The otter turned back the way he had come, his face full of ambition.
* * *
He returned to the inn where he had woken up earlier and wandered about trying to find help, but the people there looked even busier than before, and no one spared the otter a glance.
He eventually turned away and left the vicinity of the inn, flaring his small nostrils as he ran toward wherever the scent of people led. His sense of smell seemed to have grown sharper than when he had first woken up as an otter. Was he gradually being set up as an otter?
The otter turned his head this way and that, surveying his surroundings.
Wooden buildings. People pulling carts.
He had registered the fact that he was inside a web novel, but he couldn’t stop marveling at the unfamiliar scenery. It felt a little like being inside a fantasy film, and he felt a small flutter of excitement.
The otter weaved nimbly between the people and began looking for someone with the means to travel to the capital. He could feel people’s gazes on him as he moved around, but this was no time to worry about that. He ran to what appeared to be the village entrance and looked around.
“Peek!”
In the direction the otter was staring intently, there were two brown horses. The large cart connected to them looked quite solid and dependable. Behind it, men in dungarees were loading sacks onto the cart.
That’s it. The otter ran toward the cart, held his breath, and hid behind a pile of sacks on the ground to eavesdrop on the men’s conversation.
“Phew. Once you’ve moved all the wheat, get the cheese loaded too.”
“Weren’t we only taking wheat to the capital?”
“We’re dropping the cheese off at Liam’s inn on the way.”
He didn’t catch every word the men said in their gruff voices, but he caught the word “capital” clearly. The cart was definitely heading to the capital. Watching for his moment, the otter seized a gap when the men were briefly distracted, clambered up onto a sack to get a running start, and slipped right into the cart. Then he burrowed between the tall stacks of sacks and hid himself.
The gruff-voiced man had a rough face to match — he was frightening. He couldn’t say what would happen the moment he was discovered.
He had been holding his breath for a good while when a canopy was stretched over the cart, covering even the entrance completely. That was a stroke of luck for the otter. The cart lurched into motion, and only then did the otter relax and wiggle out from between the sacks.
“Kyeeeng….”
The violently jostling cart was already making him feel carsick. It felt like rolling around on an unpaved road with nothing between him and the ground. On top of that, his throat was beginning to parch badly.
Could you die of dehydration? He thought he’d heard that you could.
He rode on like that for quite a while. It felt like at least four hours had passed since he’d climbed into the cart. Desperate to wet his throat and get into some water, he was lying weakly on the cart floor when the cart jolted heavily to a stop.
“Nng… kyeeng….”
The impact sent his head slamming into a sack, and a pained whimper escaped on its own. In that same moment, the canopy covering the entrance was pulled aside, and against the glow of the sunset, the rough-faced man from before appeared.
“It wasn’t a chick — it was a weasel all along?”
“Kyi, kyeeng…!”
He had been too busy clutching his sore head to think about hiding. The otter, frozen stiff with fright, scrambled belatedly between the sacks, but the man had already climbed up into the cart.
“Kyeeeng!”
The man grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and carried him right out of the cart. He lifted the frantically struggling otter up to face level and began looking him over.
“A little weasel brat — why don’t you go steal chickens from a henhouse! What are you doing climbing in here?”
“Kyeeng! Kyeeng!”
The otter, twisting and writhing in protest, shook his head vigorously from side to side at the man’s words. The man’s eyes widened at the sight.
“You understand what I’m saying? Is this thing a therianthrope?”
“Kyi… kyeeng.”
He wasn’t sure yet whether he was a therianthrope or not, but either way it seemed like being one in this world would do him no favors. Not wanting to be needlessly branded a therianthrope and subjected to a miserable life, the otter avoided the man’s suspicious gaze and began turning his head in various directions for no real reason.
“What are you doing out there, not coming in?”
“Ah, it’s because of this little thing.”
Just then, a kind-looking woman came over and called out to the man. The man started walking toward her, still holding the otter aloft.
“Now what’s this. Why are you here?”
“Nng….”
“He stowed away in the cart. You’ve come a long way from wherever you live — what are you going to do now?”
“Peeee….”
Come with you….
“The snout’s a bit flat and the face is round — doesn’t look like a weasel to me?”
“Oh? Well… get me some drinks first. Brought cheese too. Hey! Get that cheese unloaded!”
The man turned and called out to the men moving the cargo, then walked toward what appeared to be an inn, still holding the otter by the scruff. Dragged along as if being led without a struggle, the otter entered the building — and began to tremble. Inside the inn, large, rough-looking men who looked like they knew their way around a blade were seated at tables, drinking up a storm.
“Peee….”
What’s going to happen to me now?
Am I going to end up as bar snacks?
The moment he pictured that future — becoming something to nibble on with drinks — tears welled up in an instant. Hot tears rolled down his small face and dripped to the floor. The man looked down at the otter shaking and crying, clicked his tongue, and settled himself at a corner table.
The man set the otter down on the table, then leaned forward slightly and began pressing his chubby cheeks repeatedly with thick, rough fingers.
“Pee…. Peee?”
The man, now wearing a smile without him even noticing, looked down at the otter with playful eyes. The otter, bewildered and unsure what was happening, sat still and let the rough handling wash over him.
“Ha, you little thing. Sleep here tonight, and tomorrow we’re heading to the capital — two days from now we’ll be back in the village you came from, so don’t you run off before then. Stay close.”
“…Peee.”
You really can’t judge a person by their looks. The otter quickly regained his energy and sniffed eagerly at the food beginning to fill the table. The other men settled around the table too, watching the otter and exchanging a few words. The otter answered each remark with a squeak — not quite a real answer, but close enough.
“What does this little guy eat. Meat? Or fish?”
“Just give him something. He’ll pick what he likes.”
The men, drinking in great gulping swigs, watched the otter lying flat on the table and looking around as they talked.
“Here, eat this.”
The woman set a wide bowl of water and a grilled fish in front of the otter, gave his head a pat, and turned away. At the sight of the water he had been longing for, the otter got so excited he flung himself right into the bowl.
“Peee! Peeee!”
“Ha! Looks like a water creature!”
The men laughed heartily and drank as they watched the otter submerge himself in the bowl and splash water all over himself. Cheered up, the otter soaked himself in the water and then picked up the grilled fish carefully with his front paws and began to tear into it.
“Ngyam nyam nyam!”
It had gone cold, but it was the finest grilled fish of his otter life. He stripped it clean down to the bone, then rinsed his mouth with water, and only then did he turn his ears to the men’s conversation.
“They say a monster was found dead in the mountains behind the village early this morning?”
“Good grief, what is this country coming to. Where do those things keep coming from?”
“Rumor has it… monsters are mutants of therianthropes.”
“Watch what you say! Don’t go throwing words like that around carelessly.”
“No, but — the monster found today was wolf-shaped too, wasn’t it….”
The longer the men’s conversation went on, the more troubled the otter’s expression grew.
What they were saying might very well be right.
Among the four nations in Dragon Who Will Lead to Ruin, Rankx was the largest in continental territory. And the king currently ruling this nation, Roman Lucifer, had long wanted to keep the therianthropes firmly beneath his heel.
But human strength could neither overcome the therianthropes’ physical capabilities nor shake the bonds between their kinds. And so Roman, with the conviction that a stronger force was needed to suppress the strong, pressed forward with a vile experiment.
He secretly gathered therianthropes with the intent of creating individuals that were more powerful and more easily controlled — and the monsters were the result of those experiments gone wrong. The monsters, having once been therianthropes, were incredibly savage — beings that ran rampant on nothing but animal instinct and died before long. Impossible to control, the monsters were a headache even for Roman Lucifer himself.
“Peek… peek…!”
Roman was someone who deserved to die, but those with no part in any of it deserved to live. And of course, he himself wanted to live a long life. That was precisely why he was wandering around looking for Rutilian right now.
The otter made a firm resolution to himself, then went back to splashing his front paws in the water. The woman who had been watching him from a distance came over and filled a large wooden tub with water. He was startled for a moment when his body was suddenly lifted, but in no time he was beside himself with excitement at having his very own bathtub — and he began to swim.
“Peeee!”
Thank you!
The otter swam until he was thoroughly sick of it, then climbed out and settled himself in a corner to lie down. He drifted off to sleep to the boisterous laughter of the men, thoroughly drunk.
* * *
The inside of the jolting cart was still hard to get used to. The cart had set off at the crack of dawn, and by the time the sun was at its peak, it passed through the high outer walls surrounding Senritia. The view of Senritia through the gaps in the canopy was remarkably urban compared to the village they had been in before. Being the capital, people in elaborate clothing and impressively sturdy buildings caught the eye here and there.
