My senses are good. Of course, by senses I don’t mean things like sight or hearing.
A sense I can’t quite define—what people call intuition.
My intuition has always helped me.
When I read ancient languages I didn’t know, when I searched for the path I needed to take, and when I gauged an enemy.
My intuition was always right.
And now.
Crack.
In a situation comparable to the catastrophe of an ancient ruler hatching, my intuition was thrashing about as if my feet were on fire.
My heart pounded as if it might burst out at any moment, and my vision narrowed endlessly until all I could see was the black egg.
Golden hairline cracks slowly spread across it. The sight was like a treasure chest slowly opening.
Of course, I had no way of knowing whether it was a chest full of gold and jewels, or Pandora’s box.
Thud.
A quiet sound cooled my feverishly burning head, which had no idea what judgment to make. It was the sound of my own footsteps.
When I slowly lowered my gaze to look at my feet, my left foot had moved backward.
It must have been an instinctive movement. The instinct of a person trying to look away from the danger before his eyes.
But… I could not choose the simple, clean option of avoidance.
I knew it intuitively. Running away would not solve this problem.
The presence I had felt when the egg absorbed my mana. That was not the kind of creature one could deal with by fleeing.
And so, I was faced with a situation where I could neither advance nor retreat—a true dilemma.
My head screamed with horrible noise as if a war had broken out inside it, but even that soon stopped.
Crack. Crack.
Even as I thought, the egg continued hatching, and the brilliant golden light grew brighter and brighter.
Splash!
Golden liquid flowed down over the black shell. And I knew intuitively.
The ancient ruler was about to emerge.
I simply closed my eyes. Thinking that everything was now over.
“Uuugh!!”
I tensed my entire body, bracing myself for the impact, but…
“Uuuu…?”
When no pain came as expected, I began to cautiously open just one eye.
And what I saw was an overwhelming form worthy of an ancient ruler….
“Ppi?”
…Not that. It was something like an Eastern dragon about the size of a cat.
Long, slitted golden vertical pupils.
Dense ink-black scales that looked like armor.
And a white halo like a crown floating above its head.
If that had been all, it might have felt quite intimidating, but….
Its appearance was like a lizard whose legs had been shortened a little.
Its way of moving was to float through the air like a balloon.
And it had a plump body.
“Ppiii….”
Even its cry was feeble.
ㄴTruth Scholar: …Gasp! It’s so cute!!
ㄴEducation Master: …Could you possibly give me just one?
My intuition had made every fuss it possibly could…. But when the final result looked like this, I was dumbfounded.
It had threatened me with all sorts of warnings, saying it had the power to destroy the world!! No, then what exactly was that fragment I saw?
“Ppiiing?”
“…Phew, I’ll head back for now. I tested the rifle’s power, after all.”
My head was a mess, but for now I decided to return to the submarine.
There was no reason to stay outside, and the egg that had been… an enormous problem had hatched, too.
Turning around with footsteps that felt five times heavier, I headed for the submarine.
Thud. Thud.
Only the sound of my footsteps echoed through the city.
“Ppii!”
“…Why do you keep following me?”
The ancient ruler… in other words, Haeasha, kept toddling after me.
Since it floated through the air as if swimming, it barely made any sound.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Maybe it sees you as its parent? They say a child first born from an egg thinks the first living thing it sees is its parent.
“Come on, surely not. A species that was supposedly an ancient ruler wouldn’t be that easy….”
“Ppii?”
Mm, thinking about it again, if it was this kind of creature, maybe that could happen.
Its cry was “ppi,” so maybe it really could think the first living thing it saw after being born was its mother.
And… it looked cute. Cute enough that I kind of wanted to take it with me and raise it.
“But what does this thing eat?”
ㄴTruth Scholar: Who knows? Why not try giving it some meat?
Meat…. The only meat that came to mind right now was cyclops ham.
Since it was emergency food, I had quite a bit stored in the submarine. I should at least give it that.
After arriving at the submarine, I immediately took out some ham and placed it in front of Haeasha.
Haeasha stared intently at the ham on the floor, then sniffed it. Had it confirmed there was nothing wrong with it?
Chomp, chomp.
It ate with its nose buried in the ham. Then it raised its head and cried.
“Ppii.”
“…You don’t like it?”
“Ppi.”
Looking into Haeasha’s eyes, they were eyes that said it tasted awful. If I had to compare it to a person, they were the eyes of someone who had only eaten dry chicken breast for a meal.
“…Among the food I have right now, the jerky is the best.”
“Ppii….”
It seemed like it was sighing. Was that just my imagination?
Fortunately, however, one regular commenter stepped forward and said they would donate food to me.
ㄴEducation Master: I’ll give you some food. In exchange, please show that little one a lot.
Education Master was a regular I had seen quite often on stream. I remembered their reputation in the gallery being fairly good as well.
Naturally, I accepted Education Master’s gift. In the first place, since it was following only me around, it would naturally appear whenever I turned on the stream.
A box appeared before me, and when I opened the packaging, it contained various kinds of meat.
Haeasha, who had been floating beside me like a balloon, seemed interested in the meat and moved closer to the box.
And soon.
Chomp, chomp, chomp!
It began enthusiastically bringing meat to its mouth. Until its already plump body became even plumper.
“Ppiiii…”
After devouring half the meat in the box, Haeasha soon patted its belly with its short arms as if satisfied.
With leisurely movements, Haeasha cut through the air and entered the submarine.
“…Does it think this is its home?”
Watching it go in without the slightest hesitation, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had been chosen.
When I even returned to the submarine, I saw Haeasha floating in the air with its eyes closed, asleep. It looked truly peaceful.
Seeing that, a yawn came out on its own. After all, by surface standards, it was around 2 a.m. right now.
Normally, I didn’t feel that tired even at this hour. But today had been unusually exhausting, with big incidents like training, making the rifle, and Haeasha hatching.
“…Do the people watching right now not have work tomorrow?”
ㄴTruth Scholar: It doesn’t really matter for me, so I’m fine!
ㄴEducation Master: I actually do a lot of work at night, so…
ㄴIai Sword Saint: I sleep once a month.
Except for the Sword Saint, they seemed like fairly reasonable reasons.
Truth Scholar was, well… probably some rich unemployed person, and Education Master was maybe a tavern owner? Something like that.
“Yes, well. I’ll be ending the stream now. Everyone, sleep well.”
ㄴTruth Scholar: By any chance, have you thought about streaming 24 hour—
Click.
It seemed like Truth Scholar was trying to say something, but it probably wasn’t anything important.
“When I turn off the stream, all the chat disappears too….”
Muttering that to myself, I entered the submarine.
I charged Eoseollujeun, stared curiously at Haeasha floating in the air, and lay down in bed.
Thinking that today had been a truly exhausting day, I let my consciousness sink deep.
***
The time when the sun finished its work and returned beneath the horizon. Night. As the sun symbolized God, the bright daytime was full of vitality.
But… just as a coin has a front and a back, day and night were different from their very appearance.
All races were reluctant to move at night. In broad daylight, God’s eyes might reach them, but at night, unless one was a saint, God did not look upon them.
In other words.
Please… please, just spare my life….
A man in black clothing begged for mercy in a trembling voice.
On his chest was a yellow badge showing that he belonged to a merchant company.
Then a hand covered in scars roughly tore that badge away.
A merchant from the Rejetik Company, of all places. Why would you be coming in and out of here?
A chilling voice came from someone whose face was covered with black cloth. At the sound of that voice, the merchant’s shoulders trembled even harder.
The masked person paid the merchant no mind and continued speaking.
Boys, search it.
Yes, sir!
A group that seemed to follow the masked person ransacked the carriage thoroughly.
A bandit gang—the worst group a merchant could encounter.
Naturally, the merchant had brought escorts. However, the bandits had slaughtered the merchant’s guards in less than an hour.
All the merchant could do was close his eyes and pray to God.
Please, help me.
At that moment, a muffled voice was heard. A high-pitched voice, as if speaking with cloth wrapped around the mouth.
“Banditry in imperial territory. You’ve got some nerve.”
Drip.
The merchant felt hot liquid splash onto his cheek.
You fucking—
Crunch.
How dare you do that to boss—!
Slash.
Every sentence was cut off halfway. The sound of bones shattering and muscles being crushed piled up like harmony.
And soon, every sound fell silent.
The merchant slowly opened his eyes. And he could see that person.
A tiger….
“Are you injured anywhere?”
A black scarf was wrapped around her, so her mouth could not be seen, but her orange eyes were visible.
Ears with black and orange fur mixed together rose above her black hair. And a drooping tail could be seen between her thighs.
The merchant realized that this woman was a member of the empire’s public order unit, the Tigers.
“Do you need an escort?”
A-Ah, no, no! I’m grateful enough that you spared my life!!
The merchant waved his hands and refused. Being escorted was good, but the cost was unimaginably high.
The woman called Tiger immediately ran off elsewhere.
She raced swiftly through the ever-changing forest, maintaining public order.
Then.
“…The sun’s up.”
Morning had arrived. Since she was someone who got off work in the morning, the sight of the sun naturally made her yawn.
As she slowly made her way home, she fiddled here and there with her tight-fitting clothes.
“Why does this cling so much…?”
While grumbling about her work uniform, she was drawn by a cluster of light that appeared before her eyes.
[Aurora has started streaming.]
She put off returning home and turned on his stream.
Then she immediately left a comment.
ㄴEducation Master: Hello! Is Haeasha doing well!?
She focused, her tail moving violently.
Because the title of this stream was:
[Deep-Sea Escape Log, Day 13: Haeasha is coughing;;]
***
I was now facing a serious situation.
Because Haeasha had coughed.
You might ask what the problem with a cough was, but….
“What is this…?”
The problem was that its cough killed a cyclops.