I yawned as my head warmed up.
“Kahang.”
With her mouth hanging open, Juicy went to her bed and fell fast asleep to the rushing suma.
***]
Trees and bushes with their green leaves glistening in the sunlight, the sound of a stream running, and insects chirping.
“……I’m in the mountains!
Juicy was startled, but quickly calmed down.
“Oh, of course I’m dreaming.
Juicy nodded, clearly bored and wanting to escape, even if it was only in a dream.
She looked around and saw a dense forest.
It was so vivid it was almost unbelievable.
Her eyes widened as she scanned her surroundings.
A child was sitting on a large rock near a ravine, crying.
“She must have been five or six.
As she approached, she saw a dark-haired child.
I felt sorry for the little girl as she buried her face in her hands and swallowed her tears without making a sound.
I thought a child should cry like a child.
“Why is the little one crying without making a sound, poor thing.
Just then, the child looked up and stared at her, and her eyes widened as their gazes met.
“Oh my God!
Juicy’s mouth dropped open in awe.
She was as beautiful as a flower.
The child was so delicate and pretty, blinking with watery, multi-coloured eyes.
The child was wrapped in a large cloak that covered her entire body, and her hair was so fine that it was hard to tell exactly what gender she was.
Juicy first ran to the valley to soothe the crying child.
She plucked a few flowers off the ground and eagerly gathered them with her forepaws.
“Chet. That’s bad.
Juicy grumbled, thinking that a tiger’s paws couldn’t do much.
Still, the flowers smelled very nice.
“If it cheers you up.
Juicy took the bouquet and held it out to the child.
The child’s watery red eyes widened.
“Are you giving it to me?”
“You have a nice voice.
Juicy nodded, smiling.
She hesitated, then accepted the bouquet, a blush staining her cheeks.
The smile on her face was so beautiful. She jumped up and down in circles, making me even happier to see my favourite child.
The child’s smiling face turned sour as she looked at me.
“Tiger, it’s dangerous!”
An urgent voice called out.
Juicy looked in the direction the child was pointing.
She frowned as she spotted something dark rushing up from the valley below.
“What is that?
It didn’t matter, this was a dream, an illusion.
But it was creepy.
What is that thing that’s wriggling and creepy?
Curious, Juicy took a step forward, and the thing ‘looked’ at her.
“You saw me?
The shapeless thing made eye contact with me, and I stiffened, feeling strange and scared.
Then it happened.
A beam of golden light poured out, forming a wall between the ominous thing and Juicy.
“No, tiger, you must never meet that thing. Get away!”
Juicy looked back at the child, her eyes wide.
“Did you do this?
An inaudible question.
The child cried out desperately.
“I’ll be there soon. You must be safe!”
She said something meaningless, and they drifted away together like mist.
“That’s weird.
Juicy turned her head again.
“By the way, I’ve seen that shadowy thing around a lot……. ‘I think I know it.
The afterimage in her head was so faint, it was almost as if it was tempting her to go closer and check it out.
Before she knew it, the black man had climbed up the ravine and was within a foot of Juicy.
A dark, evil being, sucking everything down into an abyssal hell.
“I’m sure, this guy has met me in a previous life.
“You…….”
Just as I was about to speak to him.
Boom-!
Suddenly, something large bit Juicy by the nape of her neck and snatched her away, breaking free and running fast.
Juicy was dumbfounded, having been bitten by something.
But when I saw the scary Saccaman chasing me, I got goosebumps.
I’m weak, and he’s incredibly strong.
His obsession with killing himself was insanity.
It was terrifying.
Why would he do that? Why would he want to kill me so badly?
‘…… Is this a dream?
I was terrified.
Juicy continued to run up the rugged mountain, clinging to someone, glaring at the man who was after me.
The scenery around me was shifting and rushing, and I was dazed.
I wondered how long I’d been running.
Juicy’s jaw dropped in amazement when she saw who had set her down.
Silvery fur, large body, black stripes, piercing blue eyes, and a raised brow.
It was an enormous, graceful white tiger, dwarfing me in size!
The white tiger stared at Juicy for a moment, then suddenly took off at a fast trot somewhere else.
“Ah!”
That’s when a real human sigh came out of Juicy’s mouth, not the squeak of a white tiger cub.
But Juicy didn’t have time to wonder about that.
Because not long after the white tiger disappeared, a blanket of white snow began to fall on the mountain in the middle of summer.
***
After a nap, juicy groggily opened her eyes and looked around.
This is the Empress Palace, in her room.
The green forested mountains, the white tiger, the pretty child, and the strange midsummer snowfall were all dreams.
‘Of course it’s a dream…….’
But it was so vivid that it stayed with me, and I lay there, dazed, long after I woke up.
It felt weird.
I got out of bed and saw the mirror.
There was the tiger cub, wearing the bonnet Sophie had given me earlier.
She was as pretty as a doll.
“Hmm.
Juicy couldn’t wait to grow up.
It was frustrating to be protected as a cub even though she was an adult in spirit.
At first, she took it easy.
Even if you’re a white tiger cub, animals grow up.
But Juicy’s growth was slow and seemed to have stopped altogether. She was still very small, like a month-old cub.
‘I heard that white tigers are naturally fragile and slow to grow, but…….’
Thud, thud, thud.
Sullenly, juicy walked to the corner of the room, dropped her head, and sulked in the corner.
It was then. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside.
“We have received a telegram that His Majesty the Emperor is coming to the Empress Palace in a hurry!”
Everyone panicked, but after exchanging a glance, they all prepared to receive the Emperor under the leadership of the head maid.
The room was tidied up in a familiar and quick manner.
As she watched them hastily arrange their clothes and wait at the door, juicy curled her lip.
“The sound is that way.
Juicy’s gaze drifted to the terrace.
Boom!
As Juicy had predicted, the Emperor had opened the door to the terrace, not the door that led from the corridor to the room.
“Huh!”
“Your Majesty!”
The Sioux, who had been so engrossed in Juicy that they hadn’t heard the sounds from outside, hastily aligned themselves with the Emperor’s appearance.
His hair, cut short near his neck, was blond, shining like the sun.
The emperor was a strikingly handsome man, with deep golden eyes of a scarlet hue and a chiselled jaw.
He stood nearly two metres tall, but his broad shoulders and well-defined muscles gave him perfect proportions.
It was a testament to his strength and superior physique, blessed by the tiger god Ganash.
“The honour of Penterin, Your Majesty.”
Lythain Dester Penterin.
The 35th Emperor and father of the White Tiger Empress Jussi.
As he stepped into the room, people reflexively bowed deeply at the waist.
The ruler of the Eastern Continent had a commanding presence. His temper was known to be belligerent, sharp, and cruel, and everyone feared him.
Inherently, a Penterin imperial water spirit emitted a tremendous sense of power, causing ordinary water spirits to feel nauseous, collapse, and burst into tears when faced with him.
“Hmph.”
Emperor Li Tie fluttered his black cloak and quickly turned his pupils to search for someone.
His golden eyes, sharp as if searching for prey, caught sight of a white tiger cub whimpering in the corner.
With its rump up high and its head stuck in the corner of the wall, Emperor Rithain watched Juicy for a moment before letting out a short, hollow cough.
“Aha, hmmmm.”
He then spoke in an affectionate voice that didn’t match his size and majesty.
“Where has my little one gone? Don’t you see her?”
Everyone stiffened like statues.
