Chapter 116: Taming a Fantastical Creature (2)
Okay. It’s working.
Furtively and swiftly.
Lloyd moved, sliding forward at each step. He was holding the blue sunflower seed in his hand. The target was King Storma, who was going rampant in front of him.
It’s worth trying to feed King Storma the blue sunflower seed.
Lloyd was certain that King Storma was a fantastical creature, and it was evidenced by his understanding of the latter’s language. But Lloyd postulated that King Storma had a different nature from his own summon partners. Ppodong and Bangul were normally small until they ate a red sunflower seed and grew gigantic for a certain period of time. Whereas King Storma was different. He was gigantic on a regular day, and the blue sunflower seed was needed to keep him small for some time.
It’s plausible enough.
Or not. If his speculation turned out wrong, then he could always come up with another alternative.
I’ve got a lot of options in my hands. Retreat, or suppress, or kill if I’m all out of options. And it didn’t look as though this one had an owner or anything.
Lloyd was actually surprised to find out that a fantastical creature he didn’t summon existed in this world. But that hardly mattered. After all, what really mattered was that this monster was a fantastical creature and hinted at the chance of being tamed. That was all that mattered.
A little more.
King Storma was going wild to catch Javier. Lloyd narrowed the distance, slowly wading through the waist-deep water to get closer. Just then,
“Bibeong?”
King Storma snapped his large and round head to his side!
“…!”
Lloyd immediately ducked down, plunging deep into the water head below. The water above his head above rippled. Lloyd could see from underwater that King Storma staring at him as the latter glanced around. Just when Lloyd wondered if he was caught…
Kaboom! A mana blast came from the other side, brushing King Storma’s head. That made him focus back on Javier.
“Bibeo-beong! Bibeong!”
King Storma went wild again as he created a blaring and crashing noise. Lloyd drew a sigh of relief as he watched the back of King Storma in the water.
Woah. That beaver is more sensitive than I thought.
It was seriously dangerous a while ago. If Lloyd had been slow to react and failed to hide underwater, King Storma might have found him and attacked.
I should approach him underwater.
From then on, Lloyd started to approach King Storma by slowly crawling under the lake. He occasionally came out of the water to breathe. As he did, he direly wished for Javier’s success.
Javier! Please! Make him focus only on you!
Of course, Lloyd didn’t have telepathic powers. As such, his dire wish wasn’t shared to Javier, not an inch of it. On the other hand, Javier was thinking the following.
Master Lloyd is risking his life this time again.
Javier wished that would not be the case. But his wish wasn’t granted.
He’s always like that.
In retrospect, Master Lloyd was always like that. It was the same case when he dueled with Sir Neumann to restore order in the fiefdom, when he entered the cave of wild ants, and when he rescued the civil engineers from the hands of the dark mage Lupellan.
His words betrayed his actions all the time.
By now, Lloyd’s pattern was obvious to Javier. He said he despised taking risks and acted brazenly that he would never do it. But his action was…
When the most dangerous moment came, he never hesitated to be in the front.
It was just like now. He never tossed any responsibilities to someone else and took on all the risks himself. Lloyd Frontera, his young master, was the paragon of a person who proved himself through his actions.
So I suppose my role for today is this.
Javier resolved to make sure that his young master would not solely bear all the risks to himself. Whatever threat came along the way, Javier determined that he would take them. Another mana blast was emitted, and this time, it was more forceful. He continued to provoke King Storma, but he realized that he had to do more. King Storma could whip around at any moment and discover Lloyd coming in his direction. So Javier came up with a plan to up his game and draw King Storma’s attention more drastically.
“Bibeong!”
Crash!
His front leg crashed down on Javier, and he evaded swiftly, distancing away from the beaver.
“Hmm…”
He inhaled heavily. But it wasn’t to use the aura or emit a more powerful mana blast. No, not at all. After drawing in a large amount of air, he hollered at the top of his lungs.
“Bibeong!”
His mana-loaded shout rang aloud in the air, shaking up the entire lake area. It was as loud as King Storma’s roar. Could it be because of his shout? King Storma froze, and he appeared flustered. It was because what Javier had shouted a second ago meant “Mother” in King Storma’s language.
“Bibeong? (But I am not your mother. And besides, I’m a male who’s been single for the past couple hundred years!)” said King Storma after stopping.
Javier then pointed at him, and he shouted once again, with greater mana this time.
“Bibeong! Bibeo-beong! Bibeong!” Javier shouted.
Of course, Javier didn’t know how to speak King Storma’s language. And thus, he didn’t know what he was saying. He simply yelled. But to King Storma, this human friend made sense. “It’s going to rain tonight! Why?! I don’t have sauce on my tonkatsu!” King Storma was dismayed.
“Bibeo-beong? (Are you okay? Are you sick or anything?)”
King Storma was dismayed. This bad person who ruined his dam started to talk gibberish all of a sudden. Soon, dismay began to develop into nervousness. It was obviously the case. Imagine having your door kicked and shoved one day by a rude neighbor. Then when you open your door in anger and complain to him, he starts to talk senselessly. You realized that he was not in the right mind. The frustration would soon evolve into nervousness and fear. That was exactly what King Storma was feeling.
“Bibeong? Bibeo-beong? (Can you not fight me with the right state of mind, just like a while ago?)” King Storma sincerely asked.
To this, Javier replied, “Bibeong! Bibeo-beong! Bi-beo-beong! Bibeong! (It’s sad to hula dance with a metal chain around you! It’s good to bleed your nose! Since I am cute!)”
“Bi… beo-beong?” asked King Storma.
“Bibeo-beong! Bibeong! Bibebeong! (So the king said! I tear up sometimes! I love you, braised beef!)”
“Bibeong, Bibeo-beong?”
King Storma was dismayed to the hilt. And he started to think.
Bibeong. Bibeo-beong.
This human has definitely lost it, King Storma thought to himself as he wondered if he should continue this fight. He waffled whether he should appease this man to knock some senses back into him. The more King Storma pondered hard, his whole vision and nerves focused on Javier and him only.
Good. This is working.
A mischievous smile formed on Javier’s face, and he stole a glance as he continued to holler gibberish. He saw Lloyd, who was already climbing King Storma’s tail slowly and sneakily.
Good. Very good. Just keep this up!
Lloyd cheered Javier through his gaze as he climbed King Storma’s tail with more vigor. Feeling like he had morphed into a tick, he climbed far and high until he finally arrived at King Storma’s head.
“Bibeong?”
It was only then that King Storma noticed something strange. So he snapped his head up, but it was too late.
Now!
Jump! Lloyd leaped high from the crown of his head, flinging his body in the air as he gazed downward. Lloyd saw King Storma turning his way, and their eyes met.
“Bibeong…?”
King Storma’s mouth gaped wide, and Lloyd tossed the seed right at it.
Swish! The blue sunflower seed left his hand, and as it was hurled straight, it drew a fastball trajectory. Since King Storma was dazed and frozen for a second, the seed went right into his mouth.
Gulp!
“Bibeo-beong?”
King Storma gulped the seed by reflex. And…
Boom!
He became small at about four inches tall.
Splash!
“Bibeong…?”
He instantly grew small in size. He was soon submerged in the water, which flustered King Storma. He felt chaotic.
Bibeo-beong? Bibeo-beong?
All he did was gulp something small that was tossed into his mouth, and now the whole world grew gigantic around him! Everything around his view of the lake water appeared colossal. It was a first for King Storma to see a swaying water plant bigger than him. The same went for a fish that swam by him and for a frog that hopped away in surprise. Everything looked about his size. And…
“Got you!”
“…!”
Swoosh! A grip plunged into the water to grab him in a flash. And it lifted him up.
“Bi, Bibeong!”
King Storma fiercely resisted, just like the time he chopped ten trees in one stroke and smashed a rock with his buttock. He fought and jerked and turned with power. But nothing changed. It was useless, and he couldn’t wrench himself off the grip. And the world that appeared around him… looked so vast and grand!
“Hey, have you given up now?”
“…!”
King Storma followed the arm that stretched from the grip, and it felt grand and marvelous, like the mountain range. Over it, he saw the face of a human that covered the sky. He saw the man’s dark hair dripping with water and his eyes resembling a full moon. King Storma felt stifled and hopeless. It was shocking to see an organism larger than him. And then, it hit him. It wasn’t that humans grew gigantic. He had grown… small.
“Bi, Bibeong! Bibeo-beong?! (What did you do to me?!)” yelled King Storma in a hurry.
Then King Storma noticed the man shrug.
“What did I do to you? I made you small.”
“…!”
Another shock. Was it because he confirmed that he got small? No.
Bibeong? Bibeo-beong? (Wait a minute, did I just understand what this human said? How is that even possible?)
King Storma was at a loss. This had never happened before. He searched in his memory if there was a time he understood humans. It has never happened ever since he fell into this world.
Bibeong. Bibeo-beong. Bibeong.
No one called him. No one gave birth to him. He just came to exist one day as though he was dropped from the sky. And so he lived, survived, grew, and existed. Of course, he had never met up with his kind ever before. He never thought a kind like him existed in this world, so he never imagined that he could converse with another creature. That was until he met this human who was right in front of him.
“Hey, you. You can understand me, right? Right?”
“…”
Gulp. King Storma looked at Lloyd in disbelief. Lloyd’s face lit up.
“Aha. Yes, you can. You can understand me.”
“Bi, Bibeong. Bibeo-beong.”
“Yes, I can understand you as well. So, how about we settle down and talk?” suggested Lloyd.
“Bibeong?”
“Whew. I’m beat. Let me just take a seat for now.”
“…”
“Where should I start? How about I tell you to relax a bit? I have no plans of hurting you.”
“Bibeo-beong?”
“I mean it. I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
“Bibeong…”
“You don’t trust humans?”
“Bibeo-beong. Bibeong!”
“What? You’re going to trample me if I don’t let you go now?” interpreted Lloyd.
“Bibeong!”
“Um, but that would be problematic. I’ve grown much larger than you, but I do not have you under my foot. So, how about we put an end to this fight?”
“Bibeong! Bibeo-beong!”
“You hate obeying me because I’m nothing but a human? But why?”
“Bibeo-beong!”
“So what if you’re the ruler of the lake?!”
“Bibeong!”
“Hmm.”
Lloyd was troubled.
This one’s tougher than I’d thought.
King Storma was resisting very hard to escape out of Lloyd’s grip. He turned out to be more stubborn and tenacious than Lloyd pegged him to be. And it appeared that he was hostile to humans. Minus the capacity to converse, King Storma was as good as an untamed wild animal.
He’s completely different from Ppodong, Bangul, and Hamang.
Lloyd wondered if the difference was because King Storma wasn’t summoned by himself. Should he opt for a rougher method to tame this creature? Lloyd pondered on it but immediately shook his head.
He might close himself up to me if I do that, and that’s going to be more problematic.
Lloyd had risked himself and succeeded in feeding the blue sunflower seed to King Storma. The seed would last only 24 hours, so sooner or later, he would grow gigantic again to become a 328-foot beaver. Lloyd needed to either make him come around or tame him before the hour was up.
The best result is to persuade him and have him protect this place of his own volition. What should I do?
Lloyd racked his brain, thinking very hard. Just then, an idea came to him.
Wait a minute. Will he loosen up if I introduce him to other fantastical creatures?
Lloyd slightly opened his inner pocket at the brilliant possibility.
“Hey, Ppodong. Bangul. Hamang?”
“Pupung! Ppodong!”
“Ba, Bangul!”
“Hamamang!”
They answered from his inner pocket, which was filled with water like a tub. The corners of Lloyd’s mouth slowly crept up.
“We have a new friend. Would you like to meet him?”
“Ppo! Bang! Ha!”
Their response and reaction were immediate. Ppodong got out of the pocket with Hamang on his back, climbing up to Lloyd’s shoulder. They looked at King Storma, who was still in Lloyd’s grip.
“Ppodong?”
“Hamang?”
“Bibeo-beong! Bibeong! Argggggh!!”
King Storma revealed his sharp front teeth as he looked at them both. But what came next…
“Bangul?”
Bangul slithered up to Lloyd’s shoulder later than the others after fixing her soaked ribbon and getting the water out of her bell. She then revealed herself, her face glowing in the water. And her round and dark eyes glimmered as she gazed at this “new friend” Lloyd mentioned.
“Bba-bangul?”
Her calling drew King Storma’s attention.
“Bibeo-beong?”
King Storma growled just as he did a while ago, and his gaze moved toward Lloyd’s shoulder. But there, he saw Bangul, who was perched on the human shoulder, and his eyes locked with her glimmering eyes. Just then, the scowl on King Storma’s face disappeared, and he felt dazed.
“Bi… Beong?”
That day, King Storma fell in love for the first time.