### [Work Review] Thank You. 17th Episode
6. Raccoon, Leaf 016 – Raccoon, Leaf #1
“—Lying is a big sin. And if you’ve sinned, you should face the consequences.”
“Hmph, what are you saying? Just sit still. Otherwise, you’ll get cut and it’ll hurt, you know? Do you even know what this is? It’s a kn*fe. Sharper than most fangs.”
The raccoon lifted the sword it was holding in its front paw high above its head. The pointy tip was aimed right at the vine bag tied around my waist.
With a savvy flick of the blade, it sliced through part of the vine bag, causing the blue crystal and an egg inside to tumble down to the ground.
“—Look at the splendid color!”
The raccoon exclaimed, lifting the blue crystal, its eyes wide open in amazement. The dark hiding spot among the trees glowed softly with the gentle blue light.
“It’s not too bright; the subtlety is so pretty. This should be enough to impress Lady Eve. Glad I kept my eye on it.”
“Kept your eye on it, you say?”
“Yeah, I followed around this weird beast carrying a cool stone. But now, what should I do with you?”
The raccoon inspected me, caught in the net. Tilting its head in confusion, it expressed its doubt.
“This is the first time I’m seeing a beast like you. What on earth are you?”
“They say I’m a Grid Ratel.”
“Ratel? Don’t lie. Those creatures can’t talk like you. They’re all idiots, and they look totally different.”
“Do you know much about the beasts in this forest?”
“Of course. Unless you count the Witch, I’m pretty sure no one knows better than me.”
“Great! So you know a lot?”
I felt my body tipping significantly. Apparently, something behind me was gnawing at the vine net with its claws and it seemed to be working.
As the vines ripped with a squelch, I fell flat onto the ground.
“W-what are you doing?!”
As a result, the raccoon standing under me found itself pinned by my body.
With my claws fully extended, I pressed down on its body.
“I have a lot of questions; there’s much I want to ask. Let’s start with your neck. You need to pay for lying to me and trying to steal my stuff.”
“St-stop it!”
The raccoon tried to swing the sword it held in its paw. Annoyed at the resistance, I swatted the great sword it was holding away.
Spinning through the air, the sword rolled far off to the ground.
I opened my mouth wide and bit down on its neck.
This time, unlike before, I bit down with a decent amount of strength and my sharp teeth sunk into its flesh.
Shaking my head, I held on without mercy while the creature let out a desperate gasp, rolling its eyes back into its head.
The raccoon, now limp in my grip, finally dropped after I let it go.
Looking at the unmoving creature, I wondered if I had gone too far.
I poked it with my front paw, but the raccoon didn’t budge.
Was it unconscious?
“I heard raccoons sometimes play dead.”
To wake it up, I kept tapping its face with my front paw.
After a while, it finally coughed like a person, “Kek! Kek!” and stirred back to life.
“S-save me!”
“Depends on how you behave.”
Well, I had no immediate plans of eating it. Like I said before, I had plenty of questions about this forest and its beasts.
“You’d better tell the truth. I tend to get hungrier the longer our conversation goes. And when I get hungry…”
I revealed my sharp teeth and growled. A polite reminder not to cross me if it didn’t want to become dinner.
“Y-yes! I’ll tell you everything!”
Whether my threat worked or not, the raccoon kept nodding vigorously.
However, I couldn’t take its words at face value. After all, it had already tried to pull a fast one on me once!
“W-what are you trying to do?!”
“Just stay still. If you struggle and get tied too tight, you’ll only be at a loss.”
First, I gathered the vines and bound its legs together.
Looking at it lying on the ground, tied up, I couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the scene.
“Alright, I think this level of restraint will do. Now, what should I ask first?”
A million questions started bouncing around in my head.
Among them, the one I was most curious about was why I, a human, had been reborn as a beast.
First, I should understand my own condition.
“Do you know about humans from another world that have been reborn as beasts here?”
“H-humans? Another world?”
The raccoon’s eyebrows twitched. It shook its head back and forth, clearly clueless about what I was saying.
I mean, even if it could talk, it’s still just a raccoon.
I hadn’t expected it to know the details anyway. Instead, it might be better to ask about the animals.
“Then do you know the name Kublai? I think I’ve also heard of someone named Yan-Mite.”
“K-Kublai?!”
The raccoon’s body trembled like never before, its face visibly paling with fear.
And that only confirmed it knew something about that name.
“Th-that beast has a name. It’s the master of the Eastern Forest…”
“Is the master of the Eastern Forest like the leader of the territory? Are there separate masters in the West, South, and North too?”
“That’s right. Any creature living in this forest would know that.”
“I came from a bit far away, not from this forest.”
“Aah, then I guess you wouldn’t know. I thought you seemed like a stranger. So you come from somewhere else, huh? Did you come from the sea or something?”
Hearing I came from somewhere else seemed to press a button and the raccoon began firing off questions non-stop.
Where had that timid demeanor from earlier gone? It was practically sparkling with curiosity now.
“I came from the place where humans live. I should say from a city.”
“Humans, huh. Uh, what’s a city?”
“A city is… well, it’s a place where houses of humans are scattered about like the trees in this forest.”
The raccoon frowned at my explanation.
“So many humans? That must be pretty terrifying! How did you survive in a place like that?”
“First off, I’ll be the one asking the questions. Just answer what I ask.”
BAM! I slammed my front paw down onto the ground, and the raccoon instinctively cowered, shrinking away. Once the atmosphere settled a bit, I opened my mouth again.
“First, tell me everything you know about the masters of the forest.”
“I don’t know much about them myself…”
The raccoon spoke in a voice full of uncertainty.
I half growled in frustration.
“You said you knew the beasts well.”
“All the ones who know the masters have been eaten. There are hardly any beasts left who’ve seen their faces and lived to talk about it…”
“That’s fine, just share what you know. Just don’t lie.”
I coaxed it gently as it seemed less confident now. Glancing at me, the raccoon began to speak softly.
“Kublai is the master of the Eastern Forest. He’s a wolf with only one eye… and he’s really big. They say he’s lived for hundreds of years. Also… he’s incredibly picky about his food, so he doesn’t eat beasts that taste bad. That’s about all I know.”
“Then what about the other masters of the forest? Which part of the forest are we in right now?”
“We’re in the South. The masters of the South are two: the old Snake Queen El-Gasa, and the young lizard Yan-Mite. But El-Gasa has been missing for a long time after being wounded by Kublai and humans. Now, Yan-Mite is the master of the South.”
So that lizard was the current master of the forest we were in.
“How strong are those so-called masters?”
“Well, they’ve been reigning as the masters of the forest for hundreds of years. You could call them living natural disasters. If we meet them, us small beasts just lay flat on the ground and hope to get through alive.”
“Got it.”
I sorted through my thoughts. That giant snake I had barely dealt with was likely a strong one too, comparable to that wolf.
“Still, there were some boring aspects. Was it because it was injured? Was it not fully recovered?”
I asked various questions about the masters of different forests. But the raccoon said it had only heard rumors about the masters in the West and North and didn’t know anything about them.
In the end, what I learned from the raccoon was that the wolf and the lizard were powerful masters who divided the territories of the forest, but that knowledge wasn’t very helpful.
I let out a sigh of disappointment. My stomach growled loudly, perhaps due to being trapped in the net and hopping through the bushes.
“That was fun talking to you, but now I have to eat you.”
I lifted the bound raccoon high with both my front paws. The thought of being eaten made it squirm and writhe.
“N-no! Do you see that branch sticking out of the ground? Pull on that! There’s food in there!”
With that desperate resistance, I looked down at the ground where it was pointing.
Sure enough, just at the end of its gaze, a small branch was sticking out, looking like a handle.
I pulled on it, and a wide, flat wooden plank opened up with a creaking sound, revealing a pile of round wooden fruits and mushrooms inside.
“That’s impressive.”
“I gathered it all myself. You can eat it all. No, please, eat it all.”
“No, I’m just impressed you made a storage like this. The traps and this home are well-crafted.”
As I praised its home, the raccoon seemed a bit bashful, licking its lips nervously.
“Y-yeah? I have this talent called ‘Handy.’ As long as I have materials, I can make what pops into my mind somewhat similar.”
“That’s cool. Are you talking about skills when you mention talent? I’d almost want to trade the skills I have for that.”
Handy? What a neat ability!
If I had such a talent, I might have made bows and arrows by now and been out hunting comfortably.
“Is it weird to have a talent? Is it that rare?”
“No, it’s not that, but what skills do you have?”
The raccoon shot a question at me, and I saw this as a good opportunity to learn more about this skill thing that I was curious about.
“I have about four or five. So I have questions about these abilities…”
“W-wait, no way! You have five talents!? You must be joking!”
The raccoon interrupted, sticking its tongue out in disbelief. Its dark eyes were filled with astonishment.
Did I spill something I shouldn’t have? I shrugged, unsure.
“Is there something wrong?”
“N-no, but I heard skills are limited to two at most… I heard even the masters of the territories only have one or two talents. You’re not lying, are you?”
“Is that the maximum? Two?”
“Could you possibly show me what skills you have? What? Five talents granted by the Mother Tree!”
The raccoon began jumping around in a fluster, despite being bound. It was like a fish out of water.
“I can show you… well, strong claws and stealthy movement, and maybe a mating dance?”
I displayed my front claws. They glinted in the light, razor-sharp like blades, right in front of the raccoon’s eyes.
But instead of being scared, it let out a big puff of air.
“I thought those claws were cool, but you really do have talent. What’s stealthy movement do, then? Huh?”
“Stealthy movement, huh? Nothing much.”
I lifted my toes and tiptoed lightly. Not sure if I activated the skill or not, but the raccoon’s jaw dropped.
“I can’t hear a sound at all! That’s amazing! How did you do that?!”
“R-really? I just feel like moving quietly.”
Feeling somewhat awkward, I scratched the back of my head. My entire body felt tingly; it was a bit embarrassing but also not a bad feeling.
When was the last time someone praised me like this?
Even considering my time as a human, I couldn’t recall much outside of early childhood.
Maybe because my ability received such high praise, this rare conversation felt enjoyable.
I decided to show the raccoon another skill too.
“I also have an omnivore skill, but I think it’s probably about carnivor—”
“A-uh, I don’t think you need to show me that!”
The mention of “carnivore” made it think I would eat it or something.
I raised an eyebrow.
“No, I didn’t mean to say I would do that.”
“O-oh, I see. Then what about that mating dance?”
“Hmm. I guess it’s just dancing?”
I shook my front paws and swayed my body left and right.
Just moving on a whim, but it looks like my arms and legs were flailing about as if someone was controlling them.
“My word…”
The raccoon’s face turned pale in shock. I knew, really, that my movements were bizarre and ridiculous.
The thrill of being praised quickly faded.
