111. The Truth

111. The Truth

“Kkang!”

“Yahoo!”

I ran excitedly down the hallway with Seol-gu.

Several employees looked surprised seeing us running pell-mell, but we were running much faster than they could stop us.

Whoosh- The sound of the wind rushed past my ears.

Pushing off the floor, jumping powerfully, and changing direction nimbly, I ran down the hallway, dodging people.

My running skills are top-notch, but I still have my limits in reaction speed. I narrowly avoided bumping into people while continuing to follow Seol-gu.

“Aargh!”

“I’m sorry!”

Despite that, my tail would occasionally hit someone uncontrollably, and then my tail fur would puff out, scattering everywhere and making the person and the hallway completely white and dizzy. Anyone looking would think it had snowed in the hallway.

The fortunate thing is that my tail doesn’t hurt even when it hits someone. My sister, an expert on tails, even vouched for this, saying my tail is so fluffy that it doesn’t hurt at all, even if hit a hundred times.

Of course, my sister strictly warned me not to hit people with my tail.

Anyway, I ran down the hallway following Seol-gu.

Whether he was running aimlessly or had a specific destination, Seol-gu moved forward without any hesitation at the crossroads.

At the same time, unlike me, who was constantly in precarious situations, Seol-gu weaved through people cleanly, as if he could predict their presence.

“Ugh!”

“S-sorry!”

A wolf worse than a fox….

No, that’s not right. This is unavoidable.

Seol-gu is smaller than me, so it’s natural that he can dodge people more easily. If I were a wolf the size of Seol-gu, I would also dodge people like that.

Well, foxes are small and weak, so they have to be good at dodging. I’m a strong and powerful wolf, so there’s no need to envy that at all.

Heh, as expected, wolves are the best.

“Kkang!!”

“Huk… Seol-gu?!”

In that moment of distraction, Seol-gu, who had been running excitedly, suddenly stopped in mid-air. No, rather than stopping, it was as if he had collided with something with his entire body.

I quickly applied the brakes to my running feet and looked closely. There was a transparent glass door. It was so transparent that it was as clean as if it didn’t exist, so clean that I couldn’t even notice it for a moment.

Seol-gu slid all the way down and collapsed onto the floor. I rushed to Seol-gu.

“Are you okay?”

“Kkiing.”

When I lifted Seol-gu and examined him, fortunately, he didn’t seem to be seriously injured. Perhaps Seol-gu’s fluffy fur had cushioned the impact.

“Oh, you idiot. You need to watch where you’re going.”

“Kkang.”

Honestly, this is why foxes are like this.

I put Seol-gu down and approached the glass door.

Beyond the glass door, a slightly dim hallway stretched out, and yellow lights, spaced at regular intervals on the ceiling, softly illuminated the hallway, dispelling the darkness.

If I had to describe it, it felt like the lighting of an exhibition hall.

It felt very different from the hallways in this company building.

“Kkang kkang.”

“You want to go in?”

“Kkang.”

Seol-gu wagged his tail, urging me to go inside. He seemed very excited, as if he had already forgotten about bumping his face into the glass door earlier.

“Okay. Just a moment….”

Clink.

I reached out to open the glass door. However, no matter how much force I applied and pushed the handle, the door remained firmly locked and showed no sign of opening.

“It’s not opening.”

“Kkiing.”

Perhaps Seol-gu hadn’t anticipated this either. Seol-gu, looking flustered, scratched the glass door with his front paws. He looked so pitiful that I rested my chin on my hand and thought deeply.

Soon, a good idea came to me.

“I’ll go get an adult. If we ask them to open the door, they’ll surely open it.”

“Kkang.”

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll be right back!”

Fortunately, the adults weren’t far away.

The employees who saw me for the first time thought I was a lost child who had entered the building by mistake and tried to send me out, but when I showed them the VIP token Dad had given me, they were surprised and cooperated with me.

Goodness, is this the power of authority?

After briefly tasting the sweetness of power, I led the adult back to the glass door where Seol-gu was.

“Seol-gu!”

“Kkang kkang.”

Seol-gu obediently followed my words and sat still, waiting for me. I was worried he might have caused trouble in my absence, but fortunately, it didn’t seem so.

I turned around and asked the employee uncle to open the door.

“Please open the door!”

“It’s already open?”

“Yes?”

When the employee uncle pulled the door, the glass door opened smoothly without any resistance, making way for us.

I had only been pushing it with all my might… turns out it was a pull door.

“Huk….”

“Here, it says ‘Pull’ on the door.”

“Huuuck…!”

I never noticed that was there.

Even if I had seen the words, it wouldn’t have meant much since I can’t read, but… I was so embarrassed that I didn’t even think to pull the door.

I covered my reddened face with my arm and hid my body with my tail.

It was a posture I instinctively took when I was embarrassed.

“Let’s go in quickly, Seol-gu.”

“Kkang.”

I bowed to the employee uncle who helped us, said “Thank you,” and entered through the glass door. Seol-gu also bowed his head in sync with my belly bow, expressing his gratitude.

“Did you want to come in here that badly?”

“Kkang, huff huff.”

I picked up Seol-gu, who was licking my cheek, and began to look around the interior.

Unlike what I had seen over people’s shoulders from the outside, the interior was illuminated by soft yellow lighting instead of bright fluorescent lights.

The moderate brightness felt comfortable for my eyes.

Under the lights, spaced at regular intervals, were glass cases that looked like display cabinets, containing various sculptures.

There were strange-shaped statues that were hard to identify, something like ancient relics… It’s amazing.

“Seol-gu, your tail fur is scattering. The hallway will get dirty if you do that.”

“Kkang kkang.”

“Sigh.”

Ignoring Seol-gu, who was wagging his tail furiously, I began to examine the glass cases closely.

The transparent glass cases were spotless, not a speck of dust on them. Except for the Seol-gu fur that had just stuck to them.

The hallway was the same; it was so clean that I felt bad stepping on it.

“It’s cleaner inside than I thought?”

It’s eerily quiet, perhaps because there are no people. It feels like ghosts might pop out with a “woo woo woo~” from somewhere.

But aren’t I a wolf? I’m not afraid of ghosts at all. If one pops out, I can just bark “kkang” and chase it away.

I moved forward, wagging my tail gently.

“Wow, look at this, Seol-gu. It’s a big square gem.”

“Kkang.”

The display cases contained many strange things. There were expensive-looking necklaces, old antique swords, or, like the one I just saw, enormous gems.

Could this be Chairman Uncle’s personal treasure vault?

“Kkang kkang, kkang.”

“Huh? Why? You want to go over there?”

“Kkang.”

As I slowly looked around and exclaimed in admiration, Seol-gu suddenly tapped my cheek with his tail and pointed towards the end of the hallway. He seemed to be urging me to go forward.

“Aww, but I want to see more. There are so many interesting things. Look, there’s even a lightsaber here.”

“Kkang.”

“There’s Ice fruit up ahead?!”

In that case, I couldn’t resist. I quickly ran forward in the direction Seol-gu was pointing.

“Where’s the Ice fruit? Where?!”

“Kkyang kkyang.”

“What… it was a lie?”

I looked around frantically for the Ice fruit, but there wasn’t even a hint of it here. It turned out Seol-gu had lied to bring me here.

I slumped down on the spot and said to Seol-gu, showing my displeasure.

“You… you’re a really bad fox.”

There’s a code of conduct even among animals. How could you deceive someone with Ice fruit? I grumbled.

“You should be grateful to have a owner like me. If I were just a little bit fiercer and scarier wolf, I would have already gobbled up all your tail fur….”

“Kkang!”

“Why!”

When I turned to Seol-gu, he was standing in front of a display case, staring intently at its contents. I approached the display case with curiosity.

Inside it was….

“A stone?”

It was an ordinary, gray stone.

Except for the fact that it was an incredibly perfect circle.

Even if you rolled snow to make a snowball when it snowed heavily, it wouldn’t be this round. No matter where I looked, the stone formed a perfect sphere.

It was about the size of my fist, so if it wasn’t too heavy, it would be perfect for catch ball.

“Kkang kkang kkang kkang.”

“What’s wrong?”

At that moment, upon seeing the stone, Seol-gu reacted violently and began scratching the display case frantically. Seol-gu’s tail wagged wildly.

Why is he acting like this all of a sudden?

“Wait, don’t scratch the glass like that! You’ll scratch it!”

“Kkang!”

“You shouldn’t damage other people’s things like that. Understand?”

First, I quickly picked up Seol-gu to restrain his actions. While I could clean up scattered tail fur, scratching the glass was problematic in many ways.

“Huk….”

But it was too late. The glass display case was covered in scratches. I held my breath.

Yes, it was my fault for thinking a fox would listen well. As the only wolf here, I should have been watching Seol-gu more closely. I started to admonish Seol-gu.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Kkang kkang.”

“Did you want that stone that badly?”

Normally, when scolded like this, he would whimper and become dejected… but for some reason, Seol-gu was still staring intently at the contents inside, without taking his eyes off it.

That perfectly round gray stone.