CHAPTER 02
“Grrrrrrrr…”
I bared my teeth and growled quietly.
The faces of the humans who turned me into this miserable state flashed through my mind.
I should have killed them all.
The old me would never have entertained such thoughts.
Once, I even dreamed of ascension.
‘Ascension? They can shove that nonsense.’
I’d rather accumulate sins through killing.
If I must, I’ll stain my claws with blood myself.
I’ll take care of those humans—creatures who bring harm just by existing.
Determined to get revenge, I stared at my reflection in the water.
A blue-furred tiger.
A Mountain King.
My size had shrunk.
My power had drained drastically.
But I wasn’t dead.
So I still had a chance.
[First, I need to regain my strength.]
With this pitiful level of energy, revenge was impossible.
Honestly, surviving other spirit beasts would already be lucky.
But before that, I needed to understand what happened to me.
And then—
[Huh? Where did Mountain King go? And… who’s this baby tiger?
An extremely familiar voice made me lift my head.
At that moment, I became certain—
This wasn’t a dream.
The Blood Cult’s first target had been my home.
They dug up all the herbs in my territory.
Captured spirit beasts under my protection for experiments.
Ripped out their inner cores.
And among those killed was the bird now tilting its head at me—
the Jimjo, a poisonous bird species.
Little one, who are you? Your energy feels almost identical to Mountain King… Are you his cub? But that makes no sense. He’s never reproduced…]
The Jimjo kept tilting its head in confusion, then slowly flapped down to the ground.
Surprisingly, no poisonous aura surrounded him.
He must have sealed it away in case something happened.
Jimjo, it’s me. Mountain King.]
[Mountain King? No way, kid. Mountain King is the huge blue tiger no one else can compare to.]
He snorted and tried to coax me gently.
Where is Mountain King? I need to tell him the nine-tailed fox returned.
[I said—it’s me.]
[Kid, lying is bad for spirit beasts—]
[Do I need to remind you how you first arrived here to make you believe me?]
The Jimjo froze.
I grinned smugly.
Only the two of us knew that story.
If I told him, he’d have no choice but to believe me.
And trust me, we had plenty of embarrassing stories to choose from.
You acted like the whole world was your territory, spraying poison everywhere. Even tried to drive me out, so I wrapped you in roots and tossed you into a cave—]
[WAH!! WAAAH!! STOP!!!]
The Jimjo flapped wildly, screeching.
Still embarrassed by that memory, clearly.
[M-Mountain King told you that?! No, he even promised never to speak of it—!]
Because I am the Mountain King, idiot. Why are you trying to make me into someone’s mother?]
I smacked his beak with my paw.
He jumped in place.
But instead of focusing on his reaction, I stared sadly at my paw.
[Agh… I can’t even properly smack something anymore…]
[S-S-San… Mountain King?? Is it really you?]
[If you need more proof, I can remind you of some of the things you tried to hide—]
AAAAAAH!! I BELIEVE YOU!! I BELIEVE YOUUU!!]
The Jimjo panicked, flapping so hard feathers flew everywhere.
I quietly stepped back—
His feathers still contained poison, and I was weaker now.
[A-Anyway, Mountain King… why are you a baby tiger?]
[I have a lot to explain. But before that—you said the fox returned?]
[Ah. Yes. They came back to rest for a bit…]
The Jimjo eyed me suspiciously again.
So I dropped a threat.
Do you want me to mention how you tried to court other bird species? With petals stuck on your tail feathers? And that ridiculous dance you practiced—
[I’M SORRY, MOUNTAIN KIIIIING!!]
See? You believe me now, right?
[Yes… Mountain King… I believe you…]
He looked like he was about to cry.
Maybe I overdid it.
But I needed help, so proving my identity was important.
[Normally I’d go find the fox myself… but in this state, Jimjo, can you bring them here?]
[Why do you need the nine-tailed fox?]
[I have something to ask. And something to warn about.]
[Warn…?]
It concerns you too. Please go.]
Jimjo must have sensed the seriousness.
He nodded and took off into the sky.
***
Before long, he returned—with a black nine-tailed fox.
[Mountain King, you called—huh?]
The fox walked over lazily, then squinted at me.
A baby tiger? Jimjo, don’t tell me this is supposed to be Mountain King.]
[H-how dare you speak like that to Mountain King—]
[Puhaha! Don’t joke with me! Mountain King is huge and terrifying! This must be his kid. So he had a secret family? I didn’t think he had it in him!]
The fox leaned closer, amused.
[Hey little guy, where’s your mom?]
Like Jimjo, he didn’t believe it at all.
And his smug look made me not want to explain politely.
So instead—
I waddled up to him innocently, then bit his nose.
[…Huh? Did you just bite me? Cute. That tickles. Do you think that hurts?
He wagged his tail slowly, clearly unaffected.
Let’s see how he feels if I add a bit of spiritual energy.
“KYAAAAAAAA!!”
That scream… satisfying.
He hopped around in pain, all nine tails flapping.
He tried to pry me off and failed miserably.
Only after he started crying, apologizing loudly, and begging for mercy did I let go.
[Look at you—mocking me just because I’m smaller now. Should I really ask you for help?
[W-well anyone would think you were Mountain King’s kid—! Ow… ow… my nose…]
The fox covered his sore nose with his paws and sniffled.
[Anyway, Mountain King, why are you so small? And why is your energy so low?
[I want to know too, Mountain King.]
I sighed deeply.
Even I was having trouble believing what happened.
Would they even understand?
But… they’re alive this time.
So I have to try.
Judging from their presence, I must have gone back at least ten years.
Not a lot of time, but enough for a chance.
A chance I didn’t have before.
I vowed not to watch them die again.
Then I explained everything—
and it took a long time.
Even I struggled to describe what happened.
But they listened.
Seriously.
Carefully.
[…It’s unbelievable, but Mountain King doesn’t lie.]
Jimjo sighed, stunned.
[Maybe Mountain King awakened an immortal’s ability?]
The fox suddenly became thoughtful.
Both Jimjo and I blinked at him.
[Of course you never cared about these rumors, so you wouldn’t know. Jimjo, you’ve heard it, right? The legend among spirit beasts.]
[Ah! That one? Something like… when a tiger forms an inner core and becomes a spirit beast, they sometimes gain special powers like a celestial being…?]
[Right. So maybe Mountain King gained something like foresight.]
The fox rubbed his injured nose casually as he spoke.
[And besides—Mountain King has never lied to us.]
[Never.]
And no spirit beast is born already enlightened. Even if both parents are spirit beasts, right? They must survive long enough to form their core.
Exactly. Which is why it was weird. You look exactly like Mountain King, but I’ve never heard of him having offspring.]
[If Mountain King is telling the truth… then either he reached the realm of immortals, or an immortal intervened directly.]
