184 – A Quiet Cat #3

184 – A Quiet Cat #3

The gigantic cat spoke like a person.

But? That’s not what’s truly important right now.

My gaze was locked on the enormous centipede.

「Name: Millennium Centipede」

「Description: A centipede that has cultivated itself for a thousand years, aspiring to become a dragon. However, due to its wicked heart, it ultimately failed to ascend and instead became a malevolent fiend. After being devoured by a strange cloud, it became even more ferocious.

Possesses: 《Mind Reading Lv.4》- Pierces through the human heart like transparent glass.」

I see, that explains it.

So, this is something that Inying must have picked up and spat back out somewhere, eh?

Inying has been regurgitating what it ate in various places, all in an attempt to revitalize Earth’s ecosystem.

Mainly animals, from what I’ve seen.

And that’s why this Earth is teeming with creatures.

While some of them are wondrous, like unicorns, there are also rotten sorts mixed within.

“You need a scolding, don’t you?”

*Phat!*

I kicked off from the ground and slammed my fist into the centipede’s body.

*Kwaang!*

─*Kkweeeeeeeek!*

The centipede writhed, letting out a wretched scream.

Absolutely disgusting!

The centipede wasn’t just taking it, either.

*Fwooosh-*

As if staining its body a baleful red-.

─Fire Style, Fire Dragon Bullet!

*Hwaaah-*

Flames erupt from the centipede’s maw in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, it blanketed the temple.

*Crackle, crackle-crackle-*

The fog around the temple must have been flammable, for the fire grew too fast.

It was disconcerting, to say the least.

Come to think of it, didn’t Fox Nuei once say that a great fire broke out in Gangwon Province, causing the extinction of the “Giant Mushrooms”?

Perhaps this gigantic centipede was the cause.

A fire-breathing centipede, scorching the Gangwon mountain range to cinders.

To think it would burn the nature I so diligently cultivated and nurtured.

Unacceptable.

I must nip it in the bud.

And so, I was composing myself, preparing to unleash a greater technique, when…

─Namjin, help me! It’s too hot!

─Namjin! Save me! aaack!

From within the raging flames, voices, achingly familiar, reached my ears.

Even for me—no, perhaps *because* it was me—it was a moment of disquiet.

The most immediate emotion was longing.

Had so much time passed, that various emotions had been eroded and weathered by the flow of time, leaving only longing behind?

It was that very feeling that made me falter.

Seizing that moment, the gargantuan centipede’s tail, tipped with its venomous stinger, lashed out at me like a whip.

Is it the centipede’s strategy to ambush when its target is off guard?

Getting stung by that would definitely sting.

I braced myself, resolving to take the blow with as little pain as possible, when…

“You’ve crossed a line you shouldn’t have.”

Yu Yeoreum, who had been watching the flames beside me, flared with anger like the fire itself.

“I won’t forgive you for toying with people’s hearts.”

It was as if the fury I’d lost had been stored away within Yu Yeoreum.

A tingling, stinging sensation—

Yeoreum’s anger practically burned against my skin.

─*Kweh-ekk!*

The centipede froze at the sound, a resonant tremor that shook the very air.

No doubt it sensed the danger to its existence.

*Hwaaah!*

Yeoreum’s entire body blazed with light.

“Maximum Output—”

It shone with such brilliance that it swallowed the flames and the mist whole, resembling either the very essence of her name, ‘Summer,’ or perhaps a dazzling sun risen upon the earth.

So intense was the light that I feared my eyes would be blinded, even when squinting and shielding them.

“Summer Beam!”

*Kwaaa!*

A searing beam of energy erupted from Yeoreum’s form.

So powerful was it that the centipede vanished without a trace in the intense heat, the beam continuing on to bore a hole clean through the mountain range.

Such strength as to alter the very landscape?

It was Yeoreum who now inspired dread within me!

“…Blindingly beautiful.”

Even the monk, his vision lost to the radiance, voiced his awe.

And so, thanks to an incandescently furious Yu Yeoreum, the centipede chaos within the mist came to an end.

━*Kyuiiing*—.

━*Iing*—.

Then, as if from nowhere, Iing-iing and Doom’s Cloud appeared, showering rain upon the flames, extinguishing them.

Though the temple was reduced to ashes, they had at least managed to prevent the burning of the Gangwon mountain range.

Truly, they are Iing-iing.

Their effectiveness is undeniable!

That aside—

“You, did you say a person spoke just now?”

I asked the giant cat, who was busy licking the Iing-iing without pause.

And then, the giant cat spoke.

“Myaaong.”

Very suspicious.

Did I mishear?

“So, what are you planning to do now?”

I asked the monk, looking at the temple that had been completely burned down.

The monk then touched the blackened ash with his palm and said softly,

“I have to rebuild the temple. Here.”

“You could leave this place and come with us.”

“…There’s someone I’m waiting for. At this temple of fate…someone I desperately want to meet….”

The monk said he would rebuild the temple alone.

Who could it be that he wanted to meet so badly, even if it meant such hardship?

While I was briefly speculating, Yu Yeoreum, who in some ways was even more blunt than me, added,

“Probably the child you gave birth to, right? A daughter you were separated from in your childhood. A child you left at an orphanage and never visited.”

“…….”

“The voice I heard in the fog was your voice. The centipede was mimicking the voice that remained in my deepest subconscious.”

Was that it?

I hadn’t known.

Yu Yeoreum noticed something I hadn’t, even with my ’emotions’.

That means, this woman is Yu Yeoreum’s….

# # #

The girl was always hungry as a child.

So, on Sundays, she would always go to the large supermarket nearby.

Because she could eat delicious things little by little by going around the supermarket’s tasting corners.

However-.

Going around the tasting corners of a large supermarket required more courage than a young girl might have expected.

Going around the corners, tasting food without buying anything, was quite embarrassing.

“Hey, would you like to try this too? It’s a newly released dumpling.”

But the women at the tasting corners were kind and even encouraged the girl to try this and that.

“It’s delicious.”

“Right?”

Of course, the girl’s stomach, rumbling with *rumbling*, still showed no sign of filling.

But the hole in her heart had filled with a sort of quiet contentment.

“Mom, they’re selling dumplings over there!”

“Our Namjin wants dumplings, does he? Should Mom make you some ketchup dumplings? You got first place on your exam this time, so Mom will put some extra effort in!”

“Ugh! Please, stop putting ketchup in everything!”

“Look at you, you like it. Come here! I’ll pat your head for you!”

“Agh, my hair!”

Just then, the girl’s gaze landed on a family.

Families pushing a large cart together as they shopped.

The way they laughed and talked looked so warm.

She realized in that moment that some hungers could never be filled, no matter how diligently she sampled at the tasting corners.

From that day on, the girl didn’t go to the mart.

Instead, she would imagine herself holding her mom and dad’s hands, pushing a cart through a large mart.

Though, eventually, she stopped even imagining that.

“When you first came to this temple— I thought it was just another auditory hallucination brought on by the fog. But you were real….”

The woman, smaller than she expected and with eyes that seemed to see nothing, shuddered.

Was she crying?

The girl felt a pang of anger.

But she didn’t want to be angry.

The girl couldn’t understand her own heart.

There were so many things she wanted to say, but if she had to say just one thing….

“To be honest, I resented things a lot. I was different from everyone else. I don’t think I had many good things happen to me in my life. But…. right now, I’m grateful that I was born into this world, and that I’ve lived this long.”

The girl’s life had been nothing but hard.

As hard and cold as ice.

But now, as she grew into a young woman, her life was shining like a summer day under the scorching sun.

“Mom, thank you for giving birth to me. I don’t know what reason there was for us to be separated. But living in this world, there were many good things that I experienced, thanks to being born.”

The girl hugged the woman.

“…….”

Though the woman’s eyes could not see, she saw the image of her daughter shining brighter than any star.

Just like a summer sun.

Parents, they were like that.

Wishing for their child to shine like a single star in the darkness.

Of course, the woman couldn’t dare speak her daughter’s name, nor call herself ‘Mother.’

Yet, some bonds, they could not be severed, not even by the sharpest blade of time.

“I’m sorry. I was very sick back then… I had surgery, too…”

The woman had much she wanted to say, but in the end, she closed her mouth.

After so many years, the warmth they shared, the mother and daughter meeting for the first time, it was enough.

36.9 degrees.

A body temperature slightly warmer than most – the same for both of them.

In that moment, the girl became an adult.

The large hole that had been carved into her heart, it wasn’t filled completely.

But there was still time to put things into it, one after another.

A large cat, for instance.

“Ta-dah!”

As the large cat leapt into the air, a girl with white-silver hair appeared.

The girl in the white dress, a child suited for a straw hat, embraced the summer in which she became an adult.

“The rules say I’m not supposed to say anything, even if I meet my mom… But Mom, I’ve always wanted to say this. Thank you for giving birth to me.”

Her words, so mature for a child, took the summer aback a little.

But the little girl’s body temperature, too, was a slightly warm 36.9 degrees.

“And I hate Dad! My friends tease me, saying I have three moms! Dad’s a womanizer! A sea squirt! A sea anemone! An alpaca! But… even though he’s such a bad dad, I love him.”

“You are quite the darling.”

# # #

The long night and the foggy dawn had passed, and at last, the morning sun rose.

During that long time, Yoo Yeoreum and her mother spoke.

Along with the girl who had been a large cat.

What the three women spoke about, I have no way of knowing.

I could only look at the burnt-down temple and click my tongue in regret.

It was such a magnificent building.

I wonder how long it will take to rebuild.

Though, it might happen faster than I expect.

Doesn’t matter if it isn’t built quickly.

Some things, their meaning lies in the long hours and devotion.

“The Temple of Fate?”

Indeed, a magnificent name.

Whoosh-.

I closed my eyes gently, feeling the wind that swept past.

It was at that very instant.

Rustle-.

The passing wind felt like it was stroking my hair.

Like that touch I’d felt whenever I topped the exams back in the day.

The sensation of being praised for a job well done.

Making a man’s heart prick with a tear or two.

“……”

When I opened my eyes, the wind was gone from sight.

A little disappointing, but wind is originally such a thing, isn’t it?

When I get back to the hut, should I have some ketchup dumplings?

I’ll get Bbangdaengyi to make them for me.

No, it would be better to ask Seo Gaeul.

Bbangdaengyi is too good at cooking; they wouldn’t taste right.

Seo Gaeul, who’s miraculously terrible at cooking, is better.

Some dishes, their meaning arises only from their lack of flavor, see?

“Mom and Cat-Noi are staying on the mountain a little longer. They want to find more ‘Giant-Growth Mushrooms,’ apparently. For reference, this is a ‘Giant-Growth Mushroom.'”

Already noon, and as we descended the mountain, Yoo Yeoreum picked up a thick mushroom in her hand.

The appearance, a white body topped with a red cap, was quite extraordinary.

About the size of a soccer ball.

“Cat-Noi says its real name isn’t ‘Giant-Growth Mushroom,’ but ‘Adjustment Mushroom.’ It apparently has the power to let you adjust things like size and strength. Cat-Noi is so strong that she wishes she could eat this and weaken herself a little.”

I see.

But something was nagging at me.

“Cat-Noi, though. Isn’t that a bit of a haphazard name?”

Inonoi, Baonoi, even Yeounoi, fine.

But a Catnoi?

It’s the only one with five syllables.

Yoo Yeoreum scratched her cheek.

“The real name is a secret. There was a name I always wanted to give a daughter, if I ever had one. Catnoi is probably it.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you now. Catnoi says so. Knowing too much about the future isn’t really a good thing. Sometimes, it’s the not knowing that makes it fun.”

“Listen to you, Yoo Yeoreum, spouting such wise words.”

Yoo Yeoreum was clearly the strong one of us all. And now, it seemed, she was also the wisest thinker.

That very Yoo Yeoreum spoke.

“There’s another mushroom I want to find. It’s supposed to grow inside a cave somewhere on the mountainside. I want to take that one too. Will you help me?”

“Sure, why not.”

Time was plentiful.

I also wanted to try offering this ‘unconditional kindness’ I’d learned from Yoo Yeoreum.

And so we entered the cave, but inside, there was nothing at all.

Just a bunch of boring-looking stalactites.

“…Huh? Where’s the mushroom?”

“It’s here. The mushroom. Get undressed.”

“Wha…?”

Wait a minute, this development is─!?

I said, stepping backward.

“Yoo Yeoreum, you little vixen! You tricked me! Ghyaa! A quiet cat climbs the stove first! I never thought you would deceive me!”

“You tricked me and kidnapped me first, didn’t you? Someone told me there’s this thing called equivalent exchange in the world.”

That was a fair point.

There’s give and take in life.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Anyway, the quiet cat climbed onto the stove.

The question, then, is why does a cat climb onto the stove?

Because the stove is warm.

That warmth, a comforting 36.9 degrees.

It was the sweltering temperature of summer, caught between the warm breath of spring and the cool sigh of autumn.