The Fox Gets Pitched
“Nom nom nom.”
I sat in the strange spinning chair, savoring the sweet chocolate and wagging my tail, while Yerin watched me with a worried look.
Yu Nara glanced at her and spoke as if she had expected exactly that.
“Beastmen can eat just like ordinary people. No problem.”
“Oh, is that so? I was worried chocolate might be dangerous for her. That’s a relief.”
“There aren’t many non-human Awoken, so misunderstandings like that are pretty common.”
While Nara explained, she pulled out some documents and turned her questions on me as I continued to savor my chocolate.
“All right, we should start putting together an identity for you. First, your name is Naru—what’s your family name?”
“Family name? I’m gonna live in a big castle someday!”
“Not that kind of name… Um, so my name is Nara, and my family name is Yu. The name that comes in front of your given name is called a family name.”
“Oh, that! Then I don’t have one! I’m just Naru!”
I had already decided, after awakening, to throw away my old family name and start a new life, so I declared it proudly.
“We’ll leave that blank for now, then…”
“Is that all right?”
“Yes. It’s a bit awkward to say, but in cases of orphans we can make a special exception. Of course you can add one later. The real problem is date of birth… Do you know yours?”
“Fish-and-birth?”
“Date of birth. So when is Naru’s birthday?”
“Don’t have one!!”
“Then we’ll leave that blank too… Age?”
“Age is…”
I started to say my age, then realized I had forgotten how old I was, so I opened my fingers one by one and thought hard.
In the end, just to look as old as possible, I spread both hands wide and showed them.
“Naru is a grown-up!”
“Claims to be ten years old… estimated at five…”
“...Kaeng?”
I had definitely opened every finger, so being told I was only ten was shocking enough—and then they didn’t even believe that, which shocked me twice. But the next question came flying before I could recover.
“Sex: female.”
“Naru is a man!”
“A… man?”
Nara looked a little flustered as she stared at me, but I was a man among men—a real fox man!
Mistaking me for a girl…
“She’s a little girl, yes.”
“Kaeng?!”
“Ah, I thought so.”
At that moment Yerin spoke up from behind me. I turned to her in shock, but she only gave a wry smile.
“It’s all right. Naru is the cutest little girl there is.”
Yerin’s words delivered the finishing blow to my manly pride; the strength drained right out of my ears and tail.
After that a flood of questions came at me, but honestly there was almost nothing I could answer.
Nara scratched the back of her head as if she were in a tight spot, but that wasn’t my problem to worry about.
“Well, most of it can be filled in later once she’s adopted or some time has passed, so there shouldn’t be any issue making a temporary ID.”
“A… adopted?”
“Of course. She needs to grow up receiving love and education in a good home.”
“That’s true…”
“Anyway, next is the temporary guardian application. Please fill this out.”
Spin—spin—
While Yerin wrote something on the paper, I spun the chair round and round out of boredom… No, I wasn’t playing. I was keeping watch in case of unexpected danger.
“Ms. Han Yerin.”
“Yes?”
“It will be difficult for you to adopt Naru, Ms. Han.”
“...!”
“A temporary guardian does get priority, but the state still sets very strict conditions for adoption.”
“Th… that’s true.”
“You’re still young and unmarried, so I don’t think adoption is realistic.”
“I know. But I can’t help worrying.”
“The Association will take responsibility and find her a good home. We’re also preparing an orphanage.”
“An orphanage… So Naru really is going to a facility?”
“Yes. No matter how temporary a guardian you are, temporary is still temporary. Besides, Naru’s case is special—politically entangled, and a child who awakened all alone without a guardian.”
Yerin looked at me once with worried eyes, then gently stroked my head.
“Of course it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to see her anymore, so there’s no need to worry too much.”
“Yes, I know. In my head, at least.”
Nara soon took the papers from Yerin, pressed something square a few times, did something else, and then spoke.
“Registration is finished. Next you’ll need to take the Awoken examination. I’ll give you the temporary ID and guardian certificate after the exam is done.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“If you head to the examination room, the person in charge will be waiting. But… be careful. You might run into that fat chunk of lard.”
“Pillow?”
“Not pillow—lard.”
“Right, that!”
“Anyway, he’s a high-ranking executive. Incompetent, greedy, and a total old fossil.”
I pictured a walking pillow and suddenly wanted to meet it at least once.
“He’s also the one who pushed for retaliatory disciplinary action against you this time, Ms. Han.”
“Thank you for telling me. But you’re an Association employee—is it all right to say that?”
“Eh, he’s so useless and causes so many problems he’ll be out soon anyway.”
Spin—spin—
I didn’t really understand, but spinning on the chair was so much fun that I kept going the whole time Yerin and Nara talked—until I got tired and stopped.
That was the moment.
I had definitely stopped, yet the world kept spinning and my vision went weird; my head swam.
“Kaeng…”
“Naru?!”
I toppled right out of the chair from dizziness, but Yerin caught me so I didn’t get hurt.
Even so, everything was still spinning and I couldn’t clear my head.
“Be careful. Beastman Awoken have different ear structures from other people, so they’re more sensitive.”
“Hweeeeh…”
“Naru, are you really okay?”
“Somethin’ comin’ up…”
“Coming up? Ah, don’t tell me?! N-no! Hold it just a little, Naru!!”
Yerin scooped me up and sprinted for the bathroom. Thankfully the vomiting disaster never happened.
“Haa… I just lost ten years off my life…”
“Uhihi, that was fun.”
“Well, as long as Naru enjoyed it. Unnie’s a little shaken, so let’s rest a bit and then go for the Awoken exam… Naru?”
Yerin sat exhausted on a hallway chair and caught her breath. For some reason I was excited; I looked around and started moving wherever my feet took me.
“Sniff sniff.”
It was pure instinct telling me to explore and smell everything.
Yerin said she was resting, so I would patrol the area and stand guard for her instead.
“Heehee.”
I was absolutely not trying to explore this castle and claim it as my territory. Absolutely not.
“Naru, where are you?!”
Yerin seemed to call something from far away, but she was definitely resting just fine.
Bang—
“Damn it!”
A man whose flesh jiggled with every movement slammed his desk in irritation, and his fat rippled right along with it.
In truth, when Han Yerin had reported Naru to the Association, he had seen the report, dismissed it as unimportant, and gone right back to drinking.
“Honestly, sending expensive Awoken over one abandoned brat? Does that make any sense?”
He had sliced expensive high-end wine and meat and casually ordered them to stand by.
Later, when a heavy rain warning and landslide advisory went up, a subordinate reported again—and he ignored that too.
And now.
Naturally the whole affair—where a child might well have died—had come to light, and as the man responsible he was taking a massive amount of heat.
“Damn it!! All this over some no-name little brat!!! Those idiots should just nod and say ‘yes, sir’ when I speak!!”
But the water was already spilled. He wiped away the sweat—not the broth—running down his face and thought.
“Right… come to think of it, that little kid was supposed to come to the Association today.”
He dug through the unread reports piled on his desk, found the one about Naru, looked at her appearance, and grinned.
“Oho. Not bad-looking for an orphan.”
In an instant he cooked up a plan to use Naru for business and make money.
“That’s it! Attention’s already on her. We pretend to do a good deed and use her as the Association’s mascot! Then we take advertising deals and rake it in, yeah?”
Naturally he was already planning to pocket the ad money himself as he heaved himself out of his chair with effort.
“Whew, it’s hot. Absolute murder weather.”
The weather was still cool and the air conditioner was already blasting at full power, yet he left the room drenched in sweat.
“Hm?”
In the hallway he spotted a little fox clinging to an artificial planter and sniffing it.
“Why doesn’t the dirt smell like dirt? Suspicious!!”
“...”
More precisely, it was a child with fox ears and a tail. He realized a beat late that this was the very Naru he had been looking for, and he grinned.
Lucky. She’s alone right now… Better lock down a contract immediately.
Of course, making a contract with a child without a guardian’s consent was illegal, and even with an orphan you couldn’t just do as you pleased—but he approached Naru as if none of that mattered.
“Hey, kid.”
“!!!”
Naru jumped at the sight of the man, immediately raised her tail, and tried to look threatening.
“Grrrr!”
Unfortunately the display only made her look like an even easier child to exploit, and he spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I’ll specially overlook the lack of manners. Instead, why don’t you do a little business with me? I’m giving a special opportunity to an orphan like you.”
“Kaeng?! Weird smell!”
Crack—
When Naru pinched her nose against the man’s sweat, his expression grew even more unpleasant, but he told himself she was just an uneducated orphan and held back once.
“I’m being nice, so I’ll say it one last time. If you do business with me, you’ll get a chance to make a living too.”
“Business?”
Naru listened with her nose still plugged, but of course she had no idea what he meant.
After that the man launched into a long, boring explanation about making a contract, but Naru had already stopped listening.
Then, suddenly, Yu Nara’s warning floated up in her mind.
“Be careful—that fat chunk of lard might try to pitch you some business.”
“Pillow sales?”
“Pffft!!!”
The completely unexpected words from Naru made the man flinch and break out in a cold sweat.
“I-I… where did you even hear… It’s not like that…”
“Grrrr, I don’t really get it, but don’t come near me!!”
“I’m only trying to give you a chance…”
Even a scumbag like him wasn’t the kind of scumbag who targeted little kids, so he stepped closer in flustered explanation. Naru, however, was simply wary of a strange-smelling stranger.
At that exact moment…
Click—
A reporter who had snuck into the Association snapped a photo.
The man looking as if he were about to pounce while offering “pillow sales,” and Naru looking thoroughly on guard and frightened.
“Ah…”
Even a man as dense as he was could sense his own end.