The woman almost certainly wouldn’t understand, but the otter asked her questions as naturally as breathing. When the otter’s cries went on for a while, the woman listened quietly, then offered a good-natured smile.
“You’re hungry, aren’t you. Wait here.”
“Peee, peek?”
That’s not it… but, well, should I?
The otter watched the woman’s back as she headed toward the building and reluctantly made peace with it. Let me eat first and then think. After that, I can definitely find him.
Looking around, he could see a man carrying a basket piled high with clothes, and a woman stirring a large cauldron in the corner with a ladle. Everyone here was dressed in clothing that didn’t belong to the modern era.
Come to think of it, that man yesterday had also used a sword to kill the rabid wolf. Not a hunting rifle. No matter how he looked at it, this place was definitely the past.
Then did I not reincarnate, but rather… go back? Or maybe I returned to a past life. I was an otter in my past life.
The deeper his thoughts went, the more they seemed to veer into sophistry. The otter clutched his throbbing head, and when the memory of that familiar face from last night surfaced, he let out a deep, heavy sigh.
“Peeeng….”
That man yesterday… he really does look like him.
He perched on a small rock, waiting for the food the woman was going to bring, and tried to sort through the chaos in his head. It was hard to simply accept this absurd thing that had happened to him.
“Here — weasels love to eat chicken. Take this.”
The woman, who had come over without him noticing, held out a large chicken leg to the otter, who had been wearing a grave expression.
“Peek!”
He was used to people mistaking him for a weasel by now. But there was a nicely browned roasted chicken leg right in front of him — what species he was didn’t matter.
The days since he’d woken up as an otter — surviving by picking up unidentifiable fallen berries — flashed before his eyes like a montage in front of that chicken leg.
“Ngyam…!”
The otter gripped the chicken leg tightly with both front paws and began tearing into it with gusto. It was heavenly. Could a single unseasoned roasted chicken leg really bring this much ecstasy?
“Nyam! Nom…!”
“Eat slowly before you go.”
Mid-gnaw, the otter was so overwhelmed with gratitude that he cried out toward the woman, sending her a look full of tearful thanks. No — the sound simply escaped on its own. The woman looked at the otter endearingly, then headed back toward the building to return to her work.
“Nom nom nom!”
After watching the woman’s retreating back, the otter tore back into the chicken leg with full dedication — and in no time at all, left nothing but the bone. He rose from the rock in complete satisfaction.
Let’s go find that man. I won’t be able to rest until I at least know his name.
He took one bold step forward — and then his body flinched to a halt right where he stood.
Which way do I even go to find him?
Just because he’d become an otter didn’t mean his intelligence had become that of an otter’s too. He’d been full of ambition and completely devoid of any plan. As the otter stared at the ground with a serious expression, a large shadow fell across his vision. He looked up — a man had come close.
“Are you looking for the knight who brought you here?”
“Peee!”
“He’s probably headed to Senritia.”
“Peee?”
Really?
The otter was startled by the words the man holding a broom offered him. It was an unexpected windfall. Learning the whereabouts of the man, the otter bounced around in excitement.
“Peee!”
Let’s go to Senritia!
Sen…ri…tia….
…….
“Peeee…?”
…Senritia…?
The otter’s small body froze completely for a moment.
That name — far too familiar. Could it be…?
If the Senritia this man was referring to was the Senritia he knew, that would be a very serious problem.
Because Senritia was the capital of a nation called “Rankx” — a nation that appeared in Dragon Who Will Lead to Ruin, a web novel he had read back in his college days.
The rabid wolf. The man who resembled Rutilian, the protagonist of Dragon Who Will Lead to Ruin, who had killed that wolf. And the people in their strangely antiquated clothing.
It seemed… like something absolutely absurd had happened to him. The man looked at the otter standing there in stunned silence and asked in a worried voice whether he was alright — but the words didn’t reach his ears.
“Pee… peek….”
It can’t be. That’s impossible.
He desperately tried to deny reality, insisting it couldn’t be — but reason and instinct only brought conviction to the reality he wanted to deny. His mouth felt parched. I haven’t been in the water for too long. That’s why.
“Pee… peeee!”
The otter suddenly let out a sharp cry and launched himself into a sprint on all fours. The man watched until his small retreating figure disappeared into the forest, then slowly shook his head.
* * *
“Peeee…!”
He had been running straight ahead for so long that his breath was jammed all the way up to his throat. He collapsed face-first onto the dirt and wheezed with ragged breaths, trying to sort through the chaos in his head. Let’s think through everything that’s happened so far, step by step. It’s not complicated.
He had gone on a business trip to America, finished his work, and was spending his vacation when he fell into the ocean and lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in the body of an otter, not a human.
While waiting for the kind-hearted man to come back with the beef he’d promised to buy, he was chased by a wolf with blood-red eyes.
A man who resembled Rutilian, the protagonist of Dragon Who Will Lead to Ruin, killed that wolf.
That man, who resembled Rutilian, left him at what appeared to be an inn and departed for Senritia.
Senritia is the name of the capital of a nation called “Rankx,” which appears in Dragon Who Will Lead to Ruin.
Then this place is…?
“Kyi… kyeeeng….”
How did something like this happen. If this world was the world of that web novel… meaning, if he had entered that web novel and come to inhabit the body of an otter….
“Peee?”
Am I a therianthrope?
Dragon Who Will Lead to Ruin was set in a world where humans and therianthropes coexisted. However, only humans were permitted to govern nations. And the grueling labor of dealing with and going out on daily subjugations against the monsters that had suddenly begun appearing one day — all of that fell entirely to the therianthropes. More precisely, to the Therianthrope Knight Order.
For the sole reason that, compared to humans, therianthropes were physically superior.
When he first read the early parts of the novel, he couldn’t understand why the therianthropes would silently carry out such an unfair burden — but perhaps it was because they had coexisted with humans for so long? Because among their precious family members and those around them, there were humans they wanted to protect — and so they quietly accepted the injustice.
In other words, the world of Dragon Who Will Lead to Ruin was an extremely difficult place to live as a therianthrope.
His eyes welled up at the conclusion he had reached in his own mind, and the otter, with his brimming, glistening eyes, rolled onto his side — then in an instant, realized something and shot up from the ground.
But the ending of this web novel… I think it was a bad ending.
The protagonist Rutilian was a dragon. For reasons of some sort, after awakening he went berserk and led the entire world to ruin — it seemed like an ending that was exactly what the title described. Since he had read it back in college, he couldn’t remember every detail, but he remembered the ending with certainty.
“Peeng… peeng….”
What a wretched fate. A life-threatening crisis in every world I live in.
Long ago, in this world, there had existed a powerful dragon. Magic also existed, so there were mages, and everyone — therianthrope and human alike — lived peacefully and equally. But ten Archmages who coveted the dragon’s magical power devised a wicked scheme to steal it, and when things didn’t go as planned, they ultimately joined forces and sealed the dragon away.
From that moment, everything went wrong. Not only magic, but the invisible order that had been holding the world together began to crumble. The moment the dragon was sealed, all ten Archmages vanished without a trace.
The world, mired in ongoing chaos, needed someone to take the dragon’s place. A leader who would save the world. But unfortunately, therianthropes came in far too many kinds. Endless disputes over hierarchy, inter-species conflict, and the humans and weaker therianthropes suffering because of it.
The chaos only deepened, and when everyone was finally exhausted, a single conclusion was agreed upon.
Only the weakest — humans — would rule the nations.
On the condition, however, that they promised to usher in an era of equality and peace for all. And so four nations and four leaders came to be.
The four nations maintained peace for a time. But no promise lasts forever. The leader of Rankx, whose capital was Senritia — Roman Lucifer — was the root of all evil.
“Peee….”
Trying to drag out memories of what he had read long ago made his head throb. How did Rutilian awaken again?
Rutilian was the only dragon left in this world. But he had been raised as an orphan at a temple and had lived without knowing his own identity, spending his entire life questioning his own existence. As a being that was neither therianthrope nor human, he had stayed with the Therianthrope Knight Order — and then he set out on a journey to find his identity, and that’s where the problem arose.
Right, that’s it. Once he sets out on that journey, everything falls apart.
What if I stop that journey? Or what if I help him awaken in a stable way before his journey ends?
Then couldn’t the bad ending be prevented? No — at the very least, wouldn’t his own lifespan be extended?
“Peek…!”
I want to live…!
I’ll stop the bad ending and spend the rest of my life in peace!
