53. Ice Crystal

53. Ice Crystal

“Ugh….”

My head is throbbing. It feels like it’s going to split.

The last thing I remember is burning my mouth while eating a marshmallow, but did I fall asleep without realizing it after that?

… I want to eat marshmallows again.

Without even opening my eyes, I stuck out my tongue and licked the front. As my fluffy tail touched my tongue, my tongue naturally moved and stroked my tail.

I wish this were a marshmallow.

I’m hungry. I’m so, so hungry.

Even though I ate three marshmallows, it wasn’t enough to fill my stomach. Moreover, I was in my growing period, so if I was hungry, I was hungry; I never felt full.

“Kkang.”

If this tail I’m licking now were delicious food… for example, if a long, plump sausage were in front of me….

A perfectly grilled, juicy-looking sausage is placed on my plate. It’s freshly cooked, so white steam is rising, but I’m so hungry that I don’t even blow on it to cool it down and just stab the sausage with a fork and lift it.

It’s so huge that the sausage, impaled on the fork, will surely bend like a bow. It might even touch the floor because it’s bent so much.

But I won’t care about that. Because I’m hungry!

“Hee hee….”

Just imagining it makes my mouth water, and my tail wags.

My stomach, which doesn’t even exist, makes rumbling sounds as if trying to accept food. I giggle foolishly.

Finally, I’ll bring the fork close to my face and open my mouth as wide as possible. Then, the moment my saliva goes down my throat, I’ll bite the sausage with a “Nyam…!”

“Nyam.”

“Hic?!”

——

When I opened my eyes, I saw Sister with bandages wrapped around the tip of her tail.

“Seol-ah, you’re awake?”

“Yes….”

As I sat up my groggy body and looked around, a familiar, very familiar scene greeted me.

A children’s bed, a children’s desk, a children’s chair. A stove with burning firewood, and a large rubber ball placed in a corner of the room.

It’s my room. I’ve returned home.

“When did we get home…?”

“A little while ago. A few hours ago.”

“I slept?”

No matter how I think about it, I can’t remember anything after eating the marshmallow. I buried my face in the blanket and asked.

“Yes. You were so tired that you fell asleep right away, so I brought you home. Seol-gu also seemed to say that his job was done.”

“I see…. Wait, what’s wrong with your tail, Sister? Are you hurt?”

As my mind cleared a little, I finally saw Sister’s wound. The tail looked as if it had been bitten by something. Good heavens, who would do such a thing to Sister!

“It’s, it’s nothing. Just a slight injury.”

“I can’t forgive this… How dare you bite Sister’s tail!”

For a suin, the tail is a very important part. It helps with balance when walking, and it expresses emotions by wagging. 

To bite such a precious place. Whoever it was, they must be a truly bad fox. If I hadn’t fallen asleep, I would have caught them right away and pulled out their tail fur, but it’s a shame.

“Ahem, anyway, Seol-ah, aren’t you hungry?”

“Yes… very.”

I slept for a few hours after eating the marshmallow. Considering the time I spent heading to the cave and being stranded, I had essentially starved for a whole day. So, of course, I’m hungry.

“Let’s eat first. I’ll go get it.”

“Yes!”

Sister returned with a bowl from outside. It was a warm meat stew, steaming with vapor. The sweet and delicious smell made my saliva involuntarily go down my throat.

“It’s not salted meat, is it?”

“Salted meat…? Ah, of course, it’s not preserved meat. Mom just made it, so you can eat it without worry.”

“Heh heh….”

Sister scooped a spoonful of stew and offered it to me. Being fed spoonful by spoonful made me feel strange, like a baby, but I obediently ate it.

While I was eating, a question suddenly occurred to me.

“Sister, where is Seol-gu?”

“Seol-gu? He’s over there.”

“Over there…? Huk!”

The rubber ball in the corner of the room. Looking closely, something white was covering the rubber ball.

A white, fluffy, plump creature.

Seol-gu was lying spread out on the ball.

… My opinion of my only friend has dropped significantly. His only friend is starving and unconscious, but he’s playing on the ball and even fast asleep?

Finally, the sound of a spoon hitting an empty bowl was heard.

“You finished it. Are you full now?”

“Yes!”

I ate so much without realizing it that my stomach became round. At this rate, I should have replenished the amount I missed for the day. There won’t be any issues with my growth being stunted due to malnutrition.

“Then… it’s about time.”

Sister said, putting down the bowl.

“Can you explain what happened in there? I asked Seol-gu… but I couldn’t understand anything he said. So I waited until Seol-ah woke up.”

Ah, right, I need to tell Sister that something unusual happened. I explained to Sister what happened in the cave.

“After the path collapsed, I followed Seol-gu deep inside… and at the end, there were mechanical spiders and a giant worm.”

“These things?”

“Yes.”

Sister was holding a piece of the mechanical worm in her hand.

It was a mechanical part made in a way that was difficult to comprehend. The only recognizable part was a container with a faintly glowing purple liquid sloshing inside.

“And then?”

“And… the spiders were mining ice crystals while digging into the cave walls. Oh, the blue transparent stone is an ice crystal, right?”

“… Mining ice crystals?”

“Yes.”

Sister’s face contorted. It wasn’t my fault, but seeing Sister make such a scary face made me feel scared too. I suppressed the urge to hide in my tail and continued speaking.

“And… oh, that cave, it wasn’t a cave, it was a tunnel dug by the mechanical worm. After the spiders finished digging up everything around them, they moved with a ‘kugugung’ sound and dug deeper, but I was too scared to follow….”

“I see.”

I still vividly remember the worm’s face. Or rather, its face, it seemed to be a giant drill for penetrating the ground. I will never forget the sight of it charging a laser beam towards me.

Sister had a serious expression. She must have had some inkling of what was going on.

“Then I was discovered by the spiders… and while running away desperately, I hit a dead end, and that’s when you appeared, Sister.”

After that, it was just the story of eating roasted marshmallows and passing out before being delivered home. When I finished speaking, Sister rested her chin on her hand and fell into deep thought.

“Sister?”

“Seol-ah… how much do you know about ice crystals?”

“Uh… that they’re magic stones? Magic stones are stones that contain mana… Oh, and they’re stones used to buy things in the Magi Republic.”

Sister smiled and stroked my cheek. It tickled, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You know so much without me teaching you, my Seol-ah. That’s right, ice crystals are magic stones. They are stones formed when the cold mana of the North Pole gathers in one place.”

“Yes.”

“Ice crystals aren’t unique to the North Pole. There is various mana all over the world, and therefore, various magic stones exist. Among them, ice crystals are made from cold mana.”

Sister continued.

“Ice crystals are very important. They are the magic stones that keep the North Pole cold. When the North Pole warms up, the cold mana contained in the ice crystals is released, cooling the air. When it becomes sufficiently cold, the ice crystals begin to form again by gathering in one place. This cycle repeats, keeping the North Pole continuously cold.”

Some difficult words came out. But I’m a smart wolf, so I can understand it well. Roughly interpreted, it means that the North Pole’s coldness is maintained by the repeated disappearance and formation of ice crystals.

“Let me give you an example that Seol-ah might understand. The ice fruit that Seol-ah loves so much is actually a fruit that grows by consuming the mana contained in ice crystals. If the ice crystals disappear, we’ll never be able to eat ice fruit again.”

“Huk…!”

Ice crystals are incredibly important! I realized it instantly.

But is it okay to use something so important for trade?

“It’s not a big problem to use the ice crystals that appear on the surface. Compared to what’s visible on the surface, there are an enormous number of ice crystals buried underground. It’s like comparing your tail fur to your tail.”

“I see….”

Losing a strand of tail fur from my tail doesn’t have a significant impact. It seems ice crystals are similar. After all, my tail fur is constantly falling out anyway.

“However, if we start randomly mining ice crystals while moving underground, the situation will be different. What do you think will happen?”

“The, the ice fruit will disappear…!”

“That’s right.”

That can’t happen!! How many ice fruits haven’t I eaten yet!

“I think Seol-gu realized this and called us. He helped us defeat the bad machines and keep the ice crystals in their place.”

“I see….”

My opinion of Seol-gu in my heart improved. Combined with the evaluation that dropped earlier, it’s a net zero.

“Since we defeated the machines, there shouldn’t be any problems for now. Let’s rest first, and if there’s anything else to talk about, I’ll tell you more. Okay?”

“Yes!”

“Then I’ll go see Dad.”

Sister smiled at me… but the moment she turned her back, the smile vanished from her face.

Scary.