The Fox's Den (10)
I had intended to tell Yeon I was a player from the very beginning. I simply hadn't done so in my fox form — getting that particular fact across would have taken an eternity. Now that I could take human shape, though, that excuse no longer held.
Of course, the way I'd gone about it had been a little impulsive. That much, even I had to admit.
"...A player. So you're a user? Like me?"
"Yes. I am sorry for having deceived you all this while."
I dropped my gaze and answered evenly, though Yeon's voice still carried that dazed, unmoored quality of someone whose world had just tilted sideways.
Honestly, I was a little tense. I hadn't set out to lie to her, but if I were in her position, I'd have been annoyed. Deception was deception, regardless of intent. And when I thought about everything we'd done to each other over the past day and change...
Wait. Actually, doesn't that make me the victim here? She's the one who kept forcing those hugs. I distinctly said I didn't want to.
I was busy constructing these rather self-serving justifications when Yeon, who had been sitting in silence, finally spoke.
"Why tell me at all? You didn't have to. If you'd just kept quiet, I never would have known. Not for the rest of my life."
"That is precisely why I told you. You are, after all, the one who saved my life."
And if I let it go on like that, it really would have become a lie. That, I could not accept.
"I had always planned to tell you, should the opportunity arise. I could have managed it even as a fox, but that body was far too inconvenient for explaining the full circumstances. So I postponed it."
"And now that you look human, you decided to say it?"
"Yes."
I glanced up at her as I said it.
"If you are angry, then I shall apologize. I had no intention of deceiving you."
"More importantly, I want to know something. Why didn't you leave me?"
"That is..."
I wasn't sure she would believe any of it, but I hardly had another option. So I explained everything, slowly, from the beginning.
That I had originally been a top-ranking player in Al Fantasia. That I had come to my senses only to find myself in the body of a fox. That I could no longer use most of the system's functions, logout included, and that the only way to fix any of it was to become a Nine-Tailed Fox — a Gumiho. That I had received her help along the way, only to be tamed out of nowhere. And that, as a result, I had been left with no choice but to travel with her.
"Frankly, the whole affair was most irregular. Grateful as I was to have my life saved, I never imagined I would be tamed so completely, so instantly—"
"So you hated it?"
Hated it? The question came at me so abruptly I could only shake my head.
"It was not hatred so much as bewilderment. I needed to raise my level and become a Gumiho as swiftly as possible, and instead I found myself saddled with a newbie as my master."
"A newbie... so that's how you thought of me."
"Is that not accurate? Yeon, you have only just begun playing Al Fantasia, have you not?"
"If you count today, it's been two days, but..."
"Then a newbie is precisely what you are."
There was something faintly sour in her voice that struck me as odd, but I merely shrugged as I said it — completely failing to notice the sulky look she was giving me.
"At any rate, from my position, it was an exceedingly awkward predicament."
"So that's why you kept biting my hands and my face? Because you needed to become a Gumiho as fast as possible, and I just kept clinging to you and getting in the way."
"...I am sorry for that."
I muttered it while pointedly looking elsewhere.
"But I swear to you, it was not because I disliked you. It was simply..."
"Simply?"
I hesitated.
Did I really need to tell her that I had originally been a man — and a considerably older one at that — and that I had been trying to put distance between us because of it? Wasn't revealing that I was a player already enough? Surely that was sufficient on its own.
The debate did not last long. I had no desire to hide anything from her, in the end. I let out a long breath, stole a sidelong glance at Yeon, and carefully broached the subject.
"W-well. I would prefer you not be too startled by what I am about to say..."
"Everything I've heard so far has already been plenty startling, thanks."
Fair enough. A person trapped inside a game, transformed into a fox — those were the kinds of stories you only found in novels. Granted, what I was about to say was roughly on that same level. I all but exhaled the words.
"...I was originally a man."
"Yeah. ...Yeah? Wait. What?"
"I said I was originally a man. And considerably older than you, at that."
I had actually said it. A flush of embarrassment surged up out of nowhere, and I covered my eyes, mumbling.
"That is why I did not wish to be held by you. To be scooped up and petted in the arms of a girl so much younger than myself... it is not the sort of thing one can speak of in polite company."
That was also why I had been so determined to reveal I was a player as quickly as possible. The longer you let something like this sit, the more everything that happened in the meantime came back as karmic retribution. And the thought of running into her again after it was all over, only for things to be unbearably awkward... well.
She must have been disgusted. The fox she had been hugging and stroking this whole time was actually a man far older than herself. Of course she would find that horrifying.
I could sympathize completely, which somehow made it even harder to look her in the face. I was still waiting for the heat of my own mortification to cool when she spoke.
"What, so that was all it was?"
The sheer relief in her voice made me drop my hand and look at her in spite of myself.
She was not staring at me with contempt or revulsion, the way I had expected. If anything, she looked like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Why?
"Honestly, I was worried you just... hated me. That that was why you kept pulling away. But it wasn't that at all. I'm so glad."
"...Did you perhaps fail to hear me correctly? I said I was—"
"A man, and older than me, right? How old are you, anyway? Don't tell me you're over thirty or something..."
"I am most certainly not thirty!"
Twenty-eight, to be precise. People liked to act as though thirty was arriving the day after tomorrow, but I was absolutely not in my thirties. I had squawked it with such alarm that Yeon let out a little puff of laughter.
"Then we're fine. Oh, I'm sixteen, by the way. A fresh, sprightly high school girl — unlike a certain someone."
"If you are a high school student, you ought to be studying, not playing games..."
"La la la — I can't hear you. Not listening~"
"Good grief."
She clapped her palms over her ears and grinned, and I felt a laugh slip out of me before I could stop it.
"Are you truly all right with this? I may look like this now, but as I said, I was originally a man."
"Well, I was a little surprised, but not that surprised. I'd already figured you weren't exactly a normal fox, even before you turned into a human. And besides—"
She gathered me into her arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and whispered against my hair.
"Whatever you used to look like, you're cute now, aren't you?"
"...And here I thought otherwise, but you are rather shallow yourself."
"Girls can't help themselves around cute things. That's just how we are. Oh — but I guess I shouldn't be holding you like this anymore?"
"Do as you like. If it does not bother you, I have no particular objection."
To be perfectly honest, I had already half given up and adapted, thanks to Yeon's relentless clinging. I was used to it by now. If anything, sitting still and well-behaved would have felt stranger.
"Hmm~?"
"...What is that tone supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. I was just thinking, even looking like this, a guy's still a guy, huh~"
What was that supposed to mean? I stared at her in bewilderment, and she beamed at me, all sunshine and innocence.
"You say you don't like it, but I guess you actually enjoy being held by a high school girl, you little pe—"
"What manner of slander are you spouting, you brat."
I reached out without a moment's hesitation, caught both of her cheeks, and pulled. Talk like that and someone was going to get arrested. Mostly me.
I gave her nose a light tug for good measure before considering the punishment complete.
"At any rate, it seems we have ended up introducing ourselves after the fact."
"Yeah. We didn't exactly have a lot of ways to talk before."
True enough. If I had tried to explain that I was a user back when I was still a fox, it would not have wrapped up this neatly. We might have talked ourselves into exhaustion and keeled over on the spot.
That thought led me, on a sudden impulse, to ask her something.
"This is merely a hypothetical, but... have you any intention of releasing the taming?"
A monster that had been fully tamed could not undo the bond of its own will. No matter how poorly its master treated it, the worst it would suffer were debuffs — reduced stamina, lowered attack power. It could not flee.
There were only two ways out of a tamed state. Death — or the master's release.
"...Choco. Do you want me to?"
"Honestly, it makes little difference to me either way."
Even if the taming were undone, I had no intention of parting ways with Yeon. However we had started, this too was a kind of fate, was it not?
Besides, she showed real promise. For someone who had only just started playing, her swordwork was surprisingly practiced. She had a decent feel for her own body, and her reflexes were better than average.
If she had started around the same time I had, I suspected she would already have her name on the upper ranks. She had that kind of instinct across the board.
And most decisively, she already knew my entire situation. No further explanations required. That alone was a comfort.
"Then I won't. Choco is mine."
"I belong to no one."
"I tamed you, so you're mine."
She giggled, and I snorted out a laugh of my own. Fine. Have it your way.
"More to the point — why on earth did you name me something like Choco? There were far better options..."
"What's wrong with Choco? It's cute."
"...Chocolate is toxic to canids."
"Yeah, I know."
"?!"
"More importantly — should you not be logging out soon?"
Choco murmured it as if the thought had only just occurred to her, glancing up at a sky that had begun to sink into dusk. This was the second sunset she had seen since logging in, which meant that at the very least, a full day had come and gone.
Choco herself could not log out even if she wanted to, so that was that. But Yeon was another matter.
A high school student able to stay logged in this long almost certainly meant it was a weekend or a school break. Even so, burying yourself in a game for well over a day was bound to worry someone.
She looked like a child, but the adult inside her spoke up all the same.
"Let us call it here for today. You ought to log out."
"I don't really need to, though..."
"What nonsense is that. You still need to sleep. And eat, for that matter."
Yeon offered an awkward little smile.
"Do I..."
"That is not a question. Even when I myself was wholly absorbed in this world—"
"Okay, okay. I'll log out and get some rest, all right?"
The lecture had been winding up, and Yeon cut it off in a hurry, pushing herself to her feet. Choco gave her a briefly dissatisfied look, then huffed a small snort.
"Games are well and good, but your health comes first."
"Heh. You sound like an old man."
"Who are you calling an old man."
Choco muttered it in a sulky grumble, and Yeon smiled, just a little.
"See you later, then."
"Yes. Go and rest."
With Choco's hand waving lazily in the background, Yeon pressed the logout button.
Are you sure you wish to log out?
Confirm. The moment she pressed it, Yeon felt her consciousness being evicted. And in the same instant, every sensation in her body vanished.
All that remained was a field of darkness, and the steady, mechanical rhythm of a vital-sign monitor. The smell of antiseptic tickled her nose. Eyes still closed, Yeon thought, quietly:
That place really is better than reality.