92. Library

92. Library

“Animal Encyclopedia. Author: J. Alges.”

Lucy began to read aloud, letter by letter, for me, who couldn’t read. She read so diligently that she even pronounced ‘J. Alges’ as ‘Jay dot Alges’.

After finishing the cover, Lucy finally turned the first page of the book.

The thick, heavy cover landed on the ground with a thud, raising dust.

The first animal I saw was… a sparrow.

A sparrow with small horns dangling from its forehead. A drawing depicting the animal’s appearance was shown, with a small explanation written next to it.

Lucy read the explanation aloud.

“Horned Sparrow. It looks similar to a sparrow, but has a small horn on its head.”

“Wow, it looks really cute.”

As the name suggests, it really looked like a sparrow with just a horn on its head. And it was a plump, chubby winter sparrow. It looked so harmless that I wanted to pat its head if I ever met one.

“It uses this horn to stab and kill other birds, and then eats their corpses.”

“….”

Sparrows were stronger than I thought.

Lucy’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the next animal. She was so interested in animals that it felt like she wouldn’t notice if someone carried her away.

“Frost Feather Wren. It builds its nest by tearing ice from glaciers.”

“Oh….”

Seeing as it’s a bird again, this chapter is probably about recording birds. Arctic foxes aren’t birds, so it will take some time for Seol-gu to appear.

Still, now that I’ve seen it, the encyclopedia was surprisingly fun to read. It was filled with many strange animals I had never seen in my past or present life.

Most importantly, the illustrations were drawn in detail. The animal drawings, depicted so realistically as if they could pop out at any moment, were impossible to ignore.

I think I can understand why Lucy wanted to see the encyclopedia now.

Lucy read through cute birds, cool birds, and strange birds one by one. During that time, a word that couldn’t be ignored caught my attention.

“Gray-striped Wyvern.”

“Wow, a Wyvern?”

“Yeah.”

Why a wyvern among birds?

As I wore an expression of confusion, Lucy laughed and said.

“Pffft, wyverns are also a type of bird. Look, it has feathers.”

“Th-that’s… it wasn’t a lizard? I thought it was a winged lizard!”

“Yeah. Lizards are dragons, and birds are wyverns. Adults often get confused too.”

Unbelievable. I’ve seen wyverns up close and even hunted them with magic, but I never imagined a wyvern would be a type of bird.

Does Sister know this?

What about Polar Bear Uncle? Or Yura and Yuri?

Probably none of the people I know knew that wyverns are birds. What a shocking truth this is….

… I should surprise Sister with this later.

I can’t help but smile imagining the expression on Sister’s face when she hears that wyverns are birds.

“Let’s see… next.”

Lucy turned the page to look at the next animal.

What was there… surprisingly, a penguin.

Lucy pointed to a picture of a strangely shaped penguin with blue feathers like eyebrows and slowly read the explanation next to it.

“Cliff-climbing Penguin. A penguin that mainly lives on the coasts of the central regions. It eats fish and seaweed from the sea, and nests in colonies on coastal cliffs.”

“Central regions?”

Aren’t penguins only found in the Antarctic and Arctic?

It looks strange, and its habitat is also peculiar. As I tilted my head, Lucy replied.

“Penguins actually live all over the world. There are more types than you might think. For example, there’s the Rockhopper Penguin here….”

“Ooh.”

Amazing. I never knew penguins were so diverse.

I was engrossed in the encyclopedia, exclaiming in wonder. As it happened, there was also a picture of the Emperor Penguin I met last time, so I pointed to it.

Lucy said.

“This is an Emperor Penguin. It’s the largest penguin. Originally, the King Penguin was the largest, but after the larger Emperor Penguin was discovered, it was named Emperor to mean ‘greater than the king’.”

“Oh… I see. I actually met one of them recently. It was really, really huge!”

“Really? You saw one in person?”

“Yeah, yeah. I even flew in the sky with a baby Emperor Penguin.”

I must be the only one in the entire world, including all living creatures, who has experienced flying in the sky with a penguin.

As expected, I’m an awesome wolf.

“Emperor Penguins can fly…! I never knew!”

“Uh, huh?”

“I’ve actually never seen a penguin before. I’ve only ever seen them in books… I wish I could see one in real life too.”

There seems to be a slight misunderstanding, but I missed the chance to correct it. After a moment of thought, I decided to let Lucy continue in her misunderstanding.

It’s like the existence of Santa Claus.

“Hey, are there any foxes in the encyclopedia?”

“Foxes? Wait a moment… I think I saw some.”

Anyway, it’s about time we look for Arctic foxes. While browsing the encyclopedia, I asked Lucy to show me the foxes, and Lucy flipped through the encyclopedia, searching for foxes.

I took Seol-gu out of my bag and stared intently at the encyclopedia.

“Let’s see… Ah, here it is. Look, it’s a fox.”

“Oh!”

Like the other animals, the fox also had various types recorded in detail. Lucy began to read the explanation of the first fox slowly.

“This is a Red Fox.”

“It’s cute. Seol-gu, it’s your relative.”

“Kkang.”

Red Fox. A red fox that looks a bit longer and more ordinary than Seol-gu. It looks very much like a dog.

Seol-gu wagged his tail while looking at the Red Fox picture. Perhaps because they are both foxes, his reaction is quite positive.

Meanwhile, Lucy continued to read the explanation.

“Red foxes… are said to be surrounded by flames when threatened.”

“Huk. Really?”

That would be so cool.

A fire fox!

I turned my head to look at Seol-gu. I see a fluffy, cute, chubby, and silly-looking fox. It’s not a Red Fox, but since it’s also a fox, maybe it can do something similar.

“Seol-gu, can’t you do something like surrounding yourself with ice?”

“Kkang.”

It’s a “Kkang” that seems to say, ‘If you surround yourself with ice, you’ll freeze to death, you idiot.’ Or it might just be a meaningless cry, but in any case, it means you can’t use such special skills.

“Aww, that’s disappointing.”

“Kkang kkang.”

Anyway, Lucy continued to read the explanation.

“And… it seems to have a special relationship with fox suins, it’s written. But it’s not written in detail. I guess the person who wrote this book doesn’t know more than that.”

“I see.”

Fox suins and foxes.

Hmm.

Now that I think about it, what is the relationship between suins and animals?

It’s a topic I’ve never really thought about before.

If a magnificent wolf suin like me meets a wolf… hmm.

I don’t know!

“What other foxes are there?”

“Next is… the Fennec Fox.”

Fennec Fox!

Next to the densely written explanation, a fox with a yellowish hue, small body, and ridiculously large ears was drawn. Its fur was so short that it looked incredibly unimpressive.

I held up Seol-gu and pointed to the picture.

“Seol-gu, look at this one. It’s a poor fox with no fur.”

“Kkang kkang.”

Seol-gu and I laughed heartily while looking at the Fennec Fox, and Lucy said.

“Not having fur isn’t pitiful. Deserts are extremely hot. Because the heat is so intense, they evolved to have less fur.”

“Still, it looks so pitiful. Look at this slender figure. It must have been starving for a long time.”

“It’s not like that… sigh.”

Lucy sighed as if there was no answer. Even so, she’s just a child, so she’s only cute. I asked Lucy.

“Are there any Arctic foxes?”

“Arctic foxes…? Wait a moment.”

Lucy flipped through the encyclopedia. Pictures of various foxes flashed by, and suddenly, a picture of a fox that looked tired from the long years, as if it had achieved enlightenment, caught my eye.

“Huk… What is this strange fox?”

“This one is called a Sand Fox. It looks a bit… unusual.”

Hoho.

There seem to be so many strange animals in the world.

Anyway, the important thing is the Arctic fox. Lucy flipped through the pages again, and finally, the page with the Arctic fox appeared.

However… the drawing was somehow different. It felt a bit roughly drawn.

“It’s strange. It doesn’t look like Seol-gu at all.”

“It says here… ‘The author drew this from memory because they couldn’t properly see its appearance’.”

“Why?”

Arctic foxes aren’t that quick. That’s strange.

Anyway, the drawing isn’t the important part, so I asked Lucy to read the explanation. Lucy slowly read the explanation.

“Arctic foxes… are one of the fox species that inhabit polar regions, and their population is quite small. Their ears are relatively small to prevent heat loss, and their fur makes their bodies appear larger than they actually are.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Indeed, Seol-gu’s body tends to appear larger due to his fur. His ears are also small compared to his magnificent tail.

Seeing the explanation that their population is small, I felt a glimmer of hope that I might understand why there are no other Arctic foxes besides Seol-gu.

Lucy continued.

“They are omnivores and eat anything, but they seem to particularly like ice apples. They also dig burrows very well.”

“Ice apples?”

“It’s a slightly bluish fruit that is very cold, sour, and sweet… is what I know. I haven’t seen one, though.”

Aha.

I think I know what it is. It probably means frozen fruit. It seems the words humans use are slightly different from ours.

Seol-gu certainly likes frozen fruit. And he digs burrows quite well.

I urged Lucy to read more of the explanation. Lucy carefully read each letter with precision.

“And… it says they show extremely hostile reactions towards humans.”

“Huh…?”

What is she talking about?