113. The Truth

113. The Truth

“I’m sorry, but I’m not an Arctic Fox suin.”

I said to the unidentified suin floating in the air. How could they mistake me for a fox suin even with this big, magnificent wolf tail? Isn’t that a bit much?

This was no different from calling someone “You’re a total idiot.” It was a highly rude remark to make to someone you were meeting for the first time.

So, instead of apologizing profusely, the unidentified suin flying in the sky lightly ignored my words and continued speaking.

“You must be very surprised, right? Because you’ve never heard of your own kind before.”

“I’m not surprised at all, you know? I’m not a fox, I’m a wolf. A very mighty, strong, and wonderful wolf at that.”

“Since there are no other Arctic Fox suin besides you now, even if you wanted to learn about yourself, you couldn’t have. I’m really sorry for leaving you alone.”

“I said I’m not a fox!”

This suin is so impossible to reason with. I slightly lifted my head to check if the suin’s ears were closed.

Hmm, they’re definitely open…

Could it be a suin with poor hearing?

Its tail looks plump and fine, but what a pitiful suin. Tsk tsk.

“Oh, by the way, just in case, this is a pre-recorded video, so there’s no point in answering me.”

“What…!”

“You haven’t been talking to me this whole time, have you? Hehe, how cute… I wish I could see you, but it’s a shame.”

The suin said with a slightly lonely expression. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but be astonished looking at the suin.

A pre-recorded video!

I reached out my hand toward the suin’s tail in confusion. However, instead of the fluffy and plump tail I expected, my hand just swished through the air, and only a tail that turned into light and scattered was in its place.

The tail, which was momentarily distorted like a video with static, returned to its original form a few seconds later. Its plump and squishy appearance from before.

Oh my goodness…

I thought the suin was floating in the air and talking to me, but that wasn’t it. The suin’s form was actually a hologram video.

Does that mean I was talking to a video? How embarrassing.

I covered my body with my tail and tried to calm my flushed face with my hands. I don’t know if the color of my face returned to normal, though.

“So, where should I start… hmm.”

The hologram suin struck a pose of deep thought, resting its chin on its hand.

Its tail wagged gently.

Thinking about it now, that suin’s tail also seems very big. It’s on a similar level to Seol-gu’s, who is famous for his tail size.

The color is as pure white as a heavy snowfall, so if you were to cut off just the tail, it would be hard to tell whose is whose.

“Keng!”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

That wasn’t me. It was the suin in the hologram video who said that, looking somewhere else.

The suin briefly disappeared from the video, went somewhere, and then returned to its original spot. Surprisingly, a white Arctic Fox was nestled in the suin’s arms.

Its appearance was somewhat similar to Seol-gu’s but also quite different. It looked a bit bigger and more reliable.

Perhaps because it saw one of its own kind, Seol-gu wagged his tail as he looked at the fox in the video. I petted Seol-gu’s head and focused on watching the video.

“Keng keng.”

“I forgot something, what is it… Ah! Self-introduction!”

When the Arctic Fox in the video yelped, the suin was startled by its big mistake and hurriedly continued speaking. It was all posing and yet so clumsy, perhaps that suin is actually an idiot?

“Ahem, first, let me introduce myself. I am an Arctic Fox suin, Starlight Wind. And this is the Arctic Fox, Starry Ocean! Cute, isn’t it?”

“Keng!”

The suin lifted the fox and held it out as if to show it to me.

Starlight Wind and Starry Ocean, they sound like pretty names.

By the way, I was wondering why an Arctic Fox suddenly appeared; so that’s it, it was an Arctic Fox suin.

That makes its clumsy behavior from before understandable. As I expected, it seems that not only foxes but suin are also idiots.

I’m so glad I was born a wolf.

“Anyway, now I’ll get to the main point. The story about the Arctic Foxes that you didn’t know about until now.”

“Uh-huh.”

I nodded and listened attentively. Seeing as she called me an Arctic Fox, this video probably wasn’t prepared for me, but since I started watching it, I decided to just continue.

Besides, even if it’s not for me, Seol-gu is an Arctic Fox.

Starlight Wind continued speaking.

“We originally had the role of protecting the Arctic. We would travel around with our partner Arctic Foxes.”

“Keng.”

“Eeek, don’t lick me. It tickles.”

The suin laughed out loud as the fox licked its cheek. I understand, having been licked by Seol-gu so many times. It’s much more ticklish than you’d think.

Just as Seol-gu tried to lick my cheek, I pushed his cheek away with my palm. Seol-gu’s face was squashed and changed into a funny shape.

Starry Ocean continued speaking.

“You have a partner with you too, right? The little Arctic Fox that guided you here. You have to treat them well, because they’re a child you’ll be with for a lifetime.”

“Hmm…”

Calling him my partner feels a little cheesy.

But I’m not an Arctic Fox suin, so can I even be Seol-gu’s partner?

This was never meant for me in the first place, but…

I just decided to quietly listen to Starlight Wind’s words.

“We aren’t very strong, nor are we very big, but instead we have a special ability. That is, magic. You probably have one too… a fox bead, will you try taking it out?”

Starlight Wind took out a transparent bead from her chest. It was that gray stone that was in the display case — the very bead that turned transparent and glowed with a soft rainbow light when I touched it.

I, as if entranced, held up my transparent stone.

After combining with the other bead, my stone was glowing bigger and stronger, but unlike Starlight Wind’s fox bead, mine still had a crooked, ugly shape.

I didn’t really care about its appearance before… but after seeing that bead, it feels a little lacking.

I want to make it more perfectly round.

Should I sand it down?

“A fox bead is an item that allows us to use magic in the Arctic. But as the name suggests, only we foxes can use it. If others try to use it, the bead loses its light and becomes murky.”

“Uh-huh.”

That part I already knew. I nodded and listened to Starlight Wind.

“Originally, fox beads can only be used in the Arctic. If you go too far from the Arctic, you can’t use its power.”

“Ah…!”

So that’s why?

That explains why I can’t use magic now. Since I’ve fallen so far away from the Arctic, of course the stone can’t use its power.

I was so worried that the magic would never come back, so it’s a relief that it’s not a big problem. Seol-gu was right when he told me not to worry.

Starlight Wind continued speaking.

“But your bead is different. That’s because… your fox bead contains the power of all of us Arctic Foxes.”

“Huh?”

Everyone’s power?

“I said that we Arctic Foxes protected the Arctic, right? That’s right, we’ve kept the Arctic safe by using magic. Until now, that is.”

Starlight Wind’s face grew quite serious. I held my breath and focused on her words.

“But at some point, our power became insufficient. As human technology advanced, we couldn’t just scare them away anymore.”

“Gosh.”

“No matter how strong a wind we blew, no matter how cold a snow we made fall from the sky, humans wearing steel armor would enter the Arctic as they pleased and harm the environment. And the Arctic Foxes that were in their way.”

Oh my.

It was not much different from what I had read in that book. It said that the number of foxes had decreased significantly because humans were poaching them, and it seems that was actually the case.

Or maybe it was even worse. It might not have been just the Arctic Foxes that were being hunted. Maybe, even suin…

“We couldn’t endure it any longer. It was only a matter of time before the Arctic Foxes disappeared. So we deliberated and deliberated. And then, we found an answer.”

Starlight Wind held up the bead.

“To combine all of our powers into one.”

Unconsciously, I turned my head toward my stone. The softly glowing stone was emitting a stronger energy than it had before absorbing the bead.

“Just as small and fragile snowflakes gather to form a blizzard… we thought that if we gathered the power of all the Arctic Foxes, a mighty and strong fox would be born that could protect the Arctic. But there was a problem.”

Starlight Wind said.

“Can a fox that is the only one of its kind in the world truly know that it’s a fox?”

That’s… a difficult question.

We know what a fox is, so when we see one, we can point to it and say, ‘You are a fox.’ But what if I were that fox?

If I looked around and there was no one else like me, no people or animals who looked similar… I would definitely not know who I was. Or I might mistake myself for a different animal.

For example, if a monkey was raised only among humans, wouldn’t that monkey think it was a human? It would probably never think it was a monkey until someone told it.

Starlight Wind once again held up the fox bead.

“A fox bead only loses its light and turns into a stone when it is touched by a different species. But even if a fox uses the bead, if it doesn’t know that it’s a fox, it can’t use the power properly. In that case, the fox bead’s appearance changes into a crooked, misshapen stone.”

“Crooked…?”

I closely examined my transparent stone. As Starlight Wind said, the transparent stone was in the shape of a crooked stone. That’s why I called it a stone in the first place…

“That’s why I left this recording here. So that you would come here, come here and find out who you are. So that you can use the power to its fullest.”

As Starlight Wind continued speaking, I began to wag my tail a little anxiously. Something didn’t sit right with me.

“You are an Arctic Fox suin, Seol-ah.”

I really didn’t like it.