Chapter 12
“There was a tiger!”
Sorry to Angela, but Harriet wasn’t worried about her. Her strength was powerful enough to crush a tiger’s skull, and her body was so tough that he was more concerned for the tiger’s teeth.
Harriet raised his hand and gently patted Angela’s head as she trembled and fidgeted nervously.
“Calm down.”
Angela pouted, thinking that if a dragon had appeared instead of a tiger, would Harriet have at least pretended to be surprised? He probably would have smiled awkwardly and said, “Umm…”
“Want something to drink?”
It was complete child treatment. In reality, Harriet had a soft spot for those younger than him. Angela cleared her throat and nodded.
“Yes.”
“I have soy milk.”
“Why soy milk?”
“As a breakfast substitute… it’s mild and good.”
That’s right, Harriet was a picky eater who couldn’t handle carbonated drinks, spicy food, or very hot food. Angela took the packaged soy milk and inserted the straw. Ryan, who had been frantically rolling his eyes, opened his mouth.
“Chief, the tiger…”
Harriet, who was preparing Ryan’s soy milk, turned his head.
“Yes…?”
“It was incredibly sad.”
“Sad?”
“Yes, it was terrified. And seemed a bit angry too.”
It wasn’t specific, but Ryan seemed to have communicated with the tiger somehow. Harriet nodded, thinking it would be troublesome if the villagers were harmed.
It was harvest season now. The village idol Angela was helping with the harvest with her steel-like body. The village elders were also excitedly harvesting crops. It would be problematic if something happened during this time.
“I want to help.”
Ryan was such a good guy. His freckled face matched his gentle impression. Harriet was reminded of someone similar yet completely different. He too had a gentle and comfortable presence. Harriet stared blankly for a moment before nodding.
But now, both of them reeked of alcohol. Harriet patted both their heads in turn. It was now completely dark after sunset.
“Alright… let’s look for it together tomorrow.”
For now, let’s get some sleep.
The single blanket would have been uncomfortable for two people, but drunk as they were, they quickly fell asleep. Once the excitement from spotting the tiger subsided, the effects of alcohol hit them hard.
After covering them with the only blanket, Harriet sat by the window. He took a bite of the chocolate snack he had bought when he went to town.
Harriet was not greedy. So his house was always sparse. Having no possessions, he had no desire to collect things.
His only hobby was collecting mugs for different purposes. Harriet’s face remained peaceful as always while he chewed his food.
* * *
The next day, the group began climbing the mountain to find the tiger. Though Harriet was lame, he was good at mountain climbing.
Smiling at the amazed Angela, Harriet moved aside a branch in front of him. Then he cleared away fallen leaves from the ground. Surprisingly, markings presumed to be tiger paw prints appeared.
“You know a lot about this?”
Ryan, who had struggled to refuse the village chief’s request to join the patrol and had followed them instead, opened his eyes wide beside him. Harriet smiled slightly.
“…I once dreamed of becoming a zoologist.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I liked animals.”
Ryan let out an exclamation. Harriet took out a water bottle from his pocket and drank. Then he put the empty container back in his bag.
This time he had prepared well, bringing four 2L bottles of water. Though heavy, he had already emptied two bottles at his rapid drinking pace.
In the full summer heat, Harriet’s body on land demanded more water than usual.
Halfway up the mountain, Ryan, who had sent Angela back to the village chief as she groaned from her hangover, looked up. Amazingly, a bird that had been flying leisurely in the sky approached him. Ryan closed his eyes and pressed his lips to the sparrow’s beak.
Harriet occasionally envied his ability. Ryan, with his peaceful ability, sometimes created a fairy tale-like atmosphere when in the mountains.
“By the way… how did you see the tiger?”
Ryan raised his head to recall the previous night. The alcohol, consumed after a long time, had gone down smoothly. The two had excitedly poured and drunk makgeolli.
Angela, the village idol, was the most popular even at drinking gatherings. So the elders gave Angela all kinds of rice cakes, alcohol, and side dishes. Ryan, sitting beside her, also gulped down everything offered.
After drinking everything served, the two eventually staggered and could barely walk properly. Despite the elders’ insistence that they stay overnight, the two walked the mountain path with their arms around each other’s shoulders, determined to get home.
Then Angela blinked her eyes, which were drooping from intoxication.
“…Ryan, what’s that?”
“Hmm…?”
Ryan answered in a daze, drunk and foggy-minded. Angela was even rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.
“There… a cat…”
“A cat?”
Aren’t there usually many cats in the mountains?
Angela’s eyes were drowsy but suddenly grew large. She opened and closed her mouth, letting out a silent scream.
In the distance, a tiger large enough to be clearly visible to the naked eye was glaring at Ryan and Angela. Fortunately, the tiger, which had been emanating murderous intent as if it wanted to tear them apart, didn’t approach them but turned around and disappeared deep into the mountains.
Angela and Ryan looked at each other and became little chirping birds who ran to the chief’s house with pale faces.
“Whereabouts were you standing?”
“Around… over there.”
“…”
Checking in daylight, there was considerable distance between where the tiger was spotted and where the two had been standing. Harriet checked the footprints again. The prints were large enough for Harriet’s palm to easily fit inside.
A tiger that looked so big even from a distance… Ryan’s face turned ashen.
Grrrr-
This coincidence was incredible. A tiger the size of a house sprang out silently toward where Harriet was standing. Just one of its hind legs was as big as Harriet.
Was a tiger originally such a gigantic creature…?
Harriet’s head tilted up endlessly, following the tiger. The tiger’s golden eyes glinted dangerously.
“Get out of the way!!”
Ryan grabbed Harriet’s shoulder and pulled him back. Sharp claws swept past, and the ground where Harriet had been standing was deeply gouged. If they had been even a little slower, he would have been seriously injured.
Ryan’s ability wasn’t suited for combat, and Harriet couldn’t use his ability unless he was in water. Escaping might have been possible for Ryan alone, but impossible for Harriet with his bad leg.
“Do you want to run away first?”
Harriet asked Ryan. There was no fear in his words. Ryan shook his head with a pale face. He truly was an exceptionally kind young man. Harriet smiled awkwardly, inappropriate for the situation.
Just then, the house-sized tiger charged at Harriet again. Ryan screamed. For the tiger to attack even Ryan, who could communicate with animals, it must really hate humans.
“This tiger must have suffered terribly at the hands of soldiers!”
Harriet and Ryan were currently wearing military uniforms. If the tiger had been mistreated by soldiers, it would naturally dislike people in these clothes.
Harriet tried to back away, but his bad leg became entangled with Ryan’s. As the two fell backward together, the tiger lunged at them with its jaws wide open. The size of its sharp teeth was also enormous.
Harriet calmly closed his eyes. His white eyelashes shimmered faintly in the bright sunlight, as if they might disappear.
BOOM-!
There was a sound of something exploding around the tiger’s face. It sounded like an explosion, but not like a bomb going off.
“Sunbae, are you alright?”
A familiar voice came from above. A person with an extremely large carrier was floating down slowly from the sky.
As he approached, the wind blew as if a gust were passing, and Harriet’s white hair fluttered in all directions. The tiger, surprised by the sudden attack, backed away, but didn’t appear to be injured.
“Ender?”
“Yes, Sunbae.”
Ender landed nimbly on the ground, grabbed Harriet’s shoulder, and supported him.
“I’m a bit late.”
He muttered, checking his watch. He didn’t seem concerned at all about the house-sized tiger in front of him.
Ender took off his snow-white gloves and flicked his fingers toward the tiger. Then the massive tiger’s body floated up with surprising lightness. A gust of wind blew around the tiger.
“So this is where it was.”
Harriet brushed his hair that had become tangled in the wind with his fingers. Seeing this, Ender quickly lowered his hand and brushed Harriet’s hair with his own fingers.
So distracted by Harriet, Ender failed to notice that the force restraining the tiger had loosened slightly.
THUD-!
Despite its house-sized body, the tiger escaped very quickly as soon as it hit the ground. Ender focused only on Harriet in front of him, regardless of whether the tiger escaped or not.
He was touching Harriet’s hair very carefully, with a delicate touch as if afraid to lose even a single strand. Then he smiled gently and said:
“Are you curious about the relationship between that tiger and the military?”
Ryan alone, with his pale face, alternately looked at the direction the tiger had fled and at Ender. He didn’t understand why Ender was here, but hearing that the huge carrier and Anschel would arrive soon, it seemed like they planned to stay here for quite a while.
At that moment, Anschel, who had caught on to Ender’s scheme, was on his way to the countryside, shedding tears of blood. It was only called a dispatch in name, and a recuperation in intention.
‘Because of that damn superior, I’m being forcibly demoted to a rural village…!’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
