The Jangsan Tiger Catches the Fox as Its Familiar
A few rings echoed, and soon a voice came through.
[Hello.....?]
“Ah.... Hello.”
I had dialed the number, but I hadn't planned out how to start the conversation.
“That’s Mr. Kang Baekho, right? The mayor of Busan?”
First, I needed to confirm if the person on the other end was the one I was looking for.
[Yes.... That’s correct.]
“Are you the person who makes animations?”
I asked again to confirm.
[Ah! So you’re a female voice actress?]
It seemed the other person had figured out what I wanted.
Unexpectedly lucky. This would make the conversation much easier.
“Yes, that’s right. I can produce at least dozens of different voices, not just two!”
[Your confidence is impressive.]
Confidence? I had meant to say hundreds, no, thousands of different sounds, but I toned it down to dozens.
[By the way, when did you start doing this work?]
Is this how they ask about experience? In today’s world, without experience, it’s hard to get a job, but unfortunately, I’m a fresh graduate with experience.
“If I have to say, from the early days of the Joseon Dynasty.”
[Yes.....?]
Oops! Too excited, I almost revealed my actual experience.
“Ahaha, that’s just... uh... historical dramas! I’ve been working as a historical drama voice actress for a very long time.”
My back was covered in awkward laughter, with sweat trickling down like water falling when a ghost climbs out of the ground.
[Is that so. You startled me for a moment.]
It seemed they had managed to smooth things over with some improvisation.
[We need to record today, could you come to this building around 1 PM?]
“Today?”
[Today is difficult for you.....?]
“No. That’s not it. Is there no interview or something like that?”
At the very least, even becoming a convenience store slave had an interview, so how could there be no interview for a voice acting job......
[We’re not in a position to be picky about cold rice or hot rice, so there’s no interview. Besides, if you’re close to Mr. Kang Baekho, we can trust you.]
Is this what they call connections in human society? From now on, I must be extra polite to Baekho hyung!
“I’ll head out right now!”
[Understood. We’ll prepare as soon as you arrive.]
I immediately put on a hoodie over my t-shirt.
It was a bit chilly for humans, but it didn’t matter to me anyway.
With just this hoodie and my training pants, I was invincible!
I took the subway and buses, transferring several times like a labyrinth.
By the time the ‘beep, transfer’ sound that rang every time I tapped my card became unbearably annoying, I had arrived.
Seeing that it matched the address I had sent via message, it seemed I had indeed found the place well.
[Studio Kkori]
The sign on the two-story building read that.
As soon as I entered, what caught my eye was the posters plastered everywhere.
It was so many posters that it looked like wallpaper had been replaced with them.
All of them were animation posters.
“How did you get here?”
While I was looking at the posters, someone spoke to me.
It was a man holding a paper cup with coffee in one hand.
The man had dark circles under his eyes that were long enough to hide in the darkness, as if he’d been working overtime for days.
Yet the man’s eyes were strangely bright, like a warrior who had met an honorable death on the battlefield?
“......I came because you needed a voice actor?”
“Voice actor? You.... the one who said you’d come today......”
The man scanned me from head to toe.
“Let’s go see the director first.”
“Okay.”
I followed the man, walking unsteadily.
The inside of the studio consisted of several rooms, and he took me to the innermost one.
“Director!”
The man opened the door with a bang, just like a porter who had come to arrest the magistrate’s room when the secret agent arrived.
“What? What happened?”
The man who had his legs up on the desk with a nameplate reading ‘Director: Choi Junho’ hurriedly sat up straight.
“No matter how urgent it is! Bringing a minor as a voice actor? What are you thinking!”
.....A minor? Is he talking about me?
“A minor? What do you mean.....?”
“Look!”
The man signaled me, who was standing outside the room, to come in.
“This is a minor? At best, it’d be a high schooler.”
The director was quite taken aback by my appearance.
“This can’t be..... You said you were Mr. Kang Baekho’s acquaintance....”
In the end, it was my body’s problem again. I hadn’t thought that when the grim reaper suggested choosing a body, I’d end up in a cute young girl’s body.....
The grim reaper had probably known I couldn’t freely change bodies since I wasn’t a spirit and was trying to trick me.
“I am not a minor. Even though I look like this, I am a proper adult.”
Damn it, self-loathing surged from the depths of my heart.
I’m older than their ancestors! I couldn’t bear to look directly into their eyes and say I was an adult.
“That’s right, you’re definitely an adult.”
The director closed his eyes and nodded as if agreeing.
“Director! Are you really believing what I’m saying right now?”
However, the man still didn’t seem to accept it.
It was rare for a director like him to believe me.
Humans who couldn’t see through the essence of the soul had no choice but to judge based on appearance.
......Wait, how did this director know I wasn’t a minor?
Because I was close to Baekho hyung? That doesn’t make sense. Maybe......
“Hey, get out.”
I pointed at the man and commanded.
“Eh....? What did you say?”
“Get out!”
When I repeated the command, the man left the room with a bad expression.
Click.
As the man left, I locked the door.
“Um..... Voice actor? If you speak to our staff like that.... the staff member might be displeased.”
“Is this a command?”
“Yes...?”
My eyes had already transformed into vertical slit pupils like a cat’s.
“Yeah, something was weird from the start. If you had looks like that, you should’ve been an actor instead of a director.”
I glared at Choi Junho, the director, and said.
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Choi Junho answered with a sly smile, but I didn’t miss the slight sweat on his face or the tension.
“Now I see. You’re a fox.”
“W-what are you talking about......”
The director avoided my eyes desperately and tried to play it off.
“Hah, just a fox brought me all the way here? Do you know that even if I eat you now, the Netherworld Bureau will overlook it?”
I hadn’t thought that among Baekho hyung’s acquaintances there was only one phantom beast, but I didn’t expect a fox.
“Hoga howi. After the tiger’s majesty, the fox is forbidden to take human form in front of the tiger, yet you are here in human form in front of me.”
“Th-that’s because I didn’t know the Jangsanbeom would come, so I couldn’t undo it in advance.”
The fox trembled in fear as it answered me.
“Is that so? Then you should die.”
I grabbed the fox’s tail with my claws and opened my mouth.
“Spare me. I have staff who are responsible for me......”
“Staff? It seems like when it came time to die, you remembered the livers you couldn’t eat and stored them.”
Originally, I wanted to do it before dying, but regrets always come to mind.
If I fulfilled all those regrets, I’d have to live as a herbivore.
“No! I only eat livers from sundae restaurants now. Those are really my staff. I’m in the middle of completing a work with souls swapped in, and if I disappear......”
I closed the mouth I had opened.
It seemed he wasn’t even lying to save himself, and since I was generous for a mountain lord, I could overlook it once.
“Sp-spare me?”
“You, do you have money?”
It would be much better to use the fox’s wallet for a long time rather than eat it now.
“I don’t have much right now. I prepared about 300 in my discretion for the voice actress who will take on the animation, but besides that, all the company money and my own money were invested in this work.”
“300? Three times my monthly salary?”
“It’s a fee for all the voice actors participating in this work, not just one. Actually, even this is insufficient. The male role was supposed to be taken by one of our staff, but since it’s an animation with many female roles.....”
300. It’s a whopping 300. If I could swallow this alone.....
I placed the fox on the table.
“Have you forgotten who I am? I am the Jangsanbeom. I’ll finish the recording today. Go prepare.”
“Yes, yes!”
The fox jumped off the table, did a flip, and transformed into a human and left the room.