Hunting and gathering are ancient human instincts. The psychological reward for succeeding in these endeavors is a time-honored one, passed down since antiquity.
I was no different. Having acquired something so precious through my search, I felt like I could fly. Not even the fact that this was the Abyss, the deepest chasm farthest from the sky, could contain my joy.
Besides, it had cost me almost nothing. I'd gotten all this with about as much effort as a dog bringing something back during a short morning walk.
I can't believe my luck that it was still here. It's a Level 3 state secret, which should have made it a top priority for disposal.
My mood soaring anew, I grabbed Azzy, the MVP of this recent harvest, and ruffled her hair.
"Aww, you're so cute! How can you be so adorable!"
"Woof! Woof!"
If someone suddenly hugged a normal person and called them cute, they would be on guard, wondering what the person was up to.
But Azzy was a dog, incapable of suspicion. Azzy, the King of Dogs, was purely delighted by the praise, even without any context.
After a few happy barks, Azzy turned to look at me and said, "So, you like walks now?"
"For today, at least, they're absolutely lovely."
"Woof? Lovely?"
"It means I like them a whole lot."
"Woof! Me too! I love walks!"
…Love?
Generosity comes from a full pantry, as they say. With my pockets full, I felt much more magnanimous. This little glutton actually looked cute today.
The two of us walked out from the wreckage, giggling and happy.
"That's right. Keep being a good girl like this from now on."
"I'm always good!"
"Good? Don't make me laugh. You've bared your teeth every time something displeased you. Grrrr, just like that."
"Grrrr?"
Azzy tilted her head, playing dumb as if she'd never done such a thing. No, maybe she wasn't playing dumb; perhaps she'd simply deleted the unfavorable memory. Dogs have no shame, after all.
Nice try. This human remembers it all quite clearly.
I bared my teeth at Azzy and made a growling sound. She just tilted her head, then raised her tail and copied me.
"Grrr, rr?"
"Exactly. Stop growling. Don't show your teeth from now on. And don't try to bite. Even if you have a complaint, just use your tongue. Got it?"
"Woof!"
"I'll take that as a yes."
'Don't show your teeth… only use your tongue… Don't tell me.'
It was just as I was having this serious conversation with a dog and stepping outside.
A chilling killing intent shot toward me from somewhere.
'Light clothing. Don't tell me, already? No, I followed her right down, so she couldn't have had the time.'
The Regressor was glaring at me with an icy expression.
Huh? Killing intent? Why?
While I was too stunned to react, the Regressor raised a hand behind her head. An invisible sword materialized in her fingers with a soft click.
'In any case, this is an attempted crime, right? Good. I'll kill him.'
"Wait, wait, wait!"
I grabbed Azzy's shoulders and pushed her in front of me. Oblivious to the fact that I was using her as a shield, Azzy stared blankly at the Regressor.
Hiding behind Azzy, I shouted frantically.
"I don't know what you're thinking, but it's all a misunderstanding!"
"What's a misunderstanding?"
"Everything! Starting with that shameless thought in your head, all of it!"
"Shameless? Me? Aren't you talking about yourself?"
"Yes, you! You, with your head full of filth!"
Shing.
Ah, she'd drawn Chun-aeng. I pressed myself tightly against Azzy's back and yelled.
"A filthy mind sees filth in everything! Your thoughts are the most impure of all! What in the world do you take me for?"
The Regressor answered with cold eyes.
"A beast."
"And that's what's strange!"
The Regressor was genuinely entertaining a terribly obscene delusion right now. It was so absurd that I felt more bewildered than wronged.
My god. I've been falsely accused of many things in my life, but this is my first time facing a charge of bestiality. And she's about to sentence me to death for a crime most people would either scorn or laugh off! From suspicion to sentencing, this is worse than the Military State!
Toward the advancing Regressor with her murderous face, I cried out with all my desperate sincerity.
"With a dog? Don't be ridiculous! What kind of person in their right mind would have relations with a dog?!"
The Regressor pictured several people in her mind. From what I could gather, they were probably people who had attempted to find love with a dog in some other timeline.
Dammit, does humanity lose its very soul as the apocalypse nears? The shame of our species. I put a hand to my forehead and yelled.
"I know! I know there are people in this world who are completely incomprehensible by common sense. But I am not one of them! I am a man of perfectly normal tastes, I assure you!"
"…You keep treating Azzy like a dog."
The Regressor pointed Chun-aeng at Azzy's shoulder, which I was still holding.
"Are you doing it on purpose, or do you really think that way?"
"What now?"
"Azzy isn't a dog. She's the King of Dogs, the king of beasts in human form."
Azzy looked back and forth between me and the Regressor with a blank expression. A girl with large, curious eyes, a face full of wonder, breathing hard as if she'd just been sprinting, with messy blonde hair.
On the outside, she looked like a slightly energetic, healthy girl. On the outside, that is.
But.
"Trainee Shei."
"Do you get it now? You keep treating Azzy like a dog. Azzy is…"
"Are you out of your mind?"
The Regressor flinched at my stern rebuke. I pushed Azzy further forward and shouted, and she simply moved as I led, her eyes wide.
"You tell me, Trainee Shei! Is Azzy a person?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"Answer me! Is Azzy a person? Is she beautiful?"
"Uh, well."
Faced with my relentless questioning, the Regressor muttered defensively.
"Sh-she has a human form, doesn't she?"
"Is that what I asked? So what do you think when you see her? Does looking at Azzy turn you on?"
"Turn me on?! O-of course not!"
"Then why are you spouting such nonsense at me when you feel the same way? Do you have no respect for my dignity?"
"Th-that's because…"
'Because you're unusually close with Azzy, and you're the only man here…'
You're suspecting me just because I'm a man? I'm so dumbfounded I can't even speak. Azzy is a dog before she's a female, a dog!
Wait a minute. Come to think of it, you're disguised as a man, too!
I was so bewildered it was starting to make me angry. Being of a passive and weak disposition, I usually let things slide even when I'm wronged, but I cannot tolerate having my morality and human dignity questioned. I, who prided myself on never straying from the category of a normal human being, was being compared to such a degenerate.
"Trainee Shei, listen carefully."
When anger reaches its peak, there is a moment when the head cools and reason returns. For me, that moment was now.
I let out a long breath that rose from the depths of my soul and began to speak calmly to the Regressor.
"Between a person who throws a ball at another person and tells them to fetch, and a person who greets another person in the morning and asks if they had a good meal, which one is normal?"
"W-well… The one who says good morning."
"You know that well. Then, between a person who throws a ball at a dog and tells it to fetch, and a person who greets a dog in the morning and asks if it had a good meal, which one is normal?"
"Th-that's."
'It's a dog, but still.'
So you know your own sin. How can you say that to me when you know it yourself?
My eyes blazing, I roared at the Regressor.
"Exactly! It's normal to treat a dog like a dog! The person who awkwardly says 'hello' and asks if it ate breakfast is the weird one!"
"B-but."
"You say Azzy has a human form? Oh-ho. Then I can assume you see Azzy as a person, right? That with those shameless, lewd eyes, you pretend to treat Azzy like an individual while secretly waiting for your chance! Am I right?"
"N-no! I'm not!"
"You're a man too, aren't you? Just like me! In fact, you're more suspicious than I am. Why are you always treating Azzy like a person, stalking her, and constantly wondering if there's some kind of relationship going on? Are you jealous or something?!"
"Of course not!"
"That's just what you say! Think back on your actions!"
'Ugh, if only I weren't disguised as a man…!'
The Regressor, still in her male disguise, was unable to refute my claims. Triumphant, I took a step forward, pressing my case. Azzy, who was being held by the shoulder, seemed to think it was a fun game and walked along with me, smiling brightly.
"See? You're the weird one here!"
Reason knows the answer. The Regressor knew it too. Logically, she knew whose words were correct, whose attitude was more rational.
Under my assault, which used nothing but pure reason, the Regressor stumbled backward.
"Woof?"
Of course, Azzy, who couldn't understand words longer than two syllables, let alone logic, just looked back and forth between me and the Regressor with a puzzled expression. This was proof that Azzy was a dog.
A dog is a dog. I delivered a stern rebuke to this Regressor, who had overlooked this obvious fact and gotten overly invested.
"Empty words spoken to a mere dog. You're the strange one for giving them meaning! Got it? I can say I love her a thousand times, ten thousand times! Because in reality, I feel nothing at all!"
But in that moment, I overlooked something crucial.
Azzy was a dog, but she was also the King of Beasts, a being chosen by the world to communicate with humans.
She might not understand the meaning of the words well, but she could hear them.
"Woof?! You… don't like me?"
"Huh?"
Azzy looked up at me, her large eyes filled with doubt. Her tail, which was always spinning, hung limply, and her ears, always perked up, drooped down.
Before I could even think, uh oh, Azzy spoke, her voice trembling.
"You… hate me?"
"Ah, well. Azzy, there's a lot to explain."
"Woof?"
Wait.
Hmm, hold on. Let's think.
The King of Dogs is a dog. I can't explain this with complex words. If I try to say we'll talk later, she won't listen.
In other words, no matter what I say here to corner the Regressor, Azzy will take it as the truth.
So, it's a matter of choice. Do I sacrifice Azzy's affection to further corner and tease the Regressor? Or do I maintain her affection and let the Regressor go?
…I have no choice. A moment of pleasure, or the future.
There was no other option. I couldn't ruin the grand plan for a moment of petty amusement.
Having made my decision, I spread my arms and beamed at Azzy.
"Of course I was lying. I actually like you a lot, Azzy."
"A lot?"
"Yes. A lot. There's no one else here as good and cute as you."
It wasn't entirely a lie. Compared to the terrifying vampire and the seemingly insane Regressor, she was much more helpful. I could even rely on her.
If only she could read the room a little better, if only she could have held on for just a little longer… it would have been much better.
But this too must be a characteristic of a dog. I had no choice but to accept it.
"You like me?"
"I told you I do."
Whether she was naive or just dumb, her mood changed in a flash with just a single word.
Ah, maybe it was both.
But it's an irony that humans find a sense of security in such imperfections.
As I was chuckling to myself.
"Woof! You love me?"
…Love?
Of all the times to ask this, why now when someone is watching? Did someone provoke you?
No, in the first place, who taught her the word 'love'? Who's the one teaching a dog useless words?
Oh dear, it was me for both!
Dammit. Crushed by a disaster of my own making. I suppose I have no choice. Since I brought this upon myself, I have to be the one to clean it up.
Forcing myself to ignore the cold gaze of the now-composed Regressor, I slowly nodded my head.
"Yes… I do."
I can say 'I love you' to a dog a hundred times. There are many people in the world who love their pets more than their fellow humans.
However, to do it in front of the Regressor, who was glaring at me with cold eyes… was incredibly burdensome.
Still, it was an unavoidable situation. I swallowed hard, and in the strangely serious atmosphere, I moved my lips that wouldn't part and managed to form the words.
"I love you…"
Her tail fluttered. They say words have no weight, but to Azzy, who accepted even such trivial emotions so grandly, it was like everything.
Azzy beamed and held out her arms to me. She leaned her body against me, entrusting her entire weight to me.
It was a sign of trust that dogs only show to people they are close to, a complete surrender of their body.
Pure affection filled her face. Smiling like a fool, Azzy's eyes curved into crescents.
"Woof! I like you too! I love you!"
"Right…"
I never thought I'd be whispering words of love to a dog in my life. Sigh.
Azzy leaped into my arms. With a trembling hand, I stroked her fur.
And as always.
'I really… can't let my guard down.'
The Regressor was now even more wary of me.
Ah, stop it. Don't look at me with those eyes. And stop fiddling with the hilt of your sword while debating whether to kill me or not. I'm not that kind of person.
I only like her as a pet.
'If that guy is a warden of the Military State as I suspect, and if he came to Tantalus willingly, then that would explain the power he possesses. I must be even more careful.'
Ah, and honestly, I get where you're coming from. I'd also be disgusted if someone proudly proclaimed they had relations with an animal.
But I have neither the desire nor the ability for that, and even if I did, you shouldn't try to kill someone over it. A death sentence for loving an animal? The sentence itself is bizarre.
No matter how I think about it, I can't shake the feeling that this is an overreaction…
'…An organization under the Military State's Special Task Force. A secret society that sought the destruction of enemy nations by controlling the Kings of Beasts according to the State's will.'
Uh, wait.
What? A secret society?
'The Human Regime. A group of experts in handling beasts, and discriminators who hate beastkin more than anyone. There's a high probability he belongs to them.'
Various images flashed through the Regressor's mind.
In an unrecorded past, she stood on a plain. A sword lighter than the wind was in her hand, but her heart was heavy.
The guilt of failing to stop the apocalypse. The powerlessness of being unable to change anything on her own. In this life, too, she had failed. Everyone by her side would die. But she would ultimately defy death, open her eyes, and set out to find a different future.
Beside the Regressor, a line of terrified people stood at attention. Cold sweat dripped from their palms and their eyes trembled with fear, but they dared not even think of running away.
If their opponent had been human, they could have begged for mercy. They could have pleaded for their families to be spared, even if they themselves died.
But the enemy coming to kill them this time was not bound by the rules made by humans. They had human forms, but they were not human.
The horizon wavered. The very axis of the world trembled. A frenzied stampede. Led by a few points, thousands, hundreds of thousands of beasts charged forward as if pulling a curtain behind them.
Their forms were varied. Some were four-legged, some two-legged. A few had human shapes, but with beastly ears or long tails swaying from their waists. Beastkin, the sons and daughters of a sin committed by humans in the past. The bloodline of beasts, born as humans but never treated as such, used what they had gained from humans to kill humans.
And before them stood humans who exuded an alien aura.
The Kings of Beasts.
Those who spoke for an entire species.
The Kings of Beasts are strong, but they do not project their power. They are, in the end, heralds of their species. They are the ones who convey the will of their kind to humans.
But, if the will of their species is to rebel against humanity, if the collective will to fight is firm…
The King of Beasts acts as an agent of their people's will.
And among their people, the beastkin who could no longer bear the persecution and harbored hatred took the lead.
Blood, flames, smoke.
Beasts, clad in iron and flame, attacked humans… Wielding weapons with unleashed savagery, they were nothing short of a catastrophe.
And the ones with the greatest numbers among the beastkin who betrayed humanity were…
The King of Beasts who led the absolute majority of the rebel forces was…
The rattling past receded, and reality rushed back to me. What I had just read was so vivid it felt as if the scene was still seared onto my retinas.
It was both the past and the future. An aspect of the apocalypse that the Regressor had experienced, and one that I, too, would experience if no variables changed.
With a trembling hand, I placed it on the head of Azzy, who was rubbing her face against my chest. Her wide, paper-thin ears twitched up slightly before settling back down.
The King of Dogs, pressing her weight against me with her mouth shut tight.
The paragon of pets, loyal and lovely to humans.
In a future yet to come, she was laughing, drenched head to toe in blood.
'The Kings of Beasts are chosen by the world. Even if I kill her here, the next king will just be born somewhere else in the world.'
Why had I overlooked it?
The Regressor's worries couldn't have been mere paranoia.
'As long as Azzy relies on him this much, I can't dispose of that man carelessly. It's hard to be certain he's part of The Human Regime, either. But in this situation, he has the highest potential to be the trigger for her rampage. There's no reason not to watch him.'
That makes sense.
Azzy's body was warm and soft. Her paws, gently curled so her claws were hidden, showed a consideration not to hurt me. She couldn't have done it consciously, so she must have instinctively avoided causing harm.
What on earth could have happened to make these gentle paws become so soaked in blood?
It seems the future is far harsher than I thought.