Chapter 80: The Spiral of Life (2)
The Mother Dog
Tick-tack-tack-.
The yellow-furred mother dog held her breath.
The tiger was running up the mountain path with her in its jaws.
The tiger's blade-like fangs were sunk deep into the scruff of her neck, making even breathing a struggle.
The mother dog thought it was fortunate, in a way.
‘If she breathed too deeply, the beast—’
‘The tiger would know she was still alive.’
‘And then—’
‘The pups in her belly would all die.’
It was a young tiger.
Its fra was large, but its hunting skills were crude.
Ordinarily, a tiger would grip the prey's neck and muzzle with its sharp claws and snap the neck by sheer force, or shatter the vertebrae to cut off its breath.
But this one had done no such thing.
With a hundred hunting dogs barking all around it, the beast had grown frenzied and clumsily bitten her neck first.
Not deep in the mountains, but all the way to the house where she lived with her master—
The very fact that it had chosen to hunt in a place swarming with hunting dogs was proof of its inexperience.
It was a beast that had never been properly taught by its own mother.
The mother dog went limp and watched for her chance.
Her belly rippled.
Birth was drawing close.
‘……Not yet.’
The mother dog closed her eyes.
The tiger's ragged breath heaved out.
The bitten neck ached as though it would snap clean off.
A mont later—
They arrived at a quiet reed thicket.
There was a sll of water nearby, as if a marsh were close.
The tiger entered the reed thicket, looked around, then set her down.
She felt the beast looming over her.
It seed to be deliberating whether to tear into her right now or wait a little.
‘……Please.’
The tiger bent low and licked a wound on its thigh—the one her master had put there with a spear.
‘A brave master.’
She had seen the tiger swipe him down.
‘He must survive.’
The tiger turned.
It had apparently decided to go to the riverbank first and drink.
The stripes disappeared into the reed thicket.
Flash.
Only then did she open her eyes.
She swept her gaze rapidly around.
She needed sowhere to hide.
She already knew she herself was finished.
‘But the pups—they had to see the light.’
Sniff-sniff-.
Sowhere nearby, there was the scent of rabbit.
‘A rabbit burrow!’
Rabbit burrows run deep.
If she could only squeeze inside, she could escape those claws.
But—could her body fit?
She did not linger long on the thought.
She hauled herself upright.
Drag-drag-.
No—her legs wouldn't move.
The mother dog crawled.
Her breath, already ragged, was agonizing where it mixed with the blood seeping from her torn neck.
There—the burrow was in sight.
The mother dog pushed on. The entrance was narrow.
When she forced her muzzle in first, she found that only the entrance was tight; inside, there was just enough space to press her body through.
She shook herself once to widen the opening.
Her swollen belly was the problem.
Please be safe!
The mother dog forced her body in. She felt the pups in her womb squirming.
As though they understood their mother's heart, they seed to curl a little tighter.
The mother dog entered the rabbit burrow.
The entrance crumbled and dirt rained down.
‘I have to go deeper.’
She burrowed further in.
Her body was wedged tight.
She worked for a long while to carve out space.
She could push in one step more.
Good—
CRACK!
Her haunches blazed as if touched by fire.
GRRRRAAAHH!
The enraged tiger had thrust its forepaw into the rabbit burrow and was thrashing it around.
Claws like fangs raked the mother dog's legs without rcy.
‘It doesn't matter.’
‘These legs—it can have them.’
The mother dog pressed her muzzle deeper in.
Forcing herself through the narrow entrance may have brought on the birth even sooner.
Her belly ached with a maddening ferocity.
‘Not yet!’
The mother dog writhed.
SLASH! The tiger's claw finally severed the mother dog's leg clean off.
* * *
I sprinted along the mountain path with the kennelmaster and 30 of his hunting dogs.
The dogs, as though sensing their master's urgency, led the way and cleared the path ahead.
They did not bark loudly.
They pressed their muzzles to the ground and followed the scent.
The blood the tiger had spilled pointed the way forward.
The kennelmaster adjusted his bow on the run and asked .
"Have you ever hunted a tiger?"
"Never."
"Most people think tigers live deep in the mountains, but that's a misunderstanding. They live more in marshes and reed thickets."
"……"
"It's about hunting ground. They choose places where there's food—deer, roe deer, that sort of thing."
"Good for concealnt, too."
The kennelmaster nodded at my words.
"Sharp. You understood straight away. Are you really sure this is your first tiger hunt?"
"It is. I've hunted bear, but……"
"I see."
Sothing oddly twisted hung from the kennelmaster's waist as we ran—a knot of so kind.
"What is that knot?"
"Ah, that……"
The kennelmaster patted the knot at his waist and said,
"A monk gave it to a long ti ago. Said it was paynt for a dog."
"What does it an?"
"The Spiral, he called it. He said life and fate twist and swirl like this knot, and that when you receive a kindness, you'll repay it again soday."
"……"
"Heh-heh-heh. Honestly, I have no idea what it ans. He didn't look like a con monk, so I wear it as a charm."
He held out one of the 2 spears in his hand.
"Take this. That hand-axe of yours won't do."
"You've seen what I can do."
"Which is exactly why you'll throw a spear even better."
I smirked and took the spear from him. It was well-balanced.
The dogs ran faster.
I picked up speed and asked him,
"This place has tigers. Why did you settle here?"
"The hunting dogs I raise aren't dogs that catch rabbits or birds. They're dogs that hunt real predators."
‘If you raise hunting dogs that catch tigers, you have to live near tigers.’
He continued,
"Even a fighting dog will wet itself when it ets a tiger. They instinctively shrink before the beast's stench, its crushing presence, its roar."
"So you acclimate them to it from birth."
"Exactly."
"……Brother, you don't seem entirely sane."
I spoke my honest feelings.
The kennelmaster heard that and laughed loudly.
"True. Ha-ha-ha! But then, the doctor doesn't seem entirely normal either. Chasing after a tiger to catch it."
"……"
I said nothing.
He said,
"Dogs are better than people."
"……I agree."
"I dislike people, and I love dogs—that's why I buried myself out here. Honestly, if I'd liked people more, I might've beco a man of the martial world."
"I don't think that's quite right."
"Why do you say that?"
I looked at him and said,
"You would have beco a kennelmaster who hunts n of the martial world."
"HA-HA-HA! That's a masterpiece of a line!"
He bellowed with laughter.
Buried beneath the roaring laughter, I could sense a quiet undercurrent of tension.
That was probably why he kept talking, too.
"Is there actually soone like that?"
"There is one."
‘……Wolfish Heaven Marquis. A madman.’
"Have you t him?"
"He died by my hand."
"HA-HA! That one's a masterpiece too."
He laughed again, as though he didn't quite believe it.
I asked,
"Do you think the mother dog is still alive?"
He set his laughter aside and answered,
"She will be."
"You sound certain."
"I raise over a hundred hunting dogs. There are fighting dogs among them, and ones that take down wild boar alone. Do you know who the leader of all those fierce creatures is?"
"I don't."
"That mother dog."
"……!"
"She'll be alive. Without fail."
The dogs grew faster still.
We quickened our pace too, and before long the kennelmaster raised his hand and stopped.
"Looks like the dogs have found sothing."
I looked ahead—the dogs had halted.
Growling low, staring into the reed thicket, they had clearly found sothing.
When I sharpened my gaze, I could see one corner of the reed thicket trembling faintly.
"There."
"Good eyes."
He gripped his bow. He said to ,
"Stay behind , Doctor. I'll drive the dogs in."
"Wouldn't it be better to surround it in a circle?"
"Rescuing my yellow girl cos first. We need to startle the beast and separate it from her."
He took the lead.
I fell into step silently behind him.
As we drew close, the tiger's sounds grew loud.
The beast was raging, leaping this way and that.
It was thrusting its forepaw into the rabbit burrow and thrashing, and at tis pressing its muzzle in and snarling.
Then the tiger yanked its muzzle back out of the burrow with a KYENG! sound.
A single newborn pup was clamped fiercely onto its nose and dangling there.
Amniotic fluid and soil caked its fur—
But the coat was golden.
It didn't even have teeth yet—how it had managed to bite the tiger, where on earth it had found such courage—it was simply astounding.
"You beast!"
The kennelmaster roared at the tiger at the top of his lungs.
The tiger flinched and snapped its head around—and in that instant its fur stood on end.
The tiger swept a forepaw across its face.
The pup flew helplessly through the air and dropped—thud—into the reed thicket.
The kennelmaster's face flushed red.
Around the tiger lay 2 pups already dead, and the tiger's forepaws and muzzle were drenched in blood.
"You little—!"
He drew his bow and loosed.
FWISST-! The arrow lodged in the tiger's flank.
But it hadn't struck a vital point—the tiger only flinched.
The beast fixed its lantern-like eyes on the kennelmaster.
GRRROOOOAAARR!
The tiger let out one roar, then launched itself at the kennelmaster who had shot it.
The kennelmaster raised his spear.
His stance and angle were poor.
A tiger faced head-on presented a narrow target. You absolutely had to engage it from the side.
"Don't—!"
Whether he didn't hear call out or was simply frenzied, the kennelmaster hurled the spear with all his strength—
But the spear flew with a FSSSSSH-! and rely grazed past the tiger's head.
The enraged tiger surged forward.
The tiger's jaws were about to clamp down on the kennelmaster's throat—
THWACK!
Blood sprayed, and the tiger was hurled in the opposite direction from where it had been charging.
Buried in its skull was the spear I had driven through it.
"Heok…… Heok……"
The kennelmaster, realizing in that mont he had nearly had one foot through the gates of the afterlife, stared at .
Sweat poured down his face like rain.
"Tha—thank you."
"Check on them first."
"R…… Right."
The kennelmaster gathered the fallen pups.
2 pups whose lives had ended.
He reached his hand into the rabbit burrow.
From inside ca one pup with brown fur.
And then—
The mother dog, already dead, was brought out.
She appeared to have died imdiately after giving birth. Both hind legs were gone.
The fact that she had fled the tiger into a rabbit burrow and managed to give birth regardless—it was nothing short of remarkable.
"……You worked hard."
The kennelmaster closed the mother dog's eyes.
Her neck was torn open, and her whole body was covered in claw marks.
"At least one survived."
He picked up the brown-furred pup and held it out to .
It was a female.
"There's one more."
I parted the reed thicket and gathered up that brave little pup—the one that had bitten the tiger and been sent flying.
A beautiful golden-furred creature. Along its spine ran a long claw mark left by the tiger.
"It's a male. Haah…… With wounds like these, I doubt it'll survive."
The kennelmaster let out a sigh.
I said nothing and drew Goldenseal Wound dicine from my chest and applied it, then channeled my internal energy into the pup.
The pup's ragged breathing eased noticeably.
‘It really does look just like Golden Poison.’
‘The coat, the wounds—everything.’
‘But it couldn't be Golden Poison.’
"……I'll look after it for a few days."
We returned to the kennelmaster's house. The dawn was breaking.
He buried the mother dog and the dead pups in a spot that caught the morning sunlight well.
The brown-furred female pup and the golden-furred male pup were put to the teat of another nursing mother dog.
Whether the Goldenseal Wound dicine was working well, the male pup whimpered a little before finding the teat and latching on eagerly.
I stayed 2 more days and tended to the pup's wounds.
‘Strange how attached I'm becoming to this little one.’
The kennelmaster took the dogs again, this ti bringing a cart as well, and ca back with the dead tiger loaded on it.
"I'll take it to market. Should fetch a good price."
"Good thinking."
"I'll use that money to get good at for the dogs to eat. The male should be all right now."
He picked up the golden-furred pup and held it out to .
"Take this one with you."
I gazed quietly at the pup.
As if it knew the debt it owed , the pup squird in the kennelmaster's arms, trying to get to .
I shook my head.
"You promised to give it to a certain young lord. Keep your word."
"This pup is one you saved. My life too."
"My connection with it ends here."
I had to get out of the tower.
Honestly, it was a sha—it looked so much like Geumdok—but this pup was no object to be carried out with .
Unlike the White Night Soul, it wasn't a reward either.
"If you truly feel that way, there's nothing to be done. Thank you."
Ting-!
【30th floor Mission Complete! A reward is given.】
—30th floor Completion Rewards:
① Golden Key Fragnt 1/10
② Jade Key Fragnt 1/2
"The Jade Key."
A new one had appeared following the Silver Key.
I'd find out what it was once I broke through the 40th floor.
I offered a light farewell and turned back.
* * *
2 months later.
The kennelmaster stood before the main gate of a grand estate in Sichuan Province that resembled a palace.
A naplate written in bold, surging brushstrokes caught his eye.
‘Sacheondang Family.’
He said to the guard keeping watch at the entrance,
"I have brought the dog you requested."
The guard glanced at him and stepped inside.
The gate opened, and the kennelmaster stroked the pup nestled in his chest.
The golden-furred creature—
Its bright, keen eyes surveyed the estate.
The pup perked its ears.
Cha-ra-ra-.
The sound of a child's laughter drifted over.
A boy, with a clear, untainted voice.
‘That must be the one who'll be its master.’
The pup sniffed and took in the scent.
It was in good spirits—it looked ready to leap out at any mont.
‘My connection with it ends here.’
The doctor he had t not long ago kept coming to mind.
The kennelmaster ran his fingers over the knot at his waist and thought.
'The Spiral of Life.’
‘When you receive a kindness, you repay it, they say.’
‘The life saved that was his.’
‘Perhaps the pup nestled in his arms would be the repaynt of that debt.’
"I'll have to tell them I won't take the money."
It was a great sum of 1,000 nyang, but he didn't begrudge it in the slightest.
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