Chapter 03
The cave I had entered in a fit of anger was very dark and cool.
I diligently walked through that place, which felt like the inside of a giant serpent’s belly.
I walked and walked.
It was right when my feet ached so much that I thought I could walk no further.
*Krrrreung—*
A mighty beast’s roar echoed through the cave.
A sound so terrifying it made my heart drop and my legs tremble.
‘Huk!’
As I stood frozen, unable to react from the sheer surprise, two lights flashed in the darkness.
The fierce eyes of a beast.
The eyes of the very lion said to be the agent of the divine.
*Thud—*
My legs gave way, and I collapsed helplessly to the ground.
The lion, staring intently at me, took a heavy step forward.
*Thud. Thud.*
Soon, the lion’s body revealed under the torchlight was even larger than I had imagined.
So large that it could swallow someone like me in one bite without even chewing.
‘N-no, I don’t want to…’
What? I wanted to die quickly?
I wanted to see for myself if real ghosts existed?
My utterly ridiculous bravado knelt pitifully before the terror of death that had approached to within arm’s reach.
‘I don’t… want to die. I didn’t struggle so hard just to become a meal for a beast like that!’
A belated craving for survival washed over me.
I wanted to run away right then and there, but I was so frightened that my legs wouldn’t take my weight.
As I was squirming, wriggling my hips like a worm—
*Krrrreung—!*
The lion, now right before my nose, stretched out its neck and opened its mouth.
As if it would devour me at any moment.
‘It’s all over…’
Looking at the lion’s open mouth with resigned eyes, I wished for one thing.
Please, let my flesh and bones not be crushed by those dreadful fangs.
Rather, let me be swallowed in one bite so I wouldn’t have to writhe in terrible agony.
As if answering my wish, the lion roared once more.
“Ah, jeez, I said I don’t eat humans!”
“…?”
What is this?
Eyes wide with astonishment, I looked around.
There was no way a lion could speak human language; was there someone else in this cave besides me?
But no matter how thoroughly I searched, the cave only contained the lion and me.
‘What is this? Are my ears playing tricks on me?’
Or had the extreme fear of death driven me insane?
Unable to discern anything, I sat there blankly when the lion stomped the ground with its massive paw.
Then it roared again, but…
“Why do these people keep sending humans in? I told you, I don’t eat humans!”
…What struck my ears was, again, human language.
Not just any, but the Katalon Empire’s language.
‘Am I dreaming right now?’
Too dumbfounded, I sat frozen like a statue, staring blankly at the lion.
The lion, glancing at me, let out a deep sigh.
“Sigh, looks like this one’s dead, too.”
Then it turned away with an annoyed flick of its body.
‘Wha, what? Is it leaving? Am I… alive?’
Forgetting my doubt about how the lion could speak human language, I swelled with a slender hope that perhaps I might survive.
But then, what was this?
Suddenly, the lion began acting strangely.
It raised its tail straight up toward the cave ceiling.
Just as I tilted my head, wondering what that meant—
My body, which had been stuck to the floor, suddenly floated up into the air.
‘Wh-what in the world…!’
The unfamiliar feeling of my feet not touching the ground made me want to scream involuntarily.
But before I could, my body began to drift somewhere.
What on earth was happening?
‘Is this the lion’s doing?’
No matter how much I thought about it, that was the only answer I could guess.
The cave had only me and the lion, and the direction my body was moving matched the path the lion was walking.
‘…So it isn’t an ordinary lion, given it’s called the agent of the divine?’
Thinking that, it made some sense that it could speak human language.
But where was it taking me?
Just as I was wondering this—
“Damn human bastards. How long do they plan to keep throwing humans into my cave? Because of their weird rituals, my perfectly good drinking water is getting polluted!”
The lion began grumbling complaints.
“But I can’t just leave a corpse lying around in my dwelling either. Sigh, what a fate I have.”
After venting its grievances for a while, the lion stopped in front of a small spring.
The spring was so clear it seemed transparent, yet so deep its bottom couldn’t be seen, impossibly far down.
Truly, impossibly far…
‘What? Impossibly far?’
Suddenly, the lion’s words from moments ago echoed in my ears again.
“Because of their weird rituals, my perfectly good drinking water is getting polluted!”
‘Wait, does that mean…’
Had the lion been throwing the women sacrificed as offerings into this spring all along?
And that I would soon meet the same fate?
‘What? So I’m not even an offering, just going to splash around and drown?’
This was an even more anticlimactic ending than I had imagined.
As I was inwardly exasperated, the lion, with its back to me, muttered in a grave voice.
“You poor human. May you not die so pointlessly in your next life, but live a long, full lifespan.”
No sooner had the lion finished speaking than my body was yanked toward the spring.
So the ‘soon’ I had predicted moments ago was right now.
‘Oh, hell no! There’s no way I’m dying this pointlessly!’
Fear of the lion aside, I had to prevent the immediate death before my eyes.
Desperate, I hurriedly shouted.
“Stop! I can’t even swim!”
In that instant, my body, which had been falling rapidly, stopped short.
Simultaneously, the fierce beast’s eyes bore down on me.
I did not avoid those eyes, filled with a bitter chill as if they could freeze everything in the world.
No, I couldn’t avoid them.
Because I had to live. Because I wanted to live, by any means.
“Sa-save me. Please…”
I pleaded with the most pitiful expression I could muster.
But then.
“You, how are you still alive… No, more importantly, how can a human understand a lion’s… Mo-monster! Help, a lion!”
The lion, looking even more terrified than me, ran away with heavy, thumping steps.
—
‘What in the world…’
Too shocked and bewildered, I was dazed for a while before I finally yelled out loud.
“…Who exactly is the monster here? And who’s saving whom? Anyone can see that I’m the one in danger!”
The fear that had made me tremble just moments ago had long since evaporated like a mirage along with the lion’s reaction.
Then, the lion that had dashed deeper into the cave peeked its head out from the darkness.
“Ah, is that so? So I’m the dangerous element here?”
It tilted its head, and the sight was so absurd that I couldn’t help but let out a wry laugh.
“Haha.”
It was when I had been laughing hollowly like that for a while.
The lion, walking slowly, approached me again and began circling around me, observing me.
“Hmm, hmm, hmmm…”
As if looking at some alien creature.
‘Ugh, annoying.’
Here was a gigantic beast prowling right in front of my nose, and the emotion I felt wasn’t fear but annoyance.
This was truly absurd.
“If you have something to say, just say it. Stop making me nervous.”
As I spoke, rubbing my stiff neck, the lion stopped walking as if it had been waiting.
“Very well, then I shall not hold back and ask. What is your true identity?”
“What else? A human.”
“What? Human? Are you really human?”
“…Why are you so surprised? Don’t I look like a human to you?”
Somehow annoyed by the lion’s reaction, I asked back curtly.
“Hmm, your appearance certainly suggests so…”
After nodding briefly, the lion asked, as if it couldn’t understand at all.
“But how can a human speak the lion’s language?”
“What are you even talking about… I’m not speaking lion’s language, you are speaking human language! And not just any, but the Katalon Empire’s language!”
When I yelled, dumbfounded, the lion’s eyes widened and it shook its head.
“Huh? No, that’s not it. I’m speaking the lion’s language right now.”
…Pardon?
