83. Travel

83. Travel

The interior of the building I followed Sister and Father into was, surprisingly….

Empty.

Inside, there was only a single lamp dangling from the ceiling and a plain, grayish-brown bench that could seat about three people side-by-side.

There were no people, except for the ticket agent who was sound asleep beyond the glass window.

… It’s too bare.

At least it seemed like they hadn’t skipped cleaning, as the interior was cleaner than I expected. If it had been dirty as well… I might have felt a bit skeptical about this journey.

As I was thinking this, Sister called me and said.

“Oh right, Seol-ah. You shouldn’t sit on that bench.”

“Why?”

“It’s very dirty. If you sit on it, your tail will be covered in dust.”

The place Sister pointed to was where the bench I had seen earlier was located.

But it didn’t look that dirty from the outside….

I stealthily approached the bench and lightly brushed the surface with my finger. To my surprise, the tip of my finger that touched the bench turned a very deep gray.

“Huk.”

Good heavens!

The bench wasn’t gray-brown from the start, but had been colored gray by the dust. I take back what I said earlier. This building is dirtier than I thought.

I quickly pressed my tail tightly against my body. If my pride and joy, my tail, were to touch this dusty pit, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to hold back my tears.

No, that can’t happen. My tail must always be pure white.

“Huk… Seol-gu, look there.”

“Kkang?”

“It looks like someone sat here before.”

As I looked around, being careful of my tail, I realized that a distinct butt-shaped imprint was made on one end of the dusty bench.

Perhaps they were fooled by its clean appearance, just like me, and sat on the bench.

I was saved thanks to Sister’s warning, but it seems this unfortunate someone had no one to help them. How pitiful.

“Heh heh….”

“Kkang kkang.”

Seol-gu and I suppressed our laughter as we looked at the clear butt imprint. Meanwhile, Sister and Father approached the glass window where the ticket agent was sound asleep.

The agent, sleeping so comfortably, oblivious to the customers.

Father didn’t hesitate to knock on the glass window.

Thump!

However, the agent showed no reaction whatsoever.

He briefly stopped breathing at the sound of the knock, but that was short-lived. Soon, the agent was breathing softly and comfortably again.

“….”

Thump thump thump!

Father frowned and knocked harder on the glass window, but it had no effect.

“Geez.”

“Why don’t we just break it and wake him up….”

“Hold on. That would just complicate things.”

Sister and Father crossed their arms and tapped their tails, expressing their displeasure. But since the agent who was supposed to see their displeasure was fast asleep, it was rather meaningless.

I moved past Sister and approached the glass window.

Below the window, there was a small semicircular opening for exchanging tickets. Perhaps because I was short, the height of the opening perfectly matched my eye level.

Through the opening, I could see the agent’s face. I don’t know what kind of dream he was having, but he had a silly grin on his face.

This… it feels like I could reach him if I stretched out my hand.

I extended my arm and put my hand into the opening. Poke poke, my index finger tickled the tip of the agent’s nose.

“Oh….”

Every time I touched him, his nose twitched.

It’s fun.

“Seol-gu, just a moment.”

“Kkang?”

I took Seol-gu out of the bag. Then, I lifted Seol-gu high into the air and placed him carefully in front of the glass window.

Soon after, I grabbed Seol-gu’s tail and slipped it into the opening.

“Kkang!”

“Wait a minute! Now, if I do this….”

Like painting with a brush, I moved Seol-gu’s tail to tickle the agent’s nose. Loose tail fur fluttered, and following the movement of the air, it went into his nostrils.

“A… Achoo!”

Thanks to Seol-gu’s effective tail, the agent soon sneezed loudly and woke up. Seol-gu, who had been complaining to me, was startled by the sound and quickly went back into my bag.

The agent, still half-asleep, looked around dazedly. He soon discovered us waiting in front of him.

“&%=÷@?”

Huk.

I can’t understand it.

It’s probably natural. It would be stranger if the languages spoken by wolf-suin and humans were the same.

I couldn’t even read the letters on the building’s sign, so it’s no wonder the spoken language would be different.

“@#~^&※#*&.”

“#^~$%^%….”

“￦%&!”

Unlike me, who stood stiffly, unable to understand anything, Father conversed skillfully with the agent. Sister also seemed to understand what was being said, even though she didn’t speak.

It seems that only Seol-gu and I couldn’t understand human speech here. Feeling a strange sense of kinship, I took Seol-gu out of the bag and hugged him tightly.

Fluffy. It feels good.

“Seol-gu. You don’t know what that means, do you?”

“Kkang kkang.”

“See! You don’t know either!”

“Kkang? Kkang kkang, kkang kkang-“

“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s not strange that you don’t know. If even I, a wolf, don’t know, how could you, just a fox, possibly know! You don’t need to be ashamed.”

“Kkang kkang!”

Seol-gu reacted intensely. Based on past experience, he seemed to feel ashamed of not knowing something.

However, it’s only natural that Seol-gu, a mere fox, wouldn’t know a language that even I, Rang Seol-ah, a very cool, strong, and big (in the future) wolf, don’t know.

I comforted Seol-gu, who was shaking his tail wildly and denying it.

Seol-gu cried “Kkang kkang kkang kkang” and said something, but eventually seemed to give up and returned to the bag.

… A moment later, the agent, who had been talking with Father, took out three tickets from somewhere and handed them to us. Father also took out what appeared to be banknotes from his pocket and gave them to the agent.

“There. Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Leaving the building, Father grumbled about the lazy agent.

“What a rude kid. Sleeping on the job like that. Back in my day-“

“… Father, Seol-ah is here.”

“Sigh.”

After being cautioned by Sister, Father suppressed the torrent of curses that had risen to his throat.

He probably worried that I, who learned everything so well, might pick up bad language… but isn’t it too late for that?

I learned the curse words of the wolf tribe from a very young age.

I just didn’t utter them out loud for the sake of my family, but I could utter very loud, scary, and strong curses right now. For example….

Seol-gu, you big idiot, you dung fox!

Huk.

Good heavens, isn’t that too harsh a curse?

Even though I only thought it in my mind without uttering it, guilt crept up my body. Trembling, I apologized to Seol-gu, who was resting comfortably in the bag.

Of course, since I thought it in my mind, I apologized in my mind too.

“Huh…? Sister, where are we going? Shouldn’t we be going that way?”

“Ah, that’s….”

As I followed Sister, apologizing to Seol-gu all the way, I suddenly realized we were moving away from the train station.

If we bought train tickets, shouldn’t we be going to catch the train?

In response to my question, Sister patted my head vigorously and replied.

“The train service has already ended for today. So we decided to take tomorrow’s train.”

“Really?”

“Yes. So now we’re going to find a place to stay for the night. After we find lodging and eat our fill, we’ll go sightseeing in the village as we discussed earlier. Okay?”

“Yes…!”

What will the food be like here?

I was already getting tired of the preserved food and the occasional meat I hunted and ate on the spot during the journey.

Tourism is fundamentally about eating. I’m excited to see what we’ll eat.

“Seol-gu, are you excited too?”

“Kkang!”

“I wonder how delicious it will be….”

Perhaps something like ‘delicious wyvern steak with Ice fruit salad and orange juice’ will be served. Just imagining it made my mouth water.

As Seol-gu and I drooled and imagined happily, Sister asked Father.

“We’re going there, right? That… there. I suddenly can’t remember the name.”

“Yes. After all, it’s the only inn here.”

“I don’t really want to go there.”

“Well, that’s because you broke half the roof of the inn last time you were here. As I’ve always said, you need to calm down a bit….”

“Don’t say strange things in front of Seol-ah.”

“Who was it that did the strange thing?”

Sigh, they’re fighting childishly again.

I took my eyes off Sister and Father and started exchanging silly jokes with Seol-gu in the bag.

“Huh?”

Just as a joke like “If you don’t tuna, it’s tuna mayo” was about to come out, I felt a gaze as if someone was watching us.

I felt this gaze before, when we were about to enter the ticket office building.

Could it be…!

Is there a great dark force targeting us!

It seems Sister and Father haven’t noticed this gaze. Seol-gu seems to know, but he’s just smiling foolishly, so he’s no help.

Therefore, it means that only I can stop this clandestine act.

I glanced back. Sure enough, this time too, someone small who had been peeking at us from the alleyway quickly hid behind a building.

So that’s where they are!

“Seol-gu, let’s go!”

“Kkang?”

“Only we can protect Sister and Father!”

Sister and Father were still arguing about childish matters. I quietly moved away without being noticed by Sister, and then hurried into the alleyway.