episode_0019

“I went there.”

A female hosot with black hair was stretched out in a loose silk robe as if she were languid.

It’s smaller than Juul, but it’s still just as big.

This may be due to Hosott’s unique tip-toed feet, but even taking that into account, it was great.

There were two Hosotts.

Among them, Black Hosott, who appeared to be a child, was lying entangled on top of his mother. It was very alluring.

It seems like we were sleeping together and then woke up.

The two pairs of amber eyes resemble those of a wolf.

Their faces were all matted, and their ears perked up on top of their heads.

“Did you go?”

“Aunt! Did you have a good trip?”

Is it family? Are they all women?

With a smile that Jules had never shown before, he sat in front of young Hosott and patted his head.

“Shir. Did you have a good time listening to Mom?”

“Yes. I was doing well.”

Hosott, called Shir, who seemed to be the same age as me, smiled brightly and enjoyed Jules’ touch.

“I need to talk to your mom for a moment, will you please step aside?”

your mom? Ah, that person is Heukrang.

The chief of this village.

He was such a beautiful person that I couldn’t help but lose my gaze.

“Yes.”

Shir gets up from his seat.

He passed by my wife, Jules, and me—without passing by, he grabbed my hand.

Whoa!

Perhaps because she resembles her mother, she is different from the beginning.

How many men will cry when they get older?

But he is a head taller than me.

‘Can I follow along obediently?’

I looked at Jules, but he wasn’t looking at me.

There’s no problem when the two of us are together, but since it’s in front of other people, it’s difficult to open up first.

It was because of the power of the devil.

But I’m anxious about just being dragged away.

Shir looked around at me and grabbed Jules’ hand.

“Aunt, can I take him with me?”

Jules turned his head and glanced at me.

“Huh? are you okay! But humans are weak, so we shouldn’t hurt them?”

“Did you hear that? Come on, let’s go!”

There is nothing I can do if Jules gives permission.

Moreover, this young Hosott is the chieftain’s son——dudduduk—!

With the sound of every bone screaming, the body tilted to its side.

“Aaaagh───?!!!”

What kind of power is this?!!

It’s almost like a piece of heavy equipment!

To make matters worse, my feet were also twisted. I fell asleep on the soft cushion.

Sigh!

The chief only moved his eyes and glanced down at me as I fell.

“What is that?”

“Cute, right? I’m human.”

“No, why did you bring that…”

Stop! The carpet is also being swept away, right?!!

I somehow managed to stand up, but because Shir didn’t pay attention to my situation, I had no choice but to keep up with the running.

As the speed increased, it became difficult to keep pace.

Now it was just a first impression and nothing else.

“Wow?! Wow─?!!”

Thanks to that, he caught the attention of many Hosotts at a glance.

This is a proper hazing ceremony!

I ran frantically without knowing where I was going.

Even running downhill at full speed!

thud!

Schir stepped on the brakes with the force of kicking the wall.

puck!

But I wasn’t.

I was only able to slow down by hitting a wall.

My knees were shaking.

‘I just shortened the lifespan of my knee cartilage by a year!’

The area of the building itself was well divided, and the building sites were all similar in size, so even though it was my first time here, I was able to memorize the directions at a glance.

Even if it doesn’t, if you look high up right now, you can see the tent.

The place they were taken to was an abandoned house located in the lowest part of the village.

Looking at the signs of flooding, it looks like the flood damage was quite severe.

“Guys! Human, human! A living human!”

Shir pushed me into an abandoned house.

In the abandoned house, people my age were lying down or leaning back in comfortable positions and looking at me. It seemed like they were Shir’s gang.

‘···It’s starting again.’

I no longer understand this boring treatment.

In the days before refrigerators, to prevent meat from rotting, animals were caught alive rather than killed and transported.

But are you saying that living humans are amazing?

“Human?”

As soon as the Hosotts’ eyes were fixed on me, my breath caught in my throat.

Their unique bright irises that glow in the dark are significantly different from those of humans. It felt like I was encountering goblins.

Still, if you look at their faces, they were children the same age as me.

My nervous mind calmed down a little.

very little.

“This is my first time seeing it alive.”

“Do you want to eat it?”

“A. Even if I eat it alone, it won’t be enough.”

“This is my first time seeing a living human being. Can I touch it?”

The chief’s daughter rolled her eyes.

“Yes. I said it was okay as long as it didn’t hurt me.”

A hosot with reddish-brown hair approaches me and holds out his hand.

His hands gently caressed my face.

Like petting a small animal.

The appearance of hosots and humans is similar.

Soon, the hosots’ attention focused on the only difference between themselves and humans. In other words, I started touching my hands, feet, head, and ears.

“Warm and soft. ···Soft.”

It was a male hosot with reddish-brown hair.

Just like the way Jules looked at me, there was no emotion other than pure curiosity. This hosot seems to have a finite personality.

The other hosots also come up to me one by one and touch my hand or ear.

“Hee Iik?! Your ear holes are disgusting─?!!”

“Look at your toes. It looks so cute!”

“Your nails are really stubby. Plus, it’s a bit squishy.”

Someone slapped away the hand that was groping my butt.

You probably want to find the tail. Even if everything was allowed, this wasn’t possible.

Especially because he was a man.

cook!

The guy suddenly stabbed me in the side.

There was no reaction.

He stabbed me with his finger a few times, then raised his nails and pinched me. I ignored it without even looking at it.

But as if he wanted to see my reaction somehow, his pinching power became stronger.

‘Let’s hold on! ‘They’re kids!’

Now I am a slave and a mackerel.

If you do something foolish, you may end up with liver mackerel with intestines.

“Gasp—!”

The brown-haired Hosott was frightened and withdrew his hand.

The back of my hand was bleeding.

He must have been quite surprised, so he didn’t stab me or harass me anymore.

I felt like it would get worse if I cleaned the wound with my hands, so I wiped the blood away with my sleeve.

Children’s interests are like cats.

Among the hosots who were fiddling with me, the two of them seem to have already lost interest.

After no one left, only Shir and Red Hosott sat with me at the center and exchanged meaningless stories.

From the unusual bug I caught last time to the story about the game my father caught, etc. There was no reference point for settling down.

Shir’s chin on the top of my head moves.

Shir’s eyes turned to the clearing below the cave.

“Don’t you think it smells good?”

Good smell?

“Huh? Isn’t it time to eat Japanese food?!”

The light gray-brown haired Hosott, who had been rolling around on his stomach, turned his head.

“It’s late! Let’s go quickly before the other kids eat!”

The hosots desperately jump out as if it is a life-or-death situation.

The same happened to Shir who brought me with me, and I was left alone in an instant.

‘···What should I do if you leave me alone like this?’

My mind is complicated.

I can’t tell if it was left behind intentionally or by mistake. I know I have to go back, but it would be better to wait for now.

As soon as I had some alone time, I was reminded of my days on Earth. To be exact, the comfort of that time.

‘···I thought you would still treat me like a human being.’

But I’m in trouble for being a piece of meat.

I feel miserable.

In Korea, after I was discharged from the military, I hated getting older.

I felt like I wanted to go back to when I was young.

But now that I’m getting younger, I want to age faster.

It seems that memories are ultimately glorified.

···Nevertheless, I fell into memories.

Time passed quickly as I thought about my mother, father, and the earth.

As time passed, Shir’s group did not return, so they waited for a while and eventually climbed the stairs to find Juul.

This is my first alone time in 10 days since leaving home.

But the problem is that there is no place to invest that time.

What caught my eye was a faint mural.

As I climbed the stairs, my eyes scanned the hieroglyphs engraved next to me. There were quite a few white hosots in the mural.

It seems likely that Juul is the next priest because his hair is white.

Even in Africa, aren’t albino children considered sacred?

‘Korea also considers the color white to be good luck.’

That wasn’t all.

Rather than believing in the white wolf based on symbolism alone, it was more reasonable to believe that it was probably related to Juul’s constitution.

Juul’s strength, stamina, and recovery are so outstanding that it makes no sense.

Didn’t the wound that exposed the bone heal in half a day?

─Zul serves Maal and the ancestral spirits.

Maal gave the power of magic to his limbs, and it was correct to believe that Zul was given some kind of power by something.

‘I don’t know where the exact source is.’

But my head couldn’t move any further.

Although I accepted it rationally, I could not accept religion subconsciously. I guess I’m too old-fashioned.

While I was mesmerized, the picture on the mural suddenly changed.

The first picture I saw had a white wolf standing on two legs, but in the current picture, the white wolf is standing on all fours.

‘Why did it degenerate?’

Or am I reading it the other way?

Maybe the thing standing on all fours is a real wolf.

Because they raise wolves.

Does this depict the war with the Rectalians?

“Aren’t you human?”

“───Huh!”

I was so scared that I lost my footing and fell.

It’s a surprise! The identity of the popular figure was Hosott.

A male hosot slightly smaller than Jules.

Still, it is one to one and a half heads taller than a human.

I am tired of my bulky physique and my body starts to feel weak.

It was to avoid making mistakes.

“Nice to meet you! My name is Ri Si-hyeon, a former slave of Seolrang. I got lost and was looking for Seolrang.”

He was wearing clothes similar to the toga worn by Roman nobles. But the material was not fabric.

It was rawhide that had been minimally tanned to prevent rotting.

The head appears to have been made from a bear’s skull, and he was wearing a shaped bear head and a bone dagger tied to his belt.

A necklace made of teeth and feathers, and the eyes are green.

Green eyes are common, but this hosot’s eyes are bright green.

─Like fluorescent light.

Among the Hosotts, he was particularly assertive.

It seemed like there was also blue light mixed in the eyes.

How can one have such vivid eyes?

Hosott reached out his hand and gently brushed my hair, and the hand that ran down went towards my arm.

Hosott glanced at the bracelet and gently took my hand and led me.

“You are Juyul’s Ewa.”

‘Ewa?’

I felt like my joined hands were lacking something.

There was no little finger.

This hosot gave off a different feeling from the demi-humans I had seen so far.

Would you say it’s calm?

Even though he suddenly appears and scans my body, I don’t feel any resistance.

On the contrary, my mind seems to have calmed down as well.

I looked away from the hieroglyphs and walked up to the tent with Hosott holding my hand.

He didn’t say anything, and I had nothing to say.

In the small open space in front of the tent, about eight or nine hosots were gathered and eating a piece of meat.

The thing scattered around was Terup’s head.

It was eating the mountain owner.

‘Eating one’s enemies is a funeral culture.’

These Hosotts must be the family of the Hosotts who died on the mountain.

Zul was also eating Terub’s corpse next to them.

Silently, reverently.

The meat was in the worst condition after 10 days without preservative treatment. It was even the meat that was in the mackerel.

Bacteria multiplied due to the lack of sunlight, a natural disinfectant, and the heat and humidity.

So much so that it smells like fermented squid.

The meat was dripping with rotten protein and dark brown water.

There were moldy parts and maggots.

But I ate it without fail.

Some hosots were nauseating from the disgusting taste and smell.

I thought Juul just ate the Terup meat because he was hungry.

‘It was because we had to reduce the amount of meat to be taken as much as possible.’

Otherwise, the funeral and everything would have been food poisoning.

Terub’s head, which was tied to his belt, had its eyes and ears torn off, and there was no tongue in its open mouth.

Sigh!

Zul lifted Terub’s head and impaled it on the spear.

Quaduk!

When the top of his head was hit with a stone, the skin on his head was torn and his skull caved in. The blade of the spear protruded through the eyebrow bone.

The contents flowed down the throat and along the lancet.

“Jwiyul. I wish you could explain what happened.”

“Father?”

···father?

“Please explain the reasons for the deaths of Bree, Sharu, and Numo that I confirmed.”

Jules glances at me.

The expression on his face asks why he is there.

I couldn’t answer, so I just stood still.

There was no mood to answer.

“I found traces of a fight with two cats. I didn’t bring one because it was dead and rotting, and I brought the other because I killed it.”

It was a blatant lie.

They were just rapists.

“Okay. Only then can you become a Hosott with the soul of a wolf.”

Jules stuck a spear into the flagpole and fixed it.

So that the head of this Terub can be seen anywhere in the village.

Juyul’s father let go of my hand, sat down with the bereaved family, and shoved rotten meat into their mouths.

Soon the meal was over.

“Louis. Please warmly surround Bri, Sharu, and Numo with your warm power.

Diana. Please brighten the dark path ahead of Bree, Sharu, and Numo with your power to illuminate the darkness.

Neptune. Help Bri, Sharu, and Numo not to thirst by your endless power of water.

O Vulcanus. With your creative power, guide Bri, Sharu, and Numo so that they do not fall into adversity.

Mercurius. May your gentle power always bring warm breezes to Bree, Sharu and Numo.

Twin goddesses. With your life-sustaining power, help Bri, Sharu and Numo not to get sick or starve.

Maal, the creator god. Please mercifully welcome Bree, Sharu, and Numo to your side.”

The prayers continued.

A few hosots began to shed tears.

‘There is a family that mourns even if the rapist dies.’

It was natural yet new.

There were few mourners.

The Hosots had a tribal-oriented society.

In other words, we have no choice but to become friendly with each other.

But this is the only place people gathered.

I’ve been to funerals many times, but this is the first time I’ve been to a funeral like this without people.

‘How unvirtuous were these people to be like this?’

I could understand why Jules lied.

How do I get out there and say that while raping a female terup, she was ambushed by another terup and her dick was pulled out and she died?

If I took it out, it would be a total mess.

Protecting the dignity of lions is always the right thing to do.

Even if it’s someone you hate.