide smile, her pupils shook hard.
The fox beastman, refusing to be outdone, tried to gather her own aura.
But even that was crushed beneath Rudine’s killing intent and accomplished little.
Of all the people...
The situation had become a mess.
They had each decided the other was an enemy, and neither looked ready to back down.
Rudine was one thing, but the fox girl was the real problem.
Look at her gritting her teeth and holding her ground, like any beastfolk worth the name.
She really was one of those crazy races that treated dying in battle as a point of honor.
Keeeeeek—!
The clashing auras scorched the empty air between them.
At the same time, the shriek of friction tearing through space stabbed straight into my eardrums.
Swallowing hard, I realized this was the very definition of a hair-trigger moment.
Then—
Thud.
“Hngh...!”
The fox girl was trembling so badly she’d sat down on the ground with a thump.
She was hiccupping between shivers, her whole body quaking there on the floor.
What the hell? Why is she like that?
Her triangular ears had drooped miserably.
Her silver tail had gone limp and flattened against the ground.
This little punk.
Could it be?
“Hey.”
She flinched.
“You all right?”
“......”
Her eyes were red at the rims.
The tips of her ears were flushed bright crimson.
That settled it.
This one had panicked.
“???”
I was dumbfounded.
Wasn’t she a beastfolk?
Did it even make sense for a race that lived and breathed battle to be so overwhelmed by killing intent that they were on the verge of tears?
I didn’t remember a beastfolk like that from the original story...
Wait a second.
Even if I didn’t remember every single detail of the original work, I definitely remembered the main thread of the plot and the major characters.
And among them was a beastfolk.
Her name was definitely...
Adina.
Adina.
A fox beastman who would one day take one of the thrones of the Beast King and be called one of the pinnacles of her race.
No way that scared little thing is her?
Could that possibly be right?
But most of the original Adina’s traits matched this girl perfectly.
Fluffy triangular ears, a silver tail, violet eyes...
And that wasn’t all. If this girl really was Adina, then I could also infer why she had been living all by herself, cut off from her tribe, hiding out in Blackmore.
The Adina who lurked in Blackmore for ages, building a fearsome reputation in the shadows, would later be reformed by the protagonist and eventually join his party. And when she explained her reasons herself, she said—
I was cast out.
She had been abandoned by her own race.
The reason she was cast out?
It was because she was a—
coward.
Yes.
She was a coward.
Because she hated conflict, feared everything, and was far too timid by nature, she’d been bullied relentlessly within the pack.
In the end, after being rejected by her own people, she had no choice but to leave for Blackmore on her own.
She was the only beastfolk who hated her own kind.
When I read that in the original, I’d brushed it off without much thought.
But I had never imagined that the reason she had hidden herself away in Blackmore was because she’d wanted to die.
“Hey.”
“!!!”
Startled, her silver tail shot up rigidly.
She crouched in on herself like a frightened cat, then swallowed hard and said, “I-I’ll forgive you!”
“Huh?”
“We’ll just, hic, let it go, so... hic!”
“Really?”
“Y-Yeah! It’s totally fine! J-Just do something about that monster... hic!”
What an absolute coward.
I barely managed to swallow the admiration that rose all the way to my throat.
“Then we can go now, right?”
Nod, nod!
Adina nodded furiously.
Her silver tail wagged along with the motion.
“Rudine!”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go.”
“Okay!”
At my gesture, Rudine withdrew her killing intent and trotted after me in tiny, eager steps.
Adina watched us leave, dazed, and only then let out a long breath of relief.
“We’re leaving.”
“...”
I turned on my heel without another thought.
So what if she was the future Beast King?
Right now, every second counted.
I needed to finish my exploration as fast as possible, then get back and enjoy some well-earned rest.
That was the plan.
And yet—
...
...
What is it now?
Slow, hesitant footsteps drifted toward us.
Worse, they were getting closer by the second.
No way.
“!!!”
I spun around.
As expected, there she was—Adina, trailing after us at a careful distance like a little pickpocket.
“What are you doing?”
“...”
She worked her lips open and shut a couple of times as if she had something to say.
Finally, in a voice so tightly wound it was almost brittle, she said, “I-I’m scared...”
What?
“I-I don’t like being alone...”
“...”