37. Guarding the House Again

37. Guarding the House Again

“What are you drawing?”

“Sister!”

I wiggled the hand holding the pencil and moved it. Black lines followed my fingertips, and soon a magnificent wolf suin appeared on the paper.

A satisfactory appearance.

“Wait, don’t look!”

At that moment, sensing Uncle’s gaze, I quickly extended my arm to cover the paper. Uncle had committed the grave offense of crushing my tail, so he didn’t deserve to see my masterpiece.

“Will looking at it make it disappear?”

“Kkang!”

At least for today, I will never forgive Uncle. I cried out loudly to threaten Uncle, and Uncle expressed his intention to surrender and stepped back.

After glaring for a long time and confirming that Uncle wasn’t approaching, I started drawing again.

“Hehe….”

A wolf suin, dressed in thick yet practical clothing, proudly displays a gleaming one-handed sword on a thin piece of paper.

From the suin’s head, soft, white hair cascaded down, and above it, majestic triangular ears, and below them, the distinctive spiky wolf tail.

I drew it myself, and it’s truly beautiful.

How I regret that the only thing I’m holding is a pencil. I can’t properly depict Sister’s jewel-like blue eyes in a monochrome world!

If only my adorable hands were holding a blue colored pencil, a masterpiece of the century, unprecedented in this world, might have been born.

But heaven, perhaps out of jealousy of my talent, has given the world only small, insignificant, stubby pencils.

But I will not give up. I will complete this drawing beautifully with just black and white, the only two colors….

“What is this, a octopus?”

“I told you not to look!”

Polar Bear Uncle continued, unfazed by my threatening growls.

“Seeing that reminds me of an octopus I saw while fishing. It was a round octopus with fluttering ears on its head… Ah, Seol-ah, you don’t know what an octopus is, do you? It’s a….”

“I know!”

I remember seeing it in my picture book. It’s a small and cute creature like a blobfish, but a monstrous octopus that shoots lightning bolts. In the book, it attacked a swimming wolf but was hunted instead.

“You know?”

“Yes! … Ah!”

As I was about to answer as usual, I quickly covered my mouth. I had momentarily forgotten my vow not to forgive Uncle today.

“Hmph!”

I puffed out my tail with all my might and started finishing the drawing, ignoring Uncle.

Sister, holding a sword majestically.

Me, standing beside her as if to assist.

Of course, it’s not the current small and cute, young wolf form, but the form of a strong and powerful adult wolf Rang Seol-ah, as I imagine myself to be when I grow up.

A tall wolf suin with long, white hair like Sister. However, her ears are slightly blunt, and her eyes are softer. She has a distinct personality that resembles Sister but is also distinguishable.

And what’s indispensable for Rang Seol-ah?

It’s the big, fluffy, soft, chewy, and bouncy tail!

“Yap!”

I drew a large tail behind the adult Rang Seol-ah. It’s incredibly huge compared to Sister’s.

My current tail is almost as big as my body. Even though I’m still a young wolf, if it’s this big now, I don’t need to imagine what it will be like when I grow up.

“Hehe….”

I wonder if I’ll be able to become a strong wolf like Sister someday. I’m looking forward to that time. There’s so little I can do in a child’s body.

“Hmm.”

There’s not much space left on the paper now. At this rate, I can only draw a small fox.

Originally, I planned to draw Mom and Dad, but it seems I have to change my plan. I started drawing Seol-gu.

First, one circle, then another circle. That’s the body, and this is the face. Then, attach two triangles on top, and draw the eyes, nose, and mouth, and it’s half done.

Now, draw the legs. Attach four ovals, and it’s finished. And the next part is the most important: drawing a huge, fluffy tail. Seol-gu has a tail that rivals mine, so I need to highlight that feature.

“What is this? Is that you?”

“It’s Seol-gu!”

“It looks like you no matter how I look at it. Look, the tail is big, the body is small….”

“Ah, d-don’t look!”

I, who was answering with a silly smile, quickly covered the paper. Uncle kept trying to find openings in my thoughts, so I couldn’t let my guard down.

“And this is a fox, and I’m a wolf! We’re very different!!”

“They look the same.”

“They’re different!!”

Even if my tail and Seol-gu’s tail are similar, Uncle can’t distinguish between a fox and a wolf. Uncle must be an idiot. An idiot comparable to an Arctic hamster.

I growled at Uncle again and started finishing the drawing.

“Rang Seol… Yeon? And… Rang… Seol-ah!”

I write our names right away. This is to prepare in case Sister doesn’t recognize which wolves these are in the drawing.

However, I encountered another obstacle.

“Rang Seol… Seol… What was it for Gu?”

No matter how much I think about it, the wolves’ letters are too difficult. I’ll have to learn more from Sister later. I can write Korean….

“Shall I help?”

“Kkang?!”

While I was pondering, a deep, heavy voice reached my ears. Polar Bear Uncle had quietly approached me from behind and whispered.

I hid the paper and glared at Uncle. But it’s true that I have no other options. I grumbled, showing that I was still angry, and gently handed the drawing to Uncle.

“You wrote it wrong here. It should be ‘Yeon’, not ‘Ryeon’.”

“Ah….”

I quickly erased the wrong letter with an eraser. Fortunately, the other parts were fine, so Uncle didn’t say anything else. As expected, I’m amazing….

“What is this handwriting? It’s like chicken scratch.”

“Kkang!”

Bite of rage!

However, my sharp teeth couldn’t pierce Uncle’s skin. Instead, my jaw, stretched to its limit, hurt. As I whimpered, Uncle continued.

“What did you leave unfinished here?”

“It’s Rang Seol-gu! I don’t know Gu!”

“This is how you write it.”

Uncle snatched my pencil and wrote the letters. It was the first time I saw Uncle write, and his handwriting was rough yet appropriate, quite different from Sister’s. It was fascinating.

“Eung….”

“Shall I teach you how to write?”

“Huk… Yes!”

An excellent wolf must also write well. Although my anger towards Uncle hasn’t completely subsided, learning when I can is a basic virtue of a wolf.

As I nodded repeatedly, Uncle slowly began to write letters on my desk.

“Wow….”

After studying for a while like this. The densely inscribed letters in the corner of the desk are visible. It’s evidence of practicing letters diligently with Uncle.

“Do you understand a little now?”

“Yes!!”

Although not all of it, I succeeded in memorizing most of the letters. Moreover, even if I forget the letters, I’m sure I can recall them by looking at these numerous letters engraved on the desk.

With this, I become an even more perfect wolf! Hoo hoo….

As I stood with my hands on my hips, chest out, and showing my full confidence, a loud rumble echoed from my stomach. Only then did I remember that I hadn’t eaten yet.

“Uncle, I’m hungry!”

“Hungry? Wait a moment… What do we have to eat at home?”

“Meat!”

“Where is it?”

“I don’t know!”

——

“Yum yum….”

Fortunately, the meat was in a place easier to find than I expected.

Perhaps trained by years of living alone, Uncle could make a decent stew with just water, meat, a pot, and firewood. My stomach was so hungry from sleeping late that I wolfed down the meat.

“You’ll choke if you eat too fast.”

“I’m a cool wolf, I don’t choke… Khek!”

“Well, well.”

I quickly drank some water, and my body soon calmed down.

“Kkaeng….”

It’s all Uncle’s fault for talking to me that I choked. I would have been fine eating at this speed normally. After finishing the meat a while later, I patted my bulging stomach and said to Uncle.

“By the way, Uncle, I saw a person yesterday.”

“There’s a person in front of your eyes right now.”

“Not that person, but… the person without ears! Sister said he’s from the Magi Republic….”

“Magi Republic…? Ah!”

Uncle interrupted me and exclaimed. He looked like he had realized something.

“That’s right, it was the Magi Republic. Now I remember.”

“What is it?”

“Remember when I went fishing last time, I told you I bought a fishing rod and a chair from someone? I couldn’t remember which country that person was from, but he was from the Magi Republic.”

“Really…?”

That day, when the mechanical steel eel was causing a ruckus at the bottom of the lake, shooting laser beams. It seems like Uncle said ‘Ma something’ while pointing at the fishing rod and chair. If that word is the Magi Republic, it makes sense now.

“But that person was very bad. He tried to take my stone by doing this and that….”

“Hmm.”

I described the situation at the time, using gestures and actions. How scary it was when a person wearing a strange steel exoskeleton tried to take the transparent, sparkling stone from me….

“From now on, if I see people from the Magi Republic, I’ll punish them!”

“How?”

“By biting them like this, Kkang!”

I bit Uncle’s forearm. But this time too, I couldn’t pierce Uncle’s muscles.

As I whimpered, holding my jaw, Uncle continued.