episode_0085

The first thing we received as we climbed the stairs to Yokai Mountain were hot stares.

“Oh my god, it looks like he’s a real human-!”

“Should I go and talk to him?”

“No way. How do you know that even though he looks like that on the outside, he’s a scary person on the inside?”

This was because the monsters behind the cherry blossom trees growing on both sides of the stairs were peeking their heads out and staring at us.

Bartholin, who was watching the scene together, conveyed his dismay.

-Are they hiding now?

“For now… let’s pretend we don’t know.”

Wild animals in places where humans have never lived are not wary. When they first see humans, they have no idea that they could be a threat.

They say that you have to heat a fire to know it’s hot, and to them, a human they see for the first time is just an object of simple curiosity.

I would be lying if I said it wasn’t burdensome, but I knew there was no malice behind that behavior. That’s why I was able to act without any worries.

“Should I throw an acorn? Humans are omnivores, you know.”

“Oh, then my caterpillar too…”

“Huh? A human is running! He’ll be there soon, can you stop him?”

“Just a minute… I’ll try.”

I’ll correct it. Even if it was innocent interest, my face wasn’t thick enough to ignore it all.

I spread my only wing and strode up the stairs with all my might, trying to avoid hearing the commotion behind me as much as possible. I leaped twenty or thirty steps at a time, flying toward the top, and it seemed like I would get there in no time.

***

“Hehe… Hehe…”

I ran for a long time, but I never reached the top.

Even though I could clearly see the end of the stairs right in front of me, I couldn’t get closer. No, it seemed like I was getting further away.

In the past, I was able to recover quickly even when I was exhausted because of my physical strength.

It’s a new feeling, but the preciousness of what I’ve lost has come flooding back to me.

As I held my knees and exhaled, a small acorn rolled into my feet. A voice filled with anticipation was a bonus.

“You saw my acorn! Now you’re definitely going to eat it.”

…I was wrong to ignore it.

As I stuffed the small acorn into my pocket and climbed the stairs again, a small sigh came out from my right.

After walking five steps like that, this time there was a wriggling caterpillar tied to the center of the stairs.

…He was twisting his body here and there, feeling the stimulating sauce sprayed on his body.

I untied the larva from its thread and threw it into the bushes, then climbed the stairs again. This time, I heard sighs from my left and laughter from my right.

-They don’t seem to have any intention of giving up, so why don’t you at least try talking to them?

“I want to do that too…”

It’s okay now because I’m walking in the center of the stairs, but if I move even a little to the left or right, the sound in that direction disappears completely.

It would be a problem that could be solved by simply cutting down the trees, but that wasn’t the attitude of someone who came to ask for help. Running in and catching them like rats was also not the right thing to do.

I tried to take my time, but Bartholin seemed bored with the sight of me walking silently even though there was no sign of me arriving.

-Are you just going to walk like this? Do you know when you’ll get there?

Certainly, no matter how much I walked, the visible summit never got any closer. It was definitely not meant to be climbed like this.

No, maybe it would be okay to fly in the sky. How about jumping high and trying to glide? It would be hard with only one wing.

As I continued to walk, pondering over the method, I noticed that the width of the stairs had become narrower. The branches of the trees planted next to the stairs were right above my head.

Although I’ve lost a lot of things, I’m not so dull that I don’t notice that the road is getting narrower. There must have been something done on the other side.

What Hyunho is worried about now is whether to go up on his own or to ask for help from the monsters he is interested in. If they had approached him first, he wouldn’t have had to worry.

Hyunho, whose face had brightened, was faced with two choices.

One was a plump bug held out by the fox girl, who was supporting herself by wrapping her body around a branch on her left. The other was an acorn held out by the squirrel girl, who was reaching out her stubby arm from a branch.

The two of them have made progress in their respective areas, perhaps to make up for their previous failure.

The caterpillar grew plump and fleshy, and the acorn was as big as a child’s fist.

I could feel the two of them approaching me with courage, but of course, I had no desire to eat it.

“Excuse me, um…is there any way to get up here?”

No matter how much I thought about it, I felt like I knew how to get up here. Maybe the reason I couldn’t get up was because of the two of us.

As the girl with the body of a raccoon from the waist down tried to answer reflexively, Squirrel Girl caught her words.

“Ah, to get up here…”

“I’ll tell you when you eat this!”

Then, confidently, he held out his hand towards me. It was an acorn that took up half of his palm.

“I, I can tell you too…”

As if not to back down, the girl on the left also cautiously extended her hand. It was a small and cute hand, but the caterpillar writhing above her was not like that.

***

“Poohahaha! Did you really eat that?”

“Don’t tease me. Ugh…”

As we climbed the stairs, Baekto and Geumto greeted us at the entrance as if they had been waiting for us.

“Instead… an apology..”

The squirrel and the fox monster on the stairs were startled when they saw the golden sister standing on the stairs and ran away. I don’t think they did anything wrong, but they seemed to think differently. Well, that’s how it is when you’re young.

On Friday, Sister Geumto looked at the kids running away, holding back laughter, and thanked me.

“They’re… well, they haven’t changed that much yet. Thanks for playing with me.”

“No. Well… I got a gift too.”

Neither of them tasted that good, but they were edible if you think of them as health foods.

After exchanging greetings, we walked away to find a place to talk.

While I was moving around and looking around, I was able to see various types of monsters, as befitting the name of the mountain.

This was a community of just under a hundred monsters, and everyone knew each other very well.

“That’s Auntie Mila. She gives me milk every day.”

“Fresh…good…”

As if to prove that it was a peaceful village, everyone had bright expressions. Although it was a small village, everyone knew each other well.

“What kind of monster is that lady?”

“Dairy cow monster.”

Usually, these villages are wary of outsiders, but they just looked at me with curious eyes. Of course, if you don’t have a connection, you can’t find the entrance, and it’s not easy to get in, so I don’t think you’ve ever felt threatened.

“Uhh… Uhhh…”

So I felt awkward asking for help. I felt like I was ruining the peaceful atmosphere of this village.

And most importantly, I just looked around and realized that the people here have nothing to do with fighting. The only people available for combat are Baekto, Geumto, and Nacha.

I asked my older sister on Friday and Saturday just in case, but I only got negative answers.

“Umm… But honestly, there aren’t many people among us who can fight. No, none.”

“Ryu-nim is the only one with a strong body. But Ryu-nim is not good at fighting. Instead, he has supernatural powers.”

“What about supernatural powers?”

“Weather…”

As Baekto Nuna said, the direction itself is completely different. Ryu-nim, the monster that rules over the monster mountain, can change the weather and make rain fall in a clear sky, but it is difficult to defeat one skilled swordsman.

The only thing he can use his supernatural powers for is summoning clouds and making lightning strike wherever he wants. It’s not the kind of power I want.

“Is that so? Of course, it will be difficult.”

There are monsters that can instantly transform trees that take hundreds of years to grow into full-grown trees, monsters that control the weather, and monsters that can stretch space, but none of them are expected to put up a fight.

Geumto smiled meaningfully at the lukewarm response, as if he hadn’t expected it.

“Sister, doesn’t it seem like the kid is ignoring us too much?”

“Very annoying.”

Oh, it looks like the disappointment showed on his face.

“No, not necessarily- um…”

While I was thinking of an excuse for a moment, my sisters grabbed me for rambling and dragged me inside the house.

“Okay, kid. Let’s see if you can still say that after seeing this?”

Inside was a large, covered object, the dust on the cover indicating that it had not been used for some time.

The sisters turned on the light and pulled the covers off on both sides to reveal what was inside.

“You don’t have to be strong and sturdy to fight.”

“We… Even if we are not strong, we are safe…”

“Because we each have our own responsibilities.”

Flutter-

As the two pulled the cover open, a huge block of iron appeared – an anvil, a hammer, and a brazier designed to hold a spark.

As he showed that appearance, Geumto swept away the moru. The movement itself seemed natural, as if it was familiar to his body.

Then he looked at me proudly, with pride. The way he swung the hammer in his hand gave off the aura of a master.

“If you want to find the best craftsman in this mountain of monsters, they will come to us first.”

“Wow…”

Now that I think about it, you had something strange with you when we first met. Stealing body parts… It’s a funny memory now.

Sister Baekto took the ring I had thought of out of her pocket and held it in front of my eyes.

“We…made…”

“This, umm…”

I came here to ask for a simple sword, but I thought that maybe something more was possible. If the items that my sisters make have functions that go beyond common sense, they would be enough to become variables.

For example, something like replacing a wing that had been torn off. I thought it was a burdensome enough request for just one sword, but it was met with a positive response.

“-Ah, that? It’s definitely possible. But you’ll need some help from other people besides me and my sister. ”

“Really?”

“Yeah. If it were just the two of us, it would have been hard, but there are a lot of talented people here.”

The monsters that I had been introduced to by Geumto were more than ten. I had no idea how to apply their abilities to battle or equipment. That was the domain of the craftsman. It was something I had to trust and leave to my older sisters.

And the part I was in charge of was the combat part. So, in a way, it was about protecting Kuzunoha…

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

Kuzunoha and I have a close relationship, no, even more than that… but it’s nothing compared to these two. I was fully prepared to be resented.

When the guilt that he had tried so hard to bury was about to surface, Geumto and Baekto hugged Hyunho.

So they buried themselves in her chest and stroked the head of their younger sister, who was only peeking out.

“Okay. If Mom was really in danger, she could have easily run away. And family doesn’t apologize to each other. ”

Family. It was a heart-wrenching word. For a moment, I felt like an idiot for worrying about the price of things and whether it would be a nuisance.

“Sister…!”

“Right, right.”

As I was stroked by the soft fur, my fatigue disappeared. It felt like not only my physical fatigue, but also my mental fatigue was being washed away.

Although it was definitely an unfamiliar place, being held in my sisters’ arms gave me the comfort of being in my own room.

“Thank you for your hard work…”

Family, yes. It’s not the location or the building that matters, it’s the people. That’s what I thought as I was held in warm arms for the first time in a long time.

-Brother, isn’t it wrong for family to do this…?

‘It’s noisy.’