Chapter 205 Daily life of dog ownership, the unspoken truth...
"So, your way of comforting the lynx is... to give him a dog? Or a dog that's about to die? Isn't that a bit... a bit much as a comfort dog?" The audience was quite critical.
Not qualified.
Calm and stable temperament, sufficient gentleness and patience—all the qualities a comfort dog should possess—are nowhere to be found in this excited, lop-eared dog.
"wer!"
"Great God, please help the Wrathful King tighten the leash in his hands. Can't you see it's gnawing at my heel?"
"As long as they don't bite me, everything is fine."
But after Mainkun gripped Nasita and trembled violently for a while, he actually began to try to use his fighting arms to pull the rope.
"No...you can't bite..."
Even speaking and communicating.
"Woof!"
Although it's for dogs.
"I know, sometimes you really want to bite things, right? Me too. I also really want to scratch things, but that's not okay. It will bother people... Even a light bite is a friendly gesture, it's not okay..."
"Eek?"
The dog tilted its head in confusion, revealing a string of numbers inside its ear.
"..."
Mainkuhn couldn't stand it and closed his eyes, refusing to look at Elhesen's shoes covered in bite marks.
"Whatever makes you happy."
"It's only been six months, what more can you ask for!"
"wer!!"
The dog, not being very intelligent, didn't understand what Mainkuen was struggling with. Its attention quickly shifted from Elhesen's boots to the wider world around it.
"Woof! Woof!"
"It seems it's not content to just stand at the door forever? Should we go out with it?"
"I feel so awful, I don't want to see anyone... I'd rather hide in a dark corner for the rest of my life..."
"Waaah!"
"...I remember there was a quiet open space nearby..."
"Eek!"
"That's the limit! Shut up!!"
Mainkuhn was having a fierce internal argument with the dog as he slowly moved towards the outside. He wanted to stop, but the dog leading him was so excited and expectant that it was practically dragging him forward.
"Perhaps it really isn't a good comfort dog."
Leosley smiled as he watched Mainkuhn stop trembling under the bed.
"But it is indeed the dog that Mainkuhn needs most right now."
"...but only for six months."
Navelette didn't consider himself a pessimistic dragon, but he couldn't help but worry about Mainkun.
"What about six months from now? He might stop hurting himself now because of the responsibility for his pet dog's survival, but what about after it's gone? Mainkuen..."
Will he be devastated by yet another loss?
Paimon imagined it for a moment, "Oh, this is terrible, but even if it were an ordinary dog, it wouldn't attract this much attention from Mainkun... Waaah! What's going on! Can't there be a happy ending?"
"Don't think so badly. At least this time there was a warning and we were mentally prepared for the loss. Compared to Mainkun's past experiences, it's practically benevolent," the traveler comforted his companion.
"I just hope that he can learn a little bit from this inevitable separation... how to face the inevitable loss."
…
When Elhesen said he was leaving get off work, he really meant it. Without a second thought, he turned and left as soon as he was sure Mainkun had no intention of abandoning the dog, leaving the King of Fiery War completely behind.
The Tyrant King possessed the greatest freedom.
How do you plan to raise it?
Even the wise grass god only accompanied them, without intervening or providing answers.
Mainkuhn remained silent.
He knew absolutely nothing about dogs and had never been in contact with them. Apart from being chased and howled at when he was a cat, he had virtually no knowledge of the creature.
"How should I know... Being able to eat my fill, avoid getting beaten, and go out to play should be enough for an animal, right...?"
He stared at the lop-eared dog's constantly wagging tail and instinctively felt confused.
Why is it wagging its tail while grinning like that? Is it happy or unhappy...?
He was staring at the propeller-like, active tail when he suddenly saw the dog pause for a moment, then suddenly charge forward, barking wildly with ten times the excitement.
"What's wrong? ! "
Mainkuhn immediately pressed his ears down.
"Woof woof woof woof!!"
"Hmm?" Nasita glanced ahead and saw four or five dogs playing on the grass. They were all pet dogs of the nearby Sumeru people and looked very familiar.
"Oh, it saw another one of its kind. It probably didn't have much time to play with other animals before. No wonder it's so energetic."
"...I see."
The ears that had been suppressed by fear recovered slightly, and Mainkuhn lengthened the traction a little, unsure whether to loosen it or not.
"There's no one here, should we let them play for a while...?"
The lop-eared dog in my hand kept barking and raised its two front legs as if it couldn't wait to pounce.
"Are dogs this enthusiastic when they first meet? We usually have to breathe on each other first to get used to each other's scent...!?"
"careful!"
At Nasita's startled cry, Mainkuen swiftly picked up the lop-eared dog and looked bewildered at the pack of dogs rushing out from the grass in an aggressive stance.
Why?
"Woof!"
The dog in my arms was clearly startled; it stopped wagging its tail.
Even if you don't want to play together...
Mainkun glanced at their bared canines. "They don't necessarily have to bite people."
"Woof woof—"
The dogs ignored him and instead gathered around, staring at their fellow dogs in his arms with hostile eyes.
"Hiss..."
Mainkuhn couldn't help but open his mouth under the mask, but before he could do anything, Nasida grabbed the back of his clothes.
"Stop, they weren't the ones who made the mistake first."
"I don't understand what you mean."
Black mist surged in Mainkun's hand. "In my opinion, they are just trying to attack a strange fellow human who wants to join them without reason."
"No, no, number forty-four was the one who made the mistake first."
The little god looked sorrowful.
"'I've arrived, this is now my territory,' it was the first thing it expressed as a provocative statement."
"What?"
Mainkuhn looked down at the lab dog's wet eyes.
"That's clearly not what it meant."
"But its body language conveys this meaning: leaning forward, staring directly at the other and emitting a continuous, high-pitched bark... Normally, this behavior indicates excessive excitement, but when encountering another of its kind for the first time, it's a provocation. The correct approach is to circle around, slowly approach, and quietly sniff each other; that's the proper etiquette for expressing friendliness."
"...So it deliberately provoked us first?"
Mainkun dispersed the black mist in his hand, tiptoed over the dog's rear end in his arms, and clearly felt its warm flesh trembling, its muzzle burying itself in his arms in fright.
"Eek..."
"I don't think it has the guts."
“It doesn’t have the guts, but Vana Smarana Sapna, you’ve forgotten, number 44 was an illegal experimental dog, raised in a cage.”
"Without its mother teaching it how to get along with other dogs, and without siblings to practice the limits of play and roughhousing, it simply doesn't understand the rules and etiquette of the canine world."
"So when it first sees its long-awaited kind, it can do nothing but try its best to express its excitement and longing in the wrong way."
This conclusion, drawn from observation and factual deduction, greatly saddened Nasita.
Let's go.
But what saddens her even more is that this irreversible lack of education is almost impossible to make up for.
"It has already missed the eight to twelve-week social learning period, and it's very difficult for it to learn now..."
Nasita slowly reached out to pull on Mainkuen's gradually stiffening arm. The rescued experimental dog huddled in his arms, looking at its kin with confused and aggrieved eyes.
"Waaaaah..."
"It can live for another six months."
"There's no need to waste precious time learning rules that might not even be useful in a few days."
Mainkun stiffly followed the divine force, knowing that Nasita probably shared similar thoughts with him.
I'll feed it, give it water, and play with it. So what if I miss out on fulfilling one of its wishes? It's much better than spending the rest of its life in a cage...
"Wer!" Seeing that it was about to be carried away, the experimental dog eagerly and loudly barked at its fellow dogs.
"Woof!" came the low growl of warning.
Mainkuhn stopped in his tracks.
"Why did you stop? Wana... wait a minute!?"
"Hiss!!!"
A rare and intense anger surged into Mainkuhn's mind, causing him to uncontrollably press down and roar furiously at the pack of dogs.
Why does it choose to live this way?
Why is it afraid and aggrieved?
"Is its bizarre behavior its fault? Is hatred something I want? Is loneliness something I enjoy? No! No!! Damn world! Damn fate! Damn it, it's not its fault at all! Why must it be the one suffering?!"
"Fellow countrymen, humph, meaningless cravings. I've lived this long without them."
"Gods, why... why can't I be happier?!"
Mainkun roughly stroked the dog's head, his arrogant and overbearing demeanor momentarily giving Narcida the illusion that he had secretly injected her with the drug.
"Woof?"
"But it is truly a pity that we cannot interact with those who are of the same kind."
"Hmm? Are you going to teach him canine socialization?"
Nasita sensed a strong determination in it and couldn't help but worry, "This is difficult, its personality is basically formed..."
"No, fate has already given it a strange shape, so why force it to change at the end of its life? It's going to die anyway, so let's make the most of it and enjoy ourselves."
At this point, he suddenly leaped up, holding a dog in one arm and a god in the other, as if in a hurry, jumping above Sumeru City and quickly landing in front of a house, tapping lightly with his fingers.
"who?"
The blond scholar of the Wise Theory peeked out from inside, looking at the visitor with some surprise.
"A tyrant, a god, and... a dog? What does this group want from me?"
"I'm here to..."
Mainkuen opened his mouth, intending to freely state his request.
"Come for..."
He stared at Kavi's face and suddenly froze.
"Why have you come? Why have you come?"
Nasita stood beside him, clenching her fists tightly and looking expectantly at his mask.
"Come on...come on...try to say it!"
"My God, did I hear that right? It was actually this form of the Fiend King who came to talk to me!" Kavi murmured in disbelief, his eyes wide with encouragement. "This is enough for me to brag about to Elheisen for the rest of my life! Go for it! Speak up!"
"I...I..."
The environment just now had gods and dogs, but no people, so Mainkuhn could do whatever he wanted.
But now, with such a beautiful and enthusiastic person like Kave in front of him, her eyes full of concern, Mainkuen suddenly couldn't hold back after realizing what was happening.
"I,"
His ears were lower and lower, lower and lower...
"Uh, the Wrathful King?"
"Woo, woo-woo—"
"The Wrathful King?!"
Nasita watched helplessly as Mainkun, who had just briefly perked up, was terrified by humans and turned into a crying kitten.
"...Alas, the task is arduous and the road ahead is long."
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