Meanwhile, Jin Siwon looked back and forth between the two, rolling his eyes this way and that before smiling.
“It’s going to rain.”
“……?”
“Raaain?”
Serhi and Geuru looked out the window at Siwon’s words.
It had definitely been a clear day, but no sooner had he finished speaking than raindrops suddenly began to fall, one by one.
Even when Geuru asked how he had known, Siwon only smiled.
*
It rained all night.
Geuru had stayed glued to the window, worried that the ground where the acorns had been planted might all get dug up.
“Look at this. They’re already sprouting.”
Strong, the acorns. Supreme acorns that pierced through wind and rain.
In every spot where just yesterday little mounds of soil had risen, sprouts were now showing their faces.
Since this was the first time she had ever tried growing anything, Geuru crouched in front of the sprouts and watched them closely, fascinated.
When she imagined these tiny sprouts growing into trees as big as Geuru, her heart began to pound.
“They’re fast as hell.”
Serhi crouched beside Geuru and lightly poked a sprout’s leaf.
Since he had lied about having done farm work before, he didn’t show it, but seeing sprouts emerge was a fairly unfamiliar sight to him as well.
Just then, Cheche approached and subtly settled down beside Serhi.
“Jjwijjwing!” (Please eat!)
Cheche placed several pieces of fruit in Serhi’s arms.
“……?”
Then, leaving Serhi frozen there with the fruit in his hands, she quickly scurried away.
“……What the hell.”
Serhi frowned as he watched Cheche’s retreating back.
He looked down at the fruit with a troubled expression.
He knew that bringing food as an offering was a typical courtship method among animals.
Serhi rubbed a peach against his clothes and handed it to Geuru.
Geuru accepted it with both hands and bit into it.
“Yellow Geuru. How do you say ‘I fucking hate you’ or ‘We’re different species’ in squirrel language?”
Munch, munch. Geuru’s squirrel language was terrible—what should she do? After thinking for a moment, Geuru asked,
“Umm, but what does fucking mean?”
“The highest-level intensifying adverb in Korean.”
“Oh—”
Geuru was just opening her mouth to try using the new word.
“Fu—”
Jin Siwon, who appeared at just the right moment, covered Geuru’s mouth.
“That’s a word Geuru mustn’t learn. You absolutely, absolutely must not repeat it.”
Geuru blinked. Siwon removed his hand from her mouth and asked gently,
“Understood?”
“Yees.”
As if satisfied with her answer, Siwon stroked her head.
Then he quickly turned his head and smiled at Serhi with an expression that might have appeared in a thriller movie.
“……?!”
Serhi, bewildered, tilted his head.
“Geuru, let’s go inside and change your clothes. We have to go out.”
Leaving Serhi as he was, Siwon took Geuru’s hand and went into the house.
What they had to do today was go out and shop.
Geuru had been very surprised to hear that a primitive society like this had a market, but Cheche had told her that the squirrel tribe was the only tribe this underdeveloped, which made Geuru a little sad.
Now that she looked, the clothes and daily necessities did seem rather modern.
“It rained last night, so the wind is a little chilly. Our princess should dress warmly.”
“Yees.”
Siwon pulled a hat snugly over Geuru’s head, then tied the wings attached to both sides of the hat into a ribbon under her chin.
Her ears got folded. As Geuru swished her tail back and forth, Siwon seemed to remember something and said,
“Ah, I made holes for your ears too. Try taking them out.”
“Yees!”
Geuru wiggled her ears. Her ears popped out through the holes in the hat, one after another.
“Is it comfortable?”
Nod, nod.
When Geuru smiled bashfully, her ears perked up and down, and her tail swayed.
Hah! Jin Siwon clutched his chest. He lifted his masterpiece up and showed it to Serhi.
“Isn’t she cute?”
Perk! Sway!
Geuru moved her ears and tail while meeting Serhi’s eyes.
Serhi looked around in confusion, then pointed at himself.
“Are you asking me?”
“Of course.”
Perk! Sway!
Serhi, looking a little embarrassed, said in a small voice,
“Yeah, she’s cute as hell.”
Jin Siwon frowned and said gravely,
“Where did you learn Korean? On a farm?”
“Yeah.”
He had learned it on an online farm where humans fought battles for recognition with their keyboards.
“I have a Korean textbook I used. I’ll give it to you when we get out of the dungeon. It’s from a language institute, so you can learn proper Korean.”
“Isn’t what I’ve got now fucking enough? Isn’t telling me to learn it again totally over the line?”
Siwon asked back with a grave expression.
“Should I just introduce you to a language institute?”
Is my Korean really that bad? For the first time, Serhi began to feel doubtful about his Korean expressions.
*
‘What do they call this in Korea again?’
Serhi racked his brain as he leisurely followed behind the two.
Since Geuru still couldn’t hide her ears and tail, the group looked like squirrels no matter how you saw it.
Because of that, he could clearly tell what position the squirrel tribe held here.
For example, even a tray of eggs that had been sold to a deer beastman for 5 dong earlier was sold to Geuru’s group for 7 dong.
‘Was it untouchables?’
They used squirrel language instead of the common beastman tongue, only the squirrels were unable to humanize, and the acorn farm was isolated far away on the outskirts of the village, so he had sensed that they were cut off. But he hadn’t known it was to this extent.
“If you spray this just once, pests and diseases disappear completely. Birds won’t come either, so you don’t even need to put up scarecrows. On top of that, the nutrients in here are excellent. It’s got rooooyal jelly in it, you know. You know, the stuff only queen bees eat. If you use this, the trees and the fruit become sturdy. All the new-generation farmers are using this these days. You can’t farm without it.”
Serhi narrowed his eyes and looked at the merchant running his mouth at the stall.
Spray it once and pests disappear, and royal jelly does what now?
This bastard was a scammer, wasn’t he?
The beastmen around them snickered as they passed by.
Once it became clear that this guy was ripping off ignorant outsiders, Serhi’s face twisted in irritation.
“I see.”
But the vacant-looking man nodded seriously.
“I seee.”
The four-year-old standing beside him went without saying.
“Should we buy it? He says it’s an essential item.”
“Should we buy it? For strong acorns.”
Siwon and Geuru turned to Serhi and asked at the same time.
Even if they knew nothing about farming, shouldn’t they at least have a feeling? Were they really this lacking in life skills?
“It’s obviously a scam no matter how you look at it!”
What essential item, what strong acorns! As Serhi snapped, a snow leopard’s tail popped out.
Seeing it, the scammer sucked in a breath.
“A-A snow leopard?”
Immediately, the beastmen in the market began to murmur.
“Eek!”
“Why is someone from the snow leopard tribe here?”
It seemed the snow leopard tribe’s position was probably at the very top of the pyramid.
Serhi swallowed his irritation and deliberately swished his tail.
Raccoon whiskers popped out on both cheeks of the tense merchant.
Serhi tapped the stall with his foot.
“Raccoon, why don’t you stop scamming people?”
“I-I’m sorry! Lord Snow Leopard, I’m sorry!”
The raccoon scammer bowed deeply and apologized.
“Get lost.”
When Serhi jerked his head to the side, the man fled with his tail between his legs.
And Siwon and Geuru, who had watched the whole scene, could not hide their admiration.
“As expected of a former farmer!”
“Supreme farmer!”
Standing side by side, the two gave him a big thumbs-up.
Serhi frowned. His head started to hurt.
‘What am I supposed to do with these stupid squirrels? Is harvesting acorns even possible?’
After that, since the group continued to face countless threats of being ripped off, Serhi simply walked around with his tail out.
Then the merchants became afraid of the snow leopard and even gave them discounts.
“This originally comes to 10 dong in total, but I’ll give it to you for 8 dong specially!”
Oh! Geuru’s eyes sparkled.
“Thank you.”
“Yayyy!”
Siwon gave the merchant a brief nod of thanks, and Geuru looked at Serhi and brightly raised her fist.
How ridiculous. Serhi let out a small laugh.