The Fox Makes a Promise
Yerin, for reasons I couldn’t quite understand, told me to come with her, but I refused.
She seemed to be looking at me now with useless pity, as if I were some poor little thing to be taken in hand, but I was different from before. I had awakened. I was a brave and clever fox now.
Besides, with Boss at my side, I could call myself strong! Invincible! The strongest there was!
Even if I was stuck without a home for the moment, I would succeed soon enough and buy a huge house, lots of prey, and... um... a whole mountain of cloud bread called Kasutira!
And if you asked how I was so sure, it was because I was a great fox.
“You refuse...? Of course we only just met today, but I’m not talking to you with bad intentions.”
“You gave me Karariri, so you’re not a bad person!”
“It’s castella.”
“Right, that!”
“And just because someone gives you something tasty doesn’t mean they’re a good person.”
“But it’s cloud bread?”
“Then if some stranger told you he’d give you castella, would you go with him?”
“Yeah!!”
At my bright grin and eager nod, Yerin let out a troubled sigh.
“Haa... Naru. You can’t just go with anybody because they say they’ll give you castella!”
“But it’s kasseurang, isn’t it?!”
“Castella.”
“Yeah, that.”
“There are lots of people who’ll trick you by offering castella and try to do bad things to you.”
“Like Yerin?”
“Yeah, like me... no! I really am not telling you to come with me for a bad reason.”
Yerin tried to defend herself, sounding genuinely wronged, but the way she denied her own words only made her seem suspicious.
Still, I was a broad-minded, kind fox, so I decided to let it slide this once.
It absolutely wasn’t because I wanted cloud bread.
Sniff.
I wiped away the drool I’d secretly let slip with my tail and kept thinking.
Why is Yerin trying to take me with her? Why does she want to help me?
There’s no such thing as a free favor in this world.
Was she planning to use me to get something out of it?
If not that, then could it be...?
The thing I had that was most precious and valuable...
“Is she after my tail?!”
“Your tail?”
“Grrr, I’ll never hand over my tail!”
“No, no! I don’t know why you’d misunderstand me like that, but why on earth would I be after your tail?”
“...I’m wrong?”
“If I were after your tail, wouldn’t I have stolen it while you were asleep?”
That was true enough. If she had wanted my tail, she definitely would have stolen it while I was asleep.
Of course, if she had, my danger-sense would have noticed immediately and Boss and I would have shown her the terror of righteous fury.
In any case, since she wasn’t after my precious tail, I lowered my guard a little and said, “Then why do you want to take me with you?”
“Because I’m worried about you.”
“I don’t need pity! I’m a strong fox!”
“If you live here alone, aren’t you scared and lonely?”
“I have Boss.”
“There isn’t even a proper bed here.”
“I have my tail!”
“And there’s nothing to eat.”
“I can hunt.”
“...The mole you mentioned before?”
“Yeah! There are mice and birds too!”
“Wouldn’t it hurt to eat those raw?”
“I’m a strong fox, so it’s fine!”
“If you come to my place, you can wash yourself in warm water, too.”
“I learned grooming from Boss.”
“And I can give you something delicious, even better than castella.”
“...!”
At the mention of something even tastier than cloud bread, my ears shot straight up before I could stop them.
But I was a great fox, so I wouldn’t lose to temptation like that.
...
Still, I needed to know what she was offering first, so I decided to ask casually.
“What kind of thing?”
“Hehe, come along and you’ll get to see for yourself and taste it.”
Kugh!
I hadn’t expected that kind of answer to poke at my curiosity so effectively.
She really did seem like someone I couldn’t afford to let my guard down around.
And yet, I was a clever fox with patience to spare, so it wouldn’t work on me.
“I still don’t want to!”
“Your tail’s wagging.”
“That’s because of the wind!”
“There isn’t any wind right now.”
“It blew only around me!”
“I see.”
Fortunately, it seemed she’d been fooled by my words.
Though... was it just my imagination, or was Yerin biting her lip like she was trying not to laugh?
Then her expression turned serious again, and she asked, “Why do you dislike it so much?”
“Because I have a great purpose.”
“A great purpose?”
Ever since before I awakened, I had always had a dream I longed for.
I was going to succeed entirely on my own, then stand proudly before the people who had bullied me and the parents who had abandoned me.
I would become so, so successful that they’d regret everything.
“I’m going to make it on my own!”
“On your own?”
“I know awakened people make a lot of money! I’m not a useless trash heap who can’t do anything anymore!”
“...What?”
“Now I can buy a house! I can buy cloud bread! I can catch lots and lots of prey!!”
“...”
“And then I’ll show up in front of the people who abandoned me and make them regret it!”
I told her my great purpose, but for some reason Yerin’s face grew terribly sad, and she reached out to pat my head.
“Yeah, I did say some things too quickly... to a child who’s been hurt a lot...”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“No, nothing. But Naru, I want you to understand this. Just because you got help from someone doesn’t mean your success isn’t yours.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“It’s my resolve to make sure you get used to receiving from other people.”
“???”
“Naru, I have to go now.”
“Go?”
“Yeah. Something came up.”
“For me?”
“Hehe, that’s fine. But I’ll promise you one thing. I’ll come back.”
“...”
“So I’ll leave this here.”
Yerin set down the bag she had been carrying nearby and went on, “I’m leaving this bag, so could you keep an eye on it until I come back? Of course, I’m not asking you to do it for free. Think of it as a trade.”
“A trade?”
“If you guard the bag, I’ll let you use what’s inside it in the meantime.”
With that, she opened the bag and showed me the contents: food, water, and all sorts of other things.
“This is...”
“I’ll be back tomorrow, so you can use it freely. How about it? Want to make the deal?”
“Yes, okay!!”
Hehe, I couldn’t miss this chance.
I didn’t know the details, but guarding a bag in exchange for yummy food was child’s play for the great fox, Naru!
“Then it’s settled.”
Yerin smiled and held out her hand to me, and for a moment I just stared at it blankly, not understanding what she meant.
“You shake hands when you make a promise about a deal.”
“Shake hands?”
“You hold each other’s hands and promise to keep the agreement.”
At that, I thought for a moment before carefully holding out my own hand, and Yerin’s fingers gently wrapped around mine.
It’s warm.
“Then I’m counting on you until I get back.”
“U-uh-huh!”
Yerin got up right away, said her goodbyes, and headed down the mountain.
“That was kind of dizzying.”
I stood there for a while, looking down at the hand that had just been shaken, and Boss, who had been watching me, padded over quietly.
“Meow.”
“It feels like... it’s been so... so, so long since I felt another person’s warmth.”
I felt a little sad that the warmth was fading away, but I was a grown-up fox.
I had a job to do, and I would see it through to the end!
“Grrr!”
I immediately started circling around the bag, keeping watch over the area.
Then I sensed someone approaching my perimeter and turned to glare at them, ready to threaten them on the spot, but I stopped short.
“Meow.”
“Norangi?”
“Meow.”
“You came to collect a debt? What do you mean, ah.”
I remembered how Norangi had told me where the clothes were and then served as bait while running away.
I was just about to apologize for not having caught any prey yet, when I suddenly recalled Yerin saying I could use everything in the bag, and immediately opened it.
I can give him Churu, right?
Thinking of Churu made my mouth water, but I decided to be generous and give it to Norangi.
But no matter how hard I searched, there was no Churu in the bag.
“Huh?”
It seemed the Churu I’d eaten earlier had been the last one.
Well, something that delicious must be expensive, so it would be strange if there were lots of it.
Wait. There is one left, isn’t there?
I thought of the Churu I had hidden in my tail, but I hesitated to take it out.
It was a waste to give the last Churu to Norangi.
“Keng...”
But in this world, there’s no such thing as a free favor.
That meant I also had to pay Norangi something in return for what I’d already received.
After agonizing over it for ages, I cried blood tears and pulled the Churu from my tail, then handed it to Norangi.
“Eat this!”
“Meow?”
“This is, like, super delicious, but I’ll make a special exception and let Norangi have it.”
I tried to open the Churu and give it to him, but the enticing smell froze my body in place.
Gulp.
And naturally it started drifting toward my mouth...
“Kugh! Pull yourself together! I’m a great fox, so I can beat temptation like this easily!”
“...”
“There! While my hand is blocking my mouth, hurry up and eat it!”
It turned into an odd sight, with one hand holding the Churu and the other covering my mouth, but after giving me a strange look for a second, Norangi slowly began savoring the Churu, drawn in by its delicious scent.
“Keng...”
It was good that he was eating happily, but watching was painful, so I eventually turned my head away.
Boss looked at me with utter contempt, but it took a fair amount of willpower to not eat the Churu in my hand and instead give it to Norangi.
If it had been anyone else, they would’ve shoved it straight into their mouth.
I really am an incredible fox.
As I was congratulating myself, other cats picked up the scent one by one and gathered around, and before long one of them even showed up trying to steal Norangi’s Churu.
“Hisss!”
“Keng?!”
One of them even bared its teeth and threatened us, which was a problem, when...
“MEEEOOOOW!!”
Boss, who had been watching quietly, rose to his feet and cleared up the situation with overwhelming authority.
In the end, the cat that had been eyeing the Churu was beaten back by Boss’s presence and fled at once.
“Boss is amazing! So amazing!!”
At Boss’s display of power, I was so impressed that my grip tightened without me noticing, and the Churu burst out like an explosion.
And the contents landed right on my tail.
“!!!”
The cats who had been after the Churu changed the look in their eyes instantly.
“Keng?”
I realized something had gone very, very wrong and stumbled backward, but the cats were faster.
“Boss!! Bosssss!!”
Before I knew it, I was surrounded by cats and mercilessly subjected to tail-licking.
I desperately called for Boss and begged for help, but Boss merely washed his face with a paw and watched.
“I trusted you!! I trusted youuu!!”
And all the while, I didn’t notice the dark clouds gathering far away in the sky.