Chapter 51
Reinke had quite a few dogs.
In Reinke, where hunting was one of the important food sources, hunting dogs were excellent companions.
However, the dogs living in Reinke weren’t particularly diverse in breed. Ruan quickly recalled the neighbor’s dogs he had seen coming and going. All the dogs in this area were large, majestic dogs with wolf-like appearances – dark fur, pointed ears, and thick fur around their necks.
‘But…’
Ruan looked at the unfamiliar dog that was coveting his potato with a face that looked like it might start drooling at any moment.
Short cream-colored fur. Droopy ears and a long tail, a muscular body with a large nose and black eyes on a gentle-looking face.
No matter how he looked at it, this was…
‘A Labrador Retriever, isn’t it?’
It was a breed he was somewhat familiar with as a friend had owned one when he was Kim Ha-jin, but… it was a dog he had never seen in Reinke.
Among the wolf-like dogs, if there had been one yellow and bright-looking dog like this, given Reinke’s characteristics, everyone in the neighborhood should have known about it. But this was an unfamiliar dog he had never seen or heard of before.
‘Is it not originally from this neighborhood? Then…’
Just in case, Ruan examined the dog carefully once more.
Its overall sleek fur and clean, healthy-looking face suggested it was a dog that had grown up well-cared for and receiving human attention.
‘It’s definitely not a stray…’
So where on earth did this dog come from, he wondered. At that moment,
The dog, which had been focusing on the potato, turned its head to look at Ruan. As Ruan was also observing the dog, their eyes naturally met.
At that moment, Ruan…
‘Giveme.Food.Giveme.Tasty.Ilikeyummythingstoo.Can’tyougivemejustonebite?Actuallyitdoesn’thavetobeonebiteeither.Iwishyou’dgivemesomeyummything.Thatreallylooksdelicious.Itlookssodelicious.Areyoureallynot goingtogiveme?That’dmakemereallysad.Iwishyou’dgivemesomeyummything.’
Realized that a gaze could be noisy.
Why did it feel like he could hear voices just by looking? Could thoughts and emotions be something that could be radiated in all directions rather than just transmitted? Why was he feeling overwhelmed when the dog hadn’t done anything?
To interpret, Ruan, who was used to the cat’s eyes that could only read short and thick emotional expressions – ‘What.’, ‘Remove.’, ‘Give.’, ‘Shake.’, ‘Satisfied.’, or some unknown curse, etc. – was momentarily confused by this silent but intense self-assertion.
As Ruan remained frozen due to the unfamiliar form of expression, the dog, seemingly getting anxious, started to prance its front paws and radiate noisiness not just with its eyes but with its whole body.
‘Areyoureallynot goingtogiveme.If that’sthecasethenIcan’thelpit…Butreallycanyounotdoanything?ButIreallywanttoeat.Ireallywanttoeat.Ohmanitwouldbedelicious.Canyoureallynotgivemejustonebite?Really?Truly?Sincerely?Can’tyoujustgiveme?Iwanttoeat.Ireallywanttoeat.’
The dog’s assertion, radiating from its entire large body, was truly overwhelming. Suddenly feeling like a 100% I human receiving a dash from a 100% E human, Ruan had no choice but to respond in his confusion.
“Um, I’m sorry, but… this just came out of the fire, so it’s really hot.”
Only after demonstrating that it was too hot to touch and expressing that this was not something the dog could eat right now, did Ruan think, ‘Wouldn’t it not understand words or body language anyway?’
At that moment, the dog, tilting its head and looking at Ruan.
Whether it understood that clumsy expression, or sensed that it meant it wasn’t going to get food right now.
It suddenly stopped its wildly wagging tail… and started blinking its large black eyes.
The round, clear eyes were no longer noisy, but instead rippled with bewilderment and sadness. As if it couldn’t understand this situation where a human was holding something that smelled delicious but wasn’t giving it to him.
The gentle face of the dog sitting on the floor with droopy ears, blinking up at him.
Ruan felt for some reason as if he had committed a huge mistake. Although he hadn’t done anything, Ruan felt his conscience seriously hurting and hastily added:
“No, it’s not that I won’t give you any, it’s just that it’s too hot to eat right now, but when it cools down, you can eat it too. So let’s wait just a little bit and then eat. Just a little. When this cools down enough to eat, then let’s share it together. Okay?”
Once again, after explaining the situation with exaggerated body language, the dog’s ears twitched, and then.
‘Okay.Yummything.Givemesoon.Ireallylove it.’
Joy overflowed on the dog’s gentle-looking face. Ruan thought it looked like a light bulb turning on…
‘Oh. Haven’t I used this comparison somewhere before?’
While Ruan was feeling an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.
The dog, jumping up, started spinning in place.
Continuously, without stopping.
Moreover, it was wagging its tail like crazy while doing so, and even showcasing the trick of jumping up and quickly turning its body when the potato left its sight due to spinning.
Looking at that sight, it really seemed… like a creature made by compressing 100% pure energy. Even Ruan felt dizzy from the energy the dog was emitting.
Feeling slightly disoriented from the dizzying sensation, Ruan only came to his senses when the dog’s long tail brushed close to the fire as it spun.
“Wait! Your tail might catch fire! That’s dangerous!”
Thinking that if left like this, the excited dog might cause an accident, Ruan split the baked potato and started blowing on it to cool it down.
The dog, which had stopped momentarily at Ruan’s shout, seemed to have decided to stop spinning and was now just rapidly tapping its front paws.
‘Seeing how it’s making such a fuss but not pouncing to snatch the food, just waiting for it to be given, it seems like a well-trained dog…’
The way it would tap its front paws, then sit and look at Ruan, then stand up again to tap its paws, then sit again, also seemed like a habit formed from usually getting food when sitting and waiting for its owner.
But why was such a dog out here alone?
While pondering, Ruan peeled the cooled potato and chopped it into small pieces.
It would have been nice if there was a bowl, but there wasn’t one available. Ruan ended up placing the potato pieces on his palm and extending it towards the dog’s mouth.
“Here. You can eat now.”
As soon as those words fell.
The dog rushed to Ruan’s palm and started gobbling up the potato pieces with slurping sounds.
But that sight…
‘Wow… It’s really eating so deliciously.’
The dog was eating the potato Ruan had clumsily baked as if it were a 3-star Michelin dish.
Ruan watched as the dog ate the potato hurriedly with its black, clear eyes brimming with satisfaction and emotion.
‘No, this well-cared-for dog, did they not feed it properly at home…’
Suddenly, he felt like this wasn’t the first time he had such a thought today, but…
Anyway, even though there wasn’t much potato left, seeing it eat so deliciously didn’t make him feel regretful.
Watching the dog with a face as happy as if it had the whole world with just a piece of baked potato, Ruan unconsciously reached out and stroked the dog’s forehead as he usually did with the Grand Duke.
At that, the dog, which had been frantically eating the potato, suddenly lifted its head to look at Ruan.
It was a look that said, ‘What did you just do?’
‘Ah. I petted it like I would a cat. Is this not how you pet a dog?’
As Ruan was gaining this novel realization, the dog, which had been tilting its head looking at Ruan’s hand…
Pushed its forehead into Ruan’s hand and started rubbing roughly.
As if to say, that’s not enough, pet more vigorously.
Ruan tried to respond with clumsy strokes, but…
The dog once again gave a look that said ‘What did you just do?’ and pressed its forehead into Ruan’s hand again.
Only after receiving immediate feedback like this several times was Ruan able to pet the dog to its satisfaction.
‘Dogs need to be petted more vigorously than I thought.’
Ruan thought as he watched the dog receiving the petting with the happiest expression in the world.
‘Somehow it’s overall harder… and the fur texture is very different.’
Feeling a quite different texture compared to the cat he usually touched, Ruan once again examined the dog’s smooth fur.
And…
He realized that the color and texture of the fur was very familiar.
‘Ah… This is somehow…’
Ruan cupped the dog’s cheeks with both hands while still petting it.
The eyes that seemed to say ‘Huh? What’s wrong?’ were so black that the pupil and iris were indistinguishable.
Just like someone’s eyes he had met today.
‘Something…’
As Ruan remained frozen like that, the dog, seeming to find this Ruan strange, tilted its head quizzically.
In exactly the same way he had witnessed several times during their conversation today, and each time Ruan had thought, ‘He’s so handsome that even such reactions just suit him well.’
Ruan slowly organized his thoughts.
One human with an energy and vivaciousness so abundant that Ruan couldn’t even guess its limits, and one dog.
A human who smelled everything first and even smelled incredibly well beyond imagination.
And a strange dog with the same color combination that appeared along with that human’s arrival.
‘Uh… Um… This…’
It was a situation very similar to what Ruan had experienced before.
The sense of déjà vu that had been bothering Ruan all day suddenly exploded at that moment.
With that, Ruan could no longer postpone his judgment and had to open his mouth.
“Um… I know this will be a really embarrassing situation if I’m wrong, but I have to ask…”
If it wasn’t true, it would create a new dark history along with the misconception he had about the Grand Duke before, but…
“Are you… perhaps the Guild Master?”
The moment Ruan’s question ended.
An expression appeared on the dog’s face like when a puppy who had done something wrong and was pretending to be innocent by lying in a different spot sees its owner approaching saying, “I wonder which puppy made this mess?”
As Ruan just quietly looked on without adding anything, the dog, which had turned its head to the side as if feigning innocence, licked its nose and then… turned just its eyes to look at Ruan’s face.
At that moment, Ruan read the truth in the white of the dog’s eyes that was briefly revealed.
* * *
Ralph Steiner was flustered.
It was because he had been discovered as a beast-person for the first time in his life.
And to someone he had just met today, at that.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
