EP.9 Heading North -2
EP.9 Heading North -2
A certain adventurer who had roamed the world once said this:
The nations where humans now gather make up only one-tenth of the world...
Had an ordinary person made such a claim, everyone would have laughed it off. The adventurer, however, was an elite agent with twenty years of government service.
His career lent credibility to his words, and many people were quite shocked by them.
People had always believed their countries were anything but small.
But the world was vast, and there were many things people did not know.
Even now, people did not know what kind of sights stretched out beyond their national borders.
They could only say that there lay the Great Wilds, the land of the Divine Beasts, a place even those who wished for death dared not set foot in.
We stood in the face of the unknown.
Yet thanks to the courage of adventurers like him, people were able to learn even a little of what the Great Wilds was like.
To the west, a sweltering desert of sand where the sweat never stopped.
To the east, forests and mountains teeming with living, breathing life.
To the south, a sea so vast its end was nowhere in sight.
To the north, an icy tundra that endlessly pricked the skin with cold.
This was what the adventurers told us stretched out across the land.
And in reality, the villages near the northern border...
"Achoo!!"
...were disgustingly cold, with snow completely covering the ground, making it impossible to travel by vehicle.
Fortunately, reindeer and husky sleds were running to take people to the village, so the worst-case scenario of having to walk was avoided.
However, because sleds by their nature offered no hope of heating like a car's heater, and we had to take the freezing wind head-on, it was still disgustingly cold all the same.
"Achoo!! Ugh... c-cold, so cold!!"
"Da-hye, we haven't even arrived at the village where the incident happened yet."
"But it's already cold! What am I supposed to do!"
Da-hye couldn't stop her body from trembling as if she were impossibly cold.
"Then hold me so I can warm up~!"
"Agh! Hiss!!"
I mercilessly pushed her away with my foot as she now tried to hug even me, using the cold as an excuse.
How dare a slave lay hands on their precious master's body...!!
"The only person who said she didn't care about the cold and wore fewer clothes is Da-hye. Da-hye really is stupid."
"You muscle pig!! Are you picking a fight right now?"
"From what I see, Khan deliberately provoked you, didn't he~? Getting angry makes you less cold, you know~?"
"Why, you little...! How could getting angry possibly make you less cold!"
"You never know if you get even angrier, right~?"
"Cut the crap!"
That morning, everyone had been so gloomy because of a single video...
Now, a somewhat more harmonious atmosphere seemed to have returned, and I felt relieved.
I didn't need to worry about the other agents who had come with us, so now I should make sure my companions weren't cold.
"Kyu-iiiit~♪"
"Tia, are you having fun?"
"Kyuit!"
Tia, nestled in my arms, was sparkling with excitement.
It looked like it was because the thickly piled snow and the sled racing over it were all things she was seeing for the first time.
Everything she was seeing now must have been new and wondrous to Tia.
I didn't know when we'd come back to the north after this mission, so I decided to let Tia enjoy it to her heart's content for now.
"Yata said she'd fly over on her own, so she'll be fine. Next is..."
At the front, the three huskies were running to pull the sled.
And wedged in among them was one strange presence.
"Right there, you know. Miho."
"Yes!! What is it, dear husband?"
"That... do you really have to go that far? Isn't it hard?"
"It's fine! This is something I wanted to do!"
Miho was driving the sled with the huskies while wearing what looked like a harness made for adult goods.
If she were pulling the sled in her fox form, there would have been no problem, but currently, Miho was in her human form.
That created far too many problems.
Ah, aah...!! I was already losing my mind...
Of course, it wasn't that I hadn't tried to stop her.
Afraid it might have a bad influence on Tia's upbringing, I had tried to make her stop.
But...
"A problem? What part of this is a problem?"
"Isn't it only natural for a beast woman to pull a sled?"
"Kyui?"
When even Tia tilted her head as if asking, 'Is that something to make a problem of?' and said it was fine, I ended up accepting it too, even though I had no choice.
But once I accepted it, the thought that followed was nothing but regret.
It was a relief that only my companions and I could see Miho's form.
If anyone else had seen it... it was a scene so shocking that the words 'Are you insane, human?' would have come out on their own.
"It feels nice, bringing back old memories! A very long time ago, I once gave you a ride like this, dear husband...!"
A memory from when I was five years old, one that kept crawling out whenever I tried to forget it.
My dark history—having ruthlessly worked Miho like a horse under the pretense of playing 'horse ride,' which ended up giving Miho her masochistic tendencies.
But this time, I was treating Miho, in her human form rather than her fox form, like a sled dog, so that dark history of mine had just updated to a new level.
Fuck...
Still, by now I just let it be.
If my companions were happy, I should be satisfied with that...
***
A village that had been swept away by the disaster that was a Divine Beast.
The government had already recovered all the villagers' bodies, and the remaining bloodstains had been covered up and erased by fresh snow, so all that was left were the structures destroyed by chunks of ice.
In a place that could be called a ghost town without exaggeration, Seon-ju was brushing the snow off one of the ice chunks.
As he gently swept the snow away with his hand, the surface of the ice, scarred with red scratches, revealed itself.
It was the ancient rune language that Yata had already finished deciphering.
Although Seon-ju had studied the footage, he examined the block of ice carefully with his own eyes.
The message had been made by raking claws stained with blood after finishing a slaughter. Learning what state of mind the Divine Beast had been in when leaving such a message, Seon-ju could only furrow his brow.
The blood-written message radiated unmistakable hostility: neither humans nor Companion Animals would be spared.
"My husband."
"Ah, Yata? Did you find something?"
"Yes, I found another message left by Hati... but before that, are you okay? You don't look well."
"I'm fine. I was just... worrying a little about the best way to fight."
"If it's that, you don't need to worry. Divine Beasts are dealt with by Divine Beasts; all you need to do, husband, is cheer us on from a safe distance, and we'll handle that Hati bastard ourselves!"
"But...!"
"Don't forget, your companions, including me, are Divine Beasts too. So I'm saying there's no need for you to worry all alone."
"Right..."
A faint smile lingered on Seon-ju's face.
I could tell he was a little more at ease, but the fact that his expression was still grim showed that something was still weighing on his mind.
That something was probably his own powerlessness.
In truth, unlike during the terrorist attack, there was nothing Seon-ju could do in this fight against a Divine Beast.
The reality that even though he wanted to fight alongside his companion Divine Beasts, he couldn't.
Ashamed that his weakness would make him nothing more than a hostage at their side, Seon-ju could not lift his head.
He didn't want his companion crow to catch a face filled with such bitter resentment.
That was why he had been disguising his feelings of indignation by pretending to observe the ice chunk.
"Anyway, you said you found a new message? Can you tell me what it means?"
"Yes, I roughly deciphered it. It meant that she intends to attack another human village tonight as well."
"I see..."
Just as Yata had prophesied before, Hati intended to raid and massacre human villages until Seon-ju arrived.
One per day.
A cruel idea: to systematically trample the homes of the northern people, showcasing the severity of the situation to force Seon-ju to come.
If Seon-ju had not come, he would have had to fight bearing the weight of thousands of lives, all sacrificed because of him.
This hypothetical scenario was another future Yata had foreseen—the future where he would live on burdened with regret.
"Then there's no other choice. Do you know where the nearest village around here is?"
"Around here, there's only one village. I confirmed it while flying over, so I'm certain."
"Really? That's a relief. It means we don't have to worry about which village she'll attack."
"How about that~? Think you'll fall for a capable girl like me?"
"Yeah, I fell for you a long time ago."
"Huh...?"
Seon-ju gently stroked the head of Yata, whose face turned red at the unexpected reply.
Then, to do what he could do, he quickly walked out of the building and called together the other agents who had been searching with him.
If he couldn't fight himself, then at the very least, his role was to create a space where his companion Divine Beasts could fight comfortably.
Well aware of that role of his, Seon-ju intended to evacuate the residents of the village Hati would attack in advance, thus creating a battlefield free of problematic elements.
To do that, the first thing he had to accomplish was persuading the other agents.
"What? You want us to head back already? We haven't even found anything yet?"
"We don't have time to devote any more to this place. We have to reach a nearby village before the sun sets."
"May I ask what reason you have for saying that?"
"Given how little information we have, every single piece of information is crucial. The wolf Divine Beast's active hours, I'm guessing, are at night. So, before night comes, we have to evacuate the residents of a nearby village, don't we?"
"If that's the issue, it's fine~! Other government agent teams besides us should have already evacuated the residents~"
"Then we should consider our own safety now, too. As you know, we didn't come here to fight but simply to gather information. So if we waste more time here and night falls, and we get attacked by that wolf Divine Beast, it would be disastrous for us."
"B-but there's no law saying she'll attack today?"
"Conversely, there's no law saying she'll attack on another day either. If there's a possibility, I believe it's right to move as safely as possible. Da-hye."
"Hmm, he definitely seems to be right."
"In the current situation, where we're just chasing shadows no matter where we look, getting attacked by a Divine Beast on top of that would be the worst case."
Two of the agents nodded at Seon-ju's persuasion and agreed with his point.
But Da-hye, seemingly dissatisfied with returning without achieving any results, pushed back.
"B-but still, we do have a powerful Divine Beast with us!"
"Da-hye, are you telling me to push my companion dragon into a dangerous fight right now?"
At Da-hye's thoughtless words, Seon-ju furrowed his forehead deeply and glared at her.
Seon-ju knew Da-hye hadn't meant it that way, but he couldn't help getting angry.
He was already lamenting that he could do nothing while Tia, who was younger than him, had to take part in a fight. Saying they should leave it to a Divine Beast while saving their own skins was a remark that touched Seon-ju's reverse scale.
"S-sorry! I'm really sorry!! It was a slip of the tongue!!"
Da-hye fell to her knees on the ground and apologized, even groveling.
Seeing her act that way, Seon-ju bit his lip and swallowed his boiling anger.
His expression still showed he hadn't calmed down completely, but he thought he shouldn't get any angrier than this.
Seon-ju did not want to waste even a second on such pointless work.
"I'll let it slide this time. In return, I'd like you to agree with my opinion. Is that okay?"
"O-of course! I'll follow whatever you say from now on, absolutely!"
"That's settled then. So, one more favor to ask, would you hear me out?"
"Good! Just say the word!"
"Could I borrow your companion wolf?"
"Huh? Harang?"
"Yes! I have a place I need to get to urgently."
"W-well, if that's the case, it's fine."
"Then I'll just borrow her for a little while! Thank you!"
After persuading the agents, Seon-ju mounted his colleague's wolf without delay and set off alone for the village that would soon become the Divine Beasts' battlefield.
With roughly three hours left until sunset.
Resolved to do everything he could for his companion Divine Beasts in that short time, Seon-ju ran and ran across the snowstorm-swept tundra.
Praying only for his companions' safety...
***
"No agents came?!"
"That's right. No government agents came to the village."
"That can't be...!!"
As soon as he arrived at the village, Seon-ju faced the worst possible situation.
The villagers were going about their business as if nothing were wrong in a village that should have been empty.
The presence of civilians on a battlefield that would soon belong to Divine Beasts was the worst possible scenario.
It was something that must never happen.
"Sir! Please tell the villagers to evacuate, quickly! Hurry!!"
"Wh-what?! Evacuate all of a sudden?"
"You know the next village was attacked by a Divine Beast and wiped out, don't you? That Divine Beast is coming here tonight!! It's not too late even now! Just take the people and run, please!!"
Seon-ju grabbed the arm of a passing villager and shouted as if pleading.
Cold sweat was streaming down his cheeks, which meant he was that agitated.
"Turns out this guy's completely insane, isn't he? Let go of me!!"
Yet his desperate plea was coldly cast aside by the villager.
"Ah...! Damn it!! This can't be happening!!"
Seon-ju had intended to set the stage in advance so his Companion Divine Beasts could fight smoothly, laying groundwork to aid the Divine Beasts even a little.
But his plan had completely fallen apart.
The very first condition of the plan—that the villagers must not be present—had already been broken.
"I should've at least brought one of my seniors along...!"
He was an unofficial agent of a government agency.
He could not reveal that he was an agent and carried nothing that could prove it.
So he had absolutely zero influence to exert. No matter how much he shouted at people to run, no one was going to listen.
He had hurriedly sent the wolf back to fetch the senior agents who could evacuate the villagers.
Not knowing when they would arrive, Seon-ju could do nothing except bite his nails and fret.
"I cannot stand here doing nothing...! I have to convince at least one person to listen...!!"
In a bid to do something, anything, Seon-ju once again ran around the village shouting for everyone to evacuate, but no one listened.
The villagers ignored him as though he were the boy who had cried wolf one time too many.
"Why? Everyone knows the next village was attacked by a Divine Beast! Why won't a single person listen to me...?"
Seon-ju despaired at the unchanging reality, and the surging self-loathing that came with it finally made him give up completely.
Soon, as if seized by extreme thoughts, he began to mutter.
"Fuck! Do I have no choice but to stop caring what happens to the villagers...? Or do I have to threaten part of the village to get even a small concession...?"
Seon-ju was absolutely not an altruistic person by nature.
In fact, his mindset was such that he didn't care if this place became a battlefield where people died.
But...
"As I thought, it's meaningless unless we get all those shitty villagers out of here!"
Seon-ju spat out a loud curse and raged. Because he knew that was not supposed to happen.
Even if he could give up on the villagers, he knew full well that his fellow government agents would not.
The three senior agents would inevitably try to evacuate the villagers and become caught in the battle themselves. Seon-ju refused to accept that future.
"Damn it!! What am I supposed to do? How on earth do I...!!"
He clawed at his head, trying to think of some method that wouldn't come to him, but no decent plan materialized, and he spewed curses repeatedly.
Had his Companion Fox been beside him, her illusions could have evacuated everyone. She was far from the village preparing for the fight with Hati, however, so he could not rely on her.
Seon-ju could neither advance nor retreat.
He wore a grim expression, wondering if hope truly did not exist. Yet, as if to prove that Seon-ju was not entirely without hope, someone approached him.
"I have come to help, on Lady Yata's orders!"
"Huh...?"
Right as Seon-ju's state was deteriorating further.
An outstretched helping hand had appeared.
"You're...?"
"I am a believer of the Yata Church in this village, sent to assist Seon-ju by Lady Yata's command!"
A familiar Crow Badge was attached to the man's lapel. It was a symbol signifying that the man before him was a follower of the Yata Church.
"A believer of the Yata Church in this village?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Haha! Is this for real...! Just how many moves ahead are you seeing? Yata..."
Seon-ju let out a hollow laugh and, at the same time, felt genuine admiration.
He had never imagined that there would be worshippers of Yata even in such a remote place.
"All right, then what I need you to help with right away is...!"
"Seon-ju, before that, there is one piece of information I must tell you in advance!"
"Huh? Information you need to tell me? What is it?"
"That is..."
Seon-ju had been quite startled by the sudden appearance of a Yata Church believer.
However, the believer's shocking confession was even more astonishing, surpassing surprise and reaching the level of horror.
"So, you're saying th-the people of this village made a deal with the Wolf Divine Beast...?"
"That is right. Last night, the Divine Beast came to this village and made a single proposal to us villagers. A deal to spare our lives if we helped it without leaving the village."
"...And?"
"Naturally, our village, not wanting to die, accepted this proposal. In fact, our village chief is currently having people capture and lock up the government agents who came today to tell us to evacuate."
"Is that true...?"
"Yes."
"Ha...! Haha...!! Ahahahahaha!!"
The animal called human laughs involuntarily when a single emotion blooms to the extreme.
This was true for Seon-ju as well. He too began to laugh like a madman.
But anyone who saw him right now would sense one thing.
Everyone could be certain he was absolutely not laughing out of enjoyment. There was unmistakably another emotion contained within his laughter.
"Haha!! Haa...! Hey..."
"Yes."
"Take me to that bastard chief's house. Right now."
"U-Understood!"
Her laughter vanished, leaving the emotion beneath it completely exposed.
Seon-ju was utterly disgusted by the current situation.
What had settled in his expressionless eyes and lowered voice was an extremely sharp fury.
Unlike a loud, explosive rage, Seon-ju's anger was deep and quiet. This furious appearance was fearsome enough to make even the beaming believer shrink back immediately.
It was practically the same as expressing in precise terms that he would kill anyone who got in his way. The Yata Church member concluded that Seon-ju's current intimidating pressure was no less than that of the Wolf Divine Beast he had met the day before. Now fearing Seon-ju, he guided him to the village chief's house.
"H-Here it is."
"So that chief bastard is in here?"
"Yeees..."
"Good work. There's nothing more you need to help with, so you evacuate too."
"U-Understood!"
Ignoring the Yata Church believer who hurriedly fled, Seon-ju quietly pulled out a pistol he had hidden in his chest and approached the door.
Then he mercilessly kicked the door in with his foot and entered the space inside the forcibly opened door.
"Wh-what?! Who are you!!"
The people inside recoiled in shock when Seon-ju burst into the house.
A middle-aged man who appeared to be the village chief barely managed to voice a response, but the answer that returned to him was the sound of a single gunshot.
"Guhk!! Graaagh!!"
"Honey!!"
"D-Dad!!"
The chief, shot in the leg and screaming, and his family crying out as if worried for him.
The scene was overflowing with familial love, but the look in Seon-ju's eyes as he watched them was infinitely cold.
"Hey, old lady. Release the agents you captured today. Right now."
"Wh-Who are you! How dare you commit such violence...!!"
-Bang!
"Gwaaaahk!!"
A gunshot and a scream burst out at the same time once again, and blood splattered around the chief.
"Shut your mouth and do as I say. Otherwise, next time I'll put a hole in your husband bastard's arm too."
"Heeek...!!"
Seon-ju's murderous glare made it clear that he meant every word. The village chief's wife shuddered and hurried away, apparently deciding to obey.
"Guhk...! Wh-Who the hell are you...!!"
"Shut your gob, if you don't want a hole in your mouth."
"Khup...!!"
The actions committed by Seon-ju, who had barged into the chief's home, were no different from the acts performed by the very terrorists he so despised.
Yet seeing Seon-ju carry out these acts of terror without the slightest hesitation showed just how furious he was.
"Next, the brat over there."
"Y-Yesss!!"
"You go outside immediately and use the village broadcast to tell everyone to evacuate outside the village right now."
"O-Okay!"
"Just so you know, you're aware of what happens if you try anything stupid, right?"
"I understand...!!"
Once even the chief's son was sent outside, only Seon-ju and the chief remained in the room.
Keeping the muzzle aimed, Seon-ju approached the chief.
At this, the chief trembled and reacted in sheer terror.
"Hik!! Hiik!! Sp-Spare me!! Please! I don't want to die!!"
"Don't worry, I have no intention of killing you."
"F-For real?"
"Yeah, as long as you quietly answer my questions."
"I'll answer anything!! Just please, spare my life!!"
"Then let me ask you one thing. Why did you capture the agents who came to evacuate you?"
"That's because of the deal with the Divine Beast...!"
"That deal not to kill you if you help it without running away?"
"Ex-Actly!"
"Ha! What an idiot!"
Having kept an expressionless face the whole time, Seon-ju now found the chief's answer so dumbfounding that he even began mocking and ridiculing him.
"You moron, you don't realize that you and the people of this village would've been dead today if it weren't for me."
"What do you mean...?"
"I'm saying you villagers would've been eaten and killed by the Divine Beast today."
"That's impossible...!! The Divine Beast clearly said it would spare us as long as we followed the deal conditions!"
"You still don't get it, it seems. Why on earth would that Divine Beast you lot are sucking up to have any reason to keep a deal with the likes of you?"
"Ahh...!"
"You blockhead bastard. Do you still not get that 'stay and don't run away' means 'stay right there so you're easy to eat'?"
"Th-That can't be!!"
"What you should've done wasn't hole up in here. You should've gotten help from the agents and run as far away as possible."
The foolish chief became dumbstruck as he realized the truth.
To snap him out of it, Seon-ju smacked the chief on the head several times with the pistol's muzzle.
"Hey, you dipshit! Don't you realize we don't even have time to waste on despair? What the hell do you think I shot you for?"
"Grrghk!"
"It's because thick-skulled bastards like you won't come to your senses unless I go this far! So now that you know, even if you have to crawl, get the hell out of here, you bastard!!"
"Hiiik!!"
The chief, scared stiff by the extreme terror, just shivered and trembled.
Left with no choice, Seon-ju grabbed the chief by the scruff of his neck, dragged him outside, tossed him to some evacuating villagers, told them to roughly stop the bleeding and evacuate him together, then left the spot.
To the very end, the chief had been nothing but dead weight.
Seon-ju, feeling once again how badly a situation deteriorated when an incompetent person became the leader, scowled and spat a curse into the air.
In his heart, Seon-ju wanted to kill him, but thinking the bullet would be wasted, he instead looked up at the sky to calm himself.
In the sky, the sun that should have been burning brightly had already vanished, and a brightly shining moon had taken its place in the night sky.
Realizing time had run out, Seon-ju covered his eyes with his hand and bit down on his molars hard enough to make a grinding sound.
That action was an expression of his remaining fury.
But this time, it was not fury at the incompetent chief or the stupid villagers, but fury directed at himself for being unable to give help to his own Companion Divine Beasts.
"Fuck...!!"
The sound of the loudspeaker broadcast ordering immediate evacuation and the shouts of the villagers beginning to flee in panic.
And then, a single sound that would bring an end to all this noise began to echo across the sky...
"Awooooooooo!!"
It was the howl of a wolf longing for the moon,
and also a sound heralding the appearance of the Ice Wolf poised atop a faraway snowy mountain peak.