Chapter 39: Someone Prayed Softly
"Hah—!"
The girl opened her eyes.
"Where... is this?"
She looked around. The chamber she had kept as a shrine maiden had never been a splendid one, and this was poorer still—yet it was warm with the feel of a life actually lived. A small room seemed to welcome her.
"What happened to me?"
She was certain of it. She had been praying to Heaven. The man had died. And then...
Footsteps sounded outside.
"You're awake?"
"Eh?"
"Aigoo, did I startle you? Well, of course I did."
The sight of the someone who opened the door and stepped inside cut her thoughts clean off. That someone laughed at the girl's blank, stunned face, and a softness of fluffy fur came down over her head.
"Hm. Nothing wrong with you that I can see."
Someone caught hold of her and looked her over from every angle.
"You aren't hungry, are you?"
At the warmth in the question, the girl nodded before she knew she meant to.
"Then wait just a moment."
Someone went out. The girl pinched her own cheek.
"This isn't a dream?"
If it wasn't, then what had that been? The someone who had come in just now had a raccoon's face and fur, and a human body.
"Did I die after all?"
Still dazed, she stared at the door, and kept staring until the raccoon came back.
Chomp. Chomp.
"Aigoo, slowly. No one's going to snatch it from you."
It was a modest table—rice porridge, and a single side dish—but the girl ate as if it were the finest thing Heaven had ever granted.
"I... have eaten well."
"Listen to that. You were a child of a high house."
At the raccoon's words, the girl flinched.
"That was rude of me. I'm sorry."
The girl looked away.
"Hm?"
The raccoon's nose and ears twitched.
"Someone's outside?"
A person? The girl saw the shadow falling across the door.
"Come in."
"Excuse me, Raccoon Auntie."
The door opened, and a man with a hood drawn over his head stepped in. Behind him came another, with the ears of a dog.
"You're awake."
The hooded man looked at the girl with soft eyes. He seemed glad.
"You came to see the child?"
"Yes. I'm relieved nothing's wrong with her."
He turned a bright smile on the girl.
"I'm glad you're well. Nothing hurts, does it?"
The girl shook her head, and the man let out a breath.
"She ate and slept in my house. What could possibly have been uncomfortable?"
The raccoon said it with a little huff.
"Thank you, Auntie."
"Enough of that. Since when is looking after the child first some kind of crime?"
She stood.
"Wait there. I'll bring you something to drink."
"It's all right. We won't be long."
"Sit. Don't turn me into the sort of person who can't even offer a drink to folks who've had a hard time of it."
The man gave in, reluctantly. Before she went out, the raccoon left them a warning.
"Ask that child one useless question while I'm gone, and you'll learn what a rice paddle feels like."
"Understood."
"Understood."
"Especially you. You little mutt."
"Why is it always me?!"
The dog-eared man, Gyeoni, put on a thoroughly wronged face.
"Hand on your heart. Think it over."
"I won't!"
Gyeoni puffed himself up.
"Auntie only ever scolds me."
"You're the one who snuck her aged wine and drank it."
"That was years ago!"
"And that wine was put down before you were even born."
"I'm so heartbroken I ought to run out and bring her a bottle..."
Watching the two of them, the girl was lost. People? Or animals? Gyeoni was more human than the raccoon, and still those twitching ears were impossible to ignore. And the hooded man—the smell of wild boar rolled off his whole body. The raccoon was no different. What were they?
Envoys of Heaven? Or a den of monsters?
While the two of them bickered, the raccoon came back with water.
"You rascals. I can hear you squabbling from all the way out there."
"Sorry."
"Sorry."
She clicked her tongue and held the cup out to the girl.
"Here. Drink slowly."
The girl drank slowly. So did the two grown men. Her eyes darted as she weighed whether she ought to ask at all, and curiosity won.
"Wh-who are you, exactly?"
"Hm?"
The raccoon's eyes went round.
"D-did you come down from Heaven?"
"Heaven? What are you talking about, child?"
She laughed softly and set the misunderstanding straight.
"We're people, same as you. Our looks are a little strange, that's all."
The hooded man drew his hood back. A pair of neat little boar ears stood perkily upright.
"Nothing to fear. This is a village where people live, too."
"A village...?"
The boar-man, Hwani, nodded.
"A village where a few peculiar folk have gathered to live."
"Like you?"
"Yes. Only more varied than that."
The girl could not even begin to picture it. More varied than this?
"...Astonishing."
"Right? Isn't it amazing?"
Gyeoni grinned wide.
"We've even got a dragon living here."
"...A dragon?"
She wanted to call it a lie. But the impossible was already standing in front of her, and she had no choice but to believe.
"She took it just like that?"
The dog's ears shot up, then drooped. Hwani sighed.
"...I'll be telling the Dragon Lady about this later."
"Captain, please, anything but that..."
Gyeoni clung to him. It did him no good.
"The Dragon Lady told you not to do that, didn't she?"
"You really do go looking for the rod."
"...Please spare me."
The dog let out a pitiful whine.
"Enough about that one. I want to hear our little one's story."
The raccoon stroked the girl's hair.
"However did you end up in a mountain valley like that?"
The girl kept her mouth shut.
"Weren't you running from a tiger? I smelled tiger on you..."
"Shut your mouth."
Gyeoni took the blow from Hwani and folded.
The raccoon paid it no mind, and asked gently.
"If it's hard to say, you don't have to. Is there a village where you belong, then? If there is, I'll send you home."
The girl's eyes wavered, just a little. Pity gathered in the raccoon's.
"...I see. Then if you've nowhere to go, stay here."
She rubbed the girl's cheek.
"A new member of the family is always welcome in our village."
The girl opened her mouth and closed it again. She didn't know what she was supposed to say.
Am I allowed to be here? I prayed to Heaven. I, who took so many lives? Am I even something that ought to exist?
Her head was bowed low, and in her hands she saw a tuft of golden fur.
San-gun...
Did San-gun bring me here? Was it chance, or did he mean to? Is he still here?
The thought had barely reached her before she burst out of the room. Voices rose behind her. She didn't care. Her head was already full of nothing else.
San-gun. San-gun.
She ran into the forest, and the forest opened a path before her.
The girl was gone in an instant, and the three of them froze.
"Damn it!"
Gyeoni lurched to his feet.
"Stay where you are!"
The raccoon caught him.
"She ran off like that, and you want us to just leave her?!"
"Leave her."
Hwani set a hand on Gyeoni's shoulder.
"Captain...!"
"This is a time she needs to be alone."
"Gyeoni. Wait."
Gyeoni did not like it.
"...And if something goes wrong?"
"You'll be the ones to save her. How could she be in any danger?"
At that, his mouth twisted into a pout.
"Tch! So we can go later?"
"Yes."
The raccoon stroked him.
"Don't treat me like a child."
His words said one thing. His dog ears flicked this way and that, and the raccoon laughed at the sight.
"Auntie. What about the child?"
Hwani folded his arms.
"What about her?"
"...Is she special, like us?"
Gyeoni's ears pricked.
"Yes. Very special."
The raccoon looked toward the forest the girl had entered.
"Don't ask any more."
"Understood."
Hwani stood.
"Let's go."
"Already?"
"Wait too long and we'll lose her."
"Well... all right."
The two of them bowed to the auntie.
"Don't get hurt. Go slowly."
"Excuse us."
"We'll be back soon."
The two men went into the forest.
With complicated eyes, the raccoon thought of the girl. That hair must once have been black. She could guess well enough why it had turned red.
"How did it come to this?"
Her heart ached. She looked up at Heaven.
Did the earnest prayer reach Heaven? Heaven answered.
"Ah..."
A low sound escaped her. The girl's suffering was not yet over. At that cruel fate, the raccoon folded to the floor and wailed.
The girl stumbled through the trees, searching for San-gun.
San-gun. San-gun. You're nearby, aren't you? Say something. Like that time. You saved me, didn't you? Come out. I want to see you. I want to thank you. Why did you send me here? I want to stay with you. So please.
"San-gun!!!"
At her cry the forest stirred, as if it meant to help grant what she wished. But the forest could not grant it.
"San-gun..."
The girl wept.
"Where are you..."
Why wouldn't he come out? She could not understand San-gun's will. She looked up at Heaven.
Find him. Please. I bow, and I beg.
She prayed, and prayed again. At that prayer the tuft of fur in her hands began to shine, and when its light touched her, she understood San-gun's will.
"Ah."
She wanted to deny it. She could not. The girl wiped her tears. If this was San-gun's will, then she would only follow it. She bowed.
As if those words had set something at ease, two lights vanished behind her.
Someone prayed, softly.