episode_0028

“Then why can’t he just become the chief? He looks strong too.” “He is certainly strong, but young and lacks experience. That is why he is receiving teachings from the chief-nim, who has lived the longest in this forest.” The grey wolf advised that what you see is not everything. Even saying that, he merely guessed it wouldn’t be much different from the village chief-nim being his grandfather. “Anyway, if I ask him, I can find out why that test had to be done, right?” However, she shook her head at Asher’s words. “In some ways, he is even more rigid than the chief-nim. If the chief-nim hasn’t said anything, he will think there’s a reason for it.” “What’s that supposed to mean.” In the end, it meant he wouldn’t know what that test was for. They said the cave didn’t let out anything wicked, but he couldn’t figure out what that had to do with the stone he was holding now. As Asher was grumbling, the grey wolf, as if she had been waiting, handed him something. “A necklace?” It was a necklace woven tightly and neatly from thin leather, looking like it wouldn’t easily come undone. A unique ornament with a round groove in the center hung from it. The ornament had the shape of a thin, unfinished dome, giving the impression that the inside was empty. The gold color at least gave it a fancy feel, but as an ornament, it looked somewhat lacking. “Why is this?” “You just need to fit in the stone you received from the chief-nim.” At her words, he carefully tried fitting the stone he had hidden in his clenched fist, so the girl wouldn’t see, into the necklace’s ornament. The stone fit perfectly into the groove of the ornament, as if it had been meant to be there from the start. It didn’t fall out just by fitting it in, and even when he tried to pull it off with force, it wouldn’t come loose. As he was surprised by this, the grey wolf’s words were heard again. “It seems it would be easier to carry it directly on your body so as not to be discovered by the owner of the forest. You can just hide it inside your clothes.” “One last thing, do you know what this stone is?” The old wolf said this stone would pay the price instead when he made an irreversible mistake. He didn’t know what kind of stone it was, but what kind of price? “You don’t need to try and understand the chief-nim’s words poorly. When the time comes, you will know better than anyone else.” “Ugh, do you all talk like that?” Listening to the grey wolf’s words, Asher grumbled. Belka was like that too, but the wolves all confused him with ambiguous words. He thought he had gotten used to it while staying with the girl. Talking with others in this way felt frustrating. Belka would at least explain or tell him easily if he wanted, but the wolves didn’t even do that. They didn’t even tell him what or who the guide was, so he wondered if he had even met them. “Wait, now that I think about it, that horse!” “If you mean a horse, are you talking about the fellow you rode out on?” The grey wolf’s expression noticeably furrowed. “Yes, that fellow!” He wondered if that horse was the guide the silver wolf had mentioned, but other than the long, pointed horn on its forehead, it was simply a white horse. Furthermore, Asher remembered that after swimming well with him on its back, it suddenly swam roughly, not only dropping him but also nearly hitting him with its hooves. “If it’s that lecherous fellow, he’s probably somewhere now, grabbing any woman and trying to court her.” “Lecherous?” Hearing the troubling word, Asher looked at her properly. Then she let out a sigh. “Hmph, yes, it’s shameful to say as a fellow resident of the forest, but that fellow is a notorious womanizer who hits on any woman he likes, regardless of species.” The grey wolf continued with a disgusted expression. “If it hadn’t been for Velichye, it would have been a headache.” However, Asher was no longer listening to her words. This was because he was recalling the situation again when that horse had dropped him. The horse had clearly been swimming steadily at first. So why did it suddenly move so roughly? Thinking about it, it was just before he discovered Belka. Also, the direction the horse was looking in. He put these things together one by one. “…Wolves have a good sense of smell, right?” “Th-That’s right, but.” The grey wolf answered clearly, although she was flustered by his chillingly cold voice. “Can you smell Belka now?” “Hmm, that’s difficult. The owner of the forest-nim doesn’t have any special scent.” “Then, what about that horse’s scent?” “Possible, though it’s a bother.” When Asher asked if she knew where that fellow was, the grey wolf sniffed a few times, sniffing the air, looked in one direction, and said. “I smell something from over there. But there shouldn’t be anything special over there. Why is it stopped?” The direction the grey wolf turned her head was the place where the girl had walked off, saying she would find something to eat for him. After confirming that much, he was already running towards that direction. The grey wolf watched him running with a dumbfounded expression, but Asher no longer saw anything else. His running was comically slow compared to a wolf or a horse, but perhaps it was the momentum? Asher was quite quick, but there was something fierce about him that caused small animals and wolves passing by accidentally to stop in surprise or clear the path. After running for some distance like that, a small, warm red finally appeared in his eyes. The problem, of course, was the large white one next to it. -Hiiiiiing! The fellow was constantly pushing his head forward as if asking to be petted, while making sure his horn didn’t seem threatening to the girl. That was clearly the fellow’s courting behavior. As proof, Belka was holding an almost oval, light orange-yellow fruit in her arms and looking at the horse with a troubled expression. “Where do you think you’re coming onto Belka?!” Where did such strength come from? Asher, using the momentum he had built up while running, threw a dropkick towards the head of the horse, which was bowing its head so the girl’s hand could easily reach it. -Puhahahaing!?! The horse took a direct hit to the head from his foot, screamed, and fell down. In the center of that chaotic scene, only the girl was slowly blinking her eyes, as if unable to understand what had just happened. Asher grabbed her hand and said. “Don’t bother with things like that, let’s go back.” “But.” Belka glanced repeatedly, seemingly worried about the horse that had been hit and fallen. Asher was displeased with this situation where he had to feel uncomfortable emotions towards a horse of all things. “Is that horse more important than me?” “It’s not like that. I haven’t found anything to eat yet.” Only then did Asher notice the single oval fruit in her arms. No matter how little the girl ate, it would be impossible for two people to fill their stomachs with just that one. He realized he had misunderstood and his ears grew hot. “Then I’ll help you.” “Okay.” The horse he had knocked down sometimes convulsed, but they paid no mind and set off to find food. What they found then was a strange tree with many short, plump fruits hanging in layers on a single trunk. It looked edible, but Asher made a sour face. “Isn’t this, like, a cucumber?” This was because, although the details were very different, the shape of the fruit strongly resembled a cucumber. Cucumbers were fruits that grew on vines sometimes found while walking in the forest. They didn’t grow in bunches like this and didn’t have thick tree trunks, but the shape was similar. Asher, who had once eaten one out of curiosity before, remembered getting a stomachache. The story he heard from the adults after being scolded was that they were edible long ago, but at some point their toxicity became strong, making them inedible. Although he could tell they were different fruits just by looking, the too-similar shape made him wary. “It’s completely different from that, so it’s okay to eat.” “If that’s the case, then it’s fine, but how do we get those?” If Belka said it was fine, it would be fine, but the problem was that the fruits were quite high up. No matter how much he and the girl stretched their arms, it didn’t seem like they would reach. Judging by the thickness of the trunk, it wouldn’t even budge if they tried knocking it with a pole. If that was the case, the only method left was to give her a shoulder ride. “Wait, climb onto my shoulders.” As Asher squatted down and said this, Belka, realizing what he was trying to do, placed her legs on his shoulders. “Won’t I be heavy?” To the girl’s words, asked worriedly, Asher answered by standing up himself. The girl wasn’t on the heavy side. However, there was a fact he hadn’t considered. “Huh?!” He had already used up a lot of stamina in that cave. Having thrown a strenuous dropkick at the horse in that state, it was only natural for his strength to run out. Even as his legs gave way and he was falling backward against his will, Asher thought of Belka on his shoulders. With the thought that he had to protect her, he pulled her forward, and thanks to that, he was able to support the girl from below. Feeling the sensation of the soft grass against his back, he felt like it might have been okay to just fall as he was, but it was better to be safe. However, this kind of situation was truly unexpected. “Ah.” “Eek!” Perhaps because his breath touched her, Belka’s small scream-like moan was heard. This was because the sight beneath the girl’s skirt was right before his eyes. Belka’s clothes, which had been in the lake, were still wet and smelled of water, but through them came a sweet scent like a camellia flower, one he never grew tired of smelling. Even after being so squeezed dry by the mermaids in the cave, his member swelled up in response to the girl’s scent. “Eut! Asher?” Perhaps Belka saw that sight too, as she was flustered and tried to get up from on top of him, but Asher’s action of grabbing and pressing down on her thin thighs was faster. “Heuk?!” His nose touched the girl’s private crevice with just a single layer of underwear between them. Amidst the slightly more defined smell of water and the girl’s scent, he found a peculiar aroma and used his nose to push her underwear aside. “Oh, like that.” As the girl’s petals were revealed, he licked his lips in anticipation and thrust his tongue in. The sweetness, which he couldn’t believe belonged to the same person no matter when he tasted it, soaked his tongue and made it tingle. “Heeut!” Chup, chuup, jjuupjjuup, the sounds of his tongue going in and out of her crevice further stimulated his desire, and Belka’s moans grew louder. “Heueu, I don’t care anymore.” Then, as she pulled down his pants, his stiffly swollen penis met the outside air. But that was only for a moment. From the warm, wet sensation wrapping around it, he knew the girl had taken his cock into her mouth. Holding it with her lips so his teeth wouldn’t touch and hurt him, she carefully licked and sucked his member with her tongue, just as he had taught her. “Eup! Heup.” Chup, chuup, jjuupjjuup, the sounds of them licking and sucking each other’s precious places and Belka’s moans ended when Asher spilled his seed into her mouth. He could distinctly feel the girl drinking the white turbid fluid that gushed from the tip of his member without hesitation. When no more semen came out, he pulled out from below her and got up, seeing Belka covering her mouth with her hand. “Did you drink it all?” When he asked, wondering if she had swallowed something, hearing the sound of her gulping something down, the girl nodded slightly, her face flushing red. At that, Asher wanted to have relations with her right away, but. “Ack!” “Asher?” As expected, perhaps because he had been drained excessively, the pain that had subsided even a little returned. Then, Asher could only soothe Belka, who approached him with golden eyes full of worry, by saying he was okay. Thinking it was strange that they didn’t return even after a long time, they were only able to pick the fruits they had intended to pick with the help of the grey wolf who came later. Listening to the grey wolf say that they could have asked them for something like this, they returned to the lake. “More importantly, it’s fine to have relations, but it might be better to be a bit more selective about the location.” “….” Asher’s ears grew hot at the grey wolf’s words whispered so Belka wouldn’t hear. Seeing the girl looking at him with a puzzled expression, he quickly reached for a fruit as if he were hungry. A cluster of fruits that had been hanging came off in his hand. But even knowing they were different from cucumbers, their similar appearance made him hesitant to touch them easily. He couldn’t even figure out how to eat them. Then the girl also reached for a fruit. “Asher. This is how you do it.” Unlike the cucumber-like shape, when Belka pulled the peel around the stem end, the peel easily came off. As the pure white flesh was revealed, a sweet fragrance spread. The fruit she handed him was clearly different from a cucumber. Cucumbers didn’t have peels this thick and didn’t peel easily. Soon, unable to resist the sweet fragrance, he took a bite of the flesh. “Wow.” He could only admire it. As he chewed the pure white flesh, it chewed softly and, when rolled on his tongue, crumbled as if melting. The fruit he ate the day before wasn’t bad, but this was incredibly delicious. It was a shame that it was small enough that he could eat one in just two big bites. It was fortunate that there were so many fruits hanging in the bunch. As they were filling their stomachs with the fruits, -Hee~ Hiiiiiing. A sorrowful whinny was heard from somewhere. And sure enough, where the sound came from, there was the horse, timidly peeking its head out from behind a tree, a posture that didn’t suit its large build. Whether it was because of its agile body compared to its size, or because the trees in this forest were particularly thick, he couldn’t tell, but the horse’s action of covering its entire body and just sticking its neck out looked quite cute to Asher. The horse was looking at them yearningly as if it wanted to eat too, so if he hadn’t known anything, he might have shared the fruit. That is, if it hadn’t been the horse that was pestering Belka. Perhaps it was because its entire body was pure white. Although it was a horse that even looked somewhat sacred, he had heard the grey wolf’s explanation about that horse’s true nature. Asher’s action when he accidentally made eye contact with the horse was simple. “Belka, you try eating it too.” He simply ignored it, peeled the fruit he was holding in his hand so it was easy to eat, and handed it to Belka. -Hiiiiiiiing! Even though he might have turned back once more at the sorrowful whinny that was heard again, he acted as if he didn’t hear the sound. Then, perhaps sensing his unease, the horse cautiously approached them little by little while gauging Asher’s mood. Seeing its restless appearance, not acting its size, he almost felt pity where there had been none, but remembering it had lured many women with such an outward appearance, knowing the horse’s true nature, he instead found it contemptible and, holding the girl’s hand, said. “It’s a bit bothersome here. Let’s eat somewhere else.” “Okay.” Belka seemed to be bothered by the horse, but urged by Asher, she smiled as if unable to do otherwise and was led away. As they ate the fruit, avoiding the horse that kept following them as if asking for some too, the day quickly came to an end. “How did they make something like this.” Asher was currently lying inside the hut, held in the girl’s arms. The wolves didn’t even have hands, but they had set up wooden posts for the frame and covered it with hides to make the hut, so they were quite skillful. What was even more unique was that perhaps the covering for the ceiling was insufficient, or maybe it was made like that on purpose, but there was no hide covering the top of the hut, so the twinkling stars in the night sky were peeking through the gaps between the wooden posts. It wasn’t particularly cold, so there was no problem. Rather, he liked this state of being able to lie with Belka and look at the stars. Still, looking up at the stars in the night sky kept a corner of his heart aching, there was nothing he could do about it. “Tomorrow will be our last day in this forest.” They decided to leave this forest completely tomorrow. Since he was very tired today, they decided to rest for one more day before setting off. Honestly, he didn’t know what to do next. The original plan Asher had made to escape the village was to safely leave the forest through another village in the forest, but they had come out on the completely opposite side, so the plan he had made was already ruined a long time ago. It was too late to follow the plan now, as they had come too far, and it was obvious it would take too much time to go back. The only thing he was worried about was not knowing what was on the opposite side of the forest where there would no longer be any villages. Did she perhaps notice his uneasy heart? The girl patting his chest. The sound of her regular heartbeat calmed his anxiety. Held in her cozy and warm embrace, letting go of all his worries and anxieties for a moment, he fell asleep without even noticing himself drifting off. Belka was looking at such an Asher with golden light. He couldn’t tell what her shimmering golden light was looking at him for, but deep sorrow and affection were mixed together in that golden light, sorrowfully melting away as if tears were about to form but didn’t. The girl, who had been staring blankly at the sleeping boy for a long time, finally got up. “Eeum.” Then, as he whimpered as if uncomfortable, Belka, who had gotten up, sat by his side, smoothed his hair back, and caressed his forehead. She stayed by his side until he was no longer uncomfortable, then soon came out of the hut and began walking somewhere. The place the girl, who was walking with seemingly slow and leisurely yet faltering steps, arrived at was the vast lake shore where two moons, one above and one below, faced each other. However, another shadow was already occupying that spot. “You’ve come.” It was none other than the old wolf. The girl stared blankly at him with a golden light whose meaning he could not grasp, then opened her mouth. “Taking the trial in that condition was too much.” Her voice seemed to be reprimanding him, but the old wolf laughed lightly and replied. “Were you worried? However, it couldn’t be helped. He who intends to test another must undergo the same trial.” Saying that, the old wolf seemed rather pleased. Even so, he didn’t take his eyes off the moon rising high in the sky. “Do you regret it?” “Something to regret. For this old one, it’s piled up and accumulated enough to become stale.”