Episode 43
Brody had seen the effects of red cedar sap many times when she lived in Clock Rabbit Village.
The Clock Rabbit Village was located in a mountain valley where people could not easily visit, but sometimes predators that took the wrong path would appear and wreak havoc on the village.
Occasionally, they would realize that it was the Clock Rabbit village and, coveting their mystical abilities, would lead a group to attack.
She had seen cases where adult males in the Clock Rabbit Village, who were badly injured and fell while fighting such predators, miraculously recovered within an hour after drinking red cypress sap.
So Brody wasn’t as moved or surprised as the others when she saw Eileen’s complexion quickly return.
Still, seeing people happy made Brody’s heart warm.
Kyle and Brody were about to leave as soon as they finished their work.
It was because they had already wasted an entire day that should have been spent on the trip and were anxious.
However, Shiloh and the White Fox Tribe could not let their benefactors go like this and captured the two.
“You should stay here tonight, have a meal as we haven’t had one in a while, and take a break. If you leave like this, I’ll feel too guilty.”
“If that eases your guilt, I’d rather decline.”
“I’ll prepare plenty of meat.”
“…”
Hearing Shiloh’s pleas, Kyle’s eyes, which had been as firm as steel in the beginning, suddenly shook violently at the word ‘meat’.
The sun was already setting anyway.
Even if they left this place right away, they would have to find a place to sleep soon, so it was almost the same whether they left now or just slept here.
Eventually, Brody decided to stay the night with a hungry Kyle.
The village of the White Fox Tribe was a residential area where everything was tailored to humans.
So the two of them transformed into their human bodies for the first time in a long time.
Brody went out wearing warm fur clothes with the help of the tribe’s women.
But in front of the tent where Brody came out, there was another man, instead of Kyle, standing. It seemed like he was waiting for her.
He was a tall, handsome young man with silver hair as white and transparent as snow, just like the other members of the White Fox Tribe living in this village.
‘He is so handsome!’
Brody’s mouth almost fell down when she saw this handsome young man.
But her reason was faster than that.
The raised corners of his eyes as well as his lips that curved up as soon as he noticed her were giving her a strange feeling.
Just when she was starting to think that he looked very similar to someone she knew, she heard a familiar voice from the man.
“Hello?”
“!”
It was Shiloh.
Hello? She was almost startled to death, but no matter how good looking he was, she wasn’t crazy enough to overlook what he did to her.
“Annoying.”
Brody’s heart sank when she realized that the person in front of her was Shiloh.
Her disappointment and resentment toward Shiloh, who had recently tried to kill her, remained unresolved.
So Brody, who came to her senses late, ignored the beauty queen’s attack and turned around with a snort.
Shiloh approached Brody and spoke to her in a playful tone, as if trying to appease her.
“What the heck, Brody. You are much prettier than I thought.”
Brody didn’t even pretend to listen to his compliments, which were so obvious they were almost cliché.
“Aren’t you like a fairy living in the forest?”
At his action of placing a hand on her head, Brody turned around as if to shake off the hand.
Then she clenched her teeth and glared at Shiloh with resentful eyes.
Shiloh met those angry eyes and smiled.
It was a somewhat bitter smile.
Soon he put aside his idle words and offered her a sincere apology.
“Sorry.”
“…”
Hearing the apology, Brody suddenly remembered all the times she had spent with Shiloh.
Ever since they met in the belly of the whale, he had been her confidant, he had made her happy with his jokes and pranks, he had brought her crowberries, and he had comforted her broken heart when she fought with Kyle.
And this morning, he confessed that it was all a trick to lure her in to kill her.
What hurt her when she looked back was that Brody truly treated Shiloh as a friend, but it was a different story for him.
Shiloh opened his mouth quietly as he saw Brody’s eyes, once filled with resentment, turn to sadness.
“I didn’t always intend to kill you.”
He was telling Brody that not everything he had said or done so far had been a lie.
Then, as if reading Brody’s mind that he was making excuses, Shiloh added:
“Of course, it’s your choice to believe it or not.”
Brody tried to retort pointedly that she didn’t believe him, but she saw Shiloh’s bitter smile and remembered him standing next to Eileen earlier.
The sight of him desperately holding his dying mother and calling her silently weighed heavily on her heart.
Maybe she had become numb to these situations after hanging out with Kyle, who was using her to save the woman he loved.
Brody couldn’t just ignore his apology this time, just as she had helped Shiloh save Eileen in the end.
From the beginning, she might have been a rabbit that couldn’t harden her heart.
She sighed at the sight of herself gradually becoming a pushover
With that sigh, the anger in her eyes looking at Shiloh also disappeared.
And the quick-witted fox quickly noticed the change and asked her.
“Are you forgiving me?”
“No way.”
“Then?”
“It’s not forgiveness, it’s leniency.”
He looked at her silently as if to say it was the same, but Brody said it was completely different.
So Shiloh, agreeing to her heart that had settled on leniency rather than forgiveness, nodded without pushing the matter further
“Then while you’re at it, why don’t you tell that person to be lenient with me too?”
“What are you talking about?”
Brody turned to where he was pointing. Behind her stood Kyle, who had just changed his clothes.
Brody, who came face to face with a truly handsome man of her ideal type, quickly forgot about Shiloh and ran towards him.
“Kyle, when did you come out!”
Her tone of voice changed. It was a tone that seemed to fill the listener’s ears with sweetness.
Brody’s movements of running towards him and clinging to his arm were exactly the same as when she was a rabbit.
Shiloh, who was laughing out loud at the unexpected synchronization, suddenly froze at Kyle’s intense gaze looking at him.
When he was a wolf, his facial expressions were not visible, so his emotions were often read through his eyes.
But now, Shiloh was embarrassed to see Kyle using all his facial muscles to show his displeasure towards him.
Even in Shiloh’s eyes, Kyle was clearly better built and more handsome than any other man, enough to make Brody follow him around like a charm.
If a male vs. male fight were to take place, it seemed unlikely that any man would be able to beat him.
Fortunately, Shiloh had no intention of competing with him as a male, so he just muttered while caressing his neck.
“Ahem, my throat feels a little sore….”
On his neck, the fang marks Kyle had left earlier were clearly visible.
He had intentionally shown it in the hopes that he would see the wound and let go of his anger, but the response he received was very cold.
“You should live your life counting yourself lucky that you didn’t have a hole in your neck.”
Seeing Kyle talking fiercely until the end, Brody grabbed his arm, signaling him to stop.
Shiloh, who nodded silently to Kyle’s words, soon spoke to the two people with an indifferent expression.
“Okay. I won’t do anything stupid to you anymore, so don’t worry and just go rest. I’ll help you prepare for tomorrow morning so you can leave safely.”
Shiloh asked to be allowed to do just that, then left with a smile.
***
The White Fox Tribe celebrated the day their leader recovered and also welcomed their honored guests by catching the animals they were raising for that purpose.
The number of livestock they caught for today alone was over a hundred.
People living in the harsh forests never threw away anything from a freshly caught animal.
Because of this, there was a custom of drinking blood, which contained essential nutrients, that everyone did regardless of age or gender, and there were even some people who kept the liver and ate it raw.
“I wonder if anyone would say I’m a fox…”
Unlike Kyle, who accepted everything they gave to him, Brody hid far away and shivered in fear at the sight of the blood feast.
“Hey! Miss Rabbit, you too, come and have a drink.”
Brody shook her head in surprise when she heard that and people burst into laughter.
After slaughtering a large animal, they piled up firewood in an empty lot, lit a fire, and grilled the meat.
As night fell, people gathered around a large, brightly lit bonfire, filled their bellies, and enjoyed a banquet.
Among such people, Brody and Kyle shared a meal, with a map spread out under the light of a wood fire, and discussed their plans for the trip.
“Then you guys are going back down south starting tomorrow?”
In response to Shiloh’s question, Brody put down the meat she had been fiddling with and answered.
“Yeah. We plan to leave this forest tomorrow morning and go to the Rubinus Wilderness.”
Brody said the name ‘Rubinus’ without thinking and bit her lip.
She realized that she had been so insensitive to mention the name of the one who had harmed his mother in front of Shiloh.
But Shiloh spoke to Brody as if it was okay, with a look of concern on his face.
“Are you planning to go through the wilderness of Rubinus? It’s going to be quite difficult.”
The wilderness of Rubinus, where the Red Fox Tribe lived, was very hostile to foreigners, unlike the forests of Ennea.
So, the border of the wilderness was lined with spells cast by the red fox witches to prevent the intrusion of strangers.
“But there’s no way around it. The fastest way to get to Roden’s Valley, Kyle’s hometown, is through the wilderness.”
Brody traced the forest of Ennea on the map she had spread out, then slid her finger down the southern wilderness of Rubinus, drawing a straight line to a place called the ‘Valley of Roden’.
But the moment her fingers penetrated the center of Rubinus’ wilderness, Shiloh frowned.
“You guys are not planning to cross Volcan, the capital of the wilderness, right?”
“Mmm.”
Brody nodded as if it was obvious. But Shiloh said with an embarrassed expression.
“Brody, I’m sorry, but right now, outsiders can’t enter Volcan.”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
