“Once we finish packing up, we’ll move to a nearby village. We’ll stock up on necessary supplies there and then go hunt monsters.”
“Hunt monsters?”
“I need to confirm whether what you said is true.”
At those words, Kaniel realized that his appeal from yesterday had worked. The appeal where he’d said he knew about monsters and could be helpful.
Taeyon had said he’d think about it, but it seemed he’d made his decision last night.
I’m so relieved it’s not a bad outcome. Kaniel’s eyes sparkled.
“Yes, I’ll definitely be helpful.”
Kaniel watched Taeyon, who was silently folding the tent, and began thinking about how he could be even more helpful.
He felt that knowledge about surface monsters—which might be somewhat inaccurate—alone wouldn’t be enough to earn an evaluation from Taeyon that he was worth keeping around.
Originally, he’d planned to tame a flying monster and return to the Floating Island, but since surface monsters didn’t tame well, that plan had completely fallen through. The only other way to get back to the sky would be to find the Winged Tribe, but that was also impossible since the kidnappers who’d dropped him on the surface were Winged Tribe.
It meant he might have to spend the rest of his life living here on the surface. And Kaniel didn’t want to lose this kind man he’d first met in this completely unfamiliar world. Even if he was a bit blunt, it wouldn’t be easy to find someone who would so diligently protect a person they’d just met.
And to earn a good evaluation from him, just obediently following along wouldn’t be enough.
He had to prove to Taeyon that he was useful.
He had to show him something.
‘What can I do…?’
Kaniel was both a monster tamer and a mage. However, surface monsters were fierce and violent, making them difficult to tame. Plus, when he tried to give them mana, his body hurt, and with magic, just conjuring a small flame made his whole body ache as if being squeezed.
He needed to figure out why these problems occurred. Then he might be able to solve them.
‘It seemed like taming didn’t completely fail though.’
As evidence, even the horned bat monster that had tried to eat him had listened to him at first. It had only suddenly turned on him when he thought it was okay now that they were on the ground and tried to withdraw his mana.
‘Wait, so the problem happened when I tried to stop providing mana.’
Perhaps surface monsters couldn’t be tamed because of their strong wild nature, but maybe they were attracted to the bait of mana? Kaniel got excited at his own speculation, clenching and unclenching his fist as he gathered mana in his hand.
There was a common factor in the reasons his body hurt. It was that he’d used mana.
But this time, it didn’t hurt at all. That meant the conditions that caused his body to hurt hadn’t been met.
What could it be? What on earth could it be? Why did it hurt sometimes and not hurt other times?
He was muttering to himself and staring at the lump of mana forming in his palm when it happened.
Suddenly something climbed down his shoulder and buried its face in Kaniel’s palm.
“Eek…!”
He reflexively screamed, and when he checked, it was a squirrel. No, since it seemed drawn to the mana, was it a monster?
This monster might also attack if he stopped giving it mana. Kaniel was afraid the monster would bite him if he screamed, so he only looked up at Taeyon with his eyes.
He was already drawing his sword and approaching.
“Taeyon….”
As the beastkin with the sword approached, the squirrel monster let out a shriek and began to grow massive. With sounds of bones crackling and stretching, its fur stood on end, and its small front teeth transformed into monster-like fangs.
At this rate, Kaniel’s arm would be crushed under it.
However, before the squirrel monster spewing black smoke and starting to grow massive could even reach the size of a dog, Taeyon rushed in and stabbed it in the belly.
The squirrel monster died instantly and disappeared as smoke.
Kaniel gasped for breath, trembling with his now-empty arm. The weight was gone now, but the terror from moments ago hadn’t disappeared, so the trembling didn’t stop.
Right, I get it.
He’d firmly experienced that here on the surface, monsters were terrifying creatures.
“……”
Kaniel felt a gaze on him and cautiously looked up at Taeyon. Taeyon was staring at him with a look that seemed to say he was pathetic, having caused an incident in just a brief moment.
The reproachful silence was suffocating, so Kaniel smiled awkwardly and blurted out anything.
“Um, I think I can lure monsters….”
Taeyon stared at him incredulously for a moment, then muttered as if sighing.
“…Really, I can’t take my eyes off you.”
Kaniel felt wronged.
Can’t take his eyes off him—wasn’t that the kind of tone you’d use with a troublemaker or a mischievous child? Of course, he’d accidentally drawn in a monster and it was dangerous, but it’s not like he’d done it on purpose, and he’d learned some information thanks to it too.
Kaniel decided to appeal that point first.
“How about from now on, I lure monsters and you catch them, Taeyon? We won’t need to go searching for them, so it’ll be more convenient.”
Taeyon crossed his arms and looked at him. His eyes narrowed as if finding fault.
“…Can you lure the targeted monster, one at a time?”
“Uh… no?”
Since it was like luring monsters with an insect trap, that was impossible. At Kaniel’s troubled answer, Taeyon immediately moved to the next question.
“Can you lure monsters to a different location instead of to you?”
“I can only make them come to me….”
That’s because mana rapidly dispersed into the air once it left his hand. Kaniel’s head drooped lower and lower as he mumbled his answer.
“Then what will you do if five or six monsters are lured at once?”
At the cold interrogation, Kaniel realized he’d thought of monster hunting too easily. To be precise, he’d believed on his own that Taeyon was an amazing person who could easily dispatch five or six monsters.
It seemed he still had the sense of thinking of monsters as just large beasts.
“I think I misunderstood. I’m sorry.”
Apologizing quickly when you made a mistake was the fastest way to handle the situation. When Kaniel bowed his head and apologized, Taeyon silently nodded.
“Safety is the top priority. Remember that.”
So he’s saying this out of worry for me, right? Kaniel felt like he was beginning to understand Taeyon’s disposition a little.
“Yes! I’ll be careful.”
“Then let’s go down.”
Taeyon, who had shouldered the bag that had been rolling on the ground, extended his hand toward Kaniel. Kaniel glanced at the bag that had been clean until earlier, then smiled and grasped that hand.
However, the smile didn’t last long.
Being slung over the shoulder of someone climbing down a tree was quite an arduous experience.
“Ugh, urk…. Ah….”
With each step Taeyon took downward, Kaniel felt like he was getting punched in the stomach by that solid shoulder.
* * *
“I’m sorry for walking so slowly….”
“No. If that’s your limit, it can’t be helped.”
Is this really a situation that calls for talk of limits? Though Kaniel felt self-loathing, he couldn’t complain even once.
Because right now, Taeyon was treating his blistered feet. Washing his feet by the stream, applying ointment, and then wrapping them with bandages—all of it himself.
Fortunately, after being treated, it wasn’t uncomfortable to walk.
“Will this pace work for you?”
Saying that, Taeyon moved his steps slowly. Seeing someone who had been walking nimbly and quickly until now moving at a snail’s pace made it seem like he might be teasing him. However, his expression was very serious, so Kaniel could tell he wasn’t teasing.
“Even though I’m human, I’m not that bad.”
Kaniel walked a bit ahead, then turned around as if showing off that he could walk this much, only to feel a little embarrassed seeing Taeyon nod seriously.
‘What am I doing right now in front of someone who can walk five times faster than me?’
The only reason it didn’t reach the level of shame was thanks to Taeyon not making a teasing or mocking expression. Taeyon just had a serious attitude, like he was encountering the fact that 1+1 equals 2.
“…But what kind of beastkin are you, Taeyon?”
Looking at those perked-up ears and that thick tail, he seemed like either a dog or a wolf, but there was a big difference between the two.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“I’m curious what kind of beastkin you are to have such a big difference from me.”
“That seems irrelevant to what kind of beastkin I am.”
“What do that mean?”
As he asked back and stepped on a root as high as a stair while climbing, Kaniel slipped. It was Taeyon who saved him from almost slamming his knees into the ground.
“Whatever kind of beastkin I am, my physical abilities will be superior to yours.”
“……”
After nearly falling and then hearing that, he had absolutely no energy to refute it. Kaniel sullenly hung his head.
“…Wolf.”
“What?”
“I’m a wolf beastkin.”
“A wolf…. So you’re a wolf…!”
It suited Taeyon. Especially parts like his firm jawline, his taciturn demeanor, and his dependable shoulders. And also the fact that even though they were both men, Kaniel found him a bit cool.
Feeling somewhat elated, Kaniel began chattering away.
