The Swift Tiger

Meanwhile, around the time a certain small beast ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was rolling about in a cave, mumbling in its sleep—

A great commotion was unfolding in the Bloodmoon Territory near the Verdant Grove.

"Has the nature of that flame been identified?"

"We've sent people to investigate. According to the head mage…"

"My lord!!"

Count Friedrich of Bloodmoon turned toward the approaching voice. The man charging toward them, kicking up a cloud of dust, was a thick-necked figure with impressively developed trapezius muscles—Knight Commander Albert.

He came to a halt before the Count in an instant, offered a proper salute, and spoke with a grave expression.

"The situation appears more serious than we thought."

"Hmm?"

Albert delivered a concise report of everything he had seen. It concerned the goblin corpses scattered deep within the Verdant Grove, and the traces left behind around them.

"The number of slaughtered goblins is roughly a hundred. We found this parchment at the site."

"This is…"

"The mages examined it. They believe it belonged to the shaman Thrillzhak."

What? Thrillzhak?

Friedrich examined the other items Albert handed over as well—bloodstained scraps of clothing and a broken staff. The roughly torn fabric reeked of the distinctive goblin stench, and a peculiar bone powder clung to it. Cursed bone dust—a material goblin shamans used as a medium for their hexes.

Which meant…

"Thrillzhak was taken down?"

"Yes. It appears he fell to the monster that unleashed those flames."

"Then…!"

The Count's expression hardened. Thrillzhak had been a thorn in Bloodmoon's side for decades—a mutant who gathered goblins and deployed them with near-military tactics. What made him so troublesome wasn't raw strength, but the intelligence to craft actual strategy. A slippery pest who vanished like smoke every time, foiling every subjugation attempt.

And that mutant had been wiped out—not by humans, but by a monster?

"So that creature is a mutant as well."

"Yes. There were two sets of footprints remaining. One resembled a bird of prey—something like a falcon. The other…"

Albert spoke with a taut face.

"Its size surpassed that of an ogre."

"What? Is that true?"

"I confirmed it with my own two eyes."

At the Knight Commander's heavy reply, the Count's face went cold. Ogres were massive monsters ranging from a minimum of two meters to nearly five. And something even larger than that had been found? On top of which, the creature was a powerful mutant variant capable of massacring Thrillzhak and his goblins.

The situation was worse than expected. If a beast like that grew any further and came crashing into the territory…

The Count reached a swift decision. They had to find it somehow. And they had to kill it.

"With a body that large, it can't have fled far."

"Yes. We've already assembled a scouting party and begun the pursuit. However…"

The Knight Commander bowed his head with a troubled look.

"The creature's tracks simply cut off."

"It erased its trail?"

"I can't say. Both the raptor's footprints and the large one's vanished at a certain point, just like that."

"Hmm."

Friedrich gazed toward the Verdant Grove with a worried face. The tracks had disappeared? How was that possible? Could something of that bulk flee without leaving a single trace?

"Any other magical residue?"

"Well… the mages are still searching, but…"

Unless the creature was a dragon, it was unlikely to have used teleportation—a spell even great mages struggled to manifest.

"Hmm?"

As Friedrich sorted through the clues, a word slipped from his lips unbidden. It had come to him naturally as he recalled the shape of the flames that had risen into the sky.

"A phoenix…?"

"Pardon?"

Come to think of it, he had heard the tales. The phoenix—a divine beast said to exist only in legend, much like dragons. Stories dismissed as even more absurd than those of heroes or dragons. But if such a being were real, wouldn't that explain the enormous wave of mana that had painted the sky red?

"…Albert. Were there any scorched traces in the area?"

"…!!"

Grasping the Count's intent, Albert's eyes went wide and he nodded vigorously.

"Th-there were, yes!"

"Perhaps…"

"But, my lord?"

Albert looked at the Count, unable to finish the rest of his sentence. His expression could roughly be translated as: In a crisis like this, what kind of nonsense are you spouting?

The Count knew it too, and laughed lightly. But humans were creatures who judged situations subjectively by nature—and Friedrich was especially prone to it. Once something caught his fancy, there was no talking him out of it.

"If a phoenix had been there… that massive monster would have been reduced to ash as well."

"My lord. But a phoenix is… In any case, I shall continue tracking the creature's trail."

"…"

Under the Count's steady gaze, Albert let out a small sigh and gave a halfhearted nod.

"…Then I suppose we might find traces of a phoenix as well."

"Excellent."

Albert shook his head at the sight of the Count's sparkling eyes. Such casual irreverence was only possible because of how close the two of them were.

Albert thought to himself: Our Count has fallen into another get-rich-quick scheme.

Perhaps it was because he'd once spectacularly tanked a business venture—whenever Friedrich caught the scent of money, he refused to let even the slightest possibility slip away.

But my friend. A phoenix…? That was the kind of talk you heard about dragon hearts.

Ah, the memories. The time Friedrich blew a thousand pounds and fled the castle to hide out at Albert's house.

Sigh. You never change, do you? So consistent it was almost endearing.

Still, what choice was there? He couldn't exactly rule out a phoenix when nothing better came to mind. And so Albert was now fated to comb through the Verdant Grove like a man hunting lice—searching for a phoenix egg that almost certainly didn't exist.

For the sake of friendship. For a knight's duty.

The one silver lining was that this time, even if he failed, he wouldn't get thrown out. After all, Albert fully intended to find and kill the monster first, before any phoenix egg.

Sigh. Once again, I'm the only one taking the defense of Bloodmoon seriously!

Albert swallowed his tears inwardly.

But then—could it be that great fortune was truly visiting Bloodmoon this year?

Not long after, an absurd report arrived through a mage.

"M-my lord! The head mage attempted to read the Memory of the Earth, and…!"

"Hmm!!"

Friedrich tensed as he read the mage's report, while Albert watched him without much thought.

And then—

"Just as I thought!"

Friedrich beamed triumphantly as he showed Albert the report.

"The heralds of the earth rejected the magic!"

"…??"

"Don't you see what this means? That creature is a being so fearsome even the heralds tremble before it!"

Albert blinked blankly. The report really did say as much.

He couldn't make sense of the meaning, but it roughly seemed to say the magic had failed.

Wait. What? Then… was it actually a phoenix?

Friedrich issued his orders with a solemn face.

"Issue a gag order across every territory regarding last night's sky! This information must not leak under any circumstances! And Albert!"

"…Yes!"

Friedrich looked at him with eyes full of trust.

"I place my faith in you."

"…!"

Albert let out a short laugh, then nodded with a serious expression.

"I shall find the phoenix's egg and return with it."

And with that, Albert, Knight Commander of Bloodmoon, became fully committed to finding the phoenix's egg as well.

"Move out!"

"Yes, sir!!"

As he led several of his swiftest knights and soldiers back toward the Verdant Grove—

"Grrn… grrrn…"

The young beast lay sprawled on its back atop a bearskin, limbs splayed out like a human.

And in the dark forests of various regions far from the Verdant Grove—

"Ad-advance!"

Goblin armies sortied for a hatchling hunt. Their target, of course, was the Verdant Grove.

"Grrn!"

I finished a sweet, deep sleep and stretched long and hard. Whoa—was it the flexible body? The stretch felt extraordinary. I could feel every bone and muscle fiber in my body tightening and releasing with solid precision.

Focusing on that sensation, I felt the Wildness dwelling within me as well. The Wildness wasn't in the dantian below the navel… but in my heart. What was this? Because I was a tiger?

Well, what did it matter. I imagined gathering the Wildness into one place and spreading it gently outward. The impatient Wildness needed only the slightest push before it flooded through my entire body in an instant, flooding me with fierce vitality.

But the moment that energy rode my spine up to the crown of my head, my mind was overrun by Wildness, and a low grrrn rumbled from my throat of its own accord. Was this what they called qi deviation—Wildness saturating you down to the marrow?

Then a majestic energy cleared my head.

Hey. Spirituality here. Did you come alone?

The Wildness gave an awkward little laugh, casually turned around, tapped the crown of my head—tak!—and flowed back down. But traveling the reverse of its original path, it passed through what would be the philtrum on a human face, near the lips.

Any martial arts master who saw this would have clapped and declared, "The Conception and Governing vessels have opened!" From the tailbone up the spine to the crown, down past the lips, through the heart, and all the way to the important bits below—a complete circuit had been formed.

…?

As someone who once dreamed of being a writer, I had a question. At this level, shouldn't I have become a peak master or undergone a complete bodily transformation?

The question resolved itself naturally.

Hey. You're a tiger right now.

Ah. Right. So the reason tiger brothers were strong from birth was that their Conception and Governing vessels were already open, leaving them steeped in Wildness. I, having been born with a human mind, simply had too little Wildness to go mad from it.

"Grrong-grrong."

I finished my thoughts and completed a full "microcosmic orbit." This was not some secret breathing technique passed down as a treasure of the tiger clan.

What? This actually works?

I marveled at how finely I could control my Wildness. The Wildness gathered near my heart even seemed to have increased a little. But I soon realized that what I'd just done was slightly different from the martial arts breathing techniques people usually imagined.

If this had been a real, proper breathing technique, a skill or some kind of clue would have popped up for sure.

The system gave no response. But this time, I didn't need the system ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to tell me.

What I had just done was—

Observation.

The act of concentrating the mind and fully sensing every single one of my cells.

Spirituality's effects are this powerful…

Only then did I truly recognize that my body was not human, but a tiger. All that diligent study of meridian positions for the martial arts novels I'd planned to write only applied to a human body.

But as they say—even a blind squirrel finds a nut. A genius tiger could stumble into enlightenment while stretching in the morning.

I nodded at the text that appeared on my status window. As expected, Spirituality was an incredible power. If I kept observing my body and practicing my breathing like this, I might one day obtain a proper breathing technique.

"Nyaaong!"

Thrilling! The life of a genius tiger was always full of new discoveries!

It was while I was testing my Wildness this way and that with my newly sharpened senses that it hit me.

Huh?

I noticed that the cave the Steel Leather Bear had lived in had something artificial about it—too deliberate to be a purely natural formation. Why? Because of this:

An unknown language was carved into the wall. At a glance, it looked completely impossible to decipher. But who was I? Owner of a status window, that's who.

I concentrated Wildness hard into both eyes and stared at the characters.

What the hell?!

A hideout? That old goblin bastard! I'd wondered where he'd popped out from—so he'd been hiding in a place like this?! The nerve!

Then a thought struck me. If this was Thrillzhak's hideout… hadn't he maybe stashed some treasure here? The guy was a "shaman," after all—essentially a mage. And mages' homes were always loaded with valuables.

Ohhh! In that case—

Thrillzhak is already in my belly, isn't he?

Then wouldn't his things be my things?

Thank you, Thrillzhak. You were a goblin who gave without holding back.

In high spirits, I began carefully inspecting the surroundings. Before long I found a suspicious mechanism and pressed it with my paw. True to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠goblin nature, it wasn't hidden up high but set into the floor—and when I pressed it, the inscription on the wall curiously changed.

What? A password?

Ugh, what a petty little goblin. He put a password on this?

I'm out of luck here…

I used my Wildness to input numbers from zero to nine, then eventually sighed.

How am I supposed to know goblin language!

Dirty goblin bastard!

Then a thought flitted through my mind. With an eh, no way kind of feeling, I entered a certain phrase—the one word I was uniquely able to use.

The cave trembled faintly, and a passage leading deeper inside opened up.

Whoa, that actually worked?

I shook my head at the thrill of cracking the password and at the sheer obsession of the guy, all at once.

Thrillzhak, you're something else. Anyway, I'll take good care of your treasure!

I wrapped Brother Beak's egg and my own body snugly in the bearskin and toddled inside on my little paws.

For the record, the password was:

I just typed what the status window showed me, and it worked.

Some time later.

"Hmm."

A figure stepped into the cave the small beast had left behind. He was Bloodmoon's proud Knight Commander, Albert. With his keen senses, he grasped the suspicious "hex" installed in the place the moment he entered. Under normal circumstances he might have missed it—but "recently" someone had activated the hex here in a very crude fashion, leaving residual mana behind.

He used a knight's instincts to locate the "device," but in the end he could not crack the password.

"What should we do? Shall we destroy it?"

"No."

Albert shook his head. He carefully examined the traces left around them. Being a cave of solid stone, there were no footprints… but faint mana ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠remained. Mana that held heat.

Without a doubt, a phoenix's egg had been here.

One step too late.

Clicking his tongue in regret, he issued orders to his soldiers.

"There's an underground passage connected to this cave. Surround the area and bring a mage."

Even Thrillzhak couldn't have dug a tunnel long enough to cross a mountain range.

"We capture the monster transporting the phoenix's egg from this place."

The knights and mages of Bloodmoon began to surround Thrillzhak's hideout.