EP.17 Dances with Wolves -2
EP.17 Dances with Wolves -2
If the east of the Great Wilds was forest and the south was sea, the region between them was, unusually, a wasteland.
Barren land with more brown than green.
In a place like this, I was racing across the wilds alongside thousands of wolves.
"Seon-ju? Is anything uncomfortable...?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Of course, since keeping up with wolves on human legs was impossible, I was borrowing and riding on Kor's back.
From Kor's plush fur and pelt, to the broad back of a wolf.
Ride comfort alone, it had a coziness surpassing the Bicorn I'd ridden before.
However, while the Bicorn had a blessing that completely nullified the rider's impact, Kor had no such blessing.
So the shock of kicking off the earth and sprinting was transmitted directly to me.
I knew Kor was paying attention and trying to minimize the impact, but some shaking was unavoidable.
"Seon-ju, are you truly not uncomfortable at aall...? If there's anythiing, I'll fix it right away...!!"
"I'm really fine. You don't have to worry that much."
Kor was so kind-hearted that she constantly asked if she was causing any trouble.
I understood her feelings, but I wished she wouldn't worry so much.
'No, maybe I'm the problem...?'
I had no discomfort with Kor. But that didn't mean there wasn't something making my heart uneasy.
Fenrir. How could my heart be at peace when I was on my way to meet the wolf who nearly annihilated humanity?
So that feeling must have shown on my face and reached Kor.
That meant I was the one troubling Kor. I felt sorry...
But I didn't apologize separately.
Knowing Kor's personality, if I apologized, she'd likely argue that wasn't true, so it was better to quietly manage my expression.
"Seon-ju...! We've almost arrived...!"
"Oh! That's our destination!"
A single path, pierced between a pair of cliffs.
A place commonly called a canyon was to be the festival grounds for the wolves.
Sure enough, several wolves were already standing atop the cliffs, seemingly welcoming our return.
Except for me, of course.
The wolves I happened to make eye contact with were all staring and growling with eyes full of wariness and contempt.
My past of living with discrimination came to mind...
"Anyway, where's Fenrir? I still don't see him."
According to records, he was a wolf known to be as large as a mountain, or even bigger.
Though we hadn't gone deep into the canyon yet, if his size matched the rumors, he should have been visible to the naked eye.
But all I could see was the natural landscape and smaller wolves. Nothing else was visible.
"Father is probably asleep in a cave deep inside the canyon..."
"There's a cave inside the canyon!"
"Yes... And it's a bit embarrassing to say, but my father is quite lazy... You can assume he sleeps in the cave twenty hours a day...!"
Meaning he was only active for four hours, yet in that short time he had devoured over twenty human villages. I could only call it insane.
And to have to say something like, 'Your daughter is amazing!' in front of such a monster...
I'd almost think biting my tongue and killing myself right here would be faster.
While I was entertaining such worries, we arrived in front of the cave.
From the cave entrance alone, I had to tilt my head back as far as possible just to barely see the top.
An extraordinary size. Thanks to that, I could be certain the wolf of calamity was inside this cave.
"Father...!! I've come...!!"
Kor's call soon returned as an echo from inside the cave.
Had the being inside clearly received it? Just as that thought crossed my mind.
A hot yet overwhelming breath flowed out from within the cave.
"Haaaum...!!"
It was so dark I couldn't see clearly, but it seemed he was yawning.
He'd only yawned... yet my heart started racing, and my back was growing damp with cold sweat.
This was a Great Divine Beast presumed to have existed since before the Common Era. I couldn't fathom the gap in our levels.
Just seeing the giant wolf's eyes glinting as they opened in the distant darkness was enough to make me shudder.
If I didn't hold tightly onto my wits, truly...
"My daughter~!! You've finally come!!"
"Yes, Father..."
Something was different...
The Fenrir in my imagination had a solemn and serious voice and manner of speech.
I'd thought his years of experience would load every word with deep meaning, and his gestures would shake heaven and earth.
But the Fenrir actually revealing himself was, surprisingly, lightness itself.
Ah, but still, thinking back to his good-for-nothing image, maybe it did suit him...?
"Awww, awww! My daughter, you worked hard coming all this way! It's been a while, want Daddy to give you a piggyback ride? My daughter, you like Daddy's back, don't you?"
"F-Father...!! It's already been three hundred years since I became independent...!!"
"Whether three hundred years pass or a thousand, my daughter is still Daddy's adorable daughter!!"
"Aaoo...!!"
Fenrir's demeanor was so impossibly lighthearted, such a daughter fool that I could only sigh.
Looking around, the other wolves were also shaking their heads while watching Fenrir.
Meanwhile, Kor was turning so red I wondered if she might start steaming, embarrassed by her father's love.
Now I finally understood why Kor had talked behind her own father's back for so long back then.
"F-Father...! More importantly, I have one important piece of news...!!"
"What is it? Ah! Could it be you're quitting independence and finally coming back into your daddy's arms...?"
"Not that...! I-I've finally found someone precious, and I brought him to introduce him...!!"
Kor, who had at some point returned to human form and was hugging my arm tightly, radiated loveliness.
Should I call it fresh? Or cute?
Truthfully, more than that, the soft sensation of her large breasts pressing against my arm delivered a thrilling happiness as a man.
That is, if there weren't a massive wolf right in front of me...
"Someone precious...? My daughter's...?"
Fenrir, who had opened his eyes wide and stared at me, swept his gaze once over my whole body, then closed his eyes.
And then he silently nodded his head several times.
"I see. I was wondering why a human was here. So you are the human who made a Companion Contract with my daughter."
"Ah... Yes! I am called Yoo Seon-ju, and I've recently made a Companion Contract with your daughter! I sincerely apologize for contracting with your child without speaking to you first!!"
"No, it's fine. It can happen."
Fenrir, having brought his face close to mine with a benevolent smile, began licking me with his tongue, as if it were a sign of intimacy.
I didn't know why, but had he just acknowledged our relationship?
My heart felt extremely relieved, since the resolve to die I'd built up had become meaningless.
"Hmm... An adequate taste for an appetizer."
"Excuse me...?"
"Did you say you were my daughter's companion? Yes, it was nice to meet you, and let's never see each other again!"
The moment I relaxed and let my guard down, the giant wolf's maw opened wide!
I could see deep into Fenrir's throat, known to swallow and digest anything.
That son of a bitch!! This time too, there was no twist! This wolf had intended to eat me from the very beginning!
Why did only the bad things go exactly as I expected!!
"Oh, come on~! That's just too much! Seriously!!"
***
To get straight to the point, I didn't die, nor was I eaten.
Because before the wolf's fangs could reach me, someone who had leapt into the air slammed Fenrir's snout down from above.
The only being capable of such a thing against a Great Divine Beast right before my eyes had to be one person.
"Have you finally gone senile, Father?"
"Oh yeah!! My daughter's angry face, appearing after so long!!"
Had he actually gone senile?
Even with half his snout caved in, Fenrir looked delighted as he watched Kor blazing with fury.
What sin did the humans who were nearly annihilated by such a being even commit...
"Even if you are my father, if you try to harm someone precious to me, I will not forgive you...!"
"Oh yeah!! I'm glad to see my daughter threatening me so frighteningly...!! But still, no! I can't hand over my daughter to some random dog bone that rolled in from who knows where! Absolutely!!"
"That's not for you to decide, Father, it's for me to decide! Stay out of it!"
"Even if you say that, no means no! Even if dirt gets in myy eyeess?!"
The moment the word dirt came out, Kor immediately scooped up dirt and, rather than throwing it, shoved it directly into the wolf's eyes.
Even as a Great Divine Beast, he apparently couldn't endure the pain of a foreign substance in his eyes, and Fenrir let out a tremendous scream.
This wolf had shattered multiple preconceptions in a single day.
"E-even if d-dirt gets in them, no...!! As long as this father lives, I will absolutely never permit it...!!"
"Is that so? Then without hesitation, I shall succeed the throne...!!"
"H-hold on!! Kor! Let's stop right there!"
I was grateful that Kor was angry for my sake so we could be together, but even so, she must not devolve into a true undutiful child.
So I held back Kor, who was sharpening her claws, even going so far as to embrace her from behind.
"Please let me go, Seon-ju! I feel like I won't calm down unless I screw over that damn father of mine once today!"
"I think I know how pissed off you are, but you still shouldn't try to kill your father. Kor!!"
"Hey, human!! Who gave you the right to rename my daughter as you please!! My daughter already has a cute name called Skoll, you punk!!"
The real name Kor was always complaining about.
According to her, her father had deliberately given her a guy-like name, but...
The truth was, he'd given it thinking it was genuinely cute... He was the first person I'd met with an even worse naming sense than me.
"I'll kill him!! That senile father... no, that old man, I'll kill him...!!"
"C-calm down! Kor!!"
Meanwhile, as the secret she'd wished to hide was exposed, tears were welling up in the corners of Kor's eyes. She hated her real name that much.
Thus, the fury of the pitiful wolf, for whom her real name had become a source of trauma, was directed solely at her own father.
This was soon converted into Kor's physical strength, and it was reaching a point where I could no longer hold her back.
At this rate, I truly was about to witness a succession ceremony for the throne.
"Hmm? What is all this commotion about?"
"Ah...! Hati!!"
"A human...? Why are you here? And why is Sko...rl so angry?"
"Oh oh! You've come at a good time. My son!!"
"Great Father. What in the world is going on?"
"It's nothing much, just that your sister seems to have been bewitched by this human! So hurry and help me dispose of this human!"
"No, what the hell is wrong with this wolf bastard?!"
I was desperately holding Kor back to prolong your life, and you're trying to harm me?!
In all my life, I'd never met a lunatic like this. And what's more, that lunatic was a Great Divine Beast, the pinnacle among divine beasts...
Suddenly, the words of the divine beast I'd met in my dream flashed through my head.
[Keh-heh!! Didn't I tell you, every last divine beast has a screw loose somewhere!]
The wording was completely different, but I remembered he'd said something along those lines.
When you reached the level of Great Divine Beast, did whole handfuls of screws come loose instead of just one?
Fenrir was, to put it kindly, a man-child, or to put it bluntly, a madman, enough to make me think such thoughts.
"F-Father. I'm sorry, but I cannot do that. You see, I have made a Non-Aggression Pact with that human..."
"What?!"
Come to think of it, I had a pact with Hati, made using Minerva's feather, that could never be broken.
A pact that he could inflict no harm upon me, nor even threaten me.
No matter how much Hati respected Fenrir, he had no choice but to follow the pact first.
"Then it can't be helped! I'll handle the human, so you hold back Skoll!!"
"Ah! About that...!"
At that moment, Kor glared at Hati with a sharp glint in her eyes. She began conveying her intentions through gestures.
First, she pointed at Hati with her index finger, then immediately pointed at herself.
Next, after bending both arms at the elbows to show off her strength, she once more alternately pointed at Hati and herself.
And as a finish, she even presented the gesture of slitting a throat, ending her body-language demonstration.
If I interpreted the sequence of gestures Kor meant to convey, the meaning was as follows.
[You, me, if you block me, you, by me, dead.]
A signal from Kor, carrying a ferocious and intense meaning.
Since Hati had the experience of being beaten to a pulp by Kor in the snowfield the other day, his body was already trembling.
"I-I am sorry. Father! It seems there is nothing I can do."
"My son, are you truly betraying me as well?!"
"That's not it! It's just that before you could finish off the human, I think I would be dead first."
"Hmm. Indeed, I suppose that would be the case..."
Unexpectedly, Fenrir gave a slight nod to Hati's words and readily agreed.
Was Kor so dangerous when enraged that even Fenrir acknowledged it?
At this point, I began to suspect that Kor might practically be the strongest among the wolves.
"Hoo...! If this and that are both impossible, then it can't be helped! Human!!"
"Yes?"
"In order to confirm whether you are qualified to be my daughter's companion, I will now bestow a trial upon you!"
"A-a trial, all of a sudden...?"
"Yes, through our wolves' festival. En Varg!"
"This goddamn...!"
Why did the situation always flow like this?
Vacations and festivals clearly existed for having fun and resting.
But why did I, each and every time, never get to rest or play, and instead have to run around getting thrown around...
My fate truly seemed bleak.