Chapter 5: Polar Bear

I was a cool and strong wolf.
My young and small body had suddenly grown in an instant.
My line of sight was now higher than not only my body from my past life but even my older sister’s.
My chest too.
It was the first time in a very long time since my reincarnation that I felt like I was looking down on the world.
Feeling like a giant, I looked down at my older sister with a sense of euphoria.
My sister, who was looking up at me, didn’t seem to care that I had grown taller than her and gently stroked my head, cooing at how cute I was in her soft voice.
“Aigoo, my cute Seol-ah.”
“No! I’m cool!”
“Yes, yes.”
How could she call me cute even when my body was so big.
This was ridiculous.
As I let out a loud whimper, a ‘kyang,’ the world suddenly changed.
“Huh?”
My huge body crumbled like a sandcastle before a wave, and I instantly returned to my original form.
I hurriedly lifted my head to see my sister looking down at me, her expression cold and emotionless, unlike her usual self.
“Sister?”
“Seol-ah.”
My tail twitched and trembled.
My sister’s voice was incredibly cold, unlike how she usually spoke to me.
For some reason, her blue eyes that usually looked at me so warmly were as cold as ice…
My sister looked at me and said.
“Did I tell you not to wander off to strange places when you go outside, or did I not?”
“Ah, no, that’s…”
“Don’t change the subject. Did you do something wrong, or did you not?”
My sister scolds me.
Then, before I can even answer, she lifts me up.
“Uh, Sister?”
“You did wrong, so you need to be punished, right?”
My pants are pulled down.
My sister slowly raises her hand.
And then—
“I’m sorrryyyy!!! Waaaaah!! I’ll listen to you from now on!!”
I woke up from my sleep.

“Seol-ah!”
“Hwaeng?”
Crunch, crunch.
The snow that had piled up overnight, blocking the entrance, collapses.
Light seeps into the dark den.
My tail perked up, and I peeked my head out of the hole.
The one who broke open the den… was an immensely large man with bear ears.
“Gasp… Mr. Polar Bear!”
“What on earth are you doing here!”
Overjoyed, I burst out of the den with a ‘papak’ and leaped towards the man.
My body clung to the mountain-like man’s arm with a smack.
Mr. Polar Bear, as his title suggested, was a polar bear beastkin.
For reference, his name was Buk Geukgom.
His family name was Buk, and his given name was Geukgom.
He was a man who lived alone in a house he built far from the wolf beastkin village, and he was the person I had planned to visit if I hadn’t gotten stranded here.
But to think he came looking for me!
“Hello!”
“Hello, my foot! Do you know how much trouble I went through to find you!”
The man’s cheeks were flushed red.
For beastkin with maxed-out cold resistance to get like this, he must have been outside for an unusually long time.
Feeling just a little bit sorry, I said.
“Well, you see, some arctic fox stole my popsicle, and I got lost chasing after it…”
On second thought, I’m not sorry.
It’s all that stupid fox’s fault.
I did get to sleep warmly thanks to that fox, but I was stranded in the first place because of her, so it’s a zero-sum game.
Hmph.
“An arctic fox?”
“Yes! Right over there… huh?”
I turned around to point at the fox, but for some reason, the fox who had endured the night with me had vanished without a trace.
When on earth did she disappear?
It’s not entirely impossible that the fox was scared of my very wolf-like appearance and ran away while I was asleep, but I remember hugging her tightly in my sleep, so she probably didn’t run away then.
Then could she have slipped out when Mr. Polar Bear broke open the entrance?
“Did you happen to see a fox?”
“No… There was a fox?”
“Yes… She must have been really fast!”
To escape without Mr. Polar Bear noticing…
That sly little fox.
Mr. Polar Bear is strong.
Of course, he can’t compare to a pack of wolf beastkin working together, but with the immense brute strength unique to polar bear beastkin, he knows how to smash everything in his path.
When you’re strong, you’re usually fast too.
Despite Mr. Polar Bear’s kinetic vision being far from ordinary, the fox had somehow managed to find a gap and escape.
Wasn’t she scared?
To see that e-e-enormously large body and not be terrified while running away.
Anyway, what’s done is done, so I climbed onto Mr. Polar Bear’s shoulder and said.
“Alright, let’s go!”
“…Where do you think you’re going changing the subject? You have to be punished for making me work so hard!”
Thwack!
The man’s hand chopped down on my head.
It hurts!
“Waaah!”

“Mr. Polar Bear, how did you find me? I was hiding in a den!”
“How did I find you?”
I rubbed my head.
I definitely had a bump.
That aside, I was curious about how he found me.
I had dug a den and hidden deep in the forest, and my footprints should have been covered by the snow that fell overnight, so how on earth did he find me?
I worried that maybe my den-digging skills were just shoddy.
But my sister even praised my skills!
“I don’t know. I just walked wherever and found you?”
“Eheh, what kind of answer is that.”
“I just felt drawn to a certain place. And besides, you were sleeping with your tail sticking out of the den.”
“Really?”
Gasp.
To make a mistake like that!
I quickly wrapped my tail close to my body.
Mmm.
It was warm.
“Where are we going now?”
“We have to go to your house. Do you have any idea how much your sister pestered me yesterday, asking where you were?”
“Of course I don’t!”
How could I know if no one told me.
I said, placing my hands on my hips.
And got bonked on the head again.
“Kyang…”
Who hits someone in the same spot again!
Meanwhile, Mr. Polar Bear walked through the snowy field with me on his shoulder.
Looking down from such a high place at the forest I had run through chaotically yesterday with a low point of view while chasing the fox felt strangely new.
Hehe, I feel like the king of this forest.
Roooar.
I let out a quiet roar towards the sky.
—Grumble.
At the same time, my stomach also roared.
“Are you hungry?”
“Ah, yes… The only thing I’ve eaten since breakfast yesterday was that one popsicle…”
“Then let’s go to your sister’s later, and head to my place first.”
“Really? Then does that mean… I can eat that super big piece of meat?”
There’s an incredibly large piece of meat at Mr. Polar Bear’s house.
I don’t know where he catches it, but it’s a piece of meat much bigger than my own body.
I wanted to eat it, but he always told me to eat at home and wouldn’t let me, so I never even got a taste, but maybe…!
“You’ll only eat a mouse-sized portion anyway, won’t you?”
“That’s not true! I eat a lot!”
A wolf is a predator, and predators eat a lot.
Isn’t that just common sense!
“Sure. Well, do as you please.”
“Yahoo!”
I raised both arms high in the air and cheered.
Mr. Polar Bear started walking forward again.
His large frame was advantageous for walking, and with just a few strides, he achieved a speed that I would have to sprint at full power to match.
“Mister.”
“What.”
“I went on my first hunt yesterday.”
“You did?”
“Yes!”
This was the story I had originally planned to tell him yesterday.
It was time to tell him my grand hunting tale.
“I caught a huge rabbit there. My sister told me that I caught it by biting it like this, chomp! Isn’t that amazing!”
My nose lifts with pride.
My tail rises proudly.
My chest puffs out on its own.
Hehe, even thinking about it now, I was so amazing.
The man asked.
“‘She told me I caught it’? What’s that about? Didn’t you catch it?”
“Actually, the rabbit attacked me first! So I fought back and won while my mind was a bit hazy. I fainted right after catching it, so I don’t remember, but my sister remembered everything and told me!”
“…Uh, um. I see.”
My cheeks puff up at his lukewarm reaction.
Does he hunt such large prey that a rabbit seems like nothing to him?
I tapped his head and complained.
“Praise me more! It was my first hunt! And it was a giant monster rabbit, bigger than my own body!”
“Alright, alright, you’re so cool. Happy now?”
Fufufufu.
The praise makes me feel good.
I spread my arms wide and said.
“On my next hunt, I’m going to catch something bigger than a rabbit. Something so big it’ll surprise you!”
“Okay… But don’t do anything reckless. Your family will worry.”
“Don’t worry!”
*
A log cabin built in the middle of a snowy field.
It’s the man’s house.
Whether it was because he built it alone or was too lazy to do it properly, the exterior walls were a bit rough, but he didn’t seem to mind.
As I stepped inside, a fire was lit in the brick fireplace.
A wave of warm heat washed over me.
And along with the heat, a certain smell wafted through the air.
“Meat!”
“Wait a moment.”
The man sat me down at the table, gave me a plate, and then brought out a giant piece of meat from somewhere.
It was a chunk of meat bigger than my own body.
My curiosity about what kind of meat it was lasted only a moment.
The man sliced the meat and placed it on my plate.
It was small.
“Is this all? Give me more!”
“You can’t eat it all.”
“I can eat it all!”
To become a strong wolf like my sister, I had to eat as much meat as she did.
To do that, I needed to be able to devour that much meat in one go.
“Haaah.”
The man sighed and cut just a little more meat onto my plate.
This is all he gives me.
I decided to devour the meat at once to show the man my huge appetite.
“Ueeeh… I’m full.”
“I knew it.”
I couldn’t finish it.
As I sat in the chair rubbing my round belly, someone threw open the door and stormed in on the man.
“I told you to find Seol-ah, so why are you slacking off here…!”
“S-Seol-ah?”
It was my sister.
“Sister!”