EP.11 Negotiation -1
EP.11 Negotiation -1
An ice wolf stood before me.
And this wolf had nearly killed me dozens of times over.
Worse still, the wolf that tried to kill me had been a fake—a clone weaker than the original.
So what were my odds of dying then?
There was no need to agonize over it.
I would be dead before I finished considering the question.
"I came here in person because I have business with you, human."
"You've got the wrong human..."
I quietly shut the front door I'd slipped out of.
Any moment, a massive chunk of ice would come flying through the door and smash my body to pieces along with it, right...?
Ahh, truly an ephemeral life it had been...
Just as I closed my eyes and tried to accept death, an unexpected sound reached me from behind the door.
-Knock! Knock!
"Huh...?"
Not a crash but a knock-knock... had I misheard?
Was he deliberately testing me? Why on earth?
I didn't get it.
Maybe Miho or Yata had come back at the perfect moment, so I decided to crack open the door and peek out through the gap.
But as if to say reality hadn't changed, there was only the ice wolf with one paw raised to knock.
"Human, of course I know you fought a bloody battle against my clone, but even so, don't you think slamming the door on me when I have no intention of fighting is too harsh?"
"There's only one reason you'd come all the way here...? You obviously came to kill me, so you expect me to welcome you with open arms?"
"Do not worry, I did not come to fight today. In the first place, the one I have business with is the crow."
"You mean Yata?"
"Yes."
"If it's Yata, she's not here right now, so come back later. Actually, if possible, don't ever come back."
"I have plenty of time regardless. I shall wait until the crow returns. So, may I wait inside for a while?"
May he?
I desperately wanted to say so, but the ice wolf showed neither killing intent nor any desire to attack.
Provoking him for no reason would be a dangerous choice.
Besides, I was in the middle of an emergency: I needed to go out and search for Tia, who had vanished.
I had no time to worry about a wolf.
So it might actually be better to just let the wolf into the house and give up on the house itself.
"Do as you like, but don't expect any hospitality. I have to head out right now because I'm busy."
"What are you so busy with?"
"What's it to you?"
"You never know. It might be something I can help with."
If Tia really had gone outside, there was definitely a high chance the wolf had seen her.
Tia was in human form, but a Divine Beast could recognize a Divine Beast, so it was certain.
The problem, however, was that I would have to let the wolf know there were no Divine Beasts near me.
I'd said Yata was absent, and if I told him Tia was missing too, only Miho would remain.
And I didn't even know where Miho had gone either, so if that got exposed as well, the wolf might decide it was the perfect time to kill me.
Nothing could be scarier than that.
But then again, if I got information from the wolf, headed straight out to look for Tia, and never came back, that seemed pretty decent too...
I agonized over it endlessly, but still, in the end...
"I was playing with my companion dragon, and she suddenly disappeared. So I need to go out and find her fast. So, what I'm asking is, did you happen to see a baby dragon on your way here?"
Tia was more precious to me than my own life.
She was my Companion Animal, practically my daughter, and so precious that I could never bear to hurt her.
Honestly, I didn't care if I died, as long as I could find her safely.
So even though it might endanger my personal safety, I tried to get information from the wolf.
"So that was why you looked so frantic over such a trifling matter."
"I know you Divine Beasts look unfavorably on us for breaking the Divine Beast Rules. But to me, they're all precious companion animals, you know? Don't brush it off as trifling—it pisses me off...!"
"I apologize if it came across that way. Still, the reason is that you were saying something so absurd."
"What?"
"Asking where she went while carrying a baby dragon on your back—if that isn't absurd, then what is?"
"Huh...?"
Tia was on my back?
I craned my neck as far as it would go and looked behind me, and there I found a baby dragon sound asleep, plastered flat against my back.
What the...?! Since when had she been stuck there?
"I didn't feel any weight at all though...?"
"She is a Divine Beast who manipulates air, so she can likely make her weight unfelt."
She had used her ability to make her own weight unnoticeable...!
If that was the case, there truly was no better hiding spot than my back.
It wasn't for nothing that they said the darkest place is under the candlestick.
Our Tia was so clever...
Still, since she made me worry this time, I'd have to give her a stern talking-to once she woke up.
"In any case, since I found her as you wished, I shall expect generous hospitality."
"Ah, uhh..."
"What is it? Do you have another urgent matter?"
"That's not it, but..."
"Then what's with that expression suggesting something is wrong?"
"It's really nothing. Come on, I'll show you to the reception room."
"Mm."
Finding Tia was a relief, but I'd lost my excuse to abandon the house and run away.
I had to welcome Hati as a guest despite knowing he might turn on me and try to kill me at any moment.
And at a time like this, both of my reliable companions were absent, and the only one nearby was taking a nap...!
Facing the ice wolf with my sanity intact in this situation was way too high a hurdle after all.
Agh!! I wished someone, anyone would come back quickly and help me out...!!
***
"Human."
"Uhh...?"
"Don't you think you're trembling a little too excessively, no matter how you look at it?"
By the time we reached the reception room and I began brewing tea, my body was trembling exactly as the wolf had predicted.
The trembling caused by a life-threatening crisis was worse than ever before, and I even spilled the black tea I was pouring onto the floor.
"Isn't it only natural that it's unreasonable to tell me to calm down when the guy who tried desperately to kill me just a day ago is nearby?"
"I have absolutely no intention of attacking at the moment."
"It's like saying a carnivore has a full stomach—do you think the herbivore nearby can feel at ease?"
"Now that you put it that way, that certainly would be unreasonable."
Serving a carnivore who might get hungry again and go hunting at any moment with ease...
I suspect it's impossible unless you're out of your mind.
"Ah."
Anyway, how was I supposed to serve black tea to that wolf?
His snout was too big for a teacup, and he probably couldn't even hold one with those huge paws...
And he didn't seem likely to transform into human form like my companions did either.
So I had no choice but to look for something else to serve the black tea in.
While searching the shelves, I found a suitable bowl—unfortunately, one with a deeply questionable history.
"Hmm..."
A dog bowl that Miho had bought, saying she wanted to do pet-dog play with me.
However, behind me was a wolf—a Divine Beast, but still belonging to the canine family.
A dog bowl.
A wolf.
A dog bowl.
A wolf.
"Hmhm...?"
"What on earth is that thing in your hand? You keep looking back and forth between it and me."
"It's nothing, I was just debating whether I should serve it on a precious plate."
He was an ice wolf ignorant of human society anyway.
He probably wouldn't realize the bowl I served black tea in was a dog bowl...?
With no other suitable dish in sight, I decided to use it.
"Hm, to serve such fine-smelling water in a precious thing like this—I shall receive it gratefully."
Fortunately, as if knowing nothing, Hati brought his snout close to the dog bowl and began lapping up the black tea with his tongue to wet his throat.
Still, he'd get angry if he found out I treated a Divine Beast the same as a mere mutt, right...?
The fake one I met before had also gotten furious when I provoked him by calling him a mongrel, so he probably would.
"Oh? Since when did we start raising a puppy?"
A crow who had launched a provocation at Hati the moment she returned home.
Not even five seconds had passed since I'd decided not to say anything before she let that remark fly.
Yata, was it you again...?
"So you've finally come, crow."
"I rushed back, worried that my dear husband's heart would be burning with anxiety!"
"If you knew Hati was coming, you could've told me beforehand...!"
"Sorry~! Partly I couldn't tell you because you'd passed out, and if I had told you he was coming, you wouldn't have been able to have fun playing with Tia."
If that was the reason, I could accept it.
If I'd known Hati was coming in advance, I wouldn't have spent an enjoyable time with Tia in human form—I would have been frantically making contingency plans.
So Yata had been considerate of me in her own way.
"If you foresaw that I was coming, you must also have foreseen what my demand is, yes?"
"Of course."
"In that case..."
"Before that, hold on!"
"What is it?"
"This is not a matter for just the two of us to discuss. Explain it properly to my husband as well. Otherwise, I cannot accept your demand."
Why me though...?
I didn't really know what Hati's demand was, but it didn't seem like something a human like me could do anything about?
I really wished they'd just leave me out of it, talk between themselves, and wrap it up.
"If you say so, I have no choice. Human, before I tell you my demand, I intend to share my story for a moment—do you mind?"
"Do as you like."
Right, I'd never had a choice from the start.
I just had to accept it gracefully...
"As you know, I was born as a child of my great wolf father, and I grew up under my great father alongside my twin brother Skoll."
If he meant a great wolf, he must be talking about Fenrir.
"With the strongest wolf in the world as our father, we always admired him and hoped to become large and strong wolves like him someday. But then, we heard a shocking story from our father."
"What was it?"
"The story that our father is smaller than the sun and the moon."
No matter how large a wolf was, it couldn't possibly be bigger than the moon, let alone the sun.
If he were bigger than the sun, this world would amount to nothing more than a toy ball for Fenrir.
"We were enraged by that. That the sun and moon, which look so small they wouldn't even be a mouthful, could be larger than our great father...!"
"Everyone knows that the sun and moon only look small because they're far away—they're actually huge, right?"
"But we cannot acknowledge it! No, we will not! There cannot possibly exist any being greater than our father! So I resolved to swallow the moon, and my brother Skoll the sun!"
So that was why he was called the moon-crazed wolf.
That Fenrir, an object of terror to us humans, was an object of admiration and longing to this wolf.
I had never idolised anyone, but I had heard that few things hurt more than seeing one's idol surpassed by another.
"If my brother and I swallow the sun and moon someday, it will mean we have become as great as the father we admire, and at the same time, that we have eliminated hindrances to father's great achievements. Thus, swallowing the sun and moon is our long-cherished wish."
"Alright, I've heard your life story. So let's get to the point—what do you want that you came to find us? Don't tell me you're asking us to help you eat the moon?"
"No, I will fulfill the dream of eating the moon on my own."
"Then what?"
"I am aware that you summoned a meteorite and killed my clone before."
Could this be retaliation for that?
Was he angry because his clone had been slaughtered?
"So is your demand that we fight you again?"
"That is not it. It is just..."
"Just...?"
"Just that I came because I thought I would like you to slam a meteorite into me one more time."
"Uhhh...??"
Had I misheard? He wanted me to slam a meteorite into him again? What on earth...?!
My mind instantly turned chaotic, but the one thought I had throughout was just one...
"...Big bro, are you a masochist perv too?"