Chapter 100
"Squeak! Squeak-squeak—! Squeeeak—!"
The rat, pinned beneath Nabi's hand, let out a desperate cry.
There wasn't the slightest hint of any will to fight back in its flailing forepaws.
After watching quietly for a moment, I told Nabi to let it go for now.
"Nabi, take your hand off for now."
"Tch..."
"Squeak... Squeak..."
When Nabi pouted and withdrew her hand, the rat rolled inelegantly across the floor, crawled into the corner of the wardrobe, and tearfully wiped its eyes.
The sight of it standing on two legs and wiping away tears with its forepaws was strangely pitiful.
Naturally, it must have been terrified.
I knelt on one knee to bring myself to its eye level.
"Can you understand me? Are you perhaps beastkin, like Nabi, rather than a monster?"
"...Squeak?"
The rat, which had been sobbing miserably, looked up at me with reddened eyes, then vigorously nodded.
'So beastkin come in all kinds.'
I had assumed that beastkin were basically humans with animal ears or tails, like Nabi.
But the creature before me was literally a rat, through and through.
It seemed that the animal form had manifested far more strongly than the human form.
Although it couldn't speak, it seemed to understand my language well enough, so I continued questioning it.
"Do you live here?"
"Squeak."
The rat nodded once more.
"Then do you have any other companions or family?"
"Sque... squeak, squeeeeeak—!"
No sooner had I finished asking than the rat beastkin suddenly covered its face with both hands and began wailing even more miserably and forlornly than before.
Hearing the commotion, Ha-seon and the siblings approached from the corner of the showroom, where they had been choosing furniture.
"Oh! A rat!"
"Noona, why is the rat crying...?"
The three of them looked back and forth between the sobbing rat beastkin and me sitting in front of it.
From this angle, it really looked as though I had bullied the rat into crying.
"Did you say something mean to the rat, sis?"
"Huh...? No, I only asked if it had any family..."
When I raised both hands as if protesting my innocence, Nabi, who had been quietly listening to the rat's cries, stepped forward, twitching her perked ears.
"I think I know what it's saying."
"Huh? You can translate it?"
"They were all living peacefully here together, but some snake beastkin barged in recently and took away all its companions and family."
"Snake beastkin too?"
After hearing Nabi's translation, I let out a hollow laugh.
'They were all here.'
The precious beastkin the Constellations had been desperately searching for, and that I had been tracking down to obtain a high-grade mana stone, existed in two varieties right around here.
They had even fought each other.
But this rat beastkin was definitely not the type the Constellations would covet.
Its strength and speed looked weaker than an ordinary human's, and it didn't appear to have much combat power, either.
Though I had no idea what the snake beastkin who had taken them were like.
"Hmm..."
I slowly rose to my feet.
The circumstances were pitiful, but was it really all right for me to get involved in a power struggle between beastkin?
I was somewhat conflicted.
"Squeak-squeak... squeak..."
"Apparently those snake beastkin are sweeping up all the nearby dungeons and chests, collecting huge amounts of mana stones and treasure..."
At that moment, a calculator began running in my head.
I slowly turned my stiffened head and looked at the rat beastkin, which was still shedding tears.
Come to think of it, the poor thing really did have it bad. How could its entire family and all its companions have been kidnapped?
If I left the snake beastkin alone, they might start kidnapping people, too.
Maybe the reason this area had so few pins was that the snake beastkin had been attacking humans.
I had my justification.
"Mana stones and treasure?"
"Squeak...?"
The rat beastkin swallowed nervously, frightened by my sudden change in attitude.
"Ms. Ha-seon, we'll have to put shopping on hold for a while."
"But until just now, you weren't planning to go..."
I lightly ignored Ha-seon's suspicious gaze.
I could feel the rat beastkin's earnest desire to save its companions.
And mana stones and treasure.
That was reason enough to help.
I gently gripped the shaft of my spear and smiled at the rat beastkin.
“Jiwoo, Sua, and Ms. Ha-seon, follow slowly from behind. Three drones will cover the area around you, so don't stray too far.”
“...Please don't overdo it.”
Ha-seon nodded and gathered the siblings close.
At my command, the three drones buzzed and formed a circle around them.
Though still trembling in fear, the rat beastkin hurriedly moved its forepaws to point in the direction of the snake beastkin.
It also didn't forget to give us a squeaky warning of its own, telling us to be careful because they were quick-witted and crafty.
“Nabi, Golem. Let's go.”
“Meee!”
Blessed by a Constellation, Nabi held her tail straight up and took the lead, while the golem followed behind with heavy footsteps.
The hideout the rat beastkin had told us about wasn't far away.
It was the large supermarket right next to the one we'd seen earlier while coming to the furniture store.
The furniture store and the large supermarket were even connected by a wide interior passage on the first floor, so we could enter directly without going outside.
Around the middle of the passage, a crude barricade blocked the way. I couldn't tell whether it was evidence of a fierce battle between the two species or something the snake beastkin had piled up to keep outsiders out.
It was a tangled mess of overturned carts, broken display racks, and the like.
It looked fairly sturdy, though.
“Golem, smash through it.”
Boom! Cr-r-rash—!
It didn't take long.
The golem merely strode forward and bumped into it with its massive steel body, and the barricade instantly crumpled like paper and went flying in every direction.
After passing through the opening and entering the supermarket's first floor, we found ourselves in a store lined with racks of clothing on all sides and displays of glass tableware.
“There...!”
And the moment we set foot inside, a swarm of red eyes poured out at us.
They were the snake beastkin.
They were a grotesque race with the heads of snakes that flicked their forked tongues, and human bodies covered in smooth green scales from the neck down.
Their appearance suddenly reminded me of the Lizardman Dungeon where I had obtained my spearhead before.
‘Could those Lizardmen have been a type of dungeon-bound beastkin too?’
My thoughts began to spiral, but now was the time to focus on the situation before me.
Just as the rat beastkin had said, they were clearly quick to catch on.
Unlike monsters that charged in recklessly, they saw the golem and the spear in my hand and couldn't bring themselves to approach, instead keeping their distance.
They slithered as they formed ranks, plainly trying to gauge our combat power.
Then, in the end, they attempted to check our advance as we invaded their territory.
"Shaaah—!"
"Huh? Over there—"
At the rear of the snake group, a shaman carrying a large wooden staff began chanting a spell.
A smooth fireball rapidly swelled at the tip of its staff and blazed brightly.
Fwoom!
It was before the shaman could even throw the fireball.
The muzzle of the sniper drone flying through the air flashed almost imperceptibly, and a laser pierced the shaman precisely between the brows.
Splat!
As its head exploded, the fireball lost control and detonated where it was.
Whoosh—!
Terrifying flames swallowed the surrounding snake beastkin, instantly turning the inside of the store into a sea of fire.
“Kieeeek—!”
“Shaaaah!”
The smell of roasting meat spread through the store all at once amid the flames.
It smelled almost exactly like well-roasted chicken.
‘So roasting a snake really does make it smell like chicken.’
Just as I was having that strange thought, two shadows shot out like lightning through the flames and black smoke.
They were lean snake beastkin wielding razor-sharp daggers in both hands.
Their target was Nabi, who was standing beside me as though off guard.
“Meee!”
Nabi gave a small smirk and lightly lowered her stance.
Chrrrrk! Snap!
Green thorny vines burst up through the supermarket's marble floor and tightly snared the ankles of the charging snake beastkin.
“Shaaak?!”
As the snake beastkin toppled forward from the waist because of their momentum, Nabi lightly leaped and spun through the air.
Bwaaaam—!
Her two spring-loaded dropkicks struck them squarely in the chest one after the other.
Crash—!
The powerful dropkicks tore the snake beastkin free along with the vines, smashed straight through three or four of the supermarket's display racks, and sent them flying into the far corner.
The glass tableware on display came raining down over their heads with a tremendous clatter.
“Hmph.”
Nabi waved her tail back and forth and laughed smugly.
The combat power of a beastkin boosted by a Constellation was truly beyond imagination.
The eyes of the snake beastkin, who had lost their companions in an instant, began to shake violently.
"Tch..."
"Shaa..."
They cautiously exchanged glances, then, as though they had made a decision, exhaled harshly and gave a slight nod.
Just as the rat beastkin had said, they were certainly quick-witted and crafty.
They seemed to have instinctively realized that they couldn't win by attacking any further.
Clang—! Clatter—!
The largest snake beastkin lightly tossed the iron sword it had been holding onto the floor.
At that signal, the remaining fifteen or so snake beastkin all put down their daggers and axes, raised both hands over their heads, and obediently lay flat on the floor.
It was a perfect surrender.
“Meee?”
Nabi twitched her perked ears and snorted in disappointment.
The vines that had bound their ankles also dangled pointlessly in the air.