EP.21 Winter Camp -5
EP.21 Winter Camp -5
A lone fox was climbing the snowy mountain.
Summoned by an acquaintance, she had been forced to separate from her companion keeper.
Having finally finished her business, she was now struggling to return to her companion keeper's embrace.
"Sniff sniff! Sniff sniff!"
Miho was slowly tracing Seon-ju's footsteps, following his scent lingering on the ground.
The sight of a lovely human woman doing what dogs typically do was deeply grotesque.
But Miho didn't care in the slightest and was solely following the scent to reunite with her companion keeper.
'Aah~!! My dear husband's scent has gotten so much closer! Will I be able to see him soon?'
The closer she drew to Seon-ju, the brighter Miho's expression became.
Seeing her smile bloom so wide, it was clear they weren't far apart now.
From that moment, Miho plunged into her own delusions, cupping both cheeks in rapture.
'What should I do first when we meet? Since we've been apart so long, a tight embrace? Or maybe a deep kiss right away to set his desire on fire would be nice too♡'
-Drip! Drip!
Before she knew it, warm dew had begun to form at Miho's groin and fell straight to the ground.
The fox's dew that fell promptly melted the freezing snow.
The path Miho passed was traced with a single line, leaving behind her own fox tracks (狐跡).
Time passed like that, and perhaps because the faint scent of her beloved was now completely vivid—
Miho was about to greet her companion keeper visible in the distance with the widest smile she could manage, but...
-Crash!!
A sudden storm swept her into an avalanche before she could get close.
The avalanche Tia had caused.
The avalanche they'd thought only damaged the Yeti and Wendigo had in reality swallowed Miho too, sweeping everything down.
Miho had suffered an unexpected baptism of snow, yet her madness-tinged eyes still carried one will she could never abandon.
An obsession with her companion keeper.
'Dear husband... I'll come back to you right away!!'
Even while literally buried in snow, Miho was digging a tunnel toward Seon-ju, displaying a crazed attachment.
Only one person in this world knew this fact, and even that person was shaking their head at the fox's tenacity.
"Dear husband, watch your step."
"Huh? All of a sudden?"
Having drawn close to her beloved like that, Miho was demonstrating her love today without fail as always.
"Dear husband~♡"
"Kyaaaak!!"
Not knowing that, to Seon-ju, it was sheer terror...
***
How many times in my life had I felt true terror?
There must have been countless, but the horrors that stick in memory are extremely rare.
No matter how scary the movie or how frightening the game, it's only natural for it to fade naturally after a few days.
Still, among them there are a few horrors that stay with you for a lifetime.
After all, the aftereffects differ from person to person.
In that sense, my all-time greatest horror was finally updated today.
If what I used to fear most was a man-eating clown, now it was a hand bursting out of the snow and grabbing my ankle.
If Tia hadn't been on my head, I might have passed out sprawled on the snowfield long before.
Miho's surprise appearance was horror incarnate to me to that degree.
"Dear husband~♡ It's me! Mih—?!"
"Boss. Are you okay?"
The moment I screamed, Alice appeared and stomped Miho's protruding hand and the fox's head that was about to emerge, shoving them back into the snow.
She'd acted fast to save me.
It was something I should be grateful for, but since the person Alice restrained happened to be Miho, my anxiety shot to its peak.
Sure enough, Miho's arms burst back out of the snow and grabbed the rabbit's ankles tightly, dragging her toward where she was.
It was like a scene straight out of a horror movie, but Alice was pulled in by Miho with her usual impassive expression.
Sounds of them hitting and grappling sounded from inside the snowdrift before the two immediately burst out of the snow, glaring at each other murderously.
I looked at Yata to see if this was okay, and Yata merely snickered and shook her head.
Meaning that regardless of whether it was okay, there was nothing she could do about it.
In the end, I was the only person who could stop those two.
However, the biggest problem was that their bloodlust was so vicious it was hard to mediate.
"How about you stay away from my dear husband now? I can't stand the stench of that revolting rabbit urine on him."
"That's my line. The boss is always struggling because of one fox. So the one who should stay away isn't me, it's you."
"Damned rabbit...!!"
"Vexatious fox...!!"
The punch Miho threw produced the sound of bones crunching, and the dagger Alice swung tore through skin, drawing blood.
Both sides sincerely intended to kill the other.
It was on a whole different level from the fight between those two divine beasts who'd been pulling each other's hair—even I, who had to stop them, was terrified.
The saying that the shrimp's back gets broken in a whale fight didn't exist for nothing.
'The Yeti and Wendigo really were just play-fighting...'
But unlike the Yeti and Wendigo, those two divine beasts were precious to me.
I couldn't just stand by until one of them died.
So I had to stop them somehow...
No matter how many futures I checked, I couldn't see even a tiny opening in the fight between Miho and Alice.
I was about to force myself between them, resigned to getting injured.
But before I could, two figures burst out of a nearby thicket, each grabbing the fox and the rabbit to pull them apart.
"If you're going to fight, at least go do it somewhere else, you idiots!"
"But if you plan to keep fighting here, we can't stand by either."
The figures were the Yeti and the Wendigo, respectively. The two succeeded splendidly in stopping the rabbit and fox, but...
"Let go of this if you don't want to die. How dare a mere chimpanzee lay a hand on me?"
"Let go. Before I smash that skull I kicked earlier to pieces...!!"
Under the two people's glares so murderous they stung the skin, the pair had no choice but to release the strength in their arms.
Even among divine beasts, Miho was an existence that could intimidate even a Great Divine Beast.
Alice was an existence who had caved in and cracked the Wendigo's skull with a single kick.
As a result, the Yeti and Wendigo were comparatively powerless to use force.
Of course, it hadn't been meaningless.
Thanks to their unintentional cooperation, an opening to step in had been created.
"Miho, Alice. Both of you stop fighting. I told you two to get along last time—why are you so desperate to tear each other apart?"
"But dear husband, that rabbit isn't even a companion animal. Yet she keeps obnoxiously following you around."
"Boss, you're always having a hard time because of the fox... I thought removing her would be good for you."
"Miho, I'm aware that Alice is constantly following me. The reason I let her be is that she very gratefully helps me whenever I need it. In other words, according to the employment contract, there's no issue at all."
"Ugh...!"
"And Alice. It's true that Miho makes things hard for me every night, but that doesn't mean I dislike it. That's also Miho's own way of expressing affection. Please don't misunderstand."
"Okay..."
"Anyway, both of you stop fighting now and make up! Got it?"
"Got it."
"I'll follow your words, boss."
When I threatened that I wouldn't stay still if they didn't reconcile, the two reluctantly made up.
They grabbed each other's outstretched hands while facing one another, but...
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't know you were working and got carried away. Incidentally, you do know how to separate business from personal matters, yes?"
"Don't worry, I know that much. And I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were a fox whose only idea of showing affection was mating."
"Oh my, if I came across that way, how unfortunate! Should I buy you some eye medicine?"
"It's fine. Why not use that money to get yourself neutered instead? Then you might realize there are new ways to show affection besides mating."
Miho and Alice clenched their joined hands as if they'd burst them, their faces twisted deeply.
As if refusing to yield an inch, they were locked in a battle of wills even in the act of shaking hands.
Did these two not know the meaning of the word reconciliation?
They were chewing up the insides of their own mouths to the point of bleeding with sheer dislike.
A bottomless rivalry of dragon and tiger... no, it'd be more accurate to call it a battle of rabbit and fox (兎狐相搏).
Anyway, it seemed best to keep these two as far apart as possible.
"I'm sorry in so many ways. Because of my divine beasts..."
"It's fine. You returned my precious stone, so I'll forgive you."
"And you stopped the fight before another avalanche broke out, so that's enough."
"I don't think we properly stopped it, but... anyway, it's a poor substitute for an apology, but this time I'll put a final end to the dispute between you two."
"No, there's no need to mediate anymore."
"Huh...? No need?"
"Yeah. The avalanche from earlier completely wrecked our territory, so the reason to fight is gone now."
"I-I'm sorry!!"
"It's fine. Honestly, not having to fight anymore is a relief. Besides, we're both planning to leave this mountain."
"The problem from the start was settling in territory so close to human lands. It's a shame we can't eat human flesh anymore, but it can't be helped."
It looked like both sides were giving up their territories and migrating somewhere else entirely.
Certainly, if they both gave up, there'd be no more need for meaningless fighting.
But since they both seemed deeply attached to what was theirs, I just hadn't brought up this method.
If I'd known they were the types who could concede by giving up even if they couldn't compromise, I'd have suggested it sooner.
"More importantly, human. There's one crucial fact we need to tell you."
"That's the reason we who gave up our territory came all the way here for a moment."
"Wh-what is it?"
"Actually, on this mountain, there is one more divine beast living here besides us two."
"One more?"
"Yes. She's away for the moment, but she's a Great Divine Beast who'll return before long."
I didn't remember hearing any stories like that?
There was one more divine beast living here? And a Great Divine Beast on the same level as Fenrir at that...?
"C-can I know what kind of divine beast it is?"
"Hraesvelgr."
"An eagle divine beast that nests and lives on the far side of this mountain."
"And currently, Hraesvelgr's territory has been completely ruined by this avalanche."
"Since she's a divine beast that's lived on this mountain far longer than we have, she treasures her nest immensely."
"So if at all possible, you'd better repair Hraesvelgr's nest."
"With this, our advice is done. I hope we never see each other again."
"Ah..."
The two divine beasts departed, extending their final mercy.
Watching their retreating figures vanish, I wished that everything I'd just heard had been a lie.
The existence of a Great Divine Beast living on the mountain, the absurd notion that we'd destroyed a Great Divine Beast's territory and had to fix it.
Wasn't that implausible?
But... Yata, who had strode right up to me, declared as if to say no such luck.
"At last, the long-awaited main event begins!"
She nailed down as fact the story I'd been in denial about.
On top of that, Tia even whispered to me as if asking not to be forgotten...
"Yuu, you can't forget the promise you made with me! Got it?"
The taste of blood began to swirl inside my mouth.
I'd bitten my own tongue, desperately hoping this was a dream.
But regrettably, the blood and even the stinging pain were all real.
"I think I'm losing my mind...! I think I'm losing my mind...! I'm losing...!!"