Chapter 93
"Did you kidnap me?"
"...Huh?"
That was the first thing the beastkin girl said as she rose after dusting herself off, glaring daggers at me.
With the ears standing perkily atop her head and the long tail swaying behind her, she was unmistakably a feline beastkin.
Probably.
"You hung from a box and dropped straight down..."
I gave a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
More baffling than that was the language.
"But how do you speak Korean?"
"Eee..."
In response to my question, the beastkin girl didn't answer or even pretend to hear me.
Making a strange sound, she kept her gaze fixed solely on the old box the drone had set down behind me.
The girl crept toward the box as though crawling along the floor, then, when our eyes met, hugged it with both arms and let out an aggrieved "Kyaa!"
"This is mine!"
"Yeah, yeah. You can have it."
When I willingly stepped aside, the wary girl's face visibly brightened.
She hurriedly flung open the box's lid.
Paaash—!
A faint halo of light rose as a thick hardcover book sprang out of the box.
"Oh?"
It was a skill book.
Getting a skill book from that old box was incredibly lucky.
Even when Jiwoo opened a box, finding a skill inside was extremely rare...
But the beastkin girl's face instantly turned mournful as she picked up the book.
"What is this... You can't even eat it..."
Thud.
The instant the girl threw the book onto the floor in disappointment, her stomach let out a loud growl that echoed through the train.
"..."
"...Ah."
A momentary silence.
The girl flinched, curled her tail between her legs, and blushed.
At the sight, I quietly turned my head away.
'Come to think of it, there were some snacks left.'
I stepped aside for a moment, picked up a bag of snacks, and returned.
Then, with a rustle, I held the bag of snacks out to the girl.
"...Eee?"
The girl glanced at the bag, then looked at me with wary eyes as though I were some strange person.
Ah, right. She didn't know how to open the wrapper.
I tore the bag open myself, placed a few snacks on my palm, and held them out in front of her nose.
A sensible thought flashed through my mind: Was this really okay? Wasn't it a little rude?
I had ended up acting as though I were giving a puppy a treat.
Since the other person was a beastkin girl, I had unconsciously—
"Hmm..."
Regardless, the tip of the girl's nose twitched, and she began sniffing the snacks.
Perhaps the savory, salty smell had whetted her appetite, because she promptly popped the snacks from my palm into her mouth.
Crunch, crackle.
After chewing a couple of times, the girl's ears perked up slightly.
She snatched the entire bag of snacks from my hand and began stuffing them into her mouth.
"...Eat slowly."
My concern was useless.
She was shoving her face into the bag as if she were about to bury her entire small face inside it.
With snack crumbs all over her face, the girl smiled contentedly.
"Euhahaha..."
And she was laughing in a slightly strange voice.
What kind of laugh was that?
She seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood, so I took the opportunity to ask the questions I hadn't been able to ask earlier.
"How did you learn the language?"
"Don't know!"
"How did you cross over to this world?"
"Don't know!"
"...Then what kind of beastkin are you, exactly?"
"Don't know that either!"
Every answer that came back while she chewed her snacks was short and consisted entirely of "Don't know."
I almost sighed in frustration, but my ears perked up at the girl's next words.
"I was abandoned in that world. They abandoned me in a cave. It was a damp cave, so there was lots of water and bugs. I survived by eating them, and when I came to my senses, I was here."
"..."
Hearing her casually say that she had been abandoned made me a little somber.
I didn't know whether to comfort her or simply move on to another subject.
Then the girl spoke first.
"Come to think of it, blue things kept appearing in front of my eyes after I came here."
"If you mean blue things..."
A system window.
Some Constellations had probably discovered her and sent her messages offering incarnation contracts.
So many Constellations were desperately searching for beastkin that they must have sent her incarnation contract messages if they found her.
Fortunately, she didn't seem to have accepted any of them, sweeping away each blue window as soon as it appeared because it annoyed her.
Rustle.
At that moment, I sensed someone cautiously approaching from behind me.
It was the siblings, Sua and Jiwoo.
The children seemed fascinated by the unfamiliar girl with animal ears and were stealthily approaching with eyes full of curiosity.
"Kids, don't come over carelessly—"
It was just as I hurriedly tried to stop them.
Sniff, sniff.
The beastkin girl eating snacks poked her head out and carefully sniffed Sua and Jiwoo.
"Eek..."
"S-Sis..."
"Stay still."
The siblings looked up at me in confusion, but I told them to stay still.
The beastkin girl didn't seem hostile.
Then, perhaps deciding that she sensed no threat from the children, she soon lost interest and buried her face back in the snack bag.
Sua worked up her courage and lightly stroked the soft tail swaying behind the girl.
The girl flicked her tail once as though annoyed, but quietly allowed the children's touch.
It was the mercy of a beastkin girl whose stomach was full and whose mood was good.
"What should I do with her?"
I rested my chin on my hand and watched the scene.
When the drone first brought this girl to me, I had planned to hand her coordinates over to the Constellations and collect some high-grade mana stones.
But it felt strangely wrong to give just any Constellation the location of this beastkin girl, who was smiling over a single snack without knowing anything about the world.
Since so many Constellations were searching for beastkin, I also feared that she could become a major threat if she became the incarnation of a bad Constellation.
'If she's going to become an incarnation anyway...'
I thought of the Constellation-only board on the Gallery.
What if I investigated the Constellations myself and leaked her location only to one with favorable conditions and a kind disposition?
Then, after the contract was completed, I could give them the beastkin girl's coordinates and receive a high-grade mana stone.
After all, the trade post only asked for her location.
I wouldn't be violating the terms of the trade post.
While Sua, Jiwoo, and the beastkin girl played, I turned on my smartphone and brought up the Constellation-only board again.
There were countless trade posts seeking beastkin, but my goal was to identify the authors of those posts.
"...Let's see."
I began examining them as though I were conducting an evaluation.
I could narrow down the candidates considerably just from the Constellations' names and the titles of their trade posts.
The Constellations themselves did little to hide their true natures, so filtering out the strange ones wasn't difficult.
Among the remaining candidates, I clicked on each Constellation's nickname one by one and began meticulously investigating the list of posts and comments they had written in the past.
---
[Author: Barbarian]
Comment: A warrior ought to keep fighting with a deathly resolve even after losing an arm. And if they die? Just pick a new incarnation.
---
"Rejected."
---
[Author: Oil and Cogwheels]
Comment: Beastkin don't die easily even if you run them through dungeons for 20 hours a day. Put a curse on them that removes their need for sleep, and they can last 30 hours too lol
---
"Rejected."
---
[Author: The Long-Mouthed One]
Post: I love beastkin so much. I'm going to make a contract with one.
---
"This one... should I put them on hold? They do seem like they would treat their incarnation preciously... Is there really no normal Constellation?"
I rubbed the back of my neck, which had grown stiff from looking down at my phone, and clicked my tongue.
Most of the Constellations had more unsettling aspects than anything that could be called kindness.
I couldn't even imagine what kind of situation she would end up in if she contracted with people like them.
'Whatever happens, I can't expect a good future.'
Just as I was thinking that and mindlessly scrolling down, another trade post caught my eye.
It was a post seeking beastkin.
Like the others, this Constellation was also looking for an incarnation, but their past actions were relatively decent.
Most of their posts expressed hopes that humans and other races would remain safe, and they wanted their incarnation to be an elf or beastkin who understood nature well.
"Mother of All Things."
Remembering the Constellation's name, I approached the girl licking the snack bag to tell her the exact coordinates and get the contract underway.
"Want to step outside for a moment?"
The inside of the train was invisible even to Constellations, so I planned to step outside for a moment.
I would only tell the Constellation her location; whether she actually formed a contract would be entirely up to her.
But.
Screech—!
“I’m not going out! No way!”
The moment I suggested going outside and held out my hand, the girl panicked and gripped the wall beside the train's entrance with both hands.
She resisted so desperately that I could hear her nails scraping against the metal plating.
I asked.
“But... you called me a kidnapper earlier...”
“I like it here! Outside means hunger! If someone’s going out, you go alone!”
"You're telling me to go out?"
I let out a hollow laugh at the beastkin girl's words.
She wasn't exactly telling me to leave for good, though.
Well, at least it was fortunate that she liked the train.
Still, she had to come outside with me, even if only for a little while.
For the sake of the trade post, too.
“I mean let’s go look for boxes together. The snacks you ate earlier come from boxes too.”
"The thing I ate earlier came from a box..."
Perk—!
Her ears, which had drooped at the word "snacks," sprang upright.
The girl slowly let go of the wall and rose to her feet, pretending she couldn't resist.
“What are you doing? Get off, quickly.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
It was an obvious change in attitude, but I pretended not to notice, nodded, and led her outside the train.
I took out my smartphone and sent my current coordinates to the Constellation Mother of All Things.
Before even a second had passed, the beastkin girl's head shot up.
“Huh? That thing from before appeared again.”
The girl pointed at the empty air.
As she stared silently at the empty air, the beastkin girl's animal ears twitched, and her tail formed a pleasant curve.
She stared at that empty space for a long time.