After the Rainbow Slide, Kessler brought me to the break room. As he tidied up the shelves, he showed me how things were organized.
“See here? Monday is strawberry. Tuesday is milk… But if you ever want something different, just bark. That’s it. Got it? Try barking now.”
I had wondered before—was Kessler arranging the puddings by color, or was it some kind of weekday routine like a school cafeteria? Turns out, it was by day of the week.
Nyang.
“Exactly like that.”
Seating me at the table, Kessler stroked my fur over and over, rubbing it to the point of ruffling my tail fur.
“I think I’m going to need a whole week of sleep.”
Nyang.
“I already told the skeletons to look after you and make sure you’re well fed. If they don’t, let me know.”
Why was he going around making such requests when it could be resolved so easily if I just returned to human form?
As I was thinking, a sudden sense of discomfort struck me.
“You can pick whatever you want. Eat pudding if you want pudding, or meals if you want food. Just place your order.”
Kessler had ordered the skeletons to protect me. But their attitudes toward me differed depending on whether I was in fox form or human form. And now I think I finally understand why.
‘Help the baby fox.’
Come to think of it, whether I was a person or a fox, Kessler always called me “Baby Fox.” To him, I was “Baby Fox” no matter my appearance. But to the skeletons, “Baby Fox” meant only the literal baby fox form.
Kessler waited until I finished my pudding, then stood up.
Nyang?
“I’m going to go get some sleep now, baby fox.”
I nodded.
“……”
Just as he was about to leave, Kessler stopped and looked at me.
‘What?’
“Look at all that sagging under your chin.”
Then, as if trying to estimate my weight, he lifted my body, grimaced, and muttered.
What the hell was he talking about after feeding me so much? Annoyed, I was about to let out a sharp bark when he returned from the shelf with a serious face and handed me a strawberry pudding.
‘What is it now?’
“Eat. You’re going to get malnourished at this rate.”
Nyang?
“Your chin didn’t fold like this. That’s because you didn’t even have a chin.”
Nyang?
“Even the fat around your tail is gone.”
Kessler flipped me onto my back and fondled my pink belly. Then, pinching my tiny little cock between his thumb and forefinger, he said,
“Even your cock’s gotten smaller.”
NYANG!!
I struggled and thrashed with all my might, fuming, but he smothered my angry cries with his hand.
“Sorry. I’ll apologize again.”
Nyang.
“That… white husk I killed.”
White husk… After a brief moment, he chose that term instead of calling him by name, Jung Da-hoon.
“I heard you’ve been dragging yourself around lately. I’m sorry I made you upset because of my selfishness. I just… I didn’t want to share your attention, that’s all…”
Nyang….
“I’m not expecting your forgiveness. But I’ll make you happier now that he’s gone.”
Kessler’s blinking was slowing down more and more. Struggling against the pull of sleep, he yawned and finally dragged his sluggish body to his feet.
He had already reached his limit, but forced himself to stay awake to watch me eat.
“Then take care of yourself, baby fox.”
He pressed his nose against mine, then moved away. I stared blankly at his retreating back as he left the room, then stepped down from the chair.
And quietly trailed after him.
“What are you, huh? A flower fox or something?”
Nyang?
Hearing the soft patter of my claws, Kessler turned to see me following him and looked secretly pleased.
“Are you seeing me off?”
Smiling warmly, he picked me up with one hand and slung me around his neck like a scarf. The breeze coming through the slightly open window felt nice.
“Give me a paw massage, will you? Help me stay awake.”
Nyang! Nyang! Nyang! Nyang! Nyang!
“You cottonball fox. There’s no pressure at all.”
Nyang! Nyang-nyang!
“Ahh, that feels good. So refreshing.”
The third-floor corridor was lined with shuttered alley cafés, long since abandoned. Where the shopkeepers had perished and disappeared, little desert finches had built their nests.
[Original Obstacle Café]
From between the slanted, half-broken wooden signboard, faint chirps echoed.
“Baby fox’s friends are here.”
Kessler did not pass by without stopping. He crouched in front of the nest, showing me the little fledglings who barely had any feathers yet. Then he picked one up and held it close to my mouth.
“Can you eat it?”
Peep peep.
Nyang-nyang.
The little chick, failing to recognize its natural predator, gave a kiss to my snout, mistaking me for its mother.
I gently grabbed the chick by its back and placed it back into the nest. Watching me closely, Kessler muttered curiously.
“So the law of the jungle doesn’t apply to everyone. Or maybe it’s just that a baby can’t eat another baby.”
What the hell… Is he not fully awake yet? I am fundamentally human, you know.
After this brief detour, we finally arrived at Kessler’s room. In one corner sat a pitch-black coffin. Kessler naturally opened its lid and crawled inside.
“I will just sleep for a week. Make sure nothing happens to Baby Fox, or you will end up like the lizards.”
“Understood. Do not worry.”
The castle steward, who had been waiting for Kessler, helped him settle into his deep sleep.
Standing right beside the coffin, peering inside, I was gently lifted and set aside by the steward.
“I’ll close it now.”
The coffin lid shut. Kessler’s drowsy eyes followed me to the very last moment before they were completely covered.
“……Shall we go now, baby fox?”
The steward placed me in a stroller and gracefully pushed it along.
Noticing how deflated I looked, he spoke in a soft, soothing voice.
“Please don’t be too disheartened. This is a recovery ritual that draws energy from death. While he’s in there, even shadows won’t dare wander too close.”
I know. Still, watching a living person crawl into a coffin made me feel oddly unsettled.
“You might not know this, but he’s just playing dead. Quite the clever tactic. Pretending to be dead actually cuts down on the number of overdue notices that come flying in. Once he sleeps soundly for a week, he’ll be fully recharged for a day.”
So it is basically a loophole, huh? The steward then picked me up with both hands and began gently rocking me up and down, trying to entertain me.
“Starting tonight, I’ll be looking after you. I heard you like golden pudding?”
In truth, I do not have any particular preferences. I simply eat whatever is given to me.
***
“Hey, it’s the baby fox!”
“Hi, baby fox.”
After having the pudding the steward had given me for dinner, I went to meet Bori Noona and Kebab late at night.
Since the three of us were the only survivors left, and I was often with Kessler, the two of them had grown quite close, sticking together like inseparable friends. They were rivals, yet also the only ones to talk to, and beta testing comrades, so their bond had deepened quickly.
The two of them were roasting sweet potatoes, their mouths smudged with charcoal.
“Did you have a good day? You left with Kessler this morning.”
Nod.
“I wonder what you did.”
We exchanged high fives and waited for midnight to come. My mouth was itching to talk after being silent all day.
Three minutes, two minutes, one minute, and… now.
The moment the clock struck midnight, I transformed into human Yeo Woo-rim.
It was the first time KebabGudasaai had witnessed my transformation in real time. His eyes widened, and he adjusted his glasses, studying me with fascination.
“Finally, I can breathe. I’ll take a sweet potato too.”
He picked up a steaming roasted sweet potato with tongs and peeled it.
“Wow… that’s amazing.”
“If you look closely, doesn’t Woo-rim look exactly like the fox version?”
“Me? Ow—hot!”
“Yes, yes. Anyway, would you mind sharing? What did you do today?”
“Just talked with Kessler.”
“But does Kessler know you’re a user? Among the players, there’s a big debate—some say he knows Yeo Woo-rim is a user, others say he has no clue…”
“Bori-noona’s got a point. And also… how’d you two get so close? Is that, like, a trade secret or something?”
They seemed very curious. Apparently, Jung Da-hoon had not mentioned anything to them about my relationship with Kessler. Bori Noona’s eyes sparkled as she asked innocent questions.
“…We just got close through a quest.”
I took a long sip of what was supposedly the most carbonated beer.
“Wow, what kind of quest?”
“A kind of Race Quest. I had to find a Jewel Ice, and the closest one was with Kessler. That bastard probably planned to raise me well and use me like his personal ride.”
“Ah—gasp. So you didn’t get adopted as a pet fox, you were taken in as a mount?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Eventually, I ended up becoming his guardian… then his boyfriend. Recently, we even promised to get married, but all of that is still a secret.
“Given the nature of Polymorph users, the baby fox’s body never grows—so isn’t that a hopeless dream?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Lying almost sprawled out on the grass, we continued talking. As the tension eased and a bit of alcohol kicked in, KebabGudasaai began to confess his own troubles.
“Sniff sniff… Back in school, my nickname was Smellbone. I thought I had some kind of odor-related illness, but when I went to the hospital, they said it wasn’t hormonal… Honestly, I don’t even feel confident going to the in-person meetup. What if I gas-bomb the whole room… It’s so hard. I shower at least once a day too…”
“Last time I noticed, the day after you got your clothes dry-cleaned, you were fine. Just wash your clothes every day.”
“That’s such a hassle… and now the Gurgle-Gurgle Laundromat won’t do my laundry anymore.”
“You keep saying the smell makes you sad, but you’re not trying to fix it because it’s ‘too much trouble’—what do you want us to do?”
“Sniff sniff… I’ll wash them every day from now on…”
“Awesome! Problem solved! So then, once you’re all clean, we’re doing our group meetup, right?! Final winner buys cold grilled pork belly!”
With that open-ended promise of an offline meet at a barbecue place regardless of who wins, we clinked our glasses together.
