One Day, I Picked Up a Fox 48

‘Starvation.’

That was the answer.

This fox’s bead craved energy to survive. The instinct to swallow anything to sustain life was imprinted on it. And the Emperor who was by his side was emitting enormous energy, even though it was the deadly poison of a curse.

The hungry beast bit down not knowing it was spoiled meat, and the fox’s bead must have mistaken that curse for food and sucked it in. But that wasn’t energy. Rather, it became indigestible poison that dimmed the bead’s original light and threatened the fox’s life force.

“That bead is stupid.”

The fox’s eyes widened. And he wrapped his hands around his own chest. How dare he call the precious bead inside his body stupid.

“Stupid?”

The bead inside his body was a very precious thing that protected his life. Even without anyone telling him, he knew such things instinctively. But to call it stupid. He felt offended as if he himself had been insulted.

“Yes. Very foolish and stupid.”

Theodor clicked his tongue. He leaned back against the chair and crossed his arms. His attitude clearly treated the other as a child—no, as a beast that couldn’t understand words well.

“To put it metaphorically, it’s like this. You’re so hungry that you grab and eat anything you see. Without knowing whether it’s rotten meat or poisonous mushrooms.”

The fox’s brow furrowed. Rotten meat. Just imagining it made his stomach churn. When he lived in the forest, he had picked up and eaten spoiled food a few times. Fortunately he hadn’t died, but he remembered suffering from stomach pain for several days.

“Rotten things… hurt.”

“That’s right. If you eat rotten things, you get sick. But your bead thought the bad energy was honey and swallowed it right up.”

Theodor tapped the fox’s chest. His face turned pale. When did he eat that? The fox hurriedly rubbed his chest. He hadn’t felt anything until just now, but after hearing Theodor’s words, it somehow seemed to hurt.

“But I… never ate… anything bad….”

Recently he either couldn’t eat at all or only ate very good things. He had no memory of eating bad things.

“You didn’t eat it with your mouth.”

Theodor raised his index finger and tapped the middle of the fox’s chest.

“You ate it through here.”

Where Theodor’s finger touched, deep inside that spot, the bead seemed to vibrate faintly.

“Try to remember. When you were by His Majesty’s side, wasn’t there ever a time when your body became particularly cold or heavy?”

The fox’s brow narrowed. Was there a time when his body was cold when he was by Adrian’s side? There wasn’t. His lap was more comfortable and warm than any place the fox had ever lain down. There was nothing better than taking a nap on his lap while listening to the pounding sound transmitted from his chest.

“Ah.”

That’s when the fox let out a small exclamation.

It wasn’t that there were no strange things at all. Adrian’s embrace was warm like a furnace, but when he opened his eyes in the morning, strangely there were times when his body felt heavy like cotton soaked in water. His joints ached and his stomach felt heavy as if he had swallowed a stone. He had just thought it was because he had played too much the day before, or because Adrian had hugged him too tightly while sleeping.

The fox nodded his head.

“Yeah. There were. Times like that.”

“That’s indigestion. It’s the same as getting an upset stomach from eating a lot of rotten meat.”

The fox unconsciously rubbed his belly. Rotten meat. The unpleasantness that word gave made his stomach churn. To think that what came from Adrian was rotten meat. He couldn’t believe it. He always smelled good. When he burrowed into his embrace, it felt like all the worries in the world disappeared.

But from such a person, something like rotten meat flowed out?

Just imagining it turned his stomach. The fox covered his mouth. But before nausea, doubt came first.

“Why?”

The fox asked with a face that didn’t understand.

“Adrian is nice. He brushes my fur, gives me delicious things….”

He counted on his fingers and listed how good a human Adrian was. Humans who did bad things smelled foul from the start. From greedy merchants or fierce hunters came the fishy smell of blood or the stench of money. But Adrian wasn’t like that.

“But why does he have that? Rotten things.”

Pure worry appeared in the fox’s eyes. It seemed he was more frightened by the fact that such a terrible thing was inside Adrian’s body than by his own pain.

Theodor rested his chin and looked into the fox’s eyes, which were stupidly innocent.

Normally, beasts instinctively avoided danger. They didn’t touch poisoned food and culled sick companions from the pack. That was the law of survival. But this fellow was different. He worried about the master who harbored poison.

He was foolish. And Theodor quite liked that foolishness. Because it made him easy to handle.

He spoke gently as if soothing a child.

“Anyone can get sick. Even the strongest and kindest people. What’s inside His Majesty’s body is a kind of thorn. A poisonous thorn embedded very deeply, about to fester and burst.”

“A thorn….”

The fox rubbed his forearm. He had been pricked by a thorn while playing in the forest. Even with just one tiny thorn embedded, it throbbed and caused a fever for several days. But to have a poisonous thorn embedded deep inside the body. How much must it hurt?

“Then we have to pull it out. Because it hurts. We have to remove it.”

“That’s right. But neither the physicians nor I, a priest, can remove that thorn. It’s embedded too deeply to touch.”

Theodor deliberately made a pitiful expression and sighed. The fox’s ears drooped. Then does Adrian have to keep hurting?

Just as sadness was about to cover the fox’s face, Theodor raised his index finger and pointed at the fox’s chest.

“But you can do it.”

“Me?”

“That’s right. That bead of yours has the property of sucking in poison. Only you can safely eat away and eliminate the poisonous thorn embedded in His Majesty’s body.”

The fox’s eyes sparkled again. I can do it. I can eliminate that bad thorn, that rotten meat that’s hurting Adrian.

“Then I….”

Before the fox could finish speaking, Theodor raised his hand to stop him.

“But there’s one problem.”

There’s a problem? The fox gulped. What could be the problem when he could pull out the thorn that was hurting Adrian?

“Your vessel is too small.”

“Vessel?”

“Your body. The vessel that contains the bead.”

Theodor indicated the fox’s thin chest with his eyes.

“What do you think will happen if you keep receiving the Emperor’s enormous curse with such a small body?”

The fox imagined it. The situation of continuously pouring water into a small vessel. The water would overflow, and the vessel, unable to endure, would crack open.

“It will burst.”

Theodor spread his palm wide.

“With a bang. That precious bead of yours and your body will shatter into pieces. Then you’ll die.”

Die.

Upon reaching that conclusion, the fox’s hands began to tremble. Dying was scary. He had seen countless animals dying in the forest. The process of growing cold, swarming with maggots, and ultimately leaving only bones was terrible.

“Then… what do I do? Can’t fix it? Adrian, keeps hurting?”

The fox’s voice grew wet. Theodor’s eyes curved thinly. Now was the timing to reel him in.

Theodor leaned his upper body forward. Like a con artist making a secret proposal, sweet temptation was embedded in his voice.

“There is one method. Because I can help you.”

“You?”

“Yes. I am a priest. A person who handles divine power. My body is much sturdier than an ordinary person’s, and I have strong resistance to curses. If your vessel is a soy sauce dish, my vessel could be called a jar.”

Theodor tapped the fox’s chest.

“So we divide the roles. You’re too weak to handle that dangerous power, so entrust the ‘bead’ that is the source of that power to me for a while.”

“Entrust… the bead?”

The fox unconsciously clutched his chest. He felt reluctant to give the bead, which was like his life, to someone else.

“I don’t mean I’ll keep it forever. I’ll operate that power on your behalf only until we eliminate all of His Majesty’s curse. I’ll suck in His Majesty’s curse through your bead and purify it with my body. Then you won’t need to dangerously swallow the poison, and His Majesty can be safely treated.”

The logic was plausible. No, to the fox’s ears, it was perfect. He was weak and Theodor was strong. He would get an upset stomach if he ate rotten meat, but Theodor was a priest so he would be fine. So if he lent the bead to him, both Adrian and he would live.

But he hesitated. Because without this bead, he couldn’t become human. His goal was to become human and apologize to Adrian….

Reading the fox’s wavering eyes, Theodor delivered the finishing blow.

“Are you hesitating because you want to become human?”

The fox flinched in surprise and looked at him.

“Don’t be mistaken. The reason His Majesty cherished you wasn’t because you were human. It was because you were a small, cute ‘fox.'”