I’m Gathering Cotton
Maple Grove Forest was in full bloom with fluffy blossoms, their soft white clusters spilling across the branches like drifts of fresh snow.
To children, the flowers were adorable. To adults, they were a valuable resource, because from them one could harvest cotton that kept the body warm. Anyone seeing them for the first time had no choice but to be captivated by their beauty.
And yet the beastmen didn’t spare the flowers a single glance.
“I can’t find Soho.”
“He always came to the village once a week… Could something have happened to him?”
The beastmen were a race of demi-humans with dog and cat ears atop human bodies. Their senses of smell and hearing were exceptional, and though they shared a culture and a way of thinking much like humans, they had ultimately been unable to coexist with them and had been exiled to the Great Forest, a tragic people cast out by the world.
“Everyone, look over here for a second! There’s blood here!”
“This is Soho’s scent…?”
To the beastmen, Soho was both a guardian and an object of faith. Long ago, when the village their ancestors had built was attacked by monsters, Soho’s mother, the Great Beast Daeho, had come to their rescue. Since then, the beastmen had offered her tribute and thanks every year, and over time that custom had been passed down to Soho, the blood of Daeho herself.
To them, Soho was an emblematic sacred beast.
So if Soho had disappeared, of course this was an emergency.
“This is Soho’s blood. Something must have happened to him, for certain…”
“Hurry and track Soho’s scent! We have to find him, no matter what!”
Sacred beasts were not usually attacked by monsters. They were beasts that had absorbed mana and evolved into something far beyond ordinary creatures—life-forms of a completely different caliber from monsters.
He should have been stronger than even the Cyclopes and Man-Eaters that had endlessly tormented the dwarves and goblins.
Was there someone in the Great Forest strong enough to defeat Soho?
The beastmen were uneasy, and with that unease came doubt.
There were very few who could harm Soho. Unless lizardmen, who had brought in Outer Stones from another world and developed technology beyond that of humans, or foolish but battle-hardened orcs, or some other beastfolk, had deliberately banded together, there should have been no way to lay a hand on him.
And there was no reason for beastmen to attack Soho.
That left only one possibility.
“Behemoth.”
The beastmen’s chief, Hanseong, spoke with a grave expression.
He was a tall middle-aged man who stood well over eight feet. A huge scar cut across his bare upper body, and in his left hand he held a massive guandao.
“Why would the beast of calamity the lizardmen keep going on about be involved?”
Hanseong’s daughter, Han-ah, looked up at her father.
She had not attended the beastfolk council, but since her people were on good terms with the dwarves, who worked iron, she had heard plenty about that monster already.
He killed a Cyclops in one blow. I had never, in all my life, seen the monster that had ruled the golden mine for decades fall so helplessly. You’d be shocked too if you saw it. He isn’t even that big, but in person he’s overwhelming. Like a child seeing a dragon for the first time.
In the underground market of Deep Dark Forge, Drower had said that the elves, who worshiped nature, treated Behemoth like a god, and that the goblins were apparently following right behind them.
“Behemoth may have hurt Soho.”
“Isn’t that a little too hasty?”
Han-ah made a strange face. According to the dwarves, Behemoth was not a bloodthirsty monster.
“But if not Behemoth, who else could have harmed Soho?”
“That…”
Even Han-ah couldn’t think of anyone.
“There must be a reason the wise lizardmen are so wary of him. Don’t trust what the dwarves say too easily. Especially not when you’re the one who’ll take my place someday.”
“Okay…”
Just as father and daughter were talking about Behemoth, a cat beastman in charge of tracking came running up in a panic.
“Chief Hanseong! Han-ah! This is bad!”
The cat beastman straightened his back and caught his breath. The urgency in his voice made the air tense at once.
“We found traces of the human-faced lion Manticore.”
“What!?”
Hanseong’s face darkened in an instant.
The human-faced lion Manticore—the name of the ancient monster their ancestors had sealed—here, of all places?
It had a human face, but the body of a lion. Unlike other foolish monsters, it was intelligent and skilled in magic, much like humans and elves.
According to the histories, that vicious and cruel Manticore could only be sealed alongside Daeho after thirty beastman warriors had sacrificed their lives.
“And from the Manticore’s trail, we also found Soho’s scent…”
“T-the Manticore? That monster is sealed away! Why would something like that be back in the Great Forest…?”
Behemoth’s appearance, and the revival of ancient monsters.
Hanseong realized that this situation was far from ordinary.
And he made his decision.
“We pursue the Manticore. Arm the warriors.”
If what the scout said was true, it was tremendously dangerous.
It would be like walking into one’s own death.
Even so, Hanseong chose to fight the Manticore.
“In a situation this dangerous, we can’t fail to rescue Soho. Daughter, you will remain in the village.”
Han-ah shook her head.
“The Manticore is a monster written about in the histories! You just said it was dangerous… Take me with you too!”
“If I die, you must take my place and lead the beastmen.”
“No. Don’t say that! I’m going to fight too!”
Hanseong gently patted Han-ah’s head.
“Fighting doesn’t only mean taking a sword and defeating the enemy.”
“……”
“Han-ah, you protect the people inside the village. Your father will protect them outside the village. That is the responsibility you bear.”
Hanseong set out to track the Manticore with the warriors.
Han-ah could only stand there and stare after her father’s back.
And she would come to regret that choice.
One week later, a messenger arrived at the beastmen village.
He was a beastman warrior who had been tracking the Manticore alongside Hanseong.
But his eyes were different from when they had last parted. His pupils swirled in a grotesque pattern, like those of someone under a powerful curse.
He opened his mouth.
“I am the Manticore. We beastmen have had a bitter feud ever since the old days. I would very much like to settle that feud right now, but I’m a rather merciful creature, you see. So I’ll make you an offer. I understand the chief’s daughter is in this village. I’ll give you a chance, Han-ah. If you come and fight me—and defeat me—I’ll spare your father and your people. If you don’t come, I’ll slaughter every last one of them.”
The beastman warrior delivered his message and collapsed to the ground.
“It’s a trap, Han-ah.”
“You absolutely can’t go.”
“This is exactly what the Manticore wants. If Han-ah disappears, there won’t be anyone left who can take the lead. He’s baiting you because he knows that.”
“That bastard is vile. There’s no guarantee he’ll keep his promise.”
The other beastmen tried to stop Han-ah as she gathered her weapons, but she shook her head.
Even if this was a trap, she had to go.
If there was even a one percent chance she could save her father and her people, that alone was worth risking herself.
How dare he make such an insulting offer using my people?
And to bet my father’s life on it?
Han-ah was swept away by her rage toward the Manticore.
“Han-ah!”
Her mother stepped in front of her as she tried to leave the village.
“Mom, move.”
“I’m worried about him too. But how are you supposed to do alone what your father and the others couldn’t?”
“Then what, I’m supposed to just stand here and watch Dad and everyone die!?”
Han-ah’s face twisted.
Then she forced her way past her mother, hard and mercilessly.
“Han-ah!”
“If anything happens to me, please take care of the village.”
Han-ah left.
The maple forest at night was harsh and dangerous, for that was the hour when monsters and beasts prowled in search of prey.
Even so, Han-ah pressed onward—for her father, for her people, and to drive the blade into the throat of that loathsome Manticore.
As she drew close to the Manticore’s den, howls echoed from far ahead.
In an instant, Han-ah was surrounded by a pack of wolves.
Ten large wolves closed in around her, their eyes swirling with that same unnatural motion.
Under the Manticore’s control, they bared their fangs at her.
“Fine, come on… That’s what I wanted.”
Han-ah’s sword danced.
She was among the stronger beastman warriors, and she refused to lose to mere beasts.
But after the wolves came a giant bear, and behind the giant bear came—
“Damn it.”
A still larger ogre blocked her path.
“Grrr…”
The ogre’s club crashed into Han-ah’s body.
She was sturdy enough that it didn’t kill her, but the single blow left her battered beyond recognition, staggering on unsteady feet.
Blood spilled from Han-ah’s mouth as she thought it over.
She knew it. She had known this was reckless from the start.
This was a catastrophe she had no way of handling.
And yet she did not want to be broken.
She did not want to lose.
She wanted to save her people and her father.
So she lifted her sword again.
“Aaaahhh──!”
But Han-ah’s blade would never reach the ogre’s body.
A fierce, beautiful surge of blue fire, like crashing waves, swallowed the ogre whole.
Whoooosh!
The ogre died without even a final scream, burned alive on the spot.
Its blackened corpse toppled to the ground, sending a small tremor through the earth.
Thud.
Then a quieter vibration rolled across the land.
What entered Han-ah’s sight was a dragon clad in black steel.
The dragon before her had no wings, yet it stood as firmly and unmoving as a mountain.
Blue flames rippled from its maw, and its eyes, burning red like the sun, made the backs of those who looked upon them go cold.
Han-ah stared at him, dumbfounded.
Suddenly, one name flashed through her mind.
“Behemoth…”
The beast of calamity stared back at Han-ah.
His right hand gripped a huge sack, though she didn’t notice it at all. That was because perched on Behemoth’s shoulder was Soho, the very sacred beast they all revered as their guardian.