I’m Going to Try Making a House
"I’m going to try making a house."
"Hoo…."
Satania wiped the sweat from her brow. Had conversation always been this exhausting? She had been sweating buckets just trying to explain the stolen meat.
Thankfully, Behemoth had taken it in stride.
The giant beast, who looked as though he could swallow a hundred people without even blinking, turned out to have a far broader heart than anyone would have guessed.
"Would you like some water?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah…."
Lucy handed Satania a cup of water, and the exhausted devil finally caught her breath. Behemoth had said he had something to take care of and left for a while, which Satania considered a blessing. She wanted nothing more than to end this conversation immediately and flee the cave, but she still couldn’t find the right moment. If she offended Behemoth now, no one knew how his temper might change.
"He’s not that scary, is he?" Lucy said calmly.
Satania had no idea what on earth gave Lucy the confidence to say that. Wasn’t she afraid at all?
If that monster decided right now that he wanted to kill them, he could crush them as easily as stepping on ants.
"Of course he’s scary…."
To Satania, Lucy was no ordinary human. Her body was burdened with countless dreadful high-level curses. Just staying alive and breathing must have been difficult enough.
How can she live so peacefully…?
There were only two possibilities. Either she was crazy, or she possessed a mind so transcendent it was beyond reason.
Satania didn’t think Lucy looked like a madwoman. Which only made her more curious.
"Why aren’t you afraid of him? Any normal person would run the moment they saw him, let alone get close to him. That mo— I mean, that friend you called him… you know he’s nothing like an ordinary monster, right? Even now, I still find him terrifying."
Fear was the most primitive emotion a living thing could feel.
Because we felt fear, we recognized danger.
Because we felt fear, we were better able to survive.
The monster called Behemoth was the kind of being that inspired that primal terror.
It was as though, when humans were created by God, a curse had been carved deep into their hearts: Fear that thing.
We should never come close to it.
It was a being of an entirely different order.
If Satania had to name something most like it, she would answer without hesitation: God.
"Why should I be afraid?" Lucy asked.
"Because if he wanted to, he could kill us with ease…."
"We could all kill one another with ease if we wanted to. In that case, should we all fear each other?"
Satania went silent for a moment.
After a brief struggle, she chose a different answer.
"Still, we’re alike, aren’t we? But that guy is different. He’s too big, too enormous… and as for him being a thinking being, well, since you can’t see, maybe that makes it feel less off-putting to you… but to me, he just looks like a dragon. So of course a normal human or devil would be afraid."
Lucy was different.
Not just Lucy—everyone who faced Behemoth was different.
"One thing I want to say is that your relationship with him only turned out well because you were lucky, Lucy. If it had been with some other monster, or with strangers…."
Lucy found that deeply unfortunate. If everyone could look directly at one another with the eyes of the heart, the way she did, then they would be able to see each other’s true forms.
"I can tell people from monsters just fine. I may not be able to see, but I can see more than most people can."
Lucy smiled, then said softly, "Friend is no different from us at all. He has a heart just like ours, and he wants to live each day happily and joyfully. He’s simply a careful person, despite being so huge."
"How can you be sure of that…?"
"Well…."
Lucy pointed outside the cave.
Satania looked where her slender finger indicated, and there, carrying a basket full of grilled fish, Behemoth was walking back with a heavy, thudding tremor under each step, his pace as relaxed as ever.
"He says you must have been hungry all this time, so we should eat first."
"……."
Satania felt as though someone had slammed something hard against the back of her head.
Drive the devil out!
To think you’ve been hiding your face and living among us all this time—disgusting beyond words.
Get out of the Gehenna Great Forest right now!
Suddenly, a memory came flooding back.
You only hate me because I’m a devil! I’ve been good to you this whole time—how can you do this to me, you bastards!
It was her own past, when she had been pointed at and driven out of the city by the very humans she had first become close to.
Satania stared blankly at Behemoth, and Lucy merely gave her a little smile.
"Now then, let’s eat first."
Behemoth nodded vigorously.
Fish grilled to perfection had a way of making even a giant monster want to dance.
The skin was crisp, the salt seasoning just right—how could food get any better than this? Lucy rubbed her cheek and told him it was delicious.
"!"
Even Satania, who had been silent until now, brightened the moment she bit into the fish.
Cooking was a joy. Seeing them enjoy it so much made him feel strangely proud.
Maybe this was the sort of moment people meant when they said you were full just by watching.
"This is seriously amazing, friend. Satania loves it too."
"I’m glad you like it."
He watched with satisfaction as they ate heartily, then remembered something else. "Oh, Satania, I’ve got one more thing I’m curious about. Can I ask you?"
"She says it’s fine."
"What brought you to the cave? You didn’t get lost, did you? If you don’t mind telling me, I was just curious."
When Satania opened her mouth, a shocking truth came out.
"You were sleeping? So this cave was Satania’s home…."
Deep inside the cave, there was a small crevice I couldn’t even fit into. Inside that crevice, it seemed, was a little burrow about the size of a studio apartment, just large enough for a person to lie down and stretch out in.
Satania had been sleeping there for a long time.
"You brought in heating and all sorts of equipment to make the place more comfortable for sleeping, but at some point it broke down, and Satania woke up because she was cold."
"Tch…."
It seemed the unwelcome guest hadn’t been Satania at all—it had been me.
I had barged into the home of a perfectly ordinary woman and planted myself there like some enormous predator.
For Satania, it must have felt like something out of a horror movie.
I really did feel bad about that….
"I had no idea anyone was living in the cave. I’m sorry."
"She says not to worry too much about it. Apparently it was just a space she was going to throw away once she woke up anyway."
Satania signaled that it was fine, but I couldn’t let it go that easily. Finding a place to live was never simple. Ever since my days as a Korean guy bouncing between basement studios and rooftop rooms, I had never once had an easy time getting a proper home, and even now, living as a monster, nothing had changed.
Satania had probably worked hard to find this refuge too. There had to be a reason she’d chosen such a remote place instead of living in a city with people around her….
"Come to think of it, Satania, if you don’t have anywhere to stay right now, how about living with us?"
As expected, that was Lucy. She tossed out an invitation to live together without even hesitating, as if she simply couldn’t help taking in troublesome people.
Satania looked flustered. Her eyes had nowhere to settle, and the sight of her panic was oddly amusing.
If only we could understand each other’s language.
Hmm. Fine.
"I’ll build one for you."
"Huh?"
"W-What!?"
Everyone was shocked.
A monster building a house was a rare sight indeed.
Truthfully, I didn’t know the first thing about architecture, but I couldn’t keep letting Lucy take all the losses. This sort of thing needed to be done by me.
Besides, wasn’t there no limit to what a person could do if they just tried?
The people of ancient Egypt had built the magnificent pyramids, after all. If I had a monster’s body—one even more capable than heavy machinery—surely I could make something happen.
"Are you sure? For now, we can just keep her comfortable at our place…."
"It’s something I should be doing. I’ve only been leaning on you, Lucy, so I feel bad."
"No, it’s fine. I do it because I want to."
Satania stared at us blankly.
Then, with no warning at all, tears began streaming from her eyes.
"Hic… h-hic…."
Watching her, Lucy and I gave wry smiles.
Drower and Hanseong, having finished their forced labor in the gold mine, were sharing a drink atop the mine, where the open forest stretched out in a sweeping view before them.
"Work in the mine must be a little rough for beastfolk who’ve only ever hunted and gathered, huh?"
"No hardship can faze the fierce warriors of the beastfolk."
In exchange for erecting a Behemoth obsidian statue in the beastfolk village, Hanseong and his kinsmen were helping the dwarves with their mining. Since the beastfolk had always lived by taking everything they needed from nature—except for dwarf-made weapons—the only thing they had to offer the dwarves was labor.
And just then, after Behemoth had slain the Cyclops, the dwarves were finally able to enter the gold mine freely. Since they needed manpower to extract the tremendous amount of ore buried there, the deal had been sealed quickly.
The representatives of the dwarves and the beastfolk clinked their cups and discussed the road ahead.
"Lately, the situation in the Gehenna Great Forest has been anything but normal."
"This time, an ancient monster appeared on the orc and goblin side as well."
"And the lizardmen say humans keep showing up in the Great Forest. They say the Gehenna Great Forest management system of the Green Tower has collapsed."
"Weren’t they utterly rebuffed when Lizardrin came by last time? Funny how closely they’re listening now."
"Well, before we started disagreeing over our views of Lord Behemoth, we got along just fine."
In truth, this deal was also meant to build an alliance between the two races.
There was no guarantee they’d be rescued by Behemoth again as they had been last time by sheer luck.
If they could prepare, then they should begin preparing now.
While they were talking, something caught the eyes of Drower and Hanseong.
"Wait…."
"I see it too."
Behemoth emerged from the forest. He still hadn’t noticed Hanseong or Drower.
Hanseong held his breath and watched the great one, while Drower looked on with eyes full of fascination.
The great beast of the Gehenna Great Forest—the one the lizardmen feared, the beastfolk and elves praised, and the goblins and dwarves watched with rapt attention.
Behemoth used his monstrous strength to uproot a gigantic tree.
The earth-shaking impact rolled all the way to Hanseong and Drower.
"Huh?"
What on earth is Lord Behemoth doing?
He was tearing trees out of the ground as casually as if he were pulling weeds.
He would sling the harvested tree over his shoulder, vanish somewhere, then come back and repeat the whole process.
"Can you make any sense of what Behemoth is doing?"
"No idea."
"Neither do I."
They watched Behemoth’s actions carefully until the sun went down, but in the end they had no choice but to conclude that they could not understand the thoughts of the great Behemoth, and returned home.