108. Chairman

108. Chairman

“Ah, I apologize. I forgot.”

“It’s alright.”

Dad apologized with a calm demeanor for unintentionally ignoring the Chairman.

I thought the apology was a bit too casual, but neither my sister nor Dad nor the Chairman seemed to find it strange.

As expected, it’s because Dad is the leader of the wolf tribe.

He has captivated everyone with his outstanding charisma in this short time.

Dad is the best!!

“So, the reason we came here….”

Dad, who brought up the topic, turned and looked intently at me. Then he continued.

“Seol-ah, you tell them.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Since you experienced it, you can explain it best.”

My name was suddenly called, and all eyes focused on me. Caught off guard by the sudden attention, I stiffened my tail and was greatly flustered.

But my fluster was short-lived. I soon stood up from my sister’s lap, proudly pushed out my chest, and stood straight on my hind legs.

I heard my sister’s sigh from behind, unable to finish petting me, but I decided not to pay it much mind. Petting can be done anytime.

What’s more important is this very moment.

It was to convey what I had experienced in front of everyone.

A true wolf knows how to handle sudden situations skillfully. Here, it was right to stand proudly and deliver my experience magnificently, not to cower and stammer.

I shouldn’t betray Dad’s trust in putting me forward.

I cleared my throat. Then, I slowly retraced my memories.

Even though it wasn’t that long ago, it felt like a very distant memory because I had experienced so much.

Let’s see.

The first time I went hunting when I turned 8, the first time I met Seol-gu outside.

Playing with Polar Bear Uncle, fishing, meeting my twin friends….

Seeing mechanical earthworms and mechanical spiders, using magic, fighting a wyvern, exploring a lake, fighting a mechanical eel….

Of course, I haven’t forgotten about the bad human named William. The one who tried to steal my stone.

I had experienced so many other things too. I had shown mercy to a mother hamster, become friends with an emperor penguin, and made a friend named Lucy….

In just a few months, I had experienced countless things.

It’s truly an exciting life story. If I were to write an autobiography and publish it, it would surely be a bestseller. Not just among suin, but among humans too!

How could anyone resist reading the growth story of a strong and powerful wolf?

Hmm.

… Speaking of which, Seol-gu seems to be the cause of almost all these events.

Wherever we go, he causes trouble. As expected, foxes are truly troublemaking animals. Ugh, this species with big tails and cute faces is just an idiot.

Still, I am grateful to Seol-gu.

If it weren’t for Seol-gu, I wouldn’t have been able to try magic, make new friends, or visit new places like this country.

Of course, I can’t use magic now….

“Seol-ah.”

Oops.

My stray thoughts went on for too long.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Everyone was waiting for me to speak.

“So….”

Where should I start?

I needed to organize my thoughts to logically convey the reason we came here.

I calmly organized my thoughts and then opened my mouth.

All eyes were on me.

“So, the reason we came here is, we caught a giant eel in the sea the other day… Ah! Before that, my sister, Seol-gu, and I went into a huge cave, it was really, really big, and when we went inside, a giant mechanical worm went ‘Kuuung!’… Ah, Seol-gu is my pet. See, isn’t he cute?”

I lifted Seol-gu from my sister’s lap and showed him to Chairman Uncle. Seol-gu wagged his tail and barked cutely.

“Kkang.”

Chairman Uncle was surely captivated by Seol-gu’s soft and fluffy appearance.

“Th-that’s right.”

“Yes!”

Seeing him stammer, it seemed he couldn’t continue because Seol-gu was too cute. I returned Seol-gu to my sister’s lap and continued speaking.

“So, the mechanical worm in the cave gathered ice crystals with a ‘Kuuung, Kkwaang!’ sound. I thought I was going to die from the attack then, but I survived because my sister sliced it with a ‘Shu-shung, Shyak!’ and then there was a mechanical eel in the lake, and I went into the sea with magic and went ‘Kkwaang!’….”

Everyone was drawn into my story with my dazzling eloquence. I excitedly gestured with my arms and legs as I recounted the events.

“So! The reason we came here is… what was it again?”

After talking for so long, I couldn’t quite remember the main topic, ‘the reason we came here.’

As I stood there blankly, lost in thought, my sister lifted me and sat me on her lap. Then, stroking my head, she said.

“You did well, Seol-ah. From here on, my sister and Dad will talk.”

“Yes!”

I don’t know what it was, but it was good that I did well. I wagged my tail happily, pleased with the praise.

I felt like my sister’s cheek was being hit repeatedly by my tail, but I decided to ignore it, as there was no way I, a wolf, would do something as foolish as hitting my sister with my tail.

My sister opened her mouth towards the Chairman.

“I saw machines from the Magi Republic secretly mining ice crystals. They were digging up the ground, do you know anything about that?”

“Machines…?”

“This, you guys made it.”

My sister took out a broken machine part from her pocket. It was a gear about the size of my palm, and it looked like a part from the mechanical worm that had been smashed by my sister’s hand.

“You guys know better than anyone what these letters mean?”

My sister pointed to the inscription on one side of the gear. The Chairman looked at it intently and groaned.

“This… is our company’s trademark.”

“Yes. Your giant worm… no, your giant mining machine was mining ice crystals in the Arctic. We never gave permission for something like that.”

The Chairman crossed his arms and spoke with a troubled voice. He looked like he had trouble crossing his arms because he was so fat, but he managed to do it skillfully.

Then the Chairman opened his mouth.

“We do have mining machines that our company is developing. They are indeed shaped like giant worms, as the child said.”

“Yes, they really look like worms.”

As I chimed in with the Chairman’s words, my sister stroked my head. It probably meant I should be quiet for now.

“However, they cannot be used in the Arctic. These machines were originally designed for mining in the great mountain range south of the continent. They are not suitable for drilling through glaciers.”

“But I definitely saw it. It even swam in the water!”

“I am not saying you saw something that wasn’t there. This machine part is definitely ours. It’s a very precise part, so only we can manufacture it.”

“Then?”

The Chairman adjusted his glasses and replied.

“If a mining machine that cannot be used in the Arctic was spotted in the Arctic… it’s highly likely that someone stole it and modified it.”

“They stole something that big? Does that make sense?”

This time, Dad interjected.

He wasn’t wrong. The worm I saw back then was really, really, really big. There was no way someone could have stolen something like that secretly.

If a thief had tried to steal that mechanical worm… Good heavens, the situation would have been dire. It would have been fortunate if they weren’t crushed to death.

The Chairman thought for a moment and asked us back.

“What was the size of that mining machine?”

The worm’s size.

I can guarantee it was really, really big. It was so big that even if I had a hundred of me, I would still be smaller than that worm.

I stood up from my sister’s lap and expressed the worm’s size with my whole body.

“It was so big, you see….”

I ran to one wall of the meeting room and stood there.

“From here!”

Then I ran again, all the way to the opposite wall of the meeting room.

“To here!”

I repeated this dozens of times. Panting from running back and forth across the meeting room until I was out of breath, I spread my arms wide and shouted.

“It was this big!”

The length of the worm, which required me to run back and forth across the meeting room dozens of times. Although it was an estimation, my sense of distance is accurate, so it’s probably correct.

The Chairman said.

“It was only that big?”

“What?! Only that big? It was huge!”

“The original mining machines are hundreds of meters long.”

“Huk.”

That’s… quite big.

The Chairman looked around at us and said.

“Looking at the length, it seems they couldn’t have stolen the entire machine. It’s likely they stole parts little by little and reassembled them. They also modified it to be usable in the Arctic.”

“But it’s still too big to steal, isn’t it? If parts disappeared to that extent, they would have noticed.”

“It’s not impossible if you take your time. And the reason they didn’t notice the parts being stolen… Actually, it’s become almost a custom to steal some parts on-site. So, we send more parts than necessary… and I guess we didn’t pay attention. I apologize.”

The Chairman bowed his head.

Then he opened his mouth again.

“And about the person who stole that mining machine, there is one person we suspect.”

“Who is it?”

“It’s….”

The Chairman paused and then replied.

“William.”